Beauty Behind The Brand

Hosted by Nicole Manion

Business Arts

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Episodes

153

Latest episode

Oct 2026

Language

EN-US

About the show

Welcome to Beauty Behind The Brand , the podcast where entrepreneurship meets real life. I'm your host, Nicole Manion—founder of Miskoka Beauty, entrepreneur, and boy mom. After spending over a decade building and successfully selling my spa business, I've learned that every brand has a story, every pivot has a purpose, and every challenge holds a lesson. Each week, I take you behind the scenes of building a business, growing a personal brand, navigating motherhood, embracing mindset, and creating a life that aligns with your biggest goals. You'll hear honest conversations about entrepreneurship, marketing, product development, social media, leadership, resilience, and the realities that happen behind the highlight reel. Whether you're a beauty professional, business owner, aspiring entrepreneur, or simply someone chasing a dream, this podcast is here to educate, inspire, and remind you that success isn't about having the perfect path—it's about having the courage to keep moving forward. Welcome to the journey. I'm so glad you're here.

Listen to episodes

60 recent

October 13, 2026Episode 719 min

So You Want to Start a Beauty Brand? Here’s What No One Tells You

Send us your feedback about the episode! Have a product idea but no idea how to actually turn it into something you can sell? After receiving a listener question about how I developed Miskoka Beauty products, I wanted to pull back the curtain on what creating a beauty product actually looks like. In this episode, I’m sharing what I’ve learned from years of product development—from finding manufacturers and developing custom formulations to sampling, packaging, Health Canada compliance, pricing, margins, minimum order quantities and all of the unexpected costs that come with bringing a product to market. I also share some of the mistakes I made along the way, why your manufacturing cost is only a fraction of your true product cost, and why I believe you need to think about how you're going to sell the product before you manufacture thousands of units. If you've ever thought, “I have an idea for a product… but where do I even start?” —this episode is for you. Subscribe for New Episodes Every Tuesday! Be sure to check us out on all our socials: Follow on Instagram: @beautybrandpodcast https://www.instagram.com/beautybrandpodcast/ Subscribe on Youtube: @beautybehindthebrandpodcast https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCEl-qd38M4OgL8IghZ8ga9g Website: https://www.miskoka.com/beauty-behind-the-brand Follow our host on Instagram: @nicmanion https://www.instagram.com/nicmanion/

October 6, 2026Episode 639 min

How I Went From Aesthetician to Beauty Brand Founder

Send us your feedback about the episode! “What do you do for work?” That question used to be easy to answer: I own a spa. Now? The answer is a little more complicated. With James starting daycare and Nicole stepping into a new season of work and motherhood, she's taking you behind the scenes of what she actually does for a living and what running Miskoka Beauty really looks like. In this episode of Beauty Behind the Brand , Nicole goes all the way back to the beginning: identifying gaps in the lash industry while working as an aesthetician, experimenting with products inside her own spa, officially launching Miskoka Beauty in 2019, attending trade shows, navigating some very expensive inventory lessons, and eventually growing the company into a beauty brand sold through retail, wholesale and distribution channels across Canada. She shares the parts of building a physical-product business that you don't always see on Instagram: formulation, testing, manufacturing, inventory, warehousing, shipping, Health Canada compliance, GS1 barcodes, cash flow, minimum order quantities, pre-orders, distributor relationships and knowing when it's time to discontinue products that aren't selling. Nicole also talks about why she chose to formulate products rather than simply putting the Miskoka Beauty name on existing formulas, how the spa became a real-world testing ground for new products, and why she's still reformulating and educating herself instead of settling for something that's simply “good enough.” Plus, she's sharing some of the mistakes she made along the way including ordering WAY too many student kits, navigating a product recall, carrying too many SKUs and learning the hard way that inventory sitting on a shelf is really just cash sitting on a shelf. Today, Nicole's work looks very different from spending every day in a treatment room. It's forecasting inventory, working with manufacturers, developing products, supporting distributors and wholesalers, creating education, troubleshooting, managing launches and figuring out how to make Miskoka Beauty more profitable and scalable. If you're an aesthetician, beauty professional, spa owner or aspiring founder who's ever thought, I would love to create my own product one day, this episode gives you an honest look at what happens behind the brand. Because creating the product is only the beginning. Subscribe for New Episodes Every Tuesday! Be sure to check us out on all our socials: Follow on Instagram: @beautybrandpodcast https://www.instagram.com/beautybrandpodcast/ Subscribe on Youtube: @beautybehindthebrandpodcast https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCEl-qd38M4OgL8IghZ8ga9g Website: https://www.miskoka.com/beauty-behind-the-brand Follow our host on Instagram: @nicmanion https://www.instagram.com/nicmanion/

September 24, 2026Episode 59 min

I Thought I Needed the City to Be Successful

Send us your feedback about the episode! For a long time, I thought moving to the city might give me more of what I was craving as an entrepreneur, more connections, more opportunities, more networking and a bigger environment to grow in. But every time I drove back to Muskoka, I realized something: the city never really felt like home. In this episode of Beauty Behind the Brand , I’m talking about my experience splitting my life between Muskoka and Toronto, overcoming my fear of driving to the city when Jon and I were long-distance, and eventually realizing that the life I wanted looked very different from the one I thought I was supposed to want. Now, especially in this season of motherhood, family and entrepreneurship, being close to family, having a strong community and living at a slower pace have become more important to me than being in the middle of everything. We’re also talking about choosing where you live based on the life you actually want , not just your career, and why you don’t necessarily need to live in a major city to build something big. A short and sweet episode about success, home, career, family and giving yourself permission to choose the life that feels right for you. Subscribe for New Episodes Every Tuesday! Be sure to check us out on all our socials: Follow on Instagram: @beautybrandpodcast https://www.instagram.com/beautybrandpodcast/ Subscribe on Youtube: @beautybehindthebrandpodcast https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCEl-qd38M4OgL8IghZ8ga9g Website: https://www.miskoka.com/beauty-behind-the-brand Follow our host on Instagram: @nicmanion https://www.instagram.com/nicmanion/

August 25, 2026Episode 425 min

I Don’t Want My Old Life Back… But I Miss Her

Send us your feedback about the episode! Have you ever felt caught somewhere between the person you used to be and the person you're becoming? You're not unhappy. You don't necessarily want your old life back. But something feels unsettled. You're craving growth, change and a new version of yourself and at the same time, parts of your old identity are surprisingly hard to let go of. In this episode of Beauty Behind the Brand , Nicole gets personal about the identity shifts that have come with motherhood, selling the business she built for over a decade, stepping into a different season of entrepreneurship and figuring out what she actually wants her life to look like next. She talks about why missing your old life doesn't necessarily mean you want it back, how certain clothes, routines, careers and relationships can become attached to versions of ourselves, and why becoming the “next version” of you shouldn't mean copying whatever social media says your glow-up is supposed to look like. Nicole also opens up about a previous season of entrepreneurship when, despite appearing successful from the outside, anxiety was impacting everyday parts of her life and some of the habits that helped her reconnect with herself, including movement, visualization, slowing down and creating space to think. From motherhood and business to friendships, routines, hobbies, confidence and redefining success, this episode is about learning to honour who you've been without feeling obligated to stay there. You don't need to completely reinvent yourself overnight. Maybe you're not stuck. Maybe you're simply in the space between who you were and who you're becoming. And maybe the goal isn't to get the old you back at all. Maybe it's giving yourself enough space to meet the new version of you. Subscribe for New Episodes Every Tuesday! Be sure to check us out on all our socials: Follow on Instagram: @beautybrandpodcast https://www.instagram.com/beautybrandpodcast/ Subscribe on Youtube: @beautybehindthebrandpodcast https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCEl-qd38M4OgL8IghZ8ga9g Website: https://www.miskoka.com/beauty-behind-the-brand Follow our host on Instagram: @nicmanion https://www.instagram.com/nicmanion/

August 17, 2026Episode 321 min

There’s No Maternity Leave When You’re the Boss

Send us your feedback about the episode! What does maternity leave actually look like when you're self-employed? In this episode of Beauty Behind the Brand , Nicole opens up about preparing for motherhood while running multiple businesses—and why her version of maternity leave looked very different from the traditional year away from work. Years before having James, Nicole knew that if she wanted the freedom to step away from the treatment room and eventually become a mom, she needed to build a business that didn't depend entirely on her being physically present. She shares how she transitioned clients to other technicians, built a team she trusted, automated systems, delegated responsibilities, prepared distributors and clients ahead of time, and created other streams of revenue that could continue even when she wasn't actively working. Nicole also talks candidly about something you can't completely prepare for: how becoming a mother changes what you actually want. From thinking she'd immediately use daycare or a nanny to realizing she wanted much more time at home with James, this episode explores the reality of balancing ambition, motherhood, mom guilt, childcare and entrepreneurship. Nicole shares practical ideas for anyone preparing for maternity leave while self-employed, including: Getting yourself out of the day-to-day operations of your business Building a team before you actually need one Creating systems and automations Preparing clients, employees and business partners in advance Building online or retail income that doesn't require your physical presence Saving ahead and understanding your monthly expenses Finding ways to reduce overhead while you're away Planning for childcare early Easing back into work instead of expecting everything to immediately return to normal Giving yourself permission to change your plans once your baby arrives Most importantly, this episode is a reminder that you can prepare as much as possible—but you won't fully know what motherhood will look or feel like until you're living it. Build the systems. Save the money. Prepare the business. And then give yourself the freedom to figure out the rest as you go. Subscribe for New Episodes Every Tuesday! Be sure to check us out on all our socials: Follow on Instagram: @beautybrandpodcast https://www.instagram.com/beautybrandpodcast/ Subscribe on Youtube: @beautybehindthebrandpodcast https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCEl-qd38M4OgL8IghZ8ga9g Website: https://www.miskoka.com/beauty-behind-the-brand Follow our host on Instagram: @nicmanion https://www.instagram.com/nicmanion/

August 11, 2026Episode 323 min

You’re Not Lazy, You’re Distracted

Send us your feedback about the episode! Feeling overwhelmed? House a mess? Laundry piling up? Feeling like there are never enough hours in the day? Before convincing yourself you need more time… check your screen time. In this solo episode of Beauty Behind the Brand , Nicole shares what she's noticed since becoming much more intentional about putting her phone down—and how something as simple as one uninterrupted hour can completely change the way a day feels. After coming home from a busy week away to an upside-down house, no groceries, piles of laundry and a never-ending to-do list, Nicole put her phone away and went into reset mode. An hour later, everything felt different. We're talking about the difference between creating vs. consuming , why not all screen time is equal, using your phone as a tool for business without letting it use you, and the small changes Nicole has been making to feel more productive, present and grounded. From charging your phone away from your bed and setting screen-time limits to taking phone-free walks, creating uninterrupted work blocks and simply being more present with the people in front of you, this episode is filled with realistic ways to become more mindful of your phone—without deleting social media or disappearing from the internet. Nicole also shares how she's using AI and ChatGPT to spend more of her screen time creating, planning and growing her business rather than mindlessly consuming. Whether you're a mom, entrepreneur, business owner or simply someone wondering where all your time keeps going, consider this your challenge: Put your phone down for one uninterrupted hour and see what happens. Your phone isn't the enemy. Social media isn't the enemy. It's about deciding where your attention goes. Your attention is valuable. Your time is valuable. Your real life deserves both. Subscribe for New Episodes Every Tuesday! Be sure to check us out on all our socials: Follow on Instagram: @beautybrandpodcast https://www.instagram.com/beautybrandpodcast/ Subscribe on Youtube: @beautybehindthebrandpodcast https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCEl-qd38M4OgL8IghZ8ga9g Website: https://www.miskoka.com/beauty-behind-the-brand Follow our host on Instagram: @nicmanion https://www.instagram.com/nicmanion/

August 4, 2026Episode 220 min

Your Younger Self Would Be So Proud of You

Send us your feedback about the episode! When was the last time you stopped to appreciate how far you've actually come? In this episode of Beauty Behind the Brand , Nicole shares a candid conversation about reflecting on your journey, celebrating the milestones you often forget, and giving yourself permission to stop chasing the next thing for just a moment. From rediscovering old notebooks filled with dreams that eventually became reality, to selling her spa after 10.5 years, building Miskoka Beauty, becoming a wife and mother, and navigating entrepreneurship in a completely new season of life this episode is a reminder that the version of you today is living a life your younger self once only imagined. Nicole also dives into: Why looking back can be one of the most motivating things you do. How journaling, writing ideas down, and manifesting your goals helped shape her journey. The reality of balancing motherhood and entrepreneurship. The "Broken Glass Effect" and how tackling the small things can create momentum in every area of your life. Learning to stop reacting to every notification and making space to think, reflect, and create. Building confidence online, overcoming the fear of being judged, and showing up for your business anyway. Simple mindset shifts to help you feel more productive, less overwhelmed, and more present. Whether you're building a business, raising a family, feeling stuck, or simply needing a reminder that you're doing better than you think, you'll leave this episode feeling encouraged to trust your path, embrace the season you're in, and keep moving forward. Sometimes the biggest motivation isn't looking ahead, t's realizing just how far you've already come. Subscribe for New Episodes Every Tuesday! Be sure to check us out on all our socials: Follow on Instagram: @beautybrandpodcast https://www.instagram.com/beautybrandpodcast/ Subscribe on Youtube: @beautybehindthebrandpodcast https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCEl-qd38M4OgL8IghZ8ga9g Website: https://www.miskoka.com/beauty-behind-the-brand Follow our host on Instagram: @nicmanion https://www.instagram.com/nicmanion/

July 28, 2026Episode 119 min

Why I'm Done With 5-Year Plans

Send us your feedback about the episode! After years of chasing the next goal, building businesses, leading a team, and constantly planning five and ten years ahead, I found myself asking a simple question… What if success isn't about doing more? In this episode, I'm sharing the mindset shift that's been changing everything for me after selling my spa, becoming a mom, and going all in on building a business that supports the life I actually want. We chat about: Why I'm letting go of five and ten-year plans The surprising freedom that came after selling my business How motherhood completely changed the way I work Creating measurable daily goals instead of overwhelming future ones Simplifying life, business, and even my thoughts My honest relationship with screen time and social media How AI has helped me work smarter as an entrepreneur with dyslexia Building a business that gives you freedom not just more work Why slowing down has actually helped me accomplish more If you've been feeling overwhelmed, stuck in hustle mode, or questioning what success really looks like, I hope this conversation reminds you that life doesn't have to be as complicated as we make it. Sometimes the next chapter isn't about working harder. It's about creating a life you don't need a vacation from. Subscribe for New Episodes Every Tuesday! Be sure to check us out on all our socials: Follow on Instagram: @beautybrandpodcast https://www.instagram.com/beautybrandpodcast/ Subscribe on Youtube: @beautybehindthebrandpodcast https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCEl-qd38M4OgL8IghZ8ga9g Website: https://www.miskoka.com/beauty-behind-the-brand Follow our host on Instagram: @nicmanion https://www.instagram.com/nicmanion/

July 14, 2026Episode 1323 min

Why I Sold My Spa After 10.5 Years

Send us your feedback about the episode! After 10.5 incredible years of owning Muskoka Aesthetics, I officially closed one of the biggest chapters of my life. In this episode, I'm taking you behind the scenes of why I made the decision to sell the business I built from the ground up. I share the emotions that came with letting go, the identity shift that followed, and how becoming a mom completely changed the way I define success. This wasn't a story of burnout or failure, it was about recognizing that life has seasons, trusting my intuition, and making room for the next chapter. From the months of negotiations and uncertainty to handing over the keys for the very last time, I'm sharing the parts of the journey that social media never showed. Whether you're an entrepreneur, navigating a major life transition, or simply wondering what comes next after achieving a long-time dream, I hope this conversation reminds you that sometimes the bravest decision isn't holding on, it's knowing when it's time to let go. Thank you for being part of this journey. I'm so excited to share what comes next. Subscribe for New Episodes Every Tuesday! Be sure to check us out on all our socials: Follow on Instagram: @beautybrandpodcast https://www.instagram.com/beautybrandpodcast/ Subscribe on Youtube: @beautybehindthebrandpodcast https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCEl-qd38M4OgL8IghZ8ga9g Website: https://www.miskoka.com/beauty-behind-the-brand Follow our host on Instagram: @nicmanion https://www.instagram.com/nicmanion/

May 28, 2026Episode 1212 min

The Energy Shift Everyone is Feeling

Send us your feedback about the episode! Lately it feels like everyone is entering a new era… and honestly, I don’t think it’s a coincidence. In this episode of Beauty Behind the Brand, Nicole dives into the energy shifts happening lately — from career pivots and identity changes to intentional living, intuition, alignment, and learning how to trust uncomfortable seasons of growth. We chat about: ✨ evolving beyond hustle culture ✨ becoming more intentional with your life & energy ✨ entrepreneurship, burnout & pivoting ✨ trusting your intuition ✨ releasing what no longer aligns ✨ stepping into new opportunities, even when they feel scary Nicole also opens up about personal changes happening behind the scenes, navigating major life transitions, and the mindset shifts that come with growth in both business and life. If you’ve been feeling emotional, reflective, inspired, uncomfortable, or like something big is shifting lately… this episode is for you. Maybe it’s the spring energy. Maybe it’s the moon. Maybe we’re all entering a new chapter. Subscribe for New Episodes Every Tuesday! Be sure to check us out on all our socials: Follow on Instagram: @beautybrandpodcast https://www.instagram.com/beautybrandpodcast/ Subscribe on Youtube: @beautybehindthebrandpodcast https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCEl-qd38M4OgL8IghZ8ga9g Website: https://www.miskoka.com/beauty-behind-the-brand Follow our host on Instagram: @nicmanion https://www.instagram.com/nicmanion/