– Episode 293Meagan McCormack

Episode 293: Transcript

GMSB 293

[00:00:05] Antony Whitaker: Hey, it’s Antony Whitaker here, and welcome to today’s episode of the Grow My Salon Business podcast. And if you’re watching this on YouTube and you find this video inspiring, then make sure that you hit the like or the thumbs up button. It’s a small thing that you can do, but it does go a long way to help me with the podcast.

[00:00:22] Antony Whitaker: And if you like this type of content, then let me know in the comments below the video and make sure that you like. And subscribe to the channel, and if you’re listening on your favourite podcast app, then remember to leave us a review and share the podcast with those that you know will benefit from today’s message.

[00:00:40] Antony Whitaker: Now, as you may already know, we are launching our online salon management course on Monday the 28th of April.

[00:00:47] Antony Whitaker: So to register, just check out the link in the show notes of today’s podcast or go direct to grow my salon business.com forward slash course slash management. And remember, I’ll put that link in the show notes of today’s episode.

[00:01:03] Antony Whitaker: So with that said on with today’s show. Now, over the years I’ve seen many salon businesses, but to be honest, only a few of them rarely stand out. Now, some of them stand out because of the decor, others because of the culture that they have, some for the size of their business and some for their success financially as a business.

[00:01:24] Antony Whitaker: Now my guest today is Megan McCormack. She is the president of Visible Changes Salon Group in Houston, Texas.

[00:01:32] Antony Whitaker: And visible changes is without doubt and incredible business.

[00:01:36] Antony Whitaker: So in today’s podcast that we discuss how a salon group, the size of visible changes, has continued to evolve as a business, how they’ve adapted to suit the change in needs of today’s workforce, and why they’re expanding more into the product side of the industry and lots more.

[00:01:55] Antony Whitaker: So without further ado, welcome to the show, Meghan McCormick.

[00:02:00] Meagan: Hi Anthony.

[00:02:01] Antony Whitaker: Did I get it, right?

[00:02:02] Meagan: Thank you. Yeah. You got it right. You got it right.

[00:02:06] Antony Whitaker: Alright. Okay.

[00:02:07] Meagan: Uh, it’s amazing. Yeah. I love it.

[00:02:09] Antony Whitaker: Now our audience, I didn’t know what we’re laughing about, but, um, I, for some reason I have a little bit of a problem pronouncing certain words, uh, the way that they’re meant to be pronounced.

[00:02:18] Antony Whitaker: just put it down to my, um, my accent in whatever shape or

[00:02:22] Meagan: There we go. Yeah,

[00:02:24] Antony Whitaker: So listen, it, it’s fantastic to have you, uh, back again. And we last spoke, um, in 2019, which is a long time ago.

[00:02:35] Antony Whitaker: I decided to re-release that episode. It was episode five, and as I told you, we re-released it earlier on this year in March, and we had another great response to it.

[00:02:45] Antony Whitaker: And I had quite a few people reach out to me and say that they loved it and, uh, could I do an update? So, uh, because the world’s changed a lot in, you know, since 2019

[00:02:55] Meagan: Absolutely.

[00:02:57] Antony Whitaker: and I don’t wanna talk about the C word any more than what we have to, uh, uh, but it’s upended your business. It upended everyone’s business and you know, you’ve got an incredible business.

[00:03:07] Antony Whitaker: And, uh, it’s just interesting to see how different size businesses have handled it. So, uh, when I reached out to you and said, could we do another episode? You were very gracious and said, as long as you don’t mispronounce my name,

[00:03:21] Meagan: Yeah.

[00:03:22] Antony Whitaker: we can do it. So anyway, uh, on a serious note, if you

[00:03:26] Meagan: Yes.

[00:03:26] Antony Whitaker: to this. You have not listened to the first episode, please do. So, it was rereleased as episode 285, and that came out very recently in March.

[00:03:38] Meagan: Mm-hmm.

[00:03:39] Antony Whitaker: to do that because Visible Changes is an incredible business. I mean, I’ve seen a lot of businesses all over the world and I was blown away by your business, and I know there’s been a lot of changes in it since then. Um, and you were so sort of open and transparent the last time around. And I know we’re gonna have a great conversation this time because we’ve obviously already had a little bit of a warmup.

[00:04:02] Meagan: Yes.

[00:04:02] Antony Whitaker: Miss

[00:04:03] Meagan: Yeah.

[00:04:03] Antony Whitaker: Um, what’s changed since 2019, just as sort of a snapshot and then we can dig into the good stuff.

[00:04:12] Meagan: Yeah. I mean, man, so much has changed. You know, we were scheduled to have our celebration, our conference on at the end of March in 2020, we were a week and a half away when we got shut down and then we got shut down. We were shut down for about six to eight weeks.

[00:04:31] Meagan: And when we came back, our stations at our salons are five feet apart and we had to be six feet apart. So we completely split our shifts. We had every other station working. Our team was only working two days a week. They were being subsidized by the government. You know, that shifted our business a lot.

[00:04:48] Meagan: We wanted them to come back to work, not only because we wanted them to be able to make more money, um, but we also wanted our clients to be able to come in and feel good. Right? It was a very scary time. Um, a lot of unknown, lot of fear. Um, no news outlet was stopping the fear, right? Everybody was just kind of feeding into it and nobody knew what happened.

[00:05:08] Meagan: Nobody knew what was going on. I think it’s the first like global pandemic. Maybe ever in this lifetime at least. Um, and so it was scary. And at that point we had 18 locations. Um, no, at that point we had less, maybe, I think we had closed in 2017 actually. So at that point we had 13 locations and coming back from Covid, I closed our Austin location, so we had two in Austin, so we came back as 11 in 2021.

[00:05:36] Meagan: Um, we had about, I think seven or eight people at our Dallas location. Three of our top people, our most senior people left, walked out the exact same night, came and packed their stuff up. And so we held that salon open for another 60 days for our landlord. And then we ended up closing that location at the beginning of 2022.

[00:05:57] Meagan: And so then we were down to 10. Um, we have a smaller location, and when I say small, our small location was probably about. 3000 square feet and we closed that one and moved a team over to one of our larger ones, which is about 4,500 square feet, so that we could build that one up. Um, and then recently this year I had two in San Antonio and I closed one, and I moved the team over to the second one so that we could fill that salon.

[00:06:23] Meagan: So we’ve had a tough time keeping salons filled. Our smallest location now is about 4,500 square feet. Our largest location now is just under 12,000.

[00:06:35] Antony Whitaker: Right. Okay. And so I’ve seen, is that Memorial City, the 12,001? Right. Okay. So that’s the salon that I remember when I saw it. There was like 130 odd staff in there, and it’s probably the biggest salon that I’d ever seen. So you’ve closed the small ones, but you’ve pretty much kept the bigger business, the biggest salons, yeah.

[00:06:55] Meagan: Yeah, I’ve, I’ve really wanted to create more like powerhouses,

[00:06:57] Antony Whitaker: Yeah.

[00:06:58] Meagan: so try to fill ’em up, keep ’em as busy as we can, and then let’s see what we can do.

[00:07:02] Antony Whitaker: Right. Okay. Now the other thing that’s changed, which you didn’t mention then, um, is you are now the boss, because I remember in 2019 you had the world’s best title. I’ve

[00:07:13] Meagan: Yes,

[00:07:14] Antony Whitaker: title. I talk about it all the time to people because your title was Chief Happiness Officer, wasn’t it?

[00:07:18] Meagan: yes.

[00:07:19] Antony Whitaker: and, uh,

[00:07:20] Meagan: I never relinquished it. I’ve just added two.

[00:07:23] Antony Whitaker: Okay, so now it’s CEO slash Chief Happiness Officer.

[00:07:29] Meagan: Well, no, actually, technically, I think my dad is still CEO, so I grew from CHO to COO, chief Operating Officer. Now I’m president. Um, and still, you know, chief Happiness Officer. I, uh, Johnny gave me that title when we were working together. And at that point, everything I talked about was happiness, right? How do you be happy with where you are with who you are?

[00:07:54] Meagan: And. That’s kind of been my do north. Like how do you fall in love with you? How do you become the best version of you? How do you not wait until you achieve all these things to get happy? Right. How can you be happy now?

[00:08:05] Antony Whitaker: Yeah.

[00:08:06] Meagan: Because if you can’t be happy now, you’re never gonna be happy then.

[00:08:08] Antony Whitaker: yeah. Okay.

[00:08:09] Meagan: So,

[00:08:10] Antony Whitaker: sense.

[00:08:11] Meagan: yeah. And so, you know, I’ll keep that title still.

[00:08:15] Antony Whitaker: I, I’m, I’m glad you are because I’m curious about like, okay, your mom and dad, you know, John and Maryanne built this incredible business,

[00:08:24] Meagan: Mm-hmm.

[00:08:25] Antony Whitaker: I know they’ve now retired. I mean, I, I think, I don’t think John will mind me saying he’s 80 and, and your mom’s 78, um, and you know, they’re still keeping good health, et cetera.

[00:08:35] Antony Whitaker: But essentially you now run the show

[00:08:38] Meagan: Mm-hmm.

[00:08:39] Antony Whitaker: uh, Johnny’s your brother, no longer

[00:08:41] Meagan: Yes.

[00:08:42] Antony Whitaker: in the salon business, and that is a big. Beast of a company to run. There’s a lot of staff, there’s a lot of responsibility, a lot of livelihoods. Um, and so you bring a different energy to it. So what I’m curious about with the downsizing of the business, et cetera, um, and hopefully the, the people that listened to this now would’ve listened to the first one. Would the downsizing of the business, how’s the sort of culture of the business changed? Because that’s always been one of the really strong points I would’ve said, of visible changes that they have this amazing, uh, uh, internal culture. So, you know, how, how’s that evolved? Hmm.

[00:09:21] Meagan: Well, thank you for that. You know, my parents did an incredible job and loyalty. Was it, it wasn’t even a question when they built, right? Like that’s just how people were. I don’t know that it’s really what. This generation is all about, but also like, you know, I think this generation has watched their parents and maybe they worked for companies that weren’t great to them, right?

[00:09:45] Meagan: And so I think instead of judging the next generation of being so bad and doing all these things, it’s just what I’ve really focused on, especially in the last five or six years, is let’s focus on us. I’m tired of talking about booth rental. I’m tired of talking about all the things that can go wrong.

[00:10:01] Meagan: I’m tired of talking about the outside. In my opinion, we don’t really have competition on the outside. Our competition is us. How do we get better than we were yesterday? How do we grow? How do we evolve and how do we make sure that even if we’re screwing up, that we can be kind and we can be gracious mainly with ourselves first?

[00:10:19] Meagan: Because I think most people wanna succeed and they wanna do well, right? Nobody’s waking up in the morning saying, Hey, I really wanna screw up the day and I wanna do terrible. So we know that we’re trying to do the best that we can. Mental health is a huge thing now, and so learning how to help. Not even helping, Hey, I’m gonna, I’m gonna give you advice or do all these things, but just holding space for people to say like, I’m really struggling.

[00:10:44] Meagan: Great. What are you struggling with? And if you don’t wanna share, you don’t have to, but if you do, I’m here. Right? We go out to our staff twice a year, and that’s been my number one shift with my management team is I need you guys to listen first, right? Like the first question in sit down should be, how are you?

[00:11:03] Meagan: Then we can start to say, okay, is there anything that you would, what do you love about this place still? Is there anything that you think we can improve? Right? And then go into, okay, now let’s coach you. Let’s look. Let’s talk about your numbers. Let’s talk about your growth. Let’s talk about where you wanna be.

[00:11:18] Meagan: But we have to have the check-in as a human first, right? We need the connection. And I think that’s the same thing with our clients too, is there are so many different industries where you go in and you don’t really have a human touch anymore. Hair is never gonna be that. We have to be able to connect.

[00:11:35] Meagan: We have to be able to do that. And we’re one of the only professions, I think we’re one of five professions where we can touch you without asking. Especially in this day and age. That’s a really big deal,

[00:11:45] Antony Whitaker: yeah,

[00:11:46] Meagan: you know? So it creates an intimacy and a vulnerability, and I wanna make sure that we are also doing that with our team.

[00:11:54] Meagan: I want them to feel safe. I want them to be able to call and say, you know what? I’ve had a personal life issue happen and I need help. Or I, I don’t know what to do and I don’t wanna bring it in. And I’m like, you know what? Let’s talk about it

[00:12:05] Antony Whitaker: Mm

[00:12:05] Meagan: and let’s make sure that it’s not affecting you at work, because we need to show up every day still.

[00:12:10] Meagan: And we always say, leave your baggage at the door.

[00:12:13] Antony Whitaker: mm

[00:12:14] Meagan: Some days that’s harder than others,

[00:12:16] Antony Whitaker: Yeah.

[00:12:16] Meagan: but I am also like, let’s shift the perspective a little bit. How about this? How about you use today as an escape? Just escape all the problems that you have outside and just focus on the people that you’re with. For whatever reason they’re supposed to be with you today and you’re supposed to be with them.

[00:12:32] Meagan: And so I think our culture has shifted in, you know, I have one major rule. You have to be kind, loving, and respectful. You can say whatever you want to, whomever you want, me included, because I am not perfect. I screw up all the time. I probably screw up more than everybody on my team combined. Um, but as long as you are respectful, you can say whatever you want.

[00:12:53] Meagan: But if you’re not respectful, I’ll personally let you go.

[00:12:56] Antony Whitaker: Mm.

[00:12:57] Meagan: Right? I believe in second chances. I believe in having conversations and growing and coaching, but I don’t believe in being disrespectful.

[00:13:05] Antony Whitaker: Yeah.

[00:13:06] Meagan: so, um, I’ve also taken that role away from my management team. And if somebody gets suspended and they have to come meet with me at our corporate office, that’s a coach up, coach out moment.

[00:13:17] Meagan: If you can’t take accountability, if you can’t recognize what you’ve done wrong and you can’t grow from it, then we’re not the police for you anymore. On the flip side, if we can take accountability and we can grow, then great. Let’s move on. Let’s never talk about it again. Like water under the bridge, let’s go.

[00:13:33] Meagan: So I think that’s shifted our culture a bit. Um, you know, we’re a lot more flexible than we used to be. I think we’re a lot more understanding than we used to be. Has it, has it shown in numbers? No, not yet, but

[00:13:49] Antony Whitaker: It’s a

[00:13:50] Meagan: I’m hopeful.

[00:13:51] Antony Whitaker: Yeah,

[00:13:51] Meagan: Yeah.

[00:13:52] Antony Whitaker: Well,

[00:13:53] Meagan: Yeah,

[00:13:53] Antony Whitaker: Um, right. We’ve covered lots of stuff there. I want to

[00:13:56] Meagan: I know. Sorry.

[00:13:57] Antony Whitaker: bit. Hey, no. Don’t be sorry at all. Um, I,  because I like, I like the fact that, you know. As I said to you beforehand, you know, before we started recording, we are now getting listeners in over a hundred countries

[00:14:08] Meagan: Mm-hmm.

[00:14:09] Antony Whitaker: every week, and I think that oftentimes when people listen to someone talking and they’ve got a successful business in a big business, uh, and you have a successful big business, that they don’t always relate to it.

[00:14:22] Antony Whitaker: And they sort of go, well, it’s all right for you because, you know, fill in the blank

[00:14:27] Meagan: Mm-hmm.

[00:14:27] Antony Whitaker: But you’ve been really open and honest and transparent straight off the bat there about we’ve had to close salons, we’ve had to do this and that and the other. And you know, that, that that is business. And I think it’s important that people can see that because

[00:14:42] Meagan: Mm-hmm.

[00:14:42] Antony Whitaker: often talk about how every business has evolved and what worked yesterday isn’t necessarily gonna work today.

[00:14:47] Antony Whitaker: And you’ve gotta

[00:14:48] Meagan: Right.

[00:14:49] Antony Whitaker: open and receptive to change. And, uh, and sometimes that is. Change is, that’s about growth and getting bigger. And [00:15:00] sometimes it’s about consolidating and finding a different, you know, way to do this now because what worked 10 or 20 years ago isn’t necessarily gonna work today. And I think that that, you know, underpins everything. You are saying that you’ve been

[00:15:15] Meagan: Yes.

[00:15:16] Antony Whitaker: as a business

[00:15:16] Meagan: Right,

[00:15:17] Antony Whitaker: years, but you are not as afraid to change or not too invested in. Well, this is how we’ve always done it, so that’s how we’re gonna do it in the future. But,

[00:15:27] Meagan: right.

[00:15:28] Antony Whitaker: you, you did touch on something which I just wanted to come back to, and that, and that was the management team that you have.

[00:15:35] Meagan: Mm-hmm.

[00:15:36] Antony Whitaker: obviously when you’ve got a lot of, a lot of staff, I mean, how, how many people do you have now as employees with the company?

[00:15:42] Meagan: Plus or minus 20, about 520.

[00:15:45] Antony Whitaker: So that’s a lot of people that’s hard

[00:15:47] Meagan: A lot of people.

[00:15:48] Antony Whitaker: 520 names, et cetera. So, so what sort of roles do your management team have? Are they individual managers of each salon,

[00:15:58] Meagan: Mm-hmm.

[00:15:58] Antony Whitaker: you have a sort of a, you know, a head office management structure of HR and all that sort of stuff that, that you are dealing with as well?

[00:16:06] Meagan: I am like, I basically am hr.

[00:16:08] Antony Whitaker: Yeah, you

[00:16:09] Meagan: Yeah.

[00:16:09] Antony Whitaker: You are

[00:16:10] Meagan: I wear a lot of hats.

[00:16:11] Antony Whitaker: Yes.

[00:16:12] Meagan: and I have great attorneys that I call so that it’s not my decision, but I know what I’m doing and I have incredible attorneys who answer the phone like that and have helped me through some crazy, like, crazy, crazy times. Um, crazy times. Like, yeah, I am super hands-on.

[00:16:30] Meagan: Um, I know all of our people by name. I know their life. I know their family for the most part. I know their numbers. Um, I. I like pride myself on it. I’m not great at meeting like people in my personal life and remembering their names, but I’m like, there’s only so much room upstairs. It’s really, there’s a lot of people here.

[00:16:49] Meagan: Um, but we have two regional managers that, um, have come up. I pr I promoted them, let’s see, I think it was 2021, like August of 2021-ish. So they’ve been really, really helpful, Jamie and Rosanna. And um, then we have store managers and we have store co-managers. So we have two people per location and then we have two regionals.

[00:17:12] Meagan: The regionals are supposed to kind of split their salons, but they’re really good yin and yang of each other. And so they split their salons, but they also communicate all the time and then they’ll flip flop when needed.

[00:17:24] Antony Whitaker: Hmm.

[00:17:25] Meagan: And that’s been really cool. Um, and yeah, I mean, none of us are perfect and you know, I think when you grow up a certain way, there are things that you have to break and, and.

[00:17:38] Meagan: Expectations, I think kill happiness. And they kill joy. And so if you can shift that and say, okay, how can I appreciate somebody in this moment? How can I appreciate what they’re bringing? Whether it’s what you want or not, or what they even want or not, it’s, it will make you, you know, love your job a little bit more when you stop getting disappointed.

[00:17:59] Antony Whitaker: Yeah. Okay. Do you like as a young woman, What are the challenges? I mean, your dad was a, well, is a very strong figure. Um, Johnny, your brother who was running before you as COO, as a young woman running a business of 500 team members, I’m sure there are challenges with that, because you came in very young and you’ve evolved with the business

[00:18:23] Meagan: Mm-hmm.

[00:18:24] Antony Whitaker: and obviously matured and some of the staff have come and some of them have gone, et cetera. But what are some

[00:18:29] Meagan: Absolutely. Mm-hmm.

[00:18:30] Antony Whitaker: as a, as a young woman running a business of that size?

[00:18:35] Meagan: I mean, you know, when my brother and my dad were in the business, I mean, even at some of the events that we would go to, right? People look at me and they’re like, oh my God, you’re so pretty. And then they’d look at them and be like, so how’s business? Right? And I think that every industry, whether it’s.

[00:18:53] Meagan: Male dominated or not, like it is male dominated and it is shifting, which is incredible. Um, but I think even if it’s not expected to be male dominated, once you get higher and higher at the top, it’s like there’s a lot of men in the room and a lot more men than women. And it’s also finding your voice.

[00:19:10] Meagan: You know, I came into this company, I mean, I came in hot. My brother can tell you, my parents can tell you, I came in like super black and white. You know, there’s a right and a wrong way. I didn’t see a whole lot of gray. I was young. I wanted to add value really well, I wanted to be impactful. I really cared, but I didn’t show it well.

[00:19:29] Meagan: They didn’t get to feel me because I was being who I thought the company needed. Right. And I didn’t see anybody super strong and super strict and disciplined. And so I became like almost a disciplinarian. I mean, I was rude. Like I would walk into people and be like, why can’t you wear a black shirt? And I didn’t know their name, like.

[00:19:48] Meagan: You know, I, I have made so many mistakes. Like it’s crazy. I’m super grateful for the teams that we have because they’ve allowed me to grow, which is also why I’m a huge proponent of, you know, second chances, third chances, fourth chances, as long as you’re learning and you’re getting better. Um, but I’ve really calmed down and looked and said, you know, I went to a Tony Robbins event, and it completely shifted my life, and it probably saved my career because I realized how far away I was from who I truly am.

[00:20:17] Meagan: And I am like the fun, bubbly personality. I wanna have fun. I wanna get things done. But like, we’re we working in hair salons like this shouldn’t be that difficult. We should be enjoying it all the time. And I wasn’t. And as soon as I shifted my mentality, all of a sudden everybody else became better and nicer and sweeter, and I loved my job again.

[00:20:38] Meagan: But what I realized was I was walking in the salons looking for what was wrong every single time.

[00:20:43] Antony Whitaker: Yeah.

[00:20:43] Meagan: And when you look for what’s wrong, you become miserable. Then that becomes your habit. So it correlates to every aspect of your life of like, well, what’s wrong here? Well, what’s wrong there? And it’s very, very difficult to shift to say, okay, well, what’s going well?

[00:20:58] Meagan: What can I compliment on? What can I say? Hey, this is really good. And then I realized like, my standards are very high. And I’m like, it’s clean, but is it clean enough?

[00:21:07] Antony Whitaker: Yeah.

[00:21:08] Meagan: It’s nice, but is it nice enough? They look good, but do they look good enough? I look good, but do I look good enough? You know? And so then it’s like, okay, just stop and just compliment.

[00:21:17] Meagan: Like, if you see something good, then say it. And I really had to like, get back into my heart to show my heart and become super vulnerable with my team. And I’ve done that over and over and over again. You know, I’ve shared about personal life. Um, I was in a, in a, in a like verbally, emotionally abusive relationship.

[00:21:35] Meagan: And I’ve shared that with my team, um, after I got out of it. And so, you know. People look at you and they’re gonna judge you based on how you look. It’s just who we are as human beings, but especially as women, you’re constantly gonna get it right. And so you can take it personally, which I did for like the first, I don’t know, six years of my career, which I still do at times when people are like, you know, kind of, what do you know?

[00:22:01] Meagan: Or they’re like, oh, your parents built the company. Like, what are you doing? And I’m like, you know what? And, and that also feeds into like my imposter syndrome also, right? Where I’m like, can I do this? Is it theirs? Is it mine? I don’t know. Has it shifted? Um, but then like, you know, we have our big celebration days and people are like, I stay because of you.

[00:22:19] Meagan: I’m here because of you. I did that number because of you. Like, I wanna help you. I want this to grow for you. And I’m like that, like, it makes like we, I mean, I’ve had like tear fests with people of just crying, like, we’re doing this. You know? I love our, I love the people that I work with. And on my days where I’m like, is this viable?

[00:22:39] Meagan: Is this good? There’s no part of me that can walk away from them. And, and that’s what I think you just have to hold onto, right, is like the people who are cheering you on even when you’re like your worst version. Because we are all that. And I’ve really tried to push unconditional love and I really tried to push it internally first.

[00:23:02] Meagan: Like, you have to love yourself or you’re gonna stay in bad relationships. You’re gonna stay in the job that treats you poorly, you’re gonna stay in abuse. And once you’ve learned how to love yourself, the people who have kind of taken advantage of you are probably gonna get the angriest because now you have boundaries and things.

[00:23:21] Meagan: And I wanna be my best version every day. And there are days that I fail and there are days that I don’t make it, but. I also am like, maybe I can help shift somebody’s perspective of a girl who’s running a business with long blonde hair. You know, maybe I can shift what the stereotype is and maybe I can’t.

[00:23:40] Meagan: And if that’s who they are, then that’s great.

[00:23:42] Antony Whitaker: Mm.

[00:23:43] Meagan: know, I’m not here to change anybody. I’m here to just do the best that I can every day,

[00:23:49] Antony Whitaker: Yeah.

[00:23:49] Meagan: that’s what I want my team to do.

[00:23:51] Antony Whitaker: Okay. Well look that there was so much good wisdom there. I wrote down a,

[00:23:54] Meagan: I know.

[00:23:55] Antony Whitaker: that, that, that, um, that someone once said to me, I had a business coach, and he said, it’s something to me very similar to what you just said. He said, catch people doing something right and tell them. And that had to become my mantra because

[00:24:10] Meagan: Yes.

[00:24:11] Antony Whitaker: focused on what’s wrong?

[00:24:13] Antony Whitaker: What are they doing wrong? What’s wrong with the place?

[00:24:15] Meagan: Yes.

[00:24:15] Antony Whitaker: How it be better? And, and that bit that you just said there, I just thought that is gold just in itself. So, uh, so thanks for that. I, I

[00:24:23] Meagan: And not only just at. Not only just at work, right? Like it’s 20, 25. People are struggling.

[00:24:32] Antony Whitaker: Hmm.

[00:24:32] Meagan: If you see somebody that you like what they’re wearing, right, or, or you like what they’re doing or, or listening to or whatever, like just tell ’em,

[00:24:39] Antony Whitaker: Hmm.

[00:24:39] Meagan: right? If somebody’s nice to you, say thank you. Oh my gosh, how are you so nice?

[00:24:43] Meagan: Like you’ve been the best server today. You’ve been the best bartender, you’ve been the best coffee server, right? Starbucks in the Starbucks that I go to now writes little notes on them and I’m like, this is so cute. Like, my name is Megan. They write Meg Thee Stallion, which is a rapper in America that came from Houston.

[00:25:01] Meagan: And so I’m like, this is funny. Like, you know, I’m like, it doesn’t take much to make somebody smile

[00:25:06] Antony Whitaker: yeah.

[00:25:07] Meagan: and why wouldn’t you want to? Right? Like that’s my whole thing is I’m like, just do a compliment a day. Compliment your team.

[00:25:15] Antony Whitaker: That

[00:25:15] Meagan: know,

[00:25:15] Antony Whitaker: a

[00:25:16] Meagan: doesn’t have to be the whole picture. It can be, I like your shirt today, or I like your hair today, or I like your shoes today.

[00:25:22] Meagan: Or you look professional today. Really love this outfit. You look elevated. You know,

[00:25:27] Antony Whitaker: Yeah.

[00:25:28] Meagan: I wanna elevate our industry and I wanna elevate the reputation that hairdressers have.

[00:25:35] Antony Whitaker: Yeah. Yeah,

[00:25:37] Meagan: Okay.

[00:25:37] Antony Whitaker: your Instagram you

[00:25:39] Meagan: Yes.

[00:25:39] Antony Whitaker: a lot of these great reels on Instagram, and I, I congratulated you on them before we started recording

[00:25:45] Meagan: Yes.

[00:25:45] Antony Whitaker: they’re very authentic and natural and very relatable. Um, and as we both laughed about that and said that, you know, oftentimes you might do, you know, 10 or 15 takes before you actually publish

[00:25:58] Meagan: Literally.

[00:25:59] Antony Whitaker: the same. And it, uh,

[00:26:00] Meagan: Yeah,

[00:26:00] Antony Whitaker: you know, it, it’s, it’s, it doesn’t come easily, but it’s a really important part of, you know, the job. But

[00:26:06] Meagan: it’s,

[00:26:07] Antony Whitaker: of them you said, written it down so I’m gonna read it.

[00:26:10] Antony Whitaker: It said, uh, uh, you said on this reel we’ve always been a collection of hair salons that had products and now the dream is to be a product company that has hair salons. So why the change? ’cause that is a huge. You know, change in dynamic as a business. So tell us about that.

[00:26:30] Meagan: it is a huge change. Um, you know, obviously our industry has shifted and when I look at it, I’m looking saying, okay, our profitability is not what it used to be. It’s not even close. So how do I sustain us while also alleviating some of the frustration, some of the fear, some of the question of can we last and how long can we last?

[00:26:52] Meagan: Right? So we’ve always had our own product line. Our product line now is absolutely incredible. I have our girl, Sandra, who’s our director of education and our product development. She has done a phenomenal job having like the best quality ingredients. And our hair products are designed for Texas heat and humidity, which is incredible because that’s where we are.

[00:27:15] Meagan: But I’m like, climate change, the world change, all of the things. There’s a lot of heat and humidity nationwide now, right? And um, to do products now you have to have higher minimums. We got dropped from our aerosol company. We’ve been looking at, you know, okay, what’s our minimum if we can sell 10,000 units, but it takes us three years.

[00:27:38] Meagan: Are they gonna wanna continue to do business with us? Can they sustain it? How much of the natural ingredients do they have to purchase before they make what we make? And is that a viable option for them? And for a lot of people, it’s not anymore, right? The price of ingredients has gone up. The, the minimum orders have gone up.

[00:27:55] Meagan: And so I’m looking saying, how do I stay in this? How do I build? And also how do I rebrand and make a name for ourself that might be a little bit separate, but also that can touch more people. My, my personal mission in life is, is to help people feel good, right? I want people to love themselves. Um, and I, you know, I’ll just talk a little bit about what our future bottle looks like.

[00:28:20] Meagan: Our, our future bottle has a little heart on it, and the philosophy fee behind it is until you can really love you, we’re gonna love you through it. All that we ask is you take five minutes a day to make yourself look good. Because when we look good, we feel good. When we feel good, we’re nicer. Right? And so I don’t care if I have like no makeup on, but my hair is beautiful.

[00:28:42] Meagan: I’m like, oh my gosh, amazing. Like I am, I’m unstoppable, right? When I need my color done, I’m like, oh, I’m so ugly. My life is falling apart. And then I get highlights and I’m like, oh, it’s okay. We’re okay. Right? And so I feel that, I feel super passionately about it. I think that when you get up and you get dressed and you look good and you feel good, you can conquer more of the day.

[00:29:03] Meagan: Um, not to say that that makes up for other stuff, ’cause obviously we all struggle, but it does help. And so that’s what I really want our line to be. And I don’t want it just to be in our salons. I want it to be nationwide. I want it to, I wanna make people happy. I wanna help them love themselves. I wanna help them learn how to take care of their hair.

[00:29:21] Meagan: Um, also, there’s obviously profitability in that, but more than that, like. I really want the message to go out. We’ve put a lot of thought into the messaging of it, and I just think people struggle really hard with loving yourself and staying authentic and being who you are. And, um, you know, we talked about those reels and, and every single time I do a video I’m like, oh my God, you’re such an idiot.

[00:29:48] Meagan: Nobody wants to listen to you. Nobody wants to hear this. Why are you doing this? What is, what’s the point? What’s this? What’s that? Right? And um, you know, I was in a dark place for a long time and if I can help one person feel like they’re not alone when they’re in a dark place, then like that’s what started me wanting to do this.

[00:30:06] Meagan: And so. I have imposter syndrome. Every time I do videos, I have like, it, it freaks out if you’re starting to do it. Like I wanna quit every single time. I, I mean, I haven’t posted consistently in a long time ’cause I kind of like freaked out again and now I’m like building myself up. But it’s also funny ’cause every time I talk to somebody or see somebody who I haven’t seen in a long time, they’re like, oh my God, I love your videos.

[00:30:29] Meagan: And I’m like, do you really? Are you sure?

[00:30:31] Antony Whitaker: Yeah. Yeah. No, I said it to you as one of the first things we said on this call,

[00:30:36] Meagan: Yes. And I’m so grateful. I’m so grateful when people say it because I’m like, I feel like I’m an idiot. Like I feel so crazy.

[00:30:43] Antony Whitaker: but that’s what that, that’s, it’s that authenticity. I.

[00:30:47] Meagan: Yeah.

[00:30:48] Antony Whitaker: people love. And it’s like on this, you are who you are. Like, well, we’re doing this

[00:30:52] Meagan: Right.

[00:30:53] Antony Whitaker: I mean, you know, you just are who you are and you are very human, and it would be so easy for you in the situation that you’re in with a big company, a very successful business, you know, with a great heritage for you to not be the way you are.

[00:31:05] Antony Whitaker: Do you know what I mean?

[00:31:06] Meagan: Yes.

[00:31:06] Antony Whitaker: I think that’s a

[00:31:07] Meagan: And I think that’s so important too, right? Like the way I look at life now is like there’s only one of you. You’re unique, you have your own fingerprints, right? Nobody else in the world has your fingerprints. So there’s only one. You stop trying to be somebody else. You know, stop if, if you’re taking over a family business, you’re not gonna be your parents.

[00:31:30] Meagan: If you’re taking over a business from somebody else, you’re not gonna be your old boss. And I love my parents. I respect them. I respect what they’ve built in this company. This company is incredible. And they have so many benefits that they’ve built themselves before it was even thought of or taught or known.

[00:31:47] Meagan: And I wouldn’t have even been able to do it. And I’m so grateful for them. But I look at them and I’m like, look, I wanna honor what you guys have built, but I’m not you and I’m never gonna be you, and I don’t wanna be you. I’m me. And now I know that my power comes from that, right? Because I didn’t have it for a long time.

[00:32:06] Meagan: And now I’m like, no, no, no. I know who I am and I’m not everybody’s cup of tea. And that’s okay too, right? But with dating, I’m somebody’s perfect match. I’m somebody’s perfect type. And so if they don’t want you move on to the next ’cause they might not be your for perfect type either, right? So it’s also learning like, and I think it comes with age.

[00:32:27] Meagan: I think it comes with really dark times and tough times. And I think when you lose yourself in a relationship or you lose yourself in a job, or you lose your, you just lose yourself mentally, right? And you go through a dark patch or depression or anxiety or gets the best of you, that’s really where you find who you are, right?

[00:32:46] Meagan: It’s not through the good times, it’s through the bad times. And how you deal with that and how you come out of that and how you shift your life after. Is what says the most about you, right? If you’re in an abusive relationship and you’re like, I don’t know how to get out, then ask somebody for help. If you’ve gotten out of one, then congratulations, right?

[00:33:04] Meagan: Um, if you’ve been stuck in a job where somebody doesn’t appreciate you, then maybe you need to vocalize it before you just completely shift gears. And if you have vocalized it, maybe it’s time to go. You know, I always tell our people, I’m like, before you leave, come talk to me.

[00:33:18] Antony Whitaker: mm

[00:33:19] Meagan: I wanna know what’s going on.

[00:33:21] Meagan: On the flip side of that though, when they come talk to me and I’m like, have you told your manager? No. Have you told your co-manager no. Have you told your regional manager? No. Then why are you talking to me?

[00:33:32] Antony Whitaker: Because you

[00:33:32] Meagan: You

[00:33:33] Antony Whitaker: yeah. Yeah.

[00:33:34] Meagan: But like you haven’t even communicated that you’re upset. And so I really want people to learn how to communicate when you’re upset, right?

[00:33:42] Meagan: That’s why I say you can say whatever you want to me, and I’ve had somebody, you know, how I got here is like, I’ve had somebody sit and be like, well, I wanna tell you, but I don’t wanna be rude. And I’m like, then don’t. You don’t have to. I used to be rude when I would tell people things like I, I almost like felt good.

[00:33:58] Meagan: ’cause I was like, oh yeah, I’m gonna be strong and I’m gonna be this, and so like, you need da, da da da dah. And now I’m like, you can be honest and kind. You can say, Hey, you know, I really didn’t like how you talk to me. Here was your intention to be rude because it really hurt my feelings. And they can then say it was or it wasn’t right.

[00:34:18] Meagan: And that’s a lot better than saying, you did this, you did that, blah, blah, blah, blah. And, um, I just think it’s healthier now. I also, you know, I don’t do this perfectly all the time. My personal life is, can be difficult and I’m not always my best self, but these are the principles that I try to embody and I try to really focus on to say, you know, we’re all struggling.

[00:34:37] Meagan: We’re all doing the best that we can, but we also need to communicate. And if you’re upset and you’re not communicating that to somebody, that’s on you, that’s not on them, you know?

[00:34:49] Antony Whitaker: Okay.

[00:34:50] Meagan: Yeah.

[00:34:51] Antony Whitaker: Um, you also on one of those reels talked about, and you’ve touched on it before we started recording today, that currently all of your salons are in malls, which isn’t

[00:35:02] Meagan: Yes.

[00:35:02] Antony Whitaker: unusual in the us. Uh, salons are in malls. Uh, but it surprised me to hear you say that you are thinking about possibly opening, uh, standalone sort of boutique

[00:35:13] Meagan: Mm-hmm.

[00:35:14] Antony Whitaker: So again, that’s a really great example of everything you’ve just spoken about, that you’re not your mom and your dad. And this is not, this is another era. This is another decade, and the world is a constantly shifting place, and what worked for them may not work anymore, you know, for you. So I admire you for having the, you know, the, uh, the courage to even put that on the agenda.

[00:35:33] Antony Whitaker: So tell

[00:35:34] Meagan: Mm-hmm.

[00:35:35] Antony Whitaker: What, what, what are your thoughts about that?

[00:35:38] Meagan: You know, I, um, I believe in God. I don’t push that on anybody else. Whatever you believe in, if you believe in something higher, power, the universe, whatever. Um, I actually had been negotiating a lease outside of a mall for a year and lost it at the last second. Um, it actually went to somebody who used to work for us.

[00:35:59] Meagan: And so that was kind of like a double-edged sword. That one kind of hurt a little bit. Um, but I’m also like, you know, what it wasn’t meant to be. And that kind of rerouted me to say, you know, what? Do I wanna do a standalone? Absolutely. Is now the right time? Maybe it’s not. Maybe it’s not. All I know is that I want it to be the right place.

[00:36:19] Meagan: And so I pray on it a lot. Um, I’ve, I’m still actively searching for an outside location. There are a couple of locations that, um, I would like to move outside of the mall and, you know. Will it work? I have no idea. The one great thing that we have is 47 years in business with an incredible reputation.

[00:36:43] Meagan: Thank you to anybody who has worked here, especially at the beginning to build this. Um, but we are a name brand now and we’re recognized. And so I think that we’re a destination and I think that we can absolutely be successful outside of a mall. I think we’re gonna have to shift what we’re doing and how we, um, take care of people, how we rebook people, things like that.

[00:37:02] Meagan: But ideally, I would love to have a couple of different versions of us. Um, I would love to stay in malls also because I think malls have a lot of foot traffic and I think that’s a really great place to build and to grow. Um, and I’ve kind of looked and said, okay, if I wanna build an outside location, do I wanna spend my money there right now?

[00:37:21] Meagan: Do I wanna spend it on a rebrand of our product line? After that one kind of fell through, I’m like, okay, maybe it’s time for a rebrand of the product line. And then that’s had, its also its own hiccups, so. It’s been, it’s been, uh, uh, it’s, we’ve definitely, I have, I’ve had a lot of challenges. Um, but I’m also like, you know what?

[00:37:44] Meagan: It’s not my timing. It’s God’s timing. And so what will work out? What’s meant to be, will be,

[00:37:49] Antony Whitaker: Mm.

[00:37:49] Meagan: and I’m just really working on patience because it’s not, it’s not on the timeline that I want it to be on.

[00:37:57] Antony Whitaker: Yeah. Yeah. And your patient. Yeah.

[00:38:00] Meagan: I, I struggle with patience. I struggle deeply with patience

[00:38:04] Antony Whitaker: yeah. Well, I, I know you also set this, and, and I’m, I’m only asking you this because it, you put it on Instagram, so if you put it on Instagram, it’s like open material. You,

[00:38:15] Meagan: for sure.

[00:38:16] Antony Whitaker: set your goal. Was, um, that you want to get to a hundred million dollar company. So a hundred million a year, which is a big chunk of change in any language. Um,

[00:38:26] Meagan: It is.

[00:38:27] Antony Whitaker: you shared on that, uh, episode on that, on that reel that the business peaked that 66 million. Um, so how important to you is that goal and is that where the product side of it comes into it, or you don’t necessarily care where it comes from? It’s just this is the stake in the sand that I’ve, you know, put for myself to get to a business that size.

[00:38:49] Meagan: So I have looked at our stations. We have 488 stations throughout the salons that we have right now. Actually, that number might include North Star. So now it’s probably around like 440 stations. At the time that I recorded that, we still had our North Star location, which is a salon in Dallas that I’ve since closed.

[00:39:10] Meagan: Um, but what I looked at is how much the chair can produce, right? So if each chair was producing 150,000, we’d be at around 73 million. And if each chair was producing 200,000, then we’d be at 97, almost 98 million.

[00:39:24] Antony Whitaker: Mm-hmm.

[00:39:25] Meagan: And so I’m like, we have the space, we have. The possibility of it. Right. It’s just now building that.

[00:39:35] Meagan: And so if we can get people to that and we still have some people hitting higher, we still will have people hitting lower. Right. But what does that look like? Well, right now we just need to fill our stations. That’s my goal. I wanna beat 66 million. I wasn’t in the company when that happened. That was in 2011.

[00:39:50] Meagan: So what, 25 years ago now? Um, that year we did a million dollars in feathers.

[00:39:58] Antony Whitaker: And

[00:39:59] Meagan: were a huge thing

[00:40:01] Antony Whitaker: What

[00:40:01] Meagan: feathers

[00:40:02] Antony Whitaker: Proper

[00:40:02] Meagan: when we clipped, when we clipped the, when we clipped the feather feathers into the hair. We did a million dollars in feathers that year.

[00:40:08] Antony Whitaker: My

[00:40:08] Meagan: Yep.

[00:40:09] Antony Whitaker: Okay. Who would’ve thought there

[00:40:10] Meagan: How wild. Yeah.

[00:40:11] Antony Whitaker: Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. Okay, well good luck with that, with that

[00:40:16] Meagan: I mean,

[00:40:16] Antony Whitaker: fantastic.

[00:40:17] Meagan: buying all the feathers from all of the roosters and all the things, you know, here’s my, here’s my thing with goals, because people, people will comment on them and say what you want. I am a true believer in like, shoot for the moon. If you land on the stars, then you land on the stars, right?

[00:40:33] Meagan: But I also think that we speak things into existence and if you don’t speak what you want, then it’s never gonna happen. And so there is a huge part of me, right to say, there’s a huge part of me that’s like, oh my God, is that ever gonna happen? Oh my God, that’s now on the, on the internet. Oh my God.

[00:40:50] Meagan: Because, you know, our social media girl came in and she just rapid fired 50 questions in an hour. And so I actually have no idea what she’s posting. And, and then I just go in and I see it and I’m like, okay. You know?

[00:41:04] Antony Whitaker: Yeah,

[00:41:04] Meagan: Um, but that is my goal. That is my dream. And that will be with products in it is the a hundred million, but also I wanna build a product company.

[00:41:14] Meagan: That is separate from that. And my, I mean, my hallucination goal on that is to build like a billion dollar product company. Do I think that I have what it takes to do that? I think there are a lot of steps before I get there. But again,

[00:41:26] Antony Whitaker: Yeah. It’s possible.

[00:41:27] Meagan: if I shoot for the moon and land on the stars, then, then great. If I get it to a hundred million separate, then how cool would that be if I get it to 10 million, if I get it to 5 million?

[00:41:39] Meagan: You know what I mean? Like we’ve gotta get there some point. But I don’t know, I think that having a vision board and, and dreams and crazy aspirational goals are really important. And I think it’s also important to have some that are realistic and try to, you know, have a plan to build you there. But, um, yeah.

[00:41:58] Meagan: Okay, so let me ask you about

[00:42:00] Antony Whitaker: I know

[00:42:01] Meagan: right.

[00:42:01] Antony Whitaker: some real record breakers, um, one lady, I don’t know, 10 years ago now, whatever it was, you know, did 600,000 or whatever the number was close to it was, it was was 600,000. Was that, is that the benchmark?

[00:42:14] Meagan: It. Yeah, it was like 612,500 I think.

[00:42:19] Antony Whitaker: And one

[00:42:19] Meagan: And you know, she people and one year behind the chair and people have given her a lot of slack online, like, that’s not true. How can you do that? Da da da. How could you have a life? What people don’t understand is we have had walkouts of our salons, so we have built people who have started to produce 500, 600,000,

[00:42:40] Antony Whitaker: mm.

[00:42:40] Meagan: three 400,000.

[00:42:41] Meagan: Right? And then they get a group together and they walk out. So our first walkout took our salon from seven and a half million down to four

[00:42:50] Antony Whitaker: Mm

[00:42:51] Meagan: like that. Right. That’s super painful. That’s really hurtful, especially because. We really do everything we can to take care of our people. We say that we’re a family and not like a toxic kind.

[00:43:02] Meagan: We say We’re family because we love you. And it doesn’t just change overnight. You know, I’ve had people even ask me, well, when people leave, you know, whatever. And I’m like, you don’t get to just like turn love off,

[00:43:12] Antony Whitaker: mm.

[00:43:13] Meagan: Like you don’t just stop. Like that hurts. And I don’t think that people really understand that.

[00:43:21] Meagan: But the person who held our record was one of the people who left. And so Christine, who now holds our record, looked at it and looked at how hurt my parents were and said, you know what? I’m gonna sacrifice and I’m going to hit the record because I want them to be proud of who holds the record in this company because of everything that they’ve done for me, for my family, and for everyone here.

[00:43:42] Antony Whitaker: Hmm

[00:43:42] Meagan: And so she worked almost every single day. From like open to close, like went to one of the little massage places to rub her feet every night to hit this goal, to do incredible things right? So that my parents could be proud

[00:43:58] Antony Whitaker: mm-hmm.

[00:43:59] Meagan: so that the record holder would still be with invisible changes.

[00:44:02] Antony Whitaker: is she still there,

[00:44:02] Meagan: And so that is definitely an anomaly.

[00:44:05] Antony Whitaker: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

[00:44:07] Meagan: and on her off year, right? When she doesn’t really wanna work a lot and she travels all the time, she can still produce 260,000.

[00:44:14] Meagan: Right, and so like her, her like her easy year now, because she’s done so well, she knows how to make the money. Her easy year now is 320,000, 340,000. So it’s not the full 600, but it is still 300. Right? Our, our person, our number one person last year was 340,000,

[00:44:35] Antony Whitaker: Hmm.

[00:44:36] Meagan: and we have incredible bonuses, so she got an incredible bonus off that.

[00:44:40] Meagan: Then we had our celebration day. She got $20,000 in bonuses on that. You know, my parents have set up incredible benefits, and the more you do, the more you get.

[00:44:51] Antony Whitaker: How many people would you have at the quarter of a million-dollar level that are doing that sort of money behind the chair? A year out of the business with, you know, 500 odd team members?

[00:45:03] Meagan: I think right now we have five.

[00:45:06] Antony Whitaker: Right. Okay. So it’s more than possible, you know, if you put the graft in

[00:45:11] Meagan: possible.

[00:45:12] Antony Whitaker: work

[00:45:12] Meagan: Absolutely.

[00:45:13] Antony Whitaker: I think

[00:45:13] Meagan: And we have some people who are, who are really high in their retail sales. ’cause this is total sales also, right? It’s retail sales plus, plus service sales. Um, and we have people who are doing 12% retail and we have people who are doing 26% retail. And so, and our number one person last year did 18% retail.

[00:45:33] Antony Whitaker: Right.

[00:45:33] Meagan: So I think her number off the top of my head was like 60 ish, 66,000 in retail dollars.

[00:45:39] Antony Whitaker: Mm.

[00:45:39] Meagan: that helps you,

[00:45:40] Antony Whitaker: Big time.

[00:45:41] Meagan: it helps you work smarter, not harder. It helps you, I mean, I say what we do as manual labor, so I’m like, stop working so hard and work smart. Open your mouth. They trust you.

[00:45:50] Antony Whitaker: Yeah. Yeah, exactly.

[00:45:52] Meagan: They wanna look good.

[00:45:53] Meagan: You know, I’m a client. I wanna look good. Teach me about my hair,

[00:45:56] Antony Whitaker: Yeah.

[00:45:57] Meagan: me how to style it, teach me how to take care of it. Teach me how to look good. I’m never gonna look as good as you can make me look, but that doesn’t mean that I shouldn’t look good when I need to, right? I should be able to do my hair for a podcast.

[00:46:08] Meagan: I should be able to do my hair for a wedding.

[00:46:10] Antony Whitaker: mm

[00:46:10] Meagan: be able to do my hair for a night out, or a date or a job interview. You know, it might not be as great as you do, but I should still look good.

[00:46:17] Antony Whitaker: Yeah. Yeah, for sure. Okay, well, listen, I, I could talk to you for, for, for hours. You’ve got so many great insights about different things, but we are running outta time. But there is one thing I wanna ask you about,

[00:46:29] Meagan: Yes,

[00:46:30] Antony Whitaker: is that, you know. Probably when we last spoke, I don’t think it was recorded, but we would’ve been talking about the challenge a business like yours has, um, with people wanting to become self-employed and that has only amplified since we last talked six years ago. Um, so how has a business like yours been able to, there’s really two questions here. There’s one about Gen Z and how have you been able to accommodate people who wanna be part-time and want to be, you know, uh, want more flexibility period, whatever the word flexibility means. And you sort of said you’ve become a much more flexible company, so have you sort of integrated more flexibility into the business and have you introduced any other employment models or are they all employees?

[00:47:23] Meagan: No, we haven’t. I’ll start there. We have not introduced any other employment models. We don’t believe in it. Um, I really don’t believe in it. You know, our biggest thing is you get, you get further as a team than you do as an individual. I. There are gonna be times that, you know, you run behind and somebody needs to help you.

[00:47:41] Meagan: There are gonna be times that you’re so busy that somebody sweeps for you, that somebody does all these things. And we are quick, right? Like our average haircut time is 30 minutes. We wanna be the best bang for the buck. And we’re also not super expensive. Our men’s price goes from 25 to $60. Our women’s price goes from 30 to 80.

[00:47:59] Meagan: We haven’t, and up because we are in Texas. And so a lot of the hair is big, thick hair. So if it takes extra time because you have so much hair, there’s an additional charge, right? Because we want them to also be compensated for their time and their their labor, right? And so we’re super affordable in my opinion, but we also wanna get you in and out.

[00:48:18] Meagan: You know, time is the biggest value that we have, that we don’t get more of. And so we want to do the best bang for the buck. In the best amount of time without compromising quality. And so that part has been a little bit harder with the Gen Z generation, getting them from an hour down, they get scared and they, you know, they can do it.

[00:48:37] Meagan: We can all do it. You just have to kind of be pushed to it and say, okay, I’m gonna time myself now and, and how do I get faster and how do I get better and how do I, you know, and we have to be constantly growing. We have classes that we have twice, a twice a month. Once you get out of our training program, then once a month after that, then, you know, three times a year after that.

[00:48:57] Meagan: But we also have little popups in the salon. So our senior people are constantly teaching our junior people, Hey, this is how you do it. And then our junior people have started teaching our senior people like, Hey, here are the trendy haircuts. Because when you’re open, you get the walk-ins. When you get the walk-ins, you’re getting the trendy cuts.

[00:49:12] Meagan: And so it’s really cool to see them integrate in. Um, you know, booth rental has obviously been a, a huge deterrent for our entire industry. Um, and that I. It sucks. Like, just to be blunt, like it does, it sucks. It’s really hurt our business. Um, and so I, like I said, six years ago, I said, we’re done talking about it.

[00:49:35] Meagan: I’m done talking about booth rental. I don’t even want it to be a thought. I don’t want it to be a comment. I don’t wanna talk about it at all. I wanna talk about how do we get better. I wanna talk about how do we grow. I wanna talk about how do we get to financial freedom, right? How do we get to a thing?

[00:49:48] Meagan: And, and honestly, I’ve looked at our, our numbers and I’ve even told our team, like where people are hitting their numbers, especially their first three or five years. It’s not a sustainable lifestyle. And so I feel like I’ve failed as a leader because they’re not getting to numbers that are giving them a great lifestyle.

[00:50:07] Meagan: And so I really take that on and I take that personally to say, okay, we’re doing something wrong and we need to shift. And that’s kind of where we are right now. Like, you know. We’re a people business. We have to be there when the people are there. You’re not coming outta school and automatically everybody loves you.

[00:50:23] Meagan: I don’t care how much of a following that you have on social media and all those things, it’s not happening. Right. You have to be there when clients wanna come in, and the best thing that I can tell you is make them fall in love with you as fast as you can. Right. The easiest way to do that is to get them to talk about themselves.

[00:50:37] Meagan: So if you can do that, then you can make them love you. Then you can start to demand the time that you wanna work. But that takes time. And so, you know, people say this generation doesn’t wanna work, but I have tons of people who are working six days a week by choice because they wanna grow and they wanna learn.

[00:50:53] Meagan: Right. And it’s, it’s getting what I think is the most important thing that you can do is whether you, I am not a licensed hairdresser. Right. Not a whole lot of people on our management team are either. The most effective people for a hairdresser are senior hairdressers who have done it. So you have to have the mentorship.

[00:51:14] Meagan: And so we’ve really pushed that this year of bringing back mentorship because people were like, no, no, no, I don’t have time, or I’m not good, or I can’t talk in front of people. And I’m like, no, no, no. You’ve become successful here even if you’re not right now. Right? We have people who have hit 200,000 in the past and who are like, I’m good at one 50, I’m good at one 20, I’m good at one 30.

[00:51:32] Meagan: And I’m like, okay. But you know what it takes to get there. So teach them, because you’re gonna be way more effective than I ever will. I mean, I could sit with people every day, all day, but they don’t respect me the same way they respect a hairdresser, and that’s okay, right? Like I know that, and that’s okay.

[00:51:50] Meagan: I don’t expect it. I expect our senior people to step up and to help our junior people, and that you don’t get in a booth rent.

[00:51:59] Antony Whitaker: Mm

[00:52:00] Meagan: That’s what makes us special, right, is we have all of these benefits and all of these great things, but also we have people who can teach you every day. We have people that you can go to when you’re with a client, you’re like, oh my God, I don’t know what to do with this formula.

[00:52:13] Antony Whitaker: mm.

[00:52:13] Meagan: Oh my God, I think I know, but I need to go. Like, you know, we all want that validation that we’re on the right track. And so I think that’s what makes us super special is that we have an incredible team who have been super successful, and what I’m really trying to do now is stop judging each other. Stop looking at what divides you and look at what unifies you.

[00:52:37] Meagan: Look at what you have. Similar, right? We could all look at each other and say, oh my gosh, I hate you because you believe this politically, or you believe this socially, or you believe this conservatively, financially, whatever. We could all do that, but when are you looking saying, okay, I love you regardless of what you believe, because I love you as a person, as the kind, generous, thoughtful, sweet, loving person that you are.

[00:53:01] Meagan: Great. So stop looking at the next generation saying, oh my God, they just dah, dah, dah. I’m like, okay. Every generation has done that. And so I tell our senior people too, I’m like, did, didn’t your parents tell you the same thing? You don’t work as hard. You don’t work because you’re, you’re different, but different is okay.

[00:53:19] Meagan: You might not understand it, but it’s okay. I work differently than my parents did. They may have a problem with it, right? But I look and I say, you know what, here’s how I want my impact to be. Also, these little things weren’t around then. And so I’m connected to people all the time. I mean, I have people call me at eight 30 in the morning on a Sunday, 1230 at night, on a Friday, right?

[00:53:39] Meagan: but we’re available all the time

[00:53:42] Meagan: and oh, we care. And um, you know, I just think that we have a really, you know, here’s my, my true belief.

[00:53:52] Meagan: I’ve never prayed more than I have after Covid. And I think God is good and there is every excuse in the book for us to not be successful and for us to have closed. And the fact that we’re still here is because we’re supposed to be.

[00:54:06] Antony Whitaker: that is a

[00:54:06] Meagan: So,

[00:54:07] Antony Whitaker: wrap this up.

[00:54:08] Meagan: yeah.

[00:54:09] Antony Whitaker: Okay. Alright. Well listen, we’ve gone way over time, but um, I

[00:54:13] Meagan: I know.

[00:54:14] Antony Whitaker: cut you off. You’ve had so many good things to say and I know a lot of people will get benefit from it. Um, where whereabouts can

[00:54:19] Meagan: glad.

[00:54:20] Antony Whitaker: connect with you on Instagram or other social media

[00:54:24] Meagan: Instagram is perfect. Um, I actually haven’t moved to TikTok ’cause I’m old. I don’t understand it. I know I need to move to it. Um, but I don’t know how, so I’m learning that. But Instagram is great. Um, I would say Instagram ’cause I hate emails, so find me on Instagram. It’s Megan Ann nine M-E-A-G-A-N-A-N-N-E, the number nine.

[00:54:48] Meagan: Um, but I’m not always great at responding to things. You know, I get overwhelmed by my phone a lot when I have a lot of stuff to do. I’m like, okay, I’ll just do, I’ll handle that later. Um, but I’m an open book, so if anybody wants to know anything, if they wanna wanna talk, they wanna ask me a question, they wanna know whatever.

[00:55:04] Meagan: Like, I’m an open book. I’m transparent as I, as I can be. So feel free.

[00:55:08] Antony Whitaker: Okay. Alright. Well, listen, I’ll, I’ll put, uh, those links, uh, on our website, um,

[00:55:14] Meagan: Perfect.

[00:55:15] Antony Whitaker: in the show notes obviously for today’s podcast.

[00:55:18] Antony Whitaker: So, uh, to wrap up, Megan, Megan, Ms. McCormick, uh, thank you for being on this week’s episode of, uh, grow My Salon Business podcast.

[00:55:28] Meagan: absolutely. It was so fun. Thank you for having me.

[00:55:31] Antony Whitaker: Not at all. I’ll look forward to the next one, another five years time and, uh, and

[00:55:35] Meagan: Hopefully sooner than that.

[00:55:37] Antony Whitaker: built. Yeah, I hope, I hope it’s sooner than that, so

[00:55:40] Meagan: Yeah, me too. Okay.

[00:55:43] Antony Whitaker: ​