Have you ever heard the saying, “You are a product of the five people you spend the most amount of time with?”
If you’re spending a lot of time with people who are negative, tell you that you aren’t going to make it, or complain about being broke, guess what? You’ll likely be broke, you probably won’t make it, and you definitely won’t have the confidence in yourself to push to big things.
But when you choose to surround yourself with others that light you up and who are also doing big things, you will naturally find more success.
To become a high performer, you must choose to do the hard work, to go the extra mile, and do to the things no one else wants to do so you can have the life you want.
Let’s dive into the habits of the high performers I surround myself with, and the lessons we can all learn from them.
Don’t worry about the money
If you’re in a place in your business where your strategy needs help or your guest experience could improve, but you feel you can’t do any of that until you make more money, you’re not going to make it.
High performers don’t say, “How can I make more money?” Instead, they ask how to improve their offerings, their communications, or their guest experience.
Start by asking how you can better present yourself and the experience you offer. What actions can you take to put you in position to meet your end goal? Focus on making an impact instead of money. Have faith that whatever money you needed to make your vision a reality will come.
Invest in yourself
If you invest $0 into yourself, what do you think the return on that investment is going to be? $0. If you put zero in, how are you going to get any more than zero out?
High performers aren’t afraid to invest in themselves. If someone suggests hiring a coach, but mentions they’re expensive, they don’t say “What does expensive mean?” Instead, they say “Can you get me their contact information?” It’s not because they’re rich; it’s because they know the best investment they can make is in themselves.
I’m not saying you have to invest $20,000 into yourself this year. But if you are not paying for classes outside what your salon provides, if you are not going to see educators or getting education at home through online courses, if you are just scraping by with the free stuff, the rate of return will be incredibly low.
There is always room to level up
High performers never hit cruise control; they’re always looking for what’s next, how to better help their community, and how to impact more people.
There is something better and beyond for you, even if you’re already making $180,000 a year, working three days a week, and off by 5 p.m. Maybe your more is educating others to do what you’re doing. Maybe it’s raising your prices so you can only work two days a week. Or maybe it’s that you truly are meant to be a salon owner. But there is always something more.
Be the CEO of your life and business
As soon as you decided to become a stylist, you became an entrepreneur. You live and die by the decisions you make. Unless you’re bringing in clients and referrals, even as a commission or hourly wage stylist, you’re probably not making as much money as you want.
If you’re a salon owner, your actions determine the outcome. Period. That makes you an entrepreneur.
The sooner you stop looking at yourself as a struggling entrepreneur and step into that CEO role, the faster you become successful.
CEOs sit down and create a vision for the entire year. They plan what’s going to happen each quarter, sales and growth projections, a media strategy, a budget, and a monthly spending plan to determine how much needs to be spent to sustain the business as is and how much is needed to grow.
CEOs also have an exit strategy, a plan detailing how and when they’re going to retire and what will happen to their business when they do.
You should be able to say how much you spent on rent, on color. Understand your business to a tee. Plan your exit strategy. You need to know the exact amount you’ll need to sustain your lifestyle in retirement and have a plan in place to make that happen.
Be the best possible leader for their team
If you’re resentful of your stylists or your top priority is your bills, you’re never going to make it. When you decided to be a leader, you took on the commitment of building a salon environment where those who choose to work for you will work with happy people and a driven leader who knows what they’re doing.
Successful, high performers want to take care of their people and lead them to their breakthrough years in the business. They want their team to love working for them, to feel like the space they provide is unmatchable.
The beautiful thing is that when a leader is willing to put their community and team ahead of themselves, they end up with more than their fair share. If you work towards achievement and alignment and community, your team will rally around you, and the money will come.
Set up your social media the right way to maximize results
Social media is no longer about keeping up with the other salon in town; it’s about being innovative and doing what no one else is doing yet.
If you want to be a high performer, you need to see that social media as the driver behind your business that you need to be one step ahead because someone somewhere out there is already one-upping you. See social media and marketing not as a burden, but as a game. What can you do to be a cut above?
Lose the ego
If you’re a stylist or salon owner and think you don’t need critique because you’ve already got a good thing going on, you’re already losing. Someone is coming up behind you who’s like not only open to critique but asking for it.
Successful, high performers are open to criticism and critique with zero ego because they know it will help them grow their business. By being open and vulnerable, we have the opportunity to let our guard down and see our fatal flaws so we can correct them.
Get smart about money.
Retirement is much harder than you think it’s going to be. It’s estimated right now that you’re going to need one million dollars saved to retire successfully. Are you financially prepared for that?
High performers think talking about 401ks, stock investments and investment properties is super sexy. It’s not because they’re money hungry; it’s because they never want to be in a crunch. It’s not about making a quick buck or looking cool on Instagram; it’s about having financial peace-of-mind.
Do things no one else is willing to do
When you look at high performers on social media or read their book, you think they’ve got it made. But the truth is that person is working their ass off to get the result that they are looking for. They know that they’ll make mistakes, that people on their team will quit, that they’ll have good years and bad years.
But they also know that if they’re going to have to work ten times harder and smarter, they’ll get 100 times more rewards.
If you want to be a high performer, buckle up and start working hard and smart to get the results you’re looking for. Choose to be a high performer, to be a leader that cares more about your team than you do about yourself. Choose to invest in yourself year after year, to be smart about your money and where you invest it. Choose to be open to criticism and thank people for it. Choose to do the stuff that nobody else is willing to do so you can live the life that nobody else is willing to have.