How to Persevere and Scale with Ryann Halo
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"I wouldn't say maybe every single system is KPI driven, but every KPI has a system to support it."
— Ryan Halo
Resilience & Optimism Amidst Adversity
- Fueled by a strong internal drive, seeking solutions independently.
- Mindset of seeing hope in challenges and valuing hard work.
Early Hurdles in Entrepreneurship
- Initial absence of partnership agreement, unexpected challenges.
- Necessity of multi-role adaptability until delegation.
Scaling Strategies & Performance Metrics
- Implementing scalable systems and processes.
- Utilizing KPIs for success measurement and system alignment.
- Fostering inclusive growth through personal success definitions.
Fostering Inclusion & Growth
- Creating a warm, inclusive salon environment.
- Supporting team ambitions in financial and personal aspects.
- Emphasizing personal development, teamwork, and honesty.
Leadership Structure Development
- Trust-building through shared values and clear expectations.
- Transition to structured leadership roles based on strengths.
- Hierarchical structure with specific roles, enabling the founder's focus to shift.
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Mike Goldman: Ryann Halo is a multi seven figure entrepreneur and the founder of Halo Consulting, a leading growth strategy firm for small businesses over her 15 plus year career. She's founded, advised, and grown multiple companies from startup to scale.
Her first company, Salon Halo, went from existing business takeover, struggling to make payroll, to a multi site, multi million dollar business that's consistently recognized as a top 200 salon in North America. As a thought leader in her industry, Ryann speaks nationally at industry events and conferences to hundreds of professionals.
Her insights are featured in major industry publications and her accomplishments have led to The KNOW Women recognizing her as one of the top 100 women to know in the US. Today, Ryann is focused on using her proven grow and glow method. To help female business owners empower their team and achieve sustainable growth and experience more freedom in their life. Ryann welcome to the show.
Ryann: Thank you, Mike.
Mike Goldman: Yeah. Ryann and I met at an event a couple of months ago and you'll hear her story. I'm not going to give anything away, but it is such an inspiring story, and what she's done is so amazing. I'm so excited to have you on the show. The first question I always like to ask, this is the Better Leadership Team show, so we want to talk about leadership teams.
Ryann from your experience, what's the one most important characteristic of a great leadership team?
Ryann: So actually, as I hear that question, I hear two answers. I hear kind of two questions. So I hear the team component and then I hear the leadership component. So Generally what comes to mind as the most important thing for a team is that those people coming together have a shared vision and shared values.
And what I mean by that is, I think you hear the terminology core values a lot and it almost, at least for me, it can start to even lose meaning. the way I explain it to my team is at the end of the day, what do you care about? So not just what's in statement, but like, what do these people care about?
So I think it's so important that you band together with a group of people that care about similar or the same things as you and that your vision for where you're going is, again, similar or the same. So that's just a team in general. then, as I look to what I truly believe creates a great leader is genuine interest and passion for helping other people grow.
So not just they want to have the title. They want to have the accomplishments, the recognition, the success, like in their core that they genuinely enjoy and are fulfilled by adding value to the other people.
Mike Goldman: Love it Love it. And without her even knowing it, she just taught us the first secret to successful entrepreneurship. And that's cheat a little bit. I asked for one thing, she gave me two. It was a great answer. And hey, if you follow the rules, you're not going to get for it. If you follow the rules, you're going to have a job, right?
So all good. So, a little meta tip there. So, entrepreneurs come from... all walks of life, but Ryann I know your story is really inspiring and incredible. So tell us a little bit about your life growing up and how it led to this entrepreneurial road that you've taken.
Ryann: so often when people meet me and they hear a little bit about my background, their first thought is that, oh, you must have always known you wanted to do what you're doing. You must have always known you wanted to be in this industry, you know, the hair and beauty industry. the truth is, I actually saw myself in a very different career path.
I was born in 1990, and around that time, at least in my family and my area, it was very much drilled into me that in order to make the most of my gifts and my talents, I had to go to an Ivy League college and have a fancy title or a fancy degree, and I didn't really think that there was any other option.
I was in honors a gifted program at a pretty young age and again that that was just very much reinforced that was my path to success. I had a very responsible mom. She was a nurse. dad and my brother and I, we all moved down from New York to a small town of Spring Hill, Florida. If you have not heard of that, there's a reason.
It's okay. it's just it's a very small a lot of northern transplants outside of the Tampa, Florida area. And yeah, so things were moving along and... I liked school, but I also liked art and fashion and singing and makeup and girly things, but I really did genuinely enjoy school. I enjoyed math. I enjoyed really all of it but I was highly social And whenI went into middle school, about sixth grade, everything dramatically changed. My parents had been divorced, but they still made it a point to do things with us as a family. They really didn't date other people. then my mom got a serious boyfriend. And within a couple months, my dad, I think just, you know, we can hypothesize all day about what happened or why it happened, but he was struggling with depression and felt alone, I believe. And very unexpectedly took the life of my six year old brother and his own.
Mike Goldman: Wow.
Ryann: And so as you can imagine as the years went on, my mom was more and more affected. I do like to say, it's not like the movies where you see, you get that news and you're just like, you know, you fall to pieces and it was almost like I guess it was just the shock of it.
I I didn't really feel a lot of emotion around it at the time and just kept on as my normal preteen self. But my mom had an increasingly hard time and she had this new boyfriend and it things just were turned on their headafter a couple years about 13 14 years old she was no longer working and she did develop a prescription drug addiction.
So with that, home became just so unstable that I could not manage to get the grades I knew I needed to get and I became increasingly behind with my credits. By this point, 9th and 10th grade. I won't go too much into the details here, but I had to leave the home for wellness reasons, and staying at different friends houses.
I was so behind in my credits. I became, I don't want to say I was depressed, but it's probably the closest to depressed I've ever been. I'm very fortunate be a naturally happy, optimistic, cheery person. I don't know if it's my chemical makeup or what, I've just never even come close to feeling you know, hopeless or depressed and that was the first time in my life I experienced a sense of hopelessness and where I believe that comes from is that closure on a door that I thought was the path I was supposed to be taking and not seeing. Hope for any other paths to my personal success and making the most out of all the gifts I've been told I was given and all the potential I saw for my life. And I mean, I've always been ambitious. I've always been a really driven person.
Very independent. And it felt like, what do you do when you don't have money? You have a 10th grade education. You don't have resources small town I had a family grandparents that wanted to help, but they felt kind of stuck. Just didn't want to hurt my mom. They didn't know what to do. It was just a really crazy time.
Like, nothing is like I said, how you would think it would go. so hopeless and pretty dark there for a short period of time. I was living with some not so savory people because whatever parent's house didn't care and older friends things like that
And I think I was this close to like, there was so much drugs and alcohol and things in our town at that time.
And you know, there's drug dealers living in the same house as me. And I was so dead set against doing doing drugs And I remember just like getting a little glimmer of like, what do I care? Maybe I should just try it. And as soon as that into my head this, it was like within days, this woman that was a very successful, happening, kind of hip, fun, late 20s hairstylist offered me a job to work with her.
She met me through, you know, friend of a friend situation and she's like, what are you doing? And like, you're a sweet, nice, happy girl. Like, why are you here? What is going on? Do you want to work for me? And I had a little bit of experience shampooing at like 12 and 13 years old for my aunt that owned hair salons.
And I didn't see myself doing hair
The exposure I had to what hair salons were like was not what I saw for myself. I did look at that. It was almost like I would have been settling. But at that time, feeling so stuck, so hopeless, I was just hungry to say yes to... anything that would be a light in this darkness.
and I'm so grateful that I did this woman really mentored me and took me under her wing. And, you know, looking back, it's kind of funny. I was getting paid $25 a day, but I didn't even bat an eyelash. I was like, that's $25 cheeseburgers. That is just somethingso I laugh at that looking back that I could have easily been like oh that's not even minimum wage
Mike Goldman: And how old were you at that point?
Ryann: 15
Mike Goldman: 15 OK
Ryann: yeah so I started working with her I would stay at her house, she would I endedright around this time too, because finally they just said you know we'll handle your mom if she has an issue with this, but you know come stay here so that was a wonderful thing, and it really started to get me back on track, and working there I learned of the value of how I apply myself, there's really no limits.
It's not about what you're doing, it's about how you do it. And I naturally just never wanted to sit down. I always wanted to be involved in something. I always wanted to be adding value. I would clean the back room under the sink where no one had touched in 10 years. I'd be reading the labels on products and learning about them.
And it so genuinely natural and it didn't come from a place of trying to, well if I do this then I'll get that. and the owner of the salon she worked at said, hey when you're not working for her on her days here, I'll pay you $50 a day to work for me and to work for the salon. So, I'm shampooing, I'm getting tipped, I'm making like $100 a day from helping and adding value and just staying proactive and active for myself. So, I found so much value in that. And I really started to learn that the hairdressing industry had the aspects of science, chemistry, geometry, customer service, sales, all these things that enjoyed, and fashion and beauty.
So, I figured out that there's a lot more here than I realized. And by 16, I was signing up to go to Paul Mitchell the school. that was another situation where I could have easily looked on the not so bright side of I still, I was not emancipated. My mom was not cooperating. I had no license drivers license I had no GED because in the state of Florida, you can't get GED without going to classes. But if I would have went to I could have just stayed in school if I could have gotten through classes. So either way there's like all these obstacles we just kept trucking along. the school was an hour from my house
so it was an hour each way I didn't drive, didn't really have any money, but by just thing you could, there's a will, there's a way. So I'm not saying no, not looking for the reasons why I wouldn't work. My grandpa drove me the hour to the school to take a tour. They found out that there somebody else from my hometown driving there
every day. she was willing to me give her 20 bucks a week to hitch a ride with her and fast forward spoiler alert
She's still at my company today. Um a matron of honor at my weddingum became like my sister
yeah So financial aid, we figured that out. I took a equivalency test and was able to score in the college level at that point.
So they're like, well we know can understand the curriculum. So we're going to wave the GED. So yeah and then I got I got my honors I got my
my all A's in my testing
from thereI really had my sights set at that point on becoming a freelance artist. And, was one the only people in the school that when a guest artist would come in, which they came in often to speak to us and give us perspective, and this was one of the best schools you could have went to professional development as well artistic development, would ask, Raise your hand if you want to own a salon one day.
And the whole room would raise their hand and I would not. I was one of the only people that knew, first of all, I've seen myself, how challenging it can be to run a salon business. And I wanted the glamorous life, I wanted the fun, I wanted the travel. Like, I got into this industry, I have the stars in my eyes, I'm gonna go to city and and do session work editorial
Mike Goldman: And what does that mean? what is session work?
Ryann: anything from working on magazines to working the fashion shows, being a celebrity hair and makeup artist, that's what I saw myself doing.
Mike Goldman: And before you continue on, and I just want to shut up and hear the story, but I do want to stop for a minute because there are so many folks that going through what you went through at a young age. There are so many folks who would have went a completely different direction. And in fact, even thinking, forget about your age. Entrepreneurs that have started a business and gone through some challenges very often they quit without giving themselves enough time to be successful.
And I think your story is one of of such persistence. What is it? Is it that you found a mentor at the right time? Is it something innate in you? Is it something you learned? What allowed you to be so persistent that you were able to succeed despite all you through?
Ryann: I've always
had a fire inside of me and I've always been the type of person that if I wanted something I'm not gonna rely on anybody else to get it for me I'm gonna do everything I can to figure it out. I don't know where that comes from. I wish I could bottle that and give that to everyone and also I i do think the timing was very divine for this woman come into my life and I think that it's your ability to see possibility So I, even now, highly acknowledged at my company for my level of hopefulness.
I just see the hope in a situation I see like when there's a will there's a way mindset. and that I put the work in as well. So, I don't know where the drive comes from, but I literally like can feel a fire in me when I am am driven about something and so we don't we can put this on the agenda to talk about later, but I mean, so much so that I have worked myself into unhealthy physical states and not even realizing because mentally I'm still so like, okay, it's okay, it's gonna be okay, like and not it Not using healthy coping mechanisms, not being having healthy cycle of rest, digest, you know, you're not always supposed to be at a 10 or even an 8.
You're supposed to, you know, naturally cycle your body. So I've had to learn how to harness even this passion because you can't just bulldoze through everything.
Mike Goldman: And that's important and Ryann you should listen to these when we're done. There are two other podcasts. One is called Overcoming Burnout. I think it was like Episode five or something of the podcast, which is so important for leaders. And there's another one by Dr Jenny Susser that's all about energy. And fact that resilience is not always a good thing. Because the more resilient you feel like you need to be. You know, maybe you're going over the line in taking care of yourself. So that's important. So let's go back to the story.
Now we have a little commercial break from the story. Let's go back to the story. So, you wanna do more session work and you're the only one that didn't raise your hand, that you wanted to own a salon, continue the story from there.
Ryann: So I graduated with my honors and all that stuff, I felt very confident in what I was doing and what I could do and I wanted grow and get better and I ended up moving to Chicago. It was a nice, clean, safe city and I felt very comfortable going out there pretty much on my own. I had like one family member out there quickly I made friends.
I was doing freelance work. I was on that back then
They had like to work with photographers and models and I was doing it. And I was out there for two years. I was about to turn 21 So I was like, okay, more opportunities. I mean, I did some serving, I did some modeling, like commercial style modeling, John Frieda for blondes, like, I had some fun things like that, just whatever to, you know, pay the bills and get experience and make progress.
And I was, I remember being in this sushi restaurant on Michigan Avenue, overlooking the water, just like taking it in. I was actually with my uncle for my birthday dinner and I got a phone call. And it was my grandma. my aunt, whose salon I had worked in, she was going out of business, you know, she also had a lot of personal challenges at the time, and just was ready to call it quits, didn't have any employees, didn't have really much business anymore, and my grandma said, if you put in ten grand I'll put in ten grand and we can buy this.
I only had 10 grand because of my Florida prepaid college account from my dad passing away. so I wasn't going to use it
my first instinct was, heck no, I'm not moving back to Spring Hill. I was about to be 21. I had a beautiful apartment with a friend on the 15th floor, but on the lake and just everything was lining up.
It's June, the summertime, Chicago just comes alive. It was just starting to warm up in June. Um But then my uncle said you know Why don't you just get it running and come back, like you know, no big deal. That's realistic but that pause was enough for me to question like, man I really don't want to wonder what if.
I can always come back to Chicago and pick up right where am now, but I can't always start a business at 21. So I almost like begrudgingly like against my my other self said yes. yeah, within like 30 minutes I had agreed to do this. I had a flight booked for the next day or two. I was going to leave and go back to Florida anyway for my birthday.
I Ended up flying home and never taking my return flight to Chicago. My friend had to send me my stuff. and last couple months of rent yeah I just hit the ground running so that's where it all started
Mike Goldman: And now let's fast forward a little bit and then I'll rewind so you started with that one salon. And how many salons do you have today?
Ryann: I have three and they're they're are all different. One is a boutique about a thousand square foot in a Nice suburb of Tampa. Then I have one in South Tampa. That's 3500 square feet that South Tampa is like the place to be. and then I still have my Spring Hill we have since moved to bigger, nicer location.
We actually hope to build. I have property about two acres. We're going to build on and diversify and all these things, but we moved. The first one was the one that I worked in for my aunt, and then we moved two years ago to the location that I first worked at when I was 15, because it had been foreclosed on a doctor owned it and we had to move locations I found him and I tracked him down and got him to rent it to me, even though it wasn't on the market.
So I've now had salons at both of the locations that I worked at as a kid. So, we have three. They're 3500, 2000 square foot and 1000. We have about 40 team members. we produce about 3 million dollars in revenue annually. hoping to really grow that the with the South Tampa location being our biggest, most full of potential.
It's very rich with opportunity, but we've had that about less than two years. So, I'm hoping to make that salon. In itself 3 million dollars salon, but things take time. And, you know, we didn't get here overnight. It's been about 12 and a half years.
And so now let's rewind now that we know the success it's become in a business that is not considered the most scalable
Mhm
Mike Goldman: What were some of the early struggles?
Ryann: Yeah. So the early days we're not having a partnership agreement with my grandma.
Mike Goldman: Oops.
Ryann: It's, I had no idea what I didn't know And that's what I'll tell everyone who thinks about going into business is just be prepared that you might be good at one, two, even five, ten things in this business. But there's a hundred things that you don't know how to do that are also going to be your job
until you can get to a place till that you can hand them off and I'm not a believer in just
I don't want to learn how to do that.
I'm gonna hire somebody and hand it off I really believe that you need to own something before you can give it away. So I've done every single aspect of running the business from you know running the desk, doing the numbers and the bookkeeping, the advertising I've always had a in the marketing.
I just love people. I love getting out there. I love talking about what we offer. we did a lot of community involvement I didn't have any employees for the first like four to six months, I think it was. And then Rianne came back from Vegas. That was my friend that I drove to the school with. And we, she was my first team member and then we just added one by one.
Mike Goldman: Wait a minute. So it was right Ryann and Rianne.
yes yes
that's interesting.
Ryann: Yeah, that could be confusing for some people. Yeah, so, she spells it R I A N N E. And I am R Y A N N. So, yeah, we just had to figure things out. But the struggle of trying to have a partner that wasn't, my grandma is a blind woman who's never worked in a hair salon. And she never really ran a business.
She mostly, my grandpa had a machine shop when I was growing up, and my grandma took care of their four kids. she did great at what she did but this was new for everyone. This was not something, we had nobody who knew what to do here. And industry specific running, service industry with an employee based situation and there's so many components that make hair salons challenging similarly to restaurants because me and my husband do my husband's family has a restaurant company that I've helped with, so if anybody has experience with restaurants, it's it's kind of like that even its whole own thing so.
Mike Goldman: So what are some of the things you learned? What are some of the things you put in place to scale it? Because fast forward even further not only do you have the salons and we'll get to this later, but you're now starting to step back from that and get into consulting which says you are working on and have been successful to some degree of even replacing yourself there.
So many of the folks listening are struggling to scale their businesses. What are some of the key decisions you made and structures and processes you've put in place to be able to scale it?
Ryann: Yeah absolutely. So there's a lot and the biggest jump is to open your second location because you're literally doubling in size. And you can't be if you're used to being in one be in two places at once. So, I would say adding the third was not as hard as adding the second. And systems are one of the topics I talk about constantly.
So having a system for any outcome that you expect. That means it's repeatable, it's transferable, reliable. I base, I personally in my methodology, I base systems off of KPIs key performance indicators. So very specific metrics I want to achieve. So I'll see like what is a metric or a measure of success in any given area.
And I mean you can you can have hundreds of these if you keep at keep adding to it
So say we want to see 5 new clients a week. Okay so what are the repeatable things we can systemize to attain clients? And then track that, measure it, and and relay that information to the team
So performance tracking a lot there's a lot could build on But having things systemized I think is the first step to creating freedom in your business.
Mike Goldman: So many of, of the folks I talk to and the clients I work with struggle with the idea of KPIs. It seems like a simple concept, you know, what are you going to measure within marketing? What are you going to measure within service. How do you measure the entire business? But so many people struggle with it. How did you implement it? How did you hold people accountable? Was it a bunch of spreadsheets?Did you have a computer system that helped you to do that? How did you make that work?
Ryann: Yeah, so we started as a salon like five key indicators. Those were my go to things. So it's average ticket of retail to service. So how much retail are you selling in comparison to service we're providing? it was percent retention. So clients rebooking after their service. And I don't even know one is right now off the top of my head, but it's not important.
The point is average ticket, for instance, we provided systems that helped to build an average ticket, because for me, sales is all about solving a problem, right? I think a lot of us would agree. It's just filling needs. So as the experts, I would train my team, okay, you're the expert. It's your job to understand what someone needs, even if they don't understand what they need, and then provide the solutions.
So we have a we devised a a, consultation form that hit all these key points and then had a way of delivering that information to the client based off of the recommendation that, that stylist made, you know, based off what they learned and they recommended. one system. set questions to ask in a set format.
And a set way to deliver it. And the guest has the right to say, oh no, thank you, I don't want to add this or that, or do this route. What would you like, option A, option B? so we became known for the consistency of our hair salon. Because that's actually refreshing to some clients. To have more of a reliable consistent experience.
Versus when you are dealing with people that are more artistic. Like myself and my team. you can have a lot more room for variance, and well, today I feel artistically inclined to operate in this way, or at this time. So by systemizing something that's kind of known as a at least from what I don't want to ever this is not meant in a disparaging way, but I think our industry can have a reputation for inconsistent results or unreliable or unprofessional experiences.
And we really, we're striving to provide something different. so that's how I built that one KPI, average ticket. let's really find out what their problems are so that we can give them the best solutions. And it's totally up to them if they want to take those solutions or not.
next thing know, rebooking. We have a system at the desk. OK this is what service your provider is recommending and they would like to see you in six weeks. Would you like to come in at the beginning of the week or the end of the week? And the client might say, oh, I can't commit right now to that.
Or, oh, that's awesome, I'd love to get something on the schedule so I don't forget. You're welcome to change your appointment 24 hours up until 24 hours ahead of time
So by just asking the questions would lead to very high performance indicators and we we didn't have to do anything that felt sleazy or pushy or and it actually takes a lot of the pressure off the provider to like have it figured out in the moment or do it right or because I have up down days.
I have good and bad days. You know, you're not going to be you're not a robot You're not going to naturally perform consistently all the time, but when I just have a system of things to ask and to rely on those systems don't have good or bad days. So that's how we had very reliable result in an unreliable, traditionally unreliable business.
Mike Goldman: So the distinction I'm hearing here that's important is it's not just when people think systems, they might think that we created processes for everything, or we created a bunch of KPIs. And now we're holding everybody accountable for meeting those KPIs. The distinction I'm hearing here is it's not what are the 150 KPIs it started out with what are those five things?
And it's not just, here's a KPI, I'm going to hold you accountable for it. It's what's our system to consistently deliver that KPI. And that sounds simple, but it's not the way most leaders typically think about So I love that distinction. So systems are a part of it. What else did you think about, did you implement as you scaled?
Ryann: And, uh to your point I'll never ask anyone to do something or achieve something that I won't first make sure that I have figured out everything possible to make it happen, or give them the tools to make it happen. to be able to support making it happen. Resources, coaching, all those things. So that that's important there
what was your last question i'm sorry
Mike Goldman: In in addition to systems, which is a big part of it. What are the other big things you did that have helped you scale over the years?
Ryann: Yeah, so and when I said 150 systems I think that because, as you go on, if say you hit a roadblock or snag or we we missed something something cracks. Okay, what can we do to systemize to prevent that from happening? So there I mean I wouldn't say that maybe every system is KPI driven, but every KPI has a system to support it.
so like checking the mail for some organizations. You know, I guess the KPI is, do we get our mail other things that we did was to look at each individual's quantification of success. Like, what was success to them? Because when I look back and I really think about how it all played out, 2 big things that were important to me to achieve for myself and to provide for other people who were committing to be a part of this vision I had, like, I don't take that lightly, that means means still the world to me I wanted to find to provide a place where people could feel very included and they could be themselves and not have to feel like they didn't fit in or they, you know, are being judged for their sense of style or maybe they're quirky.
I worked in a salon for a period in Chicago where I did not feel like I fit in for being myself so just wanted to make sure even though we wanted to be a luxury salon that in a market that didn't have a salon that we were still approachable and caring and warm and comfortable. So having that sense of inclusivity then also providing a path to access whatever their personal goals, dreams, and ambitions are.
So a lot of hairstylists in my small town didn't feel like it was possible to be a certain level of success, or reach this certain financial goal, or have this certain financial freedom, because I think the industry average income in the US. is like I don't know how, a couple years ago it was like 25K an annual salary.
That's mind blowing. there are hairstylist that can make 100,000 a year or more and there are hairstylists that make less, but that's what the national average from the reports that I've read are. So and again, in a smaller town where it's hard, we had to work to create a market where people accepted that you had to pay more than 25 for a wash, cut, and blow dry.
Like, that was a big obstacle in the beginning. because no one else was really doing that and I had this vision from Chicago. So I'm like, okay, I want to do that, but here in my hometown and bring that to my, to my fellow Springhillions and create that because they deserve that too. So a path to access whatever their personal vision for their career was and their and their level of success
So it was financial, some it was more flexibility some it was personal development. So that was a really big secret sauce and still is. I almost, now I say like, we're not a hair salon. We're a personal development company that does hair. I mean, maybe that's just my wishful thinking, but that's how I like to think of us might be a little dreamy and idealistic, but we do a lot personal development.
And I think that that is the key to our growth past a certain point, because you can't just be great at work and not be okay or great in the other areas of your life. And that's a true belief of mine. I want to bring together people that value. for me the core values are growth, education, teamwork, superior service, and honesty.
Those are our Salon Halo core values. And that's my values as a person. So looking for other people that value communication, honesty, growth, teamwork, being of service to others. That's what makes a great organization. Not doing great hair and making great sales numbers. and I think that's the key to the longevity
Mike Goldman: I love I love it. And I love the idea you know, we're a personal development company,not, you know, not about hair. And, And yeah, you said that, that may be dreamy or idealistic. I think that's one of the qualities of a great entrepreneur is you're little dreamy and idealistic and it fits so well with what you said at the beginning of the show when I asked you when you cheated on your answer as to what makes a great leadership team.
You had said the leadership piece is about helping others grow that's what you're talking about. So with that being said, you are now starting to step back to get into to start doing consulting yourself and helping other businesses do what you did, tell me a little bit about your leadership team and however you define it because in order A in order to scale B in order to now step back and keep that business growing, I imagine you've got some people in that organization you really trust that could run this. You know, while you're having a silly conversation with me, someone is out, you know, running the business.
Tell us a little bit about Do you have a leadership team? How have you structured that so that you could step back a little bit?
Ryann: Yeah, so and again that is many years in the making and I had to learn what works for one. Let alone building the team and the structure and the apparatus to support all of it. So I think if I were to do it again, it'd be a lot faster, but my team, you know, I'm very very very blessed in the way that I have family members that still work with me, I have best friends, I have all these people that I can genuinely trust, but I don't think that that is why we work together.
You know, some people, it might be why they shouldn't work together. I think it's because we care about the same things, and we're trying to we agree to, even as a, a family relationship, you know, I don't ask anything of my cousin, Devin, that is my manager of one of my locations, that I wouldn't ask any other manager of that location, and she has the same respect for me.
We have clear boundaries and clear expectations And that's one thing that I have noticed in some of the organizations that I've helped, that
Its's not always clear what the boundary and expectation is. There's a lot to be said for so I have a problem with the golden rule. Let's give my little, give you my little soapbox here.
Like, to say that you you should treat people the way that you want to be treated, I see a big flaw in that. Not everybody wants to be treated the way you want to be treated. Like, what I accept for myself is not necessarily what you accept for you and what makes you happy and feel good. And to assume that somebody knows what makes you happy, what makes you feel good, and what you need is very unfair to me.
So, having these clearly defined boundaries and expectations is a conversation that has to happen often. even has to be in writing and is constantly put in black and white because it makes it tangible and not subject to you know, memory. having everything very clearly lined out was huge step in being able to provide clarity to the team.
And I believe with clarity there's a lot of fulfillment. And there's a lot of understanding and confidence. So that part of it. working with individuals to learn What they do care about and also find out and help them recognize where their strengths lie and looking at individual strengths and saying, okay well you are so strong in, you know, doing a certain haircut.
Would you like to lead the program in that haircut? Okay if they're interested in finding a way elevate themselves
I have people that want to do education. I have people that want to work more behind the scenes. I have people that love the community involvement. So taking that into account and providing a path for them to reach the thing the next step for themselves or what makes them feel aligned. and and you know
Mike Goldman: so of, of the 40 people, I think you said 40, right? the 40 people or so, how many work directly for you and do you have a leadership team that that has with leadership team meetings or, or is it less structured than that?
Ryann: Yep so in the beginning it was kind of doing whatever their strength was. It wasn't really any titles but we do have salon coordinators
So they're they're management team members that do the desk as well as oversee administrative. So as after we added the third location I only actually was able to do that because the location manager of my second location had done such a great job in the about year and a half or so she maybe one year she had been there in in growing that location and then I asked her, you know, do you think you can handle taking on more?
And she was all up for it. And I asked multiple people that had been with me for lot to do senior positions like stylist that have been there over five years, things like that. So we realized that we needed to grow the leadership structure and it is very specific and organized and people have titles, and they have locations that they oversee, and some go to multiple locations.
so as a stylist you can be a mentor stylist, or a supervisor stylist. And there are certain things to qualify into that. It's not too rigorous but it's pretty clear who loves to mentor people. And it's pretty clear who loves to uphold the structure. so that's how we designate that
And then for the administrative team members, each location has one or two people depending on how many hours they're open, that oversees and keeps everybody on track and holds them accountable and does the reporting and things.
So that's our structure. And then as we added that third one, my team member Brianna, who had been with me for just about a year, agreed to elevate and take on this third location. And just after year that, I made her COO of Salon Halo. so her and I oversee all of the leadership stylists and leadership administrative team members, we call salon coordinators, to keep them keeping their team members on track.
So
Mike Goldman: you now so now have that strong, you have that strong number two that, that you need to to step back. So we we start kind of hitting the home stretch here. Talk about the Halo consulting. You know, having that strong number two and the strong team has allowed you to step back.
What kinds of clients do you work with and what types of work do you do?
Ryann: Yeah so my specialty, I realized is empowering people to empower other people. And there's a Zig Ziglar quote that says, if you just help other people get what they want, you'll have everything that you could want, roughly. I've been using that quote a really long time. Like I didn't even realize that was my method to success.
And then it all just kind of came together. I'm like, man, that is what I'm supposed to do. Help empower other people to empower other people and then it's just a chain reaction, you know so I've spent alot of time flushing out exactly what makes things tick and optimizing and you know putting that on paper. So the consulting strategy we call it the grow and glow method and it's everything from the vision stage of company all the way through to the scale and optimization side of that.
So like you know when you want to expand. That's the word I'm looking for. and it's like 12 key pillars, so it's kind of a lot. I'm best suited to work with people or with organizations that have teams and provide a service.
Mike Goldman: Beautiful so if someone wants to find out more about you, more about the salon, more about consulting, this stuff will all be in the show notes, tell us where should they go to find out more?
Ryann: So I'm only taking select
Individuals right now but going into next year, I will have strategists working with me, so I'll be able to handle more. I'm very big on not over committing myself. Remember we talked about that burnout? now, I am looking specifically to work with med spot owners or luxury wellness sector.
So luxury, beauty, and wellness. So if you're in that category you have about 20 team members so, it could be less, but I'm very confident in helping you. And if not, follow me on Instagram. I will still be putting out helpful things, and you can direct message me therethat's the best way is right now is instagram
Mike Goldman: And what's handle on Instagram?
Ryann: It's, it's Ryann_halo So Ryan is spelled with two N's. It's very important. R Y A N N underscore halo.
Beautiful. Well Ryann this was so amazing. I the the combination of the inspirational story and the level of persistence it took, I hope no, I know uh, is something that'll help others. And then what you've done to scale your business. So important. If you want a great company, you need a great leadership team.
Ryann thanks so much for helping us get there today. Thank you Mike It was a pleasure