Phorest FM Episode 115: Charlotte Bradshaw & Leslie Healy On The Power Of Networking

Networking has long been recognised for its many benefits in the business world. It has the power to help you build awareness of your products or services, learn about people you might never have known otherwise and/or meet potential future employers or employees. Knowing more people is usually an advantage: it's easier to share information and when your network comes together, the power of influence of said group is redoubtable.

To discuss the power of networking in the hair and beauty industry specifically, this week's episode features two women with years of experience in the trade: Salonetwork founders Charlotte Bradshaw, who has worked in the industry for the past ten years and Leslie Healy, who hails from a twelve year background in the corporate world.

Guests

Charlotte Bradshaw

A qualified Chartered Accountant with over 23 years’ experience managing the finances of numerous companies, Charlotte brought her skillset to the Dylan Bradshaw brand in 2000 and since then, working in tandem with the creative side, has secured a successful position for the Dylan Bradshaw brand in Ireland and international markets.

Charlotte’s financial and business expertise is the driving force behind Dylan’s creative vision. Having steered the commercial growth of the Dylan Bradshaw brand over the past 19 years, Charlotte has overseen the brand’s diversification into retail and developed what has become Ireland’s leading hairdressing education facility, the Dylan Bradshaw Academy.

Charlotte’s continued success has resulted in requests for her consultancy services to salons around the country and she is regularly sought out by business and industry forums to act as a speaker at  events.

Leslie Healy

Coming from a background in the travel industry, Leslie moved into the Reward, Incentive and Loyalty industry, primarily focusing on sales. Her natural aptitude for operations became very apparent and she moved into the operational side of the business. With Leslie’s experience in managing client campaigns she moved into the role of Operations Director and transformed a company who outsourced all of their promotions into a company with a self-reliant in-house operations hub, allowing the business to expand.

Having nearly 20 years’ experience in the service industry, Leslie started her own Creative, Marketing and Loyalty agency in 2013. This business was a huge success and she moved from a start up to a well-established company with a multi-million euro turnover.  Leslie’s success has seen a demand for her to work on a consultancy basis setting up in-house operations systems for companies, both here and in the U.K. 

Transcript

Killian Vigna: Welcome to the Phorest FM podcast, episode 115. I’m Killian Vigna.

Zoe Belisle-Springer: And I’m Zoe Belisle-Springer. This week on the show, we’re joined by Salonetwork founders, Charlotte Bradshaw of Dublin Hair Salon Dylan Bradshaw, and serial entrepreneur Leslie Healy to discuss the power of networking in the hair and beauty industry.

Killian Vigna: So, grab yourself a cup of coffee, sit back, relax and join us weekly for all your salon’s business and marketing needs. Good morning Zoe.

Zoe Belisle-Springer: Good morning, Killian! Interesting topic today.

Killian Vigna: The power of networking, yeah, yeah.

Zoe Belisle-Springer: Yeah! What’re the first three words that come to your mind when I say ‘networking‘?

Killian Vigna: Oh, I have to say if you asked me this about two, three years ago, the first three words would have probably been dread, fear and anxiety. But, I like to think I’ve come a long way since, but you know what I mean. You’ve probably been in the same situation at your first networking event… There’s just so many people there, and you don’t know where to go and when you’re on your own, it’s quite hard.

Zoe Belisle-Springer: Yeah, not even just the first one. Even last year I was speaking at a conference in Seattle, and it was the first time I had that kind of pressure, speaking at a big thing, and I didn’t go into the speakers’ room because I was too terrified to meet and talk to people. I was standing in corners revisiting my notes or awkwardly looking at the agenda to figure out where I had to go next. It’s just mad; it does have that impact on you. Now, bear in mind, I did get a grip over myself and managed to pull it off throughout the day and everything and do my talk, and everything was fine. And yeah, I don’t know about you, but I’ve learned over time, especially with the podcast and such and being at the Salon Owners Summit and all those things, there are two things that I try to remember.

No matter what happens – online is totally different – but at events no matter what happens I have at least one thing in common with everyone that’s there; the venue, the food, the whatever is happening on the day. Whether it’s a conference or someone speaking or workshop, whatever it is. And two, I don’t always have to do something. Sometimes you can just sit back, relax and enjoy and some people will make the first move for you. So it’s not always that big of a pressure that you have to put on yourself, and I suppose networking online is even easier.

Killian Vigna: Yeah, I find it funny that your solution is to sit back, relax and chill and embrace it. I found with mine… I get so jittery that I’ve realised instead of trying to calm that down, just embrace it and use that energy and run around and talk to everyone.

Introducing Charlotte Bradshaw & Leslie Healy [02:45]

Killian Vigna: But, absolutely, even since setting up this podcast, it’s improved how we network with people so much. You’re just so much more comfortable talking to people, and speaking of which, without further ado to chat about the power of networking in the salon industry with the pleasure of being joined by two women with years of experience in the trade. Salon Network founders Charlotte and Leslie, welcome!

Leslie Healy: Hi, guys!

Charlotte Bradshaw: Thanks for having us!

Leslie Healy: Yes, thank you for having us.

Zoe Belisle-Springer: Pleasure to have you, thanks so much for being with us on the show.

Killian Vigna: So, Leslie, Charlotte, speaking of networking and meeting people and building those relationships, how did you guys meet? Because you both come from two different backgrounds, am I right?

Charlotte Bradshaw: We do, we do. We come from completely different backgrounds, and it’s actually, I’m one of these people who really believes in faith. And Leslie was a mom, actually, in the school that I would see quite regularly, but never, ever, ever had a conversation like, “Hi. Hello. Goodbye.” Never had a conversation, and I had set up Salonetwork, not what it is now, it was a slimmer version of itself, and I had it set up, and I needed help. And I was actually going to interview somebody to give them a job, to give me a hand, and I was on my way into the school and Leslie was in her car, and when I came out, she was still in her car. And I thought she was waiting to go back in to meet the principal or something. My story, “You going back in? At least it’s your turn now,” type thing and she’s like, “No, my car is broken down.” So I’m a real believer in faith. I ended up talking to her as we waited for the AA, and she’s normally really glamorous coming up to the school because she was always very corporate.

She had a successful business, and I just said to her, “How come you’re not going to work?” And she was like [crosstalk 00:04:28]. Civvies, she was in her civvies, she was actually in workout gear, and I was like, “Oh, I haven’t seen you all dressed up in a while, what’s going on?” And she said, “Oh, I sold my shares,” so I just sort of, “What do you do?” She was like, “Oh God; I don’t want to go back into corporate, I’d love a startup.” I was like, “Oh my God. You need to come around to the house for a cup of tea.” So I came around the following day for a cup of tea, and I explained to her what I was trying to do with Salonetwork, and the rest is history!

Zoe Belisle-Springer: Geez, that’s a really cool story, I didn’t expect that at all!

Leslie Healy: Very romantic [crosstalk 00:05:04]!

Charlotte Bradshaw: It’s a very romantic story. No but I’m one of these real, true believers in faith and my husband kept saying to me, because the person I was meeting was in the hair industry and he kept saying “I don’t think she’s the right fit, I don’t think she’s the right fit,” and then lo an behold I had this conversation. And the funny thing is, both of us had the same car, the same year. And it’s never broken down since [crosstalk 00:05:26].

Zoe Belisle-Springer: Wow!

Leslie Healy: Never broke down since.

Zoe Belisle-Springer: Love it!

Charlotte Bradshaw: I’m telling you, it’s faith. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So that’s how…

What do we mean by “networking”? [05:31]

Zoe Belisle-Springer: Well, so listen, you’re both in the field of bridging the gap between salon owners to create a network of individuals working together, but what does the word ‘networking’ mean to both of you?

Charlotte Bradshaw: Okay well, I’ll go first because I like to talk. So for me, I do a lot of networking events because, and like you said earlier on, you get nervous when you go into a room, and you don’t know where to look, and you get really self-conscious. So when I go to a networking event I kind of think, look I’m taking time out of my day, I really don’t want to do this, I’m really embarrassed, I’ll just go in, I’ve got a bag full of… Not a bag full, but a handful of business cards, and I just basically walk in the room. I try to not go with somebody because I find when you go with somebody you kind of hang on to them for a crutch.

So if you go on your own, you have to walk in. So I just go over to the person whom I’m most frightened of, looking at in the room, and I will just go over put my hand out and go, “Hi, I’m Charlotte. This is what I do, who are you?” And I just break the ice that way. And I think sometimes when you come across quite confident like that even though I have imposter syndrome myself, but I think sometimes you come across quite confident when you walk into a room, put your hand out and shake them. You know, people are very nice because they’re all in the same boat.

But I think that networking, for me, is brilliant. I’ve met the most amazing people at networking events, people that you wouldn’t meet in your everyday life. So I think it’s a super thing to do.

Zoe Belisle-Springer: What about yourself, Leslie?

Leslie Healy: I think would have been like Killian where I would walk into a room and tremble and say, “Oh God, I really don’t want to talk to most of these people.” [crosstalk 00:07:10] just because I was nervous about approaching, but I have… I started in the last couple of years going to a lot more networking events. I’m putting myself out there, in situations that I wouldn’t normally. And it really, really does work. You do make fantastic contacts, and it is the only way to build your business. And build yourself. And build your own confidence as well.

Killian Vigna: It is interesting because as much as you worry about how people are going to react to you by going over, everyone is kind of in the same situation where they’re waiting to be approached.

Leslie Healy: Absolutely.

Killian Vigna: So by being that person that can approach someone, you’re probably going to, instead of talking to one or two people, you’re going to end up talking to five or six.

Leslie Healy: Exactly. I think you do look unapproachable if you stand in the corner.

Killian Vigna: [inaudible 00:07:56].

Leslie Healy: I’m looking over at this spacey person standing in the corner [crosstalk 00:08:01]. You just have to put yourself out there and bite the bullet. You’ll reap the rewards, is what I would say.

Becoming part of a hair and beauty networking group [08:10]

Killian Vigna: Okay, so let’s take it online for a second. Well, not necessarily online, it could be groups as well, but it’s easy to tell someone you need to be part of a networking group, but what does it entail? How do you find your way into one that feels right for you? Does it come down to culture?

Charlotte Bradshaw: Well, I think what you should do is try… There are great ways of looking for different network events, what’s going on. And if you’re industry-specific and, for me as you said earlier, my husband is Dylan Bradshaw, and I’ve been in the business for 20 years, and sometimes I think the hairdressing industry is a little bit discombobulated. And also, the beauty industry, when you put the whole industries together like hair and beauty, there’s not a huge amount of support out there for the industry, hair and beauty as a whole. And there are such talented people… I should say, actually before I go any further, my husband is the hairdresser, not me. I’m an accountant, so I look after the business side of the business. He’s the hairdresser, so sometimes people would say, “Oh, what do you think I should do with my hair?” Hence the why we’re not on camera at this point.

So for me, being in the business in the last 20 years, I notice there’s a huge gap in the market for support. So before I went in full time, I went full time into the salon 10 years ago, and prior to that I worked as a financial contributor for the hospitality industry for a guy who had pubs, clubs, restaurants, and I worked for him for 20 years and if I ever had a problem with the restaurants, I had the Restaurants Association and if I had a problem in one of the pubs or clubs, I had the [inaudible 00:09:45] Association.

Now, in hairdressing and beauty, they don’t really have a one-stop-shop for anything, and I just felt there was a huge gap in the market. Because if you think about it, the amount of people that are in the hair and beauty industry in just Ireland, let’s forget about the UK and the rest of the world. Just in Ireland there is an abundance of people. And they’re all doing their own thing. So can you imagine if you are on a platform, say for example every single one of us in the business, whether it’s hair or beauty, whether you’re a salon owner, an individual, a freelancer, we all need insurance. And we’re all doing our own thing going to individual insurance companies, and there are hundreds of insurance companies out there, and we’re going out, and you’re bantering with them to try and get your insurance reduced, and all of us have been hit by huge insurance costs recently.

And just for that alone, can you imagine if we all came together in the hair and beauty industry, like the whole load of us together? And went to the likes of Aviva or Axa or one of those big companies and said, “Okay, there’s me, and I’ve got an army of 20,000 people behind me, and we’re all looking for insurance.” I guarantee you, if you went as a group, you would get a much better deal than we’re getting at the moment. And that’s what I’d like to achieve with Salonetwork; it’s to build an army, build a tribe here, get everybody working together instead of as individuals.

Killian Vigna: I think a really good example of that, though, was the recent tax hike there in January and we covered that on the podcast. About getting salon owners together to, I suppose, voice as one because two, three, just a handful of salons… the government’s not going to hear that. But by getting everyone together and having those networking groups where you can reach out to everyone and say, this is what’s going on, we need that support.

Leslie Healy: Correct.

Charlotte Bradshaw: Yeah! Look, do you know how it is? Do you remember a couple of years ago they did something with the old-age pension, I think they reduced it by a tenner, or they did away with some voucher they were getting. The old-age pensioners were out, and they were striking up Kildare Street banging on doors. It’s an Irish thing, predominantly they go, “Oh, it’s your luck, or it’ll be grand,” but if you can imagine, if we got every single person that was affected, it was only hairdressers because the beauty industry was always 13-and-a-half-per cent. The hairdressers were the only ones that are affected by the 50% increase in January. If you can imagine, if we got all of those people together and put them on the street and marched up to Kildare Street, they would take notice.

Zoe Belisle-Springer: Yeah, definitely. So, when we talk about networking, whether it be online or at events, what concretely would be the benefits? Like, do you have any success stories that you could think of that stemmed from the networking part of the connection?

Charlotte Bradshaw: I’ll give you one example recently. So for us, we’ve got 36 staff at the moment. I think we’re at 36. And I just worry about the young people coming through, not necessarily just as staff, but I just worry in general about young people coming up today because of the influence of social media and all the outside interferences. And I worry about people’s wellness, mental health and part of the site on Salonetwork we have courses and stuff like that for wellness. Just for keeping your mind clear and your body clear and I met a girl at a networking event who owns SpectrumHealth, herself and her husband.

I took her number, went for a coffee and said, “Look, you’re missing a huge trick here, people in the hairdressing industry and the beauty industry… They’re stressed, they’re anxious, it is a stressful job, and younger people coming through are having issues with anxiety and stress.” I just felt that there was a gap in her market for something to do with wellness for the industry. So, anyway, she came back to me recently with this app, and it’s amazing. I just put it into the salon. It’s an app. Basically, the staff download it; the company pays for it, the staff download it and… Want for a better word; it’s a wellness app. So, there are recipes, menus; you can measure your weight, your exercise. You also have a call with a psychologist once a week, if you have any issues you might to talk about that you don’t want to talk to your boss about.

There are loads of different options. There are options to book a course, to go on for mindfulness, loads of different things. And that came out of a networking event where I met Angela; it was super. Super event. We just put it into the salon, we launched it on National Wellness Day and the staff are delighted about it. So, that’s just us looking after our staff, and I’m sure loads of other people can do it. But that’s available on Salonetwork, but I definitely think younger people coming through now need a little bit more help than I did when I was growing up.

Killian Vigna: It’s like that information overload, I think that’s similar to a book that you’re actually reading at the moment, Zoe, where there’s just so much hitting us all at once that it’s like you’re not actually understanding things and you’re getting overwhelmed. I don’t know if that’s what’s being covered in the book, but that’s kind of how I feel sometimes, is that there’s so much information you’ve access to, it’s fast and hard, that you almost forget to sit back and take a breath. Like Zoe does before her talks.

The benefits of online and offline networking [14:57]

Killian Vigna: So you guys are predominantly on the online networking area, do you recommend there should still be a mix between going to real physical events or should everything be moving online? Because like you were saying with younger people, the Millennials and stuff coming on, we’re always online, so it’s almost removing that personal aspect?

Charlotte Bradshaw: I do think it’s very important to still have face to face interaction. I think it’s very easy to get to know somebody online, but do you get to know the real person? And I think you only get to know somebody well when you have a face-to-face meeting. So, I think, yes online will be predominantly there, but for Salonetwork, down the road, we will have events that we will be hosting, which will be a fantastic opportunity for everyone within the industry to come together as this community and network together.

Zoe Belisle-Springer: Yeah, bringing the online relationship back to the real world, I suppose.

Charlotte Bradshaw: Exactly. Because they’ll know each other, they’ll probably know each other from being on Salonetwork. As we all know, you only show online what you want people to see. You don’t show the real you all the time. So I think this will be… When we do host our events, it’s going to be a fantastic way not to be the one standing in the corner, because you’ll have an idea of who these people are already. So you don’t have that, I don’t want to walk into this room on my own because I don’t know anybody. You kind of know people, and it’s going to be a hell of a lot easier.

Leslie Healy: Also, people invest in people. And you can’t get your personality across online all of the time. When you meet somebody face-to-face, people get a different understanding of who you are than you are when you’re online.

Charlotte Bradshaw: It’s going to be everyone from their own industry as well because they’re always going to have something to talk about. So it’s not like walking into a networking event where it could be a corporate event, there’s something slightly in there that you might be interested in, or you do want to network with people. It’s going to be like-minded people that you’re going to talk to.

Killian Vigna: Yeah, it’s definitely a real benefit. You were saying, where you’d meet on the app, and then you’d meet… arranged to meet up or say, “I’m going to this conference, do you want to meet up beforehand?” That’s such a good example because we saw, with the Salon Owners Summit, I know I saw it myself where we… I think I’ve attended three of them at this stage, but we do this pub crawl and stuff the day before we let salon owners become meet other salon owners or managers or staff because some people bring their teams, other people will arrive on their own. So the first year I went, I met a group of people who were there on their own for the first time, and then the second year they arranged to go to it with people from that same group that they were in the previous year. So, they met at the event but then moved it online, kept in contact and then arranged to go to the next one together.

And then we have the #30Days2Grow campaign where… This is salon owners from all over the world, and some people ended up arranging to meet up off of it. So you can mix both elements in, don’t just keep it online, don’t just keep it in physical. Mix both.

Charlotte Bradshaw: Absolutely!

Leslie Healy: Absolutely.

The do’s & don’ts of salon networking [18:02]

Zoe Belisle-Springer: I’m curious about this one: how should someone act… Would you say that there are rules and things that you should be doing when you join a networking group?

Charlotte Bradshaw: Most people are voyeurs; they look. As in, they don’t participate. I’m one of those people. I’ve got social media, and I very seldom post anything to it, my personal one. But I’ll be on it, looking, because I love to see what’s going on, but I’m not one of those people who post. Because there is that element of, maybe somebody’s going to slag me off if I put something up, or maybe if I put something up, it’s not right. Again, as I said, I have the imposter syndrome where I think if I put something up, it’s going to be wrong or it’s not going to be good enough for whatever. So, there are so many people, but I think when you go to a networking event, and it’s face-to-face you can’t hide because you’re there. It’s different when you’re online; you’ve got the keyboard warriors, somebody who will post stuff because they’re behind the keys and you can’t see, a bit like us today.

But then when you go to a networking event, you’re actually on the floor looking at people, so there’s nowhere for you to hide.

Leslie Healy: From an online perspective on networking, I think the main thing is, don’t be afraid. Because your opinion matters, no matter what. And it’s never going to be wrong because it’s your opinion. So, I think it’s come out of your comfort zone and make your opinion known and show people that you’re there and you want to be involved. Because the more you put yourself out there, the more people are going to approach you.

Zoe Belisle-Springer: On the flip side of that, then, would you have any top three things that you shouldn’t be doing? Say online, in a networking group?

Charlotte Bradshaw: I think one of the main things is don’t be slagging other people off!

Leslie Healy: I was just going to say that.

Charlotte Bradshaw: Like, you know, if you’re standing in a room and… you’re not going to stand in front of somebody and go, “Oh, you think you’re amazing,” or this, that, whatever. But then I find people online will say it, it’s just nasty, and it’s like they have their bowl of courage this morning, and they’re sitting at a keyboard, and they feel they can say what they want. And they don’t realise that even though they’re on a keyboard saying what they want, they’re talking to a real person. So, it’s quite hurtful. I think they need to be very careful about what they are posting or what they are saying if they’re a part of a networking group because the world is very small and I can guarantee you, if you’re posting something against somebody else on a networking group, you are going to come face-to-face with those people one day. That’s one of the things I would say anyway.

Leslie Healy: Yeah, I was actually going to say the same thing. Just don’t slag anybody off would be my main thing.

Charlotte Bradshaw: Participation is another one. I think what you must not do is constantly talk about yourself. Nobody wants to hear a know-it-all. Somebody who’s constantly telling you, “Oh my God got something amazing coming up, I can’t tell you what it is. Keep posted to my Insta feed or my feed, and I’ll let you know in weeks to come.” I think people just get…

Leslie Healy: And don’t not comment. Do comment and make them nice, like please everybody else up. As we said from the start, Salonetwork is a community for the hair and beauty world, and we want to create that sense of community for everybody. So let’s look after each other. Let’s pick each other up. We’re not in competition with each other, so let’s help each other.

Charlotte Bradshaw: You see, there’s plenty to go around and I’m not always saying this, if I give an e-talk that’s one thing I always say, I’m a big advocate of passing it on. If somebody does you a favour and you do them a favour. I did a favour recently for somebody, and she was like, “Look, I can’t pay you,” and I was like, “Look, I don’t want to be paid, but if somebody asks you for a favour, pass it on.” And I’m a big believer in trimming down the ladder for somebody, so for example, if somebody needs a hand to do something, just give them a hand. I’m sick of listening to all these women going… I’ve been at these network events and women going, “Oh I’m such a big advocate for women supporting women,” and then you ask that said woman for a favour and they basically say no.

That really bothers me. I just think, don’t pretend your something you’re not. I think there’s room in this world for all of us to make a difference, and there’s a thing we have in Ireland where, not everybody, but some people have this attitude where they like to see you doing well, but they just don’t like to see you doing better than them. And it’s a terrible attribute that we have here.

Leslie Healy: It’s a true one, though!

Charlotte Bradshaw: I think people need to help each other out. I think to trim the ladder down, help people get a step up, or if you can help somebody, pass it on. Do a favour for somebody. There’s plenty to go around, and I just think this thing that we have where we don’t help each other, especially when it comes to business, it just bothers me. It’s just one of my pet hates.

Zoe Belisle-Springer: Yeah, I love the pay it forward concept, I’ve been applying that to my life for a while now. I think it came from the movie “Pay It Forward,” I was in high school, and it just had a mega impact. And it does make a world of difference, you know? Do a favour to one person and then pass it on to three and then, at some point, you create this ripple of goodness in the world.

Leslie Healy: Yeah, absolutely.

Charlotte Bradshaw: Yeah. Yeah. And there’s not enough of it!

Zoe Belisle-Springer: I agree, yeah.

Killian Vigna: Oh, God, just had a fear of karma. What if I do something bad, that’s going to come right around and smack me.

Leslie Healy: [crosstalk 00:23:23] Totally believe in karma. I so believe in karma.

Charlotte Bradshaw: I live my life on karma. [crosstalk 00:23:27] It really does, trust me. It really does.

Salonetwork announcement [23:31]

Killian Vigna: Well, Charlotte and Leslie, thanks a million for joining us on the show. Before you leave, for anyone that does want to find out a bit more about Salonetwork, or get involved, how do they go about doing it?

Charlotte Bradshaw: Okay well, first of all, our website is www.salonetwork.com, it’s free to register. It’s a couple of pieces of information, and once you register you have your login and then once you get in, there’s a… You can build your CV first of all. So you can go on and tell people where you work, where you have worked, what courses you’ve done. And then you have your little profile, and then we’ve got a feed so you can share. We’ve got some great people, very artistic people sharing their work on the feed and it’s great to see it from all corners of Ireland. And then we have a job section, so if you’re looking for any vacancies, if you own a business, or you’re only starting off, and you’re a sole trader, and you’re looking to get an assistant, we have a job section.

We have an events section, so if you’ve got something coming up and you want to post it, it’s a commission for your platform, and then we also have a courses section. So if you want to upscale, or you have courses that you perform, you want to put them up to sell them to people. All of that is free. We have memberships where you can upgrade, and when you upgrade to memberships, we have downloadable documents: terms and conditions, policies and procedures, contracts, all that kind of stuff. And we also have a list of suppliers.

So I’ll give you a quick example, orders cost seven, eight grand a year? On our list of suppliers, we have a fantastic [inaudible 00:25:01], Doyle’s they’re in Drogheda, and they offer a 10% to upgrade to the individual membership and a 20% discount to our Salon memberships.

So say, for example, I upgraded to a premium member, and I get 20% off my orders, which is like 1600 Euros in a year. It costs me 5.95 to upgrade, so I’ve got… I’m 1100 quids in. So that’s just a little example of what it is. Everything else on the site’s free, so I mean you can access all these suppliers. You don’t get a discount if you’re not upgraded, but the suppliers we have onboard are fantastic.

Leslie Healy: I think one of the biggest things at the moment, though, as well, if you were to upload any events or courses that you’re putting out there, you have to pay to put them up or you get charged a commission. We don’t charge any of that. So you’re targeting all the people within the industry that you want to target, and it’s totally free of charge. So it’s a bit of a no-brainer, to be honest.

Killian Vigna: Sounds like a win/win.

Charlotte Bradshaw: It’s a great… We’ve only just launched; we’re only a few months out in the market. We’re hoping to… We’re going to the UK at the end of the year, then hopefully further afield next year. So, fingers crossed all goes well. We get support behind us!

Killian Vigna: That’s fantastic.

Zoe Belisle-Springer: Best of luck with everything. Sounds great!

Killian Vigna: Guys, thanks so much for joining us on the show and best of luck with Salonetwork.

Leslie Healy: Thanks, guys!

Charlotte Bradshaw: Thank you so much!

Inside Phorest: reflections, upcoming events & final words [26:22]

Killian Vigna: So that was Charlotte Bradshaw and Leslie Healy of Salonetwork, and I believe, Zoe, you have an announcement yourself too.

Zoe Belisle-Springer: Yeah, absolutely. Just before we wrap up this episode, we have been working on something on the marketing team at the moment, with Valerie Delforge. I don’t know if you remember, but Valerie Delforge hosted for us last year, six masterclasses. One was around managing staff; then you had managing your salon’s operations, motivating team, HR, recruitment training, handling difficult staff and becoming an exceptional salon leader. So those webinars… We’re working with Valerie at the minute, to re-package them in a way that you’ll worksheets and workbooks to go along with them. And we’re going to create an email management course for you to be able to access this on a weekly basis. So stay tuned for that. We’re going to have a promo video on YouTube, and we’re going to talk about it on social media as well as here on the podcast.

And I suppose that’s all we got for this week guys. So as always, if you want to share your thoughts on this episode or have any suggestions, please send us an email at phorestfm@phorest.com or leave us a review on Apple Podcasts. We genuinely love feedback and are always looking for ways to improve the show.

Otherwise, have a wonderful week, and we’ll catch you next Monday.

Killian Vigna: All the best.

Related links

Salonetwork: a free social networking platform that connects professionals from the hair and beauty world with creative and likeminded people

 

This episode was edited and mixed by Audio Z: Great music makes great moments. Montreal’s cutting-edge post-production studio for creative minds looking to have their vision professionally produced and mixed. Tune in every Monday for a mix of interviews with industry thought-leaders, roundups of our most recent salon owners marketing tips & tricks, all the latest in and around Phorest and what upcoming webinars or events you can join.

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