Reading Helps You Become More

Do you read books? Books to learn and help you become more?

I was dusting my book shelf and I realized how much my life has changed from reading these books through the years. Most I can pin point what shift it made in my thinking and mindset. I would still be in my very limited thinking cycle I learned from people I was around. 

By reading these books it created new habits, new ways of thinking, and stretched my belief system. I learned ways to create more out of my career, by fixing my bad habits. Learning new ways of thinking I created a better relationship with money, family, and my clients.

Do you have the hunger to learn new ways forward in your life? I offer some suggestions for books that helped me.

Thank you for listening. Share this episode with a friend that you think would enjoy it.

I would love it if you took the time to leave a rating or review for the show.

Want me to go more in-depth about anything? Let me know.

Send an email with questions to skahrhoff@live.com.

Transcript

Shannon Kahrhoff: 0:06

Hello, welcome to the Decoding Clients for Stylist. I'm Shannon Kahrhoff today I want go over some of the books I've read on a journey I took to become better. I feel like our industry has a problem with just teaching us the. Strategy of haircuts in the chemistry of color, which still is lacking, but they do more of the education of the cutting and the color and the products and how to go about the hands on part of our business. They don't approach the different ways of becoming a business owner and the mindset of handling your finances and different things you have when you create your own business or the mindset you have behind it. Through the years of doing this leadership development business, I read so many books. They had a list, I think of a hundred books that you would be doing great if you read. And some of them were older books and some of them were newer books. Some they created themselves because of the information they were sharing. They wrote books to help us go into this niche information. That they created. And through it all, it is amazing the information I learned. I learned how to open up my own thinking, broadening my horizons on what is possible, teaching myself different information on finances, of how to approach different things, how to teach my child, how to create a future with. Wonderful financial thinking and it helped me learn different things of how to relate to people. It's also where I learned the personalities. These two books that I learned from Personality Plus and DISC through the years. It. Opened up so much to me. It helped me for myself, understanding myself, why I think certain way, why certain things irritate me, to understanding my child better and understanding my clients better. Who knew that information was out there. Because in our career, none of it teaches us how to become better people on how to learn how to deal with relationships and. The possibilities. How to understand why it's important to better yourself to become the person you need to be, to deal with all these clients, to work with your coworkers, to have a business of your own. I'm self-employed. I have a suite that I rent in a salon, and for me that is enough. I don't wanna own a big salon. Owning a salon has never really been my dream. But through these years of being in this business, I sure didn't make much money in that business, but it made me expand and grow my salon business because it taught me how to be a person with the mindset I needed to be that person for those clients. I became a better listener. I became a more accomplished person with my thinking. I had a long way to go yet with my finances, but I had certain financial. Things that I learned through this program to make me a better person down the road. My mindset was good. I didn't go into debt just to get into debt, so it was amazing to me. Now looking back on how much it changed my life, because I did the actions of reading the books and learned from it. It wasn't just check mark. I read a book. I actually. Learned from it. I changed my thinking. I changed my behaviors because of some of the things I did. Just like I did with personality books. I implemented it into my life and I morphed it into what I needed for my own personal career to help me be more relatable to my clients. So it took some of the guesswork out of how I approach different people. I have become an, a better listener, an active listener with my clients that I was not before. I did not do well with empty quiet space. I had to fill it somehow, and it was usually, my guess is a very uncomfortable moment that I kept asking weird questions and doing different things. I learned how to do all of these things through the books I read. These books created me, and it's leading me into the future that I want even more Like I said before, personality plus DISC were the ones who made the biggest impression on me, but I've read so many more. I started out with Robert Kiyosaki, with Rich Dad, poor Dad, and the Cashflow Quadrant. That changed my whole perspective of how you earn money. I was raised to get a job. The job will take care of you, and you work it until you die or you retire and then you're done. With Robert Kiyosaki, it talked about how to work smarter, how to create a business, which is in essence what I did. I created my salon through the years, and I have more to show of it because I went out and did the action. The thinking was there. It's amazing the mindset and the sacrifice he did to create his business and the way his upbringing created this knowledge for him. They're amazing books. You can always read them. They're older, but I know he has, he's still relevant. He still has new books coming out there, but I love the information of why he thinks the way he thinks. I read the Magic of Thinking Big by David Schwartz, that one. Created such an expanse in my brain because it opened up the possibility that I don't have to think small. I have the ability to expect more out of life, to expect more out of each thing that I want out of life. And it goes through different details, and I think I've read it multiple times, but each time I took something out of it because I went a little bit further in my personal growth and my thinking, and it's. It's just amazing the stuff that made me grow and change my thinking and the possibilities. It sounds weird, but I read Sam Walton's book Made in America. Now this is Him when Walmart was the height of family friendly. The employees were the ones who owned most of the business or they didn't own it, but they had stock in the business. So the employees went over the top trying to make. Customers comfortable. They kept the store clean and they had pride in their work. And I'm sorry for the people that don't remember those days because Walmart used to be an experience because the employees were actually, they had skin in the game pretty much. I mean, they could retire off of the stock they got. For the beginners. Now, I don't know what's going to happen, but I think the kids are the ones running and making the decisions now. But before he passed away, they were implementing different aspects of selling and trade with the manufacturers. That was unheard of back in that day. And he stayed modest. He was from, Arkansas. Remember crying out loud, he still drove the same old truck with his dog sitting next to him in the truck whenever he had to go places, and it's amazing. The stories that he told in that book of his thinking when he first started out.'cause he ran a Ben Franklin store and the franchise took it away from him and he found a way to start what is now Walmart. And if you ever want a rags to Rich's story, read the book. Sam Walton is an amazing person and it, I don't think it was a biography, but it was close enough that it was. it was crazy and I wound up living not too far away from where it all started and it made it even stronger for me when I was reading it'cause I could picture little small towns that it was created in years and years before. But that one, it gives you a whole different perspective of what can be accomplished in your life if you just. Ride the rough spots and stay focused on creating something bigger. I read later on, I read 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership by John Maxwell. Now, this was way over my head the first time I read it because I was not there. I did not have any thinking that I had any leadership skills, and I did not. I had zero leadership skills at the beginning. I didn't want to have the responsibility. I didn't want to have to think about any of it, but. You have to understand, everyone needs leadership skills because you lead your clients. You make them feel comfortable with you. You are the one who is in control of the whole experience. You have to show them confidence. You have to guide them in the path that you want for their color and their cut. It's an experience every time they come into your business. And if you don't have the basic foundation of leadership skills. You're probably just hoping for the best and you think you're doing everything you can, but understanding is so much deeper. It's just incredible what you are aware of when you grow to that level. But again, I was not there the first time I read it. I had to go years later back and actually understand different things, and I'm still not a hundred percent there, but. It's, it's mind blowing what you can picture differently for your life whenever you have this knowledge coming in and find ways to implement it into your life and into your business in small ways. A lot of it is just your own personal habits and your own thinking that changes things. Small steps make huge differences through the years. One of, the finance books that I first read, it's called God's Plan for Your Finance. Dwight Nicholas is, or Nichols is the one who actually wrote it and. A lot of it was basic understanding of finances and different ways to handle your cash and savings and different things. The biggest nugget I got out of this book was how to teach my daughter how savings works. We set up these jars. One was savings, one was giving, and one was spending. Anytime she had a chore or she got some money from her birthdays or odd jobs that she would do, she would break it up into money percentages. And I swear this is what created the best habits for my daughter because we'd have to figure out percentages. So 10% would be into giving or the tithing jar, and. So much money would go into the savings and then the rest she could figure out into the spending. She loved seeing the accumulation and seeing how money in their savings added up a little bit here, a little bit here, and all of a sudden you have this much money. Now this JAR system I started when she was probably seven or eight. I'm not exactly sure when I read the book and when she was old enough to implement it, but. She kept that saving jar until she graduated college. Now she still had her savings account. She still had her money in different places, but she understood that this savings jar, she wanted to see it crammed full. She loved the visual of watching her money grow, and now as an adult, she has the mindset of. Knowing how much she can save, and knowing that a little bit today can add up to a lot more. She needed that visual representation in those jars to make it in her adult brain of why it makes a difference because. It was huge. The first thing she ever did for her savings jar, or not her savings, her her giving, or her tithing, she donated that money to a humane society here in the county, and she got her picture put in the paper with holding a beautiful little orange kitten and the pride she had from giving that money from her hand to the volunteer's hands, knowing that she was going to help them financially and then she got to snuggle a beautiful little kitten was the best reward she's ever gotten. So by doing that, the actual visual, the emotions that are intact with the giving was huge for her. And I think that set the foundation for her in her life that made the best effect. I was not good with money. I used to be, but when money is tight, I don't do as well with the whole savings. So I was trying to teach her the skillset that I wish I had more power over. And. So far it's a success. She loves saving, she loves the power of compound, and I love seeing that success for her money has always been a driving force for her because it meant power to her. It's options, it's, it's everything. And I want her to remember that through her whole life on what having that safety net there can do for her life. So that, and the personalities are probably the hugest things I've ever learned. Now, down the road, the leaders of my business created their own. Book system called Financial fitness and it broke it down into even more financial habits that you could create in your own life to become better with it to on how to pay down your debt and how to have your emergency stash and how to make such a huge difference. I love that.'cause that was. The most concrete way to understand how to break everything down and break your bad habits, to create your good habits and why. So that was huge for me later on. But the God's Plan for Your Finances was the best for the beginning for me. Let's see. I read Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, Stephen Covey, because habits. Our everything. If you create good habits and replace your bad habits. So instead of me sitting in front of the TV for hours, zoning out on nothing, thinking I'm relaxing, I would create habits of productivity of how to organize my life into getting things accomplished in an orderly fashion. This I need to read again because I need to create good habits again in my life. That one taught me how to break down different things in my life to become able to, one, feel control in my life, but to create positive habits that'll get me even farther in my life. So by setting different strategies along the way, I was able to achieve something that seemed overwhelming at the beginning exercise that helped me create the habit of bringing in. Exercise into my life. Again, something I need to get better at again these days, but. It's amazing. Whenever you are intentional with different habits, you get way more results from it. You become successful in whatever you're doing by creating the habits you want. And I think, I don't know if it's in this book or another book, but 21 days of doing something, it turns into a habit. So you have to get through the awkward and uncomfortable in your own. Excuses to get through these things so you become equipped and your habit is set. It's very easy to lose your habits, as I just explained, but if you create the habits and the repetition of it, you're gonna go a lot farther. And just like with anything in my life from doing my finances with work to. Learning a new something. I have to create a habit to implement that every day or once a week or something. There has to be consistency for me to get a foothold on something and get the results I need. Wonderful book. There's the book, how I Raised Myself from Failure to Success in Selling. I never thought of myself as a hairstylist, as a seller. No. We got pushed at the beginning to sell retail at my com. My chain salon, they wanted everything. In fact, one of the places always had competitions and I'm not, I never considered myself a competitive person, but when there's something I really want, that is the end game, that's when I can push myself even farther to do it. Who knew, but how I raised myself was from a failed salesman to learning different habits of consistency and learning how to approach different things. And I was building clientele at that time, and it was amazing on how I could consistently reach out and do different things. So. It depends on where you are in your career. But habits, if you read books about creating habits and understanding what kind of habits you need to create, that's what these books are for. Not everyone is the same business. Not everyone is in the same spot, but consistency is huge. So if you can figure out what kind of habits would be best for you to create into your life. To get farther. It helps you figure out how to reach your goals, but it also helps you figure out different strategies of ways to achieve your goals. That's all I'm saying with all these books because the next one, the Slight Edge, the Secrets to a Successful Life, Jeff Olson. This book was talking about if you read one book a month, you're already ahead of everyone else that has not read a book at all or reads one book a year. Because you're getting that knowledge in your head, and whenever you are intentional about something, you are already more driven than any normal person just going to work and trying the same things that they know how to do. The whole idea is to learn and grow so that you can open your mind into different possibilities to create different opportunities for yourself. The different things that you can understand by reading one book, one book that can open up your mindset a little bit more. I don't think I would've picked up any of these books along the way if I wouldn't have been in this leadership development business. Because what hairstylist automatically thinks that you need to read the magic of thinking big. Well, someone who wants to create a thriving salon and. Step outside of the box of what hairstylists are meant to be or expected to be. What are hairstylists? The stereotypical hairstylist is someone who is good with their hands, but not very intelligent. I had one of my salon owners. Talked to me one time. She said, Shannon, you need to go to college. You are too smart for this job. You need to go do more. Do you know why he thought I was so intelligent? It's'cause I was reading these books. I was thinking outside the box. I was loving getting to know different aspects of my clients because I was thinking differently. I wanted to know. Their thinking pattern for their careers. I wanted to know what their life was like. I wanted to know different aspects so it could broaden my thinking to expect more from my life. As a stylist, my flaw has always been not being able to picture myself personally as anything better. I have read books that have opened up the possibilities and my expectations, but the first time someone looks at me like, who do you think you are? That's when my self-confidence goes, nothing. It's gone. It's crap. And I'm like, oh, that's right. It's just me. I'm just a hairstylist. It is what it is and okay. But if you reach for the stars one step at a time, you achieve good habits, you can get there. It's consistency. It's stretching your mind and the possibilities. So let's go and create better thinking, better possibilities, and better expectations for our future Stylists, let's create patterns and habits for hairstylists to learn and grow to become more. Than just someone behind the chair. We've come a long way since, well, honestly, I think 2020 when people actually respected us and understood how important we are in their lives. We're not just someone that makes them feel and look beautiful and make them feel fabulous. We are people that are there for'em. I just saw this meme going around, or TikTok, whatever it is. I don't remember, but it's. A rundown of everything. We are the first ones, most of the time that hear that they're going through a divorce, that they were diagnosed with cancer, that their child is sick, that they are having struggles. Why do they come to us? They trust us. We are a valid person in their life, but we are also disconnected from their normal life. It's easier to tell someone not in your core group of family. The hard things because you don't wanna affect anyone else and their emotions, but you also don't want someone else's emotion to mush into yours, and we are that neutral party. Most of the time we might shed a tear, but we're there. So let's expect more out of this career. Let's grow ourselves, become the beautiful, strong people that we can be. Let's learn leadership skills in this career. And understand how to create businesses that thrive by understanding better ways and better flow. I read a book, I can't remember what it was called, I think it was the Golden Arches or something. It was about McDonald's. It was a book I borrowed years ago. But they talked about systems. McDonald's is all about systems. They bought out two brothers that had a cheeseburger and milkshake business, small business. Actually, I think the person that actually bought the business from them was a milkshake machine salesman. They bought so many milkshake machines. He wanted to know why this one small town business would need so many milkshake machines, because they kept blowing through'em because they sold so many milkshakes, the machines couldn't keep up. So he investigated this, this business and realized. How much product they sold every day. The cheeseburgers, the fries, and a milkshake. They had one heck of a strong business, but they didn't have a marketing and a systems thinking. They were just go in, do their job, make their cheeseburgers and their milkshakes, and this was a business. This system mindset person came in, offered them for their business model, and I think their names'cause it was McDonald's brothers and they created a franchise. They went and sold and they created the same system. This is how long you cook the, the hamburger. This is how you make the milkshake and you create the system. And they did it over and over and over and over again and. I don't even think they put on their signs anymore how much, how many they sell, but it's that business franchise mindset that made them hugely successful. And I, I personally wouldn't have thought about franchising a cheeseburger and french fries place. To be able to create the exact same system consistently to share it other places. So, sorry, that one wasn't even on my list. It was just one of those things that I, I find fascinating. Broaden your horizon. Go find a book that intrigues you. There's so many out there. If you follow someone that has the mindset that you wish you had or you wanna learn how to do it, and they wrote a book, go grab it. Because whatever they achieved, they're gonna share the knowledge on how they got to that thinking. Hopefully the process and the downfalls and the uprising and, you know, the, the success field. And learn how long it took them to get to the right thinking, the right habits, and the right process they needed to make it a success. We always think it's an overnight success that bam, they're famous the first year in the business and look at them. Usually it's a lot of downfalls where they almost lose everything and they come back because they figured it out and went even farther.'cause they figured out what the tripping point was in that process and they fixed it. Was it their thinking? Was it the business thinking something had to be changed to find the success? The best way to do it is to go read a book, figure out how to think differently, how to learn something more. What do you want to accomplish in your life? You have to figure out different ways of thinking differently. And try to merge it into your life. A little nugget here and a little nugget there. This is one of the reasons I also love podcasts because so many successful people have podcasts on what they did and why they think a different way, and they're trying to get you to understand. Their thinking and their process to help get you a shortcut to get farther down the path.'cause most successful people, they wanna bring more people along with them to create millionaires and billionaires Most successful people want to share it, and you just have to be willing to learn. So pick up a book, listen to some business-minded podcasts. Figure out what is right for you and what area are you interested in improving. Everything is a learning process. So yeah, find some good podcasts, read some good books, some old books, some new books, and become whoever you wanna become. And I could honestly say when I was reading these at the beginning, I could not, I comprehend how much my thinking would change from then to now. And I'll be honest, I need to pick up a lot of these books and reread'em again to freshen up my mindset to become more of a powerhouse than I was before. Because if I get stagnant, I am getting more bad habits than good habits. That's when it's time to pick up more information and refresh my head, get myself into the proper habits of success and learning. Learning is fun. I love learning new things. And implementing it because if there's something you like, underline it, highlight it in the book, and figure out how that one message can become a new habit in your life. I hope this helped. I am intrigued by looking at my bookshelf and seeing the books that I have read because each one has left an impression. In my life that I can't thank enough to the people that invested in me, the time and the effort to get the books in my hands and create habits that I probably would never have done before without being in that business. Because you have to surround yourself with people who want to grow and learn and change. To mostly create that habit in yourself. And if we are surrounded by people that are happy, just sitting and watching the TV shows every night and they're happy with where their life is at, that's good. But if you want more outta your life, that's not the success route out for you. You can still watch TV shows here and there, but spend some time investing in reading and growing. And becoming the person you wanna be, because when you're a better person, your business is better, you're happier, and your clients are a lot happier. When I went to my classes last year, my clients actually told me how different I am from last year to this year because of the information that I took in that I created new habits and did different things. I am not really fast at putting new information and new systems into my habits and my life and my business. It's like I have to think'em through and do stuff. I waste so much time trying to think it through instead of just implementing it for those beautiful people that can just implement new things and roll with it. God, I envy you. You're wonderful. You are amazing thinkers and put it into action. My goal is to be that way. I'm learning and growing and trying, but I still doubt myself a little too much. So I hope this helped. I hope you have a great week and I'll talk to you later.