While in Vegas for the weekend celebrating Danielle’s 36th birthday, Garrett & Danielle have a conversation around this topic of toleration & standards and discuss ways in which you, as an artist, can raise your standards. For Big Money Stylist, we go over the following formula each month: Week #1: Power Week #2: Production Week #3: Profit Week #4: Protection In This Week’s Episode…..PROTECTION Point #1: Tolerating Bullshit Toleration is what you accept to be as true. The challenge of being a business owner or hair stylist is that most of us have been taught, trained and educated to tolerate a whole bunch of shit that doesn’t make any sense, things like working 14-hour days, six days a week. Your bank account is a reflection of your skillsets & mindsets as a business owner and as an artist. Consider that you are not setting yourself up to the standard of what your artwork could be because you’re not doing what you really want to do. Instead, you’re settling. QUESTION As you step back and take a look inside your business, what bullshit are you tolerating that you must stop? Point #2: The Artist is the Prize Danielle holds herself to a very high standard as she paves the way for and leads artists. “I have very little tolerance. I’m very professional and, as the expert, I do not allow clients to dictate to me how I do their hair. As a result, clients trust me.” It all comes down to trusting yourself and not feeling awkward and weird about the experience with your client, and not thinking that you have to please them. There’s always this balance between making the client happy and creating conditions in which you, as the artist, win, while delivering your art at the most amazing level. QUESTION How do you see this spilling over into your personal life? Point #3: What Are You Tolerating? Tolerating means there is something going on that you don’t like or necessarily agree with but that you’re not doing anything about and not confronting. Most artists tolerate conditions or people because they don’t want to collide with anyone. Consider that your bank account and your business are a reflection of the level of tolerance that you have for the behavior and the results, both in your salon and for yourself, and that the reason you tolerate so much bullshit is because you hate the idea and the action of collision. QUESTION What are you costing yourself by not doing the things you know you need to do? Point #4: What’s Your Value? You tolerate what your standards are. When you let your standards slide, then what you tolerate slides. This comes back to the value or lack of value that you place on yourself. When you lack value in yourself, you will tolerate high levels of bullshit because the level they tolerate is equal to the standard that they hold. What happens inside of this is, the artists get angry at other artists who have chosen to not tolerate, who have chosen to raise their standards, and who expect & demand more out of their business and out of their life. QUESTION What exactly are your standards? What could you be missing out on by not holding yourself to a higher standard? Point #5: Raise Your Standards If you don’t hold the standard that spending time with your spouse is important while building your salon business, then you may tolerate all kinds of clients whose business takes hours of your time in exchange for pennies. Danielle: I believe we hold ourselves hostage by what we believe is possible for us. The industry standard is that we work 24/7. What about setting your own standard regarding how much and how often you’re going to work? QUESTION What is one thing you could change this week that would raise your standards? Quote of the Week: “In order to change what you’re actually tolerating, you have to raise your standards, which means the first collision that you’re going to have is not with your client, it’s with yourself.” — Garrett J White “We create stories in our mind of what’s possible bas