As owners, we occasionally feel handcuffed by employee demands. So we need to know the difference between a good employee making suggestions and having dialogue, and an entitled staff member who is wanting rules to be bent or broken just for them.

Sometimes we are tempted to bend, out of fear for losing those people and what that might mean. Don’t be afraid, run your salon the way you know you need to. That stylist was likely casting a large cloud over your salon. They were unhappy, you were unhappy and your team was probably unhappy too.

If and when they do leave or you let them go, you will be better off.

I’m sorry and embarrassed to say I have cancelled my class at Chicago ABS. Or more accurately, it was cancelled for me and I chose to not play games with these people anymore. Here is what happened.

In September of 2015 I started applying for the 2016 shows. I had had a lot of fun and full rooms at IBS New York 2015 and I wanted to do Long Beach and Chicago for 2016, so I filled in the online application.

What I discovered was that after agreeing to book me, telling me they would “love to have me,” they completely forgot to schedule me. By the time I asked for details, I believe that it was too late and they started string me along.

I first got an idea that they were going to try to cancel me on February 16th, in the email below. But I started to realize that my class was not available to purchase on February 20th, 3 weeks before the show. They had cancelled me February 20th and the only way I found out was because people were messaging me telling me they were unable to book my session.

On February 24th, I wrote to ask what was happening and was informed my class was cancelled but they would put me back on if I could sell 10 tickets by March 1.

I do this for fun and because I love speaking to and meeting people. I do not do this for money. I was being lied to and disrespected and this was not going to be fun anymore so I told them I wouldn’t do the class.

It is my firm belief that my class was never made live at all. I have since learned from a well-known speaker that it is part of the Chicago ABS business model to overbook educators and then cancel them within 2 weeks of the show if they don’t sell well. It is my feeling that since this is normal for them, they put me on the program but never made my class available. It’s win/win for them, knowing I will promote my class and my name will be on the program and they can cancel without repercussions.

In fact, I am still being promoted on their business page as a featured educator 6 days after I discovered my class wasn’t being sold. I just captured this screen shot right now.

Due to the travel arrangements I had made, my cancellation fees for flights now total $900. I won’t bore you with the details of why they are so high.

So thanks for wasting a crazy amount of my time, energy and money Christie Smaidris and Chicago ABS. You are incompetent and have absolutely no respect or regard for the people who educate at your shows.

Here are the relevant email exchanges between us as well as my thoughts in red if you care to read the actual details and see what I put up with and how agreeable I was attempting to be.

September 18, 2015 
Hi Christie,
I’m sorry to bother you. IBS is trying to book me for New York and I would much rather do Chicago since I’ve never been to Chicago and I hear nothing but great things about the show. I can’t do both as I’m a family man and I’m not interested in being a road warrior.
Do you have any idea when your team will start evaluating educators? IBS has given me 2 weeks to make a decision.
Thanks.
Michael Levine

September 20, 2015
We would love to have you! Let’s discuss next steps! 
Christie Smaidris

I love product manufacturers and I think they do amazing things for the hairdressing industry, but I love hairdressers more.
Never forget that you are not defined by what you use and sell.

In the earlier part of my career, I became pretty happy with myself and my clients’ experience was sometimes more about me than them.
Thankfully I matured. A little.

Almost all of my video blogs are about changing mindset and behaviour in order to create change in results. I also love that with every day, with every client, we have an opportunity to reinvent ourselves.

In this video the finger is pointed at you. You are responsible for your life. And you are exactly where you deserve to be.

Firstly, let me state that I am not a fan of deregulation. I believe if a state or province is currently regulated then it should continue to be. There is no reason to do anything but raise standards that are already in place if there is no added cost to the taxpayer.

But governments should not consider regulating an industry without evidence that said industry requires regulation. This evidence cannot be anecdotal.

Twelve years ago the British Columbia government decided that hairdressing was not an area that required government oversight and that resources could be put to better use. And in the 12 years since deregulation, membership in the formerly governing association, now called the Beauty Council, has become voluntary. Membership has obviously plummeted, from about 20,000 to under 4000. And many of those members are aging and only keep up their membership out of habit. As they retire or leave the industry, the numbers continue to diminish.

Since deregulation, The Beauty Council has constantly made claims of increasing complaints of injury and poor service and that the public has been put at risk. This is also what pro-regulation advocates in the United States claim would happen if they were to deregulate.

I recently asked the Beauty Council if there were any statistics to support their claims and the only evidence given to me was a newspaper article from several years ago with an interview with the then Chair of the Beauty Council stating that they were inundated with calls from consumers every day with complaints. Not a single actual statistic or evidence to support the claim, just like the latest article on the subject, linked below. And I would also argue that the consumer would likely never actually reach out to the Beauty Council or any governing body if they were unhappy or injured. A bad experience would likely result in a negative Yelp review and an injury would likely result in a call to a lawyer, not an organization that the majority of consumers is unaware even exists.

So there are absolutely no statistics or evidence to indicate that standards in the beauty industry in British Columbia have degraded in any way, in cleanliness or injury. And as an aside, cleanliness and hygiene standards have always been and continue to be the role of the municipal health board and they absolutely still monitor the industry. All salons are surprise inspected regularly.

But more importantly, to say that clients never had their hair damaged or issues during licensing is disingenuous and ridiculous. There have always been inexperienced stylists entering the industry as well as countless bad hairdressers screwing up people’s hair. And there always will be.

The upside is that the beauty industry is and has always been self-regulating. If a salon is dirty and gross and the stylists aren’t meeting hygienic standards or they aren’t good at what they do, then people will not go there and the salon will close. And all new hairdressers generally suck at hair and if they never get better then they will not succeed and will likely leave the industry.

I was not a fan of deregulation initially but now that we are 12 years into it and since there is literally no evidence of difference in what the consumer can expect in service, it is ridiculous to try to force regulation for the sake of regulation. Government should only be involved where they are needed, and hairdressing is now proven to not need any additional government regulations.

The Beauty Council, and all other associations should be looking for ways to make people want to be involved first and foremost.  I attended the 2015 AGM of the Beauty Council. It was in a beautiful location in the heart of downtown Vancouver. The city of Vancouver has at least 800 licensed hair salons, about a quarter of those in the downtown core. There were exactly 3 Vancouver salons represented that day, and maybe 30 people total.

Attempting to scare the public is not the right way to make membership. Rebuilding relationships and trust, while creating exciting new opportunities for membership is what is needed. Show members where their money is going and what the upside of membership is. Show potential members what they can expect in return from joining. Forcing people to comply will only breed resentment.

I hate fear mongering and this CBC article and interview is nothing but that.

http://www.cbc.ca/beta/news/canada/british-columbia/hair-salons-spas-regulate-cities-1.3329273

This is maybe my favourite video yet. I love hairdressers, but sometimes they forget what they were hired to do.
A little reminder.

Lots of cool things happening.

I’ve officially been booked to do seminars at the Long Beach and Chicago hair shows,  and I have 3 other firm offers,  though I’m not really interested in being a road warrior so if you want to see me,  this is it.

I told my publisher I wasn’t going to write my book on their time line and I’ve not heard back from them for a while so that project is possibly dead. And I’m actually happy about it because I have more time to spend with my team and to write and record things that I’m far more passionate about.

And we’ve shipped Product to Ontario,  Minnesota and California,  and the interest keeps growing. Exciting!
http://www.productforhair.com

A big part of the reason we are growing while we are actually shrinking is because I’ve stopped caring about my place in the salon industry in my city, and I’m not beating dead horses anymore in an effort to cling to the status quo. We’ve also gone back to focusing on education within our company which is a great way to reignite culture.  It also shakes the tree a little.

Success is not complicated,  it’s just that paths sometimes get muddied as we grow. When that happens we need to go back and simplify.

If you’ve been following me for any length of time, and I really appreciate it BTW, you will know that I am all about developing new talent.

I had the luxury of watching some of Vancouver’s brightest young stars showcasing their work and themselves the other day and had some observations to share.