Discipline.

Grab your color bowls and brushes because today we are getting real real and talking about something that is the BACKBONE of success in any damn business- discipline.

Specifically, self discipline.

Self-discipline is the ability to push yourself forward, stay motivated, and take action, regardless of how you're feeling, physically or emotionally.

Let's be real, some days we wake up with the fire of a thousand suns ready to take on the world…and there are other days when, well, we feel like we’ve been hit with a hairdryer tornado and just want to stay in bed. Amiright?

But guess what, it’s on those days, when you feel like procrastinating harder than a client avoiding a root touch, that discipline, consistency + systems save the day.

Vulnerable moment: the past 5 months I have been on the struggle bus. Honestly speaking, i haven’t FELT like doing much of anything. Those of you that know me, know that I wear many hats in this industry. I own a salon and take clients 3 days a week. I am the founder and do-all for combed education with the blog and the podcast and the course shop, and I am also lead educator and consultant for Megix 10. Beyond that, I am also a mom to a 9 year old- anyone who has kids, KNOWS the struggle. That's a shit ton of responsibility…and when the grips of procrastination and depression take hold..it's wildly difficult to juggle all of those responsibilities without shit falling through the cracks. My main focus has been on mental health these past few months..which means everything else has taken a back seat.

I share this because as I am coming out of the rollercoaster into seemingly more steady waters, I've looked back over the past few months and I am honestly, genuinely surprised that my businesses have not fallen. That shit DIDN’T completely fall through the cracks. Surprisingly, looking at my numbers, there was GROWTH instead of LOSS. Looking at everything from a bird's-eye perspective, reflecting on HOW the fuck that happened, i came to a BIG conclusion and i want to share that with you today.

It comes down to 3 main principles:

Discipline: The golden key

Consistency: The magic potion

Systems + processes: The holy grail

Discipline: The golden key

Self-discipline is the ability to push yourself forward, stay motivated, and take action, regardless of how you're feeling, physically or emotionally. The key here is REGARDLESS OF how you’re feeling. Now, if left to your own discretion with no foundational support BUILT-IN…it would be difficult to be disciplined, especially when you don't feel like it.

Imagine, you're in your shit and dont FEEL like doing anything anyways…add to that the task of CREATING the tasks to do..forget it. It’s not going to happen, sis.

Consistency: The magic potion

Consistency requires a long-term commitment from you and involves sustained effort in doing actions repeatedly until you achieve your goals.

I’ve always said the consistency is the glue, the magic sauce to seeing something through TO success. You stay consistent long enough, results are absolutely inevitable. Now, Consistency is also a difficult “thing” to maintain, especially when you are in your shit. This is why it is so important to build HABITS..to support consistency. When we want to do something consistently, it needs to be a habit, or a ritual, so that it becomes second nature. If you struggle with consistency when youre GOOD, you are definitely going to struggle even harder when youre not so good. Wherever you are at now, i encourage you to practice consistency. Practice rituals and habits that will lead to consistency with certain tasks. Here’s an example that has worked for me.

Engaging on social media is very important to me but i find it so easy to just consume and scroll content, especially when i am using social media as an “escape”

A habit, or a RITUAL that i have built in to my social media usage is that every single time i pull up instagram, or tiktok…it is a requirement that i first spend 5-10 minutes engaging. Wether its replying to comments, dm’s, or just hyping my friends up, i consistently engage every time i open one of those apps. When that is “out of the way”, then i go to just scrolling for fun.

Because i have been doing this for so long, it is now a consistent habit that supports my goal.

See what i did there? Built a consistent habit INTO what i was doing anyways..its now second nature.

But what i really want to discuss is the holy grail…SYSTEMS + PROCESSES.

Basically, the WHAT and the HOW.

A system is a methodical way in which you plan to do something

A process is HOW you go about doing something.

The immense value of having systems and processes in place is the holy grail to remaining consistent and disciplined in your business.

I realized that implementing systems and processes in my business was the SOLE reason WHY everything didnt collapse for me that past few months.

I spent a lot of time a couple of years ago creating my systems and processes based on the goals that i had…and im so glad i did, it saved my ass.

I'll share a few examples:

Client scheduling and booking:

System: I use Vagaro

Process: Clients book themselves, I approve or deny the appointment and I don't have to worry about texting people back.

Inventory:

System- 2nd and 4th week of the month is inventory day- scheduled in my calendar.

Process- I have created an itemized checklist of what I need to take inventory of so that I dont forget. This includes the normal things like color and foils, but also coffee, snacks, bathroom stock up etc. It’s all on the list and I know every two weeks I just bust out the list and plan accordingly.

Social Media:

System- I created a content pillar “calendar” of what I want to post and when I want to post it.

Process- examples: sunday- educational carousel, monday- educational reel, tuesday- promotional post etc….and the process is just another “checklist” of what to do. I take the “thinking” out of it and just make it tasky.

Lastly, with the podcase/blog/emails: I have a whole process for every element of this production. I spent hours creating all of the things so that when it came time to record or publish- the “thinking” was already done. It becomes literally a glorified to do list…like a well oiled machine,

Looking back, its because of these systems and processes that I was able to stay consistent and discipled and do ALL of the things that I needed to do when I honestly didnt feel like it. I attribute the growth to all of this.

I think that when I was spiraled into a not-so-good place, finding the motivation to do anything was extremely difficult and I was SO grateful that I took the time to create all of my systems and processes to keep me afloat when I felt like I was sinking.

All of this to say- no matter WHAT is going on, none of us are exempt from difficult times and those difficult times do not have to lead down a path of destruction to the things that we have built.

I hope that this was an eye opener for you, and i hope you found some nuggets of value that you can implement in your business- wether youre struggling or not. I fully believe the way to scale your business is thought discipline, consistency, systems and processes..oh, and CLEAR ASS VISION!

Until next time,

Araz