From Start-Up To Skincare Sanctuary: A Conversation With Chelsea Cornelius

Wayne Herring [00:00:00]: Hey, business builders. Today, we are joined by Chelsea Cornelius. Chelsea is the cofounder of Skinterus Skincare Boutique in Easton, Pennsylvania. In this episode, you're gonna get to hear about her start up journey and how the two of them created the experience, the boutique, how they've hired people, how they've grown their staff in a type of work that requires intimacy, really, with clients and requires a creation of an experience and a high level of care. So you're gonna hear about all of that, but what you're also gonna get to hear about is why business builders should get a facial. And that was even though she does skin trust and does skin care, that was actually a bit of a surprise for me that the conversation went there, and I was so interested in that. Because you all work hard, you're using your brains, you're creating, you're taking risks, and sometimes you need to settle down and, you know, get some of the, like, bad juju out and rest and restore your creative powers. So I hope you enjoy Chelsea Cornelius.

Wayne Herring [00:01:11]: Welcome to the Business Builder Way podcast, where

Wayne Herring [00:01:14]: we help business builders grow leadership skills and wisdom and stay grounded through hero stories. So let's get after it.

Wayne Herring [00:01:21]: So Chelsea, who are you, and why are you here?

Chelsea Cornelius [00:01:24]: Yeah. Well, thanks for having me on first and foremost. And hello, everyone. I am Chelsea Cornelius. And who am I? That's a loaded question. There's a lot of there's a lot of layers to Chelsea. But just to kinda give you an overview, I have owned a business for the last ten years, and it's not really who I am. It's more of what I do.

Chelsea Cornelius [00:01:48]: But in that, I have really evolved who I am. And that's my favorite part about owning a business is that it forces you as an entrepreneur to really look at yourself and figure out what your weaknesses are and what your strengths are. And so that has then led me on this really awesome journey of being uncomfortable and evolving and exposing myself and really just finding down to the nitty gritty of who I am. So if you were to really look at me, I'm someone who is loving and kind and super passionate. And my main mission in life is to just help people and impact them in a way no matter where I am, whether it's small or it's big, and just get them excited about living life because living life was actually something I didn't enjoy for a really, really long time. It felt like hell to me to honestly live life and coming from a spiritual background and coming from a place where spirituality was instilled in me for a long time, you know, the whole point of spiritual growth and evolution, right, is to enjoy the journey. And I didn't. I just worked really hard and was someone who spent my time trying to find my worth in my work instead of finding my worth in just being and being myself.

Chelsea Cornelius [00:03:12]: So I know that's kind of broad, but that's who I am.

Wayne Herring [00:03:16]: And I love how you started that off by talking about the what I do is not who I am. Sometimes wake start thieves stories and people go to answer those initial questions. They, of course, start talking about the business and how they did it, and you're flipping that a bit. So I I like that.

Chelsea Cornelius [00:03:36]: Yeah. I think, when we speak to who we are, it's really easy to just get caught up in the titles that we hold. Is it like whether we're in a relationship or we're a friend or we're a daughter or we're, you know, something that holds a title, we kind of start to create these identities around and and think that's who we are. But at really any moment, if we were to strip ourselves back, it is really hard to actually answer the question of who we are if we didn't have all of these things. And that's the beauty of really getting to live this life is to strip back all of the things that we were told that we were supposed to be and really figure out who we are and who what we're created to be. I mean, that's the most exciting part if you really look back. And for me, spirituality is something that's so huge and intertwines into my professional and personal life so much that if we were to really strip that back and look at why we were created, we were just really created to be loved. Love.

Chelsea Cornelius [00:04:37]: And we make everything else. It's such a gift that we have the opportunity to create so much creativity around it, but we also make it a lot harder, I think, sometimes living this life because, you know, like, we have to constantly have all of these things in order to create an identity.

Wayne Herring [00:04:55]: Yeah. And so you are the cofounder of citrus, a skincare boutique. And I was really excited to get a a gift certificate for Rhonda, who is our business builder concierge, and she was stoked to receive that. I don't think she's even saved yet, but it's good to have you as an expert because I don't always know what to buy or do, and you could recommend some services and say this amount for the gift card would probably be good for Rhonda. So I thank you for that. So you are the co founders interest in that. And you did grind at that, and you've worked at that, and it's successful. And for anybody listening, I have been to well, I haven't I haven't been there, and, that's coming.

Wayne Herring [00:05:35]: I need to do that. I drove past it because I wanted to see it, and it's the space we're in is is beautiful, factory. Right? Like, factory buildings in the Lehigh Valley. Big open air when you walk in, and then you've created an air environment for people to get skin care, but also, like, like, a salt cave and things for relaxation. Right? So can you tell tell us about, like, how people picture the business as it is now, what it is that you've created?

Chelsea Cornelius [00:06:05]: Yeah. The business as it is now is way more glamorous than it was when we first started. As any good business story, I'm sure, starts. The business now is in this gorgeous building that, if I remember correctly, was constructed in, like, the late eighteen hundreds, early '19 hundreds, and it was a silk factory. And what is really unique about that, just in itself, is that it employed so many women, which in a beauty industry, typically, you're you're dominating more women. Although we have this amazing clientele of of men who come in and take care of themselves, and we can get into that in a second. And we also have some really awesome male employees. But for the majority, just this industry in general, you know, women tend to dominate that.

Chelsea Cornelius [00:06:57]: So to be able to move into a space, we have 7,500 square feet of just openness. And what's really awesome is that when we walked into the space, we were able to create something from scratch. Just there was no walls. There was no parameters. It was allowing ourselves to really create a space where you can come and get quiet and actually just relax in a bit of history because there's also all of the original gosh. There's a boiler that's in our where the Salt Cave is. That room actually is centered around this amazing piece of machinery. So you have this really cool balance of very, like, feminine and masculine happening at the same time.

Chelsea Cornelius [00:07:43]: And as we know, a balanced person is both and kind of synergetically moving from one side to the other. And so the space just allows for you to come in, and it really is and I'm not just saying this because it's mine. It's really a space that is truly, like, breathtaking lock in.

Wayne Herring [00:08:02]: Well, you should be proud of what you've created, but I no. I don't I don't sense bias, and that was totally my impression. Been trying new things, Chelsea. I've never I I've done yoga now for quite a long time, but I've never I've never actually had a massage. And so part of the new chapter of my life did that. And I remember you telling me when I first met you that I should totally have a facial, and you know what? I'm gonna do it.

Chelsea Cornelius [00:08:27]: Yes. It's a really I think, from the purse from the male perspective, I know that there was a lot of resistance around that for a long time because our culture was not men took care of themselves a lot differently than women did. But what has been changing around that stigma is that if you really wanna take care of yourself, right, like, you have to hit the mind, body, soul, and there's so many different modalities of approaching that. And I think you can do all of them, and you would have such great success. But facials are really unique, and I'll just kinda speak to that for a second because that's how I got into this. So, like, I am an aesthetician. And facials are so unique because we're working on the upper part of the body that not only holds the actual brain, but so many of your sensory organs. So you have your eyes.

Chelsea Cornelius [00:09:18]: You have your nose. You have your mouth. You have your ears. And then you have the brain, which also then will just kind of segue into the mind. Right? And it's all in this one space. And more than any of the other parts of the body, you have so much information coming in. And so people don't realize how tense you become and how much you know, if you're like us, I'm sure, like, we're visionaries. Right? And so we tend to be in our heads a lot.

Chelsea Cornelius [00:09:45]: Well, that kind of energetically detaches us from the rest of our body. So to be able to touch the face, get it reconnected with the rest of the body, it's just this overall experience, sensory experience on top of that that is so different than anything else that you really can get, whether it's, you know, cranial or massage or whatever it may be. It's so unique to one particular area. So it really is something I do think that everyone should experience at least once in their life.

Wayne Herring [00:10:17]: Beautiful. And I remember one of the first conversations we had, you talked about touching somebody's face and you talked about how, and of course you've been working to build a business where you're not the only one, or maybe you don't even practice very much anymore. You have other people that are doing that. But when you talk to me about touching somebody's space, you told me that you often have a longer term relationship with the people, meaning they're coming in frequently over the course of years and naturally, like, a barber, or you you start they tell you things. And you told me, like, you can even, like, feel things, and you can feel energy, and you're very connected to them. And I thought that was awesome. Look. I really appreciate that.

Chelsea Cornelius [00:11:01]: Yeah. It's, it's a very cool experience to walk with people. Me and my clients joke that we are the longest relationships that we have ever been in because I get to literally walk through them. I have one client. I met her when she was in college. Now she's married. Now she has kids. And so many of my client stories are like that, or I need, you know, some of these, we'll call them, we're seasoned women who are moving out of a marriage, and their kids are probably like my age.

Chelsea Cornelius [00:11:32]: And I'm watching them also walk through the journey of, like, self discovery and evolution and finding themselves. And so there's so many different that is probably my favorite part of what I get to do is to walk with someone on their journey of life and watch this evolution of self how, happening in real time, but also to be able to facilitate part of the healing in that journey is just such a special experience.

Wayne Herring [00:12:02]: So I didn't intend for us to go here, but Yeah. This is good. And and you can help with this. Many of the business builders, many of the people listening to this will be guys. Mhmm. Or for sure, the the the women that often are growing businesses, I I wanted to say, like, they'd be more likely to avail themselves of the services you provide without the barrier. But I don't I don't know. Many of them are hard driving, busy, fast charging.

Wayne Herring [00:12:32]: So they probably are less likely than the average person perhaps to come and take the time to to fit and to to be or to to have the services that you provide there. So it's it's probably both genders. But what the way you said that for business owners and what you said you offer, do do you have more on that? Like, what in particular entrepreneurs come and what's it like and how long does it take? This is the part I didn't necessarily intend to do, but I feel like you could provide this service to help people. Because often we're hesitant to do something new. So make it more approachable for us.

Chelsea Cornelius [00:13:10]: Yeah. So being an entrepreneur myself, right, and I'm in this industry where health is being the the forefront of focus, it is very easy still to get out of the mindset of how important that is and just get into the grind of every single day. So, yes, I actually still take clients. But with that being said, then I'm leading a team of 30 people. And, you know, just the other day, just to give you a tangible example, I had the power go out for four hours in the middle of my day, and it's just me and my new general manager and all of these things are happening in real time. And so the thought of spa and relaxation, you know, when clients come in and they're like, it's so relaxing. You must be so relaxed working here. I'm like, yeah.

Chelsea Cornelius [00:13:59]: Right. Like, if you only knew that chaotic, it was behind the scenes, but I'm so glad that we've done a great job to fool you. That's awesome. But with that being said, you know, just kind of speaking to the entrepreneur whether and as you said, like, female entrepreneurs tend to be more in their masculine. Right? So, like, we're not really thinking about self care. We're not really thinking about being more nurturing to ourselves. And I think men typically, again, kind of steer away from even the word nurture feels probably uncomfortable sometimes unless you're just this more evolved masculine. When we're thinking about business and why personal and business and just professionalism overall really intertwine is if you are not taking care of yourself personally in your personal life on a mind, body, soul level, your business will reflect the ceiling that you have hit.

Chelsea Cornelius [00:14:52]: When you're not taking care of yourself, whether that's not sleeping well, not eating well, not exercising, not prioritizing self, It is so easy. I just honestly went through this because I'm going through some big life shifts. So I had to buy a house. I needed to do all these things. Right? And we just fired our general manager. Now the whole everything that was is no longer, and I'm in that process. The one thing that I kept trying to remind myself every single day was do one thing for the mind, one thing for the body, one thing for the soul. And what I notice in my days when I don't prioritize, whether that's in the morning or the evening, however that needs to look, because let's be honest, we gotta adapt that every single day.

Chelsea Cornelius [00:15:35]: If I don't have that routine, I'm actually not a good leader. Things start to bother me that wouldn't necessarily bother me if I was more grounded and more clear in my mind. And and our businesses need us and our people need us to be leaders worth following. And it is very easy, I think, to lose track of what our mission and our impact is when we're kind of stuck in the day to day. And we really can't have good clarity around that unless we're actually taking care of ourselves. And so however that needs to look for you, you know, when I first started this healing journey that began about six or seven years ago, the place that I knew I needed to end up was not the place that I necessarily started. And I think what's sometimes nice about the spa environment or just the body work itself, it's a very tangible thing to start with. You know, twenty minutes of walking outside or working out, that's a tangible thing that you can do three or four times a week.

Chelsea Cornelius [00:16:35]: Then that can move into maybe a massage once a month or a facial once a month. Something that gets you outside of your routine of not taking care of yourself and just slowly implementing that. And then that gets you hungry for, okay, I noticed that my nervous system is more calm and I'm actually more creative, and so I'm gonna crave that a little bit more. And where else in my life can I and and maybe it's not even going to the gym? Maybe it's just starting with, like, one healthy meal a day. And I think, really, if we were to boil this all also back down to the root of what this actually looks like and where where these patterns come from is, do I even feel worthy enough to receive the goodness that I can give myself? Because oftentimes, as I just, like, spoke to in the very beginning, right, my worth was caught up in how much I accomplished. And the thought of taking time for myself felt like it was a waste of time because I could be making more money or, you know, creating more growth or whatever that looks like until I realized, oh, no. Like, my worthiness and my ability to lead well actually comes in the example of how well I lead my life.

Wayne Herring [00:17:54]: Your business or you I think the way you said it, my business will reflect the feeling that I have hit. It's really good. Wait. We could talk about this for a long time. What what you're sharing about you getting out of the the grinding, but being open to receive or open to give yourself good things, you were taking that direction of giving time to yourself to go nurture yourself, whether it's the meal or the walk or the facial. And I was thinking as you were saying that when we're bound up and tight and grinding and and you have to do some of that in the beginning. Right? I don't think there's any question. But then eventually, how could you going to have a facial help my business grow.

Wayne Herring [00:18:32]: Eventually, that's what happens because you have to and I you and I are on video, and so I'm, like, gripping versus opening up my hands. It's I watch this with business owners. They grow their business to a point, and then the next step isn't to do more. It's to be more creative and actually let other people do things. Let the 30 people that work on your staff. That doesn't mean you're not there coaching, helping, watching, but you you have to, like, let it go. Right? Open handed, and that's when more can flow in when when there's more abundance, when you can tap into it. And it's not just woo woo.

Wayne Herring [00:19:10]: Like, it really, like, that's that's how it happened. Jeff Bezos with Amazon or something. Like, he can't do everything. My goodness. Like, it's you have to let go and let other people do things.

Chelsea Cornelius [00:19:21]: Yeah. And I think being a great leader also means that you allow people I was actually just reminded of this the other day. I was reflecting back on how I handled the situation. And I always say let people fail because if they don't, then you will never allow them to experience the confidence in their growth of how they're gonna fix it the next time and how they're gonna do better the next time. And that doesn't mean, you know, you let your business burn down. I mean, it could if you really want it to be done. That sounds great sometimes. Let's be honest.

Chelsea Cornelius [00:19:55]: But with that being said, right, like, you let it burn to a point where I think we get afraid when we see things on fire, but fire actually brings so much healing and so much clarity, and it removes all of the chaos and the noise once it has died down. And you are kind of left then with this place of how can I do it better again, and what can that look like? And there's so much healing in in the failure of things that and I think we're just so afraid of allowing people to do that. And so I was just reminded that of that the other day. You know? I was watching my team not handle the power outage well. And if I wasn't there, they would have been fine, honestly. But it would have actually been better if I wasn't there because then I was starting to navigate, and I watched them shut off their brains instead of instead of, like, actually thinking because they're like, oh, Chelsea's got it. She's gonna tell us exactly what to do. There's a very appropriate times for you as a leader to step in and to do that.

Chelsea Cornelius [00:20:57]: But for the most part, what I've learned about leadership in my business is allowing people to get to a point where they have to really kind of look at themselves and say, was my ego in the way? Was my pride in the way? And oftentimes, as leaders, we don't really ask ourselves. We're like, well, of course, our job is to be a problem solver. Well, are you problem solving to grow the person, or are you problem solving because your ego is afraid to let be seen as, oh, I just let, you know, failure actually happen.

Wayne Herring [00:21:32]: Oh, that's great. How long does it take you to get a facial?

Chelsea Cornelius [00:21:34]: So Seychelles can be anywhere from thirty minutes to ninety minutes depending on what we're doing, which I know is a really broad time. But I actually love that because for someone who is dabbling in it, thirty minutes feels really approachable. Like, we can throw that into our schedule. When you start to realize, oh, I actually really like this and I want more, that's where the sixty and the ninety minutes comes in. And and all of those facial times really there's added value to it because the more that you can spend in a state of calm and healing, the more productive your body is gonna be, and therefore, you'll just be, again, more productive in your business. But with that being said too, there's different goals. Right? There's different body goals and skin care goals. And so sometimes we need a little bit more time to accomplish those.

Wayne Herring [00:22:24]: So the business builder's special first time ever is, well, you could do it for thirty minutes. We can try it and then come back longer the next time. Or if you're really gutsy, go right for ninety minutes. Okay. I don't wanna get stuck on that. I wanna ask you, thirty thirty people now, and you had the electric outage the other day. And as you said, you have this beautiful space now. It didn't start there.

Wayne Herring [00:22:43]: How did it start? When did you have an idea? Like, you know what? I'm a practitioner of skin care, but now I'm actually gonna have a business. Can you tell us a little bit about that?

Chelsea Cornelius [00:22:51]: Yeah. That's a super fun story. So, again, I'm a little dynamic, and I like a lot of different things. So getting to this place at 21 was a pretty fast journey. I ended high school. Actually, I think I had just turned 17. I ended up being done with high school in three years because I hated it. And all of a sudden, I went into the culinary field actually.

Chelsea Cornelius [00:23:16]: And so this is a fun part of my story because it ties back in later on. But I went into culinary school. I really didn't wanna work in a kitchen, but I really loved event planning and hospitality, which when you're working with people, hospitality is the thing that you do. It's my favorite part of what I get to create. I love creating experiences for people and to be able to teach that. So that was a really awesome kind of foundational piece. Well, I ended up leaving culinary school halfway through. Kinda had this midlife crisis by the time I was 18, and I was like, what the hell am I gonna do with my life? I have no idea.

Chelsea Cornelius [00:23:53]: And all I kept thinking was you're 18, so you can go out and try a whole bunch of things and suck at it, and you're still young. And so, you know, I was taking care of myself financially, but the beauty of being 18 is that I still had parents around. So, like, if it got really bad, you know, I didn't have to live out of my car necessarily. From there, I started to really fall in love. This is when YouTube became really popular with kind of their version of influencers. And there was this makeup artist that I found. And you have to understand, like, I grew up as a tomboy. So looking at me now, full face of makeup, all that, you're not gonna see that part of me, but that is still deeply ingrained in who I was.

Chelsea Cornelius [00:24:35]: And I had this mom who did her hair and had makeup on, but she never really taught me any of that stuff. And so I think there was also this piece of I was tired of being every guy's, like, best friend and wanted to be the girlfriend for the first time. And so I was like, alright. What does this even look like? And so this was part of my growth that got me to where I was. And so I fell in love with this makeup artist, and I was like, that's awesome. I love the transformation of what makeup can do, and there's so many different facets, in that world. And so I started looking for makeup schools, but, again, I was paying for everything myself. So going to New York or California to potentially suck at makeup was not really an option.

Chelsea Cornelius [00:25:18]: And I found a local school, and they lied to me. And they were like, yeah. You're gonna learn about makeup. Absolutely did not. Got one day of makeup, but I fell in love with skin care. And this was also the time that I decided that I wanted to be a personal trainer. And, also, I was taking my culinary school background and really falling in love with food and how do you make food really approachable that's actually nutrient dense. And so in skin care at the time, they were literally teaching us that your food had nothing to do with how your skin behaved, which we know now is a crock of shit.

Chelsea Cornelius [00:25:55]: And That was bizarre. And that was really only fifteen years ago. That was when they were teaching us. And so as soon as I heard that, I was like, don't believe that. That's actually not true. And so I started to kind of formulate in my mind, okay, if I I love the massage portion. I love touch. I'm very intuitive.

Chelsea Cornelius [00:26:16]: I've always known that about myself. I have this culinary background. How can I make myself a niche aesthetician that is going to be so different than everyone else? And now when you look on the Internet, there's a ton of me, but back then there wasn't. And so I started really formulating, well, how can I start asking questions of my clients to kind of understand who they are and why are their symptoms showing up the way that they are? And so fast forward, I had three years of finishing school, pretty much one into every type of spa that you could go into. So I went into the medical side. I went into I worked for an acupuncturist. I did everything in three years because I was like, I need to kinda figure out where I wanna fit in this world, that again has so many different avenues. So I ended up working at this chain, of a spa, and the team at the time was really great.

Chelsea Cornelius [00:27:15]: And I knew that it was still gonna be a stepping stone. And what ended up happening from there is I met my business partner, and we were both the top performers at the spa. And there was no room for us to grow because, again, it was a chain. And so her and I started pursuing different things, but we were always kind of conversing on, like, what's next for us. And so one day she came to me after she had pursued some of the options that she had, and she was like, hey. Would you ever wanna open up a spa? And I was like, well, actually, I'm doing this other business right now, so I don't really know if that's gonna be tangible for me to do both. And so her story her side of the story is she took me out to dinner, got me drunk, and basically, the yes happened. That is probably pretty to what happened.

Chelsea Cornelius [00:28:04]: But, again, I'm 20 at this point, so I'm like, what the hell if I, you know, suck at this? I'm still young, so, like, there's still room. There's still time. And we had this one rule going into pursuing what would it look like if we opened up a business. And the rule was you weren't allowed to say that you were afraid. So there was no fear. And when you're 21, what fear do you really have? Like, you're so naive to the world that, you know, all I knew is that if I showed up every single day and worked really, really hard, it had to work, and I was gonna figure out the rest along the way. And so we had that conversation and literally three months later, we opened up our doors. There was no time wasted.

Chelsea Cornelius [00:28:46]: We actually got fired from our jobs because they thought we were in the works much farther, and we were just, you know, kinda secretly having these conversations. We didn't have a space. We didn't have a name. We had nothing. And that was absolutely perfect because I think we would have dragged our feet a little bit longer and forcing us out of that position and into this place of, like, well, now you don't have any other options. I literally worked at all the places in Lehigh Valley. They all were not great. I didn't like any of them.

Chelsea Cornelius [00:29:15]: So I was like, okay. Well, here we go. Like, this is what we're gonna do. And so we threw ourselves into it for three months. It was long nights and long days, and we opened up. And being 21, I think I was maybe turning 22, and I think she was maybe, like, 25 at the time or or somewhere around there. We had people laughed at us. They were like, okay.

Chelsea Cornelius [00:29:39]: This is cute. You know? Two girls probably using their parents' money, which we didn't. We didn't have we didn't come from money, so we had to use all of our own money to fund this company. And that was another really big part of our story is, like, we took our personal savings and we threw it into this business, so it had to work whatever that was gonna look like. Hustled hard for the last I would say we probably stopped sprinting around year eight, but we moved very quickly. And that is really the story of SkinTrust. It was the other side of that is we wanted to create something different knowing one day that we're gonna have employees. So we wanted to create an environment that was different than what we were getting from the leaders that we had prior.

Chelsea Cornelius [00:30:23]: And more importantly, we really wanted to create a different approach that was actually, very tangible for the everyday person to come in and feel comfortable enough to get these services because we didn't want it to be luxury anymore. We wanted it to be a part of your health care routine. So that was the foundation of Skintres. It was blood, sweat, and tears and no fear and a lot of how do we change the industry and make it something that feels really good for the everyday person to accomplish.

Wayne Herring [00:30:55]: Thank you. The 30 people that are on the team, you've created this space, you've created an approach, now you have these people. This seems to me like it would be a high level of art that you do, like art, creation, connection. How do you coach? How do you speak into the lives and work of the and maybe not everybody is actually touching. Maybe some are support people, but what is that like to coach these healers, artists that you work with now?

Chelsea Cornelius [00:31:31]: Yeah. That's a really great question because, honestly, in our field of healers, we we don't really like to think about the professional and business side and strategy of what we do. And that is actually my favorite thing because a lot of my success even before owning a business, just retaining clients and keeping them, is it really came down to understanding there's a few things. I was actually just coaching one of my staff members on this the other day. The first and foremost thing that I think about when I'm walking into the treatment room is someone just worked really hard to come in here, and I don't wanna waste their time and their money. So that is you know, it's coming down to this place of, like, how would I want to be treated if I was going to, walk into a similar place and be the client? And so I start to create the experience from the client perspective of what I would want. And so when we're teaching that, it's really we actually have them walk through the doors of our building tangibly, and we're like, tell us what you notice first. What do you see? What do you smell? What is it that is capturing your attention first? And I think if you can get the the employee to experience it from the client perspective, that's how you can start instilling in them.

Chelsea Cornelius [00:32:55]: Even when they get super comfortable, you're bringing them back to that foundational piece of we're here to serve. So if you don't have a servant's heart, it's gonna be really hard for you to create that experience. With the experience, when you have figured out exactly what you want that to look like, all of a sudden, then that's when the money flow comes in. But when we're gonna talk about strategy, right, around money, because we have bills to pay. And so let's be serious about that too. And really, that comes down to I'm actually creating a course around this right now, not only for people in my industry, but just in general, which is how do you retain a client and how do you make impact with that client so that they do become you become not a want, but you become a need. And so a lot of that has then to do with education. You know, something that we speak about a lot is if you went to the bank and the bank teller took your money and 10 x ed it for you, you would probably pay a lot more for those bank services.

Chelsea Cornelius [00:33:57]: Right? So we want the client to come in, turn off their brain. We're gonna take care of you from beginning to end. And at the very end, I want you to still have your brain off before you have to walk out in the door of our doors and walk into life where you have to turn it on again. So what that looks like is I'm going to think for you. I'm going to ask you really good questions. I'm going to create the experience that you didn't even know that you wanted through those questions. I'm gonna nail that hands on service. And then from there, I'm gonna educate you on exactly what you need so that when you leave here, you don't ever have to wonder how you're gonna get through the healing journey.

Chelsea Cornelius [00:34:38]: I'm just gonna do that for you. And all I need you to do is come back.

Wayne Herring [00:34:42]: So I'm conscious of time, and we're gonna run close on time. And I have so many questions. When you said that you well, of course, right now you're talking about grinding it in the beginning and late nights and the things we did was this very young person starting this business to make it work. And now here you are with the 30 employees. And you said six or seven years ago, you realized that you were grinding too much, ripping too much, and that that isn't wasn't really living life. So I'd like to just a a little bit about that. Like, what was that transition, Chelsea? How how did you become aware of that? How'd you, like, hit a bottom, and then how just a, you know, a bit of, like, how did you start to build your way out? And I do wanna spend a little bit of time talking about your new, venture. Yeah.

Wayne Herring [00:35:26]: Can you tell us about that six or seven years ago when you started there?

Chelsea Cornelius [00:35:29]: So that was a really gosh. That was an interesting time in my life. I, making it out of my twenties was a feat. When I hit 30, it was like, looking back, I don't even know how I'm still alive sometimes. So to understand a little bit about that journey, you have to understand that I was really thriving in my professional life to some degree. That's where I had spent a lot of my energy and a lot of my time kind of perfecting who I was. But when it came to my personal life, I had no friends, didn't really care to have them, didn't really have time for them. And then when it came to my relationships with men who I was dating, I wasn't really picking anybody too seriously because, honestly, my focus was on something else.

Chelsea Cornelius [00:36:19]: But where that became my detriment was I again, my whole idea of self love and self worth was caught up in what I did, not just the fact that I could be lovable. And from there, I started really involving myself in relationships where I was the healer and I was the fixer, and that was what I was supposed to be doing. Right? Because I grew up in a church. And in church, they tell us like kind of that no man left behind and we're here to serve. In that, it became this very toxic mentality of like, if I'm gonna serve well, that means that I have to empty myself and pour all of me into somebody. And so that is why I got to this point where literally my body wasn't working anymore. It was shutting down. I was working seven days a week, and I was going home to back to back to back for years incredibly abusive relationships on many different degrees of abuse.

Chelsea Cornelius [00:37:22]: A lot of it was very psychological. It was very emotional, and it was meant to cap like, have me playing small. And so, again, you know, like, my business, it looks like it's growing and it's thriving, but really me as a leader, I'm limited, and I'm I'm probably doing a little bit better professionally than I was personally. But those two started really affecting each other. And so I remember waking up one morning and I used to pray this prayer and I I just said, like, God, please just give me enough energy to get through the day. Because part of my torture was also having someone who would never let me sleep, and I barely slept my entire life anyway. And so, I just remember distinctively God saying, stop asking me for energy and start asking me to give you a different perspective on what is still good in your life. And so from there, I just started asking myself.

Chelsea Cornelius [00:38:23]: I'm like, how did I get here? Like, I'm 25. How is this my life right now? I'm miserable. I'm broke. I'm taking care of this man who's fifteen years older than me. And my life is absolutely hell. Like, I don't wanna live anymore. And from there, I just realized I asked God this very specific question. I was like, why am I going through this? And so I have this magical moment.

Chelsea Cornelius [00:38:51]: I'm actually hiding in a closet at this point from my ex when I'm asking this question. And from there, I have this moment where I see this vision of myself speaking on a stage. And it was like I was watching myself watch myself in real time on the screen. Right? And then from there, I'm like, okay. Well, how do I become that woman? Like, why am I not her right now? And it pans out, and I have all these black shiny trash bags around me. This is what I'm seeing. And I just hear until you deal with this, you are limiting yourself from what I created you to be. And so I was like, that was part of a few different visions and kind of conversations that I had with myself where at one point, I just realized, I was like, if this was me being kidnapped, I wouldn't lay down and just die.

Chelsea Cornelius [00:39:46]: I would fight. And I realized in that moment, I was at this place where I was like, I'm gonna be so pissed off at myself if I'm lying on my deathbed wondering what my life could have been like if I was just a little bit more courageous and taking responsibility for the things that have led me to this point. And so from there, I honestly just got angry. And I was like, screw this. I'm never gonna let somebody control. And you are in control of your life and you're in control of the choices that you make, then I can absolutely undo this. You have to remember, I was really, really broke at this time too because the business was still not really producing a large income for me. And I was also taking care of an entire household, animals, which I had rescued.

Chelsea Cornelius [00:40:33]: It was an absolute I don't know if we can curse on here, but it was a shit show. And so from there, I started getting really strategic. I started creating words for the year. I started creating a plan, and I made a promise. And I said, god, if you bring me every single person who's gonna help me on my healing journey and you provide the money, I will show up and do whatever you need me to do. But I had to get to a point where, like, truly, I had hit my rock bottom. Because a personality like me, it takes a lot to actually break me, and I had broken myself. And I always wondered what that was gonna look like because I felt myself for many years going down that path, but I never knew.

Chelsea Cornelius [00:41:15]: That sounds sick, but, like, I didn't know what was gonna break me because I was pretty tough. Like, I was very resilient. I had the, you know, discipline. Like, I had the the grit and the mentality. Clearly, I was doing that already in my life. And so that was the moment where I realized I don't wanna live my life like this anymore. And so I started pursuing, acupuncture. I started doing cranial sacral therapy, and I really got very clear that every person that I had to work with had to have the same mindset that I did, which at that time was not as much of my practice working on clients, but it started to become something that I valued, which was they had to understand that in order for me to heal solely, wholly, and solely as a person, I needed to work on the mind, body, soul at the same time.

Chelsea Cornelius [00:42:06]: And so their work had to at least understand that. And that was when literally even till now, this is still happening all these years later, All of the practitioners that I have built a network of that I now send my clients to, they come to me. Like, I do not go and find them. They have organically come to me every single time for years, and I just show up and I do the work. And sometimes that means that I need to kind of pray and meditate a little bit. Like, my therapist, she didn't come for to me until two years after I had been asking for that. But that was really my journey of expanding my ceiling, not only in my personal life and in my business and becoming a leader worth following, but also just a person that it started to enjoy life. It really was out of this place of I can't live my life like this anymore, and there has to be something more because I really don't believe that we were created to suffer.

Wayne Herring [00:43:05]: Thank you for all that. Beautiful. And and well done. And so 30 people, beautiful space, skin trust, you've been on this journey. I hear you now. You you've got this network of people that are also pouring into you, and you've allowed yourself to go and receive that, which certainly tied into your advice in the beginning, for other business builders. And now just to to take us out, what's next? The the the business is thriving and people should go there and go to what's the web is it skincare.com?

Chelsea Cornelius [00:43:38]: Yeah. It's skincareskincare.com.

Wayne Herring [00:43:39]: Skincare skin care Com. We should absolutely go there. And, and they should, if interested, you've got such a powerful story and you have so much that you've done that will allow you to coach and help others. And so before we started reporting what we're talking about, you have been doing some coaching consulting. You had that vision of being on stage, and no doubt you will continue to do that if that's where you feel led. So can you tell us a little bit about the work you're doing with other business owners?

Chelsea Cornelius [00:44:11]: Yeah. So this is something that I have been really passionate about for a while. And, luckily, in my own business, my employees don't have a choice whether they like that or not, but they get coached by me. And so I started to, really find a lot of joy and passion in that and realizing that there was a different way I could use my story to help people evolve. And really my passion in life, like I said earlier, is just how do we create impact where we are, whether that's big or small. And I love helping people figure out what their divine destiny is because I believe that we all have one. And a lot of the times, we just get caught up in stories that limit us from actually experiencing that in our lives. And so the people that I'm working with right now, you know, they have, again, come to me very organically.

Chelsea Cornelius [00:45:05]: And they're smaller businesses that are really looking for growth. But what's super, you know, amazing about that is my approach to coaching and consulting again comes back to that place of mind, body, soul. If you are not where you need to be, your business really can't grow. And I'm a firm believer of that. So we're gonna walk you through how do we start to uncover the stories that are blocking us from the success that we absolutely deserve. And what does that look like? And do we need to create a workout routine for you? Or do we need to look at the numbers in your business? Because either one of those are, you know, both important. And and we're gonna do all of that together. And my passion for you is whether you work with me for a short time or for a long time is that you have learned so much from all the mistakes that I have made because I didn't have really anybody to walk me through this.

Chelsea Cornelius [00:46:08]: Truly, for the last ten years, the beauty of it is that I got to learn it the hard way and I got to learn it very organically. But I also don't believe that we have to suffer through that all the time. And there's so much wisdom in having great mentors and there's so much wisdom. And if you really do wanna be the wisest person, you really should surround yourself with wise people. And so let all of my mistakes be that thing that instills in you a different story so that you can go and impact the world however it is that you wanna do that on whatever scale that looks like.

Wayne Herring [00:46:44]: So if somebody does listen to this and they're, as you said, attracted to your energy and story and where you've come from, if they reach out to you, will you have a conversation with people? Is that

Chelsea Cornelius [00:46:56]: Oh, yeah. Yeah. I love just know that when you talk to me, we're not gonna talk about the surface stuff. I don't really know how to do that. We're gonna get into the nitty gritty of who you are, and we're gonna deep dive pretty quickly. But, yes, let's definitely have a conversation, and that would be my greatest joy.

Wayne Herring [00:47:15]: And you've got a podcast coming out?

Chelsea Cornelius [00:47:18]: Yes. Yeah. You, know the the other cohost of this, Kim Kelty. I'm sure she's been on I think she's been on the show a few times. Yeah. She and I have been best friends for a long time, and we decided, to just bring our awkwardness to a podcast and talk about all things business and personal. So, really, like, the idea of what I'm coaching on is now gonna be talked about in our podcast, and we'll be launching that in the next month or so.

Wayne Herring [00:47:50]: Great. Super. Well, Chelsea, thank you so much for showing up, and you really you really showed up. Thank you for the business story, your personal journey, being vulnerable. And I I really think the piece about healing and and taking time to kind of renovate what's going on inside so that we can get past the ceiling was beautiful. So thanks a lot.

Chelsea Cornelius [00:48:12]: Yeah. Thank you for having me again. It was so much fun.

Wayne Herring [00:48:14]: Great. Take care.

Wayne Herring [00:48:16]: Thank you for tuning in

Wayne Herring [00:48:17]: to the Business Builder Way podcast. If this episode spoke to

Wayne Herring [00:48:20]: you, click that subscribe button and share it with a friend. That's how this message gets out into the world. If it is helpful for us to have

Wayne Herring [00:48:27]: a short conversation, I'd love to do that. Send me an email at wayne@businessbuildercamp.com.

00:00:00 – Introduction: Chelsea Cornelius and Skinterus Skincare Boutique

Wayne Herring introduces guest Chelsea, gives context on the episode’s focus on the business journey, experience creation, and why business builders should consider self-care like facials.

00:01:24 – Who is Chelsea Cornelius?

Chelsea shares her personal evolution, reflecting on the difference between her identity and her work, her spiritual journey, and mission to help and uplift others.

00:06:05 – The Space: Skinterus Skincare Boutique

Chelsea describes the unique historical space they built the business in, its blend of masculine and feminine energy, and their intentional design for relaxation and care.

00:08:27 – Why Facials? Benefits for Business Owners

Chelsea explains the mental and physical benefits of facials, especially for entrepreneurs, including the reconnection of the mind and body.

00:11:01 – Building Client Relationships in a Healing Role

Discussion on the depth of client relationships, the emotional and energetic experiences of long-term esthetician-client connections.

00:13:10 – Self-Care & Leadership: Advice for Business Builders

Chelsea and Wayne explore why self-care routines (mind, body, soul) are critical for entrepreneurs. Chelsea shares personal routines and emphasizes how a leader’s well-being impacts the business.

00:22:43 – The Start of Skinterus: Building from Scratch

Chelsea recounts the entrepreneurial leap—starting the business at 21, finding her business partner, taking risks, and bootstrapping the venture under the “no fear” rule.

00:31:31 – Coaching and Growing a Healing-Focused Team

Chelsea discusses her approach to nurturing and training her staff, building a client-first experience, and developing company culture in a service and healing environment.

00:35:26 – Personal Breaking Point & Healing Journey

Chelsea opens up about the personal struggles that led her to reassess her life, the transition from burnout to holistic healing, and implementing mind-body-soul practices.

00:44:11 – Coaching & What’s Next for Chelsea

Chelsea shares her current work in coaching and consulting other business owners, her approach to personal development, and announces her upcoming podcast project.

1. Chelsea describes how her identity is not solely tied to her business. How do you define who you are outside of your professional titles or accomplishments?

2. The episode explores the connection between self-care practices, like facials, and entrepreneurial creativity or leadership. How do you personally recharge, and have you noticed a link between your well-being and your business performance?

3. Chelsea talks about building a “servant’s heart” culture within her business. What are some ways leaders can genuinely create environments of service and care for both clients and employees?

4. Creating a unique client experience was key to Citrus Skincare Boutique’s growth. What are the little moments or details that make a business memorable to you as a client?

5. The transition from practitioner to business owner often involves letting go and empowering others. What challenges have you faced when delegating responsibilities, and how have you overcome them?

6. Chelsea shares that her turning point as an entrepreneur came from a personal healing journey. What are some powerful lessons you’ve learned from personal challenges that now influence how you lead?

7. The episode highlights the gendered perceptions around self-care (e.g., men being less likely to get facials). How can business leaders work to break down these kinds of cultural stigmas within their industries?

8. Chelsea emphasizes mind, body, and soul alignment for both leaders and teams. Can you think of any practices, routines, or rituals that help keep you aligned and centered during demanding periods at work?

9. Failure and “letting it burn” was discussed as part of the learning process for both leaders and teams. Can you share an example of a time when letting a situation play out led to important growth for you or your team?

10. Chelsea is now venturing into coaching and launching a podcast to share her story and help others grow. If you were to mentor someone based on your entrepreneurial journey, what’s one piece of advice you’d offer?