Your Most Burning Questions Answered
“is this too much overshare?”
I could so use some time with my friends. I miss getting cozy and chatting about anything and everything. COVID really messed with everything, didn’t it?
Since COVID, it’s not safe to have my friends over to chat and hang, so I thought … what’s the next best thing?
Having you virtually come hang out!
I asked you on Instagram: If we were to meet (socially distanced of course) what’s one thing you’d like to ask me?
I got so many amazing questions and I wanted to sit down, super laid back and chill and answer them for you. Check out my youtube video above for the real deal ...
Here’s a peek at the questions:
Q: @coiffeurbymellie asks: “how do you deal with closing again?”
A: This is such a tough one because I know across the globe so many places are shut down. The UKs been shut down, California is shut down, here in Alberta we’re shutting down again. I know everyone’s kind of on pins and needles with the unknown of what’s happening or if you’ll be shut down again.
I recently listened to the book Burnout by Emily and Amelia Nagoski and it talks about how when you have a strong inner critic it’s not always a good idea to be like “look on the bright side” (you know that toxic positivity stuff?). For those of us with strong inner critics it’s very frustrating to be told that because we need to be able to feel those “bad” feelings because that inner critic is so loud. So I don’t want to seem like Im saying, ‘think about the positives’ and like ‘spend this time doing this’.
We’re going through a crap time and this year sucks. Its okay to feel all that. I actually think its good to allow ourselves to feel it. Its only when we feel it that we can then do something creatively with it.
Q: @judgexheather asks: “how did you book up brand new in a city where you knew no one in under 12 weeks?”
A: I used my talking to strangers method. What I decided to do is take the 14 years of me being in the industry and I looked at what had worked and what hadn't worked when I built my clientele on three different continents, six different times, moving and starting all this stuff, but I just looked at what worked and what didn't.
I'm super lazy, so I asked how can I reach the most amount of people in the shortest amount of time and I just started looking up local hashtags and looking at the kind of hair that I'd want to do and the kind of person that I'd want to have in and I started connecting with them.
I started liking their posts. I'd write down their handle so I'd come back to them a couple days later.
I'd invite them in, I'd tell them I love their hair. Just like really casual - it wasn't cold calling. You know those annoying DMs that you get like “Do you want 5000 new Instagram followers??” And you’re like “Who is this person, where did they come from?”
You want to just warm up to people, get to know them, say hello, and lead with a compliment.
Q: “What was in your mind when you moved to a new place and started over?”
A: I really didn’t give it too much of a second thought. My anxiety will make me overthink and overanalyze every.little.thing, so I truly trusted my gut with this one.
I knew what I wanted with my business, I wanted boundaries and I had new values that I was bringing to my biz.
Despite everyone telling me that I was crazy for starting over, I knew it was right for me.
Q: @whitney.cosmo asks: “number one tip for stylists trying to grow?”
A: Don’t just do what everyone else is doing. Get comfortable with being uncomfortable. It’s okay to go against the grain, learn to trust your intuition.
Just because someone's telling you that this one way works doesn't mean it has to be the only way.
Q: @estelleacademy asks: “favourite, worst, underrated: NSYNC, Backstreet Boys, Jonas Brothers”
A: Favourite: Backstreet Boys (obvs). Worst: Jonas Brothers (I think they were after my time) and underrated: NSYNC. BOOM DONE :-)
Q: “Is there also luck involved in life or is it all hard work?”
A: I asked Nick to chime in on this one and he says it’s all about luck.
Now I get where he’s coming from, ‘cause I think it’s partially about luck, but I do believe that hard work plays a large role in life. I truly believe that we have a lot more control over circumstances than we believe.
Now obviously Nick was just making a really good point that you can be born into certain situations and things like that; however, there are many stories of people coming from all sorts of different backgrounds of wealth and losing it all and there's people coming from nothing and gaining everything. Like there's so much that plays into life.
Obviously, I only know my life, right? I haven't been handed anything, no one's paid my way for anything, I've built my entire business without ever going into debt and without ever taking a loan.
Q: @peachpitsalon asks: “How do you deal with the days you feel like the hair just isn't hitting?”
A: I’m a huge advocate for showing up and doing your best, always. But remember that your best looks different on different days.
Did you know that a baseball player hits a home run less than 1% of the time?
You can’t always be expecting to hit a home run with every single client every single time.
Q: “What advice would you give to someone who’s ready to venture out on their own?”
A: Don't give up, keep pushing forward, get scrappy, be innovative, do it the way you want to do it.
I decided to do things differently when I went out on my own and people cautioned me saying "Dawn, nobody else has done this" and I'm like cool I don't want what everybody else has gotten so I'm going to do something different so I can get what I've gotten.
So trust your intuition, be scrappy, be creative but take care of yourself in the process.
Q: @hairbysar asks “can you mentor me?”
A: Abso-freakin’-lutely! If you want to get mentored by me, if you feel like we jive please go get on the waitlist for Rock Your Business.
That is how you can get mentored by me. It's my group mentorship program. It is going to be opening up in January of 2021. you do not want to miss it. Get on the waitlist.
Q: @chellsbrain asks “how did you get so awesome?”
A: Awe thanks girl! I just started loving myself and stopped fearing what other people might think of me.
The biggest thing that I learned is that I was so scared of what other people might be thinking of me because I knew how I used to think about other people.
Q: “I want to raise my prices, but it’s a pandemic”
A: Not a question, but a good statement ;-). I’ll help you raise your prices, get on the RYB waitlist.
Q: @hairbyzaylee asks: “what motivated you during the hard times in the hair industry?”
A: I'm not gonna lie to you, there have been many days I've laid in bed and cried. There have been lots of times that I just feel like what am I doing, what's the point?
And so I had to find a larger purpose and keep coming back to that. Before I got into education and was just behind the chair I thought about how this can be such a vain thing and that I don’t want to be just about looks and appearances, but rather about shaping women's confidence and about how can I show up and create an experience that makes people walk out feeling a little bit taller?
Q: @delaneyJSL asks: “how to keep business going in a small town?”
A: I have so many of you guys from small towns and I love it.
Lots of times like social media doesn't work in small towns because it's well, a small town, like why look up a local hashtag when you legit know everybody in town.
But how you keep business going in a small town is by getting creative and having fun.
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That’s a little peek into my answers to some awesome questions you sent over. If you want to hear the full responses go ahead and watch that video up top.
Let me know if you want a part 2, I had so much fun filming this for you!
Go on, binge the latest posts (you know you wanna)…
