Why I Stopped Hiring for Talent Alone in My Beauty Business

Years ago, I hired someone because they were talented. That's it. That was the whole interview process happening in my head at the time: talented, available, done.

It didn't work.

Not because they were bad at the job — they weren't. Their work was genuinely good. It didn't work because we wanted different things from the same room. I was building for longevity. I wanted someone who'd still be there in three years, who cared about the reputation we were building suite by suite, client by client. They were looking for a stepping stone, which isn't a character flaw, it's just a different season of life. Neither of us was wrong. We just weren't building the same thing.

I've made a version of this mistake more than once, and it always starts the same way: someone walks in with a strong portfolio, a confident handshake, real skill, and I skip the part where I actually ask what they want their career to look like in five years. Skill is loud. It's easy to see, easy to be impressed by, easy to hire on the spot. Alignment is quiet. You have to actually ask for it.

What I look for now

These days, before I bring anyone into a suite, a class, or a project, I'm asking a different set of questions than I used to:

• Do they want to build something, or are they looking for a paycheck while they figure out what's next? (Both are valid. I just need to know which one I'm hiring.)
• How do they talk about clients who were difficult, past employers who didn't work out, or mistakes they've made? Bitterness is data.
• What do they want their business or career to look like in five years, and does anything about what I'm building actually get them closer to that?
• Do they ask me questions back? The people who are actually invested ask about the suite culture, the clients, the expectations — not just the pay.

None of these questions show up on a resume. You have to sit across from someone and actually talk to them, which takes longer than glancing at a portfolio, but it's the only way I've found to catch a mismatch before it costs both of us months.

The part nobody tells you about hiring in this industry

Beauty is a relationship business before it's anything else. Your team isn't just executing services, they're representing your name to every client who sits in their chair. A talented person who isn't aligned with what you're building doesn't just underperform, they can quietly undercut the thing you've spent years creating. Not out of malice. Just out of being somewhere they don't actually want to be.

I used to think turning someone away who was clearly skilled meant I was being difficult, or precious, or too particular. Now I think the opposite. Protecting who's in the room with you is one of the most serious decisions you make as a founder, and it's a decision that compounds. Every hire either reinforces what you're building or slowly erodes it. There's rarely an in-between.

What I'd tell someone starting out

If you're renting your first suite, teaching your first class, or building your first team, don't skip the conversation that feels slower than it needs to be. Ask about the five-year plan. Ask why they left the last place. Ask what they actually want, not what they think you want to hear. It will feel like it's taking longer than it should, right up until it saves you from a hire that costs you a year.

Skill gets someone in the door. Alignment is what keeps them in the room.

Can anyone else relate to hiring for talent and forgetting to hire for fit? I'd love to hear how you screen for it now, especially if you've been burned by skipping that conversation like I did.

This post is part of an ongoing series on the lessons that came from actually running a beauty business — not theory, just what worked and what didn't.