“The ability to create community and culture has always been within me.” – Tamara Shaw-Reid, Founding Director of Beaute Industrie
It was never my original life plan to enter the beauty industry – in fact I had hopes of becoming a professional dancer after training for 10 years as a child. It was my unfortunate luck at the time that the entry date had ended before I was able to submit my application, forcing me to search for the next best thing to set my sights on post-graduation.
Combining beauty therapy and business, I graduated with a Diploma of Resort Management, specialising in the spa, resulting in qualifications of practical trade skills in performing treatments, and an understanding of learnt theory through marketing and legal knowledge.
My entry roles progressed through traditional beauty salons and further into day spas, before to jetting off to London and studying abroad for employment on Steiner Cruise ships. On board my title was a ‘International Detox Specialist’. As a 22 year old living on a cruise ship, life was a dream. Monday was known as Portugal, Tuesday as Ireland and Wednesday was Paris. Working hard and hitting targets allowed for more time off exploring different countries and learning about myself personally and professionally.
Returning back to Australia saw my career travel down the path of management, where I had the pleasure of managing teams of 20 therapists. Realising how much I loved making people feel like they are part of something bigger than themselves, was my first taste of the feeling only community can provide.
Loving the educational aspect of the industry, I begged the National Educator to allow me a training role within the network. She kindly agreed and within the month I had relocated to Sydney, servicing 37 spas and travelling nationally across New South Wales, Queensland and Victoria.
State Based Education soon turned into Business Development as I leveraged off my management skills, seeing my role expand across Australia and New Zealand with a cosmedical skincare company. Across my travels I noticed through speaking with traditional beauty business owners, managers, corporate chains and therapists, that there was a real lack of connection in our industry.
Everyone wanted to know what everyone else was doing with respect to their marketing campaigns, their staff turnover, their team meetings and more, however no one was having these conversations, for fear of negative competition and beliefs.
Beaute Industrie was born during these last two roles as a way to stay connected with my industry friends, keep up to date with the latest knowledge, innovation and product development. This original group of 15 turned into a group of 100 without any energy of advertising, which was when I realised there was a deep need for support and community in the beauty industry.
Understanding that there were mindsets to shift, negativity to clear and community to create, I knew the reach needed to be as expansive and as timely as possible. Overnight I built a website, launched a rebranding exercise and created the first official Beaute Industrie networking event!
Reasonably aware of podcasts, I set out to create a channel where we could continue the inspirational, motivational and educational conversations which were happening over in our community group, but on another level. If we could share the message of creating positive and collaborative community over competition by reaching as many ears as possible, then we would be able to change the industry one episode at a time.
The ability to connect via voice and story is one that hits home for many women. We want to be heard when we speak, feel valued when we ask for feedback and have a team of supportive friends and family around us that are fluent in our industry language. This was being delivered via our podcast to the audience mobile phones on a weekly basis through interviews and inspiring conversations with leading industry experts.
Just 6 months later, our message was spreading, our events caught traction and the community was well and truly into motion. Demands from Queensland and Sydney opened our event reach and our online program was launched, providing business owners with tools to take the community into their workplace and create a better culture for their team.
Being recognised as an industry voice has been a magical pathway which Beaute Industrie has carved, allowing us to speak at large industry functions and partner with leading industry brands and continue to increase motivation and inspiration for the industry.
From selling out our networking brunch events, to reaching 30,000 ears on our podcast, our community reach is continuing to expand across the country but all that being said, nothing leaves an impression quite like our community reaching out to us.
When text and social media messages hold quotes like ‘Beaute Industrie has done wonders for my confidence”, “thank you for connecting our industry, it has been long awaited” and “I almost left the industry until I discovered Beaute Industrie, now I am reinspired” there is no feeling more special than this.
Our mission is this; to create support and community for you, the professional beauty industry, so that you never feel alone on your beauty career pathway.
If you too would like to experience our supportive community please join us by attending our networking events, tuning into our podcast channel or following us on social media all at Beaute Industrie.
Until next time, stay connected!
Tamara Shaw
Founding Director, Beaute Industrie