BLOG | Join the Cool Auntie Table (We have chardonnay and iced tea)

The About Us page re-write that turned into a manifesto. 

This episode is an AI-read audio version of a blog article from igroomhub. The AI is helpful, but occasionally a little too creative with pronunciation. 

Read blogs @ www.igroomhub.com.au/blog

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:04

Join the cool auntie table. We have Chardonnay and iced tea. Pull up a chair. We're Anna and Nat, and we've been in this industry long enough to have seen most of it twice. The photo is at least 10 years and 10 kilos ago. We are not from the selfie generation, and we're not sorry about it. Between us, we have about 40 years of doing this job and watching grooming grow from something nobody really talked about into a full profession with its own educators, certifications, events, and increasingly switched-on clients. We're Gen X, born somewhere between 1965 and 1980, don't ask for specifics, please, raised without the internet, and equipped with a coping mechanism that mostly involves dry humor and pretending everything is fine, standard. As Gen X right now in this industry at this moment, we are sitting in the middle of every generation that is shaping it. And we've been thinking about what that means. Our parents taught us the trade. Not literally, nor do we share the same parents. The generation that built grooming as a profession, the ones who were doing it before there were courses, before there were certifications, before anyone was calling it an industry, are boomers. A lot of us learned from them, we inherited their knowledge, their standards, and quite frankly some of their stubbornness, and we've spent the last decades figuring out what to keep and what to leave behind. We've kind of realized that that foundation matters, every trade starts the same way, someone with a skill realizes it has value and decides to make something of it. Plumbers, electricians, landscapers, they all got there the same way. Grooming is no different, it just happened a little later, and with more poodles. There is a level of practical, hard-won knowledge in the boomer generation of groomers that doesn't exist anywhere else, and if you were lucky enough to learn from someone who had it, you know exactly what we mean. Our staff are Gen Z and millennials. We're talking about our salon here, a real working grooming salon that has been running alongside everything else we've built. The people coming into grooming now are different in the best possible ways. They're more likely to question why things are done a certain way. They're more tuned into dog behavior and welfare. They've grown up with more access to education and information than any previous generation of groomers, and they expect the industry to meet them at that level. You can't just say that's how it's done to someone who will immediately ask why, and that's a good thing. It makes the knowledge sharper. Every generation books a groom. You're servicing every generation, and they all need something different. Boomers want straightforward value. Don't oversell them, don't overcomplicate it, just do good work and tell them what it costs. Gen Z clients, bless them, will want a full written report after every groom. Transparency, documentation, grades. But the dominant demographic right now, mid-40s to early sixties, at peak dog ownership, with disposable income and strong opinions, are Gen X. They raised Gen Z, widely regarded as the most opinionated generation in human history, and we say that with love because we are responsible for them. And the only thing they love more than their kids is their dog. The dog is not a pet. The dog is a family member with a standing appointment, home delivered precooked meals, and nutritional supplements. Gen X clients value knowledge. They're not looking for someone to make the dog look nice and hand it back. They want to understand what's going on, the coat condition, the skin health, what they can do at home. They'll ask questions and they'll remember what you told them last time. Groomers who can actually educate their clients will build a depth of loyalty with this demographic that goes well beyond just liking the haircut. This is not a burden, this is the opportunity. Grooming education has come far enough in the last decade that groomers now have the knowledge base to actually have these conversations. When we started out, that wasn't really the case. Right now, for the first time, what groomers know and what clients want to know are properly aligned. Which is where we come in. We didn't build iGroom Hub and iGroom School from the sidelines. We built them while running a salon, running training, and watching this industry find its feet in real time. iGroom Hub launched in 2017, and we're coming up on ten years, which means we were investing in groomer education and community well before it was the obvious thing to do. And then Dog Diversity and iGroomHub had a baby, and that baby is iGroom School. iGroom School came from two established operations, a training school and an industry content platform, deciding to build something together. It's not a startup, it's the result of a lot of accumulated knowledge from a lot of years, shaped by every generation we've worked with, learned from, employed, and educated. Being Gen X means we learned from boomers, we work alongside millennials and Gen Z, and we understand our clients because we are them. That's not a coincidence. That's a pretty useful place to be standing. So what does that actually look like? Because we understand every person in this ecosystem, the client, the groomer, the salon owner, the student, we've built something for all of them. Here's just a handful of what we've built. And yes, there's more. iGroom Hub. A streaming membership library for groomers, tutorials from some of the best in the industry. Think a seminar with an international expert in your lounge room, or masterclass technique on your phone on the train to the family barbecue. Hundreds of hours available whenever you are. Industry certification pathway. Industry certification built because we were frustrated with what was available and we knew what new groomers actually needed. A structured pathway for groomers at every stage, starting out or ten years in. Co-developed with Dog Diversity. iGroom School Courses. Short courses, specialist courses, from first aid to Asian Fusion, we've collaborated with experts to bring you courses worth paying for on topics you want. iGroom DIY For pet parents and their groomers, a puppy desensitization course, free brushing tutorials, client education brochures, and an affiliate program so groomers can earn by recommending. You're already having that conversation anyway. iGroomBiz Business tools and templates for salon owners and operators, practical stuff, not generic small business advice, iGroom Hub Media, the blog Barb Taylor Taylor, our agony aunt, and yes she is a character, and the podcast plus more. Scent. A specialist range of body care products made for groomers because your hands deserve something decent after a full day in a hydro bath. B2B subscriptions. Everything the IC Pathway taught us, made available to salons, businesses, and training schools investing in their teams. Everything we do is to push this industry forward with love, and that includes the people running the businesses in it. And sitting at the front of all of it, almost about to launch, a full course built around the modern principles of behavior informed grooming. Giving dogs agency, giving dogs choice, caring deeply about what the dog is telling you, learning to listen. From dip and SNP to this, we have watched this industry go from zero to one hundred, and that course is the proof. We don't have all the answers. We want to be extremely clear about that. We've built a lot, we know, well, maybe a chunk. And we've been in this long enough to have seen most of it twice, but we don't preach. And we're not interested in pretending this is a finished thing. There are comment sections on iGroom Hub now. Come and use them, join the conversation. It's like the lunch break area minus the monkey bars. Are they even legal anymore? Tell us what you think, what you need, what we've missed. This has always been an organic thing, built by groomers, for groomers, shaped by the conversations we have along the way. The cool auntie table has a seat for you. We have Chardonnay, iced tea, and even some of those monster drinks. Come and pull up a chair.