The Starting Messy Podcast

Industry: UNPLUGGED Retreat Learn more here

You built the thing. The salon, the clientele, the reputation. From the outside, you made it — and somewhere in the last few years, something got quiet. Not falling apart. Just… missing. You can’t quite hear yourself anymore.

Here’s the thing nobody tells you about being the person everyone trusts to have it together: you hold so much. All day, every day. You stand behind the chair holding your clients’ stories, their grief, their excitement, and you regulate the whole room. You’re the calm one. The safe one. And then you go home so full of everyone else that you can’t find yourself in there.

That’s not burnout from working too hard. That’s exhaustion from consuming too much and listening to yourself too little. In this solo episode, Misty gets straight to the heart of it — the tiny gap between the should and the want that’s been quietly wearing you down, and why the thing that helped you grow can become the thing that keeps you stuck.

She also opens the doors to something she built because she couldn’t find it anywhere else: the Industry Unplugged Retreat. A week in the jungles of Costa Rica with ten women in the hair industry who’ve been in the game for 10, 15, 20, 30+ years and are craving a real reset. Not a business retreat. Not a healing or spiritual retreat. Not a content trip. Think pre-internet vibes — space to take off the brand face, drop the self-induced pressure, and get quiet enough to hear yourself for the first time in who knows how long.

In this episode:

• Why this kind of tired isn’t burnout — and what it actually is
• The gap between the “should” and the “want” that quietly drains you
• Why it was never about the hair — it was always about the conversations
• What it means to be in a room you’re not leading or performing in
• What Industry Unplugged is (and very clearly, what it’s not)
• How to tell if that voice in your gut saying “I need this” is worth listening to

hairstylist burnout, personal development for hairstylists, hairstylist retreat, salon owner burnout, hairstylist mindset podcast, behind the chair mental health, Costa Rica retreat for hairstylists, hair industry community

Let's work together: www.mistyjayne.com

In this episode, Misty cracks open something that took her a year to understand — the work was never about moving through the bad stuff. It was about learning how to feel safe in the good stuff. So many of the stylists she works with think they need fixing. They’re booked out, they’re great at what they do, they’re hitting every success mark society told them to hit. And underneath it? An outside skin. A mask. A real version of themselves that doesn’t feel like enough.

If you grew up in stress, in hustle, in survival mode, then stress becomes your comfort zone — and calm starts to feel like danger. That’s why the freedom you begged for can feel so wrong when it finally arrives. It’s not a flaw. It’s your system doing its job. This episode is about proving those old stories wrong, the loneliness that can come with real growth, and learning to actually like the next version of yourself.

What we get into:

• Why “find the broken thing, fix the broken thing” keeps you stuck
• The gap between how your life looks and how it feels
• Why your body panics when your schedule finally has breathing room
• How money stories get installed in us before we ever have a say
• The quiet loneliness of outgrowing rooms you used to fit in
• Becoming someone new — and learning to love her

If you’re a hairstylist or salon owner who looks successful on the outside but doesn’t feel it on the inside, this one’s for you. You don’t need fixing. You need to learn how to feel safe in what’s already working.

personal development for hairstylists, hairstylist burnout, mindset coaching for salon owners, self-worth for hairstylists, nervous system and self-sabotage, money mindset for stylists, feeling safe with success, salon owner self-trust

Click for more about Industry: UNPLUGGED Retreat Costa Rica 2027

Check out our past episode: More than just customer service ON APPLE and SPOTIFY

In this episode, Misty sits down with her friend and returning guest Spencer Stout @spencerlaineartistry— colorist, boundary-setter, and the woman who proves that saying no to the wrong clients is actually a business strategy. But today they're not talking about hair. They're talking about the thing that changed both of their lives: going to a retreat when it scared the hell out of them.

Spencer and Misty met in 2019 at their very first retreat. Spencer was newly solo, at the lowest point in her life, and convinced nobody in that room would want to connect with her. Misty was freshly out of a commission salon, hungry for growth, and flying across the country by herself for the first time. Neither of them came for the connection. Both of them left transformed by it.

In this conversation, they get into:

• Why the education is almost never the thing you remember from a retreat
• What it actually feels like to walk into a room full of strangers who get it — finally
• How retreats build the kind of self-trust that solo travel, scary hikes, and 'everybody poops' can also build
• The difference between a healing retreat and what Misty is creating in Costa Rica for ambitious hairstylists
• Why investing in a retreat can feel terrifying — and why Spencer (and her husband) think it's worth it every time
• What happens when you stop going to rooms full of people who don't understand your drive and start going to ones that do

This is also a preview of what's coming: Misty's Costa Rica retreat (spring 2027), designed specifically for ambitious women in the hair industry who are done with content shoots and crystal bowls and ready for something that actually refills the cup rather than cracking them open and sending them home to deal with it alone.

If you've been on the fence about going somewhere, investing in yourself, walking into the big scary room — this episode will either push you over the edge or remind you why you already know you need it.

hairstylist personal development, salon owner mindset, hairstylist retreat, personal growth for hairstylists, solo travel hairstylist, stylist burnout and boundaries, building confidence as a hairstylist, hairstylist community and connection, self-trust for salon owners

Let's work together! www.Mistyjayne.com

In this solo episode, Misty gets real about the exhausting cycle that keeps hairstylists and salon owners stuck — chasing the next goal in hopes it delivers the peace they’re craving — and why that strategy keeps backfiring. Then she breaks down the exact practices she uses to give her overworked brain a genuine break — no crystals required.

This one’s for the logistical thinkers, the overachievers, the stylists who are so used to being “on” that the idea of sitting still sounds more stressful than the chaos itself. Misty shares five surprisingly simple mindfulness practices that actually work for people who hate the word “mindfulness.”

🌿 What you’ll take away from this episode:

• Why hitting your next goal won’t give you the peace you’re chasing
• Five approachable mindfulness practices for the stylist who can’t turn her brain off
• The reason white space is more productive than scrolling for creativity
• How to stop overcomplicating mental rest (and start actually resting)
• Why discomfort at first is a sign you’re doing it right — not wrong

mindfulness for hairstylists, salon owner mental health, personal development for hairstylists, hairstylist burnout, hairstylist podcast, mental rest for creatives, beauty industry burnout, self care for stylists, salon owner wellness

What happens when two former party girls — both hairstylists, both moms, both done playing small — sit down and get real? You get this episode.

Misty is joined by Kat, known as The Anti-Hairdresser, for one of those conversations that goes absolutely everywhere — and somehow lands exactly where it needs to. Kat is a UK-based color technician, educator, and social media coach for hairdresser moms who have been in the industry for 20+ years. She's also 16 months sober, neurodivergent, and completely done pretending to be anyone other than herself.

In this episode, Misty and Kat talk about:

• Letting go of your party girl identity — and why it's harder than it sounds
• Sobriety as a stylist and the mirror it holds up to the people around you
• Being a neurodivergent mom in an industry that wasn't built for you
• Rebuilding your clientele after it gets ripped away (and hitting 10K in a single month doing it)
• Why niching down doesn't mean limiting yourself — it means finally talking to YOUR person
• Firing clients, setting pricing boundaries, and why saying no is actually a superpower
• The connection between self-care, emotional regulation, and showing up better behind the chair
• Going back to your inner child to figure out who you actually are

This one gets raw, gets funny, and gets honest about what it really takes to build a life and a business you're proud of — without losing yourself in the process.

hairstylist personal development podcast, salon owner burnout, beauty industry podcast for stylists, hairstylist business growth

In this episode, Misty sits down with Annie Fisher: salon owner, career stylist, and author of Love Is in the Hair: A Journey of Setbacks, Scissors, and Self-Worth. These two met for the very first time on this podcast, and it felt like two business besties finally finding each other.

Annie opens up about what it actually means to call yourself a career stylist (not "just a stylist"), how she navigated becoming a young mom while building a beauty career, why she opened her first salon in 2013 — and what led her to finally write the book she always knew was inside her.

This one goes deep. From healing work and radical self-acceptance, to the difference between boundaries and rules, to what it means to let go of expectations of other people — this conversation is packed with the kind of real talk that will make you want to pull over your car and take notes.

In this episode, you'll hear about:

• Why being a "career stylist" is an identity worth owning — and how the industry stigma still shows up
• Annie's journey from Glamour Shots makeup artist to 30-year career stylist and salon owner
• How she bet on herself as a young single mom when everyone said beauty "wasn't a real career"
• The pandemic shift that gave her a new mantra: if it's not a hell yes, it's a no
• Writing Love Is in the Hair — and why she wrote it for herself first
• Unpacking your stuff along the way (EMDR, therapy, faith, woo-woo — she's tried it all)
• The difference between boundaries and rules, and why that distinction matters
• Anger as a secondary emotion — and what it actually signals
• Why disappointment is usually just unmet expectations in disguise
• The gift of getting older: fewer f*cks, more self-acceptance

Connect with Annie Fisher:

• Instagram: @‌annie_fisher_hair
• Book: Love Is in the Hair — available on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and wherever books are sold

hairstylist personal development podcast, salon owner mindset, beauty industry self-worth, hairstylist burnout, career stylist podcast

What happens when a hairstylist gets tired of feeling tied down — and decides to do something about it? Leisha did not just change her schedule. She sold her house, moved into an RV with her husband, two dogs, and a cat, drove to a city where she knew nobody, and started walking into salons with a stack of papers and an idea nobody had ever heard of.

That idea? Traveling Hairstylist — a first-of-its-kind service where stylists can hire a professional to come to their space, care for their clients, and cover 100% of their booth rent while they're on maternity leave, medical leave, or any extended time away. Coast to coast, all 50 states, with a team of five (soon to be seven) and a near-perfect client retention rate.

In this episode, Misty sits down with Leisha, the founder of Traveling Hairstylist, and they go deep on what it actually looks like to start something that does not exist yet — the fear, the first salon door she walked into, the moment it finally clicked, and why she believes the beauty industry is the most creative space to build something that is entirely your own.

In this episode, you will learn:

• How Leisha combined her love of travel with a real gap she saw in the industry — and why those two things colliding changed everything
• What it actually looked like to launch with zero clients, zero connections, and one Instagram post in a city she had never lived in
• The honest breakdown of how Traveling Hairstylist works financially — what stylists keep, what Leisha's team covers, and why it is structured the way it is
• Why suite stylists are especially vulnerable during a leave — and what most salon companies still are not doing to support them
• How Leisha thinks about team building, contracts, and what it means to run a business that is also a love letter to the industry
• What happened when she finally got a "yes" after two weeks of walking into salons and getting told no
• The mindset that kept her going when the idea was still just hers — and why she believes when something really calls to you, it is embedded in you

Connect with Leisha + Traveling Hairstylist:

Instagram: @‌thetraveling.hairstylist

Website: The Traveling Hairstylist

hairstylist podcast, salon owner podcast, hairstylist personal development, beauty industry business podcast, hairstylist leave coverage

In this episode, I’m the guest on the Out of Step Podcast with my friend and coach Andrew Carruthers , and we go deep on something I know so many of you hairstylists and salon owners feel but rarely talk about: the invisible boxes we build around ourselves, and what it actually costs us to stay inside them.

We talk about what happened in 2020 when everything that I thought made me “Me” was suddenly taken away — and what I found when I finally had to just sit with myself. We talk about the wild shift from being behind the chair (where validation comes in constant, beautiful waves) to coaching, content, and the long, quiet wait for it to all mean something.

And we talk about the journey I’ve been on this past year of asking: what am I actually here to do? Not what sounds clean in an Instagram bio. Not what the marketing experts told me to say. What’s actually true for me — and what happens when I finally give myself permission to live there.

hairstylist personal development podcast, salon owner mindset, hairstylist life coach, personal development for hairdressers, beauty industry burnout, stylist self-worth, hairstylist podcast

Get on the waitlist for the Costa Rica 2027 Retreat

If you've been feeling like you're doing all the right things — taking the courses, going to the shows, following the educators — and still feel like something's missing, this episode is for you.

Misty is talking directly to the stylist or salon owner who has already built something worth loving, but finds themselves buried under everyone else's opinions about how to grow it. The problem isn't that you need more strategy. The problem is you have too many voices in your head and not enough quiet to hear your own.

In this episode, Misty breaks down:

• Why the growth-obsessed, relationship-oriented stylist is burnt out in a different way than the industry usually talks about
• How constant consumption of education creates a false sense of productivity — without anything actually changing
• What you actually need more of (hint: it's not another podcast)
• Why connection with other ambitious women in the industry might be the most underrated tool for your growth
• The announcement of something Misty has been dreaming up for years — an intimate retreat in Costa Rica, spring 2027, for the stylists who are done pretending they need another keynote speaker

This one's for the stylists who already know a lot — and are finally ready to trust what they know.

hairstylist personal development podcast, salon owner burnout, stylist mindset podcast, personal growth for hairstylists, hair industry retreat 2027, Costa Rica retreat for stylists, overcoming information overload stylists, ambitious hairstylist podcast

If you've been wondering whether your AI use is helping or quietly hurting your business — this episode is the one you didn't know you needed.

Misty sits down with her longtime friend, branding and marketing educator Jodie Brown, for a candid, no-shame conversation about how we're using AI tools like ChatGPT and Claude — and what we might be losing in the process. Jodie is a 15-year hairstylist-turned-online-business-owner who now works with beauty educators and creative entrepreneurs on branding, content strategy, and finding clients without chasing virality. She is a fundamentals girly — and this conversation reflects that.

Listen to Jodie's Why you should stop using AI to edit your content Episode on Sought After Educator podcast.

They talk about the real reason AI content feels flat (hint: it's not just the words), why outsourcing your ideas is literally atrophying your creative muscle, and the specific ways AI use can turn a creation process into a consumption process. They also get honest about where AI is actually useful — and where it's just expensive procrastination.

This isn't an anti-AI episode. Misty uses Claude to edit podcast descriptions, pull clips, and organize voice note brain dumps. Jodie has AI tutorials inside her own program. But both of them agree: there's a version of AI use that is genuinely helpful, and a version that is quietly eroding your brand, your trust, and your creativity.

In this episode, you'll hear:

• Why AI-generated content is flattening brand voices across the beauty industry — and why your clients notice
• The "intern analogy" for understanding what AI actually is (and isn't)
• What Misty realized when she stopped using AI to generate her own ideas — and what came back
• The difference between a creation process and a consumption process (and which one AI can trigger)
• Why Jodie calls over-reliance on AI "the new procrastination busy work"
• The ethical line when it comes to using AI for knowledge you don't actually have
• Real, practical use cases for AI that DON'T flatten your voice
• Why your opinion, your perspective, and your lived experience are non-negotiable in 2026
• The "show me instead of telling me" prompt that Jodie uses to unlock new creative angles
• Why Misty believes the real message is: stop outsourcing the human experience

Find Jodie Brown:

• Instagram: @‌itsjodiebrown
• Podcast for hairstylists: Hairstylist Rising
• Podcast for educators + coaches: Sought After Educator

hairstylist podcast, salon owner personal development, beauty industry business, brand voice, AI for hairstylists, content creation for stylists, Starting Messy podcast, Misty Jayne coaching, beauty business mindset, hairstylist burnout, salon suite owner, creativity for stylists