The Conscious Salon
Welcome to The Conscious Salon.
Here for the real talk salon owners actually need.
The Conscious Salon Podcast is where salon owners get clear guidance without the fluff. Hosted by Nic & Tess, we break down leadership, team culture, money, client journey, systems and numbers into simple moves you can use this week. Expect straight talk, real stories, lots of laughs and practical frameworks that help you lead well, grow profit, and have a life outside the salon.
You will hear from salon owners, industry leaders and working mums who have done the hard yards. We cover mindset that holds under pressure, meetings that improve your team culture, and the habits that build a self led team.
Follow the show and start with leadership posture, client journey design, and money mindset.
Listen in, implement, and stay conscious.
The Conscious Salon
Building Sakara Collective - with Tamsin Kirkus
A suitcase, $300, and a window out of a small coastal life — Tamsin’s story begins with a bold leap and unfolds into one of the most powerful salon journeys we’ve shared.
We sit down with Tamsin, founder of Sakara Collective, to explore how a teenage dream became a decade-long vision of artistry, culture, and leadership. From leaving school at 15 to building one of Australia’s most beautiful salons, her story is raw, honest, and deeply human.
Tamsin opens up about the highs and heartbreaks: a full salon fit-out during pregnancy, losing key team members, and the courage to rebuild from truth. She shares how mindfulness, structure, and presence became her anchors and how motherhood reshaped her idea of success and leadership.
This episode is a masterclass in resilience, self-trust, and building something beautiful without losing yourself. Whether you’re a salon owner, stylist, or creative entrepreneur, you’ll walk away grounded and inspired to redefine your own version of success.
✨ Inside this episode:
• Rebuilding after loss and burnout
• Creating mindful systems and rituals in salon life
• Balancing motherhood, leadership, and ambition
• What the “Sakara way” means in action
🎧 Follow the show, share this story with someone who needs courage today, and leave a review to help more salon owners find these real, honest conversations.
To follow our journey:
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@the_conscious_salon
This episode of the Conscious Salon Podcast is brought to you by Revlon Professional Australia. Welcome back to the Conscious Salon Podcast. Tess, we have a very special guest in the studio today. So excited. We are very excited. This is finally happening. And this is someone who we we knew of you prior, but we'd never had a conversation until we decided to ask you to come into the studio. So we've written a little intro to summarize your journey so far. So this person knew at four years old that hair was her world. At 15, she left school to chase her dream. And this is actually so wild to read this in your questionnaire beforehand and to hear this part of your story which I had never heard before. Growing up on a farm in a small coastal town, she was drawn to the glamour and presence of great hairdressers, even when that energy was nowhere around her. At 16, she packed up a suitcase, climbed out the window with$300 and no plan, and learnt fast that grit would be her greatest asset. She has worked across multiple salons, rented her own spaces, completed two full fit outs, one being one of the most exceptionally beautiful fit outs that I've ever seen, and built a culture in a salon that she once searched for. More than a decade later, while pregnant with her first baby, she built one of the most incredible spaces that our industry has ever seen: Sakara Collective in Chelsea, Melbourne. Now she leads a thriving salon, a team of 10, and a business that can run without her standing behind the chair every day. Through workshops, shadowing days, coaching, she mentors the next generation of hairdressers and salon owners, raising the standard in our industry, building alignment, and changing the way education is done. And just over 12 months ago, she birthed her biggest achievement of all. Every time I do one of these, I don't know my eyes out. Yeah, I'm going to do that. Already. She birthed one of her biggest achievements to date. Her daughter Milani. Adding mama to the list of very impressive roles that she holds with pride. She's a mum, a leader, an educator, and someone who truly loves this craft and wants to see others thrive in this industry too. Being a hairdresser is just so much more than doing hair to you. It's such a privilege. Do I have my period too? Because it's just saying that everyone's on their period, except for me, but apparently I am. It's such a privilege to welcome to the Conscious Arn podcast, Tamson, the founder of Sicara Collecting. You're thank you so much.
SPEAKER_00:How do you feel? I feel really emotional. Like a lot to reflect on. Like writing those answers when you sent the questionnaire really like prompted me to think about my journey. Because I I think when you're on a mission and you're like go, go, go, you're not actually like looking at what's going on. So to hear that, I'm like, holy fuck. Like I've been through a lot. And people just see like the good, right? You know, what's on Instagram, the things that I post. But every decision has led me to where I am now. Um, and it's just wild to think about that as a journey.
SPEAKER_02:I think even when Nikki was reading out like the climbing out the window with the suitcase at 15, I mean, I started in this industry when I was 15 as well, but not like that. And like I really think that gave me such insight into how you are at the level that you are, how you are the entrepreneur that you are, the mama, that it just gave so much context. Like, that is so fucking like bold and brave and daring, and like I'm fucking going there, like one way or another. Yeah, literally gonna climb out the window and make this happen for myself. Yeah. And you have, and like actually taking that moment and looking at it and being like, holy shit, like I have achieved all of that, and that's just what you've told us. So remember, like, with this, especially as women, we only give like our micros, we're not doing our big flexes. So hearing that, I'm just like, whoa, you are just such a powerhouse as like a human being to hear that back.
SPEAKER_01:It's unbelievably inspiring. And I think that's what that's what can make it really emotional because when so much of our work is with women and really empowering women and sharing the magic of women and hearing that and hearing what women can achieve while they have babies on the hips and building these incredible empires that are also safe spaces in our industry for team and um incredible places for communities to be and to do that and have the resilience that you had at 16, jumping out the window with 300 bucks in your in your bank account is wild. But that was a side of your story that I've never heard before. Can you talk us through through that?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, so I um I mean there's two parts to it. I'm a Leo and I never take nulls and answer. And if I want something, I want it now, and I'll make it happen. Same get out of the girl as well. I love Leo energy. Um but so I left school at 15 and I had completed year nine, first day of school holidays, started my hairdressing apprenticeship. Um it took me about six months to realise that that wasn't the salon that I needed to be at. Like we were in the country doing perm sets. The glitz and the glam that I thought that hairdressing was was not the reality of the salon that I was in.
SPEAKER_02:You're taking over Mrs. Jones. Yeah. Yeah, the Doreen. Yeah, the church. So we're having a lovely time. Doreen, Maureen, yeah, I know the salon.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. So six months in, I just it just didn't feel right. And I'm like, I've always been super intuitive. And I mean, back then, no fucking clue what intuitive was or like intuition or any of those things. But I always had these like niggles and I listened to them. Um, so I got home one day and I just had a really shit day at the salon, and it was actually my birthday. It was my 16th birthday. And I had a fight with my mum. And that led to me just going, you know what? Fuck this. I'm running away. I packed my suitcase, I jumped out the window, and I ended up at my mum sister's house, thinking she wouldn't tell my mum. Mama, auntie, do me a solid. I'm like, I'm running away. I'm here, but I'm not here. Don't tell mum. Of course, she told mum, but um I just knew that I needed more, and I didn't actually go straight back into hairdressing. I thought that I hated hairdressing. Um, so I ended up actually working at McCaffe for six months. And it wasn't until I think mum sent me a message or she called me and she said, You're either going back to school or you're going back into hairdressing. So you need to make a decision right now. And I didn't want either, but I knew that I needed to make a decision. It was like the one and only time that I thought, you know what, I actually should listen to my mum right now. I think she's on to something. Like I can't be working at McCaffey for the rest of my life. So I made the decision to go back to hairdressing. Um, and it was the best decision of my life. It was different to obviously where I was. And yeah, it's led me to this. So thank you, mum. Thank you, Mum. Yeah, mum telling what to do. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:So did you did you stay in the country? Like, did you find your salon that you worked in? Was it still in?
SPEAKER_00:No, so I I went from so we were in Inblock, I lived in Inblock, and then I ran away to Frankston, which is where it's actually that's quite a distance.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, but it happened there, yeah.
SPEAKER_00:I had a friend who had pea flakes and picked me up. Shout out to that. And our driveway was like 500 metres long. So I'm running down this gravel driveway with my suitcase, thinking that.
SPEAKER_02:How long were you missing like missing or runaway? How long were you a runaway for?
SPEAKER_00:Uh mum would have come home within like hours. Yeah. I wrote her a letter and everything. Yeah. I was like, I will still pay my Telstra bill, just send me a message once a month and I'll send you money. I love that you I would have been like, deal with the bill. Deal with the rest. Deal with it. Yeah, it was pretty chaotic. Oh my gosh. It wasn't as dramatic as like it seems. Like she still knew where I was, but um, I just knew that I needed to spread my wings and I couldn't do it there. I felt very like suffocated in a small house. I was one of four, a three-bedroom house, six people lived there on a farm, like nowhere near anything else. So I just I was always the odd one out. I just always felt like I needed to spread my wings and I couldn't do it there. I'm like, you know what? I'm just gonna make it happen on my own. Wow. And yeah, I did. And um look at you now. Yeah. Yeah. But I look back at like if I look at 15-year-olds, 16-year-olds now, and I'm like, how did I do that? How was I so independent at such a young age?
SPEAKER_01:It's kind of wild. I really wanted to bring that up because it when we were reading the questionnaire that you sent through, it felt like such a pivotal moment for you. You could feel that there was a decision made, it was a pivotal moment, and it's when you decided to go chase after that big life. Because I think this is really, it comes up for a lot of salon owners who are from country towns or who are from like Imbeloch now is a huge coastal town, but when you are living regionally, you can have that mindset of a small life belongs to me, and I'm not made for something that's bigger. And obviously, you very much disproved that theory, which we're going to get into as well. But there must be a part of you that's just so proud of yourself for pursuing that and pushing through.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, absolutely. 100%. Like I, like I was saying before, like I just I've never done something I've not wanted to do. Like I've always found a way to get out of it or gotten out of a situation that I knew that wasn't meant for me. So I'm very, very grateful that I've always had the awareness around like what feels good and what doesn't feel good. Because I could have easily stayed down there and finished my apprenticeship. Absolutely, you know, been unhappy or not fulfilled, but I just knew that I needed more. And I actually don't know where that came from. Like I don't because everyone in my family is so um, they love the simple life.
SPEAKER_02:Isn't that funny? I think even when you were thinking about like some um saying that you like could see like hairdressing is like this big and glamorous thing. Is there like something behind that that you like saw was like a movie or like a um looking at like how I I know for me, I had similar flick well, like I'm I didn't I didn't run away. Actually, no, I did I ran away, but I just hid in a cupboard and told you to go and tell mum. Just open the cupboard and it's like get out, Tess.
SPEAKER_00:Me and my brother used to pack a bag and go like ride our pushbikes down the farm with like an apple and an orange and lessons for coming home.
SPEAKER_02:This is the thing, like I'm like thinking of you growing up like that and then seeing like the life that you lead now, and like people would look at your like Instagram and like just assume that this has just always been your life, and you're like literally just proving that by the fact that you wanted more. But I think with it, like it's that vision of did you like see hair as this really glamorous thing, or was it the like hairdressers? Like, I remember thinking hairdressers were like so hot, and I was like, I wouldn't have gone for like hot and cool.
SPEAKER_00:Like I fully was girl crushing. I was like five years old, like in the hairdressers, staring at them. Yeah, like the nails, always the nails. I can remember like hairdressers.
SPEAKER_02:Like they just were like, oh, that's like the coolest, or like the most like yeah, I just thought they were so cool, so like unique.
SPEAKER_00:It was either that or I was so obsessed with being a flight attendant. I think it is so I I really feel like you literally were gonna spread your wings one way or another. Like, get me into that one and get me on a flight. Like the most anxious flyer in the world, but I'll be a flight attendant. Yes, yeah. I just love the way that they look. They're good. Yeah. So I think like as a young girl who lived in the country and wasn't exposed to that, yeah. Um, I loved that, you know, the glitz, the glam, the the makeup, the dressing up and all of that. But that's not why I love it now. You know, there's so much, there's so much more depth to why I do what I do. Um, but back then it was different. You know, my mum, she's she doesn't wear makeup, she doesn't really get her hair done, she she's not a girly girl. So it was just different, and I liked that.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. Yeah. That's so cool. I love that.
SPEAKER_01:Tams and I want to talk about the incredible legacy piece that you've built, Sakara 2.0. And I want to talk about the fact we couldn't not have you on the podcast because we've been trying to get this potty happening for a while.
SPEAKER_03:We have.
SPEAKER_01:And we couldn't get past your story because building a space like that while you were pregnant with your first baby. Wild. Is one of the most wild things that we've ever heard in this industry. And we want to talk through the mindset that you had with it. So I want to rewind back 18 months ago. I want to talk about, well, actually, no, it would have been a bit longer than 18 months ago, probably. So you would have been pregnant with Milani. Yeah. The space, which came first. And can you talk us through your journey? Yes.
SPEAKER_00:Wow. Um, so I so we were in a smaller space in Bomb Beach for three years, and the plan was always to um expand. Um, so I was looking for a new space for about three or four months. Found a space in, I think it was Jan, signed the lease. A month later found out I was pregnant. Um she is the best thing that's ever happened to me, but it was a big surprise, um, a big beautiful surprise, but it wasn't on the bingo cards or oh, that would have just felt so huge. It was massive. Yeah. Yeah. Like, were you being overwhelmed? Is it a bit more? I was in shock and denial for a very long time. Um I was torn between um, you know, very grateful that I had her, but like torn between what do I do? Time. You know, do I choose my career? Do I choose this? Um, I just didn't feel ready mentally, physically. Um there was heaps, there was heaps going on in my life. But of course, what do you do? You just continue on. And I just feel like um when it rains, it pours in my life, and I work well under pressure, probably some sort of trauma response, but I get shit done really well when I'm stressed or when I don't have a lot of time to do it. So, anyways, we started the build and it was um probably the most stressful year of my life, to put it lightly. I uh feel like emotional talking about it now because I feel like I was like robbed of um sorry um being like present throughout my pregnancy and like being in touch with my body and my baby. Um I felt like I couldn't really connect with her. So it was hard because I had to show up every single day. I was still running a team, you know. I still had my salon, I still was running a team, but then I was doing this build and I was trying to grow this tiny little human. Um, so it was a huge, huge year. But we got through it and honestly, it's like the most amazing space ever now. Like everything about Sakara Collective 2.0 is everything that I've jumped up and more. Um and yeah, there was just so much that went on throughout that process where I just thought, you know what, I just need to pull the pin. Like I'm just gonna call it a day and I'm gonna fucking pack my bags and run away again. I'm gonna move to Bali. I'm gonna change on the road. Yeah, because it was really hard. And there were days where I just didn't know if I'd make it through. Um, it put a lot of pressure on my relationships as well. And yeah, it was it was extremely hard. I lost three of my senior hairdressers when I was seven months pregnant when we were about to move into the new space. So that was yeah, a really fucking difficult time. Enormous. Wow. But do you know what? Like, I look at where we're at now, where the team's at, where my life's at, and that all was meant to happen. That was like shedding past versions of me, my business. Oh, I've got gross bumps. That was beautiful. It allowed new people to come into my life that were actually more aligned and more suited to my why, my journey, my purpose. And yeah, it was it was fucking hard, but absolutely I'm very grateful.
SPEAKER_02:I'm so grateful that you shared that because I think the idea of going through something as massive as like, and I think especially with going through that and like creating the spaces and the vision and bringing it into life and with so much intention and heart, and like I can see, as you said, like you're an intuitive person, but hearing you, I can hear that intention, I can hear that heart, I can hear that emotion, and hearing how you would feel like it was, you know, you you weren't able to be fully present in your pregnancy, which is I I've just had a baby myself as well. I think our kids are quite similar age.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_02:With that, I I I see you in that, and I know how that can feel like that push-pull with that. But then there would be so many people that would look at your space and the success and not understand how much grit and pain and like also like sadness and like the the um losing team and all those things. Like it's such a big thing, and I'm so grateful that you're sharing this because people just look at photos and assume it's easy, or it's taken, you know, you've just like clicked your fingers, gone, go into a new space, and that's just all it's all just happened, and it's not it's so much more than that.
SPEAKER_00:And I get messages all of the time, like, how do you do it? Like, how you're amazing, all of these things, and I'm like, I don't do it.
SPEAKER_02:I'm struggling big time now, but um, but even that has a pressure, like there's an expectation of like, and I we talk about this a lot with the performative side of hairdressing and and and hair and beauty, and I think this goes into so much of it because so much of our industry has people that have now creating platforms for themselves, and you're setting the standard. And what that then comes with that is this expectation that you've got to have all your shit together all the time, you can never fucking fall out of line, you can never have a day of just being like, actually, you know what, I can't do it today, or I need to go and do something else, or this needs to be like a day where I'm gonna put Tams in first, I'm not gonna be going in with my team or whatever. And it's just like this almost unlike unlike human experience with it, this pressure of just being perfect and phenomenal all the time. So I'm so grateful that you've shared that that was such a huge, like massive thing for you to go through with so many different layers at the same time. No, absolutely not.
SPEAKER_00:Absolutely not.
SPEAKER_02:I mean, no need to. It's the most beautiful thing I think I've ever seen in my life.
SPEAKER_01:When you had Milani, the salon, the new salon was open and for a month for a month. Wow. And you had obviously had new team and some team that you released, but an unbelievable time to birth two things at once. This new space, have the excitement of that, then have the pressure of obviously having your first baby as well, and having what I imagine would have been an extremely stretched, stressful, expansive pregnancy. Like it can be beautiful and difficult all at the same time. How did it feel when you actually opened the salon?
SPEAKER_00:It was amazing. Like it was so we opened um in July, and I just remember standing in there being and and looking around, going, is this actually my place? Like it feels so good to be here, and it did. It felt amazing. Um I suppose the challenges started to happen when I then had Milani, which was a month and a half later, and I couldn't couldn't come to terms with like the fact that I just couldn't be available all of the time. Yes. Um I was going through the process of trying to like, you know, just like take a step back and let others lead. And I'd put management in place, but I just it was my first ever salon manager, so I found it really hard to like let go.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:Um so it was amazing opening up and and seeing it all come to life, but I really struggled not being there because I'm like quality control, we've got new team. There's a whole new vision and um experience that I wanted clients to feel when they came in. And I couldn't manage that not being there. So I was anxious all of the time. Like, are clients getting the best client experience? Are they getting treated the way that, you know, the new Saqqara way? Like there was, we sat down and we did this full day of like, this is how we are going to do X, Y, Z. This is why I've created Saqara, this is the Saqara way, the Saqara Basin experience, the journey, all of the things. So I just felt like I couldn't um control that not being there. And I was really trying to fight, like I was a big believer in like you need to just heal post having a baby, right? Like I loved, I love how tradition or like um other cultures sit in bed for like a whole year. Yeah, we talked about this. Did you? Yeah, yeah. Yeah, I really wanted to do that, but like there's this like needle inside of me where I was like, I need to get the laptop out, or I need to, yeah, and I didn't need to, but I tie a lot of my or tied a lot of my um success on what I was doing, or like my to-do list, or my worth on how busy I was. So it was really hard to slow down. Um, but I just had to learn to trust and surrender. And um, yeah, it turned out amazing. It was great. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Oh huge. That's so good. Yeah, I think we talk about this a lot. I think pregnancy and birth, and then the aftermark of like having your baby, it's the ultimate, ultimate surrender.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:It's something that you have to, you literally are like all the things, all the ideas, all the plans that you've put in place can just go out the window like that. Because there is a human that needs you more than anything else. And you need to be in that, in that moment.
SPEAKER_01:But that's I remember one of my girlfriends on my son's first first birthday, one of my girlfriends sent me this beautiful message and it said, like, happy birth birthday to the both of you, the two of you. And it was so oh so beautiful, like just such a monumentous um thought of like how much we change as women when we become mothers, and to be doing that at the same time when you've also got the added pressure of the new space and the community seeing that and thinking, okay, you know, what we experienced at Saqqara one versus what we're going to experience at Saqqara two, even just because of the aesthetics, there would have been this enormous pressure there. Yeah, for sure.
unknown:For sure.
SPEAKER_01:Tamson, I want to read you something that you shared on Instagram recently. And I saved it and I just thought it was one of the most unbelievably beautiful things that um that I've read on Instagram. I'm very emotional to that. Fucking hell. It's so beautiful. No, I'm not. It was so beautiful, but you shared, so I know that you've been really stretched recently, because I know we've been trying to get this potty happening, and I've seen what you shared online recently, and I know that there's been movement in your business, and I know that there's been challenges that you've faced recently. And Milani's also just turned one, so she's at an age where she needs so much from you.
SPEAKER_00:So much.
SPEAKER_01:So there will be a version of you that will be stretching again, like what you did when you were pregnant and doing this all over again. But you shared this recently, and I just thought it was one of the most beautiful things. And if it's okay, I'd love to read it. Might have to get to read it. This week I found myself back in parts of my business that I haven't been for a long time. Front of house, supporting the team, deep in the admin, and working six days while navigating being a mum. It's not because I have to, it's because I want to. Because I care deeply, because I love what I've built. There's nowhere else I'd rather be when my business needs me. This season is stretching me, but it's also grounding me. It's reminding me of my why, of the pride that I feel, of the purpose that I hold. I'm not here out of obligation, I'm here out of love. And I wouldn't trade up for anything else. Humbled to say the least. Is that the most beautiful thing you've ever heard?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, that was a really um really hard time. Really hard time.
SPEAKER_02:So that's so stunning.
SPEAKER_00:My manager who I um had for when I went on my leave, she also was pregnant and had her baby at 29 weeks. Um gratefully, baby is fine, they're at home now, everything is perfect, but it was sudden, like she was at work and it happened a few hours later. So that just meant that I was required to show up more, right? Um, you know, I went back to work like five days a week. I was in there on a Sunday doing client communications, emails, back end, spending a lot of time away from Milani. So it was um not ideal, but it was something that I needed to do because my team needed me, my business needed me. And I could have easily been like, you know what, that stuff can wait, like the girls can do it on Tuesday or whatever, but I just needed to show up for them. And um yeah, it was it was hard. It was really hard. I was stressed, I was tired, I was really disconnected from self, disconnected from baby partner. But you just have to do that when it's your business, you know. Like I'm very grateful I've been able to create a business that can run without me, but there will be times, and I'm sure it won't be the only time, but there will be more times where I'll need to show up more.
SPEAKER_01:Every so-on owner can hear that and feel that at in a deep level of those seasons where your business just needs so much from you, and and it it was it it was so it spoke so beautifully to women who are in this industry and who will drop in everything and get in the trenches again. And it was just such a beautiful post and would have helped so many women to feel seen because so many people would look at the success that you have and the space that you have and the team that you've built. And you know, obviously you're traveling all around Australia doing education, you're on stages and you know, helping other salon owners and their teams, and they're forgetting that that still comes up for everyone. Yeah, like it was just a beautiful reminder.
SPEAKER_00:Something that, you know, like last night I was on my laptop till 10 o'clock, and it's the only like unin uninterrupted time that I do get when babies asleep. So like there's still so much that goes on that we don't share because it is it's become the norm, you know. Like I live and breathe this life, and I don't necessarily believe in work-life balance. I think my work is my life and I can figure out a way to balance it all, but I don't need to fully disconnect to have the balance. Like I just need to do what works best. And right now, like old me, nighttime routine, no phone, no technology, no nothing, breath work, meditation, journaling, all of the things. But now I'm like, you know what? I need to actually just do what is required right now and just pick up pieces where I can.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, one step at a time.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, like literally just moving with it. And every season will be different.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, that's that's amazing. Can you do what's required of you when your business isn't hypervalidating you? So when you're in those phases of like being in the trenches, can you do that one foot in front of front of the other? Do it what is required of you when your business needs to be.
SPEAKER_02:When it's stretching you, yeah. Agree. That is such a beautiful. I'm like, yeah, you can feel how much you love not just your business, but also the fact that you've got like so much heart in there and intention, and that's where you can feel the ripple effect of how you like, and this is the shit that your team remember. Like Nikki and I talk about this all the time with how you show up for your team when they're in crisis or when things go unexpected, or when things like that's what people remember. Your community remember that, your team remember that, your you remember that. It does bring you back to the why, but that is just such a like I had to close my eyes when I was like hearing that, not just from a place of emotion, but just that resonates because people have either been there or know that that potentially will happen for them one day. But the way that you've put that, I thought you should write a book or like definitely a lot of little sayings because I can read it. Put that on the to-do list because that is so beautiful, but yeah, so gorgeous. Wow, it's it's it is, it's so real. Like, and it's a way that we can really like see and understand and have that. Timson, I'd love to ask, now looking because you have had such an a huge, I'd say what, like 18 months really, with the salon, with the you know, surprise blessing of your daughter, with having the team move around, with having also now hearing with your manager, with having a you know earlier maternity leave than what she would have. All of these things, when you look back on that, how do you feel with how you've like shown up and been for the last 18 months?
SPEAKER_00:I feel like I feel like I have a lot more strength, um, resilience. But also just like the ability to not attach myself to things that are happening external of me. Like I've really held myself in all of those seasons. I've put myself first. I I'm pretty like good at doing my breath and my meditation and really choosing to even just have like 10 minutes of me time. Um so I've always got my back and I feel like now I've got it even more because I've just gone through like so many different bloody emotions and seasons and um all of the things. But I yeah, I feel very grateful, very proud, and I'm just like I can fucking do anything. I can do that. Like, what's the next five years got in got in store for me? Because fucking watch out. Absolutely self-trust must be unwavering off the hook right now. Which is something that I'm actually working on because I feel like pre-baby had the most amount of self-trust. Like I would do everything that I said that I was going to do. But now I feel less, I still have it, but I doubt myself a lot more.
SPEAKER_02:I hear you in that. Yeah. The inner critic some suddenly comes back and it's like, yeah, I see you in that because I'm the same. I was, I'm still a very rock solid person. But the the inner critic is just starting to be. You haven't been around for a while. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:Like I used to be like, oh, I'm gonna do the thing and then I'll do it next week. Yeah. Now I'm like, oh, yeah, I'll do it. But like maybe six months.
SPEAKER_02:It's yeah, it's it's something that you can really, I think, especially after having a bob, it can really, I think it changes.
SPEAKER_00:It does, yeah.
SPEAKER_02:When you were speaking though, as I was like thinking about it, the fact that like you're like, where will I like the next five years, like anything's possible. Imagine what your daughter's gonna do. Like truly. Yeah. You think about like she's already get are you know, we're a big believe believers in like the first, you know, seven years is when they really learn the most from us. That's when we like set them up with their like core foundations, they're like coding effectively, their values, their like strength. That's where we're gonna be the most um impacting. And that she's having all of this happening, even when like you're literally growing her. The fact that you're able to like create something so incredible and so inspiring and something that people look at and want to create for themselves. That's really like I'm like, your daughter could rule the world. Like this really could go. I'm torn though.
SPEAKER_00:Like, I feel like, you know, am I doing the right thing by being away from her a lot of the time? You know, because I can't just bring her with me anymore. She's not a little potato, like she's into everything, she's putting everything in her mouth, she's running amark. Yeah. So I do have to leave her a lot of the time. Um, and I'm like, is this shaping her? Will she grow up and think, oh, my mum was never around? Um, or will she grow up and go, oh my god, my mum was amazing, like she built this empire or whatever. Um, but I just I just want her to be a creative. I just want her to do whatever she desires to do. And I want to be able to model that to her. Like she doesn't have to do the nine to five Monday to Friday or go to uni or go to school, whatever. Like she, okay, she might have to go to school, but certainly for a bit, anyway. Um but I just want to show her that she can do things. Anything's possible. Yeah, she can be whoever she wants to be. She doesn't have to be like this, you know, what society deems normal.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. Can I offer you a different perspective, Tanson? I really battled with this. My son's five. And for the first year of his life, I was just like work, work, work, work, work. And I really lost that time. Like I I've done a few episodes about it, but I just lost that time. I was not present at all. I was so stressed about the business. And I know that I will never have that time back.
unknown:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:However, the perspective that I that comforts me now is that my son knows that his mum has gone completely against the grain of what's been generational in our family. The limiting beliefs that have been literally programmed into our family for decades and decades and decades and decades. He has seen his mum do something different. And he's watched his mum trust herself, he's watched his mum build this incredible empire, he's watched his mum help so many women and so many people. And I always say, like, mummy's going away because women need my medicine. So we're going up for a retreat this weekend with all of our private clients, and I always say to him, Mummy's going to Queensland because women need my medicine. And what he sees there is that those things that we're rewriting together as a family. And even though my time with him, I'm not a stay-at-home mum, I never have been, my time with him is less than what it would be for someone who's more present. For me, it's so much more intentional and so much more valuable. Yeah. And then he gets to see that version of me. And I believe that's what Milani will see of you, no matter you know how much work there is. Isn't it beautiful?
SPEAKER_00:That's really beautiful. I know. We might need more tissues.
SPEAKER_01:Tamson, I want to know what is the legacy that you're leaving behind. That's a big question.
SPEAKER_00:Um for me, I I mean, a big reason as to why I've brought in a lot of like the mindfulness aspect into my world or into the hair world is because it's something that's really impacted me. I went through big things um throughout my journey and connecting with self and um bringing mindfulness into my life has changed in so many ways, changed me in so many ways. So I'm a big believer that um, you know, we as hairdressers are, we can get overwhelmed, we can get anxious, we can, you know, there's a lot of pressure, there's a lot of expectations. So being able to share what's helped me throughout my journey and help other stylists um connect to their selves, to their why, to their purpose, not just because they love doing hair to make people feel good, but like understanding what it is that they actually love and where that's coming from. And being able to, I suppose, just like be who they want to be, they authent their authentic self. Not needing to, you know, be like everyone else. It's like what fuels you, what lights up your soul.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:So yeah, I don't really know what my legacy would be in that. But no, I feel like it's that, yeah.
SPEAKER_02:You literally help people authentically show up in a salon as they want to. Yeah. That's fucking phenomenal.
SPEAKER_01:I think wow, you've shown so many women in this industry what's possible and what can be available to you if you want it. And let it, yeah. Yeah, but you've just been such an expander for so many people in this industry and for myself and Tess, absolutely. So thank you, Tamson, for sharing your heart and for sharing so much for grateful.
SPEAKER_00:Thank you, and thank you guys. I honestly have been listening to every single episode. Um, so I'm very grateful to be here. But you guys have already changed so much in my world. So thank you. Oh, wow, that's so special. I actually feel like I love you. Like I feel like you're my twin.
SPEAKER_02:I'm like, oh my god, I'm so excited.
SPEAKER_01:Thank you guys so much for listening to another episode of the Conscious Alan podcast. Love you guys, stay conscious.
