 Hey guys, this is Matt Beck from free salon education.com. We are here with Cassandra McLaughlin. You're from Florida, right? Yes, Tampa. So I can't wait to hear about your salon. You've got so much stuff going on. You also work for Paul Mitchell. Yes. So let's talk about all the different things. So first off, how long have you owned your salon? Well, we're actually just celebrated our first year anniversary in March. Okay. So we're still kind of a new baby But I owned a salon previously in Missouri as well. Oh, wow. Okay. So you did you grow up in Missouri? Partially. I grew up there until I was nine, moved to Florida. Okay. Both are home. Okay. So how did you have a salon in Missouri? Well, I did move back there for part of my adult life for about five years, opened a salon, and then moved back to Florida again. So kind of ping-ponged back and forth. Okay. So what would you say is the biggest difference between owning a salon in Missouri and owning a salon in Florida? You know, I think it's a very different process to grow a clientele in a small town versus a bigger city. I think in a small town you have such a tight network of people that that word-of-mouth spreads like wildfire, good or bad. Okay. In a bigger city, you almost have to like earn it a little bit more. You have to really stand out and that's why I know we're gonna talk a little bit about social media And that's where that really came into play. Okay. Cool. Yeah, I would have thought maybe the opposite that if you're in a big city It would be easier to build up. Did you do you think owning a salon before was it was easier the second time going into it? Absolutely. 150%. There was like this big learning curve that I just skipped with the second time around, so it was awesome. Okay, cool. So and you how long have you been with Paul Mitchell? Since the beginning. Actually July will be the 10-year anniversary of when I started Paul Mitchell the school Tampa. Okay. I was student number four, so that was right after the school opened. There was a core class of eight of us. So okay from the beginning of my career. I've been with Paul Mitchell, but I've been an educator for five years. Okay, that's awesome. And you you're working with the new product. Yes. You want to talk about that? The the color XG has been a total game changer. Which I do not I don't have that in my salon yet. So you can tell you can tell us all about it. Yeah, it's really awesome. It's you know, it's just a great addition to the color bar that we already have. I love Paul Mitchell the color PM shines and then we had the addition of shines XG last year. So this is just another level of permanent color and one of my favorite things to play with right now are the intensifiers. They just really give a lot of versatility and I think you know when you have that kind of artistic spirit, you want to micromanage your color and have control over it. Yeah, and this really gives you the ability to just pinpoint that exact color that you want or really to go to the next level with pastels or vibrant colors, but still in a permanent format. Okay, so it's a it's a whole other ball game. It's really fun. It's really fun. Awesome. So you have so you have the salon you started the Instagram and this is one of the things so I put out on social media who should be interviewed at the show. Yeah, and your name came up quite a few times, which was really cool. So why do you think that happened? What did you do within social media to grow the following that you have? You know, it's hard for me to exactly say because I feel like a lot of this happened organically in a way. It just was something that I decided to put out pretty consistently and just it was a decision to just post my work. It was an outlet that I had in the area that I was in versus going and finding going out and handing out business cards. Right. So I just started doing it. I started doing it every day and then it evolved into a little bit more and a little bit more. It got attention from things like modern salon and behind the chair and then it grew. But I think the biggest point that I kind of decided at the beginning is that I was just going to be really true to myself and who I was and have just be honest, you know, not hide formulas and not it was just being open and sharing. And I think that that really garnered a whole other audience. Well, and you have some phenomenal images that now I'm going to put up a couple as we're talking. So it'll be somewhere in here. OK, right. But we so I've looked at your pictures. I have no idea how the hell you take these pictures because it looks like you're taking them with expensive cameras. And my iPhone. Exactly. So take me through this process, because I think a lot of hairdressers have a challenge with getting a good picture of the hair that they've done. Well, I think the biggest things and I have a lot of questions, you know, what what camera do you use, what lighting do you use? And I think the number one suggestion I can give is one, taking the time. Yeah. Setting yourself up with a good style and a great style and finish is probably the most important thing, because if the hair is not finished impeccably, it will not photograph well. It's like three hairs turn into 50 on a on a phone or a camera. Right. So really, really taking the time with style and finish. And I think we just from the beginning of the salon opening built that into our service. We don't do, you know, quick finishes unless the guest absolutely has to is on a time crunch. Yeah, we really spend the time to do that. So that's number one. Number two is just finding a really good source of light. We have good light in the salon. But truthfully, the best light that we have is the sunlight from the front window. Yeah. And that really just shows the true color more than anything. So we found really an indirect source of sunlight. So not directly on the hair, but a front facing window is the best. We always get bumped out when we have a big color correction at the end of the night. Right. Yeah, no one no one gets a good picture at night. No, it's hard. It's definitely hard. Yeah. We've tried everything too. So really sunlight is I say it's the best filter for hair color, you know, and and just a really good style and finish and then taking a lot of pictures. You can't take three and expect the money shot. Like I take probably on average 20 to 30 pictures per guest. OK, all right. Yeah. And and what I love most about your pictures and Brian here, I don't know if you know, but he he works with with us. He told me about you as well. And he was saying like you're I had to look at your pictures. So I took all your pictures and they're just flawless. I mean, they it's almost like like they're they're not real. Like the hair is like it's really good. So I'm impressed. I think you did a great job. There's there's a reason why you have the following that you have. And so what's next? How's this so this lawn's been a year. Yeah. So what's what's next with you? What's your plan? Well, we just hit some really one of our target goals for two of our stylists. They hit some of their big goals and we have our team that's growing. And we have three young stylists kind of in the work. So really, our next step is just to grow our team. We are kind of doing a little different thing with our schedule. We do four 10 hour days and we have a smaller space. So my goal for next year is to really start opening the salon five, six, 10 hour days and then getting a rotation and just a bigger team. But I'm still keeping that really close net family that we have because we work really closely together. We have a 1300 square foot salon. So, you know, we're pretty close, but we have a lot of fun together. We really enjoy what we do. And I think if you look at my stylist across the board, their social media, the work is impeccable and I think happy hairdressers do good hair and a good team makes for the ability to do the type of color corrections that we do or the spending the extra time on the style and finish because everybody readily jumps in and helps each other. So when I have an eight hour color service that goes into my next two services, I'm not freaking out because I know I have hands that will help me. That's awesome. And that does a lot. So that's I just want to continue to grow that. And what do you think is the the thing that makes your staff want to do that want to do that extra work or, you know, jump in and help you out? Because that's a question that we get really often. How do you inspire a team? How do you get a team to to all work together and not just, you know, I'm done with my work, so I'm going to go in the back and hang out. A few different things I think that come into play. And I think the very first one is hiring the right person. Yeah. And that sounds like, you know, duh. But I really think having a super duper specific, clear idea of who you want in your salon. Yeah. And if someone doesn't have it, you can't be afraid to say no. Right. And my mom and dad, they they do a lot of motivational speaking and things like that. And my dad always says you have to be willing to let go of the good to get the great. And so my philosophy is just hiring the great ones. Awesome. So that's that's number one. We're very cool. So if you guys are not following Cassandra, you can follow her Cassandra Platinum on Instagram. OK. And then Cassandra Blaine McLaughlin on Facebook. OK. Yeah. Awesome. Well, thank you so much. Thank you. I know you have to get back to work doing great here. So thank you guys so much for watching. Thank you to Millennium Systems International for letting us hang out at their booth at Premier Orlando and anything else. No, just thank you for having me. All right. Thanks, guys. We'll see you on the next video. Thanks.