How Tracy Bradbury rebuilt her life (and business) one bold move at a time

This one’s a banger.

Leanne’s flying solo today (Emma's off...don’t worry, she’ll be fuming she missed this one), and she’s joined by the absolute firecracker that is Tracy Bradbury, founder of Enhance of Cheshire.

Once a Facilities Manager in a high-pressure corporate world, Tracy swapped boardrooms for brows after a life-changing stroke forced her to completely rethink what success looked like. Now? She runs a thriving clinic, makes people feel amazing in their own skin, and shares the kind of straight-talking wisdom most business gurus wouldn’t dare touch.

Expect real talk about:

• The truth behind “I’ll just do it on the side” plans (spoiler: life had other ideas)
• Why being brilliant at your job is non-negotiable
• Visibility, vulnerability and vlogging through lockdown (yes, there were margaritas)
• The real reason she’s never had imposter syndrome
• And the one thing she always comes back to when business feels heavy

If you’ve ever thought “I want more, but I don’t know where to start” this episode is your sign to start plotting.

Find Tracy (and all her antics) here:
📸 @enhance_of_cheshire on Instagram
🌐 www.enhanceofcheshire.co.uk

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Final Thought:

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Transcript

Welcome to the Real Talk and a Slice of Cake Podcast with your favourite business besties, Emma & Leanne

No fluff. No jargon. Just straight-talking advice, smart strategies and a dash of mischief to keep things interesting.

If you’re starting or growing a business and feeling a bit overwhelmed don’t worry, we’ve got you.

Between us, we’ve built four successful businesses - and learned a lot the hard way.  Now we’re sharing what actually works… PLUS the stuff we wish someone had told us sooner.

From hobby to hustle, side gig to full-time business…you’ll get honest conversations, practical tips, and lots of laughs along the way

So grab a brew, cut yourself a slice of your favourite cake, and let’s dive in!

Hello and welcome to Real Talk with me, Leanne, but no Emma today, I'm flying solo, so hold tight, anything could happen, but I've got a brilliant guest with me, so you're in very good hands. I'm so, so excited to introduce you to Tracey Bradbury from Enhance of Cheshire. Tracey is an absolute powerhouse and every time I hear her story, I get goosebumps, so I just know more people need to hear it.

I've been buzzing to share this conversation with you, so let's dive in. Tracey, welcome. Thank you, Leanne.

How exciting is this? Very exciting, I've not even got sweaty palms or anything. Oh, I've got the sweaty palms for you. Have you? Yes.

Oh, darling, just keep rinsing them on your jeans, up and down, all good. So, let's dive in Tracey, tell us about your story, so from the world of employment to what you are doing now. Yeah, it's a bit different to what it used to be, Leanne.

So, my name's Tracey, thank you for the introductions. My company is called Enhance of Cheshire and I have a private clinic in Sheedle Hume. In the Stockport suburbs, we used to say it was Cheshire, but we're very firmly set in Stockport and Greater Manchester these days, don't we? I have had my business, I started working on my business six years ago, officially launched it five years ago, and before that I spent 22 years as a facilities manager, working for large global PLCs.

So, to go from sort of a facilities management, industrial, FM sort of world, to then being self-employed in the beauty industry, it was quite the change. So, yeah, it's been quite an interesting journey, shall we say. So, what took me to go from corporate employment, from a very senior operational role, into taking the leap of faith in myself and starting my own business, my original driving force was I was absolutely sick to death of the pressure and how many hours I was working.

And I think like most of us, you fall into a career unplanned. So, you know, who really sets out to be a facilities manager? You know, I just ended up in that field and I did really enjoy my job. For the majority of my career.

And I excelled and I got to a very senior level. What I found, the juggle of ageing relatives, young family, the pressure of being a senior, senior, senior, a senior leader, I mean I could be a senior leader, a senior leader in a very high profile role. It was just really starting to take its toll on my general life in well, you know, sort of on the whole really.

So, I started to think about the only way I can make amazing money is to be self-employed. How wrong was I? The only way to not be as pressured is to be self-employed. The only way to not have so many restraints on my time and feel that I'm missing out on family life again is to be self-employed.

So, I started to think about what I could do. And I've always been really into hair, makeup, jewellery, fashion, that sort of thing. So, I started to think, oh, I wonder if I could tattoo eyebrows.

Because that's more than just beauty. Nothing wrong with beauty, but I didn't want to paint nails or massage backs. I wanted to do something a little bit more clinical.

So, I had the idea that I would be a permanent makeup artist doing eyebrows. So, then that was where my vision was born. So, whilst employed, I started to work on the idea of what my company name would be.

How I could launch it. How I could train. How much it's going to cost.

Started to work on my website. So, I had this vision. Wasn't really a full vision, but I had an idea of what I wanted to do.

And my plan was I was going to take it slow over 12 months. On a day off, I'd try and do some clients, build up my business. And then, unfortunately, the world had a different idea.

So, in my 30s, I shan't tell you the age, because you'll all work out how old I am then. In my late 30s, whilst at work, I suffered from a stroke. And it was quite a debilitating stroke.

And the neurologist told me it wasn't due to a medical reason. It was due to stress-related reasons. So, that kind of set me back on my journey to dipping my fingers and my toes into a self-employed life.

But it also elevated the need for change. Because what I was feeling inside about this is all too much now in general life. It actually made me go, actually, this is the path I need to be on.

I need to remove the stress of being senior and employed. I need to do something on my own. So, during my year's recovery from my stroke, it gave me the chance to really work on my business model.

It gave me the opportunity to start to really work out how I'm going to fund going self-employed. With a view to then going back to work, saving up some money, and then launching my business properly. And events didn't unfold like that.

And I ended up launching my business sooner than I had anticipated. So, I think that's it in a not very quick nutshell, Leanne, how I became Enhance of Cheshire. I mean, just wow, Tracy.

Every time I hear this, you're just so inspirational. The way that you tell the story, and I had a stroke in my 30s. That's massive, isn't it? Huge.

I looked like that for a while, Leanne, as well. For anybody listening on podcast, Tracy's pulling an interesting face. Yeah.

So, it was, I was always going to do my own business. That was the plan, but I think I was going to play at it. And I think circumstances made me go two feet in.

And I think as well, because after my stroke, I suffered with quite a bit of brain damage, as a lot of people do after a stroke. What they say, the brain is an organ that can repair itself. And if the sort of neuropaths reconnect, they will do so in that first year.

So, you've basically got to do a lot of self-care to stay calm, but you've also got to really flex the brain muscle to try and get it reconnected and working again for you. So, I really was motivated, A, to get better and sort of to be firing on all cylinders again. And also, do you know what? Now's the time to really, really, really study and really master my craft, rather than just picking up a 30-hour at-home module and I'd fly with it like my old self would.

Because of this sort of cognitive impairment I had, that 30-hour study probably took me months, because of the brain damage I had. So, I do think the training and learning new things, although it was very difficult for me, I do think it helped with my recovery. And it also helped with my mindset of, I've got to make this work.

And I've got to be good at my new job, because I was flipping brilliant at my last one. Yeah. And let's just add in as well, Tracey, that you're also a mum of three.

I am. Yeah, very busy mum. They will have been a lot younger.

Yes, my youngest was still at nursery. And I remember, bless him, when he graduated, they did like the little cap and gown thing before he went off to reception. I had to get wheeled in a wheelchair.

And yeah, it's just, it's shocking. Actually, it gives me goosebumps, because I just feel very fortunate. You know, not that I'm unlucky it happened to me.

I'm so thankful that I've got an extra shot at life. And I walk through life now with a very different coloured lens. It was always a little bit rose tinted.

Now it's just technicolour. You know, we're only here once. Do you know what I mean? Don't sweat the small stuff.

You could be here today, or on your office floor on a Friday afternoon, suffering from a massive stroke. You know, if I'd have been at home or in the supermarket, I'd have probably been dead. But I was a facilities manager in a hospital.

It happened in a hospital. And thank goodness, you know, I survived. Well, thank goodness, because I am, we met in 2022, I think it was, just as I was leaving my corporate role.

And I am so thankful to have you in my life. And my skin, everybody can see, is responsible for my youthful skin. But I just think going from, as you say, a complete change, it wasn't, I've been doing this in a corporate environment, and I'm going to just do the same on my own.

It was a complete 360, wasn't it? Going from a facilities manager to a skin specialist expert that you are. And when I'm talking to people about, you know, they've got this idea, this dream, it all starts with a vision and really honing in on that. And how did you stay motivated? You've got your vision, you're recovering, you've been a mum, you've got all of these things going on.

How did you connect to that vision and actually make it happen? I think for me, Leanne, if I'm honest, I had to pivot quite a lot once I started. I was only ever going to be a cosmetic tattooist. That was my sole plan.

And what I've not realised, and I don't know why I didn't realise, I'm going to blame it on the brain damage, that as a permanent tattoo artist for makeup, you've got to have a brand new client all the time. Because once I've created someone's eyeliner or lipstick or eyebrow, they're gone and I've done a good job. They're not going to come for a colour boost for a few years.

So then I was kind of like, Christ, this is a lot of people to find. If I want to make good money, I need to be servicing two or three clients a day to get anywhere near the amount of income I need to have a comparative salary to what I had before. So I very quickly realised that I couldn't make the sort of money that I wanted to make without having this many people.

I mean, basically, if I had that many people, I'd have the whole of Bramwell and Cheadle Hume through the clinic, sort of on an annual basis. So I quickly learned to pivot and start to think about what else I could bring in to the clinic that still fitted under my brand and under sort of my vision. And my main vision for the business and for me was to make people look and feel fabulous.

So everything that I do and the way I am, it's you're buying from me because it's me. I make sure I'm bloody good at my job, but people never leave and feel crap about themselves because I think I'm just so positive and I'm always pleased to see people. And it was all about, I'm great at customer service.

I'm great at interaction. I'm great at finding a talking point. You know, I'm a people's person.

I'm definitely a gal's gal. So it was a case of what can I do to people or for people that makes them feel better in their own skin? And then it just sort of grew from there. Mainly, the first thing was money.

I'm not going to lie. You know, how do I get more money in? Because I've gone from a really good exec role with bonus, etc to not earning that much. But you know, what can I do? And all of the things that I've thought of, as long as they fitted in with the brand and the ethos with the vision of how I wanted my business to go, then yes, I've trained and then sort of opened more services within clinic.

Yeah, and I can completely contest to all of what you've just said. And I describe it as it's like therapy in a chair. Something happens when you get in your chair.

I mean, Tracy, we've had some laughs, haven't we? Normally at my expense. Barely at your expense, to be honest. Yes, yeah.

Can you lift your chin? Weren't you when you came to see me? Oh yeah, do you remember lift your chin? Lift the chin and I'm, yeah. Yeah, some people can't follow instruction, Leanne, can they? No, definitely not. But and I think, as I say, I'm just totally in awe of you and I love the positivity and everything that you bring.

So my next question is really around imposter syndrome because it's something that a lot of people that are listening struggle with and that fear of judgement. Has that ever crossed your door? No. I mean, why, how? No, not because I'm arrogant and I'm cocky.

Know your worth and know your job. If you know your worth, you know your job, you have confidence and if you're bloody good at it, then you can do it. If you're not good at it, don't do it till you're good at it.

And that's kind of been always the way I am in life. In business, you can't just give it a try. Someone's coming.

Well, you can't just try tattooing someone's eyebrow, can you? No, exactly. So there's been many times that I've trained or I've upskilled and I'm ready to do it and then I go, not imposter syndrome, I would say lack of experience would make me go, I'm not ready. And then so I don't, I don't, I don't ever want to provide a service to somebody that I'm not going, that's shit hot, that is brilliant.

So I won't be in that position of imposter syndrome because it's just not part of my vocabulary at all. Overwhelm, overwork, you know, all those things are, but the imposter syndrome side of it, I think I just cut that off at the pass because I won't do anything that I don't know I'm going to do to the best of my ability. That makes sense.

Yeah, no, it makes perfect sense. And it's lovely to hear you talk like that and that comes through in everything in your socials. I mean, I live for your little vacations, you know, I'll never forget your skiing vacation when, were you going to split your kipper or something? I split my kipper on the ice rink.

Yeah, so, and again, that's something else that a lot of people struggle with is visibility. And it's so, so important in terms of that know, like, trust. People buy from people, don't they? People, you know, people are curious.

And so I think I know the answer to this, but have you ever had that, oh, I've got to go live or what do I put on my socials? Do you remember your first post? Absolutely, it was awful. Was it? It was awful. Yeah, and I think what really helped for me was I'd launched my business before lockdown.

Lockdown happened and then I stopped for, in Great Manchester, stayed here for forever. You know, the rest of the world opened up apart from Stockport. I kind of lived my life through screens as, you know, most of us did.

And because I was quite new in business, I was very lonely and I really missed camaraderie, really missed working at the hospital, you know, because I knew all my, you know, old colleagues were in there firefighting. You know, I was so bored and fed up and blah blah. So I tried to keep all my social media alive, all my followers, et cetera.

And then in the end, there was nothing else to write about because I only had, you know, probably 20 lots of imagery that I could use, probably 10 lots of subject matter that I could use. It was like, what am I going to do on my socials so that I stayed sort of visible? So I ended up doing more or less a vlogging, I think it's called, you know, basically putting nonsense on. And the amount of engagement and the amount of fun that people had with seeing me.

So it kind of happened organically without plan. And it was just executed daily life. And I'd, you know, I'd do a video of me doing my makeup and I'd shove it on, totally cringe at it now because it was nothing to do with my brand.

It wasn't salesy. It was just, we all went a bit mad and I was probably drunk half the time because I did used to do margaritas at noon after I'd done the two hours homeschooling. Do you know what I mean? Can you imagine that? Three kids, one in one bedroom, one in the kitchen, one in the office, you know, husband working from home.

Oh, it was horrendous as it was for us all. So I kind of unplanned, fell into sharing quite a lot and I've never, ever regretted it. So a lot of my reach on socials, ideally I want it to be business because I want to drive people to the business and ultimately drive them to my bank account.

You know, we're not in it for charity. Well, I'm not anyway. Some people are, sorry.

Being honest, you know, people really love to see the person behind the business. And, you know, I've had two clients today that said, oh, you know, you go into that thing in wherever in three weeks, I saw you mentioned it on your stories, you know, and I was like, oh yeah, I'm going to, I'll see you there. So people do really, I think certainly for my business, they like to see the person side of me and they find it relatable.

And then if they've not met me before, when I open the door, they're like, oh, hiya, how are you? How's the dog? You know, saw your husband fall asleep last night watching Sally, you know. Well that's every night, isn't it? Every night, sadly. I just think I'm not bothered about a filter.

I'm not bothered about how many chins I've got. You know, I'm a middle-aged woman. I've got grey hair.

You know, I've not, I've just had it dyed. But I'm just not bothered and I'm all about empowering women. You know, if you have a shit day, turn up because we're turning up anyway.

Just turn up as your whole self. And I think the more people in life that can just not give a monkeys and just be themselves, show yourself off when you look fabulous, you know, of course. You know, choose a nice top when you go in on a video.

Of course, as you look beautiful, you know, I've got a nice top on to show off my new hair colour. But equally, just get on there because it's relatable. It's all relatable content, isn't it? It absolutely is.

And Emma and I, bless her, Emma's obviously not here, but she's going to be so annoyed that she's missed this. We always say done is better than perfect. Just do it.

Everyone's had to have a first time, haven't they? Going live a first time at everything, Tracy. Yeah, and done is better than perfect. So no, it's really, really good advice.

And listening to this, everything's so positive from you. And I'm just thinking about the people listening to this. Has there been a big mistake or a failure or a learning curve that you can share with us? Um, big mistake.

Launching the business before COVID started. Yeah, but you didn't know COVID was going to start. Yeah, that wasn't great.

Big mistake. Problem? No, I wouldn't say a mistake. I would say the things I've found very hard, which I hadn't planned for, was revenue.

I saved up and I paid myself a 50% wage for the first year. And then anything I earned was then a Brucey bonus. And I was pretty skin for the first couple of years.

That was tough. And yeah, tough. And I think when you can't afford things, even the food shop was difficult.

You know, I depleted savings. I was in a fortunate position where I had savings. And that has quite a negative effect on your morale and your self-worth when you are skint.

And so that was difficult for, say, probably the first 18 months to two years. The loneliness side of being self-employed, I did find really, really difficult. I love a good crack and I'm a people's person.

I love to talk. I love to be social. It's my idea of I'll sit on my own all day, every day.

I'm so people-y. I've not realised how lonely it is being on your own and working on your own and also not having somebody to bounce ideas off or to talk about things. And also, being self-employed, I was really looking forward to full autonomy over my business.

Whereas when I was employed, there'd always be the finance director to help with something. There'd be the HR director to, you know, someone to just buffer things off. And then when you end up being all of those roles on your own, it can be quite overwhelming.

So yeah, I think they're not mistakes or regrets. They're probably those things I've just used as an example were the worst parts of business for me as such. Does that answer your question? No, it absolutely does.

It does, Tracy. And it's interesting. So I don't know whether you're aware, but Emma and I have launched a session every other Wednesday called Don't Ask Google.

Don't Ask Google. Ask Us. It's a great opportunity for anybody can just join and ask those questions, those things that you just said.

I mean, we can't cover all the loneliness and things, but those, you know, like you said, you've got the finance director or the IT. I miss the IT help desk. Those things that you think, well, everybody else has got the shit together and everybody else knows.

So if you are listening and you want some support every other Wednesday, completely free, you get me and Emma. I mean, what more can you ask for? A whole hour with me and Emma. It's fabulous.

Look at our brains and yeah, tasty they are, our brains. I think knowing you too. Lots of cake as well.

And from that initial vision and where you are now, has your definition of success changed? How does it evolve? Or are you still working towards? I'm there. You're there. Yeah, I think my reason why and what my definition of success is over the years, and we've actually touched on this when you've been in clinic for your treatments, occasionally I forget my reason why and I get a bit excited.

And then I'm going to do this next, going to do that, ideas of grandeur. And then I very consciously pull myself back to my why. And my why was flexibility.

Being able to do what I want, when I want, within reason while still earning a good wage and making people feel happy and better about themselves. Those are my whys and they are still my whys for today. So being self-employed gives me the ability, within reason, all of this is within reason, to go to the gym when I want, to never miss anything at school, ever.

To be here before the children go to school, to be here when they're home from school. It affords me enough money to fund my lifestyle and it makes me have the most amazing, happy clients who I'm so grateful for and they're grateful for me for the services that I provide. And I just absolutely buzz off the brand and the business that I've built and how recommended and highly regarded I am for doing a job that I love.

And I just feel so humble, so blessed, but also very bloody proud of how hard I've worked. And do you know what? I deserve every success because I have worked my arse off to get to where I am today in the business. And I'm still working on it.

I would never sit back and go, oh yeah, you know, I've got enough clients. I'm completely fully booked. I'm never going to pivot.

I'm never going to change anything. I am because who wants to be static? And I'm also very eager to learn, grow and just get better at everything anyway because that's kind of what floats my boat. But ultimately, is my business where it needs to be? Yes.

Am I happy? Yes. When I go back to my why, it's ticked every box. I mean, amazing.

As I started this podcast and I said, you are such an inspiration. I guess you're not going to go back ever to being employed. No.

No. Would they have you? I joke. Probably not.

Well, I was fully tattooed myself up and done more piercings since I left. So I think I've purposefully rebelled and made myself, you know, quote unquote unemployable. Yeah, perfect.

So before we close out, what one piece of advice would you give to someone who's feeling stuck in their job but just does not know where to start? Think about it. Think about it. Get a whiteboard, get some post-it notes, plot it out.

What do you want to do? Who do you want to be? Who's your target audience? How are you going to make money? How much is it going to cost you to retrain? How much is it going to cost you to be insured? Where are you going to run your business from? I would literally do blue sky, vision board thinking, plot it all out, have a good look at it. If that gives you the heebie-jeebies and you need a gin, maybe it's not for you. If that gives you a fire in your belly and makes you think, fucking hell, I think I can do this, then by God, think of a plan.

Come and talk to me in Emma. That's fine. Yeah, ask you on a Wednesday, not Google.

And yeah, just if you want to do it, you can't go at it with rebellion and just think, oh sod it. You know, unless you're very fortunate and you've had a mortgage that's paid off and your car's not on finance, then do what you want. You know, council tax bill can wait.

But if you've got financial responsibilities, you really need to decide what it looks like, how are you going to achieve it and then make a bloody good plan and you can do it 100%, go for it. Amazing. Thank you so much, Tracey.

Honestly, it feels an absolute privilege. I've been so excited. I've had butterflies all day knowing I've got Tracey to talk to.

Thank you for having me. I was honoured you asked me, Leanne. No, I've loved it.

And I mean, I love our relationship and just, and I obviously love sitting in your chair. Although there was one occasion when you got your burner out to burn some things off. I'm not too sure I was too happy about that, was I? I think I swore badly at you that day.

You did, but I mean, you've not got anything. Yeah, no, they've gone now. Those little skin tags.

Skin tags was talking, by the way. It wasn't Jennifer Warts. There are all other podcasts.

Just FYI, there isn't. You haven't got, okay, sorry. No, no, no, it's fine.

So if, and I'm sure there'll be people that want to come and follow you, follow these antics on your socials and get to know more about your business and hopefully to become a customer of yours. Where will people find you? Valued customer of mine. All the usuals.

Instagram, LinkedIn, Facebook, CapCut, TikTok. So really Instagram, Facebook, and then the website. So it is Enhanced Cheshire on the World Wide Web.

It is Enhanced Cheshire, E-O-C on Facebook and then on Instagram, Enhanced Cheshire. And it's not all business. There's plenty of laughs and fun and frolics too.

There definitely is plenty of laughter, fun and frolics. And I will add your links to the show notes when this goes out. All there is for me to say now Tracy is thank you so much. You’re very welcome thank you for having me. You’re very welcome.

That’s it for today’s slice of real talk…we hope you’re walking away with something you can actually use.

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