Building a Salon That Changes Lives (Not Just Hair): Nicki’s Purpose Led Salon Journey

Transcript 

Often in our job as salon owners, it's like we're not gonna get along with everyone. No, but there's no reason we can't be kind to them. It's not just about fostering their ability in what they do, but it's also fostering who they are. As I said, the purpose part is my biggest accountability. Mm. And I just have people in my corner that is always encouraging me and like, what are the little things?

Yeah. Yeah. Because you don't, all of the little micro things are what make a difference. Now I look back, I'm like, well, that was small. But actually, if you do that every month and it all stacks up every month, like we're now at $108,000 that we've been able to give. But it all started with that $600.

That's why there needs to be. More people in this world that are doing that because you know, generosity builds more generosity. I want that sort of environment for my children. Yeah, but how can I be part of that solution? Yeah. For other people's children, you can still lead with love, you can still have good conversations and hard conversations are often the best conversations.

I always walk outta here feeling so good and I was like, as long as you all walk outta here feeling so good, I'm doing my job right. Every day. Before we dive in, just a quick little love note from us. If this podcast has ever made you laugh, cry, think, or feel seen, please hit that subscribe button. It's the easiest way to keep the magic going and it helps us land more incredible guests for you.

Go on back, your girls subscribe now and let's keep rising together. Welcome back to the Inner Sanctum Salon Rising the podcast. Hey Sam, do you know what I, it just made me laugh. It was back in the day when we used to change our clothes. Oh my gosh. We used to change our clothes in between episodes.

'cause we didn't want people to think that it was the same day. It's absolutely the same day. Oh, we, we are not. We knock these puppies out totaling these so that they can go out to you. My girlfriend said to me this morning, hello Bridge again. Another podcast dedicated to you. She was like, when are they weekly?

And I was like, bro, this is a love job. Oh, this fortnightly at best. Sometimes I want it to be monthly. And Richard says, no, no, we cannot do that. There is only so many. There's only then we can fit in. Look at anything else in no more Bridget Fortnightly. So. I'm really excited about this guest, um, that we have on the pod today.

So Nicki, whose surname I am not going to try to pronounce from Salon Purpose, has flown up to join us today. Thank you so much for coming, Nicki. Thank you guys. I feel so honored to be on this podcast. So this is my first ever podcast. We're popping her podcast Cherry and the way we found each other was, I think you'd commented on something and then I jumped on your page and I was like.

Whoa. It's such a cool concept. Whoa, whoa, whoa. Before I even, I was like an iMessage and said, I want you on the podcast, which I love doing. I love finding people that, you know, we haven't connected with yet. And just being like, your, your story's super cool. Yeah. Come on the podcast. Come and tell people about what you're doing.

Um, and then that's how this happened. And then I didn't do anything else. Richard made it work and here we all are. Yeah. Sitting in the same room, ready to share some of your journey and your story. 'cause I was saying to you before, I was really bummed that I couldn't make it down for the first day of industry, Dave, for, um, the a HC because I knew that you were speaking on the panel there.

Yeah. And I was really looking forward to hearing what you had to say. Nah, now we just get to hear it on more. Now we get to, now we, we can dive so much deeper on this podcast. Yes. Because the, yeah, the, the hair festival panel was awesome, but it was, it was short. So short and sharp. Whereas we get a more juicy version.

Juicy version of it. Okay. So let. Maybe we can talk about some of the things I, I know what I noticed straight away when I sort of started going down the rabbit hole of finding who you were and what you were about. But what was it that made you send that DM Sam? Um, is it like the concept? It's absolutely the concept.

Yeah. Like, and I was talking to Bridge. Oh, do you wanna come on the podcast Bridger? 'cause you just seem to get talked about all the time. My friend who's our biggest supporter, um, I was talking to her about it this morning and I was like, it's doing things differently and for a, and it makes sense now.

You and I were just talking about church, so it completely makes sense to why you are this way. Yeah. Like, and I was like, oh, we're even more aligned. This makes so much sense. Um, I The key, the key word, right? Purpose. Purpose. And we talk about purpose all the time. Yeah. And you can see. Okay, so let's talk about sell on purpose and the purpose of sell on purpose.

Yeah. I think that's probably one of the most asked questions that I get is. From our clients probably is what is the purpose behind sell on purpose and our purpose, the purpose word for us. It's not just a buzzword. Yeah. And I think so often it can get thrown around in all different industries about we are purposeful, we are, we do things on purpose.

But for us, it's actually so deeply rooted in who we are. And it is many things to us. And I think in this conversation, it's not just the finances, which is what I spoke about on hair festival. Yeah. But actually, how do we have purpose within our salons that we live and breathe it so our clients feel it, our staff feel it.

Mm. But people who are in other countries like Uganda feel like they're getting, you know, something from us when they're never even gonna meet us. Yeah. So it's so many things. Um. And we can dive into all of the things that we do, but I think it's all centered around how can we lead with heart? How can we all be heart led salons?

And I think that is, um, probably at the core of what we do is yeah, just having heart and the purpose will flow, the fruit flows off, all of that. Yeah, absolutely. So, so how did you take us back to the beginning and how this, like, I want the to know this journey unfold because people are listening to this being like, yes, amazing.

But then they're like, hold on, what? So I think we need to explain what this actually means for you because it's not just, you know, we do talk about our purpose and our why. Mm. Um, but I think so often, as you said, we get a little bit lost on. Who we are as humans and what are we doing? What's our purpose as humans?

What are we doing? What are we doing all of this for at times? And absolutely, I feel like this is big picture purpose. This is big picture purpose. Yeah, absolutely. I was gonna say, first and foremost, it's to give ourselves for all I always say, uh, like financial safety in our lives. Yeah. So that we can make choices for our families and our kids and our salon and our business.

But once you kind of get there, what's next? Yeah. So I guess if we wanna just pair it all back to how it started, um, I, and I was just saying this before to Jen, is I've only ever had one other job other than I worked at a bakery in a pizza shop for a very short amount of time. But I worked my dream job.

Yep. It was great. Um, I worked for someone for almost 19 years. Wow. So I did my whole apprenticeship. Everything I learned, I learned, um, within one employee, which was awesome. She taught me everything that I know to date. And then when I left there. It was at the start of COVID, so 2020. And I thought, how can I, the first thing I wanted to do was my why has never changed.

My why has always been, if I'm not gonna be working for there for this woman and that salon, then what am I gonna do? Why did you leave? Why did I leave? Is I wanted to spend more time with my kids. Love. I've got two young kids and at the time they were, uh, seven and five. Mm-hmm. I think I could be wrong there about that age, and I just felt like I wasn't around enough.

Mm-hmm. And it always came back to my why. What is my wise to spend more time with my kids? She mean me, like the how are we the same person possibly. She's saying words I say all the time, I just meant my counterpart. I love this. But the how. He's always different. Mm-hmm. And so for me, I knew that I could do hair.

Mm-hmm. That to me, comes really easily. I'm very efficient. I believe I'm pretty good hairdresser. And so I knew I could grow a clientele pretty quickly, um, by doing good hair. But I also needed to keep in mind that I wanted to spend time with my kids. Mm-hmm. So I started in a 15 square meter salon at the back of my home.

And my husband, who I absolutely adore, who challenges me often on many things, said, if we're gonna do this, it has to look nice because you need to grow a clientele. And if we're doing this, it already has to look like you've been. Around for a while. Mm. And what I made sure I did from the get go is I tried to do things with integrity.

So I didn't just leave a salon of 19 years and go, Hey everyone, I'm working from home now. I just, I think that's really wrong. And I didn't do that. Um, I took some time off here. I took my long service leave, and then I started from home and I attacked the school moms. I thought, this is my, this is my thing.

Even in that, for anyone that's listening and has been a listener and eventually wants to do this, the integrity part is especially when you've had a wonderful career with somebody who's supported you, who has, you know, built you to who you are, has, you know, supported your family. Because I think that gets lost in the end.

The integrity part in how you handle that is huge. Yeah. Because it's not just, you know, you that'll feel great afterwards. It makes a huge difference. To the person on the other side. Yeah. That has been the one that's, you know, held everything together and the integrity part of it makes a massive difference to how everything feels afterwards.

Yeah, a hundred percent. And you can control what you do and that's all you can con control. Yeah. So for me, I thought I'm gonna attack these school moms. And like you said, I just went in for the school moms. I didn't need anyone else because I didn't, I was just gonna go hell leather in the school moms. I knew my target.

Yeah. And that was them. So I, um, my husband built me this beautiful little salon and it started with two chairs, one portable basin. And um, from the get go I invested heavily into, when I say invested heavily, I guess in nowadays when we think of, I've got a salary, man, it's not investing heavily, but at the time.

In a little salon at the back of my home, I thought I was investing pretty heavily in like, I need to make myself look like I've had this salon forever. Yes. Yeah. Okay. And I had the marketing down pat. I got a, um, what are they called? An interior, I mean, a not interior designer, a like a designer. What am I gonna, graphic designer.

A graphic designer. A graphic designer to help me with a few little things. So on our Instagram we looked really professional. Yep. But I look back on it and I think, Ooh, that looks really cute. Um, but yeah. So it was good. We took off, but from the minute I opened my doors, I thought, how can I do things differently?

Mm. And from that moment, my husband and I, we, um, brainstormed. We didn't even have a salon name, so we thought, what can we have our name? So it's purposeful. Mm. Because what I knew is we've always given as a family, but I knew I wanted to give in my business. Mm. My husband I is a, is a builder and he does.

Um, giving through his business. And my sister-in-law, they have an electrician business. They give through their business. I thought, perfect. I'm gonna give through mine. How can we find a name that is like purposeful and we just couldn't get past Salon Purpose. Purpose. Yeah. So that's kind of where the name came from.

And at the start it sounded really wasn't rolling. I was like, Salon purpose, a bit weird. Is it a bit cringe? Is it what? But after a while it started to sound really familiar. The other thing about it is it keeps you on your path because you can't, it's the biggest accountability. You can't holder can't.

Yeah. You. I'm like, you can't go back if you've got yourself Salon purpose, it's written everywhere. Yeah. And from the minute we opened our doors from my opening week, we started off with what. I called the with love campaign and I had no idea five years ago that this would be something that I still do.

And I made a decision that every single client that came through the doors and they were all new, pretty much bar 12, um, that $25 from their service we're gonna give back to them to give to a charity. And it was so cool because I think we were still in COVID times. So we were doing people's hair that lost their jobs that were really struggling.

And I felt like the shift that I witnessed in that time of giving someone back money to go, Hey, give it to charity. You choose, here's our charities that we are giving to, and you get to give it back. And they were just like, oh. And even though it wasn't their money, it was. My money, but it made them feel like they were doing something really good.

Mm. Yeah. It was a, it was just so cool. And I think in our first With Love campaign, um, I gave $600. And at the time I'm thinking That's massive. That is massive. Over two weeks. Yeah. That is really cool. And that just set me up from success on the output because everyone was talking about it. Mm. And it was so cool because people would turn up to my house looking for this salon salon purpose with all these cool marketing and photos of inside the Salon that looked beautiful.

And then people would turn up to my yellow brick unrenovated sash windows, rusty pipes everywhere house and be like, uh, we're in the right place here. And I'd have a little sign, walk through the back. You're absolutely in the right place. Just keep walking past, ignore the house. And then I walk past and then it's like, yep, here we are.

And it was so cool. And it actually. Served its purpose incredibly well. And I look back and I think, oh, those times like now is awesome. But those times is like where it started and those moments of, we still do pretty much everyone's hair that came to my home that now is in Manly. So then that transition was really interesting.

So when you were, did you, you had a team when you were at home as well, didn't you? Yeah, I actually never again. 'cause my why was always to spend time with kids. So it got to the point, and you have to like picture this, we live in an unre, pretty un renovated home. One bathroom, two young kids, a husband who runs a business in a three bedroom, small home, and then this little salon that's at the back of the home.

So if someone needed to use the bathroom, yeah, they're walking in the house. Opening the door that doesn't have a lock. And sometimes there's my husband on the toilet. There's sometimes my kids in the shower. There's, and it got to the point where it's like, okay, this is just getting beyond a joke now.

'cause people just kept coming. Yeah. At one point we had 150 clients in coming in our house a week. Oh, how many staff did you have? So we, I got to the point where I was Googling on the council website. How many employees can you have at home? Because we had seven girls at home. Oh wow. And that is the max.

How many stations and basins did you have at this point? So we had two to start. And I remember over the Easter holiday, I said to Joe, we need an, my husband's Joe. We need another station because I can't do this. Yeah. Like we have people wanting to get in, we don't have the room. We have one basin. So at this salon there was sliding doors that opened and we would do people's hair in front of the mirror and then you'd go and sit out on my back deck under a heater in winter and.

Under the shade in summer, out in the open, which was actually perfect because it was COVID times. Yeah. And we had one portable basin, but we had to get another portable basin, which was around the corner of the house on the grass. So it was like, oh gosh. I'm like, when you took home hairdressing, we did home hairdressing at its finest.

But everyone loved it because what they had was a really good experience. Yeah. They had beautiful hair. And it really quickly transitioned because I was working for myself and then I'm like, I need help. 'cause I've got so many people coming in. So I had to get an apprentice. Yeah. And then another girl contacted me, oh, I would love to work for you.

And I'm thinking, oh, far out. Okay. Okay. Okay. And I just kept saying, okay. And next thing you know, I'm thinking 150 clients a week, guys is massive, massive. Yeah. And it's that point where I, me and my husband, he, we sat down and we're like, this has to change. Yeah. Because A, they deserve to have a shower, go to the toilet in peace.

Yeah. Everyone does. Yeah. And the kids. And again, and we're kind of moving away from actually what was my why? My why was to be able to spend time with my kids not having this mammoth thing running at the back of our home. Yeah. Which was awesome. And I think there's a season for everything. Yeah. But that season was like, you can, we can never whinge about our small salons in the beginning.

And it was small. You can never be like, my salon is a baby salon because 15 square meters, seven square, 15 square meters, like a big deck area. But the photos, which I just love and I'll send you guys some Please. 'cause it's so cool. I'm just envisioning it all in my head and I love it. Yeah. A table and, and this is where when I see sounds with tables, I'm like community.

Yeah, yeah. Our clients love us because. They met people, they see people, they chat to people. Yeah. And I think more now than ever, people need community and relationships. Agree. Agree. Oh, definitely. And no one ever complained about sitting at a table having a coffee with foils in or a tinton chatting to someone.

No, they love it. They love it. Even in the chaos. Yeah. 'cause at the end of the day, your clientele are your ideal clientele, which means that you love community and they'll love community. Yeah. And it actually, what it did was it set a really firm foundation of like, okay, it's time to move. And this spot came up in Manly and we just felt like it was the right time.

And my husband's said to me, is this gonna be like big enough? Because we've got a lot of clients? And I said, yeah, the table in the middle. Like it's the only way. Mm. Yeah. Yeah. Not because yes, we need the space, but more so I'm not changing what our clients love. Yeah. What our clients love. And what you built is that, yeah.

Is community. So to this day we have 19 staff. We still do our with Love campaign every year. So we've now ticked over 108,000 since we started $108,000. Oh my gosh. That's amazing. Our community have never been stronger. 19 staff. Can we I wanna go. You're a superhero. I have to stop you on that. 19 staff is massive.

It's massive. Massive. So break down your 19 staff then. So you've got Yep. Like, okay. We have, now you tell challenging me. I've got two front of house. Yep. One was a hairdresser, now just does training in front of house. She's actually currently on mat leave. I've got one pure front of house. Mm-hmm. Then I have about three assistants casual and they.

Pretty much work the same shifts every week. Um, sometimes more. They don't often do less. Mm-hmm. Um, five apprentices Wow. At different stages. Yep. Yep. And then the rest are hairdressers. Wow. Cool. And me, I'm a hairdresser too. Yeah. So, um, look, it, it's, it is definitely when I rewind and I think back to that day when I made that decision to start my own salon, did I ever think that it would be this?

Absolutely not. But I'm the queen of delegation and I'm, as I said, the purpose part is my biggest accountability. And I just have people in my corner that is always encouraging me. And, you know, I've got a business coach who's awesome. I just think you just need people. Mm. And you can. We were talking about that before, right?

'cause you were like outsourcing. I am here for it. So like, I think I've logged into Xero since I started business twice and it was 'cause my bookkeeper was on annual leave and I'm like, I need to know, uh, how many hours someone's got annual leave. And I'm like trying to navigate it. I think I but with, as you said, with 19 staff and two children, um, you have to like 19 staff has to be the queen of delegation.

Especially if you still wanna do hair. Because Yeah, we were talking about this morning, it's like we were talking about it with Mon actually and she was like, 12 is like the sweet spot. Anything above that you have to manage this team. It is a big, which I love that aspect. Yeah. So I work on the floor one day a week.

Um, and to me that's enough. Yeah. That I love care that keeps that Yeah. To me, I, when I'm doing hair, the girls know that I'm not their boss today. I'm one of them. Yeah. I'm with them in the trenches. Doing hair and I love it. Yeah. And I'm very, I've got an amazing manager in there, um, who she just takes all the weight off me.

Yeah. Amazing. And Carissa, my other manager, she's on, on mat leave, but yeah, Lena, who she actually is my sister-in-law too, which is awesome. I love that. But yeah, she just, she knows me so well. She knows we are probably totally opposite personalities, but It works. But it works. Yeah. And so she can protect me from stuff as much as she can.

And, um, Carissa, who's on mat leave, she's also a hairdresser, but she does more training and stuff with the girls. So I've just got this team of people that we all work together. It's not easy having a big team, but I love the challenge of it. Mm. I love that. I heard this the other day from, um, this beautiful woman who will be listening to this.

Her name is Lisa. And, um, she said to me one of the hardest things is to be kind to someone that you don't get along with. Yeah. And I think, oh, that is so true because often in our job as salon owners, it's like, we're not gonna get along with everyone. No. But there's no reason we can't be kind to them. Mm.

And again, when you think about purpose, purpose for me isn't just the finances that we give, but it's actually like, how can we get people to come in as they are? Mm. I don't have to get along with you. I don't have to go out with you on the weekend. Although all of my girls, we all, we are all going to Fiji in a few weeks.

'cause we all get along amazingly. But I love that even if you don't, you can still be kind. Mm. Yeah. You can still lead with love, you can still have good conversations and hard conversations are often the best conversations. Yeah. I think that too really comes into that, um, differentiation between real leadership and just being a manager, you know what I mean?

Because that, we've often spoken about that. Being able to still put your heart into situations like that. You don't have to like everybody, you don't. No one in this world is gonna like everybody. It's just impossible. But you can always be kind. Always. And I, we sit down, so I do fortnightly, we do fortnightly team meetings.

We do um, quarterly, one-on-one meetings, but I think I have a conversation with all the girls, at least fortnightly one-on-one at some point. Yeah. Where I am trying to. Just wrap them with my arms and going All good? Mm. Yeah. How are you going today? How's your boyfriend? How's your mom? How's, how are you finding that training course?

How are you going on a Monday night? Like, just talk. I think that's also so important because we have to remember that we have such, like, my team is all young, like I have quite a young team and I want to model to them as much as I do to my own daughters and to my sons what that looks like in kindness.

Yeah. And what that looks like to be, you know, to have that integrity and to be graceful and to be thoughtful. And I'm always one of my team members, she always just thinks, she's so observant. She always looks indie. I love you. So if you, I'll, I'll tell you that I'm saying this, but she also, she always just like notices when I've had my nails done or when my hair done, or she remembers what I've spoken about last week.

And she'll always be like, how did this go? Or How are you feeling? Or, and she's young. And I just said to her the other day, that is means so much because it's something I'm constantly thinking of how to check in with you guys, but the fact that you have that like awareness to check back in, just like that's one of the most special qualities that you have.

And I wanna keep fostering that. It's not just about fostering their ability in what they do, but it's also fostering who they are. Yeah. I think, I don't know, maybe I'm a bit, maybe you guys are similar. I don't know if I'm different, but for me the hair is like not the most important part here. Hmm. Yeah.

The hair I can teach. Mm mm-hmm. But it's the connection and the people, it's the connection. And people say, oh, you can't teach bad pers bad, um, personality or whatever they, they're saying is. But I just feel like we can, well I certainly think we can model, model it and, and be. A guidance to how you can behave.

And I'm not saying that everyone is gonna work out. We've definitely had people that, you know, you've interviewed and you think, oh yeah, they're great. And then you're like, oh, okay, maybe they're not our culture. Yeah. They're not living our values. And, you know, lead, we've got a very much a leader, leader culture in our salon where there's no hierarchy.

Mm-hmm. Doesn't matter who you are. If something needs to get done, we do it. Um, but I think there's a lot to say in, in how we love others. Mm. And I know it, we, we get taught, it starts in the home. And I agree with that, but how do we make our sale in our home and how do we get everyone and what we do at Salon purpose is like, so this is now gonna be our second overseas holiday that we all do together.

And when people say, how can you do that? We do it because we all respect and love each other and we just go and everyone deserves it. And it's just part of who we are now. I just think that they work. So hard. And that's again, part of our purpose is to reward them. Mm. I love that. Yeah. Again, once you, and I think it's important to say to people before you probably, not necessarily the with Love campaign, but you know, before you were started to do overseas trips, you were set up financially like you Yeah.

Behind. It's not like you're like, alright, chuck it on the Amex. Because we're like, you know, you the, you know, we always say to people, you have to, your Y has to also include how you financially take care of your self and your family because that's why we, we do it. But once you do that, that's when you have this ability to be able to generously in so much more.

And I think even for me, like that's. Exciting because we got to that point and then we built this. Yeah. And then, you know, you kind of strip out the ability to use that because you're building back what you'd stripped out. But getting to that point feels so exciting because you all of a sudden can give back, you know, to charity, to humans, to everyone, to yourself, to everyone.

Yeah. To everybody in a way that, you know, it's not, uh, and it's not about the Birkin bag for me or, you know, I, it's about the community. How do you give back from that point so that, that feels, can we expand a bit on the With Love campaign? Yep. And just explain like what you do and how you do that with like, each initiative that you run.

Like, do you love that because you do a different charity each time? Yeah. Yeah. So I, um, when I first started it, my sister-in-law who inspired me to start. With one chair, one child. So they have an electrical business and they do one, they did one, they do one van, one child. And then my husband was like, I really like that.

And he did one chippy, one child. And then I was like, Ooh, I can do one chair, one child. So meaning you sponsor every chair I had in my salon, I sponsored a child. Yes. So we had two children and as the salon has grown and we've now got nine or eight, but um, so we, I knew I wanted to give, but where that money went, I wasn't, I wasn't really that fussed with it.

I knew as long as it was going to good places. Yeah. For me, I was really open to the charities. So my heart is actually in international aid. I think that there's a lot of need in countries that don't have much at all, like clean water, like food, but there's also lots of need locally. Mm. So I knew I wanted to try and.

Do everything. So I, um, I change it every year. Every year I ask the girls, we, um, we partner with ProPur. I'm not sure if anyone's heard of Pro Purpose. So it, it helps businesses, um, give to give within their business. Yeah. So, um, with those, they, they've got a few charities within it and we just go, okay, this year, what are we gonna give to?

Mm. Sometimes I ask a client, sometimes I ask the girls, but as long as it's going to a good charity for me, as long as it's leaving us and going to someone who needs it, um, that's the important thing for me. So, yeah, that's, it's very cool and it feels so good, but it, it, like when you were saying the numbers before, it didn't start big.

Mm. And I think you have to be really intentional about it. And so for me. A bit of background on me, and I think I'm speaking to a whole bunch of hairdressers that can say, yes, I understand you is at school. I struggled. Mm. At school. I was always below par. I had to get my HSC reader to read to me. My HSC was written for me.

Um, I did my HSE because I wanted to stay in school with my friends, not because I was benefit benefiting academically. Yeah. Mm. Um, and when I left school, my mom said to me, when all my friends went on that gap year, um, you're not going on a gap year. You need to get a job. And for me, I thought hairdressing was an easy job for dropouts.

Mm. That was what I thought. That's what I believed. That's what my career advisor had advised me to do. Um, so I started hairdressing thinking it was a bit of a dead end job, and I kind of believed those lies for a while. You start to believe that when I started hairdressing my um. Bosch used to say, you're phenomenal at hair.

Like, I could do so well, I earned great money. Um, but the things that were spoken was, you'd never be good at running a salon because you're not good at numbers. Mm. And you've gotta be good at numbers. You're just great at hair. And then again, you start to believe those things. And then when I first decided to open the business, I'm like, I need to learn my numbers.

And that's really scary for me because A, I am not a very good reader to this day. I still haven't read a book and terrible at numbers. I'm not sure how to use Excel spreadsheets, but I had to learn really quickly because what I didn't want was my business to fail because I didn't know my numbers. Mm.

And so did you find it easier to learn that because there was a purpose behind you needing to learn it? Mm. What I, what? Yeah. The purpose for me was I need to allocate. So I need to know that each week this is what I need to bring in. Yeah. And each week this is what needs to go out. And I actually didn't do it weekly.

I did it monthly. And honestly to anyone that's listening that doesn't do it. There is so much incredible power in that I've been doing this 16 years and still to this absolute day. I go, I did it last night. You can sleep. 'cause I knew today was busy. Yeah. And you know, we, I heard it actually on the call the other day that we did and she was like, what's your, what are you thinking about it?

You know, think about what people are thinking about at 2:00 AM and it's, how do I pay my wages? Is enough money money coming in today to pay the wages? Yeah. It's, you know, how do I pay that stock bill? And being able to move people from that means. That you get to give in this like a beautiful way that feels aligned and it's really exciting because the other areas are controlled and safe.

Yeah. Because I realized that, I talked about financial security, but it's not, it's financial safety. Yeah. For me, and you know, for me it was financially being able to look after myself and my three children without the other support. And then when you get there, you just go, this is why. And then you start, you can really move into that purpose role.

Yeah. And so I've always thought, and it only just clicked a few years ago, probably, is how can we be profitable? Known for profit, profit for purpose? Yeah. Yeah. How do, and for me, I always knew how I could make money. Yes. 'cause I'm efficient, I charge really well. But that changes when you start to have a team.

Yeah. And then you've got overheads and rent. So what I knew I had to do really well is I had to train my staff. To work how I worked. Mm-hmm. Which is what we do. And not losing their creativity. Not everyone's exactly the same, but in a roundabout way, what I know is this Salon Salon purpose will be always profit for purpose.

Mm-hmm. Yeah. And the purpose aspect and arm of it looks different. And we do that really well, but differently in terms of its financial, its wellbeing, it's giving locally, it's giving globally, it's doing a whole heap of things. But it all stems down to at the end of the month when I'm doing my p and ls, how can we do this?

So things are allocated. There's an aspect for generosity. There's money going into generosity. Yeah. There's money going into giving, there's money going into my tax account, there's, and it all just gets divided up. So then I'm like, okay, can't do a big team thing this month, but. Maybe next month. You know, like you can just see it all there.

Yeah. Um, I think the thing too is, and I spoke about this on um, stories the other day. I was, my, actually my pastor at church was talking about the 70 10 20, the 70 20 10 rule. Um, and it was, you know, 10% of giving with the church and then 20% of, you know, your 70, your 70% of your income. So whether that be in the salon or whether that be personally.

That's what should be al allocated to all of the bills, then you should have your 20% buffer. Mm. And that 20% buffer means that it's doing exactly what you can do. Mm. It means it's the trip for the team. It means, you know, it's, and that's in that 70% is your wage and your expenses and all of that. Yeah. All the expenses to run whatever size business you have.

But if your work, like if your bills are at capacity, if they're at a hundred percent, there's no room. There's no room, there's no room. And people say like, how do I start creating profit in my business? If you are living to the a hundred percent never. Yeah. So you need to live to the 20, you need 70% of your expenses and then 30% of that extra.

And then that gives you the wiggle room to be able to do exactly what you're doing. You know, you'd get to the end of the month and if you're like, okay, it was at 70%, so I've got this money left over. What am I doing? What am I allocating with it? How can I, you know, how can I enjoy it? And that's also with having buffers.

I always talk about making sure you have a buffer in your account. You don't ever run it to zero. You have a buffer, especially with a team of 19. Oh yeah. You've gotta make sure that, so we've got our buffer. If you have a quiet month, there's extra money sitting there. You don't ever spend beyond your means, which is what I see a lot of people do.

Oh, I wanna take my team on a holiday because other people are doing it not well. People can afford it. Get asked. And when I, people ask me that all the time, how do you do what you do? But there's no simple answer to it. But something I would highly encourage is numbers and what I see you guys teaching.

Oh, I just go, thank you. It needs to be taught because. For me, I was incredibly blessed that I had someone teaching me that early in the piece. And it took me a while to kind of find my groove, because it's a hard concept when you're first learning to grasp. It's like learning a new, how do you learn? Like use a new muscle?

Yeah. It hurts at the start, but then you are like, okay, I, I feel like I'm kind of grasping this. And it's exciting because I think back in 2020 when I did it, I was like, amazing. And we are dealing with such a small amount. Yeah. And we're giving such a, at the time it was big, but now I look back, I'm like, well that was small.

But actually if you do that every month and it all stacks up every month, like we're now at $108,000 that we've been able to give. But it all started with that 600 hundred dollars. Yeah. Yeah. So it just is like, you know, intentional generosity, heartland, like it just keep doing that. And now simple ways that you can be giving.

That can make an impact in either your local community or international community as well. Yeah. You know, like even like, I don't have a huge amount financially to give, but I am a member of her aid and will give one Sunday a month to cut home people's head. Like, so sometimes it's your time that you can give.

Oh, and this is what I spoke about festival and it was at church. It was like, it's not just about finance being is not just about finances. It's how can you give in other ways? How are you being generous with your time? Yeah. How are you being generous with your love? And even for me, sometimes I think, oh, it's in the little things like bringing dessert in for the girls.

Yep. It's the little things like that that is the generosity in a different way that makes people feel seen and loved. And it might be, you know, a client will come in, you don't charge them, you know, and it is not because of anything other than you know, a little bit of a backstory and you're like, I had that the other day.

I had a, I had a. Woman that was in that, I just randomly got to do her hair and at the end she was like, it was way more than that. And I was like, I just, I see you and I just, I'm, I'm really grateful that I got to take care of you today. Mm-hmm. Yeah. It's the, and then I sent her a message. Um, her daughter was getting married, so I sent her a message on that Sunday and made sure it's the generosity and this is not me being like, oh, get him secret, but I'm meaning in different areas.

It doesn't have to be financial as he dresses. And I'm, I'm, I can't say that louder is yes, we are known for our 108,000 and yes, I'm incredibly proud of that, but I'm also incredibly proud of doing. The indigenous woman who lived on Manley Beach, who was homeless, who needed a haircut, who didn't feel comfortable gonna any other salon but ours because she walked past to go to the toilet every day.

Mm. Yeah. And it wasn't until when she came in, and I still remember that moment of her, and I still think she probably didn't have a drink that morning. Mm. Because she was a bit nervous about coming in. And she came in and she was so quiet. 'cause usually she's swearing up and down, gonna the bathrooms. But she was like, she put on her best behavior.

And I thought, oh, how cool is it? Mm. Yeah. That we get to bless people. Mm. And I think it's not just the money's awesome. And if you can afford it and know your money, your finances and give great, please do it because our world and our community needs it. But if you can't time use what's in your hands? I'm huge.

I'm huge with go everyone going like. What is in your hand? And everyone's in different seasons. We've all got stuff going on, but I think we can all dig and I, I actually, it's funny 'cause you do sometimes think, okay, I, I feel like I've got it going on. But the other week I got to work early and it was freezing and I was standing out the front and I got dropped to work 'cause my husband needed the car and I didn't have the salon key.

So I was kind of waiting out the front and the lady from the chemist next door, who I know pretty well, she's our neighbor, came out, hooked me under the arm and said, what are you waiting for? Let me take you for a coffee. And instantly I was like, oh, okay, great. And then I'm like, oh, far out. Like it's so nice to be blessed.

Mm. Like we often other ones giving, but I'm like, oh, and somebody does it back for us. Yeah. And it's felt it's all day. I am like, huh. I got taken for a coffee this morning. By my neighbor who saw me just standing out the front. 'cause I was early to work. I didn't have a salon key. It was a bit cold. And we went and got a coffee and I thought, wow, that made my day.

And I talk about it all the time. Mm. Yeah. So there's huge, yeah, there's, there's lots to say about what generosity looks like. Mm. And actually, what have we got in our hands? Because everyone's different. Everyone's in different seasons. And I think we can only do what we've got. And then we also forget that we have so much of a chance to do that through just an appointment, just through who we are.

I had to, um, I went through a procedure this morning and the woman that was my nurse, I've met her before, turns out, but I'm like, a long time ago, but she, I found out that she was my sister's neighbor. So she, but she was like, how are the kids? Are you still hairdressing? How's the salon on? And in my. Fear.

Phil just wanted to cry the whole time. I just felt so looked after because she was like, yeah, I'm, and she sat behind me and it was like, this woman I can't even remember meeting. And she just made the biggest impact to my life. Yeah. Yeah. That was not her job to do. Mm. But it was like, but who she is made the biggest difference on my life.

Mm-hmm. You know, and I think we forget that in those moments, you know, that it's, that's her job. So she's used to it. She sees it all the time. So some people become cold to that. And I think we forget that as well when someone comes in and I said, I spoke to my girls the other day and said, we may be the only touch that they have for the next month.

Yeah. Yeah. They may not have a partner, or they may not have, we may be the only ear that listens to their stories over and over again because there's no one else to listen. Mm. And that means more than anything else. The hair is the best bonus point. But yes, the hair is just the, it just has to be cherry on top.

It is, isn't it? And I also on that think sometimes as hairdressers, we can often see our clients as just, it's like kind of transactional. Yeah. But actually, if we can just stop and go, this is someone's daughter Yeah. That we are doing. Yeah. And they might have saved for a long time for this appointment, or they might be getting a loan for this appointment or paying on a credit card or whatever.