May 9, 2025 • 29 mins
In this episode of The VIP Suite podcast, host Matthew Landis welcomes Zoey Pearson, a salon suite entrepreneur who turned her single penthouse space into a thriving multi-suite head spa business. Zoey lead a viral TikTok movement that led to over $47,000 in gift card sales, a fully booked schedule, and hiring a dream team of professionals, all within the IMAGE Studios salon suite model.
Zoey opens up how she tackled imposter syndrome, employed a smart and effective marketing strategy, and built a powerful brand using TikTok. She offers valuable advice for anyone looking to scale their beauty business.
This episode is a must-listen for hairstylists, estheticians, and any salon suite owners who are ready to level up. Learn how Zoey combined strategy, authenticity, and community to create a micro-spa that inspires and delivers real results.
On Instagram: @the.headspa & @zoeypearsonhair
On TikTok: @theheadspa614
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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Matthew Landis (00:00):
This episode is sponsored by GlossGenius Salon
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(00:43):
Welcome to The VIP Suite, thepodcast for Salon Suite
professionals who are buildingbold, brilliant businesses. I'm
your host, Matthew Landis,former salon owner, business
coach, and lifelong advocate forentrepreneurs in the beauty and
wellness industry. Each week wespotlight industry MVPs, from
hair stylists, aestheticians,nail and lash artists and a wide
array of solo entrepreneurs whoare creating success on their
(01:05):
own terms. You'll hearstrategies for marketing, client
growth mindset and overall SalonSuite success, plus honest
conversations about what ittakes to really thrive. This
season, we're going even deeperinto growth, grit, community,
and all the messy magic thatcomes with carving your own
path. So hit subscribe, turn upthe volume, and welcome to The
VIP Suite where independentbeauty and wellness pros come to
(01:27):
shine.
Joining me on The VIP Suitetoday is Zoey Pearson at IMAGE
Studios in Dublin, Ohio. Now,Zoey started with a single
penthouse suite and has sincemoved to a double suite for her
hair studio, and she now has twosingle suites that she uses for
a head spa business. Hi, Zoey,welcome to the podcast.
Zoey Pearson (01:48):
Hi. Thanks for having me, Matt. I'm super
excited to be here with youtoday.
Matthew Landis (01:53):
Oh my gosh, I'm so excited. So you went from a
single penthouse suite to now adouble and two singles for your
head spa. Tell me a little bitmore about that journey. How did
that all happen?
Zoey Pearson (02:05):
I started with IMAGE Studios. I was the first
leasee here at this building. SoIMAGE Studios was new to this
area. They had just constructedit, and the day they got the go
ahead for tenants to move in. Iopened. I had already had
(02:26):
everything moved in and ready togo. Everything just kind of
really kicked off for me. Iexpanded upon my business, kind
of in two different directions.
The first direction was my hairbusiness. I moved to the
penthouse suite, and it was, youknow, wonderful. I just I have a
full time assistant to help me,and I needed that extra station
(02:46):
to accommodate my really busyschedule. All my hair salon side
were super busy, so nowutilizing the double suite has
been really, really wonderful.
The Spa Suite kind of came alongas something extra, something
else I wanted to do, I went tothe Behind the Chair show in
Dallas in August, and so there,I took a couple classes on like
(03:13):
scalp health, and they reallywere talking more about the head
spot of things seen all oversocial media. So I actually took
it upon myself to get theservice while I was in Dallas,
had a wonderful experience, andjust knew this needed to be
brought back to Ohio. And wedid, and we a month later, 30
(03:33):
days. Actually, it was 28 daysfrom the day I went. We were
open with our first few clientsin there since then, you know,
we opened in September, reallykind of an interesting time,
because September can really behit or miss. You know, it's kind
of the slow before the storm ofthe holidays. Things really just
(03:57):
took off running, um, we ran agift card promotion, and it was
10% off gift card. So to reallythrow our name out there, and in
the months of November, fromThanksgiving all the way to
January 1, we did over $47,000in gift cards. We went viral on
Tiktok and gift cards, almost47,000.
Matthew Landis (04:21):
Oh my God.
Zoey Pearson (04:23):
Because we went viral on Tiktok, and in that
time, we found we need to open asecond one. And I hired two more
people to our team. We now haveour team is of six people now,
so I have myself and fiveemployees, and we now have the
(04:44):
three suites, and that's, that'swhere we are. So we're running
the three suites kind of allkind of together.
Matthew Landis (04:52):
So oh my gosh.
And that is incredible. So youdid four day. I'm still wrapping
my head around that. Yeah, it.
Was crazy that was going viralon TikTok, yeah.
Zoey Pearson (05:05):
So our videos went viral, and we just, we were
running a gift card promotion of10% off, and we were really kind
of throwing it out there, as youknow, $100 gift cards, $200 gift
cards and $300 gift cards, andif you purchased in those
increments, you got 10% off thegift card. And the it really was
(05:27):
for, you know, the the gift cardpromo was really to throw our
name out there. It was really toto get people to understand,
well, what, what are we, who weare and where we are inside of a
Salon Suite concept. So wereally consider ourselves a
micro spa, um, you know, we wedon't have the typical amenities
(05:50):
that maybe a larger spa wouldhave. But you know, when the
clients do come, they have thenice, comfortable waiting area
to sit in, but we escape themback to our room, and it the
tranquil environment that wehave back there is is next
level.
Matthew Landis (06:04):
Wow. I'm so impressed. So tell me about
TikTok. Like, what do you thinkwas the secret sauce on Tiktok?
Zoey Pearson (06:13):
Honestly, there's a lot of components that went
into that. I think one of thebig ones was I really leaned on
my team, my team. I have, like Isaid, we at first, there was
four. There were four of us, andthe my my assistant and my two,
(06:34):
my first two heads of employees.
They're younger. They knowTikTok, they know social media
and and I I'm not old, but theydefinitely are really good at
it, making the videos, makingcontent. And I wanted their
ideas. What do they want to see?
How do they want to be perceivedon camera? How do they What do
(06:55):
our client what do our what areour clients want? What do they
want to see? And these clients,we didn't have them yet. What do
our future clients have that wethink they want to see? So that
was our kind of our first thing.
That was our kind of imagemapping of how we were going to
start. And we started everythingfrom scratch. So from there, we
then moved into, I think it alsowas good timing that head spa
(07:18):
services that were beingfeatured on Tiktok, the Moody,
the ASMR, the just the purerelaxation that comes from
watching these videos. I thinkpeople love it, and we fed into
that, and our videos weregetting thousands of likesand
shares. The shares were huge.
(07:45):
People were sharing it. We wedid one of them that we
announced that we were doing thegift card promotion. Had almost
5000 some shares. And I trulybelieve people were sharing that
to their loved ones to buy thema gift card. We were people's
Christmas gifts. And I lovethat.
Matthew Landis (08:01):
That is mind blowing, truly. You know, it's
interesting, because everybody,I think, wants to escape the
noise of the world right now.
And it's sort of ironic that inorder to escape the noise of
tick tock, people found you therelaxing escape on TikTok.
Zoey Pearson (08:17):
I love it, yeah.
And, and I think just ingeneral, you know, everyone's
TikTok is all over the place.
You know, it goes from funny torelaxing and all over. But we
some of our posts, we didpurposely schedule them to be
later in the evening, so thatpeople are seeing this as
(08:38):
they're getting ready to go tobed, so they're already kind of
relaxed and that that that'simportant. So, so working with
that and utilizing tools thatI've learned in my career helped
as well. But again, having funwith it. It wasn't like this
isn't just we've got to makecontent, we've got to push it
out there. It was, we're havingfun. We're showing people what
(08:59):
we do, and people love that it'sauthentic.
Matthew Landis (09:03):
So how did people purchase the gift
certificates? Because that's alot of money to process.
Zoey Pearson (09:07):
So was that an online portal or so we do a lot
of them online. We actually hadso many people coming into IMAGE
Studios for gift cards that wehad to make purchasing hours on
scheduled days, because this isnew for this concept of a Salon
(09:28):
Suite as well. People had noidea like, oh, I don't know
what's going on there. We don'thave that front desk. So truly,
it was a lot of people comingand my assistant and I just, you
know, doing gift cards. But Iwould say three fourths of our
bulk sales were through onlinesales and and that went well.
Matthew Landis (09:49):
That's incredible. And so you are also
balancing your hair studio. Youdo hair color, you do
extensions, you do bridal work.
How is that?
Zoey Pearson (09:58):
At first, it was a very tricky kind of, you know,
balancing. But what worked forme is actually having everything
in the same place, you know,while I'm here, you know, I can
still be the support that theyneed when they need it. I think
the important thing, and thething that I'm used to, is, I,
(10:20):
you know, in my, my career, moreof my career than not, I've had
an assistant and have beenteaching. So I'm used to the and
my clients are used to, youknow, people coming in like,
hey, I need help with this, youknow, whatever. And it's not to
interrupt, you know, my myclient service at that time. But
you know, being able to havehave that support when they need
(10:44):
it, I also am really lucky. Ilive four minutes away from
here, so that helps too. So, andthere's been many times where
I'm like, I gotta run over.
There's a fire that needs putout. There's always going to be
fires that need put out.
Matthew Landis (10:59):
I've always worked with an assistant, at
Zoey Pearson (10:59):
I worked for a large Salon and Spa, and I am
least for, you know, since2002Yeah, and I always worked
better as the sort of Batman andRobin situation. I I just
enjoyed having that duo. Iagree, dynamic of working it
just made it more fun, and Ithink it really helped my
clients a lot. You know, somepeople work better with an
(11:20):
assistant. Some people don't.
That's totally understandable,absolutely but yeah, so tell me
what made you decide to goindependent in the first place?
really thankful for like, thejourney that I had. I'm really
thankful for my clients that Ihave met along the way, but I
(11:43):
think the important thing for mewas truly deciding to invest
into myself and realizingthere's a lot more to the
industry to learn. There's asaying, when you've made it to
the top, there's only one way togo, and that's down. And I
(12:03):
refused to let myself get tothat point, because it's like,
once you get to that point,you've stopped learning and you
stopped growing. And it was timefor me to make that jump,
because that's where I washeading. And after that, you
kind of hit the ground running.
I'm going to be very honest, Ileft a salon that has a very
strict non compete process and alot of trials and tribulations
(12:26):
in the time to come. It was avery interesting opportunity. A
couple months into me, I hadjust left the salon I was
working for, and I got, I wasone of their top stylists. So,
you know, it was, it was a lotto process a salon that I had
worked at for almost 10 years.
(12:47):
Leaving that salon, I got amessage on Instagram, and it was
from George, the owner of IMAGEStudios, and he said, This
sounds crazy, but I am buildinga salon in the area, and we
haven't even broke groundinside. They, they, we, they
hadn't even started digging thetrenches for the shampoo bowls
(13:08):
yet. But he's like, I want tomeet you from there we met, and
we kind of got to be throughevery step of the way. And I
committed to image studios,because instantly I felt like it
was going to be the side of theindustry I have not seen yet.
(13:28):
And I feel like where I'mgrowing, I would like to have
experienced every part of theindustry to know where is it
that I want to end up? Where doI want you know, where am I
going to go from here to really,to answer your question. I think
it was to really become verywell rounded as a business
owner, and it really has donethat for me.
Matthew Landis (13:51):
It sounds like you there was a little bit of a
struggle, and then youskyrocketed.
Zoey Pearson (13:56):
Yeah, yeah, absolutely. I mean, change is
hard. Changes. Change is sohard, and sometimes life does
force you to change and for thebetter, very thankful for that.
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Do you ever experience selfdoubt or imposter syndrome?
Zoey Pearson (15:34):
Absolutely. I think every any business owner
does, and I think anyone whosays that they don't is lying,
because I truly, especially whenI first decided it was I had
just signed the lease for thehead spa, and I remember sitting
(15:57):
down and thinking, what like?
What am I doing, like, Why? Whyam I doing this? I don't have to
do this. I have. I'm alreadymaking six figures doing what
I'm doing now. Why am I doingthis? Why am I adding on? And I
just thought to myself, like,you have to do it. It's I just I
had this compulsion, like I hadto do it. It was this gut
feeling posture syndrome creptup because I started feeling
(16:20):
doubt of like, Am I able tosustain a business off of just
this? Am I able to and truly, itcrept up when I started hiring
people. And it was so funny, Ihad an employee tell me, I quit
my job to come work for you. AndI literally was like, what? And
(16:40):
then, and then, best way she waslike, I quit. I believe in you.
Everything that you're doing, Ijust love I want to learn from
you. That's when I knew I wasgoing to make it my priority to
make this the best that it couldbe, because people are depending
on me, and they're looking up tome, and I don't have anyone to
(17:03):
look up to. It's I've got tomake the decisions. And so we
hit the ground running and andI've really tried to take any
time that imposter syndrome hastried to creep back up, you
know, when opening the secondstudio, or anything like that.
I've tried to just realize whatwe're doing is working, and we
(17:25):
just are going to be thankfulfor for that. Yeah,
Matthew Landis (17:31):
That's a big responsibility and very
humbling. You know, when peoplesay those kinds of things to us,
right? Yeah, it is, like, it'svery gratifying, but it's also,
like, really scary.
Zoey Pearson (17:42):
Yeah, it is. It is scary. But again, they are very
happy, and that's what makes mehappy, I think, coming from
another large salon where youkind of are mass in numbers, I
wanted to do things differentfor my employees. I wanted them
to feel valued and seen andheard and loved to to enjoy
(18:03):
doing what they're doing. And Ithink we're really, we've really
accomplished that.
Matthew Landis (18:08):
Isn't that so much better, it's so much better
and so much easier. You know,when I owned a big salon, it
just, you know, it's just somuch better to figure out a
win/win situation for everybody.
There's a way that we can allsucceed together. It's so much
more fun to help people buildtheir business and give people
opportunity, and it's just funto make people happy and watch
(18:30):
them grow. So I applaud you forthat. That's incredible. Thank
you, Matt, thank you. What wouldyou say your biggest mindset
shift has been since becoming anindependent business owner?
Zoey Pearson (18:43):
I think that my mindset shift was that you no
longer are leaving your work atthe salon. It's going to come
home with you, and I am okaywith that. As a business owner,
you're taking home, and whileyou're at home, you're even when
(19:04):
you're scrolling on socialmedia, you're working when
you're making content, whenyou're doing your inventory, all
of those things. So my mindsetshift had to be that. One, are
you I'm okay with this, but two,I love this, and I think that
that's helped a lot, because Ithink for like, not this, it's
(19:29):
not for everybody, and but Iknow it's for me, and I know I
love it, and so my mindset wasreally leaning into that, and it
was it worked for me.
Matthew Landis (19:38):
And what do you think is the biggest
misconception people have aboutrunning a beauty business?
Zoey Pearson (19:45):
That anybody can do it, and that's just not true.
It's not for everybody, andthat's okay. There are salons
for everybody, whether it's acommission salon for those who I
just want to work and I. Want togo home, and I don't want to
take anything with me, and I'mokay making maybe less money,
(20:05):
and I'm okay with, you know,whatever that is, that's okay,
and there's nothing wrong withthat. It takes a strong, willed
person and somebody who's okaywith failing and trying again
and trying new things andlearning, because that is the
(20:29):
secret sauce to a successfulbusiness.
Matthew Landis (20:31):
Wow. Thank you so much for sharing that I think
that is so important is notbeing afraid to fail.
Zoey Pearson (20:38):
Absolutely, because you know when you when
you knew something didn't work,it gives you the opportunity to
try something that. Well, whensomething's working, keep doing
it, but when something's not,fix it because something else
probably will work.
Matthew Landis (20:56):
Have you ever had a client challenge you in a
way that changed how you work?
Zoey Pearson (21:00):
Not only are we, we in the beauty industry, we're
in the people industry, and thatcomes with good and bad. Um, you
know, we've, we've hadchallenges and and we've
overcome those. And I would saysome of the challenges are for
some people with, you know,maybe the head spot itself was
really understanding, well, whatis this? What does what is this
(21:24):
going to do? What is this? Youknow, we're not a dermatologist.
We are not going to solve yourlife problems in one treatment.
I had somebody who expressedlike, you know, maybe their
budget wasn't capable of comingfrequently, but they did have a
(21:44):
problem that they needed to helptreat with with some services.
So finding ways to say, okay,how can we do that? One way was,
when we hired new people, we'doffered model services. Hey, do
you want to come in and be amodel for us? It's going to be a
little bit of a discounted ratefor you to get that treatment at
maybe a little bit of a bettercost for you. And so it's not
(22:06):
just completely discrediting theperson because they were
vulnerable enough to say, thisis something that I'm going
through and but I need your helpand and again, we're in the
people industry, so I just tryto be there to support people.
Matthew Landis (22:19):
Making people happy is fun, but it is a lot of
pressure. What would you say islike one of the most surprising
or meaningful transformationsthat you've helped a client
with?
Zoey Pearson (22:29):
My favorite, I think, truly was on the salon
side, I do a lot of extensions,and one of my absolute favorite
ways of transforming people isthrough hair extensions and and
I have a client who lost herhair to chemo, as it's coming
back, we were able to doextensions. And, you know, just
(22:52):
the confidence and the feelingof hope and the feeling of just
feeling beautiful, that is just,there was nothing. There's
nothing like it.
Matthew Landis (23:02):
That's really wonderful. Thank you so much.
So, if you could revolutionizeone thing in this industry, what
would it be?
Zoey Pearson (23:11):
I would just say, to really revolutionize and just
to really tap into to the peoplethere should be a stylist for
every person. I am a firmbeliever that, you know, there
are thousands and thousands andthousands of people just in the
close area proximity that weare, there's enough business to
(23:33):
go around. So to revolutionizemore support between stylists
and maybe a little less of thecompetition and just a little
more support to each other andwork together. I think that
really would be changing for alot of people. There's a lot of
(23:54):
a lot of business to go around,and stylists of all different
price points and techniques andexperience levels. There's
somebody for everybody. And Ithink when people understood, if
people understood that, theywould really they would, it
would be helpful.
Matthew Landis (24:08):
This goes back to that win win. There's so much
support. And when I used to havea salon, I would tell my staff,
I'm like, Look, we don't needeverybody to come here and get
their hair done. We don't evenneed 1% of Salt Lake City, which
is where my salon was, we don'teven need 1% of the people here.
We don't even need 1/10th of apercent. We just need the same
people to keep coming back. Andyou know, we also want to
(24:32):
support the other salons and theother professionals in the area
we you know, we're not the rightplace for somebody we're happy
to refer them to somebody else.
You know, you talked about noncompete clauses before, if one
of my people left, I, you know,it sometimes hurt my feelings,
but I supported them, and Isaid, I wish you the best, and
I'll be happy to tell yourclients wherever you go, and I'm
here to support you, because Ijust believe in that good will,
(24:55):
that whatever you put out willcome back to you. And so. You.
You speak my language. I love itso much. Thank you. Now, if you
had unlimited resources, if youhad all the money in the world,
what would you build or createfor your business?
Zoey Pearson (25:12):
An empire, truly, I just think, I just think more
like minded people, a place foreverybody and and whatever that,
whatever that would look like, Ijust think I love the support
and the the education that I cangive to people. And if you know
(25:34):
I had unlimited funds, I'd loveto give that to everybody. I
feel like, if everyone couldlearn from something that I can
give then, then I've donesomething right?
Matthew Landis (25:43):
What's one book, podcast or TV show that you
would recommend that hasinspired you?
Zoey Pearson (25:51):
It's an Instagram page, and I think they do have a
podcast as well, but it's selfcare for you. They just post a
lot of mind shifting things. Andit's really kind of the half
glass full kind of posts. Therewas a quote that was kind of
said the other day, and it'sreally stuck with me to the
(26:14):
point where I've, you know,talked about it multiple times
since then, is is using insteadof the words I have to switching
it to the I get to, I get to dothis. I get to go to the salon
and full towels. I get to go andhave a team meeting with my
staff. Instead of I have to dothose things because, you know,
(26:38):
we have a privilege of even justbeing here in the first place,
especially, you know, witheverything going on in the world
today, we are privileged to justeven be in a, you know, safe
community where I have a salonand I have a successful running
business. So I really focused mymindset on on switching things,
(27:01):
and that's it's been that hasbeen life changing, is I get to
do these things?
Matthew Landis (27:06):
Wow, talking about a mindset, mindset shift,
right? Yeah, that's incredible.
One last question, what are theother things in your life
thatbring you joy and happiness?
Zoey Pearson (27:18):
The most joy and happiness, it's, again, it comes
from people. I absolutely adore,spending time with my family, my
friends, my dog, ad Sue I loveI'm a home decorator. Definitely
have a shopping addiction,definitely traveling all the
time. So I still try to findways to incorporate that in my
time off, because in self care,self care so huge, because at
(27:42):
the end of the day, if we takecare of ourselves, then we can
take care of other people.
Matthew Landis (27:46):
Well, Zoey, thank you so much for this. It
has been such a pleasure. I justadore you. I love what you're
doing. I think it's so cool. I'mgoing to spend more time looking
at all your stuff, because youare so inspiring. So tell our
listeners where they can findyou and find more information
about you.
Zoey Pearson (28:04):
On Tiktok. Feel free to look us up. We are the
@614headspa. Or on Instagram,it's @the.headspa. Or if you'd
like to check out what I doingin the salon studio, feel free
to check us out there. It's ZoePearson hair on Instagram.
Matthew Landis (28:21):
Thank you again.
Zoey, this has been reallygreat.
Zoey Pearson (28:24):
Thank you, Matt.
Matthew Landis (28:25):
Thank you so much for joining me on this
episode of The VIP suite. I'mMatthew Landis, and I hope you
found the insights andinspiration shared today truly
valuable for your journey as aSalon Suite entrepreneur and
independent beauty, health orwellness professional, don't
forget to follow us on Instagramat image studios 360 and if you
enjoyed this episode, don'tforget to subscribe to the VIP
(28:46):
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. If you haveany questions, topics,
suggestions, or want to shareyour own success story, feel
free to reach out to me atMatthew at image studios, three
sixty.com, remember listener,you are the heartbeat of the
(29:07):
beauty, health and wellnessindustry. Your dedication and
passion make the world a betterplace one client at a time.
We'll be back with more engagingand inspiring conversations in
our next episode. Until then,take care. Stay inspired and
continue to create your own VIPsuite. For more information
about becoming a part of theimage studios luxury Salon Suite
community, visit our website atimage studios three sixty.com
(29:29):
you.
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(00:43):
Welcome to The VIP Suite, thepodcast for Salon Suite
professionals who are buildingbold, brilliant businesses. I'm
your host, Matthew Landis,former salon owner, business
coach, and lifelong advocate forentrepreneurs in the beauty and
wellness industry. Each week wespotlight industry MVPs, from
hair stylists, aestheticians,nail and lash artists and a wide
array of solo entrepreneurs whoare creating success on their
(01:05):
own terms. You'll hearstrategies for marketing, client
growth mindset and overall SalonSuite success, plus honest
conversations about what ittakes to really thrive. This
season, we're going even deeperinto growth, grit, community,
and all the messy magic thatcomes with carving your own
path. So hit subscribe, turn upthe volume, and welcome to The
VIP Suite where independentbeauty and wellness pros come to
(01:27):
shine.
Joining me on The VIP Suitetoday is Zoey Pearson at IMAGE
Studios in Dublin, Ohio. Now,Zoey started with a single
penthouse suite and has sincemoved to a double suite for her
hair studio, and she now has twosingle suites that she uses for
a head spa business. Hi, Zoey,welcome to the podcast.
Zoey Pearson (01:48):
Hi. Thanks for having me, Matt. I'm super
excited to be here with youtoday.
Matthew Landis (01:53):
Oh my gosh, I'm so excited. So you went from a
single penthouse suite to now adouble and two singles for your
head spa. Tell me a little bitmore about that journey. How did
that all happen?
Zoey Pearson (02:05):
I started with IMAGE Studios. I was the first
leasee here at this building. SoIMAGE Studios was new to this
area. They had just constructedit, and the day they got the go
ahead for tenants to move in. Iopened. I had already had
(02:26):
everything moved in and ready togo. Everything just kind of
really kicked off for me. Iexpanded upon my business, kind
of in two different directions.
The first direction was my hairbusiness. I moved to the
penthouse suite, and it was, youknow, wonderful. I just I have a
full time assistant to help me,and I needed that extra station
(02:46):
to accommodate my really busyschedule. All my hair salon side
were super busy, so nowutilizing the double suite has
been really, really wonderful.
The Spa Suite kind of came alongas something extra, something
else I wanted to do, I went tothe Behind the Chair show in
Dallas in August, and so there,I took a couple classes on like
(03:13):
scalp health, and they reallywere talking more about the head
spot of things seen all oversocial media. So I actually took
it upon myself to get theservice while I was in Dallas,
had a wonderful experience, andjust knew this needed to be
brought back to Ohio. And wedid, and we a month later, 30
(03:33):
days. Actually, it was 28 daysfrom the day I went. We were
open with our first few clientsin there since then, you know,
we opened in September, reallykind of an interesting time,
because September can really behit or miss. You know, it's kind
of the slow before the storm ofthe holidays. Things really just
(03:57):
took off running, um, we ran agift card promotion, and it was
10% off gift card. So to reallythrow our name out there, and in
the months of November, fromThanksgiving all the way to
January 1, we did over $47,000in gift cards. We went viral on
Tiktok and gift cards, almost47,000.
Matthew Landis (04:21):
Oh my God.
Zoey Pearson (04:23):
Because we went viral on Tiktok, and in that
time, we found we need to open asecond one. And I hired two more
people to our team. We now haveour team is of six people now,
so I have myself and fiveemployees, and we now have the
(04:44):
three suites, and that's, that'swhere we are. So we're running
the three suites kind of allkind of together.
Matthew Landis (04:52):
So oh my gosh.
And that is incredible. So youdid four day. I'm still wrapping
my head around that. Yeah, it.
Was crazy that was going viralon TikTok, yeah.
Zoey Pearson (05:05):
So our videos went viral, and we just, we were
running a gift card promotion of10% off, and we were really kind
of throwing it out there, as youknow, $100 gift cards, $200 gift
cards and $300 gift cards, andif you purchased in those
increments, you got 10% off thegift card. And the it really was
(05:27):
for, you know, the the gift cardpromo was really to throw our
name out there. It was really toto get people to understand,
well, what, what are we, who weare and where we are inside of a
Salon Suite concept. So wereally consider ourselves a
micro spa, um, you know, we wedon't have the typical amenities
(05:50):
that maybe a larger spa wouldhave. But you know, when the
clients do come, they have thenice, comfortable waiting area
to sit in, but we escape themback to our room, and it the
tranquil environment that wehave back there is is next
level.
Matthew Landis (06:04):
Wow. I'm so impressed. So tell me about
TikTok. Like, what do you thinkwas the secret sauce on Tiktok?
Zoey Pearson (06:13):
Honestly, there's a lot of components that went
into that. I think one of thebig ones was I really leaned on
my team, my team. I have, like Isaid, we at first, there was
four. There were four of us, andthe my my assistant and my two,
(06:34):
my first two heads of employees.
They're younger. They knowTikTok, they know social media
and and I I'm not old, but theydefinitely are really good at
it, making the videos, makingcontent. And I wanted their
ideas. What do they want to see?
How do they want to be perceivedon camera? How do they What do
(06:55):
our client what do our what areour clients want? What do they
want to see? And these clients,we didn't have them yet. What do
our future clients have that wethink they want to see? So that
was our kind of our first thing.
That was our kind of imagemapping of how we were going to
start. And we started everythingfrom scratch. So from there, we
then moved into, I think it alsowas good timing that head spa
(07:18):
services that were beingfeatured on Tiktok, the Moody,
the ASMR, the just the purerelaxation that comes from
watching these videos. I thinkpeople love it, and we fed into
that, and our videos weregetting thousands of likesand
shares. The shares were huge.
(07:45):
People were sharing it. We wedid one of them that we
announced that we were doing thegift card promotion. Had almost
5000 some shares. And I trulybelieve people were sharing that
to their loved ones to buy thema gift card. We were people's
Christmas gifts. And I lovethat.
Matthew Landis (08:01):
That is mind blowing, truly. You know, it's
interesting, because everybody,I think, wants to escape the
noise of the world right now.
And it's sort of ironic that inorder to escape the noise of
tick tock, people found you therelaxing escape on TikTok.
Zoey Pearson (08:17):
I love it, yeah.
And, and I think just ingeneral, you know, everyone's
TikTok is all over the place.
You know, it goes from funny torelaxing and all over. But we
some of our posts, we didpurposely schedule them to be
later in the evening, so thatpeople are seeing this as
(08:38):
they're getting ready to go tobed, so they're already kind of
relaxed and that that that'simportant. So, so working with
that and utilizing tools thatI've learned in my career helped
as well. But again, having funwith it. It wasn't like this
isn't just we've got to makecontent, we've got to push it
out there. It was, we're havingfun. We're showing people what
(08:59):
we do, and people love that it'sauthentic.
Matthew Landis (09:03):
So how did people purchase the gift
certificates? Because that's alot of money to process.
Zoey Pearson (09:07):
So was that an online portal or so we do a lot
of them online. We actually hadso many people coming into IMAGE
Studios for gift cards that wehad to make purchasing hours on
scheduled days, because this isnew for this concept of a Salon
(09:28):
Suite as well. People had noidea like, oh, I don't know
what's going on there. We don'thave that front desk. So truly,
it was a lot of people comingand my assistant and I just, you
know, doing gift cards. But Iwould say three fourths of our
bulk sales were through onlinesales and and that went well.
Matthew Landis (09:49):
That's incredible. And so you are also
balancing your hair studio. Youdo hair color, you do
extensions, you do bridal work.
How is that?
Zoey Pearson (09:58):
At first, it was a very tricky kind of, you know,
balancing. But what worked forme is actually having everything
in the same place, you know,while I'm here, you know, I can
still be the support that theyneed when they need it. I think
the important thing, and thething that I'm used to, is, I,
(10:20):
you know, in my, my career, moreof my career than not, I've had
an assistant and have beenteaching. So I'm used to the and
my clients are used to, youknow, people coming in like,
hey, I need help with this, youknow, whatever. And it's not to
interrupt, you know, my myclient service at that time. But
you know, being able to havehave that support when they need
(10:44):
it, I also am really lucky. Ilive four minutes away from
here, so that helps too. So, andthere's been many times where
I'm like, I gotta run over.
There's a fire that needs putout. There's always going to be
fires that need put out.
Matthew Landis (10:59):
I've always worked with an assistant, at
Zoey Pearson (10:59):
I worked for a large Salon and Spa, and I am
least for, you know, since2002Yeah, and I always worked
better as the sort of Batman andRobin situation. I I just
enjoyed having that duo. Iagree, dynamic of working it
just made it more fun, and Ithink it really helped my
clients a lot. You know, somepeople work better with an
(11:20):
assistant. Some people don't.
That's totally understandable,absolutely but yeah, so tell me
what made you decide to goindependent in the first place?
really thankful for like, thejourney that I had. I'm really
thankful for my clients that Ihave met along the way, but I
(11:43):
think the important thing for mewas truly deciding to invest
into myself and realizingthere's a lot more to the
industry to learn. There's asaying, when you've made it to
the top, there's only one way togo, and that's down. And I
(12:03):
refused to let myself get tothat point, because it's like,
once you get to that point,you've stopped learning and you
stopped growing. And it was timefor me to make that jump,
because that's where I washeading. And after that, you
kind of hit the ground running.
I'm going to be very honest, Ileft a salon that has a very
strict non compete process and alot of trials and tribulations
(12:26):
in the time to come. It was avery interesting opportunity. A
couple months into me, I hadjust left the salon I was
working for, and I got, I wasone of their top stylists. So,
you know, it was, it was a lotto process a salon that I had
worked at for almost 10 years.
(12:47):
Leaving that salon, I got amessage on Instagram, and it was
from George, the owner of IMAGEStudios, and he said, This
sounds crazy, but I am buildinga salon in the area, and we
haven't even broke groundinside. They, they, we, they
hadn't even started digging thetrenches for the shampoo bowls
(13:08):
yet. But he's like, I want tomeet you from there we met, and
we kind of got to be throughevery step of the way. And I
committed to image studios,because instantly I felt like it
was going to be the side of theindustry I have not seen yet.
(13:28):
And I feel like where I'mgrowing, I would like to have
experienced every part of theindustry to know where is it
that I want to end up? Where doI want you know, where am I
going to go from here to really,to answer your question. I think
it was to really become verywell rounded as a business
owner, and it really has donethat for me.
Matthew Landis (13:51):
It sounds like you there was a little bit of a
struggle, and then youskyrocketed.
Zoey Pearson (13:56):
Yeah, yeah, absolutely. I mean, change is
hard. Changes. Change is sohard, and sometimes life does
force you to change and for thebetter, very thankful for that.
Matthew Landis (14:10):
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Do you ever experience selfdoubt or imposter syndrome?
Zoey Pearson (15:34):
Absolutely. I think every any business owner
does, and I think anyone whosays that they don't is lying,
because I truly, especially whenI first decided it was I had
just signed the lease for thehead spa, and I remember sitting
(15:57):
down and thinking, what like?
What am I doing, like, Why? Whyam I doing this? I don't have to
do this. I have. I'm alreadymaking six figures doing what
I'm doing now. Why am I doingthis? Why am I adding on? And I
just thought to myself, like,you have to do it. It's I just I
had this compulsion, like I hadto do it. It was this gut
feeling posture syndrome creptup because I started feeling
(16:20):
doubt of like, Am I able tosustain a business off of just
this? Am I able to and truly, itcrept up when I started hiring
people. And it was so funny, Ihad an employee tell me, I quit
my job to come work for you. AndI literally was like, what? And
(16:40):
then, and then, best way she waslike, I quit. I believe in you.
Everything that you're doing, Ijust love I want to learn from
you. That's when I knew I wasgoing to make it my priority to
make this the best that it couldbe, because people are depending
on me, and they're looking up tome, and I don't have anyone to
(17:03):
look up to. It's I've got tomake the decisions. And so we
hit the ground running and andI've really tried to take any
time that imposter syndrome hastried to creep back up, you
know, when opening the secondstudio, or anything like that.
I've tried to just realize whatwe're doing is working, and we
(17:25):
just are going to be thankfulfor for that. Yeah,
Matthew Landis (17:31):
That's a big responsibility and very
humbling. You know, when peoplesay those kinds of things to us,
right? Yeah, it is, like, it'svery gratifying, but it's also,
like, really scary.
Zoey Pearson (17:42):
Yeah, it is. It is scary. But again, they are very
happy, and that's what makes mehappy, I think, coming from
another large salon where youkind of are mass in numbers, I
wanted to do things differentfor my employees. I wanted them
to feel valued and seen andheard and loved to to enjoy
(18:03):
doing what they're doing. And Ithink we're really, we've really
accomplished that.
Matthew Landis (18:08):
Isn't that so much better, it's so much better
and so much easier. You know,when I owned a big salon, it
just, you know, it's just somuch better to figure out a
win/win situation for everybody.
There's a way that we can allsucceed together. It's so much
more fun to help people buildtheir business and give people
opportunity, and it's just funto make people happy and watch
(18:30):
them grow. So I applaud you forthat. That's incredible. Thank
you, Matt, thank you. What wouldyou say your biggest mindset
shift has been since becoming anindependent business owner?
Zoey Pearson (18:43):
I think that my mindset shift was that you no
longer are leaving your work atthe salon. It's going to come
home with you, and I am okaywith that. As a business owner,
you're taking home, and whileyou're at home, you're even when
(19:04):
you're scrolling on socialmedia, you're working when
you're making content, whenyou're doing your inventory, all
of those things. So my mindsetshift had to be that. One, are
you I'm okay with this, but two,I love this, and I think that
that's helped a lot, because Ithink for like, not this, it's
(19:29):
not for everybody, and but Iknow it's for me, and I know I
love it, and so my mindset wasreally leaning into that, and it
was it worked for me.
Matthew Landis (19:38):
And what do you think is the biggest
misconception people have aboutrunning a beauty business?
Zoey Pearson (19:45):
That anybody can do it, and that's just not true.
It's not for everybody, andthat's okay. There are salons
for everybody, whether it's acommission salon for those who I
just want to work and I. Want togo home, and I don't want to
take anything with me, and I'mokay making maybe less money,
(20:05):
and I'm okay with, you know,whatever that is, that's okay,
and there's nothing wrong withthat. It takes a strong, willed
person and somebody who's okaywith failing and trying again
and trying new things andlearning, because that is the
(20:29):
secret sauce to a successfulbusiness.
Matthew Landis (20:31):
Wow. Thank you so much for sharing that I think
that is so important is notbeing afraid to fail.
Zoey Pearson (20:38):
Absolutely, because you know when you when
you knew something didn't work,it gives you the opportunity to
try something that. Well, whensomething's working, keep doing
it, but when something's not,fix it because something else
probably will work.
Matthew Landis (20:56):
Have you ever had a client challenge you in a
way that changed how you work?
Zoey Pearson (21:00):
Not only are we, we in the beauty industry, we're
in the people industry, and thatcomes with good and bad. Um, you
know, we've, we've hadchallenges and and we've
overcome those. And I would saysome of the challenges are for
some people with, you know,maybe the head spot itself was
really understanding, well, whatis this? What does what is this
(21:24):
going to do? What is this? Youknow, we're not a dermatologist.
We are not going to solve yourlife problems in one treatment.
I had somebody who expressedlike, you know, maybe their
budget wasn't capable of comingfrequently, but they did have a
(21:44):
problem that they needed to helptreat with with some services.
So finding ways to say, okay,how can we do that? One way was,
when we hired new people, we'doffered model services. Hey, do
you want to come in and be amodel for us? It's going to be a
little bit of a discounted ratefor you to get that treatment at
maybe a little bit of a bettercost for you. And so it's not
(22:06):
just completely discrediting theperson because they were
vulnerable enough to say, thisis something that I'm going
through and but I need your helpand and again, we're in the
people industry, so I just tryto be there to support people.
Matthew Landis (22:19):
Making people happy is fun, but it is a lot of
pressure. What would you say islike one of the most surprising
or meaningful transformationsthat you've helped a client
with?
Zoey Pearson (22:29):
My favorite, I think, truly was on the salon
side, I do a lot of extensions,and one of my absolute favorite
ways of transforming people isthrough hair extensions and and
I have a client who lost herhair to chemo, as it's coming
back, we were able to doextensions. And, you know, just
(22:52):
the confidence and the feelingof hope and the feeling of just
feeling beautiful, that is just,there was nothing. There's
nothing like it.
Matthew Landis (23:02):
That's really wonderful. Thank you so much.
So, if you could revolutionizeone thing in this industry, what
would it be?
Zoey Pearson (23:11):
I would just say, to really revolutionize and just
to really tap into to the peoplethere should be a stylist for
every person. I am a firmbeliever that, you know, there
are thousands and thousands andthousands of people just in the
close area proximity that weare, there's enough business to
(23:33):
go around. So to revolutionizemore support between stylists
and maybe a little less of thecompetition and just a little
more support to each other andwork together. I think that
really would be changing for alot of people. There's a lot of
(23:54):
a lot of business to go around,and stylists of all different
price points and techniques andexperience levels. There's
somebody for everybody. And Ithink when people understood, if
people understood that, theywould really they would, it
would be helpful.
Matthew Landis (24:08):
This goes back to that win win. There's so much
support. And when I used to havea salon, I would tell my staff,
I'm like, Look, we don't needeverybody to come here and get
their hair done. We don't evenneed 1% of Salt Lake City, which
is where my salon was, we don'teven need 1% of the people here.
We don't even need 1/10th of apercent. We just need the same
people to keep coming back. Andyou know, we also want to
(24:32):
support the other salons and theother professionals in the area
we you know, we're not the rightplace for somebody we're happy
to refer them to somebody else.
You know, you talked about noncompete clauses before, if one
of my people left, I, you know,it sometimes hurt my feelings,
but I supported them, and Isaid, I wish you the best, and
I'll be happy to tell yourclients wherever you go, and I'm
here to support you, because Ijust believe in that good will,
(24:55):
that whatever you put out willcome back to you. And so. You.
You speak my language. I love itso much. Thank you. Now, if you
had unlimited resources, if youhad all the money in the world,
what would you build or createfor your business?
Zoey Pearson (25:12):
An empire, truly, I just think, I just think more
like minded people, a place foreverybody and and whatever that,
whatever that would look like, Ijust think I love the support
and the the education that I cangive to people. And if you know
(25:34):
I had unlimited funds, I'd loveto give that to everybody. I
feel like, if everyone couldlearn from something that I can
give then, then I've donesomething right?
Matthew Landis (25:43):
What's one book, podcast or TV show that you
would recommend that hasinspired you?
Zoey Pearson (25:51):
It's an Instagram page, and I think they do have a
podcast as well, but it's selfcare for you. They just post a
lot of mind shifting things. Andit's really kind of the half
glass full kind of posts. Therewas a quote that was kind of
said the other day, and it'sreally stuck with me to the
(26:14):
point where I've, you know,talked about it multiple times
since then, is is using insteadof the words I have to switching
it to the I get to, I get to dothis. I get to go to the salon
and full towels. I get to go andhave a team meeting with my
staff. Instead of I have to dothose things because, you know,
(26:38):
we have a privilege of even justbeing here in the first place,
especially, you know, witheverything going on in the world
today, we are privileged to justeven be in a, you know, safe
community where I have a salonand I have a successful running
business. So I really focused mymindset on on switching things,
(27:01):
and that's it's been that hasbeen life changing, is I get to
do these things?
Matthew Landis (27:06):
Wow, talking about a mindset, mindset shift,
right? Yeah, that's incredible.
One last question, what are theother things in your life
thatbring you joy and happiness?
Zoey Pearson (27:18):
The most joy and happiness, it's, again, it comes
from people. I absolutely adore,spending time with my family, my
friends, my dog, ad Sue I loveI'm a home decorator. Definitely
have a shopping addiction,definitely traveling all the
time. So I still try to findways to incorporate that in my
time off, because in self care,self care so huge, because at
(27:42):
the end of the day, if we takecare of ourselves, then we can
take care of other people.
Matthew Landis (27:46):
Well, Zoey, thank you so much for this. It
has been such a pleasure. I justadore you. I love what you're
doing. I think it's so cool. I'mgoing to spend more time looking
at all your stuff, because youare so inspiring. So tell our
listeners where they can findyou and find more information
about you.
Zoey Pearson (28:04):
On Tiktok. Feel free to look us up. We are the
@614headspa. Or on Instagram,it's @the.headspa. Or if you'd
like to check out what I doingin the salon studio, feel free
to check us out there. It's ZoePearson hair on Instagram.
Matthew Landis (28:21):
Thank you again.
Zoey, this has been reallygreat.
Zoey Pearson (28:24):
Thank you, Matt.
Matthew Landis (28:25):
Thank you so much for joining me on this
episode of The VIP suite. I'mMatthew Landis, and I hope you
found the insights andinspiration shared today truly
valuable for your journey as aSalon Suite entrepreneur and
independent beauty, health orwellness professional, don't
forget to follow us on Instagramat image studios 360 and if you
enjoyed this episode, don'tforget to subscribe to the VIP
(28:46):
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. If you haveany questions, topics,
suggestions, or want to shareyour own success story, feel
free to reach out to me atMatthew at image studios, three
sixty.com, remember listener,you are the heartbeat of the
(29:07):
beauty, health and wellnessindustry. Your dedication and
passion make the world a betterplace one client at a time.
We'll be back with more engagingand inspiring conversations in
our next episode. Until then,take care. Stay inspired and
continue to create your own VIPsuite. For more information
about becoming a part of theimage studios luxury Salon Suite
community, visit our website atimage studios three sixty.com
(29:29):
you.
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Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.
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If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.