I’ve always been good at making things more difficult than they need to be.

• Need to update a photo on my website? Well, gotta redo the whole page then.

• Nick’s wondering what I want for dinner? Well, I guess I have to weigh all the options and reference the stars.

• Simple task I need to complete? Let me over-complicate it!

Honestly, a lot of it is imposter syndrome. Thinking that I need to be more or have it more together. That there’s no way I deserve the success and opportunity coming to me.

I’m throwing it back to a classic episode of The Anxious Creative. This is one of the all-time favourite episode of my podcast and I’m really happy that we’re bringing it back.

‘Cause let’s be honest, you’re struggling with boundaries.

And I get it, I used to be the exact same way, I lived most of my life not even knowing what boundaries were. If someone asked something of me, I had to say “yes”.

I honestly didn’t think “no” was an option.

“Here’s my card, I’m a hairstylist and I’d love to do your hair sometime!”

(It all came out so quickly it probably sounded more like “heresmahcardimmahairstylistandidlovetodoyourhairsometime”) The grocery store clerk raised her eyebrow and awkwardly took the card from my hand.

“Uh… thanks…” she smiled and continued to ring my groceries through the till.

That’s how I got my start talking to strangers.

I used to stress about my brunette balayage clients, you know the ones, the ones who love their brunette locks and don’t actually want to look like a blonde.

I don’t even want to try to count the amount of times I accidentally over-highlighted someone’s hair…

You see, before I learned the rule of percentages, I used to think that I had to fit as many highlights as I possibly could onto someone’s head, ‘cause that’s what they were paying me for, right??

It was 3:30 pm on the Saturday before the holidays. I had one more client to go and I was itching to get my vacation started.

I had some festivities with my friends planned for right after this full-head appointment.

I took a look at my schedule to see who was coming in….

A new client.

That always stressed me out a little bit, I immediately started praying that they had “easy hair”. (Ya know that saying “don’t jump the gun”…? Yeah… that might have been good advice for me).

You’re in for double the fun this episode!

I’ve got two special guests with me, Nina Tulio and J Ladner. These two are so much fun, you definitely are gonna wanna listen in to this one.

J is a self-described “unicorn magician”, digital creative director for Oligo Professional, a stylist/salon suite owner in LA and an independent educator.

Nina is now a business consultant and the Business Education Ambassador for Oligo Professional. She’s been in the biz for 24 years, owned her salon for 11 of those and was a stylist for 20 years. She now travels and educates other salon owners on how to build their biz. Her teaching focuses on personal growth and development and business building.

Together, Nina and J host an incredibly honest and vulnerable podcast, No Stylist Left Behind. You might recognize one of their guests… (it’s me).