There’s a strong sense of responsibility that comes with being a leader but you also have to be open to learning new things and facing new challenges. Sometimes that means admitting that you aren’t always the most knowledgeable person in the room. 

Salon Owner and Industry Expert, Kellie Johnson, is no stranger to the struggle that comes with finding your place as a leader. Today, she’s here to share her advice on becoming the kind of leader you want to be.

We introduced you to Kellie in our Beyond The Technique Podcast, but if you missed her previous interviews we’ll give you a quick recap: Kellie is the owner of the renown Elan Studio and a council member of The EmpowHERment Project. Aside from her career in the beauty industry, Kellie is also a certified Hypnotherapist and Professional Coach. With expert industry insight, she offers her best advice for becoming a strong leader within your salon. 

Salon Owners, You’ve Got to Stay True to Yourself

Kellie has always been passionate about learning new things and building on her experiences in order to grow. She believes that being a good leader is about becoming the best version of yourself--somebody that you would look up to--and that takes time. 

For Kellie, her first three years in business were her most challenging. She struggled to find structure, she wanted to please everybody, and at the end of the day, she simply wasn’t putting her own needs first.

Now, Kellie looks back on those times and she’ll tell you that learned a lot along the way, but the most important lesson she took away from those early years is that you absolutely have to lead with love and you can never compromise on your own values. 

A True Leader Invests in Their Team

Kellie is a strong believer in the idea that salon ownership isn’t about making money, it’s about growing people. She makes it her mission to create as many opportunities for her team as she can with the hopes of building their confidence one step at a time.

At Elan, they do focus on technical skill training, but Kellie also brings in speakers and industry experts who can educate her team on personal development and build on the intrapersonal skills that are truly a testament to a stylist’s strength behind the chair.

Kellie believes that education and opportunities for growth are crucial in creating a positive salon culture. Kellie works hard to empower her team to take their career into their own hands, by building their confidence both in and outside of the salon.

You Can’t Go Getting Your Feelings Hurt

Kellie reflects on one of the hardest lessons she had to learn as a new salon owner, which was that you can’t take anything personally. Letting your emotions get in the way of your leadership is disruptive for the entire team.

Of course, in a creative industry like ours, we’re constantly surrounded by incredibly sensitive, emotionally intelligent individuals who sometimes let their feelings get the best of them, salon owners and leaders included. 

Kellie believes that as a salon owner, you have to remember that it isn’t about you. You have to be able to see past your own emotions and reactions in order to help your team grow, both personally and professionally. 

How to Stay on Top of It All

Being a leader comes with quite a bit of responsibility and responsibility requires discipline. Kellie manages her stress by practicing meditation. As a salon owner, it can be quite easy to get overwhelmed with all of the little things you need to get done during the week, the month, even the year. 

Kellie recommends starting your day with a solid 20 minutes of meditation to simply check in with yourself. Prep for your day and what you hope to accomplish in those 24 hours. Don’t get ahead of yourself, don’t start thinking about the next day or the week ahead, just focus on what you want to get done that day. 

Then, check in with yourself again in the evening. Reward yourself for your hard work and give yourself a pat on the back for everything you were able to check off of your list! 

Meditation is one of the healthiest forms of stress management out there and anybody can do it. For Kellie, it has completely changed the way she looks at her to-do list.

If you’d like to learn more about Kellie and her incredible journey in the beauty industry, listen to the podcast that inspired this blog, episode 186. Be sure to also check out our other Beyond The Technique blog featuring Kellie’s incredible industry insight, “Five Ways to “Wow” Your Clients and Improve Your Salon Experience.”

Blogging has grown substantially over the years—and although blogs are no longer the hot new form of communication per say, they have picked up some serious speed with the rise of social media. 

If you haven’t already launched a blog for your business, it’s time to get started! Blogs are one of the most valuable tools business owners have in their toolbox. A blog essentially acts a publishing platform for your business, and it creates the perfect avenue to market directly to your prospective clients at little to no cost. 

If you still need convincing, you’re in luck because digital marketing expert Joey Donovan Guido is here to sell you on the concept of blogging and to offer his best tips and tricks for taking your business blog and running with it big time. 

We introduced you to Joey on our Beyond The Technique podcast, but if you missed his previous interviews we’ll give you a quick recap: Joey owns his own online marketing business, Cuppa SEO, in which he helps businesses improve their searchability and master all aspects of digital marketing. 

Before this major business venture, Joey dipped his toes into the world of blogging and was the writer behind “Daddy Brain,” a blog that gave its readers a peak into the thoughts, feelings and struggles of being a modern-day dad. Although he has retired his popular “dad blog,” he’s still very active in the blogging scene. He publishes content under his business name, Cuppa SEO, and works to help other businesses get their blogs up and running as well. With his expert industry insight, Joey spills his best blogging secrets to get you excited about creating content for your business.

Blogging: Good for Business in More Ways Than One

There is much to be said for publishing a blog under your business name because, regardless of what your business is, does, or sells, a blog is a great way to build a network of customers before they even walk through your door. 

Joey reminds us that blogging is not for the purpose of selling or pushing a specific product onto our readers, instead, a business blog should be used to build relationships with your clients. For salon owners, blogs can be the perfect way to preview some of your services for new clients, and to continue that candid conversation long after their time in your chair. 

Google Loves a Good Business Blog

On the marketing side of things, what a blog does for your business is absolutely invaluable. It’s a way to connect with clients. It’s a useful tool in helping them find your business and it could wind up being the cherry on top that really seals the deal in their decision to seek out your services.

This is where SEO comes into play. SEO, or Search Engine Optimization, is Joey’s jam. It’s exactly what it sounds like, it is the science behind enhancing or optimizing your searchability—or essentially an attempt to get the big dogs, like Google, to notice you. 

SEO is so important to your business because in today’s digital world everyone turns to Google for recommendations, and if you provide the services that a potential client is searching for, you want to ensure that your business is listed among those top hits. 

Well, we have good news—Google loves a good business blog. If you’re pushing out content, even just once per week, Google takes notice. After a few weeks, you start to build up some credibility and suddenly your blog alone has bumped you up from the third page of hits to the first recommendation.

Boasting About Your Business? Put It in Writing

A lot of the fear around publishing a blog comes from business owners who are afraid of the writing component. Joey encourages his clients to change their thinking—don’t view blogging as a writing assignment, think of it as another platform for communicating about your business.

At the end of the day, you know more about your business and your industry than anyone else. If you’re a salon owner, you likely can’t help but get excited about the services you specialize in and you could gush about your team or your best clients all day long. Take that same energy and put it down into words—it’s as simple as that. 

You don’t have to be an amazing writer to produce a popular blog, you just have to be pushing out content that you’re passionate about, and the writing will come naturally as a result. 

Get Crafty with Content Creation

When it comes to writing a blog for your beauty business, you don’t have to reinvent the wheel. There are so many beauty blogs out there, you could easily look to other savvy salon blogs for some ideas and find fun ways to spin them to fit your salon. 

Gentle reminder: no one is expecting you to produce Pulitzer prize-winning blog posts. Your efforts should simply be put toward adding value for your readers. Focus in on a few topics that you know are relevant to your client base and run with them. 

Quick Tip: Sometimes the best blog posts are the ones that focus in on just one micro-topic. This could be a piece on your salon’s specific technique for cutting curly hair or a product review of your new beard oil, and just really cover that topic in full. These posts are super easy for your readers to digest and they’re just short enough to leave them wanting more!

When It Comes to Blog Titles: Clarity Over Creativity

Perhaps the most important element to each blog post is the title. You could be publishing some incredible must-read content, but if that title doesn’t scream “click on me!” your readers won’t think twice before scrolling on until something else catches their eye.

Titles are your attention grabbers, they are the primary vehicles driving traffic to your blog posts, but at the end of the day—clarity always trumps creativity when it comes to titling your published pieces. 

Again, this has everything to do with SEO. If you want your blog post to pop up on Google during a relevant search, Joey says you had better throw the dog a bone and insert a few keywords into the title to increase your chances of being found. Think about the content of your blog post and dig deep to determine the main topic. Once you’re able to pinpoint the true premise of your blog post, you can begin to build off of that theme in order to brainstorm a more creative title.  

The best thing you can do when launching a blog is to simply put yourself in your reader’s shoes. Think about your target audience, all of your clients, past and potential, in order to determine what kind of content will be the most relevant to them. As long as you include your clients in the conversation and have a little fun with it, you’re going to benefit from publishing a blog under your business.     

For more insider tips on starting your business blog, listen to the podcast that inspired this blog, episode 158. Be sure to also check out Cuppa SEO’s website and business blog for more expert advice on all things digital marketing.