Royal and M’Lisa Ellis are living embodiments of overcoming adversity. The husband-and-wife duo had their shares of ups and downs on the yellow-brick road leading to success. Royal was a police officer in Los Angeles for five years before having to retire due to an on-duty injury. M’Lisa started her career in the beauty industry as a makeup artist in 2008 and went on to become a master esthetician before deciding to open her studio in Salt Lake City, Utah. Unfortunately, within months of her grand opening, M’lisa found herself between a rock and a hard place – she wasn’t generating enough revenue.
She had to move into her car because she couldn’t afford both the studio and her apartment. M’Lisa was in the process of opening a second location in LA (which is where she met Royal) before a car accident and nine months of physical therapy afterwards caused her to close the doors. She tried her hand at being a police officer and was two months away from graduation before she broke her foot and had to resign; six months later, Royal suffered his injury.
While the couple didn’t like being injured (of course), they loved the extra time they got to spend together. By then, a thought crossed decided to start Spa Strong, a consulting company that helps spas and clinics get back on track and while doubling their revenue. Royal states, “It worked so well because M’Lisa was coaching before she met me. I told her, ‘You went from surviving to thriving.’
M’Lisa’s ability to teach and guide people toward bettering themselves combined with Royal’s confident communication style, sales knowledge and skills helped build a strong foundation for Spa Strong’s success to simply skyrocket since its inception in 2018.
The ACRE Method
One of the ways Spa Strong assesses how to help their clients is through a strategy they developed called the ACRE Method. Royal and M’Lisa’s philosophy is that to have a profitable, sustainable business, you need to “build it on an ACRE.” “ACRE” is an acronym that stands for Attraction (identify and attract your ideal client to you through effective branding, marketing and visibility techniques, both online and in your community); Conversion (become confident in ethical sales practices to provide the right solutions for your clients’ needs and increase revenue for your business); Retention (ensure clients have an incredible experience so they keep coming back to you again and again), and Expansion (scale your business according to your goals and vision of success).
While the ACRE method has helped countless businesses, the Spa Strong duo realized the technique could be used for so much more. “As we were utilizing our ACRE method, we started having people outside of the beauty business get in contact with us looking for our help,” M’Lisa states. “We do what we do because we love helping businesses grow and owners achieve their goals in their dream businesses and becoming entrepreneurs. I felt like we were doing our skills a disservice by just keeping it within the beauty industry.”
RME Consulting
Slowly but surely, the Ellises expanded their business offerings into what would become RME Consulting. M’Lisa explains, “As consultants, we come in and look over the top of your business because we are not stuck in that day-to-day with all of the emotions and the pressure.” Royal adds, “You are the skydiver, and we are your parachute. We will catch and guide you. We’re your life jacket.” M’Lisa concludes that “Sometimes, we decide to make a plan that doesn’t work out and we get discouraged, so having someone who can help you construct a new plan is very powerful.”
What’s Next?
Looking forward, RME is growing their consulting portfolio, while they are still helping businesses thrive in their respective industries, they are also looking to help these entrepreneurs expand. One way is a new tool that the couple hopes will impact social media management for businesses. This just proves that whatever M’Lisa and Royal come up with next will not only help businesses survive but thrive! rmeconsultinggroup.com
