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
Listen to this Christmas week in the salon
What if the busiest season in the salon could feel steadier, clearer, and more in your control?
This solo pep talk is your calm reset for the Christmas rush. It gives you grounded tools you can use today to slow your breath, steady your energy, and lead your space with intention even when the salon is buzzing.
✨ Inside this episode:
• A one minute breathing ritual to regulate your nervous system
• Simple language swaps that strengthen leadership and boundaries
• How to hold a steady pace when the salon feels chaotic
• A gratitude practice that reconnects you with purpose
• Daily team rituals that prevent overwhelm before it starts
• Clear guidance for owners on standards, timing, rebooking, and home care
• Money retention habits that turn December profit into long term growth
This is your reminder to choose your pace, protect your energy, and lead with clarity.
Share this with your team, and if it steadies you, follow us and tap the notification bell so you never miss an episode.
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@the_conscious_salon
Welcome back to the Conscious Alan podcast. Guys, this feels a little bit rogue because I am sitting in my office doing a little solo app and I felt really called to do that. But I don't have my right hand gal Tess here. And it feels criminal to do a podcast solo, but we're gonna go with it because I really wanted to bring you guys a podcast that I wish that we had access to years ago when we were on the salon floor, and something to anchor into at Christmas time because there is this default that lives within all of us as people in the hair and beauty industry that is this hustle mentality, this I do well under pressure mentality. We all have it, we're all guilty of it. And what our intention is every single day with the Conscious Salon is to really ground salon owners and their teams so that they can have more self-regulation. So I want this to be something that you listen to and that you send to your teams to listen to to ground you guys at Christmas week and anchor you back into something really conscious, really mindful. A little pep talk, if you will. So I totally understand Christmas week in the salon. Obviously, I've been in the hair and beauty industry for 15 years, maybe 18 years, something like that. Tessa's been in the hairdressing industry for 20 years. We have lived Christmas weeks in the salon. The rush, the noise, you know, people requesting last-minute appointments, um, upgrading clients and the appointment book being jammed, people running behind. And that's even before we talk about the emotional load and the capacity that we need to hold for our clients. Because a lot of the time Christmas can obviously be a really sensitive time, but our clients are pushed and stretched thin, and their capacity is less as well at Christmas time because they've got all these different pressures with their work and their career, and then they've got family things, and obviously it can be a really sensitive time. So that's before we even tap into the emotional load that we carry for clients in the salon. And I really want you to come back anytime you're feeling a little bit wobbly. I don't want this to be a week where you guys feel so drained every single day, and sometimes in times under pressure, we need something to ground us back to why we're fucking getting out of bed every single day, let's be honest. So, what I would love to do to start off this episode is whatever you're doing right now, if you're driving in your car, if you're walking your dog, if you're folding washing, if you're on the way to the salon, whatever it is that you're doing, I want you to stop. And I want to invite you to take three really slow conscious breaths with me. So put your feet on the floor. I want you to soften your shoulders. I want you to unclench your jaw, and I want you to take a nice big deep breath in through your nose and out through your mouth. Breathing in again and breathing out on this final breath in, when you exhale, I want you to focus on just slowing your breath down, even just by one percent. So we're gonna take a nice big deep breath in and slowly exhaling. One of the most effective tools that you can use in the salon on Christmas week as a hairdresser or a beauty therapist or a skin therapist is your breath. And your breath is the thing that will anchor you into feeling regulated when you your body wants to go into overwhelm. So it's a really simple cue that you can remember when you're standing behind the chair or between clients, or while your client is undressing for a skin treatment, when you're folding towels, when you're rinsing bowls, when you're setting up machinery, is to actually tune into that breath that we just did, that three-count breath, and focusing on the third breath, slowing down by 1%. So I really want you guys to remember that the way that we breathe affects our entire nervous system. So the faster that we breathe, the more it changes our physiological state. So if we slow down our breath, our body will respond to the invitation of slowing down. So even if you are feeling chaotic and your environment is feeling chaotic, if you slow down your breath, you will trick your body into thinking that it is in a more relaxed environment than what it actually is. And it tends to really have a flow-on effect and the whole room can tend to slow down with you. So I think the most important thing to remember is that Christmas week in the salon requires a level of responsibility when it comes to self-regulation. Whether you're a team member, a salon owner, if you yourself are regulated, everything else, the person sitting in your chair, the person laying on your bed having a treatment, your team, your family, your clients, your kids, anyone around you, that self-regulation passes on to everyone. And for us, the more regulated we are, the more that our numbers grow, the more that our team can see and recognize that you know when you can feel someone's energy, and it feels so hectic to just be around certain people. That energy is present all around us, and it affects everyone around us. So I want to really encourage you guys to take responsibility for the energy that you have. Something I really want to bring in here, and I feel called to bring in is taking you back to why you actually started in this industry. Going back to the version of yourself that first picked up a brush or a piece of machinery, a person who really wanted to learn and help people. But I really want you to think about that one thing that led you into the hair and beauty industry. And for most of us, it's because we wanted to really help people feel better about themselves. But there's this different energy that comes with being in our industry that requires us to hold space for people and to make people feel really safe. And I would love you guys, if you're able to, to close your eyes down. And I want you to think about one client that makes your heart feel full. You guys all know the client. There'll be someone really special for every one of you. I want you to think about that client story. And I want you to think of how you and the client have both contributed to each other's lives. So the way that you have made them feel, the way that you've seen them, the way that you've showed up for each other, the way that you've held space, the way that you've helped them feel more confident, the way that you've kept their secrets sacred, the love that you've exchanged between each other, and I want you to think of one word that summarizes how you feel in that relationship. Those of you who want to take this one step further, I would absolutely encourage you. We have this saying in our team that we never hold back from expressing how we feel about someone. So I would love to encourage you guys to go one step further. And when you get into the salon or clinic today, I want you to message that person and let them know how they've made you feel. Those of you who are team members listening to this, I want you to find someone in your team who's made you feel that way. Maybe it's your team leader, maybe it's your salon owner. Those of you who are salon owners or team leaders, I want you to find someone in your team who's really made you feel safe, who's been an incredible support for you. Someone who's been an anchor. And I want you to send them a message today and say thank you. Thank you for making me feel safe. Thank you for making me feel supported. Thank you. I'm grateful. Right now in our industry, it's so easy to feel heightened right now. But I really want to remind you that having a full column and having a busy salon, a busy clinic, a busy business, somewhere that people trust to come for their face, their hair, their skin, their brows, their energy, their mission, their products. Having a space that people want to come to is a privilege. And while we have this heightened energy, I want you guys to imagine the salon as an airport. So there's lots of noise and movement, but at the airport, you're you are the control tower. So as the control tower, we are required to have calm, clear energy so that we can guide the planes in and out. I'm shocked that I'm choosing an airport as an analogy because I used to have a terrible fear of flying. But being the control tower, you need to have a level of calm and a level of clarity and a level of groundedness to be able to direct people and guide people in and out. And I want you guys to choose your pace for the day. So even though the outside might be busy, you have the ability to choose to be slow on the inside. So anchoring into that infinity breath, anchoring into that slow breath, concentrating on one client at a time. One of the biggest pieces of advice that we give to Salin and Clinic Owners coming into Christmas week is that we want to focus on one client at a time. We're not looking at the whole appointment book, we're not looking at the whole day's column, we're looking at that one client that we have in between 9 a.m. and 10 a.m. And then at 10 a.m. we're gonna look at the client that's in it from 10 a.m. until 11 a.m. And we're just gonna go one client at a time. I want to give you guys some micro practices that you can use, even if you leave this episode just having one little tiny practice that can help you or help your team this Christmas week. So one thing that I love to do is if you're in a hair salon, doing breath work at the basin. So when you're looking after and doing your basin ritual with your client, anchoring into a slow, peaceful breath will truly be one of the most incredible things that you can do for yourself, but also for your client. Because remembering that energy exchanges between two people, that beautiful grounded energy is going to be felt by your client. So when you're at the basin, I want you to anchor into that breath that we did a few minutes ago and just trying to extend that exhale by 1% every time. The next thing I want you to be really aware of is your language and your terminology in this time. So if you find yourself falling behind or running behind, rather than walking up to a client and saying, I'm so sorry, I'm running late. I'm so sorry to keep you waiting. I want you to say thank you so much for your patience. I really appreciate you waiting. Being aware of language and the way that we show up energetically is so important because people can feel that immediately. And so much of what we do as leaders or as team members is that people when we walk into a room, people are reading our energy and our leadership before we even open our mouths. I would love you guys to keep up your practices of morning pump-ups every single day of Christmas week. It's so important. It can be so tempting to go out and start on clients straight away. If you start at 9 a.m., it's so tempting just to rush out at 5 to 9 or 9 o'clock on the dot and rush out to clients. But even just getting your team to put their arms around each other and stand in a circle every morning of Christmas week and to go around in a quick 30-second fire round and state one word of their intention for the day. This is just going to help your team to feel anchored and connected to each other, but for them to ground and anchor into one intention for the day as well, so that they're not feeling overwhelmed. Something additional to this is that we still need to hold standards. And I want to give you guys that are listening that are salon owners or team leaders. I want you to give you full permission to hold high standards even in time of pressure, chaos, and busyness. And those standards in timings, those standards in home care sales, those standards in rebooking, and those standards in boundaries in general are really important for you to hold even in these. And I want to reframe these boundaries as a almost like a love letter to future you or your future business in January. So the more that we are focused on creating plans with our clients and holding our team accountable and making sure that our team are looking after clients 100%, the more that we are setting up the business for success in January. And that's where we can start to close the gap of feeling like we have a quote unquote quiet period during the year. Those of you who are salon owners, a reminder that this week can be really big and abundant financially, and that this is a beautiful thing for you to receive. But we also want to practice money retention habits. So, money, we always link back to purpose, what our money funds, what it can do, and opportunities for our families, our teams, their families, everyone to have a break, better pay for the team, more education, whatever it is that you prioritize and value in your business. But we really want to anchor into our money retention practices at this time. So even though we're seeing a big influx and an abundance for the next couple of weeks, it's really important that we practice respectful retention of money and to hold on to that money and to invest it really consciously. Christmas week in our industry is an unbelievable privilege. And today, when you get into the salon or clinic, I want you to remember your why. I want you to remember that you're not just doing skin or brows or hair. You are literally holding people in some of the most emotional weeks of their entire year. I want you to really imagine getting into bed on Christmas Eve. Feeling really proud of how you led and showed up for your team, whether you're a salon owner, a team leader, or a team member. I want you to feel really proud of how you have supported your team and your clients. It's not just about how much you did or what your output was, it's about how you show up for people and what the energy is that you actually bring into the day. I really want to remind you that one conscious breath before every single client today will change the entire way that you feel throughout the day. It will reduce the feeling of being depleted or feeling drained at the end of the day. And because this is such a huge energy exchange for us as therapists, as stylists, as beauticians, as hairdressers, we are holding so much for people. And if you focus on taking those three breaths before each client and in between each client, it will change the way that you feel during the day. So I would love you to breathe with me. We're gonna finish on three breaths. I want you to take one nice big deep breath in. And on the exhale, I want you to say silently to yourself, I am steady. Another breath in.
