The Traveling Hairstylist w/ Leisha Thompson

What happens when a hairstylist gets tired of feeling tied down — and decides to do something about it? Leisha did not just change her schedule. She sold her house, moved into an RV with her husband, two dogs, and a cat, drove to a city where she knew nobody, and started walking into salons with a stack of papers and an idea nobody had ever heard of.

That idea? Traveling Hairstylist — a first-of-its-kind service where stylists can hire a professional to come to their space, care for their clients, and cover 100% of their booth rent while they're on maternity leave, medical leave, or any extended time away. Coast to coast, all 50 states, with a team of five (soon to be seven) and a near-perfect client retention rate.

In this episode, Misty sits down with Leisha, the founder of Traveling Hairstylist, and they go deep on what it actually looks like to start something that does not exist yet — the fear, the first salon door she walked into, the moment it finally clicked, and why she believes the beauty industry is the most creative space to build something that is entirely your own.

In this episode, you will learn:

• How Leisha combined her love of travel with a real gap she saw in the industry — and why those two things colliding changed everything
• What it actually looked like to launch with zero clients, zero connections, and one Instagram post in a city she had never lived in
• The honest breakdown of how Traveling Hairstylist works financially — what stylists keep, what Leisha's team covers, and why it is structured the way it is
• Why suite stylists are especially vulnerable during a leave — and what most salon companies still are not doing to support them
• How Leisha thinks about team building, contracts, and what it means to run a business that is also a love letter to the industry
• What happened when she finally got a "yes" after two weeks of walking into salons and getting told no
• The mindset that kept her going when the idea was still just hers — and why she believes when something really calls to you, it is embedded in you

Connect with Leisha + Traveling Hairstylist:

Instagram: @‌thetraveling.hairstylist

Website: The Traveling Hairstylist

hairstylist podcast, salon owner podcast, hairstylist personal development, beauty industry business podcast, hairstylist leave coverage