February 27, 2024 • 34 mins
Discover the remarkable journey of Julee George, a seasoned hairstylist with 36 years of experience, as she shares insights from beauty school to salon ownership and the transition to becoming an independent stylist. Dive into her captivating story, filled with lessons learned, challenges overcome, and triumphs celebrated in the dynamic world of hairdressing.
Explore the nuances of building a thriving business with Julee's expert guidance, from the importance of mentorship to the power of pre-booking appointments. Gain valuable tips on raising prices, soliciting referrals, and leveraging platforms like Yelp and Google to expand your salon suite's reach.
Delve into the emotional bond formed between hairstylists and their clients, as Julee reflects on the profound connections forged in the salon chair. From commemorating life's milestones to providing comfort during challenging times, discover the role of a hairstylist as a confidante, friend, and source of support for their clients.
Join host Matthew and Julee as they navigate the intersection of artistry, entrepreneurship, and human connection in the hairdressing industry. Whether you're a seasoned hairstylist, salon owner, or simply someone who appreciates the transformative power of a salon visit, this episode offers invaluable insights and heartfelt stories that resonate on personal and professional levels.
The VIP Suite is the official podcast of IMAGE Studios, created for independent beauty, health, and wellness professionals who want to grow their businesses and thrive in salon suite life. Hosted by Director of Education, Matthew Landis, each episode shares real success stories, marketing tips, and business strategies from top beauty entrepreneurs and wellness leaders.
This episode is sponsored by GlossGenius, the all-in-one salon software designed to help independent professionals book appointments, accept payments, manage schedules, and build strong beauty brands. Learn more at glossgenius.com.
Don’t forget to follow, rate, and review the show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen. Connect with us on Instagram @imagestudios360 and visit imagestudios360.com for more information about IMAGE Studios luxury salon suites. New episodes drop every two week. Subscribe to hear how beauty and wellness professionals like you are building powerful, independent careers.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Matthew Landis (00:00):
Welcome to the VIP suite. The podcast
(00:03):
exclusively designed forindependent beauty, health and
wellness professionals. Broughtto you by image studios the
luxury leader in the Salon Suiteindustry. I'm your host industry
expert and certified businesscoach Matthew Landis. Each
episode will bring youinsightful interviews with solo
entrepreneurs who forge theirown path to greatness. From
(00:23):
sharing inspiring stories oftriumph to practical tips and
strategies for growing yourclient base and building your
brand. This is the place tothrive and take your business to
the next level. Joining me todayis Julie George of Rocket
Science Salon in Laguna Hills,California at our image studios
there on the West Coast. Goodmorning, Julie.
Julee George (00:44):
Good morning, Matthew, I'm honored to be here
with you this morning.
Matthew Landis (00:47):
I'm so excited that we met a few months ago.
And we've just kind of clicked Ifelt the same way.
Julee George (00:51):
Actually, here's the funny thing I knew when I
was watching your videos thatsomeday we would be somehow
working together.
Matthew Landis (00:57):
That's amazing.
Yeah. And I felt it as soon as Imet you, thank you. And you've
been in the industry for awhile.
Julee George (01:03):
I've had my license for 36 years. And I went
to beauty school while I was inhigh school.
Matthew Landis (01:08):
Well that it seems so lucky to me to have
started out so early because Ididn't start till I was 25.
Julee George (01:14):
I think you can look at that two ways. I went to
beauty school while I was inhigh school, not because I
actually wanted to do here, Ijust wanted to leave high school
at lunchtime. So it was reallymy stomach that brought me into
this industry. And I thoughtthat doing hair would be
something that would get methrough college, and then I
would get a real job. And here Iam 36 years later, that is so
(01:36):
funny, because one of thereasons I went into hair is
because I thought if I everwanted to go back to college, I
could make enough money and havethe flexibility to do so. You
know, what I was gonna say is Ithink you getting into the
industry. I won't say a littlebit later, because 25 certainly
isn't late. But I think whenpeople do it later, sometimes
people feel like they're behind.
But I don't I don't feel thatway at all. Because I think at
(01:56):
25, you're much more mature. Ifeel like I repeated the same my
first year in this industryeight times. So what I mean by
that is that for eight years, Iwas doing the same exact thing.
And I wasn't progressing becauseI was an eight, I was 18. And I
was licensed and I didn't knowwhat to do. I didn't know how to
build a clientele. And I didn'thave anybody guiding me. So I
think that when you're older,you're more open to mentors, and
(02:19):
you're more open to learning howto build your business?
Matthew Landis (02:24):
Well, I'll tell you at 25 was definitely a
choice. And I had done a lot ofother things that I hated. And
so it really for me was theprocess of elimination, and I
got on this and you know, I'vehad the best time I've made lots
of money had lots of fun, it'sbeen the best decision that I
ever made. So you said youstarted that first year eight
(02:44):
times. So what finally made itclick?
Julee George (02:48):
I think what finally made it click was, I was
either going to continuestruggling having a second jobs
or I was going to dedicatemyself to this industry. And at
that point, I got a job withredkin as an educator, that was
the best decision I ever made.
They literally taught meeverything that that I know.
Matthew Landis (03:05):
I was an educator for L'Oreal
professional and they're sistercompanies under the same
umbrella. As a former educator.
I also just love teaching. And Ilove being able to find that
sort of tribe of people withshared passion shared interest
for what they do.
Julee George (03:21):
I don't know if you remember back in the day
when salon centric with Maly's.
And John Maly was the presidentand owner and because he had an
accounting background, he helpedus so much with business skills.
You know, as I was developing myskills as a hairdresser, I was
also getting the businessskills. And then because of
redkin we had people likeMichael Cole that was teaching
us a business. So it really wasa great combination of both.
(03:42):
Tell me a little bit more aboutyour current business. I started
here at image studios in LagunaHills, when they opened I waited
for oh, I don't know how long ittook them to open six to eight
months. So I was the first oneto sign, and that was when there
was I basically picked my sweetfrom a drawing. Nothing was
done. I'm a hairdresser and Ispecialize in color colors my
(04:04):
favorite, but still I still do alot of hair cutting.
Matthew Landis (04:09):
How long have you been independent? And what
made you decide to go theindependent route? Oh, that's an
interesting story.
Julee George (04:15):
So I owned my salon in Long Beach, California
for 17 years and it was 2000square feet. I had at one time
23 people working there and forreceptionists 13 hairdressers,
couple manicures and assistantand three and a half months
before COVID. I said I don'twant this anymore. I don't want
to do this anymore. I wascommuting 30 miles to work every
(04:37):
day and I didn't want thatcommute anymore. And I just knew
that it was time to sell. I wasjust so lucky that I sold the
salon when I did and I decidedthat I wanted to build my
business close to home I am fourmiles from home, meaning that
I'm four miles from my son whichmakes it so much easier to be
able to work and so that was myreason for going independent,
(04:58):
not to be honest with you atfirst because I worked at a big
salon, I thought, Who am I goingto talk to? Like, who am I going
to talk to you if I, if I'mworking by myself, and then a
light bulb went on, and Ithought, Oh, well, I guess I'm
going to talk to my client.
Imagine that. And you know, whenyou work in a salon, you're
always interrupted. And as anowner, I was always interrupted,
you know, it could have been,you know, this magazine
subscription needs to be filled,or the air conditioner is not
(05:19):
working, or the plumbing is notworking. And now I get to
completely focus on hair. It hadbeen, you know, 17 years since I
was able to do that. And I just,I feel like I fell in love with
doing hair all over again, in adifferent way. Because now I
really am focused only on myclient. I love it.
Matthew Landis (05:36):
Well, our paths are so parallel. You know, I
used to own a couple of salons,I had 5060 employees, 20,
something chairs to locate out,you know, all of that. And the
most money and the most fun Iever had was as an independent.
When I gave all of that up.
Julee George (05:53):
You had to give up your ego, right? Because I had
to give up ego. There was a lotof ego in owning a salon.
Matthew Landis (05:59):
Oh, 100%. In fact, speaking of ego, one of
the things that really helped meget past all of it was listening
to Eckhart Tolle lays a newearth, which is all about the
ego, and it helped me realizeare the decisions that I'm
making in my life and my career,because they're good for me, or
because they satisfy my ego.
Julee George (06:16):
Well, you're gonna have to text me that because
that's something I need to read.
Matthew Landis (06:20):
I listened to the audiobook on a road trip, it
was super helpful. Yeah, one ofthe things that really helped me
through a hard time in my lifewas realizing that I just needed
to focus on showing up every dayfor each client and doing the
job and connecting with each oneof them. So I'm really glad that
you said that, because I thinkthat's so important. I think a
lot of pros that are buildingtheir business, sometimes
(06:42):
they're focused on externalfactors in building their
business like social media. Andsometimes we lose sight of
what's important, which is theclient that is in our chair
right now. Now, you said yousold your salon right before
COVID, which is crazy, you musthave felt something in the
atmosphere,
Julee George (07:00):
I have to tell you I didn't I just feel I just say
I had a guardian angel.
Matthew Landis (07:04):
That's incredible. And you had to
rebuild your clientele duringCOVID. And out of COVID. Tell me
about that.
Julee George (07:10):
I have to tell you that it's actually it's exciting
for me to share with you, I wantto say I feel incredibly
grateful and thankful at howrate my business. So I want to
make sure that I don't come froma place of arrogance that I'm
coming from a place of beinggrateful and thankful when I
moved, I moved 30 miles awayfrom my salon and my clientele,
and I wasn't expecting, I mean,I knew a handful of those
(07:32):
diehards would come, but Iwasn't expecting to keep as many
as I did. So for me, I had tonot be afraid. First up, I had
to not be afraid to sell mysalon, I had to not be afraid to
move 30 miles away. And I had totrust that I have all of the
business skills that I need tobuild up again, we've all seen
really good hairdressers thathaven't made it. And when you
(07:52):
look at like, why are they notmaking it, they're so talented.
And I think a lot of it is justbecause of their business
skills. I know that if I justtrust the process and trust what
I already know how to do and asI work it that I was going to I
was going to be okay. And I wasgoing to do okay, again, I
wasn't starting completely fromscratch because some of my
people came. So now I have toget new people in the chair. So
(08:14):
one of the things I did is I diddo Yelp advertising, I think
maybe I started at a perfecttime in the sense that during
COVID, when we were open, a lotof hairdressers got out of the
business. So if they were new,or if they were old, older,
seasoned, I should say and theywere ready to retire, they left
they decided to get out. So whatit created for me was a was a
(08:34):
need for people needed ahairdresser. And so I started
advertising with Yelp. And Ithink one of the best things
that we can do is make sure thatwe're getting Yelp reviews. I
know a lot of people use Google,I don't really use that I use
Yelp, making sure that we're youknow, now getting those reviews
for later will help us thereally interesting thing that I
love about Yelp is you can turnyour advertising on and off. So
(08:54):
let's say you get so busy, youcan turn it off or turn it back
on. So let's say right now, if Ihave a slow day, and I'm like,
ooh, I've got a couple of slowdays. I just turned my Yelp
advertising on it gets booked. Iturned it back on. You know,
I've always had a love haterelationship with Yelp. And I
have to tell you, since I moved,it's more love than it is hate.
Matthew Landis (09:10):
Now, that is really great advice. Because a
lot of our pros spend a lot oftime on Instagram and Instagram
is great. But I always sayInstagram is more like a
portfolio. You need thatreferral first and then somebody
will go to your Instagram to seewhat it is you do. But what I
love about Yelp and Google isthey're more geo located to
(09:31):
where you are, you know, it'sgreat. If you're amazing on
Instagram and you you live inSalt Lake City, but if somebody
in Boston is following you, it'snot going to bring you business
but Yelp and Google and gettingthose reviews and I love that
you use the advertising becausethat's something that I think a
lot of people are curious about.
What what does that cost?
Julee George (09:49):
Well, you can set up your own budget, I believe
maybe you can start at 300. Istarted at 500 and I was
consecutively getting about$2,500 in business back but If I
look at that $500 a month andthe $2,500 that I was making
back, it wasn't just that firstvisit, now it's my
responsibility to make sure thatthat client comes back, a lot of
(10:09):
my business is still Yelpbusiness, it just doesn't look
like it because now I've beendoing their hair for a while.
But the original way that Ireceived them was through Yelp,
it was worth $500. To me, again,I got to turn it off if I got
too busy. And so you know, nowsometimes my Yelp advertising is
30 or $80 a month, depending onif I've had to turn it on or
(10:30):
off.
Matthew Landis (10:30):
You are speaking my love language.
Julee George (10:32):
Because one thing that you just brought up that I
really wanted to touch on with,and that's Instagram, I was
watching one of I was in one ofyour business classes, actually.
And you gave me a freedom. And Iwanted to thank you for that.
Because I don't I don't doenough on Instagram, I have to
be honest. And I always feellike I have I mean, I just have
hundreds of pictures of thingsto post. But I work six days a
(10:55):
week in the salon, and I'm busy.
And so when I go home, I don'twant to post and so I was
feeling like I'm not doing whatI should be as a style. I'm not
keeping up with the times. Andyou said no, your client, like
who is your client. And Istarted to realize, like, my
client is somebody who comes inevery four to six weeks because
they need to get a crutch up orthey need to get their hair
highlighted. And so my clientmaybe isn't on Instagram as
(11:17):
much. And so I realized that,you know, it's good for me to
have that presence, but it's notnecessarily where my business is
coming from. And so I reallywanted to thank you. Like I
said, it gave me a freedom thatI don't have to feel guilty that
I'm not on social media thatmuch.
Matthew Landis (11:34):
Thankyou so much for saying that. It is so
important to know who you'remarketing to and focus your
energy there instead ofcomparing yourself to other
people and beating yourself upfor not being good at Instagram,
for example.
Julee George (11:48):
And then the other thing I realized that I was
taking pictures of some Bali aajapp tell you, I really don't
like to do it. And I'm like, whyam I posting that beautiful
work, but I don't want to do it,I realized that you know, I love
cutting short hair. So with fineif you go to my Instagram, I
have very little short hair. IfI were to have one goal for this
year, it is to start postingboth on Yelp and on Instagram
(12:10):
works that I want to do
Matthew Landis (12:11):
I love that you can have any clientele that you
want. You have to reallyunderstand who it is and what it
is that they want from you. Whatis it that they're looking for?
What problem are you solving forthem? And how can you
communicate that to the mostnumber of people in that
category? Absolutely. You'rehugely successful. You're busy,
I've seen you you're a machine,what are some other ways that
(12:33):
you have built your business andsustain your business?
Julee George (12:35):
Okay, so I'm going to talk about two things. One of
them is asking for referrals.
Sometimes we feel prideful, thatwe don't want to ask people for
referrals because it means we'renot busy. And I'm okay with
that. I'm okay with askingpeople for referrals. But I'll
do it in a very, I'll do it verysincere. So I'll tell my client,
I love doing your hair. If I hada book full of clients like you,
this is the dream job. And soI'm sure that your friends and
(12:59):
your family are like you so doyou have any friends or family
that you can send to me becauseI'm trying to build my business.
And I have to tell you, I don'toffer I don't offer a discount.
I don't offer a referraldiscount i That's I decided that
I was going to build thisbusiness without giving away
anything for free. And I knowthat's a different mindset. When
somebody is coming here, they'realready expecting to pay and
quite honestly, people want tohelp you when you ask for help
(13:22):
people really they want you tobe busy. They they want to help.
Matthew Landis (13:27):
That is so powerful and important for our
products to hear. Thank you.
Julee George (13:32):
Now the next one, which is really honestly my
favorite is pre booking. So Ihave the glass genius app and I
love the number that tells youhow much business you booked
that day, I believe that whatgets tracked gets improved. So I
love glass genius for thatreason, because not only can I
see what I've booked for thatday, I get to see exactly how
much money I've made up untilthat very moment and I track
(13:52):
everything I track every tipeverything because I want to
know exactly what I've made atthe end of the year or, or at
the end of the day or after acertain client you know, I'll do
a little contest with myselflike let's try to get that over
this amount when I have a clientsitting in my chair and I'm pre
booking their appointment themost important thing to do is
either say let's pre book yournext appointment so you can get
the time that you want. NoticeI'm not asking them I feel like
(14:13):
when if you say would you liketo pre book your next
appointment or do you want tocall what we're doing is we're
giving them an out i My motto isalways I'm just gonna say it the
way I say it to myself is shutup. So meaning that I don't
would you like to pre book yournext appointment? Then I tell
myself in my head Shut up,meaning that don't give them a
way to say no, they can come upwith any reason that they want
(14:34):
you to say no, but I'm not goingto give it to them. So for
instance, you know, even when wesell a product like would you
like to take this home today? Ordo you want to use what you have
at home don't add that nextthing to stop talking. I'll ask
my clients do you want to bookyour next appointment or like
book your next appointmentbecause you like a certain time
I'm getting really busy. Now inthe beginning. I wasn't busy
quite honestly they could havegotten in at any time but I like
(14:55):
to say that I was telling thetruth for the future. So I'm
going to be so busy that youhave To book your next
appointment, if you're going toget into me, what I did is I
created my own reality, I don'tjust put one appointment, I
typically book six months inadvance, or on my Saturday
appointments might get 30people, they want their
appointment on Saturdays, I willbook it for the whole year. So
what's important to me is I haveto book my vacations and my time
(15:17):
off at the beginning of theyear.
Matthew Landis (15:19):
This is all so great, thank you so much for
sharing this, because this ishow I built my business. This is
how I get got busy, I had torebuild my clientele at least
five times that I can think of,and I employed a lot of these
techniques that you're talkingabout. So thank you so much for
sharing them. And I love thatyou pre book. You know, there
(15:39):
are a lot of Salon coaches and afew people out there that are
telling people to stop prebooking, that pre booking is an
old school out of date out offashion thing, and I'm listening
to this thing. Yeah, okay, I'man older hairdresser. But are
you crazy?
Julee George (15:53):
Right, I'd actually your I'd like to hear
what the reason is, I would beopen to hearing that reason.
Matthew Landis (15:58):
The reason assumes that your books are
full, some of the reasoning isthat I don't know what I'm going
to be doing in three months, Idon't know what I'm going to be
doing in six months, I don'twant to commit to something that
I might have to change later on.
And I want to leave that timeopen for potentially new
business. And I'm thinking thisis not right. Like I want to be
able to guarantee that I havebusiness, I want to be able to
(16:22):
guarantee like you said thatthey have the best time that
they want. I want to see themagain, I want to make sure that
they can get in, I just I don'tget it. I don't.
Julee George (16:32):
I have different comfort levels. For me, I'm not
comfortable when I see gaps inmy books, I'm not comfortable
when my client doesn't get thetime that they want. I feel very
uncomfortable to me. I'm tryingto get them into the time they
want. I know they like Fridaysat three o'clock every five
weeks. So for me, it's like Ijust look at Yeah,
Matthew Landis (16:49):
I also like seeing people that I know on my
books, and I love new clients.
But I also don't want three newclients in a day because every
single new client is a makeover.
And if I have three makeovers inone day, I'm not getting home
till eight o'clock that night.
So it's not gonna happen. So tome actually, pre booking is
freedom's one other advice doyou have for building your
business,
Julee George (17:09):
I would say that it's very important to look the
part I think that we've it'sjust when I'm going to just
sound like an old person. But Ithink that we forgot to dress up
we forgot to do our hair.
Sometimes people come to workwithout their makeup done. They
come in, in into work withtennis shoes, I always show up
for work. If I have a newclient. Here's a perfect
example. Sometimes we have a newclient on our books. And so we
(17:30):
dress a little better we makesure our hair is done. And I
believe that should be how welook every single day. I
remember one day my son lookedat me and at the back of my head
had a weird part. I don't know,maybe I hadn't washed it for a
few days. And he goes, have youseen your hair? And I'm like,
why? And he goes, you know, noone wants to go to a hairdresser
that doesn't have nice hair. AndI had to laugh because those are
(17:52):
words out of my mouth. I mean,that's what I always say no one
wants to go to a hairdresserthat doesn't have good hair. And
maybe that's just a silly thing.
But I always show up for work.
I'm always on time. It's notalways easy. I make sure to book
the amount of time that here'sthe nice thing about pre booking
if you have a client who takesless time or more time because
you pre booked you know, you getto control your schedule. I
(18:12):
pride myself on not runninglate. And I think that you know
we were talking earlier aboutthat that really talented hair
duster that doesn't make it sometime. Well here's the thing is
I'm never late. I'm so I don'tknow that I'm the best
hairdresser but I think I havegreat business skills.
Matthew Landis (18:27):
You absolutely do. One of the things that you
shared with me is that you arealways telling people wherever
you go that you are ahairdresser.
Julee George (18:35):
Yes. So because of that, it doesn't matter where I
am, I think I told you that Istarted playing pickleball about
a year ago. Here's the funnything. I played pickleball one
time, and I loved it so much. Ichanged my hours, I just went in
and I'm like I'm getting off nowat 530. So I don't work, I do
not work past 530 anymore,because I have to go play
pickleball The nice thing isthat when you build your
(18:55):
clientele, you get to chooseyour hours. So my clients are
not choosing them for me. Soanyway, I started playing
pickleball and now you knowevery when I play pickleball
either sometimes people will askme about my hair, you know, that
happens a lot. Or you know, I'lljust tell them, Oh, I just got
off work. What do you do? I dohair people. You know, as soon
as people find out that you dohair, then they start asking
some questions. And then it's Ican't believe how many clients
(19:18):
I've gotten from pickleball.
I've gotten clients frompickleball. I've gotten clients
from my son's school. I mean, Istill do clients when my son
like teachers have my son sincehe was two years old. I just
tell everybody, it changes therelationship that you have with
those people too, because nowit's like pickleball and I'm
their hairdresser. So then wehave something in common when
they when they sit down in mychair. If I'm at the grocery
store and somebody you knowlikes my hair, I tell them I do
(19:40):
hair. People are always whenthey hear that you do hair, you
know sometimes people say I'm anengineer and they're like, okay,
but when you say I'm ahairdresser, typically people
will always have a story foryou. And that's just a really
great way to start conversation.
Matthew Landis (19:54):
Isn't that wonderful? People line up when
you say I'm a hairdresser, theyreally do they really do. I
think that This also goes tosomething that I always say is
that people are looking for you,they may not know who you are
yet, they may not know where tofind you or what you do, but
they're looking for someone justlike you help them find you help
them build that relationship.
Julee George (20:14):
I also feel like you may talk to somebody who
loves their hairdresser. And Ithink that's great. They've been
with their hairdresser for along time. And I also think
that's great. Also talk to themabout hair, because there may be
a time where that hairdresserdecides to leave, or the person
that I'm talking to can't getin. So they may call me for that
reason. And you know, maybe Inever see them in my chair, it
doesn't matter to me. I mean, Ijust want to spread the joy and
(20:36):
have people have people see thisindustry, when they see someone
who's happy with their career,want them to see that as well.
Matthew Landis (20:42):
Let me ask you about the business side of
things. What are some thingsthat you have learned that you
wish you had known earlier on inyour career?
Julee George (20:51):
Again, remember, I said, I repeated the first year
of business eight times, I wishthat I had learned early that
probably 80% of my success wasgoing to be business skills, and
20% was going to be here, weprobably spend 80% of our
education on our techniques, and20% on business, when really the
business part will help us to bemore successful. So I wish I had
(21:12):
had known that part, you have tobe a good hairdresser. And
course get your education atthat. But don't forget to get
your business education. I wish,you know, I could tell my
younger self like stop being sofearful of things because
everything can be changed. WhenI would have assistants and they
would mess up on color, I wouldsay congratulations, you don't
do anything in this businesswithout making a bunch of
mistakes. It's only really amistake if you didn't learn from
(21:34):
it. So how can that be donebetter? You know, I think that
if I had embraced my mistakesmore and been less fearful, I
would have, I would have builtmy clientele faster. But I guess
you know, I wasn't ready at thetime.
Matthew Landis (21:45):
Making mistakes is a part of this. And the
biggest roadblock to successthat I see is fear. And even
when it comes to these practicalthings that you've been talking
about pre booking and retail andreferrals, the reason they
aren't being done is becausepeople are afraid that people
are afraid of rejection, eventhough it's not personal. It's
(22:05):
not personal. That's what youhave to remember is not
personal. I always tell peopleit isn't about you, it's about
them. You're not on trial,you're not an audition, you're
just trying to solve a problemfor them. You're trying to help
them. And if they don't want it,they'll just tell you no, but
it's no reflection on youwhatsoever. But fear is the
biggest factor.
Julee George (22:23):
Where do you see hairdressers being fearful
because I'll you know, give myown input.
Matthew Landis (22:28):
I always say to being in this industry, whether
it's hairdressing or nail art oraesthetics, we want to be liked
so much, and our ego is on theline every single time we do
anything, because we really wantthem to like the work that we've
done. And we really want them tolike us.
Julee George (22:46):
That's a good do you think that sometimes people
are fearful about raising theirprices, because somebody won't
like them? If they raise theirprices?
Matthew Landis (22:53):
Yes, they're afraid of raising their prices,
they're afraid of ofrecommending retail, because
they're afraid of being pushy.
They're afraid of pre booking,because they're afraid that the
client is going to think they'rebeing pushy. They're afraid of
all of these things that we'vetalked about, because they feel
like if the client says no, thatis a reflection on them as a
person that makes sense price isreally gets to the heart and
(23:14):
soul to the guts of that fearbecause it has to do with
perceived value. Absolutely. Andso people are afraid of raising
their prices, because they deepdown inside they're saying what
if the client doesn't think thatI am worth it? So I know you
have some strong feelings andadvice on raising prices, how do
(23:35):
you address those?
Julee George (23:38):
First off, you have to get rid of the fear of
raising your prices. And I thinkI think that you just put a new
spin on it, it really I neverthought about it, as you know,
not feeling like we're goodenough. You know, I hear when
people raise their prices, theysay, Well, my clients won't pay,
my client will leave if youdon't feel like you're doing a
good service. Or if you don'tfeel like you're doing a good
(23:59):
color, then maybe you're afraidthat they're going to leave. But
you know that you are if someoneis not raising their prices,
then they're not keeping up withinflation. So they're actually
making less money. So you'rehaving to do more clients and
you're having to do work to makethe same amount of money, I have
a little bit different have anidea of when to raise prices, I
raise prices when I want clientsto go away, I want to lose them.
(24:20):
And the reason I say that is ifI'm getting so busy that I don't
have the extra few minutes tomaybe do an add on service, or
are you going to do new clientsbecause you know, like new
clients, even though maybe wedon't want to do three in a day,
we still want to have newclients because it's new energy.
When we raise our prices,typically the ones that we we
want to keep are the ones thatreally do end up staying because
(24:41):
they see our value. I raise myprices to let people go away so
that I can bring in new clientswho are willing to pay the new
prices. They've never had an oldprice and a new price. They've
only had the new price. And soit just gives me new energy for
my business. I'm not afraid toraise my prices because if I get
some gaps I know how to build abusiness. So either I go at
Yelp, I go back to asking forreferrals, I have gotten to the
(25:03):
point where sometimes No, Ican't take a new person, and we
want to take new people, but I'mtoo busy too. And so that's when
I know it's time to raise myprices. I also think it's
important that when you youknow, we're in an independent
business now, I mean, I, I'm incontrol of my environment, but I
still want to make sure thatwhen I do have a referral, or if
I do have a new client that Ican't get in, I refer them to
(25:24):
somebody here at image studios,because I want my friends to be
successful. Also, the thing Ilove about image Studios is how
open everything is, you know,how busy everyone is, when I can
watch and help somebody elsebuild their business. It
inspires me, and, and it makesme realize why I'm in this
industry. It's not just bymyself. I love being able to be
(25:46):
inspired by other people.
Matthew Landis (25:47):
And I will tell you being at the corporate
office, we take design veryseriously. And the spaces are
designed to be collaborative,they're designed to create
community and promote wellbeingfor our pros that are in those
spaces. So thank you for forsaying that about the space and
sharing that.
Julee George (26:06):
After I sold my salon, I went to another Salon
Suite company and everything wasvery close. And when I came
here, it has such a differentenvironment in the sense that I
feel like I work in a salonbecause these people are my
friends. I feel like I can stilllearn things from the people
that are around me, because willlike peek in and say, Oh, what
are you doing? will sometimesyou know, we're looking at
(26:28):
different techniques we'relooking at, you know, people
were asking questions of eachother. And so it really does
have the environment of feelinglike a salon, but being
independent. And I think thatthat's incredibly unique.
Matthew Landis (26:39):
One of the things I admire about you is
this focus on the client and therelationship that you have with
each of them. And you mentionedsomething to me offline about
what a gift that is with eachperson, would you care to share
the story that you shared withme,
Julee George (27:00):
I just I think, I just started to get emotional.
Um, I was going home to makesoup for one of my clients. And
the reason for it was because Ihad confirmed his appointment
for today. And he has stage fourpancreatic cancer. And he sent
me a message saying he could notmake his appointment, because he
take a turn for the worse, andnot knowing what I could do to
(27:23):
help. I said, Can I make yousoup? Can I bring you food. And
so that's what I'm going to dowhen we're finished today, I'm
going to bring that to him. Andit might be a gift to me to be
able to say goodbye to him.
Because so often we don't getto, I am getting emotional. Um,
you know, if you've been in thisbusiness for any sort of time,
(27:44):
you will lose a client becausethey die. And what people their
family don't realize is thatthey, they sometimes forget to
tell us, they forget to tell thehairdresser because we're just
the hairdresser. But we're not.
We're not just the hairdresser.
When I see a client every fourto six weeks, and I spend an
hour to two hours with them.
(28:05):
That's more time than I spendwith my best friend. And yes,
this is business. But reality isyou get to know people, you
know, who they like in theirfamily who they don't like, you
know that they hated that so andso brings this dish to Christmas
every year. We know all thethings that, that they can't
tell people in the real world,they can't tell their family
(28:28):
that they really don't like thisperson. And so when, when they
when they pass, it's it'semotional for us. Because, you
know, I'm talking a lot about,you know, business building our
business. But you know, there isalso a huge emotional connection
that we get with our clients.
So, anyway, that's what I'll bedoing when we leave here is I'll
(28:50):
be bringing him soup.
Matthew Landis (28:54):
It's such a gift to be able to hold that space
for other people. People overthe years would say to me, oh,
being a hairdresser is likebeing a therapist. And I would
push back like I am not atherapist. I don't want that
responsibility. But I thinkwhere the comparison lies is
being able to hold space forpeople. And we're a safe place
(29:16):
for them to share.
Absolutely.
I had, coincidentally, a clienta few years ago whose husband
had pancreatic cancer. And shecame in for her appointment on a
hard day and started to cry. Andshe said I'm so sorry I didn't
come in here to unload on youbut I can't talk to him about
(29:37):
what I'm going through. And Ican't talk to my children about
what I'm going through because Ineed to be there for them. I
don't have anyone to hear me.
Julee George (29:50):
What a beautiful about we're able to experience
with her. I can see it I canhear it in your voice.
Matthew Landis (29:57):
It was a very hot humbling moment.
Julee George (30:03):
Oh, you're making me cry? Oh, you're cute. I know
I get it. I mean, yes. This isthe part that you know you do.
When am I being so focused onbusiness? This is this is the
other side. And you know, that'swhy it's so easy to love what we
do. I don't know about you. Butthere's never a day where I
(30:26):
think I don't want to go to worktoday, there might be a day
where I just don't feel likepicking out an outfit. But I
never want to not come to work.
I love this. And 36 years later,I love this.
Matthew Landis (30:37):
We talked about this offline. But we go through
life with these people. Yeah, Iwatched them. I watched their
kids grow up. I had clients thatwere four and five years old
when I did their hair the firsttime and now they're married and
living in DC and like, right,yes. So it's incredible. And we
age with these people.
Julee George (30:57):
I never think that I'm the one aging, I always
think it's them. But I guess Iam too.
Matthew Landis (31:04):
It is wonderful.
It's a wonderful business to bein to have these relationships
to hold this space for people tobe this creative, to have a
party every day with people thatyou really enjoy and to make
money out of it.
Julee George (31:19):
And that's just it, we make money doing the best
thing. I mean, the mostenjoyable thing that we can.
Matthew Landis (31:24):
So what does the future look like for you? What
do you what's next?
Julee George (31:27):
Well, here's the funny part is that I have a huge
financial goal last year, and Iwas so focused on that goal, I
really couldn't see anythingelse. The last day of December
that I worked last year, I madethe goal by $300. That was it
300. And so this year, eventhough I will always have a
financial goal, I made thefinancial goal less, and I did
(31:50):
so because I need to enjoy lifea little bit more. When I go on
vacation, I want to take anextra day to see wherever it is
that we're going, I don't wantto worry that I need to be back
here working. You know, my goalfor myself really is to take a
little bit more time for me
Matthew Landis (32:04):
What other parts of your life bring you the most
joy and happiness.
Julee George (32:08):
And that is my son, he is 15 He's actually
probably the most frustrating,but the most joyful thing in my
life. He's the best thing that Ihave ever done. Because I was
working for redkin. And I wastraveling the world and I was
teaching hairdressers, I neverwanted a child. When I got
pregnant, I thought you knowwhat, this is the next step. And
I don't want to breathe a breathon this earth. Without him. He's
(32:32):
the most amazing thing that I'veever done. What I hope that I'm
doing is I hope that I'm showinghim what a strong woman looks
like and how to be a hardworker, because I share these
things with him. I love gettinghis advice on you know, this
client did this, or this clientdid that. And I do that because
I want to see what his views areis the thing that gives me the
most joy. He's also 15. So it'sit's also frustrating, but I
(32:56):
love that kid. And I know yousaid that was the last question,
but I'm gonna put it back on toyou. I'm going to ask you the
same question.
Matthew Landis (33:02):
You know, I would have to say I do a
gratitude journal every morning.
And it's always my husband andour dogs have worked hard to be
in the place that I want to beworked hard on myself. And it
took me a long time to learn howto love other people and be
loved and returned. And hebrings me that every day. And of
course, our dogs as well. Sojust being here with them.
(33:25):
That's enough. Well, Julie,thank you so much. This has been
a wonderful time together and Icannot wait to do it again. In
the future.
Julee George (33:36):
I think that we're going to have to do it again in
the future because it's just waytoo much fun to be around you.
Matthew Landis (33:41):
Oh, I feel the same way.
Julee George (33:42):
Thank you.
Matthew Landis (33:46):
Thank you so much for joining me for this
episode of The VIP suite. I'mMatthew Landis and I hope you
found the insights andinspiration share today truly
valuable for your journey as asolo entrepreneur, and
independent beauty, health orwellness professionals. Don't
forget to follow us on Instagram@imagestudios360. And if you
enjoyed this episode, don'tforget to subscribe to the VIP
(34:06):
Suite on your favorite podcastplatform so you never miss an
opportunity to connect with ourvibrant community and to
discover more incredible storiesand strategies. We love hearing
from our listeners. So if youhave any questions, topic
suggestions or want to shareyour own success story, feel
free to reach out to me atMatthew at image studios three
sixty.com Remember dearlistener, you are the heartbeat
(34:28):
of the beauty, health andwellness industry. Your
dedication and passion make theworld a better place one client
at a time keep shining, keepgrowing and keep making a
positive impact. We'll be backwith more engaging conversations
and valuable content in our nextepisode. Until then take care
stay inspired and continue tocreate your own VIP suite. For
more information about becominga part of the image studios
(34:49):
luxury Salon Suite community,visit our website at
imagetudios360.com
Welcome to the VIP suite. The podcast
(00:03):
exclusively designed forindependent beauty, health and
wellness professionals. Broughtto you by image studios the
luxury leader in the Salon Suiteindustry. I'm your host industry
expert and certified businesscoach Matthew Landis. Each
episode will bring youinsightful interviews with solo
entrepreneurs who forge theirown path to greatness. From
(00:23):
sharing inspiring stories oftriumph to practical tips and
strategies for growing yourclient base and building your
brand. This is the place tothrive and take your business to
the next level. Joining me todayis Julie George of Rocket
Science Salon in Laguna Hills,California at our image studios
there on the West Coast. Goodmorning, Julie.
Julee George (00:44):
Good morning, Matthew, I'm honored to be here
with you this morning.
Matthew Landis (00:47):
I'm so excited that we met a few months ago.
And we've just kind of clicked Ifelt the same way.
Julee George (00:51):
Actually, here's the funny thing I knew when I
was watching your videos thatsomeday we would be somehow
working together.
Matthew Landis (00:57):
That's amazing.
Yeah. And I felt it as soon as Imet you, thank you. And you've
been in the industry for awhile.
Julee George (01:03):
I've had my license for 36 years. And I went
to beauty school while I was inhigh school.
Matthew Landis (01:08):
Well that it seems so lucky to me to have
started out so early because Ididn't start till I was 25.
Julee George (01:14):
I think you can look at that two ways. I went to
beauty school while I was inhigh school, not because I
actually wanted to do here, Ijust wanted to leave high school
at lunchtime. So it was reallymy stomach that brought me into
this industry. And I thoughtthat doing hair would be
something that would get methrough college, and then I
would get a real job. And here Iam 36 years later, that is so
(01:36):
funny, because one of thereasons I went into hair is
because I thought if I everwanted to go back to college, I
could make enough money and havethe flexibility to do so. You
know, what I was gonna say is Ithink you getting into the
industry. I won't say a littlebit later, because 25 certainly
isn't late. But I think whenpeople do it later, sometimes
people feel like they're behind.
But I don't I don't feel thatway at all. Because I think at
(01:56):
25, you're much more mature. Ifeel like I repeated the same my
first year in this industryeight times. So what I mean by
that is that for eight years, Iwas doing the same exact thing.
And I wasn't progressing becauseI was an eight, I was 18. And I
was licensed and I didn't knowwhat to do. I didn't know how to
build a clientele. And I didn'thave anybody guiding me. So I
think that when you're older,you're more open to mentors, and
(02:19):
you're more open to learning howto build your business?
Matthew Landis (02:24):
Well, I'll tell you at 25 was definitely a
choice. And I had done a lot ofother things that I hated. And
so it really for me was theprocess of elimination, and I
got on this and you know, I'vehad the best time I've made lots
of money had lots of fun, it'sbeen the best decision that I
ever made. So you said youstarted that first year eight
(02:44):
times. So what finally made itclick?
Julee George (02:48):
I think what finally made it click was, I was
either going to continuestruggling having a second jobs
or I was going to dedicatemyself to this industry. And at
that point, I got a job withredkin as an educator, that was
the best decision I ever made.
They literally taught meeverything that that I know.
Matthew Landis (03:05):
I was an educator for L'Oreal
professional and they're sistercompanies under the same
umbrella. As a former educator.
I also just love teaching. And Ilove being able to find that
sort of tribe of people withshared passion shared interest
for what they do.
Julee George (03:21):
I don't know if you remember back in the day
when salon centric with Maly's.
And John Maly was the presidentand owner and because he had an
accounting background, he helpedus so much with business skills.
You know, as I was developing myskills as a hairdresser, I was
also getting the businessskills. And then because of
redkin we had people likeMichael Cole that was teaching
us a business. So it really wasa great combination of both.
(03:42):
Tell me a little bit more aboutyour current business. I started
here at image studios in LagunaHills, when they opened I waited
for oh, I don't know how long ittook them to open six to eight
months. So I was the first oneto sign, and that was when there
was I basically picked my sweetfrom a drawing. Nothing was
done. I'm a hairdresser and Ispecialize in color colors my
(04:04):
favorite, but still I still do alot of hair cutting.
Matthew Landis (04:09):
How long have you been independent? And what
made you decide to go theindependent route? Oh, that's an
interesting story.
Julee George (04:15):
So I owned my salon in Long Beach, California
for 17 years and it was 2000square feet. I had at one time
23 people working there and forreceptionists 13 hairdressers,
couple manicures and assistantand three and a half months
before COVID. I said I don'twant this anymore. I don't want
to do this anymore. I wascommuting 30 miles to work every
(04:37):
day and I didn't want thatcommute anymore. And I just knew
that it was time to sell. I wasjust so lucky that I sold the
salon when I did and I decidedthat I wanted to build my
business close to home I am fourmiles from home, meaning that
I'm four miles from my son whichmakes it so much easier to be
able to work and so that was myreason for going independent,
(04:58):
not to be honest with you atfirst because I worked at a big
salon, I thought, Who am I goingto talk to? Like, who am I going
to talk to you if I, if I'mworking by myself, and then a
light bulb went on, and Ithought, Oh, well, I guess I'm
going to talk to my client.
Imagine that. And you know, whenyou work in a salon, you're
always interrupted. And as anowner, I was always interrupted,
you know, it could have been,you know, this magazine
subscription needs to be filled,or the air conditioner is not
(05:19):
working, or the plumbing is notworking. And now I get to
completely focus on hair. It hadbeen, you know, 17 years since I
was able to do that. And I just,I feel like I fell in love with
doing hair all over again, in adifferent way. Because now I
really am focused only on myclient. I love it.
Matthew Landis (05:36):
Well, our paths are so parallel. You know, I
used to own a couple of salons,I had 5060 employees, 20,
something chairs to locate out,you know, all of that. And the
most money and the most fun Iever had was as an independent.
When I gave all of that up.
Julee George (05:53):
You had to give up your ego, right? Because I had
to give up ego. There was a lotof ego in owning a salon.
Matthew Landis (05:59):
Oh, 100%. In fact, speaking of ego, one of
the things that really helped meget past all of it was listening
to Eckhart Tolle lays a newearth, which is all about the
ego, and it helped me realizeare the decisions that I'm
making in my life and my career,because they're good for me, or
because they satisfy my ego.
Julee George (06:16):
Well, you're gonna have to text me that because
that's something I need to read.
Matthew Landis (06:20):
I listened to the audiobook on a road trip, it
was super helpful. Yeah, one ofthe things that really helped me
through a hard time in my lifewas realizing that I just needed
to focus on showing up every dayfor each client and doing the
job and connecting with each oneof them. So I'm really glad that
you said that, because I thinkthat's so important. I think a
lot of pros that are buildingtheir business, sometimes
(06:42):
they're focused on externalfactors in building their
business like social media. Andsometimes we lose sight of
what's important, which is theclient that is in our chair
right now. Now, you said yousold your salon right before
COVID, which is crazy, you musthave felt something in the
atmosphere,
Julee George (07:00):
I have to tell you I didn't I just feel I just say
I had a guardian angel.
Matthew Landis (07:04):
That's incredible. And you had to
rebuild your clientele duringCOVID. And out of COVID. Tell me
about that.
Julee George (07:10):
I have to tell you that it's actually it's exciting
for me to share with you, I wantto say I feel incredibly
grateful and thankful at howrate my business. So I want to
make sure that I don't come froma place of arrogance that I'm
coming from a place of beinggrateful and thankful when I
moved, I moved 30 miles awayfrom my salon and my clientele,
and I wasn't expecting, I mean,I knew a handful of those
(07:32):
diehards would come, but Iwasn't expecting to keep as many
as I did. So for me, I had tonot be afraid. First up, I had
to not be afraid to sell mysalon, I had to not be afraid to
move 30 miles away. And I had totrust that I have all of the
business skills that I need tobuild up again, we've all seen
really good hairdressers thathaven't made it. And when you
(07:52):
look at like, why are they notmaking it, they're so talented.
And I think a lot of it is justbecause of their business
skills. I know that if I justtrust the process and trust what
I already know how to do and asI work it that I was going to I
was going to be okay. And I wasgoing to do okay, again, I
wasn't starting completely fromscratch because some of my
people came. So now I have toget new people in the chair. So
(08:14):
one of the things I did is I diddo Yelp advertising, I think
maybe I started at a perfecttime in the sense that during
COVID, when we were open, a lotof hairdressers got out of the
business. So if they were new,or if they were old, older,
seasoned, I should say and theywere ready to retire, they left
they decided to get out. So whatit created for me was a was a
(08:34):
need for people needed ahairdresser. And so I started
advertising with Yelp. And Ithink one of the best things
that we can do is make sure thatwe're getting Yelp reviews. I
know a lot of people use Google,I don't really use that I use
Yelp, making sure that we're youknow, now getting those reviews
for later will help us thereally interesting thing that I
love about Yelp is you can turnyour advertising on and off. So
(08:54):
let's say you get so busy, youcan turn it off or turn it back
on. So let's say right now, if Ihave a slow day, and I'm like,
ooh, I've got a couple of slowdays. I just turned my Yelp
advertising on it gets booked. Iturned it back on. You know,
I've always had a love haterelationship with Yelp. And I
have to tell you, since I moved,it's more love than it is hate.
Matthew Landis (09:10):
Now, that is really great advice. Because a
lot of our pros spend a lot oftime on Instagram and Instagram
is great. But I always sayInstagram is more like a
portfolio. You need thatreferral first and then somebody
will go to your Instagram to seewhat it is you do. But what I
love about Yelp and Google isthey're more geo located to
(09:31):
where you are, you know, it'sgreat. If you're amazing on
Instagram and you you live inSalt Lake City, but if somebody
in Boston is following you, it'snot going to bring you business
but Yelp and Google and gettingthose reviews and I love that
you use the advertising becausethat's something that I think a
lot of people are curious about.
What what does that cost?
Julee George (09:49):
Well, you can set up your own budget, I believe
maybe you can start at 300. Istarted at 500 and I was
consecutively getting about$2,500 in business back but If I
look at that $500 a month andthe $2,500 that I was making
back, it wasn't just that firstvisit, now it's my
responsibility to make sure thatthat client comes back, a lot of
(10:09):
my business is still Yelpbusiness, it just doesn't look
like it because now I've beendoing their hair for a while.
But the original way that Ireceived them was through Yelp,
it was worth $500. To me, again,I got to turn it off if I got
too busy. And so you know, nowsometimes my Yelp advertising is
30 or $80 a month, depending onif I've had to turn it on or
(10:30):
off.
Matthew Landis (10:30):
You are speaking my love language.
Julee George (10:32):
Because one thing that you just brought up that I
really wanted to touch on with,and that's Instagram, I was
watching one of I was in one ofyour business classes, actually.
And you gave me a freedom. And Iwanted to thank you for that.
Because I don't I don't doenough on Instagram, I have to
be honest. And I always feellike I have I mean, I just have
hundreds of pictures of thingsto post. But I work six days a
(10:55):
week in the salon, and I'm busy.
And so when I go home, I don'twant to post and so I was
feeling like I'm not doing whatI should be as a style. I'm not
keeping up with the times. Andyou said no, your client, like
who is your client. And Istarted to realize, like, my
client is somebody who comes inevery four to six weeks because
they need to get a crutch up orthey need to get their hair
highlighted. And so my clientmaybe isn't on Instagram as
(11:17):
much. And so I realized that,you know, it's good for me to
have that presence, but it's notnecessarily where my business is
coming from. And so I reallywanted to thank you. Like I
said, it gave me a freedom thatI don't have to feel guilty that
I'm not on social media thatmuch.
Matthew Landis (11:34):
Thankyou so much for saying that. It is so
important to know who you'remarketing to and focus your
energy there instead ofcomparing yourself to other
people and beating yourself upfor not being good at Instagram,
for example.
Julee George (11:48):
And then the other thing I realized that I was
taking pictures of some Bali aajapp tell you, I really don't
like to do it. And I'm like, whyam I posting that beautiful
work, but I don't want to do it,I realized that you know, I love
cutting short hair. So with fineif you go to my Instagram, I
have very little short hair. IfI were to have one goal for this
year, it is to start postingboth on Yelp and on Instagram
(12:10):
works that I want to do
Matthew Landis (12:11):
I love that you can have any clientele that you
want. You have to reallyunderstand who it is and what it
is that they want from you. Whatis it that they're looking for?
What problem are you solving forthem? And how can you
communicate that to the mostnumber of people in that
category? Absolutely. You'rehugely successful. You're busy,
I've seen you you're a machine,what are some other ways that
(12:33):
you have built your business andsustain your business?
Julee George (12:35):
Okay, so I'm going to talk about two things. One of
them is asking for referrals.
Sometimes we feel prideful, thatwe don't want to ask people for
referrals because it means we'renot busy. And I'm okay with
that. I'm okay with askingpeople for referrals. But I'll
do it in a very, I'll do it verysincere. So I'll tell my client,
I love doing your hair. If I hada book full of clients like you,
this is the dream job. And soI'm sure that your friends and
(12:59):
your family are like you so doyou have any friends or family
that you can send to me becauseI'm trying to build my business.
And I have to tell you, I don'toffer I don't offer a discount.
I don't offer a referraldiscount i That's I decided that
I was going to build thisbusiness without giving away
anything for free. And I knowthat's a different mindset. When
somebody is coming here, they'realready expecting to pay and
quite honestly, people want tohelp you when you ask for help
(13:22):
people really they want you tobe busy. They they want to help.
Matthew Landis (13:27):
That is so powerful and important for our
products to hear. Thank you.
Julee George (13:32):
Now the next one, which is really honestly my
favorite is pre booking. So Ihave the glass genius app and I
love the number that tells youhow much business you booked
that day, I believe that whatgets tracked gets improved. So I
love glass genius for thatreason, because not only can I
see what I've booked for thatday, I get to see exactly how
much money I've made up untilthat very moment and I track
(13:52):
everything I track every tipeverything because I want to
know exactly what I've made atthe end of the year or, or at
the end of the day or after acertain client you know, I'll do
a little contest with myselflike let's try to get that over
this amount when I have a clientsitting in my chair and I'm pre
booking their appointment themost important thing to do is
either say let's pre book yournext appointment so you can get
the time that you want. NoticeI'm not asking them I feel like
(14:13):
when if you say would you liketo pre book your next
appointment or do you want tocall what we're doing is we're
giving them an out i My motto isalways I'm just gonna say it the
way I say it to myself is shutup. So meaning that I don't
would you like to pre book yournext appointment? Then I tell
myself in my head Shut up,meaning that don't give them a
way to say no, they can come upwith any reason that they want
(14:34):
you to say no, but I'm not goingto give it to them. So for
instance, you know, even when wesell a product like would you
like to take this home today? Ordo you want to use what you have
at home don't add that nextthing to stop talking. I'll ask
my clients do you want to bookyour next appointment or like
book your next appointmentbecause you like a certain time
I'm getting really busy. Now inthe beginning. I wasn't busy
quite honestly they could havegotten in at any time but I like
(14:55):
to say that I was telling thetruth for the future. So I'm
going to be so busy that youhave To book your next
appointment, if you're going toget into me, what I did is I
created my own reality, I don'tjust put one appointment, I
typically book six months inadvance, or on my Saturday
appointments might get 30people, they want their
appointment on Saturdays, I willbook it for the whole year. So
what's important to me is I haveto book my vacations and my time
(15:17):
off at the beginning of theyear.
Matthew Landis (15:19):
This is all so great, thank you so much for
sharing this, because this ishow I built my business. This is
how I get got busy, I had torebuild my clientele at least
five times that I can think of,and I employed a lot of these
techniques that you're talkingabout. So thank you so much for
sharing them. And I love thatyou pre book. You know, there
(15:39):
are a lot of Salon coaches and afew people out there that are
telling people to stop prebooking, that pre booking is an
old school out of date out offashion thing, and I'm listening
to this thing. Yeah, okay, I'man older hairdresser. But are
you crazy?
Julee George (15:53):
Right, I'd actually your I'd like to hear
what the reason is, I would beopen to hearing that reason.
Matthew Landis (15:58):
The reason assumes that your books are
full, some of the reasoning isthat I don't know what I'm going
to be doing in three months, Idon't know what I'm going to be
doing in six months, I don'twant to commit to something that
I might have to change later on.
And I want to leave that timeopen for potentially new
business. And I'm thinking thisis not right. Like I want to be
able to guarantee that I havebusiness, I want to be able to
(16:22):
guarantee like you said thatthey have the best time that
they want. I want to see themagain, I want to make sure that
they can get in, I just I don'tget it. I don't.
Julee George (16:32):
I have different comfort levels. For me, I'm not
comfortable when I see gaps inmy books, I'm not comfortable
when my client doesn't get thetime that they want. I feel very
uncomfortable to me. I'm tryingto get them into the time they
want. I know they like Fridaysat three o'clock every five
weeks. So for me, it's like Ijust look at Yeah,
Matthew Landis (16:49):
I also like seeing people that I know on my
books, and I love new clients.
But I also don't want three newclients in a day because every
single new client is a makeover.
And if I have three makeovers inone day, I'm not getting home
till eight o'clock that night.
So it's not gonna happen. So tome actually, pre booking is
freedom's one other advice doyou have for building your
business,
Julee George (17:09):
I would say that it's very important to look the
part I think that we've it'sjust when I'm going to just
sound like an old person. But Ithink that we forgot to dress up
we forgot to do our hair.
Sometimes people come to workwithout their makeup done. They
come in, in into work withtennis shoes, I always show up
for work. If I have a newclient. Here's a perfect
example. Sometimes we have a newclient on our books. And so we
(17:30):
dress a little better we makesure our hair is done. And I
believe that should be how welook every single day. I
remember one day my son lookedat me and at the back of my head
had a weird part. I don't know,maybe I hadn't washed it for a
few days. And he goes, have youseen your hair? And I'm like,
why? And he goes, you know, noone wants to go to a hairdresser
that doesn't have nice hair. AndI had to laugh because those are
(17:52):
words out of my mouth. I mean,that's what I always say no one
wants to go to a hairdresserthat doesn't have good hair. And
maybe that's just a silly thing.
But I always show up for work.
I'm always on time. It's notalways easy. I make sure to book
the amount of time that here'sthe nice thing about pre booking
if you have a client who takesless time or more time because
you pre booked you know, you getto control your schedule. I
(18:12):
pride myself on not runninglate. And I think that you know
we were talking earlier aboutthat that really talented hair
duster that doesn't make it sometime. Well here's the thing is
I'm never late. I'm so I don'tknow that I'm the best
hairdresser but I think I havegreat business skills.
Matthew Landis (18:27):
You absolutely do. One of the things that you
shared with me is that you arealways telling people wherever
you go that you are ahairdresser.
Julee George (18:35):
Yes. So because of that, it doesn't matter where I
am, I think I told you that Istarted playing pickleball about
a year ago. Here's the funnything. I played pickleball one
time, and I loved it so much. Ichanged my hours, I just went in
and I'm like I'm getting off nowat 530. So I don't work, I do
not work past 530 anymore,because I have to go play
pickleball The nice thing isthat when you build your
(18:55):
clientele, you get to chooseyour hours. So my clients are
not choosing them for me. Soanyway, I started playing
pickleball and now you knowevery when I play pickleball
either sometimes people will askme about my hair, you know, that
happens a lot. Or you know, I'lljust tell them, Oh, I just got
off work. What do you do? I dohair people. You know, as soon
as people find out that you dohair, then they start asking
some questions. And then it's Ican't believe how many clients
(19:18):
I've gotten from pickleball.
I've gotten clients frompickleball. I've gotten clients
from my son's school. I mean, Istill do clients when my son
like teachers have my son sincehe was two years old. I just
tell everybody, it changes therelationship that you have with
those people too, because nowit's like pickleball and I'm
their hairdresser. So then wehave something in common when
they when they sit down in mychair. If I'm at the grocery
store and somebody you knowlikes my hair, I tell them I do
(19:40):
hair. People are always whenthey hear that you do hair, you
know sometimes people say I'm anengineer and they're like, okay,
but when you say I'm ahairdresser, typically people
will always have a story foryou. And that's just a really
great way to start conversation.
Matthew Landis (19:54):
Isn't that wonderful? People line up when
you say I'm a hairdresser, theyreally do they really do. I
think that This also goes tosomething that I always say is
that people are looking for you,they may not know who you are
yet, they may not know where tofind you or what you do, but
they're looking for someone justlike you help them find you help
them build that relationship.
Julee George (20:14):
I also feel like you may talk to somebody who
loves their hairdresser. And Ithink that's great. They've been
with their hairdresser for along time. And I also think
that's great. Also talk to themabout hair, because there may be
a time where that hairdresserdecides to leave, or the person
that I'm talking to can't getin. So they may call me for that
reason. And you know, maybe Inever see them in my chair, it
doesn't matter to me. I mean, Ijust want to spread the joy and
(20:36):
have people have people see thisindustry, when they see someone
who's happy with their career,want them to see that as well.
Matthew Landis (20:42):
Let me ask you about the business side of
things. What are some thingsthat you have learned that you
wish you had known earlier on inyour career?
Julee George (20:51):
Again, remember, I said, I repeated the first year
of business eight times, I wishthat I had learned early that
probably 80% of my success wasgoing to be business skills, and
20% was going to be here, weprobably spend 80% of our
education on our techniques, and20% on business, when really the
business part will help us to bemore successful. So I wish I had
(21:12):
had known that part, you have tobe a good hairdresser. And
course get your education atthat. But don't forget to get
your business education. I wish,you know, I could tell my
younger self like stop being sofearful of things because
everything can be changed. WhenI would have assistants and they
would mess up on color, I wouldsay congratulations, you don't
do anything in this businesswithout making a bunch of
mistakes. It's only really amistake if you didn't learn from
(21:34):
it. So how can that be donebetter? You know, I think that
if I had embraced my mistakesmore and been less fearful, I
would have, I would have builtmy clientele faster. But I guess
you know, I wasn't ready at thetime.
Matthew Landis (21:45):
Making mistakes is a part of this. And the
biggest roadblock to successthat I see is fear. And even
when it comes to these practicalthings that you've been talking
about pre booking and retail andreferrals, the reason they
aren't being done is becausepeople are afraid that people
are afraid of rejection, eventhough it's not personal. It's
(22:05):
not personal. That's what youhave to remember is not
personal. I always tell peopleit isn't about you, it's about
them. You're not on trial,you're not an audition, you're
just trying to solve a problemfor them. You're trying to help
them. And if they don't want it,they'll just tell you no, but
it's no reflection on youwhatsoever. But fear is the
biggest factor.
Julee George (22:23):
Where do you see hairdressers being fearful
because I'll you know, give myown input.
Matthew Landis (22:28):
I always say to being in this industry, whether
it's hairdressing or nail art oraesthetics, we want to be liked
so much, and our ego is on theline every single time we do
anything, because we really wantthem to like the work that we've
done. And we really want them tolike us.
Julee George (22:46):
That's a good do you think that sometimes people
are fearful about raising theirprices, because somebody won't
like them? If they raise theirprices?
Matthew Landis (22:53):
Yes, they're afraid of raising their prices,
they're afraid of ofrecommending retail, because
they're afraid of being pushy.
They're afraid of pre booking,because they're afraid that the
client is going to think they'rebeing pushy. They're afraid of
all of these things that we'vetalked about, because they feel
like if the client says no, thatis a reflection on them as a
person that makes sense price isreally gets to the heart and
(23:14):
soul to the guts of that fearbecause it has to do with
perceived value. Absolutely. Andso people are afraid of raising
their prices, because they deepdown inside they're saying what
if the client doesn't think thatI am worth it? So I know you
have some strong feelings andadvice on raising prices, how do
(23:35):
you address those?
Julee George (23:38):
First off, you have to get rid of the fear of
raising your prices. And I thinkI think that you just put a new
spin on it, it really I neverthought about it, as you know,
not feeling like we're goodenough. You know, I hear when
people raise their prices, theysay, Well, my clients won't pay,
my client will leave if youdon't feel like you're doing a
good service. Or if you don'tfeel like you're doing a good
(23:59):
color, then maybe you're afraidthat they're going to leave. But
you know that you are if someoneis not raising their prices,
then they're not keeping up withinflation. So they're actually
making less money. So you'rehaving to do more clients and
you're having to do work to makethe same amount of money, I have
a little bit different have anidea of when to raise prices, I
raise prices when I want clientsto go away, I want to lose them.
(24:20):
And the reason I say that is ifI'm getting so busy that I don't
have the extra few minutes tomaybe do an add on service, or
are you going to do new clientsbecause you know, like new
clients, even though maybe wedon't want to do three in a day,
we still want to have newclients because it's new energy.
When we raise our prices,typically the ones that we we
want to keep are the ones thatreally do end up staying because
(24:41):
they see our value. I raise myprices to let people go away so
that I can bring in new clientswho are willing to pay the new
prices. They've never had an oldprice and a new price. They've
only had the new price. And soit just gives me new energy for
my business. I'm not afraid toraise my prices because if I get
some gaps I know how to build abusiness. So either I go at
Yelp, I go back to asking forreferrals, I have gotten to the
(25:03):
point where sometimes No, Ican't take a new person, and we
want to take new people, but I'mtoo busy too. And so that's when
I know it's time to raise myprices. I also think it's
important that when you youknow, we're in an independent
business now, I mean, I, I'm incontrol of my environment, but I
still want to make sure thatwhen I do have a referral, or if
I do have a new client that Ican't get in, I refer them to
(25:24):
somebody here at image studios,because I want my friends to be
successful. Also, the thing Ilove about image Studios is how
open everything is, you know,how busy everyone is, when I can
watch and help somebody elsebuild their business. It
inspires me, and, and it makesme realize why I'm in this
industry. It's not just bymyself. I love being able to be
(25:46):
inspired by other people.
Matthew Landis (25:47):
And I will tell you being at the corporate
office, we take design veryseriously. And the spaces are
designed to be collaborative,they're designed to create
community and promote wellbeingfor our pros that are in those
spaces. So thank you for forsaying that about the space and
sharing that.
Julee George (26:06):
After I sold my salon, I went to another Salon
Suite company and everything wasvery close. And when I came
here, it has such a differentenvironment in the sense that I
feel like I work in a salonbecause these people are my
friends. I feel like I can stilllearn things from the people
that are around me, because willlike peek in and say, Oh, what
are you doing? will sometimesyou know, we're looking at
(26:28):
different techniques we'relooking at, you know, people
were asking questions of eachother. And so it really does
have the environment of feelinglike a salon, but being
independent. And I think thatthat's incredibly unique.
Matthew Landis (26:39):
One of the things I admire about you is
this focus on the client and therelationship that you have with
each of them. And you mentionedsomething to me offline about
what a gift that is with eachperson, would you care to share
the story that you shared withme,
Julee George (27:00):
I just I think, I just started to get emotional.
Um, I was going home to makesoup for one of my clients. And
the reason for it was because Ihad confirmed his appointment
for today. And he has stage fourpancreatic cancer. And he sent
me a message saying he could notmake his appointment, because he
take a turn for the worse, andnot knowing what I could do to
(27:23):
help. I said, Can I make yousoup? Can I bring you food. And
so that's what I'm going to dowhen we're finished today, I'm
going to bring that to him. Andit might be a gift to me to be
able to say goodbye to him.
Because so often we don't getto, I am getting emotional. Um,
you know, if you've been in thisbusiness for any sort of time,
(27:44):
you will lose a client becausethey die. And what people their
family don't realize is thatthey, they sometimes forget to
tell us, they forget to tell thehairdresser because we're just
the hairdresser. But we're not.
We're not just the hairdresser.
When I see a client every fourto six weeks, and I spend an
hour to two hours with them.
(28:05):
That's more time than I spendwith my best friend. And yes,
this is business. But reality isyou get to know people, you
know, who they like in theirfamily who they don't like, you
know that they hated that so andso brings this dish to Christmas
every year. We know all thethings that, that they can't
tell people in the real world,they can't tell their family
(28:28):
that they really don't like thisperson. And so when, when they
when they pass, it's it'semotional for us. Because, you
know, I'm talking a lot about,you know, business building our
business. But you know, there isalso a huge emotional connection
that we get with our clients.
So, anyway, that's what I'll bedoing when we leave here is I'll
(28:50):
be bringing him soup.
Matthew Landis (28:54):
It's such a gift to be able to hold that space
for other people. People overthe years would say to me, oh,
being a hairdresser is likebeing a therapist. And I would
push back like I am not atherapist. I don't want that
responsibility. But I thinkwhere the comparison lies is
being able to hold space forpeople. And we're a safe place
(29:16):
for them to share.
Absolutely.
I had, coincidentally, a clienta few years ago whose husband
had pancreatic cancer. And shecame in for her appointment on a
hard day and started to cry. Andshe said I'm so sorry I didn't
come in here to unload on youbut I can't talk to him about
(29:37):
what I'm going through. And Ican't talk to my children about
what I'm going through because Ineed to be there for them. I
don't have anyone to hear me.
Julee George (29:50):
What a beautiful about we're able to experience
with her. I can see it I canhear it in your voice.
Matthew Landis (29:57):
It was a very hot humbling moment.
Julee George (30:03):
Oh, you're making me cry? Oh, you're cute. I know
I get it. I mean, yes. This isthe part that you know you do.
When am I being so focused onbusiness? This is this is the
other side. And you know, that'swhy it's so easy to love what we
do. I don't know about you. Butthere's never a day where I
(30:26):
think I don't want to go to worktoday, there might be a day
where I just don't feel likepicking out an outfit. But I
never want to not come to work.
I love this. And 36 years later,I love this.
Matthew Landis (30:37):
We talked about this offline. But we go through
life with these people. Yeah, Iwatched them. I watched their
kids grow up. I had clients thatwere four and five years old
when I did their hair the firsttime and now they're married and
living in DC and like, right,yes. So it's incredible. And we
age with these people.
Julee George (30:57):
I never think that I'm the one aging, I always
think it's them. But I guess Iam too.
Matthew Landis (31:04):
It is wonderful.
It's a wonderful business to bein to have these relationships
to hold this space for people tobe this creative, to have a
party every day with people thatyou really enjoy and to make
money out of it.
Julee George (31:19):
And that's just it, we make money doing the best
thing. I mean, the mostenjoyable thing that we can.
Matthew Landis (31:24):
So what does the future look like for you? What
do you what's next?
Julee George (31:27):
Well, here's the funny part is that I have a huge
financial goal last year, and Iwas so focused on that goal, I
really couldn't see anythingelse. The last day of December
that I worked last year, I madethe goal by $300. That was it
300. And so this year, eventhough I will always have a
financial goal, I made thefinancial goal less, and I did
(31:50):
so because I need to enjoy lifea little bit more. When I go on
vacation, I want to take anextra day to see wherever it is
that we're going, I don't wantto worry that I need to be back
here working. You know, my goalfor myself really is to take a
little bit more time for me
Matthew Landis (32:04):
What other parts of your life bring you the most
joy and happiness.
Julee George (32:08):
And that is my son, he is 15 He's actually
probably the most frustrating,but the most joyful thing in my
life. He's the best thing that Ihave ever done. Because I was
working for redkin. And I wastraveling the world and I was
teaching hairdressers, I neverwanted a child. When I got
pregnant, I thought you knowwhat, this is the next step. And
I don't want to breathe a breathon this earth. Without him. He's
(32:32):
the most amazing thing that I'veever done. What I hope that I'm
doing is I hope that I'm showinghim what a strong woman looks
like and how to be a hardworker, because I share these
things with him. I love gettinghis advice on you know, this
client did this, or this clientdid that. And I do that because
I want to see what his views areis the thing that gives me the
most joy. He's also 15. So it'sit's also frustrating, but I
(32:56):
love that kid. And I know yousaid that was the last question,
but I'm gonna put it back on toyou. I'm going to ask you the
same question.
Matthew Landis (33:02):
You know, I would have to say I do a
gratitude journal every morning.
And it's always my husband andour dogs have worked hard to be
in the place that I want to beworked hard on myself. And it
took me a long time to learn howto love other people and be
loved and returned. And hebrings me that every day. And of
course, our dogs as well. Sojust being here with them.
(33:25):
That's enough. Well, Julie,thank you so much. This has been
a wonderful time together and Icannot wait to do it again. In
the future.
Julee George (33:36):
I think that we're going to have to do it again in
the future because it's just waytoo much fun to be around you.
Matthew Landis (33:41):
Oh, I feel the same way.
Julee George (33:42):
Thank you.
Matthew Landis (33:46):
Thank you so much for joining me for this
episode of The VIP suite. I'mMatthew Landis and I hope you
found the insights andinspiration share today truly
valuable for your journey as asolo entrepreneur, and
independent beauty, health orwellness professionals. Don't
forget to follow us on Instagram@imagestudios360. And if you
enjoyed this episode, don'tforget to subscribe to the VIP
(34:06):
Suite on your favorite podcastplatform so you never miss an
opportunity to connect with ourvibrant community and to
discover more incredible storiesand strategies. We love hearing
from our listeners. So if youhave any questions, topic
suggestions or want to shareyour own success story, feel
free to reach out to me atMatthew at image studios three
sixty.com Remember dearlistener, you are the heartbeat
(34:28):
of the beauty, health andwellness industry. Your
dedication and passion make theworld a better place one client
at a time keep shining, keepgrowing and keep making a
positive impact. We'll be backwith more engaging conversations
and valuable content in our nextepisode. Until then take care
stay inspired and continue tocreate your own VIP suite. For
more information about becominga part of the image studios
(34:49):
luxury Salon Suite community,visit our website at
imagetudios360.com
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