[00:04:43.670] - Jody Stoski
[00:04:49.420] - Victoria Glam
I watched so much of your content prepping for this interview, and I read other interviews that you've done, which you've been in a lot actually. I never realized I was pronouncing your name wrong until just now.
[00:05:01.030] - Jody Stoski
that's okay. A lot of people say that too. It's totally fine.
[00:05:05.640] - Victoria Glam
Okay, so, Jody, you are—let's just start there. You are a big deal. You are actually, I would call you world famous. So many people know you. And not necessarily everyone knows what paramedical tattoo is, but if you do, you know the name Jody Stosky. So talk to me a little bit about how you got into that. Because before you were actually... You had a very long career in film makeup, right?
[00:05:31.120] - Jody Stoski
Yes.
[00:05:32.050] - Victoria Glam
How did that start?
[00:05:33.590] - Jody Stoski
Well, if we rewind back, I graduated in business but always had a really strong artistic and creative background and come from a long line of entrepreneurial people. So what happened was I started off being an artist as something that I just thought would be fun and got into that bias Chanel, and that's how everything got kicked off. So as time went on, I became more of a freelance makeup artist. And I did not only films, but I really paid my dues with wedding makeups on the weekend. And let me tell you, there is nothing compared to a bride, Zillow, for anything that I deal with today. So I think I was a seasoned vet before I even got started in PMU. And then after that, I was brought on by a company that did fall and winter trends along with spring and summer trends in Europe. So we would travel back and forth there executing those looks. It was a really incredible career for me not only to be in all of those different components, but also in television. So in Calgary, where I lived, there definitely was not a place for a makeup artist full-time like that.
[00:06:57.130] - Jody Stoski
I was really fortunate to have that as part of my entry into PMU. So once that concept came in to my world, I thought, This is such a cool way for me to do what I do all the time with makeup, but on a longer lasting premise. And so the cool thing about that was my whole makeup career, people would always say to me, I just wish I had you in my bathroom every morning and you could do my makeup for me. And then that was really what ended up happening. I have no way of predicting that or thought I would be here today. So that was the quote, the whole notes of pre-PMU. And then when I did decide to get into PMU, it was through a lady who was a physician in Korea but couldn't apply her medical degree in Canada. So she started doing PMU and paramedic surgery. And that was... The paramedical part of it was what interested me the most. I love makeup, and that was a huge part of my life. I thought how cool it would be to execute that request of people saying, I wish you were in my bathroom every morning.
[00:08:11.700] - Jody Stoski
But the paramedical stuff, as it is with so many people, was just like a hard, fast stop. I couldn't believe these things could be done. And the realism of these tattoos, I was just so taken aback that I knew that was something that I really wanted to get into. And I just, with both feet, jumped into that and started training with her. And I actually spent the next four years with her, which is definitely a significant, longer period of time than what you can see people training with today. Not that that is a good or bad thing, because I also think the learning curve has become way more simplified. It's not as steep. I feel like I had to make so many mistakes to get to the place that I was because there was no one to guide me beyond what I had learned. And I think as someone who's creative, I kept thinking how I could take it to the next level. So in doing that, there was a lot of mistakes that were made and concepts that were great and then concepts that weren't so great. And that's what I can provide now is those experiences and learnings that people don't then have to make those types of mistakes.
[00:09:29.090] - Jody Stoski
And I think that's one of the beautiful things about paramedical tattooing now, is that you really can achieve the types of results in a much shorter period of time than someone like myself went through that was just trailed blazing and it was like the Wild Wild West. It was nothing like it is now. I mean, people would just absolutely cringe at the way we did some things. And then another person that I got involved with was Linda Dixon. And she was a pediatric anesthesiologist who then turned into more paramedical and cosmetics. And she had more of that medical component that she brought to the table, similar to my other trainer and mentor, but I loved that. I loved that sciencey medical background to really explain to people, and that really makes me tick. So to have someone else in my life like that, training me and guiding me was really unique. I don't think there's a lot of people nowadays that would have that type of experience. So with her, we work together and we would do teachings and a couple of different conferences together. And I can remember showing her microblading and she just like fell off her chair.
[00:10:50.550] - Jody Stoski
It was in Vegas and I just heard... I was talking to Michelle Ruckney the other day and she said, You know who I just bumped into and started talking to? Dr. Dixon, and your name came up and I'm like, Of course she knows you. And we were laughing because Dr. Dixon had said she was the first person to show me microblading and she showed it at this conference and everybody was so freaked out. Like they thought I was crazy, there was no way that this would become a thing. But for me, I was thinking, make up brushes, I would use the proper brush for the proper job. If I needed to do a thin eyebrow or a thin eyeliner, I'm going to be using the specific brush that matches that. I'm not going to be using a big blush brush to create that look. So the whole thing just translated in my mind of paint brushes to needles, needles to paint brushes. And so when I'm thinking, How can I make an eyebrow look really realistic? I eat hairstrokes. Well, it didn't make sense in my mind because smaller needle configurations didn't really exist back then.
[00:11:57.760] - Jody Stoski
And I wasn't really being trained with a traditional tattoo machine because rotary wasn't really a thing yet. So it was like this very coil machine, which I just was like, Oh, my God. I think I need heavy metal music if I'm even going to bust this thing out. It was just such a-.
[00:12:14.950] - Victoria Glam
Remember Will Anthony made his coil machine and it had the WA welded into the design? I wanted one of those so bad. By the time I could afford one, I didn't need it.
[00:12:26.790] - Jody Stoski
I love it. But I was scared of that. And it was learning that was me exposing myself to body tattoos and body tattoos hate us.
[00:12:37.060] - Victoria Glam
They're mean.
[00:12:38.130] - Jody Stoski
They have. Yeah, I just thought, How am I going to do that? I had approached multiple artists like that, and they said one of the common answers I got was.
[00:12:49.280] - Victoria Glam
Well.
[00:12:49.900] - Jody Stoski
I need you to... You can come in and you can be an apprentice, but you basically have to be a shop cleaner for a year. I was like, No, I don't have that time to be a shop... No, I don't want to live in this world. I just want to learn this certain component of it. But that just... They don't operate that way. They don't think. So that was a dead end for me with that. But getting back to microblading, I was like, Oh, my God, I can manually do this. This makes sense in my head. Plus, it's this tiny little configuration of needles that I could then create this little line, which I could then translate into a brow, which I could translate to a brow that looked realistic and the rest of it. I was just... Sorry, my other phone, my other line was just ringing. No worries. I could then translate what I was imagining an eyebrow to look in a tattoo as realistically as I could. And even when I look back at some of my work, I mean, there's definitely a fair share of horrendous stuff, but I could see the concept coming together right away with what I was doing.
[00:14:03.190] - Jody Stoski
And obviously that evolved, but I was thinking on the exact same lines right to start with as to a lot of the ways that I think now and the way that other artists teach and train. So it's interesting to look back for as horrible as some of it is. There are some really good things and things that I still do today because I've been doing this since 2008.
[00:14:26.320] - Victoria Glam
Oh.
[00:14:26.700] - Jody Stoski
Wow.
[00:14:27.120] - Victoria Glam
Okay, yeah. Well, I did read that in several places, so it must be true, that you have serviced over 10,000 services. 10,000.
[00:14:38.180] - Jody Stoski
Over 10,000? I want to say that has exponentially grown. Those numbers were thrown out, I bet you five years ago.
[00:14:50.080] - Victoria Glam
Oh, wow. Yeah.
[00:14:52.160] - Jody Stoski
And I think people are just like, Oh, she's exaggerating. It's not. If you saw my database of clients, it would literally blow your mind. But again- What do you mean by that? Just kidding. One day at a time. How do you eat an elephant? It's just one bite at a time. And that is how I grew that. I was one of the fortunate people to get into this industry right at ground level.
[00:15:18.770] - Victoria Glam
I wanted to ask you about that, actually. How were you introduced to the concept of paramedical tattooing?
[00:15:26.600] - Jody Stoski
Right with the first physician that I trained with.
[00:15:29.760] - Victoria Glam
So in Huddlingup. How did you have linked up?
[00:15:32.720] - Jody Stoski
Well, she was doing tattooing in Calgary, and I had seen her for my eyebrows. And this was back in the day where the concept of it... If I told people that, they'd be like, Absolutely no idea what I'm talking about. Like, ever, ever. They'd be like, You're what? You're tattooing your face. It was just beyond any type of idea that they could fathom. And so she had said to me, Isure she knew I was a makeup artist and she said, You know what? I think you'd be really good at this. You should train with me, et cetera, et cetera. And that's how that got started.
[00:16:07.700] - Victoria Glam
I hear that pretty often from students and from colleagues who say, Oh, yeah, I was introduced to this when I was getting my own brows done. People told me the other possibilities, the other things that you could do. How did you meet Linda, Dixon? And did you actually go to Hawaii and train with her?
[00:16:23.670] - Jody Stoski
Yes, I've been to Hawaii so many times to see her. It's ridiculous. I was on the Academy of Micropigmentation Board. I was a fellow for a long time. So back in the day, and I don't know if this is still how it exists, but you would get this textbook this thick and you'd go through it, learn everything, and then you'd be tested. And if you didn't get 90 or above, you wouldn't be a member. And then I did really well on that test. I think she liked what I had to offer and where my thoughts were going with this and asked if I wanted to be on the board. So I was. And there were some really cool things that were being talked about, like forensic tattooing and identifying people with tattoos. It was just such a crazy time of how people were integrating different things into that world. It was fun.
[00:17:14.540] - Victoria Glam
That's amazing. Okay, so I didn't realize that she had actually reached out to you, and it was based on basically being like an A student. Were you that way in school? Have you always been like a teacher's pet? I'm so jealous of your relationship with Linda, Dickson.
[00:17:28.900] - Jody Stoski
Oh, my God. I was the farthest thing from a teacher's pet. I got in trouble a ton. I didn't like going to class. I skipped a lot. If I could ever get somebody to do my homework for me, I was like in...
[00:17:45.110] - Victoria Glam
That's so funny. I cannot relate. I really wanted an A and I really wanted a pat on the head. Good job. You did a good job.
[00:17:53.990] - Jody Stoski
Well, you know what? I will honestly say that I was only like that in this industry, and I think because I was just soI was so passionate about it that it wasn't that I was trying to be that way. I was just so invested and I wanted to learn absolutely everything I could about it, and that's what that ended up looking like. But it certainly wasn't like that in school for me.
[00:18:13.060] - Victoria Glam
I've seen you speak before about your own thyroid cancer and the connection that you have to paramedical tattooing because you tattooed your own scar, right?
[00:18:23.120] - Jody Stoski
Yes.
[00:18:24.400] - Victoria Glam
Were you nervous to do that? Because, of course, our work is a showcase, right? Everywhere you go, you'll be the girl who tattooed her own, I don't know, is it your throat? Is it your upper chest?
[00:18:34.170] - Jody Stoski
My throat, yeah.
[00:18:35.370] - Victoria Glam
Oh, how did you tattoo your own throat? What were you thinking? Were you angry, nervous?
[00:18:39.530] - Jody Stoski
Well, I mean, here's the thing. Before I had cancer, I had tattooed my face many times because it was way back in 2008 or 2009 that nobody was doing this. I had nobody to go to, but I wanted these procedures done. So it's like when push comes to shove, I thought, Well, we'll give it a whirl. And I tattooed everything. I've tattooed my brows, my eyes, my lips before. Not that I recommend that, but then leading into having a really big scar across my throat, tattooing that... It's not even a sense of being nervous or anything. I just love experimenting on myself and seeing what's going to work and doesn't work. And I thought, Well, you know what? Whatever. If it doesn't go well, I'll just move on to the next thing and see what I can do to fix it.
[00:19:27.020] - Victoria Glam
I love that about you. You're basically an alchemist. You just take what you've got and turn it into something else. Or if that doesn't work out, turn it into something else. It seems like you've done this your entire career. Hey, when you got that diagnosis, did you already have children?
[00:19:41.950] - Jody Stoski
Yes.
[00:19:42.990] - Victoria Glam
You have Ryder, because I found his Instagram by accident. Yes. Who else? I'm sorry, what?
[00:19:51.250] - Jody Stoski
Lincoln.
[00:19:52.050] - Victoria Glam
Lincoln. Okay, cut out. So do they have any part in your business? Because I know Kevin works with you.
[00:19:59.360] - Jody Stoski
So my husband, Kevin, does work with me. And that's probably about a couple of years old now. He was in oil gas before. I don't know if he will ever have anything to do with my work. They're just not interested in it. You should have had a girl and then she could have been in.
[00:20:19.040] - Victoria Glam
Your business.
[00:20:19.820] - Jody Stoski
And that would have been cool for sure, but it's not how the cards played out, which is totally fine. They think it's cool what I do. I've tattooed my son Ryder and I do treatments on not my youngest, Lincoln, because he's only 15, but on my husband and Ryder. So yeah, they can't run from me.
[00:20:41.600] - Victoria Glam
That's amazing. I have two sons also, and I hired them. They work for me already, and they're four and five, but they do little things. They vacuum the shop, they put SKU stickers on things in the warehouse. They do little things. And it just goes into a little investment account for them. But one of them last year, last summer, was actually trying to do S&P on a... A cantalow? I couldn't think of the word. And he was like, This is so cool, Mommy. I want to be like you. And I knew right then and there it was great that I didn't have a girl because I think that I would damage a girl's psyche. I'm too intense. I think that I would make her very insecure by accident. But with boys, I'm just like, Toughen up.
[00:21:24.790] - Jody Stoski
Get together. I think it's so.
[00:21:27.520] - Victoria Glam
Cool that you bring the family into it. Even if it's Kevin who works with you day to day and not the kids, I think that's a model that I've seen across several different really successful couples, and it seems to really work. My husband's in oil and gas. He's an engineer in the oil field. He doesn't work with me in my business, but he does everything around the business. He built the shop for me. He fixes things all the time. He'll be coming with me. We're going to the UK PMU conference and we're going to woolop. I love that. But how did that conversation start that you were like, Okay, listen, Mr. Oil and Gas Man, I need your help in my beauty business. Is that how it went down?
[00:22:04.970] - Jody Stoski
Well, not exactly. So this is... Covid started and my husband got Ramsey Hunt, which people are now more familiar with because it's what Justin Bieber had. It's odd. They don't necessarily know why you get it, but essentially it's shingles in your ear, which really affects your facial nerves and a host of other things. But it completely paralyzed Kevin's face. He looked like he had a stroke and an extreme one. I bet his face was about an inch lower from one side, and some people never regain that to come back. So it was a pretty scary time, and his position in oil and gas was procurement. And he would be working on deals that were worth hundreds of millions of dollars. And it was a lot and it was high stress. And I think after he suffered Ramsey Hunt, it became a struggle for him to then put himself back into that. And in the midst of it was like, all COVID and crazy and people working from home and the rest of it. So he did it back for a while. And in the meantime, my business is really doing well, and I'm constantly hiring people and then on the back end with marketing, and for me, it's like, yeah, it's great to grow your team, but it also then puts so much more work on my end to make sure those people are doing what they need to do, managing it, making sure nobody's stealing from you.
[00:23:38.420] - Jody Stoski
And it's just one other huge ball of wax to be dealing with. And so as Kevin, I can tell, is struggling a little bit. Hold on, I turned my oven off.
[00:23:56.420] - Jody Stoski
Oh, okay. Okay, sorry, Victoria.
[00:24:24.860] - Victoria Glam
No worries.
[00:24:27.850] - Jody Stoski
Okay, so back to Kevin. So I actually consulted one of my super good friends, Shay, Danielle, who I know that you have done another podcast with recently. Her and Blaire, her husband, worked together. And I called her and I thought, Okay, this is what I'm thinking. What are your thoughts? Help me out. Is this something that I should do to ask Kevin if he wants to come work with me? Because I was nervous about.
[00:24:55.570] - Victoria Glam
That.
[00:24:56.690] - Jody Stoski
Other relationship and then it damaging our marriage being... You know, we're not doing too much together and the rest of it as you would, right? Yeah. She had said to me, it's actually made Blaire and I's marriage even better. And one of the things that stood out to me is that they do very different things. Like, a day in the life of Kevin and the day in the life of Jodi are very different. They don't actually collide very often. I mean, we definitely talk about business and have to run through different things, but all in all, it's fairly separate and it works so well. What he brings to the table and what I bring to the table really complete the whole picture.
[00:25:40.680] - Victoria Glam
Are there boundaries carved out there? Like, you know what? On date night, we do not talkabout, almost like having a newborn baby. Don't talk about the baby. This is a date night. Does that happen or do you... I don't know, some people I think that's almost erotic for them like, Oh, yeah, let's talk about this new deal we're going to sign. Uh-oh, what's happening?
[00:25:57.720] - Jody Stoski
Okay, so when we first started doing this, I think we were both so excited that I feel like we talked about work non-stop. I'd come home and I'd be like, Hey, I had this idea, and he would say, This happened today, and we were so excited talking about it. But then the honeymoon phase of that wore off. Let my dog out. I'm so sorry. This is the problem of being at home.
[00:26:28.080] - Victoria Glam
I love it.
[00:26:29.720] - Jody Stoski
So where was I at? What was I just talking about?
[00:26:32.800] - Victoria Glam
You were talking about setting boundaries.
[00:26:34.610] - Jody Stoski
Oh, yes. So once the honeymoon phase came to an end and I'd come home from work being really exhausted and all just worked out, Kevin would come up to me and be like, Oh, because he doesn't see me all day. So he has all these things that he wants to talk to me about, ask me this, ask me that. And I just said, hey, listen, when I come home from a day at work, we're done. We're not talking about work anymore. And how that played out was... I didn't actually say that for a while. I come home and I'd say I can't talk about work right now. I just need to decompress. I'm peopleed out and the rest of it. And then I just noticed that that was much better for me. So I said, okay, once I'm done work, I'm done work. And he really respects that. But it took a minute to figure out that that was what I needed. Even now, if I'm not working in a day, he knows that he can just have me for a very small percentage of that because I have other things that I want to do, and I need that time as well.
[00:27:37.820] - Jody Stoski
But I do think if we had to work side by side together, it probably wouldn't be healthy. But the reason this works and the reason why it's really successful and great is because we have such different roles within the work scope. And there's two businesses to manage. We have Sinema and Girl Clinic, which is my brick and mortar, all tattoo, all artists, all admin, all marketing. That's a big chunk. And then the other big chunk is the academy where I'm teaching all paramedical and managing the students that we have in over 40 countries. So that's crazy. And just the social media aspect of both businesses, it is a very full-time job. That's a.
[00:28:18.860] - Victoria Glam
Whole other job. Yeah, that's what I was going to say. That's a whole other job.
[00:28:23.050] - Jody Stoski
Kevin would say all the time, it was a feather in my hat. He would say, I cannot believe how you did this by yourself. It's like, How are you doing it? And I said, Well, the reality of it is that I was drowning, which is why I continued to keep hiring people. So it probably wouldn't have been long before the whole wheels fell off and roll with everything. And I think I would just have to really scale back and not be where I am today because it's just not humanly possible and there is zero work-life balance within that.
[00:28:55.310] - Victoria Glam
Yeah, we have such a high rate of burnout. We really do. And I think we see it a lot in turnover inside the business. It might not be the head of the business that leaves. Even though we're burnt out, we're so intrinsically married to every aspect of the business, we are the brand. It's very difficult to step away from. But the amount of people that cycle through a business, I think, just is showing you how much burnout is actually in that business. If somebody has new staff every six months, there's probably not very good boundaries in that business.
[00:29:26.110] - Jody Stoski
Yeah. And I think another thing is when people are starting off, a lot of times, just even with me, you're a one-man show. So you're the marketing, you're the artist, you're the accountant, you're the janitor. And it's no wonder that you burn out and people get... It's frustrating. Then you're trying to generate business and new leads and the rest of it, and it just piles up to a point where you get it, people break and they think it's too much work. Because being an entrepreneur can be very different than what people think being an entrepreneur can be.
[00:30:00.400] - Victoria Glam
Yeah. And growing is a problem too. Everybody wants to grow, and that's the goal, right? Oh, I want a bigger business because that means more revenue. That means I can serve more clients and make more money. Everybody's happy, right? Except that as it gets bigger, like you were just saying, you have to hire more people. And as you're hiring more people, if you make mistakes while you're growing that business and take a financial hit, you're still responsible for the salaries of all those people. I mean, it just becomes difficult. So Kevin is also a business consultant. Does he consult for independent businesses too?
[00:30:32.070] - Jody Stoski
Not for money. I think Kevin is so good at what he does. A lot of people always ask him for advice and tips and tricks, which he always gives, but he's never taken on a client. To be honest, he doesn't have time.
[00:30:47.730] - Victoria Glam
Yeah, that's what I was going to say. So did he basically tell you, Okay, this is how we fix this, while you were hitting these little bumps while you're growing?
[00:30:56.610] - Jody Stoski
As far as a business, like from the business perspective? Well, he came in, and again, we just think so differently. I'm an artist and he's a numbers guy, and he comes in just is probably just blown away and just thinks it's crazy how I've been running things because it's been super willy-nilly, but it's worked and it's been very successful for me, but that is so not how he thinks or the world that he comes from. So when he came in, he started really implementing systems and different strategies for stuff, things I wouldn't have thought of, and that's really turned things in a different direction. And I wouldn't have even been capable of doing that myself. It's just that is not in my wheelhouse, and that is his wheelhouse, which is why, like I was saying before, it's just it works so well. What he does and what I do are very different, but just puts the whole thing together. And yeah, it really works.
[00:31:54.220] - Victoria Glam
How did you guys get into all these different publications? Because you guys have some real... I don't know anybody else who's been in as many publications as you have. Yahoo, BuzzFeed, YCC, your local news, The Daily Mirror, Bloomberg, The Mirror in the UK. I mean, just.
[00:32:12.630] - Jody Stoski
So much. Yeah. So... Here's a fun fact I was... Okay, so first off, let me just start. Let me rewind with the fact that paramedical tattooing is so visual.
[00:32:24.630] - Victoria Glam
Yeah.
[00:32:25.060] - Jody Stoski
So you're scrolling, you tend to stop and look because you're not even sure what you're looking at. Usually if it's a breast without an areola or a massive scar or a feature that's missing from your face that then gets put back on, et cetera, et cetera, it just... It catches you, right? And I think because paramedical is in the.
[00:32:49.130] - Victoria Glam
Newer.
[00:32:49.850] - Jody Stoski
Infancy of its life that it really gets people and they're not quite sure what they're looking at. So so many people had reached out when things would go viral. And I end up on the news all the time. And then that starts to be honest, because once one news picks you up, it often gets put all... For... Nationally, that's happened to me. This is the cool story about how I ended up in a ton of publications and got verified before verification was. Yeah. So I had... Tiktok had come out, and I was really resistant to the idea of getting on it and having to post on one more platform. And all of us were pretty social mediaed out, right?
[00:33:40.510] - Victoria Glam
Yeah.
[00:33:41.080] - Jody Stoski
Hold on. Okay, I'm back. So it's my husband's birthday, December 29th. Now I'm thinking it's a couple of years ago, and he says to me, We're having a chit chat about work, which normally we wouldn't do, but we were sitting around having some drinks and sitting by the fire. And he said, I really think we should get on TikTok. And I was like, Oh, my God, no. Not one more thing. I cannot.
[00:34:13.500] - Victoria Glam
Is this Kevin's idea?
[00:34:15.540] - Jody Stoski
Kevin's idea. Okay, Kevin. Yeah. Oh, yeah, boy. He says, Okay, well, no, I have a TikTok account already set up. And I'm like, Of course you do. So I looked at it, we have seven followers. And I'm just like, This is so ridiculous. I have no desire to go after this. None. And so we're sitting there and I'm like, Okay, you know what? I'm going to make a TikTok tonight. I'll do that. And what I did was I just put together a few before and afters of what I did and showed my thyroid scar, that's always a show-stopper. And people go, You what? Just like you did. You tattooed yourself. That blows people away. And then the second thing is that they can't see my scar anymore. And then that's the... Yeah, it's like the double whammy. So I put together a little compilation, takes me, I don't know, 20 minutes, and I post it. And then we go on about our night and we do whatever. And so later on that evening, I'm like, Okay, well, let's check. Let's look at TikTok again. And I have never been on TikTok. So I don't even know the platform.
[00:35:23.280] - Jody Stoski
I'm nothing. At the bottom of TikTok, there's like a little head, like a little cutout of a head and a... Like a bust, essentially. And that just keeps... The number just keeps turning over and I'm not even sure what I'm looking at. But I ended up with 55,000 followers and international news coverage. For that, it blew up. It went super viral and crazy. And the amount of press and everything that I got from that was just nothing I could have ever dreamed about. It was so exciting. We traveled to Europe last summer and the national news contacted me and I did a live interview with them from Rome. It just turned into some super crazy stuff, which at the end of the day I love because it just shines more light on paramedical tattooing, which is my jam.
[00:36:20.160] - Victoria Glam
So some people say that Mother's Day is the only one that gets attention, not Father's Day, that it's our birthdays and our anniversaries where we get showered on. But I just want to say, won't Jody do it? Her husband asked for one thing for his birthday, and Jody said, Let's make it international. Okay, fine, I'll do it. 20 minutes, that's all she needed. That's amazing. Did your kids freak out when you became famous? Like you're in all these publications and people know you and recognize you? No.
[00:36:51.740] - Jody Stoski
If you talk to anybody that has any type of recognition like that, their kids are always like, Who cares?
[00:36:57.680] - Victoria Glam
I.
[00:36:59.270] - Jody Stoski
Think my kids' friends maybe talk about it more than my kids do. Not that they're embarrassed about it, but they're certainly not walking around going, Hey, my mom's verified.
[00:37:09.080] - Victoria Glam
I worry that they'd be embarrassed. Okay, this is a personal story. I'm being greedy here, asking for your experience for my own self. So I went to open house for my son's pre-K class this year. And then a few days later, a lady DMed me on Instagram and said, Do you have a son in this teacher's class? And I said, Yes, I do. And she said, I saw you at open house. I've been following you for a couple of years, whatever. They're not asking me to do lives from Rome, but people in my town know who I am because nobody else lives their life like this on the internet, constantly posting things that are going on. And I thought that was the first time I really had the thought of like, Oh, are my kids going to be embarrassed that everyone knows who their mom is or that I know everybody? Like, Oh, yeah, I know her. Oh, yeah, I spoke with her. Yeah, never before. Sorry. Sorry that I know all your girlfriend's moms already.
[00:38:03.140] - Jody Stoski
Yeah. I think maybe if it was a girl, it'd be different. Maybe not. But when I've heard other people speak on a much greater level, like a movie star or something that their kids don't ever watch their movies, it's funny. I think they just have a different mentality about it. And what I experience is not anything in comparison to it, but just to hear that their kids at that crazy level are not interested and don't care. I'm like, Oh, yeah, okay. I guess that's normal. But I mean, my kids are that I got verified, but truly their other friends were like, Oh, my God, her mom's verified or whatever. I was still back in the day and now whatever, everybody's- Everybody's verified. Yeah. But in the moment and in that time frame, it was very cool.
[00:38:52.990] - Victoria Glam
That's amazing. Was there ever one specific moment when you felt like, Okay, wow, this business has made it. We're really doing something here.
[00:39:04.810] - Jody Stoski
I don't even know if I feel like that now.
[00:39:09.870] - Victoria Glam
No? I think.
[00:39:12.790] - Jody Stoski
I'm always striving for more. I always want to have more students and hear more success stories about them. As far as my business goes, I think when I felt like something had really happened is when I got verified, to be honest.
[00:39:29.780] - Victoria Glam
That was the.
[00:39:32.690] - Jody Stoski
Line in the sand that I go, Wow, something's really happened here. This is really... If you ever tried to get verified or knew what it took to get.
[00:39:43.320] - Victoria Glam
Verified- You had to have a lot of publications.
[00:39:45.930] - Jody Stoski
It's crazy. You have to be published in so many different means of a big mainstream media, whether it's print, television, or usually a combination of both. It was a really big deal. So I think that was my 15 minutes of fame and my time to shine. That was really cool.
[00:40:09.950] - Victoria Glam
I think you have much more than 15 minutes. What about the case that you've worked on with a client that was the most impactful for you? Was there ever a moment where you were like, Wow, I'm so grateful that I could help change this person's life?
[00:40:27.000] - Jody Stoski
Truly, there's so many of them. This one I relate to all the time because I just think it resonated with me so much because of what this gentleman had gone through. I thought, God, what an extreme scenario for him. Then I was the person that potentially got him back on track. It just felt so powerful. He was a pilot who went in for a cancer removal on his upper lip. And what ended up happening, if you know anything about when they are cutting out cancer, they look for margins that are clear. So they essentially continue to cut until they get to clear margins. And then they know it's like, Okay, we're done. We've got this solved. So he enters into this appointment, I think, with anticipating that they'll probably remove some part of this cancer and whatever he's gone. He was not forewarned that it could be something really extreme, which blows my mind. I mean, it's very disfiguring to have part of your face cut off, obviously, and without any type of preparation or notice. I just was like, that sounds like even malpractice to me. But I'm not a physician and I'm not up with what the standards are in that type of scenario, but he left that appointment with his whole upper quarter of his lip gone.
[00:41:52.970] - Jody Stoski
So when you see like a skeleton or someone that has had that burnt off and all your teeth and gums are exposed, it's scary and devastating. So he leaves with all that tissue missing and in preparation to then take a skin graft from his neck, which has beard hair growing in it. And those skin grafts are taken from different areas depending on where they need to be placed. I do tons of skin grafts, it's really common. They cut out this tissue from his neck and they adhere it to that part. The skin is lumpy. It's got this really weird texture. It is so obvious, and for you not to stare at him when you came into his presence would just almost be impossible. It was really, really disfiguring. And of course, he knows it. So he now leaves his job as a pilot on stress leave, disability, whatever that was put under. And so now this poor guy is not working. This has affected his life right down to his core. So he came to see me. And so he has no vermilion border lip tissue. The beard is actually from the graft is growing out of his lip.
[00:43:09.230] - Jody Stoski
And the beard tissue that would have been probably great in the beard area is not there. And I mean, physicians can only do so much. I'm sure in a perfect world that would have been great to place the graph like that maybe for whatever reason that didn't work. So he went for laser hair removal on that tissue that needed to be lip. And once that was done, he came and saw me. And what I did was tattoo the tissue with skin color to match. We stippled beard into the area that no longer had beard. And then I re-tattooed the upper quarter of his lip to give him a lip. And seeing him go through that change, I think I saw him probably about three times. The last time I saw him, he was back at work, he was dating, just huge life changes that were so moving. And just I had such a sense of gratitude to be a part of that and be the person that was able to give him confidence back. And where do you get to do that?
[00:44:09.670] - Victoria Glam
Much less do it 10, 15, 20,000 times.
[00:44:15.140] - Jody Stoski
That's.
[00:44:15.910] - Victoria Glam
Amazing. And then I call it the Johnny Apple Seed Effect as an educator. We get to do something and have that one on one experience with our client and see the life change. But then we also teach people how to do it and they change lives. And that was because of a seed we planted even years ago when they took a class with us or whatever, which is a big reason why I always say you can always come back here. I don't care if your class was five years ago. If you want to come take a model here, you can come back here. But how your ripple effects must be out of control because students across, what did you say? 40 countries?
[00:44:51.740] - Jody Stoski
Yeah, I'm just under 45 right now.
[00:44:54.690] - Victoria Glam
Oh, my God. Do you know them all?
[00:44:57.330] - Jody Stoski
I wish. I wish I knew them all. I think that is one of the best things about what I do. And the thing that I'm most passionate and excited about is them having those experiences that I have, because I have them all the time. And I love that and I'll never get sick of that. But then I know that I get to share that with someone else and then they get to feel that and give that to somebody else. That is the best thing about it for sure. And that's why I love educating this because I know that I have the capability to pass that on.
[00:45:33.310] - Victoria Glam
That's so full circle because what you're doing builds a legacy for yourself through these other artists that you're training and the people they will go on to train. And wasn't that the same story with Linda Dixon? That's amazing.
[00:45:47.080] - Jody Stoski
Yeah, it really is. And I think a lot of times it's funny because we really realize in certain circumstances how connected we are. Like, Oh, my God, I train from her and then her.
[00:45:57.030] - Victoria Glam
And.
[00:45:58.070] - Jody Stoski
Tangled web, especially in the paramedical world, because it's a little bit smaller than PMU.
[00:46:03.950] - Victoria Glam
And PMU is already a really small subsect of the population. I think we forget that because we run into so many artists. But actually, if you just walk outside and say, What's PMU? No one can answer you. We're a very small portion of the population, and you're like a 10th of that, if not like a 20th just paramedical.
[00:46:22.330] - Jody Stoski
Totally.
[00:46:23.250] - Victoria Glam
So you're a huge fish in a small pond.
[00:46:27.210] - Jody Stoski
Well, it's just.
[00:46:28.560] - Victoria Glam
Seven Cs. Because it's 45 countries.
[00:46:32.340] - Jody Stoski
And you get it, right? All I live in is this world. So I'm very immersed in what I think is very saturated, which it is because that's all I see and do and walk and talk. But it's true. I lose sight of that to think if I went and walked out today and said, What is paramedical tattooing? Or, What is PMU? I bet you I would get maybe one in 10 people knowing, which is pretty insignificant.
[00:46:58.670] - Victoria Glam
Yeah. I'll even have students who submit their forms, like speak with admissions and talk about taking a class. And we've abbreviated some of the questions on that form that say, have you ever trained in PMU before? And they'll say, what is PMU? So even people who know what permanent makeup is don't necessarily know what we're talking about. I had this very condescending man call me about two years ago, almost, because he does SMP, and he wanted his wife to get trained in microblading or just any PMU. So that at his barbershop, he could do SMP and his wife could do... She could pull the ladies in, basically.
[00:47:40.020] - Jody Stoski
Right.
[00:47:40.350] - Victoria Glam
And he kept telling me how he was going to do the micropigmentation, and she could learn how to do brows. He kept saying it, and he kept saying it. I was calling it S&P, and I was calling it permanent makeup. Finally, he was like, Do you know what micropigmentation is?
[00:47:59.260] - Jody Stoski
Oh, my God.
[00:48:00.350] - Victoria Glam
I said, I know what it is. I'm not certain that you know what it is. Anyway, apparently she was on the phone, but he wouldn't let her talk. He just kept talking over her. And I knew that we were not aligned. I didn't want to work together. I don't like masculine energy in my space. I have a very feminine esthetic here that I like to keep with. Just very chill vibes. Everyone's very aligned. There's never pushback. There's no drama. I like it that way. So I'll turn the student down. That's no problem. But I remember just feeling very confused on that phone call. I thought you were already a licensed artist. Do you actually know what you're talking about? What do you mean do I know what I'm talking about? I literally own a trade school. I know what the pigmentation is.
[00:48:45.630] - Jody Stoski
You right now.
[00:48:47.250] - Victoria Glam
I.
[00:48:48.170] - Jody Stoski
Am legitimately embarrassed for you right now.
[00:48:51.620] - Victoria Glam
Oh, my God. And then we know some of the same people, and somebody kept bringing them up, bringing them up, bring them up. And finally, I was like, You have to stop. You have to stop. I don't want to meet your friend. I don't hang out with your friend. You got to protect your space sometimes, man. You got to protect peace.
[00:49:06.570] - Jody Stoski
That's right. You really do.
[00:49:08.370] - Victoria Glam
But there are so many misconceptions still in this industry, and for as saturated as it is with the things that we currently do, I feel like like you said earlier, it's the Wild West still. There's plenty of things that we haven't even attempted yet that I think are going to become popular. Right now, I think paramedical is on its way up where more people are hearing about it, more people want to do English stretchmark revision. People want to do flesh tone matching with stretch marks and also with burns and all. But it's such a specialty. I was reading some of your posts and some of your comments. You posted one the other day that was a close up of a very texturized stretchmark. And you said, What are some things that you would consider before tattooing this person? And I don't know, because I've never tattooed stretch marks. And I'm reading the comments who had people had opinions. And one of the most notable ones was like, No, I don't think I would put pigment in that because it's so textured. See, I'd never guessed that. And as someone who's always put color in everything I've tattooed, I probably would have just gone right in the flesh tone.
[00:50:16.100] - Victoria Glam
But there's so many complexities to the depth you're working at and how things are going to heal later. It's a very specialized field that you're in and you pioneered it. I feel like we owe you a big thanks for that one. Even testing on yourself. That's crazy. That's crazy. Because like you said, there was nowhere for you to learn it from. You had to just figure it out.
[00:50:36.920] - Jody Stoski
Yeah. Well, on behalf of me and my body, you're welcome. No problemo.
[00:50:43.110] - Victoria Glam
Let me get you a trophy. That's so funny. Well, Jody, what is next for Sinema and Girl tattoo?
[00:50:52.330] - Jody Stoski
Well, I still love being in clinic and doing services. 50 % of my day is paramedical and 50 % of my day is cosmetic, and I love that blend. I work three days right now in my clinic, and then I also work in plastic surgery on Fridays doing restorative areola tattoos. So possibly stepping back and being a little bit less busy is a nice thought for me, but I love the education part of it. I think I'll always have the brick and mortar aspect of things, but to continue to train and spread the word of paramedical and teach students how to do this because it really is life-changing. And a lot of the physicians don't know this exists. And I think there's a massive gap in the market when a physician does an incredible surgery or be it a mastectomy or a revision or what have you, that then can still leave a person feeling really hollow and not confident and able to potentially get over the stress and the trauma of that incident. And being able to close a chapter for that person with paramedical tattooing is so important. And if you could do it and educate people that it exists, why wouldn't we want to share that with everybody?
[00:52:15.020] - Victoria Glam
Yeah. You know what I think you need to do?
[00:52:18.680] - Jody Stoski
Tell me.
[00:52:20.600] - Victoria Glam
I think that you should have your own board specifically concentrated on paramedical.
[00:52:26.880] - Jody Stoski
Actually, that's a great idea. The one thing that I have that I love right now is a study hall where all my students join and collaborate and talk about their wins and challenges. And it's a really cool place to be because I get to see so many more cases and how they and have other students weigh in like, Oh, I've done this and that. And that's just another bigger platform to continue to learn. And I learn stuff from their everyday. So having a board of people to weigh in on is a cool idea. I have so much free time that'd be no I.
[00:53:03.250] - Victoria Glam
Give it to Kevin.
[00:53:05.600] - Jody Stoski
That's so much free time. Maria said I should have a board. Let's do that. He'll be like, Oh, my God.
[00:53:11.900] - Victoria Glam
I mean, why not? You're the name, you're the authority. There's a lot of people out there still testing things, and we don't have to test as much anymore.
[00:53:20.200] - Jody Stoski
You don't.
[00:53:21.170] - Victoria Glam
You don't. Well, Jody, thank you so much for giving me some of your time today while you're baking, and the dog is home, and everything else. It's a pleasure to chat with you. You're very fun. You're very laid back and I appreciate that about you. I was nervous for this interview because I thought, Oh, my God, we've never met in person. We don't really hang out. I hope that she's kind. And you're even more than that. You're nicer than I ever imagined. Thank you so much for taking time out for me and my tiny podcast.
[00:53:51.910] - Jody Stoski
Oh, my God. Well, you are too kind to say all that stuff. Thank you. I love chatting. I love doing podcasts and having just a couch conversation with people. It's fun and different. Yeah, I never get tired of that. Anytime, my friend.
[00:54:08.690] - Victoria Glam
Where can people find you?
[00:54:10.580] - Jody Stoski
If you're looking to learn paramedical, you can find me at Jody Stoski on Instagram. And if you are looking to get tattooed by me, you can find me at Cinnamon and Girl Clinic. I am in Calgary, Alberta, Canada.
