HJ VOICENOTES

In a bid to redefine what success meant to her, Siobhan Jones took a step back and restructured her work/life balance

"IT'S GREAT TO LOOK AT OTHER PEOPLE FOR INSPIRATION BUT AS AN INDUSTRY, IT'S EASY TO GET INTO THE HABIT OF COMPARING OURSELVES TO OUR PEERS, AND THAT REALLY ISN’T GOOD."

It’s hard to define success, as it keeps changing for me. Right now, it’s making sure I challenge myself and keep in line with my own values, not comparing myself with anyone else. Whether that is making more money in the salon or taking time out, I look at what I am doing and how I can reach that goal. It's great to look at other people for inspiration but it's easy to get into the habit of comparing ourselves to our peers, and that really isn’t good. The most important thing is to keep true to yourself.

There’s so much noise on social media and it can be dangerous as we think other people are doing more than we are. It’s not true that we should all be working 12-hour days, and we need to discipline ourselves to create our own goals and grow at our own speed.

It was ingrained in me as an apprentice that if I didn’t have clients all day, I wasn’t busy. But things need to change - and they are - but we still have a way to go.

When I had my first son I carried on being as busy as I could. There was no one visible for me to look up to – all I saw was hairdressers working. I felt I should also be working harder but eventually I burnt myself out. I wasn’t good enough at home or at work, so I decided to step back. I thought to be successful was to be busy, but it’s not true. I love spending time with my family, singing and doing yoga and realised I had to take time out, so I started putting time in my diary. I put my phone away and lived in the present. Now, if I am away with work or with clients, they get 100% of me, and the same when I take time out with my friends or family.

I would recommend a book called Goodbye 2022, Hello 2023 which is a guided journal to write down your goals. I also got myself a work phone, so I didn’t have to see messages coming through from clients at 10pm and feel I had to respond. I also downloaded a blocker app, which means you can stop notifications coming through on your phone. It really helped me set clear timelines of when I was working and when I wasn’t. And clients didn’t mind if I didn’t message back immediately!

When you’re starting out it’s important to be there and take on any opportunity that is thrown at you, but we are human and there are times when you are feeling flat and that’s OK.

Because of social media we only see people working hard, but it’s important to realise that they do have a break, they just don’t talk about it. We need to show that it’s important to step away sometimes and enjoy all aspects of our life.