How to Train and Grow Hair Stylists [EP:203]

Hiring a stylist is hard. Retaining one is harder. Training them from scratch? That’s where most salon owners throw in the towel. 

Todd and Jen believe that’s exactly where the opportunity lies.

In this episode, they break down their education funnel—the system they’ve built to train new hires (especially those straight out of cosmetology school) into fully booked, confident, high-performing stylists. 

From blow-dry assessments to client-ready test-outs, you’ll hear exactly how they do it, how long it takes, and how it leads to stronger retention, higher performance, and long-term growth.

Whether you’re thinking about training your first stylist or looking to improve the education model inside your salon, this episode will help you build a path that scales with your business and supports your team.

Key Topics Covered:

[00:00] Stop Waiting for the “Unicorn” Hire
[00:02] Jen’s Story: Learning the Hard Way at Her First Salon
[00:04] Daydreaming Won’t Save Your Business—Systems Will
[00:05] Todd’s Opening Rant: $80 Haircuts, Facebook Negativity, and a Dying Industry Mindset
[00:12] Stop Asking Facebook What a Lawyer or Accountant Should Answer
[00:14] Building an Education Funnel
[00:16] Going Wider Reduces Risk and Builds Retention
[00:17] Why We Focus on Hiring Stylists Out of School
[00:19] How a True Apprenticeship Works (And What States Offer It)
[00:20] Are You a “Push Forward” or “Hold Back” Type Leader?
[00:22] Our Step-by-Step Training System (From Model to Client-Ready)
[00:27] The Blow-Dry Test: A Crucial First Win
[00:30] Why Clients Are Paying During Training—and Why That’s a Win
[00:32] Adding Services One by One = Confidence + Clarity
[00:34] Transparency Builds Trust: Don’t Hide the Training
[00:36] Matching Clients and Stylists Without Compromising Standards
[00:39] Transitioning From Friends/Family to Real Clients
[00:41] Ongoing Training, Redos, and Leadership Conversations
[00:44] Education Never Ends—Even for Experienced Stylists
[00:46] Paying Stylists and Educators During Training
[00:47] What If You Don’t Have Time to Train?
[00:49] Be Willing to Let People Go—If They’re Not Growing, You’re Shrinking
[00:51] The Term “Apprenticeship”
[00:52] Get on the Email List

Key Takeaways:

• Unicorn hires don’t build sustainable businesses. Systems do.
• Stop outsourcing business decisions to Facebook. Talk to professionals.
• Create wins early and often. 
• Your education system should evolve. What worked 5 years ago won’t work now.
• Train transparently. Clients will respect your honesty if you lead with integrity.
• Hire slow, fire fast. Don’t hold onto the wrong person just because training takes time.
• Education never ends. Even senior stylists should be reassessed regularly.

Connect With Us:

🎧 Subscribe to the Hello Hair Pro Podcast
 📸 Instagram: @hellohairpro
💌 Join the newsletter: 321 Pro Push

Links and Stuff:
Our Newsletter
Mentoring Inquiries

Find more of our things:
Instagram
Hello Hair Pro Website

Transcript

Episode Transcript – How to Build a Strong Salon Team: Training, Education, and Retention

Opening Take [00:00]

203

Todd: [00:00:00] All right. What's up everyone? Welcome back. Happy Monday.

Jen: Happy

Todd: What's going on, Jen? Oh, my bad.

Jen: Ha. Happy Monday. If it's Monday, I don't know. I don't know what day

Todd: Yeah. I don't know when people listen, but we released these on Monday, so,

Jen: hoping that our audio is working this time and on Monday you can actually listen to it.

Todd: well, it worked last time.

Jen: We had to redo it. Remember?

Todd: Yeah, but we, but we redid it already. I.

Jen: Yeah, I know. But so on Monday, no one got to listen to us.

Todd: Talk about living in the past, which we're going to talk about soon. Today we're talking about, how do you retain staff? And my answer, a lot of people are always looking for the unicorn. They're always looking for the person with the huge clientele and massive amounts of experience that basically comes into your business and just is like a surplus.

That's a unicorn. That is rare. I'm not saying you are not going to find that. I'm saying those people are likely happy where they are because [00:01:00] they've gotten to that point or they have plans for themselves, and those plans probably don't include

Jen: Mm-hmm.

Todd: because what you're really looking for is to not do a whole lot of work, but get a whole lot of upside.

Jen: Mm-hmm. I am,

Todd: That's the go ahead.

Jen: go ahead.

Todd: I was just gonna say that's the majority of the people that we speak to, and so the advice that I always give them is to do what we've done, which is to build a system that can bring in young hair pros and train them up. And there's a lot of upside, and we can get into the upsides in a little bit after our opening takes and stuff, but I think that's the way to go for the future.

Jen: I agree. What I was gonna add is when I owned my last salon, I was one of those owners and I would daydream like, this person's just gonna come in with a clientele and it's gonna help our business and they're gonna bring in so much money that we're gonna get more profitable or just profitable. 'cause we weren't at all. That [00:02:00] was kind of the world that I lived in. And I can tell you right now that even if that person did exist, and even if they did come into your business with a clientele, you are dreaming about that, helping your business, you have a whole slew of problems You're not dealing with like that one person's not saving your business.

There's no way. So, and, and if they did, eventually someone else is leaving and now you're wishing this whole thing again. So that's, that's a. A dangerous game to play and it's not a winning game and it's not gonna keep you profitable. And it's not one that's going, if you got one, that's it. But it's not how you are going to sustain your business and grow your business.

So that way of thinking, you, you gotta change it. I didn't that one closed. Here we do things at Hello very differently that like Todd was saying is,, systems and training and things like that that we're gonna talk about today that really you can focus all your attention on and they are steps that will help build your business. Dreams.

Todd: Yeah, that's an important [00:03:00] part too.

Jen: Mm-hmm.

Todd: Because when you're focused on, when, when you're, I, I'll use a different word. When you're distracted by something, you're not able to focus on what you can actually control and daydreaming is like such a dangerous thing. I, I've done it too. We've all made these mistakes.

That's why Jen and I are passionate about sharing our experiences and why we share everything. Because it's, it, it's. It's helpful to people, but what, why did I say it's helpful? We've been through it, is what I was gonna say. We've been through the same things. We've been through the same. When I had my gym, I was like, oh man, I just need one like stud coach that actually understands philosophy of what we're doing here and actually understands.

And I, I had decent people, but I didn't have that person,, that unicorn person. What I should have focused on was training the good people. I had to be great. Instead, I didn't do that, and it set me back years and years. I mean, I had that gym for a decade, but whatever. It's [00:04:00] still, it's not here now.

Jen: Right.

Todd: Okay. So I guess we can kick things off with opening takes. I love that. All right. Opening takes. Go for it. Jim, what do you got?

Jen: Oh no, you go first on this one.

Todd: Why?

Jen: I gotta think for a second.

Todd: Oh, okay. All right. So I wanted to point out some interesting things that I've seen recently. So recently, meaning over the past like couple of weeks. One was, that caught my eye was there was a girl on a Facebook post that posted that she charged $80 for a haircut for the first time ever, and she felt good about it.

Well, people hated on her.

Jen: It wasn't the group she posted in like. Stylist supporting stylist or something.

Todd: Something. I think it's called hairdressers advice to hairdressers or some, something like that. But I do believe it's supposed to be supportive, but it [00:05:00] was hate-filled. A lot of people think that location dictates pricing, which is weird because when have you ever moved into a town and got a memo saying, Hey, you can only charge X dollars.

Has that ever happened?

Jen: No.

Todd: What are you talking about? I, I still don't understand that. And there were people that argued with me on that page because I said, location doesn't, because,, they said, well, you're lucky that you live wherever because you can charge that. And I was like, it's not lucky. She just can charge that because she wants to.

And if her clientele will pay that, then good on her.

Jen: gonna

Todd: And that,

Stop Chasing Unicorns [04:00]

Jen: has a demand.

Todd: that should prove right there, that location doesn't matter. Well, people were like, no. Like, yeah. Huh. And I'm like, that's not a, that's not making a point. So anyways, some other stuff that I noticed recently, I, I saw a post that said almost half of the industry doesn't use booking software.

They use pen and paper, almost half. That's insane.

Jen: Hmm. Very.[00:06:00]

Todd: So when you ask people questions and they get offended and they reply with things like, yeah, huh. Or just think about it. There's never really any thought or ideas or discussion. It's just, woe is me. This is just how it always is. I feel like a big chunk of the industry falls into that category.

One woman said that her old boss only charged $85 for a cut, and no one should be charging more because he was a giant in this industry. And it reminded me of old people in the,, small towns that vote everything down because

Jen: They

Todd: they never had. They never had that. So why should anybody else? And I just thought it was kind of sad.

Jen: Yeah.

Todd: don't make progress by worrying about yourself. You make progress by pushing the boundaries and helping other people succeed.

Jen: Agreed.

Todd: And if you add all these things up, what do you get? You get an industry that's stuck in the past while the rest of the world moves forward. You get an industry that's kidding itself by claiming its luxury after just five [00:07:00] years ago proclaiming that it was a necess necessary.

During COVID, we were necessary. You get lack of innovation and that leads to less talented people entering the field. Why the hell would anybody want to join in an industry with such a low upside they wouldn't? And then fast forward a few years, talent will be even harder to come by. No one's able to raise their prices and we head into a race to the bottom.

Discounts start to stack up, and there's even less profit if that's even possible. And more businesses are closing their doors. Actually, now that I think about it, maybe that's not such a bad thing. Anyway, I went back and forth with a few people and they all, they hit me with like, don't judge me. You stop judging me.

And I'm like, I'm not judging. I'm just asking questions. And the reason I, I said this on the last episode, I think one of the last episodes, the reason that we do this is because we want to help people. We have a salon that is thriving, it's doing well, it's successful, it's [00:08:00] profitable, and it's growing. So instead of saying you must live in a rich area, you should be saying, how did you do that?

And we'll help you. Just like the girl with the $80 haircut for every, anybody. There were so many people in there, Jen, that were like, my area won't tolerate more than 20 to $25. How do you live

Jen: You don't

Todd: because your gas prices went up. Your gas prices didn't go. Do you think Exxon and Mobil came in and they said, well, this area will only tolerate 50 cents a gallon?

No. They came in and they were like, four bucks piss off. Do you want it or not? One of the arguments was, if everybody charges triple digits, everybody will go home and cut their own hair. That's not true. We know that's not true. At the end of I, I was like, okay, here, here's the deal. I explained it one last time and I got a response from one woman that said, Todd, thank you so much.

I really appreciate you [00:09:00] sharing this. It truly helps me put it in a lot better perspective. I consider myself a forever student and always work towards bettering myself every day. I have absolutely struggled with pricing for myself. I found it so difficult to gauge. I have terrible anxiety about how much a client is willing to pay and spend.

My heart was almost always in my throat when I'm waiting for them to react to my fees. I really need to get over this and I think you helped me through a big time. Thanks again, friend. Cheers to you as well.

Jen: I love

Todd: I thought it was a good way to end. What was kind of frustrating, 'cause I'm like people, a lot of, most of what I was seeing were people.

It's not that people disagreed with me. I don't care about that. You can just, you can believe whatever you want. My issue is that you aren't open to any new idea at all and you shut it down immediately and you think just because you say yeah, huh? That it like proves your point.

Jen: Oh.

Todd: No one had any information to offer [00:10:00] except for, well, this is what someone did in the past.

And yes, it is true. That was what I got for answers.

Jen: remember saying to you when you were talking about this with me and I was like, why hasn't anyone asked her? How'd she do that? How'd she get there? Like, why isn't anybody looking to be like, wow, what was the path to get to that $80 haircut and then see if that you could follow that path? Nobody was chiming in on the way of like, how do I do what you just did? That was insane to me. 'cause

Todd: There were people

Jen: sure she would help

Todd: that, there were people in there that were celebrating her. I don't wanna make it seem like all doom and gloom, but it was, there were a lot of people that were like negative and hateful, and I think that reflects. Not just the industry, but people in general. It's, first of all, it's easy to pile on when you're behind a keyboard,

Jen: Yeah.

Todd: right?

Keyboard, karate kids over here, everybody's tough behind a keyboard, but you are not charging $80 for a haircut. You're charging 20 and you're criticizing the person charging 80. Why are you not changing your circumstances? If [00:11:00] you think hating on someone else, it's like what you said earlier, tr you just, when you just wait for something to happen and daydream, you're not thinking about other stuff of how to get yourself ahead.

Jen: Right.

Todd: So anyways, that's my rant.

Jen: That was

Todd: I hope it helps. And shout out to that woman that ended up coming around and I, I didn't even need her to come around, but I think that's excellent if I helped her through something. That's amazing. And I hope she listens to this podcast, somehow finds us and I hope she hears us talking about her.

Jen: My turn.

Todd: Yeah, go for it.

Jen: Alright. Mine's quick. It, it kind of goes off the whole Facebook thing. So what I see often is in this hair industry is people turning to Facebook for advice that they should be turning to. Somebody who specializes in that category, meaning I signed a lease. What do you guys think?

Like, like what should I look for in this lease? Whatever. Okay, so that would be something you would find a lawyer for, not go to Facebook. Working on pricing and I'm not sure about [00:12:00] how to budget for certain things. Well, you should go to your accountant for that. I think. People use Facebook now almost as a rah rah, rah cheerlead. I don't really want the answer because that means it's gonna be a lot of work. So if I turn to Facebook and this group of people and this Facebook will give me answers, then I don't have to do anything else. And, and it's, it's gotta be legit because it's Facebook. Absolutely false. If you are not going to the person that would help that question and, and does that job specifically maybe you shouldn't be running a business.

Building an Education Funnel [10:00]

Because if you're too afraid to ask those questions, then I think you need to look inside. Why are you too afraid? for, hello, we have a slew of people we go to from. Not only lawyer, accountant, banking a plumber an electrician. So when anything goes down, the last thing I think about is going to Facebook.

The first thing I think about is Todd, who do we call for this? Do you remember the contact or I have it, one or the other. So. Todd, do you have this contact for this? Or I [00:13:00] have it, and I go that way. I do not go to Facebook and be like, Hey, my toilets are backed up. What would you guys do to fix this? I call my plumber that's come out five times.

Hey, can, when can you get out here? If you don't have those leads, you need to start making them so that in those scenarios, you are calling the right person and not wasting your time on Facebook. Done.

Todd: Excellent. You need a team. All right, let's dive into building an education funnel. Almost. I, so if you're a sports fan, think about it this way. You have a pro team, say the Boston Celtics, and then they have the Portland or the Maine Celtics, who are their sort of development team.

You develop those players and hopefully your goal is to get them on the floor at the big show. They're trying to make it to the pros. So I don't know if you have a different analogy, Jen, for anybody that might not be into sports, but I, I think that [00:14:00] makes probably sense to, even if you're not into sports, that should make sense.

It's the same with everything. You always have people that are coming up through the pipeline. It does a few things and you can jump in anywhere. Jen, one of the things that it does is it makes your business wider.

Jen: Yes.

Todd: It makes you less exposed to risk. If you have, just say you have four stations, you use one of them, and you only hire three other people, that's wild because what you're doing is you are missing a major opportunity to maximize your business.

Not everybody's working open to close seven days a week. Therefore, you have time that you could fill with clients at that chair. Not you, not you. You have to fill the time with the clients at the chair, but that means having another hair pro [00:15:00] there to service those clients. We, we've been into shifting the chairs before and the benefits of that, I've written about it in newsletters.

I don't know if I have a blog about it, but we can go into more detail if people wanna reach out. But by having a larger team, if one person, God forbid, gets sick or they're, or they break their leg or they need an extended amount of time off, or they quit and move on, or they have a baby and they're not sure what life looks like after, maybe they're coming back for one shift.

By having a, a larger team, and it doesn't have to be massive, don't stress out, but by going wider, it reduces your exposure to that risk. I haven't heard about, I'm sure it happens still, but I haven't heard about, it used to be popular and sort of trendy to do walkouts on salons where everybody would quit on the same day as sort of an fu.

You don't want that. So by having a larger group, it just. Yeah. [00:16:00] I mean, that's what people did, right?

Jen: Mm-hmm.

Todd: thought they were cool, so they all quit at the same time and they thought that that was gonna somehow hurt a business owner, but, and it, and it did, it, it does hurt. But when you are entrepreneurial by nature and you really believe in what you're doing, you'll find ways to overcome that.

So it is what it is. We had a chunk of staff leave at one point and we moved on, and now we are more far, far more successful than when we had those people. So thank you for getting outta the way. So I look at it, not to be rude, but it is what it, it's almost like a blessing.

Jen: Yeah.

Todd: 'cause you, they didn't buy into what we were doing.

Imagine if we still had them, there would be so much like issues and animosity. So anyways, back to the point, you want to grow a team and you, you're. Going to have to start with younger hair pros, people outta school, people that have a year or two of experience. Those are the people that are looking for jobs and those are the people that you have your pick of.

And before Jen gets into where to start and how it should look, I do wanna say [00:17:00] make sure you're picking the right people. You really, really want to do your homework here. You can have I, I see people that have 90 day probationary periods. Sure. If that's how you wanna do it. I would hire a little slower than that.

We do at least three touchpoint, three meetings, three chats. It could be FaceTime, whatever. We bring the person in to tour the salon to meet some of the staff. We don't let our staff decide, per se, but if our staff is vibing with a person and they're getting along and they're having fun, I've seen, I, I've had people come into shadow who are now just like helping with foils and grabbing color or whatever.

They're just helping. They just showed up and they're helping. Some people are standoffish and they don't really fit, and it's not up to your team to decide. It's up to you to decide, but I would just really make sure that you're looking for the right person. Talk to them about their family. How did they grow up?

I like to learn where people come from. What does your family look like To me, my family is the most important thing to me. [00:18:00] So if I can talk to someone and they're, they're talking about their family in a positive way. Now I know it's not all peaches and cream. I get it. That stuff is important,, to me, which is important, I would say to Jen, 'cause she's my family too.

So that's going to be a big tell on whether this person's gonna fit or not. You, you'll have yours. But anyways. Jen, do you wanna, like, where does somebody start? And I know you, so New Hampshire's unique, not unique as its own, but I don't know how many states do true apprenticeships. I'm not talking. You got done with school and someone wants you to learn more apprenticeship.

I'm talking about these people don't go to school. They obtain their license through studying under somebody else's license.

Jen: That's what, well, that's one of the things we do at the salon. Yes.

Todd: Yeah. So I know, but I know not every state does that. So.

Jen: state does, and I don't know, I, [00:19:00] I. A couple years ago when I, we were opening, I, I knew that information in the top of my head. I do not. But a true apprenticeship is that we have, under my license, I have somebody there with me for almost like two years.

It depends, 3000 hours can be 18 months or more. It really depends on how that goes. And at the end of the apprenticeship, they take the state board cosmetology test just like anybody coming outta hair school. But their whole learning. Journey is at Hello Hair Co with me

Todd: journey Education.

Jen: yeah, at Hello Hair Co.

Under my

Todd: I like it.

Jen: So that's how that goes. And it's customized to each individual. I don't have a none of it's black and white, which I prefer.

Todd: Okay.

Jen: Where I was starting on mine was a question because I think if you're like, okay, I need to have this flow of people coming in, I realize it's going to be hair pros coming right out of school, or like you said maybe a year or two experience coming from somewhere [00:20:00] else. I really think. question will be kind of where you wanna go.

One, I can't answer for you, the other is how we do it. But where is your mindset for education? Meaning are you a hold back or a push forward type of thinking when it comes to education? I see most salons want to, I say hold back because they're gonna say you have to assist under somebody for 1, 2, 3 years before you can progress. if that's your type of thinking it is not mine and I don't really have advice for you on that. We at, hello Todd and I both are push forward types of people. I, we both want to get you fast as we can doing quality work and getting you on the floor as quick as possible so that you can build your confidence and start working towards your career. That's how we bring people in and that's, that's the goal. for, for every single person. Now that looks different for every single person and it is customized for each one. I was gonna go through kind of what we do, if [00:21:00] that's what you'd like, Todd, unless you have something to add there.

Todd: No, I think it's great. Go to go for it. You are the one that handles this, so I'm gonna just defer to you and let you talk. And then what I was thinking is if if a common question would come up, I'll just sort of interject and ask that question as, because I get a lot of emails from people that are like, how do you do this?

How do you do this?

Jen: And this program is not how we've always done it. This program has evolved from my first salon to us opening at Hello. We are almost, I think, five and a half, six years open. And, and it has changed drastically from when we first opened to where we are now currently. This works. I really love the way we do it.

But it will keep evolving. It will not stay here because things always need to change. But right now this works really well for us. So when we hire somebody, like Todd said, there's,, a bunch of touch points coming into before I'm kind of working with them. So once they've passed all of those, we've decided to bring 'em on board. They come in and they do a model. And that model I typically want a partial foil, haircut, blow dry, something, something like that. And what I'm doing [00:22:00] here is just looking at, I'm not judging them, I'm just. seeing what skill sets they bring to the table. This helps me put together their customized package of what they need to do.

I see if they know what they're doing, where their timing is, where their confidence is, how they handle themselves all of these things. There's, there's so much I'm looking at. So once they get done with the model,, it's pretty much that I'm like, you did a great job. Even if they did an okay job, it doesn't really matter.

I'm really there just to kind of, like I said, assess a situation. What happens from there? So the next thing is they come in and they get a blow dry from either or usually I have one of our staff members that. I love their level of expectations they bring to with a shampoo, blow dry, meaning massage, all the things, right? So they get a service done. And the reason for that is I want them to understand the level of expectations that comes from that one service. And my goal here is when we're hiring people coming out of school, is that I'm hoping that they come in with one. One [00:23:00] skill that they can do pretty well, that with some mentoring, they can be on the floor doing it right away.

Apprenticeships and Fast-Track Education [18:00]

I want them on the floor, taking clients as soon as possible. Obviously they're gonna be shadowing and all of that with me and anyone else in the salon. But I want them taking clients sooner than later because what I find is. The longer you hold back, the longer they're just working on mannequins or the longer they're working on their friends. It's harder once you put them on the floor to not have them be like a deer in headlights. Now they're so afraid because they haven't been very uncomfortable in any situation that now you have to coach them back to reality and dealing with all kinds of people. usually I find a blow dry is for us, the easiest way to transition, and it's a really. Fairly easy skillset for, for me to teach and for my staff to help teach, to get this person at least taking blow dries on the floor as quick as possible, so

Todd: right. I get, I get this question a lot. Who does this education? I'm a busy salon owner, but I still work behind the chair. And you just said we have staff that helps with that. So [00:24:00] could you maybe finish your thought and then talk about that a little bit? Because I think the work part stresses people out because I'm already stressed out.

I'm trying to run this business. I'm really trying my hardest, I'm trying to make my clients. Happy and then I'm, I have to now build these new people.

Jen: Yep. So I actually have that in my notes. So let's say, so right now we have I have one of my apprentices from the beginning that I will utilize her because she's worked with me through her whole apprenticeship and is still with us. So she is fantastic. And then we have two hair pros that we are developing that are leading our education in the salon.

So those are other, other two people I lean on. So I have three people especially for this blow dry session that I can lean on. To help me, but at the end, I'm the one they test out on. So I'm still part of this education, but I have people that can help me get them to the end part. So let's say one of the three come in and then they give, let's say we hired this girl Sally.

So Sally gets a blow dry. She gets that [00:25:00] experience. Now Sally will now do that same experience on one of those three hair pros. So then I'll get feedback from them. How was the pressure? Did she ask about the temperature? Did your, did your feet go up at the service? Like all of those things, like how is all that? And then

Todd: Feet go up. Feet go up. I'm just gonna pause for a second because we have backwash sink that recline.

Jen: So

Todd: that's what we're talking about. Feet go up

Jen: All of the expectations that

Todd: and that's okay. I'm just trying to draw a picture for people that are like, what?

Jen: and this experience is not the just the blow dry, it's the whole experience. So once we get into where they're like, okay, her blow dry, is Sally's doing a great job? The shampoo is great, the feed are up, the blow dry is great.

Cool. Now I want Sally to bring in a model and this one is now full circle. Can Sally greet them at the door, give them a tour make sure that she shows them where the bathroom is. Then do the whole service. So here we are again evaluating. I'm getting feedback. I might be watching this, or one of those other three hair pros are helping me out on this. The [00:26:00] next situation goes into, now I'm going to wash and blow dry Sally. So she can feel again, back to that beginning, remind her what the level of expectation is of this blow dry service.

Todd: That's a huge I important thing to stress too, because this isn't a optional thing. This isn't, you're gonna test out and then do it how you want after. We have a standard at Hello. And it's we just watched that episode of The Bear last night, but it's a non-negotiable. We have, we have some non-negotiables and you are not gonna do it a different way, and it's, it's just not gonna be a long-term fit if you decide that because I, I know a lot of people fall into that trap, right?

Jen: Oh, for sure. And our

Todd: Yeah.

Jen: everybody's shampoo or massage is, is kind of standard to them. My goal is, is are you hitting all the points on the head? Is the massage there? Is the pressure there? Are you at least checking on the pressure, temperature of water, these kind of things, right? It does, it, it's not like you have to do it this way.

It just has to be similar to this, and there's an [00:27:00] expectation with that for all the clients. So now once I have now. Showing them again, what is expected. The next part comes is they're gonna do a shampoo and blow dry on myself. And, and here, this is really important. I think it really does need to be on you now, who's ever owning the salon or who ever,, the brand of the salon. now once Sally passes, if there is a complaint that comes next, I know where Sally's level is and I know what she's doing for that service. So I can reflect on if there was a complaint or, or even. Someone celebrated her. I'm like, yeah, I know she's tested out on me. But it also creates this pathway for the clients that come in and they trust.

Now when somebody is on the floor doing a service, they know part of the way the education has gone and they understand that. I've now like basically ding, ding, ding, they're ready. You should get a great, you should get a great service here. So now at this point, Sally not only is now doing services on the floor for blow dry, [00:28:00] she also now realizes she had at least three people on our team help support her to get here. Then she had me say, you're fantastic. You are ready for this. So now when she has those clients that sit in her chair, not only is she excited, she has confidence, she has our whole team behind her, literally rallying for her.

Like, you've got this. It's gonna be so much fun and. she's part of the team. We're not saying, oh, Sally, go do laundry, answer the phone. Like she's organically coming into our team and also setting her up for success. That now when she sees those blow drives booked in her schedule, she's like, I'm ready.

I'm gonna kill this. Because we didn't just throw her into it. And also we're all backing her up 'cause we're like, we know she's ready, she's tested out on all of us and we're excited for her to have these people. And that's kind of the way it works for all the services that we do. I start with that one because first of all, I think blow drys are extremely important and underrated.

I think the shampoo service is extremely important and underrated. and I think if you are. [00:29:00] Growing in those other skill sets. If you can give a great shampoo and a great finish, those other things will come with it and that person leaves. On that last note, feeling absolutely gorgeous.

Todd: I do think it's cool to give wins along the way as well, because like you mentioned earlier, Jim, there's not just gonna be like, we dump you on the floor, now you're doing. Everything, it's you've done

Jen: The

Todd: this service, so you can do this service now and we'll put you, we'll, we'll, we'll get you some clients that you can do blow dry on.

Jen: Yep.

Todd: And so that person is essentially on the floor

Jen: Yes.

Todd: at that point. It's just that they're not doing color services. They're not cutting hair. They're, they, they're not doing chemical services, et cetera.

Jen: No. So on our online presence, they will see Sally's name and they'll see that she can do blow dry. So that's all she's able to take online, but she now can start. Building that clientele, which we do have a big clientele for that.

So, during this blow dry assessment, [00:30:00] Sally is still working on mannequins and models for all of the other services we're trying to build. So she's not just focused only on the blow dry. There are other things that are happening on the side for her education.

Todd: Quick question. If you have clients coming in now that want blow dries at this point, they're paying for those blow dries. Correct.

Jen: Full price.

Todd: Okay, cool. So the salon is benefiting.

Jen: So then we work on

Todd: So I, I, the reason I point that out is because I think people look at this and they're like, I don't have a year to train somebody up. I don't have nine months. I need to produce revenue now.

Jen: Yeah. So you are, and

Todd: Well, you,

Jen: you're just getting them ready to start doing those services, so you are producing and so are

Todd: you relatively quickly can generate a solid blow dry and, and shampoo service, right? I mean, how long does that take you? If somebody came out of school, how long would that take you?

Jen: I would say within a month they're at least doing that.

Todd: So you have four weeks of, that's not,

Accountability and Standards [25:00]

Jen: Yeah,

Todd: [00:31:00] better than

Jen: I,

Todd: right.

Jen: like for the whole program, I'm usually hoping that by 12 weeks they're doing almost all services. That's my goal for them. Now that will change again, that first model. I have an assessment. I, we used to have a bunch of schools in our area. Now we have two. So I, now I know what skillset comes out.

That's a stronger and weaker from each different school, but usually, that I can see like, can they even foil, can they even do this? So then I know what's gonna be the bigger parts to work on is gonna take longer. So that's just gonna be on mannequins for a bit. but then,, like I said, they're working on models and mannequins and there needs to be both, not just all mannequin work, because again, I need them to understand what it's like with live models. and as they pass things. So say they're partial foil, the timing is great. They. They can figure out their pattern, all the things that come in with foiling. Now they can do partial foil, blow dryers on the floor right away. Maybe they're not there for a full foil, because that timing part component is usually a bit difficult for people.

And I see this too. They're like, well, how do I get my young staff,, they take forever for these things. Well, they [00:32:00] shouldn't be, in my opinion, doing these things on regular clients. That should be model work. So where I, if they can pass the requirement of the timing we do for partial foils. by all means, we have them on the floor and they're doing the partial foils and blow dries. And so here's what else I get. They're like, well, what if someone books online for a partial oil, but then they want a haircut? a conversation that's HAPS in the consultation, which is, Hey, I, yeah, I haven't passed haircutting yet, so if you want, I can do your partial foil today, your glaze, and then I'm gonna put your haircut over here was so and so.

Right. So

Todd: If someone books online, they can't book a haircut.

Jen: They can't but say, they were like, is there any way you can trim my hair today? Right.

Todd: No.

Jen: would just, we would switch that up and somebody else would step in and finish the haircut.

Todd: I think people will, will struggle with that too, because I've seen things like this, I've seen people put this on Instagram where they say they have a code word. And the code word might be like, have you seen my blue comb? And that means I need help because they don't want to ha they don't want the client to see that they have a younger, [00:33:00] less experienced staff.

I personally think that's silly.

Jen: Yeah, me too.

Todd: I'll tell you why. Our, our typical client loves that our salon is so collaborative and so educational because a lot of times it's one or two or three people that might be working on someone's hair. You feel famous and it's cool, and salons have a,

Jen: want them to get the best results too, and if

Todd: I think a, a,

Jen: that's okay.

Todd: I think a good salon.

Atmosphere has a vibe where people are having conversations and people are talking and people are having fun and sharing stories or whatever. And if it's just one-on-one that's le, that's less likely to happen with a newer person because they're so focused on doing the task that they're doing that they can't have a conversation at the same time.

Jen: I agree.

Todd: So don't stress about people knowing that people are new. You want that?

Jen: Yeah,

Todd: ahead.

Jen: people want that energy too,

Todd: I just pointed out because I, I see it online and I [00:34:00] see people like, how do you hide the fact that this person's not ready for stuff or whatever.

Jen: they

Todd: hide anything. That's because we operate with integrity and it's, it's our first core value.

Jen: Agreed. Now, again, behind, while this is all happening, we are constantly working on all the things which is,, haircutting, all of that. So I start with my haircutting is one length, long layers, angles, kind of your basic haircut that a lot of people come in for. So say that client does come in and they're like, I, I really needed a trim today. If we're talking. One length long layers. Sally can check in with me like, Hey, my client wants a haircut. It's, it's this haircut. Like, I know I've passed that, but I haven't passed all haircuts. Are you okay if I cut her hair? Absolutely. The thing with haircutting is there's so many different haircuts out there, so I might not have Sally, Sally online available for haircuts, but she's aware of what haircuts she could do if that. Situation arose, right? Because like even with my current apprentice right now, she can do long layered haircuts. If they came in and, and I needed her, she could do that. We're working on Bobs and then we're working [00:35:00] on a different type of a Bob. I can't make her available for haircuts because I can't say, well, she can only do this one haircut, but if one of her models came in and they wanted a long layered haircut, I know that my apprentice can do that, and she knows that she's able to do that.

If they want a shorter haircut, something we haven't worked on, she understands that's not possible and that you're gonna have to wait to up for a later date. So there's, there's a conversation happening all the time, even if it's not online facing. They're aware of those things that do come in that they are allowed to do and those things that they will need to now say, I am not capable of that yet.

The level of what hello expects. So I'm gonna put you with so and so to finish your service today.

Todd: And clients. Clients appreciate that honesty and that candor.

Jen: They want you to put them in the best scenario. And we're teaching them consultation. We're teaching them how to have conversations. So some, for someone else that might be very uncomfortable, this becomes the norm for them.

You know what, this really isn't what I'm, I'm really great at. Like, if somebody comes in for, like unicorn hair, like fashion color, hair, all the time. We get people that are emailing us for that,? And we have three people that [00:36:00] really love doing it and are great with it. I've had someone sit in my chair and like, my daughter wants this underwear, hair,, when can you fit her in?

I'm like, that is not in my wheelhouse. I'm gonna recommend these three people and you can decide from which of them you'd like to pick, but they're the ones that are gonna knock this out of the park and it's not gonna be me. And they say the same thing. Thank you so much for being honest. Like, yeah, I, that's just not. The land I enjoy playing in and it's not fun for me. And they have a bunch of fun doing it, so why not put you with them? And

Todd: I've had a couple of, I've had a couple of times where I remember one person came in, this guy came in. He had really like long hair down to his back. Really super, super curly. And he showed me this haircut and I was like, I don't know. Like I I, could I pull this off? Maybe? Am I the best person that's here right now for this?

For him? No. So I went over after I did a consultation and I, and I went through everything and I was like, what, give, gimme a second. And I looked at the computer and I was like, what? [00:37:00] I went back to him and I just said, look, I could probably pull this off, but I want you to leave here really, really happy.

I'm really pleased with your decision to come here because we appreciate it. And I have a hair pro that's here right now who has availability, and I think she's gonna crush this for you. And I just, I, that's,

Jen: Mm-hmm.

Todd: , your, your decision. And he was like, I just wanna say thank you first. Like, most people aren't willing to say they can't do something.

Jen: Mm-hmm.

Culture Over Perks [32:00]

Todd: And they really appreciated it. So I think we've gotta get away too, as the owner or the top person or whatever, like you don't have to have all the answers to everything. You don't have to be able to do every single thing, and that's okay, and people will appreciate it.

Jen: So pretty much that's that scenario with blow drying is, is how we do everything. Then we come into. Like having them work, like I said, on models. And in the beginning I either help them find the models, 'cause I wanna source them for success. I want it to [00:38:00] be a personality match. I want it to be a hair type match.

Basically, I want wins to happen here. Right? So that they're, they're feeling great. They're not feeling, a lot really anxious about the personality that's sitting down. There's so many things. I generally, I want somebody with not super thick hair, so we're not talking about a ton of timing here. And those are paying models there.

We do a model education price and it's based off what their price will be when they're on the floor. So there's two things here. I want that stylist to understand what she will be charging. I want that client to understand what she will be paying when she's not a model, but also because you are a model and this is gonna take longer and we're gonna, we wanna take pictures.

There's so many other things we're doing here. You are gonna get a discounted rate. So this way, like I said, when that model, which usually

Todd: I hate that word, and so I have to object.

Jen: what?

Todd: It's a model price. It's not a discount.

Jen: whatever you want. I don't really care. Discounted rate model pricing, either way, it is a discount. So I want

Todd: I know it.

Jen: that because some people think model pricing is

Todd: I know it's.

Jen: $20.

So I, I wanna explain it as it's not just, it's $20 to get your hair done. It's off [00:39:00] of what their prices will be in the future, and the percentage you get off because you're being a model. So. Cool, however you say, it just, it's not a flat rate just because it will cover the color. The goal here is again, when they get back on the floor with real clients and they're not in education anymore, is that they feel comfortable with the prices that they're talking about.

Because like you said in the beginning, a lot of people have fear of just even talking about money and talking about prices. So this is part of the skillset. They're learning too. They understand what their prices will be, the person does, and what's becoming off coming off the top because they're being a model. Then it makes it very easy. So when they do come on the floor, now it's just, here we are, these are my prices. I'm used to saying them every day, and now I'm taking, my full books are open, blah, blah, blah, whatever you wanna say there. But that same process happens. So the other part that we transition is. Once they've got through a good amount of like their friends, their family, that has been their models. Some wins with clients I know. Now I want their next few models to be people they don't know. So like Madison, my [00:40:00] apprentice, she's almost halfway through her apprenticeship. I think that will be this month. So she has her first model on Thursday of someone she has never met in her life. I know who the client is. She has never met this client, so she understands now. Like, what needs to be brought? She's ready for this. Right? So this is her next step in her apprenticeship and learning is that it's a client you don't know.

How do you handle them? How do you deal with, with all of the things? I, she's gonna nail it, but it's, it's the next test. This is where this goes. We'll go from there. So again, we go through the model, like I said, that model phase first, and then there's the model phase second. and then as long as those things keep progressing and they can test out we're good to go.

Every, every however long they're adding services onto their menu. So organically they're just getting on the floor and it, it just feels so natural. And they're all little wins along the way. It's great. And of course you're gonna have hiccups, don't get me wrong. Anybody new is gonna have redos. Those are that, but it's Then how do you handle the redo?

We had one come in recently. A stylist has been with us a little bit. It was a haircut redo, so [00:41:00] season is gonna fix the haircut and then they're gonna get back to me on what was the problem with the haircut. In this case, someone just lost their guide. So I reach out with Todd on the message and just said, Hey, how did your hair come, come back in. I wanna work on some haircuts with you. Let me know when we can get together. I'm pretty sure you just lost your guide, but let's just reassess what happened with that haircut and that will just get her back on track to make sure she's killing it every time she does a haircut. No, no harm, no foul.

She was like, I'm so sorry. No need to be sorry. We're just gonna work on this. Right? And that's, that's the conversations we're always having. And it's really from a growth perspective, I want them to feel confident. I want them to think every time someone leaves, they did a great job. This could be a fluke, but let's just check in and just see what's going on here.

And I just wanna watch what you're doing and what your thought process is when you do these type of haircuts. it's part of being a leader and having those

Todd: I, I think it would help people to know too, if you're thinking about implementing an education program, like a real education program, not just like have people watch you, [00:42:00] it's helpful to know that this never ends. You are an educational salon forever, and that never changes. We recently had people that were like, we wanna offer extensions.

Great. They wanted to go to,, some of them wanted to go get certified through different brands. You can get certified through whatever you want. It doesn't mean you're coming on on my floor and doing extensions.

Jen: And we have a

Todd: I wanna,

Jen: too.

Todd: I wanna see that first and by, I wanna see that. I mean, Jen, I don't do extensions.

We as Hello , wanna see that. And we want to know what's going on because we have to be able to have your back should there be an issue. So if you struggle with a certain thing, Jen needs to know because she needs to be able to. Get in there and help you and make the client happy.

Jen: Yep.

Todd: We had somebody that wanted to do nails great.

We have a nail program kind of set up, so we needed to add, and by kind of set up, we had one person doing it, is what I mean. That wanted to do some nails. That's great. We're gonna have this [00:43:00] person oversee you to make sure you are working to our standard. And so it's constant and it's never. Go away. If you wanna offer a service that you've never done, you're not just trying it on a client.

It's not the way we do things. And I think that it gets a lot of buy-in from our staff. Actually. I know. I don't know why I said, I think, and I believe it gets a lot of buy-in from clients as well. 'cause they have started to trust us with new things. Now when we offered nails, people are like, oh, you offer nails.

They don't go Well, who's doing it?

Jen: Right.

Todd: It doesn't matter. They know that we have a standard. It's just like when we brought in some estheticians to do some waxing and lashes and things like that, they're not like, well, who's the person? They're just like, this is gonna be great, because they trust that we've put our name, Hello behind those people.

Jen: Now.

Todd: We've done our homework.

Jen: I talk, we talked a ton about,, basically creating that education system for the people that are newly coming into your business. Anybody who's comes into ours, no matter who you are, [00:44:00] has to do a model and. we've had some seasoned people come in and their model is gonna look different to me than a model of, of a hair pro that's coming outta school. Their model is I want them to feel comfortable working in our salon. I want them to be using the tech that we have in our salon, and I want them to be doing that. In a controlled atmosphere, not just weighing it like, oh, I'm, I've been here doing hair for 10 years, I'm gonna start tomorrow. Like, Nope, you need a model because let's make sure you can work clean.

You can do this. Do you understand how we clean our stuff? Do how to use V? Do how to use our eco heads? There's so many things that come into it. And again, I still need to see their. Skillset, like how do they work? Because when Todd and I get emails of clients like looking to be paired with somebody, if I don't know anything about and someone new I brought on, I don't know how to pair them so that that standard stays the same no matter what level you're at. to what Todd just said too, education is always evolving. So we have some people this year that are moving to a, they're getting a raise right next price point. But that. Next price point I needed to make sure where's their [00:45:00] standard of hair cutting today? 'cause I know where it was two years ago.

Where is it today? So they needed ongoing education, which looks different. It's a higher level. There's different things I'm looking for. There's new expectations I might have. So this is literally happening all the time.

Todd: I, it seems like a lot of work, and I think it will be a lot of work to get up and running, but once it's up and running, it'll evolve to fit whatever your culture is right at the salon.

Jen: And running a business is a lot of work. So it it either way, right? And it's just how you wanna handle it. And if you are, I guess, behind the chair and you're too busy, then you've got to find somebody that can take that on. But you're still gonna have to be part of that, in my opinion, because at the end of the day, it does fall back on your brand under your roof.

So you want a little bit of like hand in that education. I would imagine, but that's up to you how you wanna do it. I, I like it that way because I then when, like I said, if anything goes wrong [00:46:00] or even if there's successes, I'm like, yeah, I know on either side.

Final Thoughts [38:00]

Todd: So are you paying the people that are learning or the people that are teaching, or what does that look like? Because that's a question that I got recently.

Jen: Yeah, everybody gets paid. When you start out with us, it's hourly or commission whichever's greater. Like I said, we try to get you on the floor as quick as possible, so if you're doing enough blow dry every day that it, it reaches your commission rate over your hourly rate. You're getting commission.

That's just either or whichever one you hit. Good to go. How motivated are you? do a bunch of bull drives, you're gonna hit it. And if you don't, you're gonna at least get hourly. The people that are helping educate yes. They get paid for that too.

Todd: Okay. Another question I got is, and I think we already kind of touched on this, but I don't have time to teach a new stylist coming on all the time, but I have a stylist that loves to teach and is willing, not really a question, but a statement. So where, what would you advise there?

Jen: I mean, if, if you trust that person [00:47:00] again, I'd probably

Todd: Gonna say,

Jen: I'd oversee it a little bit. Like have

Todd: is that person up to your, truly up to a standard that you want representing your brand?

Jen: Right. Is that person, has she ever washed and blow dried your hair? I'd start there. 'cause at least if you're like, oh, you're wash and blow, dry is killer. Cool. And then can, can she teach that?

'cause? Just 'cause she can do it doesn't mean she can teach it. So you're still gonna have to do a little legwork here. I would work with her. You could probably do it pretty, pretty quickly if she loves to educate or maybe you pay attention a little bit more when she's with her clients. Like what is she talking about?

Is she. Educating them all the time. Right? So then you're like, oh, okay, this works. I have honestly people in other salons around the area that hire me to come in and teach their staff. So if you have an educator that's local that you've liked, you could consider that too. Some of these salons reach out, they could teach their staff.

They don't have time and they don't have anybody under their, their roof that. They feel comfortable. So they either hire me through my distributor and I come in, or they hire me independently and I come in and I do that too. I, I can do both. So you could find somebody like that. If you have somebody [00:48:00] in-house, I guess just start working with them.

Let make sure they understand the expectations of what you're looking for. And then, like I said, just check in every once in a while to make sure things are going the way you hoped or you had a vision for, or that you even like.

Todd: I would strongly recommend, 'cause I started doing this toward the end of when I had my gym, but documenting this stuff and doing, regular sort of assessments and you can figure it out, whatever you want. Like you could break, break down, for example, blow dry pressure, temperature these touch points, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, and rate it one through five.

How was that on those things? And then it doesn't matter where you are, if you're at a one, how do we get you to a two? Something like that. That's an easy way for you to go through and standardize your. And you are building an education program. So think about that and opportunities for the future there.

Your mic is off.

Nope, you're gone.[00:49:00]

Jen: I had a sip of water.

Todd: Okay.

Jen: I think too, you have to be willing to let people go. So we had hired a while back, a girl. She was great in the beginning. Little issues were coming up here and there, and I had some models booked for her, for her blow dry. had talked about a few things and then that morning she was just like, I'm just not feeling well.

I can't make it in Those models are booked. So I ended up having to figure out how to give these girls blow dry and whatever it was. And at that point I'm like, this just isn't a fit. This person is calling out more than she's here. Her progression was not as fast as I needed it to be. And. That's just the standards we have.

I, I need you to be here at a certain point. She couldn't meet those, so I had to let her go. Again, great girl, n nothing wrong just wasn't we needed her to be or at the level I needed her to be for the expectations we had. So you will come into those. Sometimes people keep people too long, like, oh, they'll get it.

They'll get it. Yeah, maybe they will, maybe they won't. But how much do you wanna put into, they'll get it. So you gotta see the red flags really quickly. If those things [00:50:00] don't fit into what your business is trying to create then you're gonna need to do something quicker, sooner than later.

Todd: Yeah, I think having those standardized like a form, like a sheet with like maybe five things that are one through five. We'll show you because it's like, okay, the last three times we did this, you've been at a two, you are not able to get to a three. Like, maybe you have one more shot to improve, but it, it gives you something tangible so that you're not just guessing.

Jen: And you don't wanna be putting more effort into someone than they're putting into you.

Todd: No, you gotta match that vibe. Anything else to add?

Jen: No, I don't think so. Reach

Todd: Okay.

Jen: help. I'm, I'm

Todd: Yeah.

Jen: to talk on all the points and I'm sure it does sound like a lot, we've been doing it for so long that I very much enjoy it. But if you if this sounds interesting to you and you want more help with it, I just reach out. Happy to help.

Todd: One last thing I'll say and then we can get outta here. I checked with Chat 22 states offer currently apprenticeships plus Washington, DC.[00:51:00]

Jen: okay.

Todd: there are 23 areas in the United States where you can do an apprenticeship, so less than half.

Jen: That's

Todd: And the reason I always bring that up is because people use the term interchangeably, and it doesn't offend me or anything, but I think it matters that we're using those terms.

They, these people aren't apprenticeships through the state or through the licensed board. I guess if you're in a state that doesn't do that, it doesn't matter how you use it, but a lot of people will use apprenticeships. They're, they'll hold people back. It's almost like having an assistant built in for the next like seven years.

Jen: It's insane.

Todd: And if you think I'm exaggerating, we've, we've seen some wild stuff and our, our goal at Hello, Jen and I is quite the opposite. I want you at a hundred dollars haircut, fully booked as fast as possible, and however, I have to get you there. I will help get you there, but you get want it to. All right. Any owners out there or anybody in general get on our email list?

And if you want [00:52:00] more, it's a weekly email list. Every Thursday it goes out, business insights, lots of fun stuff.

Jen: great.

Todd: And reach out if you wanna chat with Jen or I, or both of us and we'll help you out. All right, good, Jen.