Issue link: https://www.ahpindiestylist.com/i/1380995
each time—although they were never enjoyable. But it was like, 'OK. Let's just enjoy this time, and we'll be back to work.' So when we were able to open up, we were ready to get back to business." Goal setting was a struggle for Leal during COVID. "Typically, I'd ask, where do we see ourselves in two years, three years, and five years out? Not having that [structure] was weird for me." Instead of long-term goals, Leal began creating what she calls "micro" goals during COVID. "I had to make the shift to envisioning where I saw myself in three months, six months, nine months, and toward the end of this year," she says. "I think my biggest goal last year was client confidence in the salon. But I was happy with that." Along with goal setting, Leal reassesses her business annually—even through COVID. "The two stylists I work with and I are looking to possibly open our own salon," she says. "It seems crazy, I know, but we looked at what we just went through last year, and decided we're ready. "We've been looking at locations; not because we don't love where we are. We just feel we're running our own business already. And we want to add two more stylists, but we don't have the space. "It's hard to manage a salon by yourself— financially, emotionally, and mentally. We've all worked together for over 10 years, and now we want to manage our own business." POST-COVID PRUNING Pre-COVID, Leal says it was just "go, go, go. I need to do this. I need to do that." Now, she says, self-care has never been more important. "I think I really fooled myself into thinking I had a work-life balance," she says, "and I really didn't." Before COVID, a typical day for Leal was vastly different. "A typical day would have been, 'I need eight clients in a day,'" says Leal. "I definitely wouldn't be making myself dinner, and I would probably have a glass of wine when I got home, and then I would go to bed so I could get up the next day and do it all over again. There was no slowing down. "Today, I can have two clients in a day, make my dinner, and listen to a podcast on the way home," Leal says. "That was never the case before N ot a m e m b e r ? J o i n at a s so c iate d h a i rp rofe s sio n a ls .c o m 27 Hair: Anthony Holguin @anthonyholguin Makeup: Denise Madrigal @glamwithdenise