In 2019, I was a year into running my own suite — thriving on paper, lonely in reality. I didn't have anyone around me who understood where I was trying to go, and that kind of isolation messes with your confidence more than people talk about. Then I found a retreat on Instagram, marketed as "summer camp for hairstylists," and something in me said go.

I flew alone for the first time. Slept in a room with strangers. Spent $6,000 I didn't feel ready to spend. And it changed the entire trajectory of my life — my friendships, my confidence, eventually this podcast, my own coaching business, and now my own retreat.

In this episode, I'm sharing what I'd go back and tell that scared version of me: the people you meet on a retreat become your expanders, your insecurities aren't exclusive to you, and the most impactful moments are never the Instagrammable ones — they're the unplanned conversations and the girlhood laughter at 1am. I'm also talking about what self-trust actually looks like when you build it through discomfort instead of reading about it.

If you're a hairstylist or salon owner who's felt isolated at the top of your own business, who's craving people who actually get your bigger vision, or who's been sitting on a retreat you're too scared to book — this episode is for you.

This is also where I'm telling you about Industry Unplugged — my own retreat, happening in Costa Rica in April 2027. It's everything I've loved and learned from a decade of retreats, built into one experience for stylists and salon owners ready to invest in themselves the way I finally did in 2019.

In this episode:

• Why isolation hits harder the more successful you get
• What an "expander" is and why you need people who have them
• The unglamorous truth about what actually changes you at a retreat
• How self-trust gets built through discomfort, not comfort