ep99 – Pat Parenty

My guest is a true industry icon. He is the former president of L’Oréal Professional Products Division, overseeing the growth of major brands like Redken, L’Oréal Professionnel, Matrix, and Shu Uemura. He’s part of the ownership group behind Tippy, the digital tipping system, and he has earned the prestigious Legend Award from the International Salon Spa Business Network — a testament to his commitment in supporting people throughout the industry. He is also co-owner of Artist On Go, a groundbreaking concept for independent stylists while helping salon owners fill open chairs. He’s my friend, my mentor, and I am excited to have him with us – Mr. Pat Parenty.

• 6:02 – Pat Parenty’s early career
• 7:58 – Transition from business to the beauty industry
• 23:20 – Pat’s contributions to the beauty industry
• 23:38 – Artist On Go and the future of salon models
• 46:34 – The Artist on Go platform bit.ly/artistongocb

Complete Transcript

Chris Baran 0:00
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 Baran, a hairstylist and educator for 40+ years, and I’m inviting all our heroes to chat and share the secrets of their success.

Welcome to another episode of Headcases. This week’s guest is the past president of LPPD, L’Oreal Professional Products Division, and he is his responsibility was a development and growth of all brands, including Redken, LP, Matrix, Shu Uemera, and that’s just to name a few, he is in the ownership group of Tippy, which was the digital tipping system, and the International Salon Spa business Network, ISBN, awarded him with the Legend Award. And you’ll know why when you hear this, because he is the heart of gold. His whole mission is to help people in the industry. He is also one of the owners of Artist On Go, which is one of the reasons why I wanted him on this podcast, because it’s such an interesting concept for independent stylists who still want the vibe and the energy of hanging out with fellow stylists, and it also helps owners earn money with chairs that aren’t filled. So let’s get into this week’s head case. He’s my friend. He’s my mentor. Mr. Pat Parenty, Mr. Pat Parenty. I can’t tell you how excited I am to have on this, because it’s and I’ll talk a little bit more about that in a second. But first of all, welcome to head cases.

Pat Parenty 1:46
Well, thanks very much. Quite an honor to be here, Chris. It’s great to see you.

Chris Baran 1:49
Yeah, I have to tell you, I’m gonna I’m not trying to embarrass you with this. But when, whether you know it or not, like when people ask me who my mentors have been. There’s been a few, but I’ve always listed you as one because of everything that you’ve helped me, along with the industry, and the guidance that you’ve given us and and it’s been sort of really a you’ve always I’ve always looked up to you and to me, I have always thought of you as one of the fairest and and and most trustworthy people that I know of, so it’s just coming

Pat Parenty 2:22
for you. Thank you very much. That’s it’s I really appreciate that. Yeah, who you are in this industry, it’s amazing to me that I would be a mentor. So thank you

Chris Baran 2:30
well, and you know, because you know, and I’m gonna, and I, and this is a part probably more it’s more embarrassing for me than it is for you. But when I was on, I was on the train the trainer program just a couple of weeks back, and and was talking to them about how how important it is that you’re authentic, and you tell stories that not only make you look good, but the ones that of the mistakes that you made. And and I told the story about when I first got on with with Redken, and all of a sudden, I was thrust into this leading, leading fashion week, hair and I, and I, and, quite frankly, and you’ll laugh at this one, because they doled out who was going to get, who was the lead for this designer, who was the lead for this one, etc. And, and I didn’t even, quite frankly, just show you where I was at with it. I didn’t even know who this lady’s name was at first. And all of the people who had got a lead were Garan and they said that you got Cynthia Rowley. And I went, Okay, that must be really good. And, and they went, Okay, no, you got no, she’s, listen, she’s the hot name. And I went, Oh, okay, so I, I thought that I would, I better have my best bib and Tucker on when I went for the interview. And I went and spoke to some of her people at the very beginning. And then they brought out Cynthia, and she was doing a wedding release and and she said, So Chris, tell me how you feel about baby’s breath. And I went, you know, come from being in the salon. If I saw one more damn model that came in or bride that came in with picking babies breath in their air, I wanted to throw up so, and I made the mistake of telling her that. And the interview was over, just like they just said, thank you very much. And it was I was out the door, and then I remember, I got a call about a week later that they said, I think it was Sue I can’t remember if it was Suz or who was in charge at that time. And and they said, they brought out, and you came down, sat down, I wasn’t sure what it was about, and you said, and you just, this is what I loved about you, is that you know, what I feel every mentor should do, is when you do something right, you acknowledge them, and when you you don’t, if you don’t know that you did something wrong, that that’s the way you learn. And I remember you said, and you just said, Chris, I just want to speak to you, just frankly, just man to man, and I just want you to know that we just about lost the thing with Cynthia, and that might have cost us for Mercedes Fashion Week and and I was kind of bit shocked. And he. Says, well, they they didn’t want, they said they didn’t want you as that person, and they didn’t want a Redken person. And I guess you guys had to fight really hard to get back that and and it was embarrassing for me at the time, but it was one of the best life lessons that I ever had, and that’s why I say that a true mentor is not just one that’s going to Candy Coat everything, but they’re going to help you along and make sure you grow from it. And you know, while I was embarrassed at the time, I have no problem with it now, because it was one of the best growth treatments that I had at the time, not only from just what not to do and say, but also how to approach people. And you’ve always been just the aces and spades with me on that way. And that’s I just want to say,

Pat Parenty 5:42
thank you again. My pleasure. I enjoy every minute.

Chris Baran 5:45
Yeah, so listen, and we always like to start this way. Is, is I find that our, whoever’s watching and listening to this, they want to, they want to know, like the hair story, like, how you got it, and obviously, you’re, you’re in the corporate world, so you weren’t necessarily hairdresser, but how did you get involved? How did hair come

Pat Parenty 6:03
about? You know, it’s, it’s one of the more interesting or more normal stories for the time frame that I was in. I graduated college with a business degree in 1980 so I had entered an executive training program for Federated Department Stores to become a buyer, a merchant. And that’s, you know, I was going to start a business career. I didn’t really, at the time, have a big vision as to what part of the business I wanted to be in, or what business I wanted to be in, but I knew I was going to be in business, and I like that concept of it. And, you know, as it is, I started that program, and, you know, the how the world works. I met a girl, started dating her, and she had a girlfriend with a boyfriend, and we would go on double dates. And when we were out, his work stories were a hell of a lot better than mine. And he was working for a company called the MAR in the professional beauty business. They made manufacturer, obviously. And I said, this sounds like a great place to work. And he said they need a business development manager for nucleic, a small brand they had in the Northeast. So I applied. I actually went to my interview at the New York International Beauty show in the Coliseum in New York. And so my first view of what the beauty business was all about was walking up the escalators into the show. And seeing, this is the 1980s again, seeing every kind of hair, too, and color and and the clothes and all the rest of it. And I was like, oh my goodness, you know, this is so unbelievable. And, and I was even in the retail world. I was in, actually the men’s section of it, and I was blown away by what I saw. And then I had an interview, you know, in the back room of the model room of the stage area for New Era brand, and Lamar had and I just couldn’t believe what I was seeing. And I had so much fun that day, met with the general manager, had a great conversation, and they hired me to be the Business Development Manager for the Northeast. So that’s how I joined the beauty business. I had no idea what it was, how it operated. What was so cool about it? I just knew the initial vibe was amazing. And I’m like, I think I could be very happy here. So I was, I spent my entire career, rest of my career, in the professional Lee business.

Chris Baran 8:16
What was it? What was it like for you? I mean, obviously coming from the business side, and then see, getting into this, what was the turnaround like? Because, I mean, I’m sure there was, like, if you don’t know anything about the business, you’ve gotta, you’ve gotta get some information from somewhere about how it goes, how it operates. I mean, business is business. We know that. And as you I remember, and I mean this with all due diligence, and that you called yourself this as I remember one, one of my business partners, and I had a meeting with you one time, and you just said, Well, I’m just a bean counter. And I always say that, like I’m, I’m just a hairdresser and not I always just say, I’m just a dumb old hairdresser. I don’t mean hairdressers are dumb, just me and but I always loved that you said, and we were very honest. You just said, Look at I’m the numbers guy. And, but what was like? What was that like? Was there an orientation? Was there things that you had to learn about differences in the beauty business from stuff that you had learned or any other thing? Or was it, or is it similar?

Pat Parenty 9:10
So I, you know, I think tenant, basic tenants of business, are pretty similar. I mean, the the specific requirements for the beauty business, and how a salon operated, how the manufacturers operated, what education was all about, how the products moved from manufacturing through to the final consumer. I mean, these are things that in any can be in any business, that there would be, you know, rigorous business processes around it. And so you just have to learn the insight, you know, I’ll tell you the insight for me, what kind of viable he set me up for for a good career in this business. And it’s it was thankful to salon owners. And when I started, I would go out detailing with salon consultants. Every day. I would go into 1012, salons a day, trying to get them to buy new play a product. So I pitch your product. I was pitching and and I got. To meet so many great salon owners and see so many great salons and and I would go to lunch with them. I’d go to dinner with them. And a lot of times I’d be trying to sell them a $90 introduction kit. So $90.09 out of 10 of them, at one point during the conversation, would tell me they couldn’t afford it. And I’m standing in this salon that’s beautiful, with 10, 1215, chairs on, you know, Main Street in whatever city I was in, it was busy. There’s hair’s flying everywhere. There’s customers everywhere. And I looked at the guy, and I said, you don’t have $90 to buy an intro of a new product. And so I said, I need to hear about this. So I sat down and I start using what I understood from business about how to run a business was important to a business from a numbers perspective. And I started asking questions about P and L’s, and they had very little understanding of that. And they did not, you know, make business decisions based on business information. They made them from their heart. It was emotional because they were they were artists, not to say they were bad business people. Some of them are some of them are some of the best business people I’ve ever met, but they all had to grow their own systems. There was no you know, system on how to become a salon owner. And then, how do you interact with a distributor? How do you interact with a manufacturer? And everybody had a different way of doing it and and so what I discovered was they need my help. Where I could, felt I could help them, was to begin to teach them, or show them, or let them know what the important parts of their P L were, so how to run their business better, so that they can make the right decision, so they could afford a $90 intro and and I spent a lot of time and resources from the companies that I worked with over the years developing with some of the best minds in the business. You know the best business practices, leadership training, management training and processes for salons to operate, to help them become more competitive in the market. So understand, you know how to become competitive, and also how to understand, you know what each you know, part of their P l meant to them, and what you know what why was important to have a certain amount of product that went down the drain and not too much. And you know, what your level of commission should be in order for you to be profitable, and what your rent should be, and those kinds of things. And they didn’t really think about that. They knew how to do hair, and they could do it great, and they could get a lot of customers. And so, you know, that’s really kind of where my niche came in. I connected with them and and I had something to offer to them versus what they were offering to me, which was a view of a creative business that was really a lot of fun to work in, and that everybody was welcoming, and everybody was happy to be there and and it was an interesting place to work. So, you know, I felt like I could give back something to them early on, it would help them. And I found over the course of my career. Every time I help somebody understand their business, they were so loyal to me, and they helped me, and they would get me, you know, it’s I learned that from Michael Cole. If you help somebody get their dream, they’ll help you get yours. Two fold, three fold, five fold. So yeah, I’ve always believed it that to be the way it worked in this in this business. So, yeah,

Chris Baran 12:59
and, you know, because I was funny, your name came up. I did it. Was doing a program that curry salon and and brandy. Great guy, yes, and he, and he was singing your praises all the while I was there. Because, even though he said that, you know, when he was building his own line, he sent the stuff to you and, and and he said, What do you think? And they, he said that, listen, you, you even helped him know where to go to find out and have chemist to treat it, to say, if not not the people that developed it, but to determine whether that was a good product or not. And I just think, you know is, there’s what I think is so abundant, and I want to, I want to jump into excuse me, artist on the go here right away, but I once want to set the audience up for you, is that the mind of abundance that you can come from, because I think there’s often this scarcity in our industry where people don’t want to share, or they don’t want to tell somebody that’s not helping them. If it’s like you said, I’ll help you get your dream. If you help me, I’ll help you get your dream, and then you can help me get mine. And I think that that if people understand the people that come from abundance, there’s enough business out there that everybody can get a piece of the pie, and you’re willing to help people, even if they’re not directly associated with you right now. And and I think that speaks volume for anybody like you who helps other people in our industry get involved and and I just want you to know that to this day, there’s still people singing your praises out there, meaning me included.

Pat Parenty 14:32
Well, great to know.

Chris Baran 14:35
Yeah. Well, that’s and I think so that Lee kind of leads me into, because I know you’ve had kind of since you’ve been out of the the LPPD world, the loyal professional products division world, you’ve got, you’ve been in several businesses, and you’ve had Tippy, and now, now you’ve had artists on the go. And so first off is, no, I just wanted to say that, more often than not. The thing that I find in our industry is, how do I put it? It’s almost a little bit, little bit like politics. Now, it gets a bit divisive. When you look at the commission salon bases, the independent booth, rents, etc, everybody’s telling you why you should do what I feel mine is, and they’ll tell you everything wrong with the opposite side. And yet, the whole industry is still surviving on its own, you know, and maybe it leans more to one and the other. But what’s your take on what’s your take on that with the, you know, the the separation? Because at one time, when I started out nothing, it was mostly all commission. You never heard about independent you never heard about hybrid salons that do commission and and and a booth rent. What’s your take on it? So,

Pat Parenty 15:46
you know, it’s funny. I’ve had, you know, 28 years to look at that. And in the beginning of my career, as you said, there was room for everybody. Everybody was happy to work with everybody, and nobody felt like there wasn’t enough space for anyone. And I really enjoyed that, I think, you know, when I started in the 80s, early 80s, the Commission was probably 80% of it, and the renter piece, or the independent piece of it, was much smaller, and was, in fact, you know, viewed as an issue, you know, how do we handle this? And you know, my point of view on it over the course of the of my career, was it continued to grow for some reason. So no matter what we did to enforce or to help the the full service commission model, the independent model, continued to drive I came to the conclusion that it was a part of belief of the hairdresser, of the salon professional and as to how they wanted to work. I mean, in today’s world, we skip forward to now. You know, the idea of not working a full week is what everybody wants. And I think the hairstyles were ahead of the time they were, they were wanting not to work five or seven days a week, and and to, you know, make enough money to do what they do. And, you know, based on, you know, who they were, this was good for them. From my point of view, I think that all the models can work. You know, for me, it’s a matter of applying the right strategy tactics, having the right skill sets, and doing a good job running your business. So I think the full service commission salon is a great place to work, and is a great model. I think today’s market conditions have driven, you know, just looking at some market research recently, I don’t even know if you know this, but you know, between 2014 and last year, the number of independents, so people were not working in commission slots has gone almost to 90% of the market. And the number of people that are working in commission slots has been growing the last five years, but it’s somewhere in 120 130,000 range. And then you see the number of people working in salon suites has gone from in 2014 I think it was like 3000 people were working in them. Now it’s like 96,000 you know. So the independent piece has gotten bigger. So it doesn’t, to me say that there’s something wrong with the full service commission part of it, but it says to me that there’s an alternate model that the main players, so the stylists themselves, the hairdressers, Islam professionals drive by their actions to say, I want to work independently. I want to work for myself. I want to dictate my own schedule. I mean, the information that we’re seeing is that most stylists and majority styles now, you know, a full time job for them is three days a week. And you know, they want to be home at three o’clock to pick up their children and from school and and they want to have the flexibility of the hours that they need to do their life, you know, to live their life. So seeing the rental model grow was not surprising to me. All the elements were in place in this business for that to happen. Seeing it grow as big as it did was a little bit of a surprise to me, and then watching the sweet phenomenon come and you know, the one for 300 locations to 9000 locations in 10 years, that is telling you that there’s something right about the model, right? Because how can you grow that big unless it’s acceptable to the market, to the people who are in the market? So I think you know to make a final comment on that, you know, conditions market, hidden additions today, the cost of rental, the cost of finding, acquiring and maintaining quality stylists in your salon, cost of running a salon, energy and everything else that goes with it. Even the products continue to rise. And so it becomes, you know, really difficult, and you have to be really focused on how you’re running your business model in order to make money. The information I’ve been looking at tells me that the profit margins and so on have dropped in half in the last five years. So lots of reasons for that. One of them, you know, the retail issue that’s out there. They’re not retailing as much, which is very, very profitable. But the fact of the matter is, I think that the renter side of it has grown, and, you know, it’s just a part of it. I don’t think there’s I don’t think it’s black and white, that one is good and one is bad. I think they all have their positives and negatives, and it really depends on what you want. But it seems to me, the trend right now is for independence to work in more of the rental environment than it is to work in the commission environment. But there’s still a very strong and as I said, over the last four years, it’s grown about 20% so that’s good news. So there’s still a strong commitment to the full service model out there. So again, you know, going back to the original statement, I think there’s enough room in the business for both.

Chris Baran 20:40
Yeah, yeah. And I’m wondering how much, like there was obvious a lean, and I’m not, I’m just making, excuse me, a pure assumption here. But you know, based on some of the things, one of, some of the business that we’re in independent Lee, is, is creating models and systems, which I got from my training with with through L’Oreal is that everything, and some of the other teachers we’ve had that, you know, anytime you have a business, you have to, you’re going to make it scalable. It’s got to have systems in place. And I wonder, and again, just an assumption, I’m not, I didn’t get this from anywhere other than my observations in the industry. When I go to salon to salon, when I see people that that are caught mindset wise on, this is the way I was trained. This is the way that I did thing that I was told to do things 20 or 30 years ago, and they’re trying to perpetuate that model. When we have a new mindset of stylists that are coming in that that may not want to be accommodated in that and kind of feel meaning you got to work, you have to work five days a week, you have to put in your 40 hours. You can’t leave the salon if you’re if you’re in your business, because you got to be here for people. And I’m not saying any of that’s wrong, and I so for viewers and listeners don’t, don’t take this wrong way. But I think that the thing I’ve seen is that the salons that really make a shift in their mindset and start to accommodate, there’s less chance of people just, you know what the owner would say, they’re just going rogue and starting their own business within that. And I think that that the biggest thing is evolution. Anytime we have a new business model, what are you doing to evolve your business model to accommodate the people that want to work there? Strictly an observation. This episode is sponsored by the salon, associate accelerator from trainers playbook.com. Are you struggling with the time and cost of associate training? Do you feel like your salon is running you? We’ll get your associates on the floor, all with 90% less time from you, so you can get back to building your business. Get the world class design finishing, color and client care skills they’ll use every day for the rest of their career, while you focus on realizing your vision, go to trainers playbook.com, and get the salon associate accelerator, and now back to the show.

Pat Parenty 23:18
For me, I think your observation is pretty good. I think the shift in consumer behavior and the shift in in salon professional behavior, you know, all reflect current marketplace and things that have happened, you know, socially, economically, you know, however you want to look at it, and, you know, I don’t think that again, in any of it’s good or bad. I think it’s just it is what it is. You can see how, you know, it’s growing on both sides of it. I think if you’re committed to the full service model, you can do a great salon and make great money and have a great environment for stylists who want that, that option, because there are lots of them that want that option. But if you’re on the other side of it, and you’re, you know, you’re independent, you want to have your own schedule, and you’re looking to rent a place, you know, it’s interesting for me, because, you know, these things are always in unorganized, right? Becomes, becomes a solution to a problem that somebody just realized existed, right? You know, to talk about artists on go, which is, you know, a project you’re involved in. Now, the beginning of that company was because the founder, garment Manwani, who’s my partner in this he was the CEO of Jean Claude McGee. He had 323, 40 salons worldwide. So he dealt with all the issues of running the commission salon and and he loved the business, and he was committed to the business, and he struggled with, you know, maintaining a really efficient, keeping his chairs booked, making sure that he had an efficient salon, especially, he opened a great one in New York, and it was Salon of the year. And and the rent in New York was not cheap, and he had a hard time keeping all the chairs full. And and he realized, since people started coming to him to ask if they could rent a chair here, rent a chair there, and although he didn’t like the idea of it, he. Realize that could help him pay his rent. And he started to do that, and lo and behold, you know, a light bulb went off and said, Look, this is a great opportunity, because this half of the world and all the hairdressers that are speaking to him about wanting to rent or work, you know, their own hours and their own times. And choose, choose. That is an opportunity to change the way that all of that happens, which this industry is usually one by one. So you know, if the salon or came to the conclusion that they wanted to rent a chair to help them pay their rent or help increase the revenue of the salon, they had to figure out how to do it all on their own. You know, how do you go about finding the styles? How do you rent it? What contract Do you have you know all the answers to the business? And dar menter and got together, and we put together, with his sister, who’s the technical writer, put together a digital platform that does all of that for both sides of the equation. And so we organized very efficiently, very quickly, platform that can help any salon. It doesn’t matter what you consider yourself. Any salon can be again full service. Can be considered hybrid now, which is full service rental, or can be Salon Suite. Can be any kind of salon that wants to to rent chairs to make revenue, to help salon grow. And in the impact that we’ve seen is that just that salons grow, they helps again, it helps to pay their expenses and or becomes very profitable for them, and and so we set up a platform that makes all of that very easy for both sides. And I can just give you some examples, if you like, on how it works. I think for me, it’s, it’s an amazing idea. So the first secret to this is that the way that we do it, we can fractionalize the inventory. So the inventory management of chairs in a salon for us is can be by the hour, by the day, by the week, by the month. So we can rent a chair to somebody for two hours, four hours, the whole day, a month, a week, three days. It doesn’t matter. We have flexible plans for everybody. So whatever your need is, you know, whatever you need a number of hours that you need to do your clients in the salon. And so the way that it works is, if you’re a salon and you want to, want to rent chairs, if you want to bring renters into your salon or bring Silas into your salon that are not the service commission you sign up with. So you come to artist on the go calm, and you took, take a look at it, and you register. And the software that we have is amazingly helpful, and takes about 234, minutes for you to go through it, and we can help you with our concierge. We have a concierge service and help you sign it up, but literally, if you give us your email and and your and your Instagram or Facebook or whatever, the the algorithm we have will put together a web page for you. So we provide every salon that wants to work with us and a web page. And on the web page are pictures of the salon. We can then add a virtual tour, if they like, all of their pricing level is decided by them. By the way, the salary decides that we recommend it, their location, the amenities of the salon, the the services that they have, the products that they carry. And then we have a set of amenities that we ask them, for each of the people who will be working with them, the renting from them. So we secured the use of the backwash and food conditioner. We secured towels to get them. We get this stylist, a place, a storage place within the salon, and so all the amenities, you know, so when you’re walking in as a as somebody who’s coming into the salon to work there, or like you work there all the time, so you’re not treated like a second class citizen. The Salon chooses all of these things. So the salon owner makes all the decisions around what the amenities are and how they’re going to do it. They choose the dress code. All these things are in there, and we provide some insurance to cover any issues. And you know, once the salon fills out the registration form, which, again, takes three, five minutes, not hard at all, we look at it, we verify everything on it, and they approve everything that’s on it at a time when they send it to us, and then we publish it. So then they’re listed on the artist on both site, and there’s a beautiful page with pictures of their salon, again, all the information anybody would need to

know. Conversely, on the stylist side, the same thing. If stylists would come to us to say, I want to sign up for your platform, so I want to use it to find space to work. And so we create a profile for them. They provide us the same information, email, Instagram, whatever they’re using. We create a profile for them based on their work and their history, and they load it in, so we check it, then we publish it. So now they’re published on the site. So a salon owner now has their salon listed. A stylist is, let’s say, in New York City, wants to work in the salon, both on artist, on go. We have a matching technology, which is really, really nice, which helps us. Ensure that we’re putting the right stylists in the right salons. And so when they come on the slide, style say, Okay, I want a salon and an animal. Ask them 789, questions. You know you want a luxury salon. You want a premium salon. You know what location, where in Manhattan, you know several other questions, which narrows down and gives us a really good indication of what this person is looking for, what services they want to perform. And then we serve them up, you know, 345, salons in that market that fit that criteria. So we’re serving them salons that we know have the amenities that they want, the look, that they want to feel, the vibe and and they know that, we know that that’s kind of place that they want to work in. And then the salon owner gets the request that a stylist would decide how many hours they went up. They can buy a package, a monthly package, they can buy a daily package. It’s all there. They can choose all that artists on go collect the money and then gives it to the salon owner. So that’s the only transaction that happens, is this whole thing. So all that artists on Go is doing is facilitating the transaction between the salon and stylist or the hairdresser, and we don’t get involved more. Does the hairdresser get involved with the booking or the billing, or anything that the clients do with those stylists? They’re on their own. That’s, you know, it’s 1099 and so they’re on their own on that but the salon gets from us a complete dashboard that makes life so easy for them. It shows them the calendar. It shows them everybody who’s coming. All the profiles are there. They can message them through the through the application, all the rules and everything are there. They have the Approval button. So when a new style says yes, I want to come work at this long and buy these hours this long, or can say yes or no, they can look at the profile of the styles and say, I want them there or I don’t want them there. And once they do it, if they like person, they can just put it on automatic. Then that person can go in anytime that they want. But doesn’t take a lot of time for the slot owner. Again, the calendar shows them who’s coming when they’re coming, shows all the bookings they have for the month, shows them the money they’re making for the month, what they’ve collected, what is projecting for the rest of the month, or the next month, following month, that they have bookings again, everything they need to know. If they need to contact us, they can do it through the app. They can get to the frontiers through the app. And then we do programs for them. We have education on the platform for them, and we have, you know, cutting and coloring skills and things like that. And we have plenty of digital education for them, and also more things specific, like how to file taxes as an independent stylist, you know, and I give them some business coaching on there, some business applications on that side of it, so we have the community aspect to it. So it’s a very well rounded platform. It solves a big problem. It makes for the salon owner, very simple to get into that business. The funny part is, what we’ve seen is that the stylists come in. The atmosphere in the salon gets more positive and more positive. There’s more new people there. There’s more people working there. The Salon sells more retail because the clients are coming in and, you know, X number of clients that walk in the door are going to buy something. So you have 234, or five, you know, stylists coming into the salon, renting a chair, and, you know, and from our perspective, you know, that creates a great environment, a great vibe in the salon. And we found, you know, research that we’ve done with the stylists that are working with us, that they they prefer to be in a salon environment. They want to be in the middle of it, where everybody else is, and where there’s people, where there’s community and the rest of it. And they love those environments to work in. And so, you know, having the opportunity to work on Grace lawn and in any part of the country is a great option for them through our platform. And again, it makes all the management side for the salon owner, a two minute a day open up the map, Look who’s coming. Understand your money. If you need you know there’s features allure within it. If you know, if somebody’s there and they’re running late, you can extend it, extend the rental. No problem. For stylists, if you don’t use up all your hours, we don’t take them away from you. We roll them over so they have the opportunity to make sure. We make sure that they get everything paid for, because it’s fractional, because we can rent one share for the entire time the chair is open, it gives us the opportunity to make both stylist and the salon owner happy financial. They can both make the money they’re looking to make, and we can just keep renting that chair until all the hours are going to go on for the next chair. So it’s a great environment. It works very quickly. It works for both sides and improves the economics of both sides. So stylists can make them running salon can make money, and it’s it’s very easy. And the discussions, you know, we started discussion with, you know, who’s better, who’s worse, doesn’t come into this conversation once it’s up and running, the salon owner is happy to have them there, and the full service commission styles are happy to have them there, and everybody’s happy. And we don’t see a lot of people saying, oh, I want to go rental. If you’re a committed commission, you committed to it, and they like it, and they just enjoy having those other people there, and the people enjoy having that environment. So, you know, overall, the platform is super efficient, very easy to use. And it, you know, it does something very well, which is manages unused chair inventory and salons, and finds you great partners who are, again, qualified stylists. They want to be in that kind of environment. We serve that up to them ahead of time. And so there’s very few issues between the salons and the stylists. In fact, we’ve had zero. So it’s been, you know, it’s been a great experiment. We’re very well developed in New York and Manhattan, and we’re launching nationally now. So we’re starting in LA, we’re starting in Miami. We’re going to go to Dallas and Austin and Chicago, Boston, and so we’re beginning to go city by city and working with the people from all parts of the industry to spread the word on it. We work with distributors. We work with manufacturers, we work with educators, we work with influencers, we work with pls systems. So everybody who’s involved in the business, who you know has anything to do with it. We’ve reached out and talk to them, and they love the concept. They see the solution, they see how efficient it is, and they’re happy to help us spread the word. So that’s what we’re doing. We’re trying to create an environment that helps the salon owner and the stylist, you know, reach their dreams, get their goals, and it provides a financial opportunity for everybody, and the technology drives it. And, you know, we talked about that early on, the change in consumer behavior driven by technology. And, you know, you know, you said to me what I was doing when I when I left L’Oreal, when I retired, you know, I spent most of my time working with companies in the technology sector, for beauty, for the beauty space, trying to help salons, you know, modernize and bring in systems that can help them make more money and run their business better. So I, you know, I’ve been dedicated that. I think for me, it’s giving back a bit and, and I’ve always wanted to be in a position where I can help everybody, you know, continue to grow and prosper and and and do well in their business, and reach their dreams and their goals and and this platform, you know, it’s kind of the right time in the right place because of the the information I shared earlier. I mean, the trend is just continuing to move towards this, and we have a solution for it that’s good for everybody.

Chris Baran 37:10
Yeah? Because it’s always, any successful place is always finding a problem that’s out there and giving people a solution to it. And that’s exactly what you’re doing here.

Pat Parenty 37:18
Yeah? So we didn’t create problem, we just recognized it, yeah, and, you know, didn’t even consider it a problem. We just considered it a fact of the market. And instead to ourselves, look, we can really help develop this and, you know, and put strong systems in place that help everybody, make this very easy thing to do, and make it profitable for everybody. So that was the whole

Chris Baran 37:40
goal. This is another thing that’s coming to my brain that we can maybe help people with. That there’s a first question I always hear that comes up whenever people are in the in their own business, whether it’s within a commission based salon, hybrid salon, or whatever, if they’re there they have a chair and a place to go, is, does it do they still bring in their own product? Or is there an inventory system within the the salon that they either purchase from? Or how does that? Does that solve that problem?

Pat Parenty 38:12
It’s part of the amenities that I mentioned that we negotiate with the salons when they come to work on our platform to rent out the platform. So what the deal that we have in place the salon owner allows the stylist to use the shampoo and conditioner at the back bar. So use the styling products that are the styling facial but honestly, most of them bring their own styling products with them. Remember, I said we asked for a place for storage so they can store their products there. But if they need a product. Let’s say they’re going to do a hair color service, and they’re going to use red can hair color, and the salon uses red can hair color, the deal we have with salon owners to sell the product to the style so that they can do the product in the salon and or allow them to bring in what they want. So this is where, you know, the partnership with distributors, and they can place in the water before have it delivered to salon waiting for them. So that’s always an option. So we just facilitate that at that process. So it works both ways. They can use the shampoo conditioner at the back door, and they can bring in their own chemicals, or use the chemicals that pay for them from the salon owner that are available, you know, whatever brand they’re carrying. So it really depends on what brand stylist uses and what brand salon is carrying? Yeah,

Chris Baran 39:21
and I know that I’ve seen some hybrid salons that they found that there sometimes where people were leaving to go independent, and sometimes it came back. But the way they solved it was they built their business so that it had two kind of areas. They had suites or booths, and then they had their larger commission area and and that. And they also set it up so it was legal, so that they had a central place that had all the inventory. And if you’re an employee, then the employee would go and just say, here’s the product I need. And that obviously was the same way it always had been. And, and, but the people that were in booth or in suites could go, and it was just almost like you having your own distributorship. There it was, there you bought it, and it was, it went on your tally. They’ve got receipts for it, and it solved the problem so that they didn’t have the problem of of of saying that you’re not, the government coming after you saying you’re not really, you’re not really an independent. So I love that you have that on there. Another question is booking, like, if how anytime that I’ve seen an independent? I’ll give you an example. I was at doing this training a couple of weeks back, and was a train the trainer program, and I always, I try to keep them really tight on listen, if you’re doing your business, just step out the door and, you know, if you’ve got to take texts or whatever, and, and, and just so it’s not distracting. And I noticed that while we had an exercise, one girl had her her phone by her ear like this, brought out her old fashioned a book, and she was just writing in on Friday, whatever date, and she was at nine o’clock, and she was writing in a client’s name. How do they with with artist on go the what? How does I noticed on the site you have, you have a calendar that was listed in there. Tell me a little bit about, how does it integrate? Do they, does the salon take the booking? Do they? Does the artist take the booking and it transfers in, so they know how it is. Tell us how that works. So,

Pat Parenty 41:30
you know, and I mentioned it earlier, we don’t get involved in any of that. So our platform simply is booking that chair for that stuff. Oh, I see salon. So the stylists themselves is responsible, and you mentioned the legality of it, for booking their clients. And we find a lot, there’s a lot of different ways to do it. Many of the beauty software companies have an option for that, but square and some of the other bigger ones that you hear that are out there now also have solutions for independent stylists to use on their phone, and so the booking and collecting of revenue for the stylist is completely up to them. The salon owner has been involved in, again, that separation. So yes, it’s truly an independent person. They’re booking their own clients. The only thing that the salon owner and styles have with artists on go is to book that chair for that amount of time, whatever that means, so we don’t get involved in all the rest of that, which is, I think it’s important, again, for separation, and also it makes it very simple for them both to understand what they’re doing. And, you know, having all the amenities worked out ahead of time really helps us with that.

Chris Baran 42:40
Yeah, that’s that. It is awesome. And I love that. So the the the idea behind this is I love, I love this whole point that somebody can go somewhere, because I keep taking I could first, at the very first time that I heard about this, I kept thinking that it was where a, if you had an influencer or an artist that was going from city to city and doing shows and was on his own, or a session stylist, they had a place to go, but it’s much more than that. They could do it right? But you also just, I live in Phoenix, and I want to stay working in Phoenix, and I want a place that’s either close by or someplace that I really want to work at, but I want to be an independent that’s working in that salon,

Pat Parenty 43:21
and so that’s a that’s the biggest piece of the business. Is that I can give you other examples of interesting things that we see, like in Manhattan or in New York. We’ll see a stylist who will do about 80% of their business in Manhattan, and then book a day in Bronx, book a day in Queens, book a day in Brooklyn, you know, so do another 20% of the business where their clients are, and other boroughs, and so we see a lot of that, but, you know, for the most part, they find a salon they like a lot, or two salons in their area that they like a lot, and they pretty much focus their business on those places. Yeah,

Chris Baran 43:55
well, you know, I know, I did an interview with Mark Mike, Mike card and, and he’s out based out of Switzerland, but he goes to, he also books in Manhattan. I think he has another couple places, whether it’s down in Florida, wherever that he goes to. So when he comes in to do shows, he literally goes from one place to the next. And he might do a few more days, and he’ll do it in Manhattan, then he’ll go to another city if he’s got somewhere nearby, so he can still be making extra money while he’s doing his shows, etc. There’s

Pat Parenty 44:26
all kinds of applications for the technology. I mean, we have people come to us looking to book entire salon to do a trend or to do a training or and so we can book an entire salon for it. There two days for them, and then they can go in and, do you know, do what they need to do, whether it’s filming or cutting or teaching. So we have all kinds of different requests. It’s interesting that the platform’s extremely flexible and works for all the applications. Again, it’s the most efficient process to manage excess chair inventory in a salon. Environment. Again, doesn’t matter what salon for service, hybrid, salon, sweet doesn’t matter. And again, the key to it is it’s traction, so it makes it easy for everybody. So, yeah,

Chris Baran 45:10
that’s it’s that’s amazing. So first of all, I just want to say, congratulations on this. I think this sounds like a really great deal, and what it’s made making me think of other people that I know, like I have some really dear, dear couple that I know out of the New York area, and they just went and built a a hybrid place. They they had, I can’t remember whether it’s on the side or in their basement, or wherever they put it, but simply because that they saw the evolution of independent and they didn’t want to lose that market share so they could add, they actually added on so that they could have their commission. But then this is like a perfect, a perfect hit for them, because they don’t have to go out and find people. And the other thing that I was thinking was, there still is this rationale, this business rationale. And I’m going to use the word Harken, because I just want to try to fit that in that it this harkens back to just foundational commission based salon. I’ve got a chair. I’m open for open for 10 hours a day. What am I doing to make sure that chair is being creating revenue? So if I’ve got somebody is there from nine to 12 in the morning, and then I’ve got somebody there in the afternoon, it’s making money, but if somebody is not using it, then that’s lost revenue for me as the owner. So whether that comes from the Commission that I get or the rent that I get from the chair, it just makes perfect business sense that you can you’re actually creating dollars based on renting out the stuff that’s not being used. And

Pat Parenty 46:44
Chris, that’s the way we look at it. You know, you have a asset that is underdeveloped because you’re not using it all the time, and we help you develop it and use it to its full extent. And again, it’s not a negative or a positive to any of the models. It just, it’s a fact of life today. And you know, we spoke about the trends of what’s happening at the workforce level. And, you know, it’s not just in hairdressing, it’s in everything. Nobody wants to go to an office anymore. You can see what’s happening in that world and and so it, you know, kind of the hairdressers are a little bit ahead of the curve on it, but I think now it’s, you know, completely acceptable. And I believe that, you know what we’ve seen, the reaction that we’ve seen when you know somebody comes to conclusion that you just came to that, oh, I should rent that chair and make money from it. It doesn’t in fear. It improves the salon environment. Improves the retail sales. It gives a better vibe. And they’re busier. There’s more people coming. And so it’s a better, it’s a it’s a better solution for them for that way to do it. And again, they don’t have to figure out how to do it on their own. We have it all done for them. It’s very simple. Yeah,

Chris Baran 47:49
no, I love it. Well, listen, so I just got to sit this, saying this to the people, whether that are listening out there right now watching is that if you’re a stylist or a salon and you want to get involved with artists on the go. Just check the show notes that are going to happen for this link. And there’ll be a link that it can send it to you, and you can get more information on that, and go and and I also, I just want to do one other thing just before we go for that is also, you’ve got, you’ve been involved with tippy, and I want to encourage people just to go to meet, to meet, tippy m, e, e, t, and then tippy T, i, p, p, y.com, and it just helps people with their tipping services. And you said that they actually get more their tips are actually greater once they’re on this than they do them just by by the consumer to the stylist correct it

Pat Parenty 48:40
is. It’s a much it’s a much more efficient system, and it works for everyone again. So it’s one of those great uses of existing technology that people are used to. I mean, I mean, now that process is everywhere you go, turn the iPad around, said, What do you want to take? So, yeah, we’re the first to do that in the salon business years ago, and it’s been quite successful. And it is a that’s a great system also, you know, I mentioned that it was my intention when I retired to try to help salons find these types of technologies to make their life easier and to give them a better shot at making a lot of money and and, you know, running their business efficiently. So, you know, that’s another example of a great technology that does that. And, you know, it’s just a matter of adopting it, getting used to it, and using it. So, yeah,

Chris Baran 49:25
no, I agree. Pat, this has been absolutely amazing to have you on number one, number two, just to help the people grow in our industry. That’s always been both of our things. I’m at the stage of my life too. That about giving back and but I first of all, just want to thank you for your mentorship, for your guidance, and for the help that you do in everything that you do in the

Pat Parenty 49:47
industry. My pleasure. It was great working with you over the years, and what I’ve learned from the creative half of the business will serve me well until I die, and I enjoy it so much, and I just found. It to be a very welcoming place, and people that were in it were a lot of fun to hang around with. So I appreciate that. I appreciate working with you. I thank you for this opportunity to talk to you on your on your podcast. It sounds great, looks great, and it’s so great to see you again and you keep doing what you’re doing. Thank you.

Chris Baran 50:15
That’s awesome. And listen for those people watching and listening, if you want to make sure, whatever platform you’re on, if you want to leave us a rating on there, leave some comments in. And also, if you leave us we want to have more great people on, uh, either a just make a suggestion to us, or, number two is just leave us a good rating, just so we can get this message out to more people. So in the meantime, Pat, I just want to say thank you so much. It’s been a pleasure for all of the people that have been watching listening head cases. Thank you for being here with us. Thank

Pat Parenty 50:44
you very much, Chris. Have a great day. You too.

Chris Baran 50:48
Head cases is produced by cut action media, with Marjorie Phillips doing the planning parts, Lee Baran on the video bits, and Adrian Taverner mixing the audio. Jazz you