The Conscious Salon
Welcome to The Conscious Salon.
Join Tessa and Nicola - sisters, best friends and founders of aHead, Melbourne’s First Mindful Salon. In this space, you’ll be empowered, inspired and entertained by the ups and downs of running a conscious, small business.
We chat mindset, culture, business and give you practical steps to make your life more conscious.
The Conscious Salon
We have to answer each other HONESTLY! NO SMOKE AND MIRRORS
Ever felt like your brand looks like a swan gliding gracefully across the water, while underneath your legs are thrashing just to stay afloat?
In this episode, we dive straight into the “smoke and mirrors” that so many salon and clinic owners face: the glossy grids, pedestal leaders, and feel-good routines that often hide shaky numbers, wobbly culture, and leadership habits we’d rather not admit. No shame. No spin. Just truth, clarity, and the real power that comes from facing what matters.
We start by separating story from stats. Loving your clients isn’t the same as leading them, so we unpack what a truly aligned clientele looks like from pre-booking rates and home-care commitment to average ticket and openness to your process. Then, we pull back the curtain on “culture theatre”, how public gratitude can coexist with private tension, and explore how to shift from avoidant or reactive leadership to calm, conscious candour. Expect honest talk about awards, imposter syndrome, and the reality that even top-tier salons sometimes fight fires while collecting trophies.
Money also gets the daylight it deserves. We share the lessons that came from under-pricing, chasing headcount over profitability, and the months we paused our own wages. You’ll learn how tracking break-even by week, capacity by stylist, and maintaining a clear cash runway can help you make confident decisions — and why being transparent about numbers with your team often builds trust, not fear.
If you’re ready to drop the pedestal, align your prices with your time, and build a culture that holds boundaries without losing heart, this episode will feel like a breath of clean air. Press play, get honest, and start choosing outcomes over optics.
🎧 If this conversation resonates, follow the show, share it with a salon friend who needs a reality check, and leave a quick review. What “smoke and mirrors” habit are you ready to let go of?
To follow our journey:
Instagram @aheadhair_
@the_conscious_salon
This episode of the Conscious Salon Podcast is brought to you by Revlon Professional Australia. Welcome back to another episode of the Conscious Salon Podcast. Thank you. Tess. Today we're going to be talking about smoke and mirrors. Stunning. One of our favorite topics.
SPEAKER_01:We've got to have a cigarette for this.
SPEAKER_00:You should. We wanted to bring this into our community, our podcast community, because this is such an important ego check as a business owner and as a salon owner to look at when we maybe are walking the walk. No, wait, talking the talk, but not walking the walk. Is that what I'm trying to say? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Like, yeah. Talking about what we're doing.
SPEAKER_01:Talking about like yeah. Help me out here. What we basically want to say, there are people that like say they're doing the work, but actually doing the work and how that can be different in every aspect of your life. So I think this is something that like Nikki and I like to refer to smoke and mirrors a lot because I feel like when we started learning about smoke and mirrors, things really changed for us. So what we mean with smoke and mirrors is that often we can have an idea of what people are that version that they're putting out there of themselves. I've been smoking mirrors for many years.
SPEAKER_00:Well, there's like there's a part of all of us that is like a little bit smoke and mirrors. It's like Instagram is smoke and mirrors. Yes.
SPEAKER_01:You know, like Instagram is very smoke and mirrors. It's like very much the version that people want you to see is the person that they're or the version that they're putting out there. And I think the big change for us with like where I realize we're smoking mirrors, I had smoke and mirrors for many, many, many years. So I'd put out this version of like, yes, like I'm really, you know, like um, I'm a really conscious person, I'm a really, you know, plugged in business person, and I'm a really like X, Y, and Z. And what was actually going on was that there were aspects of that that were true, but realistically, I wasn't doing the work, I wasn't learning lessons, I wasn't like actually doing the thing. So the smoke and mirrors was very much there. So let's discuss. Let's discuss. Why do we want to talk about this? I think with it, you know, and especially in our industry, it's a very like performative industry. Everyone knows everyone. There's a lot of like, I think it's just fair to say, actually, it's probably with every industry, but there's like a lot of judgment with um the industry, I think, like, or like people will put people on pedestals with thinking like, oh, this person is like all the things that I want to be, or um, you know, like having these like ideas of what success looks like, or what an incredible business person looks like, or a great leader, or a great team member, or whatever it is, there will be like a bit of a like someone on a pedestal. And for us, why we want to talk about smoke and mirrors is that a lot of the time what we can hear, and we hear this a lot with clinic owners or salon owners that we're working with, or like people within our industry, people always say, Oh no, I'm doing that, yes, I'm doing all those things, and yes, no, I'm doing X, Y, and Z. And when we start pulling things back, we can actually see, oh no, that's potentially what's holding you back in your business. So there can be things like uh what's the smoke in mirrors example that we can give? Um confident that you've got um an incredible clientele. I love my clients, they're such amazing um, you know, people, I love them, they're like the exact clients that we want to have. When we start pulling things down and looking at it and pulling things apart, we can start seeing like, okay, are they people that um book all their appointments in advance? Are they people that uh commit to home care plans? Are they people that are on board with the process? Are they receptive? Are they like wanting to be, are they actually your ideal client? When we start pulling it apart, we can start saying, okay, potentially they may not be that version. And then for their um salon owner, we can start removing like, okay, maybe you don't have the successful, you know, incredible clientele that you think that you do. Let's pull that back and start addressing what's actually like what sort of people we're trying to put, that version we're putting out there of ourselves.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, absolutely. And I think the important thing is like realizing that we will all have seasons where we have the smoke and mirrors thing. We very much used to have smoke and mirrors with our culture in our salon, I feel like when our culture was really toxic, what we put out on Instagram was like, we used to do, I'm gonna totally throw us under the bus right now. We used to do every Saturday when the girls um would finish, we would do like a what are you grateful for this week? Like, what was your biggest gratitude that you had? It was like a beautiful concept. But the reality was that was all smoke and mirrors. What was actually going on behind the scenes was that our culture in the salon was completely toxic, and it was a really unsteady time for us. But we were getting on Instagram being like, oh my god, we're so grateful for the amazing clients and like the support of the team, etc. And even though the intention there was that we wanted to, we really wanted that to be true, but that is a perfect example of smoke and mirrors. So if you're hearing this and you're like, holy shit, I might have some smoke and mirrors happening for me. We don't want to meet this with shame and we don't meet this with judgment, but just bringing that awareness in. There we had a client actually in our community bring this forward. And I want to share this story because I think it's really pivotal. We had a yeah, a client who went to an award ceremony, won an award, um, and and placed incredibly and really deserved that award. And afterwards, she was really having a moment of, I would say almost imposter syndrome of like, oh my gosh, is my business where I want it to be? And even though I've won this award, I don't feel like I'm like quote unquote, you know, successful where I want to be, whatever it was coming up for her. And it was really interesting because I mirrored back to her in that moment. I said to her, what I want you to understand is that some of the most pivotal people in the industry are sitting in that room also winning awards. And even though they're winning awards and they're deserving of those awards and they've earned those awards, they're also having the team issues, they're also having financial difficulties, they're also having legal battles that they're going through. And I said to her, I know because some of these top-tier people that are sitting in the room with you are our clients. They're our clients. So we sit on calls with them and we hear what's happening for them and we hear those struggles and we hold them in those conversations. And I said, and somewhere, someone is looking at you, winning that award and also feeling that imposter syndrome of I'll never be like that person. And it was a really interesting moment of like the smoke and mirrors that we can present on social media. For example, she's looking at these high-level people in the room who have got three, four, five salons and this, you know, abundance of team and abundance of clients, things like that, and looking at that. And even though there's no ill intent there when they're when people, the high-level quote unquote high-level people are showing those things, there is a level of smoke and mirrors there. So sometimes things aren't always as it seems. But when we're talking about smoke and mirrors, it also comes down to self-analysis, being able to look at ourselves and be like, okay, cool. Where am I authentically showing up? Looking at self-analysis, what can I change? What can I be more consistent of? Where am I maybe saying that things are much better than what they are? And it's really funny when people come to work with us for the first time and we say, where are you at? You know, what sort of debts have you got? Where are you at with your tax? What how do you feel about your team? Often people say, Oh, I've got to feel amazing about my team. And it takes a little while to warm up and go, Oh, actually, I feel really wobbly with this team member. You know, there is an element with all of us that is smoke and mirrors.
SPEAKER_01:I totally agree. And I think the more that we like pull this stuff down, and like even people will say to us, like, there was a long time where we'd have the smoke and mirrors with, you know, people would say, Do you guys fight? And we'd be like, Oh, you know, like, not really. Not really. But the reality is, yeah, we fight, we fight a lot. But but that's also part of it. Like the the reason that we put this, like, we we all feel that we need to put out this perfect version who's got everything together that knows everything. And like, I don't fucking want to be that version. Like, that's the reality of this. I don't want to be the person that knows everything and has no work left to do and is like, because then I'm gonna get bored. Like, I will be bored and bored quick. But we can never think that we've got like why put that on there? Like, do you really want to hold that pressure of okay, like pretending that you've got all your shit together and everything's it's like gives that um version of you know, a beautiful swan that's like swimming on a lake, but underneath you're like paddling like crazy. Take that pressure off yourself. And the more that we start removing the smoke and mirrors and we start actually sitting in authenticity of, yeah, like I feel pretty good about you know, my clientele and my um salon, I'm not too sure about my you know, couple of team members, or sharing that. Let people see when you're vulnerable. If you're feeling anxious, if you're having a hard day, share it, share it with someone because it potentially will give them permission to be like, whoa, okay, great. Let me, how can I help you? Or like, let me be in this with you, or thank you for sharing that with me. I'm also having a hard time.
SPEAKER_00:Totally. I think it's like it really goes into our mission of we always want to be authentic with what we're going through. And right now we're in a really good season of business. We're in a great season with our salon, everything's ticking along nicely, our culture feels really good. We are always trying to be as transparent as we possibly can with obviously being sensitive to whatever situation we're in and team and things like that. But we're always trying to be as transparent as we possibly can, saying that we don't have all of the answers. I think we have learned all of the lessons the hard way, and we definitely have a lot of lived experience. But when we are mentoring people in the Heron Beauty industry, we're always trying to come back to what our lived experience has been, the mistakes that we've made, so we can hopefully pass that on to people and they don't make the same mistakes. But also understanding that the more transparent and authentic that you are, I think we see a lot of smoke and mirrors with salon owners on how they want to appear to their team. They want to appear that they've got everything all together, they've got every single answer, they're financially abundant. And it's interesting sometimes when we pull apart the financials in a salon and we really look at those with a fine-tooth comb and we go, hang on a second, you you you're not even hitting remotely towards break even, your salon's not even profiting. We need to share this with your team. We need them to come along and hop on the bus with us and and go on this journey with us. And a lot of the time people are really, really afraid to do that.
SPEAKER_01:I think when you pull down all the smoke and mirrors, that's when you can create a connection. So if you pull all that back and you sit with that, you can actually have real moments of being sane. Because I know when I'm asked, if someone was like, Yeah, are you um any qu are you have have you ever do you have a fight with your sister? I'm like, no, my voice, it's not convincing. Like, yeah, of course I do, like that's normal. But what that will then do, it just takes the pressure off ourselves. It takes it off of being like, let's just normalize things, let's keep this at like a level where, and if we all did that, especially if we think about that as an industry, if we pulled down all of the pedestals and all of the smoke and mirrors, potentially our industry would really grow and really heal and really elevate together because we can actually meet people where we're at. We stop having this like god-like complex, this impossible version of ourselves to try and meet all like how far off that ending seems. Like, I'm never gonna get to that level because that person's so much more together than I am. It loses all the imposter syndrome. Like, and this is like in any industry, we can all like heal as a collective through this. But the thing is, we keep going with that narrative of like I just need to keep and I can't work out if it's like the fake it till I make it, like I'm gonna keep saying that I've got all my shit together, or the uh like it so no, and then eventually it will happen, or like that fake it till I make it version, or the fact that there's not the like almost impossible version, like the expectation of never getting there, of not ever letting anyone see you and like guarding that and like not ever allowing anyone to actually see you're struggling.
SPEAKER_00:I want to play a little game. I want you to ask me three questions, and we have to do no smoke and mirrors, and I'm gonna ask you three questions about business, no smoke and mirrors, and we have to answer it 100% authentically.
SPEAKER_01:Okay.
SPEAKER_00:I think this will be powerful. Great. When do you think about giving up?
SPEAKER_01:When do I think about giving up? Giving up what? In business. When do I think about giving up? I don't think I ever think about giving up. Like truthfully, I don't think I think about giving up. When do I think that things might need to change? I think when I start feeling myself like being pulled a lot, where I feel like I can't give my energy 100% when I'm present in it. That's where I find that harder to like when I say give up. Is that what you're meaning? I'm sorry, or am I not understanding the question? No, you're understanding. I'm just curious when you think about giving up. I don't think I've ever thought about like fully giving up. But there's definitely been like things of like questioning. Oh actually, no, there was one the one time when I had um yeah, the like super toxic team. That was a lot. That was hard. That was definitely a time when I felt like giving up. I was I didn't feel comfortable even walking in my space anymore. So that's where I felt like I wanted to change things, and I did. I um took accountability, apologized, became the leader that they needed, and that team changed effectively. So that was good. Good question. What about you? I need to ask you that question now.
SPEAKER_00:When do I think about giving up? Yeah. I'm gonna be completely transparent, no smoke and mirrors. Usually team situations. I always say the most humbling and amazing part about owning a business, the hardest part and the best part is having a team, dealing with people. Um, yeah, when the team stuff gets toxic, when the team stuff gets difficult, um that disempowers me for sure. I think about giving up. Good questions. Yeah. What is the worst time financially that you found in business? As in the time of the year? No, like do you really not? What's the most difficult financial time that you've experienced in business?
SPEAKER_01:Um, the trickiest time in business. Well, I think obviously the first few years of like not really, we weren't no effectively our method was to look at what everyone else was doing and take$10 off. And shockingly, that didn't work. So um, that was obviously pretty hard. But I like, yeah, I think that was definitely the most when when we weren't aware of what our break-even were was. And I'd also say when we weren't breaking down our numbers with our team, because when we started breaking down numbers, that's when it starts creating momentum, and that's when things start elevating, when we were like keeping everything hidden and hiding it, that's when things were never really moving. It was very, very stagnant. What about you? What do you think?
SPEAKER_00:Um, I'll again be totally transparent. When we had the biggest team that we've ever had, was the most difficult time, the most amount of pressure I felt financially. And there's not nothing to say that, like, you know, some for some people, big teams work really well. I think that we lost so much, um, I guess like a loss of control, financial control, like culture control, just having too many cooks in the kitchen. Um, and that was the I feel that rather than going, okay, this is not working, we need to downsize our team, we need to be a bit more brutal with who we have in our team and let go of people who aren't pulling their weight and aren't growing and evolving with the company. Because we weren't, we were spoken mirrors, because we weren't accountable and didn't take action, it financially penalized us for sure. And we put everyone else before we put ourselves. And we went a fucking long time there without taking a wage.
SPEAKER_01:And I do think there was a big part of that that we liked having a big team. We thought big team equals this.
SPEAKER_00:Oh my god, I loved going into a room being like, we've got nine on team. Yeah. Um, and I think there was a massive part of like, yeah, chasing that ego and chasing wanting more people. But there was this was only about four years ago, maybe, yeah, four years ago, five years ago. And we went like sometimes weeks, months without taking a wage, and we were eight years into business. No, yeah, eight years into business. Eight or nine years into business, and we kept having to pause our wage because there wasn't enough cash flow in there to be able to sustain us. That was hard. Yeah, that really was. What's the question you give it, you you dish out the third. Okay.
SPEAKER_01:Um biggest mistake you've made.
SPEAKER_00:Fucking hell. Yeah. Biggest mistake I've made. Biggest mistake I've made in business. Avoidant leadership. I don't know if I have one specific moment. Um avoidant is where I fall. It's like as soon as things get hard for me, I get avoidant. I want to walk, I want to run away in every dynamic in my um personal life as well. And avoidant leadership, not having hard conversations, I don't have one single defining moment because I actually, weirdly, I actually feel like intuitively we've always dealt with team situations pretty well. Don't get me wrong, there's been a lot of lessons, but I look back now and I'm like, wow, I think we've dealt with them the best that we could at the time, and also gaining the lessons. And it's really hard for me to feel like I have any regret. But 100% the biggest mistake I would have made would be fucking terrible leadership in so many aspects. I don't have one single moment because there would have been so many different moments. Um, but that I also think like breaking boundaries with team in even just like little things like I used to feel like it was okay for me to contact the team outside of ours years ago and just be like, oh hey, do you remember like where you put the tin bowl or whatever, like just bullshit things? Um yeah, huge mistakes. Hard to find one. What about you?
SPEAKER_01:Shocking no one. The reactive leader that I used to be. Um, I think definitely there would be, and like this is the reality of it. There would be people out there that would say that I'm a terrible leader, and there would be people out there would say I'm terrible at business, and there'd be people out there that would say that I'm not a good hairdresser, and all that is true. I would absolutely believe them in those moments. There would be people out there that would say that I am not a conscious leader and I'm a very reactive um human being, and also with that, they would be right, um, because I was reactive with them. And I think that was easily my biggest mistake. I would have so many moments of rather than taking the pause, I would respond with that quick, you know, fire energy that I have. And whether it is the fact that I'm a Leo or hot-headed or whatever you want to say, I would have, or whether that's just ego, but it doesn't really matter. None of it served me. So the biggest lesson, the biggest mistakes I've made is when I've been reactive as a leader. The biggest lesson and the biggest thing that has changed is my reactivity as a leader. So I think that is definitely where my biggest mistake would be. But there'd be many people that wouldn't think that I've changed. And um yeah, I honor them for that. And I think they're right, which is a big thing to say.
SPEAKER_00:I love that. I think this is a really interesting conversation to have because if nothing else, we want you guys to get curious around your own self-analysis. Where am I presenting with smoke and mirrors? Where am I trying to avoid looking at the data, avoid looking at what's actually happening and being really, really honest with ourselves because that is one of the biggest parts of self-development is looking at the parts of ourselves that we need to change and that we need to evolve and that we need to work on. So I hope that this episode has inspired you guys. Agreed.
SPEAKER_01:And I think, you know, the biggest thing what can change for me if I pull all those smoky mirrors down.
SPEAKER_00:Huge. Thank you guys so much for listening to another episode of the Conscious Allen podcast.
SPEAKER_01:Love you guys. Stay conscious.
