Salon Success Secrets

The Most Powerful Tool For Your Leadership Tool Belt

• Lindsay Lowe & Jen Booth

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The most powerful tool in a salon owner's leadership toolkit is presence – the ability to truly notice what's happening with your team, clients, and business. When leaders are fully present, they transform routine services into exceptional experiences, turn complaints into opportunities, and help team members achieve their potential.

• Presence means being mentally engaged, not just physically in the building
• Running on autopilot causes salon owners to miss crucial revenue leaks
• A male client visited 52 times before receiving a truly personalized experience
• Presence allowed for turning an upset client's complaint into a larger sale through education
• Being present helps identify team members who are disengaging before it affects the business
• Leaders should coach through curiosity rather than force when addressing issues
• The leadership tool belt has two pouches: tangible tools (systems, metrics) and intangible tools (presence, curiosity)
• You cannot lead what you don't notice

If you want a team that doesn't need you hovering to succeed, check out Million Dollar Beauty Pro where we coach team-based salons to develop internal leadership skills that grow revenue and culture simultaneously.


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Speaker 1:

Welcome back to Salon Success Secrets Podcast. Today we are excited to talk to you owner to owner, because you know whether you have six beauty pros or 406 beauty pros, you know the truth is the way that you show up as a leader is the single biggest multiplier, or limiter, really of your salons results.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, and it's not about how many meetings you host, how good your marketing is or even how skilled your team is. You know the most powerful and this is so good. This is a writer downer the most powerful tool that you can carry in your leadership tool belt is actually presence. And so what is presence, you're probably wondering. And so presence is your ability to notice.

Speaker 1:

Yes, man, that is truly the most powerful tool that you can have in your leadership tool belt, because when you start to notice things like you notice your team, you notice your business, you notice what's being said, but maybe even more importantly, what's not being said, because presence is what lets you step in at the right time. You know in the right way to turn a near miss into a total win. And you know, today we're going to break this down. We're going to share a few stories, a few wins. You know even some hard lessons and show you exactly how noticing can make or break your results as an owner.

Speaker 2:

Yeah. So let's first let's clear the word. Let's clear the word presence. So presence isn't being here in the building. You know presence is being in the building with your, with your attention engaged. So think about this. As owners, we can be physically in the salon, but mentally in payroll scheduling, marketing or even next week's coaching call. You know, the problem is is that, as a salon owner, when you run on autopilot, you know you miss the things that are quietly costing you money, culture and clients. You know you miss the stylist who stopped rebooking because she lost confidence. You miss the front desk person who you know dropped her upselling because she doesn't believe the treatments are worth it anymore. So presence is the thing that you lead in real time before a small slip turns into a revenue leak. Yeah, yeah, so good.

Speaker 2:

You know, linda it got me thinking about. Um, this just actually uh, happened in um, uh, in our salon. You know, there was a situation we had where a guest came in, uh, for a regular short haircut. It was a guy, a male, and you know, you know, our team just was on autopilot. So it was like you know, what guard do you want to use today? How short, how much do you want me to take off the top? And somebody came to me and said, jen, can you help me, help me decide on what guard to use? And I said, sure, absolutely Right.

Speaker 2:

And so we went out there and I remember this guest he's and I said, you know, instead of making it about the card, let's kind of look at his face shape, let's look at his bone structure and let's give him some new ideas. I mean, he's 21 years old, he's getting ready to start his career. Let's give him some ideas. And so we looked at his face shape and the stylist went to work. They did a beautiful job. We talked him into going a little shorter on the sides and styling it a little bit different. And I remember, like, when she spun him around, I was kind of walking by and he was like wow, like, wow, this is amazing. This is an experience. This just wasn't wasn't just a haircut, this was an experience.

Speaker 2:

And you know she even talked to him about product and how to style his hair and it got me thinking, you know, I said you know, she even talked to him about product and how to style his hair and it got me thinking, you know, I said you know he's been coming here a while. Let me just see how many times has he come here. And it was like he had come here 51 times. We had missed the mark 51 times before he had taken home, taking home a home hair care. So it was a great, a huge opportunity, you know, to look at our systems and see, hey, let's make sure this never happens again.

Speaker 2:

Why did it take 52 times to? You know, make sure that he had that look that he wanted. And so when you think about that, you know it's really like working with your team and helping them understand, like face shape, you know, helping them understand, you know their strengths and helping them understand communication and helping them see like truly being present in the moment is what set this guest up for success. Like he didn't know it was presence, but because we were really present with him and we really created this personalized look for him. You know, it gave him that wow factor 52 visits later, it gave him that wow factor. You arrived.

Speaker 1:

Hey, you nailed it, you know, and, honestly, that's what's so inspirational about that story, jen, is that, um, I think, if we were all honest, there's probably times where I mean, you were obviously doing so many things. Right for him to keep showing up 52 times, you know. But then, when you created that transformation, like that's a testament to the company that you're creating and and you know, truly, the leadership and the and the people you know, just them getting to see that transformation, that new stylist getting to see like, hey, wow, this truly is about that total look. And when I look at somebody's face shape and truly think about that total look, how much it does just transform everything. You know, and and we actually just had, you know, something happen in our salon recently too, you know, and I think a lot of salon owners will be able to relate to this. We, you know, same with that story as well.

Speaker 1:

Just recently had a lady who called in. She brought her young daughter in to get some pink in her hair and she's an avid swimmer, and you know. So the stylist, you know, thought that she set it up properly by saying, hey, we don't know how long this is going to last in her hair it could only last one wash, uh, cause you didn't want to pre-lighten the hair and, um, you know, for whatever reason, the client didn't understand. Um, you know that chlorine could be a natural bleach on the hair. Anyway, there was, uh, some sort of a miscommunication and I think sometimes, you know, it doesn't necessarily mean that your team member has bad intentions, but sometimes it can get to a place where you feel like somebody has got to be right and somebody has got to be wrong. In a situation. You know, and I think what's powerful when you are in a leadership role is seeing, like, hey, you know, we are here on a mission and the most important thing is that our guests feels beautiful inside and out. And you know, hey, we can look back and we can say, hey, what maybe happened during the consultation? Why was there a breakdown? Why did she think something different than what we did? But the truth was, this client called back and she was upset. She wanted her money back and it actually took a long time for us to connect. She travels quite a bit and anyway, we played phone tag. Finally we got connected again.

Speaker 1:

She was coming back in for a refresh on the daughter's color and so I got to connect with her before it even got started and what was so interesting was that she started out so upset about the color washing out after one shampoo. She said, you know, yeah, they told us it might only last one shampoo. We didn't even shampoo it, the hair just got wet, you know. And you know, I think, yeah, we can laugh at that because we're like, well, that's the same. You know you use shampoo to get the pH back and you know, offer the nutrition and all that stuff. But that's on us If we weren't educating properly. That's on us that they didn't understand that.

Speaker 1:

And you know, after uncovering more about the situation, you know she was a big swimmer and you know she was in chlorine, and so then we talked about, hey, what would it look like if we added in, you know, either some K tips or, you know, a couple sandwiches? You know some sort of extension into her hair. And what happened was, you know, at the end of our conversation, you know, when I explained to her hey, hair is like fabric, you know, and and chlorine is like bleach, you know. And so when we're going into the chlorine a lot, it's, it's really, you know, bleaching out that fabric and so after a while it's hard for it to hold on to the color. It's almost like you know, if you were wearing a silk blouse and you got a stain on it, versus wool and you got a stain on it, you would treat them differently. They're going to hold on to different things differently. Some are going to stain easier, some are going to be easier to clean up.

Speaker 1:

And she was like wow, nobody has ever explained any of this to me. Nobody has ever explained to me about shampoo. And she's like we want to get extensions today and we totally understand what's going on. And you know that story isn't for me to say wow, lindsay was the hero of this, but what it is to say is I was just present to what was going on and, instead of going in to make it right or wrong, I just went in to understand, like, hey, help me understand.

Speaker 1:

You know, what you understood you know could happen with you know, once we put the pink in her hair and then, you know, and then we just came to this conclusion together and really, truly, that's just a testament to being present as a leader and not looking for somebody to be right or wrong and just looking for hey, how can I help this person win? How can I look for a solution that's going to be long-term, it's not just going to be a quick fix bandaid. I'm not just trying to, you know. It's not only about money here. This is truly about transformation. If, if she wants pink hair, hey, when I was 10 or 12 or 14 or however old she was, and I wanted to pink hair, I probably would have, would have wanted pink hair no matter what. So how can we create that, look for that client and help her win, um, you know, and still make it a win for all of us?

Speaker 2:

That is, oh man, that's so good. I love that. It's like, really, if you're present in that moment, you, you took Lindsay, you took a upset guest and made them spend more money. What, though? You know, that is so huge, you guys, and so, like, that is the power, like Lindsay was saying, of being present to what's happening and then teaching this to your team too, because a lot of times they're so in their own heads that they can't even see what's truly possible, and so to be able to, you know, work on that mindset with them, wow, that's so huge. You know, it's like we said owner to owner. So I'm going to give you another story, too, to let you really understand the power of presence.

Speaker 2:

This came in, this happened to you at our salon, and you let you really understand the power of presence. Um, this came in, um, this happened to you at our salon, and you know, I watched the new guests come in and did the salon tours, all the touch points, the sales process. Um, she sits down, you know, and she goes through the service writer, starts going through the consultation, and then I noticed I can just feel that the that, the um, um, that the guest is just not super excited about the price, right, and so I see her look at the price and because we do a cost before we create and then I see her like you can tell she's wanting to take things off of the price, which is that's why we do the costing before we create. But then I see the service provider do the skin tone analysis and the face shape analysis after the fact that we gave her the prize right, and his owners are probably laughing. You're like yeah, I've seen this too, and it was just like wow, we missed the mark. Just think about this from a guest perspective. If we would have helped her understand the value. Like, hey, we're going to give you a really personalized look today, based on your face shape, based on your dna, based on your bone structure, and this is what it will look like. You know, most people probably 98 percent of people are going to buy into that because it gives their life value, and so it was just really interesting. You know, I even said I asked her service. We laugh about this now.

Speaker 2:

She said, well, she didn't want the haircut. I said, okay, well, tell me how, how you served her, and and and letting her know that the haircut could be a great opportunity for her. She said well, I told her, since we're lightening your hair, you should probably come in for a haircut soon. And I chuckled and I said, oh goodness.

Speaker 2:

I said this is, this is the power of presence. I said so this is what I heard. You told her basically hey, we damaged your hair, but you can come back and see me and pay for a haircut soon. And she started laughing and I started laughing, which released a lot of charge. But I was like what if we talked about your face shape and your and her bone structure and said, hey, look at that beautiful jawline you have. If we took your curtain veins and made them here, look how that opens up up your face shape? I said, which one do you think would serve the guests more? The? Hey, I bleached your hair, pay me some more money to cut it. Or like hey, here's a personalized look. And that is not possible if you are not present. And so just a really cool story I wanted to share with you guys to show the power of presence.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, that is an incredible story, jen, and and it is so true. You know, because I think you know, I'm sure people are like Jen, you're so beautiful or you know sharing that with whoever but truly, when you're present, every single human being that you look at has their own special beauty. Like you mentioned, that's tied to their DNA, their bone structure, their natural coloring, and so when we can help people really create that environment where they're super present, they can see that they can start to enhance them so that that way, that person walks through the world with more confidence Cause probably when they're saying, hey, jen, you're beautiful, they're probably actually saying I love your confidence, you know, and so how can we help deliver that to people? You know, I think it's also, you know, an area where presence changes. Your like retention. You know, and I'm not just talking about with clients, cause obviously we've shared some great stories with how. How does it impact your client retention, but how does it impact your team retention, your client retention, but how does it impact your team retention? You know, because I can think of so many stories over the years. You know where presence really was the most powerful tool uh, that that really helped unlock some new ways. And and hey, that doesn't mean you're going to keep everybody, cause we would never. We're not proponents of like hey, you're going to keep every single person for life. Uh, because we are here on a human experience. So there's, it's, there is going to be sometimes with certain people and into the road with them, and that's okay.

Speaker 1:

You know, I remember one time I had a you know service provider who was visibly disengaging, you know, and I think at one point in time with my leadership, I maybe would have just ignored it. Actually, probably what would have happened is, you know, at that point in time I was working so many hours behind the chair doing so many roles inside the salon. So, you know, if that's you and you can relate to it, you're like gosh, I'm so busy I don't even see kind of what's going on with the team. Or maybe somebody is filling you in like hey, lindsay, did you know so-and-so has such and such, blah, blah, blah. You know that's a pretty good sign.

Speaker 1:

Like, hey, I need to get super present during, you know, those meaningful times that I am with every beauty pro on the team or service provider on the team, because you know, when you start to pay attention in huddles, like hey, who's engaged and who's, you know, disengaged, but also who's actively disengaged, because you know those are the type of people who you do not want on your team because, truly, your salon is a temple and you don't want people walking in and out with dirty feet. And so when you um start to notice things like that, having that presence will give you the ability to act. So, just like when I noticed once upon a time that I had this, this service provider, on my team, um, you know her numbers were dropping, she was missing meetings. You know she, her, her pre-book percentage was going down, you know it would have been really easy for me to avoid the hard conversation and just hope that it got better. Or, you know, sprinkle in some like hey, here's some ideas on how to get your pre-books up, or whatever.

Speaker 1:

But you know, presence truly told me to act.

Speaker 1:

And you know, one day I was just like hey, like we sat down and we talked honestly and ultimately we agreed it was best to part ways.

Speaker 1:

And you know, truly, what it did was free her to find a better fit, because I know the service that we want to create for our guests and I know how important continuing education is and showing up for our salon celebrations, our team meetings, you know, and you know if this is somebody who isn't seeing the value in that and they aren't truly trying to create that transformation. It's not my place to decide if they're a good or a bad person, but it is my place to decide if they're a good or a bad person, but it is my place to decide if they're a good or a bad fit for our company. You know keeping that temple clean and making sure there's not dirty feet coming in and out, and so, truly, you know, once we were able to release her, it really made the energy increase. So much you know. But really, if I wasn't present and I was avoiding that moment, that would have cost us far more by keeping her on the team and not not coaching for her to find an opportunity somewhere else. So good.

Speaker 2:

So let's, let's give you some tools of like coaching through curiosity, so that when you are present as a leader, it's like okay, what's the action I can take to maybe change the service provider's behavior or help them see a different perspective, because they just need those tools and their tool belt so to get actionable. When you notice something like you notice that the client no longer wanted a haircut, no longer wanted this, you know you start asking question. Maybe you know, um, tell me what stopped you, or why do you think they are? What stopped them from getting the haircut? Oh, and I think the response was oh, her mom does hair, she just don't want to pay for it. But I bet her mom's never even given her a face shape analysis or a DNA analysis.

Speaker 2:

And so when you're present to these kinds of opportunities, when you see something, say something and give someone, you know um, that coach, coaching moment from a place of power you guys do not place for force, not like why didn't she get a haircut? Come on now, don't? You know like you never want to come from that place, um, but you know, when you notice that the sales are dropping or offers are not being made, or you know retail is slipping, just don't jump to assumptions. You know, get curious, be like curious, george.

Speaker 2:

I like to say and asking those questions, like I said earlier, like what's stopping you from offering that treatment, or what's your thought process when you're deciding what to recommend? Because, truly, nine out of 10 times you'll find the issue isn't skill, it's actually a belief, it's confidence and it's an and it's an understanding, and once you know that, you can actually coach.

Speaker 1:

Hmm, man, that is so powerful, jen, you know, and when you said that it really made me think, like I think that the key difference between being a powerful leader versus being a forceful leader is that a powerful leader is curious, like you mentioned. That is like they know, that's their super strength, you know, and a forceful leader, they are very statement and action oriented and do this, do that, like they strike out things to do and and and. They're very statement oriented, so they don't get curious, they don't try to, they don't try to understand what's happening or what that belief is. So I love that. You said that, jen, that that's a writer downer. That's a really powerful tool to to be curious, george. So if you want to, jen, that that's a writer downer, that's a really powerful tool to to be curious, george. So if you want to, hey, if you want to fast track your way to being a powerful leader, speaking questions, get curious. And if you want to fast track your way to be a forceful leader, just start barking out things and you'll be exhausted. So good luck.

Speaker 1:

But here, you know, is a visual that we want to leave you with, because we want you to picture your leadership tool belt. You know one pouch can hold like the tangible tools, so like your systems, your you know standard operating procedures, your metrics, like the numbers, all of that stuff. But you know another pouch holds the intangible tools. You know this is where presence is. This is where you know, you start noticing, this is where curiosity is, this is where trust lives. And you know, most salon owners live in that first pouch. But the salons that grow without burning out their leaders, they use both. You know, and if you're listening and thinking, you know this is what I've been missing. You know I want a team that doesn't need me hovering to succeed. That's exactly why we built Million Dollar Beauty Pro. You know it's where we coach team-based salons everyone on the team to develop their internal leadership skills that grow the revenue and culture at the exact same time.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, wow. And we're not talking about just systems, not just sales, but the presence and coaching skills that make your systems work. And so if you want to see how or what that could look like in your salon, let's talk, because the truth is, you cannot lead what you don't notice. So good, let me say that again. The truth is you cannot lead what you don't notice. So stay present, stay powerful and keep building something beautiful.