– Episode 207Travis Parker

Episode 207: Transcript

[00:00:00] Antony Whitaker: Welcome to the Grow My Salon Business podcast, where we focus on the business side of hairdressing. I’m your host, Antony Whitaker, and I’ll be talking to thought leaders in the hairdressing industry, discussing insightful, provocative, and inspiring ideas that matter. So get ready to learn, get ready to be challenged, get ready to be inspired, and most importantly, get ready to grow your salon business.

[00:00:29] Antony Whitaker: Hey, it’s Antony Whitaker here and welcome to today’s podcast. I’ve often talked about the different paths and opportunities that are available within the hairdressing industry for those that are ambitious and prepared to put the work in. For example, for some people, the opportunities are all about building up a great clientele behind the chair, while for others.

[00:00:49] Antony Whitaker: It might lead to opening a salon of their own. And then there are some people that pursue the education routes amongst other things. Now, my guest on today’s podcast is a San Diego based hairdresser, Travis Parker, who has experience working in multiple areas of the industry from being a behind the chair stylist, a salon owner, an educator.

[00:01:10] Antony Whitaker: Uh, an online course creator and many other things as well. And he’s always embraced technology and the opportunities that it presents. So, in today’s podcast, we’re going to discuss the technical and creative online education arena, haircutting today and what the future looks like. And the importance of using technology to teach and what’s more to learn and lots more as well.

[00:01:35] Antony Whitaker: So, without further ado, welcome to the show, Travis.

[00:01:39] Travis Parker: Thanks so much, Antony. I’m so hyped to be here, man. I can’t believe that we finally get to do this together.

[00:01:43] Antony Whitaker: Yeah, it’s been a been a while. We’ve sort of been thinking about it for a bit and it’s so good that we finally, you know, got the recording button being pushed.

[00:01:52] Antony Whitaker: So, um, Travis, a lot of people, we’ve actually never met face to face. We’ve only met online. We’ve met on, uh, on Clubhouse, et cetera. Uh, so it’s great to, you know, have this opportunity to bring you to, you know, my audience who are sort of scattered all around the planet.

[00:02:08] Antony Whitaker: Uh, I know that a lot of people, particularly in the U S will know who you are, uh, but for our listeners that are not in the U S, um, who is Travis Parker give us just sort of, two-minute backstory.

[00:02:20] Travis Parker: Uh, thank you so much again Antony, for having me on the show. I couldn’t be more complimented and flattered. So thank you again for the invitation. I’m a hungry hairdresser. I learned I was a hairdresser when I was 16 and in high school, sort of dug in deep with it and right out of high school, actually before I even graduated from high school, I started working in a salon and knew it was the beginning of the rest of my career and, um, hungry to learn more.

[00:02:45] Travis Parker: A fear of not knowing enough. I chased education that led me through, uh, working with different companies throughout my career and, and, uh, trying to continue to find the answers. I think the more I found, the more I realized I didn’t know much at all about, uh, you know, this great discipline and, uh, but it led me eventually to opening my own salon, which I had a platoon of people for as in a whole group of people for, um, I think 11, almost 11 years, we had the space, uh, in that interim, I started working with L’Oréal Professional and, and continue to work with those guys for 16 years, uh, which was an instrumental part of my teaching, uh, development, uh, format, development and courses and, and, uh, course development period.

[00:03:31] Travis Parker: And, uh, then I opened up a private salon and when I learned that, and we’ll probably get into this more so when I learned that, you know, I had certain talents in certain. categories and I wasn’t so talented in others. So, you know, focusing on where I could really make a difference. Uh, I opened up a private space, uh, this before the studio thing was really a, a big thing as an independent, you know, operations and, um.

[00:03:57] Travis Parker: About six years ago, and this is the cliff note [00:04:00] or the short version of it. Uh, about six years ago, seven years ago, I

started to develop my own curriculum and, and that’s what I’ve been running under Travis Parker Academy ever since. And like you mentioned, I love tech. I’ve always been that eager nerd to, uh, learn more about it and figure out how we could utilize it to complement our lives or, or that of others.

[00:04:20] Antony Whitaker: Great. Okay. Lots of great points here to touch on. I want to, I actually sort of want to go back to the, the salon ownership thing. I’m curious about that. I know you’ve still got a salon, but as you referred to it now, as it’s more of like a private space. But you said that originally you had a bigger salon with a dozen or so staff in it.

[00:04:37] Antony Whitaker: Let’s just go back to that for a minute. Like what, what was it that drove you to open a salon? Because I think a lot of young hairdressers feel there’s an, an inevitability about it and that they should do that and that it’s the next step, but obviously it isn’t the next step for everybody. Uh, although it is for some, but just, just talk about that for a minute.

[00:04:54] Antony Whitaker: What was it that made you want to open a salon?

[00:04:58] Travis Parker: It’s, it’s a great question and I’m glad you framed it in the sense that most of us want to, uh, do it as an, it is that next step for us. Um, you know, I, I wanted to do it because I was in a place where I didn’t always feel that I was in the right place to be completely honest. And if I could open up a salon, build curriculum internally with it.

[00:05:19] Travis Parker: And then I would be working with like-minded people and working with like-minded people is a place that I generally want to be as, as with today. And so the salon was that opportunity for me. It was an opportunity for me to create something that truly complimented me, became a nest for something that I could really feel contextually comfortable with, um, and then work with like-minded people.

[00:05:40] Travis Parker: Um, but I think like a lot of us, I was. You know, I was good at doing hair, but did, did I know how to fix the electrical? Did I know how to run a profit and loss statement or chart and, and really find profitability? Um, could I focus on enough of the integral things in a business to run it in a successful sense?

[00:06:01] Travis Parker: And, and I failed many times, succeeded in many categories, but failed in many, but it was truly just this ambitious nature to be part of something, um, that I felt comfortable with. And so that was, that was why I sought it out.

[00:06:13] Antony Whitaker: Yeah, I totally relate to that. It’s, it is a very creative thing, building a business. It’s developed. People often ask me if I miss not having a salon, uh, cause I don’t have salons anymore either. Um, and I often say to them that I wish, or I miss not building something anymore. Like building a, building a, a brand that wasn’t just about me.

[00:06:35] Antony Whitaker: I’m just, I’m still building something there, but it’s not like I have, you know, 20, 30, 40, 50 staff anymore. Um, and so I miss that, that brand development of, of building other people as part of a team, which is a really exciting buzz but as you just alluded to, you, you also. learn a lot about yourself and you learn what you’re good at and maybe what you’re not so good at.

[00:06:59] Antony Whitaker: What did salon ownership teach you about yourself?

[00:07:03] Travis Parker: Oh, my gosh, so many things, right? How much time do we have, Anthony? Um, you know, I, I think it, it taught me a lot. what is secured was the fact that I was, um, a good mentor and it secured the fact that I had ideas that helped others develop as well and, and help them grow in their careers. Um.

[00:07:24] Travis Parker: I learned that I had a good aesthetic that people were drawn to and built upon that. If I had enough people with me in it, we could be quite successful with competitions and winning things and becoming a noted operation. Um, that aesthetic, I think let us. You know, quite far. Um, and that was truly my compliment.

[00:07:47] Travis Parker: I also learned on the other end that, you know, I, I really didn’t understand the thing about business at whatsoever. Um, and I thought my dream would carry me through these other, other things and, and, um, it carried me through a lot of self-discovery. It carried me through, you know, the fact that it, I, I should say it humbled me.

[00:08:05] Travis Parker: Um, In the sense that I, uh, yeah, I just wasn’t, I

wasn’t good at certain things and I learned how to deal with failure and that taught me a lot as well. You know, what happens when I’m not good at something and I tragically fail, how do I pick myself up? How do I grow from that? How do I learn from that? Um, do I, you know, start to take the understanding into taking a second shot at trying it myself, or do I learn that I need to delegate it to experts that, you know, that is their forte.

[00:08:35] Travis Parker: And so, yeah, it became a clear line in the sand for me of, of where my assets were, but where my deficits were. And then emotionally it was like, how do I handle that? You know, how do I get through this without. Feeling depressed or losing my relationships and, you know, where, you know, where, where are sacrifices when that starts to happen?

[00:08:54] Travis Parker: What am I willing to give up to get through what I have to do in order to succeed? So, yeah, it was a tremendous place of professional development, but equally, if not even more of personal development as well.

[00:09:07] Antony Whitaker: Yeah.

[00:09:07] Antony Whitaker: Yeah. I often say that, that, you know, being in business, opening a business is the best education you’ll ever get. And, and there’s real consequences. Like you can lose everything in the process. So you’re very motivated to learn and you touched on a few things there about. You know how you learned about stuff that you weren’t good at and you had to face that you had to accept that there’s no point in trying to justify it and sort of blag your way out of it.

[00:09:31] Antony Whitaker: It’s like, well, do you know what? I’m actually not cut out for this bit. And I, I wanted to ask you about that because I, you know, I mean, you’re, you’re successful at what you’re doing. You’re successful in lots of different areas, but it’s, it’s also important to look at the things where maybe. This is not your path.

[00:09:49] Antony Whitaker: This is not your journey. So if you, if you were giving advice to someone today, listening to this, someone who’s 25, maybe they’ve just come through beauty school. Maybe they’ve been working for someone else for a year or two, and they’re thinking, I need to take the next step and open a salon. If there was one sort of nugget of wisdom that you’d pass on, what would it be?

[00:10:12] Travis Parker: You know, I, I would say, number one, I would say, go for it, you know, regardless of what I’ve learned through my experiences. It’s unique for each one of us as we come in with different abilities. Right? Um, and I think ignorance is what allows us to really find our destiny. And so not having all the answers sometimes.

[00:10:30] Travis Parker: Okay. And so as much as I could say, you know, this was challenging for me. That was challenging for me. I think we could all find relate abilities. Based upon conversation and who we’re talking to, but, but sometimes I think not having the answers allows us to proceed. And so, if we, if we have a dream, and we have a sense of discipline, you know, I think we have to, to jump in, you know, with both feet and, and learn as we, as we grow.

[00:10:53] Travis Parker: But that said accountability allows us to pivot and, um. But not always having the answers allows us to move forward. Uh, sometimes trying to seek all the answers, or if I was again to say, you know, well, you need to know this, you need to know that you have to grow here. You have to learn this. You have to hire that person out.

[00:11:10] Travis Parker: You have to do this, that my God, we’re going to think like, well, I don’t have it all together. Like I can’t move. And a lot of times that turns into paralyzation. And so I think sometimes just that ambitious nature and a lack of knowing and it’s not looking over the edge and just jumping in. You know, it was my greatest bit of advice, uh, that I could say to anybody.

[00:11:28] Travis Parker: And, you know, on the other end, you know, you’re going to learn exactly who you are and, and where you’re complimented in it.

[00:11:34] Antony Whitaker: Yeah. Yeah. Someone once gave me a bit of advice. I’ve probably said it on the podcast at some stage, not to the same question as that, but it was a similar question I’ve, and I’ve often used it now and they were talking about management and, uh, they said. The single biggest tip that I’d give you as a manager is that when stuff happens, like whatever it is, because stuff’s going to happen all day long, you know, financial stuff, you know, inventory stuff, problems with whatever, is that when stuff happens, you have to ask yourself, okay, what am I meant to learn from that?

[00:12:07] Antony Whitaker: Because if I don’t learn something from it, the same thing’s going to happen again. So what am I meant to learn from it so that I even either can prevent it happening or at least. Go into damage control when it does, and I’ve always sort of had that for me as a manager as being a really good mantra, because as people that go into business, young hairdressers, we typically don’t have the things you’ve alluded to some of the, you know, the, the benefits of a financial education, a marketing education, a people management education, where we have a hairdressing education, and we think.

[00:12:38] Antony Whitaker: How hard can it be opening a salon? So, and I agree with you, give it a go, jump in there, but be prepared to, uh, be prepared to reassess, be prepared to pivot, be prepared to admit your role, be prepared to, to learn as you go, because that’s part of the, part of the journey, and it can be an exciting journey.

[00:12:58] Antony Whitaker: But if you’re not prepared to learn from it, [00:13:00] you’re going to get an awful slap in the process.

[00:13:02] Travis Parker: Yeah, sure. I mean, if you want anything to test you, you know, jump into something like this and you’ll learn about grit and tenacity, you’ll, you’ll really understand if that’s part of your body and, and, uh, part of your mindset, you know, and, and perseverance is an integral part of success in any business.

[00:13:18] Travis Parker: So if you give it up in this one and you go to another business, well, the common denominator is you. Perseverance is something that we have to have, I think, to find success.

[00:13:28] Antony Whitaker: Yup

[00:13:29] Antony Whitaker: Definitely. Okay. So, um, your success these days is very much around the area of being an educator or being a teacher. Um, what drew you to teaching? Well, like why, why teaching

[00:13:46] Travis Parker: How’s that answer?

[00:13:48] Antony Whitaker: that will do. Yeah. Yeah. So, so, so, so you’re very eloquent then that drew you to teaching. Someone said to you, you got a really good way with

[00:13:56] Travis Parker: that in closed captions? Oh God, you know what, uh, teaching was something that, um, was brought to me, not me to it. I didn’t ever dream of being a teacher or a facilitator. You know, my number one phobia was public speaking. And, uh… And I, I was raised in an environment, um, with school that I was not the smartest kid in class.

[00:14:19] Travis Parker: So, and I looked at a teacher as if they were the smart ones as, as, you know, our teachers are our greatest leaders, right? Um, yeah, so I never felt smart enough to be a teacher. So it was never a decision of mine, but it was that, It was the reality that life kept putting it in front of me and people kept telling me, you know, Travis, can you teach me this?

[00:14:40] Travis Parker: Can you show me this? And I was like, sure, I can show you that. I’m not sure I can teach you that, but I can show you, you know, what my experiences are. And then I had a friend that worked with Toni and Guy back in the nineties. He was one of the first distribution channels for TG in the nineties in the United States.

[00:14:56] Travis Parker: And, uh, he just happened to be a good buddy, um, down here in San Diego. And he asked me to work for Toni and Guy, and I was like, Morrison, you’re, you’re crazy. Like, I’m never going to get in front of anyone and teach. And he was persistent with me. He was like, you are supposed to teach. And I’m like, no, no, no, I’m not.

[00:15:16] Travis Parker: And that makes me sweat and feel totally insecure immediately. So no. And, uh, with his conviction in it, um. You know, he, he pushed me into the role, uh, probably literally out in front of people and I fumbled and I failed and, and I was embarrassed and it secured my insecurities. Um, but he was the person that believed that there was something greater in myself than I had the emotional ability to believe in.

[00:15:43] Travis Parker: And he saw something in me that had no emotional connection to it. He was just like, Travis, like your. You’re one of those people. You’re, you’re special in that sense that you should not special in any sense of superior, but in a sense of being able to share your story and your experiences. And if it wasn’t for him, I don’t know if I would have, or when I would have gotten over the insecurities that I had that I had to be smarter than everybody else in order to stand in front of them.

[00:16:12] Travis Parker: And I quickly learned, you know, within the first year of, uh, working with them. That it wasn’t about being smarter than anybody. It was about sharing experiences and storytelling and upon those experiences. And those lead people to, um, their own epiphanies that it’s a, it’s a sense of relatability upon a subject of why everyone’s there.

[00:16:31] Travis Parker: And, and, um, you know, little by little, I started to develop more experience upon it and back to perseverance, I’m the kind of kid where once I throw myself in, I will literally go to no end to finish what I’ve started and, um, that level of connection and commitment to myself and it, um, you know, led me to, to greater moments of being a teacher.

[00:16:54] Travis Parker: And now I’ve been teaching for over 20 years and, um, I absolutely love my role. I respect it. Um. I honor all teachers of every category and discipline and, and it truly, I truly feel like it’s a, it’s a gift that I’ve been, you know, presented with this opportunity and I feel that every time I stand in front of a camera or on stage or with an opportunity to talk to friends like you about sharing our stories, it truly is something I’m blessed to have gotten through because now I have so much to share and I love it.

[00:17:27] Antony Whitaker: Yeah. Have you ever seen someone, they don’t have to be a hairdresser, they can be in any area of life, who you looked at and you thought, Oh my God, they are such a good teacher. Has there been any one person that’s like had that sort of influence on you?

[00:17:44] Travis Parker: Oh my gosh. Uh, that’s, that’s having to recall memory. Um, yeah. I, you know, we were talking about James briefly, uh, before the call, but James Morrison, um, is who I’m talking about of Toni and guy. And I remember seeing James in my early twenties. I may have been 20, even 21. I mean, it was really quite young and it was before I had the opportunity to start to work with him.

[00:18:07] Travis Parker: And I remember seeing James and his charisma. In front of our audience and, or the audience, and I remembered him moving the hair and, and between the two things of his ability to touch hair and find results and make it look so flawlessly and his sense of humility and relatability, I think, for me, was really the first. teacher of any type that I was like, Oh my gosh, like if I could be like that, you know, that would be me at that time. I wasn’t really thinking about it in a teaching sense. I was thinking if I could move hair like this man moved hair, if I could cut hair the way he did, it was such confidence and humility at the same time.

[00:18:48] Travis Parker: Again, um, my goodness, wouldn’t that be a great thing? And, and, and here it is. It’s the first story that jumps out when you ask that question. And, uh, you know, he’s a

[00:18:57] Antony Whitaker: it’s the first

[00:18:57] Travis Parker: he’s a friend today. So it’s kind of funny hindsight

[00:19:00] Antony Whitaker: Yeah, exactly. Well, I wrote down those four words, uh, as you were saying them, um, cause I was going to ask you the next question was what was the quality that, that person had, you know? Uh, and I don’t know, James, I know who he is, but, uh, um, I don’t think I’ve ever, well, I, I probably have met him 30, 40 years ago, but you said charisma.

[00:19:20] Antony Whitaker: And you said humility, and you said relatability and confidence was the fourth one I wrote down. And that’s a great, that’s a great list. That’s a, that’s a great little list

[00:19:30] Travis Parker: Yeah. I wish people would say, I hope people say that about me someday.

[00:19:34] Antony Whitaker: So this is a sort of a follow up to that, what is it? And it’s sort of the same answer, but maybe you come at it from a different way. What is it that makes a good teacher?

[00:19:47] Travis Parker: I mean, I would say, yeah, definitely tack those things on. I think that the sooner we realize that it’s not about us, that it’s about delivering the message of why everyone is there. I think that that helps to build all of those ingredients in to making a great teacher. Um, and that was something that I

[00:20:04] Travis Parker: mentally had to start to put together for myself because I was so fearful of getting in front of people for so many years. Um, you know, again, not thinking I was smart enough to be there and then I

realized here there was, you know, 300 people in the audience, you know, or 20 people in the audience, you know, or anywhere in between or more. [00:20:24] Travis Parker: And, um, I was like, you know what, Travis, get out of your head. That’s your emotion speaking. It’s your knowledge that you’re supposed to be speaking of, and if you can calm down and deliver what everybody has showed up for, you know, that’s your role, and that’s your purpose. And, uh, I think, becoming a great teacher is realizing that again, it’s not about us, that’s ego.

[00:20:45] Travis Parker: And, um, and the more we can deliver to support others in their, you know, development is, is what helps us to become greater at what we do in that role.

[00:20:55] Antony Whitaker: Hmm. No, that’s, that’s a really good answer. And it reminded me of, you know, uh, when I finally picked up the phone again and said to you. I’ll send you an email, whatever I did. We must get you on the podcast. Let’s get a date in the diary. It was because I’d seen you on Instagram saying something like what you just said then, which was, we need to get out of our own way and realize it’s not about us.

[00:21:19] Antony Whitaker: It’s about the person sat in that chair. And, and I, I saw that you were doing a live class and I thought that’s the, I’ve got to get him, I’ve finally got to call him, get him on the podcast. That was great. Bit of wisdom. And so that’s what I wanted to then come away with from that is, is that comment, you’re not 25 anymore.

[00:21:39] Antony Whitaker: You know, neither am I. Is that sort of way of thinking, is that the wisdom of age because the 25 year old Travis wouldn’t have thought like that and inevitably all the 25 year old version of Anthony wouldn’t have thought like that, but you know, if you can sort of fast track someone by saying, Hey, you know, like you want to learn this bit now because it’s really not about you because I, I get sick of, I mean, we’ve all gone through that stage of, yeah.

[00:22:06] Antony Whitaker: It being more about you and the work that you want to do and the way that you stand while you’re doing that haircut and how cool it looks because you’re able to do that. But it’s not about that. It’s about the person on the other end of that at the end. And that is so obvious, but it’s such a realization, but the ego bit often gets in the way somewhere along the journey, doesn’t it?

[00:22:30] Travis Parker: yeah, very much so. And I think we’ve learned, you know, in, in many different facets that when we serve something greater than ourselves, we find happiness. Um, you know, and, and in what you’re talking about with the Ig posts that I had had, it was about, you know, it’s, it’s not about my trophy that I’m putting on somebody’s shoulders.

[00:22:47] Travis Parker: It’s, it’s about their self-esteem. How am I as a service provider? Yeah. allowing them to walk the planet with more confidence. You know, what, what can I do that gives that person, you know, what they need to feel better about themselves and you know, whether it’s that they look better or they feel better or they find confidence in themselves with it.

[00:23:07] Travis Parker: Um, you know, and it’s the same thing with teaching, you know, what, what, what can I do that can ignite the person in the audience? To take that next step to find their greatest self. And just like Morrison did, you know, with me back in the day with, you know, not having an emotional connection to my insecurities, just seeing what it was in me that I could do.

[00:23:28] Travis Parker: I think so much of that has to do with my role as well. You know, can I help others get past whatever it is emotionally to help them find their greatest. Anything regardless of what it is, but, you know, relative to obviously my, my purpose at that moment. So, yeah, I think, uh, yeah, it’s, it’s what, what could I, I’ll go right back to what I said.

[00:23:51] Travis Parker: It’s, it’s, I find that when I serve something greater than myself or my own interest or ego, I generally find that I’m happier on the other end I think the younger me just didn’t have, I didn’t have that.

[00:24:03] Travis Parker: I wasn’t given that knowledge at a young age. And, uh, so it was all about me

[00:24:09] Antony Whitaker: Yeah, you have to discover that to a degree, don’t you? Self-discovery is a great teacher if you’re receptive to it, which goes right back to that whole thing about business. It’s about self-discovery acceptance, you know, that of your own path, your own journey of your own abilities of your own flaws,

[00:24:26] Travis Parker: Yeah,

[00:24:27] Antony Whitaker: but being able to navigate that and come out the other end of it.

[00:24:29] Antony Whitaker: Not, not feeling. You know, beaten or battered or not good enough, but finding your own path. And I think that’s a really good message that you had there.

[00:24:37] Travis Parker: I think path being the word it’s about it’s about the moments in between, you know, we set goals, you know, to achieve this or to achieve that. And that’s fantastic. Right? You know, that, that allows us to strive towards something, but it’s, it’s the steps in between that provide us with daily happiness.

[00:24:51] Travis Parker: And so if we’re not, you know, really tapped into the things that, you know, make us feel contentment that allow us to be malleable and allow us to grow and pivot, um, that path can be brutal. And, uh, Yeah. So I would say it’s, it’s the moments in between that allow us to find happiness throughout our lives.

[00:25:08] Travis Parker: Um, and not just the focus of an end result. You know, once we get to the top of the mountain, we’re looking for the next mountain. So what happens on the way up, what happens on the way down and on the way up on the next one. And that is the journey I think of, uh, of life, at least for me,

[00:25:22] Antony Whitaker: Yeah, no, I’ve got it with, with, um, teaching the, the technical side of what you do. I mean, you do that. I’ve done it for years. I

don’t do it anymore. Um, but you can teach the technique, the angle, the over direction, the, you know, hand position, the body position. You can teach that. But the thing I always struggled with as a, as an educator and as a, um, as a header myself was.

[00:25:53] Antony Whitaker: Suitability and, and what is suitability? how do you answer that question? I love asking people. I asked Vivian Mackinder that on the podcast the other week. Uh, so how, how would you, how do you answer that question? What is suitability and how do you teach suitability

[00:26:11] Travis Parker: as in what allows you to personalize something past a technical to a specific person.

[00:26:16] Antony Whitaker: when you, well, uh, you can come at it from different ways, but when a client sits down in front of you and says, What do you think would suit me? What do you look at? How do you, how do you answer that?

[00:26:31] Travis Parker: I think it’s, uh, thank you for that clarity. You know, I, my number one thing is to learn about them. you know, number one, so before I’m even getting into any sense of technical, you know, what, what, what is the regimen? What I always have said that hair is an adornment of someone’s look. So, you know, what are they wearing?

[00:26:49] Travis Parker: You know, how does it fit with them? What is their lifestyle? How much time do they spend on themselves in the morning or whenever they get themselves together? Um, You know, is it a, is it going [00:27:00] to be a compliment to their full aesthetic? And then, you know, from that, I’m listening to their words and I’m hearing what they say.

[00:27:07] Travis Parker: And as I’m starting to speak to the technical approach to find this end result for them, as I’m proposing it to them, I’m reiterating their words. Um, I’m speaking their language and that’s something that I feel allows me to connect what my. Professional side, uh, can provide to this person, you know, in, in regard to the end result.

[00:27:28] Travis Parker: And I think that’s important about our audience as well. You know, if we are teaching so, you know, to shelve, you know, clients for a second and, and to, to flip the script to, to education, you know, that’s why it’s important for us to talk to our audience before we start diving in too deep. ’cause it’s very easy to drive an incredible message that no one cares about.

[00:27:48] Travis Parker: And so, and so, you know, the Q and a on, uh, on some level on your front end allows you to personalize what it is that you are about to convey and, you know, finding a way to navigate information. So there’s clarity between two humans is, is truly, you know, uh, I think our challenge,

[00:28:09] Antony Whitaker: Yeah. Yeah. It’s, it’s interesting. and I love that question, uh, and trying to get clarity on it. Uh, you know, I’m sure you’ve seen this at different points in your life as well. I can always remember as a young hairdresser going up to a girl in the club cause I, her hair was amazing. And, uh, and I just went up to her and said, look, I hope you don’t mind me asking, you know, but who cuts your hair?

[00:28:31] Antony Whitaker: It’s brilliant. And she said, I did. I said, are you a hairdresser? She says, no, no, I just cut it myself. And. And I just, it was such a, I had spent years honing, refining my craft, my technique. And there has a girl with no technique. Um, you know, she wasn’t cutting anyone else’s hair. She just cut her own hair.

[00:28:53] Antony Whitaker: And it just looked, she just looked beautiful. Her haircut looked beautiful. And it sort of, this was a point, you know, we’re talking 25, 30 years ago, maybe more. Um, But there’s been some great movies where you see they’re usually French movies for whatever reason. Uh, there was, there was one called, um, Betty Blue in the early nineties.

[00:29:13] Antony Whitaker: I don’t know if you remember that. It was a famous French movie. It’s another one called Amelie and you should see both of them. And they’re both girls that cut their own hair and it’s in the movie. And you know, they look stunningly beautiful. They’d look beautiful. No matter what you did to their hair.

[00:29:29] Antony Whitaker: But the, the thing about it, what I’m trying to get to here, probably make a bit of a hash of it was the suitability element was. It’s, it’s so much of suitability is about for us trying to understand how people see themselves

[00:29:45] Travis Parker: Hmm.

[00:29:46] Antony Whitaker: and then to try and transfer that, isn’t it? It’s to try and make people look on the outside the way they feel on the inside, because, because I think so many of us get hung up on.

[00:29:59] Antony Whitaker: Technical definitions of suitability and, and weight and shape and proportion. And Vivian and I were talking about that and I definitely think there’s a place for all that, but I think that the magic lies in trying to connect and that’s sort of where you go with that to connect and understand how people feel about themselves and see themselves and try and encapsulate that in how you do their hair.

[00:30:24] Antony Whitaker: If that makes any sense.

[00:30:25] Travis Parker: A hundred percent. Well, and it, it really is, is, uh, why this is called a profession. It’s a complicated thing, right? You know, you’re, you’re always thinking about the aesthetic and result and then the technical, you know, execution of it. Um, but I, I couldn’t appreciate anything more than what you just said right now, because you’re, you’re absolutely right.

[00:30:42] Travis Parker: I mean, some of the most beautiful editorial looks I’ve ever seen in my life were done by phenomenal hairdressers that never went to school.

[00:30:50] Antony Whitaker: Yeah,

[00:30:50] Travis Parker: just had this ability to see something that, you know, would just look phenomenal. And then I start to look at it in a technical sense and then I try to replicate it and I’m like, it doesn’t look anything like what they did.

[00:31:01] Travis Parker: And, uh, you know, and, and I think, you know, our greatest artist in our industry, you know, really have the balance of understanding the aesthetic of what will compliment somebody as well as the ability to, to replicate it or execute it. Not replicate it, but execute it. Yeah, period.

[00:31:17] Antony Whitaker: yeah, no, really good point there. Okay. so one of the reasons I wanted to ask you about that was because of, um, I know we’re going to start talking about your, your, uh, academy, uh, soon. Uh, but one of the things that I noticed is you always cut hair on mannequins. Doll’s heads, right? For your training things.

[00:31:38] Antony Whitaker: And obviously the bit that, that you don’t have there, there’s that bit I’m talking about when you, when you cut the mannequin, there’s not, there’s not, there’s not life, there’s not personality. I understand, I think why you use mannequins, very practical reasons to, you know, get people to focus on the. I’m assuming to get them to focus on the technique and the angles and all that.

[00:32:00] Antony Whitaker: And not someone saying, Oh, I don’t want that, but not too sure. Or I’m getting married. I’m trying to grow this out. You don’t have to deal with all that. You’re just dealing with understanding. Technique. Um, is that the reason why you prefer to use mannequin head

[00:32:16] Travis Parker: yeah, I mean, it’s a, there’s actually a couple reasons I’d say that the key reason is, is because my academy has a full methodology and system that we teach. And so learning from the basics through intermediate training, uh, to advanced training, you know, practicing that and rehearsing that on, on a mannequin ed or doll head is, uh, it’s crucial because then we can get in as much as we need to based upon what the, um, you know, the course is about.

[00:32:42] Travis Parker: The other part is that I have had a private salon where I deal with an affluent, um, clientele and that don’t want me to film them.

[00:32:52] Antony Whitaker: Yeah.

[00:32:53] Travis Parker: That’s part of the reason I don’t have real people in a lot of the cases. Um, and then for bringing in models to shoot with, um, you know, it’s a. It’s a process to bring in models and I run, have run the Academy for most of it by myself.

[00:33:08] Travis Parker: And so the navigation of bringing in real models sometimes is a tedious thing. And if we’ve ever worked with models, we know that they may not show up. We know that they may show up, but they’re not what, what you agreed upon and, and that can become a challenge as well. But yeah, I, I think that. You know, my social would probably be a lot bigger

[00:33:28] Travis Parker: If I had real people behind, uh, you know, my looks and my, uh, sense of instruction, um, which I think ironically, we’re, we’re switching to a lot more real models right now. We’re in this sort of. Shifting period of our school, where we are going to start seeing it a lot of more humans,

[00:33:47] Antony Whitaker: Look, it’s very difficult when you’re educating to get the right person for the right haircut at the right time. And if you’re trying to get 10 of them for a class of students, forget about it. There’s so many compromises that has to go on. So using a mannequin head is a, is a much better way for them just to focus on having to get.

[00:34:06] Antony Whitaker: To grips with the understanding of the technique and understanding of the process and understanding of the section and patterns because they’re focused on that. They’re not focused on someone saying, how much longer is it going to be? Do you know what I mean? I’ve got to get out of here. My boyfriend’s waiting for me or something.

[00:34:18] Antony Whitaker: So I get that.

[00:34:19] Travis Parker: You know, we talked about, or I mentioned that it was, you know, it’s a two part series. It’s the aesthetic and the technical that, that we have to figure out how to combine when it comes to, you know, being a great hairdresser.

[00:34:30] Travis Parker: And one of the practices that I’ve really put in place with my Academy and teaching period is that I’m not teaching my aesthetic. I’m teaching the discipline and the technical for you to find sustainability and predictability in your aesthetic. And so that’s been a lot of the reason that we haven’t used models as well.

[00:34:46] Travis Parker: And I probably should have said that on the front end is that, you know, I want you to skin it in your way. Let me just teach you the architecture behind what complements your artistry. And so, you know, that’s very much a part of it.

[00:34:58] Antony Whitaker: That’s, that’s a really good, uh, really good answer for that. Um. I’ll have to get women that will come up to me because I know I’m a hairdresser by background

[00:35:07] Antony Whitaker: And the conversation on more than one occasion has been something like, where can I get a decent haircut? Let’s say I can’t.

[00:35:17] Antony Whitaker: Find a hairdresser now that can do a little one of these or a little one of those. Do you know what I mean? A shorter haircut that all they want to do is long hair, color, beachy waves, balayage, you know, they’re not into cutting hair and I mean, that’s, that’s sort of a global thing, you know, I, I, for the last 20 years, easily.

[00:35:39] Antony Whitaker: Yeah. Yeah. Easily 20 years. Now we have been in this era of predominantly long hair and I’ve got two beautiful daughters who’ve both got long hair. Um, and, and that’s fine. My wife’s got long hair as well. Um, but what I wanted to ask you about was. You’ve been hairdressing long enough. I’ve been hairdressing long enough to see, you know, well, I started in the end of the seventies.

[00:36:02] Antony Whitaker: So a little bit maybe before you, but you know, that was in the era of the perm. And then we went through the eighties, which was a lot of short hair, nineties, a lot of short hair, a lot of really exciting, interesting, you know, short haircuts that People want it everywhere. You know what I mean? Not, not, not, not exclusively.

[00:36:20] Antony Whitaker: There’s often been certain nationalities. I mean, the Italian spring to mind or the Spanish spring to mind who have always more drifted towards having a longer hair, but as someone who is an educator at the pointy end, dealing with young hairdressers, young, often female hairdressers that you’re teaching how to cut hair, do they see the beauty?

[00:36:43] Antony Whitaker: In a short haircut, or do they just not even see it at all? I mean, not on everybody. No one wants to see the world with everyone looking the same with anything, but you scroll through so many Instagram feeds and it’s just long hair, beachy waves, balayage. And sure, it looks beautiful, but it’s now just sort of like this predominance of something that is, it’s boring.

[00:37:07] Antony Whitaker: And so now when you see a young girl, a young woman with a, with a little short, sassy haircut, it’s so refreshing. So, so what are your thoughts about that? You know, first of all, I know I didn’t even give you a chance to answer that. Do they see beauty in a short haircut or not at all?

[00:37:26] Travis Parker: I think it’s a great question. Um, and, and I definitely know what you’re talking about there. There, there seems to be a predictability in In in our aesthetic right now that that does have, you know, iron work on the back end, you know, in the interim and long hair as a result. Um, I think we’ve seen a shortage of, uh, we’ve seen a shift in education period in the last 15 years.

[00:37:49] Travis Parker: I’d say it’s 20 years. Um, when we had larger companies that had product behind it that we’re using education to help sell their product. We saw the influence of. Thank you. A, this is technically how you do it, B, this is the, you know, the, uh, dry line of how you style it. And between the, the, those two things really being the promoter of what was cool and what was happening without the influence of social media yet, you know, I think we were learning from companies, short, medium, and long haircuts.

[00:38:23] Travis Parker: We were constantly being programmed to say like this was going on. And then, you know, models, actresses, uh, You know, we’re being used by, you know, a lot of these companies and their artistic teams to create their new look or what was going to be happening next. Um, I think as we, and this is just my opinion, but I think as we’ve seen social media influence our industry and we’ve seen the era of independent educators come up, we’re seeing a lot of young hairdressers that are independent educators.

[00:38:54] Travis Parker: But don’t have the infrastructure of education behind them. They haven’t had the opportunities to learn from different disciplines, different companies promoting, you know, the different looks. And with that said, they focused on what the practical is. A lot of companies and the practical or the easy is, is, you know, just longer hair.

[00:39:14] Travis Parker: And then you basically, you know, I would say, let me back up and pause real quick. I would say the average hairdresser that’s in my class may know one or two different ways to cut hair and they just variate the length of those. One or two ways on any look and then they style it differently and be like, no, it’s so really, you know, it looks like the picture, but then you get past that and you dig into it deeper.

[00:39:34] Travis Parker: You realize that there’s really isn’t any fundamental education on on how to build, you know, convex layers around the head shape of the head or, you know, a Bob that. Is shorter or internal layers in a Bob, um, they, they may not even know that there are different types of flaring patterns and, um, they may not know that, you know, where to stand in relation to the body.

[00:39:55] Travis Parker: They may not know in relation to how high the head is from them, um, what’s going to save their body in a sense of ergonomics. So they, you know, all of this said, you start to see the redundancy of it. And then you see the burnout of it and, um, whether it’s the look that’s burning out or the hairdresser that’s burning out by doing the same thing over and over again.

[00:40:14] Travis Parker: I’ve also learned that there’s not a lot of ROI in cutting education as well. And now that brands are not necessarily running education, independent educators are running education. Um, we’re seeing a deficit of technical cutting and, um. You know, for that said, you know, we’re learning from our social platforms to figure out what’s cool and we see it enough times and we just sort of replicate that, but we don’t get anywhere past it.

[00:40:44] Travis Parker: We haven’t seen a lot of short hair right now in general, because we’ve really lost education to entertainment. And, um, and, and now that we’re becoming influencers and entertaining each other with our platforms, we’ve sort of lost that discipline of, of how to really truly cut hair.

[00:41:02] Travis Parker: I think what’s saving us right now, and I’ll. Put this on the back end of it is barbering, you know, the, the, the line in the sand that’s being dissolved between barbering and cosmetology or, you know, going to hair school and learning, you know, longer haircuts, shorter haircuts or anything in between, um, and barbering.

[00:41:18] Travis Parker: That’s always traditionally been shorter haircuts. We’re seeing barbers wanting to learn long hair. And, um, I’ve been working with barbering groups for the last couple of years now and barbering influencers to teach them how to do longer hair. Well, their shorter hair were, you know, shorter hairstyles are starting to influence females on, I think, a great level right now.

[00:41:38] Travis Parker: And with, you know, the line in the sand being dissolved again between male and female cuts, we’re starting to see more females with shorter cuts as well. And then with all the bobs trending right now, we’re seeing a lot of mid length cuts as well. And whether they’re done correctly or not. Technically, I guess it’s one opinion to the next, um, but, but I do see an influx of shorter hair starting to happen.

[00:42:01] Travis Parker: And I think it’s been greatly influenced by the popularity of barbering.

[00:42:05] Antony Whitaker: Okay. Well, that’s interesting. All right. So you’ve got an academy, uh, Travis Parker Academy. Um, what do you, what do you teach there? Is it just cutting or cutting and color?

[00:42:17] Travis Parker: It’s just cutting right now that we have intentions of, of, uh, building into a color program and finishing program as well, but which is why we called it hairdressing made easy because our intent was to build other platforms on top of it. But I’ve also found that my specialty is cutting and, you know, I

[00:42:33] Travis Parker: colored hair behind the chair my entire career, but cutting this really become my thing. And, um, so I wrote about 6 to 7 years ago, I wrote a full methodology on how to cut hair. Um, what a relationship of our body is to every cut section that we’re working on. Um, to the different types of layers, as was mentioned a minute ago to different lengths to, uh, the true, I think, core understanding of what allows us to stand behind the chair without.

[00:43:00] Travis Parker: Fear or stress. And so when anybody is to show us, uh, an image, we know how to break it down in a sense of diagramming it either technically, uh, visually or whatever it might be to understand the step by step processes. So, with that said, I’ve written 3 different courses that have become our focus and with a specific focus on that, it’s gone quite well.

[00:43:24] Travis Parker: Um, but we really have catered to the hairdresser that wants to. To understand how to cut hair past just long layers and a curling iron to hide their bad haircut.

[00:43:35] Antony Whitaker: Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. Okay.

[00:43:38] Travis Parker: That’s saying that if you do long layers, it’s bad haircut.

[00:43:41] Travis Parker: It’s

[00:43:41] Antony Whitaker: No, of course. I get it.

[00:43:42] Travis Parker: trying to insinuate that.

[00:43:43] Antony Whitaker: Yeah. So, I mean, I’ve, I’ve seen it. I’ve been onto your platform. Do you want to just explain to, you know, the listener what, what it is? Is it a, is it an app? Is it a website? Is it a membership thing? How does, how does the whole thing work?

[00:43:59] Travis Parker: No, that’s a fair question. we have a website. Uh, it’s all, uh, device based. So it compliments any device that you’re working on. Um, but we offer in person trainings of the 3 different classes. And then we offer it as online trainings as well. And to the point that I just finished my schedule for 2024, uh, as we’re in a big trade show this weekend, and we have our own booth and we’ll be focused on sort of helping to upsell our courses next year.

[00:44:24] Travis Parker: Um, but yeah, right now it’s, it’s live online. Um, Or it’s live in person, um, it’s hands on.

[00:44:31] Travis Parker: And so you’ll be able to purchase, uh, in bundled packages, multiple cuts, uh, and aesthetics through. You know, that sort of, uh, an entryway. Um, and then right now we’re working with brands to help them build, you know, their teams, their influencers, building, um, the language of haircutting into them as a system.

[00:44:53] Travis Parker: Uh, so there’s predictability and marketing in what their, uh, educators are teaching, and so that’s something that we’re, we’re quite focused on right now with the, uh, education as well. And train the trainer programs, which is something I’m building on our website. Literally right now,

[00:45:07] Antony Whitaker: Okay, so, uh, I know you did a, uh, a stint with Toni and Guy, um, and you’re now in a very competitive space with, uh, you know, online courses, you know, streaming education, et cetera. And you’ve mentioned the word, uh, methodology a few times, your methodology. What makes your content different? If someone’s listening to this and they’ve, you know, done the Sassoon thing or the Toni and Guy thing or whatever, or they’ve looked at other online training courses, how would you say that yours is different?

[00:45:41] Travis Parker: that’s a great question. I think ours is different a, in the fact that we found that it truly simplifies the process of learning it. it’s short pieces. It’s modulized in a sense where our attention span is intact when we’re learning what we need to learn when we’re learning it. Um, we focus on the individual expressing their artistry, not ours.

[00:46:01] Travis Parker: So the aesthetic. Part of the mannequin situation, the aesthetic is yours. We’re just teaching you. We’re taking you to architecture school. Um, but what we’ve really focused on again is bite size pieces modulizing in a sense. That’s comprehensive and easy to understand at the same time. Um, and delivered in a language that.

[00:46:20] Travis Parker: Makes sense, something that we focus on quite a bit on the front end is just that, you know, this is, this is our verbiage, this is our terminology. And as we start to build that into a way of communication, um, it becomes quite, uh, literal, our ability to convey our message and teach you what it is that, you know, we feel you need to know to understand how to build any haircut.

[00:46:42] Antony Whitaker: yeah, yeah. So if, if we go back to when you probably first dipping a toe in the water with education, it was video, uh, and then it was DVD. And now streaming, um, talk to us about how changes in technology have changed the industry for better or worse from an education point of view, point of view.

[00:47:06] Travis Parker: Yeah, I think, uh, I mean, there’s a lot of better. I would say that for sure. I mean, we, we have the opportunity to touch more people now and get our messaging out. Um, what I love about technology is that I can give you bits and pieces that if that’s all you want, then fantastic. Now we’ve networked. But if you’re hungry for more than I have the ability to connect with you from anywhere in the world.

[00:47:28] Travis Parker: And really dive a lot deeper into it. Um, I love technology in the sense that a, I just love technology. I’m kind of a geek and, uh, I appreciate the, um, aspects of computers devices. I’ve taught myself quite a bit about production and everything in post and, and prep as well. And, and I film all of my stuff myself and.

[00:47:50] Travis Parker: And run the entire process and, um, and then web development and web design has really enabled us to, I think, put our work out there in a way that, um, we just couldn’t do before. so I, I think it’s wonderful in, in, in that sense. I think where it’s hurt us is that free content isn’t necessarily always better in the sense that that’s where we.

[00:48:13] Travis Parker: You know, our is the only way that we learn. Um, I think free content is, is, um, sort of the bait on the real that allows us to sort of pull a person in. And what we have to be aware of as the recipient of information is that, um, you know, that’s really what it is. It’s, it’s sort of a marketing campaign to get you to want more.

[00:48:32] Travis Parker: And then if you’re intrigued by the way that we speak, or we connect with you in the way that we teach, you know, it’s, it’s the opportunity for us to bring you in to teach you more on the back end.

[00:48:42] Antony Whitaker: Yeah. Yeah. I’ve, I’ve been talking a lot about ai. Um, I’m not the only one a lot of people have. Um, and I’m intrigued about AI and how it’s gonna impact on the education space. Uh, what would you, what would you say about that? How are you utilizing AI or how do you envisage using AI or other people using more AI in terms of, uh, education?

[00:49:04] Antony Whitaker: Mm-hmm.

[00:49:05] Travis Parker: I love it. Um, I’m very much into the artificial intelligence, uh, phase that we’ve been in now for a while. And now with the accessibility of Chat GPT and all the other platforms that are expanding upon that. Um, or just other platforms period that are built in their own. Um, I think it’s amazing where I use it all the time is in copy content and creation for our website.

[00:49:26] Travis Parker: So I’ll feed it what it is that I need it to help me to fabricate. And, uh, you know, it’s a, in a lot of cases from there in my words and my, the way I would speak to it. It’s, uh, it’s helping me to write things, um, very quickly, um, and it’s allowing me to expand my website in ways that they would have been a lot more costly before.

[00:49:50] Travis Parker: Um, but in a lot of ways, it’s a lot more efficient. What I also love about. A. I. Is that it’s not emotional and I can sit there and tinker with it for hours upon hours feeding it different, um, ideas of what I needed to create and it’s never annoyed with me. It’s never like Travis, this is the 7th time I’ve done this for you.

[00:50:12] Travis Parker: The 10th time I’ve done this for you. Like. Get it together, like take it or leave it. There’s, you know, there’s no, there’s, there’s no additional fees with that. And, and I appreciate that, um, where AI has been incredibly, uh, resourceful for me as well as in, um, proposals, you know, I would get a, an opportunity where I’m working with a company and, you know, I’ll put down all the things that I’m thinking.

[00:50:37] Travis Parker: And I’ll say, you know, based upon the request of this company, this is my response and thoughts of it. Is there anything else in that, that you might suggest that would help me compliment this, uh, you know, this pitch and then it’ll throw something up and I’m like, Oh my gosh, I would have never ever thought of that.

[00:50:54] Travis Parker: And that is brilliant. And so I love it in that sense

[00:50:57] Antony Whitaker: Are, are you using, uh, sorry. Are you using [00:51:00] anything other than Chat GPT?

[00:51:02] Travis Parker: I primarily use ChatGPT. I got into a software called Descript, uh, that was pretty cool, and where I would upload my voice into it, and, uh, it was using my voice, and, and, uh, I needed to tinker with it more before I could use it fluidly, but we were gonna do it, uh, for the purpose of my editor, just being able to Write something down and then put it into my voice.

[00:51:25] Travis Parker: And as a for video content, um, we were going to use it for that purpose. And we just haven’t had the opportunity to expand upon past where we’re at with it right now. Um, but where I think it’s going to greatly influence education. Is in a sense that we’re gonna start seeing smart technology involved with it.

[00:51:42] Travis Parker: So the, the integration of vr, augmented reality, using AI as one, as in, uh, we’ll start seeing smart tools. We’ll start seeing smart combs and smart scissors and through smart glasses or mirrors. We’ll have this sort of, uh, integrated moment of, you know, Oh, I’m supposed to hold my shears this way and say, my glasses are indicating whether they’re at the right pitch

[00:52:07] Travis Parker: Yeah. Yeah,

[00:52:07] Travis Parker: position, um, you know, with mirrors, we’ll start seeing it, you know, just in a literal sense without smart glasses on, but through smart, you know, mirrors and I think all of that is phenomenal. I think that the, the, yeah. The challenges in it all is that we really have to focus as hairdressers on how we can continue to deliver at, at our highest level.

[00:52:32] Travis Parker: So, past the collage of all this free information everywhere, find systems that we can focus on. So we can really become the specialist that I feel we used to be, and maybe we’re losing today. But I say that in this conversation, because computers are able to have far more thoughts per second than humans and the robot and bot that is going to be in your house, making you eggs in the morning, making your bed in the afternoon, you know, will be potentially giving you a massage and cutting your hair in the evening as well.

[00:53:06] Travis Parker: And a methodology like mine will be written into ones and zeros at some point, taking that compounding it with trillions of thoughts per second and giving you a phenomenal haircut.

[00:53:17] Antony Whitaker: Now, we’re going to need to wrap up in a minute.

[00:53:19] Antony Whitaker: one of the things I just wanted to tack on to what you just said was, and I was going to say this earlier and it slipped my mind and that’s the word feeling, because I asked you about suitability.

[00:53:29] Antony Whitaker: How would you describe suitability? And I always remember this thing that happened to me and I have mentioned it on the podcast before when I was a young hairdresser first started probably my first week in the salon and there was a stylist there and I didn’t have any understanding about hair before, you know, in fact, I used to work on the construction site.

[00:53:48] Antony Whitaker: I went from construction site to hairdressing and I, I was standing behind the chair watching this guy. Do a haircut and for, for all intents and purposes, he was, he was cutting a graduated Bob. So the back of the hair was just beautiful, built up, graduated shape. And I can just remember looking at it thinking, how do you do that?

[00:54:12] Antony Whitaker: How do you, how do you make hair do that? It was just, I was in absolute awe of him. And I said to him afterwards, I said, um. How do you, how do you do that? I didn’t quite know how to even ask the question.

[00:54:26] Antony Whitaker: And he, he looked at me like I was an idiot and he said. It’s just feeling. Now, I’d only been in hairdressing for the week, but I knew that that answer was the biggest bullshit that I’d ever heard in my life.

[00:54:37] Antony Whitaker: That it’s not just feeling that there’s technique and that someone has taught you that technique. You’ve learned it, but you don’t know how to teach it or articulate it. Unfortunately, or he would have said, well, you know, you do this and that and the other and hold this like that. And, you know, it’s like that the way you go.

[00:54:53] Travis Parker: Yeah.

[00:54:54] Antony Whitaker: um, and that is the thing that I can’t do. Okay. I

mentioned both those two

[00:55:01] Antony Whitaker: movies, Betty, Betty Blue and, uh, and Amelie uh, the, the, the movies and the girls are cutting their hair. They’re not hairdressers. They’re there, you know, you can picture what it’s like, even if you haven’t seen the movie, they’re in tears.

[00:55:13] Antony Whitaker: There’s mascara running down their face and they’re hacking at their hair with whatever sharp implement they can. And at the end of it, they still look beautiful. You know, um, and so there was a feeling about the look that they wanted to capture and that robot that you mentioned that they’re going to fall short in that department.

[00:55:31] Antony Whitaker: So

[00:55:32] Travis Parker: Yeah. Well, let’s, let’s hope right. Let’s hope.

[00:55:35] Antony Whitaker: yeah, yeah, exactly.

[00:55:36] Travis Parker: our careers go and let’s, live this robust, uh, you know, career within

[00:55:40] Antony Whitaker: so look, some quickfire questions. Uh, what’s your biggest strength?

[00:55:44] Travis Parker: human connectivity.

[00:55:46] Antony Whitaker: Okay, that’s a good one for a teacher. Very helpful.

[00:55:51] Travis Parker: Yeah.

[00:55:51] Travis Parker: Right. Okay. What, what, what would be your, if you had to sum up your philosophy on life? What would it be?

[00:55:58] Travis Parker: serve others to find happiness.

[00:56:01] Antony Whitaker: Okay.

[00:56:02] Travis Parker: the last question is what sort of advice would you give to someone in a, in an apprenticeship just starting out on this journey or in beauty school, just starting out on this journey? What’s the advice you’d give them?

[00:56:15] Travis Parker: Yeah, be gentle with yourself. Um, understand it’s a journey, you know, find the, find that the moments in between when the other 99% would quit, you’re not going to, um, allow your mistakes to lead you to your, again, your epiphanies, um, you know, and, and find people that you feel good around. And if you’re not in the right environment, leave.

[00:56:41] Antony Whitaker: Hmm. Yeah, that’s good. That’s good. So when you were 25, did you think the way that you think now?

[00:56:49] Travis Parker: No,

[00:56:50] Antony Whitaker: No. Right. Okay. So those, those life lessons, they’re very deep. They’re very simple, but they’re based on a lot of hard earned wisdom that you can’t, even if you’re told it, even if you were told it as 2025, you’d probably go.

[00:57:02] Antony Whitaker: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Do you know what I mean? Like you’ve got to live life to experience some things, don’t you? But if someone can help you along the way to shortcut some of the pain, it’s always good if you’re receptive and got your ears open for

[00:57:15] Travis Parker: for sure. I mean, if you would have told me I was going to be a teacher at the age of 25, that that would become the rest of my career. And I would open my own academy. I would have completely thought you were mad. Um, yeah, I would have never even believed it. So yeah, I think, you know, just again, ignorance is bliss in a lot of ways and, you know, just with a foot forward, keep, keep.

[00:57:35] Travis Parker: You know, keep the motion moving and, you know, continue to persevere and believe in yourself. And when you can’t surround yourself with people that believe in you, you know, maybe more than you emotionally have that opportunity to at that time.

[00:57:48] Antony Whitaker: Hmm. Yeah. Good. Good. Okay. All right. Well, we need to wrap up. Whereabouts can people connect with you on Instagram or any other social media channels?

[00:57:57] Travis Parker: Yeah. we tend to find ourselves on Instagram, [00:58:00] Tik TOK, YouTube, and, um, what is the new Instagram

[00:58:04] Antony Whitaker: Threads.

[00:58:05] Travis Parker: threads? Yeah. So

[00:58:06] Antony Whitaker: Oh

[00:58:07] Travis Parker: I can

[00:58:07] Antony Whitaker: Are you on there?

[00:58:09] Travis Parker: Uh, yeah, we are actually. Um, but you can connect with me through at Travis Parker hair on IG. All other platforms are at Travis Parker Academy. And so either at Travis Parker Hair or Travis Parker Academy on IG, and then everything else is Travis Parker Academy.

[00:58:26] Antony Whitaker: And that’s website as well. Yeah.

[00:58:28] Travis Parker: And our website is travisparkeracademy. com.

[00:58:30] Antony Whitaker: Got it. Okay. All right. Well, I will put those links, uh, on our website, growmysalonbusiness. com and there’ll be in the show notes for today’s podcast. So if you’re listening to this podcast with Travis Parker and have enjoyed it, then do me a favor, take a screenshot on your phone.

[00:58:46] Antony Whitaker: And share it to Instagram stories. And don’t forget to subscribe and leave us a rating and review on the Apple podcast app.

So to wrap up, Travis Parker, thank you so much for being on this week’s episode of the Grow My Salon Business podcast.

[00:59:02] Travis Parker: Cheers, man. Such a pleasure, Antony.

[00:59:04] Antony Whitaker: That’s been great. Great conversation. I’ve really enjoyed it.

[00:59:07] Travis Parker: I enjoy you, my friend.

[00:59:08] Antony Whitaker: So I hope you’ve enjoyed today’s episode with Travis Parker as much as I did. I’ll be bringing a couple more educators to the podcast over the next few weeks. So keep an eye out for them. And we are about to open our money online course. So for those salon owners who are listening and recognize it.

[00:59:25] Antony Whitaker: Money is an essential topic to master. Then visit us at grow my salon business. com forward slash course forward slash money, because when you get clarity and have the confidence that you need to handle the financial side of your business, that will be the best. Investment that you will ever make. So if you want to find out more than, as I said, go to grow my salon, business. com forward slash course forward slash money,

[00:59:48] Antony Whitaker: and join the waitlist so that you’ll get priority notification as soon as enrollment opens. So I’ll put those links in today’s show notes for the podcast. And with that said, thanks for listening. And I’ll look forward to seeing you next week.