Latest / Salon Success Secrets — The podcast for salon owners who are done hustling harder and ready to break their revenue ceiling. / The Propaganda Playbook: How Booth Rental Sells Freedom and Delivers Burnout Just Like OnlyFans Did

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The Propaganda Playbook: How Booth Rental Sells Freedom and Delivers Burnout Just Like OnlyFans Did · Salon Success Secrets — The podcast for salon owners who are done hustling harder and ready to break their revenue ceiling.

• 0:33
  SPEAKER_00: I want to say something today that might make some people uncomfortable.
• 0:38
  SPEAKER_00: And I want to say it anyway.
• 0:40
  SPEAKER_00: You know, the owner of OnlyFans died a few weeks ago.
• 0:45
  SPEAKER_00: He was 43 years old.
• 0:47
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and I watched the headlines rolling.
• 0:50
  SPEAKER_00: This is back at the end of March.
• 0:51
  SPEAKER_00: You know, it's like pioneer, visionary, hero of the creator, creator economy.
• 0:57
  SPEAKER_00: And I sat with that for a minute because something about it just didn't set right with me.
• 1:03
  SPEAKER_00: You know, this man had built a 4.7 billion, yes, B B billion dollar company.
• 1:10
  SPEAKER_00: And do you know what he did?
• 1:12
  SPEAKER_00: He convinced an entire generation of young women that selling explicit content of their bodies online was empowerment, that it was freedom, that it was finally, finally keeping what they earned.
• 1:28
  SPEAKER_00: And the world celebrated him for it.
• 1:30
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I'm not here to celebrate him, I'm here to talk about the playbook.
• 1:34
  SPEAKER_00: Because that exact playbook, the one that he used, is running around in the beauty industry right now.
• 1:41
  SPEAKER_00: It has a different name, but it is the same lie.
• 1:45
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and I'll take it a step further.
• 1:47
  SPEAKER_01: You know, I think what he did, what OnlyFans did, was one of the most sophisticated propaganda campaigns of our lifetime.
• 1:55
  SPEAKER_01: You know, and I think Booth Rentle has been running the exact same campaign in our industry for decades.
• 2:02
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm done watching talented stylists and beauty pros walk away from real futures because someone told them a story that sounded like freedom, but was actually just isolation with flexible hours.
• 2:18
  SPEAKER_01: So today we're gonna talk about it, all of it.
• 2:23
  SPEAKER_00: All right, they're gonna talk about propaganda, what it actually is, how it works, why it's so hard to fight.
• 2:31
  SPEAKER_00: You know, we're gonna talk about booth rental, not to attack it, but to show you the full picture that nobody shows when they're selling it.
• 2:40
  SPEAKER_00: You know, we're gonna talk about why the team-based model is the most ethical, most powerful, most guest-centered way to run a salon.
• 2:49
  SPEAKER_00: Not because we made that up, because it's true.
• 2:52
  SPEAKER_00: So let's get into it.
• 2:53
  SPEAKER_00: Let's go.
• 2:54
  SPEAKER_00: All right, so let's start here before because when people hear the word propaganda, they think that's extreme, right?
• 3:00
  SPEAKER_00: Like that's that's government stuff, gentlemen, that's war posters.
• 3:04
  SPEAKER_00: That does not happen in a hair salon.
• 3:06
  SPEAKER_00: But propaganda is not about scale, it's about structure.
• 3:10
  SPEAKER_00: And the structure is very simple.
• 3:13
  SPEAKER_00: You know, propaganda takes something that benefits the person running the platform and packages it as something that benefits the people on it.
• 3:22
  SPEAKER_00: You know, marketing tells the truth about something real.
• 3:25
  SPEAKER_00: Propaganda tells a story that protects a lot, that protects a lie.
• 3:30
  SPEAKER_00: And the most dangerous kind of propaganda is not the obvious kind, it's the kind that feels like it's fighting for you.
• 3:39
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, you know, here's an example that blew my mind when I first heard it.
• 3:44
  SPEAKER_01: Back in the 1920s, women were not supposed to smoke in public.
• 3:49
  SPEAKER_01: You know, it was considered shameful or improper or like a sign of low character.
• 3:54
  SPEAKER_01: So a PR man named Edward Bernays, who happens to be uh Sigmund Freud's nephew, who's in psychology, which honestly explains a lot, you know, he was hired.
• 4:09
  SPEAKER_01: Edward Bernays was hired by a cigarette company to solve this problem because half of the population wasn't buying cigarettes.
• 4:19
  SPEAKER_01: And they wanted to change that.
• 4:21
  SPEAKER_01: So he staged a stunt.
• 4:24
  SPEAKER_01: He hired women to march in the Easter parade in New York City smoking cigarettes, and he called them Torches of Freedom.
• 4:37
  SPEAKER_01: Torches of Freedom.
• 4:40
  SPEAKER_01: You know, overnight the narrative flipped.
• 4:43
  SPEAKER_01: You know, smoking became a symbol of women's liberation.
• 4:48
  SPEAKER_01: Sales doubled, and women got lung cancer.
• 4:52
  SPEAKER_00: You know, and if you think about it, the product didn't change.
• 4:55
  SPEAKER_00: The cigarette was still a cigarette.
• 4:57
  SPEAKER_00: You know, it's it did the same exact damage it always did.
• 5:01
  SPEAKER_00: The only thing that changed was the story wrapped around it.
• 5:04
  SPEAKER_00: And that story was so good, so emotionally resonant, uh, so emotionally uh resonant, so perfectly timed that women convinced each other.
• 5:14
  SPEAKER_00: You know, the platform didn't have to do the work, the believers did it for them.
• 5:19
  SPEAKER_00: And that is the propaganda formula, you guys.
• 5:21
  SPEAKER_00: And once you see it, you actually get to see it everywhere.
• 5:24
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, because you see it in OnlyFans.
• 5:28
  SPEAKER_01: You know, a platform that took a cut of every dollar made while the creators did every piece of work, you know, they absorbed every piece of the risk they paid, every piece of the personal cost.
• 5:42
  SPEAKER_01: This is so shocking.
• 5:43
  SPEAKER_01: The average creator on OnlyFans made$180 a month.
• 5:50
  SPEAKER_01: $180, you know, while the platform owner made$701 million in a single year.
• 6:00
  SPEAKER_01: You know, what they don't talk about is how that haunts so many women to this day.
• 6:07
  SPEAKER_01: And they own their videos for life.
• 6:11
  SPEAKER_01: You know, what they say to them is freedom, empowerment, keeping what you earn.
• 6:20
  SPEAKER_01: And you see it in booth rental because that's the exact same pitch, word for word, just dressed up in a different industry.
• 6:31
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it's like you deserve to keep what you earn, like you just said, Lindsay, you could be your own boss, like the salon is taking half your money.
• 6:39
  SPEAKER_00: That's one of my favorite ones, you know.
• 6:41
  SPEAKER_00: You know, that pitch is being made to your service providers and stylists right now, you know, maybe by another service provider or stylist, maybe by someone on TikTok, maybe a well-managing family member, a well-meaning family member, um, who genuinely doesn't understand what it costs to run a business.
• 7:00
  SPEAKER_00: And it works because it's a good story.
• 7:03
  SPEAKER_00: It hits something real, that desire for autonomy, for recognition, for financial fairness.
• 7:09
  SPEAKER_00: You know, the problem is it's not the truth.
• 7:12
  SPEAKER_00: It's a story designed to serve the person telling it.
• 7:17
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, okay.
• 7:18
  SPEAKER_01: So let's break down how this playbook runs because it has steps and they are not accidental.
• 7:26
  SPEAKER_01: So step one is rename the thing.
• 7:31
  SPEAKER_01: You know, booth rental sounds neutral, sounds professional, maybe even empowering, but what does it actually mean?
• 7:40
  SPEAKER_01: What it means is you are solo, self-employed operator renting real estate.
• 7:48
  SPEAKER_01: You are not an employee, you are not a business owner in the full sense of that word.
• 7:55
  SPEAKER_01: You are a person renting a chair, and everything that used to be provided for you is now your problem.
• 8:01
  SPEAKER_01: You know, you now own your job.
• 8:05
  SPEAKER_01: The product didn't change, the situation didn't change, they just gave it a better name.
• 8:10
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 8:11
  SPEAKER_00: So step two is create a villain.
• 8:13
  SPEAKER_00: You know, in this playbook, the villain is the salon owner, you know, the person who built the culture, who created the booking system, you know, who marketed for years because you walked in the door, who handles the upset guest and the payroll and the insurance and the lease, you know, that person becomes the villain.
• 8:32
  SPEAKER_00: You know, they're taking your money or they're controlling you, or you're making them rich.
• 8:37
  SPEAKER_00: I like that one too.
• 8:38
  SPEAKER_00: You know, you know, we had we've had once you and I both have had service providers leave our team, you know, service providers we love, service providers we invested years into.
• 8:48
  SPEAKER_00: And when you ask them why, it is almost never about creating a better experience for their guest.
• 8:54
  SPEAKER_00: It is almost never about a bigger vision.
• 8:57
  SPEAKER_00: You know, it's almost always some sort sort of version of, well, my boyfriend said I'm basically working for free.
• 9:05
  SPEAKER_00: Or my mom said I should keep the other half.
• 9:09
  SPEAKER_00: Or my friend said the salon doesn't um doesn't deserve a cut.
• 9:13
  SPEAKER_01: You know, and Jen, I think you're being generous.
• 9:15
  SPEAKER_01: I would go as far as to say, never, I've never heard that, and I know you haven't either, you know.
• 9:20
  SPEAKER_01: So, and but here's what destroys me about that.
• 9:23
  SPEAKER_01: You know, those service providers know what we pay for, they have used the booking system, they have walked into a salon that already had a reputation and guests to serve, you know, they've gotten the training, the culture, the coverage, the support.
• 9:40
  SPEAKER_01: But when someone offers them a simpler story, you know, one that fits on a bumper sticker, the bumper sticker always wins, you know, that is how powerful a well-told lie is.
• 9:55
  SPEAKER_01: And that is what we're up against.
• 9:59
  SPEAKER_00: So step three is they promise freedom without showing the full picture.
• 10:04
  SPEAKER_00: Dun-da-da, right?
• 10:06
  SPEAKER_00: It's like because here's what booth rental actually looks like once you're in it.
• 10:10
  SPEAKER_00: Um, you now cover your own products, your own product cost, your own scheduling software, your own marketing, your own tax preparation, your own liability insurance, your own continuing education, your own retail, your own client retention strategy.
• 10:24
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, you guys, I could go on and on and on, right?
• 10:26
  SPEAKER_00: Well, that was that was exhausting just saying all that stuff, right?
• 10:30
  SPEAKER_00: It's because like you have no team to back you up when you're sick, right?
• 10:35
  SPEAKER_00: No culture driving referrals, like no brand being built while you work, no one thinking about the business, so you can think about the guest.
• 10:43
  SPEAKER_00: And there is a law, and I want to be really clear that Lindsay and I did not make up this law, and and is as real as the law of gravity, it's actually called the law of entropy.
• 10:55
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, the law of entropy, which states when left alone, things fall apart.
• 11:03
  SPEAKER_01: That is not a philosophy, that is physics.
• 11:07
  SPEAKER_01: You know, systems degrade, clients drift, motivation fades, revenue plateaus, and then it quietly starts going backward.
• 11:18
  SPEAKER_01: You know, the booth rental model gives entropy a running start because there's no system pushing against it, there is no team, no culture, no compounding momentum.
• 11:31
  SPEAKER_01: There's just one person trying to do everything.
• 11:35
  SPEAKER_01: And entropy is working on all of it at once, you know.
• 11:41
  SPEAKER_01: And here's the cruelest part of this whole thing.
• 11:44
  SPEAKER_01: You know, when the lie fails, when the money isn't there, when the clients get quiet, when the isolation stops feeling like freedom and starts just feeling like being alone, the service provider doesn't blame the model.
• 11:59
  SPEAKER_01: She blames herself, you know, and that's what happened to those OnlyFans creators.
• 12:05
  SPEAKER_01: When it didn't work out, nobody said the platform failed them.
• 12:10
  SPEAKER_01: They said they didn't hustle hard enough, didn't market well enough, weren't good enough, or worse, they started to sell things, so many more things than they ever thought that they would just to make ends meet.
• 12:27
  SPEAKER_01: You know, the propaganda did its job, the belief was installed and the damage was done.
• 12:35
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and I mean, we've watched this happen and we've watched service providers leave our teams, chasing the promise, right?
• 12:42
  SPEAKER_00: And we've watched some of them, you know, uh think about coming back or come back.
• 12:47
  SPEAKER_00: And the ones who who come back or have a conversation with, they say the same thing every single time, or actually somebody else tells us that they say this.
• 12:54
  SPEAKER_00: Um, they say, I didn't understand what you were actually building for me until it was gone.
• 13:00
  SPEAKER_00: I didn't understand what you were actually building for me until it was gone.
• 13:04
  SPEAKER_00: So, with that, I have to tell you um the story because it completely changed um the way that I think about a team.
• 13:11
  SPEAKER_00: And it actually just happened today.
• 13:13
  SPEAKER_00: So I was so excited to jump on the podcast and share it.
• 13:15
  SPEAKER_00: Um, we've been having uh some, and so we have a uh a pest control in the salon that comes, and so I called him back out just to come take a look and do a spray.
• 13:24
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and this guy was different than the other sales reps that they, you know, that actually normally walk through the door.
• 13:30
  SPEAKER_00: You know, most of them just, you know, spray and then they get you to pay.
• 13:34
  SPEAKER_00: That's what I like to say.
• 13:35
  SPEAKER_00: Spray and pay, right?
• 13:37
  SPEAKER_00: You know, they they don't actually diagnose anything, probably while we continue to have an problem, right?
• 13:42
  SPEAKER_00: They don't really help you see what's happening, they just do it, sell it, or you know, sell it.
• 13:48
  SPEAKER_00: Um, we actually have one that's been trying to upsell me for gosh, months now.
• 13:52
  SPEAKER_00: And of course, have I ever taken part of it?
• 13:54
  SPEAKER_00: Absolutely not, because it's just feels like so much force.
• 13:57
  SPEAKER_00: But today was a different day because this guy walked the whole property.
• 14:01
  SPEAKER_00: I saw him on his knees at one point.
• 14:03
  SPEAKER_00: Uh he asked questions, and then he took me outside and pointed to a couple sections of the foundation.
• 14:09
  SPEAKER_00: And there was this one particular section in front of our of our space, and he said, Hey Jim, do you see this?
• 14:14
  SPEAKER_00: And I said, Yeah.
• 14:15
  SPEAKER_00: He said, You see how that semen is raised right there?
• 14:17
  SPEAKER_00: And I was like, Yeah, and there was actually dirt in the cracks.
• 14:21
  SPEAKER_00: He said, Um, it's probably maybe let's say an inch and a half.
• 14:25
  SPEAKER_00: Um, it looks like like kind of nothing to me.
• 14:27
  SPEAKER_00: He said, Ants did that.
• 14:29
  SPEAKER_00: I said, What?
• 14:30
  SPEAKER_00: Say that again.
• 14:31
  SPEAKER_00: What did you just say?
• 14:33
  SPEAKER_00: He said, Yeah, ants did that.
• 14:35
  SPEAKER_00: Ants working together over time, they lifted that cement.
• 14:39
  SPEAKER_00: And I was like, I think my mouth was wide open because I was like, What?
• 14:42
  SPEAKER_00: I just stood there for a second because to us, an inch and a half is barely anything.
• 14:46
  SPEAKER_00: But to an ant, I mean, if you guys think about how small is an ant, that is actually a mountain.
• 14:53
  SPEAKER_00: Like that is an unimaginable feat.
• 14:56
  SPEAKER_00: And not a single ant did it alone.
• 14:59
  SPEAKER_00: You know, no one ant was the hero, no ant got the credit.
• 15:03
  SPEAKER_00: They all just showed up every single day and did their part for something bigger than themselves.
• 15:09
  SPEAKER_00: And collectively, over time, they moved something immovable, a whole thing of concrete.
• 15:15
  SPEAKER_00: You know, that is exactly what a team-based salon is.
• 15:18
  SPEAKER_00: Every person, every beauty pro, every partner beauty pro, every hospitality host, every support person on the team moving in the same direction toward the same mission.
• 15:28
  SPEAKER_00: And what they can live together, no solo operator can touch it.
• 15:35
  SPEAKER_01: Wow, I love that story.
• 15:37
  SPEAKER_01: Um, you know, and here's the thing about entropy in a team-based environment that nobody talks about.
• 15:43
  SPEAKER_01: The law of entropy is always working.
• 15:46
  SPEAKER_01: Always, you know, but in a team, it works in your favor because the energy doesn't dissipate, it compounds.
• 15:55
  SPEAKER_01: So when one person is tired, the team carries.
• 15:57
  SPEAKER_01: When one person gets better, the whole team gets better.
• 16:00
  SPEAKER_01: You know, when one beauty pro has a breakthrough with a guest, that story lives in the culture and raises everyone's standard.
• 16:07
  SPEAKER_01: You know, booth rental doesn't have that.
• 16:10
  SPEAKER_01: Booth rental is every ant going in a different direction, building separate colonies inside, you know, maybe the same building.
• 16:20
  SPEAKER_01: But you know what?
• 16:21
  SPEAKER_01: In you know what insects do to a structure when they work against each other instead of together, they destroy it.
• 16:29
  SPEAKER_01: You know, the difference is never the species, it's always whether they're working together or working alone.
• 16:39
  SPEAKER_01: So actually, you know what, didn't that remind me a few weeks ago I took uh Ella to 18 or sorry, to 1587 Prime.
• 16:47
  SPEAKER_01: It's a fun little restaurant in Kansas City.
• 16:49
  SPEAKER_01: Um, super bougie, fun experience, you know, and I want to tell you about this dinner because it's the clearest illustration I've ever had personally experienced of what a team-based model actually feels like, feels like, you know, from the guests' experience or from their perspective.
• 17:07
  SPEAKER_01: Because from the moment we walked in, you know, we were surrounded by people who were all working towards one thing, not their own thing, one thing, making us feel like the whole night was designed just for us.
• 17:23
  SPEAKER_01: You know, there was helpful people at the door, a host to greet us when we walked in, a main server who was brilliant.
• 17:33
  SPEAKER_01: You know, she knew the menu inside and out.
• 17:36
  SPEAKER_01: She knew the perfect pairings, the chef's story behind each dish.
• 17:42
  SPEAKER_01: You know, she also knew how to read the table.
• 17:45
  SPEAKER_01: She was carrying like the emotional weight of the whole experience, you know, curating it, personalizing it, making us feel known.
• 17:53
  SPEAKER_01: And then there was this assistant server.
• 17:56
  SPEAKER_01: You know, she introduced herself in a lovely way, and I watched her.
• 18:00
  SPEAKER_01: You know, she moved quietly through the whole experience.
• 18:03
  SPEAKER_01: She made sure the water and the beverage glasses were never empty.
• 18:08
  SPEAKER_01: She cleared plates without interrupting a single conversation.
• 18:12
  SPEAKER_01: You know, every time I looked down, the table was exactly right.
• 18:17
  SPEAKER_01: You know, everything in its place.
• 18:19
  SPEAKER_01: The crumbs were off the table, nothing out of order.
• 18:23
  SPEAKER_01: Um, you know, she was not the hero of the experience.
• 18:27
  SPEAKER_01: That's not what I'm saying, but the experience could not have been what it was without her.
• 18:35
  SPEAKER_00: So good.
• 18:36
  SPEAKER_00: You guys, that is the part people miss when they picture team base.
• 18:40
  SPEAKER_00: You know, they imagine some complex complicated corporate that, you know, they don't even picture what you just described, Lindsay, which is just every person knowing their role and playing it beautifully together in service of the guests.
• 18:55
  SPEAKER_00: You know, no one person could have built that experience alone.
• 18:59
  SPEAKER_00: The server could not have run the emotional arc of the evening and kept the water glasses full and cleared the place and watched every table at once.
• 19:10
  SPEAKER_00: It would have been fine.
• 19:11
  SPEAKER_00: It would not have been what Lindsay just described.
• 19:15
  SPEAKER_01: Yes.
• 19:15
  SPEAKER_01: And also, I forgot to even mention there was like a band that got on and played my very favorite song, Coming Home, by Leon Bridges, and just knocked it out of the park.
• 19:26
  SPEAKER_01: You know, it was just a beautiful experience.
• 19:29
  SPEAKER_01: And Ella and I left.
• 19:30
  SPEAKER_01: So they definitely couldn't have done that either.
• 19:32
  SPEAKER_01: You know, that's the magic that we're creating instead of salons.
• 19:34
  SPEAKER_01: But Ella and I left that dinner feeling something.
• 19:38
  SPEAKER_01: We felt seen, we felt cared for.
• 19:41
  SPEAKER_01: We felt like the whole experience existed just for us, you know, and that is the mission, an experience so exceptional that everyone leaves feeling beautiful inside and out.
• 19:53
  SPEAKER_01: And you cannot build that alone.
• 19:56
  SPEAKER_01: You know, I want to say that really clearly.
• 19:59
  SPEAKER_01: A solo stylist working behind a booth can do excellent technical work.
• 20:06
  SPEAKER_01: You know, she can be warm and talented and wonderful, but there is no team backing her up.
• 20:11
  SPEAKER_01: There is no culture around her, there is no mission holding the whole thing together and lifting every interaction.
• 20:20
  SPEAKER_01: You know, it's one person doing everything with nothing compounding.
• 20:24
  SPEAKER_01: And that's not freedom.
• 20:26
  SPEAKER_01: That is a ceiling.
• 20:28
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, because when you help enough people win, like your guests, your team, your community, like you win too.
• 20:35
  SPEAKER_00: And that is not a motivational poster, you guys.
• 20:38
  SPEAKER_00: That is the law.
• 20:39
  SPEAKER_00: The team-based model is built on that law, and it actually works every single time.
• 20:45
  SPEAKER_00: So let's talk about the money because this is the center of the whole argument, and we are not going to skip it.
• 20:52
  SPEAKER_00: Um, you know, the the saying is you're giving away half your money.
• 20:58
  SPEAKER_00: Let me say that again.
• 20:59
  SPEAKER_00: I like to say it in different voices.
• 21:00
  SPEAKER_00: You're giving away half your money, right?
• 21:03
  SPEAKER_00: So I want to walk you through what the other half actually pays for because when you see the full list, the math looks completely different.
• 21:10
  SPEAKER_00: You know, it pays for the booking system that fills your chair, it pays for the marketing that had a wait list before you even or ever had a name in this town.
• 21:18
  SPEAKER_00: It pays for the culture that makes people choose your salon over the one or two, over the other one or two that are blocks away.
• 21:25
  SPEAKER_00: It pays for the training that has made you better every single year.
• 21:28
  SPEAKER_00: It pays for the person who handles the upset guests so you didn't have to have that conversation between your 10 a.m.
• 21:36
  SPEAKER_00: and your 11 a.m.
• 21:37
  SPEAKER_00: You know, it pays for your insurance, the products, the payroll infrastructure, the schedule management, the schedule management, the you know, the team meetings, the leadership that keeps the whole thing moving.
• 21:48
  SPEAKER_00: Like I could go on and on and on and on, right?
• 21:50
  SPEAKER_00: It pays for someone to think about the business so that you can truly think about your guest.
• 21:57
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and here is the math that almost no one does before they make this decision.
• 22:04
  SPEAKER_01: When you are on a team-based model, you have one job.
• 22:09
  SPEAKER_01: Be so excellent at your craft that people keep coming back and keep sending everyone they know.
• 22:15
  SPEAKER_01: You know, that's it.
• 22:16
  SPEAKER_01: That's your entire job description, you know?
• 22:19
  SPEAKER_01: And when you're a booth renter, your job is to be an excellent stylist and run a full business, marketing, scheduling, bookkeeping, tax strategy, retail management, client resource.
• 22:32
  SPEAKER_01: Attention, social media, product ordering, all of it alone every day?
• 22:37
  SPEAKER_01: You know, how many booth renters do you personally know who are genuinely excellent at all of that?
• 22:45
  SPEAKER_01: And if they are spending that much energy on all of that, then how much energy is actually left for the person in their chair?
• 22:59
  SPEAKER_00: And yeah, you guys, we want to be fair here.
• 23:01
  SPEAKER_00: You know, every once in a while, every once in a while, let me say that again, you know, there is the booth renter who figures it out.
• 23:07
  SPEAKER_00: You know, there are people with the business background, the marketing skill, you know, the fat financial discipline, you know, the solo work ethic, and they build something.
• 23:15
  SPEAKER_00: But that is not who is being recruited.
• 23:18
  SPEAKER_00: That is not the story being told on TikTok or in the parking lot after a shift.
• 23:22
  SPEAKER_00: You know, the pitch is not here is a challenging, fully self-deployed business model that will require you to become an expert in five different disciplines while also being a great stylist.
• 23:35
  SPEAKER_00: You know, the pitch is like you deserve to keep what you are.
• 23:39
  SPEAKER_00: Come and be free.
• 23:41
  SPEAKER_00: You guys, that is propaganda and it costs people real careers.
• 23:48
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, you know, and here's the thing: the other thing that nobody talks about, the booth rental salon itself, what is it actually?
• 23:56
  SPEAKER_01: You know, it's not a brand, it's not a culture, it's not a business with a mission, it's a building with chairs in it and a collection of individuals who all have their own definition of what a good guest experience looks like.
• 24:12
  SPEAKER_01: You know, there's no standard, there's no training, there's no, you know, salon celebration team meeting where everyone gets aligned on the mission.
• 24:20
  SPEAKER_01: There's no one thinking about the guest journey from start to finish.
• 24:24
  SPEAKER_01: There's one stylist who's running a vibe-based Instagram business that looks so cool.
• 24:29
  SPEAKER_01: You know, one has been there for 15 years, she does whatever she wants.
• 24:33
  SPEAKER_01: She comes and goes, she might even eat lunch while doing a client's hair.
• 24:37
  SPEAKER_01: You know, one just graduated beauty school and she's figuring it out alone.
• 24:40
  SPEAKER_01: She's like, oh my gosh, this is gonna be freedom.
• 24:42
  SPEAKER_01: And then the person who owns the building, she's collecting checks.
• 24:47
  SPEAKER_01: You know, whether your clients come back or they don't, whether you're thriving or drowning, the rent, it's due on the first.
• 24:54
  SPEAKER_01: You know, that is not a business.
• 24:57
  SPEAKER_01: That is a landlord with a styling chair.
• 25:01
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, let's love it because our salon name is Jay Booth Salon.
• 25:04
  SPEAKER_00: Because I couldn't have done it, it's like, Jen, we're gonna put booth in your name so that you can tell the world um the opportunity here.
• 25:11
  SPEAKER_00: And so it is it is so fun.
• 25:13
  SPEAKER_00: When I'm like Jay Booth does when we're talking about, does that mean you're a booth for no salon?
• 25:18
  SPEAKER_00: I said, absolutely not, because what you just said, you said if it was a booth for nail salon, I'd just be a landlord with the styling chair.
• 25:24
  SPEAKER_00: You know, and that is the part that never makes it into the pitch.
• 25:28
  SPEAKER_00: When someone tells your service writers, oh, you could rent a booth.
• 25:31
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not for rent.
• 25:32
  SPEAKER_00: Sorry, Jay, who's not for rent.
• 25:33
  SPEAKER_00: They are not painting that picture.
• 25:35
  SPEAKER_00: They are painting the freedom picture, you know, the autonomy picture, the keep what you earn picture.
• 25:41
  SPEAKER_00: You know, nobody shares her what it looks like in six months and when there's no culture holding anyone together, no systems driving referrals, um, no one in that building who has invested, whether she wins or not, she can't make rent, so she's gonna have to bring in a partner in to help her pay for that.
• 25:57
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, monthly rent.
• 25:59
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 26:00
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 26:00
  SPEAKER_01: You know, and we want to say something directly to anyone who has ever been told otherwise by a business coach, a consultant, a course, a guru, you know, whoever it was.
• 26:14
  SPEAKER_01: No matter what they've told you, once you booth rent your chairs or 1099 people, you do not have a business.
• 26:23
  SPEAKER_01: You have two options and only two.
• 26:26
  SPEAKER_01: You are either a landlord collecting rent from self-employed individuals, or you are a self-employed person renting a chair from someone else.
• 26:37
  SPEAKER_01: Those are the only two things that you are.
• 26:40
  SPEAKER_01: And that is not our opinion.
• 26:42
  SPEAKER_01: That is not a philosophy that we developed.
• 26:45
  SPEAKER_01: That is the law.
• 26:47
  SPEAKER_01: The IRS, they didn't ask our input, you know.
• 26:50
  SPEAKER_01: The Department of Labor, they didn't call us up and consult us.
• 26:54
  SPEAKER_01: We did not make this up.
• 26:56
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and we want to say that, not to shame anyone.
• 26:59
  SPEAKER_00: Like, truly, we say it because the first step in building something real is being honest about what you actually have right now.
• 27:06
  SPEAKER_00: You cannot fix a foundation you refuse to look at.
• 27:09
  SPEAKER_00: And if you've been told you're building a business while booth renting, you were misled.
• 27:15
  SPEAKER_00: And that is not your fault.
• 27:17
  SPEAKER_00: But staying in that story now that you know the truth, that is a choice.
• 27:22
  SPEAKER_00: You know, we are not building a platform, we are building a team, and those are fundamentally different things.
• 27:28
  SPEAKER_00: You know, a platform extracts value from the people on it, a team creates value with the people on it.
• 27:35
  SPEAKER_00: You know, every guest who's who wins, every service provider who grows, every co-beauty pro who finds her confidence, every owner who builds something that she's proud of, that is the team-based model working exactly the way it was designed to work.
• 27:49
  SPEAKER_00: And when enough ants push together, you actually lift the cement.
• 27:54
  SPEAKER_01: So good.
• 27:55
  SPEAKER_01: You know, I want to shift gears for just a second because this episode is not just about what's wrong with booth rental.
• 28:01
  SPEAKER_01: It's about what's right about you.
• 28:03
  SPEAKER_01: You know, if you're a team-based salon owner listening to this right now, I need you to hear something.
• 28:09
  SPEAKER_01: You are doing the hardest, most ethical, most meaningful version of this work.
• 28:17
  SPEAKER_01: You are not just running a business, you are running a development program.
• 28:23
  SPEAKER_01: You are investing in people every single day.
• 28:26
  SPEAKER_01: You are building something that lasts, something that gets better over time instead of falling apart.
• 28:33
  SPEAKER_01: The propaganda would have you believe that you are extracting value from your team, that you are the villain in their story.
• 28:42
  SPEAKER_01: But the truth is the exact opposite.
• 28:46
  SPEAKER_01: You are the person betting on them when no one else is.
• 28:50
  SPEAKER_01: You are the person thinking about their future while they're thinking about their next guest.
• 28:55
  SPEAKER_01: You know, you are the ant colony that lifts impossible weight.
• 29:02
  SPEAKER_00: And your service providers may not always see it.
• 29:06
  SPEAKER_00: See it right away.
• 29:07
  SPEAKER_00: You know, the story is good, it has been engineered to be emotionally compelling.
• 29:11
  SPEAKER_00: It will land on some of your best people at some point.
• 29:14
  SPEAKER_00: But here's what you can do: you can build something so real, so excellent, so undeniably good that the story cannot compete with the experience of actually what's actually being there.
• 29:26
  SPEAKER_00: You know, you create a culture where the guest wins every time, where the team grows every year, you know, where people look back at their time with you and say it was the foundation of everything they became.
• 29:37
  SPEAKER_00: You know, that is not marketing.
• 29:39
  SPEAKER_00: That is not a bumper sticker, that is a life's work.
• 29:43
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, you know, the most powerful marketing in the world is a guest who cannot stop talking about how she feels when she leaves your salon.
• 29:53
  SPEAKER_01: And the most powerful recruiting tool in the world is a service provider who cannot imagine her career anywhere else.
• 30:02
  SPEAKER_01: You know, you build those two things, and the propaganda loses every single time, not because you fought it, but because you made it irrelevant.
• 30:13
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and this is what we're here to help you build, not just a salon, a place where everybody wins, the guest, the team, the owner, the community.
• 30:21
  SPEAKER_00: That is the mission.
• 30:22
  SPEAKER_00: And it is worth every single thing it costs.
• 30:26
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, so we have one more thing to tell you about, and we are genuinely so excited about this.
• 30:31
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, we are hosting a one-day virtual event called the Salon Success Secrets Challenge.
• 30:38
  SPEAKER_00: One day, one transformational experience designed specifically for team-based salon owners who want to get clear, they want to get crystal clear on what this model or wanders model is the one and how to build it in a way that wins.
• 30:53
  SPEAKER_00: And if you're a salon owner who has been sitting on the fence, maybe business has been hard, maybe you lost a service provider or two, maybe someone convinced you that converting to booth rental would be easier, less stressful, less risky.
• 31:06
  SPEAKER_00: We are talking directly to you right now.
• 31:08
  SPEAKER_00: Do not do it.
• 31:10
  SPEAKER_00: Do not do it.
• 31:12
  SPEAKER_00: Yellow caution tape.
• 31:13
  SPEAKER_00: Do not trade a real business for a rent check.
• 31:16
  SPEAKER_00: Do not let a hard season talk you into becoming a landlord when what you actually are is a leader.
• 31:22
  SPEAKER_00: You know, Lindsay, I think about uh somebody that we coached once upon a time or have worked with, and they um were had a couple people leave, and their next solution was to become a booth rental salon.
• 31:35
  SPEAKER_00: So we sat down, we did the math number, and she was actually gonna make less.
• 31:38
  SPEAKER_00: She wasn't even gonna make enough to cover her rent mortgage, um, her rent, um, doing booth rent.
• 31:45
  SPEAKER_00: So, like, man, that's so crazy.
• 31:48
  SPEAKER_00: So come join us first, don't do that, stop before you do that.
• 31:52
  SPEAKER_00: Um, that is all we are asking.
• 31:55
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, you know, it because hard seasons are real.
• 31:59
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, we've both had them, but the answer to a hard season and a team-based salon is never to blow up the model that actually works.
• 32:09
  SPEAKER_01: You know, I think we also see so many gurus and um coaches and stuff in our industry who don't, you know, who they basically blow up the model or sell the model because they don't even know, they're not even clear on it.
• 32:21
  SPEAKER_01: We're clear.
• 32:23
  SPEAKER_01: And the answer is to get clear, get certain, and get back to building.
• 32:27
  SPEAKER_01: You know, that's exactly what this day is for.
• 32:29
  SPEAKER_01: We're gonna walk you through the real math, the real systems, the real culture.
• 32:34
  SPEAKER_01: You know, we're gonna show you what it looks like when every person in your salon, from the newest person to the senior stylist to you as the owner, is moving towards the same mission.
• 32:45
  SPEAKER_01: You know, we're gonna help you stop hoping it works and start knowing it works.
• 32:49
  SPEAKER_01: Because the industry doesn't need more salon owners who are confused about which model to build.
• 32:55
  SPEAKER_01: It needs more owners who are certain and who are building with everything they've got.
• 33:02
  SPEAKER_00: And this is what this day um is built for.
• 33:05
  SPEAKER_00: And if you show up ready to do the work, it will change the trajectory of your business.
• 33:10
  SPEAKER_00: We promise we believe that with everything that we have.
• 33:13
  SPEAKER_00: So go to Salon Success SecretsChallenge.com, salon success secrets challenge.com to grab your seat.
• 33:23
  SPEAKER_00: We cannot wait to see you there.
• 33:25
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and if this episode hit you today, if something, you know, we said put words into something that you have been feeling but could not explain, share it.
• 33:36
  SPEAKER_01: You know, send it to a salon owner you know, send it to even a stylist, a beauty pro who is standing at that crossroads right now and doesn't know which way to go.
• 33:46
  SPEAKER_01: Because the more we tell the truth about this, the better this industry gets for every single person in it.
• 33:55
  SPEAKER_00: All right.
• 33:55
  SPEAKER_00: We love you, we are proud of you, and we will see you at the challenge.
• 34:00
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, we'll see you there.