Atlanta'S Most Successful Hair Stylist | Daniel Mason-Jones | Beauty & Style Network

I'M daniel mason jones and you are watching beauty and style network hello, um, okay, so i just want to say i'm so thankful for this day that i've had with you, i'm so funny being in your home. Is like this really weird like dream experience for me. So i'm so happy to be here. So thank you so much for opening up your home, but um. I was telling jodi this um earlier when you were dealing with something at the salon, but yeah. I was talking to jody and i was telling him um on the way down here mark and i were talking about how i think it was about two years ago. We recorded on the podcast - and i remember being like this - is my big break like i was like. I can't believe that this person has agreed to record it with me. You know you're, just everything so sweet and then, when we talked i was like. I just feel like i've known this person, my entire life, like i just couldn't, get enough, and so i'm so happy to be here in person and together. So thank you so much for that, but i feel the same way you're, so cool. Thank you! Well, i'm i'm excited to talk to you kind of about your story um. I know a lot of people know you as this very successful business leader you give so much to this industry. Um you're just one of the people that i think especially right now, you've been doing this for years, especially right now, you've been giving back so much. I know that. That'S something that's so important to you! So i know everyone can take classes with you and stuff, but i really wanted to take this time when i was thinking about what i wanted to do with you. How was i going to use this? I want to highlight you and just kind of do a little bit about your backstory. You know kind of where you came from how you got to where you are today. So tell me a little bit about where you grew up. You grew up in georgia. No, i grew up in south carolina still still here in the south. I grew up in a small town called easley south carolina, which is it's just right outside of greenville and uh. I have been, i feel, like a georgia native i've been here since 1990 1997.. I have to think about that. I'Ve been here longer in georgia than i actually was in south carolina now and um. But yes, i'm from there - and i came to atlanta, oh gosh a long time ago, to pursue my dreams of becoming a funeral director and embalmer. So um there was a college here that i would always read about and i'd heard about. I was like i have to go to the school, and so that's what ultimately brought me to georgia. So what as a child were you like? I want to be? I want to work with dead people someday like when but like. Well, we're not exactly like that. What were you like as a kid um, i was definitely a fun kid. I was shy that something people probably would never know about me. I was a shy kid. Um - and i think it was just because i didn't really know who i was - or maybe i didn't know - how to fit into the situations or wherever i was so that came with time. I think a lot of people struggle with like social awkwardness. I was no exception to the rule, but um anyway. So as a kid my grandmother passed away when i was. She died nine days after no sorry, nine days before my third birthday and she was such a special lady. She was sweet and i remember i have so many memories about her and people were like you can remember, being two years old and i can and everything from getting strawberry milkshakes with her on sunday after church and um, she had a blue car. They had one front seat, no seat belt, but i remember all these things about her and so she passed away and my family did the best they could navigating that with the child and they were like, oh see, your grandmother, she's asleep, and so i remember going To the funeral home and i saw her in a casket - or i saw it at that time as a box and everybody was crying i'm like so when i lay down to take a nap. Do you put me in a box and put flowers around me and cry also, i couldn't comprehend so confusing, and so this funeral director pulled me aside into one of the viewing rooms and just kind of like my family were friends with them, and he pulled me Aside and told me that my grandmother had become an angel and that made way more sense to me as a child, and so i think he was almost a hero in my eyes at that time, and so then i, as i progressed through my childhood, i wanted To be that, i wanted to be somebody that could offer hope or answers to people that needed that. So that's what ultimately got me into the funeral business and so daniel mason jones of you t, even as a child connect with somebody at three years old to be like. Oh, this was formative and i'm gon na take something from that like it seems like this. Has just been in you always um, so what was like high school like for you? Were you in sports? Were you like what acted like? What hobbies did you have? So i was not in sports uh. We actually practiced a religion that was um. Sports were forbidden. Okay, so all of our energies and attention were to go toward our faith and so sports and we would have to dress out so you have to wear like gym clothes, meaning short, sleeves short pants and we did not dress like that. So we were very conservative. Did you go to like a traditional elementary school high school all of that? Okay - and i was the only one until my 12th grade year, where i recruited everybody to our religion and i was tired of being alone, but no so i actually did rotc in school, and so that was my extracurricular, so i did navy rotc for three years. I did that they allowed me to wear on the days that we had to wear our khaki uniform that was short sleeve. I would wear my service blue, which was long sleeve but um. I did that my personality, i've always loved everybody. There was there's always clicks in life today we have clicks right. Even in our salons, we have clicks, color brand clicks, you have all this stuff, i hate clicks and um, so i hung out i'm from the south, so i hung out with the cowboys. I hung out with the they called him the freaks i hung out with the the goth people, the nerds. I hung out with everybody because everybody had such value to add and us. I never had like a direct home of people. I just loved everybody um overall high school was good for me. I did encounter bullying like anybody else, but i always showed up and just love people extra aggressively when the times got rough with bullying. I would either cut school for the day or i would cut lunch. I would our school was three stories and sometimes um when the kids started doing whatever they would do. I would hide underneath the stairway at school um, which was okay. I actually learned to save my lunch money that way, and i started using my lunch money for other things i got to in rotc. We had community service and i would take my lunch money and buy flowers from walmart, i'm really from a small town. I would buy trays of flowers and i would go to the nursing homes and plant those flowers outside of the patients rooms, so they could enjoy flowers, and i realized i got started to get to know these people and i was like i'm not any different than Them they're older than i am, but people have forgotten them or they don't have value in in community either so um yeah long and short. So your experience kind of like being in something that required so much discipline. Do you think that that kind of just went along with, like this faith, that you're being like you are used to very much like structure and everything was rigid so going into rotc? Was it just kind of like a? I love that that was. I actually love structure, yeah structure and it could be a dynamic from how i was raised yeah, but i love the fact that you know i grew up in a home that was disciplined. We went to bed at a certain time. We woke up at a certain time. We went to church five times a week at the same time, yeah we ate at the same time, and then i was in rotc and so i've always craved and then the type of religion that we were. We had a lot of rules, so i've always grown up around rules. I, as an artist people are like i hate rules, i'm like i still love rules yeah. I don't really speed a whole lot of five miles over. You know um. So if the, if the flight attendant says, keep your seat, i sit in my seat. I don't get up and challenge them yeah. So i like rules. I, like discipline, rules, keep us safe and whatever so yeah yeah. So do you think that that overflowed then into like how you have built everything that you built? I mean it seems like things all like their systems in place right. So if you can't discipline yourself, you can't achieve things yeah right. That makes so much sense. If you're a horse and you're a wild horse and you're trying to being trained for dressage - and you want to go run around the field, you will never learn how to jump yeah. So you have to be disciplined and trained in order to get to where you need to be yeah, so those are definitely benefits that came out of you know. I mean it's just it, though, there's something wonderful in everything. Yes, and it's just finding those things. I think so you at how old were you when you left home when you moved away? I was 19 years old, okay, i left yeah and you came to atlanta directly or okay yeah. It was a uh, it was, it was not an easy transition. So i we were poor, my family, my mom and dad worked so hard, they're, great people, my dad's no longer here um and i wanted to go to college. We did not have college savings, it was just not a thing for us, so i worked at walmart as a cashier, so fun. I worked at the funeral home and i also worked at dillard's shoe department selling shoes and which i became a really good salesperson and they paid great commission. And so i all those opportunities allowed me to learn customer service and experience. But i was saving my money to go to college and this was before the internet days, and this is before you moved to atlanta, or this is wednesday yeah. This is planning too okay, and so i knew that i wanted to go to college. I had been getting information from this college for years, and so finally, one day i got in the car and i drove to atlanta and with at the time my girlfriend and we came to atlanta and the school was closed that day and here's what i want. Any listener or viewer to see and - and here now is anything that you want in life. If you live with pure intention and a good heart, it'll always come to you, and so i showed up at the school that day and the school was closed and there was one car in the parking lot and i was like somebody's in there. So i go to the door, i'm like looking through and there's this guy in the hallway, and it ended up that he was the embalming instructor and i flagged him down and he came to the door and i said hi clearly you're closed today, but i'm daniel And i want to go to college here and we started talking. He gave me a tour, he was very gracious and i said: where did the students live? I had only saved enough money to go the first two semesters and there were no dorms there. I always heard about this college experience of dorms. There was no dorm life there, okay and uh. He goes you know. You live in an apartment atlanta and i'm thinking, i'm small town boy. I cannot afford an apartment in atlanta and um, so he says you know what there's a funeral home that just reached out this week. That'S looking for someone to intern and you could live in the apartment in the apartment. There'S. I knew in that moment that i was being divinely guided to where i needed to be yeah and um, so i always throw this quote in my classes and lectures. I say when the student is ready, the teacher will appear, and in this situation it literally happened with a real teacher and uh, so they they um, got me into this funeral home. It was. It was not like the funeral home that i worked at in south carolina, it was old and i went in they hired me on the spot. I came home that friday night and i told my mom that i had landed a job in atlanta. She got very excited, but in our faith our pastor makes all decisions, and so i went to the pastor's office that night and i asked him for permission to go to college and he denied - and i remember i felt like i was like what and um so Saturday, the funeral home called me and asked me what was my decision. I said i'm trying to work through some logistics right now. Sunday morning i sat through service always trained and taught to be obedient to the people that were our leaders are in charge of us, and so i sat there trying to be the good church going person you know and so um i sat there. I was miserable sunday night, i went to the pastor's office and told him. I had made the decision to go to college and that went over like a lead, balloon um. He never said another word to me in that moment, and so i was actually excommunicated and shunned from my community and the church and everybody that i was ever allowed to talk to. So you want to talk about an awkward and a very, very painful time. So i came to atlanta: georgia lived in a funeral home by myself with no friends um, all the people that i had known. They couldn't talk to me. I couldn't talk to them, so this may sound like a sad story, but i'm going to tell you it's not well. The good news is that we see this side of it and we know that we know, and at the time i couldn't see in front of me, so anybody that's that's hearing listening or watching right now understand that your path that you're on right now is is: Okay, yeah, it's okay, have faith and you're gon na be fine and so um. I worked in the funeral home and i i was put into the funeral home. It were exactly where i needed to be with the right people, and i was able to actually come into who i really was. I knew who i was all along, and i did that for so long and so the day that i finally made the decision to stand in my truth, to stand in my power and understand that my creator never created a mistake and no people will say that The creator that i believe in um is limitless, but yet we think that he creates limited editions and so we're not created limited, and so i i started to believe in myself and i was now developing relationships with people that i needed to be around. That would help me navigate my faith, my spirituality and who i was, and so um the funeral home was a great place for me. Did you have? Did you have contact with your family at this time? It was very spotty, okay, yeah, so you're, truly you're truly alone at this point, you're in a new city like what? If do you remember any of those nights like? Do you remember like what going crying yeah lonely heartbroken, yeah thoughts of suicide? I mean thinking that like you're you're doing something wrong like did you just question him constantly? God would punish me yeah um, you know, and now i know that. That'S so not the case, yeah um, so yeah it was it was. It was terrible and um. So my mom would reach out to me my dad was always a quiet man. He was a gentleman, he was very quiet, my mom would reach out and she would sometimes write letters to me and um as as time went on that december. I i let everyone know who i really was. You know i had already disappointed everybody by disobeying and uh. So now i i've i've. Let people know who i was, and so that was uh. That was hard. Do you think that, had you not had the experience of being like shunned, what else did i have to lose right? I mean: do you think that that actually and again like taking those moments in life all over, but coming out to say that, like looking back, it's easy to say it was supposed to happen this way it couldn't have happened any other way, and so i, my Mom really had a hard time and in the in the faith that they believe um, because i had disobeyed the pastor. The beliefs were that i had been turned into who i am okay, and so i was like no i've been me all along. I just chose to live a different version of me to make you happy, yeah and so um. I i found a lot of strength in that and - and i often tell people whenever i'm teaching, i say, there's only two ingredients in the entire world that will actually make you successful one's inspiration. That'S within that's not motivation or desperation, and i'm gon na tell your friend i was desperate. I didn't have any money. I had no connections. I lived in a funeral home making six dollars an hour. I had my broke down nissan center. That was missing hubcaps. We had a bakery behind the funeral home and i remember on wednesdays. They would have a half price sale and i would go to the the bakery and load up on those. I don't even know what you call them, but like they're, the little cinnamon pecan twirl things it. They come six to a pack and i would buy enough for a week and that's what i lived on wow and um, but i'm so grateful for that yeah. You know when i think back i was like my budget for food was like literally five dollars a week, wow and um, so i learned how to live on a budget. I learned how to live independently. I learned to love who i was um. So life is awesome. Who was your connection at that time? Who is somebody that was present? We had there were? There were two guys that worked in the funeral home with me. One was chad and then the other one was chad. So one went by his initials and uh the other chat. So there was young chad and older chad. One was 24, one was 27 and i was 19 and they, ironically, were like me: okay, they were like wow. So, like you said, you really ended up where you i needed to be, and so the older chad was actually married to a guy. That was a baptist minister, and so i was able to um place the whole theologian aspect of of study, and so this was. It was something that actually tormented me, because i was so worried. Based on how i've been raised. I was really wrong and - and i didn't want to be, you know - and i know people have their own opinions, but until you walk in my shoes um you can't make assessments. I can't judge your life because i've never walked in your shoes right but um. You know so, but that's such a rare relationship, so for you to end up there. I was exactly where i needed to be yeah. I mean that's just incredible that that's where you landed, so they were there for you and they really helped you um. 100 yeah. You know, and i didn't it took a while for me to tell them who i was. They knew yeah if you met me but um they were like. I wondered when you were ever going to be true to yourself and i remember the day of what that felt like, and so you know so many people live in a closet. You know we it's deemed on my community, but so many people live in a closet. You know there's thoughts and feelings and skeletons in everybody's closet, and sometimes the people that they're the quickest to point are the ones that have the most, the largest pile of skeletons, and i've learned that too. So i just try to love everybody um. The way that i want to be loved, so let me ask you if you had, because i know you are surrounded by so many people, and so many people come into your path, um, which i think is such a gift, because i think that you're able to Really like help people in a short amount of time, so even if people are just taking a class with you, i've talked to so many people. This is why i can say this because not only have i experienced this with you, but i've seen people in class with you. I'Ve talked to people after that, and it's just something about you. That is different and i don't. I don't know how to pinpoint those things or what it you know, tru really and truly is but you're able to do that in such a quick way. Um, and so i think that you know if somebody was to come to a class or somebody is going through something similar right now, what would you share with them? What would what advice would you give them um? What no matter? What the struggle is, i mean there's so many people, domestic violence, abuse, yeah, there's so much um and i think even you know just that um. You know people not being supportive of a career. It can be something as simple. As you know, somebody's fighting you people don't want you to become a hair stylist, because it's a non-rewarding career yeah. You should have gone to real college. Somebody in that place of where you were um. What can you tell them? Your heart follow your heart and, when i say, follow your heart, always guide yourself, with principles and with character, so follow your heart, but make sure that it's going to enhance the lives of other people when we focus listen. When we focus on us too much we wind up being miserable, i often question people, i'm like okay and right now think about this. For yourself, who do you know right now, that's miserable every day, they're miserable they're, grumpy, they're, angry they're anxiety-ridden, not from a chemical. You know they're, just they choose. Can you think of that person? Absolutely how many people do they serve yeah, it's about them! Think of somebody right now that is wonderful, they're, happy they're grateful they're empowered. Do you have someone yeah who do they serve tons of people? Yeah, that's the difference. So whatever your dream and desire is follow it but make sure that you're, not the hero of the story. You'Ll, never be the hero of the story. Yeah that can go on your tombstone. The hero of the story are the people that you're helping, so for me to be a hairdresser, i never knew being a hairdresser would allow me financial freedom. I never knew that it would allow me to lead 60 plus team members to financial freedom. I never knew that i would stand on stages all over the world literally and guide people, not even just in our industry yeah. I never thought these. I'M shy. It'S funny like i'll talk to you but standing up on a stage, and you have 10 000 people in the audience and they're staring at you. Your heart's pounding, you feel like you're gon na be sick and you're like in your mind, you're like what do you think about me? Yeah, that's the first thing you think of am i gon na mess up i've fallen off stages before i was in wisconsin yeah. Three years ago, i literally couldn't see the lights were so bright and i literally like walked off the stage. Luckily, i landed on my feet the front. The first couple rows were like they're. Like did you fall and like did i or did i change elevation? You know so i played into it, but i you know you: could you could literally your entire life based off of what are they going to think about me yeah? But i leave anybody with this. We live our lives in fear or potential paralysis, because we're fearful what people think about us. What will they think about what we say or what we do or how we live or the house we live in or the car we drive or who we marry or people judge all the time? Here'S what i say we are so worried about people liking us. I turned the question around everybody else: how many of you actually like yourselves yeah? Why am i worried about somebody that doesn't like me yeah or what i do when i know the majority of the population? Don'T like themselves yeah? Why do we do botox? That'S so true, why do we color our hair? I mean it's our business, but why do we try to look a certain way or drive a certain car or carry the certain bag? Why do we carry starbucks? We all want to fit in. We all want to belong, but you have to you're, there's always going to be a tribe in our group for you, but you have to live in your truth. Yeah you have to live in your truth and your people will always be there to rally for you. So where did this start with you like? Where did the giving back helping? When is your first memory of serving not like, where not like a required serving to to get some sort of reward? It'S just been like a natural. My parents raised me the right, i'm so grateful for my appearance, um, you know if we lived in a small community town and if somebody passed away, you know there would be like somebody grounding to every house and take it. We were. Everybody was poor, yeah um. Ten dollars from this person ten for that one, we would buy a flower for the person that passed away um. We just always do stuff uh. You know when i told you about working uh or volunteering, one of the nursing homes, planting flowers. I love that giving back has always been something important to me, but i tell you when it really started and kicked in. I was, i was 22. I think i was 22 years old and i was an assistant i was actually. I was an apprentice, let's rewind, that because i didn't go to beauty school yeah, i didn't have the the funds for that or the opportunity but um. So i had made some extra money that week and i had paid all my bills and i had done everything and i'd always been taught through our faith to give ten percent back now. I no longer belong to a religious affiliation because i was not, and most of the time still am not welcomed, so i still have to hold to my values and principles. So i'm like, i have to give 10 percent, but i don't have to i'm blessed to give 10 percent back so um. I was it was sunday morning and i wrote a letter to my aunt and uncle. I knew they were in a very hard time: um, their health was failing and they were in a horrible financial situation. So i had an extra 150 and i wrote the check for 150 and i wrote in the letter. It was something like i love you guys. I wanted to bless you guys um this week i had some additional money. I hope this helps you buy groceries or medications. Whatever you might need. Okay, can i ask without putting them on the spot? Are these people their past? Now? Are these people that had supported you, though, like? Are they or okay? So, okay, so yeah, quite the opposite? Okay and um? That'S okay! You still do the right thing. Yeah always show them to the right. It doesn't matter it doesn't matter. You'Re called to serve people. We'Re called to live in love and greatness period. It doesn't matter who the people are if they treat you badly. That'S on them, um we're to be the the greater good in the world. So that's a message that i think we really need to give. It needs to be that's a highlight on that, you know and it not just the message. People need to live, it don't say it live it. Yes, and so i wrote this check to my aunt uncle and um. It was literally literally the very next week, the very next week i had a day in the salon. It was cinco de mayo and it was actually it was a six the day after the lady that i was training under called in, she had serious food poisoning and she had a full book now at that time i didn't have a license and was not legally Allowed to charge, but i could take gratuity bobby. I took home fifteen hundred dollars that saturday wow exactly tenfold over what i had given yeah it validated that we're supposed to give back yeah when you give you don't give to get you give, because you can, and so i've always believed in that, and so since Then i could tell you so many stories from homeless people to um foster children to whatever it is that we've been able to help and fund the money, always comes back we last year. Our salon was closed. You know we donate one clinical trial every year back to pediatric uh childhood cancer. We didn't have the money that we could donate because our salon was closed, and so we stepped out on faith and we use those big shiny, amex's that we have and we donated a certain amount of money to this organization. I literally, i promise you with my right hand and all things around me that i went into my closet, which i go into twice a day to get dressed or undressed, and i had been rotating these three pairs of shorts that were super comfortable because we all Were wearing stretchy clothes during that time? Yes, that exact amount of money was in a bank envelope between two pairs of shorts that i had wow. It was not a small amount of yeah. I don't keep money in my home um i remember running downstairs. Jody was on the peloton, and i was like look at this and he's like what is it. I told him how much money that was he goes. Where did you get that from? I was like. I have no idea wow, i'm paranoid of germs, so no one was in my house yeah and um. So just time and time again i could tell you so many stories, but you know just know if you follow your heart and you, you live the way. You'Re supposed to live everything's going to come your way and you're there's there's so much abundance. You know we have to ask ourselves: do i choose to live in an abundant mindset or a scarcity mindset, so many people believe in scarcity, it's like. Oh there's, not enough. Hair clients to go around the salon or um, there's too many salons in this area, yeah that scarcity mindset. I was promised early on that. If i ask for it, i should receive it yeah and i believe that yeah. I think that that exactly what you just said, just really holds a lot of people back like. I think people can make excuses for why they don't want to start the business go into this one go into that go into whatever industry. That, actually is something that um i hadn't really considered as like something that really like will strike but yeah that mindset of having like oh there's enough hairdressers. How am i going to get clients or there's already this salon doing this people waiting for you right now that you've never even met yeah? You have viewers right now that want to view you or listen. You'Ve never met yeah. It'S awesome, that's so true, and i just i think i mean i align so much with that of like giving back. I mean i think this industry is incredible for it, so i think that, like ending up in this industry, um was not in my plan ever so. The fact that i ended up in this - and it is an industry that is so like it - allows you to get back so much and allows you to give, and i think it's you know it's definitely the thing that probably connected us and it's probably the reason That we're sitting here even talking today so exactly there's so many people that that want to help, i i would say like 20 times in a week, i'm hearing you know i want to do this because i want to help people i want to make people feel Good um then they're in it for the right reasons exactly and it is the giving back and helping, and you are so lucky to be able to do it not only on a client level where you started, then as a salon owner so you're leading a team Of people that you're able to give back to - i know we were talking about a meeting this morning. It was so cool that you got to have that you got to do and then now it's a literal world wide thing. It is so cool um. I want to ask you where i mean all of this, where you are in this exact moment of you know daniel mason jones, and this you know 800 jobs 800 things that you're doing i do have some jobs was any of this i mean, do you ever Have a moment that you stop and you're like, i can't believe this is my life. I can't believe that i'm doing this, i can't believe that this is happening. Have you ever heard of someone that maybe had been one size and they lost a lot of weight and when they go shopping, they continue to buy the same size? Yes, yes, is that just how you feel i am still the same kid from south carolina than i always was. You know we were able to help somebody from school um we weren't friends in school they needed help. I saw it on facebook, people weren't jumping to help, and i was able to so. I did she sent me a message and she goes i'm so proud to know that you've had the experiences in life that you've had to become, who you've become, which i still am questioning, who i've even become and who i will become, because i'm still trying my Best to grow, but she said i love that you've kept your feet on the ground and i laughed at it. I was like, where else would i put them? I live on earth with you. You know just stay. Humble yeah stay humble as quickly as we climb. You can fall down just as fast yeah, all the people. You know people step on people to get to where they want to be. Sometimes it's taken me a long time to get to where i am i've. Seen people go a lot faster, but i read a quote one time: it says um. You know you can go fast, you can go slow, but i choose to go slowly because it's heavier climb. Imagine climbing with a bag you're carrying integrity with you yeah. So i would rather climb slow and steady to wherever i'm supposed to be yeah, i'm happy where i am, but i always want more. I think that's a really important message for um. I don't want to like just say, like only young people are struggling with this, because i think we all have this motive to just run as fast as we can the culture that we are raised in um. I think, especially like our generation of like you just work as hard as you can and as much as you can and like all of those things which i think definitely has value, but understanding that it is not instant. Gratification is something that i just really feel like. I don't know if it's more present, because i'm working with younger people all the time. You know i'm in that age group that i see it a lot, but that's a really hard concept i think to like or something that we all need to be like. You know recognizing that it's not you're not going to get too long continued success. By being the fastest, i like that you said you've seen people do this faster than you um it's hard, not to envy that it's hard not to watch that on social media. It'S in our face all the time. It'S hard not to have those like that jealousy. You know social media, i'm on social media. I have a big social media following i do yeah. Can i tell you a secret? I don't ever post my bad haircuts. That'S true! I don't ever post the day that my staff member quit. Yes, i don't post today that the hot water heater stops working or the dryer blew up, or i don't post that i only allow you to see what i want you to see. Yeah so it'd be crazy to try to compare your life to somebody else's life. I'M not showing you everything, yeah, i'm gon na, show you what i want you to see. I think we've seen a change over the last. I don't know two years of like body positivity and we're seeing people that look different on commercials and we're. So there's a lot of growth there. I think that there still is always going to be that oh well, i should be driving this car. I should be wearing these clothes, like you said, like there's, always going to be that in the back of your mind, i think it's so important to stop and just be happy with where you are. I feel like. I am so guilty of this where i'll be like i'm so thinking of the next thing, the next day, the next minute, the next hour like what are we doing next and where are we going that? I really don't stop to say oh, but look at how far i've come yeah but look at where we are in this exact moment like had i given up on everything as many times as i wanted to, we want to be here in your house doing this. You know and so like taking those wins. I think um is important to you, so you have to over the last. I don't know two years i'll say because i've i've been along with you on this journey. I'D say for that time that i've been watching you and this um. What are your? What are your highlights from this time? What are your like wins? My biggest win is that i i have a husband that adores me right 21 years and he's amazing. I love that i got to meet him today. We have a beautiful child and we're all healthy. That'S the biggest wins um. That'S that's! Actually, amazing. We have family that love us we're, surrounded by really great friends. So that's the big wins um i get to do what i love for a career. How cool is that you know i'm a hairdresser. I'Ve been cutting hair color in here for a long time. I'M now starting to look to the next chapter of what i'll do you know, i'm not saying that i'm going to stop doing hair right away, but i won't do this forever. Yeah and um. I have to now's the time that i have to place. My trust in bigger things understand that i'm called to this earth to do bigger things, and i've been given two decades of incredible four decades of life, uh two decades of incredible business experience, and i need to use my voice and the platform that i've been given. Now, to empower more people, you know, there's again, i said earlier: domestic violence there's so many people in our industry that are living in homes that are unsafe, yeah. You know, they're scared. These women are scared to go home at night and which is sad. Their children are growing up in that and there's sex trafficking, which is a huge thing for us hairdressers. We we're on the front lines of that. We should know we should all be trained to do more than balayage yep. We should be able to read the cues to know that if somebody comes into the salon and the the adult that's bringing the child in is really dressed nicely, and this kid looks like they're a little disheveled, there's a red flag, right, um, there's so many things That we as hairdressers, have responsibility to do that's bigger than us, and so i'm grateful for that. As i jump into the next chapter, i i really want to bring more awareness to those things, but i also want to show hairdressers what can be? What is possible? You know there's a lot of people that talk the talk, yeah you're sitting in my home right now, um, i'm thankful and i'm blessed to have what i have. It'S been a lot of hard work. I'Ve sacrificed two decades of friends: health um. I can't tell you the last time that i ever just went out anywhere on the weekend. I come home and i bury my face in a book or a podcast, i'm growing and i'm learning yeah. You know, while people i see people having fun, and i could do that and i may regret it one day but right now i don't i've, never regretted, i'm not really a party person anyway yeah but um. I just feel like we are. We have to be looking, we have to be grateful for what we have, but we have to strive for more yeah so that we don't become complacent. We weren't create michael jordan, said it best. He says i was not put here to be mediocre and nor were you yeah, and i think that that um, that understanding that this isn't your this isn't forever that you're not stuck in a place. I feel like people really feel stuck a lot walk me through. What your process is, as you are starting new adventures, starting new businesses, starting new things. What does that look like for you? Are you, like kind of slow to make changes slow to take action? Um? You know you saying that you have like different you're, always working on different projects and doing things differently, and i know that in those moments of change um, whether that would be to ever step away from behind the chair - or you know - which i know has happened With the more that you're, traveling and stuff, you've had to adjust those uncomfortable moments, um are really challenging and are really really hard, and i don't know that. There'S a lot of guidance out there for just you have that feeling in your stomach. Something feels wrong, and you just feel like this thing that is comfortable for so long. Just doesn't feel like that anymore or maybe you're in a salon that doesn't feel right, anymore, something's off talk a little bit about that. What does that feel like for you, or how do you manage that? I think self-awareness is something that so few people have yeah right. Absolutely like people aren't self-aware. I know like i can listen to my my gut or whatever. I can listen to that and know that it's time to move you know, i know when to pivot, and i think you constantly have to pivot so yeah i would. In the beginning i was known as the updo guru. Oh, my gosh, i could do an updo all day, long yeah. I was the fastest in the game and actually the best in the game because of all the because i grew up yeah the women wear their hair up. So i naturally i had seen it for years yeah, so i was good at that and i was like i don't want to just do up here like i need to be a colorist in a cutter like you just started not liking like it started. I still love it yeah. It was like i just got tired of prom prom prom homecoming wedding, bat mitzvah. It was all these things yeah and so um. I became known as a really good colorist, and so i've done color. Now, for a very i cut and color, i do everything because i would get very bored very bored, but i did that and then i started in education, and so i started with l'oreal professional as an educator 16, almost 17 years ago with cutting and then i Went into color, they allowed me to switch over, which was nice and but i found myself every time i would go into a salon. People would ask me: is it true that you make x amount of dollars behind the chair um? Do you really see 25 30 clients a day? Yes, i do and so people that didn't understand that or couldn't understand that i would break it down. This is how i do it. You know, and so i found that every time i was going to a salon to teach color or style, i was teaching a business class, okay and so what i say to you or to anybody right now. The questions that you're asked most frequently is what your brand really is. So when i teach a brand in class, i say to people i'm like what do you think a brand is and they're like? Oh it's my logo or it's my color. No, your brand is what somebody identifies you as when you're not in the room. That'S your brand yeah, so i am often like you should ask the people around you. What do you see me as what do you think my wheelhouse is, and so it was business? It was business, it was business, and so i remember there was one year as a hairdresser, and i i know i'm probably going to get some some jaw drops or some disbelief, but i will i will go ahead and address that before this is something you learn As a as a speaker and educator, only the people that will respond negatively are the people that can't see bigger than where they are and for those people. I wish you the best yeah um, but i remember the year that i got to 850 000 a year behind my chair, not as a salon owner, not as anything else and uh. So i talked to one of my friends i was like hey. I did and confidence i was like. I did 850 000 this year behind my chair as a hairdresser, and the response i got was not the one that i wanted. I wanted a pat on the back right yeah i heard on the other end of the phone. Do a million wow guess what i did. You did: a million million and so um i've done that every year now i've gotten up to one two. So far, wow find the chair and i'm now three days a week behind the chair. It'S it's a lot. Yeah people are probably you know, thinking. Well, you must charge a thousand dollars. I don't my average ticket's around 237 240.. I do track my numbers. I think that's another fatal mistake for our industry. People talk about how much they're making i'm making all this money. I'M on my own whatever and nobody knows their numbers yeah, nobody knows their numbers, i'm like. So, if i ask you, what is your average service ticket like? Well, i think it's thinking isn't the number yeah. What is your average retail ticket? Well, i think it thinking. Isn'T the number you have to i track my numbers every single day? I know what i've done this week. Um i've worked two days so far this week, i'll go into work tomorrow, i'll finish out the week around 15 16 000 in three days behind the chair, um and i pumped the brakes because i had shadowers in the salon. So we in our salon, we allow people to come in to see actually how we do things, and so this week yesterday, in fact, we had two really wonderful, ladies, that came in from michigan to see how we operate our business and um. So i slow the books down, but there's just so many opportunities and it's like don't copy other people in the industry create your own path, create your own path. I had to get outside of our industry to see where i wanted to be so. I went to disney. I went to disney institute um ritz carlton trainings. I'Ve been to so many various trainings outside of our industry, because, quite honestly, if we keep copying each other in our industry, they're not going to grow, it's so boring right, like i needed to find another way to do this better, and you were downstairs in my Office earlier - and you saw what do i have a lot of books - yes, yeah and not just not just beauty, industry books, yeah, they're, all business yeah. I think one of my favorite things about the salon today and just again just getting like inside the mind. You know ways and jones um, i loved that you were like yeah, so we started. You know we adapted made these changes to the salon because we started seeing because we started seeing because and i'm like that's what you have to do and that goes back to that self-awareness. What'S happening around you. Who are you serving? Who you can and then just adapt to that it doesn't have to be that i just spent you know two million dollars on this remodel and i have the nicest stations. Okay. Well, all of that stuff, like oh great math, if you don't have customer service and so for you to be like forward thinking enough to be like. Oh the. This is what i actually need. I think that that's i mean that's so valuable. You have to pivot everywhere and and often yeah. I think that's the the true a true leader in real business is you have to be able to pivot anytime. You know i could pivot off topic here and talk about churches, but remember how churches used to be back in the day yeah they were like. You saw like all the business and everything yeah and now there's like children's area, ministries and there's adult ministries. They have coffee bars, yeah they needed to captivate a new. Even if you go to a movie theater a movie theater back in the day. I don't go to movies, but the movie theaters back in the day were just this boring thing with the seat that folded out there's dirty popcorn on the floor and probably some rats under your chairs. Yes um. But now it's like this dining experience with wine and everything has evolved. You know, i again, i don't eat fast food, but i have seen mcdonald's where you can order your own food on a touch screen. Mcdonald'S got it, disney's got it, they have the the fast passes. You tap the thing there everybody's changing and we think as hairdressers. We need to keep doing what mama and granny and whomever else what they've done over these decades right. It'S not going to work. It'S not going to work, you have to implement digital, you have to have social, you have to have cameras and ring lights and box. You have to have this now yeah, it's no longer. I can just be a hairdresser, it's a full, rounded scope of things and as a business leader, you know, i would be very naive to think that anybody wants to work a 40 hour work week anymore, so i've pivoted, my company people work 12 hours a week. 15 hours a week, 18 hours a week, i have people that work 36 hours a week like one um and but i needed to navigate and pivot. In order for me to have a business, i have to meet the needs of not only the consumer. I have to meet the needs of my team, and you know with that came i needed to provide health insurance for my team. I wanted to give them retirement plans, one of the one of my favorite topics to discuss because it hits a nerve. Is all the industry talks about how much money they make but nobody's retiring? So we're talking this big game, but there's no money there and you can't retire. So you know we just went through in our next team celebration in december. Our financial advisors coming in, but right this very minute in nine years in our company company, we've contributed 2.2 million dollars to our team's retirement. That'S why i do what i do yeah nobody will leave my company and say i couldn't retire, i'm not going to permit that. It'S so true that in this industry, it's just very much like you have people that are like well. This is just how we do it, i'm talking with salons right now about like just being connected in the beauty school world and what the students want. So i'm seeing it as a change of like oh okay. This is changing in beauty school. Well, this is who our next generation of stylists are, so you better be ready. What do they need and what do they want yeah if you're gon na keep employees were we, i think we were talking earlier about. You know a salon that had a bunch of people working for them, and now they have a few people working for them, and that falls back on leadership and again, i think, just not being able to pivot. If we're stuck in these structures. Um i've talked to salons for years about changing, associate programs um and why are you make them quicker right and i'm taking that completely off of not ever going through an associate program or not owning a salon? That has what you know the name but listening to the students and when they're coming in and saying where to you know when i'm saying where do you want to go to work? What are you interested in they'll be like? Well, you know i want this or i don't want that and then feeding that to the salon owners. It'S very much, i will say like more times than not it's that they don't want to change well, this is how long it is, and we just don't want. Well, what's happening now is those same salons are coming to us saying: okay, we want to sit down and work with some students talk with some students about what they're looking for i mean it's like, instead of fighting it for two years, you know pivot exactly make Because you're only wasting time, you always do what you've always done. You'Ll always get what you've always gotten yeah exactly. So i think that that is, i think, definitely something that i see changing. I think people are definitely becoming more open-minded to change, but there's also not just like one way that works for everybody. It'S so awesome that in this industry, every salon gets to be create culture, their own thing and their own space and, like. I know that there are certain students that are to fit at this salon when they want it like. If i sent them to you like, you would be like bobby. What are you doing to me and that person would be like? No. This is not what i want, but there is a place out there for you, there's a place and a person for everyone yeah. Exactly yeah and that's you know one of the other. The the downfalls of our industry is when it comes down to branding your company and culture you're, putting pictures all over your social media pages of hair. I can't tell what your culture is like you were in my salon this morning. What was the culture like incredible amazing? Was it sad? Are we no? Oh, my gosh were we playing duran duran on the radio? No, no! No, you know it.