Bonus: My First Year...It was hard!

a Re-upload from our Patreon Days!
My first year in the industry was challenging. We can all empathize when anyone says that. I want to tell my story, and I hope it helps you not feel alone in yours!

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0:23

Hi C curve. Her fam. This episode is a re upload from an episode from our patron. We used to have it. I had recently been reached out to talk about my first year experience. And realizing that I have talked about it before, but not everybody had been a part of the patriotic. So I decided to reapply this episode. And so if you've heard it before, Why not be a part of it again, but if not, I hope that you enjoy it and it helps make you realize that you're definitely not alone in how difficult it is to get through your first year after Neil school. Hope you enjoy Enjoy My first year. In the industry. It was a lot. And I kind of wanted to talk a little bit about this. I do know that when it comes to the Patrion, I do have some people who are really new in the industry. So I really wanted to dive a little bit into my first year because I think that most people that you'll talk to in the industry can all agree. That your first year is probably one of the hardest years and like being tired time that you're in this industry. And a lot of that is because there's so many revelations you're going to have within that first year. And that really kind of deciphers your path that you take. And so. I really wanted to dive deep into that today and kind of give you my stories, the good, the bad, the ugly. I'm going to be aging myself, but that's totally okay. But yeah. Let's just talk about it So when I first started in school, I was 20 years old and I knew very little about the industry. I actually went to cosmetology school. And so I studied a little bit of everything, which also means I studied very little about nails. in California, I went to school. So. It was about 1600 hours. And. About a month. I would say. Two months maybe was on nails. And yeah, you do very little services when it came to that. And there were a lot of the basics. I think I did like 10 acrylic nails and wasn't even the right acrylic and I was terrible at it. And I just did a bunch of overlays. Because the forms they gave us were terrible. You had the fake nail. None of it made sense. And I just remember thinking this is terrible. But I thought the art thing was kind of cool. And when I was in cosmetology school, I would go to like the beauty shows. And this is where Joe Polish was like, hit the ground running. And so they had the free classes and I went and I was really interested. And while I was there, they were talking about all the really cool art tricks you could do with Joe Polish. And I thought it was pretty awesome. I grew up doing a lot of art. It was kind of a thing I love doing. And to be able to put that into like your business, like your job. That sounded really cool. And so when I got out of cosmetology school, I was pretty certain what I wanted to do was nails. But I was kind of terrified of extensions. I'm not going to lie. I was not very good at them in school, which now makes sense. You. You know, years later, because nobody tells you that the acrylic that you use in school is just terrible. Compared to what you would really use in real life. I just didn't get a lot of practice, which again, It's totally common. You know, school really teaches you how to. Beat state board. How to pass that. But it doesn't really give you the skill that you need to be successful in my first year in the industry. Was, uh, a very solid story. Have proof of that. So I got out of school. I knew I wanted to do nails, but I really had to sell that. Me not knowing anything was like a positive thing. And that's why somebody should hire me. So when I went, I knew there was a place in the town that I lived in that I really wanted to work. It was a full service spa actually. So they did hair as well, massage, estheticians, waxing, you know, all the whole thing and nails and the nails were just your typical manicure pedicures. Of course here, we're adding Joe Polish. And I could say on my resume that I had gone to kneel shows and taken those free classes and have a basic idea of it. So there's this one place. I was really crossing my fingers. I really wanted to work at. And I wrote a cover letter and a resume, which ended up being my saving grace, the owner of the salon. Said that the reason why she gave me the interview is because she loved my cover letter. So shadow to private school. For, you know, teaching me how to write one and how to write well, cause you got me my first job. That was the first thing the owner told me. It was that, that was the only reason why I'm eating here because they never hire people right out of school. I was like, all right, very intimidating. So going in and you have to do practical and doing the pedicure. And I think my first initial reality that caused and holiday school did not send me up to like, Survive in this industry. Was I was doing the pedicure. I start filing. And the lead nail tech takes my file and she was very domineering, but in a kind way, and I didn't feel insulted in any way. But she was like, when you file, you want to do this? And I was like, oh, okay. And it was a little different from what I was taught in school. And she basically said, I know they teach you the other way in school. But. Nobody has time for that. And I was like, oh, all right. Because I was taught, that's the correct way. Right. And I laugh now when I hear other technicians say that, because not that I'm laughing at them, but I'm having these moments of like, yeah, all of us do that at a school. We have this moment. We have this realization, that the way that we've been practicing so hard in school to do things is not how you do it in real life. And so I definitely had that moment in the middle of my first interview of my practical. Luckily, I have no idea how this happened, but I polished like to perfection. I didn't even need to clean up her toes. Probably my first and last, I'm just kidding, but definitely like wild for my first time being in an interview. So I was kind of like hired on the spot. And I had my first job. Right out of getting my. Like taking my test and, I was pretty excited, but once I started, I quickly realized that. I was not well prepped for starting a job One of the other issues when it came to going from school to a job. Was. I didn't know anything. Anything about the business side of this industry. So. So I gave a hired I'm given this like contract and. I am going to be an independent contractor on the spot. I'm commissioned only. They said. Okay. So I was told 50, 50. With like a 3%. Percent backbar taking out, which I guess in my mind sounded fair, but it wasn't until years afterwards that I find that that's not how it should work when you're commission-based and. You know, I mean, it was extra money that she was pulling out of our pockets, so just like, it was like another red flag. But you don't know, you don't know what you don't know. I realized, I didn't know a lot. I didn't know anything really. and it was such a struggle. To learn these services are done a little bit more different than what you were taught in school. You're trying to stay on time. You're trying to remember everything on top of like, I didn't have a clientele. I would literally have Tuesdays where I just. I sat around the entire day with zero clients that would just happen. And with the way that this salon was doing things. And I know this was a long time ago. I'm pretty certain. It wasn't how it was supposed to happen back then. And I know that commission laws have changed a lot now. But I would sit there all day. Without a client. I didn't make anything. You know, and, and I'm young and I did still have bills to pay and they had an apartment. So you kind of had to hustle and figure things out. And, you know, luckily there was another nail tech there that was super into nail art. And so when she didn't have clients, she would practice. And so. I would sit there and practice too with her and shout out. I don't know where she is in this world now, but I'm so thankful for her because she was really my start. To getting super pumped into Naylor. Things were just different back then. We're talking like 2010, 2011, 2012. Social media. Wasn't what it is now. And being able to go online. And find inspiration was not as prevalent as it is today. I remember working in that salon. And it was the first time I had heard of Pinterest and someone was explaining to me what Pinterest was. People had Instagram, but. Instagram was still very much. You just posted pictures of your life. There were a few people that had like business stuff, but it still was not as big as it was now. And let me tell you back then. There was like zero education. The education that you got was from going to beauty. Shows like beauty conventions and things like that. And then there was a few companies that offered classes. But it was one of those you had to know that they were offering them. So I remember trying to find classes with CND. And it wasn't prevalent on there. What site you had to go out of your way to go and look on their site at the very bottom in small print, it would say classes and there wasn't a lot of to offer. It was really crazy. And even if you had issues with products with companies, it wasn't like you could just go online and find all the answers you had to call in and get help. Like people weren't posting YouTube videos of tips and tricks and things like that. There was a few things, but not so much on the professional level. And so when it came to learning and figuring things out, You hoped that people would be there to teach you to help you because you probably weren't going to find a lot online. Back then. This like idea of a dog eat dog world was still kind of a thing. People were so. Worried they didn't want to help too much as if they would lose their clientele. And so their tips and tricks and secrets were theirs and you needed to figure it out on your own. And so it was really hard to kind of. Learn and grow and do these things. And so when you're a new nail tech in a place, you want to make sure you're doing things right. And all the say. I had plenty of problems and plenty of times being pulled aside and be like, Why aren't you painting? I know you can do better. Like your client came back and it chipped almost instantly. And I have to say, even Joe Polish back then. Was not as forgiving as it is now. It had to be put on so perfectly. Or else it would peel off or you would get bubbles or just anything? Just a wrinkle. Oh God, the wrinkles. I don't even. They don't wrinkle the way that they used to, it was terrible and there was a lack of colors. And so that was really difficult. it was a lot. And it wasn't just the time, because even now I know that nail techs come and even with all of this online information education and things like that. All you hear is that, you know, you, that first year was really difficult. Like that's, regardless of. How much free information you can be given. I don't know how much you could readily be prepared for that first year of trying to find your way into this brand new world. Really. But, those were the hurdles that I had to face at that time. And being young, I didn't know much about the business. I didn't really know anything about being an independent contractor. I didn't know how to build a clientele. Not a lot of people knew a lot about Joe Polish anyways. So knew very little about that. I wasn't doing extensions. I was way too scared of them. And I wasn't actually in a very healthy environment, either. The salon I was at was super toxic and. If you were to question anything, if things didn't feel like right. They really spoke down to you for that. I eventually ended up leaving because I just mentally couldn't handle it. And going off and going to another salon, but. I know that, that someone isn't there anymore. And I had for a while. Kept in touch with other people that I worked there and they said they had to basically. I had been sued a few times. It doesn't actually surprise me because once I left, I realized that whole. If I go back to that backbar incident that we originally. Brought up. She was basically taking 3% for backbar, but she was taking 3% out of the full amount that you brought in. So let's say you brought in a thousand dollars into the salon, but it's 50 50. So you'll be given $500. She was taking 3% of the thousand. Out of your F your $500 shares. So really it was a 6% backbar and when I had brought it up to her, she was really upset and basically had told me that I should be so lucky to even be working there. I'm only saying this because. If you're listening to this and you're like, oh my God, my boss has said things like that, too. Uh, leave immediately. Like no, if ands or buts. Leave immediately, like. I don't email call walk into work the next day. Say I am not coming back and walk out that door. Like I am promising you That is not the only bad thing that is happening there. A person who has that mentality and is owning this Alon. Is doing a lot of other things that are okay. So just a heads up there, like. Yes, just leave. As I got older and I look back and I look at all those things. Now know what to stay away from. And that first year. It's kind of the start of why I'm even here now. Doing all of this education. It was because it was hard. it's incredibly fast paced. maybe I don't feel like it's so fast-paced anymore because I've been doing this for so long, but yeah, when you first go in and you feel like you can't keep up, that's an absolute, true statement. Like, I definitely felt like I couldn't keep up. I tell people all the time that my first year I cried multiple times. You're just trying to figure everything out and you just realize you don't know anything. And that's the hard part about going from school to work is realizing that you are not prepared. There needs to be more business conversation in school. Like there needs to be more conversation of what real life salon culture is like. And none of that really gets spoken about. One of the other big issues is, like I said before, I didn't have a clientele. And I really didn't know how to build a clientele. That's a whole nother thing. And I couldn't, you know, people come in and obviously I can steal people's clients. That's not through. That's there. I will say there's a moral way to, to building a clientele and taking someone else's is not it. And there's the difference between somebody who chooses to come to you? Whether they had you once because somebody was sick or you, you know, We're handling someone else's. Clients while they're on vacation, things like that. or they just chose you because they wanted to try you out. There's a difference between that and actively pursuing and trying to steal somebody else's clients and. I that is not the nail industry is much smaller than you think the community is much smaller. It is not worth building a business, though. You might feel to faster. By trying to scalp somebody else's clients. it's not worth it for the reputation that you can make for yourself in this community. It's just not worth it. So. I don't think that anybody here would be somebody to do that. I'm just for warning. Or if you have a friend who may be thinking about it, Don't. I learned really quickly. That you are going to make a lot of mistakes. And there was no getting around that. I mean. With not. Having proper education And Not receiving Meaning a lot of help and i don't feel like my training was up to par Mistakes were going to happen but mistakes are always going to happen And i had to learn to get comfortable in that what i wish i had was i wish i was given an environment where i could make mistakes and not feel like i was going to be pulled off of the floor for them which had happened multiple times before and i'm talking like being punished by being pulled off the floor for a week so that meant that i wasn't getting a paycheck for a week because i made the mistake of Cutting my client with a buffer the edge of the buffer when nobody really talked about oh you should season your buffer and your nail files There just, wasn't a lot of room for being able to take risks and grow as a nail tech, without that fear of being punished for making a mistake. And how was I going to learn if I didn't try things and. take risks and. Figure it out and, that's when I realized that if I was going to go in and help people, I needed to create an environment. Where I was guiding them. Even in the mistakes. I am correcting them. Versus criticizing them. Because I didn't have that. I was criticized quite often and that made it really difficult because it made me nervous. Every time I go in with another appointment, I almost. would dread if I had a busy schedule because it was really nervous. Cause I knew I was going to make a mistake at some point. And what was going to happen to me after that? And it's just not a conducive environment for knowing that somebody is brand new in the industry. Another thing was, there was a lot of drama in my salon, like a lot of drama and it was coming from. You know, you had the owner, the managers, and then the workers, and you had the owner who is best friends with certain managers and managers who. Absolutely talked shit behind other workers. They'll lead for the nail department. it was a good day if she was in a good day. And then you felt like you were walking on eggshells. If she wasn't in a good mood. Then there would be a lot of times where she was talking a lot of shit about other nail techs that they weren't. Around. But then I remember in my mind thinking she's probably doing the same thing. If I'm not around. And what is she saying about me? And that felt like a really paranoid thing. And like I said before, If you had questions or concerns about the way things were running or things were happening. I did was not environment where you could bring that up because if they disagreed with you, if you had any disagreement about what was happening in the leadership roles, you were the problem. and we even had like monthly meetings. We would talk about things, but nobody really spoke out very much because if you did. You know, you were on that hot list. being new. I absolutely wasn't going to say anything, but that didn't mean that things weren't bothering me. I just didn't say anything. So that really started to like build up inside of me. And I would have moments where I would explode. I've caught, obviously not at work, but I would be home crying. I think I. took it to me being new in the industry. Like I blamed it on that more than I was being able to take a step back and be like, no, it's the environment. But of course it was my first salon. So I didn't have anything to compare it to. And my school kind of had a lot of drama too. And I just assumed that that was just the way of the world. But as I've gotten older and I've been in more places and I've worked for myself and I've met some really amazing nail techs, I really realized that. Not all places are like that. And the industry as a whole, doesn't have to be like that. And we have the ability to change that and grow and become a stronger community together. And that has been a big goal of mine. And I know plenty of nail techs who feel the same way. But I have been there in super drama, filled, anxious, driven type places where you walked on eggshells. You didn't know what kind of date was going to be. It was just, it's a, it's a toxic environment. So toxic environment to be in. Obviously I didn't last there long. A lot of people don't last in those kinds of situations. So those salons have a revolving door of workers because. Who could handle that, you know, day to day. Another hard part when you're new, I love my clients walk all over me and. It's because you know that you don't really know anything. And so you get really intimidated, really easily. I had, oh, I will forever remember doing this client. And I did her pedicure and I did. The color on her toes. I did all of them. And she looks at and goes, I really don't like it. I'm so sorry, but can we change the color? And she was like my last client for the day. Thank God. I was like, yeah, sure. And do you know, your clients like leave unhappy? So I let her pick out another color. I take off the old one, start with the base code all over again. I put that new color on. She looks at it. And she goes, I'm really sorry, but I really don't like this one either. Can we please just look at the other colors and change it. And I remember thinking like, I just want to go home, right? Like I'm done. I've had this long day. And what do I do? I layer for pick another color and I do it all over again. Let me tell you it would never do that again. I would never do that. Now, if you. Well, one I've learned to like constantly check in with my clients and see how they like the process as it's going. And so I would never have gotten to doing all two layers of the color before. Asking her. But if I put that color on and you don't like it, and I've already asked you before, if this was fine, you are paying for a policy change. Like you were going. If you're going to take my time. But that confidence and that start at the beginning. I have one time used to work at a manager in a salon, and I was telling one of the workers that she needed to get comfortable with telling the clients like, no, and. I'm sorry, I can't do that. And all these things. And she was like, well, it's so easy for you. You do it so easily. And I told her the only reason why. I do it so well is because I got, I got. I got really tired of taking people's shit. At one point in my life, I just cut really tired of clients, bossing me around and telling me what to do and my own business. And I told her one day you will get there too. You will, you. You will hit a wall. Like you will get to this point where I can't do this anymore. Something needs to change. So. I didn't have that for awhile. I really lived in this environment that you obeyed your elders. And a lot of my clients were much older than me. I was very young. And so it felt weird to tell my clients, put your phone away, you know? You're being too disruptive of your clients. No, I'm sorry. We can't do that. All blah, blah, blah. Like all of these things. I had a client one time and, you know, again, You haven't seen a lot of things. And so you're new. I feel like I'm having to like defend myself here. Would I think we're all understanding that this was me baby me in the industry, but. You really don't know these things. And so I have this pedicure and I'm working on her, her feet. Look in a way that I've never seen it before. and I'm like halfway done with the pedicure and she tells me, by the way, I have athlete's foot. And like, I may not know a lot, but I did take my time to study things in school and knew for a fact you're not supposed to get a pedicure with athlete's foot, but. You see one version of it in the book and that's it. And there's so many different versions of what athlete's foot can look like. Right. And like things we don't really talk about. And so when I saw her fee, I didn't realize what I was looking at. And now I do. But a lot of times, you know, you get the pictures of like the absolute worst in your books, but that's not reality because not all clients are gonna come in with the absolute worst. You're going to see minor cases of things. And if you don't know what the minor cases, the beginning stages of stuff, you don't know what you're looking at or what you're working with. And, you know, that makes it really difficult. And, yeah, so that was a big thing. All to say The salon was a very hard. Learning lesson. I'm definitely not going to say that I re like regret working there. I would say it was very difficult. but it molded me. You know, I think it's okay to say I would not have actively chosen. Like now I would not actively choose to put myself in that position again. But having been put in that position at a young age, in my first time I've left with. A lot of questions. And a lot of things in my head being like, I will never be that person. I will never do that to somebody I'm never going to put myself in that position again. And it lit the fire under my butt. To learn this industry, learn about the business side. learn about being a good nail tech find this community and find people that can understand and relate with me and. I remember being like, how do the, how are we not. Talking about this. How are we not talking about how terrible school is and how are we not helping people like how we're not helping each other, because this is terrible. And I had so many times where I just wanted to quit. Like I was in a position where I need the money. And so I wasn't going to quit because I had bills to pay and things like that. I, you know, at the time I was engaged and I was going to get married and I needed that money. And that was a really big push to keep me going, but I can see why people quit all the time. But then that first year, like that first year is so hard and you're just trying to tread water and figure things out. And I remember thinking back then, like, how come we are helping each other, because I don't want anybody to go through what I did or feel the way that I did. Or have these stress levels in their life. And that was the moment where I was like, I want to help people. Like, I want to learn everything about this industry. First. I want to learn everything because I want to help myself. And I want to make sure that I don't keep putting myself in these positions and keep getting. Stuck in her am. Confused and, you know, I really started to learn that education and knowledge is power. And so I really dug deep into learning. Everything that I could and everything that I could find online. And watching a bunch of videos and, you know, over time more and more education became. Free and easy to get online and social media evolved and Pinterest evolved. And this group, this community of nails evolved and. Companies started to catch on that. People wanted education. They wanted to learn. They want it to be a part of that. And people started offering more and I'm glad that they did. And I think. Now there's even more of a stronger community of like, we help each other then before, and I want to keep that going, but. I really wanted to talk about all of the things that like I went through my first year. Cause man, it was hard. And I guess I should say not all of it was terrible. Because I wouldn't be here. If that was true. I had great clients. I was excited every time I learned something new and I had that growth. I enjoyed taking in everything as it was new and really nail pro and wanting to be like these people like saw in the magazine and their work and how beautiful it was. I wanted that. And I was passionate about this industry. From the get-go, even though I didn't have a lot of knowledge in it. And, but I knew that this is what I wanted. Like it felt right if I had a great manicure. If my client was happy, you know, the end of the day, like I felt good. It fulfilled me as much as it made my clients happy and building that relationship with clients and building the relationship with other nail techs and being geeky and talking about things. And. I met a girl who was an educator for a company. And I asked her a million questions about what that was like, and I thought this is so cool. And. I want to do that. And you know what I did after my first year, I did do that. I pushed for that. And she was telling me about these things called like salon suites and how you could rent a space and have your own thing. And I remember thinking those people are so cool in. I want to do that one day and you know what I did. I did. And so when I, when I finally had that, it was like, Wow. I'm like I'm hitting these goals from what I want and when it was my first year, and I love that feeling of everything. Just being like star struck and new and fun. Not to say that it's not fun now, but there's nothing like your first time. Right? There's nothing like your first year in it. And just everything is new and exciting and fun. And. Magical almost like when you. Find out how to do a new style of art or skill. It just feels like, you know, some magic and. That was great. You know, all of that kept me going after my first year. But it also was hard and it's hard for everybody. And I know a lot of new people are probably listening to this. And I want you to know that you're not alone. You're not alone. My story may be unique to me, but a million other people have their own unique story. Of. Roughing it out their first year. And so just know like that is. The way of the nail tech. And. You're not alone and we're here to help. The industry has evolved. You don't have to feel like you have to figure this out on your own. There are a million nail techs out there that if you reached out to them are so willing to answer your questions and give you advice in whatever you need. I'm here. everybody that I talk to on this podcast. They're there giving you advice. This is a conversation they want to help. They want to tell their story. You're not alone. I know I'd have to keep saying that because I definitely felt alone my first year. And I just want you to know that you aren't, And that excitement is still here. 12 years later. I still love what I do. And it's fun on a whole different level. Be more of a seasoned nail tech, but I like to remember how excited I was and how new everything was, and just taking in all the information for the first time that first year. And I also like to remember the struggles that I went through. To remind myself why I'm doing this and why I want to help people and to remind myself how much I've grown, because even to this day, I still have moments where I'm like, should I be doing this? Am I even a good nail tech? Like, am I just faking it? and I remember myself about where I started to where I'm at now and all of that work that I've put in and how I should be proud of myself. So. The first year is hard. Like not even past cosmetology school that first year in the nail world is hard. We all feel it. And I just, if you're new. You're going to get through it. I promise you, there is a light at the end of the tunnel. And when it comes to that, If you are seasoned. Take that time to remember what your first year looks like. And remember that. And, and, you know, Take take a cute newbie under your wing. And let's just let's help the ones that are coming into this industry. We, you know, there's always room. We need more, there's going to be this like cycle. Eventually I'll get to old. To be doing nails and it'd be my time to retire and there's going to be a whole. You know, group of generations under me that are going to be doing this and this industry will only get better if we're willing to help each other. So. Oh, yeah. That first year. I hope that maybe. You got some laughs out of that and maybe felt a little bit like it was relatable. Or maybe. Hit that reminder as you go into your first year, that everything is going to be okay, no matter how hard it gets. And once you get through that. It's it's a fun. It's a fun ride. Once you start to really understand where you are in this, in this community. So. Anyways. I am going to, and this here. And I hope this starts out some great convenient, like conversation about this whole thing. Cause it love to hear other people's kind of stories about their first time. So comment below, tell me a story, multiple stories, highs or lows, whatever about your first year or if you're in it right now and what you feel like you're going through, because I would love to hear it. But until next time keep making beautiful naylor