After a summer hiatus, Sarah Crews is back behind the mic with a fresh perspective. In this comeback episode of Lessons from a Hairstylist, Sarah shares what she has been up to, what is ahead for the podcast, and a few expert styling secrets that every listener will want to take notes on.

Sarah also teases an exciting project she is building for fellow hairstylists and makeup artists- a digital resource hub packed with:

• Professionally written client communication templates
• Contracts and forms built from real world experience
• Step by step workflows to simplify every part of running a beauty business
• Tools and systems that can save countless hours (and headaches)

Whether you are freelancing solo or building a team, Sarah’s upcoming framework will help you streamline, scale, and succeed.

Connect with Sarah

Got a hair or business question? Reach out, Sarah would love to answer it, and your question might even become a future podcast episode topic.

  Instagram: @lessonsfromyourhairstylist

  Website: lessonsfromahairstylist.com

✨ If you enjoyed today’s conversation, please rate and review (⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️) and share with a friend!

Well, hello and welcome to the Lessons from a Hairstylist podcast. I'm your host and hairstylist friend, Sarah Cruz. It is so good to be back with you. I have been off for the whole summer practically. ⁓ We've moved. So I took a little hiatus. We moved from our house into an apartment. And before you say, ⁓ my gosh, why would you do that? I can not tell you how liberating it has been. ⁓

This is just a time in our life where we were just looking to simplify and it has been one of the best things we have done for ourselves. And I can't remember when it is. It is such a great feeling. have a ⁓ downsized and ⁓ just ditched all the responsibility of home ownership. It's crazy. You know, it used to be one of those things where

People are like, if you don't own a home, it's like throwing money away. it's like, it's so worth it. And I don't think it's that way anymore. I think that spending money for the convenience is well worth it for this point in time in my life. mean, we had a pool at the house and

It was nonstop. I mean, even if you have somebody to help you, it doesn't matter. I mean, you cannot, it is a 24 hour day job, it seems like. And our backyard was full of trees and it was just constantly, like it was just constant, constant. You know, and the house was like 20 years old. start, stuff was just starting to really need repair. The HVAC system, definitely ⁓ needed to be replaced and

A couple of years ago, there was like this storm and you know, the roof was gonna have to be replaced at some point. So, know, the storm blows some shingles off and we're like, okay, this works because we turn it into insurance and it's like, all right, we can get a new roof. This is great. This is the perfect time to do a new roof. ⁓ so, you know, we hired this roofing company and ⁓ turns out they were scammers.

We paid them a down payment to start the project and they never started it. They never started it and like a year went by, we could never get them to start it and then they were like, you have to pay the rest of it before we start. I'm like, hell no, we're not doing that. And long story short, we wound up having to sue them and as it turns out, so did many other people. the company files bankruptcy.

And they had good reviews. were people in our neighborhood that actually use them. so just for whatever reason, ⁓ were this way, not just with us, as it turns out. There were other people that had the same issue too. Filed bankruptcy, nothing was ever done about it. The roof never happened. was anyway, it was like a two year long process with this roof.

Um, you know, stuff on the house, it just, it starts, it just starts to be like too much after a while. And my husband and I are, I mean, I'm in my fifties. My husband's already 60. Don't tell him I said that, but we're done. We are done with all of that responsibility. When I tell you that renting is so amazing, we like, feel so free. Honestly, I, we had our first.

actual weekend, like what I would think normal people would have a weekend, ⁓ where you're not doing these constant projects, you're not trying to put fires out, you're not trying to deal with the latest issue, it's just not something all the time. If there's something you need, somebody's gonna do it, and that is fantastic. It's easier to maintain it. We got rid of 85 % of the stuff that we had, which was...

So liberating, love it. It's like starting over. I'm definitely in my minimalist era. ⁓ Just having just bare bones. I told someone, I was like, I literally just want like eight knives, eight forks, eight plates. I mean, this is where I wanna be. And so I feel like we really pared down, got rid of a lot of stuff. It has been so glorious. I absolutely love it. We moved to this little community. ⁓ I don't know.

20 minutes south of Nashville here, a place called Berry Farms. And it's like this planned community. I feel like we live in Mr. Rogers' neighborhood. It is so cute. You can walk anywhere. You can walk to the grocery store. There's restaurants around, like tons of restaurants. There's clinics, there's vets, there's salons, spas. Not that I'm going to a salon and spa, because I'm at a salon.

But you got the dry bar, you know, if you needed a blowout, massage place, aesthetics place, you know, urgent care. You've got several gyms, exercise, like Pilates, CrossFit, there's, you know, boutiques, just really almost anything you could want is here and it's walkable. I'm definitely getting my steps in every day and it's amazing. I love it. You wouldn't really have to go anywhere.

And it's just so cute. The whole place is just, it looks perfectly manicured. It's just, it is really adorable and I can't tell you how much we love it. So, I mean, if you're in the Nashville area and you're thinking of being in a community that just has everything, you gotta check it out. so for us, it's been amazing. We've been doing that this summer. And I had to give the podcast a little bit of a rest.

Started it and it was like it was it was fantastic ⁓ I loved it if you listened before you know that I had a lot of guests on I had guests almost every week and That was fantastic because I had some really incredible people on ⁓ Just so grateful for the amazing people that I was able to have on the podcast. I'm just talking about their different stories

the things that they could teach us, the inspiration that came out of lot of those episodes, just the knowledge. There were just experts and survivors and people who had just done some really incredible things that I was able to talk to and interview. And it was fantastic. At the same time, it was exhausting to get a guest on every week. people were willing and it was...

I appreciated that, you know, the time and the prep that it takes to going into, you know, doing the questions, preparing the episode, doing the scheduling, things like that. you know, I am very lucky to have two really amazing women that work with me, my virtual assistants. ⁓ I have Allie, ⁓ Allie Graffel, who is actually in the Philippines. She works remotely from there. And then I have Crystal, Crystal Neaterly. She is in ⁓ Illinois.

and both are just absolutely fantastic. So they help take care of the podcast, the marketing for my onsite hair and makeup company, Black Time Blush. And they really take care of everything as far as the things that I'm doing online, my business and that sort of thing. even though they were there to help and...

help schedule all of this and get things going. It it really, it became something that over the summer I just wasn't able to keep up. And I always knew I wanted to get back to it. I was taking off for the summer fully intending on being back to it by fall. And I'm excited that now that we're going into fall, you know, I am back with this new episode. And I think going forward,

may have some guests, know, may do guests still, but probably a lot more solo episodes. When I started this podcast, it was very much about lessons from your hairstylist. This was about, ⁓ you know, inspiring people to be their very best and to use their assets and the things that they have that are unique to create a more beautiful and ⁓

just happy life. ⁓ And those are the types of things that I talk about behind the chair every day really with my clients as well. And I wanted this podcast to be sort of a reflection of those conversations and also the things that I like to teach and coach and the information I like to impart to not only my clients, but other friends that I have within the beauty industry, other hairstylists, makeup artists.

You know, I have a background of teaching for a luxury hair care company called Karastas. So, you know, I traveled about and I taught in salons and really connected and really truly loved that part of just the teaching and the mentoring other beauty professionals out there. And so this podcast is a bit of an extension as to, you know, kind of what I feel like I enjoy doing the very most in this industry.

So not only teaching my clients or being an inspiration or a resource for them, but also other hair and makeup artists, those in the beauty industry. So I kind of want to get back to that with this podcast. And the episodes may be a little bit more reflective of an actual lesson, something that you can really take with you and ⁓ use to your advantage in your everyday life.

So I think we're going to get back to that a little bit more. So it's going to be basically more conversations like with you and me together. That just sort of like intimate conversation of just kind of just sitting down together and just chatting, just chatting it up. ⁓ That and I also, I have something else coming out on the horizon here that I'll share with you in a little bit. But I want to get to what it is that I thought might be a

episode coming back from the break, we're gonna start talking about hair again and really getting into those lessons that your hairstylist can teach you. One of the things that I hear a lot, especially, I mean, not just behind the chair in the salon, but also in my hair and makeup company, ⁓ from clients is, okay, my hair doesn't stay, the style does not stay.

And I'm really concerned about making sure that I get longevity out of my style. And it's always, you know, it's just, it's, it's a challenge that's always ongoing. People are always asking about it. And so I thought we'd talk a little bit about today, how to get your style to stay in place. If you're frustrated with the fact that it just falls, you know, maybe you've curled it or you've just done a beautiful blowout and gotten some volume in your hair. And like five seconds later, it feels like it's just flat. So we're going to talk about that a little bit today.

So I wanna go into some of the things that people usually do wrong and some myths behind what it is that is causing or contributing to the issue of not having the hair stay. One of those things I think that ⁓ people do is they overuse or they misuse hairspray. Hairspray seems to be that overarching product that everybody reaches for first and foremost and...

There's so many different products out there and I think that so many times people don't know how to properly use them because they are meant to take any hair type and allow for you to have longevity. So we're gonna go into that a little bit. We're gonna talk about product and we're gonna talk about prep and how to set yourself up from the get-go as to how you can get your hair to stay. So even if you have fine, thin, hair, you can create a style that will last

we're going to talk about how to do it properly. So the first thing I want to say is again, it all goes into prep. the prep can be, yes, you could start from dry hair. So you get up in the morning and say that you, you know, you want to style your hair and you want it to last all day, but you don't want to have to wash it. That is fine. But one of the misconceptions is that hair styles better and holds better.

when the hair is a little dirty, a little gritty, a little bit oily. And I think that there is still this misconception among professionals as well. I don't even think it's just clients. think that even professionals believe this to be true too, but I'm gonna tell you what my take is on it. The one thing, any project that you take on, right? Anything that you're gonna be doing, say you paint a wall or

You're putting makeup on your face or you're gonna paint a picture on a canvas. Would you do that on a surface that has oil and grit and dirt and whatever the day had left over from yesterday and the day before and the day before maybe? Would you then do your project over that? Would you paint over that? Would you put makeup over?

yesterday's makeup or oily face, dirt, sweat, things like that. So it's kind of the same thing with hair. Like you want a clean palette for the most part. Maybe a day old, that's fine. But if you're going to be putting product in your hair, it needs to be done on a clean surface. And you can do prep products, even wet prep products such as mousse or a spray, a volumizing spray.

a thermal spray, anything like that, ⁓ a texturizer, a wet texturizer, ⁓ even a gel. You can put those things on dry hair and you can blow dry them in. Product is like a tool. A lot of times we use certain tools for different things. We might use a hammer, for instance, right? But maybe we just use the hammer as a doorstop.

It still works, you're just using it in a different way. So sometimes things are positioned to be used a certain way, so you would think, okay, well, a mousse or a gel or a wet spray would need to go into wet hair. And yes, many times that is true, but you can also start with hair that's clean and dry, and you can blow dry those products in. And we're gonna talk about the way that you can blow dry those in, but it's very important to prep your hair.

And if you're someone that doesn't like a lot of product in your hair because you feel like it makes it feel dirty or gritty or something like that, you can't have both many times. just, I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but if you're going to have a style that lasts all through the day and night, they're dancing and receptions and things like that, or even just from, you know, morning to the end of your work day, if you want it to last, you will have to use product for the most part because

That's what product was designed to do. So many times people use product and they find that they're not getting the result that they're looking for and it's about using the right product. So this is one of the things that I like to educate my clients on when they come in is we pick out what is right for them and for their hair type and for the result that they're looking for. So you do need some coaching many times from a professional on what's gonna work right for you so that you don't feel like your hair is dirty.

so you don't feel like your hair is gross. But you may not be able to have a long-lasting style and still not have to shampoo your hair for a week and a half. I mean, you may not be able to have both. You might get a long-lasting style because you've used products and if you've used them properly, they won't make your hair look dirty or gritty or anything like that. If you're following the manufacturer's instructions, your stylist's instructions, you're gonna get the results out of it that you're looking for.

but you may not be able to extend your blow dry for a week and a half. Yes, there is dry shampoo and things like that, but at the end of the day, it's like sometimes we have to make some choices. So first of all, we're just gonna talk about prep and we're gonna talk about the hair products. Prep is very important. Like I said, many times you do this on wet hair or you could do it on clean dry hair, but hairspray is not necessarily a prep product.

a lot of us will really rely on hairspray like far too much. Using it is our only tool in our toolkit and it's really meant to be a finisher. It is not meant to be on the front end. This is why it's a hairspray, this is why it sets the hair. ⁓ What you wanna use is a prep product. Something like I said, like a mousse or a gel or ⁓ some sort of like a spray volumizer, a wet texturizer, something like that, or even a dry texturizer. We'll talk about that in a second.

But what you first want to do is you want to use those products according to manufacturer's directions for your hair type, using the right thing for you and start with the hair. Say if we're going to start with it wet, you'll spray in or you'll use the mousse, you'll use the gel, whatever it is, applying it the way that you should be, roots to ends. So if you have something that is meant to give you volume, you're going to spray that or you're going to apply that at the root.

the way that it is intended to be applied, in the amount that's intended to be applied, and then you'll blow dry that in. That product is designed to hold the end style. It has a hold memory to it. Those prep products have memory, meaning that when you put the style into your hair, once it's dry and you start, or once it's finished,

and you're ready to go, you should be able to have some movement in your hair and it still retain its shape and most of its volume if you're doing the prep products correctly. So do not skip the prep products. And because they're all different, I can't give you a one size fits all way of using those products, but that is where you're gonna wanna get that information from your hairstylist or.

from the manufacturer's directions, from their website, from the company itself. You gotta do a little bit of research to find out what products are right for you and gonna work with your hair type. And then you also sometimes have to do a little bit of trial and error to see what works the best for you. So it is a little bit of homework. It is something that you may have to try a few times, ⁓ going wet to dry. If you want to start with your hair dry and it is clean,

⁓ Once again, a tool that is meant for one thing, say like it's a wet product that you would spray into wet hair and it says apply to wet hair. That doesn't mean you cannot apply it to dry hair. I use mousse on dry hair all the time for styling. In fact, it's in my artist kit when I go to do wetting hair. Many times I use the Kerasas Mousse Buffon and I will put it on dry hair.

And then I blow dry that product in. And what that product does is it expands the hair shaft, but it also lifts at the scalp. When I blow dry that product into the hair, I use a blow dryer with a concentrator nozzle. So a concentrator nozzle ⁓ concentrates the airflow so that it directs it ⁓ very acutely. And ⁓ you're going to blow that hair

in the opposite direction. So you really want to lay that hair follicle right over in the opposite direction. Now, a lot of times when people start to blow dry product into their hair and they're trying to blow dry some volume in, they lift straight up at a 90 degree angle, say like right off the top of their head or straight out from their head. So they're thinking that that is going to allow them to have the most volume. What you really wanna do

is you want to lay that section straight over, almost going parallel to the floor. So if you're in the crown of your head, you can drag that section clear across the top of your head, almost parallel to the floor going forward or to either side. Imagine you could ⁓ roll a marble on top of that section as you are blowing it in whatever direction you're going. It should be flat.

And that way, when the hair lays back over, you're gonna get the most lift at the root. If you're blowing straight up, you're not gonna get so much of the lift right at the root. It's gonna be a little flatter at the root and you're gonna get a little bit more volume an inch or two out. So really get that hair 75 to 80 % dry, either by blow drying the...

the wet product in or blow drying the wet hair with the wet products in. And once you get that hair all 75 to 80 % dry, then you can start working with either a round brush or a vent brush to smooth whatever it is that you're using. And then you can finish out the style.

So that you're not having to blow dry with a brush from soaking wet hair to dry. First of all, that's exhausting. And second of all, it just doesn't work as well. You can have the hair almost dry and then do the finishing with a brush. Same thing with the brush. If you're trying to get volume on the top, you want to drag that entire section over parallel to the floor so that when you roll it back, that

brush is sitting right on top of your head. If you're pushing the brush straight up and rolling it down, you're causing the hair to still be flat at the roots. And I wish I could show you, I may do a video because I think a visual is always good for this. This is one of the things that I show my clients a lot. And it really takes me having to show them exactly what I mean because then they can visualize it. Now, again, I might do a video that this would be a good one, trust me when I say push that

hair over into the opposite direction and then bring it back the other way and you'll get maximum volume and then get the hair completely dry, completely dry with the product in or completely dry from just out of the shower, blow dry it, everything dry. With that prep product, can know that you can go ahead and do the...

like a curling iron or that whatever you did with the round brush, that volume is and that shape is going to stay in. Now, I will say a prep product also would be a heat protector. Many times these setting sprays ⁓ or these styling products are going to have some heat protection in them. And that is very important. You always want to use a heat protection. Number one, because heat will dry your hair out.

terribly, even more so, it can be even more so ⁓ damaging to the hair as say bleach, like a lightener or a high lift color. It's really important to use heat protector because it will wreak havoc on your hair if you're a flat iron, a curling iron, something like that, ⁓ over and over, and your hair will just absolutely get wrecked. And not to mention the fact that your color is not going to stay ⁓ as vibrant.

It's gonna fade faster and ⁓ you're just not gonna have as good a results if you don't use a heat protector. So heat protector is really a non-negotiable if you're going to be using any heat at all to style your hair. Many times again in these prep products you're gonna have some heat protection in there. just make sure that you're following, ⁓ again, manufacturer's directions or your hairstylist's directions.

that you're using the products the way they were meant to be used so that you have good results. So that's number one. Once you get the hair prepped that way and you've used the amount of product that you need and the way that you should be using it, you can use a dry product, like a dry spray-in product. A really great thing to curl with is gonna be something like a texturizing spray, not a hairspray. So a texturizing spray is not going to seal itself

⁓ to the hair shaft the way that like a hairspray would. That hairspray almost kind of ⁓ melts itself to the hair strand and it flattens it. And it actually allows the hair to go more limp and for the curl to flatten out more. So you're not gonna get ⁓ as nice of a shape. If you're using something more aerated, something meant for volume, something meant for setting.

⁓ If it's a dry product, then you're gonna have better results when you go to set the hair. Hairspray is not a setting spray. Hairspray is a finisher. So with hairspray, it's largely alcohol-based. Many of these hairsprays, and they just coat the hair. You know, that heat can really sear that coating onto the hair shaft. So you're really gonna wind up with just like...

crispiness, it's just gonna be inflexible. You're just not gonna have good longevity out of using hairspray as a setting spray. So let's not do that anymore. If you're guilty of that, I've been guilty of that myself too in the past. So no shade, but that's just my little tip for that. ⁓ So once you get that done, again, going back to the tool in your toolbox, if you're using a dry texturizer, once again, you can break the rules.

⁓ One tip I like to give is, say you're using like a dry volumizer. One of my favorite ones is the Kerastase VIP. this is, VIP stands for volume and powder. It is like this super dry, like ⁓ texturizing, volumizing spray. is amazing. And it will give you like tons of volume instantly. ⁓ One of the things you can do is if your hair is wet, you can spray that into wet hair at the roots and blow dry it in.

One of the things it does is it gives you longevity. ⁓ It will extend your blow dry. So if you don't want to shampoo your hair for maybe a day or two extra, it could make your blow dry last a little bit longer once you do it. So it is a prep product. Again, yes, it is recommended to be used on dry hair. Can we break the rules sometimes if we know what we're doing? Yes, we can. And can we have great results? Yes, we can.

That's just a little tidbit. can also do that ⁓ with ⁓ like a ⁓ dry shampoo. Dry shampoo, ⁓ spray some of that in your roots before you blow dry and it will help to keep the oils at bay as well. ⁓ Depends on the actual product and the brand as well, but I love the KeraStoce one. ⁓ The Fresh Affair is just absolutely one of my favorites, but you know, there's a lot of great ones out there too, so.

Those are just a couple little tidbits to take away. ⁓ Once you do the volumizing spray, then you can do the curl. And once you do that, the thing that you definitely, definitely want to do is you want to let the curl ⁓ cool in place. So you want to, of course, make sure that your curl is being heated all the way through, say if you're using an iron or if you're using like a curling iron or a wand.

Many times I recommend between 375 and 400 is a good temperature. If your curl is not staying, many times it's because we're getting a little impatient, not letting the heat get all the way through. So if it's hot to the touch on the outside, then the heat has gone all the way through and you can probably let go of it. But I would pin it. And this is one of those times where you would use the hairspray.

So once you pin it into place, and I like to get these long ⁓ metal, they're called duckbill clips. You can get them at like Sally's or you can get them anywhere at Walmart or whatever. But they're just like these long single prong clips. They're really good for pinning your curls into place and letting them curl or letting them cool. Once you do that, ⁓ spray that with ⁓ a flexible hold hairspray. This is a great time for the hairspray now. ⁓

what it will do is not only help to set the curl in place, but just that mist from the hairspray kind of helps to cool it as well. So it'll start on that cooling process, let it get completely cool to the touch before you release the curls and then brush through it and style it, that type of thing. That may seem like common sense. You might be like, yeah, I know that, but do we actually do it? And have you tested yourself on

either doing it or not doing it and seeing the difference between one curl and another one where one has been cooled and the other one hasn't. It is a dramatic difference and combined with using the right prep products and the right temperature and letting the hair cool, you are going to get a much more long lasting result. So if you have, you know, again, fine hair,

this is something that's going to be a game changer for you. It's really about just slowing it down, using the products the way they were meant to, allowing the hair to cool before styling it. That is my little, I guess, PSA, my little lesson in helping you keep your hair style long lasting through an entire reception or an entire day of work, that type of thing.

That's just, it's a question I get a lot and hopefully that will help you. I will say, if you do have any questions, please feel free to reach out to me on social media, anywhere you can find me. I'm happy ⁓ to give you some tips, tricks, advice, things like that and I would love to answer those questions. Might even be great for, ⁓ you know, like a story on Instagram or something like that. Maybe we make a post out of it.

Because I think that, you know, if somebody has a question, probably like a bunch of other people have the same question as well. So I'd love to be able to answer those for you. ⁓ So speaking of social media, that has been something that I have not been super consistent with. I've never been able to. I've never been able to just keep it up and just get like a routine and get like a real

like a real system going with social media. And even though I have these wonderful women working with me who are trying to kick my butt all the time to keep me consistent with it, I just have never been able to, never seem to be able to just keep that going. So we'll be working on that a little bit more. I will say working on it a little bit more, I should just say like, I'm just gonna continue to try to work on that. But, you know, as far as this podcast, I feel like this podcast is basically like my

my social media ⁓ home kind of, because for me, coming on and just having like a natural conversation just seems so much more doable than trying to think of like an entertaining post or doing the editing and the captioning and all that kind of thing. We're gonna have to do it. I'm gonna do my best to try to like, you know, keep that going, but it's just something I have not been able to get my arms around.

I feel like what I have to say is mostly gonna wind up coming here to the podcast and a conversation between you and I, or you and me. Grammar police, you and me. ⁓ So yeah, so that's where we are. That's where we are with the social media thing. Never have been able to get our arms around that one, but we keep going. We keep pushing forward and we don't give up. And that's where we are. ⁓

One last thing I wanted to mention to you before I head off into the sunset tonight is I have something kind of exciting coming up too. Another reason why I wanted to bring the podcast back was not only to talk to just like regular ⁓ clients, regular people out there who were just looking to make their lives and their, you know, their hair better, but also other professionals who do what I do and

And I, like I said before, I do talk to a lot of ⁓ hair and makeup artists and other stylists that I work with in the salon. ⁓ everybody's looking for a better way. Everybody's looking for some help in making their job easier. And I love to coach and mentor on that type of thing to help people to be as successful as possible, as quickly as possible.

And that's something else that I wanna bring here as well to the podcast. And so we're working on another little project behind the scenes. And this is gonna be sharing basically what our framework looks like as we run the hair and makeup company. Something that I worked on for years and years was the framework and the system for...

When you start out, if you're a freelancer and you're trying to run your business and you're wearing all the hats, ⁓ anything that can make your life easier. If you're thinking of starting a team or an agency, kind of like what I have, I like to think of this as a team because I'm very invested and I love all the hair makeup artists that we have that work with us. But in reality, everybody's an independent contractor.

that works with us. And so it is kind of more like an agency. You know, we contract out the work that we take in. And so for that, you you've got to have really solid systems in place. And if someone's out there who is looking to do this type of thing themselves and have subcontractors, ⁓ you know, we're going to have a system to be able to equip people who are in the beauty business for themselves.

So we're looking at maybe a three tiered system. The first tier is going to be the basic. This is going to be all of our messaging, like our canned emails back and forth to our clients. The ones that we use from start to finish, from the first inquiry that they ⁓ come to us seeking out our services all the way to when we're asking them for reviews and everything in between. So all of those canned emails, all of those things that

you know, somebody could just adapt to their own business and use it so that they didn't have to reinvent the wheel on all of that messaging. And, you know, to know that they've got comprehensive communication from start to finish, we will have those. We will have all of the forms that we use in our business, different forms that we use, and also our contracts and our agreements. Again, we have, I say we because,

Yeah, the ladies who work with me, I feel like they've built this business right alongside me. And in some cases, even done more in building this business than I have. I got the ball rolling a little bit, they have taken off with it and just made it absolutely incredible. having the details in place on something like a contract can certainly save somebody.

many, many dollars and many, many hours of headaches and ⁓ turmoil as it can be sometimes when you run across unexpected ⁓ issues that may arise when you're serving the public. When you are working with ⁓ clients, there are things that as you start out will be unforeseen until it happens to you and then it is nightmarish and a huge pain.

things you don't want to deal with. so we have a pretty good system in place. I feel we have very comprehensive contracts in place, not only for clients, but also for working with some contractors that you may want to hire out our contract out with. So our agreements, our contracts, our, ⁓ you know, all of the language that we use to protect ourselves.

as a company, those things will be available for purchase as well. So our forms, our contracts and our communications will be in our first tier. ⁓ Each one will be available a la carte to purchase, or we will be putting those into bundles and packages for tier one for anyone who would like to buy a set. ⁓ Maybe you're looking for...

you know, certain things and not for others. So you wouldn't want everything in tier one, but ⁓ that's basically gonna be contracts, communications, and our forms in tier one. Tier two then would be also ⁓ that. You'd be getting all of those things. Plus we'd be sharing our workflows. So a workflow basically ⁓ is, ⁓ you know, every step that happens from, again, inquiry to asking for review. ⁓

every single thing that ⁓ needs to be done, every task, every email that needs to be sent, ⁓ things that need to be categorized, just so that you can know where you are with each client ⁓ and each job as you grow. So you're able to keep track of everything so the ball doesn't get dropped.

So you don't wind up with bad reviews. So you don't wind up getting yourself into a situation that you can't manage. A workflow is something that keeps you on track. And it's something that takes a while to build that is going to be specifically useful for a particular type of business. the workflows for me were something that took me

years to get right. And I would not want to have to go back and redo ⁓ all of the footwork that it took for me to be able to finally get those workflows ⁓ tidied up. ⁓ So with the help of my amazing virtual assistants and, ⁓ you know, just lots of trial and error, lots of headaches, ⁓ lots of things kind of screwed up.

⁓ Really just learning as you go, we finally have got our workflows to a point that they're very usable. We can rely on them time after time. And that is something I really wish somebody would have handed over to me because I think the workflows were one of the biggest things, one of the biggest headaches that I just, it took me forever really to get that right. So that will be, those workflows will be available in the tier two.

And then tier three, you know, we've got every resource that we use, all of our programs and tools, all of our software and things like that that we use in order to run our business. We will have it in there in the how to, ⁓ and also ⁓ we'll be offering virtual assistant help as well, because as you start to run a business, if you are someone who is wearing all the hats, ⁓ tech,

can become a very overwhelming issue. It can be something that really makes you want to tear your hair out after a while. And so we've worked through a lot of the kinks that we've run, that we have run into since starting this, the things that just, you know, it just took hours and sometimes days to ⁓ figure out certain, you know, like pitfalls or snafus that would happen.

I mean, you think you'd have everything like running and everything's talking to each other and it's all working and it's not, and then it's not. And you're just like, you're spending hours and you're tired and you're exhausted. We've worked all that out too. We finally got there. So I think to be able to share some of these systems with people and have them available for other professionals to be able to buy.

⁓ that are going to be specific to what it is that they do, because there were plenty of workflows out there that I could have bought. And I did have several people build several different workflows, but what happened was that they didn't work specifically for my business. Cause I was the only one that knew the ins and outs of what had to happen when. And so someone who didn't do what I do. Could not build those to my satisfaction. So.

That's where I had to get in there and we had to just hammer it out and it was grueling. To be able to hand that over, I wish somebody would have been there and said, here, take this and use it. I would have invested so much money in that. that would be tier three. And also being able to have the help of somebody doing the plugging in and playing ⁓ and building that out for you. ⁓

kind of excited about this new venture and about this offering. I think it's gonna be something that is going to offer something for everyone and ⁓ will be valuable to ⁓ everyone's budget. We're gonna have digital assets that will start so small and can be built on, on up to a full ⁓ suite, a full professional suite of like,

done for you. ⁓ Just so excited for what that is. So we're gonna be working on that. That's gonna be our project over here behind the scenes. It's not even ready yet. Like we're just starting to build this out and design it. But I wanted to talk about that today. ⁓ For those who may be listening, who are also in the beauty industry, this could be of interest to you. And of course, I will be talking about it more on the podcast and ⁓ promoting that. Because I think, again,

This podcast is kind of my social media. I'll be posting as can, as best I can, but I do want this to be my main source of communication and getting it out there, getting our message out there. Me as a hairstylist, as a professional, a coach and a mentor, and also as a business owner, helping other people to just do more.

and to grow and to do it more easily and to ⁓ just expand what it is that they're already doing and find success faster and easier. That's kind of my, that's my goal, my dream and what I feel like my purpose is and what it is that I'm doing now in this stage of the game and in the beauty industry. I've been in it for 30 years and ⁓ continue to

you know, morph and reinvent and do different things. And I think that no matter what any of us does, that's one of the most important things that you can ever do in a career is just to continue to try new things and do different things. It keeps it new, it keeps it fun. And if you love what you do, you definitely have to continue to try to keep your creative juices flowing. So ⁓ this is a new one for us and I'm excited about it.

Talking about it more, you know, on every episode, of course, I'll be giving you the updates on what's happening and what's available behind the scenes. But just so excited to be back with you again, you know, for this comeback episode. I don't know if it's a comeback episode, but for this episode after our hiatus, our summer hiatus, starting the fall and excited for, you know, the episodes to come.

for the rest of this year and what that's gonna look like. Excited for what it's all gonna turn out to be and how we're gonna grow. So I wanna thank you again for tuning in and listening. It means the world to me. If you would please take a moment to leave a rating and a review.

Just give it five stars. I mean, I wanna hear what you have to say. I really do. I can take the critique, if you could just do the five stars, that'd be great. You can leave the critique in the comment, but no, just joking. Not really, but just kidding. No, just please, it helps to push the podcast out. And if you could also share this with someone who might find it valuable, I would super appreciate that as well. I love...

Being back here again, getting to spend this time with you. Thank you again so much for tuning in this week and I'll talk to you next week. Have a wonderful rest of your day and we'll chat on the next one.