We recently connected with Maya Ramsey and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Maya, thanks for sitting with us today to chat about topics that are relevant to so many. One of those topics is communication skills, because we live in an age where our ability to communicate effectively can be like a superpower. Can you share how you developed your ability to communicate well?
I’ve worn many hats as a hairstylist, mentor, and educator and all of them come down to effectively communicating with my clients, peers, friends, family, and the rest of my “bubble”.
When I had just started my career as an apprentice, fresh out of school and barely in to my twenties, my mentor pulled me aside. I had made some kind of small misstep and we had a miscommunication. I was desperately trying to explain myself and stumbling over my words.
He interrupted me and said “stop. I don’t need the whole story. Get your point across”.
In that moment I reframed my whole approach to how I show up to conversations. I learned to cut through the fluff to try and be as concise as possible. Partly because I realized the longer I was talking over myself and trying to explain my point in as many ways as possible, the more the person or people I was speaking were shutting down.
They were focusing on one or two things I had said and I’d totally lost them by the end, best case scenario.
Worst case scenario, they were becoming frustrated and not as responsive because it wasn’t a balanced conversation.
Asking questions brings people back in to the topics at hand and allows people to have ownership in the discussion. My dad once told me “the smartest person in the room is the one not talking”. What that means to me is the person listening is learning and absorbing, and maybe more importantly, not putting their foot in their mouth. In my life and career, I can’t be the one always silent, nor do I want to be, but it’s a good reminder to listen first, ask questions second, and then respond.
As a women, especially an opinionated and independent one, I was quick to argue and over explain myself as a child. I conditioned myself that unless I over justified my thoughts, feelings, and actions, I would be misunderstood or my feelings would be ignored or dismissed. All most people want to be is heard and understood.
Once I realized these two things, narrow your focus as concisely as possible and leave space to actively listen, it streamlined problem solving, communication, and interpersonal relationships.
It’s still something I work on everyday.
Let’s take a small detour – maybe you can share a bit about yourself before we dive back into some of the other questions we had for you?
I’m an independent hairstylist in St Paul, MN who specializes in naturally inspired, low maintenance color and cutting. My main focus is creating a look that is customized to you, your hair, and your routine.
I focus on dimensional color, grey blending, and blonding that prioritizes natural beauty and longevity. My goal for haircutting is to work with your natural texture to create a look that is able to be air dried or heat styled intuitively. My approach uses dry cutting, both naturally dried and smoothed out, to insure that there are no surprises. The result is timeless hair that lives and lays in a beautiful way every day and color that grows out seamlessly.
There is nothing that makes me feel more accomplished then a client coming in months or weeks later still thrilled with the grow out and excited to collaborate on our next step.
Moving forward, I’m focusing on providing education to other professionals and expanding my current clientele to people who share similar goals for their hair and their lives.
There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?
The ability to set boundaries, professionally and personally. Learning how to say no in a respectful way is huge. I found the most natural way to discover your boundaries is to take time periodically every year to set one or two big picture goals and a few small, easier to accomplish ones. If something comes along that doesn’t align with these, decline it.
This brings me in to the second area I resonate with, community over competition. For instance, when setting boundaries, ideally you can still support the person who asked. For instance, If a client wanted a type of hair color I don’t feel called to, try and connect them to someone who is really excited about that kind of look. This builds your community and builds trust with that client and your peers. It also helps with that “imposter syndrome” mentality when you foster community because it allows you to really immerse yourself in what inspires you and allows things that don’t align with you to find better homes with people or places that need it.
Lastly, is financial literacy. Being a business owner forces you to plan for all the things that your employer would of done for you. Taxes, retirement savings, insurance, PTO, emergency savings, costs of doing business, etc. As a creative person, these things don’t come easy for me and there isn’t a finance course in beauty school. My approach is to automate and outsource. I have a wonderful financial advisor and accountant who handles the big stuff and I automate probably 45% of every transaction to pull in to various accounts to save for my version of PTO, taxes, emergency funds, and insurance. If there’s any left over in these accounts at the end of the year, it goes to my vacation or retirement fund. This may seem so obvious but for many artists, creatives, and service industry folks it’s the biggest road block.
How would you describe your ideal client?
Behind the chair, my ideal client is anyone who is looking to embrace a more low maintenance approach and enjoy wearable, timeless hair. I love collaborating to create a look that fits you and works with your life.
My education for other stylists is focused on modular techniques that can be layered, stacked, or used on their own to create any look. My primary focus is natural, lived in hair, but these techniques are all foundational with building blocks to adapt for any need.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.merakimpls.com/maya
- Instagram: @mayawinanhair
