The Aspiring Stylist with Tracey Franklin

Welcome to the Aspiring Stylists Podcast with Tracey Franklin. Where to begin, grow and aspire to become the best stylist you can be. Whether you're thinking about becoming a stylist opening a salon, or developing your skills as an experienced stylist the next step of your beauty career starts here. Each week we'll discuss strategic ways to design, plan and execute on becoming a stylist that excels behind the chair and above the bottom line. Here's your host, Tracey Franklin.

Before we get into the episode, I want to set the scene. So my husband and I started our salon journey in 2013. With the full staff, they all already had a great clientele. And we were making a lot of money. But we never seem to have much in our checking account, we decided to take the team for a big hair show in Chicago. And if you have ever been to one of these shows, they have something called breakout sessions. They're normally education related mostly about business or new techniques in the industry. As we were walking by one of the classrooms, we noticed people cheering and excited and decided to see what was going on in there because those sounded like our people.

There were two ladies up front asking questions to the audience questions about business methods, systems, success metrics, things like that. And to our surprise, we couldn't answer any of them. At that moment, we realized how much knowledge we were missing about running a successful salon. By the end of the seminar, they offered a course called champ camp, a way to utilize the systems and methods in our own business. Tickets were $2,000 Each, that's a lot of money.

When you're broke, that's a lot a lot of money. To be very honest. We had a credit card that had about that much available on it. So we purchased the tickets and headed to Orlando for a weekend that would change everything. This event was unbelievable. We learned more about business and running a profitable salon and how to actually succeed in the business industry than I ever thought was possible. I don't know if you've ever gone to a workshop or convention and at the end, they're like trying to sell you something else. And you're thinking Have I not given you enough of my money? Well, this was us waiting to be assigned our coach along with a reoccurring bill for monthly check ins. But I want to tell you something, not only was out the best money we ever spent on our salon, it saved our business. Sometimes you have to take that leap of faith even if you don't know where you'll fall. So today I have the honor of introducing you to the coach who was not only stood by us for almost a decade, she's completely changed the way I see business and the beauty industry. I'd like to introduce Jill Rohn. Welcome to the show.

Jill.

Thank you, Tracy.

It's great to be here. It's been an amazing journey to watch you grow and develop and become a successful leader in the industry. Well, thank you, Jill, I really want this episode to be a resource that will challenge stylists to dig deeper into their business and find the answers to the questions they don't even know they have. Let's start with a bit about your background and your journey in the beauty industry. Gosh, I've been in the industry for a very, very long time. I've been in the industry for over 40 years. So that tells you a little bit about how old I am. And that's a little seasoned reasons and and what seasoning comes great wisdom. That's really what I like to say. It started out as a hairdresser. So I was a hairstylist by trade. I did some platform work. And then I became a manager really liked it saw my father in leadership and management and really liked what he was doing. And so I kind of decided that I wanted to go that direction. So became a manager, a district manager and then I had the opportunity to buy a salon that I was working on. And so I purchased that salon, had that salon for many years, successfully sold it, and then really decided that I wanted to help other business owners learn how to become successful leaders. Awesome. Yeah, you've kind of done a little bit of it all, haven't you? I haven't Yeah, with that brings a lot of knowledge to the table. No wonder you're such a great coach. So based on statistics, only one in five salons make it past five years. I found this to be heartbreaking. Like I gasped when I found this information out. Why do you think 80% of salons don't make it? Wow, it is such a sad statistic. But it's a true statistic for sure. And you know, oftentimes what we find when we start working with people is that they're really really great technicians. And as a great technician, we think what's next in the what next is typically let's open up a salon.

We're so good at what we do, we might as well open up our own business. But you know what? We know what we know, like you said earlier and we don't know what we don't know. And so typically what we find is that people business owners continue to do what they know how to dowishes do hair, and they don't work on the business. They're spending so much time doing services, whether it's in a treatment room or behind the chair, that they lose sight that they are the owner, that they are the leader that they need to take that time to develop their team to work on their own leadership skills. And oftentimes, they're just busy being technicians. And so how can you run a successful business? If you're busy being a technician?

I totally agree. I remember when we first started our coaching journey with you, that was one of the first things you asked me to do was I was behind the chair five days a week and you said, Tracy, we've got to start with one day a week, I need you to take one day a week away from the chair to work on the business instead of in the business. I think as a hairstylist, I was like, well, at the end of the day, I can just do a ton of hair, and I can make a lot of money. And that'll be enough, right? That's exactly what I need to do. Right. And it was a really hard transition to think about taking time away from the chair. But that was the start of me really realizing what it takes to run a salon instead of just be a technician and one.

Yeah, that's so true. And it is very, very difficult to take away from what it is you're comfortable doing in you do make a lot of money.

And lots of times the business owner makes the most money in the salon. So if we ask them to take time away, they're like, Well, how is this gonna work.

And here's the reality, the reality is, our team can do much more than we can do on our own.

And that it's our job, and our responsibility to teach our team how to be successful. And if one can do it, two can do it. Three can do a 10 can do it however many you have on your team. And that's how we start to evolve as leaders by developing and pouring into our team.

And it's a lot easier on the back.

Oh, man, isn't that the truth?

So you have built a business on doing whatever you can to change that statistic? In doing that, do you find that some salon owners are really resistant to the changes you suggest?

Absolutely, absolutely. You know, there's a vetting process to work with me to work with us. And a lot of people don't make it through that vetting process. And it's because they are resistant in we call it uncoachable. They don't want to give up the familiar and they don't want to go into the unfamiliar, they don't want to truly do what it takes. So I have a friend who always talks about is the tongue in your mouth and the tongue in your shoe going in the same direction. And oftentimes we find people say they want one thing, but they're unwilling to do what it takes to get what it is that they say that they want.

They're not willing to invest their time. They're not willing to invest their money. They're not willing to change. And let's face it, change is hard. Even if it's good change, it's still hard. And you have to change in order to evolve in order to become the successful business owner that most people say they want to become.

I agree. I remember being uncomfortable lots of times when we were changing things, you know, but I knew I trusted your expertise.

And I think that's a big part of it. Right is like if you're going to seek out a coach. I mean, you have to be willing to trust someone who has been where you've been, and knows more than you about where you're going.

Yeah,

Yeah, that's absolutely true. You know, one of my mentors, John Maxwell always says that he wants to be the poorest person in the least intelligent person in the room.

Yeah. Because that's where his growth comes from. And let me tell you, he's very wealthy. And he's extraordinarily intelligent. So I have to believe that it's really hard for him to bind those rooms.

Yeah. But he continues to grow and evolve and change and in add to his repertoire, and this is a guy who is probably the number one mentor for leadership in the world.

Wow. Yeah.

Speaks volumes.

You're never done.

You're never done.

Jill, why do you feel like coaching is essential to all salon owners and stylists for success?

Well, it reminds me of a conversation I had with my husband, and I was have a coach.

You know, you have to have a coach. And he said, Why do you have a coach? It's really expensive. You're spending so much money on coaching. And I said, Because I show up differently in my life, I show up differently in my business, and I need that accountability to expedite my growth. And he said to me, Well, I can do that.

Fire your coach, I can do that.

And I'm like, oh, no, absolutely not. Your husband. Second of all, it will never work. I just keep going back to we know what we know. And we don't know what we don't know, and what you said about surrounding yourself with people who have done it, who have been successful, who know more who can teach you and it's really, really important. If you You're up to something big. The Accountability aspect is huge.

If you have the right, Coach.

Yeah. And my question would be like, why are people resistant? And And why won't they accept change? And I think it's because it's uncomfortable. Like so few are willing to be uncomfortable in the process,

Right? We say we want it, but it's uncomfortable.

Yeah.

As soon as it starts to get a little achy, we're like, no, no, no. But yeah, you

think about the people who are up to big things in the world. Do you think about the athletes, you think about the Olympians? You think about great actors and actresses? What do they all have in common? They all have a coach. Yeah. Multiple coaches, and they spend a lot of money on coaches, but they get the results that they're looking for. For

Sure. As a coach, you're all about the goals and numbers. So what advice do you have for anyone in the beauty industry who is operating without these weekly or monthly goals?

Well, the numbers I believe, are the results of everything that we do. So it's so important that we look at the results on a daily, a weekly, monthly, quarterly, yearly basis, you have to know where you began. And the only way you can know that is by tracking your numbers, right. If you want to have a goal, you have to know where your starting point is.

And then you can choose from your starting point where you want to go. And that's called a goal. And then in between where you are, and your goal is tracking in, it's the things that you're going to do that you're going to work on with your coach in order to get where you want to go. So it's vitally important. I flew on a plane today. And it would be like the pilot gets in, and he doesn't know what airport he's at, or what airport he's going to, how is he ever going to make it that right? That's the same thing with our numbers and tracking and our goals. We got to know where we're coming from, we need to know where we're going to.

And then your coach and you develop the process and how to get where you want to go

Those action steps. Exactly. Yeah, that was a term that you taught me action steps. Yep.

Action, you got to take action. That's not gonna happen.

Yeah, those goals, I tell you there are real picky about the action. Yeah.

One of my mentors had said one time the numbers tell you the truth, the numbers tell you what emotions don't. Since those words fell on my ears that has stuck with me. And I use that every day when I'm coaching my team, the numbers tell you what emotions don't the numbers are the truth.

Yeah, the numbers don't lie. When emotions are high intelligence is low. And so if you ask someone who's not tracking, let's just say they're not tracking prebooking, right,

So outside of the numbers, what is the one they'll say, I'm doing really good. I think I'm doing really piece of advice you feel like every stylist should remember?

I really feel like every stylist should remember that they have to continually develop themselves, they have to continually grow as a person, they have to realize that good. And then you look at their numbers, only to find out that they're a leader, everybody's leader, they're a leader in their own life. They're a leader to all of their clients that come in. And it's important that they continue to grow. And so maybe their percentage of pre books is at 30%. And they're often we think about growing and education in this industry as technical skills, right? In going to a technical class, but what can you do to improve your communication? What can you do shocked. But it's because they didn't track it. They didn't to improve your relationships, because, listen, this is a relationship business, you just have to always evolve. And I'll tell you, if COVID taught us anything, it's that we have to evolve and pivot and pivot in the way that we did business in know where they were starting from, they didn't know where the past is no longer, okay?

It's not going to work. And so we have to take it upon ourselves. So oftentimes, I think that stylists want the owner to give them direction, they were going. You gotta have the facts. The facts don't lie, want the owner to bring in the classes want the owner to tell them where to go as far as an education event, or there's an expectation set on the owner.

And I really think that the right? They tell you the truth.

stylists need to go within, in they need to lead and guide and direct themselves to grow themselves,

Right. Because it doesn't matter like what type of business you're working in, whether you're working in a commission based salon or you're renting a chair, whatever type of business you're running, you're running that business, even if you're working for someone else, that chair that station is essentially your business and your success is up to you. I can offer someone a really great reputation and state of the art tools in a really clean establishment to serve their guests and but they still have to come in and do the thing that they do best, which is their special skill set that they bring to the table and not just speaking technically, like what they offer to their client as emotional support or the connection that's made, you know, if they're making their client laugh, or they're making their client feel comfortable, and maybe their clients had a bad day and and they're making their day a lot better. There's so much that we do that doesn't have anything to do with a comb and a pair of shears.

Oh, my gosh, absolutely. And it reminds me of something. And it's called a real success. And real is an acronym. And the R stands for developing relationships. The E stands for, you know, are you equipped? Do you have what it takes? Do you have the tools? Do you have the skill set? Do you have everything you need at your chair, in your suite, wherever it is to do your craft, the A is all about attitude. And attitude is huge in how we come in and how we deal and handle everything that goes on throughout a day. And then the L stands for Leadership, self leadership, what are you doing to lead yourself all of that contributes to success behind the chair or in a treatment room?

I love that love that real? Men Try to remember that

you'll know a lot better because we're going to do it tomorrow. Okay.

Perfect. Why is it so important for a stylist to know who their target clientele is?

It's a great question. And really, it's all about working as smart as he possibly can. I think we can all agree that we want to do what we love to do, we want to do what we're really great at. And we want to do it with people that we really enjoy. And so oftentimes, when we're working with business owners, we're looking at who is their ideal client? And where are they? What do they do? What kind of money do they make in you have to think about, who is it that you want to attract, and you have to have it written down. If you don't, you're gonna get all kinds of different clients. But if you have it written down in, you know, where these people are, you know, where they frequent, and you go there and you visit them, you attract them in when I think of my ideal clients, when I was doing hair, there was definitely a demographic that I worked with, I wanted people with disposable income that was really important to me, I wanted people that lived within a certain mile radius, I wanted housewives, those were the people that I chose to do business with, because I wanted to do a certain type of hair that involves coming in on a regular basis that involve color that involve cutting, I was really clear that I didn't for me, personally, I didn't want to do a lot of men's cut, I didn't want to do children's cuts, I didn't want to do a lot of up dues. That wasn't what thrilled me what thrilled me was working with women, professional woman, housewives, who really cared about the way that they looked and wanted to do color cuts, treatments on their faces in so you really have to identify who it is you want to work with. And then you can target them. I totally

agree. And I think early on in your career, you're kind of like, Hey, I'm trying to build, right, I'm just trying to pay my booth rent, I'm trying to make sure I make enough money behind the chair to pay my bills. And I understand all of that, but it's never too early to start niching Absolutely. It's never too early to start targeting that clientele, you have to plant seeds today for what you're going to reap in the years to come. So I'm going to plant seeds for those women that you're talking about. That's my ideal clientele, to women that want to add hair in and wear extensions and things like that.

That's the type of hair Klein that I'm looking for. And so I have been planting those seeds for a very long time. And now as a very seasoned stylist, I look at my clientele. And it's the harvest, right? It's the harvest for all those seeds that I planted many, many years ago. I say this to remind these up and coming stylists or these new stylists that yes, it's okay to get the bills paid and do what you have to do to survive in this business until you can thrive in this business. But it's never too early to start planting those seeds and to start manifesting the kind of client that you want. And you're exactly right, Jill, writing that down that ideal client, what does that client look like?

What do they do for a living?

What don't they do for a living?

Write all that down and be as specific as you can?

Yeah, absolutely.

It's so important. I love what you said about the planting the seeds because you want to plant seeds. And let's face it, we do have to pay the bills. And when you're new, sometimes you get people in your chairs that probably aren't your favorite people in the favorite services.

We've all gone through it.

However, there's going to come a time where you do have enough of your ideal clients in you'll be able to say I'm sorry, but I don't do those services, I'm going to refer you to someone else who does so that you can enjoy the people that you're working on. Any, you just won't have room for the rest of it, you'll only serve the guests that you want to in the services that you want. And that's a really great place to be.

Yeah, it sure is. It sure is. I like it here.

I like a lot.

And it takes time.

Yeah, you know, how long did it take you?

I've been in the industry? 22 years, 22 years? And

Do you believe that you serve only your ideal guests now?

for the most part, you know, I think also to tack on to that, I think sometimes when you get to a certain level of success, and you're making a certain amount of money and your price point is set at a certain place, you might like things a little bit more that you might not use to like as much if you get to that place where you're charging what you're worth. And at 22 years behind the chair, I'm I'm worth quite a bit in my opinion, whether it be a men's cut, you know, even just a women's cut or whatever, whatever the service is, at this point in my career, I'm comfortable with my price point. So there's not a lot of services that I mind doing. But I'm like you I have my favorites. And for me, that's extensions and high end color services. So yeah, I look at my book. And at this point, when I see my book, and I see who's on it, it's my ideal clientele, right, you want to be able to come in and look at your book and just get lit up by the people that exact know you're going to be serving that day.

Because at this point, it's not just the service you're performing, it's who you're performing it on, because the service and the client are different. Like you may not love doing a men's cut, but you may really, really enjoy the person that you're doing the cut on. I have some women clients that blessed me in different ways.

Like it's not just about the money, it's the wisdom that they bring when they come in and things like that. So there are a lot of reasons to enjoy a client and a lot of different ways that that person can become an ideal clientele outside of the particular service you're performing. Yeah, ABS is a people business. So it is not just about the services. It's also about the people about

the people and building relationships, we are in a relationship business.

What challenges do you find most salons today have in common?

Some of the biggest challenges are evolving, businesses have been forced to evolve. In with that evolution comes doing things different than we did pre COVID. We're looking at stylists who are probably pickier than they've ever been as far as where they're going to work. They know more of what they want, because they've had a taste of it. And they're not settling they want in are demanding certain things in so of course, the big thing around our industry is recruitment. Yes, finding the ideal candidate and one that you can work with. But with that a challenge can always be a blessing. And so it forces us to do something different. And it's the business owners that choose to do it the same way that are really struggling and really having the challenges if you ever hear anyone, or you ever say, you know, well, that's the way we've always done it. So we're going to continue to do that. That's kind of like a slow death. Yeah, you're going to go away that you have to evolve, you have to grow. And you'd have to see what's out there and what's happening in then you have to pivot. Yeah. And so recruitments huge, scheduling huge. We have to do things different than we've ever done before. When I started probably somewhat, you're the same way.

You know, we worked at least three evenings a week, we worked every Saturday. And that's what we did. And the expectation was the same way. You worked eight to 10 hours a day, in that was just accepted. We didn't do breaks. We just didn't do that.

I used to think it was really cool. If I could go to the bathroom, check my voicemail, you know, have a bite of my sandwich changed the toilet paper roll and pee at the same time. Yeah, but that's not the mentality right now. Right? And it probably is forever gone in.

So we have to adjust in pivot to that if we're going to be successful in so I think that the greatest challenges is around that you really taken a look staying ahead of the curve, in appealing to the masses are appealing to your ideal candidate stylist, nail tech, whatever it is, by listening to what it is that they want, and what it is they expect.

I totally agree. Jill, you know, last year we implemented some pretty big changes and our salon, we were noticing that we're getting a much younger crowd before it would be a little bit of a mix.

You know the type of applicants that we would have to work here and now we're definitely noticing it's young girls fresh out of school that are wanting to get into the industry. And that's great, right? They're super, super coachable and pliable and eager to please and it really is a joy to be around them and to help shape and mold them and help them grow their business, their clientele. But you know, they're coming in with a different mentality. You know, we changed our dress code last year. And that was something that was really, really hard for me to get on board with. But I saw it necessary. For this next generation of up and coming stylists, they like to express their self with their fashion.

And I do too, like I understand, but I have a more classy aesthetic and this generation of stylists are coming in. And it's definitely the holes in the jeans. And from where I come from that was just not acceptable. Like you could wear jeans on Saturdays, if they were prim and proper jeans, you know.

And so that's just one example of how they move now and how they flow. And for them, it's the expression of being able to wear the things that they want to wear that make them unique.

So we got on board with that, and it's gone pretty good. It's gone pretty good. I won't lie, I still have times when I'm a little bit uncomfortable.

Another thing we implemented last year was unlimited time off. Yeah, we're really fortunate to have a group of people that work really hard and are really passionate about their craft, and I just didn't see unlimited time off being a problem. And honestly, it hasn't. No one's taking advantage. They're all here to make money, the same as but there's also a lot of freedom and knowing that they don't have to say no to that ballgame. They don't have to say no to that concert, or that family reunion or, or any of the many things that are going to come up in their lives that are going to make them feel whole that are going to make them feel balanced. Because people are looking for work life balance.

Now. That's the standard. It's no longer 10 hour days. And it's like No wonder our bodies are breaking down. My God, I didn't even take bathroom breaks back in the day, you know that and you are right, those times are gone. And I'm thankful for someone that still works behind the chair. I'm thankful to be evolving into this this newer mentality because I think it's definitely a healthier one. And it's going to help people get to the finish line a lot later in their career than it would have they just kept up with those 10 hour days.

Yeah, we I think we learn a lot from them. Yeah, for sure we learn what to do and what not to do. And I'll never forget, I think it was in 2020.

I went to a salon. And I met with the team. And we did a day training. And they had implemented the no limit time off. And so I was really curious to talk to the team about it to see what they had to say. And here's what they said. They said, because she gave us unlimited time off. We take less time off now. And when we know that we need to take time off.

We take it and we know that it's judgment free. Yeah. And so we show up bigger and better by having something like that. She heard us and she did something about it. I thought that was brilliant. Yeah,

yeah. And it's working really well for us too.

Awesome. So Jill, tell us more about culture curators, and where people can find you online,

Derrick, Anthony and myself, right at the beginning of the pandemic, when the salons were shutting down, we saw so many people suffering, hurting, not knowing what to do. And being a John Maxwell certified coach, I had access to something called leading through crisis.

And we thought, You know what, we need to do something, it just wasn't okay to stop and just let people roll over and die can't do it in so we put it out there.

And I don't know, we maybe had 10 people that went through this little mastermind series. And after that we were really committed to continuing on. So we decided that we were going to form a partnership and formed this company called culture curators, because we both felt really strongly that curating a culture was essential to successful businesses. And so we did. And now we work with business leaders all over the world, actually, we're international now. And so we work in Europe, we work in the Philippines, as well as Canada, and as well as the US. And we primarily work with the business owners or the leadership team.

When we go in and do in salon visits, we do work with the service providers. And that may be just a meeting that may be a whole day event. It just depends on what they're looking for.

Yeah. And they can find us by going to my culture curators.com

Fantastic. You know, Jill, in my opinion, culture is the secret sauce. It is if it's missing, you know it and if you got it, you got it.

That's right. I think in our salon, we're so very fortunate to have the best culture the best group of people that are willing to not only show up for their selves, but show up for each other. Just yesterday, I was running behind and one of my girls swooped in and saved the day and when you have a good culture that culture of we're all in this together. We love each other. We support each other, your setup for success, because whether you're running a few minutes late, or maybe you're having a hard day and just need a little bit of advice, maybe you saw a color formulation that you'd like to know a little bit about when you function and flow in that positive and supportive way, it just creates the most beautiful culture in, in my opinion. It's something that your salon cannot survive without.

Yeah, absolutely. We felt so strongly about it, that we developed an acronym out of culture. And we believe it's seven essential areas that every business needs in order to have a successful culture. And we have a signature class on that.

Fantastic.

Well, Jill, it has been so much fun having you on the show today. You know, you are just one of those people that my husband and I will always be so very, very grateful for we can't say enough about what you've done for us for our business for our competence as leaders in this industry through the years.

And it has just been such an honor to have you as my first guest on this podcast.

Oh my gosh, the honor has been mine. And listen, I can lead and I can guide and I can direct you. But you guys are the ones that did the work. You guys are the ones that were coachable. And you guys are the ones that got uncomfortable and made the changes necessary to have the success that you're having right now. So I couldn't be more proud of you, both of you, and all the success and I absolutely look forward to seeing and watching you continue to grow and develop your leadership ability and your businesses. So congratulations on everything you've done so far.

Thank you, Jill.

Thank you.

Thank you for joining us on this episode of The Aspiring Stylist Podcast with Tracey Franklin. If you enjoyed listening and you want to hear more, make sure you subscribe on Apple Podcast, Spotify or wherever you find your podcasts. The Aspiring Stylist Podcast with Tracey Franklin is a Morgan Franklin Production. Today's episode was written and produced by Morgan Franklin editing and post production by Mike Franklin.

Want to find out more about Tracey and the Aspiring Barber and Beauty Academy go to aspirebarberandbeauty.com