Female Disruptors: Nicole Gregory of ‘Urban You’ On The Three Things You Need To Shake Up Your Industry
An Interview With Candice Georgiadis
Magic happens in doing nothing — people ask where I get my vision. It’s mostly from doing nothing. If you know me, I’m always doing something. It’s in my travel, reading, observations, just sitting and doing nothing that most of my dot connecting happens.
As a part of our series about women who are shaking things up in their industry, I had the pleasure of interviewing Nicole Gregory.
Nicole Gregory is the CEO of Urban You, a modern beauty and wellness medical spa for those who want to be curious, confident, carefree, and connected to the ever-evolving beauty and wellness industry through bespoke consultations, personalized product recommendations and customized treatment plans. Several years ago, while traveling, Nicole Gregory found that finding a place to go to get all of her beauty needs met was nearly impossible unless you personally knew of local beauty experts: hair, brows, make-up, nails and medical spa services. She found that many others had the same frustration. Urban You was born from that gap in the industry — Nicole teamed up with COO Barbra Homier and set out to find talented beauty artisans, the newest trends in the beauty and medical spa industry, state of the art technology, and a designer for a bespoke brand to make her dream become a reality.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dig in, our readers would like to get to know you a bit more. Can you tell us a bit about your “backstory”? What led you to this particular career path?
I grew up in an environment where entrepreneurialism was highly encouraged — this was back before it was more common. Both sides of my family were business owners in a small Michigan town, and because an entrepreneurial mindset was ingrained in me growing up, my thinking was always focused on finding gaps in markets. That’s how I eventually came to start Urban You for Me, a med spa and modern beauty & wellness haven with a twist. In an industry that is often associated with overdone aesthetics, and rife with misinformation, Urban You delivers personalized beauty and wellness services for those seeking to look and feel their best, via a one-stop resource they can trust. Our company prioritizes patient education and natural-looking results; combining best-in-class services, with vibes and prices that are welcoming and down-to-earth.
Over the years, before founding Urban You, I visited medical spas and used medical aesthetic services while I lived in California for 15 years; but I knew that medical aesthetic treatments were not something everyone felt comfortable doing (or at least, not something they felt comfortable talking about) — which became even more clear once I moved from Southern California to Grand Rapids, MI. Because I had 20+ years of experience with a marketing and technology focus by that time, I felt comfortable with helping to shape change in the industry. Re-inventing the modern beauty and wellness industry was my focus.
Can you tell our readers what it is about the work you’re doing that’s disruptive?
The word “aggressive” has gotten a lot of negative connotations in the past, and the word “disruptive” is in the same category. But whether we’re called disruptive or aggressive, at its best, it means that we’re shaping change. Industries have always gone through many changes, from the time they start to build up, to when they become more acceptable — sometimes there are explosive moments that feel disruptive, but mostly it’s smaller moments or actions that gradually help to shape the industry for the greater good.
The medical spa industry is, in many ways, a wild west. There are 50,000 plus in the United States alone, and there’s not much real protection out there for the consumer, in terms of where they can go in the case of a botched event. One of our priorities at Urban You is on Consumer Protection, and providing consumers with industry standards. For example, Urban You is currently creating the first state-level Amspa chapter in Michigan, because we’re thinking holistically about the industry, and how to create safety and standards for patients and guests. One of our first goals with this chapter will be to pass legislation on a patient protection act specifically for the med spa industry. This will act like a code of conduct for the medical spa industry, and allow us as an industry to better put the patient first. It will also allow the patient to have a central place to go, in the case of a botched event.
At Urban You, we are also focused on reshaping the flexibility and mobility of the workforce for this industry, by using technology to allow for more women to stay in the workforce. To do this, we use Pinchgig — technology I created years ago — which is like Uber for Human Resources. For example, rather than just having four injectionists for allocation we might have ten; so if someone cancels (because their child is sick, for example) we are able to alert our network of injectionists that a shift is now open if they want to take it on. This all allows for a better work experience for our team members, and the ability to work more flexibly as much as they want or need.
Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?
I remember I was so excited that we had two appointments the first day we opened. Being a new brand in a competitive market, I felt that was good — and that more would follow. That week, we had a meeting with our vendor reps, and I kept saying over and over how great it was to have these appointments. I could feel them rolling their eyes. I was really questioning myself, and started marketing harder. As opening day came, two appointments turned to twenty appointments. It’s funny because sometimes all we need is someone to not believe in us and we find ways to do better. These same reps and our team laugh at this all the time, as we are now listed as one of Allergen’s top 1% med spas in the nation.
We all need a little help along the journey. Who have been some of your mentors? Can you share a story about how they made an impact?
I’m a big observer of others — reading and reflecting on what they’ve done, taking cues on the good and bad, and learning from it. This has helped form a more holistic perspective on my career journey.
I believe that having both male and female mentors in many different industries has helped me develop a greater diversity of thinking. Having a large support group of local CEOs has also been very helpful. This group comes together monthly to share ideas, stories and struggles. It helps to know you’re not the only one who has certain issues or thoughts. I’ll be the first to admit I like things done right and leave little room for error. Through my network, I’ve come to realize that this is a characteristic of most CEOs. They want what is best for the business and people in the business, and with a little self-awareness, this can actually be one of our greatest strengths as leaders.
In today’s parlance, being disruptive is usually a positive adjective. But is disrupting always good? When do we say the converse, that a system or structure has ‘withstood the test of time’? Can you articulate to our readers when disrupting an industry is positive, and when disrupting an industry is ‘not so positive’? Can you share some examples of what you mean?
Industries typically start out by being disruptive, and that is usually a good thing. They are filling a gap in the market that was not being met. When I think of an example of industry disruption, I think of the internet: when it started to become mainstream, we all got these CDs in our physical mailboxes from AOL to download the software to our computer, which we needed in order to access the internet; but think of how expensive that was. Then along came Gmail — they knew most people have some type of internet access on their computer already, largely as a result of all the groundwork that had already been laid by other companies, so they didn’t need to send them anything but a link and maybe some advertising as to why they should choose Gmail over one of the original providers. Switching over was easy. They disrupted the market. It was positive for the consumer, maybe not so for some of the OG’s. However, this happens all the time. Cable is going through this right now, with all the On-Demand services; and then On-Demand will go through it soon when people start going to other platforms for entertainment — the Metaverse. The negative impact is to the businesses that are not thinking ahead and how they, their customers, their employees will be affected in these disruptive worlds.
Can you share 3 of the best words of advice you’ve gotten along your journey? Please give a story or example for each.
1. Stay Humble — how many times did I think I was all that and a bag of chips, and then the next thing I know I get knocked down. Stay humble, keep asking questions and learning.
2. Delegate — by empowering others to learn, you are helping them to elevate to their next position. This gets me out of bed each day, the idea of my teams being better when I’m not there.
3. Magic happens in doing nothing — people ask where I get my vision. It’s mostly from doing nothing. If you know me, I’m always doing something. It’s in my travel, reading, observations, just sitting and doing nothing that most of my dot connecting happens.
We are sure you aren’t done. How are you going to shake things up next?
There is a lot of work to be done in the medical spa industry. Most importantly, we are going to focus on amazing experiences, empowering a workforce, consumer protection and consolidation. This industry is very fragmented, which creates uncertainty. We want consumers to feel comfortable with the services they are getting now and in the future. Our role is to be the authority consumers can trust, and set the standard for modern beauty and wellness services.
In your opinion, what are the biggest challenges faced by ‘women disruptors’ that aren’t typically faced by their male counterparts?
I actually think men face a lot of challenges these days, but we’ll put that aside. The challenges women face sometimes revolve around a lack of support. They need to find good groups of women to support them. When we have to make tough calls that might make us seem less “likeable”, it’s easier to push through all kinds of tough moments when you have a strong network of supporters, saying it’s OK. Make sure to support your network. Helping others achieve what they want *will* help you in the long run. In my career, I’ve found this to be a common superpower of several women disruptors that I’ve worked with.
Do you have a book/podcast/talk that’s had a deep impact on your thinking? Can you share a story with us?
Win at Work and Succeed at Life, by Michael Hyatt and Megan Hyatt Miller. Apparently, they call me a high performer. I had never heard this word before, until I went to my doctor who has been trying to tell me to slow down, meditate, and take care of myself. Who has time? The more things got “busy,” the more I put myself into work. I would find myself working all the time — work was my go-to for socializing, relaxing, hobbies, comfort and motivation. Seeing that I needed to get out of this loop, this book was recommended to me. I listen to it on Audible, where I have all of my self-improvement books, so it’s convenient while traveling. It has allowed me to set boundaries on my workday and create non-negotiables on how I want to live my life, with my family first. I’ve listened to this book three times now and am still learning from it. I feel that this book is going to be a cornerstone of structure for my success. It’s funny how, the first time I listened to it, I really did think they were talking directly to me — like they had somehow seen my calendar and my bad loop of working. However, as we all know, there are plenty of workaholics out there. It’s a real thing that can disrupt families and lives. That is one area I don’t want to disrupt.
You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. 🙂
Find someone to take over your job. When we mentor people and pull them up we leave the world in a better place.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
“The work you do today is the work you’ll get tomorrow, so always do good work” I know this seems like basic advice, but when I first started out, there were a few times I said “good enough” and I’ve always been embarrassed by that work, and never got work from that work. Just take a little more time and put out your best work. It will pay off and pay forward.
How can our readers follow you online?
They can follow my podcast @thebeautystandard or on Instagram @theurbanyou @passportmoments Starting TikTok in 2022
This was very inspiring. Thank you so much for joining us!
Female Disruptors: Nicole Gregory of ‘Urban You’ On The Three Things You Need To Shake Up Your… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.