Speaker 1: Before we dive into today's episode of The Learner's Voice, I want to take a moment to thank our sponsor PivotPoint. PivotPoint is the driving force worldwide behind digital learning, PivotPoint Lab and education development for the hair and beauty industry. PivotPoint proudly exhibits its responsibility as a company through ethica manufacturing and social accountability standards for producing its premium mannequins and educational tools. We are proud to partner with a company that's shaping the future of beauty education with innovation, integrity and a global vision for learning. Now let's get into the show. In today's episode I want to welcome Erin Ward. Thank you Erin for joining us today. You won a one-to-one mentoring session through concept hair competition and I'm just really excited to share your journey first year on the shop floor as a level three hairdresser and let's get into it. Are you struggling with anything at the minute? Like how's your journey going? Speaker 2: I just started in a new salon in December. I can't lie, I was so stressed. It was so bad. I actually got shingles because I was so stressed about stuff. I'm still in college now. I'm in level three but I've been doing hairdressing for four years. My first I say proper hairdressing job. Beforehand I was self-employed so I didn't have back-to-back clients, if that makes sense. I wasn't on a strict timing regime. The place I've gone to, it's like you have to be on this time. That's it. You can't go over. So it's quite stressful and I did think, I was like, oh my god, is this really what hairdressing is about? I think as well, I'm quite an anxious person as it is. I'm not very confident. If I know someone, I can talk for days to them, but if I don't know someone, I have to take people with me. I'm like, come over with me. I can't go by myself. So I am quite an anxious person but I think that's, I think it's through COVID. I used to be such a talkative person and then in COVID, just stops really. Speaker 1: You don't really get to talk to anyone. You've noticed the difference. Speaker 2: Yeah, and other people have said to me, they've noticed it as well. When I went back, everyone's like, you seem so different. It was like, oh, I don't realise it, but when someone points out to you, you finally realise, like, gosh, I have changed. But yeah. Speaker 1: Yeah. So what can be really helpful is if we do a bit of a brain dump of all every little thing that triggers that kind of stress and then we can look at what we can control and what we can't control. So I can kind of help you because sometimes just talking it through and having a few tools of how you would manage it can really help. So how are you coping right now on the shop floor? Do you still feel overwhelmed? Speaker 2: Yeah, I think it's just like the pressure of being on a strict regime because I've been at college for four years now. It's quite chilled. Like my college is very chilled. They'll be like, yeah, do this. But some days it can be like boom, boom, boom. It's like it's so different. Like when people say like you don't experience hedges until you go to salon, I get it now. I really do. So how long do you get for some lunch? 45 minutes. Speaker 1: OK. And then like what, an hour 15, hour 30 for followed foils? Yeah, hour 15. Hour 15. Do you get a lunch break? Yeah. Yeah. Is it an hour, half an hour? Half an hour. Is that it for the whole day? Yeah. And then do you sometimes use that half hour to catch up? Speaker 2: Oh, yeah, normally I have to catch up. But like on my lunch break, I am normally doing like social media because that's the thing we have to do. I think the big thing nowadays, social media is like how you get clients. So yeah, sometimes I'm doing that. Speaker 1: My lunch break. Taking a break. I don't. No. Speaker 2: And then I go home and I go to bed. I literally go home, go to bed and then I'm up again and then I go straight to work. Like I don't have like. Just relax. I just come home. I'm so tired. I was just fed. It's not like I have. I do have a social life, but it's not as big as it was before I started working. And I know that's the thing that happens when you get older and all that. The one person I do speak to is the apprentice. And that's because I think we're on the same kind of wavelength because she's just started college and I'm helping her with it because I've been doing so long now at college. I kind of know the structure of what they've got to do. So she's always like, what's this? What's this? So I've bonded in that way, but with the older ones, like I'm the youngest person by one of the youngest in the salon now. It's hard to like connect to the older stylists. Is it's like what do you act like? I don't know what to say. Same with clients like I keep getting this. They keep saying to me like my work. They're like, you're just not talking to them as much as you could. The thing is I struggle to know what to talk about. So I say the same thing like Christmas time. It was fine. All I could say was what you do for Christmas. But now I've just gotten to clue what to say. And some of them just they don't like give you like they got you. It was good. And that's it. Like they don't give you like to expand on if that makes sense. OK. Speaker 1: So I can help you a little bit with that. So I think you need to take the pressure off yourself a little bit. You are lovely. I think a lot of the time we try we worry about what people think of us. Right. You have to know I know I'm lovely and they've got to bring their half as much as you've got to bring your half. OK. Yeah. So your job within that time when you've got them is not to have small talk. It's to do a professional service and to advise and give as much information on the hair as possible. Now you say you enjoyed college. Yeah. So could you tell me about what shampoos do they use? Speaker 2: They use Joico shampoos. Do you know the products? I know them kind of. I don't know them as detailed because at my college we're all L'Oreal. So that's this thing as well. I'm still trying to get to grip with colours and that kind of thing. So I think there's an attitude thing on to like. Speaker 1: I want you to take one product a day and I want you to look at it and you need to know what it is, how it works or is it a pump, is it a spray? But what are the benefits of that? So people want to hear the lovely words shiny, protected, like you want to say those words as much as possible. Yeah. Yeah. And maybe one ingredient. If you could pick up a product every day and really kind of get to know your products inside out. Have you read my card that says, don't assume what's in somebody's purse? I have read the one. You're really going to get a lot out of my cards. All right. There's so many tips like that in there. They're literally made for the stage that you are at right now. OK. And, you know, it actually gives you a list of what you should talk about in a service. OK, so we figured out so far, you bring your half of the relationship, they bring theirs. And that's the same with your team as well. All right, family, friends, team. You've got to really have that trust in yourself. I know I'm a good person. If somebody asks me a question, I'll answer them. Do you know what I mean? I'll engage in a great conversation. Don't worry too much. OK. I think what's going to really help you with your clients is I want you to care more than anybody else about that client. Yeah. OK. It's not our decision to decide if a client can or can't afford something. All right. Now, you spend your money on different things to what I would. Yeah. So in the past, I wanted the designer handbag, the designer watch. Now I'm selling everything. I'd rather a holiday. Yeah. But let me tell you, if I love like mini products, you know, like I don't want it is about a mini product. But if I love it. Yeah. The joy I get going into like Sephora or I love skincare right now, I'll spend a hundred pounds on like all the minis from that brand Skin Rocks. Like that was a treat for myself at Christmas. Christmas. The packaging, the excitement when it's coming or the bag where the product goes in. I mean, Joy is a stunning brand. And it's not about. You can recommend, you know, selling, you're saying, this is what I'm using. This is what it does. That's not emotional. That's a fact, isn't it? This is a bottle. This is what it does. That's how you apply it. Put it in front of them. Maybe put a bit on their hands. That's a really good tip. Let them smell it. And OK. And again, they might hold the product. And then, you know, it's kind of like you've got let them get close to it, have things in front of them. Also offer more than one choice. So have maybe three, you know, like your heat protection, a styling product and a finishing product. Yeah. Then they've got a choice of one of three or they might take all three. You can have a client, the same client for a whole year that never buys anything, but there's one day she'll come in, her husband's been a right. Right. She's being paid and she's like, sod it. Right. People buy not just logically because I need that. Right. Some people want all the information and they reason. Yeah. Right. And then other people just shoving in their bag, like, give me everything. I want everything because they want that quick fix to feel good. So yeah, for two different reasons. I just want you to do your job. This is what it is. This is what it does. I feel so lucky that you have those products on your shelf. Like, you work in such a beautiful space. And nothing worse than being in a salon where there's no products to sell. No, yeah. All right. So I need you to think like, and, you know, I do get you. I lived in a bed set on my own when I was 16, went into a salon, went on to cruise ships and it was five star. I shake people's hand, introduced my by my full name.
