Are you wondering how to make more money as a hairstylist in 2022 (without the stress and overwhelm)? In this post, I’m sitting down with special guest Sarai Speer who’s talking about the first time she made $200k behind the chair.

Keep reading and you’ll walk away knowing:

• Why money doesn’t always equal happiness

• How to shift your money mindset

• That more money doesn’t mean no worries

You’ll learn how to be a successful hairstylist and confidently run your business in 2022. Buckle up, friend and let’s dive in.

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How to Make More Money as a Hairstylist in 2022

Money is one of those touchy subjects that most people simply avoid talking about. More often than not we grew up in certain environments that affected our relationship with money.

We may not even be aware that we have unconscious beliefs about money. This can severely impact and affect the relationship we have with money if we leave it unchecked. 

That’s why I’m so excited to be sitting down with a very special guest, Sarai Speer. She’s going to be dishing out all the deets on the first time she made $200k behind the chair. 

Ebbs and Flows

Sarai lives in Kansas City with her 3 weiner dogs and amazing chef husband. She’s been a hairstylist for 18 years and an international educator for the last 5. She’s also the founder of her membership program, The Blonding Crew. 

I was lucky enough to connect with Sarai back in 2020 at the beginning of the pandemic. However, life happened and we ended up falling out of touch for a while.

We’ve recently reconnected and it’s honestly been magical. As Sarai says, life puts people in your life at the right moment. Neither of us were quite in the right space to be our full authentic selves with each other back in 2020, we both had some stuff we were going through and I’m so glad the universe has brought us back together. 

Sarai reflected on how much growth she’s been going through recently and that she didn’t even realize it. She’s been growing her education brand and I had the pleasure of coming and talking to her Blonding Crew just the other week. 

Early Money Mindset

More often than not, we shy away from talking about money. Whether it’s out of embarrassment, fear, or anxiety; money is a taboo topic that we’ve been taught to brush under the rug. 

For Sarai, growing up her family was poor, but she didn’t know it until she was in Jr. High School. Her parents were very hard workers and she gets her work ethic from them. 

They always had what they needed but they never really got what they wanted.

Sarai recalls a time in middle school when she begged her mom for a pair of Adidas shoes. Her mom firmly told her that they didn’t have the money to afford them. So they took a trip to their local Payless Shoe store where Sarai got “Faux Adidas”, the off-brand version with four stripes instead of three. 

Sarai was so excited to wear them to school. Sadly, kids can be mean and her classmates teased her for wearing fake shoes. It was a super embarrassing moment that made Sarai realize that her family wasn’t rich. 

She admits that she never had a healthy relationship with money growing up. She was a firm believer that you work hard for what you want and that’s it. 

This was reflected as her dad worked his way up at McDonald’s from fry cook to district manager. With his promotion came a raise and Sarai thought for sure that it would solve all their problems. 

Turns out, money doesn’t exactly equal happiness or fulfillment. 

More money doesn’t mean that all your worries and stresses and anxieties completely disappear. Sarai lived her life for a long time thinking that if she made more money then she’ll finally be happy. She ultimately discovered that is not the case. 

Shifting The Mindset

Now, let me be completely transparent, that’s not to say that money isn’t important or that we need it to survive. That’s simply not the case. 

However, if you’re looking for money to make you happy, the external validation will not fill the internal void. 

How strange is it that we praise financial success to a point and then we shame it?

It starts by reframing your money mindset and asking yourself how you can help the world more with more money. How can you bringing in more income help more people?

By shifting your mindset to viewing money as an opportunity to give back, it doesn’t feel sleazy or slimy to want to make more money. 

The Coveted 6-Figures

Both Sarai and I have created six-figure businesses, and both of us have done it the completely wrong way. 

Sarai is honest about the fact that it is definitely cool to say that as a behind-the-chair stylist you’re making six figures. But when you hit that two or multi six-figures it’s still cool, and exciting, but it’s also terrifying. Sarai feels as though she’s obligated to keep producing and hit a higher goal. Suddenly feeling like $200k isn’t enough. She admits that it can be a weird feeling. 

She finds herself going “I achieve this, so what’s next?”. Without stopping to celebrate. Both of us can agree that we’re hard on ourselves and once we’ve accomplished something it doesn’t seem like that big of a deal.

Sarai wishes she would’ve thought about how it would feel to make $200k a year behind the chair. She says that she might have thought of it differently and viewed the accomplishment differently. 

I asked Sarai if she was happy the first time she hit $200k. She laughed that she worked harder than she’s ever worked. She was triple booking, had an assistant that was working like crazy, Sarai was constantly sick and she was definitely not always a ray of sunshine to be around. 

Despite the struggle, Sarai says it was totally worth it because it taught her a lot of lessons. 

Double-Edged Sword

While earning $200k behind the chair was full of learning experiences, Sarai admits honestly that it did not bring the true freedom, happiness, and peace she was expecting. 

She learned that it’s a double-edged sword. There are ways to make $200, 300, and 400k behind the chair without sacrificing your mental and physical health. However, that is not how Sarai did it at all. 

I like to say that the scenic route (meaning the route that I and Sarai didn’t take) is the right one. I often remind my students that I’ve created a six-figure business 3 different times, however, the first two times I did it ALL wrong and completely burnt myself out. 

Sarai and I are both passionate about making sure others don’t go down the same path of mental and physical exhaustion that we did. 

The Blonding Crew

Sarai just celebrated her one-year anniversary of The Blonding Crew. It initially started out as a place for Sarai to brain dump all of the information she’d acquired over the years about blonding. She’s very well known for blonding and insane colour correction transformations. 

She started by teaching in-person classes and realized she wanted to reach more people. 

She wanted to be able to reach the people who couldn’t come to a class, couldn’t afford a class, or simply couldn’t travel to the location. Her solution was to create a private Instagram community where she could brain dump her science, the chemistry, placements, and everything that she’s come up with and learned. 

As it’s grown, it’s slowly morphed into more. She’s created a community of inspiring humans and is on a mission to create an all-inclusive community that’s a safe space to learn, grow, and ask questions. 

She began to realize that while the technique is great, it’s only 20% of what you do behind the chair. 

Learning technique is important but you also need to learn how to:

• Implement boundaries in your business

• Professionally fire clients

• Confidently raise your prices

• Properly communicate

• Run a successful business

And Sarai has been bringing in tons of educators to help her Blonding Crew learn and grow in a safe place. 

She wants people who want to uplift each other, who want to support and love one another while embracing all of our flaws. She wants to create a space where people can go to find technical videos, business videos, and other educators and sources of inspiration. 

Sarai firmly believes that when we surround ourselves with people who love us and who are encouraging and supportive and who will call us on our BS, who are genuine, authentic humans, there’s magic that happens. 

We just wanna help people be better, live better, and do better. 

How amazing is Sarai? I seriously had so much fun chatting with her, I think we’ll have to bring her on for another episode. Make sure you go check out more information about The Blonding Crew and Sarai on her website here. 

Thanks so much for hanging out with us, friend. See ya in the next one. 

Let’s be besties?