When Life Falls Apart But Your Business Needs You | Salon Business Mindset

Running a business doesn’t stop when life gets hard… and neither can you.

In Episode 39 of our podcast, we’re getting real about what it means to show up when your personal life feels like it’s falling apart. As salon owners, entrepreneurs, and business partners, we’ve lived through the moments where everything feels heavy — yet clients, staff, and responsibilities keep moving.

This episode isn’t about pretending everything is fine.
It’s about resilience, consistency, and building the version of yourself your future depends on.

We talk about:
✨ Why personal struggles don’t pause your business
✨ The dangerous myth of “I’ll just take a break”
✨ How to keep showing up without burning out
✨ What showing up actually looks like in hard seasons
✨ The mindset shift every salon owner needs

Whether you’re a salon owner, clinic owner, or entrepreneur trying to grow your business, this conversation will remind you why staying consistent — even imperfectly — matters more than ever.

Because one day… you’ll wish you were back in the position you’re in right now.

 If you’re ready to turn your passion into profit and build the business you’ve always wanted — you’re in the right place.

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If you would like more info about how we help salon owners increase their revenue in under 90days, WITHOUT hunting for new clients... book a FREE  Salon Accelerator Program Demo and we'll break down everything for you in the demo. 

Our guarantee to you...  Increase your revenue in 90 Days without hunting for more clients OR YOU DON’T PAY. 

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Transcript

When You Cannot Drop The Balls

Adri Varga 0:00

The only problem is that when you have your business, you are the last one who can drop the balls. You cannot because then if you do it, everything is going to start to crumble down.

Jodie Fielden 0:12

And it takes time to get to where I've been talking about. The reality of it is the word I was trying to think of, is that it's three to five years of doing the right thing consistently and showing up consistently for that time. But you know, and showing up doesn't mean being perfect. Take that whole perfect illusion out of your mind because it's not. There is no perfection.

Adri Varga 0:38

When your uh business is scrambling down, and even if you reach out to help, there is no magic solution. There is no abracadabra focus focus and then it's going to work. Unfortunately, in the beginning, you're going to be busier because you need to work through things in order to make sure that you're going to step out from this situation wherever you find yourself in.

Jodie Fielden 1:12

Hello

Personal Life Vs Business Duty

Jodie Fielden 1:13

and welcome everyone. It's great to be back. I'm Jody Fieldon and I'm here with my work wife, bestie, and business partner, Audrey Vaga. During these podcasts, we share how you can leverage your passion into profit. Whether you're an industry entrepreneur, a seasoned salon or clinic owner, or someone who's just thinking about starting out, you're in the right place because we've just about done it all, and we're here to share with you that you can too. Because it's time to believe your salon can be everything you ever wanted.

Adri Varga 1:41

Absolutely, and welcome back, everyone. And today's episode is a deeply personal one because we are talking about something that every business owner faces at some point, which is what happens when your personal life feels like it's crumbling, but your business still needs you to show up.

Jodie Fielden 2:01

That's right. And it isn't about pretending everything is perfect, it's about understanding that your future self is built in the moments when showing up feels the hardest.

Adri Varga 2:12

Absolutely, because one day, if everything did fall apart, you would wish you were back exactly where you are right now. And that's why this conversation matters.

Jodie Fielden 2:25

It does because your personal struggles when you're a salon owner, it doesn't pause the rent, it doesn't stop the wages needing to be paid. And the clients, you know, as much as much as they empathize, whatever, all they really care about is them. So oh your mom died. I'm so sorry to hear that. So do I get my color this week or next? You know, so you know, as a salon owner, you've got to carry that silent emotional weight.

Adri Varga 2:52

Exactly. And um the temptation to withdraw or emotionally check uh out is absolutely real. We speak with so many salon owners when uh they are actually right there in that point when they just want to give up because it just becomes too much. Kids, family, the team is not working, and they just carry everything without communicating for help. So it's very, very important for us to understand that we don't really need to do everything alone, but to figure out how to free ourselves from this feeling and for from this situation, it's very, very difficult when you are in the situation. And many times you just get there and I just I just want to walk away. I just close the door and I just walk away and I don't want to deal with anything.

Jodie Fielden 3:49

100%. Um,

Crisis Mornings And Silent Weight

Jodie Fielden 3:51

like this morning is a perfect example, isn't it? Like what happened with me. So here at my place, family member is in crisis with a little baby. I needed to go and help. Um, but we had our team meeting. I had clients that were waiting to have an appointment with me. I'm running up in my pajamas, trying to get back here, jumping into the Zoom. We had a um uh team Zoom that we have every Friday, and I'm jumping running out of the house going, Hey guys, I'm here.

Adri Varga 4:20

Yes, absolutely. And sometimes it's extremely difficult to show up, and sometimes you don't feel like showing up. The only problem is that when you have your business, you are the last one who can drop the balls. You cannot, because then if you do it, everything is going to start to crumble down. And exactly what we said before, you know, like where you are right now, you think it's very difficult. But if you let it go, and if you drop down, and then you stop, and then you start, you try to catch up again, at that point you're really going to wish that you didn't let it go. And that's very important for us to understand that it's better to stay for a little bit where we are at and try to manage than to let it go to drop it back, because then that plan B is actually a very, very difficult to get out of from.

Jodie Fielden 5:20

It is. That's how you ended up with my salon, isn't it? Really, when we got the way that was that I just went, threw my hands up in the air and I was just like, I'm done, you know. Um it's it's it's a horrible place to be at. And if you could ask for help, if I had have asked for help back then, if I had have known there were people like us doing what we do now, if I had known there was that kind of help back then, um, things would have been so much better. Um, and we speak to a lot of salon owners, especially at the moment, um, when they come into a strategy session with me, is that they have so many balls in the air, they're at their wits' end, they don't know what to do, and then they start focusing on the noise, you know, like about oh, they need to do more socials or they need to show up, or or you know, like they get lost, I think.

Adri Varga 6:13

And the other thing, uh, what also everyone needs to uh understand where you are at right now, it's absolutely uncomfortable and it doesn't work properly. But in the same time, you know, like to get out from this situation, you actually need to show up for it. So when your uh business is scrambling down, and even if you reach out to help, there is no magic solution, there is no abracadabra hocus pocus, and then it's going to work. Unfortunately, in the beginning, you're going to be busier because you need to work through things in order to make sure that you're going to step out from this situation wherever you find yourself in. And this is what we find really with business owners that when they realize that it's going to be work to get out from the situation, this is when they say, I just don't have time, I cannot do it, it's not the right time, it's just not something that I can put my head into. But we need all this uh in the same time, what we need to be uh also aware of that the solution, if the solution is there, and if the solution shows up, and if you choose not to do anything about it, and you decide it to go down to that spiral when you're going to be all on your own dealing with the situation, or maybe just not dealing with it. At one point, you have to deal with it. Yeah, it's always going to be a point when you have to deal with it. You can let it go for a couple of weeks, but then a month later, two months later, what will happen? You're going to actually look back and you say, Oh, far out. You know, like I went far, too far down, now I have to rebuild it again. So when you reach out for help or an advice, and Jody can tell a little bit more about this, you know, like the help is there, and you don't have to figure out what to do. You really need to commit your time, which sometimes is difficult. But just because you want to pause, nothing else is going to pause around you. Your business is not going to pause, your business are not going to pause, your clients are not going to pause, your team is not going to pause, nothing is going to pause around you.

Jodie Fielden 8:38

And it's never going to be a better time. Honestly, there's all and that's what I always hear in our um in meetings when I meet with salon owners, and I don't know if it's an industry mindset or or what, um, but they're always like, Oh, I'll do it later. Now's not the right time, you know, my headspace just isn't there. You can always find a reason to not do it. And I speak to so many salon owners and clinic owners, you know, like um, I'm speaking to a few of them this week that I had first spoken to them around this time last year. And I'm like, somewhere different. When we get to this point next year, where do you want to be? Do you want to be having the same problems, potentially more problems? You're not making any more money, you're still going backwards each step, you know, like, or do you want something to, yes, it's going to be difficult for the next three to six months, but in 12 months' time, I'm going to look back and go, oh my God, look at that, all I've achieved. And now I'm speaking to them again this time of year. And they're like, I wish I had a listen to you, because now I have even less money to invest. My time even is just as poor as it was. I don't know if now I can even fix it. And that's the biggest thing I find the tangible thing of people just saying it's not the right time, is that yeah, one, it's you can always find a reason for it not to be the right time. And two, you think you've got money problems now in 12 months' time, if you haven't fixed it, you've got even more money problems.

The Cost Of Waiting A Year

Adri Varga 10:12

So exactly. And uh I think what we really need to remember also, you know, like where we are at right now in our business with the problems and everything. This is how far we could bring a business with the knowledge what we have. So if you hit the wall, there is no miracle going to happen that you wake up in the morning and you're going to know, you know, like, oh, I just going to fix the business. You need to uh reach out for help for people who already done uh what you want and where you want to be. And sometimes that's the most difficult part. And yes, it needs to be an investment, uh, not even just an investment of money, but it's an investment of time. And uh, and and this is probably the the biggest money, you know, like we can come up with solutions for money, but time many times uh salon owners say, even if I would sign up, you know, like I just don't have the time. And I think that luxury when we say I just don't have the time, we don't have that because nothing else is going to stop. And as Jody mentioned, you know, like we're speaking with people now who we spoke one year ago, and they come back all fragile, more fragile, more confused, more tired. And then they they actually make the step forward because they just realize that one year, if they do another year like this, they're probably not going to survive. And not that the business would not be able to survive, is just because them as a business owner, probably they're just not going to be able to push uh any further.

Jodie Fielden 12:03

Exactly. And it's funny when um people say to us about not having enough time. Uh, we were in with our coach last week. I don't know if you remember, uh, was it Jimmy, I think, was saying, you know, like um for someone saying, I don't have enough time, and it's goes through and does like an open wallet of your time, you know, like, okay, so when you finish work, what do you do? Okay, so nighttime on like how much time do you send spend sitting there scrolling on your phone? How much time are you sitting there watching TV? So you actually do have time, it's just in how you're choosing to use that time. So whether you're going to choose to use that hour to Doom Scroll, or you're going to choose to show up for your business and spend it working on the business and working towards a solution. Because, you know, like you do have time, it's just that you choose not to allocate it to where it needs to be.

Adri Varga 13:01

And it's so funny because it always uh brings memory back for me when I started to work with one of our private clients. And when we do go a setting, we actually going through time management and finding time. And I have this uh time um records as it's a sheet, what they have to fill out, what they spend in their daily time. And it was so funny because at the end of the week of recording, this client of mine sent me a photo and it was a TV in a storage room. And she said, like, guess what? And I said, What? And she said, Well, I unplugged my TV and I put it in the storage room because I'm spending a ridiculous amount of time sitting in front of the TV and I don't even know what I'm watching. And she actually turned that time, and and that was a very conscious uh decision. But you see, like for her, the trigger was when she was actually writing down what am I spending my time on, and what is it that is not serving my purpose? And I know, you know, like when we are running the business, we do the same with Jody, you know, like we are running the business, you are mentally really tired. Sometimes it just feels nice to sit down with your phone in your hand, but in the same time, you need to find a balance when you're still working on your business and you're still uh pushing too hard to your goals rather than just uh check out. Once you close the salon door, you cannot check out, yeah. And um, I always have a problem uh when uh we have salon owners who are actually uh they don't have the business mindset, they are workers, so they have a job, they have a salon, but it's a job, so they do think when I open the door, this is when I'm starting to work with my business or in my business, and when I close the door, then it's it's finished. And we wish, you know, like we wish that we're going to have that luxury that my business day or business time starts when I open the door and when I close the door. So that's not going to happen because this is happens for employees, for people who work for someone else. They have the luxury that they only start at nine and finish at five and they don't care about anything else. But when you decide that you're going to have a business, you are not an employee anymore. And unfortunately, the fact is that you might going to start your day at seven o'clock to work through a couple of things, and you might going to finish at nine o'clock with a little bit of a break here and there. Because once you cooked your dinner and put the kids in bed, you might need to finish up a couple of things, or some of your team members are going to send you messages, and you cannot ignore those things. So, in a way, we sort of need to separate a little bit, you know, like what is being an employee and what is being a business owner. And being a business business owner is more overwhelming than just showing up to work, finish, and then once the you finish your shift, then you don't need to think about it until your next shift.

Speaker 16:21

The illusion that um a lot of, especially in our industry, that employees, also stylists or clinicians or whatever that have worked for someone else, and then they get sick of working for someone else, so they go and decide to open their own business. They have this, and I had this illusion that the business owner just shows up, they swan in when they want to, they go on holidays when they want to, they, you know, do all these things, and I'm making all the money in the till at the end of the day. I can see how much I'm making you, and you're not even paying me half of that. So I'll go and work for myself and I'll go on holidays and I'll do all these things. It's a really rude shop that you know, being a business owner isn't about freedom, it takes a long time to get your business to a position where you have the freedom that you think you're going to get.

Adri Varga 17:15

Exactly. And it is the end goal, yeah, and uh it is achievable, but it's not going to happen overnight. So you're going to work towards it. And uh, this is when really uh our follow the formula program is you follow a formula to get there, yeah. And this is why we called follow the formula because it is actually certain steps what you need to uh do in order to free yourself up. But in the beginning, the first couple of years is nothing about freedom, it's everything about uh you uh putting 110%, 120%, sometimes 500% into the business and you give up on everything. And while your team members are enjoying holiday or a better pay than you do, but for the future, if you do everything right, right, and you have the right team member, you systemize everything, you remove yourself from the floor on the right time, if your pricing is right, if you have the numbers so you actually control your own business, then yes, you can be there where I ended up after four and a half, five years when I only worked once Saturday every month in my salon and I could build another business because I worked two hours the first three and a half, four years. I worked two hours to that freedom, and it's definitely achievable.

Jodie Fielden 18:42

It is achievable, and it's just that it takes time, and I think people get discouraged because they think it's going to happen a lot faster. They hear these, you know, there are stories out there where they're overnight successes and everything, but most people's story is not that, and it takes time to get to where Ajru's talking about. The reality of it is the word I was trying to think of, is that it's three to five years of doing the right thing consistently and showing up consistently for that time, but you know, and showing up doesn't mean being perfect. Take that whole perfect illusion out of your mind because it's not, there is no perfection unless you are OCD and even that's not perfect, because that's yeah, because you know, being perfect is actually it's it's not a positive thing if you are perfectionist, because it's going to cause you procrastination and it's going to cause you to stuck in a situation because you don't move until you believe it's perfect. And then you don't trust anyone, and and be a business is about delegation. You have to delegate tasks. You can't, you know, at the beginning you're gonna wear all the hats, but if you actually do want to grow to be able to have the freedom, you can't be, you know, responsible for everything and have a three-month holiday. It doesn't work that way.

Mental Health And Smaller Steps

Speaker 20:05

You've got to um so one of the topics um what we wanted to talk about was like maybe three or four examples of what showing up me looks like.

Adri Varga 20:17

Yeah, so we can talk about, you know, like when you feel really overwhelmed, how you can just do a little bit but still moving forward, not falling backwards. So this is when mental health is extremely important. You might just go to shorten your days, and you might just going to start a little bit later. So in the morning, once you uh looked after everyone in your family, you have half an hour or one hour for yourself, or might you going to uh just finish a little bit earlier? So you give that little bit of a time for yourself. No one is going to uh like sometimes we feel guilty because we say no to a client because we know we won't have time, and uh we decided to spend that time on our mental health, and I think it's very important to give for ourselves a permission because if you are not okay inside, nothing is going to be okay outside, it's energy, energy work, and everything is an imprint. So the most important thing for your business and for your family is that you aligned with yourself and you feel good about it. Many times when we are really busy or very overwhelmed, we keep pushing and pushing and pushing. And then what will happen? We will uh be sick, we will end up being sick because then your energy and your the use is telling you, you know, like you're pushing too hard, you need Need a little bit of a break. If you don't give that break for yourself, I will make you have that break. And if you don't listen constantly and you're constantly pushing through, that little warning sign is going to become maybe a little bit more uh uh more serious illness. So what we learned is that when we need to take a break, we do take take a break. And if it's only just one hour or just half an hour or a half a day, but we do take that break. And I think it's very important.

Jodie Fielden 22:34

And you know what? For me, sometimes it used to be, especially when um even now or when I have this town, is that all have a nap in the car in the sun, you know, like just to get away from everyone, block out the world down the beach in the sun, windows up if it's a hot day, air con, if it's cold, heater on, whatever. And I will literally just have a nap in the car before I have to drive somewhere, or before, or when I had the kids, you know, driving backwards and forwards on the freeway. I just stopped and I'm like, I have to have a nap, like listen to yourself.

Adri Varga 23:07

Everyone has different life situations, you know. Some don't have kids yet, and some people have little kids, some people have kids like Jodie. We always uh talk about Bryn, you know, like he's autistic, so Jodie's mornings are completely different from my mornings. So my um biggest uh my mornings are my biggest starts for like my I need to make my mornings right so I can actually be okay uh during the day. Yeah. Some people they have the evening things. Um I'm to bed very early, you know, like when the sun is done, I'm in bed. Yeah, so it doesn't really matter if it's six o'clock or seven o'clock, I'm going to bed because the sun is done. But I wake up early, I wake up around 5, 5:30. Then I really take time in the morning, and I just like Jody said, I enjoy sunshine, you know, with coffee in my hand, sitting outside, you know, sometimes meditating, sometimes I do my exercise, but I have that time for myself because I know without that I won't be able to function as well in the morning. And um, you know, I can understand some people they have little kids and it's more difficult, but in the same time, we need to find time for ourselves.

Jodie Fielden 24:25

Yeah, we need to give ourselves permission to have that. And look, my morning is completely the opposite to Adriana. And when we say Bryn's autistic, he's he's verbal level three, he's like one of those headbanging um weird ones you see around. That's my little man. And he's six foot one now, you know, like he's a big boy. And um it's my morning is like startled awake at 4 a.m. and I'm jumping up and running into his bedroom and telling him to go back to bed and turn your iPad down and then backwards, forwards, but get up, make food. Like my mornings are hectic and they're chaotic. And some days I just drag myself to the computer and I'm just in my pajamas still, and I'm like, hi Audrey, I'm here. You know, Jess doesn't talk to me until I've made my coffee, you know. So yeah, exactly. It looks different for everyone. You just need to find, like I just said, you know, find that moment, and if you need to, you need to shorten your day, otherwise you're just gonna burn out.

Adri Varga 25:23

Yeah, yeah. And I think, you know, like sometimes you you for a very quick lunch with uh Graham, you know, so you take a little bit of a time in the middle of the day. So that's you know, uh again to reset the day, you know. So just little things what you can do for yourself. Also,

Delegation That Fits Your Team

Adri Varga 25:43

you know, like the simplified, like if you just have a couple really simplified systems, so you can start to delegate uh little tasks for your team, so you don't have to do everything for yourself. And I know many times the mentality is oh, I'm I'm better of doing myself because it's faster, and I do understand that, but if you keep saying that you better to do everything, you're never going to create a freedom for yourself, and uh maybe the other thing that uh many salon owners forget that you have a team, you can lean on the team.

Jodie Fielden 26:22

Honestly, and it was we just had uh this one with one of the salon owners yesterday. Um, she was really overwhelmed, and I took her into a breakout room, and I'm like, right, what's going on? And so we went through the list of everything that she's doing. So again, that kind of time open wallet, and um she's got a new front of house, and she was looking at you know outsourcing her socials and that. And I'm like, I had a look and I'm like, right, so are you new, are your clients coming from your socials or are they coming from Google word of mouth? So her clients aren't coming from socials, and she kind of hasn't really been doing a lot with them for a little while anyway. I'm like, well, you're seeing that um you've still got your flow of incoming clients. Is it really, you know, um something that you could want to outsource? And she's like, well, I've actually got a um front of house that's just started and I'm paying her $16 an hour, and you know, and my uh goes, she looks she's happy to do some socials, and I'm like, Well, you've got all your templates there, why don't you let her and show her how you like it? Because you're spending hours creating something, you've already got a year's worth of content you can repurpose, you know, like these kind of conversations is what we have with people to say, actually, I don't need to be overwhelmed right now with recreating all these reels and trying to, you know, like all these things that people are telling me I have to do. You've got your team, you can utilize them, find someone who likes doing it and repurpose stuff, and that just takes away a whole heap of pressure. No, like exactly, exactly.

Adri Varga 27:56

And I think once you start to systemize uh your your you just need to let go the idea that everything is going to be perfect, so you need to become and learn to become comfortable that people are not going to do things exactly the way you want or you would do, better systems you create, better the results going to be. But it's going to take patience and also to make sure that you're going to choose the right person for the right delegation. Because if you try to add an admin task to someone who is very creative and they are not paying attention to details, then you are choosing the wrong person. Yeah. So you really need to be aware of the strength of your team members and choose the right person for the right task, and that's going to give you a lot of freedom.

Jodie Fielden 28:52

Like Adriana definitely doesn't give me any of those admin tasks. That doesn't come my way at all. Yeah, yeah.

Adri Varga 28:59

Look, uh it's honestly, you know, like whatever your strength is, that's you know, like I'm not that strong with uh things, you know. It's uh you don't need to be everything, you just need to do those things really well. What is in you know within your radar.

Jodie Fielden 29:17

I th I saw one of your notes before, and it says you don't need your best performance, you just need consistent presence. I like that.

Adri Varga 29:24

Yeah, and I think that's uh that's very, very important because again, keep swimming, yeah, keep swimming and don't really, and nothing is going to be perfect, but just keep moving, just keep move that energy and yeah, show up consistently. Yeah, I think that's very, very important.

Jodie Fielden 29:46

Yeah, I think it's just that consistent presence of you're still there, you're just taking little steps instead of giant leaps, you know. Yes, exactly. Exactly.

Consistent Presence And Next Steps

Speaker 29:57

All right, I think the next episode we'll talk about some tangible things and and how in difficult seasons, because I know everyone's getting a little bit stressed about what's going on at the moment. Um, we've been before in other things like COVID and the GFC and all that, like we've seen some of this stuff come and go before. So I think we can have a talk about that and um having your businesses in anchor.

Adri Varga 30:19

Yeah, so if you want to follow us on our socials, it's very simple, it's at focus gdt. Either if you go to TikTok or Instagram, you can find us on Facebook also. And uh, we're going to uh put down into description our uh appointment booking link. If you have any questions, just feel free to book an appointment with us. That is no obligation, and we just uh live if you need any help, we are more than happy to take you on board and have a little chat and uh to see if we can help you.

Jodie Fielden 30:51

All right, guys. Have a great weekend. Bye, everyone. Bye bye, bye.