EP 192 Authentic Success: Amy Nicole's Strategies for Impactful Entrepreneurship

Welcome to the Retreat Leaders Podcast, your sanctuary with retreat experts, where we spill the tea on retreat success. Here we dive into craft and transformational guest experiences, talk about how to avoid pitfalls and unlock marketing secrets. Whether you're a seasoned guru or a budding enthusiast, we've got the inside scoop for you. Join us as we learn how to flourish in this magical world of retreats. Hey guys, welcome to the Retreat Leaders Podcast, formerly the Happy Hour Podcast. This is Shannon. I have an amazing, amazing guest today that I'm super excited to share with you guys. Just doing some research on her, I was blown away by all of the amazing things that she's doing and has done. And so I'm excited for her to share her story. Welcome Amy to the show. Thank you so much, Shannon. It is a pleasure to be here and I'm excited to chat all things, big ideas and events and selling out retreats. Yay. Okay. So first just start off by telling us who you are and what you do. Sure thing. So I am a serial entrepreneur through and through. I started my entrepreneur journey in kind of early days of college living in Canada and I got into beauty. So I was a professional makeup artist for years and just natural evolution, opened up a makeup school as I was evolving and educating myself, felt really empowered to educate others. I started in makeup school in 2009 during the economic global financial crash in New York city. And it was, has been a thriving, thriving business. I have over 4,200 graduates. I've had the pleasure of mentoring and working with incredible alumni and individuals that are as like-minded as you and I both are. And I've worked with incredible brands over my 20 year career in beauty. And in last five years I've pivoted. Well, I should actually expand on that. I have added to my current business to offer luxury retreats, really high value experiential events and conferences. So I have two successful businesses. One is more in the kind of early stages where we've been kind of profitable in the last couple of years, huge passion of mine, bringing people together in community. But yeah, I kind of go way back to the beauty days and entrepreneurship is just my thing. Okay. I need your help too bad you're in Canada because the beauty routine for me, like makeup, the whole, so, you know, I'm almost 50. And for me, I'm like, what is this contouring bullshit? I have never even heard of this stuff or, you know, just things like that. And my now 22 year old got me into watching like YouTube, where it was like people like Jeffree star and just saying, what is all of this stuff? I didn't even know this was a thing. So I can imagine that the beauty industry is full of so much fun and excitement and just working with, you know, brands. And I don't know, the whole thing just seems super posh to me and just very exciting. There is that statement that we all know so well, that if you like find a job that you love so much, you never feel like you're working. That is truly, truly what I wanted in my teens and early twenties. And it is absolutely what I have been able to do. I will for no moment, take any kind of shine away from the challenges in business and entrepreneurship, the ups and downs, but it has been a dream of mine to be in beauty. I got into beauty. I got educated in like business marketing management and continue to kind of lean into education, but beauty is ever evolving and so exciting. And even now to see it 20 years later, you know, back in the day, it would be as simple as brides would get their makeup done, but let's say the bridal party, you wouldn't be paying for your bridal party. You just have everybody do it themselves or men to get skincare or spray tans leading up to a special event or men's grooming. It just wasn't part of the industry. And now that's evolving. You see the whole skincare, medical spas, that whole part of beauty changing the hair and the tools. And it's so just, you know, constantly evolving and it's amazing to see because there's so many jobs out there and opportunities and it's not just being a makeup artist anymore. It is, you know, there's so, so many opportunities. So it's like the whole package now. Yeah. What I see too is when you're kind of in or able to kind of jump two feet into something you love, we'll call it a passion, right? If you think it these days, like there is something out there for you and for all different, you know, genres of passion. So it's super exciting time to be in business. Hey, Retreat leaders, are your retreats the hidden gems of the travel world just waiting to be discovered? Well, it's time to shine a spotlight on them. Introducing the ultimate guide you've been waiting for. Our free guide, top 11 tips for building an email list for you, the retreat leaders. Imagine an email list packed with eager attendees hanging onto your every word and ready to book at the click of a button. We share the blueprint to creating a list that sells. Don't miss out on the action. Learn how to connect deeply with your audience, boost your bookings and create a buzz that fills every retreat. Whether you're a seasoned pro or just starting out, these 11 tips are your secret weapon to success. Visit retreatleaderlistbuilding.com now to grab your free copy and start building an email list that sells out your retreats. That's such a good point that I think people don't realize because I started being an entrepreneur, it's been about 18 years now. And so, you know, 18 years ago, even 15 years ago, it was kind of like, well, you know, it was, we just were not as connected as we are today. Searchability wasn't as easy. You know, you still relied on things like the phone book, you know what I mean? And so it's, we're so able to, just like you said, if you think it, you could probably find something, right. Or you do it. And I'm sure there's other people who are looking for it. And so I love that so much. I am so curious how you went from, I know you're still doing it, but you're going from beauty to retreat. I know you said you love community and just talk to me about how that happened, how that became for you. Yeah, I'll give you the short version because it actually really spans over 20 years. So the answer to that is I utilized events as a marketing strategy and a marketing tool to bring people together, to educate them with a beauty masterclass or to do an event around fashion week. I would partner with brands and do a activation. So events have always been part of my excitement for marketing my business, which happened to be in beauty. So I want the audience and the listeners to really resonate with that. Whatever you are doing does not have to be beauty in any genre. Events can be your marketing strategy. So that is what I did years and years and years ago. When I first started my very first school in New York city, I needed people to know about it. And I, from that point, uh, expanded to Los Angeles and I needed people to know about it in LA and I expanded to Denver and I needed people to know about it in Denver. So I always, always created events to create that buzz, to create that brand awareness. And then to, you know, kind of answer the current part of the question is doing retreats and doing events. Now, um, I do something called the chic summit, which is a business and leadership conference. I do the here in Canada and in New York, I do international luxury retreats. Those are just part of the natural evolution of an entrepreneur. Me who is expanding and evolving herself right within business. So I don't just want to be only a makeup school owner and educator. I want more for myself and I want to be able to be able to connect with those that want to expand and evolve themselves. So the retreats are a perfect way to connect and meet up and elevate each other and stay in touch and look forward to something so magical and big in the future. And that's kind of where that, that started and is going. So I love that because I think sometimes people feel like once they've created a niche or they've created a brand or a business strategy, it doesn't matter that, okay, now they're there and that they just almost have to start completely from scratch if they want to do something different or if they, it's almost like they don't recognize that their season of life has changed. Like for me, when I started doing retreats initially, they were very kind of healing, stress reduction. It had a lot to do with like health, you know, wellness. I mean, it was very focused on you becoming the best version of you as far as health, mentally and physically. And then just over the last, really since COVID, I'm like, you know, I don't want to do those anymore. I don't want to focus on the healing aspect. I want others to focus on the healing aspect. I want to be the fun retreat. You're going to come to my retreat and you're just going to have fun. You're going to let loose. We're going to drink wine. We're going to ride horses, maybe shoot some guns and hang around the pool and have a cocktail. You know what I mean? Like we're just going to let loose and set our shit down for a little bit and just let loose. Right. And so it is a little bit different branding. It's a different feel and look, but I just recognize that my season of life was calling for this versus staying in that other spot, if that makes sense. Oh, that makes total sense. And actually what I keep thinking as you're sharing that is that authenticity piece. And that has been the driving force to my success. Point blank, period. It has been that choice, even when it's uncomfortable, when I am kind of teetering on the edge of, do I jump two feet in to start a new business? Not new, but new, right? Am I evolving? Yes, I am. What does that look like? Am I fear driven? Oh my gosh, let's just go. So that is the human nature, right? We do set ourselves back. Sometimes we do have fears. We do also get rewarded by taking risks. But I will say when you're authentic to what you do and how you do it, there is no wrong way of doing it. Right. So the retreats that I have chosen and I love that other people do amazing yoga retreats and incredible ayahuasca retreats and very woo woo. It's just not my thing. And I have yoga at my retreats, but I also have happy hour and I have power hour where we're connecting and we're breaking down each other's businesses and giving each other feedback, mastermind style. I also have high intensity fitness. If you want that, I bring in a trainer. We do experiential, you know, components of it. We make baguettes in Provence and we're going to San Tropez on a boat over to a beach club, to the Dior cafe. We're, you know, having a wine tasting at a vineyard. So it's very elevated. And that's just the part that is true to me because it is what I would show up for. It's what I would pay to go to. And then it's easy because I'm only selling something that I believe in. So authenticity is so important. And that's what I was hearing what you're saying. The season of change should always be true to who you are in whatever season you're in. So I feel like you nailed half of the reason why retreats are not quote unquote successful. One of the, to me, the two top reasons, and then there's a whole slew of them, right? Marketing and branding and how easy is it to register? And I mean, there's just so many different variables, but to me, the two top ones is, are you being authentic to you and then niching to that authenticity, right? So exactly what you said, you're not copying somebody else's stuff, literally regurgitating it, thinking that's what you should do. You're like, what would I like? And who do I want to attract to my space? And then marketing directly to them. Because I've always been like, if you're marketing to everyone, you're marketing to no one, right? So the authenticity piece. The second part to me is mindset. It's like, if you don't believe it, it's that whole cheesy saying, if you don't believe it, it's not going to happen. It's really not going to happen. So I feel like those are two of the top ones. And then, like I said, it's marketing strategy. It's, there's all the other things that feed into those things that support those two, the almost two beliefs. And authenticity is like, that's it. I mean, it has to be coming from your, your heart and your voice. Yeah. I think a big mistake that a lot of people make or do is, I mean, and there's, there's a list. There's actually a couple of things that come to mind, but I'll kind of give the top things is one, they overthink it. And you can say, you're going to do something. You can jump in and start doing it, but don't overthink it because if you are trying to do something that is out there that somebody else is doing, and you're trying to figure out how you fit in, it's not going to come back to that authenticity piece. Do what is your uniqueness? Go to the networking events and connect with the women that you're, are your people, right? Cause then you can share that retreat that has a little of this, has a lot of that is your own niche, as you said, you know? And so I think that if you keep it simple and build on that, it will just grow. It is like watering a plant, right? It will just grow as you continue to nurture it. And it doesn't have to be, there's no perfect, nobody else on the other end knows what they, they know what they're signing up for and they're investing into you and what you are saying. So that's another piece, always deliver, deliver what you say, and maybe even over deliver on that because you're going to get excited. And maybe there'll be some extra giftings leading up to that. You were surprised that a sponsor came through at the last minute, or, you know, you did an event to market your retreat and you had some gifts left over and you brought those on your retreat. I recently did that on my retreat. I had these amazing pink sweaters and they said chic vibes only. And I had them for my team for a conference that I did. Everybody that was part of the chic team was wearing them. So you knew who the team was and I had some leftover. And so I got chic retreat put onto them and I brought them as gifts for all of my attendees and they loved them, wore them. They were amazing photo ops, but that was a pleasant surprise. So if you keep it simple, you are true to your own uniqueness. So much can grow from that. And I think just know your why as well, know your purpose, right? Why are you doing a retreat, right? Are you doing it just to gather and bring some people together? I mean, if that's what you're looking to do, you probably will lose money because you've got to think about making money before you think about just gathering people. What are you offering? What is going to make this valuable? What is going to excite people? And then what are the non-negotiables to drive this and profit and make people want to sign up to come back for more? Yes, yes, yes. The know your why is a big one for me before you even start this business is why. And you're exactly right. To me, if you're driven by a couple of different factors, you probably should just talk to them. And usually it's if you're just driven by one singular thing. If it's just money, hey, listen, I'm all about profit and money. I don't, listen, I have lots of goals and it all is tied around manifestation and abundance. However, if that is literally your sole purpose, then you're not really serving and that will be felt. And that's, to me, it just feels a little bit not conducive to what you're trying to do. Now, if you're wanting to make a shit ton of money, but here's your overlying why, which is to support your family, to do this, to do these things. And you want to serve the people at the same time. And anyway, I think you understand what I'm saying. So just knowing your why, like what's driving you? What is your values? What is making this happen for you? It's just super important to me before you even get into this business. And then you can make a shit ton of money. Exactly. For anybody listening, I think to that point of knowing your why, this does not have to come over years or months. You can pause right now on this podcast, this very moment, right where you are and write that why down. Pop it into chat, GPT. Hey, give me five reasons. What's my why? From Amy Nicole Cohen, for an upcoming luxury retreat, a spiritual girls getaway weekend in the South of France. Put that in and get some insight. Ask three friends. What would you sign up for? Why would you come? What do you see in me doing retreats? I ask really close friends of mine and I keep it pretty tight and small. But if I have an idea that I'm sitting with that I'm not 100% in on, I will usually ask and kind of get a bit of a... Sometimes they don't know if I'm asking because I'm going to do it. Because usually if I'm talking about something, it's probably already done. I've bought the domain, I'm already executing. But once in a while, and this actually happened recently, is I was asking two of my really close friends. One is more of a business... Well, she's my very good friend, but she's also a business mentor. And another one is a very good friend and just is an entrepreneur and gets it and we go way, way, way back. And so there's a trust circle there and they're not trying to do what I'm doing. I'm trying to amplify what they're doing and they're trying to motivate and keep me excited when I need it most. And they both had the same feedback and they were like... And it was around the podcast and it was around a Facebook group. And I ended up landing on doing the Facebook group first because I got that feedback and it just gave me a little more clarity for me and myself. So I encourage anybody who's kind of sitting on that edge of, do I know my why? Do I know my purpose? Write it down, ask a couple of people, get those answers today and then take it from there. Yes, yes, yes. And I love that, that you have that circle of whether they're mentors or just people that you trust just to bounce off ideas, thoughts. There's times in my business where I wish I had done that. And I think there would have been more clarity brought into my world. But also I will say a tiny preference is if you get feedback and it's kind of like not exactly in alignment with what you feel, still sit with it a little longer and see like, okay, do I still want to take this risk? Does this still sound like... Because what's the worst thing that can happen on anything? Okay, you might lose a little bit of money, got some time and energy, but out of all of it, whatever decision you make, like just make a decision, you're going to learn from it, right? You're absolutely going to learn from it and you're going to learn, I don't want to do that fucking again. Or you're going to learn like, hey, I could just tweak this a little bit, or you will learn that it was amazing. So I love that. I love having that circle that you can bounce ideas off of, whether it's a mentor, a business coach, people that you just trust, that you can talk about this with. So I love that so much. Hey, it's Shannon here. I'm just popping in really quickly to ask a big favor. Would you pause the show and go review it for us, please? Reviews really help us to be able to get more guests and more experts on the show to help you transform your retreats. So if you wouldn't mind pausing and leaving us a review, that would mean everything. And if you're not already subscribed, do that too. Tell me what other kinds of strategies that you implement to get your luxury retreat sold out. Because I think it's a very niche market, which I love. It's a very niche market. And so talk to us about some of the things that you feel like are super successful in your world. So yeah, that is a great question. And what's interesting is I get that probably the most. I will get DMs from people I don't know. I will get messages from people that have just attended an event that I've hosted. How can I do X, Y, or Z? And usually the X and the Z with maybe a Y in between that they're not really certain on is about selling out or about having a line of the door or having the room full or having the excitement to sell out the next one. So one thing that is a non-negotiable for me is I actually put myself into the rooms of the people that I want to attend my events. So I go to other people's events, other people's communities that I feel impact from, that I feel supported in or am curious to be supported in potentially. It might be just for the curiosity standpoint. I do it with good intention. I don't do it to be in the room to take from others. I do it with the heart of what can I give first. So remember that. Put yourself in the rooms of the people that you want in your rooms, number one, but that's twofold. Come with good character. Come with a open heart and the willingness to give before you receive because what you end up receiving is so much greater than what you'll probably expect. So that would be number one. Number two is collaborate. I'm not in the true wellness space. I invest in the wellness space a lot. I mean, I'm so into biohacking. I'm doing red light. I go and do medical, you know, microneedling and all different. But where I am not the either expert in or where it's not my specific genre of business, I collaborate with all the time on events because I know events really well. But if you're not in the event space, partner with somebody who maybe you can do the marketing and they can be the host or you co-host together and they do the yoga and you bring the mocktails or you're the, you know, print company or the creator of the marketing assets, whatever the case may be. Maybe you have beauty products. I mean, whatever, anything under the sun can be marketed with or to. And so collaborate would be my second thing. And then I think ultimately it kind of like comes down to like follow up with people that perhaps you have met or have engaged with you previously. So that can be really low hanging fruit, social media, right? LinkedIn, jump onto Facebook groups and ask, tell people what you want. Like I do all the time. I love this so much. And I know that it's so many more things than that, right? I mean, those are the things that you're like, you know, are a friend of mine or, you know, are important. But when people ask you that question, because I get the same thing when folks come to my retreats, they'll ask the same thing, or they'll ask about opening their own venue or whatever may be the case. And it's like, there's so many layers to it. I couldn't give you just one answer. And I sure as shit can't just type it all. And I sure as shit can't share everything in a 30 minute podcast either, right? Like there's so many layers. So if someone wanted to say work with you, is that something that you do where you could offer someone coaching or encouragement? Absolutely. So throughout my career of education, so having makeup school. So I was a makeup artist for seven years before I started my schools. You could start after two years, you could never start whatever works for you, but for my journey. So I really was passionate about giving. And I continue to stay in this way, giving the information I have. However, I am one person with less capacity. Now I have two kids, I have two businesses that are both very much a juggling act and people to manage and whatnot. So I have a mentorship program that is whatever someone wants. And here's what I'm going to say about this. And it's truly whatever someone wants. So I recently had somebody sign up, the minimum is three hours and the maximum is 20 hours max, because after 20 hours, you can add more if you want. I don't do coaching personally only because I did it through COVID. I did a mastermind and it was so wonderful and amazing, but I need to be authentic to myself. I don't want to be a coach. I want to be in my schools. I want to be at my events. I want to be planning and helping others. I don't want to be online seven days a week, six, five, whatever days. So I do have the mentorship program where it's three to 20 hours. And within that, you fill out a form, super easy. A lot of people just do three to start and then they can get to know me. I'm like, all in, let's do it. And what you get with that is exactly what you want. Do you want right now today to rebrand your website? Do you want right now today to sell out of your retreat? You will need more than three hours to make that happen. But it is from signup to results. So I'm giving you not, I'm not giving you the roadmap. You get the roadmap. I am going through it with you. So selling out of your events, your retreats, growing your social following. You could look at any of my social media, my makeup schools. I've had it since Instagram started. We're early adopters, Facebook groups, tens of thousands on my new business of organic people that come to my events. I sell out within weeks of my large scale, high ticket events. And I sell out within days of my business events that I do monthly. So there's a lot to be said about expertise, right? I didn't start this five years ago. I started this 20 years ago. I've done basically everything you can imagine in terms of business because I bootstrapped it, started from the beginning, worked my way up, had many, many challenges along the way and will help prevent those for you. So it's really results driven for whatever somebody is looking for. Love it. Hey guys, I'm popping in to ask a quick question. Are you ready to elevate your marketing game and fill those retreat slots faster than ever? Of course you are. That's why you're here. And we've got the toolkit for you. Our top five marketing tools for retreat leaders guide. This isn't just a guide. It's your marketing guru wrapped up in one easy to follow package. Dive into the essentials of social media marketing, where we show you how to leverage those platforms to create a community buzzing with excitement for your retreats. Also unleash the power of content marketing with strategies that educate and engage your potential guests. Plus we'll dive into email marketing, SEO and partnership opportunities that open new doors and bring in streams of attendees. So why wait to make your retreats the talk of the town? Download your free guide today by visiting retreatmarketingtools.com and start transforming your retreat dreams into reality. So we have to wrap this up, but if someone wanted to get on that, I'll absolutely link it in the show notes. If they wanted to get in on this amazing program that you're offering or mentorship, I should say it that way, mentorship that you're offering, where do they go? So they can either go to my website, amynicholcohen.com or any of my social media at amynicholcohen on Instagram, and they can DM me. That's the easiest way because then you can see me, my personalities on my Instagram. I'm on LinkedIn as well. Anything under amynicholcohen, we'll have it and check out my businesses, the Chic Experience or Chic Studios. This has been amazing. Thank you so much. And like I said, I'll have all of her information linked in the show notes, but if you're an audio person and don't want to go look there, she just shouted out where you can find her. So thank you so much for being on the show and sharing your passion and your expertise with us. Thank you, Shannon, so much. And if anybody is looking for a retreat, maybe they even want to come and do some market research to execute their own amazing retreats, come be a guest, get all the goodness from it, invest in a couple thousand dollars. And by the way, that's like for if you're in the UK or North America, it's a great price point for you because it's in America, USD, but come and be part of it. And then you can see how to execute and maybe even see the behind the scenes as well. I highly recommend that. Thank you so much. You're so welcome. Thank you. Thanks for listening to the Retreat Leaders Podcast. Learn more at www.TheRetreatRanch.com. See you next time.