We challenge the myth that more hustle solves slow months and show how reflection, data, and monthly structure stop the March scramble. Using postmortems, PAR metrics, and the GROWTH framework, we shift salons from reacting to leading with clarity.
• why reflection protects profit and energy
• four-question postmortem for clear learning
• turning feelings into data with PAR
• reacting versus leading amid slow months
• the bow‑and‑arrow metaphor for intention
• why goals fail when unmoored from reality
• the GROWTH monthly operating framework
• wow moments for guest experience and culture
• health checks to catch system stress points
• leadership as seeing sooner, not working harder
• a done‑for‑you monthly operating plan offer
Text the word calendar, C-A-L-E-N-D-A-R to 469-283-5590. Again, that's 469-283-5590
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Episode Transcript
Let me ask you something.
What if the reason your salonfeels behind by March has
nothing to do with motivation?
Nothing to do with discipline orwith your team not wanting it
bad enough.
And everything to do with whatyou skipped at the end of last
(01:00):
year.
Because here's the uncomfortabletruth.
The most successful businessesin the world don't just plan
forward, they look back onpurpose.
And most salon owners never do.
SPEAKER_00 (01:17):
Because this is the lie that we've been sold as
salon owners.
You know, in our industry, weactually glorify forward motion.
Like it's like new year, newgoals, new planners, new energy.
And we tell ourselves, you know,I'll just do it better next year
or this coming year.
And at the end of the day, weknow that hope is not a
(01:39):
strategy.
And when we have when you havemomentum without reflection,
it's how you accidentallyrecreate the same year over and
over again.
I think I did this for the firstum seven years, five to seven
years.
You know, same slow months, thesame panic promotion.
Oh my God, it's March 1st.
(02:00):
I better put a promotion out,right?
Same retail goals missed by amile.
Oh, I think my retail goalshould be, you know, 10,000 this
month, or I think it should be20,000.
That sounds good.
Let's go with 15,000.
You've never been there.
It's the same feeling in Marchwhere you think, hmm, why does
it feel like I'm already behind?
SPEAKER_01 (02:21):
Jen, I know I can relate to that so much.
I was in that same same boat,you know, and I think what I've
learned is a lot about what bigbrands do that most salons
don't.
You know, because if you thinkabout it, before Apple launches
a new product, or you know,before Nike rolls out a global
(02:42):
campaign or Amazon doubles downon some initiative, they pause.
They don't rush, you know, theydon't hype themselves up.
What they do is what's actuallythey run something that's called
a post-mortem.
And no, it's not morbid, it'spowerful, you know, because a
(03:04):
post-mortem is not aboutfailure, it's about completion.
You know, it's asking fourquestions.
What worked, what didn't, whatsurprised us, and what can never
be repeated.
That's it.
That single exercise turnsmemory into strategy and
(03:26):
strategy into leverage.
SPEAKER_00 (03:30):
Yeah.
And the reason most salonowners, I would say, skip this
um step is because they'reexhausted by the end of the
year.
You can probably relate to that.
You know, you sprint through theholidays, you hold the weight
for everyone else, you push tothe finish line, you celebrate
quickly, you know, you maybeeven pop a bottle, and then
(03:51):
suddenly and immediately youmove on.
But when you don't name whatexactly happened last year, like
there's no way to learn from it.
You don't learn from it.
And if you don't learn from it,you actually repeat it.
You know, reflection isn'tindulgent, it's actually
protection, it's beingprotective.
SPEAKER_01 (04:11):
I love that, Jen.
You know, because I think whatpostmortems do is they turn
emotion into data, you know, anddata equals dollars.
But this is where most ownersget uncomfortable because
feelings are messy.
But data, data is honest, andthis is where par changes
(04:34):
everything.
You know, we've we've talkedabout par before.
Maybe you're already familiarwith it.
It stands for pre-books, averageticket, and um retail.
And so when you revisit your parfrom like, you know, every
single month or every singleday, that's when you really stop
guessing because you can seewhen retail dipped, when your
(04:57):
productivity peaked, uh, maybewhen your team was stretched too
thin, or when systems held upand when they broke, you know,
and that's not numbers, that'struth.
And truth is what gives youpower.
SPEAKER_00 (05:13):
That's so true, Lindsay.
It makes me think of like thisis that's the difference between
reacting and leading.
Like when you don't look back,you react, right?
Like you scramble, you discount,that March 1st rolls up, you're
like, oh gosh, maybe we shouldjust do 20% off everything.
Or like you panic promote, youblame timing, the economy, or
(05:34):
even your location.
And when you do look back, youknow, you you start to lead.
You see patterns before that maynot hurt you.
You plan promotions withintention, like you stop
reacting, or you um let's sayyou stop repeating directions or
decisions that quietly drainyour profit.
(05:55):
You know, that's truly thedifference between surviving and
scaling.
SPEAKER_01 (06:00):
Yeah, that's so good.
You know, didn't it really makesme think about like reflection
is truly like the pullback?
And you know, so when you thinkabout it, after reflection comes
intention.
And intention is not just like acute buzzword.
The word intend comes from theLatin intender, which means to
(06:22):
stretch forward toward, sorry,to stretch toward.
So think of this like a bow, anarrow metaphor.
You know, an arrow doesn't flybecause the arrow's strong, it
flies because it's pulled backwith tension.
You know, your past year is thepullback and your intention,
(06:45):
that's the release.
And when you skip reflection,when you release that arrow
without any aim, that's notgrowth, you know, that's hope.
And I don't even know that Iwould say it's hope, but it's
it's really just ambiguous.
There's nothing going on thereat all.
SPEAKER_00 (07:07):
So good.
So why most goals don't work ismost goals fail because they are
disconnected from reality, andso they are not rooted in what
actually worked, what actuallysold, what actually drained your
team.
It's like they're wishing, likethey're wishful.
Intentional planning is trulydifferent.
(07:28):
It says, hey, based on whathappened, this is where we're
going.
And if you think about that,based on what happened, this is
where we're going, that is trueleadership.
SPEAKER_01 (07:41):
Yeah.
You know, and it truly comesdown to the five, you know,
actually maybe six things thatevery month must have.
You know, these aren't tactics,these are priorities.
And every successful businessplans monthly around structure.
And here's the framework that welike to use in Salon Business
(08:03):
School.
We call it the growth framework.
And the G stands for goals.
We got to get clear what doeswinning look like this month?
Not someday, not this year, thismonth.
The R stands for revenue focus.
What are we intentionallyselling or promoting?
(08:25):
You know, services, retail,upgrades.
Because if just everything's forsale, nothing is intentional.
And sure it is, but we want tobe intentional about what we're
creating.
The O stands for offers.
You guys, these are allwriter-downers.
Make sure you're writing thesedown.
If they're if you're driving,come back later and write these
(08:46):
down.
The next thing is offers.
You know, so you want to look atwhat are your promos, what are
your packages, what are yourevents, what are the reasons
you're giving your clients tosay yes now?
Because great businesses don'twait for demand.
They create it.
That W stands for wow moments.
(09:07):
We like to do the wow mom ifyou're catching this live.
Um, it's just a fun little wayto remember how are we gonna wow
people?
You know, through our guestexperience, through our team
morale, you know, throughculture moments that are
created.
These are the invisible thingsthat create retention.
(09:29):
The next area is T, and that'straffic.
These are your marketingcampaigns that drive attention.
It's not just random posting,it's purposeful visibility.
And then the next part of thisgrowth is the H, which is the
health check.
(09:49):
You know, and this again, thisis where uh most salon owners
skip this.
This is where you do your powerreview, you know, you work on
that team synergy, you you lookat any systems that have stress
points because a profitablemonth that burns everyone out is
not a win.
(10:10):
I love that.
You know, it Jin, it reminds me.
Sorry, I know you're gettingready to just say something.
I love when you say, you know,systems give ordinary people
extraordinary results.
And so when you're not doingthat health check and you're not
seeing where the systems arebeing stress points, so good.
SPEAKER_00 (10:31):
So when you think about that, why does this matter
more than ever?
You know, the salon industrytruly doesn't have a talent
problem, it's a planningproblem, you guys.
It's a clarity problem, aleadership problem.
And leadership does not meanworking harder.
Let me say that again for thosein the back, just in case you
missed it because it's reallygood.
(10:52):
I needed someone to say this tome a while ago, a long time ago,
is a leadership doesn't meanworking harder, it means seeing
sooner.
SPEAKER_01 (11:03):
Wow, that's a deep breath in on that one right
there, Jen.
It doesn't mean working harder,it means seeing sooner.
Because, you know, here's theemotional reality.
Let's, you know, let's reallydive into this.
Because imagine the time that itwould take you to do this alone
alone, you know, 12 months, 12postmortems, 12 par reviews, 12
(11:28):
intentions, 12 campaigns, 12revenue plans, you know, all the
12s.
All of this while running asalon, while leading a team,
while living your life.
You know, it's not that youdon't want to, it's that you
don't have the margin.
SPEAKER_00 (11:45):
So good.
So that's why we created thesalon success calendar.
Uh, it's not another planner,you guys.
It's not another idea bank, it'sa formula.
And, you know, it's a formula.
The salon success calendar isactually done for you.
And let me be really clear aboutwhat this is because language
(12:06):
truly matters here.
You know, like I said earlier,this is not another planner,
it's not a content calendar, andit's not a framework you have to
figure out.
It's the actual monthlyoperating plan.
Say what?
That we use in our own salons.
Yes, it is the actual monthlyoperating plan that we use in
(12:28):
our own salons.
So every month it decides whatour team focuses on, what to
promote, how you market, what toprioritize, and what you
intentionally ignore.
So you're not reacting in realtime, you're truly leading.
And guess what?
The salon success calendar is$97a month.
(12:50):
And that number is intentionalbecause this isn't a maybe
someday resource, it's anoperating expense for owners who
want clarity.
So if it saves you one chaoticmeeting, one rush promotion, one
exhausting month, it's alreadypaid for itself.
Now, we're not gonna sell hard,sell this, um, do this hard sell
(13:13):
on this podcast.
But instead, if thisconversation is hitting you,
hey, if you're realizing, yeah,I've been planning forward
without ever really lookingback, here's what we'll do next.
Text the word calendar,C-A-L-E-N-D-A-R to 469-283-5590.
(13:36):
Again, that's 469-283-5590.
And we'll send you the fullbreakdown of how it works,
what's included each month, andhow to decide if it's right for
you.
SPEAKER_01 (13:50):
Yeah, no pressure, you know, just clarity.
And for those of you who movequickly, we may have a founder
thank you when you text.
We'll share details there.
You know, this is you know whatto focus on, when to focus on
it, and why it matters.
So you're not reacting, you'releading.
(14:12):
So January doesn't surprise you,so March doesn't overwhelm you,
so December doesn't exhaust you.
You know, this isn't about beingbusier, it's about becoming the
kind of owner who plans like areal business because successful
salons don't get lucky, they getintentional, and intention
(14:36):
changes everything.
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