 Aloha and welcome to this week's edition of Business in Hawaii. I'm John Strandberg and we are broadcasting live from the ThinkTech studios in downtown Honolulu. If you want to tune in, we are at www.thinktechhawaii.com. While there, please subscribe to our program to get on our mailing list. The theme of Business in Hawaii is to share with you stories of local businesses by local people. Our guests share with us their journey to building a successful business right here in our home. In the ThinkTech studios today is Laina Jasek, the owner of Premiere, Medispa, and Barbershop. Actually, I said that wrong, but we'll fix that later. So Laina, welcome to the show. Thanks for being on. And before we go on with questions, tell us about yourself. Hey John, thanks for having me. So I'm Laina, local girl born and raised here, grew up in Kahlu, grew up in Palolo, went to school here, and got an opportunity to partner with some of my very best friends to open up a really cool and fun business. And that's what we're here to talk about today. Okay, so tell us about your business, because I butchered the name, so you have to correct the name now. As long as you know what we do, it's Premiere Barbershop in Medispa. So we have two locations. We have our first Barbershop downtown on Bethel Street. That location, we strictly do amazing cuts and shaves for men. At our Alamwana location, we do those same services, but we also added on Medispa services. So that's our laser hair removal, fat reduction, cellulite reduction, skin tightening, B12 shots for energy, facials, chemical peels, all that great stuff to make you feel good and look great. All I heard was fat reduction. I was thinking I could definitely use some of that right now. We got some cool machines. Lots of fat reduction on me. I said you went to school, you graduated from UH, or did you? Yup, UH grad. And you said, earlier from the show, you said you grew up in New Valley and some of that. New Valley, Pololo, Cajalo. So you really are a local girl doing well in the community. That's awesome. Yeah. So tell me about Premiere Medispa. Why the name and why did you decide on creating a Barbershop concept? Yeah, so we really want to be the best, and that's really what Premiere stands for. And I think with my two partners, Rodney Ballesteros, he really brings the Barbershop side, that amazing customer service. Helen brings our financial side and marketing. And then what I bring to the table is more of the strategic structural side and then also the medical side. Okay, let's talk about the medical side for a minute. I did a little research before the show and realized that Barbershops back in the, my kids will call it the olden days, was where someone would actually go and get their wounds fixed up. Teeth pulled, you name it, the Barbershop did it all. They're like the town surgeon as it were. So now you're offering this many aspect. Is that everything but the haircut? So when you're ready to have your teeth pulled, come to us. No kidding, kidding. Don't come to us for your teeth pulled. Go see your dentist for that. Definitely still go to your doctor. But definitely one of our big focus with Alamoana Location is to bring some of those medical services that are, I would say luxury services, things that simplify your life. And we're trying to bring those to more of a mall setting, bring it out of a physician's office so people feel comfortable walking in and doing these things on a regular basis. Okay, so I listed the show titles, not your dad's Barbershop or maybe your grandfather's Barbershop. You mentioned Rodney's bringing that customer service aspect. What's different about your shop versus that little corner shop like at Supercuts or Fantastic Sam's? I think what we have the opportunity to bring is really that aloha. So taking that Supercuts Fantastic Sam's concept that's a national brand and really helping to brand barbering in Hawaii. So putting that aloha feel, that extra little customer service that you can expect in Hawaii. I think people feel it when they walk in. First thing when you come to our shop, we ask you, oh, do you want to me to drink? We have coronas in the fridge. We have beers in the fridge. We have Tito's vodka available for shots and it's something we offer to our guest complimentary. And it just kind of sets the mood and the tone and then from there we follow up with great customer experience, quality and cuts. Just the idea of having a beer as you get in a haircut makes you want to get a cut every day almost. Yeah. It's Paul Hanna time. It's time for your haircut. Let's go. We definitely have Paul Hanna haircut time. So we talked about the history and this is obviously when my dad went to the barber he never had a shot or a beer before his haircut. What else does a barber do that you may not find in the typical Fantastic Sam's? Yeah, so we do scalp lomi as well, kind of help unwind and relax you from your day. We'll do straight razor shaves. I think really just having that personal conversation, somebody understanding where you're from, what you're going through, a chance to unwind and relax, you know, we really pride ourselves on our customer service. Well, it's not just a haircut. You actually have a little therapy session with your barber. Definitely. So I've actually seen movies, barber shops, of course, and everyone jokes around about your hairstylist knows more about you than maybe your spouse and your significant other. So it is a true statement then. It's definitely a true statement. We know all the good stuff. So your partners, how did you guys meet and decide to come together and form this business? So a long time ago, about 12 years ago, I was operating another business and one of my good friends from college came in and he brought with him one of his coworkers and it happened to be Kellen Briones and he was, he became our business banker at the time. And I was actually his very first business banking client. And from there over the years, our friendship just continued. And then, you know, as he was planning to expand Premiere into Alamona shopping center, he asked me, oh, would you want to hop on board? And I said, of course, because I knew he brought the professionalism to make a successful business expansion and Rodney is just such an amazing person. You know, you've had an opportunity to meet him. And so I think we just have good synergy between the three of us and it was a no-brainer. So three of you got together because of a school classmate opening a business together. What made everyone decide to open up at Alamona? Because Alamona shopping center is known to be one of the richest retail space in the country in terms of retail spaces. It is. And we're super proud of ourselves. Kind of got to pat ourselves on the back because we actually just celebrated our one-year anniversary. So we paid rent at Alamona for a month, which for a month or a year. I'm sorry, one year, one year, we made it one year. So we're really happy with that. So the choice of Alamona really had to do with the Alamona team. There are marketing teams amazing. They're leasing teams amazing. They really took care of us. And, you know, with the Bethel Street location doing really well, we wanted to have our second location really be a statement and say, we're here. We've made it Hawaii. We're here to stay. And so our goal is definitely to expand the brand to move into different areas across Oahu and hopefully the outer islands, but really to make that second location a statement. OK, so I actually had a chance to be one of your customers. My barber, you set me up with was Jen and she did a fan. I thought was a fantastic job. She those of you know me, this is not my normal haircut. It's a little bit shorter and normal and it's part of different. And I just noticed that it was what I call a precision style cut. Is that normal for your shop? Definitely. So quality is definitely one of the things that we stand on. So John's haircut was from two weeks ago and it's still wearing well. You're still doing that haircut justice. So our cuts are a little bit on the longer side. It's a 45 minute cut. When you get the cut, you'll definitely notice some difference in technique from, you know, a 10 minute, 20 minute cut. Definitely about precision lining, making sure your lines are straight. Also picking a style and cut that fits and frames your face. Well, yeah, I need a lot of help. So it works out well. Thank you. You look great as always. Yeah, I still need to go see that fat burning service or whatever that is. But as a business, how have you decided when you said you're going to think about another location? What at what point in that business did you want to do that? And you've been at Alamona for a year. Yeah. So I guess the way we're currently expanding is in Alamona. We just added two additional barber chairs. So what we want before we necessarily take on additional space is make sure our team is happy. Make sure that they're comfortable and our people are ready to expand the brand as well. For us, our clients are always the center and focus of everything we do. But for them to really be well taken care of, we believe that our people need to be happy, comfortable, feel like this is their second home. And for some of them, they like it actually more than, you know, when you have trouble at home, come to work and you'll have a great time. So we try to set up that environment. So the second edition of the two chairs has really been our next expansion. And then probably maybe six months a year will be taken on a third location. How many employees total between the two shops? Yeah. So we have 32 between our reception team, barber shop team and then our nursing team. So for the Medi spa side, it's all registered nurses. And with my background, I got really lucky. I actually had the opportunity to pick and choose between the best nurses in the state. So they're all registered nurses and they're all at the top of their game in different aspects and clinical practices. And we were able to attract and some amazing, amazing people. Never would have thought a nursing degree was necessary for a barber shop. It opens up new doors. Like my daughter is studying nursing. I'm like, you could work at a barber shop. She can. She can come work for us or with us, I should say. OK. So you're thinking about six months. You have 32 employees. You have six chairs. How many of those are barbers? More than six chairs. So at Alamwana, we had nine chairs and we just added two more. So we have 11 at Alamwana and then downtown we have nine. I'm used to walking in, growing up, going to a barber with my dad was would sit, read the paper, just wait our turn. It was like a long, a sunny line. So we're trying to update that. My background is systems flows. I have my Lean Six Sigma black belt certification. So for me, process flow and making sure the experience for the customer is impeccable is really important. So we do a lot of our scheduling online. So you can just go to our website, premierebarbershophi.com or premiermedyspothi.com and book from there. We have a policy of we try and take our clients exactly at that time. You'll never experience a wait time longer than 10 minutes. And we just try and pride ourselves on really being customer focused and catering to our clients. OK, that was a surprise to me. A Lean Six Sigma black belt and you run a barber shop. That's amazing. If for those of you who know what that is, Google it. You'll be surprised at what you actually learn from this program. And a lot of project managers I know are just green belts, not through blacks. Kudos to you. I applaud you on that one. OK, so we need to go take a break. This is business is why we'll see you back here shortly. Aloha, my name is Duretian. You are watching Think Tech Hawaii. I will be hosting a show here every other Wednesday at one PM. And we will be talking to a lot of experts and guests around sustainability, social justice, the future here in Hawaii, progressive politics and a whole lot more. So please tune in and thank you for watching Think Tech Hawaii. Aloha, I'm Stan Osterman, Stan the energy man every Friday here on Think Tech Hawaii. If you're really interested in finding out what's going on in energy, especially here in Hawaii, but also all the way around the world, and especially if it has to do with hydrogen, look into Stan the energy man every Friday, 12 o'clock, Think Tech Hawaii. Either. Aloha. And we are back with me in studio today is Lena, Jason, owner of Premier Barber Shop and Medi Spa. Got it right. Thank you. But Lena, before we went on break, we were talking about your employees, what you have two additional chairs now. But one of the key components about a good business is employee morale. What else are you doing to maintain and even retain all your employees? Yeah, so I think one really important thing is we look at them as more than just employees. They really are a Oana and it's something we hold dear. We go to dinner with them, we go out with them, we hang out with them. And we're just a good cohesive team. I think one really important thing on attracting and retaining our team is the education. So really what we want to do is not only develop as brand, but we want to give people opportunity. And I think a huge part of opportunity comes through education. So we have quarterly meetings where we'll bring guest speakers to talk about topics such as it could be something as simple as customer service. It could be something more specific to the profession. And then the other thing we do is we take our employees on trips. We the last trip we the barbers went on was to California and they actually leave tomorrow to go to Vegas for a barber convention. And that's something we support. There's a barber convention. Got to be the best. I had no idea. Every time the word barber comes to mind now, I'm thinking this is all I am. I keep thinking the barbershop quartet. So do you guys offer a sing anything? If you want me to break some glasses, I could sing. Yeah, these I need new glasses. Let's go for it. OK, so you train, you educate. Is there anything else to do as a group? Yeah, definitely. We definitely try and give back to the community. We also try and make sure that our team feel comfortable educating. So a lot of the cosmetology and barbering schools, the Skin Institute, Paul Mitchell, they'll bring their students through and it gives our team an opportunity to kind of showcase the good work that they do and then to shift from being the student to the professional, to the teacher. And then the other thing we try and do is really get back to our community and be really well involved. I think we have a video or a picture of. There you go. So tell us about this and who's pictured here. Yeah, this was one of our funnest events that I've really enjoyed. We do some really cool stuff. We cut it some upscale events like Shidler's fundraiser, Shidler for UH. We do make a wish fundraiser where we'll do high end cuts there. But for the Hea Hea event, Hea Hea is a nonprofit. They have mobile showers and they'll go around the state and offer shower service to the homeless. So we had the opportunity to work with them and provide cuts and also medical care at their one year anniversary. Another fun one we did was with IHS, the Institute for Human Services. And we had the opportunity to work with their kids and provide cuts. And it's so amazing because we get so much out of it in return. We had great laughs and good old time. We brought our kids. They got a chance to play with, you know, the kids who we had opportunity to cut and it was just fun. So you're out there community cutting homeless kids hair and helping in that respect. But you also mentioned you did hair cuts at luxury events. Yeah, so we'll do anything where the community is involved. Wherever we have a chance to give back, we try to do it. We've been so fortunate. We won Barbershop of the Year, voted by the people for Honolulu Star Advertiser for both 2018, where we thought, oh, yeah, you OK? And then in 19, it happened again. So it was in a fluke. I didn't know I should have done some research. Congratulations on that. Yeah, so with all the fortune that we've been blessed with, we definitely try and give back. And I think it's something that we hold really dear and are very passionate about. And it's something that our team is very passionate about. When we came back from our most recent cut with IHS, they said, what are we doing it again? We're ready. So if you have a nonprofit and we can get involved, let us know. Absolutely. So I do support a lot of different nonprofits. And I'll keep that in mind during meetings and setting up. That's that's a great because I'm giving back to the community is something that I've always believed in. So let's take a step backwards a little bit and talk about Rodney. He's a trained barber and one of the owners. Yes. So Rodney is amazing. He is the spirit in life for us really behind Premier. He's our constant that has really helped to put us in that number one spot. So he had approached Kellen, you know, before all the barbershops opened and had, let's let's open a barbershop. So he really was the gel for the team downtown. Downtown still has that synergy and gel, and we were able to expand to Alamoana. He's just amazing person. The three of us are very similar. We each have two kids. We're each divorced. So what we've tried to do is really create an environment at the shop where it's kid friendly, conducive to them, still have fun. So it's kind of interesting. We have the bar and next to the bar, we also have a gun ball machine and a toy dispenser. So it's it's definitely a balance between all the different sides of our personalities. It sounds like the perfect place to send your husbands as you shop Alamoana ladies. So keep that in mind. Definitely. Get a haircut, have a drink, take the sun's daughters with you. Mom can shop. That's a must. All right, very good. So I love the idea of a barbershop. I love the community sense because I grew up in a small town that the barbershop was where gossip and rumors are shared. And I went out in there getting my hair cut. I kept hearing the customers talk to each other as if they're lifelong friends. But I realized after that they just met at the shop. Yeah, so we definitely have crews. We have our early bird special and those are for our clients who tend to come between nine thirty and noon. And then we have our customers who frequent in the evening. So they kind of all get to know each other. So it's kind of a hangout, some place to have a drink, some place to relax. And as you were talking about the wife shopping, most of the time it's the wife dragging the husband in because the wife is coming in to get laser hair removal, her eyebrows tattooed, get a B12 shot, get that energy boost. So we keep the whole family in our shop. I will pay more attention as I walk by now to see who's there. Is there anything you want to share with us that's different about the barbershop? Because I could talk about hair for about this much because I don't have much. But we got a machine for that, too. We do do hair restoration. So the hair restoration it's it's light therapy and it just helps to break down the dehydroxy testosterone and stimulate hair growth. So it's like it's like Rogan on steroids. And it just helps the follicle that's it still exists to be more full, more robust and give your hair back that fullness. So yeah, we do some cool stuff. This forehead of mine keeps growing, so I don't know how much help it can get. So going back to the business end, you have a lot of employees. What types of services and what type of benefits can you offer someone that's in the service industry like a barber? Yeah, definitely. So far to full-time barbers, we offer them, you know, your standard medical, dental, so on and so forth. We try to offer them not only opportunity to grow professionally, but also personally develop their customer service skills. Make sure that their life and work are completely in balance, because that's really important. And then from there, we have a few who really want to expand and open up their own shop or open up their own school. So we try and back those dreams and make those dreams a reality. And that's something we're really passionate about it as well, is making sure our team are each individually successful and able to take their dreams to that next level in that new height. So you don't mind losing a barber, opening up his own shop and potentially taking customers? Oh, we would clap for that. But we also have plans to open up a few other shops. So as those barbers, not only that individual barber, but it takes a team. So when those teams are ready, which we slowly have brewing and in the making, then we'll move them to their own location and they'll, you know, offer, you know, ownership. Managing their own shop and, OK. It's a great way to expand and build on the team. Yeah, and especially a lot of people, a lot of barbers, they're amazing barbers and they would love to have that the structure behind what we provide with the policies, the procedures, the HR and the payroll, all the back end stuff that myself and Kellen know and are very familiar with. We're able to bring that to the table and help support them so that they can continue to do what they do well, but be supported. Yeah, that's part of the business. A lot of business owners tend to forget is all that little back end stuff. Yeah, I'm a great chef, but I don't know how to set up the front of the house or dishes or make payroll. And even though you're the greatest chef in the world, you might have those dishes. And I didn't think a barbershop had that issue, but now it's coming to light. It's another business. It's like any other business. So prior to this, Kellen had worked at American Savings Bank for, I want to say, over a decade. Actually, that's how I met him the first time. And so he's a commercial banker and it was his job to help people in the same way it was my job before, you know, doing the barbershop and METI spot to help the company that I worked for expand and systematize and make sure we were delivering the best clinical care possible. You were a nurse before? I'm still a nurse. Pardon me, still a nurse. Nurses, no, it stays with us. OK. Yes. So nurse, business owner, went to school for economics and health care administration, nursing and biotech. So kind of using all those degrees to be the bridge between health care and finance. You forgot to lean six. Oh, that's that's yeah, the black belt. Wow, great certification and the one I wish I probably should get. It's fun. I can imagine it's a lot of studying, too. Yeah, so you see where our driver continued education comes from. It's it's a huge driver. And as a manager myself, I've always felt educating her employees and your staff, as long as they're happy, learning and growing. They help you support your business. Yeah, I got my haircut through Jen and she was absolutely amazing. And other than the fact I couldn't hear because she's always using some equipment in my ear. I just nodded when I could and she's still coming here straight. Yeah, she's one of our senior barbers. She's amazing. She just takes that customer service to a whole another level. We've had a whole bunch of guys fall asleep and start drooling in her chair. They're so comfortable. Well, is that because of her work or because I had to shop before they sat down? It would be the shot, the quality of her work and the little loamy she does as well. I was in a hurry so I didn't get the loamy. So I might have to come back for that one. You missed out. It's a dangerous combination. Yeah, OK, so we're going to run out of time shortly. Is there anything you want to share about the shop before we end the program? Just come by, come by and visit us. We have a special for the month of November. We're partnering up with Pride Aloha. So 25 percent of our proceeds when you mention Pride Aloha will be donated to Hawaii Health and Harm Reduction. And that's a great in the community nonprofit who's helping to provide medical care to the community. And on top of that, if you mention think tech, you'll get an additional 20 percent off all many spa services as well. So thank you. Ladies, thank you for having coming on the show and joining us today. And I hope everyone learned more about being a barber and getting your hair cut right and getting that super precision cut like I did. And I look a little bit better than I should. But it's the haircut. You look great. It's the haircut. You look great. We are out of time, but thank you for joining us, Lainiff. Big thank you to you and production staff here in the studio. If you'd like to be a guest on this show, please let us know and call us at the studio or leave a comment online. This is in Hawaii airs every Thursday at 2 p.m. We look forward to seeing you here the next week.