Shear It Up
Welcome to our podcast where we delve into the world of small businesses and the art of hair styling and cosmetology in the charming Midwest small town setting. Join us as we sit down with passionate entrepreneurs and talented hair stylists to uncover their stories, experiences, and insights. Discover the hidden gems of our small Midwest area and all the wonderful things it has to offer.
In each episode, we take you behind the scenes to get to know the dedicated individuals who are the driving force behind these local businesses. From unique techniques in hair styling to the challenges and triumphs of running a small business in our community, we share it all. Tune in to hear firsthand accounts, valuable tips, and heartwarming tales that showcase the creativity and spirit of the people shaping our small town. So, grab a seat and immerse yourself in the inspiring world of small business and cosmetology in the Midwest!
Wanna See More?
Shear Happiness Salon
Website @ https://www.shear-happiness-salon.com/
LinkTree @https://linktr.ee/ShearHappyHaley
Facebooke@https://www.facebook.com/shearhappiness3998/
Instagram @https://www.instagram.com/shearhappinesssalon/
YouTube @https://www.youtube.com/@shearitupwithhaley
Bridal @https://www.theknot.com/marketplace/shear-happiness-salon-connersville-in-2057471
Shear It Up
Intro Podcast! Welcome to Shear It up!
Welcome to an exciting new episode of our podcast! In this episode, we take a unique approach as we delve into getting to know the host a little better. Join us as we explore fun interview questions that provide insight into the person behind the microphone. From quirky preferences to intriguing experiences, this episode promises to be a delightful mix of entertainment and personal revelations.
As we venture into this fun and light-hearted journey, you'll have the chance to discover more about the host's background, interests, and perhaps even some surprising anecdotes. Through engaging questions and candid responses, we aim to create a connection with our listeners and offer a glimpse into the personality driving the show. So sit back, relax, and enjoy this special episode that adds a personal touch to our podcast experience.
Wanna See more?
Shear Happiness Salon
LinkTree @https://linktr.ee/ShearHappyHaley
Facebooke@https://www.facebook.com/shearhappiness3998/
Instagram @https://www.instagram.com/shearhappinesssalon/
YouTube @https://www.youtube.com/@shearitupwithhaley
Bridal @https://www.theknot.com/marketplace/shear-happiness-salon-connersville-in-2057471
intro episode 0
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Hi. And. 2s Welcome to shear it up. 2s My name is Haley Muckridge. I am going to be your lovely host for this beautiful podcast. I guess first things first is a brief introduction of who I am and what I do. And I am a salon owner suite owner. 2s Ten years as a stylist, went to Aveda, Frederick's Institute in Indianapolis, and I love my job. And in that process, I have learned to love being a small business owner. I've learned to really grow and expand and change and pivot. Those are my favorite words. 1s So with that being said, I wanted to start this podcast more as a community for not only stylists, as citizens, but small business owners as well, because I do feel like it's a very small community. And until you've own a small business and until you've really grown your own business, it is something that most people don't talk about. So I am very, very fortunate that when I opened five years ago, my mom and my sister, um, opened act three pottery, but we were actually open together at my parents. And then two years ago, they outgrew the space and currently have a building in town. And I am currently looking for a building, um, because I've outgrown my space. So it has been a very, very beautiful journey. But if I did not have them, this would be a lot harder of a process. And so it kind of got me thinking of fun, new, adventurous ways to seek out that community. And I figured a podcast would be one. So from here on out, I'm going to have other hairstylists Estheticians small business owners that I have come to enjoy and also talk to them about all kinds of things, and I hope I bring it to the small Midwest that we live in and show that we have a lot to offer here in our little Midwest area. Um, one of the things I guess I should touch upon is my name of my salon, which is Sheer Happiness Salon. I recently today actually launched the education portion of my salon. I am super nervous. It was really hard being on YouTube and this is going to be a whole nother aspect of that. So with all that being said, I am super nervous and I'm trying to get comfortable. So I wanted to do my first initial podcast just to kind of like introduce myself, really talk about some of my story, and I wanted a little bit more questions, but I'm really I'm struggling, so I am trying to find some fun ones. Icebreakers. So where did I grow up? I grew up in Connersville, Indiana. I am half Connersville and I am half Dayton. Um, like literally 18 years split in half. And then I lived in Indy while I went to hair school, and I lived in Houston for a year after high school and got to really experience a lot of different things, a lot of different areas, um, tons of different food. I'm a food junkie. Um, so it's been really kind of expansive for me from the last. Ten years. 13 I guess since I lived in Houston. But, um, that is where I grew up. 1s What is my morning routine? Ooh, 1s so I'm a coffee girly. And you guys will figure this out because every podcast will involve coffee. And I will probably say today's coffee is sponsored by. It's probably not actually sponsored, but I like the other day we filmed Lacey's and it was sponsored by Dunkin. So I actually don't have coffee today because it is 10 p.m. at night. I have two little kids that make this difficult, so. So my morning routine starts with coffee and then I. Like to get the kids up and moving, and then I go and do my makeup and my hair, and I get ready for the gym, because once I drop my kiddos off, I spend about an hour in the gym in the morning. It's my head space for myself. Um, I love the gym that I go to. It's very it's very fun. I have a very good community there, and hopefully we'll have them on the podcast. Um, and then after that, I open up my salon and I go in about 30 minutes before my first client. I like to have some organization. So I like to go in and, you know, put my towels down and get my capes ready and sweep up the floor because we all know I left in a hustle. So I like to, you know, kind of get it ready. And then I will actually pour myself my second cup of coffee for the day. So that is my morning routine. 2s Uh. 2s What is the best compliment I've ever received? That's a good one. Um. 2s Well, I'm going to make it hair related because that's my pride and joy other than my children. Um. 2s I got a compliment from a client, and she's still a client of mine, and she has been doing extensions for probably every bit of 20 years, and she just happens. And I did her hair and it was like the first time I'd ever done her hair. She's new to town, and she looked at me and she said, I have never in the 20 years that I've been getting tape and extensions, had a set like you did for me. I am so impressed by your talent. And it like, guys, it hit me hard because I was like, wow, that's a that's a lot coming from somebody who's been doing it for 20 years when I've only been doing it specialized for four. So super. Massive compliment for me. Like I still ride on that. 1s What did I want to be when I was a kid? Oh, that's a really good one. Believe it or not, I wanted to be an actress. Um, and then as I got older, I decided I wanted to be a news anchor. 1s And then I ended up being a hairstylist. 1s Uh, which I love. I love what I do, so it was definitely meant to be. 1s Am I introverted or extroverted? I am an extrovert, but I'm an introvert on Friday nights and Saturdays. 1s I like being social. My job is very social, but I do not like having a ton of plans. 2s I love my boat. And in that I'm social. So in the summertime, pretty much from April until about October, like 30th. I will literally live on my boat. You have to pay me to get off my boat. What is one of my biggest challenges in life? Finding a business building in Connersville 1s that isn't ridiculously priced? Um, actually, as the filming of this, I think I did kind of get that figured out. I'm not announcing anything because it's not a done deal, and I don't have the keys in my hand. So until that happens, nothing's actually happening. But I'm always looking and it is the hardest thing in the world. 3s What do people misunderstand about you most? 1s They think, and I know I've said this to some of my clients. They think my. 1s Passion and my care like I genuinely care, is a marketing ploy. 1s And it's not. I am an empath and I am a very caring person. And I will go home and think about you at night. I will go home and do a ton of research on what I could do better for your hair. I will go home and do research on how moms feel because we are very, very isolated. Um. 2s I will go home and just think about you. I constantly will sit there and genuinely think about them. I'm a very genuine person and it comes off like it's a marketing ploy and it's not. 2s Uh, do I have siblings? I do, I have a little sister and she is 20. She is going to see this and shoot me. She is 20. 1s Five 1026. To me, she will always be 19. Why? That's the number. That's what she stuck at, 19. Um. 1s What was I like as a child? Oh, uh. 1s I wish I could just add the clip of our home video, but it's a home video that is on a VHS tape and I don't know how to switch that over yet. Maybe I'll get there, but, uh. 1s I was a very charismatic child. I was very, um, loved to be on stage, loved to sing, love to do all of the theatre things. And it's funny because in my adult years I've really, um, step back and had a very, like, hard time doing this again. And it's so weird because I used to just not have any care in the world. Um, so very charismatic is how I'm going to put that. 2s Um. How do I want to be remembered? 2s Well, 1s um, I think. 1s I had a friend passed away at a very young age, and my biggest thing of remembering her is her laugh and her pincher fingers. She used to eat with these two fingers and everything. Literally everything besides mashed potatoes and. I love the fact that I remember her by her laugh. Like I can still hear her laugh. So I think for me is I hope that. When I leave this planet and I go to a better place that people remember me by. My care for them, and that they felt like they were heard and cared for, and then that I was a good person. And funny that those are the things that I want to be remembered by. Um, what is my biggest fear? Okay, so my biggest fear is elevators. It didn't used to be at all like, my biggest fear used to be like caves. Um, my biggest fear is elevators. We were in Destin, Florida. Um, when I say we, my dad, my stepmom, my husband and my two children were in Destin and we were enjoying like a nice little family vacation. We were on the fifth floor at a hotel, and I'm not even going to call them out because they did. They did totally hook us up later. Um. My dad thought it would be funny to jump in the elevator with my son, my daughter, my husband and him and I, and it bounced and stopped. And then we couldn't like the call button wouldn't work. So we ended up having to call the front desk for my cell phone. At this point, I am sitting here and my like with my children, like trying not to freak out, trying to take a deep breath, trying not to like scare them. But I'm thinking. Or hanging in a metal box and it's not starting and the call button's not working. And so they start to send the maintenance guy up. And this is where, um, the anxiety hit a whole nother level. And of course, like my dad and my husband are razzing me about it, they're like, oh, are you scared? Are you scared? I'm like, yeah, I am. This is freaking me out. Nightmares here. And all of a sudden I hear the maintenance man from above us go, oh crap, they're stuck between floors. We gotta go down a level. I immediately had like, Final Destination, fear of everything. I had to not only crawl myself through like a four foot gap. But my children had to be passed to me through a four foot gap between floors, like elevator doors open. There is a four foot gap and that is what we had to go through. You want to talk about fear? I have never been the same since and I will tell you, that happened like Tuesday of the trip. Yeah. I walked up and down five flights for every single time we went back to the hotel room. The entire rest of the trip. And honestly, my friends still tease me. Um, we have a friend who is handicapped and we always have to use elevators, and it's normal for us like we're used to it. Until that happened to me and we ended up in Nashville and all of our friends were like, are you gonna ride the elevator? No, no I'm not. I did 672 steps to that attic rooftop bar because I was not about to get in that elevator. And so they always tease me because they're like, you getting in, I hate elevators. That's that's my fear nowadays. Biggest fear, hands down. Have nightmares about it. 1s But what keeps me up in hare mares, Hare mares keep me up at night. In business goals. I wake up a lot at like two three in the morning and I can't sleep and I will be on my phone either doing research or. 1s Like formulating in my mind. If I don't open my phone, like I will literally sit there and formulate different formulas and like in the morning I'll be like, oh my gosh, that was a great formula. We showed it or that don't need to have a dream journal next to my bed. 1s Do you have advice for those interested in your field? Well I do. So one of the biggest things that I will suggest to somebody wanting to go into the hair world is go shadow. And that doesn't mean that you have to be like in hair school to go shadow. I am very much that person. I wish I would have shadowed a little bit more. Um, I knew when I visited Aveda that was the one. That was it. That's all it took. I knew that's what I wanted to do. And we walked outside and I looked at my mom and I said, doesn't that look like fun? And she was like, no, but if that's what excites you, you go for it, baby. 1s Um, so definitely go shadow. It is. 1s It's such an expansive career that you can do so much. I mean, I'm sitting here on my own podcast that talks about hair and business. I never would have seen that coming. Um, I specialized in bridal, um, almost six years ago and never would have seen that coming. So. 1s It is so large. You can you can do so much with it that it's really, really cool to see what you can do. But you have to have that passion, you have to have that drive. And that's why I'm saying go Shadow, because you will find out really quick. If sitting in a salon for 12 hours is going to be your vibe, and it's not necessarily 12 hours for everybody, but you will see the day in and day out what you like to do. And if you don't like it, that's okay too. I always tell my girls, you want to come learn bridal from me. I say, try it with me, go to a wedding with me because you will either love it or hate it. There is no in-between. And so. Go shadow, go shadow and really, like, figure out if it's something you want to do. 2s What gives you motivation? My kids. Believe it or not, my kids, um, my biggest motivation is to be a role model to my kids. Kind of like my parents were very honest about things that bothered us. Um, I want my kids to grow up knowing that mommy and daddy worked very, very hard for. I hope that as my children grow, they see the the drive is there, but also like the passion. And that's what motivates me on my daily. Like anytime I feel like I want to do something different, they are all about it. And it's it's definitely what gets me up in the morning. And I know that's like a typical mom statement, but it's true that. 1s Like, how do you define success in your field? Oh, I like that question. I like that question a lot. So I am going to say. 2s Each person is different. And I think that's actually a question I'm going to start. And I'm going to start asking every single person on the podcast because. 2s I define my success that when my clients leave, not only do they feel like they have beautiful hair and they've been educated, but that they feel like they have been heard in whatever point in life they have been in. Um, if they needed somebody to talk to, I'm there. I, um, if they if they have hair questions, I'm there. And I want you not only feeling beautiful and like you have this gorgeous new feeling in life, but I want you to feel like you have been heard and that someone out there really cares about you. Even if it's just me, I still care. So that is what I deem a success and I hope like crazy my clients can agree. So comment I guess if you agree because comments and reviews are much appreciated. 2s What made me want to start a podcast. Oh, that's a good one. 2s Community. We lack her community. Um. 2s It's not a competition, and I've never viewed it that way. And there's enough hair to go around and I'll even tell people like, I mean, I think that's how I'm going to end this show's go be hair happy, because my definition of hair happy is I want you leaving my salon not only feeling like you have the perfect hair, but that you have had a complete experience that you enjoy, and that you've had a new friend, that you've met, a new friend, and that you go to somebody that is educated, that you trust, that you can ask any kind of question to, and whether it's hair, makeup, whatever, and that you feel like that person is is trustable and somebody that really made that work for you and you didn't feel insecure by any means. And I do mean like all the way around. So go be hair happy. That's that's why I started this community is I wanted 1s I wanted a place for people to talk about that openly. Talk about it not being competition, talk about business life. Talk about you know, the faults in the industry, but also the positives and just in small businesses alone. So I know for me, you know, I could go into the beauty world of things, but in reality this isn't just beauty world, this is everything. Um, watching my mom and my sister grow their business, you know, watching friends around me, you know, really take that plunge that we all talk about. Like, you kind of have to have no lifeboats. I know there's another guy on TikTok that he has no lifeboats. And I'm like, yep, no lifeboats and you'll make it. So I'm very excited to create that community and that's why I started this. 1s How do I make my podcast stand out from other categories? Well, guys, I didn't even know what category to put it in because it's not really technically beauty and health. And it's not really mental health either, but it's also not entrepreneurship. So like. 1s I didn't know what to put it in, and I still don't think I've categorized it yet. Um, this is episode one, so, you know, it needed it needs a minute. 1s I guess I'll figure that out, and you guys will find out. 2s Do you have any gear recommendations by a good soundboard? I didn't. 1s I didn't. I still don't know if I bought a decent one. I did buy a really nice mix. Um, these are gamer mix, so they all glowy, glowy, but like, light up here if I really wanted them to. Um, tonight, it's not going to because it's not got enough power to it, which is fine. Um. 1s But I definitely recommend a good mic and good boom and possibly a boom stand. Haven't gotten that there yet, but we'll get there. Um. 3s And a good software. I have tried them all. If you have any questions, call me. 2s So where do your listeners sign up for your course or purchase your product? So we're going to go into that I am on. 1s TikTok. Instagram. Facebook. 2s Twitch. Amazon. Um. 1s What else am I on? I'm on so much. Uh, I have a YouTube channel now that's new, so you can follow me on all of those. I do have a link tree, so of course, if you want to just go to our Instagram click Link Tree. It would bring up all of that for you. I do have an online scheduler, and I also have a bridal inquiry that you can click on. And then I will have a new website up and probably the very end of April, so please look forward to that too. So that is where you can go. And that is at Shear Happiness Salon on Facebook and Instagram. So if you have any questions or concerns or want to send an email my way, uh, send it on to me. I hope this was a fun little intro podcast and go be her happy.