Dear Michael,

I read your article on inspiration vs. passion with great interest, and I was wondering how motivation fit in. Can you explain the difference between inspiration and motivation?

Thank you.

Sincerely,
Misa

Hi Misa,

That’s a great question to ask.

Motivation is somewhat synonymous with passion.

They both embody the energy of achievement and contain the same active ingredient, the desire to possess. Both are human qualities that operate at the mental level of our being.

Inspiration is a divine quality that operates at the spiritual level of our being. The active ingredient of inspiration is Unselfish Love, which is given without expectation.

Because everything flows from the spiritual level, one could say that passion and motivation are derivatives of inspiration watered down by desire.

Inspiration gets me everything that motivation does but without the stress and anxiety that frequently comes with motivation. This is because motivation contains desire and at the root of desire is fear.

Another way to illustrate the distinction between Motivation and Inspiration is:
Motivation asks the question: “What do I want for my greater life?"
Inspiration asks: “What does my ‘Greater Life’ want for me?”
The first question is one that I ask myself, which is human.
The second question is one that I ask my ‘Greater Self’, which is Spiritual.

Blessings & God Speed,
Michael

 

Dear Michael,
I’m sure my problem is not unique but most advice I've read was on how to build a clientele, keep a clientele, etc. But what if your clientele is bullying you so you're working 6 days a week... all holidays... and very long hours? When I can't get a client in they get mad, yell, and threaten! I know some of this is my fault. I'm a people pleaser. Always trying to fit them in at my expense. Every once in a while, like this 4th of July week, I’ve crammed everywhere.There is no more cramming plus they can't possibly get my full attention now. The only solution I've come up with is raising prices, but that will get me yelled at. And I need to raise enough that some leave and some don’t. Can you help?
Frustrated without a life

Dear Frustrated Without a Life

First off let me thank you for your email it was very inspiring for me. Solving this is going to take a big dose of honesty, a lot of hard work and a unconditional willingness to walk through all of the aspects of this issue. If you’re ready, and I mean really ready then keep reading.

I want to use a technique with you called Name, Claim, and Tame with no Blame or Shame as our way of working together on this project.

Let’s start with Naming. Naming means to state the issue and get as clear as possible. What I want to do is re-write your email to me as a way of helping you to getting clear. Are you ready? Here we go.

Dear Michael
I have built a great clientele over the years. But my fear of my clients being angry with me if I can’t get them in. Because of this fear I have a habit of appeasing and accommodating them. My fear and appeasing has caused me to work 6 days a week, long hours, with a book that is crammed. As a result I am not able to give each individual the attention I would like, I am stressed out, over worked and have no life. Can you help me?
Frustrated Without A Life

So what’s different about the way I wrote your problem? I took the focus off of the clients and put it on you. This is not about FAULT FINDING this is about getting clear and seeing your part. Because what you see you can change. You can’t change your clients but you can change the way you interact with them. Here is what we got clear about. 1. What’s the fear or the false belief you have? (Fear of not being liked) 2. How is this fear playing out or what is the behavior that is getting in your way? (Appeasing which means giving into a demand in order to feel better.)

This moves us right to the next step, which is Claiming. Claiming means to take responsibility for your fear and your behavior without Blaming the client for being bullies or Shaming yourself for getting in this dilemma.

And now you are ready for Taming. Taming is about the actions you are willing to take in order to change. I will give you some Taming actions that I have considered but I want you to be open to finding some for yourself as well. I find it helps me to think in steps So here are your Taming Action Steps.

Step 1: Write a personal change statement using what you discovered in Naming and Claiming.

A great statement has three parts. First a fear or false belief about yourself you want to give up. Second a behavior you want to stop doing. And third positive beliefs and actions you want to start having and doing. I took the liberty of writing a statement for you. Feel free to modify it.

I let go of my fear of not being liked. I let go of my need to appease my clients. Instead I believe I am a strong, creative women living a wonderful balanced life.

Step 2: Read this statement at least 10 times every day before you start work.

Step 3: Decide your work schedule. And stick to it.

Step 4: Raise your prices. Decide how much and when you are going to raise your price. (You may want to consider purchasing the One-On-One cds. There is a great section on raising prices.)

Step 5: Write your script for your response to a client when they demand to get in now. Keep this sweet short and simple.

Example: Unfortunately I am not going to be able to get you in today, but I do have an appointment on ________. Can I book you for that?

Step 6: Allow people to have whatever reaction they are going to have. Don’t take it personal. Don’t argue or try to get them to see it your way, just let them rant for a little bit. Avoid giving in to your fear and habit of appeasing and read your statement as a way of grounding yourself.

As you can see by my response to your email I took your question very seriously. I believe you have the courage and the ability to create the career and the life you want.

Best wishes,
Michael

Dear Michael,
I have a very busy staff member that does quality work. The problem is that she undercharges too often for her color services. The painful irony is that she complains about lack of money. She tends to take criticism too personally and feels attacked. I must have a conversation to remedy this issue. What is your advice for a plan of action?
Sincerely,
Ryan

Ryan,
Thank you for your question. Undercharging for services is an issue that many service providers struggle with. Any advice for a plan of action has 10 parts.

1. The very first item on you action plan list is to make sure you are ground. In other words your intention is to help her. It's not to punish or judge her for undercharging. Being in this state of mind will help to keep you from arguing with her.
2. Get clear about what you want.
3. Have some data available. Not to stick it in her face but to shed light on the issue. For example how many over the last month were undercharged. And what does that mean for her totals and eventually her paycheck.
4. Ask permission to speak with her. And have this conversation in a private location.
5. Start by explaining what you have become aware of, and how it is affecting her income as well as the salon.
6. Ask her to talk to you about it. And then listen, listen, listen. Listening does not mean that you will agree with her but you want to MAKE SURE that you are LISTENING and not thinking about something else, or judging her or waiting for her to shut up so you can talk. Just listen.
7. When she is finished speaking paraphrase back to her what you heard to verify that you are on the same page.
8. Next share any experience you may have had with undercharging.
9. Ask her is she is open to suggestions. If yes give some, if no you are at another fork in the road with her.
10. If she is open to ideas and is willing to make a commitment to them write it down and ask her if you can check back in with her to support her effort.

Ryan I know that this sounds like a lot and it is. But if your intention is to help her through this and resolve the issue you need to be willing to try and understand her as much as possible. Not to let her off the hook but to help her break through the fear of charging some people full price. I hope this helps.

Stay well,
Michael

Hi Michael,

I have been in a number of your programs in Halifax, Nova Scotia. I took a look through the material on your website and was wondering if you could help us with something. I am working with a stylist who has just completed our assisting program. She has been working under two very accomplished and busy stylists. When I did her last practical evaluation I realized something major that was lacking in her training. I realized she was weak in her consultation and closing. I have printed off some of the U matter information for her that will help with retailing, pre-booking, referrals, and closing however I didn¹t see any ideas for the initial consultation. Do you have anything like this I could pass on to her?
Any help is greatly appreciated,
Sonia

Sonia

Thank you for your questions. Two ideas come to mind. One is to look at the CD program One on One with Michael Cole on my web site. It is a program that has been out for a couple of years now but is filled with wonderful information any stylist can use. I would suggest that you listen to it first and then have this new stylist. You could even assign a track or two and then have a discussion about what they got out of the material.

The second thing is often when a new stylist is assisting a busy stylist they never get a chance to see that stylist work with new clients because they don't get very many new clients. The other idea I have for you is to look at the Associate Training Program on the web site. This program is more about a busy stylist being a trainer of new people through them being associates. There is a specific training program that the busy stylist would take them through while working side by side with them. Making sure that this busy stylist gets new clients to show by example how to do greet, consult, work with a new clients.

Hope this is helpful.
Michael

Dear Michael,

The owner of the salon that I work at has started everyone on the Summit plan, HELP!! She has set everyone's levels and dropped our commission from 50/50 to 46/50. It's so crazy keeping up with our numbers because we use Salon Iris and we cannot get proper reports. I know that she has all of the Summit tools. she is taking a bit from here and there of both systems and personalizing it making it work for her. Is this how its supposed to run? Will I be plagued with this madness for the rest of my career?

Thank you for writing and asking questions. There are a number of things that I would like to respond to in your email. I want to start the Summit materials. The Level charts were put together to help a stylist be able to make the most amount of money in the best way. Some stylists are trying to do too many clients, and not charging enough. Some are not earning well because they¹re not doing enough chemical services. See the Level charts as a road map to success.

Next I want to address (we use Salon Iris and we cannot get proper reports). I never would depend only on others to tell me how I am doing. What does that mean? Reports from a computer while important are after the fact. I want to know every day as the day is progressing how I am doing. I would encourage you to track your own progress.

Tthe tracking forms found in the JUMP Journal were built just for that. The one that I would have you focus on is the Day Planner. This is used to Plan your day, not track it when it¹s over. But to plan for a great day in service and retail and enjoyment with each and every guest you see that day.

Now let¹s talk about the salon owner. It sounds like to me that she has decided to take her game up as a leader and a salon owner. What I know about the salon business is that there are so many salons that are not profitable. I know that is hard for stylists to understand especially when it looks like they are taking the other 50% and keeping it. Well I can tell you they are not keeping it and putting it in their pocket. The expenses of running a salon will eat up almost all of that 50%. Your owner is making an attempt to grow and improve, she will have successes as well as failures. But it sounds like she is moving forward.

Here is what I would ask you to do. Step back, take a deep breath and see the big picture of what the salon owner is attempting to do. Give yourself and your family 6 months of not judging what she is attempting to do. And here is the big question. How willing are you to take your game up? If you are willing email back and I will give you a couple of more suggestions. –Michael

 

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