Don’t shoot for the moon.

Do you have any idea how far away the moon is? Or how expensive it will be to get there? Just thinking about the work required makes the task of getting there seem overwhelming and impossible. (Plus, “shooting” towards a natural satellite sounds like it has the potential to end pretty painfully.)

Instead of focusing intently on a major, long-term goal, devote your full attention to accomplishing a significant shorter-term goal.

What do you plan to achieve in the long-term? Do you want a twenty-location empire and a mansion on the beach? Write it out in detail on a piece of paper.

What part of that dream can you reasonably accomplish in the next three years? Maybe you can open your first location, or expand your existing business into a new area? Maybe you could also start renovating parts of your home to prepare it for sale? Write those things down on another piece of paper.

Now, you’re holding two pieces of paper, right? Tuck the major “short-term” goal page into your planner. (I don’t care what you do with your “long-term” goals written on it. Some recommend putting it in a visible place, where you can see it every day. I’d recommend keeping it at the back of a planner or journal and only looking at it when you need to reassess your short-term goals.)

Your short-term goals should only include tasks that are reasonable and attainable within the next 36 months.

Three years away seems like a lifetime (especially given the way some of us have had our perception of time thoroughly thrown off as of late), but it passes much quicker when you’re working in eager pursuit of something that matters deeply to you.

Create a timeline.

For each goal on your short-term page, list every step you’ll need to take to accomplish them. If you want to establish that empire, you’ll need to do some market research and scout locations. Then, you’ll need to negotiate a lease. Then, you’ll need to get started on the build. If you want to get that house ready to sell, you’ll need to deal with that green shag carpeting in your living room…for starters.

Now, estimate how much time each of those tasks will take. For example, how long will you take to scout locations and decide on a home for your new business? How many months will it take to get the rose tile replaced with something a little more modern in your dated ass bathroom? Be reasonable in your assessments, especially if you’re relying on third parties (like accountants, attorneys, state licensing departments, or contractors) for anything.

Keep your personal responsibilities in mind, too.

Think hard about how many hours per day you can realistically dedicate to your tasks. You may find that you have to make some sacrifices or delegate certain tasks to free up more time.

For me, that task was managing my social campaigns for this blog. By automating those tasks through the use of a social calendar software, I was able to free up five hours per week. I also sacrificed non-essential social interaction, for the most part.

You’ll also need to recognize and eliminate time-sucking distractions. For example, I had to severely limit my involvement in professional networking groups to an hour or less per day. In April of 2018, I left Facebook entirely. When I finished my taxes in January of this year, I found that my income had doubled. (I am positive that was not a coincidence.)

Now, you should have a rough outline of what your next 36 months will look like. Transfer all those dates and tasks to your calendar. Once you’re done, they won’t be goals any more; they’ll be plans.

Focus and Execute

Plan to make slow and steady progress. Don’t allow yourself to get distracted by other projects or opportunities. For many of you, this will mean learning how to say “no” more often. Anything that distracts from your goals, regardless of what it is, will push back your timeline.

Most of us are visual people, so maybe it’ll help you to think of these distractions this way:

You’re at the bottom of the ocean and you really want to get to the surface, take a deep breath of fresh air, and see the sun. So, you make a plan to get to the surface and you start executing that plan.

You start to swim upwards but an octopus stops you. He says, “Hey, can you help me with this thing? It’s a great opportunity for you and will only require a few days/weeks of your time.”

The octopus straps a weight to your ankle that’ll keep you at his depth until the task is done. Meanwhile, you can’t really do a lot of swimming, so your goal of reaching the surface is postponed.

You finish the octopus’s assignment, remove the weight, and start swimming again. You’ve made it another twenty feet closer to the surface when a dolphin approaches you. “Hello!” he says. “I have a great opportunity for you. It will only require a few days/weeks of your time…” He holds out another weight for you to strap to your ankle.

Always ask, “What’s in this for me?”

You’re allowed to be selfish, shrewd, and cynical. You’re allowed to expect a tangible return on your time and effort, especially when you’re being asked to put your goals on hold by someone else who’d rather you spend your time in pursuit of theirs. Many “opportunities” I’m presented with aren’t actually opportunities that would ever benefit me—at least not enough to make up for the loss of time I could have spent on my own goals. Be willing to say no to anything that doesn’t move you closer to your destination. Remember, you’re on a schedule.

Outside projects, in addition to robbing you of your valuable time, will tire you out. The longer you postpone your own goals, the easier it gets to postpone them further. Go long enough without working on your goals and they’ll eventually start to look like unattainable pipe dreams. You’ll get frustrated and resentful and will may never resume your work towards that goal again.

The only thing worse for your progress than the interference of others is your inability to commit to a singular focus.

Sometimes, we’re the ones strapping weights to our own ankles. We can set ourselves back when we start twenty different projects and never actually complete anything.

A few of my consulting clients are like this: eager, driven, motivated, but ultimately they’re too impulsive. They haven’t opened their first location before they’re asking to tour empty units in neighboring towns as part of a sudden expansion plan that materialized on a whim.

In this scenario, you’re swimming to the top, but you can only really use one arm (most of the time), because your other arm and your legs are preoccupied managing your other projects. Try not to think too hard about how that would work from a logistical standpoint—it’s a mediocre analogy, the point is…

Successful, productive people commit and follow through.

Don’t sabotage yourself by spreading yourself too thin or set yourself up for disappointment by taking on far too much. Your timeline serves as a guide but also a reminder that big goals sometimes require big time investments. You might get there sooner, but if not, you shouldn’t feel discouraged. Keep checking off tasks one day at a time. As long as you’re moving forward, it doesn’t matter how fast (or slow) you’re going.

Self-Assess

The lists, calendars, and detailed plans go a long way to curb those impulsive behaviors, but daily self-assessment is an absolute necessity.

When you start your day, do the following:

Check your calendar. Ask yourself:

• Am I on track to hit my deadlines?
• What do I need to be focusing on today to ensure that I will stay on schedule?

Check your to-do list. Ask yourself:

• What can I fully complete today?
• What extraneous tasks can I outsource or postpone?

Hold yourself accountable. If you can’t, have someone else hold you accountable.

Once you accomplish one of your short-term goals, revisit your long-term goal. Ask yourself:

• Do I still want this, or have I found a new long-term goal?
• Have new opportunities presented themselves that could get me closer to achieving this goal or help me progress more efficiently?
• Can I add a new short-term goal now or should I buckle down and clear the ones I’m working on first?

I hope you found this approach helpful. Personally, I had a hard time following most popular goal-setting techniques. This strategy works for me, but I encourage you to also be flexible. When something isn’t working, try something new until you find something that works, and don’t get too discouraged when you experience delays or setbacks.

Your financial management system should be simple.

You are not a child. You don’t need 15 different bank accounts, labeled cash envelopes, complicated formulas, or a device that delivers electric shocks every time you reach for your wallet.

You need exactly two bank accounts: business and personal. Your personal account belongs to you. The salon account does not. Why?

The salon’s money isn’t your money.

Don’t think of the salon account as your personal piggy bank. You’re putting your revenue into a separate account for good reason. That money belongs to the business that employs you. Just because you own the shop doesn’t mean you personally own its revenue. Tattoo that into the folds of your gray matter: The salon’s money isn’t your money.

A well-functioning system is an efficient, straightforward one that requires very little upkeep.

Establish a minimum balance.

Your “minimum” balance will vary depending on the scale of your business and your expenses. For microsalon owners, I recommend having a minimum of $5,000 dollars in your business banking account at all times. Depending on the size of your operation, rental and employment-based salon owners may want to maintain a minimum balance of at least $10,000. Building this balance takes time, but once you’ve established it, you should never dip below that minimum unless an emergency situation warrants doing so.

Your minimum balance should be considered your emergency fund. That balance will be your defense against debt, downturn, and short-term financial crisis.

Plan ahead.

If you have plans to expand in the future, start saving now by increasing your minimum balance in accordance with your timeline. Even if you don’t have grand, long-term plans, I still recommend increasing your balance over time—especially if you want to be in business for a long while.

You may not have plans to expand or renovate soon, but in ten years (when your furniture and floors are dated, beaten to hell, and in desperate need of replacement) you’ll be grateful to have the money to cover it.

Calculate a reasonable salary.

Nobody likes hearing this, but salons are high-overhead businesses with slim profit margins. Those are the facts for all but those lucky few who own their buildings (or slipped into uncommonly sweet leases) and can charge the prices necessary to support their operational costs. When you decided to become a salon owner, presumably you accepted the realities of what that means for you and your lifestyle.

Am I saying it’s impossible to live comfortably? Absolutely not.
Will you be living the glamorous, jet-setting life of a billionaire? It’s highly unlikely.

While plenty of dubiously qualified “financial gurus” preach this “pay yourself first” bullshit, salon owners who live and operate in the real world know that you only get paid once you’ve paid the salon’s bills, otherwise you won’t have a salon for long.

The most successful salon owners I’ve consulted with are those who put the salon and its employees before themselves.

Prioritize your work lifestyle over your personal lifestyle. Instead of paying yourself and trying to operate the salon with the leftovers, do the opposite. Salon ownership can be intensely stressful, not just because of the personalities we work with but the financial pressure. You’re trying to create a profitable operation that will provide you with a sustainable income for the long-term, right? You’re spending every day of your life working towards that end. For the love of god, make it easy on yourself by establishing a solid business account balance—even if that means driving that busted ass Toyota another year or two or renewing the lease on your modest apartment.

…but don’t feel hopeless or like you need to sacrifice endlessly. You may never own a Farrari but you won’t be dining on Ramen until you retire either. A little later in this article, I’ll share the personal finance tips that have made me debt-free and provided a really comfortable lifestyle but I’m going to warn you right now—it requires hard work, sacrifice, and discipline. The process sucks.

There is no rosy shortcut to financial stability, no matter what the gurus say. (If there were, I’d have found it and we would ALL be loaded.)

If you’re breaking even, make changes ASAP.

Running in place will get you nowhere, but what do you do if you’re barely scraping by—to the point that budget cuts are literally impossible?

I was there once too—during the recession.

I worked 80+ hours per week.
I kept my A/C off (in Florida) to save on electricity.
I lived in a 500 square-foot, one-bedroom apartment, sleeping on the couch in the living room so my daughter could have her own bedroom.
I traded my ‘04 Civic in for an ’88 Buick LeSabre to eliminate the payments and lower my insurance.
I bought my groceries on sale and hardly ate to save money.
I went without internet and cable.
My cell phone (if you could even call it that) was a Nokia brick fueled by a $20 prepaid card that I only used in emergencies.

Even still, every month was a challenge to break even. There wasn’t one thing I could cut from my monthly expenditures to move forward but running in place wasn’t an option.

What pulled me out was the understanding that nothing short of drastic action would improve things. So, I aggressively searched for a new job in an area that could pay beyond what the salons in my sleepy, seasonal hometown could afford. I decided that any move that wasn’t a step forward wasn’t worth my time. When I finally found the position I desperately needed, I commuted 40 minutes to and from work each day and continued sweating, starving, and coveting my prepaid minutes until I could afford to move closer.

Poverty made me aggressive, professionally. It made me realize nobody else was going to look out for my best interests. Nobody was going to fight for me. So, I cross-checked my pay stubs to ensure I was receiving every penny of my wages. I kept my resume online and kept my options open. I worked hard, ensuring my boss knew I was worth my salary and far too valuable to replace with a cheaper candidate.

For me, these things worked. While you may have your back up against a wall and may not have the ability to pull yourself through a breakeven situation at this very second, I urge you to keep your eyes open for opportunities, and don’t be scared to fight for yourself. Don’t accept lowball offers. Don’t sacrifice for anyone else’s benefit. Don’t be timid when you ask for a raise. Don’t allow an employer to take advantage of you.

Any step forward, no matter how small, is a step in the right direction.

Develop a strong hatred of debt and eliminate it.

Can you afford to light money on fire? Probably not, but even if you can, why would you? I’m going to need you to get a little high and mighty right now.

You are too smart to be burning money on interest.

When you’re paying interest, that’s exactly what you’re doing—lighting money on fire. Every penny spent on interest keeps you further from your goal of being truly free. Take a machete to those binds and pay off your debts as fast as possible so you can start putting that money where it belongs: in your pockets.

The method you use to eliminate debt will come down to personal preference.

Choose one:

• The traditional method, debt stacking, requires you to make list your debts by interest rate in descending order. You hit them from highest to lowest—making large payments on the cards with the highest rate and paying the minimums on the lowest rates. You repeat this process until you clear the list. Debt stacking saves you the most money in interest, but since some of your cards with higher balances might take a while to pay off, you’ll have to wait for that feeling of gratification that comes with crossing debt off your list.
• The debt snowball method requires you to list your debts in ascending order by balance—not interest rate—making large payments on the cards with the lowest balance and paying minimums on the others. Again, repeat the process until you clear the list. This method reverses the pros and cons found in the debt stacking method; the interest costs more, but the psychological payoff is higher.

If you hate interest as much as I do, then the debt stacking method will appeal to you. However, if you need the morale boost that comes with crossing a debt off your list for good to keep you motivated to clear them, go with the debt snowball method. You could even switch up your strategy when you grow bored with one or the other—so long as you’re paying off your debts, the approach doesn’t matter.

Whatever strategy you choose will be the right one if the end goal—a life free of debt—gets achieved.

For me, debt stacking worked best. I couldn’t stand seeing how much of my loan and credit payments were getting burned on interest, so I paid them all off as fast as possible, diverted the money I had been spending on payments into my savings account until I had a five-figure balance and became a “payment-in-full” kind of bitch.

Paying for things with your own money introduces a new level of spending discipline. Trust me, you’ll think twice about how “critical” those new lighting fixtures are and how acceptable the cost is when the full amount comes directly from your account immediately rather than being paid off over the course of several months or years.

Creditors profit by manipulating us with low monthly payments. $180 a month for three years sounds a lot more appealing than $5,000 right now, but most consumers aren’t seeing what that $5,000 balloons into once fees and interest are applied over that three-year period.

If we assume an 19.2% interest rate (average for most credit card companies) and no fees, that $5,000 debt turns into $6,500.

…and that’s only if you never miss a payment.

I recommend using an interest calculator before making major purchases on credit. Would you be willing to pay the inflated price on the item just to have it right now, or can you wait until you can afford to buy it outright?

Keep focused.

Train yourself to see that light at the end of the tunnel, because you will reach it much faster if you exercise financial discipline. What does the end of that tunnel look like?

Once you secure your minimum balance—assuming you have no plans for growth—anything above the minimum balance can be reinvested into the business or become part of your salary.

Do you have any idea—ANY FREAKING IDEA—how awesome the end of that tunnel looks? I do, and so do many of my consulting clients. Staying disciplined can be hard, so if you need help from a friend or professional, ask for it.

Set calendar reminders to reconcile your accounts every week.

I recommend creating an immovable appointment with your bank account every week. I do my accounting every Thursday morning and I follow the same process every time. Your process will likely look different than mine, but here’s what I do, so you can see an example:

Step 1: Transfer Paypal funds to business checking.
Step 2: Pay business bills (if any).
Step 3: Verify account transactions line by line.
Step 4: Transfer salary to personal checking.

How much do I transfer to myself? Typically, $1,500 a week. Sometimes I’ll transfer more but I rarely feel the need to because I’d rather be debt-free and have financial freedom than a difficult to manage “luxe” lifestyle and the stress that accompanies it.

Learn to love the possibilities.

Can I afford a luxury car? Yep. Instead, our family has exactly one vehicle—a 2014 Honda Odyssey (that we paid off a few years ago).

Can I afford a housekeeper, a nanny, and a personal assistant? Totally, but our family can handle all of those things ourselves.

Can I afford a boat, an RV, a motorcycle, and a pair of jet skis? You bet, but I’d rather have a 5-figure balance, thanks.

Knowing you can afford things can feel better than actually owning those things.

Reject flex culture—and if you can’t, redefine it. When you have money in your account, you have endless possibilities. You have endless freedom. You might not be a Mercedes driving HBIC who spends the weekends yachting up and down the coast—but you fucking could be, and that’s enough.

VIP Members now have access to exclusive and free VIP Downloads. If you want to put my system to work for you, download the Financial Freedom System and run your numbers!

…if you buy their books and DVDs,
…if you commit to their eight-month coaching program,
…if you enroll in their webinar series,
…if you join their mastermind community,
…if…

I tend to be criticized for taking a more rational, realistic approach. Instead of pushing (and profiting from) the absurd concept of “guaranteed success,” I encourage professionals and salon owners to understand that even the best laid plans sometimes fall through.

Nothing—especially success—can be guaranteed.

Audio Version

Season 3 [2019]

[3.5] The Tempting Illusion of "Guaranteed Success"

Play Episode Pause Episode

Mute/Unmute Episode Rewind 10 Seconds 1x Fast Forward 30 seconds

00:00 / 3:24

RSS Feed

Share

Link

Embed

Foolproof plans don’t exist, and anyone who tells you otherwise needs a reality check.

We should accept responsibility for the roles we play in our own failures, but should not allow others to make us feel as if every one of those random, inevitable failures were somehow foreseeable or preventable.

Not every failure you experience will be your fault.

Those who preach the “guaranteed success” gospel have the luxury of pointing at the failures of others and claiming, with complete conviction,

“This would not have happened to you if…”
“Your problem would have been resolved if…”
“You could have prevented this if…”

Nobody can tell the future, not even these supremely uninformed elitists. No matter what inflated title they’ve bestowed upon themselves, experts, gurus, and masterminds of all kinds have no room to shame anyone—unless the person they’re shaming happens to be someone they’ve personally guided who chose to disregard their advice. Even then, they can only speculate as to how the failure could have been avoided.

Speculating and determining a list of potential solutions can be a valuable exercise that could help you prevent future mistakes, but to claim your success was a certainty, if only you had done something differently is absurd. People selling this narrative (both literally and figuratively) keep crawling out of the woodwork and poisoning our industry, deluding people into believing success can be packaged and sold like a commodity when it most certainly cannot.

This business can be rough.

Even with the progress we’ve made in the last decade, we’re probably not going to be ranking anywhere on the list of “employee-friendly careers” any time soon.

• Our industry still suffers from chronic wage and labor abuses that are so common they’re considered “customary.”
• Exploitation of students by for-profit beauty schools has put us into the national spotlight—in a bad way.
• The student debt to income ratio continues to lean heavily in the wrong direction.
• Our disturbingly high attrition rate leaves our profession vulnerable to constant assault from those seeking to deregulate.
• Human trafficking operations and sex businesses posing as salon and spa businesses delegitimize and devalue our industry.

It can be incredibly difficult to make a career—let alone build a successful, profitable company—in the beauty business. The burdens of self-employment and salon ownership are intense, especially in such a competitive industry. Even figuring out how to find gainful employment can feel impossible for new entrants.

With such a steep learning curve, failures are inevitable.

New professionals who are just starting their careers and beauty entrepreneurs who are launching new enterprises are both doing something incredibly brave, but instead of finding praise and support, may find themselves battered with damaging messaging (whether in the form of “inspirational” memes or outright bad coaching).

Throughout my career as an educator and consultant, I’ve witnessed other so-called “industry leaders” do the following:

• repeatedly claim, “failure is a choice,” in a trade show business seminar,
• publicly condemn a salon owner in a professional networking group for being “naive” after her landlord unlawfully locked her out of the building without warning, and
• blame professionals for being misclassified and having their wages stolen (calling them “stupid” and “victims of their own ignorance who deserved to be taken advantage of”).

The vast majority of the time, these people (who hilariously consider themselves “coaches” or “educators”) have a strong profit-motive or are trying to abdicate themselves of responsibility after someone has suffered the consequences of their bad advice.

Cultivate self-compassion.

Today, I’m here to tell you that sometimes, there are no viable solutions. Sometimes, the best you can do won’t be enough. Positive thinking isn’t a substitute for rational strategy, and neither can guarantee successful execution. Even the most hard-working hustlers fail.

After a professional setback, we tend to be harder on ourselves than we should be. Don’t let egomaniacs victim-blame you when you don’t deserve it or convince you that you’re the problem. Those who enjoy success the first time they attempt anything are the slim minority; not the rule.

The most successful people in the world are those who have failed over and over and over again.

As an industry, we’re having a hard enough time staffing our businesses and convincing the next generation that the careers we have to offer are viable, long-term opportunities. We can’t allow this bad information to continue to circulate, nor can we allow these amateur, wannabe “coaches” to poison our profession to line their own pockets.

If you happen to see this idiocy playing out in classrooms, conference venues, networking groups, or trade shows, please speak out against them. Don’t allow others to ruin this industry. In your own communications with other professionals, strive to be encouraging, supportive, and constructive. We can’t afford to allow others to drive a wedge between us for their own benefit.

If you liked this post, you might also like my article, “How to Progress After a Negative Career Experience,” a post written to help you move on in the most productive, least traumatizing way possible.

You might also enjoy, “Why You Should Quit,” where I teach you all about loss aversion, the sunk cost fallacy, and why persistence isn’t always a virtue.

What about you? Have you been victim-blamed or failure-shamed? How did it happen and how did it affect you? Have you ever been guilty of promoting damaging and overly-simplistic business advice? Has your opinion changed since reading this post? Tell me about it in the comments!

In this series, we’ll be exploring employee development, with a specific focus on mentorship in this installment. In Part 2, you’ll learn about individual development plans (or IDPs) and how you can integrate them into your employee coaching strategies.

Audio Version

VIP

[VIP 6] How to Become an Exceptional Mentor

Play Episode Pause Episode

Mute/Unmute Episode Rewind 10 Seconds 1x Fast Forward 30 seconds

00:00 / 10:53

RSS Feed

Share

Link

Embed

Why develop a mentorship program?

Professionals in the beauty industry often feel unsupported by their employers. These feelings, in addition to contributing to overall attrition rates, cause those who choose to stay to bounce from salon to salon, frequently ending up in rental facilities. While a salon mentorship program alone won’t solve all of your employee turnover problems, it can curb employee departures significantly and transform your salon into a highly desired place of employment, giving you a significant advantage.

Mentorship pays in considerable karmic benefits, but it can also lead to profitable opportunities and even new career paths. I’m proof of how that can happen.

I started this blog in 2010 to help others. Back then, it was really nothing more than a collection of articles on a third-party platform, but it gained traction fast. People began seeking me out for individualized help, which I happily provided.

I moved off that third-party platform and the popularity of my site exploded. Soon, people were asking me to write a book and speak at trade shows in their area. Professionals I looked up to started to notice me and began referring their followers to me.

From there, my career progressed evolved dramatically. Now, I’ve published two books and hundreds of articles (both here and in national trade publications), spoken at trade shows, consulted for hundreds of salon owners and professionals within and outside of the United States, and have created business tools, online classes, and a membership system. While the money has been spectacular, it isn’t everything.

the biggest benefit to my career came in the form of the motivation my supporters have provided by just being present.

I’ve taken my own company, Unvarnished Hand & Foot Co., further than I ever would have had the guts to without them. Five years ago, if you told me I’d grow my salon into two locations, I’d have laughed you right out of the building. If you had told me I’d be planning a multi-state expansion in 2019, I probably would have thrown something at you for wishing that evil on me.

And yet, here I am, laying the foundation for something completely insane that I would never have considered without this site that started as a collection of articles on a third-party platform. Why? Because some lessons are best learned through direct experience. For me to grow as a consultant, I have to do scary things, take on risky challenges, and turn my mistakes into lessons and my discoveries into strategies.

Where will mentoring others take you and your business? Before you can find out, let’s talk about how you can gradually evolve into an authority others consider trustworthy and credible. These lessons are important for every person in a leadership position, even those who aren’t salon owners and managers.

Exceptional mentors learn and educate constantly.

Start seeing yourself as an educator and talent developer. Whether through your blog, social media, YouTube, and/or in person–you should always be teaching. However, to facilitate this constant teaching, you have to commit to constant learning, which doesn’t have to be as painful as it seems.

• Subscribe to blogs and vlogs that interest you,
• Join professional associations and be sure to opt in to their email lists,
• Follow people who inspire you on social media.

Developing this habit will help you develop experience faster, while expanding your own knowledge.

Exceptional mentors aren’t shovel sellers.

During the gold rush, Mark Twain remarked that the only people making money were the shovel sellers—people who had no actual gold mining experience, but were pitching the dream of “striking it rich” to fools who were happy to buy their shovels, picks, pans, and sifters.

Exceptional mentors largely draw from their own life lessons.

While you’re out living your life, experiment and learn from your experiences—otherwise you run the risk of becoming one of many shovel sellers in the industry. If all you do is appropriate and repackage the knowledge and experiences of others as if it were your own, you will never be more than a mediocre fraud, and it won’t be long before you’re caught and exposed the way so many others have been.

Exceptional mentors have the courage to be relatable.

I’m in the process of turning a ton of my old journal entries into a short e-book, titled “Mature For Her Age.” It is a collection of my most significant professional embarrassments—a laundry list of fuckups I was personally responsible for and what I learned from each experience. I’ve always considered it important for others to understand that nobody begins their career in this industry as the poster child for salon professionalism.

I fumbled my way through this business the first five years of my career and was only slightly less of train wreck the following ten.

Even with the benefit of a spectacular mentor and a superior education, I made huge mistakes and really poor judgement calls—and so did you. Meet others on equal ground. You’re allowed to be flawed. Your broken parts make your transformation into who you are today so much more compelling and powerful.

Once upon a time, you were an idiot, just like the rest of us, and that’s inspiring AF.

Exceptional mentors acknowledge skill, education, and experience deficits when necessary.

Successful mentors know their limits. Remember not to be a shovel seller. Don’t provide advice you can’t back up with experience or personal knowledge. Cite your sources when sharing information you gained from someone else (that way they can be responsible if that information turns out not to be accurate or helpful).

You don’t have to know it all.

Exceptional mentors are aware of (and admit) their biases.

I don’t know about you, but there are some things about this business I don’t like or agree with. For instance, I’m one of very few people in my position who present microsalon business ownership fairly and realistically, instead of promoting only the positives. I could probably make a lot more money if I lied through my teeth the way so many others do, painting self-employment as a glorious, fulfilling, and tremendously profitable career path. I could sell the illusion of “guaranteed success” and make millions from those desperate to buy that dream.

Instead, I promote truth. Solo entrepreneurship is hard, risky, and requires a lot more than most people realize (and much more than a good deal of people are willing to sacrifice). It isn’t for everyone and it’s terrible for the industry at large.

Am I biased against microsalon ownership? To a degree, absolutely, and I’m not shy about it. Aspiring microsalon owners looking for someone to tell them what they want to hear and to “motivate” them to make an impulsive, uninformed, expensive mistake should not be contacting me, because they won’t get what they’re looking for. I only endorse a microsalon venture when the professional in question has demonstrated competence, presented a solid plan, and clearly understands what solo entrepreneurship entails.

It’s okay to have strong opinions, so long as those opinions are informed.

Be forthcoming about your own biases as well. Not only does this help to reinforce your credibility, it shows integrity, and will help to keep incompatible mentees from wasting your time.

Exceptional mentors are active listening experts.

Make a conscious effort to hear and comprehend what others are saying. When you respond, paraphrase some of the information you just received. Not only will paraphrasing help you retain the information, but it will show the other person that you actually heard them.

Learn how to ask the right open-ended questions and how to manage the discussion to maximize the value of the interaction. This requires you to know how to keep a mentee on-topic. If you’re allowing the conversation to meander to trivial topics and irrelevant subjects, your time will be wasted and your mentee will question your competence (or at least feel they didn’t get anything useful from the discussion).

Exceptional mentors individualize their programs.

For your efforts to be successful, you have to get to know your mentee(s) on a personal level. The time you spend setting goals and developing strategies for attaining those goals will be wasted if the program doesn’t suit the mentees lifestyle or personality, or cater to how they learn best.

Develop your emotional intelligence.

Emotionally intelligent people understand the needs and feelings of others and know how to respond appropriately. Social awareness will be critical when communicating with pretty much anyone in any environment, but it will be especially important when working with someone on their professional development. They’re going to experience failures, setbacks, and challenges that might test their resolve. To keep your mentee motivated and provide them with sound advice, you’ll need to know them pretty well personally. Having an understanding of their mindset and any frustrations they face in their personal lives will help you determine which approach will be most effective in any given situation.

Exceptional mentors communicate their availability, repeatedly.

If you’re willing to donate your time to others, reach out. Some people have a hard time asking for help, so give them a direct invitation or three. While you shouldn’t force your help on anyone, you might need to be a little more insistent so they understand that they would not be imposing and that you genuinely do want them to take advantage of the offer.

(Have I mentioned The Community—a discussion forum where you guys can seek help and get it for free whenever you need it?)

Exceptional mentors take responsibility for their advice.

Although nobody can guarantee outcomes, you don’t get to advise others and walk away when your recommendations have negative consequences. While you aren’t responsible for the mistakes others make when implementing your advice or the behaviors and choices of third parties who may be negatively affected by your advice, you are responsible for supporting the person you’re mentoring. Help them untangle whatever messes have been made and be available to them when they need someone to talk to.

Now you know what it takes to be an exceptional mentor. Next month, you’ll learn how to implement that advice and build a comprehensive professional development system.

Until then, what systems do you have in place now? How are they working out? Do your employees and/or mentees value the assistance they’re receiving? Do you lack a system entirely, and if so, do you feel that introducing one might lead to more engaged employees and lower turnover rates?

Reason 1: Because you’re losing. Whether it’s money, overall life satisfaction, or self-respect you are losing something by not prioritizing your goals. You’re missing opportunities–opportunities to learn, to succeed, to progress, to make new friends, and to fail and learn and fail better. Every day you spend doing something that doesn’t fulfill you is a waste, and you deserve better.

Reason 2: Because you’re running out of time. It might not feel like it, since every day you work in a job you hate makes the days feel as if they’re everlasting, but every second the clock ticks forward towards your final moment.

Facts are facts—you are going to die.

Do you feel that existential dread? If not, you should.

You probably won’t die today or tomorrow, but maybe you will. You can’t rely on tomorrow because tomorrow isn’t guaranteed to any of us, not even you. Time is a finite resource, and you’re meandering through each day as if you’re immune to accidents, disease, and all the other random, tragic things that suddenly and permanently end the lives of the humans around you every single day. You can be taken just as easily. What the hell are you waiting for?

Reason 3: Because you can. You want to move into your own suite? You want to open your own salon? You want to expand into another location and/or hire more employees? You want to launch that YouTube channel and become an educator or influencer?

Do it, because you can.

You are capable. While success can’t be guaranteed, you can make failure a lot less likely if you start preparing now. Things are not just going to just happen for you, so stop waiting for the planets to align on your behalf. Establish reasonable deadlines and set a plan into motion. Break your big goals into small ones and get to work.

New Years’ Resolutions are for suckers. Quit making empty promises to yourself and start executing.

Are you done making empty promises to yourself? What are you going to do to make your dreams happen—starting today? What reasons excuses are you setting fire to right now? Let us know in the comments!

“Success is all about effective time management. Don’t believe me? For one month spend less time bitching and more time executing.”

Many beauty professionals seeking career guidance often have the same complaint. “I’m working hard but getting nowhere.” When you lack a plan and lack direction, that feeling of pointlessness will never go away. To make progress, you must set measurable goals and focus your efforts so you will know where you’re going and how far you are from where you want to be. Whether you’re starting your career or trying to correct your course after a few wrong turns, this article is for you. Your time has immense value–don’t waste it running in circles and driving down dead-end roads.

INTELLIGENT CAREER DECISIONS

Covet your resume. Treat it as if it’s something sacred because it is. Every position you accept and every salon you work for will end up on this document for future employers to see, so be selective. Refuse opportunities presented by salon owners with poor reputations or those who don’t seem competent during the interview.

Don’t sign anything you don’t agree with. Successful people aren’t lazy, impulsive, or careless. They don’t take risks when it comes to binding legal documents. They read and evaluate contracts with shrewd, critical eyes. Should any stipulations not work in their favor, they attempt to renegotiate. If they can’t reach a compromise with the salon owner, they reject the agreement.

Nobody has the authority to force you to put your signature on anything. Don’t allow others to pressure or manipulate you into making a commitment you aren’t comfortable with. Have the confidence to present your own terms and walk away from arrangements that put you at a disadvantage.

Always leave on good terms. Colleague references are great assets, but glowing references from previous employers are invaluable. You’ll never be able to collect letters of recommendation if you’re setting fires on your way out the door. Even if the reasons for your departure make it difficult to separate amicably, do your best to remain professional and cordial.

(If you want more information on how to make intelligent career decisions, there’s plenty in my book, The Beauty Industry Survival Guide. In it, you’ll find an entire section with information about evaluating potential employers and opportunities. It also includes a list of questions to ask and warning signs to look out for.)

STRATEGIC EDUCATION CHOICES

Have a plan. While it’s tempting to take interesting classes for fun, it’s best to spend your time and money strategically. If you plan to become a renown color specialist, take classes in color theory and technique. Keep up with product chemistry and new technologies. Join networking groups and education forums that focus on that specialty. Don’t waste your time or money earning erroneous certifications. (Sure, lash extensions are cool, trendy, and profitable, but they won’t get you any closer to your goal.)

You’re licensed to perform a broad range of beauty services, but that doesn’t mean you have to learn every technique.

Be willing to pay for value. It’s important to thoroughly evaluate all learning and growth opportunities. This industry has a wealth of experts who are willing to share their knowledge–for a price. If you’re committed to achieving your career goals, don’t expect a cheap shortcut to mastery. Training under experts like Beth Minardi, Kim Kimble, or Martin Parsons costs serious cash, but the time you spend with adept artists pays off (and will look very impressive on your resume).

Stay engaged. Being at a workshop or continuing education class isn’t enough. You have to be present. Leave anything capable of distracting you from the educator in your car. You’re there to learn, so put your phone away and pay attention. Ask questions and write down some notes. Take advantage of the time you have with the educator and get as much knowledge as you can from the course.

If you aren’t going to pay attention, you may as well stay home and resign yourself to a mediocre career.

DELIBERATE COLLEAGUE SELECTION

Mind the company you keep. Throughout your career, you will meet a lot of fellow professionals. Those you associate with professionally have the potential to reflect poorly on you, so choose well. Surround yourself with people committed to career advancement, ongoing education, and professionalism.

Don’t associate with people who don’t share your professional values.

Maintain important relationships. It can be hard to stay connected to professionals you value, but dedicate time to communicating with your colleagues. Network in your local area and make it a priority to touch base with the people you meet from time to time. Create a Facebook group for local professionals and organize meetups and skill exchanges.

Cut ties when necessary. Should a professional or brand you associate with present issues that may compromise your reputation, break it off.

Be loyal to yourself before others.

Don’t let your sense of loyalty influence you to act against your best interests.  Whereas friends and family are quick to forgive and forget, colleagues and companies you do business with are certainly not.  Mistakes and errors in judgment you make early in your career could follow you forever. Think very carefully before allowing a charismatic shit-disturbing coworker to recruit you for a mutiny against your employer.

Know that others are watching. Not to make you paranoid, but people in the industry will be watching you. On a local level, potential clients and salon owners will become aware of you and your reputation. On a national level, if you’re participating in the industry community by competing or educating, brands and potential associates will be monitoring you.

You never know what opportunities you are being considered for, or what doors your professional alliances and behaviors are slamming shut.

Brands and companies have recruiters out there watching, waiting to snatch up fresh talent. Don’t give them a reason to cross your name off their list.

METHODICAL PROGRESS ACCOUNTABILITY

Give yourself deadlines. Nothing will light a fire under your ass like impending deadlines. Planning your annual goals in advance is great, but you aren’t likely to achieve them if you don’t attach a due date to them.

It’s not enough to have a plan

Even the most daunting aspirations can be broken down into simple, achievable steps. Those steps can be put on a calendar. To form a strategy, think about how you’re going to get where you want to be.

• What skills will you need?
• What kind of career experience can you gain that will help you?
• Which classes and books can teach you what you need to know?
• Which professional associations and groups can you join?
• Who would be the most appropriate mentor to help guide you?
• What professional relationships should you pursue and maintain?
• What can you do today, tomorrow, next week, next month, and next year to get closer and closer to accomplishing your end goal?

You can’t get from one side of the world to the other in a single day, so don’t pressure yourself with unrealistic expectations.

Find an accountability partner. Should the deadlines not be enough to motivate you, have someone else hold you accountable. This person can be a friend, relative, spouse, mentor, or professional colleague. Pick someone who won’t tolerate your excuses or enable your laziness. You want a drill sergeant, not a cheerleader.

Success is a resource management game. By far, your most valuable resource is your time.

Once you map your career path, always continue moving forward. Commit to diligent self-management and take your career seriously. Every month, reevaluate your intent, motivation, and progress so you can adjust course when necessary.

Attaining success really can be as simple as getting from Point A to Point B, but that doesn’t mean it’ll be an easy ride. (If it were, everyone would be successful, right?) You will hit roadblocks that force you to take detours, but don’t let your failures discourage you. Learn from your mistakes, let them shape you into a better professional, and keep going.

The BLS (or Bureau of Labor Statistics) maintains a database of statistics where you can find information on the working conditions, training and education requirements, wage data, and expected job prospects for a broad variety of professions–including ours.

Currently, the BLS median pay estimates are as follows:
Barbers, Hairdressers, and Cosmetologists: $23,710 per year.
Manicurists and Pedicurists: $20,820 per year.
Skincare Specialists: $30,090 per year.

For other industries, I’m sure the BLS figures come very close to reality, but not for ours. The averages you’re seeing shouldn’t discourage you from joining this profession and anyone who quotes them to you as accurate is embarrassingly misinformed. I’m going to tell you why.

How the BLS Data is Collected

The Bureau of Labor Statistics will send a “Field Economist” to a selected establishment. These Field Economists contact the business owner and make arrangements to collect information on the following:

Job listing with wage data: This listing includes job titles, paid wages, full- vs. part-time status, union vs nonunion distinctions, dates of hire, and job codes. The listing will include a full breakdown of this information for each individual worker.
Specific job characteristics and work schedules: Field Economists use a “point factor leveling” process that incorporates four occupational factors to determine work level. These factors are knowledge (job requirements), job controls and complexity (how variable are the job tasks and how much flexibility is afforded to workers in how they accomplish those tasks), contacts (who workers have contact with and the nature of that contact), and physical environment (does the job require physical strength, present a hazard, or require specific safety precautions).
Benefit details: Field Economists collect data on benefits like paid leave, insurance, retirement, supplemental pay, etc.

Next, the Field Economist will ask questions for clarification. Once that’s done, they update the data.

The Problems with BLS Data Collection

The BLS only collects data from a sample of firms. There’s no way to know how many “salon firms” report, or how accurate their reporting is. On the BLS’s Survey Methodology page, as it pertains to the National Compensation Survey, “The larger an establishment’s employment, the greater its chance of selection.”

Who are the largest establishments in the professional salon services industry? Regis Corp. and similar corporate chains and franchises.

Why is that a big deal? Regis Corp. and similar corporate chains and franchises don’t represent this backwards industry.

Why don’t Regis or other corporate salons represent the industry? Put simply: they’re managed better.

• Because corporate salons have teams of lawyers advising them, they don’t do things illegally. They provide benefits and ensure their employees are classified and compensated appropriately.
• When employees consistently underperform, they’re let go.
• When client flow slows down, hours are cut back.
• When an employee is close to hitting overtime, schedule adjustments are made to ensure they don’t so costs won’t rise above acceptable levels and so employees won’t be overworked.
• New hires aren’t approved unless the metrics justify it.
• Corporate salons have premium, high-traffic locations and are marketed extensively.

When you compare a corporate salon to a private salon, the differences are vast and their P&Ls reflect that.

The primary area where these differences are glaring is the labor expense. Corporate salons know how to keep those costs beyond manageable. Private salons…well…let’s talk about private salons, shall we?

A Brief Sidenote to Placate Rabid Keyboard Warriors

Before I continue with this post, let me soothe the sensitive souls of the tender flowers out there who falsely believe I’m speaking about all private salon owners. I’m not. I’m aware exceptions exist. If you’re one of them, good for you! Give yourself a pat on the back. Congrats on being a law-abiding, responsible business owner. Instead of attacking me in the comments, revel in your superiority in comparison to the bullet points below.
You good? Great. Let’s continue.

• Private salons are frequently not managed at all.
• In an outright disturbing amount of salons, employees aren’t classified properly or compensated in accordance with state and federal laws.
• There’s no incentive for a non-compliant salon owner to fire underperforming employees or make scheduling adjustments because they’re not paying for those employees. Private salons will hire recklessly since it doesn’t impact their budget whatsoever.
• Private salons often compensate on an all-or-nothing “commission-only” structure, paying upwards of 40% of gross sales in wages. (Paying far above what corporate salons would pay, but…)
• Because this compensation structure strangles profits, whether intentionally or as a result of innocent ignorance, some private salon owners steal wages, underreport income, and find all kinds of fun, illegal ways to widen their margins.
• Not many private salon owners have a clue what the words “salon metrics” even mean, let alone monitor them.
• Often, private salons have minimal marketing budget–if any. (Generally, they’re content to save their money and tell salon employees to “market themselves.”)

(Delicate Flowers, I hear your cries. “I’m not like that!” you’re shouting at your computer. “My existence refutes the legitimacy of her statements!” you’re yelling. Let me say this one more time: you’re a unicorn, not the norm. The existence of good salon owners doesn’t disprove the existence of staggering numbers of bad salon owners. Need proof of their existence? Read the comments on literally every article on this site. Continuing on…)

Field Economists only collect data from a small subset of employees–not the entire salon–so that further skews the numbers.

With over half of professionals opting for microsalon ownership, accurate performance estimations are impossible.

The odds of independent salon owners (booth/studio renters, home salon operators, etc.) being selected and included in the BLS samples are zero. This is significant, as independent salons now outnumber corporate salons and private salons.

According to the PBA’s Economic Snapshot, in 2012, only 92,157 salon establishments had payroll employees. 1,045,288 salons were non-employer establishments. This is an 83% increase in the non-employer sector over the previous decade. To be sure, with the explosion of the suite rental model, this number has likely increased significantly over the last four years. (Maybe it had a little something to do with all those bad management practices?)

All data is reported by salon owners and salon professionals, rendering it virtually useless.

Even if microsalon owners were included, the data likely couldn’t be relied upon. Like a lot of private salon owners, microsalon owners may not know their numbers or keep great records, and may intentionally underreport their income. False numbers can be given due to lack of knowledge (incorrect records), estimating (lack of records), or outright lying (intentional misrepresentation of income for the purposes of tax evasion).

The best way to gauge performance is to base estimations on verified reported income.

So, if the BLS wanted to do it right (which I’m sure they don’t because it would be insanely time-consuming), they’d obtain the correct data from the IRS and average it across a broad spectrum, evaluating and reporting figures for employee-based salons and microsalons independently.

Additional Factors

If the BLS were to evaluate based on my methodology, they’d still run into two additional factors that would have to be stabilized.

Part-time Participation: Many salon professionals are part-time, so their annual performance would have to be adjusted to compensate for their lack of participation.

Management Variables: The salons and microsalons evaluated would have to demonstrate similar management competency. The performance of a well-managed establishment far exceeds that of one that is mismanaged or not managed whatsoever. When you base salary estimations on averages that include a wide variety of poorly managed establishments with a handful of tightly managed ones, lower averages are inevitable.

The truth is that your salary can vary widely, depending on the salon’s management, your individual professionalism, the compensation system the salon utilizes, and any number of factors.

The numbers the BLS reports are medians, so it’s important to understand what a “median” is, and whose figures are being counted.

To calculate a median number, a range of numbers are added together and the result is divided by the total numbers counted.

Number 1 + Number 2 + Number 3 = Total
Total ÷ 3 (amount of numbers added to create total) = Median

If the first stylist makes $110,000 a year, the second makes $40,000, and the third makes $15,000, the median earnings would be $55,000. If a corporate salon that keeps labor overhead below 35% through strategic scheduling is being compared with other major salon chains who do the same, the figures will reflect that–not the actual earnings across the spectrum of the profession.

Don’t put too much stock into those BLS numbers, or into the opinions of uninformed haters. If you want to start a career in this industry and you’re ready for the insanity that comes along with it, then go for it, but don’t do it for the money.

Do it because it’s what you love doing.

Plan to do it right. Be professional, present yourself well, refuse to accept offers from exploitative salon owners, know your rights, know your worth, and find a mentor. Go out and find yourself a unicorn salon owner or give rental a shot.

This is as real a career as any, so long as you’re treating it like one. If you’re dedicated, you can be successful in this business and make exceptional money. Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.

I’m about to offend some coaches.

In my experience, coaches are worthless. The ones I’ve met in my travels collect money and tell their clients what they want to hear instead of what they need to hear. Many of them lack experience, which isn’t surprising since there’s no education or licensing requirement to become a “coach.” Additionally, coaches can’t be held liable for the bad advice they give you. I’ve seen salon owners get absolutely taken by coaches so I’m completely against them. Instead, I recommend finding an appropriate mentor.

Every professional needs a mentor, especially salon owners. Mentors also don’t require certification or education and can’t be held liable for any bad advice they give you, but at least you won’t be bankrupted by them. The best mentors are those who have walked in your shoes and have taken the path to success. They’ve beaten that trail so they’re in a better position to help you find your way. At the very least, they’ve likely experienced the same troubles you have and can relate to you on a level generic “coaches” can’t. (Never underestimate the strength and value of a sympathetic shoulder to commiserate with.)

Mentors can act as cheerleaders also but the best ones are those who won’t put up with your excuses and those who are willing to lend a helping hand when you need it. I’ve mentored many new salon professionals and it’s not all hugs and high fives. Good mentors assign tasks and due dates. If a mentee slacks, they’re called out for it. If a mentee isn’t capable of performing a certain task (for example, writing a resume), a good mentor will walk them through it so they can learn how.

If accountability is the problem, serious thinking is the solution.

You are accountable to someone, in all instances.

That person could be you, it could be your employees, it could be your clients, or your business itself. Someone or something will always suffer for your failure to complete important duties. That damage might not be visible upon cursory inspection, you can always find it if you look deeper. For some tasks, the damage is nothing more than a lack of benefit or missed opportunity. (For example, failing to run a timely promotion or participate in a networking event may not necessarily hurt your business in an immediately obvious way, but the lost opportunities come with hidden consequences.)

Getting motivated to consistently execute can be difficult, but these motivation issues generally stem from one or more of the following factors:

1. Self-doubt (“I’m a failure.” “I can’t.” “I’m not smart enough.”): Those negative inner voices can kill your motivation faster than anything, turning your focus to how inadequate you are instead of turning it to solving the problems at hand.
2. Confusion (“I seriously have no idea how to do this.”): When you have no idea how to proceed, or do know how to proceed but don’t know how to get from Point A to Point B, the end result can be a road block.
3. Upset Equilibrium (“I’m overwhelmed.”): I’m not talking about vertigo or any of that “discombobulated Chakra” stuff. Upset equilibrium is that feeling of being torn into ten different directions at once. It’s that feeling you get when you’re overwhelmed, and usually it’s caused by both personal and professional discord. When your “To Do” list has fifty things on it, each comes with one or more issues preventing or complicating your ability to complete them, and you have no idea how to prioritize each task, you’ll begin hearing that static in your brain and feeling that tightness in your chest. That’s how you know your equilibrium is all out of whack. You’re reaching but can’t grasp anything.
4. System Breakdown (“Nothing is getting done.” “Everything is going wrong.”): When you lack systems or your systems aren’t designed properly, finishing anything becomes impossible. By far, this is the biggest issue salon owners deal with. When there’s no schedule, tasks are forgotten. When there’s no protocol, operations fall apart.

So how do you deal with those productivity killers?

Suppress those inner voices telling you that you’re “not,” or that you “can’t.” Those voices aren’t productive, useful, or worthy of your time. They’re doing nothing for you, so silence them. If you feel yourself being pulled into a pity party, take a few minutes to recognize your achievements and shift your focus to your tasks.

Make a list. Put all your problems down on paper in a list format. Prioritize those that are time-sensitive, followed by those which are quick and easy to accomplish. All the others go at the bottom, ranked by how damaging the consequences are should they not be completed. Put these problems into perspective. Is redesigning your business cards really that pressing of an issue? Unless you’ve recently changed your number, address, or website URL, the answer is a big “nope.” Stop losing sleep over stupid shit and focus on what matters.

Strategize.  Come up with as many ways to complete the tasks as possible. Choose the methods that make the most sense and require the least effort.

Delegate. Compare outsourcing costs and benefits. For example, if redesigning your marketing materials would take you a considerable amount of time, would it not be better to outsource that task to a graphic designer and focus on the tasks that really require your direct involvement (like training a new hire)? Assess the time investment on each task and determine whether or not the job is simple enough to assign to someone else, especially if that “someone else” is more qualified to do the job than you are.

Design systems and schedules, and stick to them. The easiest way to keep from getting overwhelmed is to have efficient processes, especially for recurring tasks like inventory tracking and replenishment. Schedules and processes will keep you focused and keep you grounded. When your personal management systems are functioning well, you’ll never feel overwhelmed or lost again. Salon owners in particular should have systems in place for hiring, training, performance assessment, routine quality assurance, continuing education, inventory management, social media management, progressive discipline, and all other operational tasks.

Ask for help. If you’ve hit a wall, seek assistance. Networking groups are great for this. Get an outside perspective, take a class, search the internet, consult with a mentor, or read a book on the topic. Don’t plow through a problem from a position of limited knowledge or you may end up creating more problems for yourself.

Execute. When you review your list of tasks, set reasonable due dates for them. If it helps, break the task into smaller tasks. Give 100% to the tasks on the list, in order. Don’t spread your effort between them or allow yourself to become distracted by new problems that aren’t immediately pressing. (Leaking ceilings and plumbing are immediate issues; making time for a meeting with an annoyingly aggressive new product vendor isn’t.)

Self-congratulate. Too few people do this well, or at all–myself included. When you’ve accomplished something, take a few minutes to feel good about it. It’s done! You did a thing! Awesome! Gold star! Now, go do another thing, you productive maniac!

What about you? What techniques have you used to pull yourself out of your professional ruts? Let us know in the comments!

Yes, you can brainwash yourself. The good news is that it won’t require electric shocks, psychotropics, or a charismatic cult leader.

I listen to podcasts–a lot of them. One of my favorites, and the one I most frequently recommend, is Freakonomics. I listen to podcasts when I’m driving, cleaning, and doing laundry. In fact, I was scrubbing my shower when I heard their episode about temptation bundling in March of last year.

Katy Milkman, a professor at University of Pennsylvania, stumbled upon the concept of temptation bundling when she faced the same willpower issues most of us face on a daily basis. She struggled to get to the gym, even though she knew she should go. Every day, she fought the urge to watch her favorite TV shows instead of getting work done.

When you have to sacrifice to perform good behaviors, you’re required to pay an up-front cost to enjoy long-term benefits. Bad behaviors, in comparison, provide an immediate benefit, but come with long-term costs.

Katy knew she had to do some unpleasant tasks with time she’d rather spend doing something she enjoyed, and she knew the consequences of not completing those unpleasant tasks–yet, she still debated with herself, and often chose the more rewarding activity, knowing full well it wasn’t in her best interests to do so.

Further complicating the issue was the “urgency level” of the good behaviors. Working, cleaning, and exercising seldom feel urgent, even though they are important in the long-term. In general, most people are driven by impulse to seek out pleasure, and fighting that impulse can be extremely difficult.

One day, Katy had an idea. She would create a rule for herself, using her temptations to incentivize her–solving both of her problems.

Katy could only watch Netflix or read her favorite books while at the gym.

Her strategy was effective. Katy was going to the gym more often, and found that she actually looked forward to going because it meant she would be able to do one of her favorite things.

By bundling her temptations with unpleasant tasks, Katy received both the short-term benefits of her bad behaviors and the long-term benefits of her good behaviors.

She was thrilled with her progress and decided to design a research study on the behavioral economics of what she was calling “temptation bundling.”

Katy studied the exercise habits of 226 students, faculty, and staff at her university and found that people who used temptation bundling were 29-51% more likely to exercise when compared to the control group.

That’s when I realized that I have been participating in “temptation bundling” myself by only listening to podcasts when I’m doing chores or running errands, drinking coffee outside while replying to emails, and reading while exercising. Like a lot of people, I hate cleaning, exercising, and grocery shopping. When I read or listen to podcasts, it feels like my body runs through the motions while my mind is engaged in the episode. Time flies, and before I know it, the house is clean, my groceries are put away, and I seriously can’t even remember the specifics of having done most of it.

It’s like highway hypnosis, but instead of suddenly realizing your journey is over, you suddenly realize all the menial crap you normally dread doing is already done.

At this point, I look forward to the same chores I hated before because I feel the urgency of enjoying a pleasurable activity.

So, how can you create your own temptation bundles?

1.) Make a list. Stuff you don’t like doing goes into one column, and things you enjoy doing go in another.

2.) Link them in ways that make sense. Listen to e-books while you fold the salon’s towels, soak in the tub while you respond to emails, watch your favorite TV shows while exercising, play your favorite music while doing payroll, treat yourself to your favorite coffee or smoothie while balancing the salon’s account, enjoy a deep conditioning treatment (followed by a scalp massage and blow out) while you audit inventory.

You can program yourself to look forward to these unpleasant chores and increase both your outlook and productivity as a result. So make that list, bundle your temptations, and start brainwashing yourself today!

Nothing personal, but I need a break from time to time. Absence makes the heart grow fonder, right? Typically, I take a hiatus from this blog (and most work) from June until August, and again from December through January, but this summer that hiatus started early. Why?

When this post was originally written, the early hiatus was due to me locking myself out of my administrative panel. (Don’t laugh.) This time, I have a lot going on. For one, I’m about to have another baby. She’s due June 15th, but these kids like to show up a few weeks early, so I’m probably not going to make it to June–and I hope I don’t, because the construction on our new house is wrapping up and we’re scheduled to close and move on June 9th. For some reason, plans were also made to expand Unvarnished to a second location, which means I’m also facilitating the build, staffing, marketing, training, and everything else that goes with opening a new salon, which we’re hoping to have operational by July 1st (but let’s be real, that’s a pipe dream–August 15th is more realistic).

But wait, there’s more… I’m also working on getting my next book finished because I have new consulting contracts scheduled to commence on August 1st. There are also new classes to develop for 2018’s trade show appearances.

Are you also a prime example of a person who takes on far more than any one person should ever attempt to handle themselves?

If so, keep reading. You can design systems, keep organized, and manage your life with impeccable schedules and processes, but sometimes, you have to be selfish and focus on you, otherwise, you’ll burn out…and that’s never a good thing. This post will tell you how to focus on you, and not feel bad about it.

My mantra has always been: If you don’t feel like doing something, and it doesn’t need to be done, then don’t do it.

As workers, parents, spouses/partners, and business owners, most of us spend plenty of time doing menial tasks we don’t want to do simply because these tasks need to be completed. Laundry, grocery shopping, vacuuming–none of that is fun. Nobody jumps out of bed in the morning and says, “Yes! Today I get to reconcile inventory in the salon! Replenishment day is the best!” Nah. We do that garbage because if we don’t, bad stuff happens. It’s worth the momentary unpleasantness to get it done because the consequences are more undesirable than the duty itself.

What about those unpleasant tasks that don’t come with undesirable consequences?

• If you don’t change out that recessed light bulb in your dangerously high, vaulted kitchen ceiling for another week, will it detonate and kill you?
• Will those friends, coworkers, and clients who beg favors be all that upset with you if you tell them you’d rather not?
• Will your blog subscribers threaten to hunt you down if you don’t start posting again soon? (That’s probably a bad example, but just because mine do doesn’t mean yours will.)

Too often, I hear from industry professionals that they have a hard time declining the requests of others, and it’s not surprising to me. Many of us are drawn to the service industry because we’re “givers” and “helpers.” We live to make others feel happy and whole, and those are great qualities–to an extent. Unfortunately, a lot of us take it too far and allow others to use and abuse us. I see this time and again in the salon, with employees allowing exploitation, employers allowing employees to hold them hostage, and professionals in all positions allowing clients to trample them with unreasonable demands.

Sometimes it’s good to be selfish, so here are some tips in how to turn this year into the first of many “passion-driven” years.

1.) Assess tasks. Ask yourself, “What could happen if I don’t do this?” If there’s a negative consequence, chances are that the task needs to be done or is worth taking the time to do. If there’s no negative consequence (or a negligible one), ask yourself, “Do I really feel like doing this? Do I want to?”

2.) Recognize incentives. 

What’s in it for you? Yes, you’re allowed to expect some kind of payoff, whether it’s an emotional one or a monetary one.

Personally, money has never been a great motivator for me. Emotional rewards are far more powerful. I’m happy to help people because it makes me feel good to know I’ve done something to make someone else’s life marginally better (the money is just a great bonus). However, if I’m not in the mood to do something and there’s no need to do it, and there’s no incentive for me, I’m happy to decline and you should be too. It’s not your responsibility to sacrifice for others. Unless you owe someone the favor, you don’t owe anyone anything.

3.) Abandon guilt. Trash it. You have nothing to feel guilty over. We all know that death is an inevitability.

Your limited time as a conscious being is infinitely valuable, so treat it with the respect it deserves. (That’s not metaphysical mumbo jumbo; it’s mathematical fact.)

If a job, relationship, or friendship isn’t bringing more to your life than it’s taking from your personal satisfaction, sacrifice it. Start saying no with a smile instead of an apologetic wince.

4.) Quit justifying. You don’t owe anyone an explanation for anything. “Because I don’t feel like it,” might sound infantile but it’s a perfectly acceptable reason, particularly where personal favors are concerned. If the person asking the favor wanted the task done badly enough and is capable of performing it themselves, there is no good reason for them to push the task onto you.

5.) Listen to your heart. (“When he’s caaaaalllling for youuu”–obligatory Roxette reference for you 80’s kids. Good luck getting that song out of your head. You’re welcome.)

As corny as this sounds, ask yourself what it is that you want to do, then do it. When I want to write, I write. When I want to binge-watch TV, I drop what I’m doing and boot up Netflix. When I want to read, I stop what I’m doing and grab my Kindle. If no obligatory tasks are interfering there’s no reason why you can’t do what you want, when you want.

So many times, I found myself saying, “I want to do A, but I should be doing B,” but when I thought about why I “should” be doing B, I almost always find that there’s no good reason for me to prioritize it at all. “B” items (like that single burnt bulb in my kitchen’s 20,000 foot high ceiling, or that “friend” who only calls me when they need something), just aren’t important enough to justify my immediate attention.

Over the last year I’ve gotten much better at saying no and learning how to prioritize and my stress level has drastically declined. I feel more passionate about the things I do, I perform better at tasks when I feel driven to do them, and I feel happier having done them.

Best of all, I feel better about how I’ve spent my day when the sun goes down, and that’s important because at the end of each of our days, none of us is certain that it won’t be our last.

Steve Jobs lived his life the same way up until the day he died, asking himself every morning, “If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I’m about to do today?” Like Steve Jobs, an overwhelming majority of professionals in our industry chose our careers because we have a genuine love for what we do. Let’s bring that same level of passion to the things we do outside of the salon. I promise your life will be better for it.

Next week’s article (Brainwashing Yourself: A Beginner’s Guide), will contain tips for how you can create incentives and condition yourself to enjoy obligatory tasks (so you can actually follow through on your crazy New Years’ resolutions this year).