Tabatha Coffey: The making of a B.I.T.C.H.

Tabatha Coffey: How to be a B.I.T.C.H.STORY HIGHLIGHTSTabatha Coffey sees the word "bitch" as a badge of honorShe says the word stands for brave, intelligent, tenacious, creative and honestCoffey: Women are givers but they need to stand up for themselves in businessShe doesn't pay a lot of attention to hair of people she encounters unless it's a disasterRELATED TOPICSReality ShowsArts, Entertainment, and MediaBook Reviews (CNN) -- Call the average woman a "bitch" and she'll be offended. But Tabatha Coffey, star of Bravo's "Tabatha's Salon Takeover," is not your average woman. She wears the word as a badge of honor.

Embracing your inner bitch "just means that you're taking power for yourself," she says. "It's very empowering. It means that you're being strong and honest with yourself and those around you, and I think that's a good thing."

Coffey embraced her power after appearing in 2007 on Bravo's "Shear Genius," a reality show that pitted hair stylists against one another. In the show, her take-no-prisoners approach to hair -- and opponents -- gained her notice as the show's hotshot "villain" -- but also won her $10,000 as "fan favorite."

Her forthright manner gained her a new moniker from show fans: Bitch.

"It was such a weird thing for me that people would refer to me that way," Coffey says. She put her own spin on the word, deciding that it simply means someone who is Brave, Intelligent, Tenacious, Creative and Honest.

"I've really always embraced the fact that I'm strong and I'm honest, and I've never had a problem with standing up for myself," she explains.

Women can have a difficult time standing up for themselves in the workplace -- "Women are such givers," Coffey says -- but she says it is essential to success. Women also fear they will be labeled bitches. But once a woman embraces her inner bitch, Coffey says, it shifts power in her favor. She feels a lot more confident and better about herself.

Strong women can't be put off by people who complain they are intimidating. That's on them, she says. "It's just a sign of their insecurities."

There is, however, a difference between standing up for yourself and refusing to do your job.

"If someone asks you to do something that is uncomfortable, is out of (your) boundaries, is not ethical, then, yes, you need to stand up for yourself. If someone's asking you to do your job and you are being lazy and you don't want to go and do your job, then that's a totally different issue."

In "Takeover," Coffey spends one week trying to help a struggling salon straighten up and fly right. The owners of the featured salon ignore her advice at their own peril.

"I get frustrated when we start to butt heads," she says. "But when they're not listening to me, or I feel like they're appeasing me and kind of just 'yessing' me to death and I'm not getting through to them, that's really frustrating and hard for me."

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