We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Audi Ryerson. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Audi below.

Hi Audi, thanks for joining us today. What do you think matters most in terms of achieving success?

I think the key to success is to keep going no matter the set backs. Success is having a dream and doing EVERYTHING it takes to make it. Success is also loosing friends, long work days, sometimes no pay, profit loss, gains, good days and lots of bad ones too. I think the key to success is knowing no matter how hard it gets you are a start of something new, and the universe would never have given you the opportunity if you were not able.
So many times during the hard times in business I asked the universe why? And the only response I can imagine it would be is, if it was easy, it wouldn’t be worth it! Hard work always pays off!

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I am a 3rd generation groomer, and Arizona native! I have been grooming dogs almost my entire life! I started out in the AKC Show world and moved to pet grooming about 18 years ago specializing in Terriers and Poodles. Over the past decade I have pushed my focus to a style of grooming called Asian Fusion. I own a grooming salon in Goodyear and we display all of our Fusion style haircuts everyday!We are well known for being the salon to transform the everyday pet into a trendy fusion inspired masterpiece! I also mentor groomers on this style hosting multiple seminars teaching hundreds of amazing groomers, I am so excited to be invited to teach to a huge grooming conference in Utah this May, I landed a place in the lineup with some of the top groomers in the country! I’m very excited and extremely honored! I can’t wait to see what the universe has in store for me next!

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

I would have to say that this story helped fuel the fire, the want and the will inside of me to be the absolute best groomer I humanly and physically could be! I was a bather at the time and I had groomed show dogs before and so I asked the owner of the salon if I could test out to be her next groomer. She jokingly laughed and said “sure” with a condescending voice with a slight “yeah okay tone”. She gave me her not-so-good-dog for grooming to me and vocalized to me her preferred grooming notes.
I confidently picked up that dog and started grooming away.
At the end of the haircut she looked over the dog, patted me on the shoulder and said “oh honey A for effort!”
She said it looks like a lawn mower gave this dog a haircut! Now I didn’t think it was that dang bad! She Told me I made him look weird and he had a monkey butt and she just kept going and going, finally she eased up and suggested that I just stuck to bathing dogs.
I asked her if she could show me where I did wrong and she told me to name a place I didn’t! Completely embarrassed and mortified I finished my shift and went home. I never did return to that salon.
I got a grooming kit together and set out for a new grooming position. I nailed one on the next day, first interview! I was feeling back in the game!
I took that lady telling me I was a bad groomer and I used that ammo and fire and I burnt down the town!
I was attending trade shows and private lessons and buying literature to make sure I could be the best I ever could be.
I thank that lady now because she was the push I needed, and now try to stop me!

Can you talk to us about how your funded your business?

I was sitting on a paint bucket on my friends porch 4 years ago, I was browsing through Facebook and I stumbled across a listing for a salon for sale in Goodyear. My friends and I all joked about getting it and all the things we could incorporate and as we’re all dreaming a little voice in my head said Do IT! I jokingly told my friends I’m going to go buy that salon! We all chuckled at the thought, but I wasn’t joking when I said that! That voice led me to reaching out to the seller and I went to see the salon 2 days later!
Now here’s the funny part, here I am chasing this voice in my head but I knew it was just a dream because there is no way in hell I could buy a business with only $28.00 in my bank account!
I went down to the salon and spoke with a wonderful lady by the name of Debbie, she was a sweet lady, who loved her salon but needed a double knee replacement so she was closing down shop. I asked her what would it take to just takeover the salon and then I could pay her for the equipment? She said well first step is to talk to the landlord.
Next day I spoke to the landlord and we did all the necessary paperwork and I signed the contract! It was like it was all a plan just going into motion, it just all seemed to work out.
With the lease in hand I was officially the new owner of this salon, the bucket dream that my friends and I all joked about just a few nights prior.
Debbie was asking $10,000.00 for all the equipment inside which was a great deal but that was a whole lot more than I had in my bank account. I got desperate to make this dream a reality and I reached out to anyone and everyone I knew asking them for loans, “if you loan me $100 I will pay you back $150 in 6 months. I had loans from $5 up to $500 and I gathered $2,500.00 in 4 days. I called up Debbie and she willingly took that as a deposit and she patiently waited for the rest of the payments over time.
I think of Debbie like a guardian angel, she gave me a stranger a chance, the break I needed. I thank you for taking a chance on me! I hope I have made you proud!

Contact Info:

• Website: [email protected]
• Instagram: Audilovesyou
• Facebook: Audi Ryerson

Image Credits
Self