We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Stacey Palancia a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Stacey, thanks so much for taking the time to share your insights and lessons with us today. We’re particularly interested in hearing about how you became such a resilient person. Where do you get your resilience from?
When I look back at my childhood, I vividly remember the day my mother received a phone call that her father had passed away suddenly from a heart attack. I believe that was the first time I had ever experienced emotional pain and witnessed the raw emotion and sadness that my family went through. But as the days followed, I saw that my extended family came together to support my grandmother and each other. There was sadness, but there was also laughter and storytelling and a family unit that was present. As life progressed from childhood, I continued to experience friends and family passing as well as major events such as 9/11, when I was a 2-week-old college student in Manhattan and I experienced the same thing. An event that is hard to make sense of or painful is followed by a community that comes together and bonds over the shared experience. This has taught me resilience.
Even though there is no escaping painful events throughout life, your community will always come together and support you through a difficult time.
Let’s take a small detour – maybe you can share a bit about yourself before we dive back into some of the other questions we had for you?
As a young adult, I dreamt of becoming an actress and received my BA in Theater from Marymount Manhattan College. I loved my experience at school where I had to learn how to communicate with others and draw from my personal experiences to connect with a person or character, all while learning how to survive in Manhattan on my own. Although I ultimately walked away from becoming a performer; I believe that my experience at school has been the key to my success as an entrepreneur. I became an Esthetician in 2005 when I realized my passion for helping others combined with my love for the beauty industry. I worked for others in this field until I became a mom. It was shortly after that I decided to start my own spa business and built it slowly from the ground up. 9 years later I am the proud owner of Skin and Tonic in New Milford CT. Our mission is to help our community by offering wellness and beauty services that combine cutting-edge, non-invasive therapies with techniques that help soothe the body and mind. We aim to educate clients on the various therapies available that can help them look and feel better, without resorting to riskier treatments for aging. I have an amazing team of massage therapists and Estheticians who are truly passionate caretakers and who have invested greatly in their knowledge. In an oversaturated beauty market filled with misinformation, our goal is to offer you recommendations and treatments that are customized to your very unique needs that will save you time, and money. We also specialize in lymphatic drainage therapies which can dramatically improve your wellness. We are the first in Connecticut to offer the Icoone Lymphatic Drainage machine which is used on the face and body for water retention, waste elimination, body toning, and skin tightening. It’s seriously amazing.
We hope you will join us for a massage or facial soon to experience what Skin + Tonic is all about!
Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?
The three most important qualities that have been most impactful in my journey have been resilience, compassion, and a hunger for knowledge. Starting a business and building a clientele/keeping a clientele has required all 3 of these qualities. I believe without resilience I would not have been able to keep my business thriving through the Covid 19 pandemic, a fire in our building, or the various ups and downs that come with business ownership. Compassion for others has been the backbone of my career. When I become focused on myself or my ego, the business suffers-but when my focus remains on serving our clients and community then our business thrives. Always keep your focus on the people that your business is serving and follow their lead.
Lastly, a hunger for knowledge and constantly pushing myself to stay ahead of the curve in our industry is a must. Our clients are savvy and expect that we are consistently honing our expertise and talents. Education keeps me motivated and confident.
Alright so to wrap up, who deserves credit for helping you overcome challenges or build some of the essential skills you’ve needed?
A close friend of mine, Meagan Jones, who owns Rebel Salon in East Rock New Haven was essential in giving me the courage to start my own business. She was instrumental in showing me that opening and operating a business was tough, but that I would be able to do it. She repeatedly said to me, “What’s the worst that could happen?” and she was right. I could survive the “worst case scenario” and have had to do that a few times already only to come out on the other side.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.skinandtonicct.com
- Instagram: @skinandtonicct
- Facebook: @skinandtonicct
Image Credits
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