 Hey guys, this is Matt Beck from freesaloneducation.com here with Terry Cohen who is somebody that I've followed for a long time And I I'm not gonna say long time. I'm gonna say I'm gonna say a since I began my salon Seven years ago. Okay. That's followed you that way. They can't guess how old I am in any way Exactly. So you're a big part of you I I met you when I was I became aware of you through Paul Mitchell but I worked for Paul Mitchell for ten years and Followed Robert Cromings very closely and I always thought It's not necessarily You want to learn from the from the guy that you look up to but you also want to look at who he learned from Right, and I know I'm not gonna say he learned everything from you, but I've listened to Stephen Terry Cohen CDs many many times driving to those classes and teaching for Paul Mitchell and learned I Guarantee without you Steve and Robert. I could not have ran my salon at 25 years old So Now I want to talk about that because you you did put out those CDs a while back, right? And what if so over the last seven years? I haven't really stayed Connected with what you guys are doing. Do you reference back to the CDs? What's going on with you now? Well a lot, okay? first of all PSC turned 30 33 years old and PSC is your distributor. Yes, Steve starred the company in 83 We've been with Paul Mitchell since day one. We represent four brands. We represent Davanes since 2004 out of Italy and In the last year we took on three lines So we're a house that only represents five brands and the new lines that we've taken on our Russel a men's line Which is a lot of fun for the guys. Yes, and it's so funny. Everyone knows them as the guys Oh, yeah, they're awesome And then we took on flow which we're really excited about and then a wonderful brand called Z1 out of Italy I don't know. I'm it's a milkshake and non-hibition and some other brands So we're thrilled with our with our mix. Okay, one of the things that we launched in 2015 in November actually we put in a 300 seat theater on site at our location really right with a 35-foot stage and seven hairdressers can be featured on this Runway stage or it could be just a runway. Okay, and or it could be a business venue But it's 300 people and I don't have to set up and tear down anymore Our team were thrilled with that because that was crazy and it was a team effort our company in the last five years We changed locations our staff did the complete build out. Okay team really I sketched it and they built it and then we did the theater the same way So we have some amazing talented team members on staff and so so this theater is housing Education from the brands that you have and all that everything we We're pretty much full every every Monday and Tuesday. We do our advanced education for our customers Okay, a lot of fee-based education there. We still do about 1600 in salon classes a year the advanced education is of course going to focus on grooming and cutting and and color formation and and Also updo styling but also it's going to focus on how to service the guest and really understand what your responsibility Is as a hairdresser? I mean our number one responsibilities to create a repeat customer, right number one Right, what are the things that we have to do to ensure that they want to return and that it's definitely an experience for them Most hairdressers are absolutely willing to go through the process of being uncomfortable with their hands To learn how to be an expert right with their shears and their tools and so on and so forth But you also have to realize you have to be uncomfortable with your words right and learn how to speak as well as your hands can produce Great hair. Yeah, I think that's like one of the biggest questions that I guess It was how do you what questions do you ask? You know those things and and that's all information that I grabbed from those CDs we have 18 in production. We probably should do some more, but the information isn't you don't yeah, it's not dated Yeah, and it's really I Worry about as our generations New ones come in yeah and The social scene of the having the phones in front of us and having that be our number one priority The ability for us to communicate and connect is has been threatened, right? And we're more committed to this screen and what it can say to me versus what to the human spirit Right and connecting with another individual and as a result of that because this job is entertainment this job Yes, his technical is required right, but it's all about your ability to connect have heart-to-heart conversations create that hope and Enthusiasm for that guest's new appearance or new look or whatever they need to do to a feel more confident And it's all done with words and your ability to interact right and if you can't do that you're gonna lose exactly It's all about relationships Connecting with the guests and and in the loss of that connection over time because I talked to John Harms a lot and He was talking about retention rates in the fact that after six visits your retention rates like 10% 8% Why is that and it's because of the relationship you Or we get so comfortable in our relationships We take them for granted right or we have to get too many guests in our base that we can't give them their due Attention, which is something that we just talked about right pre camera on Which is something in my salon right now that we have Too many guests and not enough room. We're not fitting them incorrectly so and you said to To stop taking new gas. Well, here's what happens You know you've got to manage the traffic because you have to understand what capacity is in your business capacity when are we at capacity and Because we have availability on our schedules like there's a 10 o'clock available. There's an 11 o'clock. There's a 230 We think we're not at capacity Yet we have enough guests to be at complete capacity Should they be scheduled properly looking at that rescheduling percentage making sure we're managing the traffic and knowing when our guests are Falling away from us. It's almost like I said earlier It's like putting a square peg and asking it to fit in a round hole it can't right You have to know that what are your limitations and capacity when we call a hotel and they say the hotel is Fully committed tonight. It's because every room is being used right when we say a salon is fully committed It means every hairdresser has enough guests. They should be completely full right if they're not the hairdresser is the problem They're not scheduling properly. Exactly. So how do you explain that to a hairdresser that maybe? Has enough gas, but they're not booking I think I'm we're afraid to ask people for their future business Right, it's still really much a confidence issue. It's a confidence. I'm saying if you're not scheduling I'm gonna take that personally if you're not scheduling. I must have done something wrong No, it just means that you have to be in charge at the business relationship with that customer, right? That's all it means. Yeah, we don't take that personally. We do our job a customer should never have to speed us up Right like saying Matt, I mean all right already. No, no It's okay. I'd rather them do that than say Matt. You never told me. Yeah, Matt You didn't say I needed this product Matt You never said that I need to be in here every six weeks or a haircut or my hair would fall apart Right, Matt. You never said what the requirements are when you become chemically dependent They should never have to ask us for the information that we deserve as their customer, right? Yep, true and you have so just to kind of let everyone know so you are are you speaking at I know you're speaking tomorrow right at the it's the PBA beacon right right for students for the young hairdressers that earned it I believe there's 500 that earn their way here. It's so cool to see. Oh my gosh Yeah, and to to know that that they're gonna have that time with Stephanie Stephanie Kaczowski and my job tomorrow is to Have Stephanie bring out her journey to them right so they can see what's possible Everyone wants success, but they don't want to honor the process if Stephanie said I had to do this and this and this to get here People are gonna. I don't want that. Yeah Well, guess what then you don't want where she's at today either. Yeah, because everyone has a process of success You have one. I have one Robert has one my husband has one and there's many people that say I don't want to Do the fight like that, right? Okay. You just made a decision that yeah, right like people that ask How do you find the time to do it or the people that I automatically right away? Like you wouldn't be asking that question necessarily if I feel like if you If you're the type of person that's willing to work for it Oh gosh, yeah, you know, I mean if you walk up to someone say how did you get a body like that they say Well, I'm in the gym six hours a day Well, I just disqualified myself from having a body like that right because I don't have six hours to get And I envy them that get up at four in the morning. Yeah to go to the gym. God bless them. Yeah, that's not Terry Cowan, right? However, my policies for me and my disciplines and my processes are Ones that we chose as a family to get where we are today. Yep. So what are those going to be for you, right? So what would you say? I know that you agreed to sit down, which I really appreciate I know that you have dinner. I was honored. So tell me what do you want to put out there for people? You have Also schools. We have we have three schools We do have a lot of young people that watch this channel and also subscribe to American Slawn. So Where are your schools located? We have one in Chicago on the UIC campus And then we have a place in the world We have one in Lombard and both of those are great properties And our first one is we bought a small boutique school in the upper peninsula of Michigan, Michigan and Escanaba and That's a that's a delightful smaller property that can house around 50 future professionals at a time where the other ones capacity is probably 250 to 275 comfortably Okay, great. So and that's how do they find that information like if they want to look up to school or they can Just look up John Paul Mitchell systems Okay, and you can look at Paul Mitchell school school and then just search it and we also have our distributorship Okay, we are honored to be a distributor for the states of Illinois and Indiana. Okay, and seriously if they want to Pick up one of your CDs. Can I still do my gosh? Yes possible WWW professional salon concepts calm, okay? And Honestly, it's like if you were thinking about you don't even need to have a song because you even have a stylist version Yes stylist version and owner's version. So definitely get that CD because you will not regret any of that and That's pretty much it. I want to talk about some books. I'm reading right now. Okay, please suggested reads Okay, first of all for the owners that are listening today I would recommend for you to pick up Michael Gerber's book the entrepreneurial myth Okay, you should read that at least once a year go in reread I still read it every year at least once a year and He talks about the fact that when people start businesses, it's usually a technician That's starting a business not a manager not an entrepreneur usually the best technician the best plumber says hey You know what? I'm the best plumber here. I'm gonna start my own plumbing business Hair dresser. I'm the best hairdresser in here. I'm gonna start my own salon Not realizing that the two other things that have to be in place is the entrepreneur the visionary And what do I want this business to look like? How do I want it to run? What do I want it to do and the manager that puts the the ideas and the systems in place of the entrepreneur? So the technician can do the job with ease. Okay. All right. Yeah, and so many times Hairdressers will stay in the technician role and forget about these two Yeah, and that's when we start to crash and burn a little bit Yeah, definitely. I also picked up some new books this year that become my favorites. Okay. I've read grit GRIT And true grit is about who's got the grit. Yeah, just the grit the grudiest dirtiest grit To stay in there and fight the good fight to be successful. Okay, what are you willing to do to have it all? What are you willing to do? And I've also picked up no excuses, which is a great book and also presence Presence is a book. That's all about Do you have the presence to honor what you're doing when you walk in a room? Do you know your responsibility when you're a hairdresser? Do you know your responsibility when you walk into the supermarket to greet the people in the community because you want to be known? That's the great gal over there. Right that loves her customers loves what she does loves what she does it Who's who she does it for and who she does it with? to have presence you have to put your voice out there and have a noise footprint and We can't do it on a screen, right? We can't say hi. I love what I do you have to lose that out of you, right? Yeah, right. It's great. I'm gonna link all those books do it. I'll do it in the description so people can Wonderful, and that's great. That's definitely great. My nephew right now is um I always talk about him my sister's my sister's son and he's 16 Okay, he's a heck of an athlete all right heck of an athlete He has an opportunity to play division one ball if he manages his distractions Okay, so what could a 16 year old's distractions be could be girls right could be drugs It could be steroids someone coming up to him and saying hey you want to hit the ball farther try this right? It could be his grades. It could be not sleeping because he's playing video games. It could be his his Attitude of not understanding what his responsibilities are as a ball player I could go on and on right right and And in all cases Cole still a very young man in many cases. I tell him this I said Cole You're still a dork at 16. You're still a dork. We all know it's 16 We thought this thing likely figured out, but we didn't know anything about it, right? Right, and I love him so much And it's our job to direct him to say not like that like this. Yeah, this is in the way and This is what you need to do. You're a great athlete. Don't let the distractions screw this up for you, right? Same conversation can be had with a hairdresser, right, right? Yeah, wrong boyfriend wrong girlfriend Wrong extracurricular activities Not wanting to go to educational events not wanting to learn beyond the first level Not surrounding themselves with the right people while they're working every day Being more committed to their phone than they are to being on the floor versus downtime Staying out of that back room. Those are all distractions. Yeah, and when we realize When we're not good to ourselves to get what the golden brass ring is then we have to make shifts and adjustments They also have to work with someone that will bring out the greatness in them Not one that will just be their cheerleader a cheerleader is great But a coach will direct you over and over again That's our responsibility. You know the older I get I Feel like gosh or Steve and I running out of time. Are we running out of time to make a difference? My voice is probably more curt I'm probably not going to be as soft approached right because I'm I have such a desire to make it better for people Right, and usually the only thing that's in the way is themselves. I'm sure as an owner you've witnessed that Yeah, I can literally talk to you all day. I Know I like about we have to do it again. I would love it next time. I'm in Chicago because I my family I grew up near Chicago and Next time I'm in Chicago. I have to come see you guys. Let's do it. All right. Sounds good Terry. Thank you so much Oh my gosh. Thank you to American Salon for letting us sit down Thank you start this conversation and all of you guys go get those books and go to what's the website PSW WWW professional salon concepts.com and pick up the CDs. Thank you guys so much for watching. We'll see you on the next video Thank you. Bye. Bye