Inside Studio JRy: Two Years Later

Inside Studio JRy: Two Years Later

This past Thursday, I celebrated two years of being in business.

I have so many thoughts that probably contrast and go against each other, but these past two years have been revealing.

They're so revealing to me in the sense that I cannot believe how fucking stupid I was thinking that since I was a salon manager and sought-after stylist years ago that I could just throw caution to the wind and open a salon.

I could hear the insistent "build it and they will come"-fantasy echo in my head every single day until the day I signed the lease on the property that would become my salon.

I remember I signed the property lease, announced it on Facebook and on my website and then waited for Sunday to tell my parents what I had done. It was horrific! I felt that I was a brand new balloon craving oxygen and they did not want to be the air that supported my dream.

They asked me real questions.

They asked me about revenue.

They asked about my savings and tax situation and asked about my budgeting and my clientele base. All of these questions seemed so goddamned annoying to me. I never even gave them a chance to mentor me. My parents have been business owners for nearly 40 years and I was sitting there like a brat.

Let's fast-forward to 21 months later and the salon had decent numbers, decent money coming in and I still felt like I was spinning my wheels from month-to-month. I had to go to my parents for some advice on budgeting, inventory and overall business ethics. All three of those categories are categories and subjects people think I have a great understanding of.

Yes, I do.

But let me tell you about most people that come off as perfect: they are often very very flawed in their lives.

Sad, but true.

I strive for perfection every single day and one thing I forgot to listen to was my own voice. I was so busy having my head up my own as and ego the first year that by the time the 1-year anniversary came around, I was fucking spent, jaded and angry for no apparent reason.

This second year of business, I walked into my salon with fresh eyes as I took on celebrity clientele, went to California to work and began writing the draft for my first salon industry book. The difference is astounding!

The one area I had not mastered yet was finances!

I have had to make sense of the fact that I overspend and overcommit and blame everyone else for it.

So, to make this blog entry a little more light-hearted, I put myself on a challenge. I challenged myself to re-budget, pay down debt and start doing little things like getting very strict about inventory at the salon and taking lunch to work and working on mediating and exercising more.

I found that if I took more time to hit the gym and meditate, I didn't have as much time to go out and binge drink (which is a very expensive habit to have). I also found that cooking at home gave me a sense of self-worth and learned how to domesticate myself a bit.

Everything that I bitched about, I learned to love and learned to make an art out of.

Three months have gone by and I'm in a better head space. I try my absolutely hardest to maintain budgets, stay home a few nights a week and have learned not to take anything personally.

All of this wellbeing radiates into my business. I learned that in the first year of resenting business, I was just being an ungrateful brat and that in the second year, I discovered what the theme and niche of Rockstars + Lambs was.

There's 1 part art studio and 1 part doctor's office at my salon that I love. I love the one-on-one approach of working with people. It makes me so happy. I have learned to breathe and learned that if I happen to get angry or frustrated, it's okay to walk away and if I have a gap between clients, it's okay to go for a walk and lock the door and come back before anyone else walks into my chaos.

As Thursday morning approached, I woke up and after my morning meditation and yoga, I took a deep breath and thanked everyone online for two years of support.

I didn't want to focus on anyone that may have dropped the ball, broke my heart or talked shit about me; no matter who you were and in whatever capacity, I wanted to thank everyone for allowing me to have this opportunity.

Tonight, I sit here typing and glance at my book of appointments and look at emails and calls that are still waiting for a reply... those are MY messages, no one elses.

Everything I own, I own outright and everything I am working towards is what guides my desire.

I never want this feeling to end whether it's at Rockstars + Lambs, in my writing, meditating or simple state of being.

For that, I'm truly thankful.


-JRY