Renee shifted from bedside nursing to esthetics to align her work with her personal values and health. The throughline of her story is simple and repeatable: self-care is a system, not a luxury.
Background and Motivation
Renee grew up in North Haven, Connecticut, and entered nursing for job security. She valued reliable work and a clear path to serve others. Over time, a parallel desire took shape.
She “always desired self employment,” and she grew uncomfortable with ethical dilemmas she encountered in the healthcare system. That tension pushed her to consider a different setting.
Further, her observations of colleagues added urgency. She noticed many nurses skipping lunch, delaying bathroom breaks, and putting patients first at the expense of basic needs.
It also clarified a future role for her: show people simple, accessible self-care that fits into real life, not as an afterthought but as part of the service itself.
The Work (Decisions, Tools, Constraints)
Renee chose esthetics because it let her stay close to care while gaining control over tempo and environment. She enrolled in a one-year esthetics program and kept a 9–5 corporate job to maintain income.
After completing training, she opened her own esthetics practice (Unlimited Potential) and saw clients during evenings and weekends. She built skills, tested demand, and protected cash flow.
Each lever served a purpose: education for capability, employment for stability, and part-time practice for proof of concept.
In 2015, Renee relocated her studio 30 minutes from the original site. The move increased stress and affected her health, and that period became a pivot.
She “realized [she] needed to step back from trying to achieve so much all at once” and turned inward to rebuild routines. She “immersed [herself] in learning self-care practices” and made consistency the focus.
Those choices shaped her client experience. Sessions became a place to practice calm and leave with something practical.
She began integrating “simple, accessible self-care routines” that clients could use between visits. Retreats entered the mix when appropriate. The business now reflected the life she was trying to live, which reinforced credibility when she taught the same practices to others.
The 2015 Reset, Then 2020: From Shock to Validation
The 2015 health reset set the philosophy. The 2020 shutdown tested it.
When the pandemic hit, Renee’s practice was labeled “non-essential,” and she closed for three months.
She described that stretch as “frozen—without income and uncertain of the future—while applying for every grant, loan, and support [she] could.” The constraint was absolute: zero revenue with no clear end date. Her client community changed the trajectory.
“Many…paid in advance for future services and surrounded me with kindness and encouragement.” The business did not operate, but the relationship bank did.
Connecticut allowed reopening in June 2020, “two days earlier than expected,” just before Father’s Day. The response was immediate.
“The moment my doors opened, my phone was buzzing nonstop with clients eager to return.” What began as the hardest season flipped into confirmation of demand and trust.
She framed it plainly: the period “transformed into a blessing,” and it reminded her of “the deep trust, loyalty, and love within [her] community.”
Outcomes and Evidence
Renee’s outcomes are relationship-based and operational.
First, her client base demonstrated resilience: advance payments during closure and a surge in demand at reopening.
Second, her operating system held under stress. The self-care routines she adopted in 2015 helped her pause, reassess, and move through uncertainty without burning out.
Third, her message clarified. She saw the same overextension in nursing peers that once affected her. That insight strengthened her offer: sessions that restore in the room and routines that sustain at home.
The qualitative proof shows up in behavior, not slogans. Clients who prepaid signaled trust. Clients who returned immediately signaled value. Renee’s own boundaries and habits turned from a private fix into a public curriculum. As she puts it, “I now feel compelled to share these techniques with others so they, too, can nurture their health and well-being.”
What We Can Learn From Renee’s Story. Tips to Consider:
- Define non-negotiables. Protect sleep, meals, and movement before adding output.
- Start small. Add one repeatable self-care habit per week and track adherence.
- Build while you earn. Train for the next role while keeping income stable.
- Use constraints as design input. Relocations and closures reveal system gaps.
- Ask for community support. Invite clients and peers to help when help is useful.
- Align offers with lived experience. Teach only what you practice consistently.
- Expect setbacks. Treat them as tests of demand and trust, not verdicts on worth.
- Keep ethics central. If a setting conflicts with your standards, redesign the setting you control.
Renee’s advice to other nurses mirrors that playbook: “Follow your heart, know what you want to put out to the world and proceed! Do what you love and the money will come!”
What’s Next
Renee plans to grow her social media audiences, share valuable content consistently, and develop a course or program to promote through those channels.
Her nursing background remains an asset. It gives context for the problem and credibility for the solution. As she notes, that background “gave me credibility to share self-care techniques in a meaningful way.”
The future state extends that credibility online and into structured learning while her studio continues to serve clients face-to-face.
More About Renee (aka… The Bio)
Renee Baldo is a registered nurse with over 25 years of experience, dedicated to supporting health and wellness throughout every stage of life.
After decades in nursing, she transitioned into aesthetics, where her passion for helping others extends beyond skin care to the deeper practices of stress management, balance, and self-care.
Renee believes that healthy skin is a reflection of overall well-being, and she integrates her medical knowledge with holistic techniques to nurture both body and mind.
Through customized treatments and education, she empowers clients to embrace rituals that restore balance, regulate the nervous system, and cultivate radiant skin from the inside out. Her approach blends science with mindful care, offering a space for healing, renewal, and long-term wellness.
Where to Find Renee
Website: https://www.upskincare.com
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@skincarerenee
Instagram: http://instagram.com/skincarerenee
YouTube: https://youtube.com/user/reneedermpro
Facebook: http://facebook.com/upskincare
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Thank you, Renee, for sharing your journey and the honest decisions behind it. Your resilience and self-care focus really hit home and will help a lot of nurses. So grateful you shared it with our community.
Thank you Marsha for the opportunity to connect and share.
Wishing you much abundance in your endeavors.