New Year, New Approach: Your Prices, Your Value, Your Followers | Gina Sicard | @IamGinaBianca | Salon Business Educator | Owner, The Network Salon

Robert Hughes: 00:00:00

Gina bianca is a 15 year industry veteran, the owner of the network for 10 years and today we're going to hear her story, plus what she sees going on in the beauty industry from the business side and what trends we can expect to see next year.

Robert Hughes: 00:00:14

Welcome back to the Hairdresser Strong show.

Robert Hughes: 00:00:15

My name is Robert Hughes and I am your host and today I'm with Gina Bianca.

Robert Hughes: 00:00:18

How are you doing today, Gina?

Gina Bianca: 00:00:20

I'm amazing.

Gina Bianca: 00:00:20

Thank you, Robert.

Gina Bianca: 00:00:21

Thank you for having me.

Gina Bianca: 00:00:22

Hi everyone.

Robert Hughes: 00:00:24

So thank you, Corey, from your day off podcast, hairdistry, for making this introduction.

Robert Hughes: 00:00:31

I'm super excited for this talk.

Robert Hughes: 00:00:34

We thought we like to talk about business and anything that can help people's business, professional life, even personal life.

Robert Hughes: 00:00:42

And we like to talk about healthy hairdressers from the, from the perspective of finance, business and community as well as mental, physical health.

Robert Hughes: 00:00:51

And.

Robert Hughes: 00:00:52

But we are definitely like a business and professional forward podcast.

Robert Hughes: 00:00:56

So thank you for coming and I'm, I'm just super excited to, to hear, to talk to you today.

Gina Bianca: 00:01:02

Yeah, it's my pleasure.

Gina Bianca: 00:01:03

And all of that sounds right up my alley.

Robert Hughes: 00:01:05

So awesome.

Robert Hughes: 00:01:06

Yeah, I know.

Robert Hughes: 00:01:07

Corey was like, have you ever interviewed Gina?

Robert Hughes: 00:01:10

I was like, Gina Bianca?

Robert Hughes: 00:01:12

I was like, no, actually I would love to.

Robert Hughes: 00:01:15

So let's get started.

Robert Hughes: 00:01:17

Let's jump right in.

Robert Hughes: 00:01:18

So tell us like kind of give a high level overview of your story before we start getting into talking business.

Robert Hughes: 00:01:26

Give anybody who's listening or watching a chance to kind of get to know like where you've been, what you've been doing and where you're going.

Gina Bianca: 00:01:35

Absolutely.

Gina Bianca: 00:01:36

duated hairdressing school in: 2009

Gina Bianca: 00:01:40

I have been a color specialist my entire career.

Gina Bianca: 00:01:44

When I was 23 years old, I opened my first salon.

Gina Bianca: 00:01:48

It was a team based pay salon, meaning everybody was paid hourly and pay was based on overall performance.

Gina Bianca: 00:01:55

And it was a very culture driven, team based environment.

Gina Bianca: 00:01:59

I worked with strategies as my business coaches.

Gina Bianca: 00:02:02

I owned that business for five years.

Gina Bianca: 00:02:04

I decided after growing my social media for, you know, seven years after beauty school that I wanted to become an educator.

Gina Bianca: 00:02:14

So I ended up closing my team based salon, opening my current salon which is a 30 chair booth rental salon and focusing mainly on education and focusing on the booth rental model.

Gina Bianca: 00:02:24

Model which is a little bit more hands off, but not really.

Gina Bianca: 00:02:27

We could talk about that.

Gina Bianca: 00:02:29

So for the past seven years I've been educating full time a salon owner, the other full time.

Gina Bianca: 00:02:35

I also work with brands.

Gina Bianca: 00:02:36

I own a mastermind group where I do online education and coaching and mentorship.

Gina Bianca: 00:02:43

I always think of myself as A mentor rather than a coach.

Gina Bianca: 00:02:47

My mission has always been to elevate the beauty industry and to help hair stylists take their cosmetology license and make a beautiful business from it, which I have done.

Gina Bianca: 00:02:56

I'm so grateful for that.

Gina Bianca: 00:02:58

I'm so grateful for my cosmetology license.

Gina Bianca: 00:03:00

I've done so much with it, so I always try to help others do the same.

Gina Bianca: 00:03:04

And I talk to a lot of hairdressers all the time and I feel like I have a pretty good pulse on.

Gina Bianca: 00:03:10

On what goes on.

Gina Bianca: 00:03:11

And, you know, I feel like the industry is in a weird spot right now and I really want to talk about it.

Gina Bianca: 00:03:16

I have a lot on my heart when it comes to it.

Gina Bianca: 00:03:18

So that's just a little bit about me.

Gina Bianca: 00:03:20

I also do have a podcast, the Gina Bianca podcast, where I also, you know, talk about business.

Gina Bianca: 00:03:26

And for the last year, I've done salon owner series.

Gina Bianca: 00:03:30

So I have 52 episodes where I only interview salon owners.

Gina Bianca: 00:03:33

So if you're a salon owner listening and you need like a free resource, for the last 52 weeks, I've been talking to only salon owners.

Gina Bianca: 00:03:41

And yeah, so I'm a full time salon owner here at the network salon in Southington, Connecticut.

Gina Bianca: 00:03:46

And that's pretty much my life, you know, salon owner.

Gina Bianca: 00:03:49

I'm a new mom, my baby.

Robert Hughes: 00:03:51

Congratulations.

Gina Bianca: 00:03:51

About to be a year old.

Gina Bianca: 00:03:53

I'm married.

Gina Bianca: 00:03:54

I have two dogs, a husky and a pit bull.

Gina Bianca: 00:03:58

I love to cook.

Gina Bianca: 00:03:59

I love to cook for groups.

Gina Bianca: 00:04:02

I'm super Italian and I say a lot, I do curse a lot.

Gina Bianca: 00:04:11

And I don't mean to, but it's just how I am.

Gina Bianca: 00:04:15

So that's like the bit.

Gina Bianca: 00:04:16

The bird's eye.

Gina Bianca: 00:04:17

Bird's eye view.

Robert Hughes: 00:04:18

Nice.

Robert Hughes: 00:04:18

I love it.

Robert Hughes: 00:04:19

I love it.

Robert Hughes: 00:04:19

Okay, so the first thing is that I want to ask is you something you said.

Robert Hughes: 00:04:27

I don't know if I want to.

Robert Hughes: 00:04:28

How.

Robert Hughes: 00:04:28

How deep into it, because I do want to get your view of the industry, but I think this is kind of related.

Robert Hughes: 00:04:34

You, you mentioned like going from team based pay to booth rental.

Robert Hughes: 00:04:38

Like, talk about.

Robert Hughes: 00:04:39

I mean, to me that seems very kind of odds in the spectrum where like everybody's kind of like lifting and being paid not based on productivity necessarily.

Robert Hughes: 00:04:49

Right.

Gina Bianca: 00:04:49

And no, they were definitely paid based on productivity.

Gina Bianca: 00:04:52

Like it was not, not commission.

Gina Bianca: 00:04:55

So team based pay is such a different animal.

Gina Bianca: 00:04:59

And I feel like it takes a really good salon owner who knows what is, like what is going on.

Gina Bianca: 00:05:05

And for the longest time, that was me.

Gina Bianca: 00:05:08

Like, I knew all of the numbers.

Gina Bianca: 00:05:09

I did my own QuickBooks.

Gina Bianca: 00:05:11

I had scoreboards, spreadsheets, report cards.

Gina Bianca: 00:05:13

I was, like, super engaged with it.

Gina Bianca: 00:05:16

aded because this was back in: 2014

Gina Bianca: 00:05:20

And I owned GBH from: 2014

Gina Bianca: 00:05:23

And during that time, I trained so many stylists.

Gina Bianca: 00:05:27

I'm still friends with most of them to this day.

Gina Bianca: 00:05:29

Good friends.

Gina Bianca: 00:05:30

And many of them own salons.

Gina Bianca: 00:05:33

Like, many of them are very successful.

Gina Bianca: 00:05:35

And I take.

Gina Bianca: 00:05:36

I take my flowers for that.

Gina Bianca: 00:05:37

I trained so well.

Gina Bianca: 00:05:40

I had an extremely profitable business behind the chair.

Gina Bianca: 00:05:44

I was double booked, triple booked.

Gina Bianca: 00:05:45

That's how I trained my assistants.

Gina Bianca: 00:05:47

But I got very jaded when people would leave and go booth rental.

Gina Bianca: 00:05:50

It was almost like I was building, building, building.

Gina Bianca: 00:05:52

And then once they could go and be independent, like where I don't have to babysit them, they left.

Gina Bianca: 00:05:59

And I got very jaded about that.

Gina Bianca: 00:06:02

And I started educating because I'm like, I'm sick of paying people to learn from me.

Gina Bianca: 00:06:06

I want people to pay to learn from me.

Gina Bianca: 00:06:09

And then I got a taste of the whole independent educator lifestyle, which will never be the same.

Gina Bianca: 00:06:16

That was a whole era that is now over.

Robert Hughes: 00:06:19

Okay, I'm going to need to know that isn't.

Robert Hughes: 00:06:22

Explain that one.

Gina Bianca: 00:06:24

There will never be as much money that was made again.

Gina Bianca: 00:06:30

That era is over.

Gina Bianca: 00:06:31

Like, it's not over over, but it's like, it's so saturated now that it's way more of a grind.

Gina Bianca: 00:06:40

For me.

Gina Bianca: 00:06:41

It was so easy.

Gina Bianca: 00:06:42

It was like, oh, my God, this is like, why do I even own a salon?

Gina Bianca: 00:06:46

Fudge this place.

Gina Bianca: 00:06:47

I ran from my problems as a young salon owner into social media, into education, into fame, into people kissing my ass.

Gina Bianca: 00:06:57

You know, people were, like, obsessed with me, cry when they meet me, and I've got someone bitching and moaning about having to come to work on time.

Gina Bianca: 00:07:04

I was living a double life.

Gina Bianca: 00:07:06

So during my double life, I decided, I don't want to do this anymore.

Gina Bianca: 00:07:10

I closed, which was a whole insane thing to build something so great and then to walk away.

Gina Bianca: 00:07:20

It was very insane and great because I wouldn't be where I am without doing that.

Gina Bianca: 00:07:26

And then I ended up opening a different type of location where I'm like, you can come rent from me, and if you want big sister energy, that's it.

Gina Bianca: 00:07:34

But I'm not your mother.

Gina Bianca: 00:07:36

I would travel, I would teach.

Gina Bianca: 00:07:37

I would host huge events here.

Gina Bianca: 00:07:39

And I had all renters.

Gina Bianca: 00:07:40

I really only had, like, one or two renters.

Gina Bianca: 00:07:42

And then when Covid hit, everyone wanted space, and that's what we have, space.

Gina Bianca: 00:07:49

So we filled up During COVID it was the biggest blessing.

Gina Bianca: 00:07:52

We expanded, we filled.

Gina Bianca: 00:07:55

I opened a yoga studio.

Gina Bianca: 00:07:56

So I own a yoga studio and a salon.

Gina Bianca: 00:07:59

Yoga studio is against this wall.

Gina Bianca: 00:08:00

Salon's against that wall.

Gina Bianca: 00:08:02

And we've been building this business for, like, seven years.

Gina Bianca: 00:08:07

And it's been amazing.

Gina Bianca: 00:08:10

It's been amazing.

Gina Bianca: 00:08:11

And it's just super interesting, though.

Gina Bianca: 00:08:14

I could go on and on.

Gina Bianca: 00:08:15

It's just super interesting, though, like, how the industry is now.

Robert Hughes: 00:08:19

So let's talk.

Robert Hughes: 00:08:19

Let's open up the.

Robert Hughes: 00:08:21

The educator thing just a little bit so people who are curious to know, to understand that more.

Robert Hughes: 00:08:28

I'm assuming that, and correct me if I'm wrong, that you're talking about how in the earlier days, the space was.

Robert Hughes: 00:08:36

There weren't a ton of people in the space, and they were demanding very high prices for their classes.

Robert Hughes: 00:08:44

Or is that not even just that?

Gina Bianca: 00:08:47

Not even just that, Robert?

Gina Bianca: 00:08:48

Literally, like, if you go on TikTok and you scroll on TikTok, there's just people hating on educators, there's people hating on hairstylists.

Gina Bianca: 00:08:58

There's just, like, this dialog in the industry where, like, value doesn't match the price and where a lot of educators and hairstylists don't take the economy, they don't take demand, they don't take those types of things into consideration.

Gina Bianca: 00:09:17

After Covid happened and I got back to teaching, my ticket prices dropped.

Gina Bianca: 00:09:23

I dropped them because I was like, the average hairstylist is broke right now.

Robert Hughes: 00:09:27

Totally.

Gina Bianca: 00:09:28

You know what I mean?

Gina Bianca: 00:09:28

My ticket went from $600 to 295, and my business class was 195.

Gina Bianca: 00:09:35

And I tried to make it as accessible as possible because I'm like, the everyday, average hairdresser needs my education more than anybody, and I need to make this accessible.

Gina Bianca: 00:09:45

And then you have other educators, and I'm not bashing them, but I'm saying If you're charging $600 for a ticket, you better add massive value.

Gina Bianca: 00:09:56

Because people talk.

Gina Bianca: 00:09:58

Like, I've seen so many educators charge 6, 7, $800, and they, like, will fill a class because they're famous.

Gina Bianca: 00:10:05

And then people are like, it wasn't worth.

Gina Bianca: 00:10:07

And they burn out.

Gina Bianca: 00:10:08

And people talk.

Gina Bianca: 00:10:10

Then you'll get the person on TikTok saying, I went to this class, it was trash.

Gina Bianca: 00:10:14

You know, this person's charging this for that.

Gina Bianca: 00:10:16

And, you know, it's basic stuff.

Gina Bianca: 00:10:18

So I really think the pricing is kind of like, we need to talk about it, because people talk, and I feel like it's the same with hair.

Robert Hughes: 00:10:27

So let's talk about it.

Robert Hughes: 00:10:28

So what is like, I mean, what is reasonable?

Robert Hughes: 00:10:30

I always thought that like a 2,250, $300 look and learn class was ridiculous.

Robert Hughes: 00:10:34

And I still feel that way.

Robert Hughes: 00:10:35

But like, I know that that seems to be the st.

Robert Hughes: 00:10:38

That seems to be like a market price.

Robert Hughes: 00:10:40

I just couldn't imagine spending that kind of money to watch someone cut hair.

Robert Hughes: 00:10:44

I need hands on.

Robert Hughes: 00:10:44

But then if it's hands on, I expect 400 minimum up to $600 would make sense.

Robert Hughes: 00:10:52

Now tell me how much.

Robert Hughes: 00:10:54

Tell me how much you agree or disagree with that.

Gina Bianca: 00:10:57

I agree with you.

Gina Bianca: 00:10:57

I really think your class ticket should be your average ticket in the salon.

Gina Bianca: 00:11:02

Like hot take.

Gina Bianca: 00:11:03

Like, I think you're.

Gina Bianca: 00:11:05

And you also have people who like, don't really do hair anymore too.

Gina Bianca: 00:11:10

Like, you know, you have people like, I shifted a lot more to business rather than technique because I'm not behind the chair as often.

Gina Bianca: 00:11:20

And I prefer to teach business because every day I'm teaching business, every day I'm running my salon.

Gina Bianca: 00:11:25

So I always coach people.

Gina Bianca: 00:11:27

Coach.

Gina Bianca: 00:11:27

I always tell people, teach what you do, right?

Gina Bianca: 00:11:31

Teach what you do.

Gina Bianca: 00:11:33

And I can teach people how to do fast color techniques.

Gina Bianca: 00:11:35

I could teach them how to do foiling and all of that stuff, but it gets repetitive over and over and over.

Gina Bianca: 00:11:41

And you know, I'm not doing $1,000 box die transformations every single day.

Gina Bianca: 00:11:46

If you really average out everything that I'm doing, my average ticket is between 295 and 495.

Gina Bianca: 00:11:52

You know, it's pretty.

Gina Bianca: 00:11:54

That's what my normal everyday client gets.

Gina Bianca: 00:11:56

They're getting two hours of my time because I'm pretty fast for 130 to 150.

Gina Bianca: 00:12:01

An like, that's a good price.

Gina Bianca: 00:12:03

And I feel like, you know, some people, you know, they may charge $600 for a class, but they're not doing that behind the chair really.

Gina Bianca: 00:12:10

You know, they may like say they are, but a lot of people aren't really doing that.

Gina Bianca: 00:12:15

It's like you have to be careful what you believe on social media.

Gina Bianca: 00:12:18

And I'm not bashing any educator.

Gina Bianca: 00:12:20

Like, I'm not saying anyone in.

Gina Bianca: 00:12:21

In specific, but I'm saying there's a lot of people who come on the scene hot, they charge 600 and then people will go to that class, like with all of trying to buy all of this hope and then they're kind of let down and then they're never going to take your class again.

Gina Bianca: 00:12:33

And then will tell 20 people it wasn't worth it.

Robert Hughes: 00:12:37

Yeah, I mean that you're.

Robert Hughes: 00:12:39

What you're saying Definitely tracks with what I hear when I talk to like local stylists.

Robert Hughes: 00:12:45

And they, that's definitely 100% what they say.

Robert Hughes: 00:12:49

Like, Matt, value doesn't match the price.

Gina Bianca: 00:12:52

Yeah.

Gina Bianca: 00:12:52

And they're, they don't want an influencer.

Gina Bianca: 00:12:54

They want an educator.

Gina Bianca: 00:12:56

And if you're an influencer, that's amazing because you can sell tickets, but they want, you need to be like a well trained or practiced educator or else people are going to be like, and you need to have something other to teach besides hair.

Gina Bianca: 00:13:11

Like, you need to bring people in, they need to learn like tips and tricks and all of that.

Gina Bianca: 00:13:15

Like how many different things can you do doing hair?

Gina Bianca: 00:13:17

I've seen every lived in color technique.

Gina Bianca: 00:13:19

Nothing blows my mind.

Gina Bianca: 00:13:21

But if you could tell me like a certain way you talk to your clients, if you could tell me a certain dialogue, if you could tell me like something about you where I could fall in love with you, then I'm like, this was worth it.

Gina Bianca: 00:13:31

But if you're just like, someone's like, why are you doing it that way?

Gina Bianca: 00:13:33

Oh, that's just how I do it.

Gina Bianca: 00:13:35

Give me a break.

Gina Bianca: 00:13:36

You're charging $600.

Gina Bianca: 00:13:38

That's my.

Robert Hughes: 00:13:40

So I talked to Ashley Norman about this topic and she was kind of basically saying this, you know, talking the same way.

Robert Hughes: 00:13:51

And she said something about how like there are educators and I love this and I love Ashley Norman and shout out to her, she's awesome.

Robert Hughes: 00:14:00

I think she's awesome personally.

Robert Hughes: 00:14:01

But something that came up with that conversation and then also subsequently I had mult conversations about this and the same thing keeps coming up over and over is being a good influencer means you're like good at content creation and entertainment, but that has nothing to do with your ability to teach and how you have all these people.

Robert Hughes: 00:14:23

But like, but that's also like shaming somebody for.

Robert Hughes: 00:14:28

And maybe they deserve it.

Robert Hughes: 00:14:29

But like that, you know, like, like, let's just put it this way.

Robert Hughes: 00:14:32

If you have a big following, just as this is business, you know, not caring about people's feelings or the craft at all, just speaking strictly business, if I have a, if you have or anybody has a large enough following to be able to sell tickets across around the country to classes, then why wouldn't you monetize your following?

Robert Hughes: 00:14:55

Now you could like alienate your followers.

Robert Hughes: 00:14:58

But what I've discovered in talking to people, and maybe this is part of something that's waning because of this conversation.

Robert Hughes: 00:15:06

But you know, it's like, it's like having the opportunity to take a class with somebody who is a trained educator is not as appealing as taking a class by an influencer.

Robert Hughes: 00:15:18

Like, people flock to their influencers because they're like, they're celebrities.

Robert Hughes: 00:15:22

And so I don't know how.

Robert Hughes: 00:15:24

How do you.

Robert Hughes: 00:15:25

Like, how do you reconcile that?

Robert Hughes: 00:15:27

Because, like, if you talk about the educator, that's one thing, but the educator's like, yo, they're buying my tickets.

Robert Hughes: 00:15:32

You know, it's like, what?

Robert Hughes: 00:15:34

Get off my case.

Robert Hughes: 00:15:35

They love me.

Robert Hughes: 00:15:36

You know, I don't know.

Gina Bianca: 00:15:38

So this is what I have to say about that.

Gina Bianca: 00:15:41

There's one.

Gina Bianca: 00:15:42

One thing is, if you want to be an educator, you have to educate every day.

Gina Bianca: 00:15:46

You have to educate your guests behind the chair.

Gina Bianca: 00:15:47

You have to educate on social media, Go teach at the schools for free, Train your assistant.

Gina Bianca: 00:15:51

You have to educate every day, and you'll become an amazing educator if you educate every day.

Gina Bianca: 00:15:56

That's how I became an educator.

Gina Bianca: 00:15:58

I took one national educator training with Paul Mitchell, where I learned how to sell products.

Gina Bianca: 00:16:03

That was the only formal education I ever, ever had.

Gina Bianca: 00:16:06

The rest of it, I learned how to be an educator from training my assistant because I needed them to understand how to do what I do so that I could send my client to them.

Gina Bianca: 00:16:16

I was able to answer their questions by breaking it down as small as possible until they understood it wasn't just like, oh, that's just how I do it.

Gina Bianca: 00:16:24

It was like, this is why I do it.

Gina Bianca: 00:16:25

If we hold it at this angle, it goes like this.

Gina Bianca: 00:16:27

If we take this section, it looks like this.

Gina Bianca: 00:16:29

So really, like, you have to educate every day.

Gina Bianca: 00:16:32

You don't.

Gina Bianca: 00:16:33

Okay.

Gina Bianca: 00:16:33

So with that being said, there's educators who are amazing educators.

Gina Bianca: 00:16:38

Nobody knows who they are because they're not an influencer.

Gina Bianca: 00:16:41

Then there's amazing influencers who have no educator trading and probably have never taught anyone anything.

Gina Bianca: 00:16:47

They just do what they do.

Gina Bianca: 00:16:48

They're great at content and whatever.

Gina Bianca: 00:16:51

This person gets on stage and bombs this person get.

Gina Bianca: 00:16:54

Gets on stage and nobody comes.

Gina Bianca: 00:16:56

So then there's a person who wants to do both or be an educator, but, like, what do they do?

Gina Bianca: 00:17:03

So me and.

Gina Bianca: 00:17:04

I don't know if you know her.

Gina Bianca: 00:17:05

Olivia Thompson.

Gina Bianca: 00:17:06

OMG artistry.

Robert Hughes: 00:17:07

Yeah, of course I love her.

Gina Bianca: 00:17:09

Olivia and I created a program called Educate with Influence, where it teaches educators to market themselves and influence, and it teaches influencer how to be a classically trained educator.

Gina Bianca: 00:17:21

The gap is huge.

Gina Bianca: 00:17:24

So the whole point of the program is to fill the gap.

Gina Bianca: 00:17:27

So since we're talking about that, that I've created something to help people because there's no training now and people are like, I want to work with a brand.

Gina Bianca: 00:17:36

Back in the day to work with a brand, you would go to a hair show and stalk them and take out the trash and clean and assist and be their and work for free for years.

Gina Bianca: 00:17:48

And you would use their products in the salon, only their products.

Gina Bianca: 00:17:50

If you ever use a different product, they would dead you.

Gina Bianca: 00:17:52

You would never be spoken to again they ever saw you using a different product.

Gina Bianca: 00:17:57

And now today, if you want to work with a brand, you need a following.

Gina Bianca: 00:18:03

Like, no one will look at you.

Gina Bianca: 00:18:05

All the brands work with agencies to fill influencer positions.

Gina Bianca: 00:18:11

And they're not looking for educators, they're looking for where to throw their marketing dollars.

Gina Bianca: 00:18:15

And when it comes to educators within a brand, you have to really go from the bottom up or come with a following.

Gina Bianca: 00:18:23

And even if you go from a bottom up, if you're not building your your following that whole time, you're really not going to go anywhere because they're going to hire someone right above you who has 10 times your following and your 10 years of hard work.

Gina Bianca: 00:18:37

You're going to be in the shadow of someone who is better at content creation than you.

Gina Bianca: 00:18:42

It's super weird.

Robert Hughes: 00:18:44

Yeah.

Robert Hughes: 00:18:44

This is so good.

Robert Hughes: 00:18:45

This is I this conversation.

Robert Hughes: 00:18:48

I saw your Educate with influence course and I thought that was brilliant.

Robert Hughes: 00:18:54

So, yeah, if anybody out there is interested in becoming an educator and you don't have a following or vice versa, you should definitely check that out and you maybe give me the link to that and we'll leave it in the description below.

Gina Bianca: 00:19:07

Yeah, totally.

Gina Bianca: 00:19:08

And I can actually grant you access to it so you can look at it before you share it or something.

Gina Bianca: 00:19:11

Because it is a beautiful course.

Gina Bianca: 00:19:13

We don't even call it a course, we call it a program.

Gina Bianca: 00:19:15

Because like part one is how to educate, how to lesson plan, how to hit learning types, how to, you know, answer difficult questions during, you know, the.

Gina Bianca: 00:19:27

Sorry.

Gina Bianca: 00:19:27

How to answer difficult questions during class, how to keep the class flow going.

Gina Bianca: 00:19:32

Part two is how to become an influencer, how to build a following.

Gina Bianca: 00:19:35

And part three is how to turn it all into a business.

Gina Bianca: 00:19:38

So like, how to sell tickets, how to start a podcast, how to do online education, how to plan a whole event, right?

Gina Bianca: 00:19:45

Like if you're going to do a live event, how are you going to do event, how to facilitate hands on, how to price your classes.

Gina Bianca: 00:19:51

I have spreadsheets, everything.

Gina Bianca: 00:19:53

Because people ask all the time and I'm just like, dude, it's too much to type.

Gina Bianca: 00:19:57

Like, I can't like just be like, hey, do this.

Gina Bianca: 00:20:00

It's like, well, what are you using?

Gina Bianca: 00:20:01

Like, I'm a Kajabi expert.

Gina Bianca: 00:20:03

I don't know if anyone knows about Kajabi.

Gina Bianca: 00:20:05

But for online education, like a learning management software, people are like, well, where do I host my videos?

Gina Bianca: 00:20:10

YouTube.

Gina Bianca: 00:20:10

I'm like, no, you gotta lock up your video.

Gina Bianca: 00:20:12

Like, people don't know how to do it.

Gina Bianca: 00:20:14

So I created just like a step by step.

Gina Bianca: 00:20:17

And then we obviously do like, lives and mentorship and have the Facebook group and the Instagram and like all of the stuff.

Gina Bianca: 00:20:24

But like, for some people, it's their dream, but the old way of doing it doesn't exist anymore.

Gina Bianca: 00:20:31

Like, you need to have the skill and when you build the following and the opportunity comes, you'll be ready for the opportunity you're not going to bomb.

Gina Bianca: 00:20:38

And even if you got educated with influence to be a better educator to your client, to your team on Instagram at the schools, like, it will help you with and it'll help you just like in your career.

Gina Bianca: 00:20:52

Like, it's, it's good.

Gina Bianca: 00:20:53

It's not just like, hey, you want to work for a brand?

Gina Bianca: 00:20:54

It's very like, multifaceted.

Robert Hughes: 00:20:57

Nice.

Robert Hughes: 00:20:57

Awesome.

Robert Hughes: 00:20:58

That sounds great.

Robert Hughes: 00:20:59

So that basically is the solution to the problem that we were talking about.

Robert Hughes: 00:21:04

So problem solved right there.

Gina Bianca: 00:21:06

Just saving the world one program at a time.

Robert Hughes: 00:21:11

Okay.

Robert Hughes: 00:21:12

And I'm going to take you up on.

Robert Hughes: 00:21:13

I would love to check that out and see what it looks like.

Robert Hughes: 00:21:16

So, moving on.

Robert Hughes: 00:21:18

What I, I want to get back to this thing you said.

Robert Hughes: 00:21:21

What is the, the weird state of the industry?

Robert Hughes: 00:21:23

I don't know if that was what we're talking about or if there's something else.

Robert Hughes: 00:21:25

Like, what do you, what are you talking about when you said that?

Robert Hughes: 00:21:28

Because you said that before we started and after, once we started the, this conversation.

Gina Bianca: 00:21:34

Yeah, I'm going to be like, kind of like, honest and it's not, it's not, it's not positive.

Gina Bianca: 00:21:39

Is that okay?

Robert Hughes: 00:21:40

Yeah, yeah, come on, let's hear it.

Robert Hughes: 00:21:41

Real talk.

Gina Bianca: 00:21:42

Like, I've just spent like my whole career, like, trying to elevate the beauty industry.

Gina Bianca: 00:21:46

And I feel we're kind of at a low point right now.

Gina Bianca: 00:21:51

And I, I just feel like we're kind of at a low point.

Gina Bianca: 00:21:55

There's a lot of disrespect toward hair stylists.

Gina Bianca: 00:21:59

If you go on tick tock and read the comments of what people write about hair stylists, hairstylists have priced themselves out.

Gina Bianca: 00:22:05

Hairstylists are too big for their britches.

Gina Bianca: 00:22:07

Hairstylists are scam Artists like all these things.

Gina Bianca: 00:22:09

The value doesn't match the price.

Gina Bianca: 00:22:11

It's definitely not worth the money.

Gina Bianca: 00:22:13

Nobody has money for that.

Gina Bianca: 00:22:15

There's like this whole, like, dialogue around getting your hair done.

Gina Bianca: 00:22:20

And I think a lot of it comes from, like, I think a lot of it comes from COVID because.

Gina Bianca: 00:22:31

And I hate that we're still talking about COVID And I'm not a Covid scapegoat person.

Gina Bianca: 00:22:36

I'm not.

Gina Bianca: 00:22:37

I'm kind of like, figure it out.

Gina Bianca: 00:22:39

Like, we need to move on.

Gina Bianca: 00:22:41

But since COVID the economy has changed, our industry has changed, and I feel like a lot of hairstylists have lost the important fact that our clients pay our bills.

Gina Bianca: 00:23:00

Like, our clients are the most important people.

Gina Bianca: 00:23:04

It's not about your following.

Gina Bianca: 00:23:06

It's not about the clout and the likes and all of that shit.

Gina Bianca: 00:23:10

It's about doing amazing work, giving an amazing experience, building an amazing relationship, building trust, telling them how to take care of their hair, what to use at home and when to come back.

Gina Bianca: 00:23:23

Like, we're too focused on, like, getting content.

Gina Bianca: 00:23:27

We're too focused on, like, doing what we want to do, not what they want to do.

Gina Bianca: 00:23:31

We're too focused about what we're getting paid rather than, like, if they're happy.

Gina Bianca: 00:23:36

And I think that there are so many people flooded into booth rental who are not ready and who have no idea how to, like, run and manage a business.

Gina Bianca: 00:23:44

I'll give you an example.

Gina Bianca: 00:23:45

Two clients this week have complained that their hair isn't right a month after they've gotten their hair done.

Gina Bianca: 00:23:55

A month.

Gina Bianca: 00:23:56

So I go to the stylist, I'm like, and these are renters.

Gina Bianca: 00:23:58

I'm like, hey, do you have a waiver?

Gina Bianca: 00:24:00

Like, where if they need a redo, it's within seven days.

Gina Bianca: 00:24:02

They're like, no, I didn't know I could do that.

Gina Bianca: 00:24:05

I'm like, girl, figure it out.

Gina Bianca: 00:24:08

Like, why do I have to do a redo?

Gina Bianca: 00:24:11

Why am I getting a two star review?

Gina Bianca: 00:24:14

You know what I mean?

Robert Hughes: 00:24:15

Yeah.

Gina Bianca: 00:24:16

So it's happening to everybody.

Gina Bianca: 00:24:18

And then I want to just put out there, my friend Danielle does hair.

Gina Bianca: 00:24:21

She posted a TikTok and she was like, I can't believe you guys are posting that you're slow and that everyone's slow and that nobody's busy and that it's the slowest winter ever.

Gina Bianca: 00:24:32

She's like, you would have to waterboard that information out of me.

Gina Bianca: 00:24:36

Like, I would never post that.

Gina Bianca: 00:24:38

And it is embarrassing.

Gina Bianca: 00:24:40

Like, nobody's going to want to go to you if you're Posting that you're dead.

Robert Hughes: 00:24:44

Oh my gosh.

Gina Bianca: 00:24:45

So I just, I just really think.

Gina Bianca: 00:24:47

But they're posting that to be a victim, to get engagement, to have people be like, are you okay?

Gina Bianca: 00:24:52

It's like, no.

Gina Bianca: 00:24:53

You have to do the hard work.

Gina Bianca: 00:24:55

Figure it out.

Gina Bianca: 00:24:57

Hot take.

Robert Hughes: 00:24:58

Hey, you know what?

Robert Hughes: 00:24:59

It's like, I'm glad you're saying it because like, honestly, my whole vibe with this, all this like, all this like pursuit of content, customer shaming online.

Robert Hughes: 00:25:11

It's like my clients look at my social media so I'm not gonna like shame them for being late or not or canceling last minute.

Robert Hughes: 00:25:19

And like, no empathy seems to be in this, in this industry.

Robert Hughes: 00:25:23

Like at least if you look at social media.

Robert Hughes: 00:25:26

I also think the majority of us are not on, are not making content like that.

Robert Hughes: 00:25:31

I, I think it's a small group.

Robert Hughes: 00:25:33

I, I mean I believe it to be not the majority and, but because it's social media and it's a bullhorn, it amplifies the message and it looks like it's everybody just kind of like, it's kind of like I always say, I don't know how many.

Robert Hughes: 00:25:49

I don't see any salon stylists that are commission based stylists that work for somebody else, making content, giving hairdresser's advice to go work for somebody else because it's helpful to build your book.

Robert Hughes: 00:25:58

I don't see that.

Robert Hughes: 00:25:59

I see salon owners saying that, teachers saying that, suite owners saying that.

Robert Hughes: 00:26:02

But the students that I talk to on a regular basis, they don't.

Robert Hughes: 00:26:06

They're list, they're like seeing the glory of being a business owner, being independent.

Robert Hughes: 00:26:10

They're going straight on their own, falling on their face, filing bankruptcy, calling people like myself, crying, saying, what do I do?

Robert Hughes: 00:26:18

You know, and then, and then you have, and then those that are out there are making shaming videos and like saying like, oh, these are my policies.

Robert Hughes: 00:26:26

Like posting on social media to their customers being like, we just, we had to raise our prices.

Robert Hughes: 00:26:33

And like, I don't know, it's just the whole vibe is, is the opposite of how I was trained.

Robert Hughes: 00:26:39

Like, I was trained very old school.

Robert Hughes: 00:26:41

To me, what you're saying sounds very old school.

Robert Hughes: 00:26:44

Like it feels like we're going to get back to what the market wants.

Robert Hughes: 00:26:47

Because that's what happens in a free market.

Robert Hughes: 00:26:50

The customers have choices and they are gonna make decisions based on how they want to spend their money, not how we want them to spend our money.

Robert Hughes: 00:26:58

And it doesn't really matter about anybody's feelings, like, or anybody's Thoughts or opinions or new ideas and new ways of doing things.

Robert Hughes: 00:27:05

Like, at the end of the day, like, all that is fine to talk about and it's fun, especially on podcasts and stuff.

Robert Hughes: 00:27:11

And I.

Robert Hughes: 00:27:12

And I'm all for it.

Robert Hughes: 00:27:13

I'll go down a rabbit hole with you for some new idea or new concept.

Robert Hughes: 00:27:16

But.

Robert Hughes: 00:27:16

But at the end of the day, what I notice is my customers, they're.

Robert Hughes: 00:27:20

They.

Robert Hughes: 00:27:20

They don't.

Robert Hughes: 00:27:21

They haven't changed.

Robert Hughes: 00:27:23

They want the same thing.

Robert Hughes: 00:27:25

Like what you just said.

Robert Hughes: 00:27:26

Like, you just nailed it.

Robert Hughes: 00:27:28

So I'm glad that, anyway, that.

Robert Hughes: 00:27:31

That's my.

Robert Hughes: 00:27:32

My response to what you just said.

Gina Bianca: 00:27:34

I think after Covid, people, the prices have gone up because of inflation.

Gina Bianca: 00:27:39

That's a whole different combo.

Gina Bianca: 00:27:41

And people save up to get their hair done, and they're very particular about what they want.

Gina Bianca: 00:27:47

They're way pickier.

Gina Bianca: 00:27:48

So if you have not continued to elevate, continue to put customer service first and, like, take your ego out of it and remember that you're a servant.

Gina Bianca: 00:27:58

Like, I don't think it's the right business for you.

Gina Bianca: 00:28:02

Like, a lot of people go into hair school and they think they're going to come out and charge like 400 for a full highlight.

Gina Bianca: 00:28:09

And, like, I'm sorry, I don't even charge 400 for a full highlight.

Gina Bianca: 00:28:13

You know, like, I just think that people kind of have this idea and, like, I want to leave this conversation, like, this part of the conversation with this.

Gina Bianca: 00:28:21

And this is something that I think every hairstylist and salon owner, everyone needs to remember is that hairstylists have the license to touch.

Gina Bianca: 00:28:28

And, like, the impact that we can make on a human being is more than, like, we even know.

Gina Bianca: 00:28:35

There's people who go through their whole lives with no connection, no touch.

Gina Bianca: 00:28:39

They look forward, these appointments, they save up all of their money to get their hair done.

Gina Bianca: 00:28:44

You know, maybe when they get their hair done is when they feel the most beautiful and the most confident.

Gina Bianca: 00:28:48

And maybe they, like, really need this.

Gina Bianca: 00:28:51

And, like, we're over here thinking about ourselves, and I think, like, you're suffering when you're thinking about yourself.

Gina Bianca: 00:28:56

So, like, some of the harshest advice I have to give to people is stop thinking about yourself and start serving your clients.

Gina Bianca: 00:29:02

t back to that, especially in: 2025

Gina Bianca: 00:29:07

Like, my whole focus in: 2025

Gina Bianca: 00:29:18

The end to end experience needs to be Improved for all of us.

Gina Bianca: 00:29:21

And that's how we're going to get to the next level.

Gina Bianca: 00:29:23

Because I really do think we took a big step back after Covid.

Gina Bianca: 00:29:26

I'm not shaming anyone, but I really do think we all need to like, take it to another level and remember why we're even here.

Robert Hughes: 00:29:33

Yeah, I mean, you know, I'm pretty sure I'd have to pull the data, but I'm pretty sure I saw that the expectation of value is at an all time high from customers and it's reported that their experiences are very low.

Robert Hughes: 00:29:49

I don't know if it's an all time low, but it's, it's very low on the custom, on the customer's experience.

Robert Hughes: 00:29:55

So it's like, it's like you're gonna get like a mediocre maybe okay experience, potentially bad, or you gotta pay a lot of money to get a very high end, a very good experience.

Robert Hughes: 00:30:08

That's kind of what I'm reading and what I'm seeing personal.

Gina Bianca: 00:30:12

And can I just give one hot tip for everybody listening on how to give a better experience?

Gina Bianca: 00:30:18

Because a lot of people don't do this.

Gina Bianca: 00:30:20

And when I'm in an experience where this happens, I get so freaking mad.

Gina Bianca: 00:30:25

Can you talk to your client about the price before you start their hair?

Gina Bianca: 00:30:30

Like, we all want that client who comes in, sits down and says, do whatever you want and then spills the tea for two hours.

Gina Bianca: 00:30:37

We want those clients, but those clients will never be if they don't trust us.

Gina Bianca: 00:30:42

And we're losing clients left and right because we sticker shock them.

Gina Bianca: 00:30:46

I hate being sticker shocked.

Gina Bianca: 00:30:48

Like, I make a beautiful income.

Gina Bianca: 00:30:50

I hate being sticker shocked.

Gina Bianca: 00:30:52

And I can't even tell you.

Gina Bianca: 00:30:53

Like, stylists that come in and work here, like, it takes coaching and training and like accountability to get them to talk about the price.

Gina Bianca: 00:31:02

Like they're afraid to talk about the price and then they sticker shock and then the client will never come back.

Gina Bianca: 00:31:06

Like, it's not just, I'm not saying you, you, you.

Gina Bianca: 00:31:08

I'm saying this is happening everywhere.

Gina Bianca: 00:31:11

Like, do not sticker shock your client.

Gina Bianca: 00:31:14

Talk about the price.

Gina Bianca: 00:31:15

Be transparent, talk about their budget, talk about when they can come back and what they can afford.

Gina Bianca: 00:31:21

Like, it's really.

Gina Bianca: 00:31:21

The basics are lacking totally.

Robert Hughes: 00:31:26

You know, and also, here's a hot take.

Robert Hughes: 00:31:29

I mean, it's not mine originally, but I mean, and if it, if it is, I was having at the same time as somebody else.

Robert Hughes: 00:31:35

But I think that a lot of people are apprehensive and nervous about the confrontation of raising their prices.

Robert Hughes: 00:31:42

And when they had the up and they didn't raise the prices for years.

Robert Hughes: 00:31:45

And then Covid came around and it's almost like they had permission to raise their prices and they jacked their prices way up.

Robert Hughes: 00:31:51

And, and then the customers were like, you know, there's all these kinds of articles about people feeling like they're getting price gouged.

Robert Hughes: 00:31:58

You know, that's not, it's not like okay to.

Gina Bianca: 00:32:01

Well, they, A lot of people are being price gouged.

Robert Hughes: 00:32:03

Yeah.

Robert Hughes: 00:32:04

And so like, I think that it's, it's not okay to do that.

Robert Hughes: 00:32:07

It's unethical.

Robert Hughes: 00:32:08

And.

Robert Hughes: 00:32:09

But at the same time, like, like you're saying, like at the end of the day it comes down to value.

Robert Hughes: 00:32:13

Like if, if you're jacking up your prices and as long as the customer knows it's their decision to come and see you.

Robert Hughes: 00:32:19

But like you're saying, I totally agree with the value match to price.

Robert Hughes: 00:32:24

And it's like, for what are they getting in exchange for that amount of money?

Robert Hughes: 00:32:28

Like, what is the alternative?

Robert Hughes: 00:32:30

Because Harvard Business Review did a, did a study and they found that the way people make decisions, and you know, this is just one study, so take what you will, but they said that the way people make decisions is an allocation of dollars.

Robert Hughes: 00:32:44

So it's not, can I afford this?

Robert Hughes: 00:32:46

What's my budget?

Robert Hughes: 00:32:48

It's kind of like that, but it's more like.

Robert Hughes: 00:32:50

Or is that worth it?

Robert Hughes: 00:32:51

At the end of the day, if you have $10 in your wallet, you know, you need $1 for gas, $1 for groceries, $3 for rent, and you got two, you know, well, how many ever dollars you have to left over.

Robert Hughes: 00:33:04

And then you're going to decide with this discretionary spending, you're going to, you know, you'd like to go out to dinner and then what's left over?

Robert Hughes: 00:33:12

So you're competing with, not with maybe other hairdressers, and I think you're competing with them too, but you're competing with all the other things that people have to pay for.

Robert Hughes: 00:33:21

And so like, are people gonna go out to a restaurant one last time to come and see you?

Robert Hughes: 00:33:27

Maybe?

Robert Hughes: 00:33:27

Because like going out to restaurant nowadays, I don't know about where you're at, but in D.C.

Robert Hughes: 00:33:31

it's like, it's like a hundred dollars minimum a person if you want to go to like a halfway decent restaurant.

Robert Hughes: 00:33:38

So it's like, if I could skip three, three dinners out and I can get my hair looking good for three months or two months.

Robert Hughes: 00:33:46

That's a good deal, you know, so anyway, that's my, my two cents on that one.

Gina Bianca: 00:33:52

Yeah, I mean, I agree with you completely.

Gina Bianca: 00:33:54

And I, I'm like the first person to like, speak, like to hairdressers, charge your worth, right?

Gina Bianca: 00:34:00

But like, what is your worth?

Gina Bianca: 00:34:02

And I think, like a lot of people, I saw a comment, it was like, people haven't taken Gina's pricing class and it shows because I would never tell someone to raise their prices unless they're 85% booked consistently.

Gina Bianca: 00:34:14

Like, it's supply and demand.

Gina Bianca: 00:34:16

Supply and demand.

Gina Bianca: 00:34:17

If you don't have the demand, There is your 911 warning sign, lights, sirens, warning, you're not ready.

Gina Bianca: 00:34:26

85% booked.

Gina Bianca: 00:34:28

If you have no software to even tell you if you're 85% booked, there's another problem, right?

Gina Bianca: 00:34:33

Like, you don't just raise your prices for fun.

Gina Bianca: 00:34:35

You raise them when the supply and the, like supply and demand.

Gina Bianca: 00:34:38

And then, you know, I kind of go into like, reputation, experience, demand, like, you know, those basic things, like your reputation.

Gina Bianca: 00:34:46

Like, what are people saying about you?

Gina Bianca: 00:34:48

Are you getting reviews?

Gina Bianca: 00:34:49

Are you getting referrals?

Gina Bianca: 00:34:50

Are you having people say, like, I'm so happy.

Gina Bianca: 00:34:53

Can you screenshot five messages a week from your clients saying, I'm so happy?

Gina Bianca: 00:34:57

Like, what are people saying about you?

Gina Bianca: 00:35:00

And then your experience, like, you know, you two years out of school, are you 12 years out of school?

Gina Bianca: 00:35:04

Like, are you taking classes?

Gina Bianca: 00:35:05

Like, all of those things?

Gina Bianca: 00:35:07

Like, you really have to look at the big picture.

Gina Bianca: 00:35:09

Am I doing everything that I need to do, where a price increase is going to be, like, you know, accepted, or am I just gonna, like, do it because I want to and then deal with it later?

Gina Bianca: 00:35:19

Because I think a lot of people do that and they get all this pricing, education.

Gina Bianca: 00:35:23

I teach people how to reverse engineer 100k properly by reverse engineering 200k, which.

Gina Bianca: 00:35:30

Have you seen how to make 100k?

Gina Bianca: 00:35:32

And it's like, that's how you make 40 grand.

Gina Bianca: 00:35:34

Are you fucking dumb?

Gina Bianca: 00:35:35

I can't.

Gina Bianca: 00:35:36

So I can teach you how to reverse engineer, but like you, if you're 40% booked and you raise your prices to try to make 100k, you're going to be 20% booked.

Gina Bianca: 00:35:47

I always say if you raise your price 10%, you're going to lose 10% of your clients.

Gina Bianca: 00:35:52

If you raise it 20%, you're going to lose 20%.

Gina Bianca: 00:35:54

If you raise it 30%, you're going to lose 30%.

Gina Bianca: 00:35:57

So if you're not 85% booked and you do a 20% price increase.

Gina Bianca: 00:36:03

You might put yourself in a position where it's like, oh my God.

Gina Bianca: 00:36:07

And then what's your reputation?

Gina Bianca: 00:36:09

Oh, it's expensive, but not worth it.

Robert Hughes: 00:36:13

Totally.

Robert Hughes: 00:36:13

You know, so, so if, if we're talking about like, I guess that if.

Robert Hughes: 00:36:21

trend, that what you see for: 2025

Robert Hughes: 00:36:27

Like just really leaving value customer and the customer experience honing.

Robert Hughes: 00:36:32

Honing in our skill set to match the prices that we've been charging.

Robert Hughes: 00:36:37

Kind of.

Robert Hughes: 00:36:38

Is it like the, the year of equalizing our price to value?

Robert Hughes: 00:36:43

Is that.

Robert Hughes: 00:36:43

Should that focus and is there anything else?

Gina Bianca: 00:36:47

I think the focus for me is going to be the end to end experience.

Gina Bianca: 00:36:51

That's going to be my focus.

Gina Bianca: 00:36:52

And I think that all of us need to remember why we're here and why we're here is to serve the customer.

Gina Bianca: 00:36:57

And if your ego, if your ego can't handle that, you may be in the wrong career.

Robert Hughes: 00:37:04

Yeah.

Robert Hughes: 00:37:04

And there's also.

Robert Hughes: 00:37:06

I will say this because I get this.

Robert Hughes: 00:37:08

I have some people in my, my world, in my life that they love to point out the exception every time.

Robert Hughes: 00:37:16

It kind of drives me nuts because, like, I am more of a macro person personally, but, but I, like, I've learned to acknowledge this.

Robert Hughes: 00:37:25

Some of, some of you out there listening and watching will become famous and you will be able to demand big dollars.

Robert Hughes: 00:37:35

And it is very hard, especially with young people to speak about probability of success because everybody young, I don't even know I was, Wants to blaze a trail and defy.

Robert Hughes: 00:37:47

And defy the norm or the statistics or the probabilities.

Robert Hughes: 00:37:52

And there are.

Robert Hughes: 00:37:53

Every generation has people who defy them and stick out.

Robert Hughes: 00:37:59

They're outliers.

Robert Hughes: 00:38:00

And so maybe, maybe the, you know, I'll let you give some advice on that.

Robert Hughes: 00:38:07

I, I just, I think, I think that it's important to know that you want to shoot for.

Robert Hughes: 00:38:13

You want to shoot for the moon, go for it.

Robert Hughes: 00:38:15

But just, just like set yourself up in a way that if you don't make it to the moon, you'll be in the stars.

Robert Hughes: 00:38:21

You won't just come straight down to earth and like, head, you know, head first into the ground, into the cement.

Gina Bianca: 00:38:30

You know, saying this, like, would hurt me, but I think we all need to not focus on social media as much and focus on our clients.

Robert Hughes: 00:38:38

Amen.

Gina Bianca: 00:38:38

I mean, you know, I want you to watch my social media.

Gina Bianca: 00:38:41

I want your views, I want your money.

Gina Bianca: 00:38:44

You know, I want you to buy my.

Gina Bianca: 00:38:46

But I really think we all need to put Our phone down.

Gina Bianca: 00:38:49

What do they say nowadays?

Gina Bianca: 00:38:50

Touch grass.

Gina Bianca: 00:38:50

Is that what people say?

Robert Hughes: 00:38:52

Yeah.

Gina Bianca: 00:38:52

We need to focus on our clients.

Gina Bianca: 00:38:55

Focus on your clients.

Gina Bianca: 00:38:57

Like stop focusing on yourself.

Gina Bianca: 00:39:00

Oh, I post this.

Gina Bianca: 00:39:01

How many likes did I get?

Gina Bianca: 00:39:02

Oh, how does this make me feel?

Gina Bianca: 00:39:05

Grow up.

Gina Bianca: 00:39:07

Focus on your client and build your career and build your craft.

Gina Bianca: 00:39:12

Like whatever, like whatever happened to refining our craft?

Gina Bianca: 00:39:18

Like whatever happened?

Gina Bianca: 00:39:19

I asked someone, when was the last time you took a class?

Gina Bianca: 00:39:21

I don't know.

Gina Bianca: 00:39:22

What do you mean you don't know?

Gina Bianca: 00:39:24

You have color specialist on your profile.

Gina Bianca: 00:39:28

Can you.

Gina Bianca: 00:39:29

Last time you took a class.

Robert Hughes: 00:39:30

Can you give us a.

Robert Hughes: 00:39:32

I know we're running, we're running up on our time here.

Robert Hughes: 00:39:35

But on that note, can you.

Robert Hughes: 00:39:37

What is your take on online video education for technical training versus in person?

Robert Hughes: 00:39:45

Is it a compliment or a supplement or neither or both?

Gina Bianca: 00:39:50

I mean I think all education is good.

Gina Bianca: 00:39:53

I just got, I just got an educators online program.

Gina Bianca: 00:39:59

I watched three videos.

Gina Bianca: 00:40:00

They were good.

Gina Bianca: 00:40:01

It was nothing like groundbreaking.

Gina Bianca: 00:40:03

You know, it wasn't something I had never seen before, but it got me really excited to do hair and I think that was worth the money.

Gina Bianca: 00:40:14

It got me excited to do hair.

Gina Bianca: 00:40:15

When it comes to really refining our craft, the way that you're going to do that is behind the experience in hands on classes.

Robert Hughes: 00:40:25

Yeah.

Gina Bianca: 00:40:25

If you take a class, do that on your client.

Gina Bianca: 00:40:27

Try something new.

Gina Bianca: 00:40:29

Like, like it's like doing crossword puzzles.

Gina Bianca: 00:40:31

Like if you're doing the same thing every day, you're going to be stagnant.

Gina Bianca: 00:40:34

Like try something different.

Gina Bianca: 00:40:35

Get a model.

Gina Bianca: 00:40:36

I think getting a model is an amazing form of education.

Gina Bianca: 00:40:39

If you're going to actually like invest in online education, get a model, do something creative.

Gina Bianca: 00:40:44

Take a hands on class now and again.

Gina Bianca: 00:40:46

Take a business class now and again.

Gina Bianca: 00:40:48

But like, like I always say like 1 to 2% of total revenue.

Gina Bianca: 00:40:52

So if you're bringing in 100k, spend 2k on education, that's good.

Gina Bianca: 00:40:57

Make the investment.

Gina Bianca: 00:40:58

I feel like you will get it back.

Gina Bianca: 00:41:00

I mean, I've always made the investment and gotten it back.

Gina Bianca: 00:41:03

There are some classes though you go to when it's just like what do you expect?

Gina Bianca: 00:41:06

You expect them to like reprogram your brain for $400.

Gina Bianca: 00:41:10

Like you need to go to therapy.

Gina Bianca: 00:41:12

Like if you want, want to go to a class and have your entire life change, like I think your expectations are really, really high and you're gonna have a life changing experience going to therapy once a week and working on yourself.

Gina Bianca: 00:41:26

So I think like managing your expectations, taking classes to be inspired and to like Stay with it because like the worst is just getting like burnt out and like I don't feel like doing hair.

Gina Bianca: 00:41:35

Oh.

Gina Bianca: 00:41:35

Every client but you get into like a rut and I think like any type of education, whether it be online, subscription, coach, any type is good.

Gina Bianca: 00:41:44

But definitely 1 to 2k investment.

Gina Bianca: 00:41:47

If you're, if you're making or depending on 1 to 2% investment, if you're making that investment in yourself, I'm sorry, but there's no way it's not going to reflect in your confidence, in your paycheck with your clients.

Gina Bianca: 00:42:00

You're gonna get that money back.

Gina Bianca: 00:42:02

So I think that's always been like one of the core things of a happy, healthy hairdresser is just investing in their continued education, whatever that may be.

Gina Bianca: 00:42:10

I like a hands on class.

Gina Bianca: 00:42:12

I like a hands on class but sometimes I get a little willy nilly and I go do my own thing.

Gina Bianca: 00:42:17

So like sometimes I need to like watch videos and get a model, you know, I don't.

Gina Bianca: 00:42:23

That's kind of like how I am.

Gina Bianca: 00:42:25

But for somebody else, they may be a hands on learner and that's the best way they learn.

Gina Bianca: 00:42:29

So I think that's something you should know about yourself is what your best way to learn is.

Robert Hughes: 00:42:35

Totally.

Robert Hughes: 00:42:36

That was awesome.

Robert Hughes: 00:42:37

Well, I mean, that's our time.

Robert Hughes: 00:42:39

Thank you so much.

Robert Hughes: 00:42:40

That was a great conversation.

Robert Hughes: 00:42:42

How can people, people find you?

Gina Bianca: 00:42:45

So you can find me on Instagram at.

Gina Bianca: 00:42:48

I am Gina Bianca.

Gina Bianca: 00:42:49

You can go to thenetworksalon.com our website is dope.

Gina Bianca: 00:42:52

Go check out our website.

Gina Bianca: 00:42:53

We just had it redone.

Gina Bianca: 00:42:54

So I'm just like, go check out our website.

Gina Bianca: 00:42:56

Educate with influence the network mastermind.

Gina Bianca: 00:43:00

You had asked me before we started, like where I get my business information, like is it something I'm reading or something like that.

Gina Bianca: 00:43:05

And like it's funny because like I don't have the bandwidth to take in new information sometimes.

Gina Bianca: 00:43:10

Like I would just love to listen to a Joe Rogan podcast and like zone out.

Gina Bianca: 00:43:14

I like have like very little bandwidth and like where I get my information is my students, my stylists, my everyday experience as a salon owner.

Gina Bianca: 00:43:22

And I think that's what kind of like makes me me is like anything I'm teaching about or sharing or talking about is just from everyday experience.

Gina Bianca: 00:43:30

And you know, I, I loved that question.

Gina Bianca: 00:43:33

I was like, you know what it is really every day everyday experience.

Gina Bianca: 00:43:37

So I really appreciate you having me on.

Gina Bianca: 00:43:39

Thank you so much.

Robert Hughes: 00:43:40

Thank you for your time.

Robert Hughes: 00:43:42

And I look forward, and I look forward to talking to you again in the future.

Robert Hughes: 00:43:46

And until next time.

Robert Hughes: 00:43:47

Have a good one.

Gina Bianca: 00:43:48

Thanks.

Gina Bianca: 00:43:49

Thanks so much, everyone.