Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Lori Sartain. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Hi Lori, thanks for sharing your insights with our community today. Part of your success, no doubt, is due to your work ethic and so we’d love if you could open up about where you got your work ethic from?
I came from a single parent home. I never knew my dad growing up and my mom was always too stubborn to ask anyone for help. I remember her teaching me everything I’d ever need to know from lighting a pilot light to starting a fire and changing a tire. She always said “if you want something done and done right, you’ve got to learn how to do it yourself”.
My mother worked extremely hard when I was little and often times it still wasn’t enough to pay the bills. I remember boiling water for baths because our heat was always turned off. No matter how hard she worked, we never seemed to get ahead. She never missed days of work, never took vacation or sick leave or even time for the doctor. She always had a great work ethic however, she was a woman working manual labor in a warehouse in the 80’s and 90’s and was underpaid significantly. Had she taken some of those days off for the doctor, she might still be here today.
She never made a lot of money but I always envied her strength and survival skills when it came to taking care of me.
My mom would always tell me if I worked hard, I’d never need to rely on someone else to get what I needed. She taught me to always show up a few minutes early, never call in unless you’re too sick to get out of bed, never leave before the work was done and if you finished early, find something else to do. She wouldn’t take breaks for phone calls and she often worked through her lunches.
Due to her lack of income, I started a paper route to help out when I was 11. I dreaded it every morning but I think back to that time now and that’s exactly where my work ethic started. We needed the money to put food on the table and I did that. I woke up every morning and did my job and I’ve been working hard ever since.
While my mom’s hard work never seemed to pay off, all that she taught me did. I would be nowhere near where I’m at today without my solid work ethic and my own motivation of “work hard, play hard”.
Thanks for sharing that. So, before we get any further into our conversation, can you tell our readers a bit about yourself and what you’re working on?
I went to hair school about 18 years ago and as soon as I took the nail portion of the program, I knew that’s what I wanted to do. So, I dropped out of cosmetology school and went to a nails only school where I could learn more about the skill in depth. I have since worked at 3 nail salons, a high end day spa, a nail school and am now in my second private studio, Crow Nail Studio in Salt Lake City, Utah.
I currently have one employee who works when I’m not there and I just signed a lease to open my first nails only salon in the same great neighborhood!
While having a full clientele for years, I have recently shifted my focus more towards education and teaching others about all that I have learned over the last 17+ years of doing nails.
I’m an affiliate for my favorite brand, Luxa Polish and I love teaching others about the brand, the quality of their product as well as tips and tricks to application and everything in between.
I’ve currently been taking several business classes and have a master educator course coming up later this year to help me get up and running with my own continued education courses. I love sharing my knowledge with others and love when a student gets that “ah-ha” moment in their practice.
If there’s one thing that will set you apart in this industry, it’s continued education. So many people leave school or apprenticeships and assume they have learned all there is to know. This industry is forever changing and no matter how much you work or how much you think you know, there will always be something new to learn. Even as an educator I will always find the time to take continued education classes from others as I have yet to take a class where I didn’t learn something new.
When I first started doing nails, there weren’t many options out there for continued education so I would sit at the salon I worked at from open to close 6 days a week and watch other girls work when I didn’t have a client. In doing so, I learned so many different techniques and skills.
While getting to where I am has taken me years and years, my focus as an educator is to help people reach their goals in a more timely manner. I absolutely love my job and I worked so hard to get here, I know I would not be here without the work ethic my mom taught me. However, in this day and age we are constantly bombarded with distractions. We are in a world that doesn’t slow down, yet we are finally in a place where it’s safe to take time to address our mental health and allow self care with some time to breathe.
So, if I can use my knowledge and skills to help relieve some of the trial and error periods I’ve experienced to help others reach their goals faster, then I’d say I’m one step closer to meeting my own goals as well.
Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?
Looking back over the years. I would say some things that stand out to me as most important would be my relationship with my clients. It’s so important to put the customer first. Simple things like offering to take their coat, offering a drink or snack, asking them how they are doing or remembering little details about them for next time can have a huge impact on your long term relationship. Putting the clients wants and needs as top priority are crucial in building a solid and loyal clientele. Whether that be stocking a drink they like, learning more about something that they like to talk about, getting the color they want, putting on music they enjoy, learning how to do a style they like or just listening to them and giving them a safe place to come and vent, talk, relax or unwind. Lastly, continued education is and always will be most important in my opinion.. You can’t stay up to date with the latest trends and techniques if you aren’t comfortable in performing them. This goes for all trades in the beauty industry. If you want to charge high end prices, you need to offer a high end service and experience.
My biggest advice for anyone starting out in the beauty industry would be to keep going. Keep pushing yourself to be better. If you treat your clients with respect and make them feel important, they will stay with you while you continue to learn and grow. Learn from more than one source or person. Follow multiple people on social media who have more unique styles and personalities, take classes from a variety people and surround yourself with a mix of beauty pros who all do things a little differently. Find your niche and focus on that and maybe 2-3 other things but don’t offer every single service in your industry. It’s really hard to get good at something when you have several different types of services on your menu and you are never doing the same thing twice. Pick your favorite thing to do and make it your specialty. As soon as you build your clientele, you can drop the services you don’t enjoy doing and start customizing your work and your hours. Because you respected your clients and made them feel special, they in return will respect you and your new schedule and they will trust you with the service you think is best for them.
All the wisdom you’ve shared today is sincerely appreciated. Before we go, can you tell us about the main challenge you are currently facing?
My number one challenge is and will probably always be my social anxiety. I’ve been sober from alcohol for almost 2 years and that was my liquid courage. Navigating life without alcohol has definitely been an experience to say the least. I’m not even the same person I was two years ago and while it’s been nothing short of a positive experience, I have definitely had several imposter syndrome moments.
I have always been shy, quiet and reserved unless I was drinking. Getting outside of my comfort zone, teaching lives on instagram and putting my face in front of the camera has been one of the hardest challenges for me. I can be super self critical and I often over think every little thing.
I sat down about a year ago and did my 5 year plan. While doing nails is my passion, it has taken a beating on my body. My wrists, neck and shoulders are destroyed and I can’t sit for more than 6 hours without feeling the burning pain come down my neck, back and shoulder. While yoga has been a life saver, I know that there will come a time where my quality of service will decline due to the toll it’s taken on my body. The only way to continue working in this industry and doing what I love, is to get out of my comfort zone and start teaching. With that comes standing up in front of several people I’ve never met and putting myself out there. I have had to learn that not everyone will like me or agree with me, people will challenge and test me and some people may bash me behind my back or even straight to my face. It’s ok not to be for everyone because I know not everyone is for me either. While public speaking is my absolute biggest fear, I’ve learned over the last few months that the more you do it, the easier it gets.
I truly look forward to the day that I can stand up in a room full of beauty professionals and tell my story without hearing or feeling the fear in my voice.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://crownailstudio.glossgenius.com
- Instagram: @crow_nail_studio
- Yelp: Yelp.com/biz/crow-nail-studio-salt-lake-city
