The answers are revealed in your childhood
As a child you have BIG dreams, dreams that when you become an adult seem way too far-fetched and unachievable. I think as children we dream like we should be dreaming as adults. It’s as though we lose our sense of creativity once we reach a certain age, and we wonder how we would ever do the things we once thought about. Don’t get me wrong, some people do discover it all over again but there is some that will get caught up in the day-to-day grind of life-I’ve also been here.
As a little girl I loved to create. I loved drawing, painting and anything that allowed me to be a free spirit. This followed me throughout my entire life, even playing out in my schooling. In year 12 I designed not only my formal dress but also the formal tickets for the big night. Funnily enough sitting in design class one day in year 12, we were given the project to design a whole bunch of logos for businesses. To my surprise, when I looked back on it about 5 years ago, I found a logo I had made for a hair salon. No, this is not the logo we used to begin our brand BODE, but it would have been a good story if it was!
Even being in year 12 and not having any idea where my life was headed, my best subjects were always the creative ones. Home Economics and Design. These were my 2 subjects that I ended up getting an A in. At the time I had no idea what I wanted to do, but looking back it seems fairly obvious to me that my career now in hair is something that is very well suited. For those of you reading this and may feel like you are on a journey to discover yourself and who you are, I encourage you to go back and read your school reports from when you were young. I did this last year and it’s only now that I am starting to adopt all of those aspects of myself again that I thought I had lost.
My career now in hair gives me the opportunity to chat and connect-which I also loved doing at school, leading to my reports saying ‘Melissa talks a lot and is disruptive in class at times.’ This I thought was a bit of a laugh. Who would of thought it would be one of my biggest skills needed in the industry I am in today! It also gives me the freedom to create, envision, help and inspire people all around me on a day-to-day basis.
Hairdressing is the second longest commitment I have given to something in my life, besides my basketball career that lasted 25 years. It is something I am deeply passionate about and gives me the opportunity to make women look and feel good, all in one sitting. After many years of being in the industry, I came to realise that in order to reach a large scale of people, and not only the clients in my chair, I had to start making our brand known. It was time to step into the light and out of the darkness of fear and judgment that has held us back for too long.
We always had clarity of direction through our 9 years of being in business. As you grow and your business grows, so do your ideas and your direction. Safe to say, the direction we once wanted to go in at the beginning, is slightly different to where we are headed to date. As you grow up you realize all the really important things and how you want to the picture of your life you painted to end up.
Alicia and I always had these grand plans of wanting multiple salons and to have them running at scale. We realised about 2 months ago that this was no longer our dream. We went through a lot of ups and also some downs, which has placed us where we are today. Sometimes your dreams end up molding themselves into to something you never expected, and you may be put on a different path of greatness.
My purpose has always been to educate, empower and inspire people. In order to do this on a large scale, I had an idea to create something for women so they felt like they had their stylist at home with them, not only for the hours in the chair, but 24/7. You may have heard me referring to this is many of my other blogs, and I can’t wait to share what I have created for you. I can guarantee to you that there is absolutely NOTHING like this out there for you to access, which makes me even more excited to share it with you all! Stay tuned.. You don’t want to miss this. Let's go on a wild hair journey together!
