My guest today is Sara Jade, owner and founder of SJ&Co, a boutique hair salon in Northcote, Melbourne. Having been in business for 15 years, Sara Jade has so much insight and wisdom when it comes to business. She has taken her salon to the next level by reimagining, simplifying, downsizing and getting really clear on what she wants. 

LETTING GO OF HER EGO TO MAXIMISE HER HAPPINESS

At the peak of her business, SJ&Co had 14 staff but Sara Jade was constantly drowning in debt from paying wages and the cost of product wastage. With the help of a business coach, Sara Jade stepped back to analyse her business and realised that the biggest thing to let go of was her ego. Once she let go of the need to prove that she was successful, Sara Jade was able to completely simplify her business down to two staff, putting her back on the tools and doing what she loves most. By taking away everything that wasn’t working, what remains now for Sara Jade is a thriving, simplified business and life. 

A REMINDER OF CONNECTION OVER PERFECTION

Not only is she my hairdresser, Sara Jade is also a member of the Modern Marketing Collective. Sara shares how diligently working through the modules gave her the confidence to back herself and focus on connection with her clients instead of trying to do everything she thought she had to do. 

INTENTIONAL DECISIONS AND TAKING RISKS

A hair salon is quite a traditional business, so when Sara Jade decided to replace the receptionist role with her own app, it came as a surprise to a few customers. But, Sara Jade knew that the most important thing was to serve her ideal clients in the best possible way. 

A lot of Sara Jade’s clientele are busy CEOs and CFOs so she opened her books to accommodate early morning appointments and made booking simple. She also created an account with two local cafes so clients can pre-order a coffee instead of her having to spend precious time in the kitchen. 

Another huge change Sara Jade made to her business was removing apprentices and focusing on colours and no longer prioritising cuts. These creative changes were risky for the industry, but this iteration of the salon has not only simplified Sara Jade’s life but also enables her to provide an amazing service to her clientele. 

YOUR BUSINESS ISN’T FOR EVERYONE…AND THAT’S OKAY!

If you’re a business owner and thinking about downsizing or simplifying your business, you might have some fears or concerns around how to go about it. And perhaps you’re wondering if people would respond well to the changes that you make. The truth is, your business isn’t for everyone and that’s okay! 

One thing Sarah Jade has done so well is understanding what works best for her and implementing some really creative and somewhat drastic changes to her business to make it work. When you service your people, you attract more of your people and that’s how you build your brand. 

LINKS:

Join me for my Instagram Workshop on 9th May

https://emilyosmond.com/workshop

Connect with Sarah Jade:

Website: https://sjandco.com.au/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sjandco.au/

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[00:00:00] Emily: Welcome back to the show. Today I have for you someone who has been in business for 15 years. Oh my goodness. So she knows a thing or two about running a business. Her name is Sara Jade Tundras, and she owns a hair salon called SJ&Co. 

[00:01:03] Now, Sara is my hairdresser and she’s also one of my students inside the Modern Marketing Collective. So we spend a little bit of time together, whether I’m in the, chair, getting my hair done, which takes a while because I do like to go blonde or, uh, we’re chatting back and forth about her business.

[00:01:19] I wanted to invite Sara onto the podcast because she has done something in her business that I think a lot of people might be wondering about doing themselves and having some questions about it, some fears, perhaps holding them back or thinking, well, if I do this, does it mean that I’m a failure? 

[00:01:37] And what Sara has to share is that after many, many years of building up her successful business with staff members that she was employing and a big premise, she realized that that really wasn’t the business that she wanted to run anymore, and so ultimately she downsized her business.

[00:01:59] And in this episode we speak about the upsides to downsizing her business. We look at the benefits that came from this, how this allowed her to have more time for her family, her health, and most of all herself. We also looked at how Sara has digitised her hair salon, which is a quite a traditional business, but what she has done to take elements of her online to use technology to cut down man or woman hours that go into the business and to make it just a whole lot simpler. 

[00:02:31] A bit of a background to Sara. She says that her love affair with hair began as a young girl. After watching her mom and her aunts don glamorous outfits and do their own hair and makeup for special events, and she says that this was just really captivating to her and she realized that hair would be her passion.

[00:02:48] She worked pretty tirelessly to fulfill that dream of running her own salon, spending years working multiple jobs, and she finished her year 12 whilst also finishing apprenticeship. She said in that spare time that she had back then, she went all over Melbourne to attend numerous cutting, coloring and styling courses to ensure that she had the skills to make it a success.

[00:03:09] And this is something else about Sara is that she is such a learner and just always is looking to soak up knowledge and then apply it into her business. She opened her salon on SJ&Co in October 2018, and it was the culmination of many years of her drive and hard work, often working 12 hour days, seven days a week to make that dream come to fruition.

[00:03:29] Fast forward to this year and she celebrates 15 years in business and 28 years in the industry. And for Sara, for her, what matters now in this new model of her business is that when clients walk into the salon, she wants ’em to feel glamorous and relaxed and to keep the atmosphere lighthearted even when the pressure is on. She loves taking her clients away from their worries and everyday life and helping her as staff to achieve the same.

[00:03:57] Now before I bring on Sara or SJ as I call her onto the show, a quick reminder! In one week I am running an online Instagram workshop and really helping you to dial into, get clear about your very own Instagram strategy with all the changes that are happening on the app, and probably a little bit of confusion or frustration around, well, what exactly should I be doing here?

[00:04:19] We’re gonna be coming together for an hour live where I’m sharing the strategies that have continued to work year after year since I started teaching Instagram way back when, to the nuances that are important as the app evolves. We’re gonna be looking at how you can really get clear on your purpose on the platform, and break this down into your very own goals. We’ll look at your profile and what should be in there to drive more connection with your audience and more clicks over to your website. 

[00:04:46] Also looking at the content and how to break this down to simplify it as to what you should be sharing there and what’s working well right now. We’re gonna be looking at your personality and how to make this come across into your Instagram and the biggest mistakes, and I know fears as well that can be made when it comes to showing up on there. And finally, how to keep driving business growth through Instagram to deliver more profits into your business. 

[00:05:13] You can go ahead and get your ticket now at emily osmond.com/workshop. Goes for an hour. It’s on the 9th of May, 2023, Aussie time, 10:00 AM to 11:00 AM Melbourne, and tickets are $49. So I cannot wait to share this hour with you to help you develop your very own Instagram strategy and to stop you spending a whole lot of time on the app without much to show for it, move past that in decision overwhelm and fear that I know can happen when you’re showing up and sharing content for your business, and understand how to use Instagram in a way that really authentically connects with your audience and actually grows your business. So coming over emily osmond.com/workshop, buy your ticket now and I will see you in the live class.

[00:05:56] All right, let’s get into this episode with Sara Jade from SJ&Co

[00:06:00] So sj, thank you so much for joining me for this podcast episode.

[00:06:09] Sara Jade: Oh, my pleasure. My pleasure, Emily. Thank you for having me.

[00:06:13] Emily: So good. And this is quite unusual way for us to be chatting. Normally it’s well, I’m looking at you in the mirror as you do my hair and.

[00:06:20] Sara Jade: not really looking at you at all. I’m looking at your hair

[00:06:23] Emily: Exactly, but today we’re, we’re probably, we’re really only a few kilometers away, but we’re doing this on Zoom online and it’s so nice to be here with you and chat and to talk about this time your business.

[00:06:35] Often we’re talking about all sorts of topics, but we’ve had many chats over the past few years that you’ve been doing my hair and you have so much insight and learnings and wisdom to share around business. You’ve been in it for a long time and so I’m really excited for this chat today. I know There’s so many different areas and facets that we could discuss. So we’ll see how many that we can cover, but we’ll start off SJ with what exactly it is that you do?

[00:06:58] What is your business and what does it offer?

[00:07:01] Sara Jade: So if you’d asked me that 14, 15 years ago when I first started my business, I would’ve had a completely different answer, but since joining Modern Marketing and doing the modules and it allowing me to actually dissect what I wanna do and who I wanna be within my business, I can honestly say I do what I love every day, and that’s hair.

[00:07:21] And I also love that by doing hair, I’m giving women How do I call it? It’s, I used to think it was all about beauty. It was all about hair. And I’m really trying to change my mindset around how it liberating it makes people feel to just have their hair done in a time slot that is not affecting their personal life.

[00:07:42] So I don’t know how you bundle all that up and make it sound cool, but Yeah, I’m, I’m trying to do hair and make people feel fabulous.

[00:07:51] Emily: Yeah. And what do you mean? Let’s go into what you what you mentioned around in a time slot that doesn’t impact their life. What do you mean by that? What does that look like?

[00:07:59] Sara Jade: So I think a lot of the time I had 14 staff at the start of my business, and now there’s just two of us, which I, I shouldn’t say now. I, there’s two of us and we’re fabulous. Yeah. Yes. What I’ve found over the years is people really hated having to do their hair when they had commitments, be it children, be it they’re having to drop kids on a Saturday at work things, and then they ha they’re missing out on something to get their hair done.

[00:08:24] And I think ever since Covid, the hybrid living and the hybrid of doing work from home, it allowed women to go into the office and work. So I decided to start tapping into that a little bit and understanding what women really wanted and asked questions of women who are CEOs um, CFOs who are all behind the scenes and are making big, big moves in their companies without a lot of time, but having to present well, a nd look the part without having any time to do it. 

[00:08:55] So I was like, what would work for you? And so they said, getting our hair done before work or getting our hair done at midnight, with a glass of wine. I was like, well, I’m not doing midnight.

[00:09:05] we decided to start opening some mornings I’m there at six, some mornings I’m there at seven. And about six months ago I approached my colleague and I said to Jace, you know, how would you like to not work Saturdays and start working early mornings?

[00:09:16] And he started crying cause he just never thought that could be possible. Yeah. But I was having more Spots not being filled on a Saturday than I was during the week, so I just had to take a risk. And it’s working in my favor. So people are loving it and they’re feeling very liberated by it because they can be on a board meeting with their camera off.

[00:09:35] And I am leaning into making it a silent work space for someone to be able to get their color down and in the processing time, go outside in a pod as well. So I am trying to create different ways of making it easier and easier for people

[00:09:50] Emily: Yeah, I love the idea of the pod thing. As you know, I’m always in there with my laptop. It’s like a, great hour or two to actually get some things done while the color’s processing.

[00:09:58] Sara Jade: alone Time alone. Time, exactly.

[00:10:01] Emily: So let’s actually rewind to what your business used to look like and then the intentional decisions that you’ve made to get it closer to what really works well and feels good to you now, and that has been a process over time, but what did the business look like, at the previous iteration of it?

[00:10:21] Sara Jade: Yes, so I hit my peak in my business of 14th staff, but I didn’t have profit. I was constantly drowning in debt because wages, superannuation was taking over. And wastage of product. Like, you know, one of the things one of the zone managers brought up last week was that I am still spending the same amount of money with L’Oreal I did when I had 14 staff.

[00:10:46] Wow. And I’m only $10,000 off what I used to spend. And they just are in shock that it’s only two of us. Well, one of us last year that was doing that. And I just said it was, you know, analyzing the business, stepping back and the biggest thing was losing my ego because not always big is best.

[00:11:04] And people want connection over perfection, which is something that you taught me at our first event, and it was my major wake up moment sitting there in a, a world of just having my child and going, oh my God, she’s just slapped me across the face of the most simplest words in the world. That’s how I started my business. It was about connection, doing the above and beyond to make sure people could get to where they wanted to go. 

[00:11:30] And in that process, I lost me and I lost me as a boss. And I can honestly say I was not a great boss or manager eight years ago. I’ve probably beaten myself up a bit over it, but now I’m on the other side. I can honestly see how far I’ve come and how other business has come, you know, within stepping back and taking pride out of it and understanding what I needed to move the business forward for me.

[00:11:55] Emily: it’s a huge thing. And like you said, removing your ego and other people’s perceptions and measures of success. I know that you went from, what was it, 14 staff or something, a particular um, lease location that you had as well and decided to make steps to really go back to actually you being more hands-on, I believe, in the business and actually you doing the hair versus managing the staff. What did that process look like to downsize the business really intentionally.

[00:12:30] Sara Jade: So I, um, actually spoke with a life coach. A business coach. And that took two years of my life up, like once a week to sometimes twice a week. And he helped me understand what it was I wanted to do with the business. Mm-hmm. I then nearly hit bankruptcy. And then I had a accountant and an analyst come through, a financial analyst come through and dissect the business, and all of a sudden I realised what was wrong and why? And it was just a light bulb moment, and it was easy to cut it all back um, and to start creating. I had a lot of drive again, and I started to love that side of the business like I did at the start. 

[00:13:08] You know, you can get stuck in wanting to prove that you are making it. And I think I was overspending and proving that I could take 14 people out and give them this glamorous lifestyle, but I was really not being true to myself or them. Yeah. So it was a really hard time in my life because I felt like a phony. Like I, I felt fake and, you know, I was fighting all those things.

[00:13:31] So when I finally made the decision to move to Northcoat, A lot of people think it was because I wanted to have a child, or, and I wanted to be closer to home, but I just needed a fresh start because I wanted a new business, but I didn’t wanna leave hairdressing. So it was hard in my industry to rebrand and relocate and then have a baby, and then eight weeks later closed down for covid. it was heavy, but I made it. 

[00:13:57] Emily: And I know that when you moved SJ that you lost just naturally a portion of your clientele in the move just moving to a different location. I imagine that some fears may come up around that. Like, what if this doesn’t work? What if this step that I’m taking and this risk that I’m taking in relocating and reimagining the business, what if it doesn’t pay off? Did you ever have some fears around that?

[00:14:20] Sarah Jade: Oh, a hundred percent. I actually only wanted to take three staff over three of us all together, inclusive of me. Mm-hmm. And I ended up taking four and lost two. Mm-hmm. But in that process I always made sure that that space could just have me operating in it. Mm-hmm. I could lose all my staff. I just had a feeling that their egos couldn’t deal with me wanting to be simplified.

[00:14:43] Because our industry is a very, very bad ego-driven industry. And there’s still a lot of it in there. So I was worried that I wouldn’t lose clients. I was ready to lose clients. I knew that I could find the clients that I was looking for To make the business work, but I was more afraid of losing my staff and how they were gonna take it. Yeah. 

[00:15:05] Emily: something as well that you’ve done. SJ is in that move and in reimagining the business and really getting clear on what that looks like for you to be happy and the business that you actually want to run is that you don’t have a receptionist in your business. Can you explain that and how that works and how that’s just one of the moves that you’ve made that just makes a whole lot of sense, but maybe not to other people.

[00:15:28] Sara Jade: Well, yeah, I think the kickback from clients has been really hard because they still see me as the old, busy, needing to be busy all the time person. And having a receptionist meant that I had to get rid of my phone line and a lot of people don’t like not being able to call someone or have that fear around it.

[00:15:47] But I do have an avenue that you can d me at any time. You can email me at any time. You can even reach me on my mobile. But that’s still not enough. People really have this thing about calling, and I don’t know why, because I sat there one night going, I don’t actually like calling anyone to make appointments.

[00:16:05] I like to do it in my own time, at my own pace. Even if it means it has to be moved, they’re gonna contact me and I can leave it. It’s done. So I implemented an app and we put an app in store, which is very clunky in the backend. And there are still some things that don’t work.

[00:16:21] Mm-hmm. But It’s like a quarter of the price I was paying for a receptionist. Mm. And 1% drama in comparison to what a receptionist can bring you. Mm. Because when you look at it, a receptionist is watching people who have a career 24 hours a day. They sit there, they could have a side hustle going on or anything like that, but their purpose gets really dull.

[00:16:44] And it’s hard to boost them up and their morale if they want more than just to be a receptionist. Mm. So then they start to get bored. They start to talk to your staff, they start to gossip. They don’t mean it, it just happens. And then they only see the bad in your business. They don’t see the good.

[00:17:01] And in all businesses there’s hard points, there’s sticky points and then they start to talk about it. Then clients come back, and then in the end you are doing the receptionist work and paying for them. So I was like, these are all these points. I wrote everything down that I needed to get rid of and receptionist was major, it was a major headache and apprentices.

[00:17:19] Emily: And I guess that’s been a way that as you remodel the business to have really yourself is the major person that’s hands on in the business doing the hair and maybe one or two others, you’ve got the amazing Jace, who I know and adore, he’s awesome. But it didn’t make sense to have the receptionist as well.

[00:17:36] And so you made the decision to implement the app so that people can book online. And you looked at your own behavior and the behavior of your ideal clients too, knowing that they would be happy and comfortable and it would actually suit them better to be able to, for instance, I at night, you’ll probably see when my hair bookings come through, it’s like at night I’m lying in bed.

[00:17:54] I’m thinking, all right, I need to get my next hair appointment booked in. Let me look through my calendar. I can go online, find a spot, book it in perfect, being okay that that’s not for everyone but you are not for everyone, and your business isn’t for everyone.

[00:18:06] Sara Jade: I think that’s the most liberating part of my business is understanding that I’m okay not to have everyone want to come to me or people , when people say, oh, that’s unprofessional not having this and it doesn’t bother me anymore. I think that’s the biggest point in a business where you go, okay, I’m doing the right thing for me.

[00:18:26] And my business and my team, and I’m protecting us because that sort of person will never be happy with what you’re doing. They just need to find someone else. Mm-hmm. And I think that’s the biggest point that I’ve learned with you as well, finding your people. You service your people. you attract more of your people. Yeah. And that’s how you build your brand. Yeah.

[00:18:44] Emily: Something else that you did. SJ was around the types of services you offer and the cuts, can you talk to us about that?

[00:18:51] Sara Jade: so what I did is I realised that we love doing colors. And as we became a smaller boutique salon we had a lot less time to just do your standard haircut. Kids’ cuts, men’s cuts it’s not that we don’t love doing it, it’s that we hate that they wait in between the color.

[00:19:08] Mm-hmm. So sometimes the color, we can book you in for an hour, but when you are sitting in our chair, it gets crazy. We start talking about things and next minute we’re doing a full head of back to back blonde for 

[00:19:19] Emily: Yeah, I think I did that to you once. Probably more than once, didn’t I? You’re like, look, uh,

[00:19:23] Sara Jade: it is what it is in our industry and it has been that for many years. So when it’s two colors, you can catch up with the second. But when it’s a cut and they’re only there for that and they’re waiting, that pressure that we feel is a lot and they don’t feel the value with the weighted half an hour.

[00:19:40] When you’re having a color, you factor in that time of waiting so we decided to simplify the business and we’ve gone back to just colors and cuts. You can still access a cut on our website. But I also write everywhere that it will alter if we need it to, for a color, because we’re not prioritising cuts and blow waves anymore.

[00:20:01] Yeah. And it has been great for us. it’s a better flow in the business as well. And just yesterday I had a man question the price, and I only have three men’s cuts that I still do because I just think they’ve been with me for so many years. And in that moment I was like, and he. He’s obviously not understanding where my business is at. Yeah. It was like a wake up moment in that when he asked that question, cuz he’s been paying the same price for about three years. I was like, yeah, yeah we haven’t even put that price up, mate. Yeah.

[00:20:29] Emily: Yeah, I’ve actually been able to see it happen with you that you’ve just made these changes as you get more and more clear as we all do. On, well, what is it that you want? And throwing out any of the, um, assumptions or norms of how a hairdressing business is we don’t do cuts. I don’t have a receptionist you can book online. 

[00:20:51] Sara Jade: Also, you pre-order your coffee at a cafe. 

[00:20:53] Emily: wanted talk about the coffees. Can you tell us about, know, what you did there and why?

[00:20:58] Sara Jade: And even just last week, I’ve opened up another account at another coffee shop because, you know, I saw a weakness in the coffee shop that I relied on and I just was like, well, this is a beautiful service I’m offering. So for me, I’ve set up accounts at the two local cafes near me, and in our email you’ll see that you arrive, go and grab yourself a coffee, whatever coffee you want, because we are not baristas.

[00:21:21] And sometimes I would spend half an hour remaking a coffee cuz it went cold, redoing a tea, doing this, getting another coffee and they would leave a full coffee cup it would hurt me because I would count the dollars that was costing me.

[00:21:35] I was like, oh my God, I’m resenting people for not drinking their coffee, but maybe I just didn’t make a good coffee. We’ve all been there. Oh my gosh. So then I said, you know, take that out. All the things that you resent, take them out and change them. So when people come in with their coffees, I love it.

[00:21:52] I would like you to use Your reusable cups more often, but yeah, yeah, yeah. I do have sustainable salads in the salon, so I get it. But yeah, it was, it was quite liberating because it meant I could get rid of apprentices. So with apprentices, a lot of the time you, for three and a half years, you pay nearly a full wage for them without any return.

[00:22:13] So that’s a lot of investment. Probably 80% of the time at, at the three and a half, four year an apprentice will leave you. Yeah. So when you’ve gotten them to your, best point mm-hmm. Someone else reaps the rewards. Mm-hmm. And that’s the hardest part. And a lot of the time, What I’m finding nowadays is you don’t get the backing of the parents, but you are the person at, you know, their most vulnerable years, teaching them some really heavy life things, you know?

[00:22:39] We get them at 13, 14, 15 when they wanna leave school, know, I’ve had kids come to me and serve a cup of tea with a tea bag with no water, and that’s all they know. They didn’t know that water and tea go together. 

[00:22:53] Emily: What’s in the mug? 

[00:22:55] Sara Jade: Just the tea bag. 

[00:22:56] Emily: Just the teabag. Okay, interesting. It’s gonna be a tough one to drink, but uh,

[00:23:01] Sara Jade: But you know, it’s just accepting that It doesn’t have to be perfect life. It just has to be simplified and work for you and the person who’s in your chair, and then you can create magic.

[00:23:12] Emily: Amazing. I wanna talk to you about your marketing SJ because this is one of the big topics we talk about here as well. What’s working for you now? What are you finding is helping you attract your ideal clients

[00:23:24] Sarah Jade: unfortunately, as much as I fight it, it’s Instagram. nearly 85% of my rebook to 90% via Instagram. You know, someone once said to me, I can’t believe you put your availabilities on your stories. Mm-hmm. And it was things that I’ve learned from your course on why wouldn’t I show people that?

[00:23:43] Mm-hmm. You know, and I have started trends because my peers are now doing it. My competitors are following exactly what I’m doing. Yeah. When they were the ones asking me why I was showing my emptiness. And I said, well, I don’t have an ego around it. I’m just sharing what’s available and if it gets filled, it will. And if it doesn’t, I have so many things to fill it with. Yeah.

[00:24:04] Emily: don’t you love it when, well, you probably don’t cause it’s in the business, but I know sometimes you know when a social plan gets canceled, you’re like, oh my gosh, I have like this free time

[00:24:12] Sarah Jade: Oh my God. I do. I actually do love it. I’m always like, what do we start? Stop me.

[00:24:18] Emily: and I, I’ve gotta bring up sj how what brought me into your salon was, I saw a video that you created. It was during Covid when you were shut and you created a video showing how you were in the shower. You had a crop top on you. Just so people know. And you, I think you were showing how to actually properly wash your hair and around how to properly shampoo it.

[00:24:42] you shared all these tips I had no idea of, and I just thought, this woman that, she can’t open her doors to her business, but she’s still giving value to her audience, and getting up in the morning and putting herself out there.

[00:25:00] That is just so impressive to me and it did make that feeling of connection and respect for you and I got to learn a bit about you and then I wanted to book in and come into your salon. And I think that you do such a great job of being visible in your marketing, and I know that’s something that you’ve worked on over time too.

[00:25:20] You’ve had some beautiful photos taken, you’re now doing some more videos, but, um, I’m sure that’s all factoring into it is on your Instagram and that’s where people are finding you and seeing you and getting a taste of you and then saying, yeah, I, this resonates with me. I wanna come in.

[00:25:34] Sarah Jade: It was what I needed when I didn’t know how to simplify everything, and I just think it’s amazing because everything I probably did in the business, I went back and I looked at my website, it was from modules or things I’ve learned from you. And you just re iterated things that I already knew but you made me feel confident to do it.

[00:25:56] Mm. And once I did it and held my hand through it without even knowing you were, everything kept getting better in the business. So having a plan. Doing it. Like even now I’m about to go back and revisit the website. Yeah. Simplify it even more. Yeah. You know, little tips she gave out a month ago have already driven more people to the business just by changing little things in the Instagram handles.

[00:26:17] It’s just constantly teaching and staying on top of it. I make sure I do modules at least once a month now. You know, I, I. I used to never do them. I used to wait till like three months later and I’d only look up the things I needed to. Yeah, yeah. But I’m revisiting things. I’m making sure I’m doing the graphs, I’m doing the work so that I can be structured in the business too about marketing, because it is, it’s about reading, what’s working, what’s not working. I love reading the analyst stuff at the back end of the interesting Instagram. 

[00:26:48] Emily: So what’s ahead for you, sj? You’ve made a lot of changes over the past few years. What are you looking at next? What is it that’s getting you excited or that you’re focusing on or.

[00:26:57] Sarah Jade: So I went to a event on Friday called Property before Prada. Yeah. And it was a women international event, international Women’s Day event. 

[00:27:06] Emily: Kath has been on the podcast. Everyone can go check out Kath from Property before

[00:27:09] Sarah Jade: she was great and it was probably the first time I got to really enjoy her in an environment that I wasn’t rushed or, you know, just quickly watching on, on stories. But what I loved about her is she just helped me see that my next stage of my business is about, um, I really wanna build and flip more houses.

[00:27:30] So making sure my business is Strumming along to the point where Jason is content and happy, and he’s my colleague, Jason’s been with me nine years now. And I’m constantly saying, Jason, when you’re ready to leave, you let me know because I’ll wrap the business up and sell it. So I’m at that stage where I will keep driving this business and keep taking on opportunities till I no longer can do it.

[00:27:55] And I’ll step back and either sell it to Jason or sell it to someone else. Mm-hmm. But my biggest thing is I wanna be able to support flipping houses or making my dream ranch down the beach with a farm. You know, that’s my goal. I’ve, become a part of a lot of women’s events and I really wanna start giving back again.

[00:28:14] So we were with the same company that Cathy was supporting on Friday. We used to get busloads of women coming in and We would help them, hair and makeup feel good for their first job interviews,

[00:28:25] Emily: Oh wow. 

[00:28:26] Sarah Jade: It’s about fitting them out. So she was doing the part where we all donated clothes, but I was actually doing the part of hair and makeup for them. So we were doing, some women hadn’t had their hair done in three years. And they hadn’t been to a job but interview for 10 because they’d become a mom, or they were in a abused relationship. And I think that’s something that I, I stopped doing because I wasn’t in the right head space anymore to give. Yeah. Yeah. But now I would love to give back to that again and just nurture women from a different angle.

[00:28:53] You know, I nurture strong, independent women, and I help them be up the top by feeling and looking great. But I also would love to get the other women back up there too, just to have the confidence that we do. Mm. Because someone helped me a long time ago, so I think that’s my biggest drive in the business now.

[00:29:10] Emily: It’s so good SJ and you’ve. built your business, you learnt so much. You possibly correct me if I’m wrong, lost your spark and then you’ve worked so hard to find what it is that gives you your spark and strip it back and reimagine the business so that it works for you and you’re spending your time doing the things that you love.

[00:29:31] And it doesn’t happen overnight and it comes with risk and comes with sacrifices. And it comes with being creative and rethinking the way that you do things. And like you mentioned, letting go of that ego, especially when it’s colleagues, I think. I think for all of us in our industries, we maybe compare ourselves or we overthink about what our colleagues or peers think of us and our business and, and maybe do things just for that to try and catch up or meet what they’re doing.

[00:29:59] But when we can let go of that and reimagine and think, what is it that I actually wanna do? What is the stuff that I enjoy? If I want a simple business, which, you know, that I’m all about, how do we do that? What is really necessary, what isn’t, and then make, steps towards it. And then as well, like you said around being clear on who it is that you want to attract, and knowing that you’re not gonna be for everyone and the decisions that you make aren’t going to be popular perhaps with everyone, but you can’t create a business based on what everyone else wants. You’ve gotta figure out who it is that you love and adore serving. Could you give us a little summary of who that is for your business as we wrap it up?

[00:30:36] Sara Jade: So I love serving women around any age really, but mostly women who are business driven. Whether you be a mom, who is now a stay-at-home mom that is still driven by doing extracurricular things and still wants to feel a part of it. Whether you are a mom who sits in a CEO role, whether you’re not a mom, I wanna be a part of your life and I wanna help your life be easier from whatever angle I can by connecting you with certain people.

[00:31:03] I feel like, you know, Emily, you and I have a lot of things in common in that sense. We love putting people together that match and we have that opportunity to do it, and I love doing that. If that makes sense. I think so. I don’t know

[00:31:15] Emily: Absolutely. And I’ve been there with my laptop and you are, you introduced me to someone next, sitting next to me that’s got their locked laptop. We have a little chat and it’s awesome. So congratulations on everything that you’re doing and come wait to see what happens next with a few property things that you’re doing alongside the business. we’ll chat soon. I’ll be back in the chair, um, in a few weeks. No doubt.

[00:31:33] Sarah Jade: Ah, thank you, gorgeous.