Salon Owners: You've gotta stop worrying what your team think of you

What if the only thing keeping your salon small is the story you tell yourself about what your team might think?

In this episode, we talk honestly about the quiet fear that stops many salon owners from stepping off the floor. The worry about being seen as lazy, distant, or only focused on money can keep owners stuck behind the chair long after the business needs them elsewhere.

We share how one simple day off the floor became the most focused strategic day of the week and eventually led to a full transition into visionary leadership. This conversation explores the shift from technician to business architect and why creating space to think, plan and lead is essential for long term growth.

In this episode we share:

• The mindset shift from working in the salon to leading the business
• Why many owners feel guilt about stepping off the floor
• How one weekly day off became a strategic leadership rhythm
• The difference between technician work and visionary work
• How empowering therapists and stylists improves team performance
• The numbers that actually show salon growth including rebook rate, NPS, retail conversion and wage to turnover ratio
• How to communicate leadership changes without over explaining
• When to step in for difficult conversations and when to step back
• Navigating team perceptions around success, flexibility and leadership freedom
• Why building a vision creates better pay, development and opportunity for your team

Leading a growing salon requires courage to step into the role of architect, not just technician. When the vision is clear and the culture is strong, growth becomes something the whole team benefits from.

Follow the show for more conversations about salon leadership, culture and business growth, and share this episode with a salon owner who might need the reminder that working on the business is real leadership.

To follow our journey:
Instagram @aheadhair_
@the_conscious_salon

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Welcome back to another episode of the Conscious Salon Podcast. I don't know why I was doing like a head bulb and so that was a salon.

Setting The Topic: Perception

SPEAKER_00 0:06

What are you doing? Uh, Tess, today we're going to talk about why salon owners need to give less fucks about what they think the the team perceives them as. Because we're hearing so many salon owners talk about, I really want to do this, but I'm worried about what my team will think. I want to come off the floor, but I'm worried my team will think I'm lazy. I want to work on my

Common Fears Holding Owners Back

SPEAKER_00 0:30

business one day a week from home, but I'm worried what my team will think. I want to buy a new car, I'm worried about what my team will think. There's literally so many times in the last couple of weeks that we've heard from some of even some of the most exceptional people in our industry saying these things about what will the team think of me. So we got to talk about it. Let's.

SPEAKER_01 0:52

How has this played out for you? Where have you noticed this?

SPEAKER_00 0:55

I I understand where those people are coming from because I used to feel those things once upon a time when I when

The “Day Off” That Wasn’t

SPEAKER_00 1:01

I was on the floor full time. And I remember, do you remember that we started taking Wednesdays off the floor? So we were taking Wednesdays off the floor, and Wednesday was a huge output day for us. We would start work really early and we'd work really hard all day trying to cram all of the things that we needed to work on the business in in a short period of time. It was actually a huge day. I would say it's like it was like the hardest working day mentally for us in our business. And I remember a team member, I had to pull her up because she would constantly say, and it was like bug me and bug me and bug me. And it like sat with me and I really hated hearing it. And she always said, Oh, I like she would go to rebook a client and then she would say, Oh, I can't rebook you on that day. That's Nikki and Tessa's day off. And I was like, it's not our day off. And I felt this justification to need to tell her how hard we were working on those Wednesdays.

SPEAKER_01 1:55

Effectively bring up like your day, your to-do list for that day. And be like, here's all the things. Here's Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 2:01

Yeah. And I used to find myself really over-justifying and over-explaining to the team, being like, Oh, I've got to go, like, I've got so many million things. Oh my god, my Wednesday is so jam-packed with 500,000 things to do because I was really afraid that they would think that I was lazy or that they would think that I was abandoning them as well, of like just leaving them high and dry, and they were going to be here working on the clients. And like, where's Nikki just doing whatever it is that she does from home? And obviously, over the years, we've transitioned from like that. The Wednesdays started eight years ago or 10 years ago, even. And then my role six years ago, six and a half years ago, transitioned to be fully off the floor.

Stepping Off The Floor Over Time

SPEAKER_00 2:40

So I haven't done a client for six years, and I've worked completely on the business for six years. And the last couple of years I've worked completely remotely. So probably the last two or three years I've worked completely remotely. So working from home. So now day to day, I don't come into the salon and I don't see the team. Your role has transitioned from being full-time on clients to going to one day off the floor, then to going client-facing two days and working on the business outside of that. And then a year ago or a year and a half ago, you came off the floor completely with clients. And then now you just work behind the scenes on the business and remotely, you know, except for going in for your meetings once a week. So I think so many people listening to this will be thinking and hearing that that is potentially possible. They'll be thinking, yeah, that's possible, but I could never do that because of what my team will think. And people are so caught up with thinking that the team will think that they're lazy, the team will think that they're abandoning them, the team will think that they've got such an insane amount of income and profits and money sitting in the business that they're just able to not work in it anymore. Or that the team will think that they don't care. How has it panned out for you in terms of the team's perception?

Visionary Work Beats Busy Work

SPEAKER_01 4:04

I think um, you know, when I first started doing that, I yeah, we do the like, I'm just gonna like show you how busy I am and like look at how much I'm doing, and my days are like much busier on this day than I wish I was on the salon floor because this is easier, like that sort of vibe. As things have progressed, you know, my mentality's really flipped in it. And this is something that Nikki and I refer to a lot, and we we say it frequently in the conscious salon world for your business to grow and for it to transform to the vision that you can see. It cannot happen. Whoops, I just bumped into the the the mic. It cannot happen when you're working on clients and not changing how you're working in that capacity. We talk about this a lot. We talk about, you know, um, who was the reference that I used this morning? Janine Ellis, right? CEO of Boost. And quite a few businesses, by the way. Yo Chi's her business wild. But I didn't know that. Incredible CEO. She's not making the all berry bang. She's not smacking out the the crushes at Boost. That's not where her zone of genius is.

SPEAKER_00 5:13

She's not also the hardest thing in the world, by the way. I worked for Boost for the Foods. I was waiting for you to bring it up.

SPEAKER_01 5:17

I should have used the Richard Branson reference.

SPEAKER_00 5:21

This on the um on the that was the worst thing I've ever done before the body anyway. But anyway, slapping the side of the boost thing to get the thing out. Like you just need to put a spatula in or something.

SPEAKER_01 5:33

No, there's a reason that she said no to that. So we're but again, visionary. So this is the thing. When you are the visionary person of the business and you can see where you're wanting your business to go, where you're wanting it to be. And I feel like this is the biggest thing that pops up for us, you know. And same with like, you know, Richard Branson's not flying the planes around, he's up doing the visionary stuff. For your business to enter that next level, you cannot be working the same way that you always have. You will literally keep getting the same response. It's not going to shift. For things to shift, there needs to be space. For there to be space, there needs to be you carving out that time, getting really intentional with it. We had one of the girls in Becoming Conscious Alan today talk about the fact that we have, and

Let The Team Step Up

SPEAKER_01 6:23

I I do want to bring this in. I think it's actually like a a really relatable thing that she brought in. She was saying that her space, she's got some of the most incredible therapists, like she could not believe the the skill set level of the people that are working with her, to the point where she feels like she really needs to level up her skill set to be at the same standard as to where they are. And we said to her, No, you need to be really maximizing on them, stepping back from clients, pop those clients over with her, with with those team members, so that you can start leveling up your business.

SPEAKER_00 7:00

Because you're on the leadership, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 7:03

Your business is not gonna grow or strengthen or level up with you sticking and doing, you know, Janine's blow wave every week or Sarah's laser and brows. That's not going to project your business. What is going to project your business and literally start having it really going 10 eggs is by having people in there who can do the things that you do better than what you can. Amplifying on that, pull yourself back from working on clients. And I know that people are going to say, but I love working on clients, I love it, and that's amazing. But let's do it where it's appropriate. Start scaling back so that you can also get as passionate as you are about the clients, about your business, about training your team, about leveling up. And stop running with the story of assuming that if I'm not in the salon, this is what's going to happen. If I'm not there, my team will think X. If this is what happens, they need it. Stop with all the stories.

Ditch The Stories And Align

SPEAKER_01 8:05

Because the reality is, when you start making these moves, and I'm someone that can say that from experience, and I ran with that story. I ran with that story of thinking I need to be in here to ensure that everything's done the right way. I need to be in here because the girls really need me in here. No, they don't. That's all stuff that I created value for myself there. What actually happened was that I gave the team the opportunity to step up and lead and be responsible. And they wanted it. They wanted that opportunity. I've given them the opportunity to level, oh sorry, we have given them now. That that space there can be as incredible or as difficult as they want it to be. And when it does get difficult, guess what? We're front and center. We go back in and have conversations. When it's really great, we're still there, supporting them, celebrating them. But realistically, for our salon to be at the level that it's at, it hasn't come from dumb luck. It's become from really intentional thinking, realizing and recognizing that our strengths and our passions have shifted. And now for us to be able to level that business up in the way that it's wanting we're wanting it to go, it's not us staying on clients. It's us stepping back, supporting the team.

SPEAKER_00 9:17

Creating you're using a good example there with that, because it's probably the most common one that we get is like, I can't step out of the business because my team will perceive me to be ex. I think it's really important, like we need to talk to the people who actually will be going through this of that feeling of, oh my gosh, what are my team going to think of me if I buy a new car, if I go on holidays, if I um don't work Tuesdays now, what are my team going to think of me? What would you say to a salon owner who is feeling trapped because of that narrative?

SPEAKER_01 9:50

I think at the end of the day, it comes back to the majority of the things that we say of alignment. If your team are aligned and like really believe in you and the vision, they should see all of that as an expansion for themselves. They can see that as potential for what can be there for themselves. I remember having those moments

Celebrate Growth Without Guilt

SPEAKER_01 10:16

of worrying that people would think if I bought a new car, went on a holiday or did something like that that was expansive, that I would, it would just feel like they would, you know, um, because I used to have that judgment. I I'm gonna be fully transparent. I used to judge my my bosses when they were driving around in their mercs and all those sort of things, thinking like, well, I should be getting that too. The reality of it was when I actually understood what was behind that, what level went into that to be able to achieve that, I started really celebrating them. At the end of the day, if you have that fear of I'm gonna hold myself back, I'm gonna keep myself small because of the fact that if I don't, I might be perceived differently than I want, you you can't win in that situation. Like you it's it's over anyway, because you're gonna keep yourself capped to what make other people feel feel what? Like, what are we actually doing when we start pulling it apart?

SPEAKER_00 11:10

Totally. And it's funny, like I bought a new car in a few months ago, and it's the most amount of money I've ever spent on a car.

SPEAKER_01 11:18

And literally the team Ferraris are not cheap.

SPEAKER_00 11:22

The team was so excited. Yeah, the team was so excited for me, and I genuinely believe that. And I do think that there's a an element here of you actually have to give less fucks about whatever story you're telling yourself about what people think about you, whether it's clients, because that was another big one. Oh my god, what are the clients gonna think if we're not working in the salon five days a week? Are the clients gonna

Communicate The Vision Clearly

SPEAKER_00 11:46

think that you know we're just making all this money and we don't have to work anymore? And there's it was a real element of actually having to let go of the responsibility of other people because I was like, people are going to think that. People would think that right now about you and I. And I'm a big believer in Mel Robin's work, the let them theory. Fucking let them if they want to, if they want to believe that and perceive that, and if team members want to believe that and perceive that, it's okay. It is okay. You once believed that and perceived that about your bosses. I once did the same. And that's okay. It's going to be said anyway. So you may as well just do what you want to do without the without worrying about the perspectives or the perceptions, the perception, sorry, of other people and what they may think of you. Because at the end of the day, if you take this time, let's use the salon floor coming off the floor as an example. If you take this time to work on the business, that is a feather in everyone in the team's cap. That is more opportunity for everyone in your team. But you also need to say that vision to the team, hey, I'm gonna be working on the business. We say to everyone that comes into our world to work with us in mentorship, the first conversation that you have after you sign on with us is you're having a conversation with your team. And you are gonna be transparent and vulnerable with your team and you're gonna say to them, I am working on my leadership. I'm working on this business because I want more opportunity for everyone in this room, myself included, you guys included. The more that this business wins and grows, the more opportunity for everyone. So that you can have epic Christmas parties, pay your team significantly above the award, offer a great commission structure, um, take your team away from team retreats. Like we did a team retreat and we did all of our team development days last year, and that was fucking incredible. But that would never have happened if we didn't come off the salon floor

Let Them Think What They Think

SPEAKER_00 13:30

all those years ago. And if we had of stayed worrying about the perception of our team, we would have not taken the time off the salon floor, and we never would have had those opportunities for the right team members who align and understand that vision. So to anyone listening to this who is worried about the perception of other people and how people think about you, please, please, please let them.

SPEAKER_01 13:54

Let them indeed. It is one of those situations that no matter you you can you can drive yourself crazy and and let the fear hold you, or you can just lean in and go for it. And like what's that saying? People's opinions. So exactly as you said, let them know Robbins, thanks very much. All of those things, but like don't just be someone that says that and says, like, I don't care what people think. Like, prove it. Like actually embody that. Yeah, yeah. And it it it doesn't matter any anyway. Like something can be different and change, and you

Do The Thing And Report Back

SPEAKER_01 14:30

can have a different outcome when you do something different.

SPEAKER_00 14:33

Absolutely. Thank you guys so much for listening to another episode of the Conscious Alarm podcast.

SPEAKER_01 14:37

Look at everyone going to um go and do the things. Let us know. Actually, you know what? Let us know. Let us know what you get out of this episode and what you change and what the outcome is when you stop assuming what people's perceptions or worrying what people's perceptions are of you. Let us know how you do the damn thing. Love you guys, stay conscious.