240: Decision Diaries: How Laura Khesin Took $30K Leaps to Grow Her Business

Andrea Liebross: Welcome to the She Thinks Big podcast. I'm your host, Andrea Liebross, coach, speaker, life balance architect, and strategic thought partner for high-achieving women who want to think differently, lead confidently, and create success on their own terms.

As an entrepreneur myself and the bestselling author of She Thinks Big, here's what I know: You've been at this for a while, but somehow you can still feel stuck in the day-to-day. And running your business like a to-do list does not fulfill the vision.

So around here, we're not about more hustle, we're about smarter strategy, bolder thinking, and leading a business that fits your life. Each week, you'll hear the mindset shifts, real-world tools, and CEO-level conversations that help you reclaim your time, grow with intention, and elevate your leadership. Now, let's dive in.

Hello, my friends, and welcome back to the She Thinks Big podcast. Today's episode is part of a series—although the episodes may not be released one after the other—but in my brain, I am doing a little series on bold decisions and investing in yourself and your business.

We are talking about the decisions and investments that really stretch you and challenge you to really ultimately shape the business and life that you're building.

So joining me today is Laura Khesin, owner and society visionary of Society Beauty Bar—beauty bars, because there's plural. Maybe even by the time this is released, there'll be another one, although it probably will not come to fruition in that sense, but it'll be in the brain at least.

Laura lives in the Boston area, and she really is the epitome of style meeting strategy. Before I pressed record here, I complimented her because I really feel like in the 10 or so months I've known her, she does have a really high tolerance for risk and investing.

Today, we're going to dive into what that really means when you're the one making the call. I mean, including decisions that are tens of thousands of dollars in properties, in coaching, in people. But I think her investments—at least from what I can tell so far—that's really what's helping her grow both as a leader and as a business owner. So welcome, Laura.

Laura Khesin: Thank you so much. Thank you for that intro. That was really exciting and fun. I am looking forward to talking about all of this with you today.

Andrea Liebross: Yeah. Because you love talking about it too.

Laura Khesin: I do. I get really excited talking about taking on risks that will lead to furthering yourself in life.

Andrea Liebross: Yeah. Like she's in on it. She is in on it. All right. So take us back to the beginning, when you first started your business, what did it look like in the beginning? What did you look like in the beginning? Not literally, but figuratively. What were you thinking at that point?

Laura Khesin: So I think part of this discussion actually takes us back even a little bit further because my very beginnings and my very start of taking a really big risk on myself led to my business.

Andrea Liebross: Okay, tell us.

Laura Khesin: It started in 2010 when I was 25, and I bought my first multifamily against what my friends were thinking I should be doing, in an area that was very much up and coming. So I didn't listen to anyone. I listened to myself and my dad, who told me to buy property as soon as I could. I bought my first multifamily. It was awesome.

That led to some other decisions down the road, especially with real estate investing. But if we fast forward to my very first business in 2017, it was started because I refinanced my first property, pulled money out, and had this initial capital to build out my very first salon in 2017, I was 31, I think. I honestly can't remember. But I had two kids. I had two little boys, three and one, basically. I started my first rental salon. So that actually helped me, the real estate that I bought in 2010 helped me financially be able to start a business without a technical loan from the bank.

Andrea Liebross: Love it. So you started that business technically without a loan. Isn't that cool?

Laura Khesin: I think I loved it. Yeah. I was happy about that.

Andrea Liebross: Love it. Then walk us through the evolution. Walk us through what's happened next.

Laura Khesin: So I am always somebody who does something and then is like, "What more can I do once I start getting comfortable?" I get uncomfortable being too comfortable, I think. I don't know if and when that'll ever change. I actually used to think that was a negative thing. I had concerns that I was too much, I was doing too much.

Eventually, at some point in my life, I gave in and was like, "This is just who I am, and I'm going to embrace it."

So the evolution of my business—my first salon was a rental salon, which is different than what I currently own. I own two commission salons currently. I think it was about two to three years in, I started thinking, "What do I want to do? What more do I want to do?"

I opened a second rental studio with a partner, and that was a year old. So now I'm four years in. That was only a year old, the second business was a year old. During an afternoon of what I call my dreaming time, where I'm sitting, sipping a coffee, usually on MLS, my husband's a realtor, so I have his MLS, I don't know, that might be illegal.

Andrea Liebross: No one’s listening that knows both MLS, but okay.

Laura Khesin: So I'm looking at some real estate listings and I see a salon down the street from me that's for sale. So I begin ruminating on what that could look like for me and what ideas were starting to come from it.

So I purchased the business—not the real estate—I just purchased the business and turned it into a commission salon, which is entirely different from the model that I had currently owned.

It was a whole new business for me. It was employees. It was payroll. It was education program. It was building assistants to become stylists. It was truly having the people that were going to be working for me and trusting me with their livelihood.

So it was an entirely different business from my rental model, which essentially is a real estate business. I had the umbrella of the salon, and people rented their space—their chair—from me, and I offered support and mentorship. But really, their business was up to them.

So this was an entirely different business, and it required so much more of me. I needed to become almost like a different person to provide this space for my employees.

So it was December of 2021 that I purchased the business. Then January of 2022, we just hit the ground running and began renovations and whatnot. I opened Society Beauty Bar, which was my first commission-based salon in Arlington.

So to very quickly now speed you up, I dissolved one of the very first rental salons that I had due to immense building issues that I had no control over as a renter. Then I sold my second salon to my partner so I could strictly focus on this business that was requiring so much of my attention and a business that I felt incredibly aligned with because I could support these stylists more. I could grow them more. This business I felt had exponential potential.

Andrea Liebross: So it's interesting that you said you had to become a different person.

Laura Khesin: Yes.

Andrea Liebross: So it's almost like investing in what became Society Beauty Bar, that investment led you to invest in yourself in other ways, because you had to figure new things out. You had to figure new things out.

Laura Khesin: Yes.

Andrea Liebross: And it's almost like you take on a different persona too. So now you're not the woman who has the two rental salons. Now you're the one that has a commission-based salon, which is a whole other ball of wax.

Laura Khesin: Yeah. Yeah.

Andrea Liebross: All right. So you invested in this new space, which eventually we named Society Beauty Bar. And through that process—making that investment—all of a sudden you had this new persona. And you probably, I'm going to guess, realized, "Hmm, I don't know exactly what I'm doing here, but I'm going to figure it out."

Laura Khesin: Very much so.

Andrea Liebross: Right? "I'm going to figure it out." Then you had to invest in other things in order to make that first investment work.

Laura Khesin: Yes. So the biggest switch for me moving into salon owner with employees—and then a two-time salon owner with 18 employees—I had to move into investing in myself in the business that allowed me to not just be the technician in my business.

That allowed me to—the days are gone of me investing in myself as a hairstylist, per se—of taking the technical education.

I needed to invest in myself and my business so that we could grow. I could support my staff beyond technique, and I could support my business in a way that I hadn't before, hadn't had to before.

Andrea Liebross: No, no. So, that's a really good distinction here that I think all business owners—and I see this in my clients—a lot of times, when they come to me, they're at that place where they realize this isn't really about the skill set anymore of the service or product that they're providing. Like, you've done that. Check. You got that under control. Now this is investing in supporting the business.

I always like to say, let's picture our business as a human. Right? So Society Beauty Bar is a human. We need to invest in it to keep it functioning. Like, we’ve got to give it water and food and sunshine and fertilizer. So those were the kinds of investments that you now had to shift into making, and you had to almost become smarter in a different way.

Laura Khesin: Absolutely. Like, I absolutely had to become more business savvy.

Andrea Liebross: Yeah. Yes. Okay. So what do you think the difference is between throwing—this is actually a great segue—more business savvy. So sometimes I see people just throwing money at problems versus investing strategically. Can you think of any—what have been some strategic investments that you’ve made, probably, versus just throwing money at a problem? I don’t know. Speak to that. What comes to mind when you think about that?

Laura Khesin: I think this is so good because I’ve definitely done both. I think the throwing money at things is almost like a knee-jerk reaction to a problem that you're having or a situation that you're in. You're having a knee-jerk reaction, and "I can solve this by quickly doing this." But in reality, you don't want to continue to have the same problem.

So to be more strategic in your business, you have to sit down and think about what your problems are. But for me, I’ve had multiple coaches. For me, having more brain power and being able to have—I'm going to use your words, Andrea, just because I think that they really align with me and my business—is having that board of advisors to help you think more long term.

Because you're going to get thrown problems every day as a business owner. So I want to have the skill set and the ability to think beyond just the problems that I'm being thrown on a daily basis. I want more strategic thinking and I want more long-term thinking. And honestly, I mean now, you know, I could keep going, but I want systems so that I'm not the only one dealing with this on a daily basis. My skill set when I first started my business, it was me doing everything. I was handling everything. I was handling all of the problems.

Andrea Liebross: When you first started your business, you were doing everything, right?

Laura Khesin: Yeah.

Andrea Liebross: Actually, I think at that point—you tell me if I’m wrong—you invested in some coaching or courses, something that was very salon-specific that helped develop some systems that you 100% needed. Right? You 100% needed that.

Laura Khesin: Yes.

Andrea Liebross: So Laura got the systems—I’m going to call it like under control, which we could laugh about because sometimes nothing feels under control—but yeah, under control. Then I think when I met you, you were at a place like, “Okay, check. Things are running. Nothing’s broken.” I always like to say that, nothing’s really going wrong.

But now what we had to invest in is growing your own capacity and ability to think beyond today and the daily operations. We have to start now creating some space for you to be more strategic. Because—I mean, I don’t think it’s any secret—you want to create more salons, and you want to create education programs, and you want to get to that next level.

So I think—let’s share with the audience—the example of the cancel people.

Laura Khesin: Oh yeah.

Andrea Liebross: All right. So here’s an example of what I think probably exemplifies what you’re talking about. In the last, I’m going to say, three or four months, Laura and I have had multiple conversations about how to handle no-shows or cancelers or reschedules.

So people have appointments, and then 10 minutes before, they tell you they can’t come because, I don’t know, it’s raining. So, Laura does have a policy in place as to how that should be handled. However, there are always exceptions, and there are always people that are trying to be like, “Well, I mean, this was my first time.” I’ll remember where I was actually when I was answering some of your questions about this.

Laura’s like, “I’m tired of this. My admin keeps coming to me and saying, ‘Susie is complaining that she doesn’t want to pay the fee that’s associated with being a no-show or a canceler or whatever.’”

We talked through that, and we helped Susie, the admin—or the admin person—come up with some better strategies around it. But recently, what have you done? Share with our listeners.

Laura Khesin: So, yes, during our coaching calls, we were talking about taking larger leaps in our business. Immediately, I was like, “I’m done answering any cancellation policy.” It is a massive drain on my energy, and truly an unnecessary one for me to take on.

It hit me in that phone call: I’m no longer the one to hear about these. My admin now handles them solely.

Andrea Liebross: So Laura took steps. We talked about the policy. We gave the admin some language. But she was still dealing with these things.

Then I challenged her in this coaching call, “What would be—instead of small steps—what if we took a leap?” All of a sudden, your face went, “I am 100% out of all of these discussions.”

Laura Khesin: Yeah.

Andrea Liebross: Right? So there's an example. Now that she’s 100% out of those discussions, it frees her up to think about lots of better and more exciting things. So I think there’s an example, listeners, of you just need a thought partner. You need a board of directors. When you make investments in coaching or other things, that’s what they should be creating for you. Fair?

Laura Khesin: Fair. More than fair. It’s far beyond even the small things. I think having someone to talk to—especially someone like you, Andrea, truly—it gives me power to do what I want to do to help bring to life the business that I want to have and the business that I want to have in the future.

Even to bring it back a little bit as to why I started coaching with you, I had had another salon-based coach, which was great, because I needed to set up these very specific salon systems and have this like very specific salon foundation. It was fantastic.

Andrea Liebross: That was great in that it fit exactly where you were at that time, at that moment.

Laura Khesin: Yep. Exactly. I think as your business evolves, my needs evolved. Again, even the person I was with as a rental salon owner, and then the person I was as a commission salon owner with one, and now I'm going to two, as my business is evolving and my vision is growing larger, I couldn’t do the same things I was doing even as a successful one-location salon.

I can’t be that, the person that got me there can’t be the person that gets me to this next point. And then I can’t be the same person that gets me to the next point.

So I think that that is the investment that’s worth making, is to be able to have people or a program or whatever the case may be to allow you to grow and evolve as your business grows and evolves. Because you can’t be the same person you were when you started or who you were in the middle even.

Andrea Liebross: Right. You can’t be the same person. You’re a different version of you. You’re a different version of you.

So this decision that Laura made—this $30,000 decision to invest in coaching—really was what marked a new chapter for you.

Laura Khesin: Absolutely fair.

Andrea Liebross: So every time you invest, it does move you along through the chapters.

I think sometimes the size of the investment in terms of dollars actually reflects the growth potential. I’ve seen this in my own business. I invest a thousand dollars in something, it helps me solve a problem or moves me a little bit further. It helps me take a next step. But when I invest $30,000 or $40,000 in something, I don’t just take steps, I take leaps. I think it also makes you feel different, right? You feel different?

Laura Khesin: Yeah. I have a major commitment to my business and my business's growth. Even if my vision evolves over my coaching period, I have a commitment to growing and bettering my business. It’s a pretty solid commitment based off of the financial commitment and the time commitment that I’m putting into it. Yeah. It strengthens it.

Andrea Liebross: It strengthens the commitment. I think that's a great way to put it. All right. So if we think about investments, I think there are tangible outcomes, there are things that we could put on paper that are outcomes. Like you’ve seen your revenue grow. Your client base has grown. You just told me how Belmont surpassed Arlington. That was so awesome.

Laura Khesin: Yes.

Andrea Liebross: Okay. That only took, how many months in are we here?

Laura Khesin: Eleven.

Andrea Liebross: Okay. All right. So did you celebrate that?

Laura Khesin: No.

Andrea Liebross: Okay. Explain to the listeners what we should be celebrating.

Laura Khesin: I did tell my husband.

Andrea Liebross: Okay. She told her husband. You told me, but we need to have a real celebration for this.

Laura Khesin: I know. Really. Because it’s how it should be, because Belmont is bigger than the Arlington location. So this is the trajectory that needed to happen. And no, we definitely have had some wins along the way. We’re under a year in, and we’re hitting, our payroll margins are good, and our revenue is growing.

My bigger salon finally surpassed my smaller salon in payroll. Which is like, I paid more in payroll, which sounds, "Why do you want to pay more in payroll?" But I want to, because that means we had more in revenue.

Andrea Liebross: Right. There’s correlation there. So her smaller salon, which was salon number one—

Laura Khesin: The powerhouse salon.

Andrea Liebross: If anyone needs any salon services in Arlington, Massachusetts or in Belmont, go see Laura. But when we started working together, you just said, “I gotta get this Belmont up and going,” right?

Laura Khesin: Yes.

Andrea Liebross: That was every day. Look at this. So there are real tangible outcomes—revenue, client base. You’ve gotten some better systems in place, right?

Laura Khesin: Yes.

Andrea Liebross: Team dynamics. That’s a tangible thing that’s happened. All right.

Then I think there are these intangible outcomes that happen when people make big, significant investments. There are three things that I’ve seen, and I want you to speak to them. I feel like you’ve gotten way more confident in your decision-making.

Laura Khesin: Yes.

Andrea Liebross: Not that you weren’t confident before, that’s not to say that. But tell me what you think.

Laura Khesin: I agree. I think one of the biggest things, especially in regards to the decision-making, is as we grow, I can’t and don’t want to have all the control over the decision-making. I made the decision to allow others to make the decision, and the confidence that I was given to allow others to make the decision has really helped me.

Because when you’re small, you can make all the decisions. And it can drive you crazy, but you can. And you don’t realize how that can hinder you and hinder your business and bottleneck it.

And it might not be perfect. Everyone’s decision might not be perfect. But the mission is accomplished. The decision was made.

Andrea Liebross: I did it in a different way. They might’ve done it in a slightly different way, but mission accomplished. Who cares how we did it, in a sense. Right?

Laura Khesin: Yeah. Exactly. I’ve gotten a lot of confidence from that.

Andrea Liebross: Yeah, I think another intangible outcome that hinges on that is you’re feeling way more—I would call it—grounded in your CEO identity.

Laura Khesin: Yeah.

Andrea Liebross: So we talk a lot about in coaching CEO, like, you’re the CEO. I think sometimes, as a small business owner, we don’t feel that way, because we’re still the ones sweeping the floor too, right?

So when you start to allow other people to make decisions—or sweep the floor—it gives you permission to really step into that CEO identity.

Laura Khesin: Yes. I fully agree.

Andrea Liebross: I think another intangible I’ve seen is I think you’ve been more calm and more like you’re in control, and actually more excited about opportunities.

Laura Khesin: Yes. When we first met, I couldn’t have been excited about opportunities. I was too much in the weeds still, everything. I think I was doing too much of the smaller tasks.

I’ve really been able to get out of some of the smaller stuff this year and build in some systems. Now, as you know, I’m feeling ready to potentially explore some more opportunities. Feeling capable.

Andrea Liebross: Yes. And that’s going to happen. Right. Feeling capable. Not just capable, but you have the capacity to do it.

Laura Khesin: Even last night, I had a little thing. I was reached out to by—this is very specific—but a hair extension company. I have my lead stylist, who is a decision-maker for me in one of my locations.

I screenshotted this to her and I said, “I don’t have the capacity to establish a relationship with this hair extension company, who we may be able to build an extension line with, et cetera. I don’t have the capacity for this, but if you have a desire, I’m happy to go down this road, but I would need you to take it over.”

She said, “Yes, send me all the info.” So that was just one example of making a decision that I’m not fully involved in, but my business can be involved in, especially with my leader who has the skill set to take that over.

Andrea Liebross: Yeah. I love that. So good. So there are both types of ROI—or return on investment—that matter: the tangible and the intangible. I think sometimes the intangible stuff, like trusting that leader to take over that decision, surprises us the most.

Laura Khesin: Yes.

Andrea Liebross: You’re like, “Huh, what did I just—I just handed that off. Amazing.”

All right. So you’ve told me that you need high-level leaders inside your salon. But high-level leaders need high capacity for risk, right? So what else do you think defines next-level leadership for you, actually? What would next-level leadership look like for you?

Laura Khesin: Next-level leadership looks like continuing to delegate.

Andrea Liebross: I would say releasing control to make space. To make more impact. Delegating. Love it.

Laura Khesin: Yes. Delegating. Truly getting organized with goal-setting. That’s a really big one, getting very organized with goal-setting from a yearly, quarterly, monthly, weekly, daily standpoint, all the way down.

Andrea Liebross: That means that’s going to allow Laura to stay more in that visionary seat of her business versus defaulting to daily grind, daily doer tasks, I would say.

Laura Khesin: Yes, exactly.

Andrea Liebross: Then what do you think about increasing your capacity for risk, becoming a higher-level leader? What do you think about the concept of normalizing uncomfortableness, like, normalizing uncomfortable growth? Do you feel like that’s something that you’ve been doing more of?

Laura Khesin: Yes. I think I’ve always had a high tolerance for risk. Don’t know why, but it just is part of who I am. I think that you have to have a tolerance for risk in order to grow and to do something big or bigger.

Laura Khesin: So many thoughts on this.

Andrea Liebross: So if you think about it, like a $3,000 decision gets you maybe a mile down the road, but a $30,000 decision gets you 30 miles down the road. Because you’re taking bigger steps, right? It’s a bigger risk, but you are going further than you would with the small risk. Bigger risks create bigger growth, which is supported by bigger thinking.

Laura Khesin: Yes. I often think about, in regards to taking risks, is I want to be supported in my risk. I have a little bit of a motto that I follow: If it doesn’t affect my health, my family’s health, or the roof over my head, and I’m interested in doing this risk, then if it doesn’t affect those three, there’s a very good chance that I’ll try it and try to do that.

Andrea Liebross: That’s so good. Say that again. Say that again. That is so good.

Laura Khesin: If it doesn’t affect my health, my family’s health, and having a roof over my head, and I’m really interested in doing it, but it does not affect those three, then there’s a high chance that I will do that.

I will try it, but I want to be—this is where I think the coaching and having a board of advisors is very, very key for me. Because I grew, I’ll use the word chaotically in the beginning. I don’t want to grow chaotically in this next chapter. I want to grow with some level of peace, although you do have to have a tolerance for risk.

But I think that is where my investment is lying, in my ability to grow with some level of peace and comfort and support in my very big decisions that I would like to make in the future.

Andrea Liebross: Yeah. If you take big risks and make big investments without support, I think it is going to impact your health.

Laura Khesin: Yes. Your mental for sure. You have one life to live, you have one life. And it’s like, "Why not shoot for the stars? Let’s have some fun."

Andrea Liebross: Yeah. "How can we make this fun?" This is fun.

Laura Khesin: 100%. This is fun. It’s fun. It’s exciting. Worst case scenario, you fail and you’re back to, I’m back to how I am right now.

Andrea Liebross: Right. That’s the worst-case scenario.

Laura Khesin: That’s the worst-case scenario. It’s not bad.

Andrea Liebross: So I’m sure someone’s listening out there, and they are on the edge of making a bold investment in themselves or their business. But staying where they are feels comfy because nothing’s wrong. What would you say to them? They’re waiting for something to fall from the sky to say, “Go for it.” Or they’re waiting to “be ready.” Do you think you were ready for any of this? What would you say to that? “I’m not sure if I should do this now. I’m just not ready.”

Laura Khesin: I think on the other side of you, in the future, your future you is going to always be thankful that you invested in yourself, whether or not your expectations come to fruition from whatever that risk is or that decision is, your future you is always going to thank you for moving forward.

Andrea Liebross: Yep. I think 100%.

Laura Khesin: With yourself. With investing in yourself. Your future you won’t thank you for staying stagnant.

Andrea Liebross: That’s 100% true. Future you will not thank you. But I want to thank you. As we wrap this up, I want to thank you for sharing the honest truth, not just about the wins, but really about the courage. We didn’t even use that word, but I think it’s relevant here, the courage it takes to go all in, especially when the outcome isn’t guaranteed.

Also, notice, Laura took so many things where she went all in, and she didn’t have to stay all in on that particular thing forever. She pivoted. And that was okay. It just gave her the capacity—the time, money, and energy—to go all in on the next thing and take that next giant leap.

I think our brains want to make sure that everything is all great and it’s going to stay that way forever. What if you went in being like, “I know this isn’t going to be forever, but it’s great for now. This is what I need now”?

So thank you for being here. Your story is really, I’m going to say, a gift for anyone navigating something similar. So thank you.

Laura Khesin: Thank you. No, thank you. It’s always a pleasure.

Andrea Liebross: Love it. All right. Where can they go find you?

Laura Khesin: Please find me on Instagram—or you can find me a little bit on TikTok—but it’s @laurak_beauty. Or you can find me and my whole team at Society Beauty Bar.

Andrea Liebross: Even if you don’t live in the Boston area, which I’m sure many of you don’t, you don’t have to live there to go follow her. Because she shares some really good insight on being a business owner and on salon life and hair and all the things, but just being a business owner. And she’s fun to follow. So we’ll put all those links in the show notes.

Thank you, listeners. I hope that if this conversation sparked something for you, it might be time to make your own version of a $30,000 decision. I’d be happy to help you do that. So go follow me. Find me at andreaslinks.com and book a call. That’s what Laura and I did way back, way, way back in 2024.

But having conversations, that’s where your growth starts. So until next time, keep thinking big. I will see you next week.

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