Meet Dominique Brandt

We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Dominique Brandt. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Dominique below.

Hi Dominique, appreciate you sitting with us today to share your wisdom with our readers. So, let’s start with resilience – where do you get your resilience from?

Resilience is something I realized I had when three days after graduating from the Master Esthetician program, I was getting surgery on my arm and wrist. I was going to be in a cast for the next three months. I was embarking on my third career as an esthetician. Getting surgery meant I wouldn’t be able to use the skills I spend the last nine months learning. A month before my surgery, I asked the Assistant Dean of my school if they needed help in their back office. I was offered a part-time position that lead to a full-time position, that lead to me becoming the Master Esthetician Instructor. Becoming an instructor was never part of my plan. But it propelled my knowledge base, and eventually my career. My resilience comes from bering handed many crappy hands, but never being folding.

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?

I help women feel beautiful and brave through the power of touch and skincare. I put my heart in everything I do, so what’s exciting to me is knowing that I’m only limited by my imagination. Right now, I’m an award winning, licensed Master Esthetician currently specializing in treating skin of color for women in the 35+ age range. I’m well known for treating a skin condition called Dermatosis Papulosa Nigra, DPN resembles moles and affect men and women of black, latin, and asian origin. I also coach fellow estheticians aspiring to become and award winning esthetician. When talking about who I am, I can’t help but mentioning that Esthetics is my third career. I proudly served 6 years in the Air Force and 3 years as a corporate girly.

What’s on brand for me is my attention to detail, also I’m honest and forthcoming. Currently, I’m in the process of rebranding myself and business as I have closed my solo esthetician practice in Northern Virginia to peruse a life and career overseas. There I hope to learn esthetics from another country’s perspective and expand my skillset. I also intend to work closely to veterans who are actively serving our country far away from home, and appreciate a service provider they can relate to.

There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?

Without a doubt, the most impactful skills that helped me along my journey were critical thinking, people skills, and the ability to verbally explain ideas and concepts to others.

I try to be open-minded, gain multiple perspectives, and learn the rules before I break them ;-). I learn quicker when I’m curious and ask, “how?” , “why?”, or “what if?”.

Although I often feel a little awkward in social settings, what I know for sure is that we cannot be successful without other people, regardless of our profession. And although I require a lot of downtime after social interaction, I do my best to be present by practicing active listening and coming through on your promises.

When I review feedback from my clients, a common compliment I receive is that I take the time to thoroughly explain the treatment process and answer all of their questions, which helps them eel comfortable and confident in my work. This reinforces the power of words and communication; the way we express ourselves can have a profound impact on the personal and professional relationships.

These skills propelled my esthetics career in a way I wasn’t expecting. What manifested was me becoming an esthetician instructor, an international diploma holder which allows me to practice skincare all around the world, a successful solo esthetician, and the title of Esthetician of the Year awarded by The Skin Games and grand prize winner of $10,000.

Oh, one more piece of advice, at the workplace, a lot of answers to your questions can be Googled. Advocate for yourself and exhaust all resources before asking for help, because if they don’t know the answer, more than likely, they will just Google it.

We’ve all got limited resources, time, energy, focus etc – so if you had to choose between going all in on your strengths or working on areas where you aren’t as strong, what would you choose?

Wow, such an interesting question that I feel deserves many perspective, but here’s mine. How and where you choose to balance your strengths and supporting skills depends on what you want out of life and what resources you have access to. Based on my own circumstances, it’s a necessity for me to be well-rounded. I do not have (nor have created) the type of support system that allows me to only focus on one set of skills. I have my profession, a skin care professional, and I have a business to run. Until I hire people to help me run my business, I have to be the talent and the CEO all at once. My skills don’t grow and my brand doesn’t grow if I’m not well-rounded.

On the flip side, I also recognize that audacity and discipline go miles father that a well-rounded person that isn’t able or willing to step out into the spotlight. Time and opportunities are wasted when we think small. So what I think is “better” is to take advantage of your advantages, and if you’re feeling afraid, do it scared; that is bravery.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://braveskinremedy.com
• Instagram: @braveskinremedy
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dominique-brandt-274509ab/
• Other: https://dominiquebrandt.thinkific.com

Image Credits

Before and After photos done by me (Dominique Brandt)

Photos of me done by Ashley Jean Creative