Did you know that the average hairstylist makes $40,000/year? I’m on a mission to change that!

I’ve been in this industry for 20 years now, self-employed for 11 of those. I’d be lying if I said it’d been all smooth sailing. The truth is there’s been a lot of ups and downs, especially in my journey as a self-employed salon owner.

I remember the first year I hit the 6-figure mark, it was so exciting. But I didn’t take home 6-figures.

When I first started out in the industry, no one ever taught me how to properly handle refund requests or negative reviews. The thought of one made me so anxious.

I had so many questions…

• What would I say?

• How would other people react?

• Would people think I’m a failure?

• What if no one ever wants to see me again?

• What should I do to make them happy?

And no one was giving me any answers.

Fear can make us do some really crazy things.

Like not trying new techniques ‘cause we’re scared it won’t turn out, or not wearing that outfit because you get anxious thinking about what someone could say, maybe you’re scared of what your clients will think so you haven’t implemented that much-needed price increase.

Fear can hold us back from growing ourselves and our businesses.

This week we have a very special guest, my new internet bestie, Cara DiBella. We’re talking about mental health and ADHD.

I know that ADHD has become pretty trendy recently and many of us creatives are realizing that we relate to a lot of the symptoms. I know for myself it’s been huge to know that I’m not the only one whose brain feels totally scattered and unfocused all the time.

I had been invited by Cosmoprof to come do a photoshoot at ISSE with their team. But there was one client that I couldn’t reschedule so I ended up not going at all. I will forever regret that decision because what happened with that one client ended up changing the course of my career.

I thought I was doing the right thing by staying behind and doing the client I couldn’t reschedule. It would’ve been unprofessional to cancel on her to go to a photoshoot, right?

It’s like when you have a color correction booked in and you stress about it and try to formulate your plan before even seeing your client’s hair. Color corrections used to keep me up at night.