Meet Phoebe, Founder of The Blow.
We discuss her side hustle to entrepreneurial journey and why branding is everything when it comes to creating an experience for your customers.
Come and be immersed in some brand talk with us and on how the modern, strong female founder does it best. Phoebe talks us through the 6 pillars of branding that explains her do's and do not's.
MORE ABOUT RUBY...
>> Sign up to my SOUL LED BU$INESS💫 course here
>> Access my FREE CLASSES✨ here
>> Find and send me a message with me on INSTAGRAM📸 here
>> Find out more about COACHING WITH ME💛 here
Meet Phoebe, Founder of The Blow.
We discuss her side hustle to entrepreneurial journey and why branding is everything when it comes to creating an experience for your customers.
Come and be immersed in some brand talk with us and on how the modern, strong female founder does it best. Phoebe talks us through the 6 pillars of branding that explains her do's and do not's.
MORE ABOUT RUBY...
>> Sign up to my SOUL LED BU$INESS💫 course here
>> Access my FREE CLASSES✨ here
>> Find and send me a message with me on INSTAGRAM📸 here
>> Find out more about COACHING WITH ME💛 here
Welcome to the own your hustle podcast. My name is Ruby Lee. I'm a side hustle coach, entrepreneur, and all the energy you need to turn your idea into freedom. Here's a little something about me. I was once Neely fired for having a side hustle and today I dedicate my life and business to enabling early stage entrepreneurs everywhere to create options in their career and abundance on their own terms. Some while still balancing a day job site hustlers are the future of work and I am on apologetic for our ambition from working through your hundred ideas to creating a successful sideline business. I'll share my own experiences, practical tips, and help you crush through those mindset blockers. So if you're ready, I'm ready. Let's get started. Welcome back to another episode. Thank you so much you guys. This week I've been getting so many messages from all of you on the Instagrams and also through Apple and Castbox reviews. Seeing all of your amazing comments about how this podcast is really helping you take either massive steps forward, baby steps forward, whatever it is, but just sparing you into action. This was the vision for this podcast and I so appreciate you guys riding in and I just really, really had to just start off today's episode saying, I love you all as so, so much. I also wanted to let you know it that my brand new six week program open for business is now taking enrollments. Oh, it is so good. There are so many just Epic things that you're going to be learning over six weeks with me, but we're really going to be focusing on branding, personal branding, business branding. We're going to be learning about how to sell and how to do it from a place that feels so incredibly natural to you and connected to you. And I'm also going to help you create some pretty Epic offers in your business. Go and check out the link in the show notes. It is called open for business. Very, very different from just starting a business. And I can't wait to work with you one to one over the next six weeks. Okay. But without further ado, today's podcast interview is an Epic one. It is a long chat. I love me a good long chat. Yes. I was at girl at 16 years old holding up the dial up internet because I'd be on the phone to my friends for hours and hours and hours and my dad would be like, what is going on? Can I use the internet now? I'm like, dad, I need to have long, long, long conversations and here is one that I've captured with the one, the only, the incredible Phoebe Simmons. Now I have to let you guys know I met Phoebe by absolute universal alignment. I'm just going to call it that. You know what it was. I knew that I wanted to up level a lot of things in my life and I had just hit five figure months in my business, which was incredible and I decided to commit to doing a lot of self care, much more than what I had in that first year of business. And this of course included getting weekly blow dries. It came out of one of my journaling sessions and I'm like, I want to have damn fine hair and I need to find a salon that can help cater to that. One day I walked past the shop front and I'm pretty sure I was really, really cranky that day. It was raining, I was grumpy. And then I saw the glow of the neon light, which said the good hustle and honestly anything that says hustle on it, I'm like, what is this amazing calling he was calling? And this magical place turned out to be a brand new blow dry bar, which just popped up right around my neighborhood and I knew I had to book in and I became obsessed. I booked multiple packages and I even got gifted it for my birthday and well, I've just had really beautiful hair ever since. So Phoebe is the owner of the blow and it's just one of those incredible souls that just loves her business. You can just tell the first thing you see in faves, you know, this beaming, glowing, friendly, warm face as you walk in. There's just, you know, Oh my gosh, there's just an incredible environment and she'll likely give you a huge hug once you get to know her. If you go to the salon. I always, I just always feel, you know, you make me feel food. Like I am just like your best client ever. Like that's this the, you know, the overall like warm feeling I get when I walk in and I just love it. I love that we've just spent so much time talking about entrepreneurship crystals, Vology, Korea, boys. So much stuff amongst the hairdryers going off and the laughter and the salon and well, it just seemed a shame not to bring it to life right here on the parties. So themes, welcome you, amazing woman you. Thank you for being on today. Thank you very be. I'm so thrilled to be here in any excuse to talk to you and best so, so good. Okay, so tell us a little bit about what you do now. What is it that you, what's the business that you are in and how long have you been in business for sure. So I am the founder of the blow, which is a blow dry boutique in the head of the Melbourne CBD. It will soon be a national business and that's what we're working on now. Uh, we opened on September 7th, so we're just about to enter our seventh month, uh, which is incredibly exciting and my day to day is growing the business and making sure that we're on track. Um, in terms of strategic direction, a lot of brand and marketing, looking after all of this socials, working with a publicist on media and then, uh, spending a lot of time in the, but probably about 50% of my time just to make sure that I've got enough kind of head space, um, to be able to run the business kind of outside the operational with them. Wow. Like there's so much in here that I think the podcast listeners, I know I've never actually interviewed someone who started a side hustle that went into building a physical business. I've got so many questions there for you and you've just started to say a lot of things in there that I think is quite so interesting for us, especially with PR and media. So prior to being this amazing bad-ass founder of the boutique, you were actually just working away in an amazing job as marketing director for benefit and you were there for so long and I'm sure growing the brand as well in that time, what did you learn about starting a business and how did you bring that across in terms of, you know, that early stage ideation mode of starting a little side hustle? Totally. So, yeah, you're right, Ruby. I had
Speaker 2:probably one of the greatest jobs that I could ever have imagined as marketing director for benefit. And I had been with its parent company LVMH, which is Louis Vuitton Moet Hennessy, um, which is a global luxury conglomerate that owns brands like Dior and Mark Jacobs and Sephora and Moet and Chandon and Bulgari and all those incredible brands that you would say, um, around the world. Um, and so I had a very disciplined training for eight years. Um, when I was living in London and then in Singapore, um, and then back in Melbourne and Sydney as part of LVMH. And that training was really around branch and how to build a brand, how do identify a unique point of difference, a unique voice. And the thing that really has always kind of stuck with me from, um, this, this training, um, was that if you don't stand for something, you never gonna stand out. And LVMH really cultivates that unique point of difference with all of its brands. And luckily I worked for what I think is the best brand in the LVMH stable, which has benefit, which is a brand incredibly rich in DNA. Um, and a lot of really fun personality that none of its competitors in the cosmetics fear can replicate just because it's so new. Think can, it runs through its veins. Um, and so yeah, I was, I was at benefit, um, in Southeast Asia. Um, I was living in Singapore and my job there was to expand benefits business across Sephora as it was really building up steam across countries like Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, India, Thailand. Um, and then I was ready to come home after being overseas for five and a half years and I moved back to Australia and headed up the marketing at benefit for three years. And so yeah, when I'm at benefit, I was really working on how to establish the brand and get greater brand awareness, but also really explode itch the values, um, and the personality of the brand so that we were standing out amongst what was becoming a really cluttered market in, in well globally, but as even in Australia. Um, and then from there I started to learn of the need for a blow dry because I have incredibly frizzy dry hair and I was wanting to present a certain way, go and have a look at our socials. You'll see all the before and afters and you won't believe what my hair looks like or I get a blow dry that plan. I'm such a good, um, advertisement for it. And I was, you know, it was a little bit of imposter syndrome. I was rocking up to these important meetings with, you know, the biggest retailers in the world and my hair, you know, would never look perfect because I was doing it with a GHD and, um, and I didn't feel like I was presenting myself in the best possible way. I had a team of 10 and you know, really wanted to lead from the front. So I started trying to get blow dryers, but no blow dry bars in Sydney were open at the time that I needed them, which was first thing in the morning. 8:00 AM was too late for me because what happens when I had an eight 30 meeting, um, none of them were kind of delivering the experience that I wanted or I thought thought should be offered to what could be a premium experience. Um, it wasn't convenient. It wasn't competitively priced and it wasn't cool. Um, so when I was traveling a lot to San Francisco, so the benefit I was seeing, um, businesses over there, um, like dry bar where women would line up, they'd be like 12, 15 women lined up for their 7:00 AM blow dry. And I thought, God, I feel like Israeli women would invest in blow dries because they really see the value. I see the value in them. I feel like a completely different person. Once I've had a blow dry, I feel like I can take on the world, but it needs to be made accessible to them. And then I just got thinking, you know, considering my background in expansion, I know how to build a store. I know how to negotiate for contracts. I know how to build a brand. And I was thinking, Oh well I can do that. Um, and so 11 months later we opened our doors in little Collins street. So they go, Oh my gosh, no, I'm, Oh my goodness. I had goosebumps when you just said that. It's like so much can happen in one year. Yeah. Take us to that 11 months. Right? Like I'm sure you had a lot of moments in their learning of sourcing stuff, of pricing, of working out. Oh my gosh. When do you quit your day job? Like all of that stuff that would have happened. What did it look like for you in terms of balancing your role as marketing director and then starting the boutique? Sure. So I think that balance for me was never a concern. Um, I am an excellent manager of time, um, and I'm pretty efficient and a lot of people have said, Oh, why? So basically with the timing, I had the idea in October 17 I resigned from benefit in February, but I didn't leave until July 28. Um, I got in the car, drove from Sydney to Melbourne, landed in Melbourne. Yeah. The same day, July 28th, and then we got the keys August two and we opened September seven. There wasn't, it's not like I took time off to really build the branch. Um, that was all done in my own time when I was still at benefit and they're raising that, I think that that's achievable or it was, it was achievable for me was because with business building it's quite lumpy and there's a lot of waiting around. There's waiting for contacts to email you back. So I feel like if I had quit my day job and you know, just to focus on the business, I don't think it would have made much of a difference in terms of turning things around. Do you know what I mean? Like there's always these waiting for up calls. So the work that I had to do personally was all done outside of hours. Like I'd get home, I'd probably work on their business plan, you know, sometimes, you know, a lot of Sunday afternoons where I feel like is where I'm in quite a creative head space and made to, I love a good Sunday hustle, hustle with the candle and a bit of Bonnie. They're like, nothing can be there. Oh my gosh, I am there with you. So there was a lot of that and I would say that the business plan took six months to get perfect and beautiful. And you know, it was, there was a lot of tinkering. Um, a lot of meetings, you know, catching up with people. The best advice that I had was from Alice Tran who started the day Lee edited. I met with her probably five or six months in. And you know, I asked her her advice and you know, she's a huge wealth of knowledge and she was like, stop taking these meetings. Like just do it. Like, and I think that that was incredibly helpful cause that was what my gut was telling me that I was, I was ready to go, but I felt like, Oh, to have a bit more credibility to or to feel even more confident, I need to reach out to as many people as possible and feel like I've got, you know, all of these networks established bit, you can't really control that. And so that gave me, I think a little bit of agency to be like, alright, let's just do this. Yeah. So I would say that was, that was some really helpful advice for me. Um, and then so the piece that everything really fell into place once I got the, the hair right. And the hair piece was so important because it's the product and I technically am not a hairstylist, had no control over the product. So what I did was I was able to reach out to an incredible woman whose name is Katrina Gallo, who was, uh, referred to me by a friend. Um, these friends said she is the best hairstylist I've ever met him.
Speaker 1:My sad Katrina, we love, yes
Speaker 2:Trina. And the minute that I met her I was like, all right, we're good. Because that was the thing that I didn't have any confidence in. Right. And what I learnt was, you know, you lean into your strengths, you play these strengths, but you also have to acknowledge your weaknesses. And so the weakness for me was always going to be here because I can't do it myself. So I really had to lean onto someone who I could really trust to take that vision and run with it to build out the styles, the signature styles that we create in store to be able to train the team. And then we got moving with our ENCO, which is our product partner who came on board really quickly, super supportive, worked on the right products to create the different styles. And then we had some real movement. I was like, okay, so we've got the product, I've done the brand, let's go. Wow.
Speaker 1:Wow. And it's funny, isn't it? Because you can stay at a plateau for so long and then two or three pieces fall into play in a short period of time and you're ready. You're so ready. You know what's so funny about Katrina? I was at the boutique and I was getting my heads on and then Katrina comes up to me. I didn't know Katrina was at the time. And she's like, okay, what are we doing? We're gonna, we're playing with some styles today. And I had somebody else working on my hair and she's like, Oh my gosh. Do you know how lucky you are? You've got Katrina at working on your head. I was this incredible. So that was awesome. And Oh my bathroom is now stopped firing clear cause I upgraded the boys so much. I'm, I'm like always buying bed. Oh wow. So look at that. And you are just so good at time management. You have such a drive around your focus. Like I, whenever we do talk about entrepreneurship, which let's face it, most times we do, I just always see you have such a clarity around what that next step looks like. And I know that like you're sort of going, what really I don't believe ways I've lived through so many early stage entrepreneurs now. I mean your focus is just incredible. Can we go back to something you said earlier about brand? I've never heard of brand spoken about this way before and it's your first language because you've been in it for so long, but you said a term
Speaker 2:in there around branding and DNA and that, you know, it really has like a real character behind it. And I see that now as you're talking about it, I'm like wow, that's what you bring out in terms of, you know, like a curl or wave and you bring almost these ladies to life. What do you mean by brand DNA? Can you kind of break that down for us? Absolutely. Because it's something that I'm incredibly passionate without DNA. So I'll tell you the LVMH kind of approach, right? So LVMH believes that every brand has a unique DNA. And that's what makes the brand special and unique. Just like how we all have our own unique DNA and that's what makes us unique. So when I was building out the brand, what we stand for, who our customers are, what the product is, how we're going to deliver it, what our vision is, the first step before we do any of that with DNA. So what I identify is very similar to how benefit to it, which is the six pillars of the DNA. So what are the six things that make us so unique and so different to any other brand out there? Um, because let's be honest, a blow dry bar is not unique, right? Blow dries. You could get a blow dry from a lot of hair salons or all hair salons in Melbourne, but why have people wanting to come to the block? Okay. And for me, it, yes, I believe it's a lot to do obviously with the experience, but the experience stems from the DNA. Maybe it's because of the space looks beautiful, but the space looks beautiful because of the DNA. Maybe it's because of Instagram and how Instagram looks and how we're speaking to it. That all stems from the DNA. So the DNA DNA is kind of like a guiding principle, um, that it explains every single thing we do and every single thing we don't do. So we use that as a yardstick. Um, so for example, it bent at not a benefit at the blow, so used to it, um, the six pillars of the DNA, a good hustle, right? So obviously that's our neon that you can see in our space that you were really attracted to Ruby. I explain good hustle as getting, get out and get it go. So I am offering up fast and effortless, blow dry that without the fluff and fuss. I don't do champagne. I don't do chandeliers because I think it's more important to value women's time. And um, it's more important for women to be able to get on with their day rather than spending, you know, hours and you know, in the chair, in the hair salon. So we're all about efficiency, that good hustle, that positive energy. I love that. And I definitely resonate with that because I've, I've literally come in for a blood drive before I have an hour in between meetings and I'm always like in and out. It is so good. I get that totally. It's just like, life's too busy. Like life is just hectic and particularly for professional women who were in the Melbourne save a day or on a Saturday morning, a lot of women come in before weddings and stuff. You just, we need to value their time. Just like, I value my time. I'm a, I'm a pretty impatient person. I think that really that, that drives the energy and that good hustle of the brand, then another pillar is strong as fuck. So really unapologetically feminist, um, which really is a lot of the language that you'll say. I'm on Instagram.[inaudible] defines, um, the kind of women that we work with, the influences that we work with. Um, it's, it's a real value there. Um, and I won't hold back from that, um, turning heads. So that's around the product, right? There's styles that inspire courage, confidence, curiosity. I want women to be able to walk out of the blow, feeling like they can conquer their day with confidence, that they can smash glass ceilings, that they can go into that meeting feeling a little bit more special or they can go on that date feeling a little bit more special or they can go to that wedding feeling a little bit more special. So obviously that's really important made in Melbourne. So a con as place of origin is really important to the brand DNA sometimes. Um, so like for example, benefit, it's all about San Francisco, whereas, um, at the blow we're made in Melbourne, which to me means auntie lots and auntie Glen. So it's not about, it's not about the pout, it's not about, as I said before, the chandelier and this really bougie experience. Um, it's about real women getting shit done, feeling great and getting on with it. And I think there's a real grit there, which I think is a really aspirational personality trait for women. Now. Um, you know, grit is really everything to me and I think Melbourne had that kind of energy. Um, and now that element of the day and age is going deeper. So we have a partnership with share the dignity, which provides sanitary items to women who are homeless or maybe victims of domestic violence. Um, and$1 from every blow dry goes to share the dignity. It's really important to me as a small business that we root ourselves in the community and we give back. Women are walking out of our cell and feeling great and I want that in it. That energy that, that feeling to be replicated in some small way with um, other women who may not have the ability to come to the blow every week. Um, and then the, the last element that last but not least is always on warmth. So I hire based on high energy and positive vibes were all about having a, creating a really positive experience for our guests. Super smiley, always on, always positive, always happy that that impacts the music that we play. That impacts obviously. Yeah. Hiring as I mentioned, um, the language that I use on Instagram, you know, I won't post, I won't post a message on Monday morning. That's like Monday, you know, and stuff because that to me that's already negative. Um, so I want, I want women to always feel like they can take on the day.
Speaker 1:Oh my gosh, I am nodding furiously over here. I'm like, yes, yes.
Speaker 2:So that the DNA and that's, yeah, as I said, that informs everything we do and don't do. That's what makes us unique from everyone out there. That's what makes our blow dries the blow, blow dries out experience the blow experience that can't be replicated by any other business.
Speaker 1:Yeah. And I think there are so many massive takeaways for you guys listening in on how you can apply this DNA concept to your own businesses as well. Whether it be a physical business or an online one. It's the same ride. It happens everywhere because it, like you said, Phoebes you know, it leads into to your Instagram page or how you talk about things online on your website and then to your physical clients as well. And, Oh my gosh, I just learnt so much there. My mind was racing around thinking, okay, I need to like seriously go back and brainstorm what my DNA is and how I want my brand to be perceived. Because branding is one of those things that, you know, it kinda creeps up on you. Like you, you kind of think, Oh well I'll just get a website up there and we'll see what happens. But if you don't know what you stand for, then you just end up becoming a wallflower and blending in with everybody else. And that's not what we want. Yeah. And I love, I love what you've just spoken about here. It's just you've just dropped the values so good. Um, just to finish up on that, it's all there. Like you've got your DNA, but maybe putting it on paper can sometimes be really helpful because also when you expand, it's not just going to be you. Um, and so it needs to be something that when you hire a new person or even when you have a web developer or when you need to brief in the interior designer, refer to that page, refer to that document and it will help, um, spark their direction as well. Absolutely. For those listening in who are really wanting to start a physical shop, a boutique or a salon or you know, any kind of shop, what are some of the steps that you would advise them to do, especially when it comes to seeking the finance side of things, you know, like savings, capital investing, funding, all of that. What are some of the top couple of you might have
Speaker 2:for someone in that space right now? So the blow is privately funded, um, and so I haven't yet had to go out to investors. Um, that will be stage two when we need to expand. Um, for me, obviously the same thing is key. Um, particularly after I walked away from benefit because it meant that I didn't have an income anymore. And my income right now is much less than it will be much. Like I was pulling it benefit. Yeah. Hashtag entrepreneur life fun. I love kids. Um, um, I think someone gave me really good advice, which I've kept in the back of my mind, which is so you'll have these money that you will have saved that you're investing into the business and you'll see that in your bank account and you will think that you, you will spit, you don't want to spend what you've got. So only spend what you absolutely think you need to. So for example, like as a small example could be like, you know, Oh I want to do umbrellas and shower caps for the blow and cause that makes sense, right? How cool would it walk away? We know when it's raining with a blow branded umbrella that says get it girl. I was looking at that at the start cause I'd got tote bags, which everyone loves, but I wanted to do on premise and shower caps and, but that would just coming through is so expensive. I was like, God, that would be a great brand experience. I've kind of gotten the money for it, but do I need to spend it now? Um, how would the money be better placed to, you know, improve X, Y and Zed, um, you know, for broader rage. Like maybe I could put that in more into Google advertising, build brand awareness instead. So I think there's always going to be an opportunity cost. Um, but that, that was one advice that really run through to me. Um, I would also say in terms of investment, and I can't speak of this from my own personal blow experience, but from what I know from a lot of conversations that I've been having and have had in the past is getting funding is actually not that hard. There are so many people out there who have money who will want to support your dream and believe in you. Um, and you just need to find that right person. Um, and I would say that finding those investors may be a better option than being in debt to a bank because that's the stress can come in. Um, and also the investors, if you can find investors who can add additional
Speaker 1:value outside of cash. So they may have real estate connections or they may have a background in, I don't know, Google ads or you never know. So I would, I would say that if you can find investors who can cover off some of your weaknesses, it may not be a bad idea because then you can give them a little bit of equity without the stress of um, having to, um, work with a bank who can be add another layer of complexity and anxiety takes such solid advice. And I think it's true. I mean it's not one dimensional when it comes to any sort of investing and any sort of like funding requests, right? There's always room to negotiate. And I'm so impressed Phoebes that you guys are privately funded. That is insane. I had no idea until like right now and you have come so far, you've done so well in that time and I know you said at the start that it is very, very soon going to be a national brand and we are so backing like that growth and just the expansion there, it's incredible. Now one of the things that I have to share with the community is I remember I was getting my hair done at the boutique, it was around the Australian open season and we had a bit of a mini chat and then you said, I'm really sorry ribs. I've got to go. I've got to go speak to all of the hotels around this area. I'm going to drop off some goodies, some you know, business cards and let them know about the boutique. So I've got to run catch you later. And I remember just thinking, Oh my gosh, and that girl knows how to hustle. That is the work. Like that is what from the outside looking in, they might see how amazing the website look, how it looks, how amazing the branding looks on Instagram. But the real shit happens when you literally load up with tote bags and pavement. Right? And it's like I'm the founder of this boutique that that's amazing. Like do you do that quite often? You know, is that something that's a part of your practice to grow your brand and your business? Absolutely. Because it's, there's only one person who can do that and that's me. Um, and so you've really just got to get your hands dirty and find all of these new ways to grow the business. Um, that's why I'm always wearing sneakers. Rubes cause I'm always, you know, for me particularly early on and I'm still feeling, I mean we're only seven months in, bit every day. I think, is there something else I can be doing to build the business? Is there one more email I can send? Is there one more Instagram connection I can make? Is there one new yet when you connection or can I go back to the hotels? And yet sometimes like it's cold calling, right? But it's your own business and you've only got yourself either to, not blame, but you've only, you've got to hold yourself accountable to make sure that you're doing everything that you can possibly do to make it a success. Because my hair is showing up every day and doing everything that they can do to create beautiful hair and a lovely customer experience. So my job is to grow the business. And hotels are a great example of that because they've been so supportive and they're sending so many, um, brilliant guests our way. Cause we're right in the heart of, um, kind of the hotel district, um, up the top of, um, like the Paris center of Melbourne. But yeah, so I think I'm, I'm always doing that and I'm always on the go and always thinking of those new ways and like no job is too small. No jobs. Yeah, I love that. And you know, I remember even when I first started, I had this sort of feeling like every night before I went to bed I would ask myself, have I done what I could have possibly done to show up online in order for the right people to find me, to see me, to stumble upon my work. And just like how I stumbled across your physical boutique. It was just so by chance, but definitely universal alignment. And it was like honestly without the decision, let's say of you not having that glowing Tangerine neon signs saying the good hustle and looking inside and seeing how happy and the vibe was in there. Would I have looked you guys up online and booked in like multiple blow dries now? Probably not. And it's like the small decisions that you make that end up having such a huge impact and then bringing in forever clients and now you know, people like me, who am I? I'm such a massive advocate for what you do. Literally all of my girlfriends know who you are. My Instagram tribe. Just know who you are. So good. And I think that's it. Like, ask yourself, you guys, are you doing everything that you can? Because so often I hear from clients or for people that you know, come across my Insta account, they'll say, Oh, you know, I've tried everything and it's just not working in business is hard. And like, well, have you tried everything? And then if you have, then ask yourself, is what I'm doing actually moving the needle or is it just doing things for the sake of doing things right? There's like different activities that's actually going to make a greater impact on your business growth, your income and your sales, your brand reach. Yeah, absolutely. What's been the most challenging part of this first seven months did you say was as of today almost? Um, I, it's mental stability. It really is. Um, particularly because it's, well, obviously I have an incredible support system around me and I have an incredible team. Um, but the buck stops with me and I wouldn't say that I'm a perfectionist, but I know what good is and I have expectations on myself and that[inaudible]
Speaker 2:that I hold myself accountable form and[inaudible]. I, particularly for the first four months, it was just go, go, go. So we opened in September, it was hit the ground running. We had a phenomenal response. So early on from the women of Melbourne, which was incredible. And then we had spring racing carnival, which was Ben Arnaz and then holiday season, which really took me by surprise, like women need to be beautiful. They have beautiful hair like a lot in December. Um, and then the Christmas parties, the Christmas parties, and then January I knew it was going to be quiet because um, retail in January is always incredibly quiet, but it was actually okay, but I didn't have a normal month and so I didn't know what to expect from a day to day. And it was really difficult for me to catch my breath. So we were hiring so quickly, we were just trying to stay ahead and we didn't know when the right time was to open up slots for guests. And because it's a productivity model, it's all around, it's a service business, right. And so the operational profits always going to be quite low because you need to, you know, you've got one staff member delivering one blow dry. And so that's the product. Um, and so we needed to get productivity right and we will only get that right after a couple of months of understanding what a normal kind of weekly rhythm is and to understand the guest flows. Um, and we're still learning and we'll always be learning. So it was just, there was a lot of movement, there was a lot of things going on. I could manage the brand, the brand stuff easy. Like I've done that. That's no problem. It was more just the day to day running of the hair salon, which I didn't have any experience in. And I really leaned on the brilliance of my management team. I have an incredible salon manager called Sonya who is exceptional, very experienced and manage the team. But because I was so close to it early on, I was kind of in the thick of it too. And you know, feeling, feeling the anxiety, getting really involved. Um, so what I, I would say that like by the end of December, I just really needed a break. Um, I needed to calm down and I didn't want like the adrenaline, just the adrenaline of four months of building this business finally caught up with me and I just, my body just collapsed. And so how I got back on track with having a little bit of a break over Christmas, obviously all the mindfulness, yoga, all of that stuff, which I've always been pretty good at. But um, I needed to amp that up a little bit more in journaling. You really inspired me to journal and that has really changed my life. Oh my God. The one difference
Speaker 1:between this year and last year for me in terms of my mental strength and resilience is generally, and um, so I would say that that's been the best kind of learning, um, learning for me. Isn't that just incredible? Because w a, we talked about it at the salon on once and it was just very casual and I think I just said, Oh well I journal everyday just to keep myself mentally sane and detox all the crazy out of my head. And then secondly, it's just one of those things where no one tells you this in business school, no one tells you this at university or you know, even in corporate, you don't talk about journaling. I mean, maybe you do so now more, more than before, but you know, it's one of those things that when it resonates and it lights you up, you just know you need it. Like it. Tiger crave it now. I know. Yeah, and I love that. I love that you mentioned TD because they are the only journals that I've ever used. I just have store many of them and now that I'm about to go overseas, I'm like, Oh shit, what do I do with all of them? I don't want to get rid of him, but I think I'm just going to have to find somebody really special. The store for when I'm back, I'm going to be some real nuggets of magic in there. Oh, I know. And I always think I'm going to go back to those one day and just write my entire book off the journals because whilst you're writing about your mental heads face and what your hopes and dreams are, and then you go back, like I do this often, I go back and read my past journals from like even three months ago. And it's incredible how much has actually come to pass because you just detox all of the shit and all the negative thoughts and you bring in all the vision and journal your vision to life and it's just insane seeing how much of that, how much the universe responds to it as well. Yeah. I love that. And completely, I agree. Thank you so much Phoebes for being on this conversation. Oh, I just not know. You've just dropped the goods and how do we find you? How do we stalk you and your amazing boutique online? Ah, thanks Ruby. And so we add the blower Australia on Instagram. You can find us online at www dot[inaudible] dot com donate and you can also book your appointments online or give us a balance. We'd love to see you. So good. I have loved this. If you guys have be sure to screenshot this podcast episode and tag both of us on Instagram and we'll definitely share it on our socials as well. And once again, Phoebe, you are incredible. Reach out to Phoebes you guys. I love when you guys get connected and I shall see you in the boutique very soon. My love Ruby, looking forward to it. Thanks for your time. It was great talking to you. Bye bye. Did you love that or did you love that? I mean if you're in Melbourne you have to go and drop by and meet Phoebe even better if you are in Melbourne and somehow by some miracle there are still tickets left. I am hosting a Melbourne meetup which is happening on the 10th of April and it's going to be at the blow. How amazing is this? So go and check out the link in the show notes. Again, check out open for business. Tag is both on Instagram. Do all the things, leave reviews, because this is what keeps this podcast and meat completely energized. I love you all. Have an amazing day and remember, no matter what you feel right now in this very moment, you have the choice. You have the decision, you can do it to absolutely own your hustle. See you in the next episode.