We recently connected with Nicole Casadei and have shared our conversation below.
Alright, Nicole thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Can you talk to us about a risk you’ve taken – walk us through the story?
My name is Nicole and I’ve dreamt of being a hairstylist since I was 15 years old. I grew up in a town with less than 4,000 people in it and didn’t know where I’d end up- but I didn’t want to stay in my small town. With a little guidance and massive encouragement I moved to Chicago at 20 years old to begin my career.
In Chicago was where I was trained, worked hard to be promoted to salon manager and eventually the director of education for the company I was working with. We had multiple salon locations across the country that allowed the opportunity for me to travel and educate all across the nation. I was in my early 20’s working my butt off making my own dreams come true- I didn’t have any idea what I was capable of, but I did know I was willing to work as hard as I could in order to make cool shit happen, and it *definitely* happened. Educating in cities I had never been to, doing hair on stage at hair shows in front of thousands of people, building a clientele in Southern California, driving myself to see the Hollywood sign in LA, styling hair for VIP guests at the Billboard Music Awards and styling hair for celebrity photoshoots at the iconic Golds Gym location in Venice Beach… I couldn’t believe the life that I had built for myself.
I moved to Austin, Texas in the Fall of 2013 after getting engaged- with the idea of being married and owning a hair salon with my partner. A few years later in 2019 I ended up buying him out of our business during our divorce- right before a global pandemic forced us to shut down for a matter of months.
I never dreamt that anyone could dictate whether or not I would be able to go to work and do what I love- but it happened. I remember the way that I felt, and cried the last day I got to drive into work and take care of my clients. Not knowing when we’d be able to return to work, not knowing when I’d get to perform a job that I had been doing and loving for the last 13 years of my life. I spent the first week or so DEEPLY depressed. After that I did some important reflecting and realized I had a lot of work to do.
I needed to rebrand. I needed to take someone elses name, vision, and everything in it my own- I needed to turn it into something that I believed in and the pandemic was the perfect opportunity to make that happen. One of the most difficult things I thought I was living in my entire life, suddenly turned into an opportunity to make sure I shifted the energy of that space during the time it was closed… not even knowing whether or not I was capable of having it survive such a time.
I sat on my couch and dreamt up an idea of a space that was welcoming. I tried to dream of a name that could mean something to everyone and anyone that would end up working their. A name that any individual could take pride in by adding our workspace to their life story. A name that made clients think twice about the hair experience they’d receive walking through our doors, that would change the way they viewed salons, forever. I wanted to create a brand that had integrity and that meant something to people.
During the time we were closed making no money- and I was trying to rebrand, I ended up starting to make small affordable changes to the space. I had wood cut at the hardware store that I stained and sealed myself to change the colors of our wooden shelves. Friends helped make new furniture… everything needed to be done on the small budget that we had. In the meantime I was filing for loans just the same as every other business owner in the country… trying to keep my staff afloat as well, on top of everything. A sweet client of ours even sent me some grant information that the City of Austin was providing small businesses with funding- I applied for that. I remember how hard I cried when I got the email that I had been approved and got a $40,000 check in the mail from the CoA that didn’t need to be repaid… all of this literally saved my life and my small business during that time. I was able to purchase new chairs, and give the space enough of a facelift that it actually felt like mine when we finally got to go back to work on June 1, 2020.
Unintentionally, my entire career and life story has been a risk. Golden Soul has just celebrated our 4th birthday this past June 1 and I cried. I’ve cried reflecting on how difficult it was to have to close down during that time and I’ve cried in celebration that its taken 4 years to let the dust settle and have the perfect team, perfect clientele and perfect situation that we have comfortably settled into having now. Tears of celebration as well as aging about 15 years in only the past 4- but you all get it, we all survived the same time.
Being a business owner is a huge risk- rebranding a business during a global pandemic was probably the biggest risk I’ll ever take in my entire life but I’m alive- I’m well, I’m succeeding daily and I’m forever grateful for the lessons and everything I’ve received along the way.
Nicole, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
Growing up in a small town there were only so many options when it came to where we could get our hair done, but I started noticing my own hair appointment anxieties as a kid. I knew nothing about hair or what it entailed as a job, so I definitely kept my mouth shut since it wasn’t my field or expertise.
Once I got into the industry, it was my goal to keep my eyes and ears open so that I could listen and observe as much as possible, in order to learn. I wanted to make sure any opinion that I formed or idea I had would be well-educated. Over time I truly realized that as hairstylists, we can take all of the classes in the world and have education/experience oozing out of our ears- but if we didn’t master the art of listening to clients needs and being able to deliver them, none of the classes or education would even matter. Ohhhhh, I realized this was a people business and I couldn’t just cling to being an artist if I truly wanted to be successful.
The good thing is, my level of empathy and sensitivity made it easy for me to put myself in other peoples shoes and understand them. Meeting someone on their level made it possible for me to form connections with them. When people feel connected and comfortable, it makes having a mutual conversation to understand their needs more possible. As a hair stylist, I do feel well rounded in my ability and what I’m capable of offering to a person- but if we don’t come to a mutual understanding of what they’re looking for with their hair, I wouldn’t even feel comfortable beginning.
What has always set me apart and makes me the most proud- is my ability to comfort clients from the moment they sit in front of me for a consultation. (I also sit when speaking to them, in order to be able to meet them at their level and let them know this is their time to speak and I’m here to listen.) Theres some sort of statistic in my industry that is some 94% of hairstylists feel like they deliver a great consultation and only 18% of clients feel that they’ve ever even had one. Those numbers aren’t the actual percentages when I learned/heard that statistic but they’re close. The people that sit in our chair as stylists, ARE our business. I think those numbers are important, and as hairstylists we have a choice to be part of the problem or part of the solution in this industry.
The brand of Golden Soul Salon has been based upon this. My entire team knows what our company values are and that our goal is mastering the art of communication and a solid consultation. We have created a system within our salon that has key focuses of all client experiences- and our consultation is definitely a key component to make sure our clients feel heard and leave with the hair that they’re asking for. We believe an unhappy client happens when we fail to meet expectations or fail to communicate what is possible, and we do our very best to educate our clients along the way to let them know how we can achieve what they’re asking for- or let them know respectfully why it may not be possible.
The internet, AI, robots, and social media will never be able to take the human-ness out of what we do as hairstylists and that is why I’ve continued to love all 17 years of doing what I do.
Where do you think you get most of your clients from?
Staying involved in the community, finding as many ways to give back as possible to get word of your company out there. Providing great experiences to every single person that comes in for word of mouth as well! That is the best, long term way to build your business. If there isn’t authenticity behind what you’re doing, it’ll never stick.
Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?
Having been in this industry for 17 years, learning how to be successful under someone elses mentorship for the first decade of it, and then a global pandemic telling you that you literally aren’t allowed to function that way anymore- I needed to unlearn SO MUCH. Not to mention the fact that the younger generation of stylists that you end up hiring EXPECT you to adapt, shift, modernize and stay current! Owning a salon in one of the best cities in America, at one of the most iconic intersections in Austin, you definitely don’t get to fall short on that! I’m a stylist that went from my success being built on completing any/all hair service within a 45 minute timeframe, taking multiple clients at once, working with personal assistants to help me finish every client- now 3 years post pandemic, we schedule the amount of time that we actually need for each client. We don’t treat people like a factory number that needs to be in and out- people have different amounts of hair, take different amounts of time, needing different levels of detail and technique. It was hard training myself out of the first way I was taught to be successful in order to learn a new one and allow it to work. Our brains are wired for comfort and for things to stay the same- I really needed to force myself and my ways to self-implode and told myself I’d fail otherwise. Being on the other side of it, I just know that I am capable of handling literally anything and everything that were to come my way in the future, and Im ready for it, even welcome it.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.goldensoulsalon.com
- Instagram: www.instagram.com/goldensoulnicole
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/goldensoulatx/
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/golden-soul-salon-austin?osq=golden+soul+salon
- Other: google business page: https://g.co/kgs/1pYxHNA
Image Credits
view of the salon- Laura Morsman Photography group photos- Tara Coots Logo/Branding- Pollen Media Lab