Vanessa A. Blubaugh

I would say that some of the beginning people that molded the career move that I made was the first distributor that I worked for, Cheryl and Jim Majeras. They owned a distributorship and a salon in Montana. She was tough, and tough in the best possible way. I feel like I really learned the foundation of how the industry works from both the salon side and the distributor side, because they owned both. So I was able to go from the salon side to the distributor side and learn everything before I moved to Colorado. When I moved to Colorado, I worked for a family-owned company called Peels Salon Services, and I worked for them for 17 years. That company, from management to ownership to the receptionist, it didn't matter what position you were in, it was run so well in such a positive way that you just felt like you learned every part of the business. I loved that company. I feel like they really gave you the foundation. They had such a good reputation in the industry that I felt that we all lived up to it. So I'm still close to a lot of the people that work there, including owners and managers and my coworkers. It was just a company that I don't think I strive to find to this day, it was that good. They really gave me my foundation.

I think probably the best is to talk less and listen more. In sales, you really have to understand that a no doesn't mean no. There's other factors behind those two letters, so really just being interested, being curious, and really digging in to the needs of who you're talking to. Everyone's different, so I think really just listening is key in any position where you're in sales. And also, I've been saying this a lot lately, you've got to be comfortable being uncomfortable. I went into the hair industry because what I was feeling with the nature of where the industry's growing and the change we've had, I feel like I was better suited to give them a service that they could actually make real money behind the chair. Because, you know, Amazon, so many lines have come up that you can do online sales, so I'm really trying to give them a different avenue that I believe that they can make more money doing.

Definitely give it time. You have to work it. If it's a stylist I'm talking to that just got out of beauty school and is going into her first salon, you really have to work at building your clientele, and you have to give it the time it needs to do that. And I think a lot of people give up too soon, right before they're ready, they give up. And so you have to do the work. That same advice I would give to a new salesperson - stay in your market for at least one full year before you decide to give up, because all the work you do that you think isn't making a difference makes a huge difference. By year one, if you don't give up, now those salons who ignored you for the last 12 months are starting to say hello. By year two, they're asking you what you have. By year three, they're your customers, and now you're really building. So at least one year, but the truth is, it's three years - you will have a real viable business in whatever side you go into. But you've got to give it the time that it needs and the dedication that it takes and the consistency. You have to do that because it doesn't come for free. Nothing is going to change - you have to do the work. And I think everyone now, it seems like they want to take shortcuts to get to that. Even if it's an influencer, even if it's a stylist that wants to become an influencer, they still had to do how many posts and start out with zero followers before they could get to be trending. You have to do the work. And what people don't see is they see the success, but they never saw the work that went in to get to that success. And I think that's what we're missing in people starting out in any industry.

The biggest challenge in the industry I'm in, which would be outside sales, is really the cold calling and the repetitiveness of cold calling. That goes back to you have to be comfortable being uncomfortable. You're walking into their space, and you have to get comfortable with yourself in their environment pretty quickly and be able to capture their attention pretty fast. The longevity toughness has been the change in our industry. The change in the beauty industry has exploded, but when you talk about the independent distributors and the independent salons, the industry and the biggest challenge we have now is the online shopping that we didn't have in the past. Now you have everyone selling online, you have Amazon, you have Sephora, you have so many other options, Ulta, that you didn't have before in our industry. So it's my job to help them think on a different level and move with the changes, because the changes are coming. There's nothing we can do to stop them. So my job is to give these stylists and salon owners solutions so they can navigate through the changes that are coming, because they're not going to stop. We have social media and influencers who aren't licensed being followed and listened to more than a professional who's done it their entire career. And social media, even in the way that you attract clients, is different. And so there's so many different avenues that the salons didn't have, and if they're not kind of moving with it, they will get left behind and not understand why their business isn't as successful as it should be. So even though I sell beauty products, my real job is to get them to stay in business, and so the real job comes from the consultation part. It's really consulting them on their business and figuring out how you navigate all of these other things that are coming. As for opportunities, the opportunities are vast in this industry. You can go through the stylist portion of it and be behind the chair, then become a salon owner, or you can go into the education side and become a platform artist. You can also go the route like I did, which is you go through beauty school, but it's the business side of it that you like, and so I went to the distributor side. You can also work for a brand-specific company and be direct in selling those as well, and then you can move within the company and become a sales manager and help a team. So there's so many different ways that you can work within this industry, and if something doesn't fit, you can always change and decide to go in a different direction.

My values, I would say consistency, definitely be a woman of my word. If I say I'm going to do it, I will do it. I'm pretty - follow-up is super important. That's something that's so small, but it makes such a huge difference. Yeah, I would say my commitment, follow-up, consistency, I would say those are what make me - and longevity and loyalty, because I've been with the same companies for so long, other than the last company that I switched 8 months ago to, which I'm growing fast in. And, you know, being able to jump from a newbie to their longest-lasting sales rep, because they just started the professional side of the industry, to going into training new sales reps shows that I know what I'm doing and I can show my work. When I say I'm gonna do it, I'll do it.