ep12 – Daniel Mason Jones

Daniel Mason Jones owns one of the hottest salons in the country. He is a world-class hairstylist, a transformative speaker, an exceptional educator, and a cheerleader to everyone he meets. He has trained closely with top hair designers around the globe and his mission is to elevate the hair industry through inspirational education.

DMJ had an hour to chat and, let me tell you, the hour flew by as we shared so many important life lessons. Do not miss this week’s Headcase!

• DMJ got an unusual start in the beauty industry in a funeral home
• He was encouraged to be an educator even though it was the furthest thing from his mind
• DMJ tells how his path almost crossed with CB’s many years ago at Brian and Sandra Smith’s birthday party
• Consultation is hugely important to the business success of any stylist. Learn how DMJ roleplays the consultation
• Brand partnership is essential to DMJ’s success and he recommends it to any salon or independent stylist
• He considers it essential to give back to charities and to people who need help
• DMJ shares the ultimate secret to his success

Complete Transcript

Chris Baran 0:09
How great would it be to get up close and personal with the beauty industry heroes? We love and admire and to ask them how did you learn to do what you do? I’m Chris Barron, a hairstylist and educator for 40 plus years, and I’m inviting all our heroes to chat and share the secrets of their success

Do you find making six figures or even seven figures a year absolutely extraordinary? Well, listen, today’s guest that I have is I do call him the salon owner extraordinaire. Here’s some of it. He has a muse salon out of the Atlanta area, one of the fastest growing salons in the country. He himself does seven figures that’s a million dollars with zeros if you’re if you’re doing the counting. He’s been trained by some of the industry greats, Luis Llonguerras out of Barcelona, Jacques Dessange from Paris, Charles Worthington out of the UK, Franco Curletto out of Rome. He is a L’Oreal professionnel educator, L’Oreal professionnel educator, salon centric ambassador, you probably already know who I’m talking about. His celebrity clients and clients come from all across the country and they seek him out for his skills and what I call the Daniel touched to the experience. He does celebrities such as David Duchovny, Demi Moore, Amber Heard, Lauren Hutton and John Travolta to name a few. He is what I would call a hair branding, social media, social media and leadership guru. So let’s get into this week’s case.

Daniel Mason Jones, my friend, I am humbled, honored to have you on board with head cases. So welcome, buddy. How you doing? Oh, thank you. I’m honored to be here. When I got the email. I was like, of course, I’ll do this.

DMJ 2:06
Well, we I know just as an FYI. I mean, I remember we’ve had conversations for so long that said, we want to do something together. And I know, I know the universe has got lots more planned for us. But I want to I want to make sure that I’m making valuable use of the time for the people that are watching and listening here is that

Chris Baran 2:24
is I just want to find out before we start to get into some of the fantastic stuff that you’ve been doing. What is it? What your history were? I mean, I read of, you know, little I’ve been doing a little research and saw about embalming and funeral home and how that led to it. Tell us a little bit of the backstory. Because I think so many hairstylist don’t, you know, we don’t often start off this hairstyle as we migrate into it. You know, sometimes I often wish I’m like, I wish I had that cool story. It’s like, oh, yeah, I went to Beauty School in high school. And it was a vocation. And I came out with a license. That was not the case. For me, I definitely got my career in beauty from the funeral home. So from the time that I was a little kid, I knew that I was going to work in a funeral business, I was going to be a funeral director. And I ended up getting into the funeral business quite young. I started volunteering at 14, they hired me on officially at 16. And

DMJ 3:20
just as I continued to work, I ended up moving to Atlanta, Georgia, and doing an apprenticeship and going to college here. And so I had served two internships one for Georgia and one for the state of South Carolina. And I’m Chris I realized my

the people that I was working on the funeral home was really good. I didn’t enjoy, I did not enjoy all the aspects of being around dead, the dead all the time. So someone told me that I should be a hairdresser. And I just kind of explored it. Just out of curiosity, and here I am almost 23 years later. Wow.

Chris Baran 3:55
I want to go back just for a second there is that, too. I’m sure that many people are wondering like, you know, a lot of people get up in the morning and or they’ll 1213 years old and say I want to be the president and an astronaut or whatever. What where was it? Where did that come from the spark that said, I want to get into the funeral business. I have a good friend of mine who is in that as well.

DMJ 4:16
I wish I knew that answer i From the time that I was very, very small. My mom said when when I was around three years old, that I would take my Hartwell cars, and I would line them up as a funeral procession and even put the policeman in the front. So maybe I was morbid or deranged, or just innately had a calling to serve people at a different degree.

Chris Baran 4:36
But it was the latter.

DMJ 4:40
And in all honesty, I had a lot of loss, the very first couple years of my life. So it seemed like all of my grandparents passed at the same time. And I was surrounded by that and there was no way that you could escape it because your parents are inundated with all the things that happen around that. So do you remember the funeral director even though I was Almost three, I was just days away from me and three, pulling me aside. I remember there was a couch in the room where where we were. And he explained to me that my grandmother was that she was an angel now. And so I think maybe he was a hero in some form. And so maybe maybe that started it, but I’m not sure.

Chris Baran 5:19
Wow. Well, that’s what what I stuck out to me there was, how did she became the angel? And you know, because I know you write so well. And right now I know that you’re the angel. That’s the purveyor of all that happiness to other people. So it’s great to have you on board. So I won’t take you over like the Okay, you got into hair? Yes. What were you like as the student were you? Which would have were you in the bottom half the top half we were you shy in reserve? What was that?

Unknown Speaker 5:47
Well, funny. Funny there too. So I actually did not get to go to Beauty School properly the way that most people do. So I went through a very unconventional way of going, I responded to an ad in the paper here in the Atlanta area. And it was to do an apprenticeship. So here in the state of Georgia, you don’t have to go to beauty school, you can do an apprenticeship. And so I responded to this ad. And lo and behold, I was hired that the lady that answered the phone that day in the salon had a very, very thick Spanish accent, I could hardly understand what she was saying. So I asked her, I was like, Where are you from? And she went to explain that she was from Columbia, South America. And so I started speaking Spanish to her. And she goes, Do you speak Spanish? And I was like, yes, she was “you’re hired. So I think they were probably desperate. And with a gentleman that owned the salon there, he actually owned the Beauty School in Atlanta. So he, he allowed me to work there. And he gave me my free curriculum. So I would get to go to school on Mondays. So I was kind of like the pop in student but if I had to answer top of the class, I’ve never been that kid. And I’ve always had challenges learning. I remember trying to learn just basic layered haircut and how frustrating, like frustrating that was for me. And I was like, Maybe I shouldn’t do this. I’m going back to the funeral home. But anyway, it all worked out. I did fail state board three times, interestingly enough, though, so it took me a little while to get here.

Chris Baran 7:12
But it did. No. Did you put that down to was it just difficulty? I mean, like, I know, there’s so many people in our industry that have everywhere from extreme to slight forms of dyslexia, or different learning abilities. Was that did that transpire in school as well? Is it

DMJ 7:30
Yes, yeah. So I, I’m on the bus with dyslexia and ADHD. So I got, I got the two fun ones in there. I you know, a lot of people are like when they hear their children diagnosed with those. It’s like they’re devastated. I’m like, listen, once you figure out how to harness your power and learn to learn in your own way, you’re in there’s not I mean, conventionally disability maybe with how I learned, but I can I can learn in very different ways. And now I know that maybe I don’t have a disability the way that other people did. Yeah, I think

Chris Baran 8:03
that’s the unfortunate part is they call it a disability when it’s sometimes worked out to your advantage. Like I know that even I have, I have never diagnosed but I believe that I have a slight form of some form of dyslexia or some kind of learning disability with my because I can’t read real well and understand all of it, I have to go back like 20 times to understand it. Which can be really frustrating when you know when you have people like my son is, is partial photographic memory and I have like a 5% of non photographic memory when it can’t remember anything. Anyway, listen, so that’s, that’s amazing. Now how you got you got onto there, you’ve got on to working into the salon. Now. So many people don’t get that all of a sudden, you can go from a salon to now there’s this leap where you’re this incredible figure with L’Oreal Professional Teaching you’re ambassador of the of SalonCentric, doing videos and teaching and helping people along in business. How did the transformation happen to you to go from the chair to being on a on a platform of stage even if that was started off with one or two pieces? We’ll start with what happened in there.

DMJ 9:18
So being an educator was something that I would have never even thought about it. Honestly, some people will wake up every day thinking I want to be on a stage and be an educator. The thought never crossed my mind. And I’m gonna be super, super honest with you, Chris. I used to get so nervous speaking in front of people that I would get really tight in my chest and I couldn’t breathe. I almost had those vibrations in my throat. And so it was a lot of anxiety around that. And there was a day that we had just opened our salon. So just over an 18 year mark, actually just over 18 years. And one of the educators that was in our salon she goes You really should consider being an educator and I said I can’t think of anything worse. If she goes, No, really, you have a gift and you need to share it with people. So I remember going to my audition, I was scared to death. And under my breath, I was actually just saying, Okay, let me just bomb this audition, because if I do, then I can say that I’ve tried it. But then there’s like an excuse, because I’m not a quitter. So I was like, if I just bomb this, I didn’t bomb it. And I’m not sure how, because I dropped everything in my everything went into the floor that day. And then I was asked to go on to a large stage in Dallas, Texas. And I remember that that event. So well. It was first state RDA, I walked out on stage. And it was a new launch with L’Oreal Professionnel. And I remember I was so nervous and seeing all those people staring at me. And I’ve heard people say the old cliche, like pretend the audience is naked. I’m like, I can’t even pretend that I have oxygen in the room right now. So when I got off the stage, I was like, Yeah, I don’t ever want to do that again. And, you know, I always use this quote is, I think it’s from Buddha, when the students ready the teacher will appear. And I didn’t realize that I was ready. And I didn’t know I couldn’t see the things that I had to offer people and I had grown up in a community wherever modesty was, was taught, we should always be modest. And so whatever gifts I might have had, I’m like, I should keep it quiet. And I’ve always been able to connect with people. That was my superpower. Yeah. So Andrew Bardfield was our manager at the time with L’Oreal Professionnel. And he invested in us and sent us to a training, you may know her with Caroline Smith, in Tennessee, and I got there for training one, which was all the American team and I made it through barely, I was like, This is torture. Because you had to get up in front of people and facilitate and act out scenarios, which I was I wasn’t good at. And, but when I came home, she had awakened something inside of me. And so then group two was allowed to come back. And there were only two people from the American team that came the rest were Canadian. And then I went back for group three, in which I was the only American in the room and was with all Canadians. And so I got to be around people that I didn’t know, they didn’t know me that having preconceived ideas. And I felt that that was easier for me in that time. So it really was the right setting. After that, everything exploded, I learned to harness my power of who I was, and to stand in my own power. And when I did that, you know, if Chris, you know that you teach this, you’ve you’ve done this to meet and to 1000s and 1000s of other people. When you pour into somebody, and they believe it, you can transform their life. And that was exactly what happened. So Carol and her family, they poured into me and I said, Daniel, you have to do this. And then Colin Ford was from Canada. And Colin says, you have to do this. And I remember seeing him create we all created our vision boards together his vision board was that he would become a global director for L’Oreal professionnel. Chris, six months later, he did it. He got a call to go to Paris. And it was so surreal that I got on an airplane and flew to Paris to celebrate him. And just because we had bonded in that group. So I would say to anybody listening or watching this, find your tribe of people that make you feel better not the people that make you feel insecure. Yeah. Because when you pour in each other, you’ll find your purpose and passion. Yeah.

Chris Baran 13:23
Yeah, you know, what that was so powerful, is about finding the power within you. And I, it’s funny, the number of people that I’ve had on podcast before, I’ve never had one of them say, I grew up to be an educator, it was it was always something that happened there. Somebody that pushed them, somebody that made them dig deeper than they ever could have done on their own. And I I wish that there was something out there that we could recognize all of those people that might not be known by anybody else that that really pushed all of us. You know, I can remember Ted Squires, who hired me from a Canadian work for L’Oreal Professionnel at the time, and and I was scared to death. And I remember him saying in the back of the room, you know, Hey, Chris, look up here because I was hiding behind my clients or I would, you know, I was so terrified on stage that I would never lift up and even think of talking to the backroom. But quite frankly, there was nobody at the back of the room anyway. But I think those those unsung heroes, that that really pushed us believed in us and gave us the chance we’re sometimes I think that we live in a throwaway society. If you don’t do it perfect the first time, then let’s just throw them away and try somebody else. And I and I take my hat off imaginary to all of those people, you know, yes, helped you help me helped all those other people become who I am because otherwise we would have been that. For me. I would have been that mechanic in the backyard just working on car

DMJ 15:00
Exactly, and your life is transformed. I’ll tell you a funny story. I’ve never told you this, but it’s about you. So I had gotten invited to a birthday party years ago, years and years ago. And this birthday party was going to be amazing. And so I was going there headed up to, to their home. And it was out of state for me. And I drove up to celebrate him. And I could only stay for a little while. And they said, you have to say a little bit longer, because Chris Barran is going going to be here. And he’s actually going to stay the night here at the house. And they had planned for me to stay there. Also, I was like, Chris Barran, are you kidding me? But like, I can’t even be in the presence of people like this. So that was Brian and Sandra Smith. Oh, right. Like, you’ll love this, because Chris is gonna stay the night and I was like, Okay, I’ll be leaving early. Well, we are friends. So again, listening is like, Don’t devalue yourself. Because you do put yourself around powerhouses like yourself, you rise to the occasion.

Chris Baran 16:05
Yeah. And all they had to do, all you had to do is see me with two glasses of wine underneath my belt and in different story. Listen to me, because I tell you, Brian and Sandra Smith are like some of my favorite favorite people. And, and we’ve had shared so many stages so many times together, that it’s all those people that that really helped us support the industry. And I know that everybody has that feeling of let’s support one another, regardless of which manufacturer with which, whether you’re in a salon across the street or whatever, there’s enough room out there for everybody. There’s enough abundance out there that if we all live in that area of abundance in that world of abundance, it will give us that as you will know because you know, and I want to jump into kind of a little bit of that right now based on what I’ve seen you help people that turn their careers around, not only from what they do when they feel like but financially so that they can honor their families with all of this extra money. And I want to go into this in kind of two parts here. I’d like to first of all start off just with talking about consultation, because I’m going to you know, everybody goes consultation. Oh, well, I can tune out now. Because the reality is, as everybody knows, I’m not saying anything new. For about the last 20 plus years, everybody that’s out there has been beating us over the head consultation, consultation consultation, I’m gonna get give a a stat here that everybody knows everybody’s heard it before. I know, you know what I’ve heard it. We’ve had other people tell us that. When you talk about consultations, and they interviewed stylists and customers, they started they spoke to the to the stylist and they said do you do a proper consultation? 97%? Yes, I did. And when they said asked the same question to the consumer, only 7% said that they got a consultation. So what what first of all, what do you say to that? That stat and that response? When you hear people doing? I do consultation, but yet nobody really thinks that they get one.

DMJ 18:11
So one of the one of the ways that I teach it communicate is storytel. So if I give you a story, you don’t forget it. So hair stylists, we I fall in that category, too. I have always done great consultations, absolutely not. Have I been consistent every single time? Absolutely not. Do I try? Yes. So we’ll start there. And what I’ll say is, if you’ve ever watched American Idol, every one that was in the lines that 1000s and 1000s of people singing, thought that they could sing. Yeah, but they couldn’t answer. Sometimes we need to maybe put ourselves through through training to make sure that we know how to give that proper consultation. And when I teach classes, a lot of times I do those consultations, where we actually break it down and roleplay with the stylist or the estheticians so that we really have those dialogue and they get past the hurdles of like, I can’t say that, yes, you can. And I just did that yes or two days ago in Louisiana, that very thing. So consultations, we may think that we’re doing them and our customers are definitely saying differently.

Chris Baran 19:12
You know, the the you set a really key word there and that’s the role play. That you know, if people would just understand that role playing is nothing more than practicing out loud what you wish that you would have said when that some of those words that came out of your brain when you were talking to your client and go didn’t make a damn bit of sense to me how, how in the hell can I expect my clients to believe in me after that, but if you enroll play, you can practice it out and get better even if you do the same thing over and over again. Yes. Is that that is that that’s the concept you’re talking about? Yeah,

DMJ 19:46
absolutely. Yeah.

Chris Baran 19:48
So the the like if you could give people some like insight right now is like the what would you suggest? Is there a magic thing is or how much time do you use? suggest that you do it, how often should you do it? What’s the like? Because we always talked about it. And I’ll bet if everybody’s listening to I do a great consultation right now, what’s what’s some of the pointers if you can give somebody something that would say, this is probably something that you should incorporate if you’re not already? Oh, that’d be.

DMJ 20:19
So the consultation, you know, everything. This is just my belief system. And if it’s working for you to do it a different way. That’s fantastic. I never want people to feel like they’re being attacked by by how we believe or how they believe we all have different ideas and values. That’s what makes us artist. So what I will say is in a consultation, it should be every single visit. Even if you know that customer is has had level six in on their head for the past 32 years. You still deserve or they still deserve the opportunity to be asked, Is that something they want? Would they like to make a minor change? Would they like to enhance that experience? Would they like highlights with the color this time? Were they like a gloss would they like a conditioning treatment? So in that consultation, there are literally 1000s, hundreds of 1000s of dollars, that hairstylist are leaving on the table every single year. Because they’re scared to have the conversation there. Sometimes we as humans, we get so focused on just having the conversation and telling all of our business, you know, I got a new car, I got engaged, having a baby. I’m on my 17th divorce. Whatever it is the salon, here’s terrible. Whatever those conversations are, we’re losing money. And so we as professionals have to stand up and say, Hey, I really am a professional. What makes me a professional is the way that I conduct my business. And yes, we are business people. And even though this old, tired rhetoric of the past was I’m not a salesperson, I will fight you on that until the end of time. Every single person is a salesperson. In fact, I have a book on my nightstand upstairs right now. It says to Sell Is Human. Because everything that we do is selling I’m selling podcasts, I’m selling restaurants that I love to eat. We sold look, Tiger King, how did that become famous during the whole quarantine? Everybody sold it on their social media? Yeah. So just the way you talk about all these things that you love your cars, your clothes, your whatever, we need to be talking about the items that we love, and we are lucky enough. And I am absolutely of the mindset that you have to partner with the brand. brands make you who you are. And you know, you can be an incredible artist, no question on your own independently and all the things. But without the great color line that you’re using, or without the great products to make it look great. It’s not going to be the same. And so all of the success that I have, yes, I’ve worked nonstop for over two decades, almost seven days a week to get to where I am. But the brands recognize and support that. So if you have these brands in your salon, these products, you should know what they do and how they perform. I think about Sam Villa all the time, the man’s a genius, right? He just he describes a product, what it does, he puts it in his hand holds it out. This is what it smells like this is what it feels like. We need to be having that in the consultation. We need to be asking them when they say I have something in a pink bottle at home. What is that pink bottle? You know, where’s the bottle prom? Is that pink bottle making the revenue? And is it truly protecting their hair. So there’s two sides to that consultation. Also, we should be having very powerful conversations today around budget, especially as inflation and recession are the buzzwords on the street. We need to ask people how much money they’ve allocated to their beauty needs that day, letting them know that you know a partial highlight cost this a full highlight cost this a single process is this. So if we do these services, today, you’re going to be looking at X amount of dollars. Is that something you’re comfortable with? And should we proceed to move forward? Because this conversation up front, you will have them in a Google review later.

Chris Baran 23:58
Yeah. Yeah. You know, because I, what I loved and I want to go back to what you just said there is do you want to touch up? Do you want to glaze? Do you want a partial highlight? Do you want to have those things even to say, you know that that this is what these costs? Because the reality is is people are often ticking off. Okay, what can I afford today? And you mentioned something tick, I can do that? Nope, can’t do that. Yes, I can do this. But if you don’t mention it, you don’t mention it. They’re not going to then it’s just Same old, same old. I know we have a mutual friend in the industry of mentor advisor that we have a Blair Singer who talks about that most people think that sales is doing a harmful act. And I’m gonna repeat that again for everybody is that most people think that anything to do with sales is a harmful act. And I think in our business where we are very creative, very outgoing, we want to help people. We’re servant leaders. We want to make sure that we’re always helping people on this and we we think that that that balancing looking after their a checkbook is our job. And I mean this from the the most. What’s the word I’m looking for? healthier way, I can’t think of another good word. But our job, our job as hairdressers is to tell the consumer that sitting in our chair what they need, that’s our job. Their job is to say yes or no, that’s our job is not to say, No, you can’t afford that. No, you can’t do this, because of what I think, you know, tell the people what they need. Just like when you go to buy, if I go to buy a clothing, they say, here’s a suit. Here’s a jacket, here’s here’s pair of pants, here’s the shirt, here’s a tie. And so I’m like, I’ll wear a tie. But in the analogy, then they would say this, and then I’ll say, Well, I want this, this and this, but And I’ll say, I don’t want that. Okay, I’ll give you there’s a there’s a store that I shop at all the time in, in Manhattan when I go there, when I could afford it. But they, I can remember being there. And this one amazing salesperson was there. I went in for a T shirt, because I went in saying, Hey, listen, do you have anything that would fit a body this size? You know, something like denim tent and awning, something like that size? And she said, Oh, no, we’ve got plenty of stuff. I mean, our owner is the same size as you are. She says, Let me let me show you some of the stuff that and she brought this out. She said, here’s this, do you like that? And I said, No, I want you to hear what she said. I said, she said, Would you like this? I put it on one. Oh, I love that. Here’s what she said, Chris, let me put that on the happy pile. Wow. And then she brought out something else. And I went I love that. Whew, let’s put that on the happy pile. So and then I would bring something else she would set it aside. So at the end, she brought out she said, Okay, let’s take a look at the happy pile again. What do you want? I want I want it all. Naturally, I phoned my wife for permission to get all of it. But it was I just because she didn’t treat it like a harmful act. And she wasn’t spending my money. She was letting me say what I want. And I think that if you look at that I that total that would cost me about five G’s. But the reality is think about that is is when the you add on that that that express highlight or you add on that shampoo or you add on that treatment? Let them say yes or no.

DMJ 27:28
Absolutely. I was I will share with you. We were at a restaurant. I think it was on Friday. It was on Friday, last week. And it was a barbecue restaurant here in town. And I’ve had an experience there before. It was pretty impressive. But it was years ago at that time. We were all all of us were on all protein diet, and avoiding carbs at all cost at the end of the experience. The waiter his name was Wayne, I’ll never forget it. He was fantastic. He set the the bill on the table. And he said, I know you all are watching your way. But are you sure that I couldn’t interest you? In a fresh, warm, homemade apple pie with a side of vanilla ice cream? All six of us at the table that were on a diet four minutes before unanimously said yes. And we bought the dessert. So I’ve told that story. A lot of times on Friday, we were having lunch there again. And I had this very amazing young lady waiting on us. And so we were completely stuck. We really were very full. And she came over and she goes would you be interested in dessert? She tells us what they were and they all sounded really good. I was like you know what? No, I physically cannot eat another bite she has. You know, I hear that our desserts taste better at home. Oh, and I was like, Oh my god. So she goes, she walks away. She goes back and I was like, we truly are not going to get the dessert. But I want to ask you a question. Who trained you all here? And what is it with the desert? Because I we all I told her the story of the six. And I was like and now you just said this thing. You were like I hear they taste better at home. I was like what is it? She goes our manager is really good with like those closing deals. At the end. I was like,

Chris Baran 29:11
amazing. And hey, let’s circle this back. I’ll bet you $1 to a donut. I know where that expression never came from. But I’ll bet you they roleplay that.

DMJ 29:22
Oh, it was it was so fluid off her tongue 100% Yes.

Chris Baran 29:27
And that’s the key. It’s only fluid off your tongue when you practice it. And when you practice it enough, then it sounds like it’s just coming off the top of your head. Exactly. Yeah. And that’s the authenticity part of that I I want like I just I’ve got one more thing that because I remember and in doing just a little research I saw that you said and forgive me if I’m if I’m off on what I’m saying here right now, but that you say that there’s different types of consultations that people can have. Yes and is or is there a fact that there’s different consultations that you would prescribe? And what are they? And how would you integrate them?

DMJ 30:07
You know, there’s the first time guest, you know, if they come in for the first time, you really do need to give them the time. So, you know, don’t ask them negative questions. What do you hate about your hair? Don’t do that. That’s what you’re asking for a death trap right there. What do you love about your hair? What would make you happy? If I could give you one thing, cutter color today, I know you don’t promote but if I could change one thing that would make you completely happy, what would it be? And keeping a positive don’t we all know, don’t come consult through the mirror. That’s that’s not good either. Break in the human connection. So be in front of them I level, I really want to make you happy today. This is what I heard you say, I heard you say that you would like to go blonder. You’re not necessarily tied to the idea of cool talent highlights, you’d like to be a little bit more buttery. That’s what I heard from you. And we discussed your budget. So I feel like we would do great with a partial highlight check. So going through that, on their next time in, you don’t have to go through that, again. You’ve already gotten to know them. How was how was the color experienced last time? How did everything hold up? And by the way, how did you enjoy those products, and you took the shampoo and conditioner home last time, you’re going to love that we’ll use that again on your hair today. And today, I felt really badly. But I’m going to teach you a couple of techniques to style your hair at home. With two styling products that I know you’re also going to love. So before we even put the color on their head or take them back to have their shampoo, experience, we’ve already done the consultation. So there’s two forms your new guests, your existing guests. And then there should always be room for the virtual consultation. So many people are overlooking this virtual consultation that can be done very easily even through your Instagram app, you know, there’s a dial feature there where you can set up a time to call them you can do it through zoom if you don’t want to give out a personal number. But asking them you know, what is your budget, you can even create a questionnaire if you have a service where they’re texting for appointments. Every has different booking systems online system, or you can set up an automated email automation is everything we’re in 2023, everything is automated and will become more automated. Asking them their beauty budget, what did they use in their hair, what products they currently have in their shower, when is the last time they color their hair on their own, and getting all this detail. But getting that done upfront is going to save you a headache and save them the embarrassment. If they come in for a real live consultation and number one, they can’t afford you. Or you can’t perform the service desired. Especially many of our customers now come from out of state. So before they make a large investment into you make sure that you truly are the provider for them. The easiest way Chris to do this, and getting the right people to you is really branding yourself through social media, you know, out there now and I’m not bashing anyone at all, I just think it’d be really nice if we were we were a little bit more aware and less tone deaf, with how we’re using our social media, you know, the boundaries, the cancellations, that late policy, all the things we all can talk about that all day long, it frustrates every one of us, I get that completely. But just know, you know, when it comes down to those conversations and consultation, if you charge someone’s credit card for not showing, I have a credit card, I have lots of credit cards, especially American Express, I can dispute a charge on a service that didn’t receive and not pay for it. Right. So just understanding like, what’s productive in our industry, what’s not productive in our industry and not getting on the social media trends of what the quote unquote cool kids are doing on social media and doing what’s right and ethical. When you do that, my gosh, the level of success that you can touch is literally like, beyond

Chris Baran 33:52
Yeah, and I’m loving that you’re hitting on there’s a degree of of, of ethics fit in here. I remember when we first started our businesses way back in 100 years ago in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, and we had a salon called the Hair Baron, and we had this advertise, you did all your advertising via the catch this phonebook and you also would do it by by TV ads and by newspaper ads. And I had this company that came in and said, Well, you know, it works great if you can give some kind of a guarantee. And I said, we will do an unconditional guarantee that if you don’t like what we give you, you don’t have to pay. Yes. And they went no, no, no, no and that you can’t do that. You have to have some conditions on I don’t know, I want to just unconditionally. If you don’t like the service that you’ve received, you don’t have to pay and they said well, no, somebody can come in and just say, Well, I don’t like your hair and you get you could just use me didn’t have to pay well I said well that’s fine, then that would be fine, but I tried to get an appointment again, then. But the reality is, is I just think that people are I’ve seen so many of these things on on our social media lately about, we have a 24 hour appointment, and somebody phoned in that was, you know, had COVID. And they demanded that they pay? Well, I think that there’s a certain amount of respect that that goes on our industry. And I think we have to have a certain amount of humanity as well. That’s what I loved that you were talking about in there is just respect of the guests that’s coming back time and time again. I remember going to visit this young kid, Greg in here in Phoenix that was cutting my hair. And on the way there it was involved in a traffic accident. And I’ve always been the one that said, Listen, I just phoned him up, Greg, I’ve been an accident, I can’t make it there. I’m just I’ll, I’ll pay for the service because I was on the way there. And I knew he couldn’t get another plant. And I said, Look, I’ll pay for the service. I’ll double it up when I come in the next time. And he said, No, no problem. He says that you couldn’t do that was not your fault. You couldn’t help it. And, you know, it just meant all the the the worth that came out of that was just by saying, Look at No, it’s okay.

DMJ 36:14
We want we as human beings want everyone to have grace with us. But do we return the favor? Yeah,

Chris Baran 36:19
yeah. Yeah. You know, and to that, to that I’ve had this built in for later, but I think it just fits right now. You do you do a lot of work with charitable organizations. And, and I love there’s something that I want to touch on that. But just so I don’t forget, is I read somewhere that when you teach some people how to make the six figure numbers, you do some you do a clever ask with them? I do. Can you tell us a little bit? Tell us a little bit about that. And little bit about what who you are,

DMJ 36:54
you’ve really done your homework. I love this. So yes, I always ask people, if, if I can help get you to where you’re going to do the work, I’m just going to show you the path, all the principles that I teach everywhere. Like, if I show you how to do this, I guarantee you, I can get you to six figures with a blindfold on like it’s super easy. I need you to commit to me that you’re going to do a favor because you never had that money before you never had you were living completely fine before you made this money. So always say Pinky promise me that you’re gonna give a portion of that money back to a greater good, you know, our world is broken. Chris, there are people that are struggling everywhere. There’s children that, you know, here in this area, one out of four children, one out of four, and I’m in a very affluent area, one out of four children are not getting food to eat. That’s so hard for me to comprehend. You know, I had two lunches today. Right? So I can’t comprehend that there’s a child was hungry. There are children right now that are spilling over in hospitals with all sorts of illnesses, you know, we donate back to childhood cancer research. That’s something that we’re passionate about. There are people that are homeless, domestic, there’s so many causes out there, that people just need someone to help them. And, you know, a lot of times when we’re in our sunny day, when everything’s really good for us, we might think that everybody’s having a sunny day. But just because my day is sunny doesn’t mean that someone else is going through the worst storm of their life. Yeah. And you know, in one day, those will flip I’ll have a really stormy day, and I’ll hope somebody will listen to me. And that I’ve planned well enough that I don’t need help that way that I’ll always need an ear compassion. So I fully understand people ask me all the time, like, why are you always so happy? I’m always dancing around. Instead of our salon, any of my team, I’m sure they’re gonna watch and hear this, they’ll tell you that I’m constantly dancing around and like loving on everybody. And, in fact, they call me everybody’s hype, man. Please, because you never know when somebody just needs that little bit of lift. Yeah, financially, people do need our help. And they’re crazy. I can tell you story after story after story. But what I know from from all the stories that I can’t share today is once you give something away, so much more will come back to you. It’s fascinating to see how that works. Don’t give to get I give because that’s what I’m called to do. And this business has allowed me a lot of financial freedom to be able to help a lot of people.

Chris Baran 39:22
Yeah, there’s some books out there that I’d recommend everybody to read, which is along this line in there called being a go giver. Instead of a go getter. And that fits right to what you’re talking about is we’ve got to learn to give first you know, the, the the universe abhors a vacuum. So if you can add something in somewhere it’ll like give you give an idea, give some money, do some whatever. The universe will make sure that’s replaced. And I so it’s just even emotional just thinking about out what you do to help people and say, look, I can help you get those six figures, but you got to make this little pinky swear with me that gives some of that back to some good with that money. Yeah, of course young kid out of Canada helped to coach them one time and he said, Here’s my dad said, here’s just here’s a check. What do you want to pay? I said, No, I don’t want anything. All I want you to do is when some young kid later in your life comes up to you wants help, you help that person and don’t charge him. So exactly. God bless you for that, my friend. And he kind of hit onto the six figure stylist thing right now. And you said, look, it’s it’s so damn easy that you can do it with blindfolds on that are like, yeah, so many people are not there. And I’ve got I’m looking through my notes here because I I want to make sure that I get this point up is that and I’ve written all these fantastic notes knowing I haven’t wondered when I don’t even know where they are I here’s where it is. But being a six figure stylist and everybody right now was talking about particularly in the last two to three years from all the world events that happen that everybody is saying, you know that I want work life balance. Yes. And I also read, I would love you to tell from why. What sneaky looking arounds if you want to call that research, I think by other names, that you adapted a lot of, you know that work life balance into the way you shifted rather than asking all the other people to shift. Like, yes, I’m a baby boomer. So I expect everybody you should, you know, my former think think was you got to work from seven in the morning till 10 o’clock at night. But people don’t want that anymore. How do you adjust for your those people in there? Because I’m hearing that about work life balance, and that nobody can get clients? How do you adjust? Wow,

DMJ 41:54
I can tell you, we’re doing it right here in Atlanta, Georgia. And our company is at this moment, right now, I can’t tell you how many people work inside of our company. Because there are so many, but what I can tell you is that we are being forced to open a second location. So we’re actually going to close next month on another building. Because we physically can’t fit any longer in the building. And that’s because we have, we’ve kind of cracked the code. We know how this works. And you know, me being behind the chair is what allows the credibility like I’m I’m doing this and I’m trying all these things out on myself. First, I think as a leader, our job is leadership. A lot of people are like, Oh, I’m a leader. If you said that to leadership, for me is is a calling. And I take it as a very serious responsibility. Everything that I do in that company good or bad, it trickles down to the people that I love and care about inside inside those walls. And so Jodi, my husband and I, we really just went through and started looking at what was not going to work any longer. And we were from the old school of you. We used to work nine in the morning till seven at night, five days a week on the weekends, go get some more. And you don’t have to do that anymore. Social media has opened so much opportunity for us. You don’t have to go market the way that you used to. You can really post really beautiful work and attract your audience and vibe if you’re doing it the correct way. And aside from that, we just started looking at our team and having really serious conversations with them. What would make you happy? If you had the ideal schedule, what would that look like? So we operate a commission salon and I know a lot of people are like, Oh my gosh, commission salons are terrible. And yes, you’re right. A lot of them are a lot of them are and I’m trying my best to coach as many of them as I can right now to kind of rewrite how it’s been done for so long because everything’s changed. So right now I can brag and I know she will listen to this. So I can brag about one of my stylist. She works 18 hours a week. So she works. Six hours, three days a week. She works 18 hours a week, and she is a $300,000 plus a year A year hairdresser inside our company 18 hours a week. Blanca that she just went on the floor as a stylist January 15 was her one year anniversary of being a stylist. Absolutely amazing. I had the opportunity to mentor her for a year behind the chair after school and then she went onto the floor as a stylist. She did $96,000 her first year as a stylist and so we’re having massive explosion inside of our salon of people that are working very minimal hours and having six figure incomes and then the question will come someone’s listening or watching right now. Well is that they’re making six figures or is that they’re taking home six figures they’re taking home six figures. So just to go ahead and answer that question for you because our human mind is to go to the negative but that’s not possible is completely possible. All, because we’re doing it. And so work life balance, you know, we, I remember sitting down with a couple of our kids in the salon when they were turning 21. And we would literally say to them, Hey, what if I want you to think about this, but what if we put you want to schedule that you worked on Friday from eight o’clock until two o’clock. And then you go home and have an amazing Friday, take a nap, go to your makeup, go out, have the best time of your life be responsible, of course. And then come in for the late shift on Saturday, they go out on Friday night, have fun with the friends, because I know that’s what I wanted to do when I was 21. They’re literally looking at you like you have six hands. They’re like, you don’t want me in the salon. What is this a trick. I’m like, No, you’re 21 Go be 21. And, you know, if the people there, the moms had children that are playing soccer, or baseball or lacrosse on Saturdays, be off, go do your thing, this salon, we were able to change it all around. And so we have total flexibility inside of our company. And that does allow. Another thing that we did in our company is we don’t have talking in the shampoo area. So there’s no talking while the customers are being shampooed. The exclusive it sits by itself independently and it is actually part of our spa experience. The reason I did that number one was for our customers to be able to have a place where they could actually just escape. But also for the people on my team. Sometimes, they just need five minutes not to have to listen to somebody or to have to talk. So the music is very relaxing in that room. It smells amazing in that room. And we are we’re working on right now creating something for mindfulness for our team, where we have this beautiful courtyard area outside where they can actually go outside and like the chairs and the scenery around them will be good for their mindset. And so I think that we’re just in a new day, and that mental wellness for everyone is so important is crucial. We need to find that happy. I mean, we’re not going to be happy all the time, because we are human. But if I can create a happy environment for my team to come to work, and I can create a happy environment for the guests to come to you. It is relaxed. And that’s a wonderful thing I had last week one of my stylists actually has happened twice recently, but one I will talk about. She says I love coming to work so much, because it’s the only place I can feel loved and truly happy.

Chris Baran 47:31
And happy and sad at the same time.

DMJ 47:33
It’s heartbreaking from the other side of it. But it’s our jobs, you know, if I can’t control what happens outside of the salon, but I am responsible for what happens inside that salon and if I can create that happy space for them to be there to enjoy coming to work. And now like I said, I don’t know the exact number, but we’re over 70 in this one location. And there’s

Chris Baran 47:57
the can ask you can ask you what any how many people? What percentage of the people that are working with, let’s say, well, whatever there is 50 6070 100? What percentage of those? How would you rate them? Because I’m sure there’s a question that everybody’s wondering, well, you’re talking about six figure stylists. I want to talk about yours in just a minute because yours is not six figures. I will put a little suspense in there for other people. But the how many what percentage would you say of your team that’s on the floor obviously doing here? What percentage of them are earning or close to six figures?

DMJ 48:31
Oh my gosh. A lot. Wild status Sure. A lot. 20 At least you know, when I say 70 Plus template that’s we have a spa we have Front Desk team, we have associates we have we have everything so a lot of them are and you know that allows me to do more things I get so giddy and excited. selling retail is like the happiest thing in the world. To me. I love to sell retail. My team they love to sell retail. A lot of people are like, Yeah, you like selling retail because it makes us a lot owner rich. So Chris, I’ll tell you what we do with our retail, we actually have in place a 401k retirement plan for our team, where we give them 4% match. We also have health benefits for them. And they have access for their families to if they need that. We do global experiences every year where we take people out of the country and those typically around $10,000 per person. We just took I think there were seven or eight of us that went to London and now there’s a really large group that were taken to Barcelona in May. So we try to give back as much as we can. So that retail Yes, it’s making our customers look amazing. But that also allows me to spoil this team to death. Which I really get excited about.

Chris Baran 49:51
I want to I want to just jump back in here because I there was something that I I mean, we all know that right now. I’m not even going to hazard to put a guess on it with a percentages of it would be but we have we have a program all private website based called salon team training. And on there, we just asked three questions like, what’s your name? What’s your email address? What’s one question we can do to help you? And I’m gonna take a wild stab that about 40 to 50% of the question that’s asked is, How do I get staff? How do I retain my staff? How do I get them from quitting on me? And oh, and I hear that, that it’s like, or they’ll say things like, they want to, they want work life balance, they don’t want to work on how do I get my staff to work on a Saturday? You know, things as such, and I think that

DMJ 50:45
what are you doing? It makes Saturday’s fun. It will Yeah, and

Chris Baran 50:49
or give them Saturday’s off? I mean, I’ve talked to so many salon owners, they said Saturday isn’t one of the least busy days that they have now or used to be the busiest Mondays, Saturday. Yeah. So what are you doing to make the to accommodate these young people? I loved earlier, what you said about is that there’s these people that won’t change. And I wonder, is it that they’re ignorant? Of? I don’t mean stupid, I just mean that they don’t know what to change? Or is it that they just won’t change and there’s digging their heels in waiting for the world to try to change to them rather than them to change the world.

DMJ 51:27
It’s sadly as the latter there’s a lot of us that will have always done it this way. Well, and I said this 1000 times Blockbuster Video always did things the same way too. Yeah. And then Netflix came into town. So we have to be fresh, and ultimately, the coolest thing, our company right now our biggest explosion of new hires, and I wish Jody were in the room right now with me, so that he could tell you how many actual interviews he does per week of people begging for jobs inside of our company last week, and they’ll they’ll either do a virtual or email that will kind of fill them out first. And then if we really liked them, we bring them through the salon. Last week, I know I saw over five people come through our company looking just to do anything like whatever job they could get. It wasn’t a stylist. Actually, no, we did have one stylist additionally. But people want to work. Yeah, majority of the people that have come to work inside of our company, have come from out of state because they’ve seen that there’s something different happening here. They just want to be celebrated. Look, the real secret to all success in any business in the whole world. Is connection just to their people. Listen to them listen to their needs is very simple. And when people ask me, we have salon owners constantly coming through our salon, we do coaching days, and the other week, it was actually it was one of the funniest days because we didn’t we had an overlook and planning that day. So we have salon owners or stylists that will come in and watch how we work. And so that day, we had two salon owners from Austin, Texas. No, we were kind of dedicating the time with them throughout the salon. But simultaneously, we had a salon from Dublin, Georgia, which is south of Savannah. So this about four hours away, they closed their salon, it was on a Thursday, they closed their salon rented a large vehicle for all of them to be transported in and the owners paid for them. And this happens typically three or four times a year from salons, where they pay to bring their staff to our salon to experience what it’s like to be a customer. And so we had two salons and at the same time and it was just kind of funny for the people that were visiting from the coaching side to see what was happening. They’re like, Oh my gosh, people really do come here like Disney world all the time. And like, yeah, we we would bring through 100 salons in a year, you know, through through what we’re doing. But it’s very simple to just show up in and make it different. The old timey staff meetings, those things are beaten to death. There’s color balls in the sink every time I look. We know. We get it. Some people are messy and some people are clean. Some people are going to be your top your top performers in the company. Some are not going It’s okay. But to beat the whole staff up in a staff meeting over a dirty color bottle or towels. So we celebrate our meetings are so fun. Chris, I wish you can come to one. They’re there. On a Friday morning. We have one a month. And then from nine o’clock until 10 o’clock when I tell you at 10 o’clock when that meetings over and like 1002 The customers are pouring in like they’re flying all through the salon. The energy in that place is is beyond electric. It’s like being I don’t go to sports events, but I’ve seen them on TV. It’s like being your winning team. Just one and the excitement of that team. That’s what it feels like in the company. until people start focusing. You can focus on metrics all day long, and you can coach numbers all day long. But until we start to focus on the people, code Watch the behaviors and celebrate the wins and lift people up in our companies is going to stay the same. So we have to change the mindset. When you change the mindset, you’re going to change the results.

Chris Baran 55:10
Yeah, Leah Freeman’s dad. I don’t know. I’m sure I’m pretty sure you know Leah I think Leah’s I’m obsessed with Leah Freeman. She is she’s amazing, amazing woman amazing colorist. But there’s a line that sticks with me forever. Her dad, who manages their salon always said that their staff they wouldn’t they termed these are salon meetings, not staff now catch this, he called them staph infections. Oh is not they’re not they’re not allowed to be a staph infection. So in other words, you’re not allowed to come and and say, here’s the problem, then. And then and now look at this poor me. You got to come in with a solution, say look at here’s what I think is happening. And I think if we did XYZ, that this would turn this around. So you’re, it’s got to be turned around. So it’s positive, no staph infections, and I went, that one stayed with me forever

DMJ 55:57
is good. And look at what they did during the pandemic. Yeah. And they came back. Yeah, she opened up a boutique inside the salon, so that her staff could make higher commissions and money off the sales. This is somebody that was thinking outside of the box. Leah Freeman is not only probably one of the greatest colorist that has ever graced our presence on this earth. She’s so knowledgeable. She’s a powerhouse of a business lady. So yeah, I love that.

Chris Baran 56:23
Yeah, yeah. And a strong, strong woman I might add at the same time. So listen, wow, I’ve got a I’ve got a couple of first of all I want to ask you this is that. I think you’ve already given me a little bit of insight into this. But we always have people in our lives that have done something did something saw something in us, that other people, or we might not have seen it ourselves? Who are those people for you?

DMJ 56:53
That have seen in me?

Chris Baran 56:55
Yeah. Somebody that saw something in you help to promote you help to get you up to a next level. You know, sometimes even if you had to go kicking and screaming?

DMJ 57:04
Yeah. So, you know, the companies that I work right now, L’Oreal Professionnel is just, it is so solid, like my leadership that I that I’m lucky enough to work around, and I won’t say under because they truly are leaders. They’re so inspiring. But I’ll have to say when my entire career pivoted in education, it was it’s kind of a bizarre story. But I was teaching a class in Nashville, Tennessee at a really beautiful salon. And there was a saloncentric, sales rep business partner at the time, there was seated front row. And she wasn’t taking notes, but everybody else was just taking notes. They were writing and writing. I was given all this information on how to do all things. And I asked her, I was like, Is there a reason you’re not taking notes? And she goes, Oh, well, I don’t have a pen or paper. And I was like, I’ll fix that. So I handed her some paper and I ended, all I had was an orange Sharpie. I was like, Here, take my Sharpie. And she started writing notes. And it was an amazing day that people were just fantastic. And we finished the class at I left the class like often do, I just leave the class and I go to the next thing. Didn’t think any more about it. Of course, I was grateful for the opportunity. And about a year later, I got a first I got a Facebook message from that particular sales rep. And she says, I just want to thank you for handing me I can’t remember exactly. I still have it on my phone for handing me that orange Sharpie and making me take notes always had a dream of being in a million dollar club as a sales rep. And she was not there. But she got there that year. She followed the the principles, everything that I teach to salons and stylists and she put it to work for her own self and the mathematics all work out the same. So during that time, saloncentric, I guess was maybe watching behind the scenes, like how did your sales explode? And she’s like, Oh my god, I went to this guy’s class named Daniel Mason Jones. And he made me write down notes and it changed my life. And so here she was so saloncentric. Brittany Hickman, she was a VP of education. And she was watching behind the scenes we had never met. And so she reached out, she goes, Hey, I would love to book you for a couple of classes. And I was like, okay, cool. I just need to make sure with L’Oreal, that it’s okay. But I was able to and I started teaching and I was invited to the saloncentric national sales conference, where I got to watch that particular sales rep. Take her Million Dollar Club Award and meet her at the end of the stage. And even now, it gives me goosebumps it was such an amazing thing. So, you know, they were watching me on social media this whole time. So what I what I want to say Chris is that was all cool. I’m grateful she that she single handedly changed my life, no question. But when we put things on social media and how we behave in day to day life is so important. And so you know, me, we’ve been together many times, I’m always gonna be the same day. No, you’re always the same, Chris, you’re like the teddy bear that everybody wants to give a hug to. So I think that is so important when we think about our social media. Even if you have a day where you don’t feel so great in your mental wellness isn’t exactly where you need to be, I would refrain from posting anything bad. Because you never know. Number one, you could affect someone else negatively. But aside from that, you never know who’s watching you, and what breakthrough is just coming your way. So I’m forever grateful for the people that did believe in the end that do believe me. And now there’s people that speak my name and rooms that I’m unaware of, and I’m grateful for those people and there’s opportunities. But yeah, so you never know who’s watching. So for me, it was it was the brands and Brittany that really, yeah, that’s awesome where I am today.

Chris Baran 1:00:58
That’s awesome. You know, and it’s the other thing is, I remember posting one thing one time, I’ve always been a big advocate of don’t post anything that you don’t really think that somebody might take wrong. But also some people some things you find funny, other people don’t find funny. I remember posting one thing one time. And, and it was, you know, I’ve got a bit of a sarcastic sense of humor. I’m Canadian of sorts. And, and I remember somebody posted back that Oh, there’s the real Chris Barron. And so that one stuck with me forever, because it was purely out of context out of not no intention. So I learned a lesson there. Never post something that even one person could find offensive, you know, so, okay, quick permission here. Go for it got some rapid fire stuff. I want to throw it at you. Okay. First stuff that comes to your mind doesn’t have to you can, it can be short, can be long, whatever. Okay, okay. Well, I don’t know why I’ve got this one right at the beginning, most difficult time in your life.

DMJ 1:01:56
Oh, my gosh, that’s a therapy session. My life was just growing up, being me, not being able to be me. And especially from the community that I grew up in, and the family, I could never be me, because if I were me, then I would be rejected. And so when I finally did find the power to be me exactly what my worst fear was happened. And so that was the hardest thing, being shunned from a community of people that were supposed to be good, and walk around as good do gooders of the world and carrying the light. All I found was hate and darkness. So that was really hard for me. So that’s why I’m committed every day in my life to show up to love people bigger and better, because I don’t know how to love that.

Chris Baran 1:02:48
Love that sometimes. Sometimes, and I don’t know the full story behind that. But I think sometimes if they weren’t there, they were there when they didn’t need you when you didn’t need them. But they weren’t when you didn’t. Then it’s just says well, they’re gone. event or show that you loved. Just what first thing comes to my mind. I’m sure there’s many but oh gosh, like surely changed you whatever.

DMJ 1:03:12
Lake Geneva Wisconsin. That show was fantastic. It’s small. Its intimate. The people are so kind.

Chris Baran 1:03:18
And what was it in there? What was it that what you loved about it?

DMJ 1:03:21
Just the people how they show up. They’re so excited for education. You know, they’re showing up an hour early for class with their notebooks ready to take notes and they’re just genuinely there. They’re not there for a coattail ride. They just want to learn they’re hungry.

Chris Baran 1:03:35
Love it been there and I love that show. Okay, things and this is just in industry in life as a whole thing. Things that you hate. wrong word but things that you hate think

DMJ 1:03:47
I hate. Laziness comes to mind right away. I can’t stand laziness. I am an anti racist. I can’t stand any sort of bigotry and racism. People are people and we have to Chris, have you ever been asked this question? Anybody? This has been Have you ever been made to feel uncomfortable around people? Yeah, not accepted. Yeah, it feels it doesn’t feel good. So we should never do that to anyone else. We should always let people know that they’re important. They’re loved

Chris Baran 1:03:47
Yeah, bless you and that my friend. Things you love the most

DMJ 1:04:21
food and family and friends forever but I love food too

Chris Baran 1:04:27
things that in the creative process what turns you want? What really makes you creative?

DMJ 1:04:32
Definitely architecture.

Chris Baran 1:04:34
Oh, yeah. Just what stifles it. Um,

DMJ 1:04:41
I can’t be around clutter if that makes it. I don’t like clutter. I like everything to be clean and neat. neat and tidy.

Chris Baran 1:04:47
Yeah. Okay, the things that you hate most about our industry.

DMJ 1:04:55
The I’m gonna I’m gonna have to read this to you because it came to My mind and I hope it makes sense. I put it on my phone the other night. I wrote this down, because I’m planning on doing a podcast around this topic or at least a post. It’s always interesting when the ones that can’t do it, tell the ones that could do it, that they shouldn’t do it. So when you have people that are telling people, they can’t do it, or they shouldn’t have retail, or they shouldn’t do this, or they don’t take someone else’s opportunity away, because you couldn’t do it.

Chris Baran 1:05:27
Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Or is it just jealousy? Because you couldn’t

DMJ 1:05:31
or you don’t want to see someone do better than you? Yeah. Anybody can do anything.

Chris Baran 1:05:34
Yeah. person that you admire the most?

DMJ 1:05:39
Oh, gosh. That’s tough. My husband’s amazing. He without him, I couldn’t do any of the things that I do. He handles everything behind the scenes. He’s kind of the guy that goes unnoticed. But he really without him, I wouldn’t be able to.

Chris Baran 1:05:54
Always Isn’t it always the background person? That’s like Rita for me. So God bless Jody. Okay, a person you wish that you could that you could meet? Hmm.

DMJ 1:06:06
Dead or alive? Anybody? Martin Luther King? Hands down?

Chris Baran 1:06:10
Who? Hands down? Okay, do you I know you speak language. You speak Spanish? Yes. Is there any other languages?

DMJ 1:06:20
So I dabble in a lot of languages because my clientele is very diverse. And right now I’m doing a lot of education globally. So I’ve been working on Arabic, which is kind of cool. And I have a few words in Russian t a little bit in Portuguese. Yeah, I don’t know. I love like, I think language and culture is the most fascinating thing. I wish I could learn something from everybody because everybody’s so freaking amazing.

Chris Baran 1:06:45
Yeah, that’s amazing. Okay, here it is. And this is something I don’t know if you would even take it. But I’m snapping my fingers. When I snap your fingers. You automatically have a month off when you can go anywhere and do anything. What would that be?

DMJ 1:07:00
Oh, Lord. I want to go to Europe. Hands down. I don’t know where that would be anywhere in Europe. It makes me happy always. And I would take my son and husband and we would just go sightseeing and taste as many things as we can. Love it.

Chris Baran 1:07:15
Okay, good. Something you’re terrified of.

DMJ 1:07:19
Oh, germs, germs. And airplanes.

Chris Baran 1:07:25
Yes, thank you. Well, they’re they kind of go part and parcel don’t they do? Okay, good. Favorite curse word.

DMJ 1:07:32
No – That’s a curse Word. It hurts. It hurts even worse than any other word in the language. Oh, I love

Chris Baran 1:07:39
that. That’s the best one so far. My favorite comfort food.

DMJ 1:07:45
Peanut butter. Any peanut butter?

Chris Baran 1:07:47
Yes. And only if you can put peanut butter with the peanut butter. Something in the industry that you haven’t done but want to?

DMJ 1:07:58
Oh. I don’t know. I don’t. That’s a tough one. I can’t think of anything else that I would want to do more of what I’ve done before I would like to reach more people. Actually, you know what? To teach a class in Japan. There you go.

Chris Baran 1:08:16
Love it. Okay, a do over. Okay, if you had to do over on anything in your life, what would it be?

DMJ 1:08:24
When I first opened our salon probably for the first 10 years. Now granted, some of these people are still with me. A lot of them are but I wish I could go back and know what I know now. Because I took things way so seriously back then. And it’s just not that serious. Yeah,

Chris Baran 1:08:40
yeah, there you go. Okay. Somebody says tomorrow, you wake up in the morning and somebody tells you, you can’t do hair anymore. Can’t be involved in the business anymore. What would you do? die? My hope that’s not true. No,

DMJ 1:09:00
I don’t know what I would do. I would you know what, if I could do anything in the world, I would volunteer probably with children with cancer, or I would absolutely love to work in a hospice facility and just visit the people that don’t have much time and get their stories and just love on them.

Chris Baran 1:09:19
You and Kris Sorbie would get along so well, because that’s what she does as well.

DMJ 1:09:23
I’ve never met or talked to her before. Oh, no.

Chris Baran 1:09:25
You’d love it. She’s an amazing individual. Okay, now just very quickly, oh, god, look at this. I don’t know where the hell this time went to. But I’ve got two quick questions. Sure. What one wish if you get one wish for our industry, and if you could wave this suppose a magic wand, get rid of something, do something. Do one wish for industry? What would it be?

DMJ 1:09:51
I wish our industry would take a step back. Just take a deep breath. Realize how amazing you are and the difference that you can make but not take it so seriously and put the egos on the back burner.

Chris Baran 1:10:03
Mo Good on you. Okay, and what’s one thing that people that are listening or watching should let go of or stop doing

DMJ 1:10:15
stop the judgment if you can just stop judging you know, we’re human we all do it but just stay in your lane. Whenever Whenever I find myself not liking something if I walk up and I see a person and I think I don’t know about that person. It’s always something I don’t like about myself that I see. Yeah, always. So when we learn Taylor Swift has has a new song and like it’s me, I’m the problem its name most of the time. That’s where all the problems start and end. So don’t take yourself so seriously. Life is short. Let’s have fun. Be kind hairdressing is the coolest freakin business in the world. You can make so much money. You can you can travel the world, you can have tattoos on your face and still be a billionaire. Don’t be a jerk on social media or in real life. Yeah,

Chris Baran 1:11:02
please and thank you, please and thank you. Daniel Mason Jones. I love you as an individual. I love you as a hairdresser and I can’t wait to even just sit down and qualify a bevy with you or to or have dinner some time just to be there and just feel a feed off of your vibe because you’re such an amazing human being so I just want to the bottom my heart for all the listeners and people watching out there. I just want to say thank you for being on headcase as it was an absolute honor.

DMJ 1:11:32
Thank you as honor for me too. And that was the quickest hour of my life.

Chris Baran 1:11:37
Angle So one more time my friend thank you so much. I can’t wait to get together and and do more and and you know, I think there’ll be covered so much in here. I can’t wait on some time down the line and want to have you back on here again.

DMJ 1:11:49
I would be honored. Thank you so much, Chris. You’re an amazing so

Chris Baran 1:11:52
bless you for that my friend. Thank you