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R.E.S.P.E.C.T By Collette Saunders
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R.E.S.P.E.C.T
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with Collette Saunders
The other night I sat for over a full hour listening to a live interview with a woman who has given decades of her life to the creation of media and events. Rarely do I ever have my interest held for the full length of an instagram live, as I’m sure many of us can agree, social media tends to be short grabs of our attention span. By the way this was not the topic I was planning to write on for this Issue! However, I was impacted by it enough to have it start a rabbit trail of thoughts, so here we go!
How many of our readers here know who the people are behind the scenes? People who are behind the publications and hair industry events that are brought together for your enjoyment and participation. These things take an army to produce to be sure! Ranks, artillery, codes and practices, collaborations, days, months and even years. Behind the building of the things we get to enjoy has come the direction of people who have lived through decades of learning curves, self-discipline, experiences, grit, soaring highs and devastating lows, to bring to the table a desire to impart. Why?! Because they love it, their passion has never left them, they had a plan, they’ve lived it and that deserves Respect. Experience demands Respect! Rites of passage are hard earned, and even more so if you are a woman. Ah yes can you hear it in your head… Aretha Franklin. And yep, here I go again waving the Flag for the Females. I honestly respect women came through those decades where men fully dominated industry. If you think there is an imbalance now, then kindly consider the 70’s and 80’s where women climbed the learning curve. Given the opportunity to be a man or a woman which would you be? In 2021 we are more empowered, better educated and given more choice.
There is something soulfully satisfying about gleaning from others who have been there and done that. I just love hearing about lived experience. It’s where we can dig into our own selves and find that when we think we are on the complete antipode of another’s life we may actually be almost walking their footprints in the sand or can aspire to. We are all the same in the fact that we bend to pressure. We run so far until we come to a place where we have to deal with pressure, and if you have no scars on your face have you really dealt with pressure (thanks Billy Joel). But as we all know pressure creates diamonds.
Our lives and minds are, in a sense, like a magazine. Pages that we flip back and forward to. What we have done to get to where we are and a plan for where we want to be. Keep the volumes stored until we open them again and smell the print aroma that takes us back to where we were.
Support goes a long way! We can only do so much on our own. The new word on the block lately is “collaboration”. The future is the “bringing together”! The future is standing alongside others in our industry to make it the best we possibly can. I think by now we have the sense of the all-encompassing. Accolades are awesome, but even more so when they are shared and celebrated collaboratively.
Experienced experts know the trends and the directions. The maps in their brains have been plotted with tracks, trails, roads and highways to outcomes that are guaranteed. Though if that certainty is not reached, they have the resilience to snap back to what has been taught them along the way and recalibrate. They have a toughened exterior that weathers them through. They have become a version of themselves that was never attainable at the early onset.
So many things we can do to propel ourselves forward to the ultimate and best versions of ourselves… Events, courses education, bootcamps, brainstorming, podcasts in the car, yoga, 5am starts, cold showers, be vegan, be paleo! I’ll continue to do some of these things, and there is a bombardment of information and activity we can take on. However much of my best gained knowledge has been through sitting quietly, the stilling of my mind…. and all I had to do was just … listen. Listen to that person’s experience, acknowledge what they bring, and further empower them by giving them our respect.
