ep141 – Heather Harris

Show Notes

Hey my friends. Are you feeling overwhelmed with too much on your plate? Is your to-do list stealing time away from your friends and family? Are you cramming errands into an already packed day?

Then today’s guest is a must-listen. She’s an award-winning stylist, a national educator, a salon owner, and the founder of Spark Pro Salon, Spark Pro Global, and Alchemy Salon Consulting. Yep, she does all that. Through leadership strategies, delegation, and operational clarity, she helps salon owners step fully into their roles as CEO.

She’s also the host of the Brazen and Bold podcast, and she is passionate about helping entrepreneurs to stop trying to do it all — and start leading with confidence, purpose, and sustainable growth.

This week’s Headcase will help you get your life back. Here is Heather Harris!

4:59 Heather’s Hair Story

8:19 The Birth of Spark

17:53 The Role of Virtual Assistants

30:43 Personal Growth and overcoming Challenges

1:05:25 Offering a Complimentary Strategy Session

Chris Baran 0:00
How great would it be to get up close and personal with the beauty industry heroes we love and admire and to ask them, How did you learn to do what you do? I’m Chris Baran, a hair stylist and educator for 40 plus years, and I’m inviting all our heroes to chat and share the secrets of their success. Hi,

Chris Baran 0:27
well, welcome to another episode of head cases. Hey, my friends, a couple of quick questions for you. Are you overwhelmed with too much on your plate? Is a massive To Do List shifting the time you wish you could spend with friends and family and pushing it into it to don’t call them. Are you stressed because your jamming errand runs into an already 10 to 11 hour pack day if you answered yes to one or more of those questions, hearing Today’s guest is an absolute must. She’s an award winning stylist, a National Educator, a salon owner. She’s the founder of Spark Pro Salon, Spark Pro Global and Alchemy Salon Consulting through delegation, leadership strategies and operational clarity. She guides salon owners into their CEO role as the host of the podcast, Brazen and Bold. She’s passionate as the host of the podcast, Brazen and Bold. She’s passionate about empowering entrepreneurs to stop doing it all and start leading with confidence, purpose and sustainable growth. So let’s get into this week’s head case the person who will help you get your life back. Heather Harris, Heather, it is an absolute pleasure to have you on here, and I have a little story I want to say, want to tell about us being friends and how we got to be friends here, but, but first, I just want to say, welcome. It’s great to have you on Head Cases.

Heather Harris 2:09
Thank you. I feel like the label head case is very fitting, so I’m appreciative that I’m finally being recognized for what I bring to this world.

Chris Baran 2:18
Well, you know, it was interesting, because when we were trying to come up with a name, we said in we were going back and forth, and the person I was talking to said, well, said, Well, what is this all about? And I said, Well, quite frankly, anybody that’s like you and I on stage all the time, traveling all the time, you know, in and out, and not being around our family all the time, I said you had to be a head case to do what we do. And that person said, That’s it. That’s the name right there. I love that, so that’s why. So we’re both head cases, and there it’s out in the open.

Heather Harris 2:46
I feel comfortable now that that Secret’s been exposed.

Chris Baran 2:50
And you know, it’s interesting. And I just for the people watching or listening right now, I do find it really interesting how the lines kind of blur between digital and in real life, because you and I really haven’t met face to face in real life, but we’ve had numerous conversations via digital, you know, and that that line begins to blur, and we’ve had some, I have to say, we’ve had some pretty amazing conversations. And that’s where I think that, you know, whether it’s zoom or that’s linking up people or whatever. But you know, we’ve become friends, and just in spite of it not being in real life for us so far, but I suppose maybe that’s just a sign of the times.

Heather Harris 3:31
I appreciate it, and I think we live in the same area, by the way, which is a fun little even we’re not far from one another. My goal is to get this relationship offline and in real life, but I think it’s a real honor to have connected with you. We have several mutual friends that I really respect and admire, and I have absolutely and sincerely loved the chance to learn from you and be inspired by you. So to be called a friend, even if in the budding stages, is an honor.

Chris Baran 4:01
It’s true. I was, I was, you know, I had a somebody else that came on to our program. And actually, I reached out to somebody else and said, Hey, listen, I want to have this person on the podcast, by the way, and you have your podcast as well that I’m going to highly encourage, that everybody goes and visits for brazen and bold and and on there, I said to this person, I said, All right, I went to a friend. Said, Can you hook me up so we can get an introduction, so I can have him on on the show. And he got on the show, and he said, Whether you know it or not, we’re going to become best friends. You may not want it, but I do, and we’re going to become best friends. So there it is, too We have mutual friends, and I’m sure that we can get together, have dinner and do all of that. All of that so but I want to get down to, you know, the reason why we had you on the show, because you have an amazing product, amazing company, that I want people to know about. But before I get into Spark, and before we talk about. About how that helps salons and Salon individuals, give us just a little bit about your hair story, like, how did you get into hair? Did you jump into it? It was there you always did. It would did you fall into it like I did, or what happened, how? What’s your hair story?

Heather Harris 5:17
Growing up, my one of my favorite aunts did hair, and she did my hair ever since I was little. I remember I would ride my bike to her house, and if I wanted a perm, because it was the 80s or highlights, I would just babysit her kids or give her some money, and I’d come home, I didn’t ask my parents for permission or anything else. I just did what I wanted, and that was kind of cool to have such unlimited self expression at such a young age. In the meantime, I my aunt went through a divorce, and my parents built a studio apartment in the house, and she wound up having a salon built out of that, and I would just go in her salon, and all summer or after school, I would sit in there. And now that I’m an owner of a salon and I have stylists or clients that I connect with, I realize you don’t always want a 12 year old or a 13 year old sitting there in your salon space non stop. But man, I loved being in there. I love the energy. I love the transformations, and I love my aunt, Sunny. That’s her name. It’s her real name is just Sunny. And I wrote a short story titled summer days in the shade of my aunt Sunny, because that’s where I would sit in her salon. And she’s got a larger than life personality, mega watt, love, so generous, just down Earth, loud, amazing, fun. She’s gonna be your best friend, whether or not you like her. And you know, I remember just being in her salon space and thinking, I like she is cool. She makes friends. People leave feeling great, beautiful, and then she gets handed wads of cash I’m in. I think I must have been, I might have even been younger than 12 when I decided that this is the career for me. And so that was it. I just, I remember actually doing my first foil on a friend when I was 12. She asked if I could do it, and I said, of course, because I was too dumb to know what I didn’t know and I didn’t even, I’m probably asked my aunt, but I wouldn’t help myself to some foils, and my sweet friend that was in seventh grade with me wound up looking like a baked potato with all the foil. And who knows what. What’s wild is her color, her highlights, actually looked okay. She left looking good. And I was like, I’m very good at this. So I kept doing it. And then I actually had a more or less full roster of clientele by the time I was about 14 years old, a year before I started Beauty School at 15. So that’s my hair story. I’ve I’ve done it ever since I can remember, and I’ve loved it ever

Chris Baran 7:29
since I can remember. So were you the this star pupil when you went to school, being as you could do all of the work, etc.

Heather Harris 7:36
I don’t know if that would actually make someone the best student ever. Sometimes the people who come in thinking they know something are the worst students. But I loved learning and I loved doing it, and I loved what school expanded me into. So whether or not I was the star or anything, I don’t know that we would call me the star of anything, but I liked it, and I accelerated. I graduated beauty school by the time I was barely 17.

Chris Baran 7:58
Wow. It’s funny. We can be friends, because I hear your story about, I’ve always believed that you fall into something. You know, we talked earlier, and I was telling you how my motto in life is failing your way to the top. But it’s, it’s, I always say, failing your way, but the reality is, is learning your way to the top. Because that’s what you said. I loved learning, and I think that’s, that’s the marker in our industry. So you know, to that point of speaking of learning, for the people that don’t know what Spark is, give us a little bit about I want to know firstly is, how did, what was the spark that got spark started?

Heather Harris 8:41
What ignited that spark? Yeah, all right. Spark exists to support people in our industry, whether they’re stylists, salon owners or industry leaders, in streamlining their lives, handling their overflow, their admin, their overwhelmed so that they can get back to doing what they love, but make sure that their business components are not falling between the cracks. It’s a virtual assistant firm, and I have a team of experts that are trained to help support people in their KPIs, their salon software, and just helping make the most out of their lives. One of our taglines is efficient, AF, and we like to help artists. Go back to the artists. This was founded of my own overwhelm and chaos in the fire of my life, my spark happened. It was actually a good friend of mine who owns a business outside of the industry, saw me by the salon, and this was a little over five years ago. It was before I joined a national team and began traveling the country to educate and began speaking. I was just trying to keep up with my team, doing what my business coaches were telling me, you know, I love I’m a professional student. So I would learn, I would consume, and I would apply, and then I would do most of it, and then things would Peter off and drop between the cracks, and I knew what I needed. Do to be excellent as a business owner and leader, I just didn’t have 45 of me to do it and execute. So I would fall asleep after a really long day and always looking at my phone, and I would jolt out of bed about 25 minutes after drifting into sleep and be like, Did I answer that email? Did I respond to that booking request? Did I let that team member know that their appointment tomorrow canceled or had to reschedule? Did I block out our team for that meeting next week and then it was just and then it was just like, all the tabs in my brain would just start popping open, and I was drowning. I was not thriving. I was barely hanging on by a thread, and it was a lot of personal stress and chaos that led my friend to say, you’ve got to hire an assistant. And I remember looking at him being like, and I’ve had an assistant for about 20 years, like I’ve been working with someone. He’s like, no personal assistant, a virtual assistant. And I said, like, The Devil Wears Prada, like someone doing everything for me. He’s like, right? But online. And my cute little artist brain was like, I do hair in person, and I teach people in person what? What will a person on a computer do to be able to help me teach my team better or do haircuts better? And it took about a year of him trying to tell me what to do and how to do it with an assistant for me to finally click and go. So I don’t have to be a stuffy woman in a corner office wearing a power suit to use somebody to help me like this. And I started, I started using an assistant first to engage in social media, and within a few months, she was answering my Google reviews, my booking request, pulling KPIs for my team, one on ones, blocking out my calendar so I could have those meetings and giving me a reminder and a spreadsheet and sending emails and paying invoices and booking travel. And pretty soon I was like, I’m going to bed at 10pm and I’m not bolting out of bed 30 minutes later with a panic. This is cool, and I have a lot of friends in the industry. So I started saying, Chris, you got to call my girl. Because what I did was took virtual assistants had been a thing for a long time. Assistance had been a thing for a long time, but I took that and I slowed down long enough to speed up. I slowed down long enough to train her. I’m not an accountant. I don’t have an MBA. I’m not a stuffy, boring business person. I but I did need the help and support. So I took the pinball machine that was on fire, that’s my brain, and I was able to channel into before I even knew what they were called, creating operating processes, procedures and frameworks, so that my assistant could start to act in behalf of me and my brand and support the initiatives I had started, so that I didn’t drop the ball anymore, so the fires wouldn’t be raging and I could just move forward. And that was the cool thing to implement for myself, and then to start sharing with friends. And pretty soon four friends turned into five friends turned into my assistant. Couldn’t take more people turned into I got on a plane and flew to the Philippines, and this is just two years ago, and I went and I met and hired a team of 15 people and said, I’m going to train you to do what my industry needs, so that when people like me need you, they don’t have to spend three months training you, and that’s how spark was born.

Chris Baran 13:04
That’s wild. And you know, because thank you so much for the explanation. Because, you know, I think most of us, you know, I don’t know. I might be the only one when a movie watches, and I think that’s because my son’s in the movie business, that I always think that it’s, it’s disrespectful to leave the movie without reading the credits at the end and sort of pay homage by just watching and reading the names of the people that are up there. And so when I would watch, I would see the PA to this star and the PA to this star, and I, and I knew that was a personal assistant, but you know when and talk, I have many of my clients without within our business, our salon owners, and they were telling me about the benefits of a VA and so many people don’t even understand what a PA does a personal assistant. That’s why I loved when you added in that I didn’t even know what the hell of V a virtual assistant. How can they handle up this stuff from a bar, and particularly, you said, if they’re a different country. So give us a little bit more about that. How do like, what does your what’s the process, process I processes? What’s the things that go in? What are the things, if I like, I say, I want a VA, and I come to you and I say, I want my life back. And what, what’s the process that you would take them through? Like, how do they what I what I need?

Heather Harris 14:36
Yeah, yeah. The first step is admitting you have a problem. And so I want to just congratulate you on the first step, which is what you just took, right? It’s It’s knowing that you need your life back, or knowing that there are tasks that need to be done that are not necessarily in your highest skill set. They don’t bring you a ton of joy, and so you’re not maybe the best at doing them or making a lot of money by. Doing them, but they still need to be done. There’s a lot of things in my business that need to be done that don’t require my touch, but I need to sign off on it. So we sit down, we have a discovery call. We call it an ignition call. I get to know you and your business and your brand and what you need. A lot of times, I’ll ask people, hey, if someone could come into your organization tomorrow and take the three things off of your plate. What three things would you stop doing tomorrow if you could? But you know, they needed to be done, and they need to be done well. And so I usually try to find what that thing is that you want to do less of so that you can do more of the thing that you love to do. And I try to make room for that. Essentially, we get to know you and your business, then we match you with your perfect match. We basically are a boutique matchmaking service, really, for high end professionals. So we we wind up finding someone who’s a great partner for your business with the skills you need. We have a team of talent that we draw from. They are currently all based in the Philippines, but they’re overseen by leadership in the United States, an operations manager who’s an expert at marketing and operations and who also understands the entire salon envelope. And we guide your the hiring and the matchmaking based on your specific skill sets, whether it’s podcast editing, social media management, calendar management or general VA work. Then when we match, make you, we set up a team. You have not only a virtual assistant, but you also, and it’s all on Zoom. You also have your client success manager, who’s essentially their supervisor. So you’ve got a team working on your projects. So you don’t have to follow up, chase them down, because that’s half of the battle is. I have this idea. I handed it off. I don’t have to, I don’t want to remember to chase people, to finish things and to close the tabs that are open and needing to be done. So we set you up for success that way, and then we have cyber secure measures to protect your privacy or information. We assign NDAs that basically your information, what we do for you is yours only, and our team is expert in whatever software you’re using. They get to know it. So you don’t have to know every update. You don’t have to know everything that your software can do. We know it for you, and then we help you make the most of it. And that’s the process of getting started, basically admitting you have a problem, doing an onboarding intake of what your needs are, and then us matchmaking. You usually that process is a few weeks, and then you get introduced to your EA team. After that, you’ve got about 30 days of back and forth, regular communications and training, essentially getting them into your brand and onboarded. But we support that and shorten the success curve for you. And then within that, usually within two or three months, we have people telling us, my EA is part of my team. My team loves them. I sent them a Christmas gift, or, oh my gosh, they’re my best friend now. Or I look forward to our weekly touch base. And the goal is that after two to three months, not only are you thrilled with the bandwidth that’s been increased in your life, but you also, not only are you resting better, but you’re seeing your margins increase, your initiatives move forward, and you’re adding more tasks because you see how valuable it is. The goal is the goal is that you get your life back and you also, you know, build your business simultaneously.

Chris Baran 18:08
That’s amazing. You know, what was coming to my brain when you were talking is that? And I’m not, I don’t want to, I’m not going to be rude and talk about in our industry that sometimes, and let me put it, I’m just take that back, and I’m going to put it in a different in a different way. I know, in our business, when we first started, it was, we were flying by the seat of our pants and, and we were truly what we would call a mom and pop business. It was just family involved, you know, friends involved and, and we would just do what we needed to do and make decisions on the fly, etc. But we weren’t really what I call now, which was an entrepreneurial business, which means how much money can I make while I’m doing what I love and handing off things that I need to do? So we got ourselves business coaches, and I wanted to just, I want to relate the philosophy. That we have with a to do list and how that relates to what you do, because I think it’s so does relate to the thing getting things done that you don’t want to do. Way we do our to do list is we have four columns in our to do list. The first one is just to do. And you list everything that’s your to do list. You just put everything down. And then the second one is to don’t these are things that you don’t want to do. You know, I don’t want it’s not even, let me phrase that’s not even that you don’t want to do. We all take on things if you’re like, like, like we are, and I just want to please everybody. So I’ll put things on my to do list that I should have said no in the first place, and know that no is a complete sentence. So we have to do and then we have to, don’t you take everything from your to do list that you should have said no, and you just say no. And then we have, you know, the things that I want. To do the things that I like to do but I don’t need to do, yeah, you know. And those can be things like, you know, like I, you know, it might be. I love, I love cleaning. I love being able to take and going out and organize my garage. I love, I might like to do landscaping, etc. But if I can pay somebody $10 an hour, $20 an hour, and I can make $100 an hour, then I should be taking those things that I like to do, but I don’t need to do, and get somebody else to do those things for me so I can get my life back and they’re not taking up all my time. And then there’s the things that I that fourth column is the things that I don’t like to do, but I need to do. I’m the one that has to put my numbers together or get my taxes or play or have meetings with my accountants or lawyers or whatever. Might not want to do it, but I’m the only one that can that I need to do it. So the idea is, take all your list that’s in that first column. And how do you manage those? And I like what you do is, I loved your line about helping turn people into the CEO that they need to be. And that’s to me, what happened to us. We became from a mom and pop business more into an entrepreneur. So you know, when I think about the money that people have the potential to earn by taking stuff off of their to do list that you get your VA and but you call them an EA. Is that correct? Is that

Heather Harris 21:33
what I heard? We the word can be used interchangeably, but executive assistant, we like that, because I want people in our industry, especially, to view themselves as an executive like you said, being going back into the driver’s seat and and reclaiming the CEO of your own life, not just your own business. So a lot of times, we’re the lead technician, the lead trainer, the lead floor sweeper, we’re the lead everything, and we’re not in a CEO position. I don’t mean that as an elevated or superior position, I just mean in a higher production, a visionary and leadership role. So I like to call it an executive assistant, because words matter, and the people that use us are the executives. But it’s essentially the same concept,

Chris Baran 22:15
yeah, and I loved because, you know, even when I did your intro, I was talking about, about how you help with the things that you do, to put them into that role of a CEO. And I started to think about even the way that I was one time, sometimes I still have this tendency. Is the CEO just for I’m sure, I don’t have to say this, but that’s your chief executive officer, and it’s not that you’re necessarily the CEO carrying out C, carrying out E, everyone’s orders. In other words, you’re doing everything that everybody else should be doing. That’s not what a CEO does. The CEO has the vision. The CEO helps to delegate, to get other people to carry out the orders and to manage, you know, or to have other people that manage, and that’s what I love, that you do, is you help to get them started, to take stuff off of their plate, put them in different columns. Somebody else does that task that you’re paying less money than you can earn. Yeah, we one

Heather Harris 23:21
of my other favorite taglines that we have in our business is delegate to dominate. The idea that so many of us in our industry, but also in other CEO positions, are the main bottleneck to their own growth. They are preventing themselves from being scalable, replicatable. And these are some of the things that you tend you intend for your education clients and consumers to be able to tap into. But if you are the touch point, the resource and the answer for every question in your business, you you have basically changed yourself to the desk with handcuffs. And the idea is that in being able to delegate one of my, one of my most sought after course classes. I wouldn’t say courses, but my classes, or presentation that I give is called delegate to dominate. We talk about strategic delegation and leadership, and I do you’ve talked about columns to do, to don’t, etc. I do a Venn diagram kind of idea. And the idea is, you brain dump. And this is something I work with my alchemy consulting clients on. So a lot of people who are looking to get started in Spark, or who want to delegate to people on their own internal teams, existing teams, they’ll say, Heather, I need more support. The ideas are great. I understand the concepts, but, um, I am too overwhelmed and busy to even begin breaking it down and implementing it. So when people are in that position, I’ll work them through an exercise as part of my consulting to get them where they need to be. And that’s making a massive a master list, and it’s a document that you add to as tasks pop up, as they tend to in our industry. It’s like, I know I do these payroll every two weeks. I do these things. You make a list of brain dump, and then pretty soon as things pop up for the next week or two, you just start adding to that list, and the list gets longer and longer and messier and more ugly. And less sexy as days go by. And the idea is we take that list and then I sort it in things that I love, things that I’m the best at or really good at, and things that produce the most income. And once you make that list, the idea is that we now make the Venn diagram. What do I love? What am I the best at and what makes me the most money. And for example, you love cleaning your garage, or you love landscaping. I do too. Actually, I want to be outside all the time. I don’t make any money doing that for myself. I’m probably mediocre at it, you know. Okay, and so I love it, but it’s not the thing I’m very best at, and it’s not the thing that makes me money. But I still love it. It matters. So I encourage people, though, in their businesses especially, to focus on only doing the things that overlap in all three segments of making the most money, love the most, and I’m best at it. And when we can really focus in on that, like overlap and the intersection of those three, we have found your zone of genius, your superpowers, and like, what you’re put on this earth to be doing. And I want to basically take everything in the peripheral and help assign other people on your team, or your virtual assistant, executive assistant, to start handling the other things. So essentially, that’s how we create your two don’t list. And you know, let me be honest with you, I am not a great driver. Don’t talk to me about my rims of my car that have scuffed into too many curves, or my children about I just love the sunset. Look out there. Oh yeah, I’m supposed to be looking at the road. You know. I’m okay. I’m okay on the road, but I’m not great. I don’t make any money driving my car. In fact, what I bill hourly is far higher than what I would pay someone to Uber my children. And so I’m not the best at it. I don’t make any money doing it and but I love it. It’s a time I connect with my children. So I don’t outsource things that are me living my own life. I’m not here to say, Stop cutting hair. Like a lot of coaches and consultants will say, like, if you’re an owner, don’t do hair. Well, if you love doing hair, then do hair, but make sure the other things are getting done too. So we take those lists, though, and we create a master list for your assistant. And then sometimes we’re like, who else on your team can do some of these things? And I just help guide people into that. And what I like to do, too, is ask people what, what is your billable rate? You know, if you’re consulting, speaking, doing hair, educating, whatever your thing is that you do that makes the most money, let’s look at your billable rate, and then let’s look at that versus what you’d pay someone to do it. So let’s just say a conservative hourly rate for someone in our industry, as a stylist or owner, would be $50 an hour. That’s pretty conservative, right?

Heather Harris 27:29
Very conservative. Yeah. So I’m gonna go with conservative, though, because I don’t want anybody to be like, Oh, well, see, I’m not that important. I don’t I can’t qualify for it. But if your hourly rate assuming a $50 hourly rate, and you’re spending three hours a week on engaging on social media, making a real I’m 42 I don’t know how to do this crap. I suck at it, and it takes me three times as long as it should. But I need to do it. I need to show up on social media. So would I pay someone $150 to do that for three hours a week? Probably not, you know what, or whatever. You know what I mean. Like I start mean. Like, I start to look at, would I pay someone my rate to sweep my salon floor? No, I’m not hiring someone to sweep my salon floor for $50 an hour. Well, then put the broom down. Or if you wouldn’t pay someone, there’s something about servant leadership and showing up and doing the things in front of your team and just being a team player. So I’m not saying not saying not to be that or to be elite, but don’t get bogged down by answering emails and being on the back end of admin when your skill set is with people, is with vision, with leading, with connecting. I don’t want you to be bogged down by $20 an hour tasks when what you’re what you should be doing, is producing because I mean, if you’ll get the spread there, if you stop doing five hours a week of $20 an hour labor, that’s $150 in your pocket. That is $600 in your pocket every single month. That’s your car payment, if you just stopped doing a handful of those things and went back into what you really should be doing to produce so I love to work with people on tapping into that and getting back excited about it.

Chris Baran 29:01
And what I’m I’m really enjoying is the fact how you have all the labels that you give to it are very positive. You know, here’s the things that, here’s the things that you love doing, you know? Because I know it’s different than saying, what are the things you suck at? Because, like, quite frankly, I know that I suck at numbers, you know, I suck at and I don’t want to, quite frankly, I can, I can read a profit and loss statement. Now, do I want to, you know? Well, I can, if I’ve got to try to figure something out, but I don’t like doing that. I suck at that stuff. It makes my brain hurt. So if I can find people, and that’s just my example, is that I suck at numbers. And in our family, we have a saying, you know, Rita is great. My wife is great at numbers. And we’ll say, if it’s got a number, you give it to Rita. If it’s got a picture, you give it to me. I love pictures. I love doing that. I suck at. Of numbers. I give that to Rita. Now that’s just part of our relationship, but let’s say both of us hated and sucked at numbers, then you got to find somebody that can do the numbers for you. Yes, you know, and I’m not talking about an accountant, because we all have to have that eventually. But the reality is, is, if it’s just something adding numbers into your ledger, and you can pay somebody whatever, 15, $20 an hour to do that, and you can make 50, you know, the it’s just that’s, that’s called, called profit, you know, yeah, what do you what are you doing at my my goal has always been, you know, what? What can i earn money for so that my family and me can have more what we can do. And I think that’s my idea of if I get something profitable, then how can my family, my friends that are around me have a better life? And I think that if you can take on that task and stop thinking about in such a small scarcity window where I am, I might not have a lot of money right now, so I have to be I have to be mindful of every penny, rather than thinking of a from an abundance side. If I stop doing that and and I had more time on my hands to do the things I love that make me money and pay pay, have more time to make more and the stuff that I can pawn off on somebody else that and I pay them less. They’re making more money. They’re making money. I make money, and the world gets better.

Heather Harris 31:31
I love the idea of spinning it from abundance and positivity. I think that so much of our success rests in the gray matter that sits in our school. And I really, I also think when you said the word more, I won’t lie to you, like, what can I do to make more so my family can have more? Part of me cringes because I said I’m anti more. I am not. I am not signed up, and I’m not the front in line. I’m not the president of the cult of more. I’m I’m anti war, but then as you continue to expand, which I imagined you would it’s more time, more connection, more meaning in your lives. And in that way, I am the chief, the chief president of that one. I’m the biggest fan. But the idea is a lot of us have been brought up in a culture of hustle and grind and sacrifice and martyrdom and just to get the shinier boat or and some of us, it’s like, wouldn’t that be funny? I’m doing this to put food on my table, because, have you seen inflation, right? So I get that we we have to show up financially for our own lives as responsible and accountable people, to run our teams, to pay payroll. It’s a massive expense in a relatively low margin industry, but there are things we can do to move the lever to increase our margins. And I ask people a lot. They’re like, Well, how do I know if it if I need to work with an assistant? Or how do I know that you can help me? And I’m like, Well, I don’t know if I can. I honestly don’t. I gotta be honest. When you start about like, what you suck at, you suck at numbers, I’m like, Well, did we want to start with what I suck start with what I suck at? Because we’re going to need more than an hour. I’m very, very clear on what I suck at, and I love to spend things positive, but I also like to get real about life. Identify the things you suck at and stop doing them already. Like everybody wants you to stop. Please stop and don’t, don’t get people to quit, because you refuse to stop doing that. So that being sad. I really think my my objective, my purpose for being alive, I’ll know that when they put my body in the ground, we’re gonna get cremated. But you know what I mean, when they’re done with my body, when it’s done doing its thing here as a living organism, I’ll know that it was worthwhile if I led people who are around me to liberation, accelerating their capacity to be fully themselves, to step into living their own lives and loving their lives more, loving themselves more, and Being able to have that impact on others, that ripple effect, like, imagine if all of us did a little bit less of what we hated and what we sucked at, and did a little bit more what we were good at. Man, if you’re good at teaching like you are, Chris, we can just get you in front of one more group of people, or putting one more program together to leave a legacy. The world is going to be infinitely better than if I sit down and give you private tutoring on reading a profit and loss, yeah, and my goal as as this kind of you know, work has has taken I did not choose this life, Chris, it chose me. Okay? I was swept into the current of what I’m doing. I did not even know what a virtual assistant was three years ago. If you told me you’re going to teach people about this and you’re going to consult people you’re going to speak about? I’d be like, I’m so sorry. Can I google that really quick? What are you talking about? I was like, what I do? Good haircuts. What are you talking about? But anyway, that being said, my goal is to get people moving toward that and moving toward it more quickly so we can accelerate your liberation. I don’t know if you need to work with me. I don’t know. Think I am for everybody. I don’t think what I have to offer is for everybody, but I’ll tell you who it’s for. It’s for people who want more fun, want more time, want more money, or some combination of the three. And so if you’ve got all the time, money and fun, you’ve got in your life than I am for you, let’s hang out. But if you don’t, I think that there’s something we can do to help. And so I just, I believe in that, and frankly, I should not admit this live on camera. I would do it for free, because that’s how passionate I am about it. I love, I love what I see it unlocking for people that we work with. It’s so exciting to me. I love what it did for me. That’s why I did this. You know,

Chris Baran 35:39
I bet we have something in common, I have this love hate relationship. I hate paying for something that I’m not using. I hate working in a small, cramped box, yet I love working in a cool salon that impresses my clients, and I love the culture and synergy of a team while enjoying the freedom of being my own boss, you too. What if all that was available to you at the salon you rent from meet artist on go, a game changing way to rent salon space with artist on go, you only pay for the time you’re behind the chair. You can choose a salon that fits your vibe, location and amenities with artist on go, you’re a part of a stylist community, not hustling alone. Plus you get to enjoy perks like clean towels and back bar supplies. Check out artist on go, built for stylists serious about their clients and growing their brand without the hassles of managing a space. Here’s the kicker, you can save more than 50% on your rent to find out more. Go to B, I T, dot L y slash, artist on go, C, B, that’s B, I T, dot L y slash, artist on go CB, you know, and I’m glad you said that about because that runs rampant in our industry. I love what I do, and I would do it for free, but remember that, and I always tell people, look at that. That’s a great mission. But at the end of the day, that’s where I’m saying, I think we’re you and I are online, that at the end of the day, you still got to provide for your family. And it’s not about that. I want to make all the money in the world, and I don’t I want to have don’t want anybody to have anything. But there’s the reciprocity that goes along with that. And I know one of my one of our coaches that we have always says you’ve got to stay in exchange, meaning I provide a service, and and, and I tell people, look at if you’re providing me a service, don’t offer it to me for free, because I’ll say you can try it, but I’m going to let you Try it so you can see the value. And then there’s this exchange. I give you what you need, and you pay a nominal price for it, and I think that’s what you’re saying. You would do it for free. But still, we’re entrepreneurs, and we’ve got to make sure that we provide for our family at the end of the game as well.

Heather Harris 38:19
Yeah. And I think my son who understands money, and since he was little, and he walked into the room, and he was about, legitimately, about three years old, and he struts into the room, and his dad is in finance, and he goes, Do you know who likes money? This guy, this is my son, really young age. He’s had more money in the stock market than most adults ever since he’s little. I mean, he does it, he hustles, he saves. He understands how money works and markets move, and it’s cool to watch. He’s 17 and a half. He’s going places, and I’m always like so with that money, our intention is to better the people we touch. Son, right? We are not just going to get a Lambo. I know you’re going to someday, but can we also make sure we help people’s lives be better? And you know, I remember my son looking at me, goes, Mom, you can do a lot of great things for this world if you’re broke, but you can do a lot more great things for this world if you have the money to fund it. And and I’ve got, I’ve got a team of beautiful people who are making above a living wage in the Philippines, where the the margins are there, because their living wage is much lower than ours in this country, their skill set is there, their communication is there, their credentials are there, their training is there, but it costs a lot less to live there. So we’re able to take that spread and to build a business that offers security, support, improve lifestyle flexibility, so these people who used to be working heinous hours in call centers, are now able to use their higher skill sets and help people and connect more deeply and have some downtime. So you know the ethical component matters to me, but also knowing our ability to impact and produce good and and really create meaning and add value, not only to our families and our communities and to our lives, but to the lives of others, is directly to. Tied with how much, how much capacity we have to give if we’re stuck. I don’t care if you’re a billionaire, if you’re stuck in overwhelm and you’re bogged down by admin tasks and and your time management is all a Kimbo, it’s really hard for you to show up fully for yourself, in turn, for your team, in turn for your community. It’s hard to even be aware of who needs your connection and touch, at your team, if you’re looking as a salon owner, if I’m looking as a leader, if I’m so bogged down and drowning in all of this, and my profit margins are low, and I got so many things to do that I’m just like drowning, you know, I can’t stop and see the SO and SO looks a little quieter today, or more somber. I’ve noticed they’ve been a little withdrawn. Let me check in with them and see what’s going on, or I’ve really noticed how they’re shining. I love how they’re showing up for their guest experience. I want to bring that forward in the next team meeting, when we’re bogged down, we can’t elevate other people around us because we’re drowning. And so, you know, high tide raises all ships. My My goal is to get people to have that the high tide, so that everything within their organization, in their lives can also continue to improve.

Chris Baran 41:05
Yeah, love that. It reminded me of one of our mentors always says, You can do anything you want, as long as it’s morally, legally and ethically correct. And I think that’s kind of, I had to put what you said in a nutshell. That’s it right there. And we’ll define morally identity in it to

Heather Harris 41:24
define morally correct, because that’s pretty subjective, but I think I can go with it.

Chris Baran 41:28
Yeah, yeah, you know. So I want to do a little shift here, because I think that everything we talked about is just, how do we come better at what we have by handing off the things that we can do to other people who want to do that. When you and I talked, I’m going to kind of preface this by saying sometimes people, you might say something to someone inconsequentially, and whether it’s the next day or years, and you might not even remember what you said and but it had a profound effect on that person. I was talking with a good friend of mine, Brian Smith, the other day, good, it’s we Scott, you know, and he’s a, he’s got this, this Scottish brogue. And we were having a conversation the other day and and, much like you and I do traveling the road. And he said we were traveling, and we were in LA at a do it a show, and we’re having dinner with a group of people, and this one person was saying that how they wanted to do what we did. You know, being on the road, being and because people just see you in that moment when you’re shining, and they say, that’s what I want. And Brian said that. I said this, and I don’t remember it, but he quoted me as saying, they see the glory, but they don’t know the story. And apparently I said that. But you know, when that that tells us what we do and how we travel and what we do. They see what they see all the benefits, but they don’t see the stuff and the crap we had to climb through to get there, and and you said something the other day when we were chatting, and it’s okay if I if I might have the quote, not verbatim, but you said something about gratitude and being grateful. And you said that one of the things you loved is you loved? And I’m going to hope that mum okay saying this. But he said, You allow you. You loved, allowing my ass being handed to me. And it was about, can you elaborate on that? And just the instance that that that took you to,

Heather Harris 43:37
I only wish I could reference just one instance where my ass has been handed to me. But the truth is, it happens regularly, and I feel that in those moments it’s really difficult for most people, let alone us mere mortals, to sit and say, well, what’s the opportunity here? Where’s the where’s the gift in this moment? Because of a couple of personal challenges and setbacks I have faced as any human has, you know, don’t, don’t look at my highlight reel of life. You don’t see what’s on the cutting floor to make that highlight reel, that moment that you’re on stage, proverbially, but that being said like no one listening to this podcast or watching us right now is going to going to imagine that just a year and a half ago, you would find me in the fetal position in my office with lawn from time to time, having like a mid panic attack in between a client or that my salon director, who’s a dear friend of mine, and she’s done such an incredible job leading my leading my team and and helping sustain my business through an incredible personal hardship, wouldn’t know that. She would know, and she’d see the look on my face, and she’d head right to the office, and she would know that she need to apply pressure to my chest to get me cold water, to start breathing, to co regulate like the poor woman had a lot more than a salon to handle me. Those moments, most people wouldn’t guess that, especially when they see me on stage, because I’m great, like, I’m on stage, I’m fine, you know, on stage I don’t, I don’t stand up there and have a panic attack. Interestingly enough, I don’t, I don’t tell people that part. I’m there to teach something or to lead. And a couple years ago, as my as my ass, was being handed to me yet again, in a really, really major way, in personal crisis, it totally broke me. It broke me on a lot of levels, and it was all I could do to show up to work, let alone put makeup on. A lot of times I didn’t. I mean, I could barely get out of bed. I could barely take care of my own children. And this is not, it’s not a woe is me or a sob story, as much as to say, those moments helped me so much to learn that I could rely on my team. They helped me realize that I was not alone in the challenges I was facing. They helped me reorganize my life and realize no one is going to live it for me, and that if I chose to stay stuck or miserable, I was just going to keep producing stuck and miserable results. Miserable results. I had to change. I had to change some things significantly in my life to begin a process of healing. And those decisions and those changes were, they required a tremendous effort and cost me more than I had anticipated. And in that, in that flame was was forged some really, really beautiful gifts. And I think not to be cheesy or flatter you, Chris, but you know, three years ago, I would have never been in a position to connect with someone like you, or have these discussions, or get to learn from experts and leaders and people who are so inspiring, like yourself. I just, I was just after the grind. I was trying to live day to day, run a salon and take care of my family. And when, when that breakdown happened, it really turned into a breakthrough. I’m a huge devotee of stoicism, and my one true love in life is Marcus Aurelius. He is my lover. And you know what impedes the way becomes the way? Those things that feel like dying are oftentimes the death of something that did not belong. And for me, there’s a lot of identities that I had and a lot of beliefs I carried that I it was time for me to release, and there was a lot of other paths that were waiting to be opened. And so as I began to at the time, I’ll say I did not submit. I did not willfully hand over my bright ideas to the powers that be. Instead, I was trying to force my way a lot, and in that process, I was surrendered. I had to say, uncle, here’s the white flag. Like I legitimately can’t do it anymore, and I don’t know how I’m going to do it. And in that, in that breakdown, was born some incredible breakthroughs. There’s not enough time to say it, and a lot of the details are actually, you know, more private, but the amount of healing love just straight up miracles that poured into my life as a result of those moments are more beautiful than any polished success story could ever present. And so yeah, I’ve learned that I love having my ass handed to me because I know there’s something on the other side of it, and please remind me be my accountability partner that next time it happens, because it’s bound to happen again, that I can look forward to it sooner. I don’t have to sit in a couple years of just pain wondering what good is going to come of it, because good always comes of it when we when we shift our focus.

Chris Baran 48:34
Wow. TMI, yeah, no, it’s saying wow. Because, first of all, I’ll bet if there’s, if there’s somebody that’s listening and watching right now and did not relate to what you said. I mean, I can remember times of feeling that I was just, you know, what the hell’s going on with my life? And I just would want to go to bed and get up in a fetal position and, you know, put my thumb in my mouth and have my next to me and rock back and forth, you know. And I, I think we all go through that, but you know, is that, and whether, if you’re spiritual or whatever, and I just mean that the universe, the universe, gives you what you need, and sometimes you just don’t know, you don’t see it when it’s happening, but I’ll bet you that, like you told us, that when you come out the other side, as painful as it was, that sometimes that outside is even a little bit better than it was before, when you were stuck in it Before all the pain happened. And I really, truly believe that the the universe is going to deal the shit rolls downhill, and sometimes it’s going to it’s going to deal you with you a problem. And I know our coach talked to us many, many times about. About that the the world gives you problems, the universe gives you problems, business gives you problems, life gives you problems. And if you can solve the problem, you you move up. And then I’m just, it’s an up only as in a metaphor for where we move. Yeah. But if you it gives and then, you know what? I this stuck with me when he said, and you know what the reward is when you solve the problem? And I said, No, and he said, he said, a bigger problem. The universe rewards you when you solve a problem with an even bigger problem. And when you solve that one, it gives you a bigger problem. And the problem is, as sometimes in life, in finance, in emotion, in in relationships, is that if you can’t solve the problem, you’re stuck at that problem, and you’ll never advance. And so when I hear you, and we’ve had other conversations before where I know a little bit more about that. We don’t need to go into what those personal stories were, but is it rewarded you with probably more problems, but at the end of it, as soon as you get past that problem, it’s just like in life. It’s called the Theory of perturbation. When and perturbed just means that chaos hits you when you when you get past perturbed, it’s calm, just like that’s when you know tree turns to coal and the coal turns to diamonds, but only under pressure and chaos. And you don’t become that diamond. You don’t become that better thing without being perturbed, without going through chaos, without going through that friction and heat that we talk about. And I and I’m so happy that you’ve come out that other side better, with more growth.

Heather Harris 51:55
Thank you. And you know, instead of even looking at it like as we solve that problem, we unlock another problem. It’s true, I think, though, as we expand into the next level, as you say, or, you know, level up, it’s like a video game. I solved that level. Now, what it’s really it’s unlocking capacity and and finding out, and I like to do a little bit different way, because I have been so focused on puzzle solving, problem solving, my brain works in grappling and solutions, and I work in a way that is cool. It’s a superpower. I like to joke like, I am so good at crisis and problem solving. Next goal in my life is to create less crises and not have any problems to solve. But like, you know, I’ve identified so much as like, I’m gonna figure it out. I’m gonna figure it the F out. I’m gonna, I’m gonna go to and I’m gonna, I’m just gonna, I’m going to white knuckle this, and I’m going to sort it out, and I’m going to do this. And I am looking at and learning to rather than trying. I remember my therapist being like, okay, so try a little less or try a little less hard, and then we’re being like, Okay, I’m gonna read every book and listen to every podcast, on being moderate, on being relaxed. I am going to be the most fanatically, 100% aggressively relaxed person you’ve ever met got it. And then I’m like, oh, and I’m not joking you. I said something almost verbatim to that, and then I looked at her, and she’s looking at me, and I’m like, I didn’t even do that. Ironically, that was legitimately my thought. Was like, Okay, I’m going to apply all of my force and thoughtfulness into being more moderate. And I was like, damn, I sure did not understand the assignment. So the irony wasn’t lost on me, if I’m being honest with you, but I’m wanting to, and I’m embracing or relaxing into, or rather submitting into the concept of trying a little less hard, letting life be a little bit more gentle. And I’ll tell you, in some of the challenges of the last few years, there were some things that I did not create or invite, or even maybe the ownership wasn’t necessarily in my core of sometimes things just happen to you. Sometimes, sometimes hard things happen. There are things that plot twist that we don’t anticipate, that we don’t maybe have control over ever, and that whole idea of control is an illusion anyway, but I own significantly my contributions to my own personal challenges and the collateral damage that was created in my fashion and in my trying and in my intent, intentions to solve the problem and get things better and and i i created a lot of harm inadvertently in my flailing about and I own that I’m trying to make it right. I’m trying to be gentle with myself and understanding and acknowledging my own contributions to it, because that was where I was at, and I did the best I could. And now that I know better, I want to show up better, and part of knowing better is being more peaceful with myself as I continue to screw things up, and just knowing that each time I show up like that, my capacity expands, my peace also increases. And I believe. In a God without getting evangelical on you here. And I’m not. I’m an evangelist of hope and progress and growth. So that is my that is my dogma. That’s what all. That’s what I’ll knock doors and tell people about. But the God I believe in is not so narrow minded that they’re offended by being referred to as energy or the universe. They’re they’re expansive enough that they can handle however. We need to label the concept in order to identify with it, because there’s so many different people out there who need to connect to better and higher and and goodness. I just think the more universal we can make it, the more individual it can become. And that’s really important to me. So I just think, I think it’s all part of the beautiful Brene Brown calls it beautiful. I think it’s Brene Brown, but the beautiful growth process.

Chris Baran 55:50
So, you know, this is what I love about and I’m getting the understanding now, why Spark is the name that you have for what you do. Because I think that there’s that spark is about what happens with hope, isn’t it? And if I hope to be better, I hope to get my life back. I hope that I can have I hope I can spend more time with my with my my kids, my family, my friends, and my agenda is just jamming me full. That spark is that thing that’ll help you give your life, your time, your energy back so you you can actually have that life back. And I know you have spark, and I think we’ve got a gist on what that is, and, and, but you also have your give us a little bit more about alchemy. You have another company that you called alchemy. And what give us a little bit about, about what that’s about, what is when you talk about, what’s the difference between spark and your other company, Alchemy, Alchemy,

Heather Harris 56:57
well, in the true definitions of the word, Spark is what lights a flame, and alchemy is what transmute crude metal into something refined. And when, when I started talking to certain clients who were clients of Spark, but they were like, I don’t I know I need to turn on the light I need I know where the light switch is, but I don’t know how to walk from here to the light switch. And so some of them request a little bit more guidance. We would have regular phone calls, and I would, I would start to work with them, and in a way that, just like kind of anything that’s been in my life, I didn’t do it on purpose. It just happened to me. It chose me again, but being able to help escort people into their ability to be more refined and to do their higher work. I started consulting with people and realizing that’s what I was doing after it was already happening, where I had people that, I mean, some of the things that have been the most rewarding in this process were a good friend of mine who’s also a national educator. She travels and teaches, and she’s a, you know, award winning, you know, big stage kind of person. Shout out. She’s incredible, Tammy Axworthy. She’s part of the gold on national team. And she’s a, she’s a beautiful woman with the most infectious, incredible energy. I happen to only know cool people come to find out, but she’s just a badass. And a friend of mine, we hit it off right when we met, spark was just an idea, and she was one of our first clients. And when working with her, one of the most humbling opportunities that I’ve had as an owner and CEO of spark was when Tammy said this idea, she has a product called Beauty foils, and she’s a blinding expert, and she’s she had this idea that she wanted to make a better foil, and there’s a bazillion foils on the market, and she had these ideas, and then we have regular phone calls. And pretty soon she said, Heather, I remember one time just being like, I should have recorded this phone call when I didn’t think about it, because I’m like, Oh, that was a compliment. But she was like, what has been an idea in my mind, this desire, hope, dream since, you know, for years, it’s been like, on the back burner, thing that I’ll get to someday, that I never got to. She’s like, we have done more in this conversation to move that forward from that phone call, within months, she had her Shopify account, launched her prototype, shipped her name, her label, her branding, her social media support, dialed in, and she used spark for that. And, you know, not to shameless plug it, but that’s, that’s how we that’s how we started working together in this way, but then to know that in our conversations back and forth, and I do have her permission to share this, that she she was able to take what she wanted to do and accelerate it and get there quicker. And I feel like, you know, an escort to guiding her to where she wants to go, more quickly, more safely, with higher efficiency and effectiveness. And that’s cool. That’s really fun for me. So with Alchemy, if there’s somebody who’s like, we’ve got a great mentor team, we’ve got a great setup right now, we use Chris’s education, his salon associate accelerator, we’re set to go on that. But, man, we don’t have our social media dialed in, or we really don’t have a lot of processes in place, or we don’t have a. Great career path or recruiting strategy, to be able to go in where there might be high skill set, and then more of like a an asynchronous, asynchronous like strength, that I can go in and help them find where those gaps are, and then help set them up to transition them into having those become a well oiled machine as well. Like Charles Barkley said, I’m not a role model. I’m I’m not. I’m not a coach. You’re a coach. I’m not. Don’t, don’t look at me for that. But like, I am good at finding a missing puzzle piece, whether it’s in a client consultation, a guest experience, or just an audit of someone’s business processes, and to be able to go in there and then help them set something up that will accelerate their success and really honestly, the fun they’re having what they do. So that’s what alchemy does, and it’s fun. It’s for a handful of people that want a little extra hand holding and need some support getting from here to there.

Chris Baran 1:00:54
Yeah. So what I mean, and I love the term alchemy, because that’s where you’re turning the lead to gold. Yeah. How did so if people, I mean, you said it’s not for everybody, but it’s for some. I mean, it might not be creating a foil, but it could be how, what am I doing wrong in my in my business, what am I doing wrong that I’m not getting what I want out of life and etc, etc, and you need somebody to talk to to help you find that that those missing links. What’s the things that I need to do, the thinking that creates? How do they? How does that work with you? How does that How can like, if I wanted to, I want to say, I what you just said, and Heather we just talked about, I need to get a hold of Heather. How do they how would they go about that?

Heather Harris 1:01:43
So alchemy, salon Consulting has an intake form. There’s a couple of options. I try to make everything really quick, because ain’t nobody got time for it. You need to be able to do it as a stoplight. Don’t do that while you’re driving. But my idea, and that’s actually how I run my my, my checks, my like, my assessments, on my materials. I’m like, Can they do it at a stoplight? Can they do it while they’re drinking water, while clients processing, while they’re typing an email? You know, basically, I’m geared toward the person pulled in a lot of directions. And essentially go to alchemy salon consulting. And then you can see, like, here’s what I want help with, or here’s what I need. And you know, when someone works with me, they’ll get unlimited text, text, not tech. I’m not good at tech, but they’ll get texting support and communication, then we’ll have whether it’s best for them to work on a weekly call structure or every other week until they feel like they’ve got what they need dialed in. I just think it’s so important to be flexible. In our industry. People have needs that skyrocket, like I want to launch this program or this training, or I want to get my education thing off the ground, whatever it is, I just want to help people get there faster. One of my favorite aunts says, The sooner, the quicker. And so, you know, basically, let’s do this, the sooner the quicker. But the idea is, it was called being critical people who don’t like this superpower. It’s a criticism, but it’s honestly the ability to find gaps, the ability to find this challenge or this hang up and then help bridge that gap, pop the puzzle piece in and keep going. That’s something that is just a talent of mine. It’s something I love doing. I have a refining probability like, that’s just how my brain works. And so if people want to do that, want to work with me, they can just drop down from there, and I’m down from there. And we’ve got clients of Spark who start using us for just their social media. And then they’re like, I have a book. I’ve actually got three paragraphs done or three chapters done it I want. I have so many people been like, I’ve got this thing. I’ve been wanting to do. My favorite thing is to take them from the I’ve got this thing, this idea, to I’ve got this product, this project, this what if it’s competing in a creative award? What if it’s taking that trip to go to that salon business networking event that you just didn’t have time for? I don’t care what it is. What if it’s so that you can go do yoga teacher training and walk your dog every day before 5pm whatever it is, let’s get you there. And that’s that’s what spark does. And then the people who want a little bit more support, who need more specifics, who need processes, who need someone who owns a salon, or who’s traveled as an educator, or who has some of these other experiences and exposure to hold your hand and work on it. It’s incredible how many high performing businesses that are doing over a million dollars a year that have a salon manager, director, concierge, lead an assistant program, etc. How many of them are like, yeah, we’re not actually doing a monthly newsletter. We do have one on ones, but it’s quarterly. I don’t really have the best structure or framework for that. There’s so much you can find for free online, and then being able to infuse your culture into it and just take it to the next level is is a passion of mine.

Chris Baran 1:04:40
And you know what? I just wrote this thing down here after listening to you because with with Spark and with Alchemy, and I just wrote down we started talking about to do lists at the beginning. And what I really heard you saying is that it helps you get people from to do, to to done. Yeah. There you go. Yeah. Yeah, it’s going from to to from to do to to done. And I don’t want to have to say that again. It’s too much, too many to do to in there. But I think I want to say just thank you for that, because I think people can relate so much to what you said, what you were going through, and how you’ve got success for you, and how you’re dealing it for everybody else as well. Now I’m not sure, and I’m trying to find a clever way to say this, so I’m just going to say it you and I talked about the beginning is that you were you said you wanted to help people along by offering them a little something, something, yeah, what was that

Heather Harris 1:05:39
for a good time, call me so I if, if this concept resonates with listeners, or if there are people that know somebody who it could support like I said, I am. I am leading teams and running businesses and taking care of my family and trying to make the world a better place and contribute meaningfully in these ways. I would love to make that a gift that if someone’s like that, that might be for me, I might need the extra hand holding to to gift them an hour call with me, make it a and do like that. I say like I am such a gift. I don’t mean it like that. I am such a prize. Chris, no, I would love to support people, if they’re like, I just need someone, you know, that phone, a friend, or I want to bounce this idea off of somebody. Is this a bad idea? Is this a good idea, or whatever else like, I am nothing if I’m not honest. So I certainly am not a person who thinks that because I offer this, that I’m a good fit for you and you’re a good fit for me. But I do want to be able to give people that time if, if anybody listening would like that complimentary, like a strategy session. It’s something that I’d be happy to gift rather than charging my fee. So it’s just something for your listeners. And they they can, they can mention it. They can just say, I heard about you on Chris’s podcast. There’s no fancy code word or anything like that. But I would love to see if, if anything that I can do or that I’ve experienced might resonate with getting them where they want to go a little faster. Yeah, yeah.

Chris Baran 1:07:09
And, you know, listen, I think for all of you listening, watching right now, if you’ve got the vibe of what she’s about, I think you see that she’s real. And, you know, I always say it just, you’ve got nothing to lose, but ask, so just get an hour’s time and then find out how your life can be changed.

Heather Harris 1:07:24
Yeah, the worst thing that happens, I bore you out of your mind, and you really like me, and

Chris Baran 1:07:32
just did on this whole thing that was so boring, you know? And you know, you’ll get good laughs, you’ll get good information, and God knows you’ll get, you’ll get the key that will help to to get you to done. So I just want to say, Heather, just from the bottom my heart, I know that your time is so valuable, and you give it up freely, as you’ve just demonstrated. And I just want to say thank you so much from the bottom my heart for being here for all the people that are out there with on head cases who need help, and you’re definitely there for

Heather Harris 1:08:06
them from one head case to another. I am so grateful that you invited me to be on and I really hope that the I’m for certain that someone listening has experienced some sort of pain on a level that that they might not they wish they didn’t relate or whatever. But I want anybody who’s feeling that to know that there’s so much beyond that, and a lot of creativity can be born in the flame of affliction that that I hope to support people in in finding and capturing for themselves.

Chris Baran 1:08:40
Heather, thank you so much. It’s been an absolute pleasure. Thank you. Thanks again for watching this episode, and if you liked what you heard, remember to smash that like or follow button, depending on your preferred platform, and make sure to share it with anyone you know that might be a fellow head case. Head cases is produced by cut action media, with Marjorie Phillips doing the planning parts, Lee Baran on the video bits, and Adrian Taverner mixing the audio jazz you.