Intro: Do you feel like you were meant to have a kick-ass career as a hair stylist? Like you got into this industry to make big things happen?
Maybe you’re struggling to build a solid base and want some stability. Maybe you know social media is important, but it feels like a waste of time because you aren’t seeing any results. Maybe you’ve already had some amazing success but are craving more. Maybe you’re ready to truly enjoy the freedom and flexibility this industry has to offer.
Cutting and coloring skills will only get you so far, but to build a lifelong career as a wealthy stylist, it takes business skills and a serious marketing strategy. When you’re ready to quit, just working in your business and start working on it, join us here, where we share real success stories from real stylists.
I’m Britt Seva, social media and marketing strategist just for hair stylists, and this is the Thriving Stylist Podcast.
Britt Seva: What is up you guys, and welcome back to the Thriving Stylist Podcast. I’m your host Britt Seva, here to talk this week about where to start when you’ve completely lost your inspiration, or you feel lost professionally in your day-to-day work.
Now I, as your host here today, have been in this place many, many times. When I was in my late teens and early twenties, I was on the path to hotel management. I thought that that was what I was going to do. I fell out of love with it. I decided to become a hair stylist. I fell out of love with it. And then between me being a hair stylist and becoming the salon director, I actually applied to three different hair care companies, hoping to be a representative for all of those brands. I saw what the direct sales reps did daily. I knew that I was capable of doing it, but I was told over and over, I was too green, so those doors were slammed into my face.
Then I became the director of my salon. I had my journey there. Then I began coaching. I’ve really shifted and pivoted throughout this industry and even before joining it time and time and time again.
There were several periods in that journey where I was overwhelmed. I had completely lost my inspiration and was truly lost in life. I didn’t know where to go or what to do next. It is an overwhelming, suffocating feeling, and it’s only compounded or made worse when you feel like you’ve found out what your next step should be only to experience slow growth, or only to have a door slam in your face, or only to have a worldwide pandemic hit, right?
Sometimes we feel like we’ve got it all figured out, and before you know it, you’ve completely fallen out of love with whatever it is you’re working towards.
I want to talk about that today. It’s something I’ve navigated personally several times. I want to share some keys and tips and tools that have really helped me, and then I want to coach to some of the things I’ve coached other stylists and salon owners through as well.
So I want to talk just for about 30 seconds right now about the pandemic, and then we’re going to shift gears. But we can’t ignore that this year in 2020 is unlike anything any of us have ever experienced in our lifetime. We got thrown a huge curve ball this year.
I’m here in California and I know in California, we are having arguably the slowest or one of the slowest economic recoveries in the United States. So what I experienced daily might be different than you. Maybe your salon never closed down. Some salons never closed down, or you’ve been open for months. For some of you listening to this, you still have not gone back to work. We’re all in a bit of a different place with that.
But the tie that binds is none of us in this lifetime, have ever been through a pandemic and going through what we went through. Social distancing and seeing what has happened made a lot of people think twice about the way they live their lives and think twice about the work that they do and the amount of time that they put in, or the money they make, or the way that they save, or whatever it is. We’re living a life with eyes wide open right now.
So it is very common this year for a lot of us to be thinking, “Am I doing the right thing? Is it time for a change?” If you’re thinking any of those things, welcome to the party. Very, very common.
Now, the other thing I want to talk about is if you were in a state or an area or just by personal choice, you went into survival mode, you were shut down, you were without an income for a certain amount of time, survival mode is only sustainable for so long.
It’s like an adrenaline rush and you can actually hang with it for a time, and then you can’t any longer. Your body, your mind, your emotions can only do that for so long, and then it is no longer possible. Like your life does need to get back to normal at some point. The way that we’re made up craves that normalcy.
This has been so extended that a lot of us feel like we still have not bounced back and that is causing a mental and emotional toll.
So if you’re in that place, that is an unexpected challenge none of us saw coming this year. Definitely seek help and guidance where you can and reach out to resources that feel comfortable to you.
But it is abnormal what we went through this year and so a lot of the things that are coming up for you are challenges that you need to face head on and navigate, but it doesn’t make you weird or strange. It makes you normal.
So just know that you’re not alone in that.
Now, going back to just overwhelm and loss of inspiration, overall feelings like that can pop up at any time. Like I said, that’s hit me several times over my adulthood and the main triggers for losing inspiration are overwhelm, exhaustion, lack of progression, and boredom, right?
If you’ve chosen this industry, you are creative at your core. Nobody chooses to go into the beauty industry as a non-creative. Even if you’re not strongly creative, there is some part of you who likes the progression, likes the transformation, likes working with their hands, right?
For us, repetition, boredom, stagnation, all of those things work against our natural wiring. So if you show up to your salon every day and you’re not progressing, it’s like Groundhog Day. You’re bored with the work you’re doing. Maybe you’re really good at what you do, like a bad-ass at whatever it is you’re doing, but it’s become so basic that it’s no longer mentally stimulating to you anymore. That’s a problem.
If you are exhausted, you’re overworked. Somebody just sent me their schedule and they’re working 10 and 14 hour days in the salon. They’re like, “But no worries. I only work three days a week.”
I could not work three 14s and be my best self 12 hours into that shift. That is impossible. Our bodies aren’t meant to work at that capacity. So yeah, you’re only working 34 hours a week, but you’re condensing it into this place in space where you’ve got to be exhausted all three of those days.
That can cause loss of inspiration and overwhelm, right? So if you’re feeling overwhelm exhaustion, lack of progression, or boredom, that is a fast track to losing your inspiration.
I want to walk you out of that.
We first have to go way back, like way, way back, to 2018. This is one of the very first episodes I ever released on the podcast and it is one of the top 10 most downloaded ever as well. It’s called the 4 part cycle that is causing boredom and overwhelm as a hair stylist. (It’s episode #004 if you want to listen to it in full.)
In that episode, I break down the four stages of overwhelm. It’s this cycle that we all go through, everybody beyond our industry, in our industry, whatever, and we need to break the cycle in order to end the overwhelm.
The first phase is inspiration. You may actually feel phase one after listening to this episode. You feel uplifted. You see a world of possibilities, you start to get excited, your vision becomes clear and you’re like, “Okay, okay. I can do this.” It starts to feel like there’s like a little spark, like a little glimmer of hope. That’s going to be phase one.
Then there’s phase two: the education. You caught the feels of the inspiration. You’re like, “Yes, let’s do it,” and you educate yourself on how to make it possible. Maybe after listening to this episode, you’re like, “I need to get my business behind the chair right and tight.” Perfect. So you start figuring out what you need to do in order to make that happen, right? You start learning, you start researching, you listened to a few more podcasts, you read a few blogs. You log into Thrivers Society. You do whatever you do, but you educate yourself and you recenter around the idea of making progress forward.
Phase three is going to be the action phase, right? Education’s nothing without action.
How many of you are guilty of this? I certainly am. You listen to lots of podcasts, but then you don’t do much about it. Like it feels good. It sounds good. Maybe you apply a quick tip here or there, but there’s not a true strategy behind it, right? The phase three action phase is where we actually dig deep on what we’ve learned based on the inspiration that we caught so that we can see progress.
Action is sustainable only for a certain period of time, right? We can all only run for so long, right? There’s a reason why marathons aren’t 60 miles, right? They’re only 26. That’s a long time. At some point you will either become overwhelmed, burnt out, or bored in the action phase.
Once you sink into phase four, you can stay there for a real long time. Phase four is overwhelm, burnout, or boredom. For some of you listening to this, you’re right there right now. You’re like, “Yep. You just described me. I got inspired. I did the education thing. I ran a marathon for way too long. I got into the action phase and now I’m okay, overwhelmed, burnt out or bored.”
This is normal. This is part of the cycle.
How do you think you get out of that phase? Four, overwhelmed, burnout, boredom. There’s only one way: Get back to phase one, inspiration.
Picture these numbers plotted out on the circle. What number would come after four on the circle? It would be one, like a clock, right? And then we’ll go back to two, three, four.
You have to get back to one as fast as possible. When you start to have a really healthy relationship with this cycle, you skip four altogether.
If I see phase four, creeping in, which is overwhelm, burnout or boredom, I’m in it for maybe a day and then I get right back to inspiration because I’m so well aware of the cycle. That’s what allows me to continue to progress pretty rapidly. I don’t stay in phase four. I’ve coached myself to get through it and I want to coach you through doing the same.
So you’re probably like, “Okay, Britt, that sounds great. I’d like to get out of that phase. How do I do it?”
I walk myself through a path and I want to walk you through it as well. The very first thing you need to do is get clear on what you want your life to look like. Not just work, not just your business. I think business is great, but why do any of us work? To create a beautiful life for ourselves. Otherwise, what are we doing it for? The goal is always to create a life that we love with those that we love, surrounded by joy and happiness, right? So one lifetime, YOLO, do it right.
So we want to get clear on what we want our entire life to look like. When do you want to work? What do you want that work to look like? And don’t buy into the BS of “Well, hair stylists have to work nights and weekends.”
No, they don’t. I coach a ton of stylists who don’t work nights and weekends anymore. That’s not true. I didn’t say “What is the industry norm that has been taught to us since the 1940s?” or whatever. I have no idea. What do you want your workweek to look like? What do you want your life to look like? Do you want to drop off the kids everyday? Pick them up from school every day? Do you want to be able to go for long weekends with your partner every single weekend? That’s what I want to know. What do you want your life to look like?
And don’t say the word realistic. I don’t like the word realistic. Just vision cast for a second. What you want life to look like? What work makes you happy?
This is something that I even asked my own team. When we do our employee reviews, I asked them this question and a lot of times they’re like, “I like all the work,” and I’ll say “No, but let’s keep digging.” It’s amazing because they’ll all be able to pick out a half a dozen things that they love and a half a dozen things they don’t like so much. It’s not to say they can’t do it, or they don’t want to do it anymore, but getting very clear on what work makes you happy is a real game changer.
Like for me, if I could just teach and coach all day long, that’s all I would do. I wouldn’t answer emails. I wouldn’t do anything administrative. I am at my happiest, at my best when I’m recording podcasts, teaching master classes, coaching in my groups. That’s when I feel like I’m at my happiest at work.
So what are the things that you do that make you the most happy? Do you like foiling? Do you like cutting hair? Do you like blow drying? Do you like shopping with your clients? Do you like booking appointments? Do you like doing the accounting? What are the things you like?
And what are the things you don’t? What makes you happy outside of work?
For me, I love running. There’s something about walking with the dogs. It’s like my own version of therapy. Sitting outside and drinking my cup of coffee for 15 minutes, literally in silence, no book, no phone, nothing just taking in nature that makes me happy.
What are the things that make you happy? Playing the game Guess Who with my son makes me so happy right now. What are the things that you feel like you’re at your best and brightest with? I want you to connect to those things.
Then when do you feel like you’re personally at your best? That’s a hard question for a lot of people because it requires you to have a lot of self-love and confidence in yourself to say, “I am at my best when I’m doing blah-blah-blah.”
Some of you will say, “I’m the best when I’m being a mother.” Some of you will say, “I am the best when I’m behind the chair, working with my guests.” Somebody would say, “I’m at the best when I’m coaching my salon team.” Some of you will say, “I am at the best when I’m away for the weekend with my partner.” Some of you will say “I’m at my best when I am in the gym working out.”
All of those things are great, but I want you to connect with when you feel like you were at your best. You’re unstoppable. Peak performance. Very important to connect with that because we’re going to tap into that energy as we push forward.
Once you’ve brainstormed all of those things, I want you to begin creating a new routine.
Routine is something that us as human beings have loved since caveman times. You wake up, you go through the same half dozen or so things. Maybe the day throws you a curveball, but ideally you’re able to follow some kind of pattern. We like pattern.
What I want you to do is start to develop a new routine. You can’t go back to your old routine. It’s an impossibility, even for those of you who were not affected at large by the pandemic.
Our entire world was rocked and it will change consumer behavior long term. It will change mindset long term. It will have long term repercussions on our society. So you can’t just go back to what you once did. It’s time to shake up the routine and we have to shake up the routine from time to time anyway. It’s good for our mental health.
What I want to do is start to create a new routine with you. There’s a few key things that I think are important, and I want to share them.
I want you to include some form of education and time for it. You’re going to start to hear me talk a lot about my new rule. It’s an 80/20 rule. It’s not mine. I didn’t make up the 80/20 part.
There are a lot of studies that show 20% of your efforts produce 80% of your results. I’ll say it again for the people in the back. 20% of your efforts produce 80% of your results, which means 80% of the work we do is minutiae. It is 100% true. It’s proven scientifically.
If I look at my workload, it’s absolutely true. What we want to do is get very clear on the 20% that produces the biggest result. What is that 20%? Where are my Thrivers?
20% is the work you do outside of your chair. The work you do behind the chair is essentially what would I call the talent.
When I look at the five roles within any business CEO, CFO, CMO, COO, talent, talent is the lowest paid entry-level job in any business. We have to keep that in mind when we’re running our chairs as stylists. I know you have to work behind that chair right now. If you’re a stylist, I get it. You have to do it. However, that’s not how you’re going to push your business forward.
There’s no business where they say, “Well, the more we train the talent, the faster the business will grow.” No, it becomes about the work the CEO does, the chief marketing officer does, the CFO does, the chief operations officer does. It’s the business planning.
That’s the 20% for us as industry professionals and you need to make time to do that. And what I’m gonna coach too—you’re going to start hearing me say it loud and proud coming up here over these next few weeks—is four days a week in the salon, one day a week dedicated to building business. That’s how a smart business person would choose to run their chair.
I believe you will make more money, find more happiness, and more balance working your schedule that way, so that’s what I’m going to suggest you do.
You must, must, must have some sort of education plan in place ASAP if you’re going to get back to inspiration and I want you to apply my 20/ 80 rule.
Physical activity, I think it’s very important as far as getting back to inspiration, physical activity can be simple. Taking a walk three days a week, you can work on a fitness routine, there’s fitness apps you can do. Even physical activity, if you wanted to start with something like a meditation, which is not physical, technically speaking, it’s more of mental exercise. I’d be okay with that, but something very mind, body, soul for you to really recenter around, something wonderful you can do for yourself. I’d like that to be a part of the routine.
Mental stimulation. So one of the things we have to do if we are feeling lost or uninspired is we have to get out of the boredom and the repetition. It’s very important for us as creatives, so you need to have some sort of mental stimulation.
For me, a lot of times it’s reading. That’s how I get mentally stimulated. I like podcasts as well. Documentaries sometimes do it for me. I take a lot of digital courses every year. Those are the ways I get my mental stimulation with that. I do a lot of note-taking and planning and things like that. It makes me think forward and in thinking forward, I don’t get lost and I don’t lose my inspiration, but I would not be able to forward think if I didn’t have that mental stimulation piece intact.
Then there’s the work-life balance. I know work-life balance is a touchy subject, very touchy subject, because for some of us, it feels fully unattainable. It feels like my work runs my life and I don’t have enough money to work less.
For me, it brings me right back to that 80/20 rule. It’s not that you have to work more to make more, it’s that you need a better strategy. You need a true strategy so you can be a stylist who is not working behind the chair 40 plus hours a week and barely getting by. That should not be the reality. We need to create that work-life balance by incorporating mental simulation and creating an actual strategy around your business.
Because if we’re not creating work-life balance, how could you not be overwhelmed? How could you not be bored? How could you not be burnt out? It would be an impossibility, like I so empathize. I’ve been there completely. So we need to fix that core issue to push forward, right?
Then professional growth. I already talked about this, but what is your professional growth plan? I think a lot of people feel guilt around just wanting to be a really successful stylist. You should not. If I was actually talented as a stylist, I likely would have chosen to just be the most bad-ass stylist in my area. Fortunately, cutting hair got the best of me; it wasn’t where my passions were. I was more passionate about marketing. I look at some of these stylists that I’m friends with today—I’m very proud to call them friends—who are working like three days a week and making $200,000 a year. Like what’s wrong with that? And living a really beautiful life for themselves.
I know when I say that, some of you were like, “Yeah, maybe in these big cities.” No, not in big cities. Throughout the United States, throughout Canada even, I know stylists are doing really well for themselves, not working five days a week, not working evenings and weekends, going on the school field trip with their kids, finding ways to homeschool and be in the salon, like having it all because they’ve prioritized creating a life where that is possible.
And you might not be able to have that today, but let’s make a plan for having that tomorrow. Like a year from now, making that possible. What is your professional growth strategy? And then working backwards to create a plan to get there.
There’s just no doubt about it: If you’re bored at work, you need to infuse something new and exciting in order to get that spark back. I don’t know about you, but if I’m overwhelmed or lost at work, it absolutely affects my personal relationships. It’s hard for it not to, and so I really want you to think holistically about how it will better my life if I can get inspired about my career again, feel like I know where I’m going and have a path to get there.
If you need help in creating that path, I would love to support you. I do have a program I host every single year called Best Year Yet. You can learn more brittseva.com/BYY. I would absolutely love to have you.
You guys, so much love, happy, happy business building. See you on the next one.
