The VIP Suite at IMAGE Studios with Matthew Landis

Molly Butland Survived A Near-Death Injury And Is Flourishing In The Art of Vivid Hair Color

• IMAGE Studios • Season 3 • Episode 18

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Matthew sits down with vivid hair color specialist Molly Butland to discuss the artistry, creativity, and dedication required to produce vibrant hair colors, from high school experiments to becoming a sought-after colorist known for creating bold, personalized styles. 

Matthew and Molly explore the importance of creative freedom and the value of creating a comfortable, welcoming atmosphere for clients. They discuss their experiences working in traditional salons and the challenges and rewards of starting their own businesses. Emphasizing fair pricing and knowing your ideal client, they offer practical advice on building a clientele that resonates with their artistic visions and personal values.

The episode wraps up with a focus on inspiration, self-care, and entrepreneurship with Molly sharing her sources of creative inspiration, from nature to social media, and discusses her future goals, including teaching vivid hair coloring classes and expanding her business. Matthew and Molly discuss the importance of grounding techniques and self-care routines in sustaining their passion for the beauty industry, offering support and encouragement to fellow creatives on their journeys.

Matthew Landis:

Welcome to season three of the VIP Suite at IMAGE Studios—the podcast exclusively designed for independent beauty, health and wellness professionals, brought to you by IMAGE Studios, the luxury leader in the Salon Suite industry. I'm your host, industry expert and certified business coach, Matthew Landis. In each episode, we will bring you insightful interviews with solo entrepreneurs who have forged their own path to success, from stories of triumph to practical tips and strategies for growing your client base and building your brand. This is the place to thrive and take your Salon Suite business to the next level. Joining me today on the VIP Suite is Molly Butlund of Vibrant Vibes at IMAGE Studios in Plymouth, Massachusetts. Welcome to the podcast, Molly.

Molly Butland:

Thank you so much for having me.

Matthew Landis:

Thank you. Now I've been following your Instagram. What is, let everybody know what your Instagram handle is, if you wouldn't mind,

Molly Butland:

it is@vibrantvibes_molly

Matthew Landis:

Vibrant Vibes. I love that. Now you specialize a lot in really vibrant colors, which I absolutely love, because I have to tell you, I am a hairdresser by trade. I started my career back in the mid 90s. I was doing purple and blue and pink hair when that was really not normal. But nowadays it is. It is sort of one of the big things, and you do it so well. Tell me a little bit more about your business and how you came to this sort of specialization.

Molly Butland:

I've always been into vivids in high school, I was dying my hair vibrant colors. That's kind of what started me on my journey for doing hair. I had a lot of people in my life tell me, because around the time I graduated college of college school, about 10 years ago, 11 years ago, around that time, everyone's like, you're not going to be able to do vivid it's not going to be a long term thing. It's going to be a once in a while kind of thing. And I just said, Well, I like it, so I'm going to keep doing it. And I've been able to have this awesome opportunity at image and kind of blow up my vivid a little bit more, and just keep going and keep creating these beautiful art pieces.

Matthew Landis:

they can be quite expensive, I would think so. I'm really interested in your whole process, like, take us through the process of getting somebody to, like a rainbow color, for example.

Molly Butland:

So I have, like, one of my very first vivid clients that I still do her hair today. I just did her hair the other day. She will either tell me she wants a rainbow of like neons or traditional colors, or give me some kind of idea for what she wants in her hair. And a lot of it's like creative freedom. Most people just tell me I really like these colors and I want you to just put them together somehow that makes sense, and that's where a lot of my processes come from. A lot of my creative, vivid processes come from my clients just being so open and ready for about just about anything. I'm very non traditional, but I'm also very upfront. Like, if someone comes in and they want, like, silver with rainbows coming down and all this fun stuff. We'll do the test strand, or we'll start the bleach out process. And if the hair doesn't pull or seem like it's going to get to a point where it can be a certain color, there's a lot of times where I will rework the idea, like this isn't going to work. We have to do it this way instead. And luckily, I am very upfront and honest, and tell them, like, Hey, I know I love your idea. If we can make it work, awesome. If not, we might have to come up with a plan B or C. And I'm very grateful, because all of my clients are great like that, and they will work with me, and they will take my ideas and actually get excited when I start coming up with new ideas that they didn't even think was possible. So I'm just very I'm very lucky to have those people to let me live out this dream of doing vivid

Matthew Landis:

That's fantastic. Now I think a lot of people don't really know how much time and effort actually goes into producing these kinds of colors, because first to your point, you have to bleach the hair out to almost white.

Molly Butland:

Yeah. In most cases, yeah,

Matthew Landis:

Some of the other, some of the darker colors, or the cooler tones, maybe not quite as as white, correct,

Molly Butland:

correct. And a lot of like the red and brighter tones, I will sometimes leave like we almost want it sometimes a little orangey or yellowy, because we can utilize that towards the different tones of colors that they're looking for, and it almost helps accentuate it a little bit more.

Matthew Landis:

That's so great. Now what when people come to you and say, do whatever you want? I always I have to be on. Unless I hated that, because I'm like, You're the fifth person I've seen today. You give me five minutes to sort of, you know, recalibrate and come up with inspiration. So how do you come up with inspiration? And when people say, do whatever you want,

Molly Butland:

I ask about 100 questions. And all of my clients will tell you that I am the most annoying hairstylist, because I will ask every question. I will ask, What colors are off limits? What colors do you hate? What colors are your favorite? I do have a lot of people to like, if we're messaging before they come in or like, don't have an in person consultation, and we just do it online. They will send me pictures of things that they love, and I will tell them, like straight up. That's not going to look exactly like this, but we can work with the colors and see how we can place them the best on your head.

Matthew Landis:

That's so great and so smart. You know, one of the things that I always said is when, when people would tell me do whatever you want, I would always say, Well, tell me what you don't want, because people, people have a much clearer idea of what they don't want.

Molly Butland:

That's one of my favorite things to ask people too and like. Or if, when they come back after that appointment, I'll be like, what did you hate? What that I did last time? What didn't you like? What stuck out to you? Because I learned more from what people don't like opposed to what they do like. Because what what's going to work with your hair when you get home is totally different than what's going to work on the model's hair the picture that you showed me. So that is one of my favorite things asking. I'm like, What do you hate? And they're like, I don't hate anything that you do, and they're always so sweet. And I'm like, No, but let's be honest, because it's your hair, and when you went home, I bet you there was something that annoyed you.

Matthew Landis:

Yeah, it's sort of like going to a restaurant. I don't usually know what I want, but I know I don't want the salmon, right? Don't suggest it. How? What motivated you to go independent and start your own business?

Molly Butland:

So I've done a little salon hopping. I've gone from, like, corporate salons to smaller business salons, and I am a very non traditional person in a lot of aspects. I don't fit well in the mold of the stylists that in the stylist community, there's always, you know, there's always drama, there's always people talking and staring at your work and judging it and all that, and I just didn't do well with how a lot of the people I worked with dealt with that, whether it was just like, you know, talking behind your back, I can't believe she did that. I can't believe she did that. I can't believe she said that to a client. You only can dress a certain way, so like all of the parameters that are in, like those traditional settings, I don't do well in I don't like people telling me what to do or how to dress or how to act. So the having a studio where I could go in, I have the creative freedom to make it my safe space and welcome people in and have it as their safe space, and I can be myself, and they can be their selves, and we don't have to worry about the over people over here listening or staring at what we're doing, we have that nice privacy aspect where we can just let loose and have fun and let the hair processes do their thing without all of the outside coming in. So that's, personally, one of my favorite things about it. It's just having that safe space for me and my clients.

Matthew Landis:

I love that, and that's going to be super important for what you do as well, because they're with you for a long time. Yeah, during during the appointment, I mean.

Molly Butland:

absolutely yes. I have one client in particular. She's usually books me for an entire day. She's usually there eight to 12 hours. She has so much hair. We're always doing vivid and fun stuff. So being stuck in a room with someone that long like you want to be comfortable, you want to have that a certain atmosphere.

Matthew Landis:

Now, how do you charge for that time?

Molly Butland:

So I am personally very fair on my pricing, because in my area, there's a lot of very expensive places, and I've heard a lot of people complaining about prices and being stressed out about prices and having to pay, you know, their their rent, worth their hair, and I get that, and that's just not me. I don't want anyone to stress out about that. So my pricing is pretty, pretty minimum, compared to a lot, um, depending on it, though, like, if it is very intricate, sometimes I do charge hourly, and sometimes I will just walk through the steps. All right. We used three different colors. I needed two separate bowls of it. And just try to I have, like, my base pricing, and then just will add to it. It's definitely a work in progress system that I'm still working on, but it works for me and my clients right now, and I don't. I don't like adding extra stress to people's life. I don't want you to come in and have a heart attack when I tell you the price point, or go home and just cry over the price like I want you to love your hair and feel like you got what you paid for and you're still comfortable and in that Bucha. It. If that makes sense.

Matthew Landis:

It makes sense to me. And I think one of the things for me is that I think that you, as a pro, us as pros, we need to feel comfortable and be happy with what we're charging and what I'm seeing in you is that you are happy with where you are. You're happy with the way that things are going and that that makes me happy. So tell me how you built your clientele.

Molly Butland:

I've done hair like on and off for 11 years, so it's been kind of rocky. The last salon I was in, I was there for about two years, and I did build a pretty big clientele when I was there. So I basically just took them and brought them with me, and then I tried to duplicate them, kind of by just, you know, creating like my ideal client, who my ideal clientele? Where do I want to reach out? Where can I find people that are similar to the ones I already love? I worked in the cannabis industry for a while, and a lot of my clientele comes from that industry. I go to just different dispensaries. I talk to them, I give out business cards. I offer special pricing for people within that industry. I do post a lot on Facebook and social media, like local Facebook groups have gotten me a decent amount of clientele as well/

Matthew Landis:

it's such great insight, because you have really you understand who your client is. You kind of know where they are, and you are part of that community. You have really been proactive in engaging with your ideal customer, which I think is fantastic, and I think that's really a key to success, because what you do is such a specific niche, but really understanding that, and you seem like you have a really good handle on that.

Molly Butland:

Thank you. Thank you. It's, it's like I said, it's been a work in progress, but we're getting there. It gets better and better every week, so that's all we can hope for.

Matthew Landis:

Well, it looks like you're killing it, and you seem really, really happy. And like I said, that makes I love seeing someone who just seems like they're at a really good place. So tell me what you're most proud of.

Molly Butland:

I am most proud of my I guess my journey because I was told I would never make it in vivid I did have a really bad near death injury that I also was told I was never going to do hair again. This was about six years ago. I broke my wrist and my neck, and they were like, You need a new career. They told me I would never do it again. So here I am with my own spot now, and that makes me really proud to, like, kind of prove those people wrong, like I'm doing great in vivid I have my own place. I'm not giving up. I did take a break, a much needed break to heal, but it brought me even to a better mental spot to jump back in and figure out and just do what I want to do and not just be that all around stylist that can do a little bit of everything. It made me kind of hone more in on the vivid and wanting to make what I wanted to do work the best.

Matthew Landis:

that is so inspiring. And I'm, I'm proud of you coming out of that. Like, what would you attribute your success to?

Molly Butland:

Honestly? Like, I probably the people that offered me like brought me back into the industry. The owner of a salon reached out to me. They were looking for someone just as a receptionist. And she was like, I know you have your license. And if you ever wanted to become like an assistant and start moving back up and doing hair again, we could do that too. But she knew about my injury and didn't want to, like, force anything. She actually brought me back into the industry when I still was like, I don't think I'm going to be able to do hair, and she would kind of helped bring that confidence a little bit back to the point where I was like, All right, I can take this and I can run. She was a big inspiration point to get me back into trying again.

Matthew Landis:

you know, I would never wish ill or tragedy on somebody, but some of the most successful people and happiest people that I know are people that have come back from from a traumatic experience like that.

Molly Butland:

Yeah, I think it definitely my, my bounce back from that. I definitely took some time and learned a lot when I couldn't do much, I learned a lot about myself, about how important and how short life is and how important it is to do things that make you happy. I know that sounds so cliche, but like, when you have a mo like experience like that, it really does make you realize a lot and teach you a lot.

Matthew Landis:

Well look, I'm not getting any younger, and I'll tell you, like, time is precious, life is precious. So that makes me so happy that you found your way back, and that you found something that you love, and you're really killing it. What would you say your superpower is?

Molly Butland:

My superpower is probably my patience. To be completely honest, I have been told by everyone, most. Most people my whole life that I have so much patience inside of me, and it's honestly helped me a lot with my hair journey as well, because I will take that time and ask you a million questions and work with you to find the right hairstyle and the best fit for you, Styling wise, or wash and go, whatever it is, I will work as long as I need to with one person at a time to get them there and get them where they want to be, and outside of the hair industry, I mean, I have kids and stuff, so it helps me with just about everything in life. And if I didn't have the patience that I have, I would not be where I am.

Matthew Landis:

That's a great answer. And you you have to have patience if you have kids, and you also to do vivid colors, you have to have an incredible amount of patience, because that is not something that you can rush no and you have to really make it go faster.

Molly Butland:

Unfortunately, not

Matthew Landis:

tell me about your favorite client.

Molly Butland:

I have quite a few, um, I mentioned her earlier. So my this she's been with me the longest. So I mean, she kind of owns that title as one of my favorites. At this point, she will come into the salon or message me a few days before her appointment with little to no idea what she wants to do. Sometimes she'll just throw out some colors, or one time she gave me an episode of Stranger Things to mimic, to put the colors into her hair, and she just really lets me be creative, and she supports the journey, and she knows that she's going to be there for hours on end to make the dream come alive. But she also has so much patience and we have so much fun. She, I've done a lot of things that I've wanted to try on her. She, she'll always be my guinea pig for new techniques. She's always just ready for anything. And that's, that's, she's one of the people that helped me mold my ideal clientele.

Matthew Landis:

That's fantastic to have some Yeah, yeah. And I love people that come with ideas, like I said. I love people that you have this collaborative relationship with and that you enjoy being around, because I think that you can build a clientele full of all kinds of people. And so, you know, if you have a client you don't like get rid of them, because there's plenty, plenty of people out there that you probably would much rather spend time with.

Molly Butland:

And yeah, it took me a long time to learn the importance of getting rid of clients that you just don't see eye to eye with, or don't really vibe with.

Matthew Landis:

I love that you said, don't really vibe with because, you know, I look at my career of almost 30 years, and there were only, like, I always say this, there's less than a handful of people that I hope I never see again, which I've seen 1000s of people. But that doesn't mean I vibed with everybody and that we had a mutual love connection. It just means that it wasn't meant to be, not that they're a bad person. It's not that I'm a bad person, and we just weren't the right fit for each other. So really finding the right fit, and is it the right relationship? Because it is a journey. It is a long term relationship with these people that you you know they're spending time and money with you. So that's important.

Molly Butland:

It really it is. It's very important, and it's not worth the time that they take out of your mental health or anything like that. Just it's better off to break it off nicely, have a nice separation, because there's a hair stylist for everyone. And I know I'm not everyone's cup of tea, and not every client that sits in my chair will be a long term client for me.

Matthew Landis:

Yeah, tell me. How do you ride the bumps on the road to success?

Molly Butland:

My roads are very bumpy, so I'm I am very go with the flow. I don't deal with big changes well, but I can deal with little changes really well and navigate towards whatever is going to be a better decision. I do a lot of planning and planners and notes and notebooks and journaling, and when I do get to the bumpy parts of the road, I do just try to map, almost map it out, all right. This is, this is what happening. I could either respond with a or b, and then what could happen with those responses? Like, what could Am I ready for? The possibility of this happening or this happening, or even something else, completely different happening? So I try to just be ready for any end of the spectrum. I'm completely open minded. I love feedback, whether it's positive or negative, and I am ready to sit down and navigate those bumps. However, however, seems necessary. I'm not very confrontational, so I won't I'm not going to argue with you about. Something. But I will talk about it. I will think about all the options. We can plan it out together if we need to, because that could be it could be anything from, you know, disgruntled clients, customers, hey, or not being exactly how you want it. There's so many different bumps and possibilities that could come into anyone's life, and you just have to be open and ready for it, I feel like is the big, biggest thing you have to know, like, not everything's going to be a smooth road. You're going to have bad days, you're going to have bumpy days, you're going to have things that you were not planning for. And as long as your mind is open and ready to kind of take it on, it'll go a lot smoother than trying to fight, fight it back and push it off and pretend it's not even there and pretend it was so easy to get through. I'm super open with my journey with everyone, and I don't feel it necessary to, you know, Hide, hide the hide the bumps. They're they're there, and they as long as you can move on from it, or grow from it, or learn from it. I think there's always a reason that there, there's bumps that are going to be thrown your way.

Matthew Landis:

I think that's such great advice. And I was going to ask you what advice you would probably offer to your younger self, but that sounds like maybe. . .

Molly Butland:

Yeah, that would probably be it, because it definitely took a lot of learning to get there, to get to that kind of inner mental piece where not everything's going to be perfect. It's not going to work out how you you can't control everything, so you have to just kind of go with the flow more. And if you get a bump, then it happens. You got to learn from it, and don't let it hold you back or scare you.

Matthew Landis:

Who or what inspires you?

Molly Butland:

On the art, artistic level, like I am inspired by a lot of things. Every day, I will look outside and like, the colors in the sky, in the trees are just so beautiful. I want to put that on someone's head. Or I just, I can walk down the street and see a color I really love, and I'll take a picture of it and be like, I want to make, I want to go make this color with hair dye and see how it comes out. So a lot of my a lot of like that kind of inspiration comes from, like nature and just being in new places and doing new things. There's a lot of people that inspire me, like social media wise, I've been following a lot of vivid artists as myself hoping to branch off and have similar stories to them and be able to be, I guess, as successful as them. I mean, it's all measured very differently, but I do have a lot of a lot of social media people that inspire me, that I do I'm constantly following and getting excited when they post and have news and all that.

Matthew Landis:

I love it. And you said you had kids. I do. I have two. Tell me about your kids.

Molly Butland:

They are 10 and five. They are the most amazing little humans ever my I was pregnant with my son in cosmetology school, and he's been my biggest supporter on every journey in my image, studios, studio that I opened. He was my first haircut. He cried with me when I was just getting getting there and getting excited again and then jumping back into it. He's probably one of my biggest cheerleaders. My daughter's five. She is the spiciest but sweetest little human I have ever met. She is hilarious. She is my little sidekick. She's constantly wanting to help me. She wants, she tells me she wants to do hair like me one day, along with the 20 other things that happen throughout the day that she wants to do when she grows up. But she's very driven. She's very excited about life. And they're they keep me busy, but I they're my best, best little buddies.

Matthew Landis:

That's wonderful. So tell me what the future looks like for you. What's next?

Molly Butland:

I share my suite with one of my best friends. I'm hoping that eventually, in the future, maybe her and I can branch off and open a bigger space where we can work together. I eventually want to teach vivid classes. I just need a space to be able to do that. So that's that's my hope. I went to the premier Orlando this year, and that that inspired me a lot, and that made me want to become an like, start going more towards the educator side of things. So I'm hoping that that will be in the near future, I can start offering some whether it's online classes, or start I'm trying to play with social media a little bit and learn more, and start trying to do like little step by steps that way too. But I think, I think that's, that's, that's most of my future right now. That's kind of what we're working on. Well,

Matthew Landis:

I can't wait to see what else you do. You just seem so chill and cool and like somebody that would be so fun to hang out with. So I'd want to know what sort of self care things do you do throughout the day to sort of maintain that chill factor that you have.

Molly Butland:

My self care journey is kind of Rocky. It's, it's, has. Up and ups and downs, but I do like to journal. I like to write down thought, all my thoughts, feelings, anything, just so it's out of my head, because I naturally have a lot of anxiety. So I just need to get it all out on paper. I have my medical cannabis card. I utilize that in my everyday life. I like to meditate and do yoga and just be outside. And, like, I do a lot of grounding so, like, I just walk outside with no shoes on and just, like, focus on the outside and play with my kids, and that brings me a lot of mental stability and helps me get through the day.

Matthew Landis:

That's awesome. Thank you. I think a lot of our listeners could really use some of that inspiration and advice from you, because you definitely have a lot to share, and you have a really great energy about you. And I'm so happy for you. I'm so happy that we got to have this conversation today, and I can't wait to see what you do in the future.

Molly Butland:

Thank you so much. I'm so happy we got to have this conversation, and I got to virtually meet you. Yeah, I'm very grateful for this opportunity. So thank you so much for having me.

Matthew Landis:

Thank you Molly. Thank you so much for joining me on this episode of The VIP Suite. I'm Matthew Landis, and I hope you found the insights and inspiration shared today truly valuable for your journey as a Salon Suite entrepreneur and independent beauty health or wellness professional. Don't forget to follow us on Instagram at @imagestudios360, and if you enjoyed this episode, don't forget to subscribe to the VIP Suite on your favorite podcast platform so you never miss an opportunity to connect with our vibrant community and to discover more incredible stories and strategies. We love hearing from our listeners. If you have any questions, topics, suggestions, or want to share your own success story, feel free to reach out to me at matthew@imagestudios360.com. Remember listener, you are the heartbeat of the beauty, health and wellness industry. Your dedication and passion make the world a better place, one client at a time. We'll be back with more engaging and inspiring conversations in our next episode. Until then, take care. Stay inspired and continue to create your own VIP Suite. For more information about becoming a part of the IMAGE Studios luxury Salon Suite community, visit our website at imagestudios360.com.