The Starting Messy Podcast

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The 3 Things That Sold Out My Retreat For Hairstylists in 5 Months

2026-08-2420:40

Click here to get on the Industry: UNPLUGGED Retreat WaitlistThis week on The Starting Messy Podcast, I'm pulling back the curtain on something I don't usually get vulnerable about — the stuff that's actually gone right for me. I'm walking you through exactly how I took my Industry Unplugged retreat from an idea in my head to (nearly) sold out in under six months, and the three things that made it happen.Here's the thing — I didn't wait until everything was perfect. I put out a waitlist before I had a venue, before I had dates, before my website was even done. And I'm breaking down why acting fast, before you talk yourself out of it, is one of the most important lessons I've learned in business.I'm also getting into something I don't always say out loud: I believe in my ability to figure things out more than I've ever believed in anything. Not because I have all the answers — I don't — but because I trust myself to handle whatever comes. That's a muscle, and I'm telling you exactly how I built it.And the third piece is the one that got me a little emotional to talk about — trust. I've spent the last decade showing up as the same person online, in the salon, and in my DMs. No performance, no bullshit. That's what filled this retreat, and it's the same thing that fills your chair.If you're a hairstylist or salon owner who's tired of white-knuckling your way through growth and wants to actually trust yourself while you build something — this episode is for you.In this episode:How I filled a waitlist before I had a single detail nailed downWhy speed beats "perfect" every timeThe self-trust work that let me believe in something before it existedHow a decade of showing up as myself built the trust that sold this out

Why I Was Terrified to Spend $6,000 Alone in a Room of Strangers

2026-08-1714:43

In 2019, I was a year into running my own suite — thriving on paper, lonely in reality. I didn't have anyone around me who understood where I was trying to go, and that kind of isolation messes with your confidence more than people talk about. Then I found a retreat on Instagram, marketed as "summer camp for hairstylists," and something in me said go.I flew alone for the first time. Slept in a room with strangers. Spent $6,000 I didn't feel ready to spend. And it changed the entire trajectory of my life — my friendships, my confidence, eventually this podcast, my own coaching business, and now my own retreat.In this episode, I'm sharing what I'd go back and tell that scared version of me: the people you meet on a retreat become your expanders, your insecurities aren't exclusive to you, and the most impactful moments are never the Instagrammable ones — they're the unplanned conversations and the girlhood laughter at 1am. I'm also talking about what self-trust actually looks like when you build it through discomfort instead of reading about it.If you're a hairstylist or salon owner who's felt isolated at the top of your own business, who's craving people who actually get your bigger vision, or who's been sitting on a retreat you're too scared to book — this episode is for you.This is also where I'm telling you about Industry Unplugged — my own retreat, happening in Costa Rica in April 2027. It's everything I've loved and learned from a decade of retreats, built into one experience for stylists and salon owners ready to invest in themselves the way I finally did in 2019.In this episode:Why isolation hits harder the more successful you getWhat an "expander" is and why you need people who have themThe unglamorous truth about what actually changes you at a retreatHow self-trust gets built through discomfort, not comfort

Why Deciding Is Harder Than Doing

2026-08-1008:42

Misty is calling out something nobody warns you about: the decision to change is almost always harder than the change itself. She takes you inside two of her own — quitting drinking, which took a full year of stressing, questioning, and mourning the “party girl” identity before she ever said her last drink, and growing out her natural gray at 41, which meant two weeks of tears, research, and asking herself if she was willing to feel “ugly” before she felt the prettiest she's felt in years.Then she brings it straight back to the chair. The same white-knuckle decision fatigue that shows up around quitting a habit shows up around raising your prices, changing your schedule, or finally breaking up with a client whose name on your book makes your stomach drop. Misty shares how she sat with a client relationship for a full year before making the call — and how the stress didn't lift when the situation changed, it lifted the moment she decided. Same story with the 2019 retreat she almost talked herself out of.If you're a hairstylist or salon owner who's stuck circling a decision — pricing, boundaries, your schedule, or something bigger — this episode is your permission slip to stop needing certainty and start experimenting. Self-trust isn't built by getting it right. It's built by deciding. hairstylist self-trust, hairstylist personal development podcast, hairstylist decision making, hairstylist burnout, salon owner mindset, hairstylist boundaries, breaking up with a client, raising your prices as a hairstylist

Why I'm Finally Growing Out My Gray (And What It's Really About)

2026-08-0308:54

At 41, after coloring her roots every two weeks for over two decades, Misty made the decision to grow out her natural gray. In this solo episode, she gets brutally honest about what came up in the first month — not just the logistics of the grow-out, but the much bigger thing underneath it: how much she was still outsourcing her sense of pretty, her sense of okay, to other people's opinions.When she shared the decision on Instagram, the encouragement felt good. But it was the pushback — the "don't do it" from people close to her — that cracked something open. It showed her she was still looking for permission to feel good about a choice she'd already made peace with. That's the real conversation in this episode: the difference between not feeling pretty because you don't feel pretty, and not feeling pretty because someone else told you that you're not.Misty walks through the ripple effect one honest decision had on her life — skincare, strength training, how she was eating, how she was showing up for herself — and lands on the lesson she says applies to way more than hair: the decision is always the hardest part. The moment you actually decide, the perspective shifts. This episode is for the hairstylist or salon owner who is brilliant at making everyone else feel safe and seen and still waiting for someone to tell her she's allowed to trust herself.If you're a stylist or salon owner sitting on a decision — about your hair, your chair, your business, or your life — and you're waiting for someone else's approval first, this one's for you.

Is Survival Mode Is Running Your Business

2026-07-2712:12

Last week's episode was about living in survival mode — this week, Misty gets specific about how survival mode actually runs your hairstyling business without you even noticing. If you've ever people-pleased your way into a schedule you hate, felt too guilty to charge what you're worth, or avoided a conversation because conflict feels unbearable, this episode is your mirror.Misty walks through the real story of the year she finally took Saturdays off after 14–15 years behind the chair — the fear, the coach who asked one simple question, and what actually happened when she stopped protecting everyone else's schedule at the expense of her own life. Spoiler: the clients she was most afraid to lose were the easiest ones to talk to.This episode is for the hairstylist who is competent enough to hold a full book and calm enough to make every client feel safe in the chair — but who hasn't yet built that same safety and self-trust into her own business decisions. If you're a stylist or salon owner doing the personal development work and applying it to your business (not just your mindset), this one's for you.What you'll learn in this episode:Why survival mode shows up as people-pleasing, pricing guilt, and schedule avoidance behind the chairThe real story behind the year Misty took her Saturdays backThe one coaching question that reframed her biggest business fearHow to identify the actual fear underneath the business decision you're avoidingWhy proving your own fear wrong is the fastest way out of survival modehairstylist survival mode, hairstylist personal development podcast, salon owner mindset, hairstylist boundaries, hairstylist people pleasing, salon scheduling boundaries, hairstylist self-worth, hairstylist burnout, behind the chair mindset

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