The White Space Reset: How Doing Less Brought My Creativity Back

There's this quiet pressure that follows so many of us in the beauty industry. The pressure to always be learning. Always improving. Always taking the next class, listening to the next podcast, watching the next course, staying on top of every trend before it even fully arrives. We tell ourselves it's how we get better — and don't get me wrong, growth matters deeply to me. But somewhere along the way, I realized I had crammed my mind so full that there wasn't any room left for the very thing I was chasing: creativity.

I want to share the moment that changed how I think about all of it.

The challenge that stopped me in my tracks

A while back, I was being coached by my friend Misty Jane. I came to her overwhelmed — trying to be a better stylist, a better business owner, honestly a better human — and drowning in all the input I was consuming to get there.

She gave me a challenge I've never forgotten. She told me to go two full weeks without listening to a single podcast, without watching any courses, without taking in anything business-related at all. Just a completely blank slate.

She wasn't telling me to stop caring about my craft. She was telling me to stop cramming.

Instead, she wanted me to fill that space with things that had nothing to do with hustling or growing my business:

• Read books purely for fun — not a single business title allowed
• Listen to podcasts or audiobooks that make you laugh or feel something
• Watch movies just for the joy of it
• And yes... take a real break from scrolling Instagram and TikTok too

What actually happened when I did it

I'll be honest — at first it felt wrong. Like I was falling behind while everyone else kept sprinting ahead. I kept reaching for my phone out of habit, expecting that little hit of "productivity."

But then something shifted.

My mind got quiet enough to actually think again. Ideas started showing up on their own, without me forcing them. I felt rested in a way I hadn't in a long time. I felt like a real person again instead of a walking to-do list. And funny enough, the time away from learning gave me more usable inspiration than weeks of cramming ever had.

We are more than our jobs

Here's the deeper thing that break reminded me of: we are so much more than hairstylists.

We're moms and wives and girlfriends and sisters and friends. We're whole, complicated, wonderful human beings. Our work behind the chair is something we do — it isn't the entire sum of who we are. And I think when we forget that, when we let our identity collapse into our job title, our creativity is usually the first thing to go. So is our joy.

Stepping back gave me perspective. It reminded me why I fell in love with this industry in the first place, and it reminded me that taking care of the human doing the work is not a luxury — it's the foundation everything else is built on.

The white space reset

I've come to call this practice my white space reset.

And here's the most freeing part: it doesn't have to be two weeks. That challenge from Misty was the deep version, the full reset. But your version can be a single afternoon. A quiet Sunday with a good book. A couple of days where you log off, look up, and give your brain permission to just breathe.

White space isn't empty. White space is where new ideas have room to land.

Why I'm telling you all this

If you've been wondering where I've been — I actually took last week completely off. No email, no posts. On purpose.

I've been working so hard behind the scenes on this business, and I'll be real with you: some weeks it feels like I'm pouring everything I have into it and getting nowhere. That feeling gets heavy. So I gave myself white space, exactly the way Misty taught me.

And every single time I come back from one of these resets, I feel inspired again. I reconnect with my why. I remember how much I want to show up and help as many stylists as I possibly can. The break never pulls me away from this work — it's the thing that makes me able to do it well, and do it from a full cup instead of an empty one.

So consider this your gentle nudge. If you've been running on fumes, give yourself a little white space this week. Read the fun book. Watch the silly movie. Put the phone down. Your clients, your creativity, and your own heart will thank you for it.

If the idea of stepping back and finding clarity speaks to you, my friend Misty Jane is the one who taught me all of this. You can learn more about her coaching here: Misty Jane's coaching.

You're more than enough, exactly as you are. Now go give yourself some space to remember that.

xo Jen