Meet Jenise Nerwinski

We were lucky to catch up with Jenise Nerwinski recently and have shared our conversation below.

Jenise, looking forward to learning from your journey. You’ve got an amazing story and before we dive into that, let’s start with an important building block. Where do you get your work ethic from?

I come from a family of entrepreneurs and blue collar workers. Hard work is the only example I remember seeing as I grew up. My family pushed me hard to be my best self as a kid, and I never knew any other way. My mom struggled a lot, but never gave up and always worked her tail off, and never let us know how difficult things were for her. My dad owned his own construction company during my teen years, and I did not know or appreciate the full extent of his challenges as the boss back then. He always seemed to have things under control and was so comfortable being in charge; when it came time to start my own business, it just made sense. My grandparents owned several salons and even a couple of gyms when I was younger, and it was natural to watch them create jobs and take care of their employees. My stepdad worked 60+ hour work weeks with a large power company, and was in charge of his crew’s success and making sure his team was safe. I’ve never seen anything less than hard working adults. I guess I just didn’t know any other way to be! Luckily, the girls I work with have been teaching me to find a work life balance. I am extremely grateful for their examples. Believe it or not, the hardest thing I’ve learned was to let my time-off be actual time-off from work. Who knew that was such a hard lesson to learn?! Luckily, the girls on my team are hard workers, but they respect their time off and are very adamant about teaching me to do the same — without feeling guilty about it! I think I’m extremely lucky all around!

Thanks for sharing that. So, before we get any further into our conversation, can you tell our readers a bit about yourself and what you’re working on?

We are an ‘as natural as can be’ nail and esthetic salon. We specialize in finding natural alternatives to modern chemical based beauty solutions. We make our products from scratch in house as much as possible, to give us more control of the ingredients and products we use. We see ourselves as a cohesive team and try to foster each other in a happy, low drama environment. We want our clients to feel welcomed and included in what we do. For us, it isn’t just about making money; we all love what we do and share a passion for making people feel better about themselves. I like to say that I have the best job ever, because we literally live out a teenage girl’s dream! We go to work and “hang out” with our friends, co-workers, and clients all day, chatting, gossiping, learning, dissecting our relationships, talking and generally having fun. All the while, we are doing someone’s nails, facial, waxing, sugaring, or whatever it takes to make them feel pretty and confident. It’s just like going to a sleepover at your bestie’s house back when we were teens! I love my job more than I could have ever imagined!

If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?

I think the best advice I could give someone, knowing everything I know now, is to not limit yourself to the easy road, but to instead find a balance between hard work and the thing you love. If it’s too easy, you’ll get bored and lose your passion. If it’s too hard, you’ll get burnt out faster than you should. I think finding something you love and challenging yourself to take it to the next step is key to being successful and maintaining a love for your career. Never stop finding that next step, though; always keep trying to find more things to learn and challenge yourself. I think the best thing I do for myself and my career is constantly taking classes and exploring new avenues of my industry. Going to industry trade shows has been one of my favorite self treats, because I always learn new things and try products or techniques I would never have explored on my own, while surrounding myself with other people who love my industry as much as I do! After a trade show, I can tell my clients and co-workers all the fun things I learned and things I tried, and it renews my love and excitement for what we do. It gives me the energy to push through the hard stuff, because I’m freshly in love with what I do all over again.

What has been your biggest area of growth or improvement in the past 12 months?

About two years ago, I hit an emotional low that lingered longer than it should have. I am normally able to look past my personal issues and set aside my more emotional responses to things in order to maintain a professional and enthusiastic demeanor at work, but this particular situation seemed all encompassing and I couldn’t compartmentalize it the way I normally would have. The situation was deeply rooted in a betrayal from someone at work; someone I trusted explicitly and unconditionally, who hurt me, personally, and damaged my business in every way she could. It took me too long to realize that my personal state was hurting my team at work. I wasn’t my normal happy self, I lost my love for what we do, and we stopped being a team. We were all hurt and all felt betrayed, but I wasn’t in a place where I could see beyond my own pain to step up and lead the team like they needed. Watching me become dissociated and distant, my team began to fall apart and some of my less loyal employees saw it as an opportunity to take advantage of the situation for their own gain. Last year, I finally started to see what was going on and fight my way out of the mental state I was in, but the damage to our team, and my business, had already been done. I tried to fix it on my own, but had no idea where to begin. A year ago, I finally admitted I needed help. At first, a friend of mine, one of the local salon owners, began giving me advice and stepped in to give me a helping hand. Soon after, another person gave me some help, then another. As I finally started to open up about what was happening and to seek help, I found a network of support I didn’t even know I had. Eventually, one of my clients stepped in and offered her professional help getting things turned around and moving away from the original issues that started our painful journey. She helps businesses like mine find paths of growth, and to find their way back to their original path when they are lost. Over the past year, we have slowly undone the damage that was left in the wake of it all, including the painful process of cutting ties with the toxic employees who were actively trying to hurt our team and our business. With her help, we have created new processes and procedures to protect us from ever falling victim to a situation like that again, and built a new, stronger team with similar goals to each other. Coming back from the depths of despair and reclaiming my business as my own is probably one of the hardest things I’ve ever done. This past year has shown me how important it is to set up boundaries at work and home, and to find true work-life-balance. I have learned that just calling a group of co-workers ‘a team’ doesn’t make them a team; if you want a cohesive team, you have to foster and encourage that goal every day. And sometimes, that means letting people go when they don’t have the same goal as you, before they have the chance to hurt you or your business. Over the past 12 months, I’ve had to learn to take back what was mine and to be clear about what I need it to look like going forward, so that my team and I are on the same page and moving in the same direction. I’ve learned that it is ok to admit that you might not have all the answers, and that it’s ok to ask for help. With a strong team behind you, it’s ok to lean on each other when things get tough. In the past year, I’ve learned how to lead better by communicating better. As hard as the whole thing was to endure, I’m glad to be where I am now, and to have fallen in love with what we do all over again.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://barefeetspa.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/barefeetspa/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/barefeetspa