How I Thrive: Savannah Rae Beauty Founder Savannah St. Jean

How I Thrive: Savannah Rae Beauty Founder Savannah St. Jean

How I Thrive takes an inside look at founders, entrepreneurs and leaders and the behind-the-scenes self-care work they do to in order to live balanced, happy lives. Today's edition is with Savannah Rae Beauty founder Savannah St. Jean, who is all about lots of snacks, Netflix, and ridiculously hot baths in the name of winding down.

Name: Savannah St. Jean

Age: 38

City: Santa Rosa Beach, Florida 

Company: Savannah Rae Beauty, a full service salon that not only offers some of the top in-salon talent in the area, but also offers premium on-location services for weddings and special events.

Role: Founder & CEO 

Beyond the role: Mother of 3 (10, 7, and 4), wife to my spouse of 12 years, an oil painting hobbyist, foodie and a Canadian who found home in Florida.

Morning routine:

Because both my industry and my home life are so fast-paced, busy, and filled with people and noise, I try to be the first one awake to take advantage of some rare quiet time. I pour myself a cup of coffee and sit outside on the patio overlooking our little lake if the weather is nice, or I sit in the living room if the weather isn’t agreeing with me to analyze that day's schedule and determine three additional goals for myself.
This is my way of ensuring that I feel accomplished each day but not overwhelm myself. It is then time to get the kids up and ready for school, get them on the bus, and pull myself together for work. Before I leave for work, I’ll scan social media to try and stay up to date with this crazy world of ours and deal with any emails or texts that have come in through the night.

The first thing I do after work:  

I sit. It sounds so simple, but running the salon and working behind the chair often leaves me standing, walking or running all day. Once I’ve exhaled and let my body know we’re done, I check the next day’s schedule so I can visualize what’s coming. I call my husband, Scott, and make my way home, usually to dinner he’s prepared for our family (I know, he’s amazing). Throughout the evening, I check and respond to any emails and texts that need my attention.

Dinner ritual: 

Our family has dinner together at the dinner table every night. The only exception to this is if we have nacho night, which we do in front of the TV while we watch a family movie — maybe twice a month. This time with my family is really important to me! It’s the time to connect with each of them, find out about all the little details of their lives, how school and work is going, and disconnect from work! All five of us help clean up after dinner when we are done and the three kids work together to set the table.

Nighttime routine:

After dinner, it’s time to tackle homework and bath time with the kids. We get them settled into their rooms to wind down from the day about half an hour before it’s lights out. Once the kids are out for the night, Scott and I will bring out a boat load of snacks for ourselves and put on our non-kid friendly shows to wind down throughout the evening. We usually get to bed around 10 p.m.

Self-care guilty pleasure:

While my kids are settling in their rooms before bed, I have a soak in a ridiculously hot bath (Is it even a hot bath if your skin isn’t red when you get out?). It helps me relax from the day, and I’ll take this time to mess around on my iPad researching random things I have on my mind, reading a book, or mindlessly scrolling through social media.

Workday self-care hack: 

I’d be lying if I said I had this one figured out. I struggle to self-care while working. But when I am feeling particularly overwhelmed and I need to bring myself back to a good, grounded place; I will try to step outside, even for just five minutes. Just five minutes of fresh air, silence, and time to meditate yourself back to a good place mentally really helps keep you going strong.

 How do you define self-care?

Self-care is what I do to find balance and keep my energy in a positive state. If my soul feels out of balance — anxious, stressed, depressed, sad, angry, overwhelmed, short-tempered — I know I need to focus on finding time for some more self-care.

Favorite childhood toy or hobby:

I was obsessed with Barbies. Looking back, it was no wonder I ended up in the industry I did. I remember as a kid, my younger brother Cody (who was about 5 at the time) built a huge barbie mansion for me with my grandfather. I treasured that thing for a lifetime. It was so special to me. And my grandmother would painstakingly sew me full wardrobes of barbie clothes. How she did such detailed work, I’ll never know!

State of your (email) inbox: 

Currently, I have 68 emails waiting for me. It kills me every time I see that number. I do, however, leave some emails marked as unread so that they don’t accidentally fall through the cracks, but I definitely prefer the number of emails waiting for me to be much lower than that.

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