A Beauty Shop and the Law of Attraction

A place of beauty
by Mark Wigmore

Jacqueline Brisdon is writing a thank-you note to her long-time staff member, Yukiko. They are celebrating three years together in a curious but wonderful workspace: a 700-square-foot addition off Brisdon’s North Vancouver home, called Serenity Studios.

Brisdon is has been an aesthetician for nearly three decades. Beauty by Jacqueline boasts over 400 clients, and a regular and varied staff who offer manis and pedis, guided meditation and massage or even Botox and cosmetic tattooing.

“It’s a lot of fun, it’s actually not work. I wake up every day looking forward to seeing what my day will bring,” the cheerful and charismatic Brisdon explains from her home office. “I don’t even advertise – it’s all word of mouth. Most of my clients now … it’s almost like girlfriends.”

Her life, family and vocation have come together as one, mainly due to the business being on her home premises. “I can choose my hours, my days, I can move things around when I need to,” she says. “I can put my family first and then my work. There’s a ton of flexibility.”

Nearly a decade ago, in cramped quarters, Brisdon wanted a place to call her own. “I was sharing a one-bathroom home that was 1,200 square feet with four other people and at that time had 160 clients,” she explains. “There were people pulling up in Jaguars and Mercedes, so obviously I was doing something right.”

Brisdon credits much of her success to a “mastermind” group of women who help each other with ideas, positive thinking and visualization techniques, based on the Law of Attraction (the central principle of the philosophy of The Secret). With experience all over the West Coast and a stint in Hawaii, learning and training in the ways of beauty, Brisdon had a vision for her new life and home. She had even included the workspace on her “vision board,” (a collage of images used by Law of Attraction proponents as a visualization tool to attract their wants and needs to them).

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