Ask yourself some very important questions and be totally honest with your answers. Why would you take on the extra stress, challenge, and risk of doing smile design if you don’t get a thrill of passion from the results? If the practice of cosmetics doesn’t bring you joy, find what you do feel passionate about and develop that as your vein of gold. Don’t make the mistake of focusing on cosmetics just because it seems popular and you think it may be profitable.

If, however, you can honestly say that enhancing smiles is what makes your heart sing, know this. Like an artist creating a beautiful and moving painting, you will have to invest a bit of your soul in each smile you design. Be sure those smiles will return your investment with interest or your inner account will eventually be overdrawn and you’ll be left with a major, if not terminal case of professional “burn out”.

Another detour that can sidetrack your success is becoming so consumed by the intricate demands of the work itself that you forget to really be present for the pay off. You forget to pause and focus on the person whose life (not just smile) you have enhanced, and really, really feel the joy and deep satisfaction of your accomplishment. It’s a little like always eating on the run—or in front of the TV and never really tasting, smelling and savoring your food. The best part of the experience is lost in the rush. What I am suggesting is that you STOP, look face-to-face with your patient and savor the new countenance your love, artistry, and skill has created. Let yourself feel the deep satisfaction and pleasure of having been given the ability to bless people in this unique and wonderful way. Then, give your patient the gift of celebration. This is a “way cool” moment. Be there for it.

The feelings I’ve seen expressed at this moment range from quiet gratitude to an outpouring of genuine soul healing. I remember, for example, a highly competent surgical nurse who sat with lips trembling and rivers of tears streaming down her cheeks as she confided, “You don’t understand—this is the first time in 46 years I’ve looked in a mirror and liked what I saw.” Wow!

Imagine what it has been like for your patient. She has spent her entire life trying not to smile—policing and squelching her emotions--feeling shame come rushing in on a wave of embarrassment every time a moment of happiness or humor prompted the impulse to smile—carefully closing her lips in every photograph. Dislike of her smile has totally contaminated every single experience of her life’s joy. Now, your skill, caring and artistry has healed a life-long wound to her spirit. You have given her a freedom and release that will change her life forever. Why not savor your own joy in taking part in such a meaningful enrichment to a human life?

At this special moment, she needs to have you and your team validate her choice to do the treatment and to do it with you. Your genuine pride, joy, and pleasure over the outcome will convey your unspoken permission for her to feel her own feelings more freely and intensely. She needs to see your reaction to be fully reassured of the “rightness” of her choice, and when you provide this, the result will be a patient who has become not only a friend, but also a raving fan. You will have a million dollar poster model right in your own community, doing public relations of the most powerful kind. Now that’s effective marketing!

Margaret Titus is available for personal and team coaching through Curtis Marketing Group.

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