Beyond the Needle: The Aesthetics Business Podcast
Published by Emily Ruse
Business
Investing
Marketing
Growing an aesthetics clinic today isn’t easy, I know from experience as a business owner and clinic manager. Welcome to Beyond the Needle: The Aesthetics Business Podcast. I’m your host, Emily Ruse. This podcast gives you a behind the scenes look at what it takes to thrive in this speciality. Each week, I share strategies that work, from social media & email marketing to building a website that converts and mastering SEO. If you’re an aesthetic practitioner seeking no-nonsense advice, you’re in the right place. Follow me on Instagram @bloomandbeyondstudio and visit bloomandbeyondstudio.com!
The Patient Experience Your Aesthetic Clinic Is Missing
In this episode, Emily explores one of the most under invested yet most powerful growth levers in aesthetics: patient experience. Not just the treatment itself, but everything that happens before, during and after the appointment. The clinics with long waitlists, consistent referrals and years long loyalty aren’t just producing great results they’re delivering an experience that makes patients feel seen, valued, and genuinely cared for. Emily breaks down the entire patient journey, from the moment someone discovers your clinic online to the way they feel weeks after their appointment. She shares the small, sensory, and emotional details that elevate your brand, build trust, and dramatically increase retention. This episode is kindly sponsored by GlossGenius- Earn more and get your time back with GlossGenius. Use code NEEDLE at glossgenius.com/beyondtheneedle for 50% off your first two months of their Medspa & Aesthetic plans. Connect with Emily: Website- bloomandbeyondstudio.com Instagram- @bloomandbeyondstudio
The Consultation Framework Every Aesthetic Clinic Needs with Dr. Kamran Amjed
In this episode, Emily sits down with Dr. Kamran Amjed- medical doctor, multi clinic owner, CQC registered manager and founder of Consultation Catalyst, the UK’s first CPD approved consultation training program for aesthetic practitioners. If you’ve ever wondered why your marketing is strong but your revenue doesn’t reflect it, this episode will give you the answer. Dr. Kamran explains why conversion rates drop the moment a clinic owner steps back, why inconsistency between clinicians costs clinics thousands and how to build a consultation framework that any team member can follow confidently and ethically. This episode is kindly sponsored by GlossGenius- Earn more and get your time back with GlossGenius. Use code NEEDLE at glossgenius.com/beyondtheneedle for 50% off your first two months of their Medspa & Aesthetic plans. Connect with Dr. Kamran Amjed: Website- consultation catalyst.co.uk Instagram- @consultation.catalyst Connect with Emily: Website- bloomandbeyondstudio.com Instagram- @bloomandbeyondstudio
How to Overcome Limiting Beliefs in Your Aesthetics Business
In this episode, Emily explores one of the most overlooked yet most powerful drivers of business success in aesthetics- your mindset. While strategy, marketing and pricing matter, the beliefs you hold about yourself, your skills and your business often determine your ceiling long before external factors ever do. This episode dives deep into the limiting beliefs that show up repeatedly in the aesthetics industry. Emily breaks down the five most common limiting beliefs she sees in practitioners, explains why they exist and gives you practical tools to dismantle them so you can show up more confidently and effectively in your business. If you’ve ever struggled with visibility, pricing, confidence or feeling “not ready yet,” this episode will feel like a turning point. Connect with Emily: Instagram- @bloomandbeyond Website- bloomandbeyond.com
How to Keep Your Aesthetics Clinic Busy Over the Summer Months
In this episode, Emily dives into one of the most predictable challenges aesthetic practitioners face every year and that is keeping their clinic busy and their revenue strong during the summer months. Whether you’re already experiencing quieter weeks or you want to proactively protect your diary, this episode gives you a complete summer strategy covering treatment positioning, retention, new patient acquisition, retail revenue and how to use downtime to strengthen your business long‑term. Emily breaks down why summer slows down, what your patients actually want right now and how to adapt your marketing, offers and operations so you come out of July and August stronger and not stressed. Connect with Emily: Instagram: @bloomandbeyondstudio Website: bloomandbeyondstudio.com
How to Create Instagram Content That Reaches New Clients as an Aesthetic Practitioner
In this episode, Emily breaks down one of the most frustrating challenges aesthetic practitioners face- Instagram reach that has completely plateaued. You’re posting consistently, you’re putting in the effort, yet the same small group of people see your content every time. No new eyes. No new followers. No new patients. This episode explains why that happens and more importantly, how to fix it in a way that works for busy clinic owners who don’t have hours to spend creating content. Emily introduces the concept of the lived experience hook, a powerful content strategy that helps you reach people who have never heard of you before but are already living with the exact concerns you treat. She also dives deep into local reach, Instagram SEO, hashtags, geotags, local engagement, and boosting posts strategically to reach the right people in the right radius. If you want your content to reach more ideal patients, not just more people, this episode is essential listening. Connect with Emily: Instagram- @bloomandbeyondstudio Website- bloomandbeyondstudio.com
How to Build a Sellable Aesthetic Clinic with Sarah Louise
In this episode of Beyond the Needle , Emily sits down with Sarah Louise- founder of SLA Medical, SLA Academy and The Business Injection. Sarah’s journey is remarkable: from training in Australia and working alongside leading plastic surgeons, to moving to the UK with no network, building a clinic from her back garden, navigating single parenthood and eventually creating a business that runs without her while she lives in Dubai. Sarah breaks down the difference between having a personal following and building a real brand, why so many practitioners accidentally create jobs instead of assets and what buyers actually look for when valuing an aesthetics business. This is essential listening for any practitioner who wants more freedom, more structure and a business that lasts. Connect with Sarah: Instagram-@nurse.sarahlouise Website- thebusinessinjection.com Connect with Emily: Instagram- @bloomandbeyondstudio Website- bloomandbeyondstudio.com
How to Use Storytelling to Attract More Patients
In this episode, Emily breaks down one of the most powerful yet most misunderstood marketing tools for aesthetic practitioners and that is storytelling. Not the fluffy, overly personal kind but the practical, strategic storytelling that helps patients see themselves in your content and builds trust long before they ever book. With AI now able to produce competent content at scale, Emily explains why competent is no longer enough and why the practitioners who stand out will be the ones who can communicate human insight, real observations and genuine perspective. This episode gives you a clear, actionable framework for turning everyday clinic moments into compelling stories that attract the right patients, deepen trust and make your content impossible to ignore. Connect with Emily: Instagram- @bloomandbeyondstudio Website- bloomandbeyondstudio.com
How to Speak With Confidence and Authority with Emma Gaskin
In this episode, Emily sits down with voice and public speaking coach Emma Gaskin, a former NHS speech therapist who now helps women in business, TEDx speakers and leaders communicate with clarity, confidence, and authority. If you’ve ever felt confident speaking to patients in clinic but freeze the moment a camera turns on this episode will change the way you think about your voice forever. Emma breaks down the psychology behind why so many aesthetic practitioners struggle to show up online, why your voice gets smaller when you’re being watched and how conditioning, overthinking, and perfectionism silently shape the way women communicate. You’ll learn practical, actionable strategies to improve your speaking skills whether you’re recording Instagram videos, presenting at conferences or building your personal brand. Connect with Emma: Instagram- @emmajgaskin Website- thespeakinghub.co.uk Connect with Emily: Instagram- @bloomandbeyondstudio Website- bloomandbeyondstudio.com
The Mindset Shifts That Transformed My Business
In this episode celebrates five years in business and takes you behind the scenes of what it really looks like to build and grow a successful aesthetics business. Whether you're an aesthetics practitioner just starting out or a clinic owner stuck in the messy middle, this episode will help you understand why things feel hard, what to do about it, and how to build a business that feels aligned, intentional, and sustainable. Connect with Emily: Instagram- @bloomandbeyondstudio Website- bloomandbeyondstudio.com
How to Shift From Practitioner to Business Owner with Fiona Macaskill
In this episode, Emily is joined by Fiona Macaskill, founder of YDY Aesthetics Business Coaching, to explore a topic that affects far more aesthetic practitioners than they realise: confidence. While many clinic owners believe they need better marketing, clearer strategy, or more qualifications to grow, Fiona explains how the real barrier often sits much deeper in how practitioners see themselves and their role as business owners. Fiona shares how self-doubt, imposter syndrome, and a reluctance to fully step into the identity of a clinic owner can quietly limit growth. From underpricing treatments and avoiding visibility to hesitating around sales and decision-making, these patterns are rarely about a lack of ability and more about a lack of self-belief. The conversation highlights how practitioners often stay in the comfort zone of being a “safe practitioner” rather than embracing the confidence required to lead and grow a business. Connect with Fiona: Instagram- @ydyaestheticsbusinesscoaching
How to Plan & Create a Month of Content in Under 5 Hours
In this episode, Emily explores one of the most common challenges facing aesthetic practitioners and clinic owners: creating consistent, high-quality content without it taking over your time. This episode explores a more structured and realistic approach to content creation, showing how you can plan and create a full month of content in under five hours without sacrificing quality, clarity, or connection with your audience. Rather than focusing on doing more, Emily explains how building a simple content system can reduce the mental load and make the process far more manageable. If you’re an aesthetic practitioner or clinic owner who feels overwhelmed by content, struggles to stay consistent, or finds yourself constantly starting from scratch, this episode will give you a clear, practical framework to simplify your strategy and create content that actually supports your business growth. Connect with Emily: Instagram- @bloomandbeyondstudio Website- bloomandbeyondstudio.com
Client Retention, Confidence and Clinic Growth with Courtney Le Borgne
In this episode, Emily is joined by Courtney Le Borgne, founder of Hosted Aesthetics and the Hosted Leadership Summit, to explore what it really takes to grow a successful and profitable aesthetics business. Emily and Courtney break down why so many practitioners struggle to scale their clinics, despite having strong clinical skills and a loyal client base. From overcomplicating strategy to focusing on the wrong areas of the business, they explain how easily growth can stall when decisions aren’t grounded in data, customer understanding, and clear commercial thinking. If you’re an aesthetic practitioner or clinic owner who feels busy but not seeing the results you want, this episode will help you step back, reassess your strategy, and start making more intentional decisions that support real business growth. Connect with Courtney: Instagram- @ hostedaesthetics Website- click here Connect with Emily: Instagram- @bloomandbeyondstudio Website- bloomandbeyondstudio.com
How to Stop Procrastinating & Start Growing Your Aesthetics Clinic
In this episode, Emily explores one of the most common challenges facing aesthetic practitioners and clinic owners- procrastination. Emily breaks down why procrastination happens so often in business and how it can quietly stall progress for even the most talented practitioners. From delaying marketing tasks to putting off big decisions about growth, pricing, content, or visibility, procrastination can keep clinics stuck in the same cycle year after year. The conversation also focuses on the importance of mindset when building an aesthetics business. Whether you're launching a clinic, growing your patient base, or trying to establish yourself as an authority in the industry, taking consistent action is what ultimately drives results. If you’ve ever felt stuck, overwhelmed, or unsure where to start when it comes to growing your aesthetics business, this episode offers the mindset shifts and practical steps needed to start moving forward with confidence. Connect with Emily: Website- bloomandbeyondstudio.com Instagram- @bloomandbeyondstudio
How to Optimise Your Aesthetic Clinic for AI Search
In this season finale episode, Emily breaks down one of the biggest shifts happening in aesthetics right now. And that is more and more patients are searching for clinics with AI instead of Google or Instagram. Platforms like ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini and Copilot are already influencing who gets recommended when people ask questions like “Who is the best aesthetic clinic near me?” or “Who can I trust for injectables?”. And unlike traditional search engines, AI doesn’t show long lists of options. It gives a small number of answers. Emily explains why this matters for aesthetic practitioners and clinic owners, and how AI tools are becoming a new “front door” to your business. This episode walks through how AI actually decides who to recommend. Rather than ranking clinics like Google, AI builds a picture of your credibility using what Emily calls trust signals. Which pull information from your website, reviews, social media content, testimonials, and wider online presence to determine whether you’re knowledgeable, consistent, and safe to suggest to patients. Connect with Emily: Instagram: @bloomandbeyondstudio Website: bloomandbeyondstudio.com
How to Never Run Out of Content Ideas for Your Aesthetics Clinic
In this episode, Emily breaks down one of the biggest frustrations aesthetic practitioners face when it comes to marketing: running out of content ideas. If social media is something you’re constantly leaving until the end of a busy clinic day scrambling to post something, anything, this episode explains why that cycle happens and how to finally break it. This episode walks you through how to build a repeatable content system based on the work you’re already doing in clinic. Emily explains how to create clear content pillars that reflect your patients’ real lives, concerns, and decision-making process so your content stops feeling random and starts feeling intentional. Connect with Emily: Instagram- @bloomandbeyondstudio Website- bloomandbeyondstudio.com
How to Transition from the NHS to Aesthetics with Natalie Fletcher
In this episode, host Emily is joined by Natalie Fletcher, founder of Naturally Flawless Aesthetics, a midwife turned aesthetics practitioner and a standout example of building a values led aesthetics clinic from the ground up. Natalie shares her full journey from nearly two decades in the NHS to running a thriving private aesthetics clinic built on natural results, patient trust, and ethical decision-making. What began as juggling NHS shifts, free consultations, and working across 11 different clinic locations has evolved into a fully established clinic with a growing team, advanced devices, and a strong brand reputation. Natalie breaks down what it actually takes to grow sustainably in aesthetics from using Instagram strategically before you have a website, to building a loyal patient base through education rather than trends, and knowing when to say no to treatments that don’t align with your ethos. Natalie also shares the mindset shifts required to move from practitioner to business owner, how her background in clinical research influences her decision making, and why long term credibility in aesthetics always outperforms short term trends. Connect with Natalie: Instagram- @ natruallyflawlessaesthetics Website- natruallyflawlessaesthetics.co.uk Connect with Emily: Instagram- @bloomandbeyondstudio Website- bloomandbeyondstudio.com
Social Media Strategies That Will Dominate in 2026
In this episode of, Emily breaks down exactly how social media marketing for aesthetic clinics is changing in 2026 and what practitioners need to do differently if they want to keep growing without burning out or chasing every new trend. After a year of noticeable shifts in engagement, reach and conversion, this episode explores why the old strategies many clinics relied on such as perfect feeds, before and afters only, generic educational posts and polished branding, these are no longer enough. Instead, Emily explains how platforms like Instagram and TikTok are now built around discovery, trust and human connection, not just followers. Emily shares what’s actually driving bookings in 2026: showing the people behind the brand, building recognisable content series, and creating a consistent presence that feels familiar wherever potential patients land. If you want your aesthetics clinic marketing to feel easier, more human and more effective in 2026, without relying on algorithms or trends, this episode will help you rethink your strategy and build something that actually converts. Connect with Emily: Instagram: @ bloomandbeyondstudio Website: bloomandbeyondstudio.com
The Truth About Sales, Hiring & KOL Opportunities with Sara Cheeney
In this episode, Emily is joined by Sara Cheeney, founder of Pure Perfection Clinic and one of the UK’s most in-demand business coaches for aesthetic practitioners. With over 15 years in aesthetics and a clinic that has stood the test of time since 2008, Sarah brings a rare combination of clinical credibility, commercial strategy and unapologetically honest insight. Since 2019, she has coached hundreds of clinic owners through pricing decisions, hiring, systems, marketing mistakes, device investments and the often misunderstood reality of becoming a KOL. This conversation cuts through industry noise and “shiny object syndrome” to focus on what actually makes a clinic sustainable and profitable. Sara shares the operational red flags she sees repeatedly in struggling clinics, why so many practitioners feel uncomfortable with selling, and how to build sales confidence without compromising integrity or values. The episode also explores what clinic owners need to think about before hiring team members, the boundaries many practitioners fail to set, and how rushed decisions, trainings or device launches, can quietly derail progress. If you’ve ever felt unsure where your time, money or energy is really going or felt overwhelmed by constant offers, launches and “next best things” this episode offers grounded, proven strategy from someone who understands the realities of running an aesthetics business from the inside out. Connect with Sara: Instagram- @saracheeney Website- pureperfectionclinic.com Connect with Emily: Instagram- @bloomandbeyondstudio Website- bloomandbeyonestudio.com
How to Grow Your Aesthetics Clinic During a Quiet January
In this episode, Emily breaks down one of the most common fears aesthetic practitioners face and that is the January scaries. After the chaos of December, when clinics are fully booked and running at full speed, the sudden quiet of early January can feel unnerving. But Emily reframes the entire conversation by explaining that January is only quiet when it hasn’t been designed to be anything else. This episode explores why seasonality hits some clinics harder than others and how to engineer a busy, profitable start to the year instead of falling into panic mode. Emily talks through the mindset gaps that make practitioners reactive rather than strategic, and she dives into how quieter months can become the most powerful period for growth. She explains how to use that extra space to strengthen your patient journey, refine your marketing foundations, build the systems you never have time for during peak seasons, and set yourself up for a smooth, successful year ahead. Rather than seeing January as a threat, Emily positions it as an opportunity. If you want to approach 2026 with intention and stop letting seasonal dips dictate the stability of your business, this episode reframes exactly how to use the quieter months to your advantage. Connect with Emily: Instagram: @bloomandbeyondstudio Website: bloomandbeyondstudio.com
How to Integrate Hormones, Lifestyle and Ageing into Your Aesthetics Treatment Plans with Dr. Hazel Parkinson
In this weeks episode Emily Ruse is joined by Dr. Hazel Parkinson a GP, aesthetic practitioner, dermatology expert and women’s health advocate. With over 20 years of NHS experience, postgraduate dermatology training and a thriving private clinic in Warwickshire, Dr. Hazel brings an exceptional depth of insight into the intersection of skin, hormones, menopause and whole-person care. This conversation goes far beyond injectables. Dr. Hazel breaks down what truly impacts midlife skin, why stress and sleep matter just as much as skincare, and how hormone changes show up on the face long before patients recognise the symptoms. Her approach is refreshingly realistic and rooted in long-term, evidence-based care. If you’re an aesthetic practitioner supporting women in their 30s, 40s, 50s and beyond, this episode will challenge how you think about treatment planning, consultation style and long-term results. It’s a grounded, insightful conversation that brings together dermatology, hormones and aesthetics in a way every practitioner needs to hear. Connect with Dr. Hazel: Instagram: @ drhazelskinsolutions Website: drhazel.co.uk Connect with Emily: Instagram: @ bloomandbeyondstudio Website: bloomandbeyondstudio.com Work with Emily: click here
