Aveda

She's an 11-year veteran hairstylist and started her career at her salon that she's at, which is Atelier Studio.

It's an Aveda salon.

She worked from being an assistant to a stylist to an educator to And of course, now she's the salon owner.

She purchased the salon and really, like we joke behind the scenes, felt like she knew nothing, you know? And so it's one of those things where it's sink or swim.

So I...

Maybe that was my first releasing of the ego when I had to, you know, tell people that I was leaving school and going to do hair.

But I knew that I wanted to work in an Aveda salon.

Atelier, my forever home salon, was like in this beautiful luxury mall.

So, you know, again, I think that would be pretty catastrophic to put a hold on that.

Back Monday from 6am, the Mike Hosking Breakfast with Aveda News Talk ZB.

Newstalk ZB.

So that's what we're talking about.

That is what you want to see in a salon too.

Is the retail set up in a way that is just beautifully merchandised? Is there stock to everything? Is And when I'm getting services, are the products being used in a way that's helpful for me? Is it curated? Is it personalized? And do those products line up with my goals or values? So there is something to be said about Aveda lifestyle salons.

They really have a niche.

Finding salons that maybe carry very clean organic products like La Anza or Intersense or Zavanese.

[laughs]

I still, like, I still have visions of it, whereas now, there's, like, the Douglas J., the Aveda school in Royal Oak that people actually get real-life services done.

But you don't really know exactly how to do hair right out of beauty school.

It's sort of a, an apprenticeship thing where you have to get hands-on-

The back bar itself is fantastic.

You already know I love Aveda for back bar because it's the cheapest we can possibly get.

And it's great.

Our clients love it on the back bar, but it's not like our main retail line.

And so...

It like makes sense financially, but it doesn't make sense for us to like be all in on Aveda anymore.

That's just not like what our clients are desiring from us.

And so we're really shifting things around and kind of having that more like viral area where we brought in like the K18 dry shampoo.

It's beautiful there.

And I want to know in that journey, what, you know, between MBA, working with Aveda as an educator and owning your salon, being a mother, All the things that you do and all the balls that you have in the air that you're juggling.

What is one thing that you think would surprise people the most to find out about you?

Oh, my

Once I started that practice, I, That was my writing day.

That's when I had all the meetings like with my editor and my publisher and all of that.

So then when I get when I got my role with Aveda, I travel Sunday, Monday, and that Tuesday is my rest day.

Perfect.

And it's just, throughout history, it's something that has been very common and also works very well in business.

For example, like, Aveda salons.

Like, that is, like, that is a very, I don't know about now, but it had been a very successful marketing and sales campaign for Aveda because whole salons would be freaking fully branded as Aveda salons, right? That's very benefits, very much benefits the company.

And if somebody loves the brand enough, they will drink the Kool-Aid and they will be a part of the community.

They'll feel like they're a part of something and they will do the advertising on your behalf and speak your praises.

And if the if it's if it's fulfilling your needs if it's giving you everything that it's promising and from a truthful actual tangible perspective then I think that is a really cool thing you know that like this brand has done a really great job at creating that type of like cult like kind of situation like that creating an identity you know.

Beyond that, like an experience, like there is like even with the Aveda, like I like have, you know, worked at Aveda like salons way, way back in the day.

And it is like very much a systematized like method to the appointment, right? Like there is the stress relief treatment.

So the value in that was fantastic.

free marketing for them um which we got a lot of uh product for me that i could make in relatively small numbers because they could make hundreds of pairs of a shoe whereas if i tried to make sneakers the minimum at that time was like 5 000 pieces so it was a win-win for all sides and for me that became a template of sort of how to without having a working capital how to fund a business And subsequently, I repeated that model with Gola, with Dr. Martens, with Aveda, making a fragrance with Aveda, with toy companies and so on.

And it worked great.

And we were able to continue doing that until I think maybe it was Karl Lagerfeld and H&M.