Cheyanne Mallas, Physician Assistant

Podcast Transcription

 

0:12  

Helen: Hello and welcome to Femme Fatale by Helen. I'm here with this very beautiful woman, I met her at one of these meta spas. She's from the private suite, which is her practice. And she's a very famous injector. And that's basically how I met her because I am very in love with cosmetics, improving myself and then woman taking care of themselves. So welcome, Cheyenne, I really appreciate you being here. Maybe you can introduce yourself and tell the people which area you're practicing and then I will ask other questions of you.

 
 

Cheyenne: Sure. Thank you for having me. I'm Cheyenne. I'm the CEO and founder of the Private Suite in Los Angeles, and soon to be Orange County. Also, as Helen mentioned, a celebrity injector. And I've been doing this for 15 years. And every day that I get to create beauty is a beautiful day. So I feel very blessed to get to do what I do every day.

 
 

Helen: Yeah, it's very beautiful. Me myself, I'm fascinated by woman beauty, also, as a woman, or as a man as whoever taking care of yourself. I feel sometimes, you know, someone says, “Oh, why do you have to go get a nose job? Or why do you have to do this laser? Or why do you have to inject? Aren't you happy with yourself?” And it's like, “Gee”, my respond is like, “Do you upgrade your phone? You know, your app needs to be upgraded all the time. Or you stay with your old phone for the rest of your life? This is my body, I'm going to take care of my body.”

 
 

Cheyenne: Does your car need maintenance? 

 
 

Helen: Yeah, absolutely. 

 
 

Cheyenne: So your face and your body need maintenance too? 

 
 

Helen: Yeah, if you want to age younger. And that is the trend of aesthetics today, current age younger and age younger, naturally younger not fake younger.

 
 

2:04  

Cheyenne: Yes. I think we have a misunderstanding between, like, “Why do you have to go through plastic surgery? Or why do you have to go through this kind of procedures?” “You know, Oh, you look fake”. Since you're in the business, I don't know how much you hear about it, from other women or other men like “Oh, you do too much to yourself” or, “Stay natural”. So what is your opinion about that? Like, how do you take care when people have an opinion about, “You look fake when you do inject things into yourself”, or “You look fake when you do plastic surgery”.

 
 

Cheyenne: You know, I think natural means different things to different people. So there's that. One of my good friends and clients. She has had, I think, seven surgeries since October. And her goal is that that is her aesthetic, right? She wants to look like that. She said her boobs done. She’s had two face lifts. She’s had her butt done. She's had abdominal etching, you name it. She's had it all done. She's also in the public eye.

 

 

Helen: Nice.

 

 

Cheyenne: And that is the look that she likes. Right? So is it what I call natural? No, but it's the aesthetic that she likes.

 
 

Helen: She likes.

 
 

Cheyenne: I think natural as I mentioned, natural means different things to different people. So as you embark on this journey of making yourself feel better and looking good, you have to find somebody that has the same aesthetic as you and find what that means. I think we're seeing a lot of filler fatigue with those puffy filler pillowy faces, don't get me wrong, Christi Teegan is a lovely woman but that is a filler face. You know, that is an overfilled face. And that's not my definition of natural. I want people to look like themselves just rested. And the changes that we make are subtle adjustments and facial proportions and maintaining characteristic facial identity so they look good and feel better.

 

What's very, I think unique about my practice and what sets us apart from everyone else is that it really is a whole-body approach from the inside out. We work with cellular medicine doctors, functional nutritionists, so it really is looking and feeling good from the inside out. 

 
 

Helen: I love that.

 

Tell me more about the steps of love you do in your practice? And like, what do you mean from inside and from outside?

 
 

4:41  

Cheyenne: Sure. So, we specialize in bio regenerative aesthetics. So I work a lot with collagen stimulating products so products that produce your own natural collagen over time. You know, the hyaluronic acid fillers, all the gels, the juvederms and the restylane and RHA fillers that are on the market. They're great. They don't treat the cause of aging. They treat the symptom of aging, which is volume loss. And all the bio stimulatory products treat the cause of aging, which is loss of collagen. So we especially live in California, right? We're all obsessed with looking good, and we eat organic, we eat healthy, we go to the gym. So I think if you're going to be putting something in your face, or your butt or anywhere in your body, don't you want it to be doing something for you? So we work with products, from stem cells to exosomes, to polynucleotides, and all things that help regenerate your own tissue. 

 
 

Helen: Oh nice.

 
 

Cheyenne: So you're growing you.

 
 

Helen: In your practice it is only you or you have other doctors or people involved with the case?

 
 

Cheyenne: So I have a medical director and I just hired a nurse and sort of slowly expanding my team. That is a challenge in LA.

 

 

Helen: Absolutely.

 

 

Cheyenne: The work ethic is a different situation. 

 
 

Helen: Absolutely. I agree with you.

 
 

Cheyenne: Yeah.

 
 

Helen: People want to work from home. They don't want to come to the office, and it doesn't matter what they do.

 
 

Cheyenne: Or how well you pay them.

 
 

Helen: Yeah. There is something that is lost here and I cannot put my finger on it. There is something that is lost here that people have lost interest in working, they just want to be a millionaire without working.

 
 

6:16  

Cheyenne: I could not agree more. Right. And it's very disheartening and very discouraging. You know, I'm from New York. So I think the hustle is innate. I don't like that word hustler, because I think it has a negative connotation. But you know what I'm talking about, it's like, you get up, you go to work. And I think when you really don't know what to do, that is the best time for creativity to sort of set in when you figure it out. I'm always taken aback when I interview people, or I meet staff that they're not as excited as I am. It's like, what we're doing is amazing. How could you not be? No one will work. That's the biggest lesson I've learned being in business. 

 
 

Helen: Oh wow.

 
 

Cheyenne: No one will care as much, no one will work as hard, and no one will want the best outcome like I do. So I'm sort of learning, expanding my team and sort of figuring out as I go along at the moment. I think I decided I'm going to use the summer as a trial period. And then in September, decide who I'm keeping and who stays, who goes and how we move forward.

 
 

Helen: Got it.

 
 

Cheyenne: Yeah. 

 
 

Helen: So as a female business owner, I don't think being a male or female has any role in it. What are your top three challenges?

 
 

Cheyenne: In just being a business owner or a female business owner?

 
 

Helen: Combination.

 
 

Cheyenne: Hiring staff 100% people is number one. And then I think the normal growing pains that happen as business evolves, it becomes a larger and larger and larger animal, both in good ways and bad ways. Life comes at you in different ways, right? And in unexpected ways. Sometimes it's better. So I think it's important, just stay curious. Stay humble. And always keep looking outward.

 
 

8:00  

Helen: How did you get into this business? How did you want to be injected? Like what influenced you to just say, “You know what you're a nurse”. Have you ever practiced as a regular nurse?

 
Cheyenne: So I'm a PA. So it's a little bit different. So I have a master's degree in health sciences. And when I graduated from PA school, I knew I wanted to work in plastic surgery. I just didn't know what area of plastic surgery. So I worked a lot in dermatology, reconstructive surgery, and cosmetic surgery. Then I operated with a lot of plastic surgeons. And then slowly as aesthetics was starting to gain traction, then I was doing OR (Operating Room) and at the Med Spa. And then I started to do that full time. 

 
 

Helen: Nice.

 
 

Cheyenne: And then I became a trainer for two of the major companies that make the products that we use. So that's also super exciting and interesting. It sort of gets you out of your bubble and you get to meet other injectors and share all the knowledge that I've learned along the way. 

 
 

Helen: Oh, I love it. What are the top two plastic surgeons you worked here with? The ones that you liked so much.

 
 

Cheyenne: They all offer different things. I think it's a very interesting and exciting world full of personalities. So I think the challenge of working in aesthetics is finding the personalities that you vibe best with.

 
 

Helen: Yeah.

 
 

Cheyenne:  Because you know…

 
 

Helen: Yeah, of course, we all have completely different personalities. So I need to be in harmony with. You might not be the most amazing person, but our frequency is at different levels. So you just need to make sure also with who you can work with the best.

 
 

Cheyenne: Right and who understands you and you understand them.

 
 

Helen: Okay, so do you have any favorites?

 
 

Cheyenne: I would say probably the most influential to me was when I first arrived in Los Angeles. I work with Dr. Paul Nassif.

 

 

Helen: Oh yes.

 

 

Cheyenne: He's well known for rhinoplasty. 

 
 

Helen: Yes.

 
 

Cheyenne: He's the king of rhinoplasty. He really inspired me a lot and I admire his work ethic and we definitely vibe well together in my time there. 

 
 

10:05  

Helen: He’s amazing. He's amazing. I am in love with plastic surgery. I want to ask you your opinion about I'm actually do you like for example, believe in facelift, let's say?

 
 

Cheyenne: 100%. 

 
 

Helen: Okay. Do you think a young person, like at what age you need to have a facelift, when you're old or when you're younger?

 
 

Cheyenne: I think there's so much that we can do non-invasively. Now that you can delay, the process of having a facelift will hopefully never have a facelift. But again, someone's biological age may not match their chronological age. So it really just depends on the person, the body type, their skin tone, and their skin texture. People may also not want to commit to the noninvasive process. They'd rather just go under the knife, and others would do anything to not go under the knife. So I think the younger somebody gets on the anti-aging rejuvenation train, the least likely that they'll have to have a facelift.

 
 

Helen: I kind of started my Botox and preventive steps, maybe around 30. And I got really into it by around 35. And I had lots of acne. I mean, it would [splash]. I still have lots of scars. I have done so much. I have done fat transfer, co2.

 
 

Cheyenne: Morpheus.

 
 

Helen: Morpheus, you name it, I have done it. And this is the scar that is left and used to be very, very deep. I want to say, like, when I look at my pictures, now, I feel like I look younger compared to five years ago.

 
 

Cheyenne: I'm sure. 

 
 

Helen: I fool myself; I look at the picture, I'm like, “I'm very happy that I did all this”. And I'm continuing to do all of this because the quality of my skin, the texture of my skin, even how I feel about myself is not about, “Oh, I feel insecure of getting old”. It feels like I want to look the best for myself at any time. Let's say for the texture of your skin, what will be the top three procedures that you will recommend?

 
 

12:30  

Cheyenne: I think, first of all start with a really great medical skincare regimen. There are a lot of people that don't do that. And nothing looks as good in your 50s as sun protection does in your 20s. So that will save you a lot. Then there's so much we can do. There are tons of energy-based devices now that can help restructure and regenerate the skin. Also, a lot of the biometric products that we work with can do that as well. So really every patient is different. And that's what's unique about my practice. It really is bespoke and more boutique where we spend. It's a whole comprehensive approach to wellness. Yeah.

 
 

Helen: Like, for example, like I feel like with co2, I got this major thing. It looked so different when I did the co2 on my skin. What do you think about that?

 
Cheyenne: I think there's a tremendous amount of downtime with the co2 lasers. So I don't know if they explained that to you.

 
 

Helen: One week. Until I shed and had a new skin. It was about one week but I don't think he went very deep.

 
 

Cheyenne: It's usually a two-to-four-week recovery. I think co2 is great if you have horrible acne scars or acne or things that you're ready for. It's a major procedure. So there are many ways to slice the apple, it really just depends on the patient and the downtime they can have. I work a lot with actors/actresses, and they can't have four or six weeks off. So you can do it in other ways without the downtime but if you can take the downtime, I think it's an excellent procedure.

 
 

14:04  

Helen: When you look at people, you’re like, “I know what you do with your skin”. Or “Hmm your lips, your eyes”.

 
 

Cheyenne: I do and probably that was one of your questions. It was like what's the first thing you notice about people. I'm like “The asymmetry of their faces”. 

 
 

Helen: Oh my God [Laughter]. Do you suggest to them “Oh, you should do this and that?” I'm not in that business, I'm too nosy. I'm like, “I think you should get a boob job” or “I think you should get this; you'll be so happy.”

 
 

Cheyenne: No, I don't say that but when people find out what I do they usually asked me so then I’ll then sort of offer up some “Well you know if you're interested you know, this is a great starting point and then you know, it's not a sprint right it's a marathon”.

 
 

Helen: It is a marathon.

 
 

Cheyenne: “It's an ongoing beauty plan. So do just little tweaks along the way I think will help you in the long run and also will save you from having a facelift.”

 
 

Helen: Tell me what do you see? What should I do? What should my next procedure be?

 
 

Cheyenne: I think you look fantastic.

 
 

Helen: Thank you.

 
 

Cheyenne: Beautiful skin, a nice full face, good skin tone and texture. I can't see your acne scars in this lighting. But if that's something that's still bothering you continue to work on that with the energy-based devices for sure.

 
 

Helen: Okay. Do you like RF micro needling?

 
 

Cheyenne: I do. There are so many devices out there. One of my favorite ones right now is called “Soft Wave”. So it's a little bit different. It uses ultrasound technology, to tone and tighten the skin and reduce wrinkles. So it is very different from radio frequency micro needling. So that's collagen, they both produce collagen. What I love most about the soft wave is there's no downtime. So you can have the procedure done, and you could go on TV right away, and no one will notice.

 
 

Helen: I had done fat transfer on my face.

 
 

Cheyenne: Did you need it; did you have a gaunt face? Or you just didn't want to do filler?

 
 

16:01  

Helen: I didn't want to do filler. 

 
 

Cheyenne: Okay. 

 
 

Helen: So what I did is because at some point when I was younger, around 33/34 without needing it, I started putting fillers and then after like, three, four years, I did not like the look. I felt like they put too much filler on my face. And I was young. I don't want to look like this. So I removed all of it. And then I did a fat transfer on my face.

 
 

Cheyenne: Did it take?

 
 

Helen: It took. I feel like it stays good for a year and then after a year, either you need to repeat it or you need to gain weight.

 
 

Cheyenne: Usually if they repeat, only about 40% of the fat takes. Usually after the first round. Did they explain that to you when they were doing the grafting?

 
 

Helen: No, I think he did it way over. So in order--

 
 

Cheyenne: Oh, so you looked crazy for a while. 

 
 

Helen: I looked crazy for six months. I avoided- oh my god. I avoided any kind of contact. You know what? I actually did it when it was COVID. My look did not matter as much.

 
 

Cheyenne: You’re under a mask, who cares? 

 
 

Helen: Yeah, I'm under a mask. And it was like, “Oh, my God, it was scary”.

 
 

Cheyenne: Yeah, I don't necessarily agree with that approach. There's no need to overfill someone, but I understand the reasoning behind it.

 
 

Helen: I did not know that. I'm going to look like that, because I saw some pictures that were so settled. And then by the time I woke up, like what is this. I have to say I like the result of how I looked after it got settled. I liked it so much.

 
 

But definitely, I think taking care of the face and the fat distribution is good. I love maintaining it every six months, because that's how it makes you look younger.

 
 

18:05  

Cheyenne: It's great. It's your own body. So it's always great to use your body's own natural substances. So fat is great. The only downside with it on people that are very thin, they don't have enough fat to graft, but we have other modalities for them. So I think it's a great option. I just think you have to manage patient expectations. I wish they would have told you that only 40% of it takes and that you need to repeat it over time. But it's a great option. Anytime you can use your own body substances, I think that's a great way to go for sure.

 
 

Helen: One of my questions was about fat transfer and then micro needling. Do they get rid of your fat? Can they affect the fat that you have in your face? Can they get melted?

 
 

Cheyenne: No. So a lot of there were a lot of there's a lot of chatter about that right that the energy devices can melt the filler and melt the fat, but in several studies that were published no, that can happen.

 
 

Helen: Yeah?

 
 

Cheyenne: Yeah. 

 
 

Helen: Okay. Interesting. Interesting, because I think that's one of the reasons I kind of stopped using the micro needling or micro needling like about eight nine months ago. I was getting worried about losing the fat that I injected.

 
 

Cheyenne: You’re talking about straight micro needling not Morpheus?

 
 

Helen: Morpheus.

 
 

Cheyenne: Oh Morpheus. Okay, that's a little bit more invasive than just micro needling.

 
 

Helen: The Morpheus is what I was talking about. What do you think about Morpheus?

 
 

Cheyenne: A lot of people love it. I don't recommend it to my patients just because I hear a lot of people get breakouts from it. There are a lot of issues with recovery and downtime. I think it's a great procedure for the right patient. I just worked with other devices that I think offer less downtime. For me, for my clientele, that's--

 
 

20:01  

Helen: Everything less downtime. 

 
 

Cheyenne: Yeah, nobody wants to be out of commission for two to four weeks. 

 
 

Helen: I like that.

 
 

Cheyenne: Yeah.

 
 

Helen: I'm going to come and see you.

 
 

Cheyenne: Great anytime. 

 
 

Helen: Yay. So one of my next projects is to open a med spa. So we were like in a process in the middle of it, you might want to do it in Calabasas or Encino. But that was a project as I was working. But right now we just did a soft launch with the pharmacy. 

 
 

Cheyenne: Okay. 

 
 

Helen: So we're just finishing everything regarding pharmacy. And as soon as they set with everything, and then I'm moving back to the med spa. 

 
 

Cheyenne: The med spa. Wow, how exciting.

 
 

Helen: Like, because I have so much passion for plastic surgery and beautification. Yeah.

 
 

Cheyenne: Yeah.  

 
 

Helen: Cheyenne so as a business owner, as an entrepreneur, as someone that you have to go, you're the leader of your team, you have to put everything together. We all have hard days, we have good days, they have bad days, we have the days that we are crying, but you're just crying for ourselves. Because as a leader, you cannot even show anyone what the hell you're going through. 

 
 

Cheyenne: True.

 
 

Helen: Because you need to keep your face to come to work as a strong woman. And I said, “You know what, I got this, like, I need to take care of this”. Tell me how do you go through that? What is your self-talk? How do you talk to yourself? How do you motivate yourself?

 
 

Cheyenne: I don't know about you but I would say 2023 has definitely been turbulent with the economy and business and all of that. So I think the key for me is really just staying present in the moment and focusing on the day to day and then thinking about the six-month strategy sort of thinking, getting through the quarter by quarter and the benchmarks of what we want to accomplish. And that has worked the most.

 
 

22:02  

Helen: I see. Yeah. So focusing on something shorter and not thinking, not overthinking is one strategy. And then when you're under so much pressure, what is that voice? How do you talk to yourself?

 
 

Cheyenne: Yeah, you know, lots of pacing, really trying to meditate and just stay in the moment. I work on it every day. It's evolving, because patience is not my strongest virtue. I want what I want when I want.

 
 

Helen: None of us. One of the biggest challenges was that I had to have patients.

 
 

Cheyenne: Totally. So I really tried to practice gratitude and just stay present in the moment and be grateful for how far we've come and where we're going next. But no, it's a challenge every day. It's a challenge, you know? Yeah.

 
 

Helen: You know, because when I want a young girl at 20 years old, or 25 years old, at 30 years old, a good woman wants to start a business as soon as it gets hard, I want them to know, we do go through hardship all the time. I remember a couple of days ago, someone texted me saying, “Helen, you look so happy you are living the best life”. I was like “No. I maintain myself like that. But I go through lots of challenges on a daily basis”. And some days I'm like, “Oh, my God, the university has totally stop. Yeah, but I still keep going. I said, “Okay, let me figure out how to solve this. Let me find a way.” Now I have problems A and B, C, D. Okay, now I have all four of them. I write down every single one of them like I'm brainstorming, “What can I do? Who can I ask? Which attorney can I hire? What business developer can I hire?” I come up with different strategies on how to deal with my problem. But that doesn't mean that when you own a business, or when you got to where you got now your life is like problem free or hassle free. 

 
 

24:14  

Cheyenne: Yeah, no, I have a lot of injector friends too, that want to go out on their own, you know, they don't like the current situation that they're in. I'm like, “Listen, you're going to have problems. You know, you're going to trade these for a very different set of problems. Now, it's managing people and running a business and correct, hiring attorneys and dealing with accountants and dealing with permits and a whole other umbrella. So it really just depends on what you want to do. Do you want to be injector number 403 for the rest of your life? Or do you want to sort of take charge and take ownership and do something that's different?” I think it's really important. The aesthetic space is booming. Everyone wants to look good, even in a disruptive economy which we're entering right now, or currently in, I should say. Looking good never goes out of style. So I think to sort of differentiate yourself, you really have to know your why. I think 100% is what sets my business apart. There aren't a lot of people that do what we do. There's certainly a lot of people that do what we do well, and I think we really excel at it. I don't have a high-volume business, it's not what I'm looking for. I'm looking really to take care of people and want them to look and feel their best and develop lifelong relationships together.

 
 

Helen: Very nice. I don't think easy to do what you do, because among all this injectors, which I feel like we are living at a time that I feel like, at every corner, there's a medicine ball, injector and nurse, or doctor, there's someone who is injecting for you to be number one nationwide, I think that's you take your job very seriously. So that means you're very in love with what you do.

 
 

26:09  

Cheyenne: 100% I love what I do, I feel grateful to do what I do every day. And just like with the clientele that I deal with, I say to them, “Would you buy your diamonds on Groupon? No. So why would you discount your face?” The days of bargaining for Botox pricing and things like that, like, I don't do that any right? That's on every corner. People are paying for my time and my expertise. So it's very different right now. And I'm very grateful for that. I've been doing this for 15 years. So it's taken a long time to get to this point. But I think you truly believe you get what you pay for

 
 

Helen: Correct. 100%.

 
 

Cheyenne: 100%.

 
 

Helen: 100%. 

 
 

Cheyenne: So, someone comes to me and says, “Oh, well, you know, I can get it for cheap”. No one says this to me anymore. But if someone said to me, “I can get it for cheaper”. “That's great. Please go see them.” 

 
 

Helen: Yeah. 100%. 

 
 

Cheyenne: “Yeah, thank you, goodbye.”

 
 

Helen: Yeah. Very true. Was it your intention to be the first? Was there a competition in your head to be the best injector or you naturally win that direction?

 
 

Cheyenne: I'm super competitive with myself. Right? I was valedictorian when I was in school, I always had straight A's. So it's in my nature to always be the best. I want to clarify what that means. So by being the best, it's having the best understanding of all the innovations and advancements in aesthetic medicine and being able to offer them to my patients in a knowledgeable, academic based medicine way, if that makes sense. 

 
 

Helen: Yes.

 
 

Cheyenne: You know?

 
 

Helen: Yes.

 
 

28:06  

This is more about operating your business. How do you choose your battles?

 
 

Cheyenne: With myself? [Laughter]

 
 

Helen: Both. 

 
 

Cheyenne: You mean, the battles of how we're going to attack the day or what I'm dealing with?

 
 

Helen: Oh, what are the battles or the challenges in the war? So when something gets thrown at you, like how do you handle the battles? Like, what is the first thing that comes to your head when you have daily work, entrepreneurial challenges that you have?

 
 

28:43  

Cheyenne: I would say right now that what I'm dealing with is social media expanding the social media. So that is a whole elephant onto itself. I am only on Instagram. I don't have a website. I don't have TikTok. I don't have all those things, but I am venturing into that arena. And it's a whole other world that I'm learning about daily. So I hired a team to help me with that. Every day I learn something new. I would say, it's uncharted territory, and I'm really not comfortable entering into that arena. But I understand if I want the business to grow, it's inevitable. I'm learning all about creating different websites and linking things together and how you rank things on SEO and stuff like that. So, that is probably the biggest challenge at the moment and it's a whole other elephant.

 
 

Helen: Are you uncomfortable?

 
 

Cheyenne: Totally.

 
 

Helen: Would you say when you're uncomfortable, you do the most growth?

 
 

Cheyenne: I really want to think it's the time that you're the most creative when you don't know what to do. I kind of figure it out as I go along. I think anyone with an MBA would be like “You opened a business, and you didn't have a business”, but I did it. I opened my business two and a half years ago. I had no plan. I had nothing. I just rented the space and said, “I'll figure it out”. Yeah. And I did. 

 
 

Helen: Congratulations. 

 
 

30:15

Cheyenne: Thank you. I've never advertised. I've never done anything. So this is a whole new domain. And I realized to grow, and as I expand my team, I do have to advertise because I have to get my team busy.

 
 

Helen: Yes. 

 
 

Cheyenne: So yeah, I'm super uncomfortable. It's unknown. It's uncharted territory. And you can't control the outcome, right? But you can control how you respond to things.

 
 

Helen: Correct. 

 
 

Cheyenne: So that's sort of how I'm trying to mediate my mindset on the daily.

 
 

Helen: I find being uncomfortable, one of the most- So every time let's say you want to go to the next level or expand the horizon of your business or horizon up how you're thinking, or what are you believing. When you're so uncomfortable, uncomfortable, uncomfortable, it helps you push to the things that you have never done before. And then when you do this stuff that you have never done before you experience new sets of goals and new sets of experiences.

 
 

Cheyenne: Have you ever read a book called “The Big Leap”?

 
 

Helen: I downloaded it. I haven't read it yet. 

 
 

Cheyenne: So it talks all about this, you have to read it. In short, he basically states how we're all our own self-limiting.

 
 

Helen: Oh, hell, yeah.

 
 

Cheyenne: Totally. He calls it the Zone of Ignorance, the Zone of Excellence and our Zone of Genius. To get to what you're talking about is how do we get to our joint Zone of Genius, right? We have to take the big leap? And how do you take the big leap? In being uncomfortable. 

 
 

Helen: So you said something very interesting. And I want to ask this question now. For example, I started with myself. I never knew, or I never planned to be an entrepreneur. I just wanted to work hard to save myself, work harder to be a good, I don't know, kid for my parents, a good sister for my sister, a good mom for my kids. So it was for that purpose and then I did more and more because I wanted to be productive for everybody. Then it got to a point, like after a couple of different businesses, and then when people start calling me entrepreneur, I'm like, “Oh, okay, like an entrepreneur”. 

 
 

32:32

Then when I heard that, when I got exposed to different sets of vocabulary, and when I entered those directions, my belief system, and what I think of myself changed a lot too. And I want to give you an example. Because when I thought, I just want to save myself, my horizon and how I think or what I can achieve is like this big, okay. When I'm exposed now to all these different businesses, networks, types of women and business owners and see all these possibilities, now I'm like, “I can do that. I can also do this. I can also combine this. I can also hire these people.” 

 
 

So the more and more you're exposed, you start thinking of yourself, through different points of view and giving yourself more power, and you gain more capability. So how capable you were right at the beginning of your business compared to how capable you are now?

 
 

Cheyenne: Oh, my God, a huge change. I opened in the middle of COVID- Great time to open a business. Right? I had the health department coming after me. It was a disaster. 

 
 

Helen: Yeah.

 
 

Cheyenne: Full on disaster. And now yeah, it's definitely evolved. I think you sort of look back and think, “Well, I've accomplished a lot”. I think, too, I don't know about you. We don't celebrate small victories, right? 

 
 

34:14  

Helen: Yeah. It's not enough. It's never enough.

 
 

Cheyenne: Correct. 

 
 

Helen: We could do better.

 
 

Cheyenne: That’s exactly it.

 
 

Helen: I could do better, I can do better. 

 
 

Cheyenne: I could do better. I think anytime I sort of go down that spiraling train, I sort of have to look back and say, “Wow, I should be really proud of what I've accomplished and how far I've come. And then yeah, I'm just like, you there's that innate voice in my head. “Well, no, I can do it better”. I think you have sort of an accidental entrepreneur. I work for a lot of people with difficult personalities in my career. I never really agreed with the way that they did things. And then I also don't think I believed in myself that I could do it on my own. And then I finally took the big leap and I did it, not knowing what was going to happen and it kind of all worked out. Sure, do you want to be better? Yeah always. No, I would always do it better. Now I think it's super challenging because now it's how do I grow, but maintain the bespoke quality of what we do? I think that's the challenge that I'm facing right now. I don't know the answer to that but I'm trying to figure that out as the day progresses.

 
 

Helen: Now you work for yourself and your own business. Do you see yourself being able to work for someone else? 

 
 

Cheyenne: I think it'd be really hard. In life you have to do whatever we need to do or have to do. I think it would be very hard to answer someone. I would have to be someone that has the same mindset and the same values that I do. I think, in my experience in corporate America and in the professional world, I have worked for people that don't really support their team or take care of their staff. I think that's the biggest mistake, I think if you treat the people that work for you well, and pay them well, they'll never leave you. it'll come back to you. In the best ways. When I look at one of my mentors, he's a pretty famous plastic surgeon out of Canada, his name is Arthur Swift, his staff has been with him for 30/40 years. 

 
 

36:18

Helen: Wow.

 
 

Cheyenne: That speaks volumes about him. 

 
 

Helen: Wow. 

 
 

Cheyenne: Now he runs his business and his team. So I think people should look more to that model if they really want to be successful. If you treat people well, and you pay them appropriately, it'll just come back to you tenfold.

 
 

Helen: So true. Me myself, I have experience of the people that I worked with, like my managers and executives that I worked very close to, like, I kept the relationship. I was able to keep the relationship. But the one that I did not have a direct relationship with, like, usually they come and go. I see how important that last touch is for that personal communication, like spending that time with those people that you love, and they love you, they believe in your work, they believe in your path in life, and they want to do everything for your business to grow. So as what you were saying, it's very important to have those kinds of people and over make sure to have those kinds of attitudes with your employees to make sure they stay with you.

 
 

Cheyenne: 100% yeah. It's interesting, since I know your whole focus is on women and women entrepreneurs, I have a friend of mine, and he is a doctor and he had opened up a clinic and he just sold his business because he hated managing people. But he stayed on in the Director of Innovation role. So, for him, wants that eight to five or nine to five lifestyles, or I call them factory workers like the nine to 4:59 lifestyle. No disrespect, or judgment with that. But that's what works well for him. He has young children, and he wants to be at soccer, and he wants to be doing all those things. I would feel like such a failure. Again, I'm not judging him. It's not for me. 

 
 

38:18  

Helen: It's not the judgment but you go through as a CEO. 

 
 

Cheyenne: Yeah.

 
 

Helen: As a CEO, you have to worry about the business 24/7, always, even if someone fails, you're picking up.

 
 

Cheyenne: 100%.

 
 

Helen: Okay, if someone is not showing up, you’re showing up. If everything breaks, you fix it. So its the mentality and lifestyle that we are choosing. We choose the challenge. I choose the challenge, and I enjoy life like this. I don't think I personally can work for anyone. I don't think I have that balance.

 
 

Cheyenne: It would be hard, right? 

 
 

Helen: It will be really-really hard because I have to do what I believe is right. And then I don't like to give answers to anyone. So I don't see that quality in me to be able to- I can collaborate with other businesses. I can partner with other businesses, but they also do need to do it in a way that I think is right or this is my style of doing it.

 
 

Cheyenne: Yes, I agree.

 
 

Helen: With that comes a bunch of other headaches, but I accepted the headaches. I would rather go through those headaches than just either marry a rich man or stay at home or work for someone else. I would rather do this. This is the best headache that I could find for myself.

 
 

Cheyenne: I agree. 100%.

 
 

Helen: Yeah.

 
 

Cheyenne: Totally.