SALON LEADERS RETREAT FINAL
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Speaker: [00:00:00] If you had to listen to one song,
Speaker 2: the rest of your life, what song would that be? And the, I love the question and I hate the question. That's a tough one. I'm a human that I can literally listen to the same song for days, like on repeat in a row. My neighbors at my house, cause I mean, I like to listen to loud music.
They, they already think that there's something wrong with me, but boy, on the days I really lean into the music with the windows open, they're like, what is this guy's deal? Yeah. Okay. So I want to, I want to think about this. So if, if it's for the rest of my life, I use music, music is really something that I use to like energetically set myself up.
So I think the criteria in my mind are, it's going to have to be something that like, I'm going to be able to listen to and love the message. So that's the first thing. Second part is it's gotta be, I mean, audibly it should be done well. So it's got to be a great timeless song. Um, in my mind, I'm in between like [00:01:00] Incubus, Radiohead, and then only because I'm seeing, I mean, I think he's a great singer songwriter, uh, Stefan Wilson Jr.
Um, but I got to think to narrow in the song. What's yours? What do you got? Uh, man, um, your musical understanding to like your Rolodex of this, like mine is pretty limited. Like, you have a love rock
Speaker: music, rock music's my thing, but do I want to listen to a rock song the rest of my life? Like it needs to be something I want a little bit of energy.
I have, you know, the first thing that comes to mind is really strange. 24 karat magic, um, Bruno Mars. I don't know. It's just, you know, every time it's like, put your pinky, raise up to the moon, I'm like, okay, I don't know what that means, but it's cool. Um, the other song, I think this is my all time favorite song, is Slow Dancing in a Burning Room by John Mayer.
Speaker 2: That guitar
Speaker: intro, it
Speaker 2: never
Speaker: gets old.
Speaker 2: See that's what I mean, like it's going to have to be [00:02:00] something that like, it connects so much to you and you're like, will I ever get sick of this? Um, I'm going to go final answer and I'm just, I'm manifesting a really beautiful experience seeing him live this week.
Um, Stefan Wilson Jr. for what it's worth. Final answer, track 17 on his newest released album. Yeah, who does 17
Speaker: tracks? How many is on that record, like? 20 something. Yeah, that's ridiculous. And they're all bangers. Yeah, they are all good. Most people probably like, who is Stefan Wilson Jr.? Um, go check him out.
I'm not a huge fan of country. I don't even know if, I guess he is country. Just lyrics beautifully written. The music is really, really great. And he writes his own stuff too. So, as a musician, I have mad respect for somebody that does that. Ah, man, what would I go with? Slow Dancing in the Burning Room. Such a great timeless [00:03:00] song.
But 24 karat magic just gets me going. I think I'm gonna go 24 karat magic.
Speaker 2: Dude, I feel like you had that like so fast. And it's only because I happen to know that it is. You're like in the pocket if you have to, when it's the right moment, karaoke
Speaker: song. Yeah, I hate karaoke. Again, I'm a musician, so I hate karaoke.
Unless people are like really hammered and like, they're just making full of themselves. Then I'm in. Yeah, but when people are actually trying, I'm like, who, who wants to see that? Who are we doing? Yeah. So, uh, I've never done, well, I can't say I've never done karaoke. I was actually at an event. I didn't have the microphone in my hand.
I was dancing in the back and I was trying to be a team player. And, uh, what was the name of the song? It was the yin yang twin. The song. Yeah. The, the lyrics came up on the screen and I didn't know what the lyrics were. And I was like, I was like, Oh my Lord. I've never sent those [00:04:00] words in my life. Yeah. Not the yin yang twins, but, uh, yeah, that's the only time I've ever done karaoke and I really just dance in the background.
So let's talk about the salon leaders retreat recap. Here we go.
Speaker 2: All right. Hey everyone. Uh, we are here to do a debrief recap revisit of the leaders retreat. And the first thing I literally get the chills just thinking about it. Um, I almost didn't make it there because of some really lovely, uh, United flights. Shout out United. Um, can we do that? Yeah, we can do that. Um, they're probably not listening, right?
Um, it's all leadership and
Speaker: culture.
Speaker 2: Hey, yeah, they don't care about that. Last thing, they could use it. We'd love to talk to you. No, I mean, let's, let's talk about this. The timing of the event, uh, leaders retreat over the weekend, um, ended on Monday, everyone traveled back, uh, end of the [00:05:00] week, y'all got hit by, apparently went through your area.
It was like a thousand year, 10, 000 year storm. I mean, some you've never seen it. I hadn't seen it in my life,
Speaker: Tosin. Uh, I know that hasn't been a, it's a 40 year storm. No, it's, uh, it came through our area and I'm telling you, I've never in my life seen the flooding, trees down, power lines laying on the ground, power poles snapped in half.
It really, I mean, if you look at the whole scope of things, like that's, we were lucky because Asheville and Western North Carolina guy, I mean, just there are towns that are just got decimated. Like they're like chimney rock is. Not there. The houses, what will basically happen if you haven't followed the new news is the Western North Carolina is mountain.
So when they get all that rain, you know, in Florida, it will come up and then it will go back out to sea. Well, they come down these rivers and they just got huge and wide and we're taking the houses and 18 wheelers down. [00:06:00] And it's really crazy. I have friend, a friend that works with the news channel and he was up there and he would post things on Facebook and it was just, it was like, I don't know.
This is really happening, you know, and yeah, I mean, we had someone, uh, come to the event who's from Asheville and we were messaging her to see how she's doing and we didn't hear from her for like two or three days. Uh, she didn't, cell service, like even where we were, was almost non existent.
Speaker 2: Oh, it was ridiculous, isn't it?
It would like, you were, it was like talking to a robot when I would talk to you on the phone.
Speaker: Yeah, yeah, it was like, oh, we had to go to the top of our neighborhood to get service, but she, she is thankfully okay. She is without water. It's October 14th. And she's still without water. So it's, it's, it's a, it's a, it's a very, very sad thing that, um, happened.
And yeah, it happened just a few days after the leader's retreat. So I didn't think about it till afterwards, but it's like, man, like, what would have happened if, you know, [00:07:00] if we would have had it a week later, I mean,
Speaker 2: canceled.
Speaker: Yeah. So, you know,
Speaker 2: the, the part that I think is really interesting, you know, talking about the, the impact of something like that.
I actually have an, uh, a really interesting comparison to the experience of a leaders retreat. And what I mean by that is, you know, when there's, when there's a natural disaster that hits, you know, everyone will, you know, we, we help each other out. Right. And what, another thing that I witnessed within the leaders retreat was, you know, every, everyone came in with what was their struggle or, or struggles.
You know, within their leadership journey or within, within their organization. And, you know, I think one of the most beautiful things about, you know, these aren't gigantic groups of people, you know, under, under 40 people, um, but the, the intimate conversations in community that I saw at the leaders retreat with people [00:08:00] just like, Hey, you know what?
I might not have that same struggle as you, but I've been there before and you're going to make it through that. Right. Appreciate it. So I, I think it's kind of interesting, you know, on the, on the front side of going into such a natural disaster and, you know, how people will show up for each other, I feel like I saw a lot of that going on at the leader's retreat.
Speaker: Yeah, the one thing that when people went around the room at the end and we were saying, Hey, like, what were, how did this, this retreat impact you? And the one word that people kept saying is, Hey, this is real. Like it was great to be around real salon owners. It was great to have real speakers, and I think they meant real as like, in every industry there's unauthentic, unauthent, is unauthent, inauthentic, oh, inauthentic, and I'm bad at English too, so that was a good day for me.
But, you know, it's for them to say, Hey, this is real. And the majority of them took [00:09:00] up coaching and, uh, you know, you talk through finances and talk through pricing structure, but you're a wizard at the end. And, you know, they were realized, wow, you know, my pricing isn't where it really needs to be. Have you met with a salon yet that has their pricing where it needs to be?
Speaker 2: No, and, and not, not a one. And I think the. The part that I think is interesting is when I'm having those first conversations and really dissecting the beginning and laying a good foundation so that the salon owner can have a good understanding of some of the decisions we have to make, when I'm watching these light bulbs go off, I literally, if I'm on a, on a, uh, a zoom call, I'm like, I can see it in their face of like, wow, I've been in business for this long.
And I've never, cause here's, here's the thing at the end of the day, it's a lot of, it's a lot of simple ideas that are brought into a big picture formula. That's highly complex. Right. But as I was prepping for this, Evan, I think to the real piece of it, you know, one of the things I [00:10:00] thought about, I was like, okay, if you were to create a retreat like this, I mean, the real thing that I think what we wanted to go after was, you know, give some, give someone something.
Even with, you know, if we talked on something for two hours and maybe it takes three months to be able to really roll the whole thing out, but in two hours of time, if we've been able to open up something in their mind that shifts them 15 degrees closer to where they should actually be aiming for. That was the win, right?
So like, as I was even prepping for my segments, I was like, okay, I gotta go straight to the details, but give enough information though, so that even if, you know, if someone was like, Hey, you know what coaching isn't right for me right now, and that I'll tell you what, when you say coaching isn't right for you right now, that's usually the sign that coaching is right for you right now.
Um, however, though, like that was really like my, my minimum expectation was I want to equip these people enough to make them think differently, right? [00:11:00] Because I think when we're all, when we're coming together in that way, if we can create a different thought than what we've had. And then you're around a group of people that you can further, you know, have conversation about your understanding.
Now we're actually moving the needle because here's the thing, like when, when you just went through the amount of topics that we hit on, and I mean, granted, so like Saturday, Saturday is a bit of a networking piece to it. We're not going through anything content related. It's
Speaker: literally people are like, what do we wear?
Like it's the cocktail. It's like, look, just. Yeah. Just wear whatever you want, like be human. Yeah. Be human. And so Saturday night, it's just a meet and greet. It's basically, um, my job on Saturday night is to get salons connecting with other salons. Yep. And so when they come in on Sunday, they're like, it's not walking into a cold room.
They don't know anyone. Um, so it's, it's two hours. We had a salon that I was like, Hey, what are you guys doing after this? They're like, Oh, we're going to go see [00:12:00] Hootie I'm like, what? They're like, yeah, Hootie and the Blowfish is playing downtown. And so they went to go see Hootie and the Blowfish, which I would have been there.
Yeah. I love me. I was raising on some Hootie. Um, good old Darius. But yeah, that is just. Again, it's, it's real. It's not, it was just, we had some of our team there and they were welcoming everyone and we wanted people to come in because going into a new environment, it's like, what is this going to be like?
What's what, and it's just like, Hey, just casual conversation. Uh, they're bringing their spouses are probably like, what is this? And, you know, we're connecting. So it's, it's basically, um, uh, an on ramp onto Sunday morning.
Speaker 2: Right. And then, I mean, from, you know, Sunday, give it, give it all in on that day. Let's say that we go through eight or nine hours of content.
And then Monday, you know, we're breaking by two o'clock in the afternoon, three o'clock in the afternoon. So when you think about the amount of topics. That we have put into this [00:13:00] leader's retreat. I mean, it's an incredible amount of value and we're hitting, I mean, we're, we're going as deep as what we can in, in really, like I said, again, like plant some seeds to help add support.
And create mindset of like, okay, these are the things, like, if this is your problem in the company, you might hear something you're like, gosh, I never would have had an idea that like my retention problem is actually because people can't make enough money at level one and level two. So they assume that they're never going to make enough money at level three and level four and level 10, whatever it be.
So I think in that way of it, I was really, really thankful and man, you also want to say that. I always think it's so interesting when you go into speaking somebody that, because if you want to be real, I don't think that you should really have your, your piece down to the point that you have like every word that you want to say, memorized.
I mean, I made a connection to not selling retail to a past historic, um, event, not going to [00:14:00] say what it is, but, uh, I definitely fell on
Speaker: my face on that one. You know, I worked, I worked with a guy who literally had to ride out. Everything he was going to say, every word. And the funny thing is, is he was teaching a class and this class is, I want to say it was every two hours.
And he was like, Hey, uh, can, I want, I want you to hear what I'm teaching on. Well, you come back here and basically like coached me. I was like, yeah, well, he starts in like five minutes in, I'm like, he's doing the whole thing. I'm like, dude, I'm not sitting back here for two hours by myself, listening to you do this.
And like, he had the sheets printed out and like, he wasn't reading them, but that's how he memorized. Isn't that crazy? Yeah. I'm like, dude, give me bullet points. Yep. Give me bullet points. Um, the Sunday, uh, the Sunday events, I want to go, we can talk about these. Um, the first one was, I talked about, uh, igniting passion [00:15:00] and maintaining calm leadership.
Like, uh, back in way, way, way back in the day, you had hot water and you had cold water and cold water represented. Uh, refreshing. It was, it was, you know, it was really just like cold water is today and then hot water was healing. Okay. And so as in the leadership, we have to, we have to be hot in certain situations.
We have to be cold. We have to be healing. We have to be refreshing. So we walked through what does a leader look like when they need to be a healing leader and need a refreshing leader. So we talked about leadership and then Aaron talked about beauty in the budget. She talked about expenses, cause this is usually, uh, the, one of the main places that salons are bleeding is their budgets.
And she talks about, um, she talks about ordering retail and being on a budget. And I'm telling you, do light bulbs go off? They're like, what's that document you're using? Like, do [00:16:00] we see this? And it's nothing fancy. It's just like, you know what, if we have X amount to spend this week, we have X amount. We don't go a penny over and people are like, huh, what?
They just don't understand that. I'm like. Well, do you not do this in your own life? Right. You not do this in your own life? Like, if you don't have any money, guess what? You're not going out to eat tonight. Right. Um, so budgeting for that. And then, uh, we talked about culture in the afternoon and talked about, uh, use a plant and how, um, culture in growing plants.
All plants are different. Some need sunlight, some need, uh, more sunlight than others, some need more water than others. And then the, on Sunday afternoon, the, everyone's favorite part is the round table discussion. Oh, 100%. And what we do is everyone writes out one thing on a sticky note. That they would love to hear from other salons.
It could be like, Hey, what's your hiring [00:17:00] process? Um, how are you marketing your salon? What do you do with toxic employees? And they put that, they bring those up to the front, uh, as we take a break. And I cypher through those. I'm like, we're not doing all of these, you know? Uh, cause some of these are very specific, like, how would you pay your employees?
I'm like, Hey, we're fine. We'll answer that. Um, but it was really great to get some insight. You know, how, what do you do for new guests? And that is the most, when we get feedback, that's one of the most valuable things is for them to network and be in a round table and we break up into groups and they get to be with salons from Iowa and Texas and South Dakota and Connecticut and Florida and they get to be around and be like, Oh my gosh, what you're doing and the struggles you have are the same ones I have.
A hundred percent. And so the round table is one of the biggest things that people, uh, walk away from. And, you know, that's. As a, as we put it on, it's like, well, they're giving us the [00:18:00] answers to the next two hours and we're pushing it back to them for sure. And they're coming up with great content. You know what I'm doing up there?
I got a pen and paper writing down. Yeah. What do you do at your salon? That's a great idea.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Well, and I think, you know, the, the part that makes it really special within. Uh, a retreat. I mean, I've done, you know, retreats and intensives and everything of that nature. And I think one of the magic pieces is when you allow, no matter what level of learner leader that's in the room.
When they get to share something that other people respond to, like, you do what? Unbelievable. Right. And I think like that, that experience as a human, because I mean, everyone showed up there, obviously, like they're aware that, that as leaders, I mean, I think when you sign up for a leader, you, you might as well, I'm in my opinion, I think that you should think about it as like, I'm also signing up to be an infinite learner because I'm never going to be done mastering this right in just when you think you've got it.
[00:19:00] The world deals with you a little slice of humble pie, right? And then you realize like, okay, cool. Well, thought that that used to work really, really well. Turns out I have some learning to do. Right. And I, I think, I think in that space, you know, the round table is in that whole experience that we give there.
Is such a cool opportunity for people to have awareness of how to grow themselves and then share. What is your highlight? What is the thing that you're most proud of that you do in your organization?
Speaker: Yeah, I think, uh, if, cause I didn't know about leadership till I was in my late twenties, but I've heard this recently, you'll know, but we're not going to put them on blast, but we were talking to, uh, someone in the industry and they kept talking about how everything was wrong in their salon and it was everyone else's.
Issue this person is a salon owner who's everyone else's issue. And I'm like, no, honey, this is your issue. A hundred percent. You are the leader. My wife just posted on Instagram. So as a leader. Uh, you never take the credit and you always [00:20:00] take the blame and God, if we, if you're listening to this right now and you've been pointing fingers and be like, my staff doesn't do this and my staff doesn't do that.
They don't do it. It's a leadership issue. Yeah. And. If you don't know anything about leadership, I think we've mentioned this on the podcast. Read the 21 irrefutable laws of leadership. If chapter one doesn't draw you in, uh, I don't know if you're cut out to be a leader because, uh, it's very convicting. So leadership is really the, the, the forefront of everything else.
If you don't have leadership, then nothing else is gonna fall into place.
Speaker 2: And I, I so agree with you there, Evan. And I think the other part of it too, is, you know, right now, you know, as we, as we finish out 2024, you know, we're, we're really, I mean, when I think back to like 2020 holiday, I mean, God, we, we, we had no idea what that next year looked like.
So when I think about salon [00:21:00] owners have been in this space of recovering. And trying to figure things out. And it, what I, what I saw in the room that day was a lot of like vulnerability, right? Like, Hey, I like for, for the majority of them, I feel like every person that, that we had at the retreat, um, every person had a, had a, had a leadership sense to them.
And again, being in that group, I think also gives you permission, one to be vulnerable and then to have other people say to you like, Oh, Hey, let me guess. You had a walkout sometime within the last six months, and that was internalized. What, what could we take from it? And then how do we pivot from it and grow from it?
And when you watch some of this leadership guilt, cause we all have it, like I've made mistakes, you've made mistakes, right? And when you're able to be in a group of people that are like, Oh, Hey, yeah, I've done that too. And man, was it miserably difficult, right? Oh, okay. So this is a human thing that people go through.
Not just me. Right? And watching some of that weight be [00:22:00] lifted off of leaders and then finding their new voice and purpose to say, Hey, I know that I have a beautiful thing that I'm aiming for. I know that I have vision. I know that the intention behind my brand is to help people on my team to serve our community.
Like we, those are, those are in arguable, right? And I think one of the pieces that the leader's retreat is. It gives you a chance to let that vulnerability be out because here's the part having that vulnerable conversation. There might be a few people on your leadership team that that that's an okay conversation, but a lot of them like, who do you have?
If you're just within your company, having some of that like mental leadership weight on you, it's just like a valve. Like when there's too much pressure in it, we got to open that thing up, let pressure out. And again, the leaders retreat, I think is a really beautiful opportunity for people to be vulnerable, cleanse and clear, and then re equip to go back to their salons.
Speaker: Yeah, yeah. Very powerful. Uh, we are doing, uh, leaders retreats. We have one in February, which is [00:23:00] exclusive to a certain distributor. And then we've got one in May. Um, so. I will post the link in the show notes. If you want to join us, or if you want to know more about the leaders of treat, um, you, that landing page will tell you so much about it, or you can just DM us at the refined network.
Uh, on Instagram or evansilver. co or Christopher Cody Lardel on Instagram, or you can email us. That's probably the most, uh, like official, um, inefficient way. Yeah. Professional way. Hello at the refined network. com, but we would love to have you at the. The leaders retreat, we just want to do a recap because it's, it's a very, very powerful thing.
And it's nothing that because of us, it's because of the people in the room, a hundred percent. Thank you guys for listening to the refined network. We'll catch you next time.
