Eva Alexandridis | 111SKIN: How to balance productive work & family time

We know it’s important to rest, relax & recharge to ensure we’re as productive as possible, but how many founders actually prioritise this & how do we really achieve this? 

Eva Alexandridis is a founder who has achieved that work / life balance. Having co-founded 111SKIN in 2012 with her husband Dr Yannis Alexandrides, Eva has not only built a globally recognised brand but has practised the brand values in ensuring she also looks after herself as well as her business. 

Keep listening to hear Eva’s advice on balancing work & family time plus how you can build a daily routine that works for you. 

Eva’s advice: 

• Be honest at the end of the day as to whether it’s been a good one or not; then, if necessary, you can improve the next day 
• It is possible to be a good mother and an efficient businesswoman; obviously you need trustworthy help when your children are very small, but from the age of five onwards, explain to your children what you do so that they appreciate its value
• Be honest about your work commitments.  Your children will be proud of what you do, when it is explained to them
• Ideally your work challenges will be balanced by your sense of satisfaction/achievement
• Try running first thing in the morning, to clear your mind and energise you
• Make sure that family commitments come before any other social commitment
• Eva finds biking to work refreshing and energising (and she listens to podcasts so she is not thinking about work)
• Keep any exercise sessions sacrosanct - do not allow interruptions 
• If you can, have work conversations out of the office, perhaps during a walk; being in nature will probably relax/inspire you
• Employ people you trust.  Be careful when employing, as both hiring and firing can be very time-consuming
• Eva finds electric cryotherapy energising!
• To avoid the feeling of being overwhelmed, appreciate what you have achieved and applaud yourself
• Get energy from some positive reinforcement from clients
• Keep meetings to 35-40 minutes and always have a break (preferably in the fresh air) between them

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Recorded, edited & published by Juliet Fallowfield, 2023 MD & Founder of PR & Communications consultancy for startups Fallow, Field & Mason.  Email us at hello@fallowfieldmason.com or DM us on instagram @fallowfieldmason. 

FF&M recommends: 

• LastPass the password-keeping site that syncs between devices.
• Google Workspace is brilliant for small businesses
• Buzzsprout podcast 'how to' & hosting directory
• Canva has proved invaluable for creating all the social media assets and audio bites.

MUSIC CREDIT Funk Game Loop by Kevin MacLeod.  Link &  Licence

Transcript

[00:00:00] Welcome to season 11 of How To Start Up, the podcast helping you start and scale your business with advice from entrepreneurs on what to do now, next, or never. This season, we'll be hearing about all things productivity from amazing entrepreneurs sharing how they've hacked theirs. Hosted by me, Juliet Fallowfield, founder of the B Corp certified PR communications and podcasting consultancy, Fallowfield & Mason. Our mission is to enable you to master your own storytelling, whether that be via PR or podcasting, all with a long term view.

 We all know it's important to rest, relax, and recharge to ensure we're as productive as possible, but how many founders actually prioritise this and how do we really achieve this? Eva Alexandridis is a founder who's achieved that work life balance. Having co founded 111SKIN in 2012 with her husband, Dr.

Yannis Alexandridis, Eva has not only built a globally recognised brand, but has practiced the brand values in ensuring she also looks after herself as well as her business. [00:01:00] Keep listening to hear Eva's advice on balancing work and family time, plus how to build a daily routine that works for you.

Thank you Eva so much for your time on How to Start Up Today. I can't wait to talk to you about balance and productivity. But before we get into that, how would you define being productive? Because there's a lot of stigma attached to it.Yeah. For me, productivity is measured on daily basis. I just know when I have a productive day, I feel it, at the end of every single day. Of course, on the business side of things, we have goals and we have,very serious ways of measuring next quarter, next year. We measure productivity with very strong KPIs, but for me as a founder, I measure it on daily basis.

And I think it's very important to be quite honest with yourself, when you have a good day and when you don't have a good day, because if you don't have a good day, then you can make some provisions of how to improve your day next [00:02:00] day.

And you founded 111SKIN. When did you found this business?

We, interestingly enough, this business is already a legacy business. I don't think many people consider 111SKIN, business that has been around for so many years, but we've started in 2008. So we have already been doing, beauty for so many years. The first four years, the business was only in Yannis, my husband's plastic surgery clinic. And the official start in a more of a retail environment was in 2012. So we have two separate dates 2008, where it was just a hobby and then 2012 when it started as a proper business.

And you've gone into business with your husband and also had children with your husband. The biggest question I wanted to ask you is how do you manage that work life balance given you're in business and you have kids together?

Over the years we have had different stages in our lives. I think, in the [00:03:00] beginning from 2008 to 2012, I already, I've had two, two kids along the way. When I started the business, I was pregnant, I was travelling the world and it was, it was a challenging period. But I was very fortunate because I had help from my mum. I have a very active and strong mum and an amazing grandmother to the kids. So without her, I don't think I would have been able to cope. The life of this brand is already so long, so we've had many more stages and actually now we're in a completely different stage where both of our children are, one is in university already in the States, and our little one, who's 13 is in a boarding school.

So now we have a completely the opposite situation where it's Yannis and I during the week, very focused on work, but the weekends are very much, on the children. So over the years we have had every single stage. So I'm happy to give advice to women in every part of [00:04:00] the business development because I've had it all.

I've had babies, I've had teenagers, I've had, two small kids at home, but I think my advice to every woman is we can do it all. I don't think one has to be sacrificed. Don't ever feel that you're not going to be a good mum. If you have a business, don't feel that you're not going to be a fantastic business person

if you also are a good mum. And I think to me, the key has been, talking to my children, explaining to them what I do and them understanding the implication of me running a business. and then the conversation is so much easier because they know what to expect.

Yeah. So communication, especially with your kids, what advice would you give to somebody who's thinking about maybe starting a business, but also has a family? What would you advise they put in place maybe in terms of organisation?

I think for me, children these days are busy. They're just as busy as we are. And I think, if they're babies, you definitely need to have [00:05:00] someone that you can trust who is spending time with them. Because it's really demanding, when you're starting a business and you have to be very focused on what you do and you really cannot be, spending, if you have baby in the crib, you can never leave the baby for a second.

So you need to have someone very trustworthy. When they become, let's say, four or five years old, that's my advice is definitely speak to them completely honestly, that you have business responsibility, that you're working, that you have meetings, but also involve them, tell them a story of what you do.

And very early on, both my husband and I always told the children, we would take them to Harrods, explain to them that these are our products, how we produce the products. Yannis would explain, what being a surgeon entitles and, how many years he studied. So they have been very involved in the business from day one.

And I can always just tell them, I'm sorry, I cannot attend this football game because I have to travel to Korea, [00:06:00] for example, I have to go to the States. They fully understand there's not nothing secret about being a business person. And I think my advice is just to be completely honest, instead of just saying, Oh, I'll come at some point.

It's better to just say, I am not here because of this. I have a meeting with this very important person. But, we are producing products and these products give confidence to people. So the kids become vested in everything that we do.

Yeah. I love that. And I think it's really important for listeners to understand that. I think Harrods was your number one or first retailer, wasn't it? You launched the products into retail, but into Harrods retail, which I think is no mean feat. And I really like the fact that you were saying you can't be in two places at once and being honest about that and just being really practical and communicating that.

Did you struggle with that at all?

I am very fortunate. I have two boys. I don't know how girls would have reacted but my [00:07:00] boys have always been very proud of what I do we're just my mum was she was an air hostess. She was working really long hours so i've always had a role model. my mum was in the workforce and so was my grandmother.

So to me, I didn't feel that I needed to explain to my children that, my calling in life is to work, to dedicate myself to something that I'm creating. So I never, I've never had a pushback from them. I think it was almost a given. Yannis's mum is also, a microbiologist. So they're used to, even their grandmothers having a very busy lives and they almost expected it and both of us will be working hard.

Plus Yannis is, he's a surgeon, so he has a very demanding life. And I think over the years, our boys have respected that. And as they're growing older, I feel that there's real sense of admiration that both of us are, are trying really hard to accomplish something positive.

Yeah. Huge high achievers one, but you're setting them [00:08:00] an amazing example, but just on that, cause we know that you started 111SKIN with your husband Yannis, but what led you to want to create it?

It was really, I feel I studied in the university in San Francisco, and this was during the time of the Silicon Valley boom. And I was surrounded by people that were trying to solve problems and create companies to find a solution, not create companies to make money. So when Yannis, started his, practice here in London, he's American board certified plastic surgeon.

He did his residency in the States, but he created his practice here. He was finding it challenging to find the right post care products for his patients. And he was sharing this to me over dinner conversations, asking me why his patients would not follow a very strict routine that he was prescribing.

And it was really strong brands from the US. But I think the customer here was not ready for, first of all, even [00:09:00] plastic surgery was not well received in the beginning of the 2000 and 6,7,8. We're talking about, but also they didn't want another step a very strong regimen post surgery, they wanted something simple and when I asked Yannis why doesn't he prescribe something more simple and he said to me that actually it doesn't exist.

There were either very complicated medical brands, or there are brands you can buy in the retail environment which would not give the desired results to speed up the recovery post surgery. So I basically told him, why don't you create it if it doesn't exist? And it was really interesting because he did create it and here we are.

So many years later, this was the premise of 111SKIN. We did not sit together and think, can we create a business that at some point, it's going to be successful. It was really satisfying a need for his patient. And then he took us by surprise that there was so much demand for this type of products globally.

This really reminds me of a conversation I [00:10:00] had with Jo Fairley, who founded Green and Blacks with her husband. And she said she walked into his office and saw this sample of cacao on his desk, I think it was, and tasted it and it's why are we not creating this organic Fairtrade chocolate? And he said, it doesn't exist.

Therefore, Green and Blacks was born. 

 My son last night made green and black hot chocolate fresh with like pure chocolate and milk. And he was saying this is the best hot chocolate because it's organic and it's homemade.

Yes, exactly. But these chance conversations you have, and I think that's something I've learned with starting a business is that you never regret a conversation. Hence why the podcast got born. 

 But for you looking back, has it taken you by surprise how successful 111 has become?

Oh yeah. every single day I, even now I go to places around the world. We also in 100 beautiful five star spas and every time I see the products, I just, I really taken aback and I almost question myself, how did we get here? [00:11:00] And how do we deserve this, to be in these beautiful spaces?

And it has been a lot of hard work. this is for us, it's more than 10 years. And, had I known all the challenges and the problems I would encounter along the way, if someone had told me in the beginning, I wonder if I would have signed up for, having this long journey.

But, uh, there's no turning back once you start this. And once you have people that work for you, you have a duty to keep going. And once you have clients that are also, that love the brand, it just is very inspiring and you have to continue. But I would say it's. 50 percent challenge is 50 percent positive.

It's every day you have to balance both.

So the challenge, that's good it's 50 50. That's quite a lovely ratio. And I think a lot of people also have said in the podcast that if you had told me now today, what I would have had to go through and sacrifice to get here today, there is absolutely no way I would have done it, but ignorance is bliss, sunk costs.

You just take every day as it comes. [00:12:00] Given that founders are really prone to burnout, what would your advice be for a founder in terms of how important it is to rest and restore themselves?

Yeah, I mean I have found it has taken me a long time to find this balance, but I feel like now I have a really good, perfect balance of how I conduct my life.

 There's many things that I do every single day, month, like today's a Monday, for example, I always go for a run on a Monday, despite the fact that there was a storm. I love to be in nature and I liked for me personally running in the morning before anything else. It's very therapeutic. I get to think about my day, my goals. So this is, it's non negotiable thing for me. and running has been, has helped me many years on my journey. I take my sneakers everywhere I go, whenever I land in a destination, there's never a break.

No entrepreneurs can just we travel overnight and we go straight for meetings. [00:13:00] There's not one day to recover so you can collect your thoughts. So the first thing I do is run. So I've run in Vancouver, in China, in Guangzhou, in all sorts of places. And it's the easiest thing to do. I have a few very strict rules. For example, my family comes first. I always think, do I have something with the family? And if I do, then I don't take any social engagements. I try to protect really the quality time I have and the families, the children, but it's also my parents, Yannis's parents, if they always take a priority. I bike to work 90 percent of the time. I've discovered biking and it's just also so refreshing you're in nature half of my journey is through a park. The other one is on Oxford street, which is a whole other story, but it's okay. I still get to see where

people are. Adrenaline. I can see where people are lining up. 

Um, 

You get work and you're like, I'm alive. I've beaten London traffic. But also you're not on a screen. I [00:14:00] think this is what I'm getting is that your eyes are up and out and you're not on a screen on a laptop. You're having some sort of breathing space, I love nature. So whenever I can be in nature, I don't have, I've never had gym memberships. I just don't like being in indoors to me. I get my energy from nature and it doesn't mean if the weather is raining or I still, it's still the same feeling. Of course, on a sunny day, you just get extra, extra excitement from the bright light. But yeah, so biking to me is very important. I usually listen to a podcast. Um, and it's great because it's gives me different perspective rather than being on phone calls that are connected to work. So I try not to do work calls when I bike to work. And then, in the evening, usually I come home between six and seven. I also bike back and it's just so refreshing after a whole day in meetings in the office to just also be back in nature and I arrive home really excited for the [00:15:00] next few hours of my night. It just gives me that burst of extra energy.

And you've separated your work day. This is, it's really interesting actually, because I've been to an office for 25 years of my life and now I'm self employed, I could technically work from anywhere. And a lot of people questioned, why are you commuting to a coworking office when you can just work from home?

It's like, I just don't like being at home. It's home. It's not work. And actually I've got two graduates working with me and they have never worked for anyone else, but even they say that they want to go to work and have that separation. And I think that's quite important for your mental state at work.

You're in work mode or in home mode and you can't do both at once. 

Yeah 100 percent for me. It's also important to be with my people. It's around 50 of us so we have a hybrid working models usually two to three days a week, they, different people come to the office. So I get connected to different people on different days.

 When I'm not travelling, I'm there five days a week. One day might be marketing operations teams in, and [00:16:00] I love to see them face to face. It's this human interaction is very important for our beauty business because so many ideas are generated when when we're brainstorming together.

And it's a really different conversation that you get from an in person meeting. Even on Zoom, I remember meeting a client, I think in lockdown after a year and a half. And I was like, Oh my goodness I thought you were like six foot two and he was five foot six. And I didn't ever know what shoes he was wearing because we always spoke to each other on zoom.

It was just this weird, different dialogue and conversation. When you meet someone face to face, you can be like, Oh, you're new trainers, where did you get those from? You have a bit more of a relationship with them in some weird way. But for you, given that you have a very busy business life and you have a very busy home life, what have you put in place to manage that boundary?

Have you had to be super strict with when you clock on and clock off? Or what would you advise people on that?

So unfortunately I'm not so good with the evening hours [00:17:00] because it's just we work all time zones, but I'm very strict with my morning hours and my whole team is completely aware. They know my workout schedule. So Monday I don't start before 10 because I run in the park. Tuesday, we have a personal training session that is actually both Yannis and I do, and we've had the same trainer for the last seven years.

So it's just a quick 45 minute session, but it's from 8.30 to 9.15, and they know that it has to be something very dramatic, that this can be overruled. And then on a Friday, we do yoga is the same thing from nine, from 8.30 to 9.30 is our yoga session. So everyone in the company just, this is blocked on my schedule. And in fact, I have given this advice to a very close friend of mine who runs Allbright. It's the female organisation and she started doing that as well. And she's thanked me so many times for. enforcing, this rule. And she said it's been life changing for her. [00:18:00] You have to put some boundaries.

 I feel very productive when I work out. And I need to have these sessions in the morning. And for me, they're absolutely crucial. And sometimes I would make an exemption and I would take a meeting at 7 a. m. if it's, let's say, we have to work with China. But I would still then do my workout from 

 8:30 to 9:30. 

Another thing that I enforce in my office is I don't like eating on my desk and I always try to just find someone and sit with them and just say, look, let's just have lunch together. we just sit and have a chat. Even if I don't have booked lunch, I just, go around the floors and I sit with, it might be one person 

two people. Food is there to be appreciated, indulged and enjoyed. Luckily for me, with the 50 people, there's usually 10 to 15 in the office every day.

I interviewed last week, Dr. Kristy Goodwin, who's a neuroscientist talking about, digital debt and the fact that technology is there to help us, but it's draining us so much and being strict with your boundaries [00:19:00] and setting those rules of this is my time in nature. This is my time to exercise. You actually come back to your desk far more productive and efficient because you've clean, for me, a run, I used to do five mile Mondays on a Monday, I always run five miles on a Monday and this morning, very randomly, is the first time I've done it in a long time because I've determined to get back into it.

 It's really interesting that the shed of stress after a run and then you've done some exercise, it's almost like a form of meditation. You've come back and gone, that's not a problem. This is now sorted.

I think there's a lot of shame when you take time out of your laptop day when you're starting a business, because you should just be at a laptop working. And I think people think that equals work, but actually someone told me very early on that you're going to be thinking about your clients in the shower.

You're going to be going for a walk and on holiday, you'll suddenly come up with a brainwave for something else. You can never not be working. So you may as well do it when your brain is, and this is what Kristy was saying, is that our eyes are meant to be broadened [00:20:00] out and focused, not narrow on a screen.

So the more you can get out and think, the better you'll be at work. And you're technically still working cause you're problem solving. Yeah.

I also encourage walking meetings. My team

always knows that they need to have sneakers because if it's something that doesn't require looking at the spreadsheet or something very thorough, I often, if it's an HR meeting, I take my team and we go to Regent's Park. So they're all very aware that, Eva might just tell them it's a walking meeting instead. We have someone in

the office who has a high desk. So it's a standing desk. So we are very much, we're in beauty. Beauty is just one part of self care, but it cannot be done in isolation. So feeling positive feeling healthy, it's very important to have this cohesive understanding about the overall health and beauty.

So we need to preach what we do. We cannot have unhealthy lifestyle and then, encourage

people to just use product to beautify themselves [00:21:00] when it's so much more, it's so much deeper than that.

Yeah. And as Kristy said, if you don't look after yourself, you can't look after your business. I was going to ask you on that, given that you've got such an amazing, on the outside, such an amazing proven record of success, what were some of the biggest challenges you've had to overcome in building this brand for you personally?

 I don't know how I can qualify the biggest because we do have big challenges continuously. I have an amazing team. And I understand the power of having very strong people that are different skill set to mine. It has not always been the case. I think many years ago I've had, people that didn't have the same aspirations, goals, and ambitions like me. And,they've had a negative effect on the company. So I think finding the right team members is, 

Oh, it's the Holy Grail.

Yeah, 

and actually, in fact, it might be actually the first time I'm even announcing this. I now have given the [00:22:00] role of CEO to someone that I really trust. It's my chief operating officer because I have identified that her skill set is so strong in managing the day to day of the business. 

That's huge. 

Yeah, it's huge. I know. And it's after 10 years and it was the right time and it was very well deserved for her to get this title because I've just realised that I've built this company to a certain level with, so much, hard work and dedication and now it's okay to have a team that you can delegate and I am there for the very important decision.

I'm still five days a week in the company, but I just know that there's someone I 100 percent trust that has all the mechanisms to manage and to track progress and it's in a way that it's very trackable so I can see if something is not going right.

So yeah so finding the right team, I am very happy to give this title to this lady she's from McKinsey she loves beauty so you can imagine she has the

[00:23:00] consulting background analytical background.

 I'm very based on day to day management and I'm very creative and I'm more interested in the marketing, the product development side of things, the people side of things. So we are complementing each other very well. But, I wish I had this lady, five years ago because five years ago I actually, had the wrong people in these positions. 

Yeah, when you've got the wrong people in any size of business, it can be so depressing actually, and really heartbreaking and it's, someone said to me earlier, I was like, I was two years in and they said, oh, you're at the people point and nodded and I was like, what do you mean?

And then I was like, oh, because as soon as you bring people in, you also have to take people out and fire them when it doesn't work. And it is heartbreaking. The amount of time, I said waste once and someone said you're not wasting it, you're learning every time. But yeah, the amount of time it takes to get the right people in the mix, and I've been very burnt by it and [00:24:00] it's I think everybody has as well.

And people change. I was at Chanel in Australia and I was heading up the comms team over there and my first year was phenomenal. And then things changed within the senior management team and the culture.

It was awful and it was amazing. It's the same job on paper for me, but it was the feeling I had when I went to work was completely different. And now that I'm employing people, it's the same thing. You need to like the people you work with cause you need to be in it together and you'll need to have the same sort of, goals, but you, the trust part is huge and I think when we're talking about productivity and focus, you don't want to be wasting time on having to double handle things or second guess things or think, are they working remotely today or whatever it might be, but it is, it's the thing that's kicked me in the guts the hardest. 

This is actually what people need to understand starting a business that actually, hiring or letting go of people. It's a very long process because

 to hire the right person, they're probably in a job somewhere else. [00:25:00] So this process can be up to six months. You identify that you need someone, you interview, then you have to wait for their,that period when they can join you notice period.

So that's six months. If that person is not in the right, if you then discover that they're

not the right person for you,you have to give them time. So it's, let's say three months, and then, by the time you have a conversation, if it's not the right job, then it's another three months, so it could be one year.

So it's very, very time consuming and I think sometimes people misunderstand that. They think, okay, I'll hire the right person then if it's not the right person, I let them go. It's not exactly that simple.

 You also have to consider their position as well. And you have to, sometimes the mistake can be yours that you've thought that they're the right fit.

 It just could be, as you said, not the right culture of fit. So I think that's something people have to be so careful that hiring the right people is a very long process. And you really have to put a lot of thought into it.

You have to check references, make sure [00:26:00] that you give them specific tasks to see how they are performing.

Even with all these things, it just might not be the right fit and you have to be prepared.

I remember moving in my role once from PR in beauty products to working with celebrities and I was like, take me back to products. Products sit where they're meant to sit. They turn up where they're meant to turn up. People can be late and have an opinion and have a bad day. And I think that's the thing with people.

They are the best and the worst part of running a business. But bringing it back to productivity, have you found that impacts your day to day? I think I know the answer to this, but, Are you more productive with the right mix of people around you?

Yeah, absolutely. It's, look, also the question is the right people, sometimes connecting the two subjects. Again, sometimes you have people that are fantastic at doing a job, but they might not be a good leaders.

And it's also important to identify if, their skill set, if they are heads of departments, they know how to do the job, there's no [00:27:00] question about it, but can they stimulate other people, build them up, and really make sure that the whole division, everyone is growing. It took me a very long time to hire my team and I definitely feel much more positive and secure about the company simply because we're now at a different level. We're a much bigger company. So we have strong operations department, we have finance department and all of these departments have to be run in a very productive way in order for the company to function. So yes, a hundred percent of the people make a huge impact. And there's no business. I always give huge credit to my team because what can my husband and I, Yannis and I do? We have an idea, we have aspirations, we have dreams, but it's your people execute your strategy. So my team is a very important part for me and productivity.

Definitely I am more inspired when I listened to my team and I'm very engaged with my team. And I'm one of these,leaders or managers that I actually [00:28:00] spend more time with my team than I spend externally. I believe there's a very huge value in really getting to know your people, inspiring them than to be joining many different outside organisations, but not spending time with the team.

So my philosophy is always inside. I spend a lot of time inside the company, then external. It's very important to nurture your team because it's your culture as well.

Yeah, absolutely. And they make or break any day at work. If you're in it together and you've got that support system there, it's so exciting. I witnessed my colleagues all talk to each other without me and they once called me up and said, so we've had a zoom call without you to discuss this problem and here are our solutions.

It's this is amazing. But then the fact that we could all come together and share those ideas together as well, it was just, it was amazing. Wonderful to see that sort of one plus one does not equal two, it equals five, four plus another couple of people actually equals 20. That growth that you see with a team working together, it's wonderful.

It's [00:29:00] so exciting. But given that you started a business with your husband, how do you manage that work life balance? Like you bringing up children together, you're bringing up a business together. Do you have to just be work version of you and then wife, mother version of you? Like, how do you separate the two?

 We are fortunate. My husband is still a practicing plastic surgeon. That's his calling in life. We take inspiration from him and a lot of the products that we produce are inspired by patients or treatments in his clinic, but he gives us ideas and inspiration. However, he doesn't sit in our office.

He's in his surgical theater and practice most of the time. So we actually do not work nose to nose together, which is fantastic because, I don't know if I would be able to work with my husband on, on daily basis, but I do love his, I think having a surgeon as a product development inspiration, that's what keeps us apart from everyone else.

He's unearthing client problems, isn't he? He's coming back to you [00:30:00] saying, my clients are experiencing this. What could we develop for that? And speaking of which, can I ask what you're wearing on your cheeks?

So this is, this is a, a hydrogel mask and it helps with fine lines and wrinkles. And I think now, I can't believe that when I started this company, I was in my late thirties. Now I'm almost, I'm going to be 50 next year. So my skincare routine has to keep, getting more sophisticated. So yeah, so these are just, masks that you put underneath and it helps with, when you have tiny little fine lines and wrinkles. 

So he's coming back, feeding back from his client saying, they've just had this surgery and now they wanting some aftercare and giving you and your team more ideas to develop product. 

 It's

not just post surgery. Patients go to him for surgical, non surgical treatments and all sorts of beauty concerns. We don't need to pay for expensive beauty research of what are the new trends. I spot the trends in his clinic.

And, so we develop, for example, if he has micro needling [00:31:00] treatments, we can develop micro needling eye patches, or, we're working on some very exciting new products that have only existed in the cosmetic world. 

Given that you've got this brand and it's not built, it can always get bigger, I'm sure, but you have an established business. How do you split your time between business development and new products versus keeping the train on the track that you've already built?

This requires a whole other podcast because there's, there's a lot of things happening in the beauty industry right now and, I do like to address some of the issues. I don't know if this is this podcast, but look, I think the clients now are bombarded by too many products.

And I think the industry is going in a direction where fast fashion was a few years ago. It just, people are buying too many products that don't necessarily have longevity. And I think it's the same. There's no barrier to entry into the beauty industry. A lot of people are [00:32:00] creating products just to create business.

A lot of companies are entering into that category, simply because they feel that there's financial opportunity. so for us, it has been a challenge in the last few years because we feel that we need to continuously redevelop existing products to make them better because science is evolving so much.

My husband's techniques are evolving so much and we feel that, instead of creating new products all the time, you can improve existing products. But the industry wants you to create newness all the time. So we are always a little bit trying to have this conversation with our retailers where we would bring a product when we feel it's a real point of difference.

And we do that, but we also want them to acknowledge the fact that if we redevelop an existing product, that should be treated as a new product because the science there has evolved. So balancing this is, it's always a challenge working on newness, but also looking at your current portfolio and understanding what can [00:33:00] be improved and things can always be improved?

Yeah, always, and I think that's the pressure that founders are under is that you can always do more. So what would your one productivity hack be for a new founder?

 We are very fortunate because we do have an amazing productivity hack. 

 We believe that health is the new wealth. So more than five years ago, we brought the first full body electric cryo chamber in the UK and we installed it in Harrods and one in Harvey Nichols. So this is my productivity hack. Whenever I feel that I have no energy or I'm very stressed, I jump on my bicycle and I go to Harvey Nicks and I do this  three minutes 90 full body cryotherapy.

And I always feel an amazing influx of energy, complete clarity of the mind and a total reset. And then I can go back to my desk and just feel like it's a new day. 

 The sensation is amazing. It's super cold, but it's actually [00:34:00] dry cold and it just really gives you energy and it shocks your body to think that, it's going to go into a state of being frozen.

But when you come out, it energises every every part of your body and you have this influx of endorphins energy and yeah, and clarity of the mind. So that's my number one hack. I do it quite often, actually. 

It could be the answer to my next question is how do you avoid feeling overwhelmed by work and everything you have going on?

This must be a challenge for every founder in this day and age and I think more so with people that have international business. I think if you focus maybe on one territory, it's a little bit easier to navigate, but we are global brand. Big part of our business is in the U.S.

And we have business in Asia, in all parts of the world, in Australia. So I think this is the challenge that I have to interact with people from different time zones, but you also economically, you have to follow the developments across the globe and see if every [00:35:00] territory is going well. A few years ago, I was feeling more overwhelmed and not being able to always cope and, feeling a little bit down if, things are not going well. And now I just, I have this gratitude and I always just remind myself how far we have come. And of course you can always want more and grow bigger and, keep reestablishing yourself. But also look, 111SKIN was created in my husband's office. It was really meant to be for his patients in the clinic to accelerate their healing and to give them a more positive result. And now we are sold in so many different places in the world. The products are sailing at the Ritz Carlton yacht, which takes us all, takes, our products across the world. And I think it's that sense of gratitude.

And I am very fortunate that every single day, either we have training somewhere around the world, or we have some of our team is doing an event somewhere or a client, but I do receive a [00:36:00] picture of our products somewhere around the world every single day. And it's, it's this two way communication with the external world that comes to me, that makes me understand that we have achieved a lot. 

 I think looking back 

and realising what you've succeeded in is, it helps the overwhelm. It's I might be feeling really stressed about this, but look where I've come from and actually that was even harder than this over here right now. I think that appreciation, a friend said to me very, I think she's episode five, she said, if you fixed your tech problem, you need to pat yourself on the back and celebrate the fact you fixed the printer.

Because you are the IT, HR, your finance, you are everything and if you've overcome one hurdle that's thrown at you, you need to celebrate that and really pat yourself on the back because there's so many hurdles and if you're constantly firefighting you're not celebrating, so you don't have a boss to go, Oh, well done, you did that.

You, you have to back yourself. 

 I think for me, I think social media in that sense, it can be quite devastating in some aspects, [00:37:00] but from what I just mentioned that we do have this social media mentions or videos coming to us to me specifically on daily basis And that's what keeps me grounded because it could be I mean actually this weekend I was so happy and I was sharing with my children. It was a one of the most accomplished Bulgarian movie stars in Hollywood. her name is Nina Dobrev and she's Bulgarian. So I was born in Bulgaria and of course I followed her progress and she posted with the products and to me was, it just felt so special that here is this actress in Hollywood, but she also happened, to be from my small little country and she's using our products and it just felt like a very special moment.

And it gave me a sense of gratitude, not because she is, a megastar, but it's like how our products have reached someone that, probably comes, from a small a town like I do. And here we are, both have had different paths, but somehow connected. So I think this kind of [00:38:00] sense of gratitude, and it doesn't have to be from celebrity.

As I said, it could be a training session that one of my therapists is doing right now. I think they're training someone in,Cayman Islands. Somebody wanted these products to be in that property and my team is training them and it's going to be more people using the products now that are visiting this hotel and younot be grateful this moments how when you see the brand being installed in different places in the world.

No, definitely. And huge congratulations. And I think a lot of people listening need to just write down on a piece of paper, one thing that they are really proud of achieving. 

 Every single day, because it's so easy to beat yourself up to just say, now there's all these companies in every field that are in somebody's doing better. Some, a founder is doing more. There's always people doing more, and you can feel so and so is doing more.

I should be doing this. I should be doing that. But how about giving yourself that little, [00:39:00] Thank you to yourself and gratitude for what you have achieved.

The one thing that you can control as well, because you can't control external circumstances. And something that we do is a question from the previous guest for the next guest. 

So the question from Dr. Kristy Goodwin, who is a neuroscientist based in Sydney. Her question was, what have you found that powers you up and sustains you as an entrepreneur? So the habits, practices, protocols, anything that works for you, and also what doesn't work for you?

What powers me up and sustains me as an entrepreneur is the ability to see our products in the setting outside of our office. So for me, it's super crucial to be able to visit retail stores, to go to some of the beautiful spas, so I can talk to clients and you really see the result of all this hard work of all the departments coming together For me being in the field and talking to clients [00:40:00] is, very stimulating and it definitely helps me go through, the continuous silent battles you have to face as a founder. And I think positive reinforcement from clients, it's always an important driving force.

 Also, one thing that doesn't work for me is back to back meetings. I take my energy from nature. So for me, I like to keep the meetings 35 to 45 minutes with 15 minute break between meetings where I normally just go outside. Rain or shine. I just like to see the sky. I like to have fresh air and then I'm ready for another meeting.

I don't like to roll over from one to another meeting. I think everybody deserves a mental break.

 And what would your question be for our next guest around productivity and focus?

I would love to actually know if anybody's using some kind of AI assistance on special apps that are actually not time consuming to use,

[00:41:00] but you're like an amazing benefit because I know that there's millions of them coming on the market.

But I personally I would not start investigating unless I have a personal recommendation from someone.

No, I'll definitely ask and,I'll feedback and let you know, cause I think it's AI is here. We need to embrace it, but I'm with you. I want to know it's the right one at the right time. It's actually going to help and not hinder. Thank you so much Eva for your time today.

It's been wonderful chatting to you about this. I've learned a lot and feel very good in my decisions about morning runs and notifications and technology. So thank you for your time.

Of course, no, you're such a fantastic host. You predispose people to just be relaxed and be themselves.

So, yeah, thank you for your time. Yeah, I enjoyed the conversation very much.

So relaxed. That's a lovely way to start a Monday. 

I hope you've enjoyed this episode. You can find a recap of all the advice Eva has shared in the show notes.Tune [00:42:00] in next week to hear George Veness, founder and CEO of JAB Boxing. Having been the captain of the English boxing team, George shares advice how fitness can really help productivity and focus at work.