What’s it like to grow 9 salons and 2 skin spas?
Just ask Lorean Cairns, co-founder of Fox and Jane Salons and Skin Habit. Her journey in salon leadership, which started less than 10 years ago, is truly inspiring!
In this episode, Lorean shares her philosophies on leadership, culture, coaching, and her plans for the future. Whether you’re a salon owner, manager, or beauty professional, this conversation is for you.
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Music Credit:
“Never Wanna Grow Up” by Katrina Stone – Listen on Artlist.
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Chris and John
Welcome to the show brought to you by 124Go. We have an exciting guest, Lorean Cairns. I haven’t told you this yet but I’ve been stalking you on social media for a while. We talk about our salons and situations all the time. It’s not that often that we get to meet other people who work inside of organizations that are our size and are independently owned. I use the term lovingly. It has become a real cult of personality.
You could see that the leader inside of that organization has been able to grow something past one location that has sustainability, as well as interesting, different, and unique in such a way that it continues to attract people not only from inside of the industry, easy to get hairstyles there but from the outside of the industry. There’s a connection and understanding for creating my brand and building my business in a way that both honors my internal client, which is my salon, the people who work inside the organization, as well as the external client, which is the client. It’s the people who come in and pay our bills. Lorean Cairns is from Fox and Jane salons. Are you the President/CEO?
CEO/Co-Founder.
We’re juiced up to have you on. We appreciate your time. Welcome.
I’m so excited to be here. Thank you for having me.
We weren’t mentioning this but it’s one of those things where there’s a new normal We’re all coming to you from quarantine and sitting across the Zoom. We had scheduled this previously and had to move it because it was right around the time when you were making the decision that you had to shut your salons due to the Coronavirus situation. We followed suit about a week after. It’s been a tumultuous, crazy few weeks.
Whether we’re interested in watching it, we’re all affected. It comes at a time when this conversation may have better pushed back because we’ll have a lot to share that maybe could give some hope to people in the salon industry as well as owners out there. Maybe talk a little bit about some of the changes that may come. I don’t know how this conversation is going to go.
We’ve been on a roller coaster together and apart. I am glad for the pushback because what an incredibly challenging day it’s been. The operations rollout of that closure has been daunting. Not even to mention the emotional thought processes that have to go into place. I keep saying I had to send my favorite people home. I feel much more clear. I put some irons in the fire and got some things moving. I’m happy to be here connecting with a little more clarity behind me.
It’s wild. There are a million different ways we can go with this conversation. John, why don’t you lead us out and see where we land?
Lorean, one of the things that people in our audience and I always find interesting is how people got into the industry, what attracted them, and what made them jump on board. Tell us a little bit about that story. How did you get here? Why hairdressing? How did this journey start?
Interestingly enough, I didn’t think about hairdressing until two weeks before I was in it. It all happened quickly. I followed what I call the supposed to. You’re supposed to go to college. I started on that pathway and was starting to work on those initial credits. I knew pretty quickly that I was disengaged. I felt like I was wasting time and money. I wasn’t showing up. I was floundering, working, and enjoying life as a young woman like what eighteen years olds do.
I had a great girlfriend from high school, who’d moved off to Sacramento. We did that for maybe 1 month, 2, or 3 after we all got to college and got to our perspective places. She said, “How are you doing?” I said, “I don’t know what I’m doing. I’m barely going to class. Is this what I’m supposed to be doing?” She said, “I have to tell you, I came here and went to beauty school. Every day when I go to beauty school, I think this is what you should be doing. You’re made for this.” I called my parents maybe the next day and said, “I want to drop out of college and go to beauty school.” I’m sure they were super thrilled about that but they did give me their blessing.
Full transparency, I wasn’t super financially supported so it was up to me to get grants and work through it. I’m the youngest of four kids with a modest background. I figured it out. I started hustling. I got one of those classic Sally May loans and found myself in beauty school. Within 3 weeks, I knew, whereas with college I was floundering in 3 weeks. I was like, “This is for me. I found it.” Even though beauty school is tough, I found a natural connection to the whole thing. There was no looking back after that.
Lorean, aside from the fact that she was your great friend and you’ll do everything your great friends tell you to do, that’s still a big jump. “You should do this.” “I will.” Is there a little more in there?
I was searching. I also was the person who did everybody’s hair for prom. I remember a girl knocking on the door of one of my classes in high school and tears. I don’t even know why because I don’t even remember advertising myself this way. She said, “I let so and so cut my hair. I need you to fix it.” She wasn’t even a great friend of mine. I was already the hairdresser on call. Even in high school, I was very into makeup, hair, beauty, and all of it. I had a natural affinity and attraction for it.
I needed someone in my life to give me permission that it would be cool and it’s okay to have that because my older siblings had all gone off to Master’s degrees and beyond. To have a great dear friend who’d been with me for many years, who my family knew, and who said, “I’m doing this and it’s cool,” gave me a confidence that I didn’t maybe have in my own.
What was your friend’s first name?
Nicolette Patterson. She’s a hairdresser in Sacramento.
I want to say thank you, Nicolette.
With this whole crazy, social distancing, we checked in on each other. Thank you, Nicolette. She totally changed the course of my life at that young age.
I don’t want to jump too far forward because I have a bad habit of doing that. You’ve got a group of salons under your name, Fox and Jane, but there’s a transition there. There’s that time from hairdressing school to deciding to become a salon owner. Tell us about that transition. Specifically, what made you decide that as you started working, you’re like, “I want to be the entrepreneur, owner, and leader of this?”
You’re going to hear some personality traits in this. There’s a common thread for me, which is that it was probably a couple of weeks before I was an owner that I knew I wanted to be the owner as well.
Did Nicolette call you up and tell you?
Not that time. I wish she had. I had one apprenticeship at a color studio in Denver. I went from there to get my first assistant job at a salon called Lemon Head in Durango, Colorado for a woman named Lenore Brigger. She’s still my mentor, the most fabulous woman. She’s a salon owner of seventeen years at the time. She had come from a magnificent mile in Chicago to open a salon in this little town.
She made this huge reputation. People came from all over the four corners area to go to this salon. I remember her telling me, “You’re the first person in five years that I’m hiring because we have no turnover here. I take it seriously.” I got to go into this incredible salon community and healthy culture. I went through her assistant program. This was my first real relationship to what a salon could feel like. We were incredibly empowered and mentored. We were pushed and shown how to be successful, not only financially and in reputation but also as a culture and a community.
I worked there for seven years. I went from being her assistant to a lead stylist at that time. I can’t tell you what other folks experienced but for me, I had the most incredible start because I started at the right place. I felt good every day when I went to Lemon Head Salon, from the mentorship in the room to the level of success I built myself. I was booked six weeks in advance in a small town before social media.
One day, I woke up and decided to move to New York City from Durango, Colorado. I thought this was going to be the epitome of fashion and hair. I had to get out of my small town and do it. I had three suitcases and sold my car for a little bit of money. I took off and moved to New York. I got my first job. If Lemon Head was this, can I imagine how wonderful New York City could be?
I got hit in the face with the reality of where the industry was at that time, in 2010 and 2011, and how culturally missing it was. I had a total double-wear product experience working for some culturally and professionally not-so-great folks for less than a year. I was goalie loxing around from one reputable location and one phenomenally well-known by reputation.
Once you’re in there, you bought the dream of living the nightmare.
I gave up everything. I left this incredible career where I felt like I had peaked in this small town. I come to New York. I knew I was a little fish and that was okay. I got slapped in the face with the reality that not every salon is as well-functioning and well-meaning as where I had come from. I worked at three salons in a very short period. None of which I’ll say the name but all are very reputable.
I had tough experiences. I remember I called my third boss. He was a very absentee owner. I said, “You’re never here. I’m already taking some natural leadership on. Could I be your manager? This could be an amazing little shop if I could be your manager.” He said, “I’m never going to pay for a manager. I do this for the income. I’m a marketing guy. It runs itself but you’d make a great owner. You could make a great living.” That was it.
I started hunting for small business loans for women and trying to figure out how to put my 2 pennies together, make 4, and figure this out. I met my business partner organically. About six weeks later, we opened our first location. It was that true classic story of, “I can’t find a place I want to work. Let me make one better than what I can find.” I already have so much case history and have such a great example of what it can feel like to run with. “Let me bring it here.”
Lorean, I want to touch base a little bit on something. You’ve used my favorite word in a sentence more than once, which is culture.
It’s one of my favorite words, too.
That’s a passion for you. I always tend to think that one of the biggest challenges with our industry is that salon owners-entrepreneurs forget that that’s the thing that people gravitate toward. We’ve all done enough reading that tells us that. I’m going to use the word Millennials but the age bracket of kids coming out of school going into the salon business culture is important. You had this transition where you worked for this company in Colorado, a smaller firm but an intense and happy culture. It’s one that you felt part of.
You then went into three different environments on the East Coast and the culture wasn’t there. Aside from the obvious, meaning they didn’t have it, why do you think that’s such a hard thing for people to grasp? Why is it that leaders have such a hard time developing happy and successful cultures for their teams? I always think that that’s the thing that if people did a better job of, we’d have a lot less turnover. Not just people leaving our salons but people leaving the industry as a whole.
It’s a very complex answer. A couple of things that come straight to my mind are the industry has shifted in the years since I’ve been an owner. Being cool and exclusivity were the priorities years ago. I was an early leader in the thought that being inclusive is cool.
You don’t have to try to be cool anymore.
If you know me, you’ll know that I’m probably a little bit of a dork at first but thankfully, I have a little natural cool in me so it keeps it balanced. We were taught to be exclusive and we were modeled after this exclusivity. I don’t know. It feels out so outdated to me. More of the industry is catching on. What is still missing and something that I try to fill a tremendous amount of the void in is actual education on how to get that done.
To answer your question, I was listening to your show, getting ready to chat with you both. I heard a conversation you had with a gentleman. I can’t remember his name but it was a lovely conversation. He was saying how there’s never been more education out there for a hairstylist. They get to move faster and do better. I don’t think that’s still true for a salon owner.
There’s still not enough fabulous education on how to be a great leader for salons. There’s a lot of information about small business in the world but there’s not a lot focused on what we do every single day. Mutually to talk to you guys about what you’ve done, I was excited for the same reason. There’s not a lot of us. For the ones who have hacked it a little bit and figured it out, we are responsible for helping, and I’m going to say with emphasis, employee-facing salons to get some real information about how to get it done.
What’s shifted organically is the idea that being cultural is correct.
What’s shifted organically is the idea that being cultural is correct. What’s still missing is what does that mean? That’s why I wrote Culture Fox, my book. That’s why I’m working as much as I am to go from being CEO of Fox and Jane internally and spending all my time on my beautiful brand that I’m so proud of to Fox and Jane is only going to be able to exist in a world where employee facing salons still exist.
It’s an interesting conversation. We talk a lot about that because, from the podcast-facing audience, we know that it’s an industry. We’re speaking to the industry and there are multiple different ways to do it. We’ll have somebody like you on and then we’ll have somebody like Eric Taylor, from The Hair Game, who has a completely different business model. We appreciate all of it.
I listen to it all too.
With that said, we understand in our day job, which is at home, that we need to sustain our business. We need to make sure. When I’m speaking and saying what I’m saying, John plays one of the biggest roles around this on a daily basis. I watch him operate in a way. Even as the organization gets bigger, every person feels like an individual there. They feel heard. When they put their hand up and say, “We need to change this,” if it is something that we should change, it gets heavily considered and then it changes.
You said it in your opening. I don’t think I’ve ever heard it said as eloquently as far as when I grew up in the salon industry, exclusivity was the thing. Now, inclusivity is demanded. It’s not like you should. Younger stylists, call them what you will, are demanding that their leadership listen to them. The way they demand it is like, “I’ll either stay here or I won’t.”
I’ll hear John say this all the time. Brian is the guy who owns the salons that we work within. He says, “It’s the leader’s job to paint the picture of the vision. Once that picture is painted, it’s everybody else’s job to make sure that everybody else can grow within there.” If I don’t have growth and I’m a young stylist, I’m only going to be there for so long.
I agree. Fox and Jane started in full transparency with culture. What I knew how to do was help people to feel in alignment. They had a place in my vision and they were heard and seen. My team is my board of directors. I’m the president. I make the final vote but they’re my board of directors. I take into account everything that they say, which is what you are saying about your business, which I love so much.
It is challenging. We can’t say that it’s not to get to the point where we are a step ahead of them all the time. I’ve got folks who make incredible income working three days a week. Their sales are incredible. They’re booked eight months in advance. Some of them a year. I’ve still got to stay and step ahead of them. I couldn’t have done that years ago when we started. I’ve had to figure that out one day at a time but I still can’t lose focus on it nine years later or I still risk that exact conversation that you’re talking about.
It never stops having a point of accountability. Maybe that accountability shifts to teaching them why we’re capped out and all the expenses make sense. Congratulations, you’ve hit the 1% and we get to hang here. To go to your earlier question about why it’s so hard is because this is all culture. It’s the cultural decision that we do invest in our employee development. There are pathways for everybody. It’s the thing that helps someone who might in the beginning feel a little rejective of your coaching.
A few months later after seeing some growth, it feels like, “Look at what’s already happened for me. Through diving in, leaning in, and taking some direction from you, I’m already seeing growth for myself.” They’re not just going to do it because I said so. We all know that. They’re doing it because it does benefit them. I believe so much in a coaching culture. I don’t want to get all over the place but it’s a complicated conversation, isn’t it? It’s very big.
I love the piece about the coaching culture. Let’s talk about that a little bit if it’s okay. Coaching is that communication piece. In any strong culture, you have to have strong communication systems. You may be the president of your company but you have stakeholders that you listen to every day. That communication has got to happen. Talk a little bit about what a coaching culture looks like for you and in your environment and why that’s important.
No matter what level you’re coming in, you’re going to be in the beginning putting on the same little conveyor belt.
It’s interesting because, in the beginning, I hire all different kinds of folks like people who have graduated through our amazing assistant programs and people who have ten years of experience. I have to remind you that no matter what level you’re coming in, you’re going to be in the beginning putting on the same little conveyor belt. It’s not going to feel comfortable at first, especially if you’re that ten-year stylist but I promise you, if you take 3 steps back, I’m going to help you to grow 20 steps forward.
You might be a little confused, have some bad behaviors, or be a little outdated in some of your processes I promise. “Here’s the proof of the pudding and what we’ve created.” We have the data and the other folks walking around the salon who you can say, “Is this true?” They’ll be like, “Yep, it’s true. Look at my business.”
Of the 10 stylists who walk in the room with 10 years of experience, how many of the 10 make it through that?
Thankfully, after years of re-evaluating our hiring processes, it’s all of them. That’s because we suss out early. From an ego standpoint, we’re like, “I’m not going to do assisting for the full four weeks. I’m not taking that low of a commission to start.” We make it a little tough because we have so much to give. We can’t get stuck on this. If you’re already stuck in your ego at zero and I’ve got a whole ladder to help you climb, I can’t be fighting with you every step of the way.
We’re looking for folks who are looking for a career reset at that level or a career at that more green level. I talk about the coaching culture from the interview. If you’re a salon owner reading, it starts with, “Nice to meet you. Welcome to a coaching culture. Do you like feedback?” It’s interview orientation day one. At the end of day 1, day 2. It starts and it is relentless. What usually happens is they’re like, “Leave me alone.” At some point, they’re like, “I can’t wait to talk to you.”
It’s going to the trainer when you first start working out again. You’re like, “I got to work out.” Later, you’re like, “I can’t wait for my workout.” My top-tier team can’t get enough of our coaching because the proof is in the pudding. Folks who have never had coaching from another salon are nervous and shaking. “Why are you talking to me? Am I in trouble?”
For us, coaching is the intention to mentor through almost any employee challenge.
For us, coaching is the intention to mentor through almost any employee challenge. We know being salon leaders, sometimes coaching is basic professional behavior. We get into stuff as salon leaders. My husband’s an architect. He never would have to approach. I have to be able to coach and teach leaders in my business because I’m not the forward-facing leader of most of my locations. How to have conversations about all different kinds of stuff.
We try to get through that as quickly as we can and make sure the values are clear. This is our values and honor code. You got to get that clear first so we can get into the good business stuff but culture always comes first. We spend the first three months making them boxes. “Come in and figure out how to be a community member.”
In my career and salon life, I have this ownership piece. I went into corporate for a little while working for a few hair brands. A culture shock is what it was. I didn’t become a culture fox. No doubt. I learned some things in that time. Being back out in the independent salon market, I realize very much. John says this a lot. While in corporate, you can put a rule in place and then everybody has to follow the rule.
It doesn’t always work that way in salons. There are some massaging times. You even say it. In your first three months, you’re almost expecting that repel in the beginning. It’s like, “Leave me alone.” My question is how did you come upon that style? You use the word relentless. I believe you have to be relentless. You’re breaking habits or trying to break through the walls. In general, people don’t like to hear hard stuff. How did that come about?
A lot of what I have done has been through one-day-at-a-time leadership. That’s the truth. I started and have worked so tirelessly to also stay agile and make sure that I’m paying attention to what’s working and not what’s not working. Through the process of paying attention, I got five successful people trained and I’ve got them to this next level. We don’t have a particular level system but we have coaching pathways that we use to help our leaders understand how to get them through the next steps.
It was trial and error. I hate to be so simplistic but that was the truth. I started mentoring folks and seeing what mentorship looked like. What I started to notice after a few years was that it had so many patterns. There are a couple of different kinds of team members and responses. There are always anomalies but we started to realize that these behaviors happened over and over so we could build pathways and get ahead of them and help soothe and clarify before someone even had that anxiety that happened to the last person. The next onboarding would even be better.
I’m the definition of hairstylist to CEO. I figured this whole thing out one day at a time. Constantly, my pathways and processes are getting updated. I’m going to go back to work and they’re going to be updated again because this whole cultural shift that we’re all about to go through could change everything again. Stylist leaving, who’s in control, and all of that could shift again. It’s some simplistic answer but it’s bent through doing it and figuring it out.
It sounds like what you didn’t do was quit on it. You had the vision and saw the vision. There are a lot of people who open up businesses and have all of the skills, tools, and talents that they need to do it. One thing that may happen is at some point along the way, employee number thirteen comes in and it’s like, “I’ve had enough. I’m going to get behind the chair and make my money.” The cycle begins. You were relentlessly committed to the vision of knowing that you could bring people past what they thought they could get to.
Leadership is about being at the bottom of the pyramid. You are the steppingstone that everyone uses to climb.
I want to say that leadership is about being at the bottom of the pyramid. You are the stepping stone that everyone uses to climb. The minute you get confused or you get a leader on your team that’s confused about that and starts pointing down, you’re in trouble. What I’ve worked to do through hiring and promotion, myself and my partners are the same way because we share a value system.
Remember that even in this closure, I’m sitting here going, “How do I serve those folks?” If you’re constantly in service leadership, it’s easy to stay clear. It’s draining, sure. You have to figure out ways to manage it all but it’s service leadership. I’m in service to you. My internal customers are all saying, “This isn’t it. This isn’t great.” I got to listen to that as I listen to my external customers and what they’re saying.
What you said hits a chord with us. We were closed. I’m here at work. I can do this show at home. Brian, the owner of our company and the guy we get to work with, and Tammy who’s in HR, were sitting here doing exactly what you said, which is what can we do to serve our people even though they’re not here? What can we do to serve our people when they come back whenever that date is?
It’s not because I can’t do this paperwork at home but because I can right. As a company of 150 stylists, what are we doing to serve them with unemployment insurance, stopgap pay measures, and all of that? What does my health insurance look like? What’s going to happen when we come back? That’s why I love that.
We spent the morning doing the same thing. My core little team started a 10:00 AM meeting and we’ve got a bunch of things. We’re keeping them notified. It’s keeping that anxiety down through communication and future planning. We can’t miss a step. We’re looking at this as an opportunity time to get some intense operation stuff done that we’ve been wanting to do. It’ll be dark cleanup, some app changes, and things. We’re like, “Look at all this time we have to focus.” We’re taking it as an opportunity to benefit our return for sure.
You’ve created this coaching culture. You’ve attracted people to your company and you’ve got multiple locations. One is in Canada. Was that correct?
We’re in nine locations. 1 is in Canada and 2 in Colorado. We have a sister brand called skin-habit. That has two locations in San Diego. It’s a skincare brand. We help mentor them as well and manage them through my business partnership. We have Brooklyn locations. We had our first international year and that was challenging, unique, and surprising in a lot of ways that maybe I should have expected. In hindsight, it was a lot harder than I thought it was going to be to hold on.
I want to talk a little bit about that for half a minute and I realized it’s probably an episode in itself. For many people, the idea of maintaining the location they have and the twelve stylists they have is a challenge every day. Yet, you’ve been able to multiply your culture to create these 9 locations and 2 skin-habit locations that you have. What I’ll ask so we can keep the episode to a reasonable length is how did that start?
I have a business partner by the name of Billy Canoe, who’s my business soulmate. He’s my best friend. He is a pusher. He’s like, “What’s next?” I’m like, “Make sure it’s good.” Thankfully, that happened because together, we are grounded in our process. He’s a marketing guy. What I do is make sure that all of our leads stick and that anybody who comes in our retention is super high. Our rebooking is super high. He’s like, “Let me get you leads.”
When we opened our first location, it was only eight months before we opened our second because we’d maxed out already. For most new clients, it takes about six weeks to get into one of our locations because we have so much volume. For a new stylist, when they start with us, especially here in New York City, there’s about a four-week pre-booking that they’re given the day I open their book. If you get the job and you go through all of that great training, I opened your books. You get four weeks of overflow that pours in and you’re given a full book essentially.
Through doing that, we have this natural need to continue expansion. Our first several expansions were all privately owned. It was he and I opening multiple locations. We did that about 4 or 5 times. What we started to realize is that to expand out of New York City, we had an interesting partnership. I had a phenomenal longtime friend, my business partner, Brittany Jones in Colorado, who was my first hair assistant at that Lemon Head Salon.
She had another salon at the time. She would call me and say, “I have a quick question. Do I have a form for this? Am I allowed to say this?” Over the course of maybe 6 or 8 months, I gave her a lot of free mentorship. One day, I had to put my little foot down and say, “I love helping you but at a certain point, I feel like you need some real support. You need partnership.” I said, “It’s too bad you already opened your salon because I would have been happy to partner with you.” She said, “I’m so lonely as a sole proprietor. Let’s do it and talk about it. Are you serious?” I was like, “I’m serious if you’re serious.”
We went from privately owned locations. She was our first real test model of what partnership looks like. We rebranded her first location and we’ve helped her open her second location. Since then, we’ve been full partners. We do full background mentorship. We do HR, taxes, coaching for her, coaching for her leaders, scheduling, and everything. She gets to go out and be a real salon leader in the room, training other leaders, growing locations, and educating.
That was the first model. Since then, we’ve opened a little lion with a partner, skin-habit, and then Toronto. What we have fallen in love with is the act of mentorship through partnership. Our goal and initiative is to help rebrand and take on other salon partners who want to become Fox and Jane’s or potentially their own brands.
I love mentoring partners. You know what it is. I got to do what I needed and didn’t have. I get to be a hand out there going, “Come on, let’s look at it this way. This is your P& L. Have you ever looked at this before? These are your top-line expenses and bottom-line expenses.” I get to take what I learned in those five locations, pass it around to these partners, and help uplift them. They’re uplifting our stylists and we’re sharing those values. It’s a unique model. I have to tell you, it’s been the joy of my professional life figuring that out.
I have a couple of things. One is when you go through this process, you talk about rebranding. You’ll have somebody who maybe owns a salon and they want to rebrand themselves as a Fox and Jane. You go through the mentorship in the process, leadership development, and backend management stuff. What shows up as the biggest challenge when you take someone on in that kind of process?
Imagine what we talked about before with hiring a ten-year stylist.
I was going to the same place.
It’s not what happens after. It’s vetting and starting a conversation. I have about four amazing salon partners. I vetted and started tiny conversations with 50. It’s the process of finding people who want to be cultural, givers, and service leaders in alignment with us and one of our initiatives called The Dress Code Project, which you should have on your show. There are so many things.
It’s like vetting to the level of marriage. We’re dating. I do think a business partnership is like marriage. We take it seriously. It’s the before stuff to make sure you get through when you’re taking on the right salon partners. This isn’t a franchise. It’s not like you’re over there and I’m over here. We are talking every day. We have scheduled calls. You’re with my team. It has to sync up. What’s been the most difficult thing so far is making sure that that process is controlled, smooth, and right.
You brought up the same point twice and I want to dig a little bit on it. When you have that ten-year veteran who wants to come in and be a future team member or when you’re deciding who partnerships are going to be with, there’s a vetting process. I’m going to use your language. To me, that’s important on both avenues. Whether you’re a partner externally or internally, we’re still going to go through this vetting process.
What are the things that you most look for? What are the things that you say, “This is the person who’s going to make a great internal or external partner?” What are those little key points? Here’s the thing. You’ve got this great operation of nine locations but I’m thinking about that man or woman who’s got a small salon, 8, 10, or 12 people, who’s still trying to figure this out. Give them a little tidbit on what that looks like.
It’s about readiness. I always have those top stylists come to me and go, “Could I have a location?” I’m more hesitant to do that. The reason is I want someone who’s got a couple of miles of ownership alone under their belt. I’ll speak to the partnership first. When you have a couple of years of being a sole proprietor, you know how tough and lonely that can be. You start getting support. You’ve still got energy under you and you’re ready. “Are you ready?”
One of the things I do is I’ll give them some small challenges or little things to tweak in their business. “Go ahead and try that.” What I look for is that person who’s like, “Got it. What’s next? I did that. Here’s what happened. What do you want me to do next?” In the beginning, until they are more of a peer to me, it’s a lot of that. “Go do this. Let’s try this. Get that launched out.” They’re at the boots on the ground.
They have to be capable of going, delivering that out, coming back to me, and saying, “This was what we found from that. These are the challenges that came up. Here’s how I handled it. What’s next?” For maybe the senior stylist, it’s not that different. It’s openness. I like to ask a lot of questions. First of all, I’m hiring you but you’re also hiring me. In both of these scenarios, I work for extreme transparency of what is this going to feel and look like. What are you signing up for?
I don’t ever want to sell someone into a relationship with me. I want people to buy into a relationship with me because they feel so clear about the benefits of that relationship. They’re in exact alignment that this is what their goal is going to be. We’re heading to the same place. It’s that clarity. For that senior team member, it’s like, “Are you clear of all the things we’re going to put you through? When we ask you to single book in the beginning, you’re not allowed to layer. We’re slowing you down. You’re not triple-booked all day. That could go on for a period of time.”
Through that clarity, I’m gauging the questions they ask, their receptiveness and openness to them, and their understanding of the why. For the hiring process, it’s a lot to do and also for the partnership process with almost more sharing like, “If this is what this feels like, are you sure that that’s where you want to be? You don’t have to.”
That was beautiful. This whole conversation has been great. I looked at the time and I was like, “How are we already 45 minutes into this conversation?” I feel like we just got on here. What I’m hanging onto and I want to circle back to is when you partnered in Colorado, in the same location with the same leadership team with some tweaks. I’ll make it sound simplistic. I know it wasn’t. Yet I can’t do it in this location, in my town, or with this staff. You hear this stuff.
You took up an existing business with some rebranding, which to me sounds like some strategy. We’re going to take a different strategy and implement a different business model but we’re in the same place with some of the same people. We had this much growth. What were some of the key elements to making that change happen? It’s measurable.
First of all, I have to start by saying that my business partner there is phenomenal. She was doing what I think so many small business owners do, which is everything. How great are we when we do everything a little bit? The first thing we do is come in and talk them through how that launch is going to go. It’s going to be a ton of communication but let us free up some of this burden of stuff that’s not your circle of excellence.
It’s not my circle of excellence either. I’m not processing our payroll, reviewing, auditing, or doing all these things for us. Let’s take that out of our plate by getting you into our corporate management group. First of all, just that gives them twenty hours a week and more time to pour into things that matter. The second thing we do is build relationships with the whole team. It can’t just be her.
We’ve got to come in as a backend company. I’m flying out and the director of education is flying out. We’re all there. She’s able to start liaising with experts, which is what we all need. It’s not that she wasn’t capable of having a phenomenal salon. It’s that it’s hard as a sole proprietor to do it all and do it all well, find mentorship, and be a hairstylist. She was stuck like so many other folks in that rat race.
The combination of easing up some of her burden at the same time of injecting her with information and mentorship is what’s next. Talk about a what’s-next kind of girl. She is like, “What’s next?” She’s more similar to my other business partner where she pulls me forward in a way that I enjoy. My partner in Toronto was a ten-year salon owner. This isn’t about us. With all of respect to Tabitha, this isn’t me taking over. This is the idea that partnership makes us stronger.
My marketing partner gets to come in and own what that digital marketing relationship looks like. Before, my Colorado partner might have been trying to do that through a service that she barely understood for a couple hundred bucks a month. We get to come together with many different masteries and inject them into the pot.
For us, that has created a dynamic formula. We get to dose them with mentorship. At a certain point, they get to a place where we’re what’s nexting together but in the beginning, it’s like, “Here’s what you got to do.” We’re easing that burden and supporting them through it. A sole proprietorship can be daunting. For a working hairstylist, it can be a little impossible to get to that million-dollar point. It’s not impossible as we all know folks who’ve done it but it’s a lot longer road.
This is going to sound a little off-direction but you brought it up and I find this interesting. You talked about how you got people. They sign up for your company to go through their training program for about four weeks-ish. At the end of that four weeks, you’ve already got them booked out. You’ve already got appointments in their book. You mentioned two things, retention and rebooking. They are classic.
I asked this question for two reasons. 1) Why are they important? 2) I hear more and more, I don’t want to say consulting companies, but maybe coaching companies or other people in the industry who tend to downplay those two numbers. I find it interesting that you’re still using that language. I want to know why that’s so important. I find it interesting that I hear some folks suggesting those numbers aren’t quite as important. I want to get your feedback on that.
I find it deeply interesting. You guys share this with me. I’m deeply open to evolving if that were to no longer be true for me but I’m also incredibly data-driven. Data is very meaningful to me. It all started with culture but once I started figuring out data, I fell in love with it and fell in love hard. I started to realize that if I’m going to give you a full book of clients and I’ve got this overflow, those are my clients until they’re yours. My mission is to help you build your business within my business but how am I going to prove that that’s happened?
I have all the data. I know how many calls I get leads, website visits, and social media hits. I have all that. I can put things on your books but my job is to help you build a business and then get stable so that I can hire the next person and that cup continues to run over. Those two metrics are what empower us as a community to ensure that yes, we’re giving you a generous start but at a certain point, we’re transitioning to building your business within our business and transitioning to a place where you are accountable for that business on your own.
The idea for me between retention and rebooking is that I know how many leads I get, how many people click on my website, how many people call my phones, how many people click through our social, and how many new appointments we get. I have that data. It’s my job to help you build a business within my business. I’m going to give you this head start but not so that I can continue feeding you forever to give you the skills to then build your business within my business. How do I measure the fact that that’s what you’re doing?
If you want to know the secret of how I have so much overflow, it’s that I’ve held everyone accountable for retaining that head start that I give them. What eventually happens is we’re filling this colander. We’re dumping and running through some. We fill it and fill it. Enough is catching that at a certain point, it bubbles over the top. That’s what we do as a brand.
I’ve sat in business seminars where other leaders and influencers have said, “Quit rebooking. Things don’t matter.” I get afraid of two different things. I say this with the utmost respect because I do love influencer culture. “Does that work for you and what you’ve done or does that work for many case studies?” That’s the first question I would ask that person who’s challenging it. The same thing goes for the corporate folks who sometimes advise on our industry. This is where I say there are not enough of us who are doing it from the successful standpoint of having built these salons.
“Are you advising based on trend? Where is this information coming from that this is outdated or irrelevant?” I challenge it. For me, it’s so deeply relevant that I’ve built an incredibly successful business. There are many metrics that matter but these two metrics matter deeply. I don’t find them dated at all. What’s dated is the idea around culture and motivation to get there but the metrics haven’t shifted. That’s true for our other brands and concepts as well like skin-habit. These metrics matter to brick-and-mortar service-based businesses.
We like to think of ourselves as a teaching show. I’m looking at that salon. It’s got 8, 10, or maybe 12 folks in it. We talk about retention. They’re getting mixed signals from influencers and corporate environments. When I say corporate, I mean that in a healthy way. A corporation done right, you have a culture that supports the people that are in it.
Corporations get to do things for their teams that sometimes single entrepreneurs can’t. I use it as a positive term, not as a negative. We’ve got these mixed signals coming in from different resources. For those 8, 9, and 10-chair salon owner, how do you measure retention so that they can understand how to help their team members do that?
Most of us have awesome booking software that helps us to control the data side of this, which is where it all starts. Are we looking at our data every single day, especially when we’re in a growth goal? These goals should be looked at constantly for evaluation. Are we passing that data to our team members? Are we sitting alone in this feeling or are we having goal-setting conversations?
If we’re going into a goal initiative or we have a new team member, we’ll talk to them about their pre-booking or some of these important metrics to us in the beginning. Every day, they have to text us these numbers. Are you owning that conversation and clarity? Is your team owning that conversation and clarity? If you’re sitting there as a small business salon that’s struggling, there’s a lot of information out there but be careful about listening to someone who isn’t doing something similar to what you’re doing. That would be my advice.
If you’re listening to one influencer who has 500,000 social media followers saying, “I stopped pre-booking,” compare that before you make any strategic moves to the business you’re operating in your own marketing, following, and volume. Before you pull something like a pre-booking or retention out, make sure you’re tweaking the right things. “Are people engaging in this? Is this information prevalent in my business? Is that what’s missing?”
Goal setting is all about incremental and strategic growth.
I would guess for most small business owners, what that data looks like and where it’s sourced, they might not even know. They might not even be accessing it and engaging in it consistently. I’m not going to give a specific metric. Pre-booking above 50% is a great start. Retention of around 80% is a great number. Goal setting is all about incremental growth and strategic growth.
If you have zero pre-booking and you’re like, “I’m in a town where nobody pre-books,” and that’s your mission, you have to figure out what healthy pre-booking looks like to you. Is it 30%? Would that be the shift that this quarter helps you to feel this much stronger? If it’s getting to 50% or some of our initiatives and goals are 70% and 80%, it’s awesome but don’t set out at that 70% number or you’re going to overwhelm everyone. First, you have to come into that team with the why. “Why do we suddenly care about this when we never did before? Why am I going to be okay with you coaching me all the time about it?” We have to start where we are.
What I love about everything that you said is it reminds us that the foundational stuff still and always will exist. I love that you referenced influencer culture because it’s easy for me to get distracted as a newer stylist and go, “That person doesn’t even take new clients anymore. That’s where I want to get to. This person doesn’t say that pre-booking is not the thing if I grow up.” Take the mind of the source.
I love what you said because I want to repeat it. For most brick-and-mortar businesses, these are the lifeblood of your business. I can be a one-off stylist who gets famous and creates a demand that’s bigger than I can spend for a little while but as a business, unless I have these foundational things in place and I’m looking at them, measuring them, appreciating them, and getting better at them all the time, eventually that will either burn off. It’ll be a one-off.
You had a successful year or two and then you lost sight of what was important and got you there. A lot of salons do that. It’s like a new bar that opens a cool, happy hour. Everybody’s there for two months and then nobody goes there anymore because it’s not the cool spot. Salons have experienced some of that type of phenomenon by taking their eye off the ball.
It’s everything. I always tell my team, “I’m going to teach you to juggle but first, I’m going to put two balls in your hand and teach you that skill. I’m going to put a third ball in your hand and guess what? You’re probably going to drop a ball at a point and I’m going to help you to pick it back up.” I tell my partners this too. Many of them are juggling eight balls but when we first started, they were struggling with those little questions, “How do I get reviews? How do I get my team to rebook? How do I have a good day? How do I answer difficult questions?”
Each time, you get better and more sophisticated as you go. The same thing is true, no matter what we’re trying to learn, whatever that skill may be. You’re right. If it’s not a full dedication, you can be like, “I tried to get my team to rebook. It didn’t work.” “Were you relentless? What did we already talk about in our conversation? How relentless were you? What did trying mean? When did you give up? When were you inconsistent in your message?”
The minute you were, your team lost focus and your team was like, “That old thing. We do that sometimes. We don’t always do that.” It’s so easy to get lost that that’s why mentorship, whether that be through coaching programs like mine, shows like yours, books, or true partnership, even coaches need coaches. Even leaders need leaders. It’s because it’s easy to drop those balls and forget.
This has been such an amazing conversation. Lorean, typically what we do is wind down. First of all, you mentioned your book, Culture Fox. I meant to mention that in the beginning. I’m glad you brought it back out. First of all, how do we find Culture Fox? How do I buy that if I want it?
The easiest way, especially with all the beautiful social distancing that we’re doing is through Kindle or on Amazon. You can also source it through my website at FoxAndJaneSalon.com/Shop. With social distancing, we’re not in there shipping those out. Amazon would be great.
I want to reach out and connect with you, what’s the best way to requeue?
It’s through my website at LoreanCairns.com or through social media @LoreanCairns on Instagram. I also want to take a moment to share that I am working on a coaching program that’s going to be released for this exact reason. I am so excited. The number one question I get asked is, “How did you do it?” Culture Fox was my first touch point of helping salon leaders understand their culture, communication, and responsibility, and feel supported. I had so much response and gratitude for that little nugget of information I put out that I realized I needed to expand on it.
I’m going to be working on a coaching program that’s a real transparent look at some of the things I’ve learned for employee-facing salons and beauty businesses. That’s my specific target of who I’m trying to help. I want those folks to have information and access to real education from someone who’s done it. Not just from those amazing other parts of our industry who come in and give us so much wonderful support but I want more folks to hear from people like us who have that one day-at-a-time small business experience and a little taste of what I share with my partners. I’m excited about that.
When does it launch?
It will be hopefully within 2020. We’ll see. I will keep everyone informed through social media and on my website. They can subscribe there for more information.
John, there are so many nuggets. It’s such an impactful conversation. What are some of the things you’re taking away from our conversation with Lorean?
I got so much out of this episode so thank you very much. For me, culture is always a big piece. I loved how you shared about that ability to beforehand take a look at who are the people who are going to come into your company, whether they’re fresh out of school, they’re ten-year folks who have been in our industry, or they want to be partners with you.
I love that whole piece of clearly defining who are your people, who are in tune with your culture values-wise, and how that helps grow a company. I love the idea that we still know that there are some classic data points that we need to stay in tune with, whether that’s retention or rebooking. We’ve all got our favorite ones that we like to connect with.
I love how you have the ability to teach your team and the people that you work with the importance of those numbers. You said something earlier about how we have these classic motivational techniques that we think are going to help people move forward on those numbers. Maybe it’s not the numbers or the data that’s no longer important. Maybe it’s how we encourage people to get there that needs to be revamped and taken a closer look at. I love all that. Thank you.
Thank you so much.
Lorean, with respect to the fact that we have everything from hair school students to salon owners and beyond reading, is there anything you feel like we left on the table or any last words you want to leave for the audience?
With the state of the union, I would say that there’s been so much uncertainty for people out there. What is so amazing is the resilience of our industry. We’ve all seen the memes about the home color or the cutting of their hair but the question is when can they get back in the salon? For people who are affected or will be affected throughout this process, here’s a big, deep breath and a little reassurance to know that we are an industry that will rebound one way or another, maybe a little slowly. I don’t even think it will be too slow on the other side.
There are so many folks out there sharing and donating beautiful content and information. That’s been something for me that’s been uplifting, empowering, and reassuring. I want to be a voice in that as well. As a leader and someone who’s looking at the data on the other side, I feel super confident and I hope that you do too. We’re going to be fine. We just have to get through this wild ride.
Hairstyling is the best job in the world and we’re going to get through challenges just fine.
I’m glad this didn’t turn into a full conversation about this whole thing because we were all having a lot of those. We wanted to have some good 30,000-foot view conversations, which felt good. I have to be honest but I didn’t want to end without sharing a little bit of reassurance to our beautiful community. Hairstyling is the best job in the world and we’re going to get through this just fine.
Thank you for that.
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Every time we have one of these conversations, I walk away with a little bit more than I knew before I came in and I love that about these episodes.
It’s amazing. We also walk away with a lot of gratitude to our audience. We’re watching those followers go up. We’ve crossed the 20,000 mark. We hate to ask but we know there are a few things we need to ask for.
I don’t hate asking, not even a little bit. For those of you who haven’t heard me ask before, five-star reviews. You got the phone in your hand. It’s down by your lap. I don’t care where it is but it’s not that far away from you. You know you want to do it. You love this show. Share it with the world because every time you create a five-star review, an angel gets its wings.
While that angel is getting its wings, it helps us move up, get more noticed, and help share the message. If you’re being served by this, which we hope you are, we’d love for you to share that with some other salon owners. The other thing we’re going to ask you to do is to follow us on Instagram @124.go, as well as Facebook. We’re going to get more active on our Facebook page. If you’re a Facebooker, then follow us on Facebook @124.go. If you’re a Grammar, please tag us in your stories and we’ll do the same in ours. Thanks again for reading, everybody. We will see you in the next episode. Bye.
Lorean Cairns is the Co-Founder and CEO of Fox and Jane Salon Group, Skin Habit, and Little Lion Salon. Her projects employee over 150+ members in 3 different states and 2 countries. Lorean leads the charge in coaching/mentoring her companies through development of dynamic Leadership systems, Managers and Executives.
With nearly a decade of entrepreneurial experience and seven years as a wildly successful CEO of Fox & Jane Salon Group, Lorean Cairns can comfortably say that the secret to her success is deeply rooted in her ability to establish a company culture. From the moment you join the team you are deeply aware of what is means to be a Fox, it’s more than just a job…it’s a way of life.
Lorean’s affinity for leadership has lead her to her newest endeavor sharing her vision for Culture Development in her new book, Culture Fox, and speaking across the country at industry events.
