The best brands don’t just keep up, they lead the way. But building a brand isn’t what you think it is. Kaeli Lindholm talks with Tyler Terry about what’s required to build a brand that truly resonates and succeeds in the ultra-competitive medical aesthetics space.
Hear Kaeli’s insights on the future of the medaesthetic industry, from integrating wellness to leveraging new technologies and how she’s approaching issues that specifically impact female entrepreneurs.
Listen
Watch
Guest
Kaeli Lindholm, CEO of KLC Consulting
Kaeli Lindholm is CEO of KLC Consulting and Founder of the POP Aesthetic Leadership Academy, a 12 month business development incubator for women in aesthetics and wellness who are seeking to unleash their superpower through their business, team, and personal brand. Her mission is to help 5,000 inspiring and intentional women cross the next million dollar milestone in their business in 2024.
Learn more about Kaeli.
Follow Kaeli on Instagram @kaeli.lindholm
Learn more about KLC Consulting and the ALT experience
Listen to the Fierce Factor Podcast
Host
Tyler Terry, Director of Sales, MedSpa at Nextech
Transcript
Announcer (00:06):
You are listening to the Aesthetically Speaking podcast presented by Nextech.
Tyler Terry (00:14):
Hey guys. Welcome back to the Aesthetically Speaking podcast. My name is Tyler Terry, and I'm your host. Today I have a very special guest who happens to be one of my very good friends. Her name is Kaeli Lindholm. Kaeli is the founder of KLC Consulting. She is the host of the Fierce Factor Podcast and also the founder of the ALT Experience. Kaeli, welcome to the show.
Kaeli Lindholm (00:38):
Aw, thank you Tyler. Thank you for that shout out for ALT and all the things.
Tyler Terry (00:43):
Oh my gosh, of course. I have to. It's amazing. I was looking at your podcast and you have 216 episodes and a hundred and twenty two five star reviews.
Kaeli Lindholm (00:53):
Oh, wow. Look at you with the stats.
Tyler Terry (00:55):
Yeah, I was impressed. I was looking. I'm like 122. Wow. Need to get some tips from Kaeli.
Kaeli Lindholm (01:01):
Yeah, well, I'm mostly impressed with 216 episodes because what kind of dedication that takes to think of something to say and show up and say it every week?
Tyler Terry (01:10):
A hundred percent. A hundred percent. Well, hey, welcome to the show. Thank you for your time and super excited to just dive in and delve into your background and all of your experience. And my first question is just to tell us a little bit about yourself and share your story of how you transitioned from a device rep to owning your own business and starting your own brand.
Kaeli Lindholm (01:34):
Oh, thank you. I just first of all want to say Tyler, it's been such a pleasure getting to know you in the industry and I'm excited to talk with you kind of formally on podcast today. I've been looking forward to this. We were introduced back, I think in 2020 by Brandon James Thompson. So give him a shout out for that. I always appreciate, I think networkers in our industry or in general, don't get enough credit, 'cause I think it's just such a gift to be able to connect people that go come together to make impact.
Tyler Terry (02:02):
It's true. And that is a lost art. And Brandon, shout out to you because a lot of my networking I learned from the one and only Brandon. And if you know Brandon, you know exactly what Kaeli and I are saying.
Kaeli Lindholm (02:12):
Yes, absolutely. So my name's Kaeli Lindholm and I'm the founder, as you mentioned, of KLC consulting and our flagship program, the POP Aesthetic Leadership Academy. Our mission is to help 1000 inspiring and intentional women cross the next million dollar milestone in their business this year. And we're really a company who has built a variety of different programming and tools and services and support to help aesthetic and wellness entrepreneurs build deeply satisfying, lucrative, freedom-based businesses that stand the test of time. In terms of my background and how we got here today, I started KLC eight and a half years ago after I came into the industry, I was recruited out of the diabetes industry to come and sell skincare. And then worked my way up chasing the financial ladder, I would say, on the corporate side, selling devices and then becoming a sales director ultimately in corporate America for one of the industry's largest aesthetic medical device companies.
(03:20):
And that ran its course about eight and a half years ago. And I ultimately got to this level where I think we get to that point where chasing, chasing, chasing, climbing, and I kind of got there and then I'm like, oh, this is it? And my quality of life was awful. My husband's a VP of sales and we were both doing this traveling across the country. I just wasn't that happy. I had young kids and I'm like, there has to be more to this. I honestly just had always had that fire, this entrepreneurial spirit. I always knew I would have a business someday. I actually had two businesses when I was a kid. I did gift wrapping, I would wrap gifts for people as my first job. But anyway, I knew I would leave corporate and do something. And at that point I thought, well, I live in Orange County and there's so much business here and I have built such a network and my own sort of reputation in the industry that I could go and help people on my own.
(04:19):
And so I kind of made it my goal. I just want to earn my salary on my own. I want to show myself that I could do that. And that was sort of where I printed my first business cards and said, Hey, I'm available to help anybody want help growing their business. And anyway, it sort of took off from there. I think that my first client was another device company who heard I was a free agent and said, Hey, why don't you come help us build the Go-to-market strategy for one of our new devices. And then through that experience, I met a young plastic surgeon in Newport Beach who said, listen, if you come work alongside me, we could be profit share partners. And I did. So I kind of got the experience of working on the manufacturer side and then in the practice, and then it was from there, I was with him for about 15 months and then I'm like, okay, I got to figure out a way to scale this up and help a lot of people. And that's really where we launched the academy.
Tyler Terry (05:09):
That's amazing. One of my favorite things that you told me when we first met and how you are where you are is how practices absolutely loved working with you and you could work with them for only a certain amount of time and then you had to say goodbye. And they continued to reach out and would want to continue to work with you. Whereas now today you get to do that. You have a new client who you're helping grow their business and you get to work with them every day, every month for as many years as they're with you. But that was really cool to hear.
Kaeli Lindholm (05:40):
Well of course I would tell you that people love working with me.
Tyler Terry (05:44):
I've seen it firsthand. People really do love working with you. I mean, you're one of my favorite people in the industry, seriously.
Kaeli Lindholm (05:51):
The context behind that just to provide for the people who like is this egomaniac here, the reason why can't you work with someone forever was that was the whole model switch for me was being a consultant and coming in as someone who would help with specific projects to switching to becoming a coach for them and more of a strategic growth advisor that is focused on helping them learn the skills to be a great leader and find their own solutions to problems. And I think when you come in and fix something for someone, the problem goes away temporarily, but they don't learn and develop the skills on how to solve that problem on an ongoing basis. And so I think what's changed really is the way that I partner with aesthetic providers and entrepreneurs and quite frankly, Tyler, building my own business and doing it on my own. I see this from a completely different lens than from when I was a rep and I saw what good was and what bad was. When you are building something from nothing from scratch and in an industry where there's real competition, you learn a lot and I can be a different kind of resource for them. And so I think that's why I get to spend more time with them now is that there isn't a come in do the project and leave, it's a true partnership.
Tyler Terry (07:07):
That makes sense. So let's go ahead and shift gears a little bit and talk about branding. And it's something in many of your episodes you talk about, and I know I've learned a lot from you in terms of branding from listening and also being a part of some conversations, but when you think of a med spa or any aesthetic practice, how does a brand relate to that and what is so important about differentiating yourself and building that brand?
Kaeli Lindholm (07:32):
I love this topic, Tyler, because I think it is actually one of the most misunderstood kitschy terms like building a brand. I think it's completely opposite of what most people want to do when they're looking to build a brand. And I kind of think of it like this. If your entire ecosystem, everything around you, all the investments you make, the people that you bring in to support you, that you hire the partnerships. Everybody is a big spider web and a lot of people think, oh, I'm going to build this web, and the brand is just that one little piece and it's actually the whole web, this interconnected ecosystem of all of these components about who you are. So I think a brand in this industry, in any industry is best described as really the emotional or the psychological connection that your customers have with your company.
(08:22):
And I think that's why it's one of the most difficult points in your business to master and grasp because it's so intangible in many ways. It's the act of shaping the perception of what someone thinks or feels about you, which is essential to compete in our industry of course and in any category. So how do you create an environment or this brand that people connect with and want to be a part of when it's so intangible? That's kind of the challenge behind building a brand, but I think it's critical and I think that it's one of the most important pieces in building a distinctive company, an industry where there's so much sameness as we would say.
Tyler Terry (09:05):
Yeah. So when you're working with, you have many clients and every client is unique, what are some of the questions that you ask them when you first meet with them? You're sitting down, you're building their brand. What are some questions you ask them to decide what direction to take the brand?
Kaeli Lindholm (09:21):
I'll start by saying this. I think most brands are built wrong to begin with. One, it's let's start by what it's not. It's not your logo, it's not the visual components. Those are the things that people connect with to recognize that, oh, that feeling that I have, I see that. But that feeling that you get is through what happens inside internally. So that meme, that's like the iceberg, like the tip is kind of outside of the water, but then the bulk of all of it's underneath that is what a brand is. All of it happens inside. It is who you actually are. And where I see a lot of people go wrong, one, especially in our industry is it's very ego driven. So they think the brand is about me and who I am and what I stand all of those things about, look what I did. And so the first thing when I look at marketing is pitching, like so obsessed with their new device, so obsessed with the products and services or who they are in their photo shoots that all of their marketing and everything they put out to the world is about them and about what they offer. But think about a great brand, Tyler, maybe I'll ask you, what's a brand that you really connect with?
Tyler Terry (10:27):
Well, I like Rivian. Rivian. It's a truck I drive. I feel like I connect with the brand. I love what they stand for and how they're trying to preserve nature. And I love what the CEO stands for, anyways, Rivian would be the brand.
Kaeli Lindholm (10:42):
Rivian. Okay, so great. So when you look at the Rivian logo, when I look at that logo, it means absolutely nothing to me. I would know nothing about that. But the reason why it sounds like that you really resonate with that brand is what it makes you feel and how it serves you as a customer. To answer your question, the first place that you start when you're building a brand, to me, a brand is so intimately connected to leadership, and I know this is going to sound, people are going to listen to this and be like, oh, here we go, this crazy girl. But I went to business school and got a marketing degree. I spent a lot of time working on marketing projects and building marketing strategies and everything that has to do with marketing inside and out in terms of how to create visibility or brand awareness.
(11:26):
But the brand itself is built around the leader, the person who builds it and what they stand for. So when you talk about your truck, right, it's like those intangible things. It's their purpose. It's the way that it makes you feel when you get in there. It's the connection that this brand has for you to the kind of person that you want to be. So when I think of where to start, it's going to be a lot less about you as a company actually and a lot more about your customer and then how you lead a customer and you lead your business to serve that client.
Tyler Terry (12:05):
I love that. When I think of that question you ask me and then as I really start to think of Rivian and their marketing and watching and following as a fan, a lot of it is the connection with family and what I could do with my girls and the adventures we can go on with my family and my wife and being able to go to the lake or the ocean or wherever the outdoor piece of connecting with nature. So I love that. And I've never thought about it from the flip side. A lot of times even I fall victim to seeing it and I think, oh, the logo and the typography and the colors of the website, but really trying to get that deeper connection to the customer is amazing.
Kaeli Lindholm (12:44):
And I think this is what we do is we are trying so hard to create something for someone else, but really it's about the way that they connect and they resonate so that they can trust us. Every transaction is built on an exchange of trust. And I'll tell you when we have clients even come in, prospective clients to work with us and we'll have a discovery call and I'll ask them, what's your mission? And they're like, hold on one sec, let me call somebody. Or they're like, pull up some piece of paper that shoved in a drawer, dusting it off, and they have no idea what their mission is. And then I'll ask them, what's my mission? And they can rattle off my mission in 10 seconds. Wow, why would somebody know my mission? But for even their own, it's because they care about what I'm going to do for them. So if we can flip the script in terms of the brand that we're building to how am I going to enroll other people, how am I going to serve them and engage them in an experience where they want to transact? So ultimately pay me to solve a problem that they have. It's a complete mindset shift and it starts with who you are as a company inside.
Tyler Terry (13:53):
As I think to just in my career, something that I uncovered just in selling to somebody is of course you want to build a friendship and you want to have a connection, but making people feel confident and comfortable in not just the product but in me because my own brand. Right?
Kaeli Lindholm (14:08):
Absolutely.
Tyler Terry (14:08):
But then thinking of that from a practice point of making patients feel confident and comfortable, how do you do that? It's not by the logo and the colors and the location, although those are nice things, but how do you make somebody feel confident and comfortable? So super insightful. That was amazing, Kaeli. So I want to talk about your brand and how are you growing your brand? What are some of the things that you're doing? I know that you mentioned the pop academy and then we know that we have the new alt experience, but what are some of the ways that or the new directions that you're taking your brand to impact the different businesses that you work with?
Kaeli Lindholm (14:47):
So everything that we've created has been built alongside of our customer. And I think when I mentioned your brand identity being so closely tied to leadership, I think a lot of people are probably glazing over that. Like, oh, okay, what is that? So I think going back to what does that mean for me? But Tyler, I think building a really great brand, most of us forget to think for ourselves about what it is that is important to us and what we stand for and why I think great personal brands can do so well because let's talk about med spas as an example or providers. They can build really effectively early on and quickly when it's just them because they are them and their clients, connect with them. Just be a great doctor, just build trust, you as a rep, like if it's just you, you're going to walk in and you're going to connect with that client and build trust and rapport and help them feel confident about who they're investing in.
(15:46):
But now you're a leader and you have a team. So when you become a business that needs to scale, that is where that inflection point of I actually need to be able to verbalize and communicate what that brand is. And so I talk about thought leadership a lot and a lot of the programs that we have built, our pop leadership academy, our Voice of Impact, which is our public speaking communication program, our CAPL, which is our certified aesthetic practice leader program, we're building practice managers. All of this happens from having conversations with your customers and then building alongside of them. And I think investing in people who are in alignment with your core values. Because if you think about it, you can be the best marketer in the world. I can attract a million people to come and want to do business with me, but if I don't have an army of people who are going to fulfill on that, so exceptional customer service, right?
(16:39):
We're like white glove service, blue collar approach to work. I want every single customer or you, Tyler, to interact with every team member that's on the KLC team and walk away feeling like you miss them when you left. I had an exceptional experience and that's what really builds the brand. And so when you ask how have you built your brand, it's truly by living and being the brand and being an example, when I talk about leadership, a lot of people ask me, how do I motivate my team? Or how do I get people to think of my brand this way? Be that embody that actually show up and make decisions, even difficult decisions that might not be the sexy answer that are reflective of your core values and who you are.
Tyler Terry (17:28):
Wow. Kaeli, this is amazing. I feel like you've already given so many pearls on branding and it goes back to that spider web that interconnectivity for it to be from the inside out. So just to kind of dive a little deeper, how often should you check in on your brand? I mean, what would be a best practice?
Kaeli Lindholm (17:50):
Well, I think it's a practice of who you are. So I think building systems, my advice before you scaled to five locations was to be really clear about your mission, vision, values and to have a team of people that you've hired to your core values. So we look at core values as the standards by which you operate and hire in your company. When you talk about five locations, the problem where maybe I have one core location, not my flagship, that just is a frigging machine, and then I start to build these and then I become so dependent on now operationally overseeing every single location to reflect the first one. Well that's because typically we're hiring quickly to skills and not to the core values of what really built that flagship to what it is. So I'm not trying to avoid your question. I actually really believe deeply that this is the answer to branding is that I'm asking from the very first point of hiring an employee, I know what my core values are and I'm hiring to those.
(18:57):
So for us, it's going all in. So are people willing to invest all in, full send with everything? Do they have a winning mindset? Do they embody somebody who is not so invested in a job but invested and obsessed with the opportunity to grow with our company, and the challenge of becoming somebody through that process. I'm looking for that. I'm looking for somebody who is our second core value willing to challenge themselves to grow. They like that they're looking for ample growth and someone who's willing to have fun. If you're not an A plus in all of those, I don't care how skilled you are at something. And so we have this, Tyler as an example. It's called the culture Reset. It's a team training that we run for our academy clients. And so people will be like, come and help us reset our culture.
(19:47):
And I know automatically if you have a challenge with your culture, it's not because you're not a great person, you haven't built a great brand, it's that people are coming with a set of values on their own and if they're not aligned with yours, then that is going to create a misaligned culture. So answering your question about how often to check on the brand, I mean it should become systematized. So there should be SOPs, the white glove experience, every time a customer walks in, this is how they're greeted at the door, this is how they're offered this cup of coffee or whatever, or the cookie when they check out or at the lavender towel or those types of things that everybody is held accountable to having a smile on their face to treating the customer a certain way. That's how you get to a point where somebody knows that they're consistently, every time they show up to Tyler's med spa, they're going to get this level of consistently a certain level of experience or care there. So it happens from the very minute. And I think doing surveys and checking in with your team and your customers is really important constantly.
Tyler Terry (20:54):
I love what you're saying, going all in on your employees and your team and your brand. My wife and I are trying to be more minimalistic and one of the things we've learned is if it's not a hell yes, then it's a no. And I think the same thing as you're talking, I'm like, oh yeah, if this employee isn't a hell yes, it's a no. If this product, if anything that I bring into my practice should be all in. So that was amazing. Kaeli. So I want to ask you this as a, an aspiring entrepreneur. How do you have balance in your life and what are some of the habits, like daily habits that you set in place to be successful?
Kaeli Lindholm (21:34):
Focus. I know where I do my best work and I know what drives impact, and I do this religiously. I outsource, I delegate, I get help. And I am fiercely committed to developing people to become their best and absolute greatest potential so that they can build my company. And that for me has been the only way I can have quote unquote balance. I'm not a PTA mom. No one wants me to be.
(22:06):
I'm obsessed with my work and my company and my customers. And I also know that when you look at my calendar, if I was to open up my calendar and you were to see it, you would say, ah, I see. Like my priorities are there's time blocked. I don't get up in the morning and sit down at my desk. I go get my workout done, I make breakfast for the kids and pack their lunches and spend time with them, and I start at 10. I am totally good with that. To me, the idea of the American dream and the entrepreneurial journey, I've built a multimillion dollar business independently coming from a sales job. I have a Cal State Dominguez degree, I'm scrappy, and I know that there are a lot of people out there that are chasing this idea of becoming whatever your financial sort of ultimate end game is.
(23:01):
But I think a lot of people are chasing some carrot that they believe when they achieve it, they're going to then be happy. And yet you could just build a life right now in which you're happy today. And I think when you have that viewpoint, my terminology is the life first business that I make time for my lunches with my girlfriends or the things that I enjoy and make me happy. And then I work around that and I built a business that supports my life and not the other way around. And for some reason, God willing, I have earned financially beyond my wildest dreams, but I don't think I would have done that if I wasn't a role model for other women that I'm coaching on how to do it. And so again, when we talk about branding, I will be that, and that's not been easy, but it's been a commitment that I've made to myself and I will continue to make to my team and the people that work with me and will ultimately be this company and who knows where they'll take it someday, that no one has a gun to their head and none of us do in this life.
(24:08):
We all get to choose what we show up and do every single day. And so we have to be committed to prioritizing the things that matter to us. And whatever that is for you, that's your balance. And for some people it is all work and that's great, do that. But for me, it's being a great mom and it's doing different kinds of things in the world and the work that we do. And so my advice would be to put that filter on everything, Tyler, is it a hell yes or a no? And to not waver from that.
Tyler Terry (24:40):
I love it. So many things about what you just said, life first business, and it's really tapping into your superpower, and I love that you know that your superpower isn't a PTA mom, however, that is a superpower of some, and some people can do multiple things, right?
Kaeli Lindholm (24:56):
Yes.
Tyler Terry (24:56):
But I love that your strengths and you're delegating, that's something I'm working on, is being better at delegating. And I would love to hear your thoughts on this. I believe just doing some research that people have a hard time hiring people that they might perceive as smarter or more talented than they are, and making sure that you have great people in your room. But do you ev
