E54: The wisdom of aging gracefully beats the myth of anti-aging

Ever wondered what happens when ancient wisdom meets modern skincare? Kamy Neumann of Cameo Aesthetics joins us to share her refreshing perspective on beauty that challenges everything the anti-aging industry wants you to believe.

From her early days in cosmetology to becoming a specialized esthetician, Kamy's journey took unexpected turns—including a health crisis that revealed the extraordinary bond between small business owners and their clients. When faced with open heart surgery requiring six months of recovery, her clients rallied around her without any formal fundraising, demonstrating the powerful community connections that form when you serve others with authenticity.

What sets Kamy apart is her holistic approach to skincare, influenced by her Choctaw heritage and commitment to natural solutions. Instead of promising impossible results, she focuses on skin health maintenance through plant-based products that work harmoniously with our bodies. "There is no magic bullet for aging," she explains, encouraging clients to find beauty in each stage of life rather than fighting against natural processes.

Perhaps most compelling is her guiding philosophy: "The only competition that a woman of wisdom should have is with herself." This perspective extends beyond skincare into a life approach that rejects comparison and embraces individual growth. For anyone tired of beauty industry pressure and seeking a more balanced relationship with their appearance, Kamy's wisdom offers a path forward.

Ready to experience skincare that honors both nature and your unique journey? Visit Ever wondered what happens when ancient wisdom meets modern skincare? Kamy Newman of Cameo Aesthetics joins us to share her refreshing perspective on beauty that challenges everything the anti-aging industry wants you to believe.

From her early days in cosmetology to becoming a specialized esthetician, Kamy's journey took unexpected turns—including a health crisis that revealed the extraordinary bond between small business owners and their clients. When faced with open heart surgery requiring six months of recovery, her clients rallied around her without any formal fundraising, demonstrating the powerful community connections that form when you serve others with authenticity.

What sets Kamy apart is her holistic approach to skincare, influenced by her Choctaw heritage and commitment to natural solutions. Instead of promising impossible results, she focuses on skin health maintenance through plant-based products that work harmoniously with our bodies. "There is no magic bullet for aging," she explains, encouraging clients to find beauty in each stage of life rather than fighting against natural processes.

Perhaps most compelling is her guiding philosophy: "The only competition that a woman of wisdom should have is with herself." This perspective extends beyond skincare into a life approach that rejects comparison and embraces individual growth. For anyone tired of beauty industry pressure and seeking a more balanced relationship with their appearance, Kamy's wisdom offers a path forward.

Ready to experience skincare that honors both nature and your unique journey? Visit https://www.cameoaesthetics.com/ to learn more about how Kamy's treatments have clients traveling from miles away to her Brighton-based business. Subscribe to the Good Neighbor Podcast for more inspiring stories of local business owners making a difference in their communities! to learn more about how Kamy's treatments have clients traveling from miles away to her Brighton-based business. Subscribe to the Good Neighbor Podcast for more inspiring stories of local business owners making a difference in their communities!

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
This is the Good Neighbor Podcast, the place
where local businesses andneighbors come together.
Here's your host, Nick George.

Speaker 2 (00:12):
Welcome to the Good Neighbor Podcast.
Are you in need of anesthetician that is reputable?
One might be closer than youthink.
Today I have the pleasure ofintroducing your good neighbor,
Kamy Neuman, with CameoAesthetics.

Speaker 3 (00:28):
, how's it going?

Speaker 2 (00:34):
Good, thank you.

Speaker 3 (00:34):
We're excited to learn all about you and your
business.
Go ahead and tell us about it.
Cameo Aesthetics it firststarted, actually, in 2013, and
then it got put on hold for afew years and started back up in
2020.
And it's been going good eversince.

Speaker 2 (00:50):
How did you get into this business?

Speaker 3 (00:53):
Well, I first of all got my cosmetology license in
1999.
And at that time nobody wasreally going to school for just
esthetician.
You really went to school for afull cosmetology license and
then from there you could branchout into anything you wanted.
And most people went into hairat that time.

(01:13):
And I did do hair for a littlewhile.
But after I had my boys andraised them and kind of
homeschooled them for the firstfew years of their lives and
wanted to get back into myindustry, I was really
interested specifically inskincare.
So I decided I wanted to justfocus on that.
And when I got back into it Ijust didn't do hair anymore, I

(01:37):
just did skincare.

Speaker 2 (01:40):
What are some myths or misconceptions in your
industry?
What are some myths ormisconceptions in your industry.

Speaker 3 (01:46):
Well, for one thing, there is no magic bullet for
aging and for actuallypreventing aging, so I think
it's a myth for things that arewe are able to maintain our

(02:08):
health in general and skin ismore the goal and the thing that
I try to focus on, instead ofliterally trying to not age,
because that's just reallyimpossible.
When people try to attemptthose things, sometimes they end
up doing very strange thingsand things that can be really
counterproductive to not onlyyour health but also just, I

(02:31):
think, your mental health andwell-being.
I think to accept aging isreally important.

Speaker 2 (02:40):
Who are your target customers and how are you
attracting them now?

Speaker 3 (02:46):
I would say I usually target women who are between 30
and all the way up to probablywomen in their 70s even and that
doesn't mean that anyone elseis excluded.
I do work on teenagers andpeople teenagers and people with

(03:10):
for acne and things like thatbut targeting people who are
going to, who are really wantingto think about skin maintenance
Sometimes it's it's for acne,but usually it is the that
middle range woman.
I do have also male clients whoare concerned about their skin
and aging as well and they comein.

(03:32):
But I think once you starthitting about 30 and 40s, you
start realizing that you startseeing a difference in your skin
and sometimes it is at thatpoint that people really start
thinking about something theycan do on a on a long-term basis
, on a maintenance basis, to tokeep up their skin and not just

(03:55):
something like a luxury thingthat you do just to pamper
yourself.
Once or twice a year.
It becomes they get moreserious about their skin.

Speaker 2 (04:06):
What are you doing to reach out to people now?
What are you doing to reach out?

Speaker 3 (04:09):
to people now.
So most of my business now Iget from just people finding me
on Google.
I get a lot of word of mouthfrom current clients that I have
that recommend people to come,and when I first started the

(04:34):
business here, I sent outpostcards and so that was really
good because I could targetvery specific areas and I could
target that criteria that I wastalking about, like a specific
age group and you know thingslike that.
So I can I can really hone inon the market really.
So I did that for a few times,but actually I haven't really
had to do a lot of advertising.

(04:55):
It's pretty self-propelling andI tend to stay pretty busy just
on my own now.

Speaker 2 (05:02):
I love self-propelling marketing.
We know that marketing is theheart of every business.
Have you ever thought aboutdoing your own podcast?

Speaker 3 (05:17):
You know, I've thought about things like that,
but I've thought about that morein terms of my writing, because
I write books and I authorbooks.
So I've thought about that morethat way than I have actually
with my skincare business.
But yeah, I haven't reallythought about it in that way.

Speaker 2 (05:31):
Outside of work.
What do you do for fun?

Speaker 3 (05:35):
So, like I said, I write books, my family, we all
are musicians, so we play musicfor fairs and for rodeos and for
different events and thingsthat we do kind of more for fun
than anything and kind of tokeep our family together, so
that that does actually take upa lot of time, because anything
that you're doing like thattakes a lot of practice and a

(05:58):
lot of rehearsing and things toperform, so that it takes up
quite a bit of time.
And I love to garden so I spenda lot of time in my garden
planting flowers, creatinglandscapes, things like that.

Speaker 2 (06:15):
Nice, let's switch gears.
Can you describe a hardship ora life challenge that you
overcame, how it made youstronger?
What comes to mind?

Speaker 3 (06:25):
Yeah.
So the second year that I hadkind of gotten specifically into
the skincare, which was in 2015, I found out I was going to
need our open heart surgery, andso that was really huge,
because I knew that that wouldmean I was going to have to take

(06:47):
a lot of time off work.
Because I knew that that wouldmean I was going to have to take
a lot of time off work, and theclients that I had built up at
that time where I was, I knewthat I was probably not going to
be able to hold on to thembecause it actually took me
about six months to recover fromthe open heart surgery.
But I had such for one thing.
I had such wonderful peoplethat I was, that I had such for

(07:10):
one thing.
I had such wonderful peoplethat I was um, that I had as
clients and I didn't have arelationship with them outside
of that either.
I wasn't, they weren't personalfriends or anything like that,
but a lot of them ended up justbeing so generous with me.
I didn't have any GoFundMe,umme thing that I set up or

(07:31):
anything like that, but theyknew and realized that I was
going to be out of work for along time, and so they were just
so generous and I had one ladythat she ended up writing me a
check for a thousand dollars.
It was just amazing to see thesupport that I got from that and
it was very encouraging.
But that's kind of what happenswhen you go into business for

(07:52):
yourself and when you own itlike that and people become very
loyal to you and it's adifferent kind of a setting than
if you're working in acorporate situation or for
someone else.
When you work for yourself,people really try to help you in
whatever ways they can too.
It's a really wonderfulsymbiotic relationship, and so

(08:16):
it helped me to go into thatexperience, feeling like I had
people that were reallysupportive of me doing that.
And when I did get back finallybecause it took me a little bit,
but when I did get back intoskincare I realized I really
needed to have more experienceand a broader knowledge.
So I actually purposefully wentto work for other people.

(08:38):
I went to work for other spas,actually purposefully went to
work for other people.
I went to work for other spas,got education at a med spa, did
something because I didn't wantto be.
I needed to be knowledgeableabout a broad spectrum of skin
and not just be stuck in my ownphilosophy.
I needed to experience otherthings.
But at the end of the day, eventhough I experienced other

(09:00):
places and other skincare linesand other things, I really
realized that natural, thenatural approach, is what I
wanted to do.
So holistic skincare is what I,what I have, what I do, and some
of that might be from my NativeAmerican blood.
My dad was Choctaw, nativeAmerican, and so I think that my
just I naturally want toutilize nature.

(09:23):
I think that our bodiesrecognize it, our skin
recognizes it, and so that'swhat I decided was going to be
my approach.
I feel like I got the bestresults from utilizing plant
based waters and oils andcleansers and things from nature
itself.
So it helped me to develop myphilosophy, but I do feel like

(09:46):
that it was really important forme to go work for other people
and then to come back into it onmy own, just because you know
there is so much that you needto know and understand, and it
gives you a way to experiencemore kinds of people and to kind
of try to see things otherproductive and not just get

(10:07):
locked into your to your own wayof thinking.
There's always things to learn,and especially in this industry
.
And it's just like with scienceit's never, it's, it never,
just stops, it continues andprogresses.

Speaker 2 (10:27):
And it's a lifetime learning experience.
Really, I absolutely agree withthat message.
That was very refreshing tohear on many, many different
levels of wisdom.
Cammie, tell our listeners onething they should absolutely
remember about cameo aestheticsthere's just.

Speaker 3 (10:42):
There's so many things, but I guess one of my my
big philosophies and and aquote that I actually have on my
website is that the onlycompetition that a woman of
wisdom should have is withherself.
We shouldn't be competing withanyone else.
We shouldn't be competing withthe industry or with what

(11:05):
anybody else is doing.
We need self-improvement fromour own perspective, and that is
a very individual thing.
When we can find that we willno longer be striving for things
that are outside of our of oursphere or that are we're
expecting things.

(11:26):
That is is unrealistic.
It's just like what I wassaying about aging we all age,
we're going to age.
We shouldn't be trying to fightaging.
We should be learning how to,to find the beauty of aging
really, and I think that that'swhat I really try to emphasize
with my clients.

Speaker 2 (11:46):
Kamy.
How can our listeners learnmore about Cameo Aesthetics?

Speaker 3 (11:51):
Well, I do have a website and it's just simply
cameoestheticscom, andaesthetics is spelled with an A,
dot com, and it's aesthetics isspelled with an A.
So Cameo, c-a-m-e-o, aesthetics, a-e the whole word
CameoAestheticscom, and that'sprobably the easiest way.
Any other social media channelsI'm just I'm on Google, so

(12:25):
people can find me that way.
My business is located inBrighton, but I have had people
who have come to see meregularly from all the way, from
Loveland and from even Parker.
So you know people do go, comefrom quite a distance to come in
and to experience thetreatments.

Speaker 2 (12:41):
Well, Kamy, our Fort Collins listeners and I really
appreciate you being on the show.
We wish you and your businessthe very best moving forward.

Speaker 3 (12:50):
Thank you very much.
Thank you for the opportunityto speak to them.

Speaker 1 (12:55):
Thank you for listening to the Good Neighbor
podcast.
To nominate your favorite localbusinesses to be featured on
the show, go tognpfortcollinscom.
That's gnpfortcollinscom, orcall 970-438-0825.