The Aesthetic Business Masters Awards are judged by people who know this industry from the inside. Not observers, but practitioners, founders, strategists, and educators who have built businesses, led teams, navigated regulation, and sat across the table from clinic owners working through the same challenges you are.
This series introduces you to the people behind the scorecard, so you know exactly who’s reading your submission and what they’ll be looking for.
Meet: Emelly Simons
Emelly Simons has been called the sparkly Gordon Ramsay of the beauty industry. She’ll tell you what’s not working, but she’ll do it with heart, and you’ll walk away knowing exactly what to fix.
Emelly, aka The Cosmetic Industry Coach, is a business coach and strategist with more than 20 years in the beauty and aesthetics space. Her career started in a treatment room as a beauty therapist, then moved into education and, later, a leadership role managing multimillion-dollar portfolios for one of Australia’s top skincare brands. She has worked across day spas, medi-clinics, cosmetic injectables, and franchise models, giving her a perspective that bridges both the clinical and wholesale sides of the industry.
That range matters. Emelly understands what happens on the treatment bed, in the back office, and at the distributor level. She knows where clinics bleed money, where confidence breaks down, and where owners get stuck trying to follow someone else’s formula instead of building something that fits their own version of success.
She sees the same pattern across clinics of every size: owners who can describe their treatments in detail but can’t tell you their profit margin on any of them. She wants clinic owners to understand that financial literacy isn’t a personality trait reserved for the “business-minded.” It’s a skill, and it’s the one that determines whether your clinic is profitable or just busy. The owners who back themselves with data, not just instinct, are the ones who make confident decisions under pressure rather than reactive ones out of fear.
Her coaching style is direct, practical, and refreshingly honest. She simplifies the overcomplicated, challenges what isn’t serving the business, and helps clinic owners build profitability without burning out in the process. What makes her approach distinctive is how she weaves nervous system support and creative thinking into her strategy work. She recognises that growing a business isn’t just about the numbers; it’s about staying clear-headed and regulated enough to make bold decisions under pressure.
Based in Queensland, Emelly delivers her work through workshops, one-on-one coaching, and speaking engagements. Her clients range from solo practitioners to multi-location clinic owners, and she’s known for meeting people where they are rather than prescribing a one-size-fits-all growth plan.
As a judge for the Aesthetic Business Masters Awards, Emelly brings a rare combination of treatment-room experience, corporate-level brand management, and coaching insight. She won’t be dazzled by polished marketing or inflated metrics. She’ll be looking for businesses that are genuinely profitable, sustainably run, and led by owners who know their numbers and back themselves.
