Part 2

Alright, this is part 2. So at this point we are living in— or no, we're leaving upstate New York, moved down to Nebraska. I got a job at a JCPenney hair salon as a receptionist. I don't even know how long I was a receptionist for before I realized that I shouldn't be the receptionist. I should get my hair license here in Nebraska and start doing hair because I'm sorry, I saw a lot of bad hair done. Sorry, I did. And I saw a lot of hair I could have fixed. I saw a lot of hair I could have done better. I'm not the end-all be-all of hairdressers. Okay, I'm not. But most of the time I am honest with people about when I can and cannot do something. And that's a big part of the problem with a lot of stylists in the industry is they're not honest, and they will just say, oh yeah, I can do that. And then do something absolutely wrong. That's what happens. So that's part of why I'm doing this course. So, okay, working at JCPenney, I told my manager that I, I need to get my license. And she said, okay, and I borrowed some books. And it's a good thing I did because Some of the terminology is a little bit different in America than it is in, in Canada. So that was interesting to figure out, like, okay, so this in America on your head, that line, that peak of where the direction of your head changes here in America is called the parietal ridge. And in Canada it's called, I can't remember now, the crest line. So that was something I definitely was glad that I read through those cosmetology books because I was like, oh, well, that's not what we call it in Canada. And you know, when I took the test, I was like, oof, good thing I read. through that stuff because yeah, I wouldn't have known what to pick. So anyways, got my license, ended up working at JCPenney and it was going fairly well, but we had one hairstylist there was, she was just not nice. She would steal customers from people. She would like, Not ethical, how's that? She was unethical. And I, as the receptionist, I had confronted her a few times 'cause I saw her do it to other younger stylists. And I was like, "No, you can't do that. Like, why are you?" And I confronted her. I am ethical. I do not do stuff like that. In the public setting. So I waited in the back room where the washer and dryer are and all the products and stuff like that and waited for her to come back there before I talked to her about it. And when I did talk to her about it, I was very calm and I just said to her, I said, "Don't you, don't do that. That's not right. You can't do that." And she like yelled and screamed and flipped out and went crazy. And I finally said to her, she was, you know, kind of like, "I'll do whatever I want, meh meh meh meh meh." And I looked at her and I said, "Don't you ever do that in front of me again, 'cause you will regret it." And I walked away. So I was very protective over those young girls, making sure that they got the customers that, they had been booked with and that that other lady didn't get them. But then I ended up being a stylist and she did it to me once and I flipped out even more on her. Um, and I just told her, I said, you better not do that to me again because I will take you down. And I did try to take it up the chain of management, but they wouldn't have anything to do with that. And I tried talking to our salon manager, and she liked that other person because that person brought in money. The only reason she brought in money is because she was taking it from other girls. But anyways, um, so yeah, like, it was just— I ended up finding another job because I could not handle the lack of management being done. We never had team meetings, never had any kind of discussion about the upcoming sales or events or like nothing, nothing. It was just, you came in, you worked your hours and you left. If you did a haircut, you were lucky. There was, I would go out and they all thought I was a little bit crazy, but I would take my business cards out and visit people out in the store and talk to them. And hey, do you have a hairstylist you love? Yeah. If they said yes, then I'd say, "Great, stay with them. That's awesome." If they said no, then I gave them one of my cards. I said, "Come see if I'm her." And so I started building a clientele by doing that. And I would've stayed there had it not been for the management. The management killed it for me because she wasn't trying at all. Yeah. She, you know, I talked to her several times. I tried to say, can we do like a monthly team meeting? And, you know, like this kind of, oh yeah, I've thought of that. And that was it. And I'm just like— So I found another job closer to home, which was good. And we also during this time had foster kids in the home. So that kind of messed with my schedule and stuff. And working at this other salon that was closer to home, I did really like it there. It was kind of like— so back when I lived in Canada, I had this little book. I still have it. And I drew like blueprints of what my dream salon would be and all that kind of stuff. And that place— Mm-hmm. Was what my dream salon was in my little journal. It was kind of— it was really cool to work there. However, um, the foster kids were too much. I had to make a decision, and they wanted me there full-time all the time, and I had to say I can't. So— I came home to look after the kids and to be with my son. I also homeschooled him. So, you know, it was like a big juggling act. I needed to be home. And so that's when we set me up a little salon in the basement here. I didn't like doing hair in my basement. It's too fricking dark down there. It's too depressing. It's too, Sorry. That's just what I got to say about that. So I did that for a while. Then a girlfriend of mine told me there was an empty salon like 2 doors down, 2 or 3 doors down from her store, and she said that we could renovate it, and she would move her store into the front of it, and I would have my salon in the back of it. So we'd be business partners running two different businesses. And I thought that sounded like a fantastic idea. We went and looked at it. We met with the, um, the owner of the property, all that stuff, signed things, and yay, we're gonna do it. So her husband was a construction— no, he did some kind of, um, finishing work on the walls. I can't remember what you call that. Not concrete. Ugh. Anyway, he did the finishing work on the walls, okay? And he came and had his buddy help and they did some construction in our salon and got it ready for us and then we painted and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. I started doing hair and she paid her half of the rent, I paid my half of the rent, and that went on for about 6 or 7 months. I ended up having a massage therapist in the salon. Um, didn't find any other hairstylist. I hadn't I was still building out my clientele, so, you know, it was probably too soon to make a leap like that, but sometimes us entrepreneurs are a little bit crazy. Yeah, crazy would be the word. So did that, and she never moved her store over because she was afraid to. Yeah. And she got to the point that she couldn't continue paying half the rent where I was and her full rent. So we finally said, okay. I think I paid one month of full rent. And I said, I can't. I can't do this. This is too much. It's— because it wasn't just the rent. It was also you had to pay for your cable. You had to pay for your phone. You had to pay for your water. You had to pay for your heating. Like all these— Yeah. Other bits and pieces, it was too much. I wasn't busy enough to pay that. And my massage therapist moved to another place as well. So it was just me. And it was, it was a little too stressful. So I— and at that time, I had learned about the Sola Salon Suites. So I went and talked to them at the Sola Salon Suites, which would have been a little bit less than what I was paying where I was. And I ended up closing up that hair salon and moving myself to the Salon Suites. I still was struggling, but I was slowly building clientele. And like I say, just before the pandemic, I was feeling great. I was like, yes, yes, this is awesome. I was booked like 2, 3 weeks out. It was just like I was excited about my business and about how it was finally— finally things were growing and coming together, and I was gonna be able to make my husband proud and make my son proud, pay all my own bills, that kind of stuff, you know. But then the pandemic happened. So Now we are in 2023. COVID is still a thing, and it's not killing people as much anymore, but I'm pretty sure it's killing some, just like the flu kills people. It's basically— to me, COVID is a harsher strain of the flu. I've had COVID, I've had shots. My husband's had COVID twice. Our son who looked after us when we had COVID, especially me because I'm diabetic, he'd come grab my pump and check it and make sure my blood sugar was okay and that kind of stuff. He never got it. I think somehow James got some kind of immunity to it. I don't know. Mm-hmm. But I don't know, he's just never gotten it. My mom hasn't gotten it either. She now lives close by and I look after her. We no longer have foster kids. I've been through so many foster kids, hoping to adopt and it just didn't happen. So, so that's what it is. Yeah. And a few years ago I had met this gentleman online, Russell Brunson, and he talked about this thing called ClickFunnels, and I was intrigued, and I signed up with him and got some information and, and that kind of stuff probably stayed with him for a couple of months, and I was like, I can't— I know I'm throwing money away because I can't figure out how to make this stuff work. It's a lot of techie stuff on the internet and whatnot. So I stopped. I was like, okay, I can't. And then it was within the last 6 months or so, I kind of re-engaged with him and they have updated their platform. Mm-hmm. To be even easier for those of us who are technologically challenged. I have managed to build my funnel, and it is a funnel inviting people into a 5-day challenge to— they're going to learn about their hair, okay? This is, this is my thought pattern on this. For many, many years of doing hair and from moving down from Canada and having to figure out how to find my hairstylist, it's been difficult. It's not easy to find a hairstylist, I have to say, because if you don't— and I do understand about my hair. Mm-hmm. If you don't understand about your hair and you're looking for a hairstylist. Oh, it's hit and miss. Hit and miss, people. And it doesn't matter if you're paying $200 for a haircut or $20 for a haircut. It's still hit and miss. You might have a better chance with the $200 haircut of getting a hit. But it's not guaranteed. It's just the way that it is. And I am doing this challenge. It's called the Find Your Hairstylist and Love Your Hair Challenge. And it's 5 days of me teaching people about their hair and how their hair fits into certain categories, teaching them different things they can do with their hair. Like, a lot of people have curly hair and think that they should brush it all the time, and that just makes a big fuzzy mess. So, um, things like that. I'd like to— I want to educate people about their hair. It's my, my goal right now. It's going to sound kind of weird, but I want to disrupt the hair industry. by teaching women about their own hair so that they can find the hairstylist they love and get the hair that makes them smile. That's my goal. So I am— I don't know when this is going to be put up. My, um, my challenge starts tomorrow, but I will be doing more challenges, so I'm going to keep updating the information and you can get in on a challenge and come check it out. Might learn some stuff about your hair that you didn't know. I'm not going all the way into all the stuff I learned in cosmetology school and in life about hair and skin and all that stuff, but I'm going deep enough that you will understand because I need you guys to know the basics before we can go out and find that hairstylist. And then I'm also going to be going over, uh, different questions to ask a hairstylist and, and how to get through it like that. I'm also going to go— I'm going to share tips and tricks through my podcast, through YouTube, because I'm going to put this on YouTube as well. I'm going to be the hair lady to go to if you have questions, because I will answer your question. If I cannot answer your questions, I will find out who can and I will interview them for you. So throw your questions at me, okay? My email address is Tami at Tami Grgas dot com. T-A-M-I, the at signal, tami grgas.com. Send me an email with questions, people. I would love to answer your questions about your hair. I would love to be able to give you some feedback about this, 'cause this is— you are the people I wanna help right now. You are the people I— I want you guys to have beautiful hair. I want you guys to love your hair. I honestly love my hair right now. I didn't for a long time, especially when I moved down to America. I was like, oh man, but I found my girl, and I do her hair, and she does my hair. Kind of found her because she found me, which was cool. But we've become good friends, and I'm hoping to pull her into this business with me eventually. Because I'm 59 now. I don't know how I— I can't do hair for much longer. I love doing it. It's fun. Like, I just— it's my— it's my jam. But I need to prepare for my body saying no more. You could— like, right now I can do maybe 2 people a day. It's not back-to-back hair anymore. Can't be. Well, I also broke my ankle a year ago, so that's a big part of that. So anyways, I'm gonna get off now. I'm gonna edit things, and I hope you all have a glorious day, night, afternoon, evening, whatever time you are. Make it glorious. Thanks. Bye. Bye.