We recently connected with Samantha Courtois and have shared our conversation below.
Samantha, appreciate you joining us today. What do you think it takes to be successful?
What does it take to be successful? To answer this question you must first define what success means to you. For me, success would be having a complete work/life balance and never losing my passion for what I do every day. Having all the money in the world is not worth anything if your not happy, and don’t have time to share it with loved ones. I feel so fortunate to have found a career I enjoy walking into every day. When I first began my career, I had left a decent job and taken a large pay cut to start all over in the beauty industry. I moved back in with my mom, and took a giant step back. Although to some this may seem scary, or not doable, I am here to say you can do it!! It took me about 2 years to really build myself, but my passion was flowing and I was embracing all the knowledge I could get from attending classes, learning from other piers, and plain old trial & error. I worked extremely hard and very Iong hours. After a few years, I was making great money, but I was working so many long hours, I was getting burnt out. I realized the place I was at was at had smothered my passion. I decided I needed a change. I decided to open a Salon. The first year and a half was scary! I used every last dime I had, to build a space for my guests and I prayed the business would succeed!! I did anything my guests needed. Whenever they needed me, I was there for them. Over the last 8 years my business has continued to grow and my passion for the beauty world was back and stronger than ever. I began to find myself, in my own place and realized that although to the outside world I seemed “successful “, I wasn’t prioritizing my needs. I began to take time to travel and spend with family, which developed new passions! My love for family and travel started to grow. My hard work over the spanning 14 years had allowed me to get to a place where I could not only enjoy going to work and live comfortably, but be able to take a step back to enjoy time with my family and travel, experiencing new cultures and beauty around the globe. The road to success is not an easy road. If it were, everyone would be “successful”. Sometimes you need to do things other people do not want to do. Set yourself apart from the other fish in the sea and do it with passion. Working hard, working smart, and along the journey find yourself and what makes you happy. Define what success means for you and never give up on reaching that goal.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
The beauty industry is an ever changing one. It is constantly changing with new trends, new techniques, and new competitors. What made me want to open a salon is simply to make other people feel beautiful. There is nothing like having a guest in your chair, and they see themselves in the mirror at the end of their service and LOVE themselves . They start touching their hair, taking selfies, and start glowing with confidence. It’s an amazing feeling being able to give someone else self confidence. Being able to continuously learn new things and continue to better myself as well as help others is truly a dream to live every day. Not only do I strive to make our guests happy, My mission is to carry that into the salon and give a home to stylists where we can be fair, lift each other up, be a team and have each other backs. If you’re in the beauty industry, you most likely have seen a lot of drama. People fighting for clients, talking behind each others back, tearing each other down to try and build yourself up… This is what I want to eliminate. It is always my goal to have a team that is friendly, has respect for each other, and lifts each other up in our careers. There is enough guests for everyone, and we should be helping each other every day. We are in the “beauty” industry, we should be making other feel beautiful and spreading beauty and joy to everyone in our paths. I am very proud to have a team that radiates love, kindness, and joy. I wouldn’t be where I am without my team, and I am extremely great full to spend every day with such great human beings.
Are there any books, videos, essays or other resources that have significantly impacted your management and entrepreneurial thinking and philosophy?
I have two words.. “The Secret. “
If you have never heard of this book (or movie) you are really missing out. Reading this book opened my mind to a whole new way of living. It taught me to change my thinking from negative to positive. Teaching me to manifest my dreams, and achieve goals I believed were not possible. After reading this book, it took a little while for me to learn how to manifest what I wanted, but I continued to try and change my way of life and I started seeing results. I have since opened 4 businesses, own my home, and travel at least 6 times a year.
I will not give any information away, because it is a book you need to discover for yourself. So do yourself a favor and get that book now! Once you get a taste you will never look back.
More books to consider in order to continue positive life changes:
-Manifesting Charge
-The Law of Attraction
-Ask and it is Gi B ven
What do you think helped you build your reputation within your market?
Some people think being a “Jack of all trades” is the most powerful position. You can do it all!! I used to feel this way, until I learned about manifestation. One of the most powerful things you can do, is know EXACTLY what you want, set your focus on that one goal, and never look back. I attended a Tony Robbins seminar and someone said “You can a little bit good at everything, or you can be the best at one thing”. This really stuck with me. To be able to properly manifest your goal, you need to have your sights set on one goal and really focus your energy on that. When I started my salon I knew I needed to set a solid goal. I knew I loved working with brides. The joys of working with people on their wedding day was a huge passion for me, so I set my goal> I am going to be the most sought after wedding artist in NH. I have kept my goal for 8 years and continue to grow and build my wedding business. Each year I set a goal for how many weddings I would do. My first goal was 50. After I reached that, I raised it to 75, then to 100. Now, my salon does at least 150 a year, I get to travel all over New England, down the coast and out of the county for weddings. How did we get to this goal? Besides using the power of manifestation, I focused my energy on anything related to the wedding beauty industry. I marketed on wedding sites, posted wedding inspired images and materials on social media, searched for local vendors to team up with and donate my time to meet others in the industry and market myself and talents. I also have an incredible team with like minded interests. They study new trends, constantly post on social media, and market each other. This allowing us to really stand out amongst the others in our industry.
Contact Info:
- Website: Www.5Diamondsalon.com
- Instagram: 5diamondsalon
- Facebook: Www.Facebook.com/5diamondsalon
Image Credits
Alex Wiciel Hien Ngyen