Hair Life: Recent Episodes

Nathan Plumridge

Welcome to the Hair Life Podcast with me Nathan Plumridge.

28 years ago I was a confused teenager who had no real idea of what I wanted to do as a career and no real passion for anything!

But then I found hairdressing! Jump forwards 28 years and I now have a large independent 7 figure hair salon with a team of 30 people and growing.

But being a Salon owner or a Hair Entrepreneur is not easy and I want to share my journals and experiences with you and let you know warts and all what it’s been like as a CEO of a business like ours.

I also really want to inspire you and help you to live a healthy and happy life by bringing incredible interviews with Hair Salon owners, Entrepreneurs,Hair Product suppliers, fitness professionals, nutritionist, and inspirational clients that we are fortunate enough to meet everyday day.

So if your listening to this great I can’t wait to take you on this journey!!! If your not listening then no worries! This show is unscripted and is me speaking freely so I’ll apologise now for any bad language!! But I won’t apologise for the laughter!

I’m Nathan Plumridge and welcome to the hair life podcast!

ABOUT THE HOST

Welcome and thank you for reading this, I’m Nathan Plumridge salon owner and Hair Stylist. I’ve been in the industry for nearly 30 years and have been a salon owner for 23 of them. I have been fortunate enough to work and learn with some of the biggest names in the industry and this has given me the experience and drive to now be here with you sharing my experiences.

Are you putting off tasks you know you should tackle?

In this episode of Hair Life, we dig into the all-too-common struggle of procrastination and why so many of us in the beauty industry (and beyond) fall into its trap. From delaying admin work to avoiding the final steps of a creative project, we explore the psychological triggers behind procrastination—and how to overcome them.

Cally and I share our own procrastination confessions, from Cally distracting herself with her dog instead of finishing paperwork, to my tendency to stall when projects move from exciting ideas to tedious execution. We talk about the importance of recognising your weaknesses and how outsourcing certain tasks can be a game-changer in staying productive.

We also explore the emotional side of procrastination, including the fear of failure and the self-doubt that many creatives feel. Plus, how accountability—from friends, colleagues, or coaches—can push you to follow through on your goals.

In this episode, we dive into the messy, hilarious, and oh-so-real world of parenting. From chaotic kid moments to navigating the teenage years (when all those parenting books seem to go silent), we share stories that will have you laughing and nodding in agreement.

We also get into the financial reality of kids' ever-changing fashion choices, the struggle to keep up with "perfect parent" standards in the digital age, and the quirky dynamics of family group texts.

Don't forget to follow us on socials, @HairLifePodcast.

Have you ever felt like your salon is running you, instead of the other way around?

In this episode of Hair Life, we tackle the hot topic of burnout and the economic challenges facing salon owners today. Inspired by the eye-opening Creative Head article, "Is Your Business Keeping You Awake at Night?", we dive into the delicate dance between personal well-being and professional demands.

Cally shares her story of taking on extra work to keep her salon's reputation intact during staff changes, and the toll it’s taking on her mental health. With one stylist traveling and another on maternity leave, she's in overdrive—juggling multiple clienteles and feeling the weight of it all. Is this sustainable, or is it time to rethink her approach?

I bring a broader perspective, discussing how rising costs, interest rates, and VAT are squeezing the industry. I share my fear of losing clients when raising prices and how I’ve found a way to encourage open dialogue and understanding with my customers.

Together, we explore how salon owners can navigate these financial pressures without losing our sanity—or loyal clients.

Is social media running your life, or are you in control?

In this episode, we take a hard look at the grip that social media has on us—and how we can break free. From endless scrolling to social comparisons, we explore how social media seeps into our daily routines, impacts our attention spans, and shapes our relationships—especially with our kids.

We ask the question, what’s the cost of constant connectivity? We get real about the anxietysocial media creates and the boundaries we need to set, both for ourselves and for the next generation.

What role does consistency play in shaping our lives?

In this episode of Hair Life, we explore the power of sticking to routines and habits, even when things get tough. We reflect on how showing up consistently—whether it’s in the salon, in personal fitness, or within relationships—can create lasting benefits.

We also explore how the challenges of maintaining health goals resonate with the feedback we receive from clients. Together, we discuss how small, consistent actions can lead to big rewards, both mentally and physically.

If you’ve been struggling with sticking to goals, or you’re looking for that extra push to keep going, we’ve got real talk, insights, and encouragement to help you stay on track.

In this episode of Hair Life, Nathan and Callie sit down with PR powerhouse Sally Learmouth from Gloss Communications to uncover the secrets of successful marketing, branding, and public relations in the salon industry.

Together, we explore the ever-evolving role of social media in PR and Sally, and Callie discuss how platforms like Instagram have become essential tools for connecting with clients and building a loyal community.

Sally also shares what PR means—going beyond press releases to create impactful communication strategies that resonate with clients and build strong internal teams and the critical balance between meeting rapid consumer expectations and traditional PR's slow, steady work, emphasising that patience and consistency are essential to long-term success.

After facing a significant health scare, Cally discovered the transformative power of setting boundaries and valuing time with family over material wealth. This personal revelation echoed a broader societal shift we've noticed, especially in a post-COVID world, where people are now more inclined to seek a balanced lifestyle despite financial pressures.

In this episode, we share heartwarming stories and discuss how older generations are adapting. We'll also shine a light on the immense pressures that today's youth face regarding their financial futures. As parents make significant investments in private education and young adults navigate the rising costs of university, debt becomes a heavy burden.

Lastly, we tackle the VAT debate within the salon industry, an ongoing challenge that we believe needs immediate attention. Salon owners are struggling with high VAT rates, and freelancers are opting for independence to escape these financial constraints. We explore potential solutions such as lowering the VAT rate and creating a supportive salon culture to retain staff.

Remember the first time you sat in a salon chair, the trust you placed in the hands of a stylist, and the stories that unfolded? That's the spirit of this new version of Hair Life, as Cally Borg joins me to weave new conversations that blend the artistry of hairdressing with the tapestry of life.

In this episode, we discover that mirrors are more than just reflective surfaces, we discuss the art of discreetly observing others and share a story that involves false teeth and dog poo.

We can expect to take a few punches in life and business, but the ability to get back up truly defines us. In this episode of Hair Life, I explore the often-unspoken challenges of mental health and stress that come with navigating difficult times.

I share my experiences with personal growth and how it positively impacts our teams and communities, emphasising the importance of leading by example.

This episode also marks a new chapter for HairLife as I introduce a new co-host who brings a wealth of creativity and entrepreneurial prowess to our upcoming episodes.

In this episode Nathan Plumridge talks about being vulnerable, something that he’s had a lot of discussions about in the last few months, mainly due to an experience he had in early December which he shares with you. This is about learning from things both in business and from a health point of view.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

I’ve started thinking about health not just from a physical point of view, but from a mental side as well. Opening up, being vulnerable and sharing has helped me mentally and has enabled me to have some incredible conversations and opened up some incredible relationships.
One of my best friends recently opened up to me about his childhood and the impact that it had on him and the direction it had taken him in his life until now. He started finding demons that had been buried and I was really blown away with what he shared with me. It was highly emotional, highly charged and as a result I had something click inside me which enabled me to firstly, open up about my childhood and my experiences, and how I could now see how the impact of that childhood was having an impact on me as a 45-year-old male.
I can’t help but imagine how we all might feel if we opened up a little bit more and shared those things that we carry around with us, particularly men. Though I think it’s a generational thing, the younger generation seems to share everything – perhaps too much – but that’s something we can definitely learn from.
The impact of being truly listened to with no judgement, no bias, no advice – so many people want to give you their advice and I don’t think that’s a good thing because a lot of those people are giving you the wrong advice. My friend listened to me so intently, with 100% focus, it was one of the greatest experiences I’ve ever had. What an incredible thing that is. How much stronger would your relationships be if you listened 100% to the person sitting in front of you?

BEST MOMENTS

‘It wasn’t until someone had been vulnerable with me that it enabled me to be able to reciprocate the same thing. The impact of that was that I got very emotional. For two days I couldn’t stop crying, even in the salon.’
‘My team was absolutely amazing. I think seeing their boss being vulnerable and truly open and showing them that you can’t always be this superhero type was incredibly powerful. It’s only done great things.’
‘Opening yourself up and really showing your vulnerability gives you an incredible sense of relief, both emotionally and physically.’
‘I’d like you to hear that voice that tells you not to do things to piss off!’

ABOUT THE HOST

Welcome and thank you for reading this, I’m Nathan Plumridge salon owner and Hair Stylist. I’ve been in the industry for nearly 30 years and have been a salon owner for 23 of them. I have been fortunate enough to work and learn with some of the biggest names in the industry and this has given me the experience and drive to now be here with you sharing my experiences.

CONTACT DETAILS

www.hairlifeshow.com

Instagram is @nathan.hairlife

Email me at nathan@hairlifeshow.com

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this episode Nathan Plumridge talks to entrepreneur, award winning stylist, and salon owner Cally Borg to talk about her background and journey through her career.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

I wasn’t very academic at school, I couldn’t sit still in a classroom, that’s just not my thing at all. However, when I got into hairdressing I was so focussed from day one because I just knew it was for me.
My freelance career was really busy, I was in and out of London and Surrey taking any job that came to me. One minute I’d be doing highlights and cut and blow-dry, the next I’d be doing a photoshoot or at a show, it was really crazy but it was great. That worked until I had my daughter. I started doing local stuff and basically winged it for about three years while building up a regular clientele around looking after my daughter, in the day while she was at nursery and in the evenings while she was in bed.
Lockdown offered a great opportunity to re-write the brand. I thought to myself, what do I really want from life and what’s most important to me. My partner and my kids are the most important thing to me so I don’t want to work evenings and weekends any more. So, do I cull 50% of my business or look at a new strategy and bring somebody in to look after those clients? And, that’s what I did and I realised I really liked helping and mentoring people.
There’s been a massive rise in home salons in the past few years. I think that’s down to the lockdown, but also it’s to do with the freedom and flexibility that you get with working from home. I’m not in salons any more, so I don’t know the opportunities there any more, but I can only presume that the rules are stricter and that’s why people are looking for freedom and flexibility.

BEST MOMENTS

‘I liked being in the salon, what I didn’t like was being told when I could and couldn’t go on holiday. I’m a team player, but I don’t like to be controlled in any way.’
‘I did Amanda Holden’s personal styling, I’d go to her house, blow-dry her hair a couple of times a week and I started working at ITV, which was great.’
‘People used to say: “you really work a lot of hours”, but I love my job, I love talking to people, yes I was knackered and unhealthy. Then I had a health scare and life changed like that.’
‘I learned by working for free when I started out, but it’s a lot easier now to be educated, there’s a lot of free education, but people don’t seem to tap into that. This is the best time to be a freelancer.’

ABOUT THE GUEST

Cally Borg is an Award-Winning Hairstylist, Educator and Business Mentor; she’s been hairdressing for over 20 years, working for salons such as John Carne, Toni&Guy and Charles Worthington before going freelance and starting her own business.

She recently won 'Surrey Hair Stylist of the Year 2020' and the ‘Marketing Trailblazer 2021’ at the Salon Awards. Cally is on the Art Team and an Educator for the brand 'We Love Salons.' and the UK brand ambassador for TUFT international.

Website: https://www.callyborg.com/

ABOUT THE HOST

Welcome and thank you for reading this, I’m Nathan Plumridge salon owner and Hair Stylist. I’ve been in the industry for nearly 30 years and have been a salon owner for 23 of them. I have been fortunate enough to work and learn with some of the biggest names in the industry and this has given me the experience and drive to now be here with you sharing my experiences.

CONTACT DETAILS

www.hairlifeshow.com

Instagram is @nathan.hairlife

Email me at nathan@hairlifeshow.com

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this episode Nathan Plumridge talks to Tom Johnson, Ex-England Rugby Player about his career and the transition to the second half of life as a coach now he no longer plays.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

My happiest times were when we were playing rugby for the craic, giving it a go. The reason we did it was to find out our boundaries and what we could do, then we started to bring it into focus on areas of risk and reward, where we can dominate games and where we can give ourselves the best chance of winning games rather than putting ourselves under the cosh needlessly.
I have huge imposter syndrome, even when I played in the first test for England, and I saw these huge South Africans come running out the tunnel and I’m sitting there cracking myself: What on Earth?! I used to run around at Oxford Brookes University drinking lots of booze having a great craic and now I’m on this international field! Facing the Haka from New Zealand was a tick off the bucket list though, and then nearly beating them on my last game, it was an amazing thing to be part of.
When I was in rugby I had my head in the sand a bit and thought it would never end. Coming out of it, there’s a huge amount of anxiety – for professional sports people in general – and worry about what the future entails. In the last six months or so I started thinking about how much I wanted to be present and enjoy the now and look forward to the future rather than getting everything lined up and pushed away from the future, pretending it wasn’t going to happen. I want to be fiercely independent and be able to look after myself, my family and those around me. What we decide to do now and tomorrow is going to have a direct impact on that future. By nailing down what that future looks like you can start to plan and really enjoy the now.
You can link this thought to business, or homework, or whatever, if you’ve got a big meeting and you haven’t prepared you’re going to have to try and blame it. But if you’re prepped and up to speed you go in there confidently, exuding confidence, come across really well and nail the pitch/meeting. It’s the same with getting enough sleep, you set yourself up for a great day ahead. If you wake up tired you start off on a negative path where everything’s an effort. The link between mental health and sleep is undeniable, good quality and consistent sleep can put you in the right frame of mind to help you overcome.

BEST MOMENTS

‘You really find out a lot about yourself when you play in a team.’
‘Coaches have to give an awful lot of thought about their pre-match speech, their half-time speech and things need to adjust on the fly depending on how that first half has gone.’
‘The future is coming for everyone, can you be prepared for it and can you enjoy that journey all the way up to your deathbed? We can do something about how the last six months of your life is going to look like now.’
‘Enjoyment comes in the here and the now, not achieving goals.’

ABOUT THE GUEST

After graduating from Oxford (Brookes!) With a degree in Sports Science, Tom was about to follow his family’s traditional military path by joining the Parachute Regiment. By chance just before embarking upon his officer training, he was scouted by Coventry RFC whilst playing for Reading in the then National League 3 South. Two successful years at Coventry then led to a move to Exeter Chiefs, where he played professionally for 10 years, even earning a few England Caps along the way. Tom is a bit of a rarity in that he didn’t follow the traditional academy route into professional rugby – up until the age of 18 he even played scrum half! A professional rugby career allowed Tom to experience some of the world’s best training facilities and nutritional plans all whilst teaching him the importance of keeping yourself as fit and healthy as possible, for both body and mind. And so, in 2017, upon retiring from professional rugby, Tom Johnson Lifestyle was founded, as a way to help others on their very own health and wellbeing journey.

Tom practises what he preaches, he loves nothing more than a good workout session in the gym and constantly amazes people with his insatiable appetite – this is a man who eats 4 eggs for breakfast each day. Often found conjuring up a DIY creation for his daughters, browsing Netflix, playing golf or sending memes to former teammates.

Website: https://tomjohnsonlifestyle.co.uk/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tom-johnson-b98b0013a/

ABOUT THE HOST

Welcome and thank you for reading this, I’m Nathan Plumridge salon owner and Hair Stylist. I’ve been in the industry for nearly 30 years and have been a salon owner for 23 of them. I have been fortunate enough to work and learn with some of the biggest names in the industry and this has given me the experience and drive to now be here with you sharing my experiences.

CONTACT DETAILS

www.hairlifeshow.com

Instagram is @nathan.hairlife

Email me at nathan@hairlifeshow.com

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this episode Nathan Plumridge talks to Colin McAndrew, MD of Medusa Hair – one of the fastest growing salons in Scotland, about his inspirations, his challenges and his passions.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

Growing up I had three central female figures in my life, my two older sisters and my Mum – Dad disappeared. I went to salons with my sisters when they were baby-sitting me, Mum worked two jobs. I loved the atmosphere in that space. After I left school I got an apprenticeship in a beautiful salon on Prince’s Street in Edinburgh where I learned how to make coffee and tea. Within nine months I was a hairdresser in their eyes. I had a real desire to not be in poverty so I worked two jobs, seven days a week.
Mental health is a big concern and well being. I don’t say that flippantly or cheaply. I think the onus is on us to have the right balance between targets, driving and moving forward without adding to anxiety and levels of stress. If you’re still running your business and your team in the same way as you were 15 years ago, you’re really outdated – 15 months ago is outdated. But on the back of that, as correct as it is to say it's OK not to be OK, it’s also OK to say I’m going to try my hardest to change that feeling. I have a horrible feeling that resilient young people are becoming more alien than the norm. Everyone deserves the best life, but the reality is (unless you marry a footballer), you’re going to have to work really hard to get your best life. That message is missing at home and in schools.
I’ve always been obsessed with personal security rather than wealth. I’ve always wanted to know that if, god forbid, something went wrong £1000-£5000 can probably cover it. When my Mum’s fridge broke down we’d have to wait two months without a fridge, so I’ve always wanted enough money to buy white goods whenever I need to. At 46 it’s still my attitude: “Have we got a fridge-freezer in the bank?”
Without the team there is genuinely nothing. I want the team to have as many opportunities – always say when someone joins Medusa: “We’re a company of opportunity, I don’t care if you’ve been here six days, six weeks or six years, if there’s something coming up and you’re good, we’ll help you, or if we think you’re the perfect fit for it then we’ll do it.

BEST MOMENTS

‘When I went to Medusa I had two other jobs in the city that were much better paid, but I knew Medusa was my opportunity to grow in an artistic sense – I didn’t imagine buying the company in the future, but I thought this is going to give me a platform.’
‘Every team member thinks we’re millionaires, and I know we’re remunerated better than anybody else in the company, but ultimately we’ve got the bigger risk: If things go wrong we could lose our house. People don’t see the risks that we put in, before we even talk about expenditure. But, everybody’s human, not supermen or women, we’re all taking punches, especially in the last two years.’
‘You don’t want to die the richest guy in the graveyard, I want my last cheque to bounce.’
‘I want to create a clear reward for hard work and that people are paid what they deserve to be paid – a good salary with a decent bonus structure. There’s no limit from the top.’

ABOUT THE GUEST

Colin McAndrew is the managing director of Medusa Hair, an award-winning Edinburgh hairdressing salon consistently creating new styles at the vanguard of fashion, but all the while exuding a genuine warmth and welcome.

Website: https://www.medusahair.co.uk/

Email: colin@medusahair.co.uk

Instagram: @colin_medusa

ABOUT THE HOST

Welcome and thank you for reading this, I’m Nathan Plumridge salon owner and Hair Stylist. I’ve been in the industry for nearly 30 years and have been a salon owner for 23 of them. I have been fortunate enough to work and learn with some of the biggest names in the industry and this has given me the experience and drive to now be here with you sharing my experiences.

CONTACT DETAILS

www.hairlifeshow.com

Instagram is @nathan.hairlife

Email me at nathan@hairlifeshow.com

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this episode, Nathan is joined for the second of two episodes by Luke Doolan and Paddy Monahan, manager and head of product at Phorest Software respectively, as well as Nathan’s head of operations, Candice, to talk about Phorest Software (that Gavin has worked with for a long time) and what they do.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

In order for you to say your average ticket is £120 or whatever, to look at that and say “why is that?”, at a business or a staff member level, within the new Phorest Reports you just click the number and it drills you in showing you day-by-day service rev, average retail ticket, total ticket, is it up or down and week-to-week comparison. We tell you straight away if it’s up or down and automatically run a drill report for you. That’s why we had to rebuild the reporting from the ground up because it’s no longer about running a report, it’s about whatever direction it takes you. We have to be able to have that data to you within seconds.
From a staff member point of view, management can’t be quarterly any more, you can’t be sitting down with them at the end of the month going over what they should have done three weeks ago, that’s useless. In the new reporting suite, on any number there’s an alert bell, if you don’t want a staff member’s service level to drop below 12% you can set it to send you a message if it drops below 12% and it will check on it every hour. Even though you’re working with them in a coaching capacity, you’re able to address the issues at the time that they happen.
The industry is amazing at building these long term relationships, at Phorest, what we try to do is cut out all the day-to-day things that salon owners need to do. If we can get better at that and free up the time for salon owners to go and do what they really enjoy doing, that’s the part where we’ll win.
We’ve launched a new ecommerce store recently, the idea behind that was it can be set up to be click and collect only, you can set up one product on it, we’ll host it for you, you don’t even need to put it on your website, and you can run a campaign just off people who’ve bought that product in the past but haven’t bought it in the last three months. When we get feedback on ecommerce, sometimes it’s logistics, sometimes they want to try it but aren’t sure if it would take up too much time. The next piece of challenging feedback we’ve had is that staff aren’t all that enamoured with ecommerce because they want the commission. We’re now working on bringing staff members into this so that they get the reward.

BEST MOMENTS

‘Phorest is there to make booking as convenient and not-time-consuming as possible, we don’t want someone standing there rescheduling appointments on the phone, we want someone standing there having conversations and building relationships.’
‘For us, it’s about making the relationship last outside of the salon, that’s where we’ve been more successful in retaining clients. Our re-booking rate has improved since we’ve had Phorest.’
‘Retail conversations came across so sales-y, that was a problem we really wanted to fix. So, we’ve enabled the software – through ecommerce – to actually do the selling for the stylist. Not to replace, but to be additional to what they’re doing.’
‘You’re giving bad service if you’re not talking to your clients about retail, especially if they’ve said they want to talk about products.’

ABOUT THE GUESTS

Website: https://www.phorest.com/gb/

ABOUT THE HOST

Welcome and thank you for reading this, I’m Nathan Plumridge salon owner and Hair Stylist. I’ve been in the industry for nearly 30 years and have been a salon owner for 23 of them. I have been fortunate enough to work and learn with some of the biggest names in the industry and this has given me the experience and drive to now be here with you sharing my experiences.

CONTACT DETAILS

www.hairlifeshow.com

Instagram is @nathan.hairlife

Email me at nathan@hairlifeshow.com

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this episode, Nathan is joined for the first of two episodes by Luke Doolan and Paddy Monahan, manager and head of product at Phorest Software respectively, as well as Nathan’s head of operations, Candice, to talk about Phorest Software (that Gavin has worked with for a long time) and what they do.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

We’re not just an appointment system or diary, we take it in a slightly different way than most do. We're not a software company, we're a salon company, we’re aimed at the industry. Our whole existence is to understand how salons work and to build things that help them to grow their business, which is not all that common in the industry.
We listen to salons and understand the problems that they have. We recently launched the Phorest Collections – we used to build a feature and ship it and maybe a month later we’d have something else from another team and we would ship that. Then we’d get feedback from salon owners saying they were really busy and couldn’t keep track of all these updates dropping so we changed tact and started doing like the fashion industry with Autumn Collections where we gather a load of stuff together and launch it all at once with all the training programmes put together so, as a salon owner, you can simply take an hour out of your day to learn about all of them and that’ll be it for a couple of months.
We asked salon owners what the pain points around card payments on readers were. Tips for staff was an issue but also at the end of the day, cashing up is an absolute pain, if someone accidentally overcharged a customer by tapping the wrong number or put it through as cash instead of card, you can waste 30-40 minutes trying to find that £10 that’s gone somewhere. We take that as the starting point to solve it. The only way to light up the terminal to take a payment in Phorest is to key in, tap ‘credit card’ and then it will light up, in doing that, at the end of the day it automatically reconciles between the two, so you can look at your cash (which is next to nothing these days) and just walk out.
For me, creating, innovating and figuring out these things is about pairing together a problem – and deeply understanding what that problem actually is – and then matching that with what technology is possible. What we’ve seen is our tech team really understands what technology is now possible. If you just start building things based on the tech you’ve got a solution looking for a problem. Salon owners, the people on the ground, know the problem the best, but often if you say “what feature do you want? Or how would you like this feature to be better?” they might discuss it just in terms of their own understanding. We’ve taken a different approach, instead of asking that, I often say “if we were to send somebody out in a Phorest T-shirt and they were an expert in everything (finance, marketing, everything) and I sent them to work for you for a week, what would you have them do, what problems would you have to solve?” It’s the magic question, it answers so much about the problems we have to solve.

BEST MOMENTS

‘Our goal is to help salons to grow.’
‘I didn’t come from the industry. But I know it now because I’ve gone and taken the hard steps of just standing in front of the house.’
‘When the company’s goals are completely aligned with the salon’s goals, you build the right products, and you serve in the right way. As soon as they grow, we grow as well.’
‘We’re motivated by the impact it has on salon owners.’

ABOUT THE GUESTS

Website: https://www.phorest.com/gb/

ABOUT THE HOST

Welcome and thank you for reading this, I’m Nathan Plumridge salon owner and Hair Stylist. I’ve been in the industry for nearly 30 years and have been a salon owner for 23 of them. I have been fortunate enough to work and learn with some of the biggest names in the industry and this has given me the experience and drive to now be here with you sharing my experiences.

CONTACT DETAILS

www.hairlifeshow.com

Instagram is @nathan.hairlife

Email me at nathan@hairlifeshow.com

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this episode, Nathan is joined by Adelle Martin, founder and creator of the Menopause Resilience Club – a private group where women can come together to build strong business and strong bodies through their hormonal change.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

I’ve always been sporty, but when I got to 15 my Dad told me I had to get a proper job – things like Britain’s Got Talent didn’t exist at the time, so I couldn’t make money out of dancing and gymnastics. A proper job at the time meant a job for life in a bank, which I absolutely loved and enjoyed. But, my colleagues bought me the book ‘How To Win Friends And Influence People’ because I was a bit direct and rude. But that got me into people, psychology and leadership and everything else around that, so I took evening classes and became resilient and built my career on that.
During the financial crash in 2008 work suddenly got really busy, but you also didn’t tell people you worked for a bank – if was like being an estate agent! At the same time my daughter had grown up and was of an age and my parents were ageing and I was the one in the family were people asked me for time here and there to help with things. All of a sudden it all added up and I felt really tired and fatigued. After a while it got really difficult, flying between Edinburgh and London for work and we didn’t have the time to check in on each other to make sure we were OK. I remember small things happening, like a speech impediment as a child, that I’d got rid of, started to come back and my performance at work started to be affected. Eventually I collapsed and was taken to hospital and was diagnosed with anxiety and depression, which I know I didn’t have. I made them do blood tests and the results cam back saying my hormones were so low I’d suffered a very quick menopause. I had to take extended leave to understand it and how best to fight it. I went back into HR so I could change the way people talk about menopause. I couldn’t let another woman go through what I did.
Management don’t always understand it, they often see a top level woman on a career path suddenly drop in performance. It’s easy to say it’s this, this and this. I ask: how old are they? What are the clues? I didn’t know what I didn’t know, but the performance and confidence change due to hormones, we lose it for a moment. Rather than say “she’s up and down with performance issue” we got people to look for the clues and create a conversation around it.
I’m an action-orientated person. We can talk all we like about the issues but when are we going to move to solutions? As hard as it is, it is a process a woman goes through. When I was pregnant people would tell me what happened to them in their pregnancies and now we’ve got the same with menopause, although we’re all different and our lifestyles are different. I can explain what happens with your hormones, but how you react to that is different. You won’t have your mother’s menopause if you don’t want to.

BEST MOMENTS

‘I had to Google menopause. I can do this the easy way or the hard way, if you ignore the menopause, you’re going to get in a lot more trouble than if you face into it.’
‘Women leave work or reduce their hours due to menopause, not just to set up their own business for the flexibility. We set up menopause cafes and line-manager training around talking about menopause with women.’
‘Not only do we have female advocates from all levels of the business who talk about their challenges, we also have men who talk about their experiences and perspectives with their wives or co-workers. The ripple-effect of that makes a huge, huge difference.’
‘If you can’t see it, you can’t be it.’

ABOUT THE GUEST

Adelle Martin is an accredited Menopause Strength Coach & Bodybuilder as well as Founder of The Menopause Resilience System. She started her company, The Menopause Resilience Club, after leaving her 30-year corporate career working in financial services as an HR Professional.

As well as being an Accredited Menopause Strength Coach & Bodybuilder, Adelle is a Public Speaker, Menopause Campaigner, sharing her story with the BBC, Member of the Women & Enterprise All Parliamentary Group, Co-Host of The Women in Business Radio Show, soon to be published Co-Author of Women Leading in Our New World, Founder of The Women’s Fearless Community Interest Company and runs a family hospitality business.

Website: https://executivemidlife.coach/

Instagram: @menopause.strength.coach

ABOUT THE HOST

Welcome and thank you for reading this, I’m Nathan Plumridge salon owner and Hair Stylist. I’ve been in the industry for nearly 30 years and have been a salon owner for 23 of them. I have been fortunate enough to work and learn with some of the biggest names in the industry and this has given me the experience and drive to now be here with you sharing my experiences.

CONTACT DETAILS

www.hairlifeshow.com

Instagram is @nathan.hairlife

Email me at nathan@hairlifeshow.com

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this episode, Nathan is joined by Mary Centofanti, one of the owners and creators of the vegan brand, Davroe, which is maybe the best kept hairdressing secret.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

In 2006 we needed to make changes to the company that we purchased. I went to the formulating chemist and said: “I want this range to be sulphate-free and vegan”. To his credit he agreed and it took us two years to get the formulations and fragrances right because they’re key to the product as well as performance. We launched in 2008 and a lot of people were asking why we were doing this because no other producers were doing this in Australia. It took another 5 years to get momentum going and convince hairdressers and salons that this was a good thing.
Australia is the hub, it’s where we manufacture everything, we’ve built the laboratory, we do our R&D, we do our compounding, our upscaling, we distribute everything from there, we’re very, very hands on. All the products in the range are products I wanted to bring to market, it’s about us looking at what we think the industry is moving into and what the consumer is looking for.
When I started at 15 years of age, it was never in my wildest dreams that I entertained owning this company or doing what I’ve done with Davroe. But, I had really good bosses who were very open about a lot of things and gave clear parity between us and them. They’d have lunch with us in the lunchroom and they’d talk business and I would listen in to their conversations and I learned so much. From the minute I walked into the office on my first day I felt like it was my second home. I felt part of something.
There was a moment where John and I had to find a balance between our personal lives and work, because we live and work together with each other and our kids, we all want space at certain times. Finding the balance is really tricky. We all go to work and come home separately, even though it’s two to three minutes away. We all seem to gravitate towards each other at lunchtime and we have dinner together every night but then we all go our separate ways in the evening, the evening is our own time.

BEST MOMENTS‘It feels great to be away from home, we haven’t travelled for up to three years, before that we travelled quite a bit overseas. It’s amazing to see people face-to-face again and catch up.’
‘The consumer knew they wanted a change which was one of the driving forces for us as well.’
‘We watch what we eat and what we put on our faces, so why should hair be any different?’
‘We jumped in, it was full-on, we made some really major changes but I’m so very happy that we did. We’ve met some wonderful people along the way and now my children are working with us, it’s a real family business.’

ABOUT THE GUESTMary Centofanti has a real passion for the brand and commitment to delivering premium quality hair care products and has been at the forefront of the business for over 35 years.
From humble beginnings, Mary Centofanti began her career with Dresslier as a fledgling receptionist in 1984. 23 years later, in 2007, Mary and her husband John acquired the then struggling business motivated to turn things around. Armed with a strong vision and a set of guiding principles that are steeped in passion, determination, integrity and community, they embarked on a decade long journey that has led them to where they are today, one of Australia’s leading hair care manufacturers.

Website: https://davroe.co.nz/
Instagram: @davroe.girl
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/marycentofanti/?originalSubdomain=au

ABOUT THE HOSTWelcome and thank you for reading this, I’m Nathan Plumridge salon owner and Hair Stylist. I’ve been in the industry for nearly 30 years and have been a salon owner for 23 of them. I have been fortunate enough to work and learn with some of the biggest names in the industry and this has given me the experience and drive to now be here with you sharing my experiences.

CONTACT DETAILSwww.hairlifeshow.com
Instagram is @nathan.hairlife
Email me at nathan@hairlifeshow.com

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this episode, Nathan is joined by Jessica Crane, author, entrepreneur, business coach, mother of two. And much more, to talk about her career and how salon owners can create generational wealth from their businesses.

Here is your affiliate link to the 2 Day Salon Summit 6th and 7th November – anyone who purchases a ticket through this link you will receive 50% of the ticket sales - all the details are on the page: https://siss.jessicacrane.co.uk/salon-summit?affiliate_id=3991444

KEY TAKEAWAYS

I realised from a young age – starting work at age 12 – that I was going to have to support myself, ain’t nobody coming to help me, I’m getting hand outs, no leg up, nothing. I need to decide what I want to do, get out there, create a plan, create an action plan and start these things in motion to be able to support myself.
In business you always have to be looking for the problems: What is the problem with this current business model? Because the solutions are you next business evolution. We want to have the flexibility to do the things we need to do as business owners but do them around our families so we can be there for our families too.
Just being good at your treatment/service/product is not enough. You could do that 10-15 years ago, but not anymore. Even if you’re talented, you will still be a best kept secret if you can’t properly market what you do to your clients and you’re not making those decisions from your numbers to your ideal clients and your vision, these are the big three dominos where every single business decision should come from. You can’t afford not to, it’s not an option anymore.
What’s missing from getting from where you are now to where you want to be? Most of the time it’s a gap in your knowledge, it’s something that you don’t know how to do. You can spend years trying to figure that out, or you can go and find somebody and ask them to teach you. When you’re looking for free information in Facebook groups and on Google, you don’t even know if those strategies work, you don’t know if that person is really able to help you or that the information and advice they’re giving you is correct, you’ guess and winging it. For most businesses you don’t have the luxury of that amount of time, cash flow and money to support you whilst you figure it out. You’ll likely run out of money first.

BEST MOMENTS

‘We run a business so that it provides for us, not us feeling a slave to our business.’

‘I have itchy feet. If I’m not learning, I don’t know what the next goal is or the next progression route, it’s almost like I feel trapped.’

‘Every year we set a budget aside to invest into coaches, it’s a first priority.’

‘Do your due diligence when looking for a coach before jumping in feet first, make the right decisions.’

ABOUT THE GUEST

Jessica Crane is an internationally award-winning salon business coach. Since the age of 12 Jessica has worked at every level within the industry. Starting out as a Saturday girl, commercial stylist to managing multiple award-winning salons and chains, to assessor, centre manager and internal verifier for a top outstanding private training provider. Jessica holds a degree in consulting and has spoken on multiple global stages for well-known industry brands.

With over 20 years industry experience she has helped hundreds of salon owners across the globe run the business of their dreams living the life they dreamed of when they first opened their salon door.

Website: www.jessicacrane.co.uk

Online consultation booking link: https://calendly.com/jessica-ssc/free-50-minute

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jessicacranesiss/

ABOUT THE HOST

Welcome and thank you for reading this, I’m Nathan Plumridge salon owner and Hair Stylist. I’ve been in the industry for nearly 30 years and have been a salon owner for 23 of them. I have been fortunate enough to work and learn with some of the biggest names in the industry and this has given me the experience and drive to now be here with you sharing my experiences.

CONTACT DETAILS

www.hairlifeshow.com

Instagram is @nathan.hairlife

Email me at nathan@hairlifeshow.com

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this episode, Nathan is joined by Jayne Lewis-Orr who is, quite simply, a hair industry icon. Her passion for the industry over the last 25 years as the executive director of the Hairdresser’s Journal is why Jayne is so well respected by every hairdresser.
There’s a slight audio issue on this one that we just couldn’t work around, but I’m sure after a few minutes you’ll tune your ears to it.
KEY TAKEAWAYS

I was set on becoming a journalist in the hair and beauty industry and I was really fortunate to land a role on hair and beauty and, frankly, I’d have taken any role on that. I didn’t have a background in hairdressing, mu Auntie was a hairdresser, but that was it really. When you work in a publisher with all different titles you could tell the people that were coming in to see the Hairdressers Journal team, they were vibrant and fun and enigmatic and I thought “that’s going to be a cool place to hang out” and I’ve never gone away! I started off in the sales team in an admin role and moved into an editorial role eventually becoming the editor-in-chief.
The pandemic has changed the way people want to work and that’s fine. But, one thing we have to do collectively and as a united front is make sure that people know that hairdressing is a fantastic place to work. The opportunities in the industry are second to none. You can travel the world, you can be self-made, you can be successful, the only thing that limits you is your own imagination, not age, sexual preference, anything. But it is hard, hard work.
Hairdressers are with you through the best and worst times of your life. They’re there when you get married and have a family, they’re there when your hair falls out because you’ve had a baby, they’re there when you lose a relative, they’re a constant. I tell my hairdresser more than I tell anybody else. Hairdressers have amazing empathy and that skill can make people feel great.
We’re only as good as the last magazine we put out or the last event. Whilst we are the market leader, I never take that for granted. It’s getting people to understand how passionate this industry is about their own craft. Like at this event, people are supportive of other people winning, even if they’ve lost themselves they are genuinely supportive of other people winning and that’s a cool place to be.

BEST MOMENTS‘Whilst, obviously, you have to have a commercial aspect to the magazine, we’re recognised by our partners for writing for our readers, that makes it authoritative, independent and honest.’
‘The only good thing to come out of Covid was that hairdressing became recognised as a fourth emergency service.’
‘I love this market, it’s my preferred child… my sons are actually here, so I probably shouldn’t say that but it really is.’
‘I’m hugely passionate about extolling the virtues of the craft and why it’s such a good place to be.’
ABOUT THE GUESTJayne Lewis-Orr started her career as a junior assistant in the Hair & Beauty Group at Reed Business Information and worked her way up, having qualified as a journalist, to become Editor-in-Chief of the portfolio. She is now Executive Director of the Professional Beauty Group that includes the Hairdressers Journal International, Salon International, Professional Beauty and Aesthetic Medicine brands. All of these have a multi-channel approach to their content with events, awards, print, online and social media channels.
Actively involved in the hair and beauty industry for 30+ years, Jayne is an effective member of industry associations and bodies and is a director of the industry charity.
ABOUT THE HOSTWelcome and thank you for reading this, I’m Nathan Plumridge salon owner and Hair Stylist. I’ve been in the industry for nearly 30 years and have been a salon owner for 23 of them. I have been fortunate enough to work and learn with some of the biggest names in the industry and this has given me the experience and drive to now be here with you sharing my experiences.
CONTACT DETAILSwww.hairlifeshow.com
Instagram is @nathan.hairlife
Email me at nathan@hairlifeshow.com

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this episode, Nathan is joined by Angeline Hayden, a teacher, salon industry educator, award winning business coach, podcaster and outdoor challenge seeker, to talk about how to provide better service in the hair and beauty industry.
KEY TAKEAWAYS

I was a salon owner for 12-13 years who ran the business. I always looked at things from the point of view of the client as well as the stylists, the team and running the business. I got to a point where I got as far as I could go for myself and I wasn’t interested in training stylists and beauticians, I wanted to go into the education side of the salon while staying in the industry I love. I trained as a teacher, I’m now an assessor, I did a body language specialist course as well as mystery shopping. Then I developed Midas Customer Service Training, with my husband Gary, and I now do one-to-one and group coaching and I love my job.
Sometimes the only thing that separates you from the salon up the road is your level of customer service. That’s why it’s so important to give, not just to every client, but every single day they’re in the salon to every single client.
You’ve got to look at the customer’s journey through the salon. There are different touch points. When the client comes into the salon, the first thing I do is to teach them meet/greet body language and first impression. Especially with younger people, because our younger professionals don’t always have the confidence to make really good eye contact with someone. When you make eye contact with somebody you begin to trust that person. We teach them to build and make trusting relationships in the salon because, as we know, if you trust someone you’re more likely to buy from them.
Complacency is a big issue. Never assume what the client wants every single time because they’ll surprise you sometimes. You are the professional, you are the one who should be educating them and solving their problems. They come to you because they’ve got problems, whether it’s hair, nails, skin, lashes, whatever. What you’ve got to do is use a bit of empathy skills, put yourself in their shoes, how would you feel if it was you? We get better at empathy as we get older, so coaching young people empathy skills is vital to their success with their clients.

BEST MOMENTS‘If you stay in the industry that you know, you’ll be able to use your own expertise to be able to service your own customers.’
‘People will forget what you said and people will forget what you did, but people will never forget who you made them feel.’
‘If you make a bad impression it can take up to seven more times after that for someone to begin to change how they feel about you, get it wrong and you’ve got lots of repairing to do.’
‘If you don’t recognise bad customer service you can’t make it great.’
ABOUT THE GUESTAngeline Hayden has been in the Hairdressing and Beauty Industry, owning salons for over 10 years. Prior to this she was working in telecommunications with BT. She is also a body language specialist and qualified mystery shopper.
Angeline will be a great contact for you to discuss your customer service requirements. Her attention to detail will surpass all expectations ensuring that her clients’ journey is exceptional,
Royal Marines Commando assault course is a firm favourite for a weekend pastime! But she also loves a Spa day!
Website: https://midascustomerservicetraining.co.uk/
ABOUT THE HOSTWelcome and thank you for reading this, I’m Nathan Plumridge salon owner and Hair Stylist. I’ve been in the industry for nearly 30 years and have been a salon owner for 23 of them. I have been fortunate enough to work and learn with some of the biggest names in the industry and this has given me the experience and drive to now be here with you sharing my experiences.
CONTACT DETAILSwww.hairlifeshow.com
Instagram is @nathan.hairlife
Email me at nathan@hairlifeshow.com

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this episode, Nathan is joined by Joe Hemmings, a multi-salon owner, multi-award winner, and part of the new generation of salon owners that are challenging the norms by giving his team and his guests truly something different.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

I started on the 13th July 2010 and it naturally evolved from doing A-Levels at school to apprenticeships. I was talked out of becoming a hairdresser at school because it wasn’t seen as a great career, and ever since then I’ve had a bit of a bugbear to prove people wrong, it can be a great career. I went self-employed at first to get a feel for accounts and paperwork. Then I opened my own salon and went from there. I learned a lot more lessons than I thought I was going to! For the first year I was on my own at the shop, working 12-hour days six days a week to pay off what I’d spent setting the salon up. Then I started to employ.
I feel like I’ve just about nailed balancing multiple salons, I didn’t for years and years. Thankfully my partner is massively supportive. My working week is: Mondays is my day for personal development or pushing myself (two years ago I started doing public speaking workshops, for example), Tuesday is a management day where I spend it with the managers of the shops, Wednesday is clientele from 8am-8pm, Thursday is free so I can be with my team, Friday I’m with my daughters, Saturday in the salon and Sunday is my day off. Though that’s a recent thing. I took until Covid for me to pass on certain jobs to other people in the company so I can spend more time with my family.
What is culture? It’s so hard to put your finger on it, and every salon id different. But I think it’s what people do every day without even thinking about it. You don’t need contracts written down every day to create culture, it’s just how people behave, what they believe in, and I’m really passionate on that – I want a team where everyone is equal, the same as the owner. I’ll do the bins, sweep the floors and the apprentices can do a blow dry or a toner. I try to mix it up as much as I can to keep it a level playing field.
We’ve all worked for bosses in the past where you’re terrified you’ll make a mistake and you’ll get an absolute rollicking on the shop floor or in front of everybody. You don’t get the best out of people in that situation. You need to get people who want to be themselves and celebrate them being themselves and working how they want to work under the umbrella of a company where everyone is an individual, but they come together and work together.

BEST MOMENTS

‘The first person I employed was an old boss of mine who had retired. I wanted someone I could trust and knew how to run their own business.’

‘Be the bigger person and go with your gut feeling.’

‘Delegation wasn’t something I naturally wanted to do because from day one I always held all the strings and made the decisions, it was my business my way. But, in the last few years, I’ve realised that’s the wrong attitude to have as a business owner. You should have people alongside you in the business who can make decisions that have an impact on the business.’

‘Recently I’ve had a couple of members of staff go through really tough times, and everybody steps up, everyone helps them out, no one blames anyone. We move clients around, people on their day off comes in, people stay late. That, to me, means more than awards ever will.’

ABOUT THE GUEST

Joe Hemmings is the owner of Bloggs Salons:

My passion within hairdressing was to create something special that everyone involved could be proud of and that betters its people’s lives. The salon is such a creative and fun place to be and has been built on the incredible loyalty by the team and also our clients who over the years have become one big family. The community that we have built around us means that our salons aren’t just places to get your hair done but where you can be you and tell your own story.

My favourite celebrity hairstyle is Michelle Williams as she looks beautiful with a short pixie crop or a grown out bob. My passion is shorter styles whether it be a pixie or bob but still allowing femininity and a softness within the style.

Website: https://www.bloggssalons.co.uk/

Socials: @joehemmingshair

ABOUT THE HOST

Welcome and thank you for reading this, I’m Nathan Plumridge salon owner and Hair Stylist. I’ve been in the industry for nearly 30 years and have been a salon owner for 23 of them. I have been fortunate enough to work and learn with some of the biggest names in the industry and this has given me the experience and drive to now be here with you sharing my experiences.

CONTACT DETAILS

www.hairlifeshow.com

Instagram is @nathan.hairlife

Email me at nathan@hairlifeshow.com

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this episode, recorded after he got back from holiday and a day after the Queen passed away, Nathan talks about service, what it is and how you can deliver service that defines your business in its market.
KEY TAKEAWAYS

We are now in a time where your business doesn’t really have many things that can truly separate it from your competition. Pretty much everything can be copied, from your salon interior, software system, branding, marketing, apps, the croissants and coffee you give away for breakfast, these are all things that can be replicated. What will define your business is the service you deliver.
Think about experiences you’ve had somewhere where they went above and beyond and the journey and all of the things you’d like your guests to feel during that journey. What can you get your team to deliver? It has to come from the top, you have to eat and breathe the culture that you want your business to be and it has to start from outside your business; what does it look like from the outside and does the business represent great service? What does it mean to you?

BEST MOMENTS‘I don’t think there’s a greater example of anyone showing us what service is, our Queen gave service for over 70 years and that is and should be a true inspiration to anyone.’
‘A huge amount of our reviews now focus on the experience they had with that stylist and how that stylist made them feel, the emotional element of that.’
ABOUT THE HOSTWelcome and thank you for reading this, I’m Nathan Plumridge salon owner and Hair Stylist. I’ve been in the industry for nearly 30 years and have been a salon owner for 23 of them. I have been fortunate enough to work and learn with some of the biggest names in the industry and this has given me the experience and drive to now be here with you sharing my experiences.
CONTACT DETAILSwww.hairlifeshow.com
Instagram is @nathan.hairlife
Email me at nathan@hairlifeshow.com

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this episode Nathan talks to British hairdressing icon, Errol Douglas, to talk about his career as a hairdresser and salon owner.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

My ex-wife, Jo, was frustrated with me always coming home unhappy from my job as an ambassador for other salons and companies. She said: “Why don’t you open a shop or start your own business?” I was fortunate enough to live in London and so I was always enthralled by fashion and I was earning a lot of money, my accountant – Kim – became my business partner who had a background in property law, so she was a great fit. That changed my life. But it was the most challenging thing ever, opening up in Knightsbridge where there was a lot of snobbery and the high rental charges. But we got in and are still there 24 years later.
People think it’s materialism but it’s not, you’ve got to take in the ambiance of your area; if it’s going to be trendy, Shoreditch, open floors, walls and concrete then do that, but if you’re attracting that person who’s always travelling first class or getting a private jet and you’re getting recommendations from the best hotels in Knightsbridge, come on and do the maths!
The lowest point in my life was getting divorced. Jo was my pillar of strength, we had four kids, though our first child passed away, and I thought marriage was for life and we were a team. So, when that broke up I thought someone had buried me, it took me ages to get right. Being a typical Capricorn, I threw myself completely into work and capped everything else off. It was tough. The light at the end of the tunnel was realising we were never getting back together and that I had too many other mouths to feed and I had to pull it together and be a leader, especially for my kids.
If you’re trying to find where you’re going, you have to write a few things down that really motivate you. And you have to be realistic, if you live in Wales or Manchester you have to ask yourself if you’re going to stay in that area or come down south. You have to target people, write down who inspires you, what section of hairdressing inspires you, who you want to have an apprenticeship with – because people who flit around on apprenticeships tend not to finish.

BEST MOMENTS

‘Being in business is not all about being creative, you have to understand your vehicle.’

‘My inspirations in this business were John Frida, but he was a bit of a gentleman, but Nicky Clarke was the first rock star. I was enthralled by them because they were British, I got to know them and work with them, they were iconic.’

‘Our industry is synonymous with bringing everyone together and our events are copied by other industries. It’s one of the best professions in terms of high points and endorphins in the world.’

‘Open small, have at least one person you can trust to share the load because you can’t and shouldn’t be doing everything. Also, don’t over-spend on anything, stock, wages, extravagances. Put something aside if you can, try not to have an overdraft if you can, keep it realistic and small and if you can, don’t sign your life away.’

ABOUT THE GUEST

Errol Douglas first started working in an East London salon aged 11. He gained his initial qualifications at Roger Heart's age 16. During this time, he met Paul Edmonds and moved to Neville Daniel. When Paul Edmonds opened his own salon in 1984, Errol became Edmonds' Artistic Director until he opened his own salon business in Belgravia in 1998.

Errol’s session styling and fashion work is regularly featured in magazines such as Vogue, Harpers & Queen, Tatler, Red, Cosmopolitan and Elle. He has worked with a number of notable clients, including Diana Ross, Brad Pitt, Barbra Streisand, Cindy Crawford, Naomi Campbell, Melanie Griffith, Dawn French, Jennifer Saunders, Iman, Kelly Brook, Emilia Fox, Sophie Anderton, Annie Lennox, Cat Deeley, Lady Victoria Hervey, Lady Helen Windsor, Uma Thurman, Pamela Anderson, Lenny Kravitz and Forest Whitaker.

Errol has won a host of industry awards during his career and was even presented with an MBE by the Queen in 2008 for services to hairdressing.

He is a regular contributor to live shows and seminars including performances around the globe and has also taken part in the World Hairdressing Congress, BBC Clothes Show Live, Cosmopolitan Show, The Wedding Show, BBC Fashion Live and the Prima Baby Show. More recently, Errol has had a weekly slot on the Boot's Wellbeing channel, appeared on the Disney Channel, Davina McCall's 'Oblivion', Channel Four's 'Model Behaviour' and BBC 2's 'Tell it to me Straight'.

Websites: https://www.erroldouglas.com/ and https://www.erroldouglas.club/home

Instagram: @erroldouglasldn

ABOUT THE HOST

Welcome and thank you for reading this, I’m Nathan Plumridge salon owner and Hair Stylist. I’ve been in the industry for nearly 30 years and have been a salon owner for 23 of them. I have been fortunate enough to work and learn with some of the biggest names in the industry and this has given me the experience and drive to now be here with you sharing my experiences.

CONTACT DETAILS

www.hairlifeshow.com

Instagram is @nathan.hairlife

Email me at nathan@hairlifeshow.com

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this episode Nathan talks about how he’s noticed a lot of mixed up feelings around him lately from salon owners and guests that come into the salon about how they’re currently dealing with everything that’s going on in the world. Nathan has been working with his mentor recently on things that he hopes, once he’s shared them with you on this podcast, will help you achieve a more positive general outlook.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

I’ve started to really work on my morning routine – having a good morning routine is proven to have a lasting positive effect on our body and, most importantly, on our brains. The first thing I do when I wake up is drink a glass of water – almost a pint – because you dehydrate so much when you sleep. I make my bed straight away. I do a five minute journal about dreams or thoughts I had during my sleep, what’s ahead for the day, and three things I’m grateful for – it basically clears your head of things and lets you start the day clear.
I’ve got what my kids call my “green goo”, which is basically a drink called Athletic Greens, for me it’s an essential mix of all the vitamins and minerals that my body needs to give me a great hit for the day. It’s also really good for gut health which is really important.
I’ve started to get more and more focussed on my personal ‘why’. Why am I doing this? Why am I running my business? I’ve also started to think about the impact that I can have, not only on me but on the people around me. It’s really noticeable when you’re in a really upbeat, positive frame of mind and then you get these battery drainers that come into your salon and it’s like they try to take you down to their level. Learn to let these people and their thoughts wash over you. The best way to do this is to have an incredibly positive peer group (others that run their own business/salon) that you can talk to and quash any of those negative thoughts that tend to sit on your shoulders.
Where I’ve learned most, and I think it will help you feel more motivated and quash any negativity is to understand that negativity – or that word – is simply just an emotional feeling that you give to a situation. You have the opportunity to change that feeling from bad to good, literally with the flick of a switch, or a smile. Tell yourself out loud “get going!” and take action.

BEST MOMENTS

‘Breathe in. Getting plenty of oxygen into the body makes you feel so much better.’

‘I’ve taken to exercising in the morning, no more than 20 minutes. Studies show that those who exercise in the morning get much better sleep at night.’

‘Having a broad group of peers is going to really help you because they’re going to give you different feelings and thoughts. We can probably all do with mixing it up a little bit.’

‘Simply smiling gives you a hit of ceratonin.’

ABOUT THE HOST

Welcome and thank you for reading this, I’m Nathan Plumridge salon owner and Hair Stylist. I’ve been in the industry for nearly 30 years and have been a salon owner for 23 of them. I have been fortunate enough to work and learn with some of the biggest names in the industry and this has given me the experience and drive to now be here with you sharing my experiences.

CONTACT DETAILS

www.hairlifeshow.com

Instagram is @nathan.hairlife

Email me at nathan@hairlifeshow.com

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this episode Nathan talks about how you – as a salon owner – are probably having to deal with quite a lot right now and how you can deal with feelings of overwhelm as a business owner.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

When I say “overwhelm”, I mean that feeling that everything is coming on top of you, like being buried alive, and you don’t have the answer to everything. I feel like this sometimes in the business, that there are moments where everything is attacking you and you do know what to do.
I’ve talked to a lot of salon owners recently that are fed up and have had enough of running a business and just want to go back to being a stylist again without any of the stresses and aggravation, which is such a shame. If that’s you, just take a minute and think about if it’s the right decision.
Focus on your diet and exercise, they will ultimately aid to helping you feel so much better as well as help you get good, quality sleep, which will also help.
There is a solution to absolutely everything. It may take time and it depends how long you’ve been in business and how long you intend to be in business. Put together a priority list and physically write it down to get it out of your head. Once you’ve identified your problem(s), it makes it a lot easier to break them down.

BEST MOMENTS

‘You are definitely not alone, but ultimately that doesn’t stop you waking up and having those feelings of overwhelm.’

‘Firstly, just breathe. Properly and slowly. Get yourself calm in order to make the right decisions and stop these feelings of overwhelm.’

‘Make a financial plan. Call your accountant, arrange a meeting, because sitting down and having a look at what your most important costs are, what you can get rid of, what you can make leaner and what you can spread. Chat to your bank also and see what they can do for you – extending an overdraft or your payments. Give yourself some breathing space.’

‘Talk to your team. They want to be part of a great team and work in your amazing salon, be honest and ask them questions or for help, they are the most vital part of your business. Many hands make light work.’

ABOUT THE HOST

Welcome and thank you for reading this, I’m Nathan Plumridge salon owner and Hair Stylist. I’ve been in the industry for nearly 30 years and have been a salon owner for 23 of them. I have been fortunate enough to work and learn with some of the biggest names in the industry and this has given me the experience and drive to now be here with you sharing my experiences.

CONTACT DETAILS

www.hairlifeshow.com

Instagram is @nathan.hairlife

Email me at nathan@hairlifeshow.com

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this episode Nathan explains why he’s been away for the last few weeks, it was a time of reflection where he took some time to really think about his business and this show. What have been some of the challenges and what are the opportunities to future-proof the business?

KEY TAKEAWAYS

As a salon owner, like me, you are definitely starting to notice the difference in every part of your business. We have just ended our best year ever, but when you look at the bottom line you realise there isn’t a lot of cheese left. I’ve never been in that situation because I’ve always run our business as a proper business: focussed on profit, reinvesting capital back into my team and the business and continually trying to help it grow and scale
We all know our costs are rising in so many different areas, costs on loans have changed, inflation has gone past 10% so everything has gone up having a huge effect on your bottom line. But, I took a step back and started looking at it in a positive nature and I thought: “What can we do to start future-proofing the salon?” We’ve got 6-18 months before there’s a slowdown. Let’s focus on the short term.
How long until your clients drop a week off between visits? That length of appointments might start to stretch because families might start feeling the pinch and will cut back on certain things. You’ve probably got team members who are asking to be paid more for doing exactly the same job because they’re also starting to feel the impact of these things as well. We are also starting to make sure that, as a business owner, we look after our teams – they are your stock. What additional services can you offer? There’s probably more that you can do.
How about offering a subscription service for your clients where every 8 weeks you send them a bottle of shampoo and conditioner and a styling product. Could you offer a loyalty programme where you offer your guests better rewards? Don’t give then a percentage off because it’s no good for you as a business, give them a free service, like a blow-dry or treatment, this way you’re utilising other members of your team.

BEST MOMENTS

‘It doesn’t matter almost what you do. It’s the first time in a long time that I’ve not really had too many answers.’

‘Our industry, particularly the hair industry is one thing that people now can’t live without. The pandemic showed us that. I’m confident in this.’

‘What can we do as salon owners to start preparing? I think you’ll have to get a little more strategic and start looking at every single part of your business. One of the best ways to do this is pretend to be your guest, open the door and look at every part of it, how does it look and smell and how are you greeted? Focus on the client journey from the moment they enter to the moment they leave. What are areas you can work on?’

‘I’d much rather lose some of my margin to make sure that our guests have much better quality hair when they come into the salon. I’m sure, if you talk to you’re open and honest with your product companies they will give you a better discount.’

ABOUT THE HOST

Welcome and thank you for reading this, I’m Nathan Plumridge salon owner and Hair Stylist. I’ve been in the industry for nearly 30 years and have been a salon owner for 23 of them. I have been fortunate enough to work and learn with some of the biggest names in the industry and this has given me the experience and drive to now be here with you sharing my experiences.

CONTACT DETAILS

www.hairlifeshow.com

Instagram is @nathan.hairlife

Email me at nathan@hairlifeshow.com

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this episode Nathan is joined by the founders of Wellity Global, Simon Scott-Nelson and Sadie Restorick. These two amazing entrepreneurs are changing the way businesses are looking after their teams by creating phenomenal health and wellbeing programmes that are designed to help break the confines of work expectations and pressures whilst allowing you to feel empowered to manage your own wellbeing.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

We’ve made some progress in breaking down stigmas and taboos around mental health in the workplace, but there’s still a long way to go. What managers can do to encourage people to open up… it’s got to be persistent patience, it does take time. If you think of it as a wall or a barrier that some people put up in relation to showing what they’re really felling, that wall has to be broken down brick by brick, you can’t come in with a sledgehammer and smash it down and expect everyone to allow themselves to be vulnerable because that’s really difficult to do.
Wellity covers everything to do with the individual, once we can help the individual they can bring their true selves to work. But that depends on a myriad of different things that make us up as humans. What Wellity is is training and consultancy, we have about 300-400 titles of wellbeing which they can access by group seminars, webinars, e-learning facilities, downloadable resources, posters and engagements. We help to create the culture within your organisation that makes it an everyday, normalised conversation around mental health and allows them to really realise that they’re not alone with their thoughts, that everyone has these things.
Stress hormones make us blinkered and reactive. People don’t realise how they’re feeling until they get to that breaking point. This is because of the way the stress hormones make us feel “now, now, now, do, do, do, I must fulfil these appointments, I must churn through all these different things to make that money”. It’s about teaching people how and when to take off those blinkers, and how to recognise the signs. Chronic stress affects our creativity, innovation, things that are really important in relation to work and when that starts to diminish we push ourselves harder to try and achieve. It's a slippery slope.
People want to try to fix things straight away, but you might be coming at that from your angle, not theirs. People don’t need fixing necessarily if they’re coming to you with some sort of problem, they might want you to observe it, but they don’t want it fixed. They want you to step into their darkness and just sit there for a bit and see it through their eyes, only then will you get a feel for the emotion, the temperature, whether it’s going darker.

BEST MOMENTS

‘Managers need to go first and openly talk about their own experiences, the struggles they’re navigated and that it’s generally OK to talk openly in the workplace about your mental health and wellbeing in the same way that you would talk about having a really bad headache. We have to normalise it.’

‘Last year 89% of professionals reported suffering from burnout. It’s something that’s quite a concern across the working population at the moment.’

‘Any effort to promote, encourage and optimise employee wellbeing has to come across as genuine and authentic, it really has to be felt by those individuals that “my company really cares”, not just because mental health is all over social media and the news at the moment and is the current thing on trend. That has to be positioned really really well.’

‘Essentially, psychological safety is taking interpersonal risks, it’s allowing ourselves to be open and honest and say “hey, I made a mistake with this”, “hey, I’ve got an idea” and know that we’re not going to get shot down whether that’s with management or colleagues.’

ABOUT THE GUESTS

Sadie Restorick is a global speaker, consultant, trainer and published academic scholar specialising in workplace mental health and wellbeing and psychosocial risk management.

Sadie has worked in the field for over 10 years providing consultancy and training to some of the largest companies in the world. She has worked with companies of all sizes to develop mental health strategies that are fit for purpose, auditing organisations on their existing strategies and helping stakeholders develop an approach that fits the needs of their people and their businesses.

Having spent over 20 years in business and corporate leadership across various industries, Founder of Wellity Simon Scott-Nelson discovered first-hand the importance of creating a rewarding work environment for people. After a period of burnout, Simon realised his vocation was to normalise the conversation around mental health and established Wellity.

He went on to participate in a number of pioneering initiatives, which included his eldest daughter working with Jamie Oliver and the government on the youth advisory board of the BiteBack 2030 charity and receiving messages of support from Jonny Wilkinson, Gabby Logan, Dylan Hartley and Don Armand among many others. He is now the Chair of the ISM Mental Health and Wellbeing Committee, a global speaker, advisor and national champion for mental health charity Mind.

Website: https://www.wellityglobal.com/

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/wellity/

Socials: @BeWellity

Email: hello@wellityglobal.com

ABOUT THE HOST

Welcome and thank you for reading this, I’m Nathan Plumridge salon owner and Hair Stylist. I’ve been in the industry for nearly 30 years and have been a salon owner for 23 of them. I have been fortunate enough to work and learn with some of the biggest names in the industry and this has given me the experience and drive to now be here with you sharing my experiences.

CONTACT DETAILS

www.hairlifeshow.com

Instagram is @nathan.hairlife

Email me at nathan@hairlifeshow.com

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This episode of Hair Life is a companion piece to the last episode in which Nathan talked about the ten biggest business learnings he’s had over the years. In this episode he points out the top ten reasons salons and businesses fail and how you can avoid them.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

Growing too fast: While growing your salon is a desirable thing to do, over-expansion can be a serious error. Taking on additional overheads can spur you to overextend your business financially. Set yourself realistic goals and expand only if your needs dictate it.
Failing to track your finances: Many businesses that failed took on too much debt. Learn to pay strict attention to your finances and keep careful records of all money coming in and going out, particularly at the beginning phase.
Overspending: Many new salon/business owners burn through their start up capital before they get into a cash flow positive situation. This happens because of misconceptions around how salon businesses operate. You might have a really great week, but then you have two quiet weeks and you go into panic mode.
Be prepared for the unexpected rise in costs of things – utilities, materials, labour: Have enough reserve cash to carry you through unexpected times or seasonal slow downs. Try to put 5% away every week in a rainy day fund.
Poor choice of location: Don’t let a cheap lease tempt you into choosing the wrong location, consider your competition; how many similar salon businesses are located nearby? Is it accessible? Is the area really well served by great road access, plenty of public transport, good footfall, free parking? Ultimately people don’t want to walk too far after they’ve had a £200 cut and colour.
Poor execution: Poor guest services and overall team incompetence will quickly sink your business, make sure your team place a huge amount on delivering a premium guest service, make sure as an owner/manager that you develop systems and processes for how tasks should be accomplished that everyone can follow and deliver, and internal measures to monitor them.
An inadequate business plan: A one-to-five year plan that is well thought out will force you to think about the future and the challenges that you’re going to face. It also forces you to consider your own financial needs, your marketing financial plans and your competition, also your overall strategies. Keep chasing it, your plane will always change.
Failing to adapt and pivot with the times ahead: The ability to recognise opportunities and be flexible enough to adapt is crucial to surviving and ultimately thriving. Learn how to wear multiple hats, respond nimbly and develop new areas of expertise in your salon, what extra services could you offer? Keep asking your guests to see what they want.
Ineffective and inadequate marketing: Your guests can’t do business with you if they don’t know you’re there. It doesn’t cost a lot to advertise and promote your business through online marketing, social media, email, local searches, reviews and so much more. There are so many free and cheap advertising tools. Use them wisely and spend time really looking at your audience, but also look at how your audience perceives you, how do you look from the outside, do you attract your target audience?
Underestimating the competition: Your competition can be an effective source of business, but customer loyalty doesn’t just happen, you have to earn it. Watch your competition and stay one step ahead of them, if you don’t take care of your guests your competition will. Now more than ever the hair industry is all about guest experience, if you see someone else doing something that you think will help you grow your own business, do it. Everything is copied in some form or another.

BEST MOMENTS

‘While it may seem a matter of luck, in reality, there are some really common mistakes that kill so many businesses even before they get off the ground.’

‘Seek out seasoned business owners and ask for advice before making any big expenditures because it’s very easy to rush in and spend money unnecessarily.’

‘Treat your business like baking a cake, create a recipe for what you want it to look and taste like that your team can literally follow to the letter. That will enable you to achieve your goals.’

‘The high street is a prime example of companies that did not adapt quick enough before the pandemic and after it and is why a lot of those big household names have gone. Smaller businesses have a better ability to react and bounce quickly.’

ABOUT THE HOST

Welcome and thank you for reading this, I’m Nathan Plumridge salon owner and Hair Stylist. I’ve been in the industry for nearly 30 years and have been a salon owner for 23 of them. I have been fortunate enough to work and learn with some of the biggest names in the industry and this has given me the experience and drive to now be here with you sharing my experiences.

CONTACT DETAILS

www.hairlifeshow.com

Instagram is @nathan.hairlife

Email me at nathan@hairlifeshow.com

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this episode Nathan talks about the ten biggest business learnings he’s had over the last 24 years, but more specifically from the last ten years.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

Competitors can be your best source of revenue. I was terrified of the competition when I first started as a hairdresser and meant I worked 6 days a week doing 12 hours shifts. After I started meeting my competition, they all seemed to be doing the same as me. But after a while I realised there are plenty of guests to go around and some guests don’t suit on salon but will suit another.
Fear is what kills us – tell it to take a running jump! The last three years have been my most fearful time in business because we scaled up which meant more pressure to impress the guests, I had to scale up my team, and I had a family within the last 10 years which added an extra fear factor I’d never felt before. Since listening to Tony Robbins and doing a few of his courses like ‘The Power Within’ which teaches you to notice internally what’s going on and utilising your strengths, I’ve become more fearless, it’s enabled me to snap out of fear and stop worrying about the things that used to keep my up at night.
People buy people not services. Ultimately we’re a service industry, but there are team members who have an innate ability to build incredible relationships with their guests, who they often keep for life. The hairdressing industry is an incredibly personal service, it’s like wellness on a huge level. Build a really good consultation service (in the hair, beauty or fitness industries), this will enable your team to get on with doing what it does best.
Retention is easy. There can be a very high rate of attrition within hairdressing, some people like to try out different salons. It’s so important to make a great first impression so guests come back two or three times. Once they’ve come back a few times, they’re now part of your family. Don’t only concentrate on finding new business, remember your loyal guests, don’t take them for granted. Give them the new client service every single time.
Great people lead to great results. Hiring has been the hardest thing for me over the last 24 years. Without great employees you can’t have a great company. Ask if the person feels right, have they a skill set, does it look like they can talk to a client well, are they going to fit with the business? We’ve all made bad hires and they’ve all had significant impact on the business. Use technology – We’ve started using the Myers-Briggs 16 personality traits as a tool to look at the perfect energy stylist.
Business is maths. Revenue + Expenses = Profit, therefore every single business decision that you make is a maths problem. If you don’t like maths and you don’t have plans to hire a bookkeeper you’re going to have a bad time. I learned fairly early on that having a decent accountant/bookkeeper and leaning your numbers to know where your business is is a huge benefit, especially now costs for everything have gone up.
One too many is the only way to scale. We’ve grown over the last 24 years by employing more stylists than we’ve often needed sometimes. There’s a risk involved there, especially around cost, but you can only grow your business by employing or having more hours that you can sell otherwise you’ll plateau. Alternatively, do you want to grow? Scaling isn’t for everybody.
Change does not have to be scary. Change happens every single day, particularly in a hair salon and particularly in the past couple of years. You navigate constant change on a daily basis, it comes with the territory, but your core business never changes. What changes are people’s expectations, services we offer, your team, the business landscape. Change is exciting, it keeps your business evolving and growing.
Perfectionism is lethal. I want things to be perfect all the time, but there’s no such thing. You’re better off with a kick-ass half than a half-assed whole. Get started and get perfect later. I’m 24 years into a business and I’m only feeling now that I’m becoming the boss I always wanted to be.
Love what you do. People say life is short, but I’m not sure it is. I’m 45 and I could potentially live to 110-130, I’m not sure if I want to, so let’s say I live to 90, that’s the whole of my life again. I lean new things all the time but one thing I’ll never lose is my love for the hairdressing industry. Everything I’ve talked about in this podcast is about people at every single level.

BEST MOMENTS

‘These valuable business lessons have played a crucial role in our ability to survive as a business and thrive as a company. But it’s also given me the ability to enjoy a flexible and incredibly rewarding lifestyle as a salon owner and entrepreneur.’

‘Reassess your business every year.’

‘Having children changes everything. Your responsibility suddenly increases.’

‘Don’t let fear destroy your dreams.’

ABOUT THE HOST

Welcome and thank you for reading this, I’m Nathan Plumridge salon owner and Hair Stylist. I’ve been in the industry for nearly 30 years and have been a salon owner for 23 of them. I have been fortunate enough to work and learn with some of the biggest names in the industry and this has given me the experience and drive to now be here with you sharing my experiences.

CONTACT DETAILS

www.hairlifeshow.com

Instagram is @nathan.hairlife

Email me at nathan@hairlifeshow.com

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this episode Nathan talks about developing an inspired and driven team by getting rid of the d***heads in your team.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

Life’s been throwing me a few curve balls recently and it’s made me look at things within our salon and business in general. It’s also made me look at who is in our salon, my team and the team as individuals, how they work and how they act as a team.
In order to grown your business and your team you need a truly clear vision, but also a moto. Something that everyone can understand. The All Blacks rugby team have an absolute cracker: “no dheads allowed”. All business owners will agree that they put up with dheads for a long time and they can be some of the most productive and highest earning members of our team, and fear is what makes us keep those d***heads in our squad.
We’re all aware that preparation and practice are hugely essential elements to creating a winning team, particularly in a salon environment. Practicing everything as many times as possible so that every team member knows how to carry out every task under pressure to the highest standards and getting into the habit of making it frequent. Make training more regular.
Remove the d***heads from your team, don’t let fear control you, create a mantra/moto that your team will understand, prepare and practice everything with everyone regularly.

BEST MOMENTS

‘How do they work? Who are they? What are they? What’s their personality? Do they share? Are they a team player or a soloist?’

‘D***heads are no good for your business and they’re not good for your team.’

‘In order for us to make an inspired, well-driven, shared vision, goal focussed team, you need to d***heads gone. Simply: better people make better teams.’

‘For things to grow, everyone must be going in the same direction.’

ABOUT THE HOST

Welcome and thank you for reading this, I’m Nathan Plumridge salon owner and Hair Stylist. I’ve been in the industry for nearly 30 years and have been a salon owner for 23 of them. I have been fortunate enough to work and learn with some of the biggest names in the industry and this has given me the experience and drive to now be here with you sharing my experiences.

CONTACT DETAILS

www.hairlifeshow.com
Instagram is @nathan.hairlife
Email me at nathan@hairlifeshow.com

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this episode Nathan expresses his thoughts and feelings on the current state of the world and how keeping happy is a lot harder than you think.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

In 30 years of being a salon owner I’ve never ever experienced so many lows and messed up people with crazy, screwed up situations. It is not the world I want to be in.
Have you just had enough of it? Are you not fed up of hearing shit from your clients and friends, doesn’t it make you think why the hell am I not on some tropical desert island away from any social media and news?
I’ve always been one for journaling my thoughts. Never has there been a better time to write down what is good and what is bad, what you want to keep and what you want to get rid of, what’s keeping you down and what’s picking you up and start making changes based on that.

BEST MOMENTS

‘What the heck is going on with the world right now?! How is our planet so off course?’

‘How can we deal with this shit and just feel happy?’

ABOUT THE HOST

Welcome and thank you for reading this, I’m Nathan Plumridge salon owner and Hair Stylist. I’ve been in the industry for nearly 30 years and have been a salon owner for 23 of them. I have been fortunate enough to work and learn with some of the biggest names in the industry and this has given me the experience and drive to now be here with you sharing my experiences.

CONTACT DETAILS

www.hairlifeshow.com
Instagram is @nathan.hairlife
Email me at nathan@hairlifeshow.com

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this episode Nathan talks about bodies: Do we like them? How do we feel about them? And, if we don’t feel great about them, what can we do to make ourselves feel better?

KEY TAKEAWAYS

The issue of our bodies and body image has come up a lot in the last couple of weeks on the podcast as well as in my team. As a job, I talk daily to our guests in the salon and the team. I see and hear a lot about the issues and it’s especially a big subject with younger people and the age group between 35-50.
Social media has a lot of fitness experts and celebrities continuously posting with ‘the best body’, how to achieve it, what to eat or what training to do to promote muscle growth. We’re continually subjected to having the perfect body. This is these people’s job, where they earn their living, and they are showing their best self 24/7. We’d all be doing the same in their position. How much of it do you want to be subjected to?
I look at the poses that young women get into in a lot of pictures they take: the bending of the knee, the lifting of the ankle, the hand on the hip, the pouting lip. It seems like a lot of hard work to me! But it seems men are increasingly getting affected by this, seeing pictures of guys with perfect abs and muscles in all the right places. I want to be in good shape, strong and have definition, but I also like to eat and drink without thinking about it the whole time. It’s all about achieving balance in our lives.
We need to stop scrolling through social media, on average 18-22 year olds spend 4 hours a day on social media and the impact of that is huge. Put your phone down, think about who you’re following and clear out the things that make you feel bad about yourself. There are plenty of body positivity sites out there that you can access. Stop questioning who you are. Are your peer group making you question who you are? Surround yourself with battery chargers, not people who drain your battery. Never keep it locked away, there are so many resources out there to help you and for you to talk and get things off your chest. Please do that. If you can see the signs that your friend is feeling uncomfortable, suggest that they go and talk to someone, even if it isn’t you.

BEST MOMENTS

‘I don’t know what the perfect body is, but I think there is a healthy body.’

‘Covid and the lockdown has caused a growth in these markets because people had nothing to do.’

‘The impact I see on people, almost daily, is that they’re continuously dissatisfied with what they look like, particularly in pictures.’

‘We are all different, there’s no one-size-fits-all.’

ABOUT THE HOST

Welcome and thank you for reading this, I’m Nathan Plumridge salon owner and Hair Stylist. I’ve been in the industry for nearly 30 years and have been a salon owner for 23 of them. I have been fortunate enough to work and learn with some of the biggest names in the industry and this has given me the experience and drive to now be here with you sharing my experiences.

CONTACT DETAILS

www.hairlifeshow.com
Instagram is @nathan.hairlife
Email me at nathan@hairlifeshow.com

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this episode Nathan talks to three of the founding members of the Salon Employers Association (SEA) – Toby Dicker of the Chapel Group, Edward Hemmings of Alan D Education and Stephen Nurse of Daniel Galvin – to discuss how the hair industry needs changes to make it a fair playing field for salons who employ their teams.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

We initially set up a WhatApp group to try to make sense of the Government’s guidelines to Covid, because they were so confused and the language they used wasn’t very hairdressing friendly. We used it to make sure we were all on the same page, opening and closing at the same time, implementing the government’s guidelines in a similar fashion. It then grew organically from that when we noticed trade was declining and cost of employment was going up which led to a much wider conversation and we linked arms and embarked on this journey.
All we’re asking for is fairness and parity, if you’re running a traditional business hairdressing model, it’s impossible to compete with a salon down the road where the vast majority of the team is self-employed. We have to pay National Insurance contributions, holiday pay, pension… it’s not a level playing field. We’re not anti-self-employed, but we’re asking please, please make it fair.
I’d much rather take on 19-20 year olds who have got much more about them, but we’re forced to take on 16 year olds – which is age discrimination – because they are cheaper for us. That’s just stupid. Perhaps we need to make changes to the funding so perhaps the government covers some of the older people’s salaries, and/or a potential type of training bond which is formalised in our industry which encourages them to continue working for us so we can claw back some of the £30,000-40,000 training cost.
Salon owners should join us, follow us on social media, help us every time we put out a poll or survey or questionnaire. We’re at the right point in time to make this work. The more information that we have to go back to BEIS and Government with, the better and the more timely that information is. With that information we then build traction with the government, we’re not just going to go away.

BEST MOMENTS

‘It brought a certain industry together in a way it never had before, instead of being incredibly competitive with each other.’

‘The government has been very generous with grants over the last couple of years, but the last big one finished last April, which was £4000 per salon owner. There’s no benefit to “finishing” someone now.’

‘The only reason for doing the self-employed route, as a salon owner, is that it’s massively tax-beneficial and the legalities and moralities of that are there to be discussed. If we were paying less or they were paying an equal amount, there really wouldn’t be a problem.’

‘We’d like to see VAT reduced to 9%. Like it is in Ireland because what we’re selling is time. VAT as an input/output tax doesn’t work for us.’

ABOUT THE GUEST

The Salon Employers Association has been created to represent professional salons and protect and preserve the future of the industry through ensuring parity and campaigning for reform on fiscal & tax matters which directly affect the sector.

Website: http://www.salonemployersassociation.co.uk/

Instagram: @salonemployersassociation – Visit them here and answer the polls and surveys they post regularly

ABOUT THE HOST

Welcome and thank you for reading this, I’m Nathan Plumridge salon owner and Hair Stylist. I’ve been in the industry for nearly 30 years and have been a salon owner for 23 of them. I have been fortunate enough to work and learn with some of the biggest names in the industry and this has given me the experience and drive to now be here with you sharing my experiences.

CONTACT DETAILS

www.hairlifeshow.com
Instagram is @nathan.hairlife
Email me at nathan@hairlifeshow.com

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this episode Nathan talks to Béatrice Dautzenberg, Managing Director of L’Oréal Professional Products Division for the UK and Ireland, to celebrate International Women’s Day and share some tips and guidance on how to succeed both at work and at home.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

There is never a perfect balance between family life and work, I get asked this a lot by younger women. When I was a young mother and leader, I tried to do everything perfectly but that created tension. When I realised I could only do the best I could at home and at work things changed for the better. It’s all about your team, I believe in the power of the ‘dream team’ both with work when I need to do family things and the support from my husband when I need to do work events.
I try to step back, pause and breathe when things get challenging. I also believe in the power of collective intelligence. The more diverse your team is – in personality, ethnicity, gender – the more you have different points of view on each complex topic. I like to build scenarios of how to deal with these complex topics and run through them with the team, evaluate the pros and cons and then I can be confident we take the best option.
L’Oreal has a good ratio of women in management positions, 54% in the UK and Ireland, and does a lot to support women from the moment they start their career with training, to maternity leave where you get extra months to look after the baby. I was not even aware of a glass ceiling until I heard about it in training! You don’t have to behave, dress and wear your hair like a man to succeed, you can be yourself here.
The world would be a better place if more women were CEOs, high up in government, and even the arts. Companies that have more women (and more diversity in general) on their board and leadership teams achieve better performance. We need to show girls that they have strength and can be strong from a young age, the same as we tell boys. We need to have good role models, mentors and sponsoring in place to help with support and networking.

BEST MOMENTS

‘It’s very important to support and help your partner as much as they support you.’

‘When I have a good night’s sleep or get a swim in the morning I feel much better to take on challenges throughout the day and on the contrary, when I’m not able to look after myself it’s harder.’

‘Asking for help is very important.’

‘One thing you should do to help women is to become a mentor to them, it can’t start early enough; at school, for example.’

ABOUT THE GUEST

Béatrice has studied Business and Marketing in France and Spain before joining L’Oréal 14 years ago. She has worked in France, United Kingdom, Australia, Belgium and Canada across Sales, Operational Marketing, Co-Development with the Labs, International Strategy, Business Development & General Management. She is passionate about the endless opportunities offered by Techs, Digital, CRM (data-to-personalisation) and Artificial Intelligence to transform the way we collaborate, work and live. Béatrice believes in the power of Collective Intelligence & Leadership and explores with her team new ways of working & innovative tools to leverage it.

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/b%C3%A9atrice-dautzenberg-4a9a241

ABOUT THE HOST

Welcome and thank you for reading this, I’m Nathan Plumridge salon owner and Hair Stylist. I’ve been in the industry for nearly 30 years and have been a salon owner for 23 of them. I have been fortunate enough to work and learn with some of the biggest names in the industry and this has given me the experience and drive to now be here with you sharing my experiences.

CONTACT DETAILS

www.hairlifeshow.com
Instagram is @nathan.hairlife
Email me at nathan@hairlifeshow.com

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this episode Nathan talks about what else the Hair Life podcast is about: Living your best life. One of the biggest topics of discussion he’s noticed recently is keeping healthy as you age, so here he suggests some things you need to be aware of and some solutions for you to keep fit and feel good.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

Every salon worker and owner has probably worked a day in the salon where they feel beaten up by standing all day and moving in awkward positions. This is something I think about when I look around my salon and see people with hunched shoulders or arched backs – it really frustrates me. How can we correct that? Many not in the hair and beauty industry, like office workers suffer with these things daily.
I believe in getting the best help from the right -people, PTs, sports rehab trainers. This is your career, if you can have marginal gain each and every day that makes you feel better, it’s worth it. But, I know it costs. If you can’t afford to spend this much money on yourself there are a range of simple exercises you can do that will start helping you.
The essential ingredient to this is strength training which can be done in a number of different ways: tension bands, using your own body weight, then free weights and dumb bells will build muscle. It will make you feel 100% better. Looking and feeling good is what we should be and ageing well is what I want each and every one of you to do.
Go and stand in the mirror and look at yourself standing naturally in your underwear. Is there anything that doesn’t look quite right? Pictures don’t lie. This enabled me to look at what I needed to work on. Also, look at your shoes, where are they worn?

BEST MOMENTS

‘I’ve suffered with my shoulders being out of alignment and my pectoral muscles being shorter on my left side. That’s from holding a hairdryer like I do for 30 years.’

‘Through exercise and really good quality training, it’s freed up, my structure has changed, my shape is better. It’s about having a lion chest – shoulders back, tits out!’

‘Posture is really important for a hairdresser.’

‘If you don’t use energy, wasted energy turns into fat.’

ABOUT THE HOST

Welcome and thank you for reading this, I’m Nathan Plumridge salon owner and Hair Stylist. I’ve been in the industry for nearly 30 years and have been a salon owner for 23 of them. I have been fortunate enough to work and learn with some of the biggest names in the industry and this has given me the experience and drive to now be here with you sharing my experiences.

CONTACT DETAILS

www.hairlifeshow.com
Instagram is @nathan.hairlife
Email me at nathan@hairlifeshow.com

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this episode Nathan is joined by Ruari Fairbairns, co-founder of the One Year No Beer programme and author of the 28 Day Challenge to talk about the company he’s set up, the advantages of choosing not to drink and much more.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

I was a party boy when I became an oil broker, I was always the first to call for shots, the last man standing at the end of the night and usually naked. It was my way of dealing what was going on in my head; work like an addict during the week and party hard like there was no tomorrow at the weekend. But at work, the weekdays became the weekend when looking after customers. This caused issues and friction with my wife. I didn’t identify with people who couldn’t stop and didn’t need AA, in the back of my mind I knew the alcohol was holding me back, so I decided to take a break from booze (to which my boss said I was committing commercial suicide). I took the break, and everything got better, especially after the first month.
Many people don’t talk about their feelings or problems or even the darkness that they have. Early on we created a space of vulnerability where you could share and be completely honest where there’s no judgement.
The reason why you have a relationship with alcohol is because of society, watching everyone celebrate, commiserate and congratulate with booze at every occasion. All those neural pathways have been built up over time. In your 20s you’re right in amongst it but in your 30s and 40s it’s more about relaxing, unwinding and switching off. Trying to change your relationship with alcohol on your own with shame and blame is incredibly hard. If you do it with a community of supportive people who are inspiring you it’s a much more pleasing environment to be around.
This journey of setting up a business and trying to have a really big impact on the world is a huge challenge and that whenever you have to take steps back, or there are difficulties, they are incredible learning moments. The key thing is to have the mindset of “what am I learning in this?”

BEST MOMENTS

‘Whenever there’s pain it’s usually a sign to focus on something and change.’

‘It’s made me a better dad, a better husband, better at work’

‘It’s like a toxic relationship, everyone outside you can see what’s going on but you can’t.’

‘Most people have an epiphany between 40 and 60 days, which is why we push for people to go beyond 28 days. Doing a year without alcohol is one of the most incredible things you can do.’

ABOUT THE GUEST

Ruari grew up on the Isle of Mull in Scotland, where he set up his first business selling and servicing PCs on the Island at 16. He followed a career in sales and at the age of 25 he found himself in London as a commodities broker. He quickly established himself as a success and 10 years on he set up and manages one of the leading Jet Fuel desks.

After a few failed attempts, Ruari quit drinking and it fundamentally changed his life. Together with his colleague Andy Ramage, they decided to create something to change the peer pressure around giving up drinking. They founded a community of people that, for a variety of reasons, no longer have the patience to waste time dealing with the adverse effects of drinking alcohol. One Year No Beer was launched in 2016 and was more successful than they could have imagined.

Website: https://www.oneyearnobeer.com/

Social Media: @OYNB

ABOUT THE HOST

Welcome and thank you for reading this, I’m Nathan Plumridge salon owner and Hair Stylist. I’ve been in the industry for nearly 30 years and have been a salon owner for 23 of them. I have been fortunate enough to work and learn with some of the biggest names in the industry and this has given me the experience and drive to now be here with you sharing my experiences.

CONTACT DETAILS

www.hairlifeshow.com

Instagram is @nathan.hairlife

Email me at nathan@hairlifeshow.com

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this episode Nathan Plumridge follows on from last week’s podcast about costs and how they’re killing the salon industry. This week he focuses on marginal gains: What are they? These are something that top sports teams and individuals use every day in order to make them grow and make them the best that they can be. Just making a small tweak and increasing your potential by 1% can make a huge impact over time. There’s a great opportunity to use this in the hair industry and Nathan explains how.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

If you think about your bank account; if it grew 1% interest more each year and your compounded that interest over 10 years there would be a lit more money in your bank account. That’s just simple maths, that’s what good investment is, it’s all about investing the interest and compounding that down over a period of time.
Instead of setting really crazy goals that aren’t achievable, what about if you focus on 1% growth every week? Value it, look at what’s happened to the business in three months. Suddenly 1% a week will make a 12% increase in three months. That’s huge. Imagine that over 5 years, what’s the potential?
The first port of call for me is the client journey from start to finish. Stand at the front door of your business and think about what you could change. Is it tatty, could you change the imagery to make it more eye-catching to guests walking past or in. How does is feel when you walk through the door, could this be tweaked? First port of call is the front desk: See, Smile, Say Hello – the three S’s. How do your front of house team/stylists/assistance look? Are they professional-looking? What language and key words do they use? Do you make a good cup of coffee, can you tailor your drinks menu? Can you change the level of consultation? Could you get more from that client? Would they rebook more often? Would they buy more product?
I beg you to buy a book called ‘Profit First’. It’s so hard to make a profit now. So, start taking 1-3% of your profits every week and put it away into a separate bank account and let it disappear from your mind’s eye. That will grow and at the end of the year you may get some cash to show over your accounting profit by the end of the year.

BEST MOMENTS

‘A smile is a pretty big marginal gain, if you smile all day every single day, it could change your life for the better and give you an even better life. People would think you were always happy.’

‘This can be applied to every part of your life. Living cleaner, drinking more water, sleeping better. The difference you feel each morning is better.’

‘I think this is 100% doable, and every day this is being done by some of the biggest and best individuals in sports and business.’

‘If we all start doing this now, you’ll be killing the costs, it’s not going to be an issue and maybe your business will grow this year.’

ABOUT THE HOST

Welcome and thank you for reading this, I’m Nathan Plumridge salon owner and Hair Stylist. I’ve been in the industry for nearly 30 years and have been a salon owner for 23 of them. I have been fortunate enough to work and learn with some of the biggest names in the industry and this has given me the experience and drive to now be here with you sharing my experiences.

CONTACT DETAILS

www.hairlifeshow.com
Instagram is @nathan.hairlife
Email me at nathan@hairlifeshow.com

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this episode Nathan Plumridge talks about the self-care industry, is it being killed by the costs that we’re now getting and, if so, what strategies and things can we put in place to survive 2022 and kill it in 2023?

KEY TAKEAWAYS

It’s been a very hard few years. In 2019, the hairdressing, fitness and beauty industry was growing at its fastest rate for years, we were all crushing it with cash in the bank and making refurbishments and taking on staff. Then the pandemic happened. Two years later we’re all still feeling the effects with isolations, client frequency, debt, high rent, rates, product costs, delivery problems, staff leaving the industry, the list goes on. But, is this an opportunity?
If you have fewer salons and hairdressers leaving the industry, technically you’ve got less competition, but you’ve still got the same number of guests floating around looking for a salon. You can seize that opportunity. Also, the stylists that are looking for a new home to house their guests. You salon or fitness centre could be the new perfect place for them.
Now is the time to look at your salon or business and get focussed. Because where you focus goes your energy flows. When you focus on something you will only start seeing those things, if you focus on your business and you’re business savvy, your business will get better. Start with your costs (landlords need you and so do your suppliers – negotiate), then your team (listen to them), your guests (listen to them), your salon (make it look fresh), your socials and website (does it show people how you are and what your business does? Keep it fresh) and your education (your team need to be fully educated and engaged to deliver the highest quality hairdressing each and every day).
You need to have a profit margin that allows you to thrive. If you don’t have a good profit margin you have to act on this now because 2022 is going to be an expensive year. I’m feeling it right now. For a long time we’ve under-valued our industry. We’ve never really charged enough and now we’re realising we’re amazing and add so much value to people’s lives which we found out during the pandemic. The value of hairdressing has gone up and it’s good to see that salon owners are putting their prices up to reflect this

BEST MOMENTS

‘Over 8000 hair, barbering and beauty businesses have ceased trading in the UK alone since 2019. Nearly a quarter of the industry!’

‘The forecasts for 2023 for the healthcare market shows potential for huge growth. This could be another 2019 and better.’

‘Maybe this is an opportunity to change the way the industry employs?’

‘Being an entrepreneur is bloody hard, but challenges encourage the best part of you to come out and do better. This is your opportunity to move and to grow.’

ABOUT THE HOST

Welcome and thank you for reading this, I’m Nathan Plumridge salon owner and Hair Stylist. I’ve been in the industry for nearly 30 years and have been a salon owner for 23 of them. I have been fortunate enough to work and learn with some of the biggest names in the industry and this has given me the experience and drive to now be here with you sharing my experiences.

CONTACT DETAILS

www.hairlifeshow.com
Instagram is @nathan.hairlife
Email me at nathan@hairlifeshow.com

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this episode Nathan Plumridge is joined by Hayley Jepson, a mental health coach for hairdressers, who works with individual hairdressers and salon owners. Previously she was a hairdresser who suffered from depression and, after her own therapy, became a therapist herself, which puts her in the perfect space to talk hairdressers through their mental health problems. In this episode the tow talk about noticing the signs of burnout and how you can combat it.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

As a coach, you’re best to coach around what you know well, however, the difference between business coaching and what I do is it’s morally wrong to profess to talk about mental health with no real training. You could coach someone to run a successful salon, but it’s worrying to see people call themselves mental health workers and not really know enough.
I believe that looking after people’s mental health in all areas will help you salon. If your staff are happy, resourced and well-functioning, they’re better hairdressers, their chat and banter is better, they won’t moan and get into mutual moaning.
Mental health is how you feel about yourself and a little bit about how you think about the world. When I’m having a bad day, I tend to think the world is against me, my luck is terrible, a pessimistic outlook. When your mental health isn’t going great, you’re not thriving as a human being.
As a salon owner, you’re being looked at by your staff the same way a parent is by their children. They’re looking to see if you walk the walk and talk the talk. I talk to salon owners about really defining their culture, come up with golden rules, but in a fun way. When tough times happen you’ve got to show up. Though a lot of salon owners are really switched on around mental health, but there’s a real fine line between “it’s OK not to be OK” and still having a job to do, you can look after your staff as a boss, but you’re not their parent. The over-givers are the ones who struggle with this and get burned out.

BEST MOMENTS

‘The pandemic gave everyone some sort of mental health awareness.’

‘How you feel – you’re going to bring that to work.’

‘The opposite of depression is not happiness, it’s hopefulness. When I think about life and I’m hopeful for the future, I know I’m doing well.’

‘Joylessness and resentfulness are the big red flags for me for burnout. They signify that your boundaries are being pushed, or you have too much resting on you.’

ABOUT THE GUEST

Hayley Jepson started hairdressing at 17 at a salon while attending college one day a week. She quickly decided to be a colour technician and worked hard as an apprentice for two years… then Toni & Guy came to town.

Hayley jumped ship and worked her way up to Art Director. She worked for T&G for 10 years at branches in Manchester, Brighton and Belgium and taught in their training academies and on stage for them and even taught NVQ in their training schools.

For the next nine years she worked at an independent salon in Manchester’s Northern Quarter, working hard and playing hard, which eventually led to burnout.

She found it hard to manage the day to day pressures of busy salon life on top of her depression, so she went to therapy which she says changed her life.

After two years of therapy she became interested in it beyond what it was doing for her, which coincided with her getting disillusioned with the culture of hairdressing, so she decided to train to become a psychotherapist.

After qualifying four years later, Hayley quit hairdressing and began working as a psychotherapist full time, specialising in teenagers. But after three years started noticing that the solitary nature of the job was starting to affect her mental health, so she went back to work as a hairdresser one day a week in a salon. She eventually went back into working in the salon full time.

Her aim is to arm hairdressers with the tools they need to avoid the stress, anxiety and burnout that she suffered with and making sure salons make resilience training as important as keeping up with new techniques.

Website: https://www.theresilienthairdresser.co.uk/
Instagram: @the.resilient.hairdresser

ABOUT THE HOST

Welcome and thank you for reading this, I’m Nathan Plumridge salon owner and Hair Stylist. I’ve been in the industry for nearly 30 years and have been a salon owner for 23 of them. I have been fortunate enough to work and learn with some of the biggest names in the industry and this has given me the experience and drive to now be here with you sharing my experiences.

CONTACT DETAILS

www.hairlifeshow.com
Instagram is @nathan.hairlife
Email me at nathan@hairlifeshow.com

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this episode Nathan Plumridge present his 18 ways he thinks we can potentially make 2022 an even better year than the last couple.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

Do all the things that you said you were going to do in 2021: travel, exercise more, drink less and get better at my finances.
Look at your circle of influence. If they’re negative, or battery drainers, and they don’t align with your core values then cut them out of your life and be around the people that charge you.
Check your self-talk. The conversation you have with yourself today has the biggest impact on who you become tomorrow.
Stop procrastinating, researching and thinking about getting started, just get started doing the damn thing!
If you want more money and financial security, then start delivering more value and results with the products and services that you offer.
Stop being needy, seeking validation and approval from everyone. Seeking validation is like drinking salt water when you’re thirsty, it always leaves you thirsty and wanting more. Approve of yourself. Self-love is where you should always start. Believe in you.
Stop being a lazy shit! I see so many people who I know can achieve a lot more.
Lean into adversity. Create opportunities where you can suffer, challenge yourself and get uncomfortable. Everyone has everything at their fingertips these days and it’s not good for us. We need to get out and increase out adrenaline, scare ourselves and pursue things that scare us.
Take all the time and money that you spend on socials to make it look like you’re living your best life and invest it on personal growth or into your business because that’s where you’re going to get your best return on your investment.
Wake up when all your friends and peers are asleep, and work on you and the next income stream you’re going to create.
Build a morning that positions you to win the day. If you win the day, you’re going to win the week.
Eat clean. No processed foods. Train hard when you do. Stay leaner and be aggressive when you need to be.
Be kind and polite. Serve others, open doors, shake hands, make eye contact and just smile more.
Write down your goals and be really specific. Read them daily and act on them with absolute urgency. Put them on your phone screen so you can be constantly reminded of them, and you’ll be constantly accountable.
Trim the fat out of your life. It’s not what you add, it’s what you remove that matters most.
Leadership is often the problem, but leadership is often the solution. 6s and 7s can’t lead 8s and 9s, so step up as a boss and start levelling up.
Chose purpose over pleasure, choose duty over desire and chose hard over easy.
You are the CEO of your life, everything is your fault, everything is your decision. Don’t moan and blame others, take responsibility and own it. It’s your life, live it and love it, no matter what’s thrown at you.

ABOUT THE HOST

Welcome and thank you for reading this, I’m Nathan Plumridge salon owner and Hair Stylist. I’ve been in the industry for nearly 30 years and have been a salon owner for 23 of them. I have been fortunate enough to work and learn with some of the biggest names in the industry and this has given me the experience and drive to now be here with you sharing my experiences.

CONTACT DETAILS

www.hairlifeshow.com
Instagram is @nathan.hairlife
Email me at nathan@hairlifeshow.com

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this episode Nathan Plumridge speaks to Rob Moore, author, double world record holder, multi-millionaire, the UK’s biggest business podcaster, an educator, creator, mentor to millionaires all over the world. The pair talk about entrepreneurship and running successful businesses and where Rob’s boundless energy comes from.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

If you want to be an entrepreneur and be productive for 10 hours a day and you want to change the world and you need the energy for that, drinking more than one alcoholic drink a night will kill your productivity the next day.
Entrepreneurship isn’t something that’s taught in schools, they teach you to memorise rather than be creative, agile and problem focused. So, I wrote my own education system in my books and would love to launch a library, school or foundation for young people to learn entrepreneurship skills.
Business was hard through the lockdown, our revenue is down from 2019, our profit’s pretty good, but we had to really hustle. I only launched one book rather than two. I always think I’ve got more work to do, I always want to do more.
I listen to podcasts all the time about money, I read autobiographies of successful people, I’m mentored by James Caan from Dragons Den, John Demartini and other billionaires in real estate, I follow inspirational people on social media. But I’ve found my own uniqueness recently, so I’m not copying anyone and can help others now like they helped me.

BEST MOMENTS

‘The greatest lifeforce energy comes from doing what you love and loving what you do.’

‘Sales, marketing and how to use money should be taught in schools.’

‘I try to create content every day. I want to help a lot of people start and scale their businesses, being a content creator is one of the most fun jobs to do and it’s a great way to grow my following, create multiple income streams, create collaborations/interviews/partnerships.’

‘It feels good to have a positive impact on lots of people. But life is the best teacher.’

ABOUT THE GUEST

Rob Moore is The Disruptive EntrepreneurTM. Investor. Multiple business owner. Author of 17 best-selling business books, including ‘Money’ & ‘Life leverage’. Prolific podcaster & content creator. 2x public speaking world record holder. Founder of the Rob Moore foundation.

At the age of 25, Rob was £50k in consumer debt; less than five years later, a self-made multi-millionaire. He co-founded the Progressive Group – starting with Progressive Property, then Progressive Successes and the Entrepreneurs Business academy (EBA). Rob’s training companies are one of the largest in the UK, & now globally.

He continues to disrupt as an entrepreneur and businessman, with interests ranging from property development to public speaking and digital media. He is a writer, communicator, social media influencer and philanthropist. His 8 books have been translated into more than a dozen languages and received over 9,000 reviews, and 200 1 stars!

Having given 1,500+ speeches in the last decade Rob is a sought-after keynote speaker. Known for his ‘Rob’s Rants’ and direct, tactical content, using his real-life business experience. Rob is a mentor to many millionaires and celebrities and has helped 10,000s of start and scale up entrepreneurs.

Rob has interviewed 15 billionaires and over 150 of the most successful people on the planet in multiple disciplines. Rob is RISE board member on the Princes Trust & did the highest recorded single raise.

Website: https://robmoore.com/

Socials: @robmooreprogressive

ABOUT THE HOST

Welcome and thank you for reading this, I’m Nathan Plumridge salon owner and Hair Stylist. I’ve been in the industry for nearly 30 years and have been a salon owner for 23 of them. I have been fortunate enough to work and learn with some of the biggest names in the industry and this has given me the experience and drive to now be here with you sharing my experiences.

CONTACT DETAILS

www.hairlifeshow.com
Instagram is @nathan.hairlife
Email me at nathan@hairlifeshow.com

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this episode Nathan Plumridge speaks to Ian Bishop, co-owner of the very ethical hair colour brand Organic Colour Systems. They discuss the brand in great detail and the shift in the hair industry for a cleaner and more environmentally friendly way of doing what it’s done for years.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

The colour took two full years of development. The branding and the products we use as part of our system is really a well-being thing. It’s not just the non-ammonia colour with the certified organic ingredients and the natural base, we look after the integrity of the hair. We look at a holistic approach.
The stock order boxes are FSC, the plastic inside is post-consumer recycled plastic, the chips literally are corn starch and wash down the drain with water, we changed our packaging tape, saving 90 miles of tape a year going to landfill. Over the years these changes have become very important. Anything we can do to recycle and reuse waste has got to be a positive.
Salons often struggle to engage their clients on social media, but if someone’s got an understanding and interest in sustainability you tend to get more communication, which is a good thing for customer loyalty.
If you want a long career you want to be reducing your exposure to things that are in aerosols, and gasses and chemicals that come from colours. You don’t want to be breathing in that stuff as much as you can help it or coming into contact with colour pigments. But, if you’re a stylist, applying products onto a client, you want to know you’re doing something that’s as safe as possible.

BEST MOMENTS

‘It doesn’t feel like a global brand, it’s very much still got the feel of a family business with a fairly small team of around 60.’

‘Not all synthetics are bad and not all naturals are good. Deadly nightshade is a perfect example!’

‘I’m always being told I should be more in people’s faces on social media, I have definitely seen a more collaborative side of the industry in the last two years.’

‘In the last two years I’ve learnt that we’re very resilient as a race, and as hairdressers. Having your hair done is a very important thing, especially female hair.’

ABOUT THE GUEST

Ian Bishop started out in the hair industry around 25 years ago as a sales rep for Fudge for three years. Through that he met and began working for Rob Dixon, who had his own distribution business run out of his garage in Milton Keynes, selling bottle of Organic Colour Systems. Eventually Ian and his wife bought the company from Rob when he retired four years later and spent 10 years growing the business. In 2014 Ian was asked to join the board of partner firm and manufacturer, Herb UK. He now deals with the salons, sales teams and educators that promote the brand in the UK, North America and Australasia.

Websites: https://www.organiccoloursystems.com/
https://www.herbuk.com/
Email: healthierhair@organiccoloursystems.com
Socials: @organiccoloursystemsglobal

ABOUT THE HOST

Welcome and thank you for reading this, I’m Nathan Plumridge salon owner and Hair Stylist. I’ve been in the industry for nearly 30 years and have been a salon owner for 23 of them. I have been fortunate enough to work and learn with some of the biggest names in the industry and this has given me the experience and drive to now be here with you sharing my experiences.

CONTACT DETAILS

www.hairlifeshow.com
Instagram is @nathan.hairlife
Email me at nathan@hairlifeshow.com

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this episode Nathan Plumridge talks to Edward Hemmings, owner and salon director of the Alan d Education Group. With over 30 years of hair and education experience, Edward and his team provide outstanding hair and barbering education from their two sites in London and Ipswich. The pair talk about education in the hair industry and a number of other key subjects.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

Young hairdressers need to get clients in their 60s and 70s, they’re brilliant clients. They come in every four weeks needing a colour and a perm done, it’s fantastic!
If you’re going to be a multi-salon group these days you need to be a Headmasters, Rush, Toni & Guy where it’s all about systems in place and software and perhaps software allows you to be a bit better. My earliest memories was rushing staff from one shop to another when what you want to do is focus on the salon that’s good and keep the staff there. So, we dropped the number of London salons.
Education is different, you’ve got 30 seconds to make an impression with a client. I’ve got a day, week, month, six months or year. If a student has a difficult Monday, we make Tuesday better. If you give them a great Friday, they forget what went on the rest of the week!
The age of apprentices is, in some cases going up because people don’t always make the correct career decision at 16. Plus, older apprentices tend to learn quicker without some of the issues a younger person will have.

BEST MOMENTS

‘We’ve now got to manage our student’s expectations differently now we’re back face-to-face. We now have to slow people down.’

‘Thanks to Covid, everyone’s become an educator and the way in which we deliver education has changed to be much more engaging and empathetic.’

‘Being a great hairdresser doesn’t make you a good educator.’

‘During lockdown our stock went up hugely, people were prepared to break the rules to get their hair done and hairdressers were prepared to break the rules and go and do it. That’s how important we are, we are futureproof, you have to come to us physically.’

ABOUT THE GUEST

Edward Hemmings started his career in hairdressing (after a brief stint as a banker) in February 1992, training in Dean Street before moving to a salon on Regent Street and worked his way through from stylist to manager. Eventually he moved away from salon life and into education in 2000 while all the time still keeping his hand in doing hairdressing.

Currently, Edward is Creative Director and Director of Education at Alan d. He also heads up the Business Education Programme at the Fellowship for British Hairdressing.

Alan d Education Group website: https://www.aland.co.uk/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/alandhairdressingeducation/

Instagram and Tik Tok: @alandhair

Edward’s social handle: @edwardhemmingspresenter

ABOUT THE HOST

Welcome and thank you for reading this, I’m Nathan Plumridge salon owner and Hair Stylist. I’ve been in the industry for nearly 30 years and have been a salon owner for 23 of them. I have been fortunate enough to work and learn with some of the biggest names in the industry and this has given me the experience and drive to now be here with you sharing my experiences.

CONTACT DETAILS

www.hairlifeshow.com

Instagram is @nathan.hairlife

Email me at nathan@hairlifeshow.com

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this episode Nathan Plumridge talks all things colour with Carolyn Newman who has had a career spanning over 35 years as a hair colour expert and educator. Carolyn has won numerous awards such as the Most Wanted Colourist 2012 and has been covered in major magazines such as Tatler, Vogue and Marie Claire, she has also appeared on TV shows like GMTV, This Morning, Working Lunch and many more.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

Being a manager taught me how to manage people, which meant that when I moved into education it was easy for me. I’d learned how to get the best out of people and tell them when they were having an off day so I could coach them and guide them and understand that people learn at different rates.
I now only do certain types of education: bespoke education, where I go into a salon, work out the needs of the owner and train the whole team; Consultation techniques, where I work with psychiatrists to come up with the best questions to ask clients because I believe that consultation delivery is as important as a fantastic haircut and colour, it’s not an afterthought. Clients are much more demanding now and through consultation you have to be able to address that.
Hairdressers need to be really careful of the questions they ask. You ask questions to get the answer you want. But you also need to be ready to give you expertise. I also feel like we need to say “I like your colour, it’s working well, however I think it’s looking a little bit grassy and this is how I’m going to fix it”. You don’t have to dramatically change colours, you can change someone’s look with more simple techniques.
Everybody’s style changes about every 15 years, men and women. Hairdressers should look at their clients and if they have the same style they have a 30 that they did at 19, you should ask them some questions. Between 30-45 the first grey hairs start to come through. Not only does your hair go grey, but the texture of your hair will change – especially with the menopause, women’s hair will really change. Men are lucky because they seem to suit it, they seem to go silver quicker. But, I don’t think it’s seen as an age thing any more, young people want grey or silver hair and it’s made going grey more acceptable.

BEST MOMENTS

‘I moved from Tasmania, Australia to the UK to work specifically with British hairdressers, it was all about British hairdressers back then.’

‘If I want something, I’ll get it and I’ll earn it on merit. I used to practice and practice colouring.’

‘The client needs to come into the salon with an open mind and needs to trust the hairdresser. Don’t go into a salon and ask for your friend’s colour, you’re not your friend. Be clear with what you like and don’t like but be open to getting the expertise from the hairdresser. You don’t go into the dentist and tell them what to do.’

‘Good conversation with clients can dramatically increase your sales. Every successful person has a formula.’

ABOUT THE GUEST

Carolyn is an international colour expert & educator who delivers education around the world through the Carolyn Newman Academy. She attends to her discerning colour clients with her #CarolynColors services at London’s super cool creative hub, Hunter Collective, Farringdon and Trinder Hair Studios, St Albans.

Her extensive experience as an educator and mentor to colourists of all levels, combined with her ability to develop trends and techniques, makes her perfectly placed to be leading the way in technical education.

Client friendly techniques, consultation and business education is available to all levels of hairdressers and to salon owners and manufacturers who can choose from a portfolio of standard courses that Carolyn has created, or she can devise bespoke courses based on specific requirements. Through her senior salon management experience, she can also create a consultancy package for your salon to support you and your team on your specific business requirements.

Website: https://www.carolynnewman.co.uk/

Instagram: @carolynlnewman

ABOUT THE HOST

Welcome and thank you for reading this, I’m Nathan Plumridge salon owner and Hair Stylist. I’ve been in the industry for nearly 30 years and have been a salon owner for 23 of them. I have been fortunate enough to work and learn with some of the biggest names in the industry and this has given me the experience and drive to now be here with you sharing my experiences.

CONTACT DETAILS

Website: https://energyhair.com/

Email: nathan@hairlife.com

Instagram: @nathan.hairlife

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this episode Nathan Plumridge is joined by Lorraine Hume, a salon owner and the reigning L'Oréal Colour Trophy champion – one of the biggest competitions in British hairdressing. The pair talk about her experiences, colour trends and what it’s like to run a busy hair salon.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

We streamed the L'Oréal Colour Trophy Awards live in a bar/restaurant with mine and my team’s family and friends. We didn’t expect to win anything, we just wanted to have a nice time and celebrate getting to the finals, especially because of all that happened with Covid. When they announced we’d won it was insane! There was something really special about having the people there who support you day in and day out and know the graft that you put in, it wouldn’t have happened if we were at the ceremony in London.
Sometimes, people get an idea on a mood board that they need to cut a certain style or colour a certain way and then look for a model, but if you find your model first you know what cut and colour will look good on them
You have to stay true to what you want to do. A lot of people go with what they see is popular in Instagram and that if they’re not doing it they’ll be frowned upon. As hairdressers we see lots of hair on Instagram because we follow lots of other hairdressers, I don’t thin our clients see that all day. If your content is engaging and clients can learn something from it then the content is good. As long as you do what you like to do and stay consistent at it you’ll enjoy it, but if you’re doing it to keep up you’ll start to resent it.
When we first opened the salon we hit the ground running, we had to add four more chairs, and then Covid hit. Now we’re back it feels like groundhog day, we’re so busy, though things have started settling down again now. The training I want to do with my staff has been affected. I couldn’t give them the training I wanted to, but in the new year that’s what I’m going to focus on because education is important to me.

BEST MOMENTS

‘Winning the award feel very surreal, like an out of body experience. Even our clients, even those who don’t really know what it means, know it’s a big deal to us and they’re bringing in gifts and sharing it on their social media’

‘Videos on social media are massive now, especially on Reels or Tik Tok. Being a hairdresser’s not good enough, not you have to be a photographer, a videographer and an editor.’

‘You become attached to people, when we came out of lockdown our clients have opened up to us about their struggles. We turn the chairs round and have a communal conversation which I love.’

‘Some people want to be employed and do a 9-5, others want to be self-employed, run their own hours and not have a boss. Both are fine and I think salons need a mixture of both.’

ABOUT THE GUEST

Lorraine Hume is the owner of the Lorraine Hume Hairdressing salon, which she has been running on Randalstown high street, Antrim, Northern Ireland for three years, though she had been self-employed before that.

Instagram: @lorrainehumehairstylist and @lorrainehumehairdressing

ABOUT THE HOST

Welcome and thank you for reading this, I’m Nathan Plumridge salon owner and Hair Stylist. I’ve been in the industry for nearly 30 years and have been a salon owner for 23 of them. I have been fortunate enough to work and learn with some of the biggest names in the industry and this has given me the experience and drive to now be here with you sharing my experiences.

CONTACT DETAILS

Website: https://energyhair.com/

Email: nathan@hairlife.com

Instagram: @nathan.hairlife

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this episode Nathan Plumridge is joined by his first guest, hairpeneuer and multi-award winner salon owner Victoria Mavin. The pair discuss what it’s like to start a business and the challenges it brings.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

There are some people who love hair extensions and some who hate them. My focus – and what’s worked well for me – was on quality, systems, follow-ups, maintenance, aftercare, etc. When you’re putting things into people’s hair, there’s a whole heap of other things to consider and more things that can go wrong. It was that that was in my original business plan that I have carried through and made work.
On paper it looks like I had a really robust business plan together, but I really didn’t I came out of uni thinking I was going to work in “business”, whatever that means. I couldn’t be further than the corporate world!
The Country Durham site is a destination site and the Leeds site is a high street site and they both have very different challenges. Because I can’t be in two places at once, I need to know that the second site is operating in the same way as the first, which is the point of having a brand. The demographics are different, so the way we market, price and add value are very different. During Covid as well, passing trade in the high street is way down, so we pivoted to providing training courses on site.
Staffing is a huge issue at the moment, especially with a lot of apprentices coming out of uni with no practical experience, large VAT bills and the increase in the national minimum wage. We’re in a situation where we’re having to pay people £9.50 an hour even though they don’t have any floor experience whatsoever. This is an unfair situation for both the newly qualified stylist looking for experience and the salon owner who’s having to pay out for an inexperienced stylist.

BEST MOMENTS

‘I work with my Mum. She hates hair, so she does all the paperwork and risk assessment that I don’t want to do, and the partnership really works.’

‘In the early days my focus was that every service I did was spot on and do no advertising. The little that we did do was smart.’

‘There’s so much pressure now for people to create an image of perfection that it takes the focus off the service.’

‘I want to show salon owners that they can have a profitable hair extension service, a lot of them offer it but don’t know enough about it to give a great service.’

ABOUT THE GUEST

Victoria Mavin is the owner and director of Lox of Love, which she founded in 2012 and has salons in County Durham and Leeds, they are predominantly hair extension salons but they do also offer the full-hairdressing experience for clients. Victoria was late to the hairdressing game, at the age of 24, and has now worked in the industry for over 15 years, specialising in hair extensions for the past 9.

https://www.loxoflove.co.uk/

Facebook: Lox of Love HQ and Training Academy - https://www.facebook.com/loxoflove/

Instagram: @loxoflovehair & @veemavinhair

Twitter: @LoxofLove

ABOUT THE HOST

Welcome and thank you for reading this, I’m Nathan Plumridge salon owner and Hair Stylist. I’ve been in the industry for nearly 30 years and have been a salon owner for 23 of them. I have been fortunate enough to work and learn with some of the biggest names in the industry and this has given me the experience and drive to now be here with you sharing my experiences.

CONTACT DETAILS

Website: https://energyhair.com/

Email: nathan@hairlife.com

Instagram: @nathan.hairlife

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this episode Nathan Plumridge brings you up to date with where his business is at today, surviving the pandemic and the learning that came out of it.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

After my Dad died, I felt alone but I also felt more in control, everything about the business was now down to me and I found it easier to get on a grow in the way I wanted it to. It was almost as if the shackles had come off and gave me utter clarity about how I wanted Energy to look and feel. So, I refurbished the salon completely.
I remember clear as day walking around the salon on the Sunday night after all the work had been done and I was talking to myself and my Dad about the excitement of opening and seeing the team’s and the client’s faces when they saw it was incredible.
A few years later we expanded again and added about 2,500ft2 and is something I’m really proud of. It won Best Designed Salon in the UK. We had five months doing insane business and then Covid came along and shut us down. The day I had to close the doors was one of the saddest, scariest times of my life: 30 staff to look after, huge bills and no cash coming in. There was a moment when I thought “this is it”.
The first week was a blur, I drank a lot, because I couldn’t handle that my business was losing money each week and yet still I had to put a smile on my face and had to stay positive. My wife’s recruitment firm shut down overnight as well.
One night I pulled myself together and wrote pages and pages of the things I was going to have to do to survive. Firstly, reassure our clients and let them know we were thinking of them and their families and that when we reopened we’d look after them. Secondly, it was keeping us in people’s faces, making videos of what we were doing and getting them to ask us questions as hair hacks for keeping their hair looking good at home. It’s where the idea for this podcast came from.
I’ve probably got less cash than I’ve ever had in the business, but I’m having the best time. It’s been like starting again and you always grow after starting again.

BEST MOMENTS

‘This was the start of something new and fresh and I couldn’t wait.’

‘We killed it for the next few years, winning loads of awards.’

‘As a boss, you always have to show that it’s all going to be OK, but my stomach was knotted like never before.’

‘Write a journal, it’s so powerful and helpful with so many things.’

‘It was amazing to watch my industry come together and share ideas and pointers. The competition that existed before Covid has been torn up.’

ABOUT THE HOST

Welcome and thank you for reading this, I’m Nathan Plumridge salon owner and Hair Stylist. I’ve been in the industry for nearly 30 years and have been a salon owner for 23 of them. I have been fortunate enough to work and learn with some of the biggest names in the industry and this has given me the experience and drive to now be here with you sharing my experiences.

CONTACT DETAILS

Website: https://energyhair.com/

Email: nathan@hairlife.com

Instagram: @nathan.hairlife

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this episode Nathan Plumridge talks about his father and the emotional roller coaster of being a carer and finding out some pretty bad news. He wishes to share this information because it was pivotal in his life with his father but also to give an insight into the experiences they shared together.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

Me and my Dad had a business and we were best mates. We argued about most things, but we always managed to sort it out and make up. It was an incredible part of my life. After a year and a half in the new premises something got in the way.
Dad was caring for my Mum who suffered from MS. As a carer you forget about yourself, because the person you care for has to come first. Over a period of time he started to notice aches and pains and lots of other little niggles that were becoming more regular. He went to the doctor and within a week he was given the news that he had terminal cancer. I was sat in the room when he was given the diagnosis, it was such a surreal, horrific moment and life changed forever.
He stopped work straight away because he couldn’t deal with the number of people asking if he was OK, which I totally understood. I reduced my hours to three days a week so I could spend more time with him walking, having dinners and drinks.
It felt wrong that Dad was leaving us just when life was starting to be so good. But good things came of it too, we talked and talked about all sorts of things both good and bad. The day he passed there was the biggest rainbow over the hospice and my kids still say today when they see a rainbow “there’s grandad”.

BEST MOMENTS

‘The business hit a wall created by my Dad.’

‘Dad was given 18 months at best. He tried chemo, which didn’t agree with him and he said enough’s enough, I want to enjoy what time is left day-to-day.’

‘If somebody gives you 6 months to live, why do people go out and do things, why didn’t they do it before?’

‘I look back at that time and hold it so close to my heart.’

‘If you’re a carer, look after yourself. Because if something happens to you, what happens to those you care for?’

ABOUT THE HOST

Welcome and thank you for reading this, I’m Nathan Plumridge salon owner and Hair Stylist. I’ve been in the industry for nearly 30 years and have been a salon owner for 23 of them. I have been fortunate enough to work and learn with some of the biggest names in the industry and this has given me the experience and drive to now be here with you sharing my experiences.

CONTACT DETAILS

Website: https://energyhair.com/

Email: nathan@hairlife.com

Instagram: @nathan.hairlife

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this episode Nathan Plumridge talks about relocating to a new premises and the ups and downs that brought to the business as well as the incredible beginning of a new business and what that brought to everyone in it. The episode also includes the biggest change in his life and the beginning of something incredible.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

We got to a change where we had outgrown our current site and needed to start again somewhere bigger. It’s a huge decision and involved a number of factors including parking and access, gaining additional footfall and it still needed to feel like the old family business and was somewhere I’d never want to leave again.
City centre locations ticked a lot of boxes and didn’t tick others. Even clients would say they didn’t want to go into the city to get their hair cuts. Some brothers I knew who ran a successful farm shop said a unit was becoming available and how would I like to look around? It was a bit of a wreck and needed a major refurb, but there was something about it that gave me a positive feeling, mainly being surrounded by fields and cherry blossom trees. It was pretty with plenty of parking.
I did my due diligence, I went every day with a clicker and counted footfall at the site to make sure enough people visited and if they people passing through would fit as a client. My Dad was not convinced at all, but once I explained my reasoning he began to understand, despite being really connected to the old site.
It was a mental time, I was relocating my business of 14 years, I was getting divorced and re-married to my amazing, beautiful wife and was going to have a child with her. Not to mention being the year of the Olympics, 2012.
The team began to feel like they were on a conveyor belt and not enjoying their work as much, which generated more complaints from customers. So, we sat down with the team and decided we needed to give them more control over their day so they could give better service. Week-by-week bookings and re-bookings grew, complaints reduced. Most salons only retain about 30% of their clients each year, which is OK. Be conscious of your new customers as well as your regulars.

BEST MOMENTS

‘This was a huge turning point in my life as a person and a salon owner.’

‘My team were my priority, I needed them to be onboard.’

‘One of my clients was a really cool architect and we began designing an awesome space to live and work in.’

‘It felt like there was an even higher level of expectation from the clients and we had to up our service game massively.’

ABOUT THE HOST

Welcome and thank you for reading this, I’m Nathan Plumridge salon owner and Hair Stylist. I’ve been in the industry for nearly 30 years and have been a salon owner for 23 of them. I have been fortunate enough to work and learn with some of the biggest names in the industry and this has given me the experience and drive to now be here with you sharing my experiences.

CONTACT DETAILS

Website: https://energyhair.com/

Email: nathan@hairlife.com

Instagram: @nathan.hairlife

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this episode Nathan Plumridge explains where he started to grow his salon culture and how it’s developed into the culture and brand that it embodies today. Also, he talks about the services that have enabled him to expand and create a different offering for his clients and getting to the point of opening new sites.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

At 5-6 years in to owning the salon we’d expanded at least twice and expanded the team to 8-10. This was where creating a culture that had a really strong professional element to it was massive. Like family we made sure we looked after each other and really listened and helped the team with whatever problems they had. This is still the culture we have today
The culture has to come from the top, setting and example that trickles down through the team. We would do all the jobs, not just the styling and the business side. This culture has allowed us to keep growing.
One of the things I’ve loved about expanding is bringing in new ideas. We employed a brilliant lady called Marcel, who was a great therapist whose voice and manner set the scene for the client to have a great experience. We started giving beauty treatments alongside styling. There’s potential for huge growth in personal care.
If you’ve never had reflexology before you need to add it as part of your personal routine. The feet and head are two of the parts of your body that you often forget about, but they are also the most connected parts.
In the 90s-00s there wasn’t much choice in hairdressing and styling products, it was just the big boys. There is a big shift into an exciting phase of new, fresh start up companies that offer green, ethical, natural products and using amazing marketing to hit their demographic.

BEST MOMENTS

‘I’ve always wanted to be a boss that other people feel comfortable around, not us and them.’

‘If you’re not growing you’re dying.’

‘Spend less time scrolling through your phone looking at complete crap, use your time effectively.’

‘Being a model for a waxing treatment made me realise I never wanted to do that ever again!’

ABOUT THE HOST

Welcome and thank you for reading this, I’m Nathan Plumridge salon owner and Hair Stylist. I’ve been in the industry for nearly 30 years and have been a salon owner for 23 of them. I have been fortunate enough to work and learn with some of the biggest names in the industry and this has given me the experience and drive to now be here with you sharing my experiences.

CONTACT DETAILS

Website: https://energyhair.com/

Email: nathan@hairlife.com

Instagram: @nathan.hairlife

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this episode Nathan describes the highs and lows of starting up and growing a hair salon with his Dad and navigating the issues that come with starting up. The emphasis of this episode is his relationship with, and memories of his Dad as he has now been gone for six years.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

It was an incredible feeling; opening a business with my Dad. It was one of my greatest achievements and I got to spend so much quality time with him. Though, working with my him daily could be a challenge, his customer service was certainly something else!
Dad had been a particularly good businessman all his life, he’d won the British Championships in the 60s in his 20s and he opened a string of salons, we had a beautiful family home, nice cars and big family parties. He earned a lot and he spent a lot, which he enjoyed and has passed on to me.
Six months in we realised we needed an extra stylist, we brought in Anita, who was an incredible stylist with a great client list which brought in some ‘ching-ching’ to the business. She quickly grew her business which meant we had to expand again which meant we had to knock through into my Dad’s living room. This meant we found Dad a new house and I moved in above the salon and took on another stylist, Emma.
We built a following for ourselves, including a lot of local press and were approached by a TV company about making over a lady for a TV show starring ex-Arsenal footballer, Ian Wright. This got us exposure on a 7pm, Saturday night prime-time show and national magazine and newspaper coverage. Within a couple of years we expanded to a team of eight.
We had a bad apple who was turning the rest of the bunch a bit brown. Dad’s and my HR was a bit shit, so we never thought this kind of thing would ever happen. We lost five stylists, which was about a quarter of a million quid walking out the door. I thought I was going to lose the business, but actually it turned out OK. We ended up working our arses off to keep clients on the books and happy and recruited a new team of stylists and I vowed to try to never have that happen again.

BEST MOMENTS

‘It was truly about family and enjoying the creativity that comes with enjoying what you do for work.’

‘It was something out of Fawlty Towers!’

‘Hairdressing is a lifestyle business.’

‘Expanding and hiring lets you focus on growing the business.’

ABOUT THE HOST

Welcome and thank you for reading this, I’m Nathan Plumridge salon owner and Hair Stylist. I’ve been in the industry for nearly 30 years and have been a salon owner for 23 of them. I have been fortunate enough to work and learn with some of the biggest names in the industry and this has given me the experience and drive to now be here with you sharing my experiences.

CONTACT DETAILS

Website: https://energyhair.com/

Email: nathan@hairlife.com

Instagram: @nathan.hairlife

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In the first episode of the Hair Life podcast, host Nathan Plumridge introduces himself and his business and sets out his intentions for the podcast including the good and the bad of the hairdressing, beauty, fitness, health and nutrition industries.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

All the things we’ve been through in the last 18 months made me loo at myself and think I just want to be in the best shape in every level – mentally and physically.
I wanted to be a vet but was put off it by the cousin of one of my best friends. She said it was too much stress and pressure and told me to find another career. I come from a hairdressing family, I’d helped my grandfather and my dad in their barber shops and salons, so I applied for an apprenticeship as a hairdresser.
One of things I loved about the time I was learning my trade was that there was no social media, you had to call people, like other hairdressers, to have a chat and see if you could visit them to see what they did. It was a time when nothing else got in my way and I did nothing but concentrated on being a hairdresser.
When you have that ambition and drive when you’re young, what do you do with it? I went to my dad and offered to open a salon together. He thought I was mad, but he could see I wasn’t going to take no for an answer, and we did it and it was beautiful.

BEST MOMENTS

‘I notice such a difference when I’m on form.’

‘I immersed myself in hairdressing at every level and gave it my all.’

‘Danny was a fireball of hair energy!’

‘It’ll be incredible if my son and/or daughter go into the trade as the fourth generation.’

ABOUT THE HOST

Welcome and thank you for reading this, I’m Nathan Plumridge salon owner and Hair Stylist. I’ve been in the industry for nearly 30 years and have been a salon owner for 23 of them. I have been fortunate enough to work and learn with some of the biggest names in the industry and this has given me the experience and drive to now be here with you sharing my experiences.

CONTACT DETAILS

Website: https://energyhair.com/

Email: nathan@hairlife.com

Instagram: @nathan.hairlife

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Hi and Welcome to the Hair Life Podcast with me Nathan Plumridge.

28 years ago I was a confused teenager who had no real idea of what I wanted to do as a career and no real passion for anything!

But then I found hairdressing! Jump forwards 28 years and I now have a large independent 7 figure hair salon with a team of 25 and still growing.

But being a Salon owner or a Hair Entrepreneur is not easy and I want to share my thoughts, experiences and passions with you and let you know warts and all what it’s been like as a CEO of a business like ours.

I also really want to inspire you and help you to live a healthy and happy life by bringing incredible interviews with Hair Salon owners, Entrepreneurs,Hair Product suppliers, fitness professionals, nutritionist, and inspirational clients that we are fortunate enough to meet everyday day.

So if your listening to this then welcome to the show I can’t wait to take you on this journey!!!

I’m Nathan Plumridge and welcome to the hair life podcast!

ABOUT THE HOST

Welcome and thank you for reading this, I’m Nathan Plumridge salon owner and Hair Stylist. I’ve been in the industry for nearly 30 years and have been a salon owner for 23 of them. I have been fortunate enough to work and learn with some of the biggest names in the industry and this has given me the experience and drive to now be here with you sharing my experiences.

CONTACT DETAILS

Website: https://energyhair.com/

Email: nathan@hairlife.com

Instagram: @nathan.hairlife

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