A Road Less Traveled Podcast · Hilary Haron

Redefining Beauty and Business: Bree Gentry | A Road Less Traveled Podcast

·40 min·2 clips

Bree says she felt like she was “walking through a mall and it’s empty” after sharing power.

Bree Gentry is a salon owner in Fresno, technically Clovis. She says she has spent 17 years in the business, but the last six months have pushed her into a new role as a growth development coach for female entrepreneurs while the salon itself changes around her. She calls that a loaded question. The conversation settles into what it feels like to shift identity without pretending the old version of the work still fits, especially when she has also just brought in a partner at the salon. That part is only two weeks old. Bree says the first 13 days have been awesome, even if the hardest part has been the simple, uncomfortable act of sharing power and learning a new flow with someone else. Hilary stays curious. She notes that the first couple of weeks are usually the transition, and Bree agrees that it is hard at first. Bree does not hide the pressure. She says the work has felt like a rebirth and a rebuilding, and she is still in the middle of figuring out what this new chapter means for her personally and professionally. Faith shapes how she explains it. Bree describes a moment in March, during journaling and meditation in Dana Point, when she felt a clear message to make space so that she could receive more, which she understood as being asked to let go of the salon and trust what comes next. Then the phone started ringing. While she was in that quiet place, she got word that state board was in her salon, and the timing felt almost impossible to separate from the bigger shift she was already sensing. She says she had been ruffling feathers in the industry, so the visit did not surprise her completely, even though it still landed in the middle of a very loaded day. The inner nudge was blunt. She remembers hearing what felt like a stern, fatherly voice asking, "Are we done yet," and that moment made the decision to step back feel unmistakable. The ending stays warm. Hilary closes by thanking Bree, complimenting her hair and presence, and returning to the show’s bigger thread of women pushing through barriers in male-dominated industries.

As heard by us

A salon-owner pivot that treats leadership as identity work, not just profit.

Bree Gentry's story tracks a salon owner in Fresno, technically Clovis, as she talks through a big shift after 17 years in the business. She has moved into coaching female entrepreneurs and brought in a partner at the salon, which makes the change feel less like a tidy pivot and…

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You want a candid salon-owner pivot story about a 17-year Clovis salon owner who shifted into coaching and learned what it means to share power.

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