Turning off cellphone lets this Minneapolis businesswoman recharge

Leah Simon-Clarke is a sought-after aesthetician, but she’s raising eyebrows for another reason.

Since 2012, she’s turned off her cellphone for a three-month stretch every year.

Business has hardly suffered. Her Linden Hills-based Extrados Salon recently joined forces with reVamp! Salon in Uptown, and she’s booked out months in advance. She’s been featured on “America’s Next Top Model” with Tyra Banks; Frederic Fekkai of Hollywood books her beauty services for special events.

Although her family and friends worried at first about her decision to disconnect, they’re now supportive — if not quite ready to replicate the ban themselves. “It’s more and more becoming my greatest passion,” she said.

Simon-Clarke, who is in her 30s, studied at the Aveda Institute, then worked in Los Angeles, Hawaii, Miami, Chicago and New York. “But I always come back to Minneapolis,” she said. “Nothing beats the people.”

I caught up with Simon-Clarke (by cell) to ask when, why and how she made the call to do this.

Q: Was the decision to turn off your cellphone planned out? Or did you decide in a moment?

Q: So what was the turning point, or, more accurately, the turning-off point?

A: There was a very clear moment where, oddly enough, I was driving by a house that was my dream house. I was thinking how nice it would be to live right by the lake and have a little moped. I looked at that house and there was a moped in the front yard and I had a moment of jealousy. That tinge of jealousy surprised me. It’s not my nature to feel jealous. So I wondered, “What is that saying to me? What am I not enjoying about my life and how do I correct it?” I decided to take three months and turn my cellphone off to set new boundaries. That was in 2012. I cut it out cold turkey.

Q: But you kept your business landline?

A: Yes. I could use my business phone and my laptop. I would make plans over e-mail. It wouldn’t have been difficult for people to find me.

Q: Was that enough?

Q: Was your family mad at you, or worried about you, for being somewhat less reachable?

A: People who know me well weren’t surprised. They’d say, “Oh, yeah, that is something Leah would do.” With other people, the reaction has been pretty interesting. I recall walking through a store, talking to the owner. She said, “I could never do that. I’m a business owner.” I said, “I’m a business owner, as well.”

The other reaction is from people who say they couldn’t do it because they have children. I’m not a parent, but I will say that I grew up without technology. Many of us grew up without technology. We need to be leaders. Because there are almost limitless options for technology, you have to consciously set up a way for it to be healthy in your kids’ lives. Parents have to be independent thinkers themselves.

Q: What was it like at first? Did you go through withdrawal?

A: I felt an immediate sense of relief and freedom. It was something that felt like … it gave me more peace of mind, an ability to be more present with people I was with at that given time. It was an opportunity to recharge.

A: It lines up well around the New Year, but I do it whenever I feel I need it. I would do it more than annually if I thought I needed it.

Q: But then you have to turn it back on. How does that go?

A: It rerouted how I function with my cell. I decided that when I turned it back on, I would not receive e-mails on it. I have not received e-mails on my phone for four years. I turned off the text option for two years. Now that I use the text option again, I’ve turned off the sound alerts. I’m now talking with my phone company to find out how not to have a smartphone at all, just a phone I can use to make calls.

I don’t believe we should always be accessible. I’ve taught myself to leave my phone at home when I visit friends or take a walk around the lake.

Q: You don’t stop at phones, do you? You’re passionate about getting us to step away from our computers, too.

When Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport accomplished their renovations, I was astounded to see that it is near impossible to sit and have a meal without having technology unavoidably placed directly in front of your face. In some restaurants, you actually order your food on an iPad, reducing human-to-human interactions.

Q: Would you advise people to try this for three months?

A: For some people, a huge step is doing it for an hour. That could be a great start. For others, a day would work, and, for some, a weekend.