Episode
3

For Us, By Everyone…?! Reshaping the Skincare Inclusivity Convo

Published on
October 14, 2024

In this episode...

In this powerful episode, we sit down with Sabrina Robinson, also known as the "Acne Queen," and the visionary founder of Thrēo Skin. Sabrina shares her journey from recognizing industry gaps to building a successful brand that champions the often-overlooked deeper skin tones

Transcript

SABRINA ROBINSON

If I really want a product, I'm going to do everything I can if I think that's going to fix my client's face Exactly, and I'm going to tell my client I'm trying to get you this product because I think this will do this. I'm trying to take this class in Mexico because I think this will help with this. Changing your attitude of why you want something rather than just what you want will help you, because a lot of things you think you need or want, you're not wanting them for the right reasons.

JOZLYN MILLER

Hi, I'm Jozlyn Miller and this is Last Client of the Day presented by Boulevard. We are so excited to introduce our next guest, Sabrina Robertson. Sabrina, known as the Agni Queen, is the founder of 3L Skin. She started in corporate sales at Barry Central's and later transitioned to makeup artistry. In Europe, she noticed a lack of representation in skincare for deeper skin tones and this inspired her to create Threo Skin, focusing on transformative acne treatments and inclusivity. Her work has earned her a great celebrity and influencer clientele, including Sydney Stanford. Threo Skin offers both in-studio and at-home skincare solutions, with all products handpicked and tested by Sabrina for acne safety and suitability for diverse skin tones.

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JOZLYN MILLER

All right. On today's episode we have the lovely Sabrina Robinson. How are you, love? 

SABRINA ROBINSON

I'm doing well. How are you? 

JOZLYN MILLER

Good, you are an owner of Threo Skin. Lovely, tell us a little bit about yourself, Sabrina.

SABRINA ROBINSON

Well, I'm old (haha). And I started a business doing skincare, and I've been in the business for about four years owning my business. I'm from Oakland, California. I have two kids. I have a husband. I don't like none of them, I'm just playing. No, it's fine.

JOZLYN MILLER

It's been a lot of time we're going to blake that part out now.

SABRINA ROBINSON

Keep it in. Keep it in.

JOZLYN MILLER

I love it. I love it.

SABRINA ROBINSON

No, they're great, everybody's supportive and I kind of love what I do and I'm really good at it. So there's that.

JOZLYN MILLER

Yes, and you say you've owned your business for three years.

SABRINA ROBINSON

Three, four years, Three four years.

JOZLYN MILLER

What were you doing before that and how did you break into this specific type of business?

SABRINA ROBINSON

Well, I have old school parents who were, like, you're not being a creative. Go get a real job, get a real degree.

JOZLYN MILLER

We've all been there. 

SABRINA ROBINSON

Yeah, so I got my degree in economics. I was working in spa, sales and corporate and then married a military man. Zero out of ten, anyway, that's fine.

No, he's great, so I married him. We traveled a bunch, and so I just got to be more into the creative things that you can do with travel. You can travel a lot with skincare, not so much in corporate, you know. So I went to Germany for a few years, worked at a well-known hair salon in Germany and then, when we came back to the states, I decided to do aesthetics and that's where I'm at and that's where we're at now.

JOZLYN MILLER

I love that journey, so I'm sure you have a ton of stories that you can tell us about. You know your journey in general, how you broke into the business, the different challenges that you've run across. I would love to know… we're gonna dive right in, actually we're gonna go to the hard questions.

SABRINA ROBINSON

I'm here.

JOZLYN MILLER

I would love for you to share any personal experiences that you've come across um being excluded from specific brands, whether that's you know a retail brand, um other businesses, other people that are in the same industry as you that maybe wasn't making it easy for you. 

SABRINA ROBINSON

Well, the skincare business, especially in LA, is very elitist. So in order to get certain brands, certain products in your studio or your salon or your store, you have to spend a certain amount of money with the brand. So the opening order could be very prohibitive for people who are just starting out. It might be six thousand, ten thousand, or something unreachable at that level. Or some brands will, even though they're not prescription based, they will require you to have a medical director. Medical directors can cost thousands a month.

I have one but, luckily, I just connect with people, so it's not prohibitive for me. But for other people it is very prohibitive. So to get like the well-known brands that are very legit, you kind of have to solidify your legitimacy, right, you have to pay thousands of dollars just to carry these brands. But it's just because they're trying to be elitist and they only want their brands in certain businesses that they feel are valuable. 

JOZLYN MILLER

Interesting, yeah, interesting, so are you, I mean, that's something that you experienced. Did you experience it often?

SABRINA ROBINSON

Um, luckily for me, because I've made certain connections, I don't have to experience it. Just because it doesn't affect me doesn't mean I don't see it. So I see people, my dms, asking me all the time how do you get this brand? How did you get that brand? How did you get your medical director? 

And the answer for them is I was just lucky yeah, um because if I tell them the truth is you have to have more money, you have to shmooze, you have to, like um, play the games that people play, make connection that you may not feel good about ethically to get certain things happening. For me, I didn't have to do that, but that doesn't just because I'm the exception right doesn't mean that it's not a problem that needs to be addressed.

JOZLYN MILLER

Right, and you said that you feel like you're lucky, which, yeah, I can, I understand that. But also I feel like it probably has to do with who you're networking with and making connections with the right people. I believe that's what you had just mentioned a second ago. Also, you know like you have to also be able to have conversations with people and make those connections so that you have the right people in your circle, so that you can avoid certain, you know, blockers.

SABRINA ROBINSON

Yeah, but I also have the privilege of being able to be authentic. When you already have a certain amount of success or a certain amount of like, accessibility to certain things. For instance, I don't necessarily have to work. I love to work. I'm a hard worker. 

I wish I didn't have to work, but it's true, though, so I can take a lot more risk than somebody who has three kids and is relying on a certain relationship. They may not be able to network, go to certain network events. They have to pick up their kids from school, exactly.

I have a network of people to help me with things like that you know, so I'm very privileged in that fact, but that doesn't mean that I don't see it and I would like to help change it. Because, honestly, it's disgusting, because there's not a reason for it if you're not doing medical procedures. Why do I need to have a medical director right to sell you a retinol? 

JOZLYN MILLER

That's what I was going to ask, what was the service, or what was the product, or what was it that needed the, the actual physician? 

SABRINA ROBINSON

It's actually kind of more I wouldn't say sinister, but it's more kind of like capitalist. So doctors want to control certain things, so they make deals where they buy certain things in bulk so that they can have exclusivity. So then in order for you to have access to those things, you have to go through them and give them more money. And it also tiers so that, like, maybe you're more reputable if you work at a medical aesthetics company, but we're all estheticians. There's no such thing as a true medical esthetician, right? You're either a doctor or you're not. You're either a nurse or you're not. I'm just an esthetician. I mean, I own my own business, but at the end of the day, we all washing faces, right?

JOZLYN MILLER

Right, I hear you, I hear you, got it. So I mean how? And I know you touched a little bit on this, but let's kind of circle back how did you address these certain things within your business, like you said that you do have an actual physician that is in your business, so that kind of you know helped with that specific blocker. Are there any other blockers that you were able to kind of figure out a path that you want to kind of, you know, dive into a little bit more?

SABRINA ROBINSON

So our listeners will know, like certain ways to you know, go around and get around those blockers. If you're really good at your craft, they can't really say anything to you, right? I didn't have to reach out to my medical director because I was getting better results than they were at the facilities that they were going to. So some people were reaching out to me asking me how was I able to get these results without having a doctor?

People wanted to connect with me because I got on the Internet and just told the truth. Showed my clients results. I've had clients call businesses, suppliers, some of the skincare brands that I work with and ask them to feature me in things because I've changed how they feel about themselves or things like that. So creating that sort of relationship where you're not looking at I want to get this product, so I need to get this money. 

Why do you want to get this product? Are you trying to get this product because you want to look like something on the internet? Are you trying to get this product so you could actually help your clients, right? So if I really want a product, I'm going to do everything I can if I think that's going to fix my client's face exactly, and I'm going to tell my client I'm trying to get you this product because I think this will do this.

I'm trying to take this class in Mexico because I think this will help with this. Changing your attitude of why you want something rather than just what you want will help you, because a lot of the things you think you need or want you're you're not wanting them for the right reasons. Why do you want a medical director? I can clear acne without having these products. I can do it faster with certain products. So that's why I want them, but if you can't use your right and left hand to help your client, then you might need to reevaluate your skill set. Yeah, or take more classes. Call your mamma now. 

JOZLYN MILLER

I love that. Okay, cool, cool, cool, I love that, and then I mean so somewhat of a hard one. Well, it might not be hard for you, but what do you think about certain brands that say, you know, like, we see no color approach.

SABRINA ROBINSON

I don't see them, they don't see me. I don't see that if you don't see color, right. You don't exist in my world. I'm not worried about you. I don't care.

JOZLYN MILLER

No, I'm just saying for those type of people it works against them. Because you have to see, like, we have different needs. We have different, our skin's different, like everything is different. You have to see color in order to know how to like to approach a situation with that specific client.

SABRINA ROBINSON

And I'm not about to fight hard for somebody to see me. I'm going to go where I'm seen. So that's why my clients come to me, because they know, no matter how they come in the building, I see them. I have all of the high-tech machines. I have all of the cleanliness, the standards, the skill set, but when you come, you're seen. You can come however you want. I don't care, race, whatever, but I see you for who you are right I take into account your background.

I know how Indian skin reacts to chemical peels rather than black skin. I know how a redhead will react to certain products. I know skin sensitivity levels of different races, ethnicities, backgrounds, how you. How do you not see?

JOZLYN MILLER

You have to see it right. Yeah, because it's. It takes a different approach no matter what. So that's what I'm saying, like, yeah, it makes it works against people that do, “we see no color yeah”

SABRINA ROBINSON

So I just kind of, like, let them do their thing and I'm on my business right.

JOZLYN MILLER

So you talk a lot about authenticity, right, I do, and I know specifically from you, just from the conversations we've been having, you don't necessarily have like that or maybe kind of put people on game on how to you know, do it for themselves to be more authentic, as opposed to you know what everybody else is out there doing okay.

SABRINA ROBINSON

So, first thing we try to do is we bring the community into the studio, so we don't try to be anything that we're not. I’m a black girl from Oakland. I wear Jordans to work. You know I'm not putting on a white coat, my arms are not crossed. You know I don't have a clipboard. It is what it is. Half the time my clients laugh at me because I'm just in there chaotically living my life.

I'm comfortable, but I'll give you that confidence because when I speak, I know what I'm talking about. And also, you know we like to play R&B, we like to. You know we have snacks. We have champagne, Fiji water, but then we also got, like, hot fries. You know hot Cheetos you know what I'm saying. 

JOZLYN MILLER

I love that.

SABRINA ROBINSON

Like. What snacks do you want Exactly? People come in there and they snack. We will have like malisha sister, sister playing on the tv, not no, like spot advertisements and birds chirping. However, we always let our clients know this is your environment. Do you want to watch something on the tv? You want us to put on Charmed? You want us to put on like, by the way you know, not another teen movie.

Whatever you want to watch, you can put it on. We'll hand you the remote you want. If you want to hear birds chirping if that calms down your anxiety, right more than happy to do that. Um, if you want to take your wig off and hang it up, you can do that as well.

You know, get comfortable this is a community place, uh, and then, uh, my marketing manager even started where we host local artists. So downstairs for about six months we were having different artists showcase their work and local artists of the community. We put a bunch of pictures of different ethnicities, so you see brown faces, and then we try to put like their QR code so people, if you want to buy their art, check out their artwork. Yeah, it's about bringing more than just skincare and a service. It's about creating community. We have a bunch of community events I try to invite my clients into gathering with.

I think all my clients are really chill and cool people, and so I'm like let's all get together and have a time you know, but I'm not putting on a white coat, I'm not crossing my arms. 

JOZLYN MILLER

Right and it's not like you're saying. It's authentic. This is how I feel comfortable and I'm gonna work best when I feel comfortable exactly right and then if they need something different, then you're willing to make it so that that client experience is better for them as well, yeah, I love that um Moesha and Sister, Sister, that makes me so happy, and I also love that you just pointed out in regards to, like, uh, the art and R&B  bringing in the community you know, that's a really big part of our culture and making sure that we're supporting each other through everything like that, making those connections, is really huge, and I think that's a big part of just something that our culture needs in general being able to support, like one another and being able to showcase people's art so that you can make those connections.

I think that's one of the biggest things that needs to happen, and it's, I don't know. I don't hear that much within the beauty industry, you know, so that's really cool that you're doing that also. I love that.

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JOZLYN MILLER

What advice do you have for other brands to be more authentic? It's not our responsibility to educate other people, but for our listeners that want to know, is there something that you would have them implement or ways that you can help them be more authentic with themselves? I mean, you mentioned just being yourself. Is there anything else you would want to suggest to them to make them feel like they can open up their doors and do what you're doing?

SABRINA ROBINSON

Maybe, hire people who look and talk and speak Like the people you're marketing to. Know your audience, Know your audience. Because we can tell Right If it's real or not.

We can very much see when you're trying to sell us something and also we can tell when you got the token to say what you wanted them to say, to talk to us and bridge that gap. We can tell, we can tell we need authentic people that come from our culture or our background to speak to us, and people who will really understand what the needs are and where the bridge needs to be gapped, because if you don't even understand where to start. You can't talk to me right about it. And also, I've seen people do multicultural classes on how to work with black skin and I haven't seen a black face in the room teaching anything.

JOZLYN MILLER

What? 

SABRINA ROBINSON

I'm not saying you have to be black to work on black skin, um, 

JOZLYN MILLER

But you need to have someone in there, one that is the same color as us, to be able to. You know like it has to be some kind of connection. It's like the blind teaching the blind.

SABRINA ROBINSON

But also, if I don't see myself represented, and if I don't see black people, when I go down your uh instagram page, I haven't seen you work on not a black face, but you're trying to tell me how to age. I haven't seen you work on, not a black face, but you're trying to tell me how to do corrective work on black skin. I don’t trust you. 

JOZLYN MILLER

You know what. That is something that I always do. That's like one of the first things I do, to see that there is a mixture, like, you have to, and that is something that actually makes me feel more comfortable. And you would think nowadays that, you know, brands would know this, because you would have a wider audience. You know, by including people of all colors, not even just black people, like literally people of all colors. Um, so yeah, that's just so. Y'all know this is what we're looking for. You know, we want to make sure that you are addressing everyone and that is all inclusive for all of us. But also and women and like even genders you know treating people like they're people. 

SABRINA ROBINSON

Yeah, it goes a long way too, and understanding that you don't know everything. I have clients who bring their parents to me. Their parents don't speak English but they know I'm going to take care if their parent don't speak english.

But they know I'm going to take care of their parents, and I'm going to try my hardest to bridge the gap and we will figure it out, because they know that I'm going to make sure I take care of it to the best of my ability. I'll get a translator. You can come sit in the room with them if you feel comfortable. We will figure this thing out. I will try to translate the before and after care into spanish, if I need to. I will call somebody. I know somebody who speaks, I mean this is LA. We know somebody who speaks the language. I'll figure it out for you. And I'm not going to make you feel bad because you don't speak perfect English. I'm not going to pretend like I don't understand what you're saying when, like, let's all grow up and treat people like we want somebody to treat our family members.

JOZLYN MILLER

Exactly. That's customer service, like, one-on-one. Like we're going to figure it out, we're going to make you feel comfortable.

SABRINA ROBINSON

But people forget it all the time.

JOZLYN MILLER

I 100 percent wholeheartedly agree with that. Tell me more of why you think is important for all types of brands to understand exactly what we're talking about. Today We've, I feel like we've, covered a lot in regards to what people like us are looking for. Is there anything that you would, you know, make them, or want to highlight that this is important and I want you to make sure you're understanding this to you know, grow your brand and grow and be more successful for themselves.

SABRINA ROBINSON

Are we talking about small businesses, like where esthetician brands are coming from, or like a product brand?

JOZLYN MILLER

All of them. 

SABRINA ROBINSON

For estheticians, I would say I think a lot of them focus on money too much. Yes, we all have to make money. Yeah, you have to make money to survive. I get it. However, if you speak to people, if you find out how you can help people, the money will come. If you study your craft, the money will come. If you are kind to people, the money will come. If you, if people trust you, the money will come. I don't sell to my clients, right? They don't like that about me sometimes because they're like I didn't know you had a new product because you didn't tell me about it, because you didn't need it. So why am I talking to you about something?

JOZLYN MILLER

right. Why am I going to sell you something that's not even relevant, yeah?

SABRINA ROBINSON

Yeah so, but they're like but I want it and I'm like, well, that's fine, whatever, but if you focus on building trust with people, you don't need to worry so much about money, because people will send you clients. Before I had a marketing person or before I had my Instagram following going up, it was word of mouth. I built my entire business to six figures on just word of mouth.

I barely got on the internet and when I tell you, just treating people like you care, right um the money will come. Stop focusing so much on upselling um nickel and diming people. People can feel it. If you have a service listed for 150 and then all of a sudden, in the middle of the massage, you're like I think you need this mask, this thing.

JOZLYN MILLER

Like a robot.

SABRINA ROBINSON

Can we add this on? And then, at the end. The service is now $350. But they budgeted $175 when they came in, or whatever it was. Now you're losing trust. You're losing trust. However, if you're just up front with them. It's 350, everything included. People will feel a lot more comfortable because they know that you're recommending things that they need not trying to upsell something because you have a bottom line to meet right, you know, and then they feel taken advantage of rather than willingly wanting to pay you for a service because they feel the value in the actual service. So that'd be my number one recommendation is stop focusing so much on money and focus on building relationships. Focus on your craft, focus on why you are in it in the first place, because if you're in it for the money, you won't be in it for that long. Unless you have a really good marketing team and can get new clients every day. So either you have to be really good at your job or really good at marketing right I'm good at both, but… 

JOZLYN MILLER

I feel like what you're speaking on when you say, basically, like the client experience, that experience, well, a couple things. You actually have that client experience and making sure that's like a plus is going to help with that word of mouth. Yeah Right, like that's, the way to get in new clients is by having your happy clients speak to their friends, their family members, to get more people in, so for you to literally live through that and that be your journey and you be able to make six figures off of that speaks volumes on that client experience and how important that is to every single business. And also that add-on like all those add-ons or anything of that sort I'm really big on making sure that you know that's coming from a place of education, versus we always say, like that car salesman vibe.

I'm trying to make this quota. So I need to get x, y and z. You want it to be from education because it feels more valuable you know when you're being upsold on something and you know it's going to be beneficial versus just getting something extra and then feeling like you got to pay extra, like the double. right, that's and I tell my clients all the time if you don't need it, you don't need it.

SABRINA ROBINSON

Right, that's and I tell my clients all the time if you don't need it, you don't need it. If you want it, if it makes you feel happy, if it builds your confidence. Whatever, in your downtime, you want to put on a mask, go for it as long as it doesn't hurt you. But I think the other thing too is making sure that I know I’m treating my clients a certain way has also made sure that the referrals they give me I don't have any like clients that I dread coming in right, because they,

JOZLYN MILLER

You like your clients. A lot of people can't say that. 

SABRINA ROBINSON

No, a lot of people can't, but that's because my clients are like we're not going to send. I'm not going to send my co-worker that has this attitude to Sabrina, because I like Sabrina and I don't want, I don't want to drive her with sabrina. I don't want it to be beef when I go in next time. I’ll call her. Why'd you send this girl over here? I don't even like her, right? She can't even come over here exactly but yeah, it's again back to community and authenticity. Building community authenticity will always get you where you want to go exactly, and then you can get there in a way that makes you be able to sleep at night like I don't have a problem doing what I do. I don't have a problem charging for my services because I know that I'm giving you a value. So, I don't ever feel like I'm scamming someone. I don't have to like worry about that 

JOZLYN MILLER

Absolutely, I love that. Now, okay, we're gonna go into another segment. We call this the good, the bad and the ugly. I want the tea. I would love to know a story. Just share any story that you've experienced within your career. It could be good, bad, ugly. It could be something that is an achievement, something that is like a crazy client story. If you want to name names, go for it. I'm okay with it. Anything that you want to share that's just like what in the world? Any of those stories? We would love to hear it okay, give me something juicy.

SABRINA ROBINSON

Yeah, I don't know. What can I talk about? So, because I am a very unserious optimist. Okay, I never want to get to the top by myself, so I'm always like “let's do this together, let's do this together. I want to do this with a bunch of people.” And I have all these grand ideas. So everybody kept asking me to throw a class. Please throw a class. Please throw a class. Teach us how you do this. Teach us how I'm. Like. I don't even like talking to people like that, like I have too much pressure. 

I have anxiety. I'm taking pills like. I don't even like talking to people like that. That's too much pressure. I have anxiety. I'm taking pills. I don't have time. Where's the mimosa? I don't want to talk to y'all for that long. We need liquor to get through this. I was like, fine, I'll do a class, because everybody knows I act like I'm really tough and I'm really not. You can hit me in my DM and I'll pretty much be, like all right, let’s do it. 

JOZLYN MILLER

Don’t tell nobody that. 

SABRINA ROBINSON

All my clients know I'm a punk, like we know. She said she doesn't have any more clients. “Hey, Sabrina, can you come in at 8.30 am? I'll bring you a coffee, right?” I’m like alright. 

JOZLYN MILLER

Like, “I got some Chick-fil-A for you” 

SABRINA ROBINSON

And I'm gonna show up. Like a dummy. I’m going to show up and do this class. I want to do it with somebody who's the opposite of me, so say, I don't wear a white coat, I don't do this. I'm very much blunt about this, it's acne. This is how you do it one, two, three. I don't have a lot of fluff.

Get straight to the point, whereas I met this other lady in the industry. She was very much, like, here's a 10 page report on why you have acne, and I'm like you have acne because you don't don't do this. I'm not drawing anything on the page. It don't look cute. It's morning, night, do this, call me in two weeks. And then, where it's, like, very different approach over, there is very much more coddling, you know.

JOZLYN MILLER

Right, 10 pages is a lot. 

SABRINA ROBINSON

Yeah, ain’t nobody reading that. I'm not doing that and so, but some people like that. Um, she was also successful, so I was like let's partner, let's do this class together. She wears a white coat. I don't get down like that, but we both have the same machines, like the same things. So I was like it'll be really beneficial for my students if I'm gonna charge you money. I want it to be a benefit, um. So I was like it'll be really beneficial for them to hear two different perspectives so that maybe they can take a little bit from both. We can also say the same thing in two different ways, and certain people learn different ways. So, my bright idea, let's do this. 

My other bright idea is like let's do a student-led class. I don't need a script, right? Let's have a loose script, but let's see what each. It's a small class, maybe 10 people. Let's see what everybody's issue is right and let's curate the class for them. Yes, we'll have talking points, but... It went awry. 

JOZLYN MILLER

I would love to know exactly what happened. It went awry step by step on what happened it went awry.

SABRINA ROBINSON

So we had everything in the Dropbox, everybody signed off on everything. Class looks great. My marketing manager did all the PDF files. We had the pictures, everybody approved everything, perfect, okay. Then all of a sudden there's a new person in the group chat and I say who is this? Why are they talking to me? 

JOZLYN MILLER

It was a new student? 

SABRINA ROBINSON

No, a new person who involved themselves in the business. It was a partner of one of the attendees, like who are you? Where did they come from? It was their partner. My husband is not in a group chat, right, I'm like what? Okay, who is this?

So then they became part of the thing. And all of a sudden now we want to talk about this. We want to talk about this. I said no, oh, the deadline's over. Everybody approved, we're moving on and we've already set up everything. I don't have time for this, right? Don't do that, right? No, we're not changing the powerpoint.

JOZLYN MILLER

Who added that you have to be added to a group chat? How did that even happen?

SABRINA ROBINSON

Thank you. Where'd you come from right? So um me and felicia were. I was just like Felicia, she’s the marketing manager by the way, me and felicia are like what's going on? She's like I already have everything. It was already approved. We have gift bags, everything's set right the day of the event. They're calling her at three o'clock in the morning or texting trying to add stuff to the pdf files. Nobody showed up to help us set up the gift bags. Nobody showed up to help with anything. Clean the studio. So I hired somebody to clean the studio. I hired somebody to do everything. Me and Felicia. Well, Felicia was there putting together the bags. We had custom note-like names on each bag. Everything looked great. They get there the day of… late. 

JOZLYN MILLER

Oh no!

SABRINA ROBINSON

Late. Late. Everyone, or the their team, their team. Yeah, they have extra stuff they want to add to the gift bags. Now we have to take apart all the gift bags. Y'all got all this feedback, but y’all not on time right, okay, that's fine, I don't care. Okay, whatever, I'll just go. I'm laughing. I'm laughing out loud. I'm laughing. I'm in the back dying because this y'all can't be serious, right?

Y'all calling me unserious because I don't have a 10 point powerpoint right but I know but like look at what you guys yeah so we redo all the bag, with their assistant, Felicia's, in the back, trying to redo all the bags before all the students get there. So everything goes fine. The students are like setting up, we get through the whole class. Everybody's like this was the greatest class ever. Amazing. I'm at my house the next day or a couple of days later. Oh, no, no, what happened? They said oh, we sent them the invoice for like half of the fees. Oh, by the way, they wanted changes to the gift bags because their logo wasn't big enough. I paid to get them redone.

JOZLYN MILLER

Oh, wow...

SABRINA ROBINSON

Even though they had approved the last one, paid for that, paid for cleaning, got the food my team didn't eat because they didn't submit how many people were coming, so my team let them eat and we just, like, didn't eat. I was like who cares. Just submit half for the food and half for something else.

I was like I'll pay for the redo of the gift bags. I don't care like that. I don't want to nickel and dime people. They were arguing with me. Oh, we didn't sell all our tickets, so we don't want to pay for half. I was like…

JOZLYN MILLER

All the drama. 

SABRINA ROBINSON

It was like $300. It was something minuscule. I was like $300. It was something minuscule and I was like I don't care, Like I actually don't care, Like I actually don't care, I'll give you $300 to leave me alone for the rest of my life, Right? Like just don't talk to me ever again. I just want to be done.

JOZLYN MILLER

Wait, there's more?! 

SABRINA ROBINSON

There's more. We almost have to finish. You could go on my instagram right now and see me rant about this for like an hour and a half. I saved it as a reel, I think, anyway. So the next day I'm at my house and one of my students is like, “Hey, do you and this person, the person I taught the class with, have beef?” No, because again, no one knows what's going on behind the scenes, because I didn't say anything to the students. I didn't say anything. We toasted at the end, did a little cheers, and everybody thought it went great. Everybody's, “this was the greatest class ever,” we had students zoom in for the class.

They're asking when the next class is right. One of my students was like do you have beef with so-and-so? They're talking about you on their instagram… excuse me? Why? They accused me of stealing samples, y’all.

(laughs) 

JOZLYN MILLER

Y'all you know what, I did not expect you to say that. I did not expect you to say that.

SABRINA ROBINSON

Stealing samples. 

JOZLYN MILLER

Over samples, and they didn't reach out to you personally? No, they went to Instagram.

SABRINA ROBINSON

Yeah, they didn't say. Hey, one of my students didn't get samples, was it? Because, again, y'all came late so we had to repack all the bags. Do you think that there could have been an oversight? We left out a few.

So you mean to tell me we had hundreds of dollars of samples and I kept 20 for myself, like? L:ike just randomly 20 or whatever did.

JOZLYN MILLER

I'm just curious, did you know this person before you? 

SABRINA ROBINSON

Yes, I wanted to really yeah, 

JOZLYN MILLER
Are you guys still friends?

SABRINA ROBINSON

No, they called me nefarious over samples. 20 samples. I don't even know how many samples there were. I didn't say 20, but it was like a pack of samples, but it was samples that literally the businesses would give us for free like they also didn't pay for these samples. We didn't pay for any of the products that we were giving away not one.

JOZLYN MILLER

That is so… That was not your friend to begin with. I just want to point that out, and I'm happy you guys are no longer friends, because that's too much. 

SABRINA ROBINSON

I was called nefarious, so I said not nefarious (lol), 

JOZLYN MILLER

So does that make you second think? You know, I don't know, collaborating with people?

SABRINA ROBINSON

No, I got on the internet and then I made a sale on my website and we put the codes for the sale as “100 samples.” So if you put the code in you got a discount on anything you bought that day. 

JOZLYN MILLER

(laughing) Stop! That's so petty. I'm sorry, haha 

SABRINA ROBINSON

I should have made the code nefarious. That's the next code.

(both laughing)

Save 10% off Threo skin. If you can spell nefarious correctly.  

JOZLYN MILLER

Um, that is the best story. I did not expect you to say that man, that was not your friend. Okay, last question that I have for you. Um, how does Sabrina, how do you look at success? What is defined as success for you?

SABRINA ROBINSON

Being able to put people in a position to win other people anybody, anybody, whether it be my clients. Yeah, you have acne. I have had clients who did not want to go outside. I get that they were sleeping with ice packs on their face. Pain, depression, whatever, having them come to the studio with no makeup on feeling good about this, so putting them in position to win and feel better.

I've had clients who said they didn't feel confident getting in front talking to people because they felt like people were staring at their acne. Building up confidence to propose to their fiance. So, stuff like that so whatever you find winning is, I like to put people in a position to feel better about themselves. Yes, and also, if you want to laugh at me on the internet to make you feel better about yourself, do that too, because I'm chaotic.

JOZLYN MILLER

Look, I'm going to follow you as soon as this is over, because I am. I want it's a movie I already know. I can tell from our conversation today it's a literal movie and I tell all my business on the internet.

SABRINA ROBINSON

Felicia keep telling me to get close friends. I want to be invited to the close friends I'm not getting close friends.I want everybody to know, everybody can know it's open, all my clients know, my business, they be laughing at me in my face.

JOZLYN MILLER

I love that, I love that. So, yeah, I think that's a beautiful way to define success. Yeah, absolutely everybody winning. 

SABRINA ROBINSON

Everybody. Life is short. There's enough clients for everybody. There's enough money for everybody, there's enough love for everybody. We don't have to get on the internet, you don't have to be nefarious, right, you could win, too.

JOZLYN MILLER

Everybody could win. I love it. Well, it was such a pleasure speaking with you. I don't think I've laughed this much in like a 30-45 minute period, but you have literally been amazing and I'm so happy that we were able to talk today.

SABRINA ROBINSON

Yes, and whoever wants drinks come to Threo.

JOZLYN MILLER

And for the audience, I would love for you to tell all the listeners if they want to follow you. If they want to, you know, follow your Instagram, know about you, know your website. How can they find you?

SABRINA ROBINSON

Okay, to find me and my chaotic life, it’s supposed to be a business Instagram, but it's Sabrina Lynn Skin. I have pictures of my clients on there, but if you go to my stories it's a hot, chaotic mess. If you want to see the professional side of us, go to Threo skin, where Felicia manages all of that on our lovely instagram under Threo skin. If you want the tea, go to Sabrina Lynn Skin and if you want to book an appointment, go to Threoskin.com.

JOZLYN MILLER

I love it. Thanks love, everything was amazing today. You're amazing.

SABRINA ROBINSON

You know, we try.

(both laughing)

You should sit with us

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