Walking the Walk [EP:151]

Building 'Hello': Core Values, Client Experience, and Staff Culture

In this episode, Jen and Todd discuss the unique aspects of their salon, 'Hello Hair Co.', and what sets it apart. 

They touch on their initial planning stages, emphasizing the importance of creating a fun and engaging workspace, and detail their core values—integrity, customer service, and staff support. 

They illustrate how these values manifest in their daily operations, from client interactions to staff relations, through personal anecdotes. 

Jen and Todd also highlight the importance of treating clients and staff well, which fosters a collaborative and inclusive environment. 

They conclude with advice for both business owners and prospective employees on aligning with core values and ensuring a good fit.

00:00 Introduction and Weekend Recap
01:05 The Vision Behind Hello
03:26 Creating a Unique Salon Experience
05:52 Client-Centric Approach
09:08 Social Media and Industry Challenges
15:02 Building Hello from Scratch
16:32 A Day at the Spa
16:42 Helping Ashley Feel Amazing
17:50 Core Values at Hello Hair Co.
18:52 The Importance of Integrity
20:17 Challenges in the Salon Industry
20:57 Finding the Right Fit
27:12 Shadowing Opportunities at Hello Hair Co.
29:59 Hiring the Right People
31:43 Conclusion and Final Thoughts

Links and Stuff:
Our (weekly) Email List

Find more of our things:
Instagram
Hello Hair Pro Website

Transcript

Walking the Walk 151
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[00:00:00] 

Todd: All right. What's up, everyone? Welcome back. How's it going, Jen?

Jen: Great.

Todd: Happy Sunday. We finally got a beautiful weekend here in New

Jen: Yeah.

Todd: been,

Jen: Amazing.

Todd: really hot. We did a beach day yesterday, which was a blast because, well, you had gone to the beach, but funny story,

Jen: Oh,

Todd: like 50 degrees and the windiest day ever.

Jen: it was so cold. I needed a winter suit. I was miserable. I never even touched the water. The kids went in, they boogie boarded, but I was not happy.

Todd: was that

Jen: So we needed to redo

Todd: summer, right?

Jen: it. It was end of June.

Todd: All right. So right at the beginning of summer and we got one yesterday and it was fantastic. And

Jen: kids couldn't believe it.

Todd: I grew up on the beach, or about 10 minutes from literally the ocean, so

Jen: That

Todd: I look at it different, and I am not a go sit on the sand while there's 200 million other people there, but we did that, we carved out a little area, took the kids, my dad and his girlfriend met up, it was a good time,

Jen: was great. And we had a tent for the first time in a long time [00:01:00] and that helped.

Todd: Lots of shade and good food and time. So, all right today I thought it would be fun to talk about what separates Hello, and not in the way that we're saying that we're better than anyone or anything like that just pointing out some things that we do that we believe in that we And when I say we do we actually do because I think there are a lot of people out there You'll talk about That in a minute.

So I'll leave that for you. But anyways,

Jen: Okay.

Todd: audience is like, what the hell is he going on about now? I know it was a point you wanted to make, so

Jen: Yeah.

Todd: a

Jen: a big one too.

Todd: I want to start with going back to before we opened hello, when we were in the planning phases and we talked about what was important to us and we came up with basically three things to focus on.

Jen: Yeah.

Todd: We wanted to create a space that was fun for us to work in,

Jen: Correct.

Todd: wanted to be at,

Jen: [00:02:00] Yes.

Todd: wanted to take part in day to day,

Jen: Extremely important.

Todd: yeah, and that's something that we would be proud of, so I think that's important for your owners, for your visionaries, your CEOs, have to want to do it.

Jen: If you're walking into your space, wherever you work and you don't enjoy being in there, no one else does either. So first that's gotta be your focus. And that was really important to me to I'm behind the chair three to four days a week. Plus we're doing all this other stuff, but I need to make sure when I walk in, I'm behind the chair, I treat myself as if I'm staff of hello.

And do I enjoy being here? Do I like what's happening in here? Because if I don't, it starts with me on those days, the energy I bring in. Right. And then there's, I have to ask myself why, what's going on? What's happening? What, what do we need to like tackle to change that?

Todd: Yeah, for me, it was those things that you're saying, like, just so that you can stay engaged. it was also, I was coming from your [00:03:00] business, the, that I had spent a few months at. I just was like, I don't No, if this is going to be for me, but I'm going to roll the dice because I wanted to build something with you

Jen: Right.

Todd: that trumped that. and then my gym before that, I had just reached a point where I was like, I'm not being like satisfied from

Jen: Yeah.

Todd: fully anymore. And I, I really wanted to assemble a team that brings us to the next thing, which is the staff. So. The staff, well, it was important for us to create a place that was different than what most I'll say other salons out there.

Some people are telling me they don't know any salons like ours. I still find that hard to believe, but I'm hearing it from people outside of our doors. And so,

Jen: I say it all the time.

Todd: yeah,

Jen: My awareness is very different. I've been in the industry for so long and I'm very aware of what we have curated at Hello and the special things that happen, under that roof[00:04:00] 

Todd: yeah, we wanted, we wanted to create something that made people just feel part of something that was like a collective. And that

Jen: somewhat like equal to like not a pecking order, like part of a collective, but felt like part of it in so many different ways, but not in a part where. There's a blur between the business ownership and where your staff lies, but they do feel a sense of pride, a sense of protection, of wanting it to stay the way it is.

Very important that they, and they feel listened and heard and all of those things too.

Todd: Do they? Do they feel listened?

Jen: and heard. Yeah, they do.

Todd: They feel heard, maybe understood. I had,

Jen: Yes. Thank you. I have my own language. Yeah. Jerks. Yeah. Yeah. Mm hmm.

Todd: Who said, it's just amazing what happens when you have people that care about you, [00:05:00] like you guys care. And she was talking to me about me and you, and she said, you know, you guys care about the people here and it's clear. so I think when you give people that sort of support where you're like, we've had this, we've had customers come in that were jerks. That try to attack certain staff and I, I just don't stand for it. I'm going to have your back no matter what, we'll figure it out after if you made a mistake. I'm fine with that.

I don't care as long as it's not malicious, you know, we all make mistakes. So our staff, I think knows that. We have their back and we've demonstrated that I've demonstrated that we've removed people from the salon that weren't, we've physically said, you know, you have to leave to clients because don't let, we don't let that.

Yeah. We don't let outside sort of people dictate how we operate. It's just never going to happen. brings me to the third sort of pillar of hello, which is the client. And so we started [00:06:00] with the mission. We want to give the client back part of their day. what does that mean? Cause it sounds kind of like. A little weird if you, if you're like, what, give a back part of their day, look, we're all so busy. We're slammed. We all have, not all, but you know, people have

Jen: Yeah.

Todd: blood businesses, they

Jen: going on.

Todd: partners, they got to get to the grocery store. There's so many things pulling us in so many different directions. So when we went through and identified the characteristics and built out the, you know, avatars for our You know, marketing, we looked at our of ideal or perfect client, our seed

Jen: Right.

Todd: we wrote down, you know, things about them. And one of those things was that best clients and value time. understand time. so we know that they're being pulled in a million [00:07:00] different directions and we want to do something for them that they're going to value in. In this case, we try to take care of every aspect of the service. So we try to remove all the friction points. We try to make it as easy as possible for our client to book an appointment and as easy as possible for them to walk in the

Jen: Mm hmm.

Todd: What we do through our social media by trying to make it light and fun. That's really how it is. If you walk into hello right now, what's today? Sunday. It's a little early, but there might be somebody dancing around literally. And it's just, it's a fun atmosphere that we've, you know, sort of curated with our staff and with ourselves.

And I hope, and what we've been seeing lately, so I don't hope it's happening is that that trickles down to the client where a client can walk through the door. I know for, men and women, it can be intimidating to walk in. You're

Jen: Oh yeah.

Todd: You're very exposed. You're out in the open.

Jen: Mm hmm.

Todd: sitting in a [00:08:00] chair where people can be staring at

Jen: Mm hmm.

Todd: whatever.

And we wanted to make that experience as comfortable as possible. So when we talk about giving the client back part of their day, what I mean. You walk in, you're greeted. It's friendly. We bring you in, we do, you know, a thorough actual consultation. Gain your trust,

Jen: Give you a tour.

Todd: yeah, all the little things that will just make you be able to shut your mind off for a few minutes before you have to get back to your hectic

Jen: Mm hmm.

Todd: or a few hours, depending on the appointment and just And we get a lot of great feedback from clients. I have a lot of first time clients that leave us Google reviews that talk about how welcome they were and how they felt. Actually heard and seen by the stylist, which is I guess rare to me. This

Jen: Yeah, I think in today's world, the client has now become almost the pain in the ass. Like you'll do what I want, not, not what we're supposed to do for them. We're [00:09:00] in the customer service business and I think we see often that that is forgotten.

Todd: Yeah. Social media,

Jen: Mm hmm.

Todd: I have to look tough on social media. I

Jen: Yeah.

Todd: on social media. I have

Jen: And

Todd: a boss babe on social media.

Jen: remind all the time, it's about customer service. Those customers, those clients, whatever you want to call them, they are extremely, they are the importance of your business surviving. So you have to treat them, the ones that are amazing and the ones you want to keep, you have to treat them wonderful.

Fantastic. Fantastic.

Todd: Yeah. That's a good word. Fantastical. Yeah. I don't look at clients as a pain in the ass, even if they're being a pain in the ass. And what I mean by that is somebody might, I, I handle our wedding. So wedding bookings go through me. For the most part, because I do our website and all that stuff. So everything that comes in, I have forms set up.

They fill them out. I contact them. And sometimes people will go back and forth with like [00:10:00] 900 questions. And I'm like, this person's not getting the information I need to, like, what, what can I do to make that better for them? Because I realized that planning a wedding is stressful,

Jen: Not everyone knows the right questions to ask. So if it's their first wedding, they're just trying to navigate it and probably they're a hot mess and they need someone to help them.

Todd: Hopefully it's their first wedding.

Jen: True.

Todd: we actually, we did do, a second wedding, but it was, they did it, it was the same people. They did a small, right, gathering, and then they came back because they had a formal wedding, like, a year or two later.

Jen: I've done first and second weddings. They're fun.

Todd: they I remember getting that email, and it was like, hey, you did my hair for my first wedding. Alright, do you have this date for my next one? And I was like and they were like, it's, it's Us again. It's just, we're having like a formal

Jen: Yeah.

Todd: I was like, Oh, okay, cool. Not that I discriminate, I would still set it up.

Jen: It's all good.

Todd: what was I talking about? Social media or were we past that?

Jen: I think you were wrapping up just the [00:11:00] client experience and the customer service part of, of hello and how important it is.

Todd: Yeah. So yeah, we can, whatever I was saying was probably right. I don't remember

Jen: It's

Todd: I was

Jen: great.

Todd: if you're listening, just rewind 30 seconds or

Jen: Basically making sure that the client doesn't like that. People treat clients as if they're a pain. Right? And we have.

Todd: yeah. Yeah.

Jen: Yeah, we are really we talked to the staff about it. We explain on all different things of certain policies and procedures we have in place. And for us, the why is so important, right?

If you don't understand the why, then you don't know why you're doing it and you're probably not going to do it. So the why for us, we have a young, a fairly young professional staff. So it's really important for us to explain to them because they're very influenced by social media. Of why the clients are not a pain in the ass and of why it reminding them of the customer service product, reminding them of how you, you want to be treated.

That's how you want to treat them. And just explaining that from all different perspectives. And then usually there's that moment and I love it. Where they're like, Oh yeah, that makes so much sense. I didn't think [00:12:00] of it like that because the influence they're getting like I said, is, is out on, on those platforms.

And a lot of that comes back as negative. And they get in their head of like, it's you, you, you, you know, it's all about you tell them, no, do this. And yeah, you can, but this is, this is what is going to happen if you, if you follow that route, and this is what's going to happen if you follow the way that we have, you know, laid out and they're like, Oh geez, that makes sense.

Why don't people talk about that? Well, maybe because that's not fun to talk about right now. But we live the real life and we want you to be super busy and we want you to be super successful. So this is the path that's going to get you there.

Todd: I had written this in my email, I think last week, but people just want to be treated like, well, they

Jen: Yep. That's it.

Todd: walk through the door and feel welcome.

Jen: Mm hmm. Mm

Todd: everything has to be perfect. They more so want to, you know, if someone's having a down day, they want to feel like picked up or they want to feel like they have a place they can go to where maybe they're not judged and maybe they can be down or, you know, You know, they just feel included in maybe something that's larger than themselves.

And that might [00:13:00] not be obvious because this industry is funny to me. I've only been in it for like five years. Before this, I had my gym and then before that I worked in restaurants, which I loved and I referenced a lot, but it's all about the guest

Jen: hmm.

Todd: or whatever you want to call them when it comes to restaurants.

And that's always stuck with me. You have to take care of people because. That's the whole That's the whole game and with social media. It is it's it's it's a disservice to the industry because there are a lot of people that are trying to drive like a separator where it's like, I'm an artist and people are coming to see me from my artwork like all these things that make it about me, me,

Jen: Me. Yeah.

Todd: You know what I mean? It sounds like you're

Jen: Be creative. But I mean, at the end of the day, yeah.

Todd: You are trying to make it about yourself, but here's the thing. You can have everything you want. If you get other people, what they want, you [00:14:00] help other people get what they want. You can have everything you want. And. I don't think that that devalues anybody. I don't think that that takes away from anyone's art. just don't. There's restaurants I've worked in where the chefs were absolute artists, guess what they did. They would put that food in the window and then they would come on the other side to

Jen: And make it about the customer.

Todd: it about the customer being happy because at the end of the day, that's the cycle. You

Jen: Yeah. So, oh, God.

Todd: I was just going to say, I think it's very off putting that a good portion of the industry and what we see on social media is like, you know, the, the term boundaries makes me nauseous, but you know, people want to have boundaries, that's great have boundaries, but you don't have to post about how these passive aggressive

Jen: Yeah. Those are yours.

Todd: doing

Jen: protect them. No one has to know.

Todd: is, or books full or whatever, like you're books full.

That's another thing. Don't do that. But anyways, we can do a whole other topic on that. Maybe we'll talk about it next week.

Jen: Okay. So,[00:15:00] 

Todd: go ahead and talk about some stuff you want to

Jen: well, I have,

Todd: people a little insight about how we built hello. Cause that's really how it started. We started with napkins and I'm not joking at coffee shops

Jen: Yes.

Todd: many sessions.

And we sat down with other people and designers and whatever. And we just laid all that stuff out.

Jen: So I just want to, with that, I have a story that just happened and it made me so proud and it talks about sort of, if you are really treating your customers amazing, like what will happen. So on Thursday I have a client, I do her and I do her daughters and she, I went in early for her. So everyone has boundaries.

I sometimes go in at eight, eight 30 and I do hair and I love doing hair. So it's great for me. Plus the salon is slow. So I get some time just with my clients, but anyway,

Todd: boundaries and someone else's boundaries can be

Jen: very different. Yeah. Yeah.

Todd: people are arguing, like, don't let clients do this. And I'm like, but what if that fulfills you to

Jen: Yeah, it was my cup. Totally love it.

Todd: Yeah. So go ahead.

Jen: So she comes in and they had had, you know, a lot of traveling, whatever. And she was just like, today is our, I was like, You know, what's up for today? Today, the girls and [00:16:00] I at self care day, we're doing this. We're doing that. I'm getting my hair done. We're going to get facials.

Amazing. So I'm finishing up her hair at the end of her appointment. You know, she filmed me for a little bit and her daughter texted her and she was just like, Oh, I can use names. It's fine. She's like, Ashley's having a meltdown. She's supposed to get this facial. They canceled on her. Now, mind you, When she called to be like, I have this appointment today.

They forgot to put Ashley on hold. So she hears them talking shit about her. Like this girl thinks she has an appointment. She doesn't. It's next week. And Ashley goes, I'm right here. And they're like, Oh, shoot. Anyway, I digress. So she doesn't have a facial that day. And this was.

Todd: is this, like a spa or

Jen: Yeah. Spa, a spa. Yep. So

Todd: That's a

Jen: the mom.

Todd: of their money for

Jen: Yeah. So the mom is like, Ashley's freaking out, whatever. And I said, when you leave, I have 15 minutes. I was going to, I'm going to grab a snack. I will reach out to Ashley. I will figure something out. She's like, Jen, even if you could just come in and sit with her for a few minutes, she just like needs to be cheered up.

Like we had this day plan. Like this is awful. So I'm like, yeah, cool. Whatever. So I reach out to Ashley. I'm like, I [00:17:00] have a little bit of time. Like, what do, what do you need today? And she's like, I don't even know. I just need something. Another Ava, my, my first apprentice at hello. I was like, Hey, we're going to help Ashley's out today.

This is what I'm going to do. This is what you're going to do. She just needs to feel amazing. Come in, whatever. Literally the minute Ashley comes in, I shampoo and to what you said, everyone's like, Hey, Ashley, how are you? What are you doing? I shampoo her. And she's like, this is where I needed to be today.

I already feel awesome. Like, Holy moly. I now I've barely done anything. So I'm like, we're going to do this, that, and then Ava's going to finish you up. You're going to leave feeling great. She gave me a hug when she left. Like, she was just like, I. So needed just to be at hello today with your staff. And that is what to me doing hair is all about.

Like she left way better than when she came in and she didn't know what she needed, but she knew she needed to be in under our roof with the people around us that would make her feel amazing. So. This transfers into really what I want to speak about, which is one of the core values that we laid out when we were building hello.

And it was something that I'd never had at my last salon which was [00:18:00] integrity. And I say that because I think there are a lot of, I'll say salons, cause that's the industry I'm in, but businesses in general that lay out kind of, this is what we offer. This is what we do. This is how we act. We talked about this in the last podcast too.

And yet, None of those things do they actually do, or if they do, they do it at a very small percent. They don't do it all the time. They can't live up to all the things that they're offering. Now, I think on the surface, it's what they wish they were as a salon. It's what they want to be. It's where they want to be all of their offerings, but for whatever reason, they can't.

They haven't put the systems in place and they can't actually do those things. So what happens is you come in, you have an interview and they're like, we offer educations one I hear all the time. We offer this, this, this, this, this. And you're like, Oh my God, it sounds so amazing. And then you get in that, that atmosphere, Oh God.

Todd: shifted from the client, Ashley. I was trying to

Jen: Yeah, sorry. That just set me up for integrity. One of the things that we, like you said, we laid out was that we are here. We're a customer service business. Ashley is my [00:19:00] point of we're doing the customer service business. There are a lot of people that probably say they are great at customer service, but they are not, but they want to be, but they don't know how.

So that's where for me,

Todd: call us. We've had a lot of practice. We

Jen: Yeah, the, the biggest thing for hello is this integrity factor because it, it keeps us honest. Right? So we just had, we hired somebody beginning of the year. 

Todd: Treated the same way when we

Jen: we all get treated the same. And so we started,

Todd: offering, even our staff,

Jen: yes,

Todd: same. All of our commissions are the same. There's nothing hidden.

Jen: no, because it's,

Todd: the same.

Jen: it's fair. It's equal. So she had come on and then whatever it was, it was a big part of what she wanted out of hello. We started working on it. She's like, Oh, we're really going to do this. And I was like yeah, you're at Hello Hair Co. We actually do the stuff we say we're going to do.

And I joke, but I, I know that we are rare. I know that it's very easy to go interview somewhere else and there seems to be all [00:20:00] these amazing opportunities they're offering that maybe you don't feel like you're getting at our salon or a different salon.

Todd: green over

Jen: Yep. And then you get there and none of that stuff is real.

Literally smoke and mirrors. They're just trying to get you through the door. And then unfortunately you end up getting offered something completely different than what was in that interview. So the integrity portion became, I think,

Todd: shame on those businesses because that's rude. And now

Jen: and it's what most you're doing.

Todd: it's so this is starting to come to my attention. I've talked to several people over the last few weeks and people are just being straight up lied to

Jen: Yes. Yes.

Todd: and owner will just lie

Jen: Yes.

Todd: your face, get you in the door and then just take full advantage of

Jen: And I don't know

Todd: wild to me.

Jen: if,

Todd: next thing is, I don't know how those people stay. have to pull the ripcord quickly and be like, I made a mistake, I'm leaving. Because no matter what, you do not deserve to be treated like shit.

Jen: It's interesting you say that because I actually do coach to that when people leave. Hello. And I've had a few people [00:21:00] over the years that like, literally were like, I'm going to go work at this salon. The owner is so rad. They say all this stuff. And I, I've been in this long, long enough. Most people I know who you're working for.

So. Unfortunately, when you come in, you're already,

Todd: that

Jen: yeah, I'm like, not anything you said is real, but I have to be careful if you're coming to me for advice, different, if you're coming to me, I'm leaving, you're leaving. So I always coach you exactly what you said. So, which is the grass isn't always greener.

Here's what I'm going to tell you. You're going to get in there and you'll know right away if they're as rad as they say, or if your opportunity as great as they're offering, and as soon as you realize it's not, there's no shame in leaving that and finding another salon. But what you should learn is you need to now do.

Like better prep in what salon you're picking because most salon owners are going to lie, whether they mean to or not. It's just where it's at. And I, it, it sometimes hurts my heart. Cause I know when they're making a bad choice, I understand it. But to me at that point, and we've talked about this, if you don't see the value we offer, you're not for us anyway, because the people that are under our roof, they'll say to me [00:22:00] every day, all day, every time someone leaves, like this place is so amazing.

Where are they going? What are they thinking? And I'm like, I don't know, like they've been duped. But what the thing is, is that they're, they're allowed, that's their personality. They're allowed to be duped. So they're not for us. We are all about the people that look at hello and are like, this is a gem.

It's a one in a lifetime salon, and I want to be here for as long as you guys are, and I want to learn from you guys as long as you guys will teach us. So those are the people that stay and have an amazing appreciation for what we offer. The other ones, you know, you hope for the best, but there's nothing I can do about salons that are just dirtbags.

Todd: Yeah, and you said hello is a gem. So just quickly put into my mind, it's a gem, but you have to polish the part of it that you're on. So what do I mean by that? I mean, we know who we are. We know. How we operate. We know what we bring to the table. Do you? Do you even know what you're looking for? So, sometimes, I've seen this.

People are duped. You know, I'll keep using that word because you,

Jen: It's a good one.

Todd: It's a good word, but [00:23:00] people are duped into thinking that they're going to make all this money.

Jen: Mm hmm.

Todd: That's a po that's a popular one. Hey, you're going to make all this money. And they give them an example. And then the people get there and they're like, yeah, no, that's not how it worked. I've seen people get duped into going to work for themselves, you know, by someone else that's been doing it for 15 years. them some stuff and then all of a sudden they're like, Oh, if I just do this, I'll have that. But you haven't done any of the groundwork for

Jen: Right.

Todd: 10, 12, 15 years that that person did.

Jen: Right.

Todd: going to be the same for you. if you don't know your core values as a person, how can you go to a company and to align with their core values? So unfortunately, some people are just going to get lost through just like the,

Jen: Mm hmm.

Todd: like we have a lot of people that come through and are looking for jobs.

Some we give interviews, some we, you know, aren't in the position because they're too far off or whatever. There's always [00:24:00] circumstances. And it's one of the things that we always tell people is to figure out what you really want. And then make sure it aligns with us if we're bringing you in. And if somebody else brings you in, that's great to make sure that you align with what they're doing.

And if you ask the owner of a salon what their core values are, their mission, or what they stand for, and they can't answer that in like 10 seconds, I would run.

Jen: Right.

Todd: I would just go find a different place. Because, and a lot of people too, like you, you know, You really need to pay attention because a lot of people can say words and hang words on a wall.

Jen: Mm hmm.

Todd: our core values on our wall. It's a bright yellow wall and we have them framed and they're up there and they're on the way to the

Jen: Daily reminder.

Todd: Therefore they're on the way to the bathroom so the customers can see them. They're on the way to the back room so that the staff sees them. And that was probably the best wall for them in reality.

So I love to think that I planned it that way, but know, they're out in the open. And I think that that [00:25:00] part is easy to do. What's difficult is to live them every day. What's difficult is to, you know, courage is one of our other core values. What's difficult is to have the courage to tell a client that they're not a good fit and

Jen: Mm hmm.

Todd: about the money that the business isn't

Jen: Right.

Todd: It's trusting that the integrity, if we just hold it, if we just keep holding that eventually things will get

Jen: Mm hmm.

Todd: for our staff that have stuck with us. That is what they find. They find success, but they're constantly polishing their part of the gem. They're not just going to show up at Hello and sit around.

Those people just don't last. We've had people that try to do that, and we let them. We let them because, you know, these aren't, like you said earlier, or you alluded to, these aren't bad people or anything. They're just people, and sometimes people can get duped.

Jen: Yes.

Todd: What else about that? I know you had a bunch of

Jen: That was really the main thing. I think it was the word integrity and I, I, I challenge [00:26:00] anyone who's running a business out there like to really look at. What you're offering and if your actions are actually offering that. And if you can't live up to the things that you are offering, then pick one and focus on it, figure out how to like make some consistent changes and have that be the one thing you really offer.

And then maybe in a little bit, when you're able to really consistently know you're doing that all the time now at the next one, rather than trying to like fluff and buff a whole, a whole big offering of things that maybe your business is. Giving somebody but really you can't do most of that. So I think it challenges the, the owners and the leaders out there to really make sure you're walking the walk and talking to talk of the things that you say your business stands for.

And then from a side of, of, of people out there looking for jobs. The way you interview is extremely important. Like you, we say all the time, like go in, get a service at a salon, go in and just hang with the staff, go in and don't get a service. Maybe just [00:27:00] walk around and like feel the energy, the vibe, then go from there.

I wouldn't blindly just do an interview and take a job without doing those things. It's, it's your job to do some work prior.

Todd: One of the things that we offer at, hello. So if you're listening. You're a newer stylist, or even if you're not newer, even if you're someone that's been in the industry is just what we call shadowing and shadowing at our salon. What that means to us is you coming in and just hanging out and getting a taste of the culture. It is not sweeping floors or doing laundry or anything like that. It is meeting clients. It could even be feeling client's hair. I don't, you know, Hey, come over here.

Jen: It's just, it's a vibe, right? Like, does this feel like something where you want to be? And if so, like, let's chat. And if it's not totally cool.

Todd: And there is so much value that comes out of that. We've had people come in and shadow with zero expectation of any sort of a job. something that we offer. If somebody reaches out, Hey, can I come hang out for the day? Yes. Is the answer [00:28:00] when I don't, I'm not sure we'll figure out,

Jen: Yeah.

Todd: a way to make it work.

But what, the reason I'm bringing this up is because recently I've had people reach out and they're probably playing the odds of large numbers. So they're probably reaching out to a million other salons. I'm saying, Hey, we don't have a position at the moment. Okay, but here are some thoughts, and I lay out some thoughts, and I always offer the shadowing. I think the last one that I offered this to, I didn't even hear back. And I was just like, wow, you're missing out on, cause even if you don't work here, you can get a glimpse of what is happening. I guess how a business operates, I would go into every business if I could, maybe not for a whole day, but spend a couple hours watching a business operate and you can learn a ton, even if they're bad. So if somebody is offering, you know, you to come hang out, you're going to see how they treat their clients. They can't really hide that. They can hide it on social media. You can't really hide that in person. You know,

Jen: I [00:29:00] think though,

Todd: they treat their staff too. You're going to see how they, if they have a front desk staff, how they interact with them, you're going to see how they treat their people under them.

You know, if you are going into somewhere as an assistant, do you want to just grab coffees and sweet floors? Do you want to do oil changes for the owners? You know what

Jen: I

Todd: mean? Like we, what that's

Jen: know, I know. You

Todd: around Christmas

Jen: want to be on express every other day.

Todd: Go through traffic,

Jen: Oh, Jesus.

Todd: Like it's people are getting taken advantage of. So anyways, if you're out there listening and you want a shadow, let me know. I'll make it happen for you.

Jen: And I, I feel it's again, what sets us apart. We offer that because young professionals coming out, there's all different types. And those that are truly looking for a career path at a salon, those are the ones that take up the shadow opportunities. The ones that pass it, they're just looking for any salon to work at.

So you're not for us. Like we're not just any salon, right? We, you, we want you to pick us, but we need to pick you back. Yeah. If you're, if you're not willing to do the first steps. Mm mm.

Todd: Sometimes [00:30:00] I'll have people reach out and they're like, Hey, I have, you know, 10 months of school left. And I'm like, okay, what do you like

Jen: I mean, you just started today.

Todd: but I'll have, you know, I'll offer them to shadow and some of them come in some of them, I think they don't want to invest because they're like, well, what am I going to gain out of

Jen: Yeah. A relationship potentially in the future, right? We want, we're looking for a certain mindset is what it comes down to. And that kind of is the first step to, to finding that right person that maybe you even take a little bit of time for.

Todd: yeah, because we've had people that we've waited for. You know, we just hired someone that had a few months of school left and we hired her earlier or we, happened was we brought her in for shadowing

Jen: Yes.

Todd: and you were like, said, how is she, I'll just use her name, Sarah. How is, how was Sarah? Was it fun?

And you were like, she fits. And I was

Jen: Yeah.

Todd: Okay.

Jen: Through the, from the staff, from the culture, I was like, whoa, I didn't even realize sometimes like,

Todd: we weren't hiring.

Jen: yeah, it was like she already worked there. It was perfect.

Todd: She just fit. And so the staff [00:31:00] was coming to me and they were like, she was amazing. And then they just loved the vibe that to

Jen: It was cool.

Todd: nothing at all to do with hair. I didn't even care about the hair.

It was just like, wow, it's all right. Let's bring her in for more of a formal, like not formal, but our interview process is like a

Jen: Yeah,

Todd: just, we get to know somebody on a little bit of a different level and outside of hair. I don't ask any hair questions. Really? You, you ask a few

Jen: I do. I need to for my technical education plan,

Todd: does the technical stuff. But for me, it's like, tell me about yourself. Don't mention hair. I want to just tell me something fun. You know, so much more than just your job and that's how you should be treated as a human being. I think that's good.

Jen: but yeah,

Todd: We got a little kid's birthday party to get to. All right, everyone. Thanks for listening so much. Please reach out. If you're still listening, hit subscribe on something, hit download, hit text us, whatever

Jen: message. If you want to hear something else that we can talk about.

Todd: Yeah. Talk to us. [00:32:00] All right. Bye everyone.