Moving Past Breaking Even as a Hairstylist
“The biggest thing that changed was my communication skills”
You can also listen and subscribe to The Anxious Creative on iTunes, Google Play and Spotify.
Holy moly, friend! Welcome to 2021. It’s been a wild ride but we finally made it!
I’m so excited for you to listen in to today’s episode, I’ve got a super special guest, Sam Stevens. Sam is not only a wonderful friend, but also an RYB Alumni who got up to some pretty incredible things last year, right in the middle of a pandemic.
This is a jam-packed episode and you are going to love Sam’s story!
A Passionate Beginning
Sam is from Springfield, IL. She’s a booth renter and also a new-stylist educator.
Sam’s been in the industry for 6 years now. She got her start when she was really young and she graduated from High School early. She knew she wanted to do hair since she was in Junior High and she moved an hour away to go to hair school.
Despite not getting the best grades in high school, she had one of the highest GPAs in her hair school and she couldn’t get enough of it.
She’s had her fair share of different roles in the industry. She started out as an apprentice where she did nothing but wash color bowls and laundry. She didn’t really learn anything from the experience and was disheartened. After a year she left and she left the industry for 6 months.
The opportunity to get back into the industry came about with a franchise salon where she learned a lot and even ended up managing the franchise. Sam admits that her life outside of work was minimal, she would even wake up on her days off to make sure the salon opened up.
After managing the franchise she decided that she wanted to do extensions, so she learned that but decided it wasn’t what she wanted to do at the time.
She spent some time in a commission salon but wasn’t making any money and felt that she could be more profitable as a booth renter.
So she decided to booth rent so that she could do hair as a hobby. Sam didn’t think she could do it full-time because she didn’t feel like it was sustainable.
She looks back and now sees that belief came from her lack of self-confidence. Despite her deep passion for hair she felt like she couldn’t connect to people the way she wanted to.
Business, Breakfast & Bedhead
Back at the beginning of quarantine in 2020, when everyone was at home and couldn’t work I wanted to give back to my community and the industry somehow.
This idea grew into Business, Breakfast & Bedhead, my weekly morning IGLive. This is where Sam actually first started to get to know me.
She says that it gave her a reason to get out of bed, because there wasn’t a purpose to get up. She would watch it with her boyfriend every morning and both of them found it inspiring. (Aren’t they just the sweetest??)
I mentioned my online program Rock Your Business a couple of times on there and when Sam heard about it she immediately thought that it was “for the cool girls” or the “people who already make money”.
The more she listened in and saw her business change with the free education I was giving, after 2 months she decided that she was going to start saving up for Rock Your Business.
She’d already gotten my other online programs (she’s pretty positive she owns them all at this point!) and knew that her business was changing from the free education I was giving her so it was a no-brainer to get Rock Your Business.
Not For Everyone (and that’s okay)
One of the biggest aha moments Sam had going through Rock Your Business was:
You are not for everyone.
That simple message hit her so hard and made her realize it’s okay to not be able to communicate or connect with certain people. Finding the people that are specifically for you is really special.
Some of the people that sit in your chair aren’t for you and that doesn’t mean that you have to feel bad about yourself. There’s so much pressure in this industry to impress and vibe the right way with every single person who comes and sits in your chair.
Rock Your Business gave Sam the courage to deep dive into who she is as a person, what she really wants and (in her words) “actually give a shit about myself”.
Her income and her work/life balance is so different now than it was a year ago. She was able to leave her second job because she’s decided that she doesn’t want to work Saturdays, she’s full-time behind the chair and works entirely for herself.
She has the best work/life balance that she’s ever had, only working 3.5 days a week and is still making thousands more than what she was making before (while working less)!
Although it’s still a gamble at times due to covid and cancellations related to the pandemic, she’s seen her client list grow as well as her email marketing list. She’s able to reach out to clients she’s only seen once and get them coming back to her chair.
A Guiding Light
For Sam, her personal growth will never end. She’s always working on self-value and she’s so thankful she’s not where she was before. Even if she’s had a bad day or isn’t a “featured” stylist, she’s personally proud of where she is.
If she had let fear or “what ifs” get in her way she would’ve missed out on not only making more money, but on the personal growth that she’s made. She says that’s more valuable than any monetary amount.
Sam had a rocky start in the industry and she feels for hairstylists who are going through that, so she’s started education for new hairstylists.
She wants to help guide and show them the ropes. She puts it best:
“Let me guide you and hold your hand through the beginning of your journey and let you know it’s going to be worth it and give you the self-value to know that you can walk away from something not serving you.”
Her big goal this year is to be the #1 educator for new stylists in the industry.
I’m so impressed and proud of everything that Sam’s accomplished. Hats off to her! She really took everything she could and implemented it and she’s continuing to grow.
If she inspired you and you want to connect with her, shoot her a DM over @hairbysamstevens and let her know you enjoyed the podcast.
If you want to hang out with Sam and the rest of the amazing RYB community, get on the waitlist! Enrolment is opening super soon.
If you wanna know how to get the best clients in your chair (without the overwhelm and stress) you’re gonna wanna check out the free class I’m hosting on January 10th.
Go on, binge the latest posts (you know you wanna)…
