Broad Spotlight: Rebecca Gordon from Stella & Shay

One of Broad’s bad habits is biting her nails. She’s done everything to stop it and the only thing that works is getting a manicure. If her nails are painted she will leave them alone, no matter how stressed out she is. She had been floating around to different nail salons but was never really completely happy with any of them until she found the most magical salon to ever exist, Stella & Shay Beauty Bar.

Stella & Shay offers a wide array of hair and nail services and word on the street is that they will also be offering a whole bunch of other new services at the new 2.0 Westlake location. It’s important to Broad when she gets her nails done to not only like the staff and salon but to have options. A lot of the places she used to go to would give her a hard time when she asked for a mini manicure or just a polish change. Well Stella & Shay offers over 10 different types of manicures/nail treatments which is exactly what most people like Broad look for. The staff there are incredibly friendly, the salon is the cutest and their fearless leader, Rebecca “Becca” Gordon, is just the most incredible human you’ll ever meet.

Broad had the opportunity early on to get to know Becca and they quickly realized they knew a lot of the same people and enjoyed a lot of the same CLE restaurants and activities (pizza!). Becca always manages to have the hottest nail colors stocked and knows all the latest nail trends. She’s been able to get Broad out of her comfort zone (basically she turned Broad onto fun nail designs and bright colors and even gave her Bowie nails). She also has been active with the blogger community and has even hosted a blogging event at the salon.

We just knew we had to feature Becca on our blog and ask her how she became such a badass #bossbabe and business owner. Plus we wanted her to share her thoughts on her favorite Cleveland spots and more important, her hot takes on pizza. We hope you enjoy learning more about one of our favorite humans!

Have you always wanted to own a salon?
At first, YES! Then I went through this phase of being really content booth renting and doing my own thing. Then I had a change of heart one day and my mind started going crazy with ideas. I think I knew always deep down I wanted it, but I also wanted it to come at the right time and I wanted a good amount of experience under my belt before I took the leap.

How does one become a badass boss babe like yourself?
I think I’m still trying to figure that out? Haha!! It’s a TON of work. I work from the minute I get up typically to the minute I put my phone down before bed. That’s why it’s important to try and get away and also take those two breaks every year that we get to decompress, and not be glued to my phone. I think I’m getting better at stepping away but it’s really hard. Also, I think being a human and having compassion for your employees is HUGEEE. I’ve worked plenty of jobs where people didn’t care one bit about me, and I am the complete opposite. I care about my employees, I want them to have a happy work place and to see and feel growth in their career.

What’s the best advice you have for someone who wants to start their own business?
Get ready to work. Get ready to sacrifice a lot of things. Hire a good manager and treat them well. Make good policies and rules from the get go. Sleep is important. Set realistic goals to begin so your not feeling like you’ve hit failure after failure. Know your going to make mistakes and that it’s ok, . My dad always said “ A mistake is just a stepping stone to success. “ ( so true ). Also I kind of think “ if you dream it you can do it “ isn’t a thing. Because everyone has dreams, but it’s about acting on them and setting a plan in place. What’s going to make you different is that you acted on those plans and went for it. ALSO, be different don’t steal people’s ideas but the minute someone steals your idea, pat yourself on the back because now you know your doing something right.

What’s the one beauty product you can’t live without?
Ohhh another hard one! Right now my go to for hair is the miracle hair treatment by ELEVEN. For skin it’s a unicorn face serum from Sephora. For nails it’s ALWAYS cuticle oil, so important. Also mascara, can’t live without it.

What’s your all time favorite nail polish color?
Ohhh that’s a hard one…. since it’s summer I’ll go with my favorite summer color which is the neon yellow called starburst.

Can the ladies bring their dudes to the salon? What kind of services can they get? (we all know Beard loves his pedis)
Yes! Of course we encourage it! We have the “beer run” pedi which is essentially a pedicure with no polish, same with manicures. We also offer beard trims and haircuts for men as well!

What’s your favorite CLE restaurant when you’re on a budget? When you’re feeling fancy?
Ok.. budget …I hope I can pick more than one… we eat a lot of Winking Lizard ( oops ) it’s just always so good and it’s close to where we live. The Feve in Oberlin is in my top 5 favorite places (build your own tatertots come onnnn).  We also like AJ’s Ubran Grill in Westlake which is right by the new salon. We also eat a lot of PIZZA, Jet’s is my favorite pick up pizza place. I also love Thai food!

Feeling fancy: Strip Steakhouse in Avon has been one of our favorites for a while, we had a really great dinner at Chop house recently, and Luca West.

Describe your perfect pizza (crust, style, ingredients, etc)
Well my favorite pizza is French bread pizza, obviously. Red Baron, because that’s what I grew up on. (Because of my dad, we can leave that story for another interview) But I don’t like cracker crust that’s not pizza to me. I’m coming around to liking neapolitan style.  I like the crust to be crispy on the outside and a little chewy on the inside. I LOVE really good cheese and a lot of it! I’m fine with just pepperoni. Don’t put seafood on my pizza, ew. I’m pretty basic but I know what I like and what I don’t.

What’s your favorite local pizza joint?
For delivery, Jet’s!! To go out for pizza I would say Harlow’s, Humble, and Il Rione.

Favorite CLE Happy Hour?
Luca West in Westlake … they have happy hour all day Sunday and pasta is $7 … you can’t beat that!

What’s your favorite travel destination and why?
Its a hard tie between Vegas and anywhere tropical. Vegas is a complete escape from reality. We love the people watching, the shows, the pools, the hotels and the FOOD. We plan our entire Vegas trips around where to eat and when. The Caribbean is our chill out place. We’ve done a few different all inclusives and have become big fans of traveling that way. Carefree, so easy and extremely relaxing.

Your friend is in Cleveland for one day, what should they do?
Head to the West Side Market for sure! Maybe grab lunch in Ohio City and get ice cream at Mitchell’s! If it’s nice out head to Edgewater! The Metro Parks are so gorgeous and there is so much to do. I think we have an awesome zoo and downtown is so fun. Stopping at a few different places to grab drinks and appetizers always makes for a fun day!

Thanks so much for taking the time to let us interview you, Becca. Please be sure to check out Stella & Shay and if you can’t book an appointment with Becca, the rest of the staff is equally as amazing!