Hi, my name is Ann-Marie Christell. I'm a coach for hairstylist that wants to grow their business behind the chair without feeling overwhelmed or working longer hours beyond care. I have over 20 years of experience working behind the chair, earning over six figures if you wish to make more money without working longer hours bearing the chair, and bringing spiritual and sustainable principles into your business and life when you are in the right place. In this podcast, I will mix business strategies, marketing tips, personal development, spiritual practices, and sustainable ways of living and working. Welcome to the sustainable hairstylist podcast. Welcome back to the sustainable hairstylist podcast, I'm super excited to be here and talk about today's topic. And today's topic is how you as a hairstylist can start to bring in rituals into your business and into your life. And this winter, I spent some time in Bali. And it was quite some time, two months, and me and my husband actually decided that we are just going to do nothing, we're going to be bored, we're going to do nothing, nothing on the agenda, like we have to do this, we have to do that. We decided that we needed to make space in our brains make space in our energy in order for us to really connect with what is the next thing going forward? What are the things that maybe we need to change in our life and in our business? What are the things that maybe it's not working, and really need to transform? And what kind of habits do we really need to have, in order for us to have the lifestyle that we want, and so on. And I didn't realise how burned out I was it took me over three weeks to actually acknowledge that my brain is not working. That I don't have the energy that I used to, and actually start to really dig within to understand what is it that had made me be in the state that I am? And what is it that I needed to change in order for this to happen. And my husband was in the same state. And I've been sleeping, I've been taking care of myself, I have done nothing. And
why I'm talking about this is actually the importance of taking the time to step out of your life for a while to actually really really connect with what it is that you want.
And what kind of lifestyle do you want? What kind of business do you want to have?
Et cetera, et cetera. So coming back to having rituals in your life and in your business. This idea sparked for me when we were in Bali because Bali is a super super magical place. It really anytime someone asked me like what should I know before I go to Bali, and I always say that you will experience the worst things that you've had in your life and you will experience so both the highs and the lows. The most beautiful things and the most horrible things and the energies shifts like back and forth, back and forth. Uh, in Bali, the Bali nice people are Hindus. And they, it's an old kind of Hinduism. And they believe that everything is sacred, and everything is ritual, we usually joke about that. It's a very special day in Bali, because today we preach, or pray to blah, blah, blah. And the next day they preach to their scooters, and then to the cars and then to the trees. And then it goes on and on and on and on and on. And there's always a ceremony and the ceremonies are more important than traffic and everything and everything goes in, I believe in kind of a slow motion, it has to take the time it's needed. And why we decided to go to Bali is because we knew that this place, will give the space for the healing that we needed at this very time. And it will give us a space for reconnection, and it will give us a space to really truly find what it is that we need at this very moment. And I've been watching the Bali nice people with their ceremonies and rituals. And that also made me think about what kind of rituals do I have in my life? And what can the rituals do I have in my business. And I want to talk about some of the rituals that I do, and some of the rituals that you might be able to bring in into your own life and business. And if you've been listening to this podcast, you know that I always talk about things from a holistic perspective. And I always talk about having balance between your work and your business. Because you are the tool and you need to take care of yourself. And, and these rituals will help you in a way to take care of yourself in a way to have balance and open for magic. So why I believe that we should start to bring in more and more rituals, both in our life and in our business is because we are living in a fast paced life. We are living a life full of distraction. And we are living a life where connection to ourselves is the thing that we put last, I hear this from my students. I hear this from my coaching clients. I hear this from the clients that I still have in my chair, when I ask like what is it that you really want? Or what is it that make you feel a certain way when a situation arises arises? Most people don't even take the time to sit still and connect with themselves and really contemplate on what is it that I need at this very moment or what is it that I need in order for my energy to last a full day? What is it that made me react in a certain situation. And I think you are here because you want some kind of change in your life and in your business. And change always is a part of self reflection. Change is always a part of shifting the way you do things shift how you see things shift how what you believe is possible for you. And I believe that these rituals will help you have a deeper connection to yourself a deeper connection to the work that you're doing a deeper connection to your clients. And a deeper connection to actually find the present moment. Without having all of these mental things that are going around in our heads like, oh, I have to do this, I have to do that I have to bla bla bla bla bla, bla bla, and you're probably 10 steps ahead from where you are at this very moment. And I want you to step back as often as you possibly can, and take a pause, and look at the magic around and actually trust that you can start to co create your life together with the universe. And we need these gently, gentle reminders over and over and over again, to where am I going? In what way can I help my clients? And in? How can I have the best energy possible in order for me to show up in the best way possible for my clients. And I want you to open up to actually tap in to your inner guidance system to start to tap into your intuition to start to tap into what is the right next step for me. And the one I'm going to talk about today is six rituals that actually can help you out with this. And the first one is having a morning ritual, you might be a morning person, you might not be a morning person. If you are the person that that alarm clock goes off, and the first thing you do is grab your phone and see what you have missed. Then I really want you to try to change that. And I used to be one of those kinds of persons that grabbed my phone, the first thing that I did, and the last thing that I did in the evening and it is when we can disconnect from all the distractions around us when we can actually start to connect with ourselves. So we need to find some disconnection. So my question to you is, why what are the steps what you need in the morning to be happy to bring joy into your life to find some sanity to feel that? Yes, today is going to be a good day and something that gives you some structure and every person is different. I have some coffee, I have a journaling exercise that I do. And I do some meditation and breathwork
either I do some kind of movement in the morning. It really depends on if I have some other type of movement planned in for the rest of the day. But I want you to ask yourself what do I need in the morning so that I can set myself up for success. Because if you just wake up and start to do doo doo and stress, that is the energy that you will bring in through out your day. Bye but if you can start your morning with some clarity, some sanity a feeling of I can do this. I will go out there and create some tremendous work for my clients. I will help them to transform from the inside and out I will be able to hold my the space for my clients and I will be able to true Do what I'm here to do. What is it that you need in the morning? And if you feel that you cannot get up earlier in the morning, maybe look at what time do you need to get to bed in order for us you to really, maybe wake up 20 minutes, minutes just to have a moment to connect with yourself. So what is it that you need, what type of food, what type of energy, what type of way to really set yourself up for an amazing day. The second ritual that I want to talk about is, if you are a hairstylist that really wants to grow your business, then I want you to start to incorporate a monthly goal ritual. This goal is a number, it can be revenue, it can be new clients, it can be how many people you want to reach, it can be anything that you can measure, because it's kind of hard to set a goal if you cannot measure the goal to actually know that you are getting there. It can be you want to make more profit in your business, it can be that you want to sell more products, etc. And the key here is to set a monthly goal and not have an attachment to it. Because if we are coming towards our goal with it has to happen, it has to happen, oh no it has to happen, then you are pushing that further away. Instead, what are the steps that I can take in order for me to start to reach that. And it's all about tweaking one step here, one step there, one step here, test and test until you actually start to see things move. And then I want you let's say at the first of every month, you do your goal. And then the next month you check in what happened, what worked, what didn't work? What can I change? And do you have the same goal next month? Or are you setting a new goal? And this will actually help you to start to move forward in your business by having a monthly goal and create that into ritual. How can you turn that into something magical? It can be when you have written out your goal? To sit in visualisation and see? What will my life be like? What kind of energy will I have? What kind of impact what will change when I reach that goal. You can visualise yourself as that person that already has that. And bring that into your energy as it's already done. You can if you work with crystals, you can make a crystal grid and put that in if you work with Reiki you can do Reiki on your goal. There are many different ways of turning your monthly goal into a ritual that works for you. And it's you they must believe that it's possible for you and it's you they must believe in the magic behind what it is that you do. And we want to pair that with the action steps towards that. What we also can do in our salon is to have an opening of the salon ritual. And this is something that I actually do every day. When I come here, it doesn't matter if the days are the days that my Space is actually my office and then my salon as well. But I have an opening ritual, it doesn't matter if it is the days that I take clients, or if it's the days that I actually do the work on the computer, but the more intentional we can be about opening up the space for magic, the more magic will actually happen. What I do is, I, first of all come to the space, and I usually light an incense, and I clear my space with sage. Then I infuse my whole space with Reiki. And the intention that I have for today, the day. So one of the journaling exercises I do in the morning is what is my intention for the day. And then I actually infuse the space with that. And I open everything up for magic to happen. What you can pair, the opening ritual with is what are the tasks that you need to do? Before you open the salon, I actually Clean My Space when I come to the salon in the morning. And I don't clean the salon when I leave in the evening. This is just my own personal preference. Because I in the evening, when I get tired, my eyes don't have the same eyesight as I have in the morning. So it's actually easier for me to clean the space and I clear all the energy as well. I usually do a smoothie as well to drink while I'm working. It doesn't matter if I'm working on the computer or if I take clients. So the question is, what is it that you need in order for you to create your opening ritual? And with that, what can I impact you want to create for your clients? How do you want them to feel when they are in your salon? And how can you create that energy in your space. One thing that I'm going to give you as a gift, and I have created a file for you that you can download that is paired together with this. And you can either found find it in the show notes with link to where you can download it or you can go to our website at Serene flow.com forward slash ritual. And you can actually download a guide from us with this meditation that I'm going to talk about. And what I'm going to talk about is you're doing an amazing job, as a hairstylist, you are opening up for a lot of things happening in the salon, not just creating the hair for people, but we are therapists we are coaches we are helping and the thing is, as a hairstylist, or if you're working as a beautician, I'm not ruling you out here, we are carrying a lot of information and a lot of energy of the things that have been going on in the salon.
And with every single client that you have had in the salon or you have had communication with there is this energy connection with them. And if we do not clear that cord, that energy connection, you're going to carry that energy home with you. So let's say that you have had a client who has been really irritated, really annoyed, have had a lot of anger that is going to affect you somehow. And if you do not clear the connection between you and that client, you're going to carry that energy and if your energy sensitive, it's going to even be heavier to hope. So what you can do is to do a cord cutting ritual, and I have created the meditation for you so you can download it at swing mean flow forward slash ritual. So you can do this to five minutes, you can either go to the bathroom, in the salon or sit in a chair or whatever it is you need to do. Due to ritual, cut the cords with all of your clients before you leave the salon so that you can leave the energy of the clients in the salon so that you don't bring that with you. Because you don't want to bring that crept towards your family. You want to be able to have fresh energy and not bring that heaviness home. So that is a ritual that you just have to do with my guidance. If you need any other way of cutting that energy, feel free to do a ritual of that as well. But I have given you the meditation so that you can have that, in the beginning of this podcast, I was talking about finding what you really want and finding what it is that you feel is the right thing for you in your life and in your business. And I think everyone needs a connection with our inner self, a connection with our true self. And that's why I think
finding ways having a pause finding ways of listening within is so important. Because we all have our inner guidance system that will guide us to go right or left to move forward to back. And we are so influenced by so much nowadays.
And we are thrown with so much information over and over and over again, that I really want you to find moments without distraction moments where you just sit without music, without noise without watching something without a million distractions. Even if it's just one minute, just take a breath
and let go and truly find what is the right thing for you. The more you can try to squeeze this in into your life
the easier it will be for you to not fall into overwhelm, not just chase the next thing over and over again. But truly, truly connect. And if you need guidance, under the same link stream flow forward slash ritual, the link will be in the show notes. I have also recorded meditation guide for you to connect with your self. So I can help you with that. And then the last ritual that I'm going to talk to you about is the closing ritual of the salon. When you're finished for the day, my recommendation is that you take a moment and you do the cord cutting exercise. And many many hairstylist I hear this over and over again that when they are finished in the salon, they just want to go home and I understand I'm the same way. I just want to leave I don't want to be here anymore. But when it comes to closing this lawn first of all we need to cut the energy when Need to clear out the energy out of the salon. So I actually clean my salon with sage again. Sometimes I use Palo Santo, and I do exercise where I'm actually grateful for everything that has happened through the day, I'm grateful for the flow of money coming into my life for the flow of clients for the lessons that I've had. Then I actually also sit down and make some notes of what is it that I've done with my clients. It's both for social media. And it's also for me to some notes, maybe some of the clients have been talking about a special thing that I need to remember. And for me, it has become too much to actually have that in my mind at all times. So I actually take notes so that I can easily remember things. So when I go to create, like a week's social media content, it's easier for me to remember that, Okay, Sarah had a pink sweater. And what she said about what I did with her hair was blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And this I have in a note, so I can easily create something for social media really fast. So I create these notes. Every after, like every client, and I have it in the file. So the day that I post, create my social media posts, I just bring up and create the images, videos, and just write it out in an easier way. Because I realised that when I didn't have my notes, and I was trying to figure out, what can I write about this client? It just went blank. And I didn't feel creative, I didn't feel like there was so much flow. So it was easier when I had some sticky some notes. Then I just tap into the conversation and go like, Oh, yeah, this is easy, I will write this instead. And this is something that I highly recommend that you put into your closing ritual, and write it out. So that you can actually when you come home, you can be present with your family. You don't have to say, Oh, I just have to do this, I have to do that I have to do like you can just let it go and be at home and be present. So the more we can actually start to look at what are the things that I'm doing every single day? How can I create more magic around them? How can I create them also into easy steps? How can I make things more easy for myself? It actually removes overwhelm, it actually helps you to move forward. And it actually helps you to have some more sanity in life where I have helped. And for me, when I open up to magic happen, it happens so fast that it just is shocking sometimes. So I want you to start to bring in more rituals into your life. And I want you to try out the cord cutting ritual, and try out to the connection with yourself ritual with the meditations that I created for you. You can find them in this little link to sign up to get them for free in the show notes. Otherwise, it's serene flow forward slash rituals.
And I would love to hear what kind of rituals maybe you have in your life and in your business.
And what are you creating? And what are your aha moments of actually starting to bring this into your life? And just as usual, you can find me on Instagram at ScreenFlow underscore and send me a DM let me know what your biggest aha moments have been. And I'm looking forward to see you in the next episode. Bye
