There is no I in Team
There is no I in team - an old saying that harks back to my early years in business.
Someone once said, True, but there is also an M and an E.
I remember chuckling at this until 2020.
Before 2020, my philosophy was TEAM first. As a result I had the greatest team in the beauty business. Clients would often say, Alayne, you are so lucky, you have the best team. I would nod in agreement but inside I knew luck had nothing to do with a good team.
A good team takes hard work, lots of training, lots of investment of time and money and it never ends.
There is no set it and forget it with a good team.
26 years later- post 2020, two locations to one, 25 employees to 3, I still manage to employ the very best. When we closed down in 2020, I had a abrupt realization that without the ME part of Alayne White, there would be no Alayne White. I need to take care of this part of my business sometimes more than the TEAM part in order for it to continue to thrive.
But without the TEAM, there are no Alayne White facials. I don’t think I sing their praises enough. My micro and mighty team is loyal, brand focused, and have the best work ethic. I love them the same way I love my dearest and oldest friends and treat them like the gold they are. I am sure they would agree.
26 YEARS LATER, I find myself loving my business more than I did on day one. This astounds me. There are so many reasons for this, but today I want to shout from the rooftops about the glory of a great team no matter the size.
Kristina has been with me since almost when I opened my first location. She took many years off in between when she had a beautiful set of twins. When she began working for me, she was just getting married! Now her twins will be entering their sophomore year of high school in the fall. Kristina has been instrumental in my success. Besides her knowledge of skin care and giving great facials, she has an eye for design, sends me ideas that are exactly my style, and merchandises and reinvents the space endlessly. We share a love for cooking and recipes and exchange them regularly. I cherish her presence in my life and my business.
An old pic of us when Kris was pregnant with twins from Feb 2009!
Julie has been working for me for almost eight years now and my title for her is affectionately “Get Shit Done Julie.” I love initiative and Julie is probably one of the most take charge, take initiative women I have ever met. Her thirst for the beauty business, for improving skin, for endlessly searching out new treatments and ingredients is admirable. She keeps me on my skin care toes. I am sure that I would have not come out of 2020 as shiny and successful as I have if it hadn’t been for Julie showing up every moment to help and come up with ways to do services with masks, not an easy feat in a high touch facial business. She helped put boxes together and deliver product, and was and is a perpetual cheerleader. She is of great value to my business, and even more to my personal world and continued success and I am forever grateful to her.
Julie AND me one random day.
Corey has worked for me on and off for over ten years all while working as a NYC Rockette. She also got married to a wonderful guy from South Africa in the middle of all of that. When I found out she moved back to RI and lived in reasonable driving distance to the Bristol location, she said YES to my call to come back. Since then, she and her husband brought a beautiful baby boy, Bodie, into this world, (my fake Grandson as I jokingly call him). Corey is a doer. She has to be with the essence of a NYC Rockette with those six foot legs she is blessed with. She has what my grandmother would have called a sunny disposition and barely gets flustered. Eager to learn, a stellar esthetician, I love her facials, her waxing and her work ethic. Watching her start her life as a mother is so gratifying and delightful and I can’t imagine Alayne White without her.
Corey and me in the spa
I am “lucky” because I have worked for this luck.
Luck doesn’t come to those who sit idly imagining a good team, or dreaming about a successful business.
This is the ME part of the team. If I have learned anything in my business success, it is that there is always work to be done. That work is the driver for the team and the team is the result of that work. I am lucky because the fruits of my labor continue to bud, blossom, ripen and start again all the time. I am lucky because despite a great team with strong leadership and values, our clients continue to value our brand and the ME. The TEAM matters not if clients aren’t walking through our doors.
TWENTY SIX YEARS LATER, I say a loud and boisterous thank you to my TEAM and we all say THANK YOU to our clients for giving us all of these years of saying yes to ALAYNE WHITE.
I have never felt luckier.
