In this episode, Jason and Doug, talk about achieving one’s dreams, and their origin story. Sharing your origin story with your staff and other people will magnetically attract them to you inside your salon business. Thus, helping you recruit effectively. Your backstory will tell them what's going on inside your business and get you to where you are now. They also emphasized to figure out what motivates you and going out of your comfort zone. Understand what motivates you and what drives you, for it will motivate others just by talking about it. It is the first step towards creating a plan in place and starting to reconfigure your life to go down that path of creating that dream. It just makes such a difference in how you operate as a person when you start believing things that you didn't believe before.
Key Takeaways:
03:42 - The Value of Backstory in Every Salon Business
09:28 - Dreaming and Believing Make Things Happen
15:27 - Turn your Dream into Reality
21:38 - Success Tip: Step Out of Your Comfort Zone
23:20 - Surround Yourself With People Who Push You To Achieve Your Dreams
Quotes:
“You got to have that dream and that drive that you want something more than where you are.” (09:10) (Doug)
“You got to figure out what motivates you.” (16:40) (Jason)
“By putting yourself in that different situation, all of a sudden your body starts believing that it can do things that it never thought was possible. Your mind starts believing things differently. And it just makes such a difference in how you operate as a person when you start believing things that you didn't believe before.” (22:43) (Jason)
Jason:
Do you know your salon's origin story or the roots of how your salon got started, and does your staff know the story as well? On today's episode, we're going to talk about why that is super important. And we're also going to tell you a little bit about Doug and my backstory, all on today's show.
Jason:
Salon owners are some of the most amazing people on planet earth. The only problem is sometimes their hearts are so big and they give so much of themselves to their staff and guests that it creates unintended consequences. Our goal is to change the industry by elevating the way the rest of the world sees salons, spas, and barbershops, and give it the credibility that it truly deserves. This is the Salon Owner Evo Revo Show.
Jason:
Welcome to today's show where we talk about what's going on inside your business that got you to where you are. So many people, I think, just kind of end up in business doing their thing, and people don't really know the story. And Doug, we were just chatting about this, and we said there's some really incredible stories of salon owners that have kind of come from somewhere that was not the best place on earth and have just really made an amazing business, made an amazing life for themselves and do some great things. It reminds me of a story, and good morning, Doug, by the way. Good to see you.
Doug:
Good morning. Good to be here.
Jason:
Glad to have you guys on. Do me a favor. If you're on for the first time... Oh, it is blurs day, officially blurs day. Check out Doug. You're rocking your blurs day. With your jacket on, it just says urs da. We saw some of our clients, shout out to, I should probably pull up who they actually were, shout out to some friends of ours that were rocking their blurs day shirt today. By the way, quick plug because I got to plug. If you guys want a blurs day shirt, you could head over to highperformancesalon.com/gear and grab yourself a blurs day shirt. Because sometimes those days blend together. But one of the things that Doug and I have talked about is that salon owners usually have some really incredible stories of why they got up and operational, why they do what they do. And there's some really powerful stories. In fact, I was mentioning this to Doug earlier is, Doug, one of the gals I knew a long time ago, her name was Ralphie.
Jason:
I don't know if Ralphie ever listens to our podcast. And if you do, Ralphie, you'll know this is your story. Hopefully I do it justice. But Ralphie was a salon owner that I had known a couple of, I don't know, 10-15 years ago. And I asked her how she got in the industry. And it was kind of a fascinating story is that she got in a spot where she ended up getting pregnant when she was 15. She was born from somebody else who got pregnant when they were 15 or 16, and just really didn't grow up in an extraordinary life to speak of. And when she was, I think, 16 or 17, she was walking around. She said I was smoking in a parking lot, blowing off life.
Jason:
And somebody dared me to go in and grab an application from the cosmetology school. And she said on a dare, I went in and grabbed an application just to shut my friend up. And I ended up going to cosmetology school, and through cosmetology school made enough money to raise, she had her kid, she's like, "I raised my kid, I got an apartment. I eventually bought a house." Then she owned a salon, and now she works with all these other stylists. And she created an environment for all these other stylists, no matter what their background was, to come together and actually make a living. And she was making great money, and she was doing some incredible stuff, giving back to the community, a big part of the business community in town. And had you had met her, you would have never known that was part of her backstory. And backstory is such an important part of kind of how you operate and what you do.
Jason:
And I just think that for a lot of people, backstory is important. If you agree with me, do me a favor and type in the chat and just say backstory. Because I think understanding that is a really big deal, not only for you to be able to tell clients and customers kind of what makes you you in that process, but also to have your staff. Because I think, Doug, for crying out loud, if she shared that story and said, "That's why I want you to be successful," doesn't it change the conversation from like, "I'd really like you to sell more retail or I hope you get some more guests." It just changes the entire dynamic of like, "I want you to be successful so you never have to rely or depend on somebody else because you deserve to be better in this situation."
Doug:
Yeah. I think it leads to the bigger why. It's not just about the money, need you to do this, need you to do more. Because when they realize where you came from, because sometimes whenever you're very successful, either as an owner or a stylist or whichever, people kind of assume that you've always just been that. They don't realize the real story behind it. It's just that, "Oh, well they're just there. They were always there. Somehow they were magically placed there," whatever it may be. I think one of the other things that's very powerful about that, Jason, is whenever you tell your backstory, because everybody's got one and it's amazing where people come from. And Clarence Thomas in his book, I think it was his grandfather, his grandfather raised him in a house that had one light bulb, no bathroom and one light bulb.
Doug:
And now he sits on the supreme court justice. But yeah, I think that people understand that if you see that, it's relatable in the fact that if you show where you start and you actually started out below where someone else is starting out with you, and they're like, "Wow, you were able to do all of this." Now then they believe, it helps their mindset get into that thing and they can believe. They can look at your success, see where you came from and build in their mind. They now see a path. Instead of saying, "Oh, well I don't know if I could see myself being there," but relating to "Wow, you actually had it hard."
Doug:
Alice at one point was living in a trailer with two small boys and was working two jobs and having to pick up Coke bottles to turn in for deposit to be able to make ends meet. And that's just where she was. But through looking forward and seeing what she was capable of and applying herself and doing things, and now she's become very successful. I mean, she's a Redken artist. She owns two salons and a barber shop, just opened a restaurant. She's been very successful.
Jason:
Right. Restaurant, you guys own rental properties. I mean, I think for those of you that don't know, Alice is Doug's wife, if you didn't know that. Randomly talking about Alice here.
Doug:
Some Alice girl.
Jason:
But yeah, Alice is Doug's wife. And I mean the two of you guys, I mean, to your point, literally Alice coming from a trailer park and turning in bottles to make ends meet to be able to own lots of property. And there's just so many stories like that. I've heard a lot of stories recently and it just hit me, I don't know why that kept coming up, in being able to hear that. I heard somebody say the other day that like, "Look, I went from a meth addict on the street to making $100,000 a year by doing this business the other day."
Jason:
And I was like, whoa. That just smacked me in the face. As an origin story, I'm like, you go from meth to making 100 grand a year, that's a pretty big turnaround. And I've heard other people too, whether it's trailer park stories or any of that stuff. And it just makes such a big difference when you talk about what are your origins and what's going on. By the way, if you think that stories are important, do me a favor and say story in the comment section, I want to make sure that you guys are getting some connection with this here and getting some support as we're talking about this.
Jason:
But Doug, tell me a little bit more about your and Alice's story. Because as salon owners, I mean, yeah, so it's super easy to be like, of course, here you are, you're a founder of High Performance Salon Academy with us. You run salons and barbershops. You've got properties, you've got all these other things. Great, congratulations. You've done some cool things that other people want to do. But it wasn't always like that. And I know you kind of mentioned a little bit about Alice's story. But we were just talking about, at our last Nashville event, we were out in Nashville and Alice said something really powerful. And I think sometimes when you look back and see that measurement, do you want to talk about what she had mentioned and what she was saying there?
Doug:
Yeah. So there's the Gaylord, which is right there next to Opry Lane. If you've never been there, the place is crazy huge.
Jason:
It's like Disneyland.
Doug:
Yes. And it's beautiful. I mean, on the inside, they've got this atrium that's just ridiculous. It's got waterfalls and restaurants and just really cool. When Alice was younger and she actually lived in the area, there'd be hair shows and stuff come there. And she would come to the hair event there and she would just walk through the hotel and go, "Gosh, I would love to be able to stay here at some point, and not only be able to stay here, but stay at one of these rooms that looks out over this gorgeous atrium." I mean, it's even got a little river that runs through it, that they've got little tour boat things that can go through.
Jason:
It's not a river. It's like you can get on a boat and take a 20 minute tour through the hotel. That's how big this hotel is. It's amazing.
Doug:
Right. It's a workout in and of itself as we found out last time we were there. But so the thing was this time we were able to go and we went as professionals. And with our company, we were actually renting out a large space. We had a cocktail hour in the atrium. It was a great setting.
Jason:
Huge atrium, cocktail party and DJ and all kinds of stuff.
Doug:
We had a room that overlooked the atrium and all that stuff. And she and I were sitting on the balcony, and she was thinking about that. She's like, "Yeah," she goes, "I never really believed." And she goes, "I know this sounds silly because it's a hotel room." She's like, "But for me, that was a huge thing. Every time I would come here and be like, 'Gosh, one day.'" Maybe that's the thing too. You got to have that dream and that drive that you want something more than where you are. I think that's one of the lessons of it, but it was really cool when things come around like that, when the full picture comes around. You got to dream, you got to look what's out there.
Doug:
And then I think the other thing is you got to believe that you can do it. You got to have that relentless belief that, "I can do this. I can win. I'm not going to let the small things get in my way." And I think that's huge for people coming up. I mean, people need to see their path. That's the great thing about America, in my opinion, is that people can come. I mean, I came from a very poor background. I remember the apartments and stuff that I've lived in over my life, hoping that the power and the water is going to stay on, those types of things. But I think it's cool for people to be able to see, it's like in our business, in the restaurant, in the salon and stuff, and they're like, "What, what?" Because they just lose that connection. They just see you as the successful person. They don't see you at that thing where you started. So what about you, Jason? What are some of your, give us some of your, where you came from.
Jason:
Yeah, it's kind of an interesting thing is I would say I didn't grow up in like... I mean, look, I think my parents did an amazing job of raising us and doing things. And I definitely wouldn't say we grew up in a poor situation, but there were definitely hard times. And I think for a while, like when my parents got divorced, and I'm a super positive person, Doug. I don't live in everything is negative land. But when you talk about it, when I was eight years old, my parents got divorced, my dad wanted to keep the house. And so he ended up, we did buy a trailer, put the trailer on the property so we could rent out the main house so that he could still own the property.
Jason:
And so he lived in that house. We'd go down to visit my dad and stay in the trailer down there, things like that. I mean, that's the closest to living in a trailer that I got from that framework, which is part of it. But I think that the thing that I really experienced is the dream piece. I got exposed to doing things. And I'll tell you one of the things that was really, really big for me is that I had family members a little more aspirational because I had family members that would travel all over the world. My grandparents would literally jump on planes and they'd come back at Christmas, and they would come back with these amazing artifacts from Africa. And they'd be like, "Oh, here's a cool shield and this thing."
Jason:
And they'd bring back all these amazing souvenirs. And it always was like, man, one day that'd be a really incredible thing to be able to do. And so for me in my life, I was like, look, if I'm going to be able to do things like that and be able to travel, and my grandparents kind of gave me these teaser trips. I got to go to New York when I was 16 years old. And when I graduated high school, my grandma took me to Europe. And she was like, "Hey, check this out. This is an amazing place. You should go back." And I think for me, where it wasn't like I came from being a meth addict on the street type of deal, that wasn't my jam, but I came from having these big goals of saying, look, there's some really cool things that are available to you in this world if you work hard for them.
Jason:
And so for me, one of the things that I was able to do is pay for my own honeymoon. My wife and I paid for our honeymoon to go to Europe and spent two weeks in Europe, which was something that we paid for on our own. Somebody didn't buy it for us. We've since gone back and done lots of family trips where we've been able to go and do things on our own, or get paid. For crying out loud, I almost lost my marbles when I got paid to go to Paris and do a big event for L'Oreal. And just my whole lifestyle has been set up in a way to say I was kind of given little tastes of opportunities like that. And to be able to go in that spot was really cool. And Doug, you know one of these, I hit a life goal of all life goals about a year ago is that I always thought it'd be cool to set up these big, fun adventures.
Jason:
I've been setting up small adventure races and all kinds of things in my life, so much so that when I started this company, whatever, 12, almost 13 years ago now, I called it business adventures. Because I'm like, one of these days, we're going to need to be doing so well, we're going to be doing so well that we'll be able to go on once in a lifetime epic trip style adventures. And Doug and I were sitting down one time at dinner, and we're sitting down at this super nice restaurant. I don't even remember what it was. But with our clients, we were sitting down. And we said, what is it that you guys want to see more of? And they were like, "You know what we'd really like to do?" And I'll never forget this moment. I think it was Amy Roslyn or maybe Jen Booth.
Jason:
I can't remember. And they were like, "We really want to go on an epic adventure. Could we go on a big adventure? Something once in a lifetime. I know you've been skydiving, you've done all these things, but can we go on an adventure?" And I got goosebumps down my back. And I was like, did they just ask for the thing that I've always wanted to do, is go on these epic adventures? And I went to work, and as you know, Doug, we planned out last year our first ever high-octane adventure, which was an epic adventure. We went out and ended up going rally car racing for an entire day. We came back, we had a personal development morning with a couple of good friends of mine or of ours really, Shane, and also George came out and worked with us in the morning.
Jason:
And then we did our wild card adventure, which was a surprise they didn't get to know about until the second day. And we went out and ended up taking them out in the middle of nowhere, pulled up in this parking lot, and they got to see the giant sign that said Seattle paragliding. And we got to paraglide off of Tiger Mountain for our second day wildcard experience. And dude, that was the most cloud nine experience for me ever, because that's what I'm about, man, is about pushing limits, about seeing what I'm capable of, about doing those things. And that moment of going to that point of having a dream of like, wouldn't it be cool if, and then seeing it come to fruition in that case almost 12 years after the company was started, it was something that I was like, well, I kind of thought it could happen, but getting to actually happen was incredible.
Jason:
And then as you know, Doug, and maybe some of you guys know too... By the way, if any of you guys ever want to come with us on those adventures, type in adventures into the chat. Because they're amazing. And we're going to go on an even bigger and even badder adventure this next month. At the end of September, we're going to go drive tanks and shoot these crazy automatic weapons. And then we're going to actually crush cars. We're going to drive, we're going to take a tank and drive over cars. I never thought in my lifetime I would ever do something like that. And I think there's an origin story. We have some juxtapositions here of origin stories. There's one origin story, which is I came from nothing and created this thing. The other is, what's the dream?
Jason:
You had a dream, it only existed as a thought in your mind, and it became a reality. And I like to live in that space because I have a hard time ever painting a picture of my life was so bad that, but I'm sure there's plenty of things. I got plenty of sob stories in my life, but I like to live from the there was something that I had an idea for and turned it into something amazing. And same for you, if you're listening to this podcast right now, is you probably have been given a dream. And I just feel like you wouldn't have been given the dream if you weren't meant to create it. And I know that's a big statement because a lot of people are like, "Well, I had a dream I was supposed to own a yacht. I had a dream that I'm supposed to, whatever, travel to every country in the world."
Jason:
And I'm like, yeah, if that was thrown in your brain and it's in there, what that means is the first step towards creating something like that is thinking about it, and then starting to put a plan in place and starting to reconfigure your life to go down that path of creating that dream. Maybe it's having a 10 person salon, or maybe it's having 10 salons. Maybe it's being able to have real estate or be financially independent of somebody else or something else, or being able to buy your parents a dream home that they never thought they could be in themselves.
Jason:
You got to figure out what motivates you. And I think this is the point I want to really hit home on here, is that when you understand what motivates you and what drives you, it will motivate others just by talking about it. Yeah. It's like, yeah, Elizabeth on here, by the way, she says, "Pick me." I assume that means you want to come with us, Elizabeth. She was like, "Take me to go shoot the guns and take tanks." And if that's not your speed, it's all good. We'll do other adventures. But I think-
Doug:
When we went to Dirt Fish, by the way, that's where we did the rally car thing, that was amazing. If you ever get the opportunity to go visit those guys out there, that's a great, great setup. It's a blast.
Jason:
Yeah. I mean, we've got a lot of people who said they wanted to go back and do Dirt Fish again. They're like, "If you do that one again, I'll go do it." So we'll see. We might start doing more adventures during the year. And I'm pretty sure, Doug, I could twist your arm to go out and go run rally cars again. You'd be okay, right?
Doug:
Yeah. I'd love to do the four day thing. That's-
Jason:
I know. They do one day, four day. Big plug for Dirt Fish, by the way, those Dirt Fish guys. Tell them that the crazy salon owner guys sent you over there. That's a good day. [crosstalk 00:17:50]. Yeah. Oh, they will. They will. And by the way, if you think about it, we were able to marry all of the missions together. My personal mission as an individual is to help people see what they're truly capable of. I'll say it again. To help people see what they're truly capable of. That's just been me and what I'm about, and everything that I do is in that space. So when I help people from a personal development or just teaching them in general, it's like I believe that you have so much more in you that you're not giving that it's silly if you just get a taste of it.
Jason:
And the way I've experienced more of who I can be as an individual is by doing experiences that stretch me. I think it was Sherry Dos over at Redken said to me, she said, "Jason, I think you have a death wish." And I was like, what do you mean I have a death wish? And she goes, "You walk on fire." I'm a certified firewalking instructor. I go and jump off mountains and jump out of planes and do all kinds of crazy stuff. "You got a death wish." And I'm like, no, I don't have a death wish. I want to experience life to its fullest. That's my wish, is that if I just stayed at my house forever and watched TV and kicked it and went and did my job at the state, no offense if you work for the state, you're probably not listening to this podcast, is that if I just did my job at the state, that's not living the best life that I possibly can.
Jason:
And it's definitely not seeing what my limits are. And so when I do things like the rally car, the Dirt Fish experience or any of the other stuff, it's really about testing my limits. And if you're somebody who likes testing your limits and seeing what you're capable of, do me a favor and say test your limits in the chat and just put it in there. Because I think for so many people, I get a big kick out of that man, about getting that opportunity to test myself because, Doug, you remember when we were up on top of that mountain, up on Tiger Mountain?
Jason:
And you guys need to hear this story. We're up on top of the mountain. We had just hiked to the top of this mountain after this grueling 2,000 foot hike to the top of this mountain. We get to the top and they go, "Hey, look, I don't think we can jump. There's not enough wind. If we run, I don't think we're going to make it. And so we'll just go plowing into those trees." You remember that conversation, right Dough?
Doug:
Oh yeah. Yep. That's a little disappointing.
Jason:
We get to the top of the mountain, we've plugged it out. We got 12 clients with us, we got all this stuff. And they're like, "We're not going to be able to make it. So we're going to turn around." They're like, "Get in the bus, get in the bus." They drive us across this thing to try and get us another spot. And they're like, "No, go back, go back." And then they look at Doug and I, and they go, "Okay, I think we can do it. If you go right now, I think we can do it. But we only take the two of you." And we're like, oh great. So it's just going to be, don't get me wrong, I'm excited to go, but I'm disappointed that we have all these other people who are looking to go and they don't get to go. And so they go, "If you guys can run really, really fast, we can take you off this mountain." So Doug and I suit up, gear up, strap to our friends and run off the mountain. Doug and I take off.
Jason:
And then one by one, we started seeing one of our clients and another client and another client. And I will say, we didn't get everybody off the mountain. And I know there's some people who are still bitter about that. I know they're out there. But we got a lot of clients off the top of that mountain. And what I'll say when you go through something like that and it tests you and it pushes you and you get put in those stressful situations, man, there's not a lot of stuff that stresses me out like that did. You know what I mean?
Doug:
Oh yeah. It was just cool. It was cool seeing the expression on other people's faces that they didn't know what they're getting into until we literally pulled in the parking lot and they were like, "Oh." And so there was that nervous excitement of, because sometimes you want to mentally prepare yourself for doing something like that. They had all of five seconds to mentally prepare themselves for what they're about to be doing. And of course, now you have some time to think about it on the hike up because that's a legit hike up. It's almost a 45 minute, pretty much straight up incline hike. So you're like, screw it. I'm ready to jump off the mountain.
Jason:
Yeah. That made you earn it for sure. But I just want to say this, what Doug and I are really about, and I would say hopefully between our two stories and talking about what we're doing here, is that if you're not around people that are pushing you or that are totally, you're in your comfort zone, you're around what we call normals, you're around all those people who think that what you're doing is pretty good and that you should be very happy with what you have, look, we're just a big fan of pushing you. We had somebody come into our tank adventure like, "Look, I don't even like guns. I don't like tanks. I don't like any of that stuff. But I'm coming because I know that it's going to push me way outside my comfort zone." And I think that's really what we're about with everything that we do with Doug and I, and hopefully this has been helpful. By the way, if it's been helpful to hear some of Doug's and my backstory about why we do what we do and what's going on, do me a favor and just comment helpful.
Jason:
I'd love to know if this was helpful for you. We just want to help push people and just see what you're capable of. Because I know it seems crazy, but Doug, we were just talking about this the other day, it's not about going and driving tanks. Yes, it is. It's going to be fun to that part of it. But it's also about just pushing yourself and putting yourself in a different situation where you're like, I never would have learned that, I never would've thought that. And by putting yourself in that different situation, all of a sudden your body starts believing that it can do things that it never thought was possible. Your mind starts believing things differently. And it just makes such a difference in how you operate as a person when you start believing things that you didn't believe before.
Doug:
Yeah. I mean, it's one thing that I talked to somebody the other day, being a learner teacher. It's like the way that you say pushing yourself so you're learning things. [inaudible 00:00:23:09]. We took Dirt Fish, that experience, and turned it into an entire destination training for our academy. It's just one of those things. And the dream, sometimes maybe the dream is too big for somebody. It's like, well then what is your dream? Is it the new car? Is it the new house? Is it the new whatever? Do that one. And then because you got that, now step up on that one and dream a little bigger and dream a little bigger. Because I think that's where you get to, but you got to be around people that are going to push you and encourage you. Because it's super easy in this world to get around people that will agree with failure so that everybody can be comfortable in failure or being mediocre. Yeah. I just want to be around a group of people and an environment that's going to push me to be better, that I can push other people. We celebrate each other's successes.
Doug:
I mean, to your point, Jason, to me, that's living life. That's really pushing not only yourself, but pushing other people and being pushed, that's where you really get out there and you really start to see, you learn so much more about yourself and other people. Whereas if you're not in that environment and you're in the negative nanny corner, you're not learning anything, and you wonder why your life hasn't changed in five years.
Jason:
Yeah, totally. And I think now more than ever, in this time of COVID where things are totally different and people are still trying to figure out where they fit into this world, I think having dreams is one of the most important things. So, remember this as we wrap up the podcast today that your dreams, when delivered on, your dreams, when achieved or when delivered on, become your origin story. And make sure that you know your origin story and you share it with people and you also share it with your staff. Because the more people that understand your origin story and understand what makes you tick will be magnetically attracted to you inside your business and inside your salon. And it will help you recruit. It will help you gain clients. It'll help you understand yourself better. Steve on here says, "Create more fun than I ever thought possible." And that's it, man. The deal is, and I'm totally going to steal this, Doug, from Mike Mikalowitz, because he said, "The goal is..." Or no, was it Mike? No, it wasn't Mike Mikalowitz.
Jason:
Sorry, Mike, I'm giving you credit for something that wasn't yours. It was Garrett Gunderson that we talked to the other day. He said, "Here's how life should work. Most people are trying to figure out the rules of the game and then play the game to win." He said, "The way it should work, if you're a business owner is that you should write the game, write the rules, play your own game and always win." And that just blew my damn mind. It blew my mind. And I was like, that was it, man, is that when you write the rules for your own game, you make up the game, you make up the rules and then you play the game to win, that's what we're doing is when you dream something, you're going, cool, what's the game? How do I set up my life so I can go on these epic adventures? How do I set up my life so I could help make other people successful?
Jason:
How do I set up my life so that I push others to be around us in a greater way, and just surround myself with ambitious people who are willing to do things that most people aren't? And it makes such a massive difference. So again, thanks for joining us on live. Thanks for listening on the recording. Do me a favor, if you haven't subscribed to our show, subscribe to the show. I think we're all right. I think it's a decent show. You should probably check out more episodes. Go back and find more episodes at evorevopodcast.com. Doug, as always, thanks for being on today. Catch us every Thursday 8:30 Pacific. And we will see you guys next week. Thanks Doug.
Doug:
Take care guys. Good to see you.
Jason:
Thanks for listening to the Evo Revo podcast. If you liked today's episode, please subscribe, leave us a review, and you can always get more information, including show notes and the video episodes at evorevopodcast.com.