November 4, 2025 • 31 mins
What if your clients chose your salon for the experience and results, not the name on the station? We sit down with Cindy Reynolds, owner of Mermaid Hair Extensions in Seattle and Kirkland, to unpack a brand-first, team-based model that turns marathon extension services into a smooth, three-hour transformation. Instead of booking a stylist, guests book the salon. The calendar reads “Team Mermaid,” the pricing is transparent and all-inclusive, and the systems guarantee speed, consistency, and hospitality.
Cindy walks us through the mechanics: two to three stylists on a service, overlapping roles, and an apprenticeship pipeline that keeps prep and finishing seamless. When a client cancels or someone calls out, the brand absorbs the shock—appointments aren’t tied to a single person, so the promise holds. That reliability survived a full post-pandemic rebuild and fueled a 65% surge in 2022. The Starbucks analogy applies: people return for the product and experience, even if their favorite barista moves on; consistency builds trust, and trust builds retention.
We also dig into hiring and culture. Candidates choose between building a solo brand or joining a salaried team with strong benefits, paid medical, a 401k match, and predictable income. Mermaid offers flexibility—unlimited unpaid time off with notice—while holding firm to full-day shifts and daily huddles that keep the machine aligned. With high-ticket packages, a 1.5 stylists-per-column cadence, and clear roles, the business funds education, travel, and a real career path. Most importantly, the mission stays front and center: give women more hair, more confidence, and more joy—those “hugs and tears” moments that make the work matter.
If you’re ready to strengthen client loyalty, stabilize your book, and elevate your team’s careers, this conversation lays out the playbook. Subscribe, share with a salon owner who needs fresh thinking, and leave a review to tell us which system you’ll try first.
To learn more about how Strategies can help you create more profit, fun, and growth potential for you, your business, and your team, schedule a free 60-minute strategy session:
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
SPEAKER_00 (00:06):
All right.
Welcome everyone to the BeautyBusiness Strategies Podcast.
I am Michael Yost.
And today I am joined by twoamazing guests.
One is uh Brett Pierce, uh theowner, the leader of strategies.
You know, he's getting on thispodcast thing, and we're glad to
(00:26):
have him uh with us today.
And as always, we always want tofind someone that's amazing, uh
amazing business leaders andowners out there.
And today we are joined by CindyReynolds.
Cindy, how are you?
SPEAKER_01 (00:40):
I'm great, thank you.
Happy to be here.
SPEAKER_00 (00:42):
Awesome, but glad to have you.
So uh as we always start outwith, hey, listen, Cindy, for
those that might not know you,and shame on you if you do not
know Cindy, uh, because sheknows everybody.
But with that in mind, Cindy orCindy, for those that don't know
you, why don't you catcheveryone up to speed?
Just a brief introduction aboutyou, your business.
(01:03):
Give us the overview.
SPEAKER_01 (01:05):
Okay, so I'm Cindy Reynolds.
I own a salon called MermaidHair Extensions.
We actually have two locations.
One is in downtown Seattle andone is right outside Seattle in
Kirkland, Washington.
Um, it's a specialty salon.
We just do hair extensions.
We do a little call or two, butour main focus is extensions.
I just love the idea of justdoing one thing really well and
(01:26):
um services and products thatsupport those services.
SPEAKER_00 (01:30):
Awesome.
Awesome.
So we'll probably talk a littlebit more about the business
itself along the way here, alongour journey.
But I think one of the kind ofunique things that kind of talk
about, because again, we alwayslook for kind of a unique angle.
And, you know, one of the uniquethings I think is about as we
were as again, we always kind oftalk before we get the podcast
(01:51):
going uh about some things, butthere's something I think that
really stands out that's veryunique about your business.
And when you started talkingabout your business from a team
standpoint, uh we saw thepassion and the fire come right
to the surface uh right away andwhat you feel strongly about.
So, you know, let's start withthat.
Let's kind of dive in rightthere because I think that's a
(02:12):
great anchor point for us as wethink about.
Again, I think people come tothis podcast as they're looking
to say, how can I grow strongerteams?
And how can we be more, how canwe strengthen just team as a in
general uh in our companies?
And again, you you have a verykind of uh somewhat, I would
say, somewhat definitely uniqueapproach, but also some real
(02:34):
passion in that.
So when we say team to you,Cindy, what comes to where's
your mind?
SPEAKER_01 (02:41):
Good question.
Okay, well, I really wanted tocreate a company that was really
an authentic, unique, originalconcept in the salon industry.
Um that was a team-basedapproach.
And when I really wanted to doan extension salon, one of the
reasons why people don't gethair extensions is because the
(03:02):
service itself takes a reallylong time.
It's a long process.
One service provider can takesix to eight hours doing hair
extensions.
So I thought, well, what if wedid a team approach and we had a
team of two or three stylistsdoing that same service?
You could get the service doneso much quicker.
And that just made sense to me.
(03:22):
And so um, we've basically builtthe whole thing based on a
couple of stylists working at aas a team on the clients to make
the process go faster.
And that's that's basically howwe um when we take client
(03:43):
appointments at the salon, themain difference between us and
another salon that also othersalons might say they're
team-based, but the way we do itis the client makes an
appointment with the salon, notthe individual service provider.
And then that just requires alot of communication and notes,
and we have to everybody has todo things really consistently
(04:05):
and work together as a team, butthey are paid as a team, they
are not paid individually.
So that's how that's how we'reable to accomplish that.
SPEAKER_00 (04:14):
I love it.
So let's let that sit in forjust a second.
When we talk about, you know,because I know a lot of people
right now are thinking, did Ijust hear that right?
So what we're saying is whenthey call up to book an
appointment, they're not bookingwith Brett, they're not booking
with Michael, they're notbooking with Cindy, they're
booking with the business.
SPEAKER_01 (04:33):
That's right.
SPEAKER_00 (04:34):
Give me a little bit more about like I hear the
concept of it, but give me likerun through how that actually
works.
SPEAKER_01 (04:39):
Okay.
Think about it like this.
You go to Starbucks, it's yourfavorite Starbucks, you go there
all the time, and you you go inand you say hi and you get your
coffee and you love yourexperience.
And the next time you go back,you don't see Joe, the usual
(05:00):
barista that serves you.
And you're like, oh, whathappened to Joe?
Oh, well, Joe left.
He's working in another coffeeshop down the street.
Oh, that's too bad.
You're gonna miss Joe.
But you're not gonna go try tofind Joe.
You're not gonna take all yourbusiness to another coffee shop.
No, because you love the placeyou go, you love the Starbucks
(05:20):
for whatever reason.
Yes, you might miss the barista,but your coffee is gonna turn
out exactly the same, eventhough the new barista is making
your coffee that day.
And when you take it a stepfurther and think when you leave
a tip, are you leaving a tip forthe cashier?
Or are you leaving a tip for thegirl that made your coffee?
(05:40):
Or are you leaving a tip justbecause you like the experience
and the environment ofStarbucks?
No, you're leaving a tip basedon the whole thing.
You're not leaving it for justfor that one service provider.
So I kind of took that wholeconcept and said, why can't we
do that in the salon?
Because what devastates a salonowner more than losing their top
(06:01):
service providers and losing aservice provider that takes
business with them, even worse,taking a walkout where several
stylists leave at once and takeyour business and can devastate
a salon.
So I heard Neil Dukoff say yearsago build a company where the
clients are loyal to the brand,not the individual service
(06:25):
providers.
And that just made so much senseto me.
And I thought if I ever own asalon again, because I had owned
an owned commission of salonsbefore, if I ever open another
salon, it's gonna be thatconcept.
So I had that in my mind.
And then when I discovered hairextensions, I was like, okay,
this is gonna be a thing.
(06:46):
We're gonna do a team-basedapproach, we're gonna pay them
as a team, we're gonna have theentire brand supporting this
service that we do.
And so from the beginning, wejust never, we never made
appointments based with acertain service provider.
And we just, if clients everask, we just go, Oh, that's just
not how we do it here.
(07:08):
Simple.
I think it might be difficult.
I know it's difficult for asalon that has done things the
other way all these years.
I can't even imagine what thatwould be like, switching it.
That would probably be reallydifficult, if not impossible.
But when I opened Mermaid, Ijust opened it that way.
And I just said, well, that'sjust how we do it here.
(07:30):
And it's nobody's everquestioned it.
That's just our brand.
I just created the brand thatway.
SPEAKER_02 (07:35):
That is the strongest approach to no
compromise that I've ever seen.
I mean, I I love it because youknow, it's it's such a black and
white approach to it.
This is what we're gonna do, andthis is how we're gonna do it.
And it is it's so honest.
I mean, there's there's suchhonesty and authenticity in the
(07:56):
approach to, and I have I'veI've thought of the Starbucks as
an example before, but not tothe level that you were saying
it, Cindy.
I mean, just to think of youcome to that brand because that
brand impressed you, but thenpeople will go to a brand
(08:16):
because they've heard about thebrand and they go there and they
get connected to one person, butthen it blurs the lines between
why are you truly there?
And the companies, you know, thecompanies that are very
successful with it create theexperience.
They go beyond just customerservice.
Customer service is what youexpect to receive, hospitality
is when you go above and beyond.
(08:37):
Your experience is thedifference between a roller
coaster ride at a localamusement park versus a roller
coaster ride at Disney.
You know, why would somebodyspend what they would at Disney?
They had the same roller coasterride, but they had the
experience.
And I love how how you put allof that together.
(09:00):
And, you know, we've had somewild things happen in the last
five or six years, right?
And I've heard of companieschanging the way in which they
might do business because ofshutdowns and that type of
stuff, but it doesn't seem likethat affected you.
Is it is that is that am Icorrect?
Is it like you guys just steppedright back into who you were
(09:20):
after that and just kept onstaying?
SPEAKER_01 (09:23):
You mean after COVID?
SPEAKER_02 (09:24):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (09:25):
Well, I had a pretty devastating situation, just like
everybody else.
Um, but we landed on our feet.
I was able to re completelyrehire in my state, in
Washington state at least, theywere all getting unemployment
and they were getting thefederal unemployment, and nobody
wanted to work in it.
I would say I pretty much had ahundred percent turnover within
(09:49):
between 2020 and 2021.
You know, I mean, we really hadto start from scratch team-wise,
um, probably just like everybodyelse.
But in 2022, we had a 65%increase in growth.
So, I mean, we were able to landon our feet, and I think it's
because the brand, the, thebrand consistency and and people
(10:13):
knew what was out there.
And we were able to build itback up.
And the same again to keep goingback to Starbucks.
The salon owner or the Starbucksowner, even if you had 100%
walkout, you would just hiremore people.
Because guess what?
People are lined up to want towork at Starbucks.
They pay amazing benefits, it'sa great place to work.
(10:34):
You make really good money.
So I it wasn't, I was gonna sayit wasn't hard, but I was able
to rebuild um and be verysuccessful because I had already
had the structure and the brandand the uh consistency and brand
awareness in our market.
SPEAKER_02 (10:53):
Well, I love that because you weren't frozen by
fear in any way, form, orfashion.
You just kept on going.
I have that leads me to uh myother question, which is kind of
just worked perfectly into it,just segued into it.
When it comes to talking topotential staff, somebody that
might come to work with you, um,how do you explain to them the
(11:16):
difference in working in a trueteam-based environment versus
where they would have beenbefore?
SPEAKER_01 (11:22):
Yeah, that's a really good question.
I do explain that.
And I go into beauty schools andI try to explain this a lot.
So you're going to have a choiceto make.
You're going to want to decideand ask yourself, are you the
kind of person that wants to beuh independent, uh independent
um uh business owner?
Do you want to have create yourown brand?
(11:43):
Do you have that hustlementality?
Do you want to go out there andbuild your own thing and not
just work at a suite situation,but even a booth rent salon and
even to some extent in acommission-based salon?
You're gonna be your own person.
You're gonna wanna um thesalon's gonna tell you to build
your own social media, have yourown brand, build your own
clientele.
(12:03):
Is that does that appeal to you?
The sky the limit money-wise,does that appeal to you?
Great.
Tons of people, super successfulat that.
Or are you the kind of personthat really would prefer the
stability of a regular paycheck,a hundred percent 401k match and
amazing benefits, paid time off,paid 100% paid medical care.
(12:28):
I mean, and a really good salarythat will be consistent.
You'll know you'll be able tomake your car payment this
month.
You don't have to worry aboutthe business being slow.
Nobody's gonna tell you to godrum up business because you're
not gonna be responsible forgrowing your own clientele.
We have standards, of course,but I'm just I'm not saying
that's for everybody, but thereare there are different kinds of
(12:50):
people in the world.
And there are a lot of peoplethat really just want to go to
work and go home at night andnot take take all the problems
of owning your own business homewith you, booking the clients,
getting paying all the bills,ordering the supplies.
You want to do all that?
Great, do that.
But if you don't, and you justwant to have a really great job
(13:11):
in a really cool company whereeverybody's part of the same
team with opportunity forgrowth.
I don't know.
I I got a pretty good pile ofresumes over here.
SPEAKER_00 (13:24):
I love this, and I love for I love the passion, but
what really is jumping off thepage at me is because I always
look for the the fact that,like, all right, well, you know,
I always want everything that wedo with podcasts at least have a
takeaway to say, what did Icatch there?
What did I learn?
Here's my takeaway is when youbuild a brand, and I'm gonna
(13:48):
stay with that word becauseyou've said it a number of
times, and it really is so true.
When you when you stay, here'swhat I want to create, here's
the business I want to create,here's the brand I want to
create.
And again, you go to the factthat we're not going to
compromise on what that lookslike, that is such a powerful,
(14:11):
powerful thing.
And you've done a great way ofshowing that that doesn't have
to be anything heavy or anythingthat's uh, I think sometimes
when we start talking like thisin certain ways, we can think,
oh, that I've got to be thisheavy-fisted, this and that, and
the other.
It's like, no, like what youjust said is no, we're staying
true to who we are, and eitheryou want to be a part of it or
(14:34):
you don't.
We're not meant to be foreveryone, right?
But we are looking for this kindof person.
And I know, at least for myselfright now, I'm already thinking,
oh, you know, hey, listen, can Ilearn to do extensions?
Maybe uh moving out west wouldbe a cool, cool move.
I don't know.
And I gotta partner up, workyour way.
But I love that, and so I thinkin a this goes back to even at
(14:56):
the beginning when you were justsharing right out of the gate,
just that ability.
So I think the one thing I justwant to point out is for those
listening, is this idea of whereare you with your brand and how
you are loyal to what you wantedto create, or is it or does it
(15:16):
move with the sands?
You know what I mean?
Like, and you know what?
Like you just said, like Cindysaid, I love that you pointed
out, like, no, hey, listen,COVID sucked, kind of devastated
us, had a complete turnover, hadto go find new.
But it was, you know, again, notthat that was, as you said, not
easy.
Wasn't fun, I'm sure.
No one's gonna describe thatmoment as fun, but we didn't
(15:39):
compromise what we knew, andhere we are.
Like I said, the year after, asyou're saying, 65% growth and
and continued.
And and here's where our here'swhere we are at this point.
So I think that's really, reallysuper like really powerful.
Um, you know, so you mentionedsome.
I want to tap into that a littlebit.
(15:59):
You mentioned the idea of, hey,one of the ways we just
reinforce our brand is eventhrough how we book.
Uh, and you already kind oftalked about that.
We don't book for people, webook for.
I'm gonna assume basically whatyou do is I'll describe it this
way for those still kind oftuning into that, is that you
book as a resource.
So, hey, we have this chair orthis room or whatever, right?
(16:20):
This is what's available, and wedon't have the name behind it.
We have availability with withthis area, this resource where
we perform our service.
Um, would that be accurate tosay it that way?
SPEAKER_01 (16:33):
Yes, in that we will we use Forest.
And so at the top of everycolumn, it doesn't have a
person's name.
SPEAKER_00 (16:40):
Okay.
SPEAKER_01 (16:41):
It just says Team Mermaid.
So, and we have a really uniquepricing model that's very
transparent and very easy andsimple for clients to book.
So, we sell extensions as apackage.
So, our most our most commonlybooked thing is our classic
mermaid, our classic mermaidhair extension package.
The booking system knows to bookthree hours for that.
(17:04):
That is for a full head ofextensions, and it includes
everything.
That one price that is listed,include that we advertise to the
public.
It's 1995.
That includes everything.
It includes shampooing, puttingthe hair in, the package they
take home to take care of theirhair, free follow-up visits,
free removal.
It's the whole thing.
It's very transparent and it'svery simple.
(17:27):
And it's that's very unique.
I know, I know there's a bigtrend right now in our industry.
I don't know what strategiesfeeling is on it, but the big
thing that's out there right nowis this whole idea of um parts
and labor.
I personally hate the parts andlabor model.
I think that the client doesn'twant to hear about how many uh
(17:50):
how you're gonna take longer tocharge me more.
I mean, I just think it justdoesn't sit well with me.
So again, it all comes back tobrand consistency.
Know who your target demographicis.
Our target client is a woman whohas some money to spend on
something extra like hairextensions.
(18:12):
And guess what she is?
She's busy and she does not haveeight hours to go sit in a salon
and get her hair done.
So our brand is about fun, um,energy, a team, a fast approach.
It's not fancy.
So the difference between thatas say, say your knowing your
(18:34):
own brand and say your brand isthis elegant, luxury spa, then
kind of chill with the chillwith the crystal chandeliers.
Great.
Know that that's your brand.
It's not, you're not gonna wantto rush your client.
She wants to spend six to eighthours.
Somebody who likes that andrelaxing, pampering atmosphere.
(18:57):
Go ahead and take eight hours onher.
That's not our brand.
Our brand is for busy women,regular women that just want
more hair.
Our tagline is the salon thatgives you more hair.
So we are just we are not, youknow, um, we're just focused on
knowing our brand, knowing whowe're marketing to, and creating
(19:19):
an an environment that's easyand simple for the client to
book that appointment.
SPEAKER_02 (19:24):
I love it.
I love it too.
I love it too.
I think what's really awesomeabout it is you're right.
Um, people don't necessarilyunderstand parts and labor.
You're getting them into thebusiness side of it, but we can
know that we have to spend somuch on parts and we know we
have labor.
But for the client, the clientjust wants to know, hey, that's
(19:45):
all great, but I just want toknow how much we want to spend.
SPEAKER_01 (19:47):
How much is it gonna cost?
How long is it gonna take?
How long are they gonna last?
SPEAKER_02 (19:50):
That's it.
That's it.
And and we with hair color, wedon't tell them it's gonna cost
them parts of labor with haircolor, you know.
And get I know there's a vastdifference in pricing and cost
there, but that's not somethingwe do there.
I wanted to talk on the factthat you have more than one
person touching them at the sametime.
Instead of it being six to eighthours for one single person,
(20:12):
you've got a couple hours formultiple people.
And does how do you feel thatthat protects the appointment
book better from cancellationsand the fact, you know, somebody
goes, You wiped out six toseven, six to eight hours on one
person because that personcanceled or something happened.
Do you feel like it protects theappointment book better?
SPEAKER_01 (20:35):
Yeah, probably, because um, if Susie's day
didn't just get wiped out withher cancellation, she has
something else to do.
She'll go help out the othercolumns that are on the books,
certainly.
Um and also if Susie calls insick, we don't have to call and
cancel that client either.
(20:55):
The other, the rest of the teamjust absorbs it.
Well, I would never call aclient and cancel an appointment
for them because she made anappointment with our business.
She didn't make an appointmentwith her schedule.
I mean, that's not gonna ever bebeholden to one style of
schedule.
We are gonna be consistent, andthat's how you build trust.
Consistency builds trust.
(21:17):
So if you make an appointment atnine o'clock, we're not gonna
call and tell you, oh, Julie'sout sick today, we're gonna have
to reschedule for Thursday.
That client is gonna find someother salon to go to.
SPEAKER_00 (21:27):
Right.
SPEAKER_01 (21:28):
So we want to be consistent, and that's how you
build client loyalty.
SPEAKER_00 (21:33):
I love that you bring that up.
I bet you, yeah, I mean,something that just hit me too
is uh what's so, and I thinkthis just so your approach
addresses it so I think easily,but you can correct me if I if
I'm off base with this, uh, or Ilove your your view on it
because you're living it and I'mjust observing it uh with this
(21:54):
conversation.
But one of the biggest thingsthat come up, you know, in these
last few years, let's say,especially post-COVID, is uh
meeting people's needs and theirschedules and things like that.
And what we keep hearing aboutis, you know, my joke is there
used to be a time where 40 hourswas full time, now it's 28
hours, is now become the newfull time.
(22:15):
But with what you do, you canaccommodate.
I'm not saying that you howexactly you hire or don't hire,
but I would say with thisapproach, you have a much easier
way of being able to accommodatepeople's needs without
sacrificing the business becauseof it.
SPEAKER_01 (22:31):
100%.
You just hit it.
Um, one of my stylists just tooklike three months off to go
travel, came right back, pluggedthem right back into the
schedule, no problem, didn'taffect anything.
In fact, part of our ourpolicies and our team members
got is we provide unlimited timeoff.
They get two weeks paidvacation, but they can take
(22:52):
unlimited, unpaid time off.
I don't care as long as you giveus a couple of weeks' notice.
You can't come and take the dayoff.
That's that hurts.
But but give us the give us asmuch no as you want.
Great.
You only want to work two days aweek, great.
Three days a week doesn'tmatter.
We can make that work.
What I don't allow is half days.
Um, you kind of need to be herethe whole day.
(23:14):
I don't care if you only want towork one day a week, but but you
can't work like noon to five.
I mean, that that doesn't work.
Our our appointments all overlapand you have to be here for
huddle, or you won't know what'sgoing on if you walk in and
halfway through the day.
So I am, you know, certainthings we have really strict
standards on, and other things,you're right.
This workforce, more than anytime in history that I've been
(23:36):
working, it's been a very longtime.
Uh, yeah, they just really wanta lot of flexibility with their
time off.
They have other things that theywant to do.
They want to travel, they wantto do other things, and that
works for our our model.
SPEAKER_02 (23:50):
Michael, that's that's you know, Cindy, in in
Incubator, we talk about this.
Michael, that's that's the mostum almost obvious look at
security in the brand.
And when you when you're a teammember and your concern might
be, you know, how am I gonna behow am I gonna create a career?
(24:13):
Uh, you know, job versus career,how am I taken care of over
time?
Um, is this company always gonnabe helpful?
Uh excuse me, healthy.
And they have security in thebrand, and then they can step
out, step right back in becausethe brand is so strong.
That is that is just the it'sthe classic, the way it needs to
(24:34):
be looked at type of model.
Beautiful.
SPEAKER_00 (24:39):
I love it.
I love it.
I mean, this has really been uh,you know, I mean, it it I'm
racking up too many questionsthan we have time for at this
stage of the game.
Uh let me ask kind of one, Idon't know if be the final
question, but as we kind of windthings down, let me ask this.
Uh we've got a lot about thiswhole idea.
We really kind of have lockedinto the importance of, you
(25:02):
know, just the brand, theimportance of and I think that
really what that stems from isyou as the business leader, as
the business owner, just saying,This is what I believe in, and
this is what I want to create.
Um, what else?
I mean, it might not besomething we talked about, might
be something completelydifferent, but what other for
(25:23):
those that would be listeningin, what do you think are like
if you had one key or one thing,what's kind of guided you that's
kept you like on track?
SPEAKER_01 (25:37):
Um, well, part of it is just the nature of the work
that we do.
I mean, making women feel goodabout themselves is really the
most amazing thing you can dobehind the chair.
And what we're doing every dayis transformations.
Um, I worked in a salon where Iwas doing men's haircuts 10 a
day.
You know, that was just likehard work.
(26:01):
Transformations on a woman to gowith somebody who's had crappy
thin hair their whole life andnow they've got more hair and
they feel prettier and morefeminine and more confident.
We have a thing we call it hugsand tears.
If we can get hugs and tearsevery day from a client, that is
the most satisfying, meaningful,it's just really fulfilling
(26:23):
work.
So it is, it doesn't, you havethat whole aspect of it's just
really rewarding and reallyfulfilling.
And um, it really impactswomen's confidence in a way that
it makes it, it really adds tothe culture that that we're
doing something important.
Um, it's we're not just doing ahigh-ticket service for fancy
(26:45):
people.
It's we're really giving womenconfidence and by giving them
more hair.
And so there's that whole sideof it.
That's probably that's probablyguides more of what I do every
day, more than everything else Italked about.
But um, I don't know if thatanswers your question.
SPEAKER_00 (27:03):
No, it's great.
Perfect.
Perfect, perfect.
So I know there's one, and thisseems kind of like a little bit
out of left field, but I feellike the need to answer it
because I'm sure some people aresaying, I wonder how big her
team is.
Because of doing this, I thinkpeople are envisioning maybe the
team has to be mammoth or maybethe team's small.
(27:23):
And so just how big is yourcurrent team, Ross?
SPEAKER_01 (27:27):
Yeah, that's a that's a good, that's a good
point.
Um, while one of our salons umis 10 chairs and the other salon
is four chairs.
We have about 15 serviceproviders total between the two
salons.
The way we book is one and ahalf stylists per column.
(27:48):
So I will have two columns openfor three service providers.
Um, and then that way the theone that uh, you know, somebody
can bounce back between the twobecause we also do some color.
So it wouldn't really make senseto book two stylists for
somebody doing a root touch up.
That you don't really need that.
You need someone available tomaybe help you blow dry real
(28:08):
quick, but um, that that seemsto work.
We also have an apprenticeshipprogram, so we always have one
at least um apprentice on onboard at all times who's able to
do things like the shampooing,the applying, the um, the
assisting with blow drying, theall the behind the scenes stuff
(28:29):
that has to happen, likeretaping hair extensions, you
know, washing them, getting themall ready to go.
There's a lot of prep workinvolved with extensions,
setting things up, gettingthings ready, cleaning up.
So um, yeah, it's not a hugeteam.
We're between both felons, we'redoing about three million a year
for probably yeah, 12 to 15staff members.
SPEAKER_00 (28:55):
That's good.
That's good.
That's a great ratio.
Yeah, I can I can assure youthat's a great ratio.
And those listening that arelike they've got eight or 10
people are going, that's areally good ratio.
SPEAKER_01 (29:06):
Um well, part of it is you have a high ticket
average, you know.
Like I mentioned, I did men'shaircuts for years and I worked
really, really hard for like a$12 ticket average.
And I still work really, reallyhard, but to have a$500 ticket
average, yeah, that's that's howyou can afford to pay people
amazing benefits and have agreat environment and take them
(29:26):
on trips for education.
We're all going to Vegas nextweekend for IBS, so that's why I
bring that up.
But um, you know, you can justyou can really just treat people
to a much better career, youknow, if you can find a way to
get to serve those high ticketitems.
SPEAKER_00 (29:42):
I love it.
I love it.
Well, this has been awesome.
Brett, any last things in yourbrain?
SPEAKER_02 (29:48):
I there's I think we need three more podcasts around
this because it's a ton inthere.
And just this has beenfantastic.
And you know, Cindy had had thepleasure of already meeting you
and Mike and And and you know,over the years knowing you and
that type of thing, but but thiswas this was even for me.
I was like, oh, I have morequestions, you know, you know,
(30:10):
and so but this has beenfantastic, it's absolutely
fantastic.
SPEAKER_00 (30:14):
Uh it's been great.
And I'm sure that uh, like said,I'm I'm sure there are many more
questions out there, uh, forsure.
We can have a lot moreconversations.
I think I do that at the end ofabout every podcast, realize
we're just scratching surfaceshere.
Yes, so we definitely will haveto cycle back around.
But this has been great, Cindy.
Thank you for your time and justsharing.
Again, to me, it was justsharing the passion and just
(30:38):
that, you know, just your view.
And I just love your perspectiveand that, and that just
completely that focused on whatyou want to create, you know,
and the business you want tohave, and with just that brand
and everything that you talkedabout.
So thank you so much for yourtime today, Cindy.
Thank you, Cindy.
Great talking to you guys.
All right, and thank you toeveryone that's listened in
(31:01):
today.
Uh, of course, we will do thisagain very soon.
So we'll see you at the nextpodcast.
Until then, have a great day.
All right.
Welcome everyone to the BeautyBusiness Strategies Podcast.
I am Michael Yost.
And today I am joined by twoamazing guests.
One is uh Brett Pierce, uh theowner, the leader of strategies.
You know, he's getting on thispodcast thing, and we're glad to
(00:26):
have him uh with us today.
And as always, we always want tofind someone that's amazing, uh
amazing business leaders andowners out there.
And today we are joined by CindyReynolds.
Cindy, how are you?
SPEAKER_01 (00:40):
I'm great, thank you.
Happy to be here.
SPEAKER_00 (00:42):
Awesome, but glad to have you.
So uh as we always start outwith, hey, listen, Cindy, for
those that might not know you,and shame on you if you do not
know Cindy, uh, because sheknows everybody.
But with that in mind, Cindy orCindy, for those that don't know
you, why don't you catcheveryone up to speed?
Just a brief introduction aboutyou, your business.
(01:03):
Give us the overview.
SPEAKER_01 (01:05):
Okay, so I'm Cindy Reynolds.
I own a salon called MermaidHair Extensions.
We actually have two locations.
One is in downtown Seattle andone is right outside Seattle in
Kirkland, Washington.
Um, it's a specialty salon.
We just do hair extensions.
We do a little call or two, butour main focus is extensions.
I just love the idea of justdoing one thing really well and
(01:26):
um services and products thatsupport those services.
SPEAKER_00 (01:30):
Awesome.
Awesome.
So we'll probably talk a littlebit more about the business
itself along the way here, alongour journey.
But I think one of the kind ofunique things that kind of talk
about, because again, we alwayslook for kind of a unique angle.
And, you know, one of the uniquethings I think is about as we
were as again, we always kind oftalk before we get the podcast
(01:51):
going uh about some things, butthere's something I think that
really stands out that's veryunique about your business.
And when you started talkingabout your business from a team
standpoint, uh we saw thepassion and the fire come right
to the surface uh right away andwhat you feel strongly about.
So, you know, let's start withthat.
Let's kind of dive in rightthere because I think that's a
(02:12):
great anchor point for us as wethink about.
Again, I think people come tothis podcast as they're looking
to say, how can I grow strongerteams?
And how can we be more, how canwe strengthen just team as a in
general uh in our companies?
And again, you you have a verykind of uh somewhat, I would
say, somewhat definitely uniqueapproach, but also some real
(02:34):
passion in that.
So when we say team to you,Cindy, what comes to where's
your mind?
SPEAKER_01 (02:41):
Good question.
Okay, well, I really wanted tocreate a company that was really
an authentic, unique, originalconcept in the salon industry.
Um that was a team-basedapproach.
And when I really wanted to doan extension salon, one of the
reasons why people don't gethair extensions is because the
(03:02):
service itself takes a reallylong time.
It's a long process.
One service provider can takesix to eight hours doing hair
extensions.
So I thought, well, what if wedid a team approach and we had a
team of two or three stylistsdoing that same service?
You could get the service doneso much quicker.
And that just made sense to me.
(03:22):
And so um, we've basically builtthe whole thing based on a
couple of stylists working at aas a team on the clients to make
the process go faster.
And that's that's basically howwe um when we take client
(03:43):
appointments at the salon, themain difference between us and
another salon that also othersalons might say they're
team-based, but the way we do itis the client makes an
appointment with the salon, notthe individual service provider.
And then that just requires alot of communication and notes,
and we have to everybody has todo things really consistently
(04:05):
and work together as a team, butthey are paid as a team, they
are not paid individually.
So that's how that's how we'reable to accomplish that.
SPEAKER_00 (04:14):
I love it.
So let's let that sit in forjust a second.
When we talk about, you know,because I know a lot of people
right now are thinking, did Ijust hear that right?
So what we're saying is whenthey call up to book an
appointment, they're not bookingwith Brett, they're not booking
with Michael, they're notbooking with Cindy, they're
booking with the business.
SPEAKER_01 (04:33):
That's right.
SPEAKER_00 (04:34):
Give me a little bit more about like I hear the
concept of it, but give me likerun through how that actually
works.
SPEAKER_01 (04:39):
Okay.
Think about it like this.
You go to Starbucks, it's yourfavorite Starbucks, you go there
all the time, and you you go inand you say hi and you get your
coffee and you love yourexperience.
And the next time you go back,you don't see Joe, the usual
(05:00):
barista that serves you.
And you're like, oh, whathappened to Joe?
Oh, well, Joe left.
He's working in another coffeeshop down the street.
Oh, that's too bad.
You're gonna miss Joe.
But you're not gonna go try tofind Joe.
You're not gonna take all yourbusiness to another coffee shop.
No, because you love the placeyou go, you love the Starbucks
(05:20):
for whatever reason.
Yes, you might miss the barista,but your coffee is gonna turn
out exactly the same, eventhough the new barista is making
your coffee that day.
And when you take it a stepfurther and think when you leave
a tip, are you leaving a tip forthe cashier?
Or are you leaving a tip for thegirl that made your coffee?
(05:40):
Or are you leaving a tip justbecause you like the experience
and the environment ofStarbucks?
No, you're leaving a tip basedon the whole thing.
You're not leaving it for justfor that one service provider.
So I kind of took that wholeconcept and said, why can't we
do that in the salon?
Because what devastates a salonowner more than losing their top
(06:01):
service providers and losing aservice provider that takes
business with them, even worse,taking a walkout where several
stylists leave at once and takeyour business and can devastate
a salon.
So I heard Neil Dukoff say yearsago build a company where the
clients are loyal to the brand,not the individual service
(06:25):
providers.
And that just made so much senseto me.
And I thought if I ever own asalon again, because I had owned
an owned commission of salonsbefore, if I ever open another
salon, it's gonna be thatconcept.
So I had that in my mind.
And then when I discovered hairextensions, I was like, okay,
this is gonna be a thing.
(06:46):
We're gonna do a team-basedapproach, we're gonna pay them
as a team, we're gonna have theentire brand supporting this
service that we do.
And so from the beginning, wejust never, we never made
appointments based with acertain service provider.
And we just, if clients everask, we just go, Oh, that's just
not how we do it here.
(07:08):
Simple.
I think it might be difficult.
I know it's difficult for asalon that has done things the
other way all these years.
I can't even imagine what thatwould be like, switching it.
That would probably be reallydifficult, if not impossible.
But when I opened Mermaid, Ijust opened it that way.
And I just said, well, that'sjust how we do it here.
(07:30):
And it's nobody's everquestioned it.
That's just our brand.
I just created the brand thatway.
SPEAKER_02 (07:35):
That is the strongest approach to no
compromise that I've ever seen.
I mean, I I love it because youknow, it's it's such a black and
white approach to it.
This is what we're gonna do, andthis is how we're gonna do it.
And it is it's so honest.
I mean, there's there's suchhonesty and authenticity in the
(07:56):
approach to, and I have I'veI've thought of the Starbucks as
an example before, but not tothe level that you were saying
it, Cindy.
I mean, just to think of youcome to that brand because that
brand impressed you, but thenpeople will go to a brand
(08:16):
because they've heard about thebrand and they go there and they
get connected to one person, butthen it blurs the lines between
why are you truly there?
And the companies, you know, thecompanies that are very
successful with it create theexperience.
They go beyond just customerservice.
Customer service is what youexpect to receive, hospitality
is when you go above and beyond.
(08:37):
Your experience is thedifference between a roller
coaster ride at a localamusement park versus a roller
coaster ride at Disney.
You know, why would somebodyspend what they would at Disney?
They had the same roller coasterride, but they had the
experience.
And I love how how you put allof that together.
(09:00):
And, you know, we've had somewild things happen in the last
five or six years, right?
And I've heard of companieschanging the way in which they
might do business because ofshutdowns and that type of
stuff, but it doesn't seem likethat affected you.
Is it is that is that am Icorrect?
Is it like you guys just steppedright back into who you were
(09:20):
after that and just kept onstaying?
SPEAKER_01 (09:23):
You mean after COVID?
SPEAKER_02 (09:24):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (09:25):
Well, I had a pretty devastating situation, just like
everybody else.
Um, but we landed on our feet.
I was able to re completelyrehire in my state, in
Washington state at least, theywere all getting unemployment
and they were getting thefederal unemployment, and nobody
wanted to work in it.
I would say I pretty much had ahundred percent turnover within
(09:49):
between 2020 and 2021.
You know, I mean, we really hadto start from scratch team-wise,
um, probably just like everybodyelse.
But in 2022, we had a 65%increase in growth.
So, I mean, we were able to landon our feet, and I think it's
because the brand, the, thebrand consistency and and people
(10:13):
knew what was out there.
And we were able to build itback up.
And the same again to keep goingback to Starbucks.
The salon owner or the Starbucksowner, even if you had 100%
walkout, you would just hiremore people.
Because guess what?
People are lined up to want towork at Starbucks.
They pay amazing benefits, it'sa great place to work.
(10:34):
You make really good money.
So I it wasn't, I was gonna sayit wasn't hard, but I was able
to rebuild um and be verysuccessful because I had already
had the structure and the brandand the uh consistency and brand
awareness in our market.
SPEAKER_02 (10:53):
Well, I love that because you weren't frozen by
fear in any way, form, orfashion.
You just kept on going.
I have that leads me to uh myother question, which is kind of
just worked perfectly into it,just segued into it.
When it comes to talking topotential staff, somebody that
might come to work with you, um,how do you explain to them the
(11:16):
difference in working in a trueteam-based environment versus
where they would have beenbefore?
SPEAKER_01 (11:22):
Yeah, that's a really good question.
I do explain that.
And I go into beauty schools andI try to explain this a lot.
So you're going to have a choiceto make.
You're going to want to decideand ask yourself, are you the
kind of person that wants to beuh independent, uh independent
um uh business owner?
Do you want to have create yourown brand?
(11:43):
Do you have that hustlementality?
Do you want to go out there andbuild your own thing and not
just work at a suite situation,but even a booth rent salon and
even to some extent in acommission-based salon?
You're gonna be your own person.
You're gonna wanna um thesalon's gonna tell you to build
your own social media, have yourown brand, build your own
clientele.
(12:03):
Is that does that appeal to you?
The sky the limit money-wise,does that appeal to you?
Great.
Tons of people, super successfulat that.
Or are you the kind of personthat really would prefer the
stability of a regular paycheck,a hundred percent 401k match and
amazing benefits, paid time off,paid 100% paid medical care.
(12:28):
I mean, and a really good salarythat will be consistent.
You'll know you'll be able tomake your car payment this
month.
You don't have to worry aboutthe business being slow.
Nobody's gonna tell you to godrum up business because you're
not gonna be responsible forgrowing your own clientele.
We have standards, of course,but I'm just I'm not saying
that's for everybody, but thereare there are different kinds of
(12:50):
people in the world.
And there are a lot of peoplethat really just want to go to
work and go home at night andnot take take all the problems
of owning your own business homewith you, booking the clients,
getting paying all the bills,ordering the supplies.
You want to do all that?
Great, do that.
But if you don't, and you justwant to have a really great job
(13:11):
in a really cool company whereeverybody's part of the same
team with opportunity forgrowth.
I don't know.
I I got a pretty good pile ofresumes over here.
SPEAKER_00 (13:24):
I love this, and I love for I love the passion, but
what really is jumping off thepage at me is because I always
look for the the fact that,like, all right, well, you know,
I always want everything that wedo with podcasts at least have a
takeaway to say, what did Icatch there?
What did I learn?
Here's my takeaway is when youbuild a brand, and I'm gonna
(13:48):
stay with that word becauseyou've said it a number of
times, and it really is so true.
When you when you stay, here'swhat I want to create, here's
the business I want to create,here's the brand I want to
create.
And again, you go to the factthat we're not going to
compromise on what that lookslike, that is such a powerful,
(14:11):
powerful thing.
And you've done a great way ofshowing that that doesn't have
to be anything heavy or anythingthat's uh, I think sometimes
when we start talking like thisin certain ways, we can think,
oh, that I've got to be thisheavy-fisted, this and that, and
the other.
It's like, no, like what youjust said is no, we're staying
true to who we are, and eitheryou want to be a part of it or
(14:34):
you don't.
We're not meant to be foreveryone, right?
But we are looking for this kindof person.
And I know, at least for myselfright now, I'm already thinking,
oh, you know, hey, listen, can Ilearn to do extensions?
Maybe uh moving out west wouldbe a cool, cool move.
I don't know.
And I gotta partner up, workyour way.
But I love that, and so I thinkin a this goes back to even at
(14:56):
the beginning when you were justsharing right out of the gate,
just that ability.
So I think the one thing I justwant to point out is for those
listening, is this idea of whereare you with your brand and how
you are loyal to what you wantedto create, or is it or does it
(15:16):
move with the sands?
You know what I mean?
Like, and you know what?
Like you just said, like Cindysaid, I love that you pointed
out, like, no, hey, listen,COVID sucked, kind of devastated
us, had a complete turnover, hadto go find new.
But it was, you know, again, notthat that was, as you said, not
easy.
Wasn't fun, I'm sure.
No one's gonna describe thatmoment as fun, but we didn't
(15:39):
compromise what we knew, andhere we are.
Like I said, the year after, asyou're saying, 65% growth and
and continued.
And and here's where our here'swhere we are at this point.
So I think that's really, reallysuper like really powerful.
Um, you know, so you mentionedsome.
I want to tap into that a littlebit.
(15:59):
You mentioned the idea of, hey,one of the ways we just
reinforce our brand is eventhrough how we book.
Uh, and you already kind oftalked about that.
We don't book for people, webook for.
I'm gonna assume basically whatyou do is I'll describe it this
way for those still kind oftuning into that, is that you
book as a resource.
So, hey, we have this chair orthis room or whatever, right?
(16:20):
This is what's available, and wedon't have the name behind it.
We have availability with withthis area, this resource where
we perform our service.
Um, would that be accurate tosay it that way?
SPEAKER_01 (16:33):
Yes, in that we will we use Forest.
And so at the top of everycolumn, it doesn't have a
person's name.
SPEAKER_00 (16:40):
Okay.
SPEAKER_01 (16:41):
It just says Team Mermaid.
So, and we have a really uniquepricing model that's very
transparent and very easy andsimple for clients to book.
So, we sell extensions as apackage.
So, our most our most commonlybooked thing is our classic
mermaid, our classic mermaidhair extension package.
The booking system knows to bookthree hours for that.
(17:04):
That is for a full head ofextensions, and it includes
everything.
That one price that is listed,include that we advertise to the
public.
It's 1995.
That includes everything.
It includes shampooing, puttingthe hair in, the package they
take home to take care of theirhair, free follow-up visits,
free removal.
It's the whole thing.
It's very transparent and it'svery simple.
(17:27):
And it's that's very unique.
I know, I know there's a bigtrend right now in our industry.
I don't know what strategiesfeeling is on it, but the big
thing that's out there right nowis this whole idea of um parts
and labor.
I personally hate the parts andlabor model.
I think that the client doesn'twant to hear about how many uh
(17:50):
how you're gonna take longer tocharge me more.
I mean, I just think it justdoesn't sit well with me.
So again, it all comes back tobrand consistency.
Know who your target demographicis.
Our target client is a woman whohas some money to spend on
something extra like hairextensions.
(18:12):
And guess what she is?
She's busy and she does not haveeight hours to go sit in a salon
and get her hair done.
So our brand is about fun, um,energy, a team, a fast approach.
It's not fancy.
So the difference between thatas say, say your knowing your
(18:34):
own brand and say your brand isthis elegant, luxury spa, then
kind of chill with the chillwith the crystal chandeliers.
Great.
Know that that's your brand.
It's not, you're not gonna wantto rush your client.
She wants to spend six to eighthours.
Somebody who likes that andrelaxing, pampering atmosphere.
(18:57):
Go ahead and take eight hours onher.
That's not our brand.
Our brand is for busy women,regular women that just want
more hair.
Our tagline is the salon thatgives you more hair.
So we are just we are not, youknow, um, we're just focused on
knowing our brand, knowing whowe're marketing to, and creating
(19:19):
an an environment that's easyand simple for the client to
book that appointment.
SPEAKER_02 (19:24):
I love it.
I love it too.
I love it too.
I think what's really awesomeabout it is you're right.
Um, people don't necessarilyunderstand parts and labor.
You're getting them into thebusiness side of it, but we can
know that we have to spend somuch on parts and we know we
have labor.
But for the client, the clientjust wants to know, hey, that's
(19:45):
all great, but I just want toknow how much we want to spend.
SPEAKER_01 (19:47):
How much is it gonna cost?
How long is it gonna take?
How long are they gonna last?
SPEAKER_02 (19:50):
That's it.
That's it.
And and we with hair color, wedon't tell them it's gonna cost
them parts of labor with haircolor, you know.
And get I know there's a vastdifference in pricing and cost
there, but that's not somethingwe do there.
I wanted to talk on the factthat you have more than one
person touching them at the sametime.
Instead of it being six to eighthours for one single person,
(20:12):
you've got a couple hours formultiple people.
And does how do you feel thatthat protects the appointment
book better from cancellationsand the fact, you know, somebody
goes, You wiped out six toseven, six to eight hours on one
person because that personcanceled or something happened.
Do you feel like it protects theappointment book better?
SPEAKER_01 (20:35):
Yeah, probably, because um, if Susie's day
didn't just get wiped out withher cancellation, she has
something else to do.
She'll go help out the othercolumns that are on the books,
certainly.
Um and also if Susie calls insick, we don't have to call and
cancel that client either.
(20:55):
The other, the rest of the teamjust absorbs it.
Well, I would never call aclient and cancel an appointment
for them because she made anappointment with our business.
She didn't make an appointmentwith her schedule.
I mean, that's not gonna ever bebeholden to one style of
schedule.
We are gonna be consistent, andthat's how you build trust.
Consistency builds trust.
(21:17):
So if you make an appointment atnine o'clock, we're not gonna
call and tell you, oh, Julie'sout sick today, we're gonna have
to reschedule for Thursday.
That client is gonna find someother salon to go to.
SPEAKER_00 (21:27):
Right.
SPEAKER_01 (21:28):
So we want to be consistent, and that's how you
build client loyalty.
SPEAKER_00 (21:33):
I love that you bring that up.
I bet you, yeah, I mean,something that just hit me too
is uh what's so, and I thinkthis just so your approach
addresses it so I think easily,but you can correct me if I if
I'm off base with this, uh, or Ilove your your view on it
because you're living it and I'mjust observing it uh with this
(21:54):
conversation.
But one of the biggest thingsthat come up, you know, in these
last few years, let's say,especially post-COVID, is uh
meeting people's needs and theirschedules and things like that.
And what we keep hearing aboutis, you know, my joke is there
used to be a time where 40 hourswas full time, now it's 28
hours, is now become the newfull time.
(22:15):
But with what you do, you canaccommodate.
I'm not saying that you howexactly you hire or don't hire,
but I would say with thisapproach, you have a much easier
way of being able to accommodatepeople's needs without
sacrificing the business becauseof it.
SPEAKER_01 (22:31):
100%.
You just hit it.
Um, one of my stylists just tooklike three months off to go
travel, came right back, pluggedthem right back into the
schedule, no problem, didn'taffect anything.
In fact, part of our ourpolicies and our team members
got is we provide unlimited timeoff.
They get two weeks paidvacation, but they can take
(22:52):
unlimited, unpaid time off.
I don't care as long as you giveus a couple of weeks' notice.
You can't come and take the dayoff.
That's that hurts.
But but give us the give us asmuch no as you want.
Great.
You only want to work two days aweek, great.
Three days a week doesn'tmatter.
We can make that work.
What I don't allow is half days.
Um, you kind of need to be herethe whole day.
(23:14):
I don't care if you only want towork one day a week, but but you
can't work like noon to five.
I mean, that that doesn't work.
Our our appointments all overlapand you have to be here for
huddle, or you won't know what'sgoing on if you walk in and
halfway through the day.
So I am, you know, certainthings we have really strict
standards on, and other things,you're right.
This workforce, more than anytime in history that I've been
(23:36):
working, it's been a very longtime.
Uh, yeah, they just really wanta lot of flexibility with their
time off.
They have other things that theywant to do.
They want to travel, they wantto do other things, and that
works for our our model.
SPEAKER_02 (23:50):
Michael, that's that's you know, Cindy, in in
Incubator, we talk about this.
Michael, that's that's the mostum almost obvious look at
security in the brand.
And when you when you're a teammember and your concern might
be, you know, how am I gonna behow am I gonna create a career?
(24:13):
Uh, you know, job versus career,how am I taken care of over
time?
Um, is this company always gonnabe helpful?
Uh excuse me, healthy.
And they have security in thebrand, and then they can step
out, step right back in becausethe brand is so strong.
That is that is just the it'sthe classic, the way it needs to
(24:34):
be looked at type of model.
Beautiful.
SPEAKER_00 (24:39):
I love it.
I love it.
I mean, this has really been uh,you know, I mean, it it I'm
racking up too many questionsthan we have time for at this
stage of the game.
Uh let me ask kind of one, Idon't know if be the final
question, but as we kind of windthings down, let me ask this.
Uh we've got a lot about thiswhole idea.
We really kind of have lockedinto the importance of, you
(25:02):
know, just the brand, theimportance of and I think that
really what that stems from isyou as the business leader, as
the business owner, just saying,This is what I believe in, and
this is what I want to create.
Um, what else?
I mean, it might not besomething we talked about, might
be something completelydifferent, but what other for
(25:23):
those that would be listeningin, what do you think are like
if you had one key or one thing,what's kind of guided you that's
kept you like on track?
SPEAKER_01 (25:37):
Um, well, part of it is just the nature of the work
that we do.
I mean, making women feel goodabout themselves is really the
most amazing thing you can dobehind the chair.
And what we're doing every dayis transformations.
Um, I worked in a salon where Iwas doing men's haircuts 10 a
day.
You know, that was just likehard work.
(26:01):
Transformations on a woman to gowith somebody who's had crappy
thin hair their whole life andnow they've got more hair and
they feel prettier and morefeminine and more confident.
We have a thing we call it hugsand tears.
If we can get hugs and tearsevery day from a client, that is
the most satisfying, meaningful,it's just really fulfilling
(26:23):
work.
So it is, it doesn't, you havethat whole aspect of it's just
really rewarding and reallyfulfilling.
And um, it really impactswomen's confidence in a way that
it makes it, it really adds tothe culture that that we're
doing something important.
Um, it's we're not just doing ahigh-ticket service for fancy
(26:45):
people.
It's we're really giving womenconfidence and by giving them
more hair.
And so there's that whole sideof it.
That's probably that's probablyguides more of what I do every
day, more than everything else Italked about.
But um, I don't know if thatanswers your question.
SPEAKER_00 (27:03):
No, it's great.
Perfect.
Perfect, perfect.
So I know there's one, and thisseems kind of like a little bit
out of left field, but I feellike the need to answer it
because I'm sure some people aresaying, I wonder how big her
team is.
Because of doing this, I thinkpeople are envisioning maybe the
team has to be mammoth or maybethe team's small.
(27:23):
And so just how big is yourcurrent team, Ross?
SPEAKER_01 (27:27):
Yeah, that's a that's a good, that's a good
point.
Um, while one of our salons umis 10 chairs and the other salon
is four chairs.
We have about 15 serviceproviders total between the two
salons.
The way we book is one and ahalf stylists per column.
(27:48):
So I will have two columns openfor three service providers.
Um, and then that way the theone that uh, you know, somebody
can bounce back between the twobecause we also do some color.
So it wouldn't really make senseto book two stylists for
somebody doing a root touch up.
That you don't really need that.
You need someone available tomaybe help you blow dry real
(28:08):
quick, but um, that that seemsto work.
We also have an apprenticeshipprogram, so we always have one
at least um apprentice on onboard at all times who's able to
do things like the shampooing,the applying, the um, the
assisting with blow drying, theall the behind the scenes stuff
(28:29):
that has to happen, likeretaping hair extensions, you
know, washing them, getting themall ready to go.
There's a lot of prep workinvolved with extensions,
setting things up, gettingthings ready, cleaning up.
So um, yeah, it's not a hugeteam.
We're between both felons, we'redoing about three million a year
for probably yeah, 12 to 15staff members.
SPEAKER_00 (28:55):
That's good.
That's good.
That's a great ratio.
Yeah, I can I can assure youthat's a great ratio.
And those listening that arelike they've got eight or 10
people are going, that's areally good ratio.
SPEAKER_01 (29:06):
Um well, part of it is you have a high ticket
average, you know.
Like I mentioned, I did men'shaircuts for years and I worked
really, really hard for like a$12 ticket average.
And I still work really, reallyhard, but to have a$500 ticket
average, yeah, that's that's howyou can afford to pay people
amazing benefits and have agreat environment and take them
(29:26):
on trips for education.
We're all going to Vegas nextweekend for IBS, so that's why I
bring that up.
But um, you know, you can justyou can really just treat people
to a much better career, youknow, if you can find a way to
get to serve those high ticketitems.
SPEAKER_00 (29:42):
I love it.
I love it.
Well, this has been awesome.
Brett, any last things in yourbrain?
SPEAKER_02 (29:48):
I there's I think we need three more podcasts around
this because it's a ton inthere.
And just this has beenfantastic.
And you know, Cindy had had thepleasure of already meeting you
and Mike and And and you know,over the years knowing you and
that type of thing, but but thiswas this was even for me.
I was like, oh, I have morequestions, you know, you know,
(30:10):
and so but this has beenfantastic, it's absolutely
fantastic.
SPEAKER_00 (30:14):
Uh it's been great.
And I'm sure that uh, like said,I'm I'm sure there are many more
questions out there, uh, forsure.
We can have a lot moreconversations.
I think I do that at the end ofabout every podcast, realize
we're just scratching surfaceshere.
Yes, so we definitely will haveto cycle back around.
But this has been great, Cindy.
Thank you for your time and justsharing.
Again, to me, it was justsharing the passion and just
(30:38):
that, you know, just your view.
And I just love your perspectiveand that, and that just
completely that focused on whatyou want to create, you know,
and the business you want tohave, and with just that brand
and everything that you talkedabout.
So thank you so much for yourtime today, Cindy.
Thank you, Cindy.
Great talking to you guys.
All right, and thank you toeveryone that's listened in
(31:01):
today.
Uh, of course, we will do thisagain very soon.
So we'll see you at the nextpodcast.
Until then, have a great day.
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