Meet Andrea Goodwin | Licensed Esthetician & Certified Acne Specialist

We had the good fortune of connecting with Andrea Goodwin and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Andrea, what do you attribute your success to?
Hands down its the client experience.

I put alot of focus in providing a full sensory experience for each client, I work hard to give them the 5 star service that I would expect when getting a treatment. From the little things like the scent in the room, the music, the linens that they lay on to the consultation, service itself and lifestyle guidance afterwards.

I think its extremely important to create a genuine relationship with my clients because they are the reason I get to do what I love every day as a my job.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
What sets you apart from others? Was it easy?

People have asked me what’s the secret to building your clientele? There isn’t this one secret that will bring you all the business. You need to put the work in. These things take time and energy. 
Put in the work, put in the time, don’t focus on the money and focus on your clients. The money will follow but you’ve got to pay your dues first. You will have days where you want to give up or you have imposter syndrome but its worth it, stick to your goals and pick your head up.
Building a business hasn’t been easy, there are a lot of things I wish I knew in the beginning that would have set me up for an ease during tax season and other areas but its okay. You learn while you’re starting out, you correct from there and I hope I can help others to not make the little mistakes I did and set them up for success in their future endeavors.

Most proud of or excited about?

The most exciting part for me is being able to offer a safe, ethical and comfortable space for my clients to address their goals. Often times people come to me because they’re insecure about something on their body. I’m eternally grateful that I get to help people feel more confident in their skin and body and help them to understand how to take care of it properly.

One of my main goals and something I’m proud of is becoming an Acne Specialist, acne is much deeper than the surface of the skin. Most of the time people think they can buy an extremely drying acne product and it will fix all of their problems but that’s just not the case. Gut health, diet and lifestyle all play a big role in the health of your skin.

When I was younger I struggled with acne on the face and body as well as unwanted body and facial hair. I had no idea that people created a career out of helping others to clear the skin and address these concerns. My acne struggles have come and go over the years and I’m grateful to have the knowledge now to treat it.

How I got to where I am today:
I started working at a Spa in 2015, at the time I was dealing with cystic acne on the face and legs. I met my first Esthetician, had a facial and she recommended products to me based on my skin and it sparked my interest into skin care and overall body wellness. Before this I was getting advice like just use rubbing alcohol as a toner, it will clear everything up and I was caking makeup up on over my acne to feel less insecure. I didn’t want to do things that required a bathing suit because of the cystic acne and body hair, shaving just led to razor bumps and more angry breakouts. It was a vicious cycle.

I learned a lot through my time at the spa and was needing to find my drive in life and decided to tour at the Aveda Institute for the Esthiology program. I’ve always had an interest in how the body works, how things work from top to bottom in general so for me studying skin felt right. I signed up for the program and decided to take the leap. I saved every penny I made and worked every day that I wasn’t going to school to pay for it along the way.

I graduated in October 2018 and got my license that November. I transitioned into Esthetician part time and stayed working for the Spa doing front desk & sales while I trained and built up clients. It was a good opportunity when starting out but eventually I wanted more. I felt limited by the companies corporate loopholes they had to jump through just to expand in the Esthetics industry and this industry is ever growing. Meanwhile I wasn’t getting clients at the spa, I wasn’t getting payed for the time I was sitting there not booked and was going crazy. My mental health was declining the more I was there not doing what I worked very hard to do. Take clients. This was a massage focused spa that didn’t put a lot into their facial marketing so I knew that I needed to make a change.

Covid hit and oddly enough this was a great opportunity to start working on my business, I started with the bare essentials and worked out of my home office building up my clientele, people were comfortable coming to my home. I had no idea what went into owning a business but was fine with the fact that I would figure it out along the way. Lessons were definitely learned.

I found a job with a wellness facility near home that was just opening, I know great idea quit your job and put all your eggs in this new businesses basket after covid right?
But they were okay with me having my business and I needed change. I was able to dip my toes into the medical side of esthetics and get a change of pace from the mundane cycle of what I was doing previously at the spa.

I ended up right back where I started with this job, working front desk and barely doing facials and was not okay with it. I needed to get my hands on some faces!
In December 2020 I found a spa that was focused in Esthetics, offered a wide variety of facial services and jumped at the opportunity.
At this time I was working 3 jobs, part time at the wellness clinic doing front desk and the occasional micro needling service, taking clients at my home to work on my main goals and now working at a day spa to expand my knowledge and hopefully leave the wellness clinic.

It was chaos but I learned a lot, I had to do what I needed to do and just kept pushing.

I left the wellness clinic pretty quickly after. I transitioned to the day spa full time and was running my business on the side and it was starting to take off. Things were good.

In July 2021 there was a little conflict with me running my business on the side and I thought that I was going to lose the stability of my full time job. I took this as a sign and took the leap of faith and signed a lease to move my business out of the house and make things official.

Things ended up falling into place and I got to keep my job and run my business and build toward my goals.

I became a certified Acne Specialist January of this year. This was a big goal of mine. I wanted to learn more about acne, how to treat and heal it and share this with others to build up their confidence.

From there I have left the Spa and am celebrating my official year in my private Spa Suite as AG Esthetics in August. I couldn’t be happier to have made it this far and watch all the pieces fall into place. It’s beyond fulfilling looking back at the little list you write out several years ago with your goals for what is just a dream business and being able to mark those off years later.

There have absolutely been struggles, hard lessons with the back end of the business, slow weeks, and all the things in-between that I have learned along the way. Through my time working for people that have no idea what goes into offering the services I do while running a business that offers these esthetics services its opened my eyes to what type of business I want to build, what type of experience I want to provide and what value my services have for my clients.
Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
Im all about the food in Houston, sports, music and just a good place to hang out with a nice patio and beer selection.

Corkscrew BBQ
Old Town Spring
Nacho Birria Food Truck
Bigotes
Jinya Ramen Bar
The Kitchen
Tris
La Palma Tacos
8th Wonder is always a great time with several food truck options.
Heights Bier Garden
Axelrad
White Oak Music Hall
Seeing the Astros or Rockets game is a classic! Win or lose lol

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
My Husband, Austen, has been the biggest support system throughout my journey. He’s always encouraged me to take the leaps into the next uncomfortable step in my career and I absolutely wouldn’t have been able to do any of this without him. Im grateful for his support to be able to have my dream job and my own business.

Website: agoodesthetics.com

Instagram: www.instagram.com/ag_esthetics_/?hl=en

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/agoodesthetics/

Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/ag-esthetics-spring?osq=ag+esthetics

Other: andreagoodwin.glossgenius.com booking link