How do you keep leading when your world changes overnight?

In this episode, we sit down with Prue Taylor, founder of Lady and The Hair, for a heartfelt conversation about love, loss, and the quiet strength it takes to keep showing up for your team while navigating deep personal grief.

From starting in a garage in Melbourne’s west to building a thriving two location salon, Prue shares the journey behind her business and the life experiences that shaped her leadership. When the sudden loss of her partner Damian changed everything, she had to find new ways to care for herself while continuing to support the team and clients who relied on her.

Inside this conversation we explore:

• Building a salon from a garage into two thriving locations
• Leading a 20 person team while navigating profound personal loss
• The emotional weight hairdressers often carry for their clients
• What the first year of grief can really feel like
• Learning when to step off the salon floor to honour healing
• How breathwork helped regulate the nervous system during overwhelming moments
• Simple ways salon teams can reset and support one another
• Creating services like extensions and hair loss solutions that restore confidence for clients
• Showing up honestly and vulnerably as a salon owner online

This episode is about more than business. It is about humanity, resilience, and the courage it takes to keep going when life does not unfold the way we expected.

If this conversation resonated with you, follow the show and share it with someone who might need a little strength today.

To follow our journey:
Instagram @aheadhair_
@the_conscious_salon

Ever felt your team lose its spark and slip into autopilot?

In this episode, we share how we recognised the shift early and led a full culture realignment: resetting standards, strengthening communication, and recommitting to people-first leadership. Between school drop-offs, travel, closures, and a packed calendar, this is how we brought clarity and momentum back to the salon floor.

This wasn’t about new colour formulas or more product training. The real shift came from mindset work, honest conversations, and a team willing to recommit out loud.

Inside this conversation:

• The early signs your team is drifting into autopilot
• What a true alignment reset looks like in practice
• Why training humans matters more than training technique
• The weekly leadership rhythm that protects culture
• How to repair behaviour quickly without drama
• Why mindset work lifted performance more than technical education
• Rebuilding energy during closures and sick leave
• The role of community in sustaining long-term culture

Strong culture isn’t accidental. It’s built through cadence, courage, and clear standards.

To follow our journey:
Instagram @aheadhair_
@the_conscious_salon

Want a calmer start, clearer goals, and a team that actually owns the day? We break down our ten‑minute morning pump‑up that’s taken us from scattered huddles to a self‑led, high‑performing salon. It’s simple, fast, and designed to be implemented tomorrow without adding chaos to your diary.

We start with what changed everything: making the meeting paid, scheduled, and non‑negotiable. From there, we walk through each section of our board and why it works. Wins come first, with reasons that build confidence and recognition. Then a single shared focus aligns the team around today’s priority: rebooking before holidays, retail momentum, promo pushes, or content capture, so every touchpoint supports the target. Awareness flags the likely bottlenecks before they bite: stacked evenings, towel flow, stock, even a stylist’s sore back, so support can be planned rather than begged for at 5pm.

The heart of our system sits in the three daily tasks per person. These aren’t routine duties; they’re outcome‑based actions like home‑care goals, treatment upgrades, or content deliverables. We follow up the next morning with honest accountability and loud celebration, which turns individual effort into shared energy. Gratitude prompts deepen trust without getting fluffy, while a concise weekly task list keeps momentum steady between clients. And the love notes? They stay up all week and they change the room—public praise that makes people feel seen, safe, and ready to stretch.

You’ll hear real examples, the cadence we use, and the small details that drive results, including the 94% rebooking spike during Christmas week.

If you want the full framework, we also share how to access our Conscious Meetings course for team meetings, one‑on‑ones, front of house, and leadership rhythms.

Try the ten‑minute pump‑up tomorrow, then tell us what shifts first—energy, results, or both. If this helped, follow the show, share it with a salon owner who needs it, and leave a quick review so more teams can level up.

To follow our journey:
Instagram @aheadhair_
@the_conscious_salon

Ever wished you had a people and culture director on speed dial for those tough leadership moments?

We sit down with our long-time friend Taryn, a seasoned director of people and culture, to talk through fair terminations, sick leave patterns, feedback that truly lands, and repairing workplace culture in a way that feels human, practical, and doable.

We start with one of the hardest parts of leadership: ending employment with respect. Taryn shares a clear, defensible approach built on setting expectations, giving genuine opportunities to improve, and documenting each step so when it is time to part ways, it can be done with kindness and clarity. From there, we explore chronic sick leave in service-based businesses, where last-minute call-ins impact clients and revenue, and how compassionate boundaries paired with clear consequences help reset patterns.

Taryn also offers steady scripts for emotional one-on-ones, guidance on supporting mental health while holding standards, and tools for rebuilding culture through trust-based conversations, values alignment, and structured mediation. We cover how to address gossip, cliques, and passive aggression, plus practical ways to coach performance without triggering defensiveness.

We round out the episode with advice on workplace celebrations, psychosocial safety, and small changes that lift both wellbeing and results.

If you lead a salon and want real-world scripts, steps, and systems that make you calmer and your team stronger, this episode is your toolkit.

Subscribe, leave a review, and share it with another owner who is ready to lead with both compassion and backbone.

To follow our journey:
Instagram @aheadhair_
@the_conscious_salon

What does it take to build one of Victoria’s largest salons without losing the soul that drew you to the craft?

We sit down with Carla Tedesco, founder of Alarah Hair Studio and TED Haircare, to trace the path from a five-chair startup funded by a scrappy personal loan to a 500m² Mentone HQ with 30 chairs, 10 basins, and a team of 27. Carla shares how empathy became her most reliable performance tool, why clear boundaries protect both home and salon, and how four floor managers and monthly rhythms keep a complex operation calm, focused, and kind.

Carla opens up about beginning her business with a partner and parting ways with respect, then walks us through the near-miss of buying a property with the wrong zoning. That hard lesson sharpened her diligence and ultimately led to a space that houses training, community, and a thriving culture. During COVID, she chose conviction over caution, consolidating multiple sites into a single headquarters that feels more like a small city than a salon—airy, intentional, and built for growth.

Motherhood didn’t slow Carla down; it deepened her purpose. With three kids under four and a recent autism diagnosis for her daughter, she talks about patience, presence, and building psychological safety at work so people can do their best. We dig into the industry’s fragile apprentice pipeline, why completion rates matter, and the practical steps her team uses to support individual learning styles. Carla also introduces TED Haircare, a legacy-driven range of tools named after her children, designed for daily salon use and a distinct identity that travels from chair to classroom to online.

If you care about leadership, culture, and creative business growth, this story is a masterclass in scaling with heart and rigour. Listen, share it with a salon owner who needs a boost, and if it moved you, subscribe and leave a review to help others find the show.

To follow our journey:
Instagram @aheadhair_
@the_conscious_salon

A single word can change the way a year feels. We unpack the practice that’s guided us for years, which choosing one anchor word that filters every decision across business, health, money and family, and we show how it beats scattered resolutions and burnout cycles.

We revisit last year’s choices to prove the point:
“Simplicity” reshaped meals, work systems and mental load, creating space for better client care and calmer days. “Nurture” helped navigate identity shifts, newborn rhythms and a tween’s big feelings, softening our pace without losing momentum. Those words weren’t slogans; they were daily cues that redirected tough moments toward better outcomes.

Now we set our compass for 2026 with two distinct energies.
“Elevate” is about rising one notch in the moments that matter: steadier leadership, clearer conversations, and a more intentional home and client experience. It’s not hustle; it’s embodied growth.
“Discipline” builds the structure that freedom needs: hard stop at 3:30, deep work in focused blocks, less scrolling, stronger training, and money choices that align with family goals. We share practical guardrails you can copy, from lock-screen reminders to boundaries that hold during launches, and we map out how these words will guide retreats, travel and creative projects without tipping into chaos.

If you’re ready to choose your own word, we walk through a reflection process to surface patterns, name what you want more of, and test words that truly support you when you’re tired, tempted or triggered.
Come pick a word that fits like a glove and stretches like a goal.

Subscribe, share this with a friend who needs a reset, and tell us:
what’s your word for 2026?

To follow our journey:
Instagram @aheadhair_
@the_conscious_salon

What does it really take to build a resilient business when life throws the heaviest punches?

We sit down with our longtime friend and mentor, Kate Morris, to unpack the candid story behind her rise from gym-floor trainer to a sought-after women’s health and business coach with a 400-person waitlist. Kate lost 80% of her clients overnight during lockdowns, invested her last dollars into mentorship, and rebuilt from ten to 110 online clients while protecting quality and standards. No hype, no hustle theatre—just discipline, delivery, and a bias for action.

Kate opens up about the two years she stalled on stepping into business mentoring due to fear of judgment, the tall poppy digs she copped, and the moment she chose to move anyway. We dig into why staying in your lane matters more than chasing industry noise, how to set boundaries that protect results, and why coachability is the line in the sand for any high-trust programme. You’ll hear how she handles the sting of client unfollows without spiralling, running a quick self-audit on service and then detaching from stories that aren’t hers to hold.

There’s a powerful section on navigating a heavy season: her partner’s health scares, surgery, grief, lost content, and relentless travel. Instead of disappearing or pretending it was easy, Kate built a bare-minimum list: tight actions that keep delivery strong and sales alive when energy is thin. That small, steady cadence led to her biggest year. If you’ve been craving a grounded blueprint for sustainable growth—across fitness, mindset, and business operations—this conversation is your field guide.

We also turn up the heat with a cheeky hot-seat game that forces honest answers and even more honest laughs. Expect practical tactics, tough love, and proof that women leading with standards can scale without chaos.

If this resonated, follow the show, share it with a friend who needs a push, and leave a quick rating and review. It helps more women find the tools to win.

To follow our journey:
Instagram @aheadhair_
@the_conscious_salon

Money talk can feel prickly, especially when you’re juggling bookings, staff and the pressure to keep everyone happy.

We went from dodging finance chats to feeling steady and clear, and today we share the exact habits that made the shift: weekly number check-ins, paying ourselves first, pricing with strategy, banking all cash and systemising every dollar with automated buckets. If money has ever made you want to run, this conversation brings you back to ground with simple actions that build calm and profit.

We start by naming the discomfort and why open money talk can trigger people, then walk through how regulation—not hustle—changed everything. Weekly visibility gave us control over break-even and cash flow. Paying ourselves first created a non-negotiable boundary that forced better decisions.

On pricing, we unpack why copying competitors and last-minute discounts quietly bleed margin, and how to account for wages, consumables, super, tax and overheads so every service funds a healthy profit. We also call out the hidden cost of panic promos that attract bargain hunters while sidelining loyal clients.

From there, we get frank about cash. Banking every dollar protects your valuation, supports mortgage approvals and keeps you audit-safe. Finally, we lay out a practical blueprint: pull twelve months of transactions, sort them into clear buckets like rent, wages and leave, overheads, repairs and maintenance, tax and super, plus a profit reserve then automate weekly transfers so big bills don’t spike your nervous system. It’s the calm, boring system that quietly builds a business buyers trust and owners can breathe in.

If you’re ready to swap anxiety for agency, press play, take notes and choose one habit to implement this week. Love the show?

Follow, share with a salon friend and leave a quick review so more owners can build confident, profitable money habits.

To follow our journey:
Instagram @aheadhair_
@the_conscious_salon