2026 Is the Year Motivation Stops Being Your Leadership Strategy

In this New Year’s Day episode, Cyd sits down with Cheri Oteri for a wildly honest, hilarious, and unexpectedly deep conversation about grief, burnout, leadership, and the absolute massacre of language in modern marketing.

They kick things off by questioning why humans invented New Year’s celebrations in the first place, spiral into sickness updates and hospital scares, and then land squarely on the real theme of the episode: we’ve officially ruined some words beyond repair. Think “era,” “toxic,” “narcissist,” and other once-meaningful terms that now mean… absolutely nothing.

From there, the conversation sharpens. They unpack why you cannot motivate your team, why forcing staff to do social media is unhinged, and why salon owners need to stop asking “How do I get them to…” and start asking “Is my business even worth documenting?”

This episode dives into:

• Why behavior doesn’t change unless the environment does

• Why boring salons create silent teams

• Why posting hair is dead (sorry)

• Why leadership-by-example is annoying but necessary

• Why imperfect, human content is about to matter more than ever in an AI-saturated internet

It’s funny, spicy, blunt, and grounded in real coaching experience. No platitudes. No buzzwords. Just the uncomfortable truth: you can’t spark something if there’s nothing to light.

If you’re a salon owner, leader, or coach heading into 2026 feeling stuck, this episode will either piss you off a little or make everything click. Possibly both.