April 28, 2025 • 32 mins
Do you feel burnout or stagnant in your career? If you take a look at your life personal, business, life, or location are you happy with them all?
If you notice you just aren't as happy as you used to be take a hard look and see what you discover. I know I have had pivotal spots in my life the one decision made a huge direction change in my life.
Four years ago I took an extension class that relit the joy in my career, Three years ago I made another big decision and it changed my whole life. I chose to learn and grow to better my business, but I think I had an even bigger change. I chose to dig deep into my mindset so I can see things from a different light. I am just realizing how much those decisions have given me now.
Send me a message if you have any comments.
Thank you for listening. Share this episode with a friend that you think would enjoy it.
I would love it if you took the time to leave a rating or review for the show.
Want me to go more in-depth about anything? Let me know.
Send an email with questions to skahrhoff@live.com.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Shannon Kahrhoff (00:01):
Hello, welcome to Decoding Clients for
Stylists.
I'm Shannon Kahrhoff.
This week I want to go over alittle bit.
It's not really about yourclients, it's more about your
personal wellbeing It affectsyour clientele big time,
depending on how it affects yourmood and just the joy you have
coming to work.
(00:22):
And it's huge because we take itfor granted that our environment
around us doesn't influence usthat much.
But whenever you have an amazingcrew of people that work in your
environment, in your space, ittotally affects how you handle
your day.
If you walk in and everyone'sbickering and arguing and,
causing problems, it's gonnabring your energy down a little
(00:45):
bit, unless you're really goodat letting it roll off your
back.
But if you walk into a salon andit's bustling and it's happy,
and everyone's laughing andenjoying their time at work.
It's amazing how much differentthat it actually affects your
mood, but it's not just yourenvironment that affects you,
it's your personal life.
It's your mindset.
(01:06):
It's where you are in yourcareer.
If you're feeling satisfied, ifyou have clients that aren't
lighting you up anymore becauseyou've let them take advantage
of you a little bit or.
You are just not finding the joyin your job anymore.
Everyone is different.
Me personally, I've hit multiplestages through my whole career,
(01:26):
and I have my ups my downs.
There's times I've researchedcolleges to look on what else I
can go do because I'm justdrained.
There's just times that it takeseverything out of you to survive
your personal life, your careerand everything else.
But it all depends on how youhandle it, how you adjust, how
(01:50):
you evaluate your own self iskey.
I haven't always been the bestat realizing it until I'm really
miserable.
And if you wait until it's thatextreme, it's usually.
Pretty bad by the time yourealize it.
And I've had, I've moved salonsmultiple times and I can't
(02:11):
really say any of'em were bad.
They actually helped me get towhere I am now, and it's created
who I am now with how I approachthe owners of the salon, how I
approach myself as the.
Owner of my own business becauseI'm self-employed.
I'm, I have a suite that I rent,but everything else is all on
(02:35):
me.
It's great.
I love the freedom, I love theability to choose my days and my
times, and I don't have anyonemaking those decisions for me.
But it can get exhausting attimes if you let it I've been in
this business for a long time.
I started as an hourly stylistand I learned the difference
(02:57):
from my first two salons from agood manager and a bad manager.
I guess I should flip that, agod awful, horrible manager and
a very good manager, and she wasa good leader.
She helped.
Build camaraderie with herstylists there.
She was very good atacknowledging whenever you were
improving and doing better.
(03:18):
She also pulled you asidewhenever you were needing some
improvements and differentthings that you needed to tweak.
But she didn't trash you.
She didn't insult you.
She was very good.
That was key in my career byunderstanding the difference
between how a manager or.
A salon owner can make you feel,depending on their attitude
(03:40):
towards you, or lack of attitudetowards you.
I think my first three salons Iworked at were chain salons and
one of'em was in Arkansas when Iwas there for massage therapy.
So it was interesting becausethere was really only three or
four of us that worked at thesalon at a time.
It was a chain salon in the mallin Fayetteville, and it was just
(04:05):
interesting.
It was a different dynamic.
The young lady who was themanager of the place, she was
probably my age, maybe a littlebit older.
I'm not really sure if I everasked her that information, but
she didn't really seem like amanager other than she scheduled
our hours.
Anyway, this is not important.
So through the years, I'verealized that when I get into a
(04:31):
struggle with something, itusually means I need to adjust
something and sometimes it'sadjusting the salon I work at.
The first time I switched salonsafter I went rental was extreme.
I had a bond with the owner.
I knew that I would probablynever speak to her again
afterwards because it was asmaller town and.
(04:53):
The drama in that salon was soextreme.
By one person speaking to me inthe morning, she usually dragged
me right into her drama.
And if she had a horrible day,it made my day a horrible thing.
'cause she controlled the energyin that salon.
So if she's all bubbly andhappy, okay great, we're having
(05:13):
a nice upbeat salon day thatday.
But more times than not, it wasgetting to the extreme negative.
And everything was horrible.
All of her clients were horribleand she just loved drama.
Listen up, salon owners,whenever you have and you allow
a stylist to control one person,control the energy in your whole
(05:35):
salon, even if they're rental,you've got to stop it because
that affected everyone in thatsalon.
That salon was my home.
That's where I got my confidenceand my energy and a lot of my
clientele, it was me and myfriend that worked there.
She used to be the owner untilshe sold it to this lady, and
she wasn't a bad owner.
(05:56):
She just let the friendshipaspect overpower the environment
so she wouldn't call this personout on her behavior because they
were friends.
And maybe my friend did it tome, who knows when she was the
owner.
But because of that environment,and then she let this friend
(06:16):
control a situation that shouldnot have been an issue at all.
It was about raising the rent.
She hadn't raised the rent thewhole time since she owned the
place it was due, she needed toraise the rent.
But this one quote friendtotally derailed her and she.
Made a comment, which sheprobably regretted later of
(06:38):
saying, if I don't have a rentincrease, I'm gonna have to
close a salon.
'cause she was losing money inthe salon and we were very well
aware of it.
But her quote friend didn'tcare.
She was worried about her ownbottom dollar and that was it.
So I made an adjustment then.
It was a stupid adjustment, butit was an adjustment.
(06:58):
Someone we used to work with, myfriend was talking to her saying
she was opening a salon in town,and I went into panic mode when
she said she's gonna have toclose the salon and just
drastically made a decision.
It was like, okay, if you trusther, I trust you.
Okay, let's go.
So I went from the frying pan tothe fire man.
It was intense, but at thatpoint I had to do it because I
(07:23):
was a single mom.
I can't afford not having asalon to walk into.
So if I felt like if I didn'tmake that a, that jump, then I
was going to shoot myself in thefoot and not be able to do it.
And my mental ability to endurethat drama in the salon was not
able to happen anymore.
I was becoming angry, coming towork because of the drama that I
(07:45):
had to walk into.
We moved to this other salonand.
She is a fun loving personalitywith a bit of the steady, so
she's great at doing everythingthat sounded fun and exciting
creating the salon, but as soonas she could check Mark, say,
okay, it's done.
(08:06):
Okay, I am out.
It wasn't fun anymore runningthe business.
She wanted everyone else to takeresponsibility for what she
should be doing.
And she let her mom manage thesalon and it turned into
communist state pretty much,except for we still had our own
money.
We paid them rent, but they hadall control over us.
(08:29):
Our thought they could have allcontrol over us, and it became a
very, again, angry situation andvery draining.
So again, I realized I wasmiserable.
Lasted a whole nine months and.
I couldn't handle it anymore,and I found with the help of a
past coworker, found a dreamsalon.
(08:50):
I still work there today.
I had a few short years, throughCovid time that I had to move to
another one because of space.
I'm in Illinois.
Our governor's horrible and somany stupid restrictions, so I
moved to a different salon thatthe owners owned, but.
Had another owner with it.
(09:11):
So it was odd, but it worked.
I had a space, we had enoughspace between us that we didn't
have to worry about the covidrestrictions and things like
that.
I wound up staying there forquite a few years and then,
outta desperation, I moved intoa small room that I turned into
(09:32):
a suite and.
Survive there for a while.
It was actually better having avery small room.
It was better for my mentalhealth and yeah, it was just
better.
So you have to constantly lookat your situation on what's
making you miserable.
Why am I not happy?
What's going on?
How can I fix this in my realmof what's around me?
(09:54):
So I jumped at this small littleroom to create my own and.
Oh my gosh, my, I felt free.
I had a door that I could closeif the energy around me was too
much and I didn't have to worryabout anyone else's drama
affecting me.
And, then I realized I stillwasn't happy there.
(10:15):
But, I went to visit the salonthat I'm at now and they offered
me my own suite and it was bigand I had my own shampoo bowl
and it solved all my issues.
That was a lucky draw that, theystill respected me enough, for
my work ethic and my abilitiesand invested in this room for
(10:36):
me.
So I have been happy there.
There's been ups and downs alittle bit with coworkers, but I
have the ability to.
Not have to be in the middle ofit.
'cause I have my own space, mysuite, I have doors that I can
close if I need to, and it'swonderful.
But what I'm trying to get youto understand is I have made
(10:57):
many turns in my career to keepme happy and that's just the
location of where I'm working.
I have made many changes withclasses that I've taken.
I can tell when I'm losing my.
My fun drive with this career,whenever I'm stagnant, you have
(11:18):
to pay attention to one.
You feel like you've plateaued.
Not every personality has thisfeeling.
There's the steady and probablythe rule maker that would be
okay.
Having this, the easygoing flow,everything is where they want
it.
They're comfortable enough andjust keeping going with it.
(11:38):
It's not always worth them,worth it for them to jump into
change.
Change is scary for thosepersonalities, but I've learned
that change is my main drive.
There's always, I always feellike I have to have some kind of
a challenge ahead of me to makeme push through to have an
(11:59):
adventure with everything.
In 2021, I took my firstextension class three years ago.
This week actually, I took myfirst in-person extension class
with Harper Ellis.
And that was a game changer forme because not only did they
teach me a great way to installhair and quality hair, but it's
(12:20):
amazing because they taught me.
How to run my business better,how to think in the right
direction.
And most people don't understandhow important mindset is because
you can convince yourself thatit can be done or it can't be
done depending on where yourthinking is.
(12:41):
And if you don't take that timeto understand yourself, how you
think and where, what positionyou're in at that time, you're
just.
Causing yourself problems.
And I knew I had a majorthinking problem because I was
starting to struggle and I wasstarting to try and figure out
(13:04):
how to boost my business upagain.
'cause I was done homeschoolingmy daughter.
So it was time.
I had more hours in the salon,but I needed to bring in the
clientele.
Now I had just been surroundedby older stylists.
Who, older and younger styliststhat like the whole idea of,
having a full book and beingstagnant, they were not in the
(13:27):
realm of building clientele andexpanding and stretching
yourself and working hard.
They were all to the point ofworking hard with what they have
in their books, but not workinghard at staying relevant and
staying.
On top of the new looks andstyles and stuff like that.
I'm not insulting them.
(13:47):
I am not saying that is not away for many people.
I'm saying that's not what Iwanted.
I don't want to be the stylistthat's comfortable doing the
same thing from the 1990s.
I want to do the most relevantcurrent styles and.
Keep learning the newest ways ofapplying color and haircuts.
(14:10):
And to me that's the food for mysoul because I love learning new
things and staying on top ofeverything.
I love going to classes andbringing it back to my clients.
I'll say it this way, becausethe people that I had been
working around were not excitedabout classes.
(14:32):
They were excited about gettingthe hours for their classes to
renew their license, and thatwas pretty much the drive.
They didn't care what the classwas about.
They wanted to just check Mark.
I'm sitting through a class, Igot my hours.
I can go get my license renewed,and I'm good to go.
I wanted to find classes thatexcited me and could improve me
(14:55):
because that's how I knew whatkind of change I needed to go
for.
But if you go through this wholecareer and you think you go
through class or you go throughschool, you get your license,
you pass a state board exam,you're done.
You're wrong.
This career is always aboutstaying on top of the education
(15:17):
and the new trends and the newtechnology and the new products.
Oh, I love new products.
Just love it.
But you have to understand whereyou are at the time.
Most people that I see on socialmedia, on the professional
pages, they don't realize whythey're burnt out.
(15:39):
There's all these people,especially right now.
Trying to figure out what to donext, what career can I go into
to get steady income?
To not have to deal with theclientele and not have to deal
with hard days.
We work with the public peepsand I think we are always gonna
have that struggle because notonly do we have to deal with our
(15:59):
own emotions and personalissues, we stand and do the
client's hair that are.
In the same boat they are.
They could be having a bad dayor a bad moment in their life at
that time, and we have toemotionally be able to hold up
to that.
We have to be able to deal withtheir ups and downs as much as
(16:23):
our own.
And that's hard.
It's a struggle, but it is oneof those things that you have to
acknowledge that if your clientsare having a lot of.
Problems and a lot of challengesin their life.
You need to force yourself tofind a way to release all this
emotion that they dump on us andmove on.
(16:44):
We can't carry that, the griefand the upset and everything
with us because it will drag usdown and create negativity.
This is one of the changes thatyou have to focus on if you are
getting.
Emotionally drained by your dayin, in your salon.
(17:05):
There's something going on inthere that you need to figure
out.
I chose extensions after COVID.
I know I needed to have change.
I had to light up myself with anew project, a new something
that I could go hands on and.
(17:26):
Dump myself into that.
I can get some excitement andbuild, and just a two day class
was the best thing in the worldfor me.
At that time.
I learned basic stuff, the firstclass that I did, but they did
not even touch on the business.
So a year or two later, all of asudden I.
Realized I really needed morehelp in the extension world, and
(17:50):
I was searching and searching,and I kept coming across this
company's name And so I startedresearching and I reached out to
a friend who's, more experiencedextensions and asked for her
advice over it.
And then I wound up making thebig jump and took a class.
Now the irony of the situationabout that class is I flipped
(18:12):
out over having to pay this muchmoney for a class.
It was an online class that youcould learn your skills and do
things, and then one day handson and I was flipping out over
this much money invested on it,and thank God I did.
I got past my own doubts becausethat online class and that one
(18:34):
day in.
Fort Smith, Arkansas made a lifechange for me.
It changed so many things, somany directions in my life.
It opened up the possibilitiesand the mindset.
It totally spun me on my heelsby all of the knowledge and the
information of how you rethinkeverything in this career.
(18:55):
I wish I would've had thisinformation at the beginning of
my career.
I probably would be so muchbetter off, but.
The amount of money I spent onthat class that I had to go get
a square loans for, which it wasfine.
It didn't take long to pay off,but it, I just almost spent that
(19:16):
much money on my car in the lasttwo weeks.
Now she's an old car, but I lovethat baby, and I just spent that
much money in two weeks that Ispent on that class three years
ago.
The whole magic of it is I wouldnot have that money to pay for
my car repair.
I probably have been, probablywould've been stressed out.
(19:36):
I would've been crying.
I would've been hysterical, butI wrote a check.
No big deal.
I did not flip, and I didn'trealize that until the cashier,
as I was writing the check.
I live in a small town, theystill take checks, but.
The cashier is a young collegestudent.
You can tell she's working onher assignments when I've, I go
(19:57):
in and pay for it and she waslike, oh my God.
I would be so upset.
I'd be crying.
I would not be able to handlewriting out this much money for
a car repair.
I was like, it's a lot cheaperthan car payments.
So how my think thinking processand my financial stability now
has changed in three years ismind blowing.
(20:20):
But I wouldn't be here if Ididn't know myself and know I
needed to make a change insomething.
And my change at that point waslearning how to better
understand the business side ofextensions.
'cause it's a whole new mindset.
It's a luxury service.
It and the idea of just littleold me charging this much money
(20:42):
for hair to be installed.
It blew my mind at that time.
I didn't feel like I deservedit.
I didn't feel like someone wouldinvest that much time and money
on my services because who am I?
I'm just a Podunk Shannon inthis tiny little town where
there's so many other morequalified people where could do
(21:03):
their hair.
But you know what?
Once I got done with thattraining and understood where my
profit level is, how to properlyprice myself to get to where I
needed.
And then I took two more classeslast year and my belief lid went
wide open.
(21:23):
It was just amazing becauseagain, I needed the mindset
change and the ability tounderstand how to break down,
how to create more out of mybusiness.
'cause I wanted more.
I have the time.
Why not change my mindset?
Because I knew I was gettingstagnant again.
(21:43):
And if I get stagnant, I don'twanna get bored in my career.
I want to enjoy every moment ofmy career and be able to make
people happy and make thembeautiful.
I love watching someone playingwith their new hair extensions
in their hair, or when they'removed up right and tight to the
scalp and that they can put itup in a ponytail.
(22:05):
I love that they have thatself-confidence in themselves
because of this thing that Ilearned how to do.
And I marketed myself enough tolet them know, Hey, I do hair, I
do extensions.
But you've gotta understand whena big change is happening or
(22:25):
needs to happen in your life.
Because if you don't, you'regonna be one of those people who
will be down the road lookingfor a new college course or a
new job that the only trainingyou have is doing hair, which.
We know a lot of crap in thisbusiness.
It's just the, understanding ofwhy let yourself not grow unless
(22:50):
it's really not for you.
It's not for everyone.
I remember in cosmetologyschool.
Our first day they had us sitdown in our desks in this tiny
little room when we wereoverflowing.
Wondering why they would startthis many students at the
beginning of the season or theof the class when we don't have
enough desks to go around andwalk through.
(23:10):
They told us Mr.
Merlin, spoke up and he waslike, okay, look to your left.
Look to your right.
Remember those faces?
'cause two of you guys aren'tgonna be here by the end of
graduation.
And in a year, half of them willnot be doing hair anymore.
And in five years, not even halfof them will be doing hair
still.
(23:32):
And that blew me away becauseWhat do you mean people aren't
gonna follow through?
They're not gonna stay in thiscareer.
They don't.
You know how many people I wentto cosmetology school with that
don't do hair anymore and I bumpinto.
One, she works in the same townI live in, so I get to see her
bopping around.
She has a salon, and I'm like,oh, okay.
(23:54):
She's still doing hair.
We're good.
We're good.
But it's crazy because Iexpected everyone to do this
forever.
But if you don't pay attentionand you don't realize when you
need to challenge yourself, youneed to take a different route.
You need to figure out a fewthings about yourself.
(24:15):
Where are you gonna be?
Who are you gonna become?
I'm horrible at setting goalsbecause the future always
worried me.
I can't guarantee I'm gonna bearound in however long, so
making plans for the futurereally terrified me.
But a decision I made four yearsago and then three years ago,
(24:37):
has put me into a wholedifferent realm of my business.
My personal life, my financiallife, it's just amazing.
And because of those classeslast year, I created this
podcast and I don't know howit's affecting other people.
I really have no idea.
I've spoken to a few friends andclients that, and family that
(25:00):
have listened, but I don't getthat much feedback.
So I'm hoping it's affectingsome people.
I know some people are excitedabout it.
I'm excited about it, but.
The ability to adjust and changein your life is the magic for
me.
I need that challenge and adirection to go fight for to
(25:24):
keep me focused.
So I went all over the place.
I hope you like learning fromstories because for me it makes
it sink in how much one decisioncan affect everything.
Or lack of decisions because ifI would've stayed at the
original salon, I have no ideawhere I'd be right now because I
(25:47):
can guarantee I wouldn't havebeen around a coworker that did
extensions and loved it, and Iprobably would not have made it
through extensions without thatcoworker happily guiding me and
helping me figure some thingsout.
So one step goes to another.
(26:10):
Also, you need to figure outwhat you want outta your life to
know what kind of change youneed.
So if you're at an uncomfortableposition, you're angry and
frustrated at work, you don'tknow exactly what's wrong.
That's when you need to sit downand you need to really look at
your life.
(26:31):
Look at your personal life.
Is there something there that'suncomfortable that you need to
tweak?
Do you need to improve yourself?
Is there something that you needto push yourself to become?
Is it your business?
Is your business gettingstagnant?
Are you not making enough moneyanymore with your clientele?
You need to tweak differentideas and stuff like that.
(26:52):
Do you need to look at yourlife, how you're living your
life?
How are you guiding everyonearound you or accepting things
around you?
Your life can be a hugebattleground if you let it, but
if you stand strong and focus onthe winds that you want in your
life, you'll be more positive.
(27:14):
You'll be more driven to figureout how to improve whatever you
want.
Or is it your location thatneeds to change the salon Are
you tired of being commissionedand you wanna challenge yourself
to being a suite owner?
Do you wanna be a booth renter?
What location change could makeyou feel better?
(27:35):
Do you need to be around morepeople that like education that
are doing new things?
Because when you're aroundsomeone.
In this career that loves tolearn, that wants to challenge
yourself, then they lift you upwith their love of education and
learning.
And it's just key, honestly, tobe careful who you surround
(27:58):
yourself with because.
With all the salons I've workedat, for the people that are
happy where they're at, theydon't wanna change anything.
They aren't thinking about thefuture when their clients either
fade away to other people orthey pass away.
You need to understand how toconstantly have that flow of new
clients coming in and keepingyou fresh and a adapted to how
(28:23):
to communicate and understandnew clients.
But also to keep your clientelefresh because you don't know
what happens.
I could have a bad day and myclients will just rush off.
They'll go find someone else togo do it, to go do their hair.
We're not.
We're not so important that wecan't be replaced.
(28:43):
They might not have the sameability to find the emotional
connection or the right color ontheir hair, but if they have to,
they'll go find someone untilthey have the right, if there's
something they're missing fromyou.
So it's, think about those kindof things.
Realize before it's too latewhat you can change.
(29:04):
Do you need to go take a classon something that intrigues you?
Is there something that you keepgetting excited about whenever
it pops up on Facebook?
I know for a while I wassearching at extensions.
I was mesh integration.
I was looking at wigs andtoppers, and I was ready to go
down a road to a company tolearn about wigs and toppers and
(29:25):
wonderful things.
Then it fell into my lap withthis company that I'm with, and.
They've given me everything andguess what?
Wigs are coming.
I'm so excited about it becauseeverything that I have been
interested in is slowly comingto me from this company and I
absolutely love it.
Not to say I won't take thatclass down the road, but I will
(29:48):
say every time I'm ready toschedule the class, something
new gets gets announced withwhat I've been interested in.
So I just have to be patient andlearn what I need to learn Now.
And master it.
So I'm ready for the next uptickin my career.
Because what's to say, what mycareer is gonna be?
(30:09):
I, most people are looking atretirement at this age, counting
down.
I'm.
Looking forward to morechallenges and more excitement
and more everything.
I want more, and I hope everyonewants more, but is also willing
to actually work for it.
Go out there and do the work.
Become the better person.
(30:30):
Understand what lights you upand what direction you wanna go
into.
You can quit any time, but it'syour life.
You're the one who has to liveit and understand it.
So take that time, figure outwhere you are.
If you're feeling stuck, unstickyourself some way.
(30:51):
Somehow.
Just figure it out.
What could happen, what decisioncan you make that can better it
for people that work in offices?
Think about what age you are,what age you think you're gonna
live to, and do you wanna feelthe same way whenever?
However many years you have togo.
(31:11):
To me, life is too short.
Are you gonna be happy workingthe same job or the same work
environment your whole life?
Or are you gonna go out thereand challenge yourself and
figure out how you can improveor how you can find a different
position somewhere?
I have no idea.
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I've never worked in an office,but I've heard a lot of people
that are just putting up theirtime.
Counting down the decades or theyears until they can retire.
You have your choice.
You can figure it out yourselfbut.
Me personally, I wanna work forthe best I can be and make
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myself happy, as happy as I canbe from day to day.
'cause I don't like beingmiserable.
I don't like seeing other peoplemiserable.
But we all have choices in thislife.
So choose wisely.
Have a great day, and I'll seeyou next week.
Hello, welcome to Decoding Clients for
Stylists.
I'm Shannon Kahrhoff.
This week I want to go over alittle bit.
It's not really about yourclients, it's more about your
personal wellbeing It affectsyour clientele big time,
depending on how it affects yourmood and just the joy you have
coming to work.
(00:22):
And it's huge because we take itfor granted that our environment
around us doesn't influence usthat much.
But whenever you have an amazingcrew of people that work in your
environment, in your space, ittotally affects how you handle
your day.
If you walk in and everyone'sbickering and arguing and,
causing problems, it's gonnabring your energy down a little
(00:45):
bit, unless you're really goodat letting it roll off your
back.
But if you walk into a salon andit's bustling and it's happy,
and everyone's laughing andenjoying their time at work.
It's amazing how much differentthat it actually affects your
mood, but it's not just yourenvironment that affects you,
it's your personal life.
It's your mindset.
(01:06):
It's where you are in yourcareer.
If you're feeling satisfied, ifyou have clients that aren't
lighting you up anymore becauseyou've let them take advantage
of you a little bit or.
You are just not finding the joyin your job anymore.
Everyone is different.
Me personally, I've hit multiplestages through my whole career,
(01:26):
and I have my ups my downs.
There's times I've researchedcolleges to look on what else I
can go do because I'm justdrained.
There's just times that it takeseverything out of you to survive
your personal life, your careerand everything else.
But it all depends on how youhandle it, how you adjust, how
(01:50):
you evaluate your own self iskey.
I haven't always been the bestat realizing it until I'm really
miserable.
And if you wait until it's thatextreme, it's usually.
Pretty bad by the time yourealize it.
And I've had, I've moved salonsmultiple times and I can't
(02:11):
really say any of'em were bad.
They actually helped me get towhere I am now, and it's created
who I am now with how I approachthe owners of the salon, how I
approach myself as the.
Owner of my own business becauseI'm self-employed.
I'm, I have a suite that I rent,but everything else is all on
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me.
It's great.
I love the freedom, I love theability to choose my days and my
times, and I don't have anyonemaking those decisions for me.
But it can get exhausting attimes if you let it I've been in
this business for a long time.
I started as an hourly stylistand I learned the difference
(02:57):
from my first two salons from agood manager and a bad manager.
I guess I should flip that, agod awful, horrible manager and
a very good manager, and she wasa good leader.
She helped.
Build camaraderie with herstylists there.
She was very good atacknowledging whenever you were
improving and doing better.
(03:18):
She also pulled you asidewhenever you were needing some
improvements and differentthings that you needed to tweak.
But she didn't trash you.
She didn't insult you.
She was very good.
That was key in my career byunderstanding the difference
between how a manager or.
A salon owner can make you feel,depending on their attitude
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towards you, or lack of attitudetowards you.
I think my first three salons Iworked at were chain salons and
one of'em was in Arkansas when Iwas there for massage therapy.
So it was interesting becausethere was really only three or
four of us that worked at thesalon at a time.
It was a chain salon in the mallin Fayetteville, and it was just
(04:05):
interesting.
It was a different dynamic.
The young lady who was themanager of the place, she was
probably my age, maybe a littlebit older.
I'm not really sure if I everasked her that information, but
she didn't really seem like amanager other than she scheduled
our hours.
Anyway, this is not important.
So through the years, I'verealized that when I get into a
(04:31):
struggle with something, itusually means I need to adjust
something and sometimes it'sadjusting the salon I work at.
The first time I switched salonsafter I went rental was extreme.
I had a bond with the owner.
I knew that I would probablynever speak to her again
afterwards because it was asmaller town and.
(04:53):
The drama in that salon was soextreme.
By one person speaking to me inthe morning, she usually dragged
me right into her drama.
And if she had a horrible day,it made my day a horrible thing.
'cause she controlled the energyin that salon.
So if she's all bubbly andhappy, okay great, we're having
(05:13):
a nice upbeat salon day thatday.
But more times than not, it wasgetting to the extreme negative.
And everything was horrible.
All of her clients were horribleand she just loved drama.
Listen up, salon owners,whenever you have and you allow
a stylist to control one person,control the energy in your whole
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salon, even if they're rental,you've got to stop it because
that affected everyone in thatsalon.
That salon was my home.
That's where I got my confidenceand my energy and a lot of my
clientele, it was me and myfriend that worked there.
She used to be the owner untilshe sold it to this lady, and
she wasn't a bad owner.
(05:56):
She just let the friendshipaspect overpower the environment
so she wouldn't call this personout on her behavior because they
were friends.
And maybe my friend did it tome, who knows when she was the
owner.
But because of that environment,and then she let this friend
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control a situation that shouldnot have been an issue at all.
It was about raising the rent.
She hadn't raised the rent thewhole time since she owned the
place it was due, she needed toraise the rent.
But this one quote friendtotally derailed her and she.
Made a comment, which sheprobably regretted later of
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saying, if I don't have a rentincrease, I'm gonna have to
close a salon.
'cause she was losing money inthe salon and we were very well
aware of it.
But her quote friend didn'tcare.
She was worried about her ownbottom dollar and that was it.
So I made an adjustment then.
It was a stupid adjustment, butit was an adjustment.
(06:58):
Someone we used to work with, myfriend was talking to her saying
she was opening a salon in town,and I went into panic mode when
she said she's gonna have toclose the salon and just
drastically made a decision.
It was like, okay, if you trusther, I trust you.
Okay, let's go.
So I went from the frying pan tothe fire man.
It was intense, but at thatpoint I had to do it because I
(07:23):
was a single mom.
I can't afford not having asalon to walk into.
So if I felt like if I didn'tmake that a, that jump, then I
was going to shoot myself in thefoot and not be able to do it.
And my mental ability to endurethat drama in the salon was not
able to happen anymore.
I was becoming angry, coming towork because of the drama that I
(07:45):
had to walk into.
We moved to this other salonand.
She is a fun loving personalitywith a bit of the steady, so
she's great at doing everythingthat sounded fun and exciting
creating the salon, but as soonas she could check Mark, say,
okay, it's done.
(08:06):
Okay, I am out.
It wasn't fun anymore runningthe business.
She wanted everyone else to takeresponsibility for what she
should be doing.
And she let her mom manage thesalon and it turned into
communist state pretty much,except for we still had our own
money.
We paid them rent, but they hadall control over us.
(08:29):
Our thought they could have allcontrol over us, and it became a
very, again, angry situation andvery draining.
So again, I realized I wasmiserable.
Lasted a whole nine months and.
I couldn't handle it anymore,and I found with the help of a
past coworker, found a dreamsalon.
(08:50):
I still work there today.
I had a few short years, throughCovid time that I had to move to
another one because of space.
I'm in Illinois.
Our governor's horrible and somany stupid restrictions, so I
moved to a different salon thatthe owners owned, but.
Had another owner with it.
(09:11):
So it was odd, but it worked.
I had a space, we had enoughspace between us that we didn't
have to worry about the covidrestrictions and things like
that.
I wound up staying there forquite a few years and then,
outta desperation, I moved intoa small room that I turned into
(09:32):
a suite and.
Survive there for a while.
It was actually better having avery small room.
It was better for my mentalhealth and yeah, it was just
better.
So you have to constantly lookat your situation on what's
making you miserable.
Why am I not happy?
What's going on?
How can I fix this in my realmof what's around me?
(09:54):
So I jumped at this small littleroom to create my own and.
Oh my gosh, my, I felt free.
I had a door that I could closeif the energy around me was too
much and I didn't have to worryabout anyone else's drama
affecting me.
And, then I realized I stillwasn't happy there.
(10:15):
But, I went to visit the salonthat I'm at now and they offered
me my own suite and it was bigand I had my own shampoo bowl
and it solved all my issues.
That was a lucky draw that, theystill respected me enough, for
my work ethic and my abilitiesand invested in this room for
(10:36):
me.
So I have been happy there.
There's been ups and downs alittle bit with coworkers, but I
have the ability to.
Not have to be in the middle ofit.
'cause I have my own space, mysuite, I have doors that I can
close if I need to, and it'swonderful.
But what I'm trying to get youto understand is I have made
(10:57):
many turns in my career to keepme happy and that's just the
location of where I'm working.
I have made many changes withclasses that I've taken.
I can tell when I'm losing my.
My fun drive with this career,whenever I'm stagnant, you have
(11:18):
to pay attention to one.
You feel like you've plateaued.
Not every personality has thisfeeling.
There's the steady and probablythe rule maker that would be
okay.
Having this, the easygoing flow,everything is where they want
it.
They're comfortable enough andjust keeping going with it.
(11:38):
It's not always worth them,worth it for them to jump into
change.
Change is scary for thosepersonalities, but I've learned
that change is my main drive.
There's always, I always feellike I have to have some kind of
a challenge ahead of me to makeme push through to have an
(11:59):
adventure with everything.
In 2021, I took my firstextension class three years ago.
This week actually, I took myfirst in-person extension class
with Harper Ellis.
And that was a game changer forme because not only did they
teach me a great way to installhair and quality hair, but it's
(12:20):
amazing because they taught me.
How to run my business better,how to think in the right
direction.
And most people don't understandhow important mindset is because
you can convince yourself thatit can be done or it can't be
done depending on where yourthinking is.
(12:41):
And if you don't take that timeto understand yourself, how you
think and where, what positionyou're in at that time, you're
just.
Causing yourself problems.
And I knew I had a majorthinking problem because I was
starting to struggle and I wasstarting to try and figure out
(13:04):
how to boost my business upagain.
'cause I was done homeschoolingmy daughter.
So it was time.
I had more hours in the salon,but I needed to bring in the
clientele.
Now I had just been surroundedby older stylists.
Who, older and younger styliststhat like the whole idea of,
having a full book and beingstagnant, they were not in the
(13:27):
realm of building clientele andexpanding and stretching
yourself and working hard.
They were all to the point ofworking hard with what they have
in their books, but not workinghard at staying relevant and
staying.
On top of the new looks andstyles and stuff like that.
I'm not insulting them.
(13:47):
I am not saying that is not away for many people.
I'm saying that's not what Iwanted.
I don't want to be the stylistthat's comfortable doing the
same thing from the 1990s.
I want to do the most relevantcurrent styles and.
Keep learning the newest ways ofapplying color and haircuts.
(14:10):
And to me that's the food for mysoul because I love learning new
things and staying on top ofeverything.
I love going to classes andbringing it back to my clients.
I'll say it this way, becausethe people that I had been
working around were not excitedabout classes.
(14:32):
They were excited about gettingthe hours for their classes to
renew their license, and thatwas pretty much the drive.
They didn't care what the classwas about.
They wanted to just check Mark.
I'm sitting through a class, Igot my hours.
I can go get my license renewed,and I'm good to go.
I wanted to find classes thatexcited me and could improve me
(14:55):
because that's how I knew whatkind of change I needed to go
for.
But if you go through this wholecareer and you think you go
through class or you go throughschool, you get your license,
you pass a state board exam,you're done.
You're wrong.
This career is always aboutstaying on top of the education
(15:17):
and the new trends and the newtechnology and the new products.
Oh, I love new products.
Just love it.
But you have to understand whereyou are at the time.
Most people that I see on socialmedia, on the professional
pages, they don't realize whythey're burnt out.
(15:39):
There's all these people,especially right now.
Trying to figure out what to donext, what career can I go into
to get steady income?
To not have to deal with theclientele and not have to deal
with hard days.
We work with the public peepsand I think we are always gonna
have that struggle because notonly do we have to deal with our
(15:59):
own emotions and personalissues, we stand and do the
client's hair that are.
In the same boat they are.
They could be having a bad dayor a bad moment in their life at
that time, and we have toemotionally be able to hold up
to that.
We have to be able to deal withtheir ups and downs as much as
(16:23):
our own.
And that's hard.
It's a struggle, but it is oneof those things that you have to
acknowledge that if your clientsare having a lot of.
Problems and a lot of challengesin their life.
You need to force yourself tofind a way to release all this
emotion that they dump on us andmove on.
(16:44):
We can't carry that, the griefand the upset and everything
with us because it will drag usdown and create negativity.
This is one of the changes thatyou have to focus on if you are
getting.
Emotionally drained by your dayin, in your salon.
(17:05):
There's something going on inthere that you need to figure
out.
I chose extensions after COVID.
I know I needed to have change.
I had to light up myself with anew project, a new something
that I could go hands on and.
(17:26):
Dump myself into that.
I can get some excitement andbuild, and just a two day class
was the best thing in the worldfor me.
At that time.
I learned basic stuff, the firstclass that I did, but they did
not even touch on the business.
So a year or two later, all of asudden I.
Realized I really needed morehelp in the extension world, and
(17:50):
I was searching and searching,and I kept coming across this
company's name And so I startedresearching and I reached out to
a friend who's, more experiencedextensions and asked for her
advice over it.
And then I wound up making thebig jump and took a class.
Now the irony of the situationabout that class is I flipped
(18:12):
out over having to pay this muchmoney for a class.
It was an online class that youcould learn your skills and do
things, and then one day handson and I was flipping out over
this much money invested on it,and thank God I did.
I got past my own doubts becausethat online class and that one
(18:34):
day in.
Fort Smith, Arkansas made a lifechange for me.
It changed so many things, somany directions in my life.
It opened up the possibilitiesand the mindset.
It totally spun me on my heelsby all of the knowledge and the
information of how you rethinkeverything in this career.
(18:55):
I wish I would've had thisinformation at the beginning of
my career.
I probably would be so muchbetter off, but.
The amount of money I spent onthat class that I had to go get
a square loans for, which it wasfine.
It didn't take long to pay off,but it, I just almost spent that
(19:16):
much money on my car in the lasttwo weeks.
Now she's an old car, but I lovethat baby, and I just spent that
much money in two weeks that Ispent on that class three years
ago.
The whole magic of it is I wouldnot have that money to pay for
my car repair.
I probably have been, probablywould've been stressed out.
(19:36):
I would've been crying.
I would've been hysterical, butI wrote a check.
No big deal.
I did not flip, and I didn'trealize that until the cashier,
as I was writing the check.
I live in a small town, theystill take checks, but.
The cashier is a young collegestudent.
You can tell she's working onher assignments when I've, I go
(19:57):
in and pay for it and she waslike, oh my God.
I would be so upset.
I'd be crying.
I would not be able to handlewriting out this much money for
a car repair.
I was like, it's a lot cheaperthan car payments.
So how my think thinking processand my financial stability now
has changed in three years ismind blowing.
(20:20):
But I wouldn't be here if Ididn't know myself and know I
needed to make a change insomething.
And my change at that point waslearning how to better
understand the business side ofextensions.
'cause it's a whole new mindset.
It's a luxury service.
It and the idea of just littleold me charging this much money
(20:42):
for hair to be installed.
It blew my mind at that time.
I didn't feel like I deservedit.
I didn't feel like someone wouldinvest that much time and money
on my services because who am I?
I'm just a Podunk Shannon inthis tiny little town where
there's so many other morequalified people where could do
(21:03):
their hair.
But you know what?
Once I got done with thattraining and understood where my
profit level is, how to properlyprice myself to get to where I
needed.
And then I took two more classeslast year and my belief lid went
wide open.
(21:23):
It was just amazing becauseagain, I needed the mindset
change and the ability tounderstand how to break down,
how to create more out of mybusiness.
'cause I wanted more.
I have the time.
Why not change my mindset?
Because I knew I was gettingstagnant again.
(21:43):
And if I get stagnant, I don'twanna get bored in my career.
I want to enjoy every moment ofmy career and be able to make
people happy and make thembeautiful.
I love watching someone playingwith their new hair extensions
in their hair, or when they'removed up right and tight to the
scalp and that they can put itup in a ponytail.
(22:05):
I love that they have thatself-confidence in themselves
because of this thing that Ilearned how to do.
And I marketed myself enough tolet them know, Hey, I do hair, I
do extensions.
But you've gotta understand whena big change is happening or
(22:25):
needs to happen in your life.
Because if you don't, you'regonna be one of those people who
will be down the road lookingfor a new college course or a
new job that the only trainingyou have is doing hair, which.
We know a lot of crap in thisbusiness.
It's just the, understanding ofwhy let yourself not grow unless
(22:50):
it's really not for you.
It's not for everyone.
I remember in cosmetologyschool.
Our first day they had us sitdown in our desks in this tiny
little room when we wereoverflowing.
Wondering why they would startthis many students at the
beginning of the season or theof the class when we don't have
enough desks to go around andwalk through.
(23:10):
They told us Mr.
Merlin, spoke up and he waslike, okay, look to your left.
Look to your right.
Remember those faces?
'cause two of you guys aren'tgonna be here by the end of
graduation.
And in a year, half of them willnot be doing hair anymore.
And in five years, not even halfof them will be doing hair
still.
(23:32):
And that blew me away becauseWhat do you mean people aren't
gonna follow through?
They're not gonna stay in thiscareer.
They don't.
You know how many people I wentto cosmetology school with that
don't do hair anymore and I bumpinto.
One, she works in the same townI live in, so I get to see her
bopping around.
She has a salon, and I'm like,oh, okay.
(23:54):
She's still doing hair.
We're good.
We're good.
But it's crazy because Iexpected everyone to do this
forever.
But if you don't pay attentionand you don't realize when you
need to challenge yourself, youneed to take a different route.
You need to figure out a fewthings about yourself.
(24:15):
Where are you gonna be?
Who are you gonna become?
I'm horrible at setting goalsbecause the future always
worried me.
I can't guarantee I'm gonna bearound in however long, so
making plans for the futurereally terrified me.
But a decision I made four yearsago and then three years ago,
(24:37):
has put me into a wholedifferent realm of my business.
My personal life, my financiallife, it's just amazing.
And because of those classeslast year, I created this
podcast and I don't know howit's affecting other people.
I really have no idea.
I've spoken to a few friends andclients that, and family that
(25:00):
have listened, but I don't getthat much feedback.
So I'm hoping it's affectingsome people.
I know some people are excitedabout it.
I'm excited about it, but.
The ability to adjust and changein your life is the magic for
me.
I need that challenge and adirection to go fight for to
(25:24):
keep me focused.
So I went all over the place.
I hope you like learning fromstories because for me it makes
it sink in how much one decisioncan affect everything.
Or lack of decisions because ifI would've stayed at the
original salon, I have no ideawhere I'd be right now because I
(25:47):
can guarantee I wouldn't havebeen around a coworker that did
extensions and loved it, and Iprobably would not have made it
through extensions without thatcoworker happily guiding me and
helping me figure some thingsout.
So one step goes to another.
(26:10):
Also, you need to figure outwhat you want outta your life to
know what kind of change youneed.
So if you're at an uncomfortableposition, you're angry and
frustrated at work, you don'tknow exactly what's wrong.
That's when you need to sit downand you need to really look at
your life.
(26:31):
Look at your personal life.
Is there something there that'suncomfortable that you need to
tweak?
Do you need to improve yourself?
Is there something that you needto push yourself to become?
Is it your business?
Is your business gettingstagnant?
Are you not making enough moneyanymore with your clientele?
You need to tweak differentideas and stuff like that.
(26:52):
Do you need to look at yourlife, how you're living your
life?
How are you guiding everyonearound you or accepting things
around you?
Your life can be a hugebattleground if you let it, but
if you stand strong and focus onthe winds that you want in your
life, you'll be more positive.
(27:14):
You'll be more driven to figureout how to improve whatever you
want.
Or is it your location thatneeds to change the salon Are
you tired of being commissionedand you wanna challenge yourself
to being a suite owner?
Do you wanna be a booth renter?
What location change could makeyou feel better?
(27:35):
Do you need to be around morepeople that like education that
are doing new things?
Because when you're aroundsomeone.
In this career that loves tolearn, that wants to challenge
yourself, then they lift you upwith their love of education and
learning.
And it's just key, honestly, tobe careful who you surround
(27:58):
yourself with because.
With all the salons I've workedat, for the people that are
happy where they're at, theydon't wanna change anything.
They aren't thinking about thefuture when their clients either
fade away to other people orthey pass away.
You need to understand how toconstantly have that flow of new
clients coming in and keepingyou fresh and a adapted to how
(28:23):
to communicate and understandnew clients.
But also to keep your clientelefresh because you don't know
what happens.
I could have a bad day and myclients will just rush off.
They'll go find someone else togo do it, to go do their hair.
We're not.
We're not so important that wecan't be replaced.
(28:43):
They might not have the sameability to find the emotional
connection or the right color ontheir hair, but if they have to,
they'll go find someone untilthey have the right, if there's
something they're missing fromyou.
So it's, think about those kindof things.
Realize before it's too latewhat you can change.
(29:04):
Do you need to go take a classon something that intrigues you?
Is there something that you keepgetting excited about whenever
it pops up on Facebook?
I know for a while I wassearching at extensions.
I was mesh integration.
I was looking at wigs andtoppers, and I was ready to go
down a road to a company tolearn about wigs and toppers and
(29:25):
wonderful things.
Then it fell into my lap withthis company that I'm with, and.
They've given me everything andguess what?
Wigs are coming.
I'm so excited about it becauseeverything that I have been
interested in is slowly comingto me from this company and I
absolutely love it.
Not to say I won't take thatclass down the road, but I will
(29:48):
say every time I'm ready toschedule the class, something
new gets gets announced withwhat I've been interested in.
So I just have to be patient andlearn what I need to learn Now.
And master it.
So I'm ready for the next uptickin my career.
Because what's to say, what mycareer is gonna be?
(30:09):
I, most people are looking atretirement at this age, counting
down.
I'm.
Looking forward to morechallenges and more excitement
and more everything.
I want more, and I hope everyonewants more, but is also willing
to actually work for it.
Go out there and do the work.
Become the better person.
(30:30):
Understand what lights you upand what direction you wanna go
into.
You can quit any time, but it'syour life.
You're the one who has to liveit and understand it.
So take that time, figure outwhere you are.
If you're feeling stuck, unstickyourself some way.
(30:51):
Somehow.
Just figure it out.
What could happen, what decisioncan you make that can better it
for people that work in offices?
Think about what age you are,what age you think you're gonna
live to, and do you wanna feelthe same way whenever?
However many years you have togo.
(31:11):
To me, life is too short.
Are you gonna be happy workingthe same job or the same work
environment your whole life?
Or are you gonna go out thereand challenge yourself and
figure out how you can improveor how you can find a different
position somewhere?
I have no idea.
(31:32):
I've never worked in an office,but I've heard a lot of people
that are just putting up theirtime.
Counting down the decades or theyears until they can retire.
You have your choice.
You can figure it out yourselfbut.
Me personally, I wanna work forthe best I can be and make
(31:52):
myself happy, as happy as I canbe from day to day.
'cause I don't like beingmiserable.
I don't like seeing other peoplemiserable.
But we all have choices in thislife.
So choose wisely.
Have a great day, and I'll seeyou next week.
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