Do you feel like you were meant to have a kick-ass career as a hairstylist? Like you got into this industry to make big things happen? Maybe you’re struggling to build a solid base and want some stability. Maybe you know social media is important, but it feels like a waste of time because you weren’t seeing any results. Maybe you’ve already had some amazing success, but are craving more. Maybe you’re ready to truly enjoy the freedom and flexibility this industry has to offer. Cutting and coloring skills will only get you so far, but to build a lifelong career as a wealthy stylist, it takes business skills and a serious marketing strategy. When you’re ready to quit just working in your business and start working on it, join us here where we share real success stories from real stylists. I’m Britt Siva, social media and marketing strategist just for hairstylists, and this is the Thriving Stylist Podcast.
What is up and welcome back to the Thriving Stylist Podcast. I’m your host, Britt Siva. And today we’re talking about creating a motivating modern assistant training program. Now, this is not the first time I dabbled in a subject similar to this. I’m gonna reference back to a couple of previous episodes as well. But the reason I wanted to talk about this today is we hosted bootcamp a few weeks ago for salon leaders, and exceptional training programs came up, and I’ve watched a slew of questions about, okay, what is everybody doing for training programs? You know, how do we shift things forward? How do we modernize things? What’s actually working? What is getting assistance to apply? There’s a lot of talk about that. We also keep seeing this trend of salon owners who are saying, you know, the quality of applicants has gone down, the quality of brand new stylists coming out as a new graduate has greatly decreased over what it used to be.
And it’s interesting because I get to have both sides of that conversation. I do hear from tons of owners, and it’s not like a small amount. Tons of owners who are saying, “The quality of applicants I’m getting is just softer than it used to be and people aren’t as skilled and they don’t have the drive.” Like it’s harder. But then on the flip side, I’m talking to other salon owners who are like, “Oh my gosh, like I am getting amazing applicants. I’m getting a ton of applicants of volume. Like I’m turning away people that I wish I could keep because there’s just so many great ones that I’m truly picking from the best of the best because they’re exceptional.” And so the only conclusion I can come to hearing like both sides of that story is that it must be that assistants are just pickier about where they’ll go.
And I wanna talk about that for a moment. If you’ll go back, I graduated cosmetology school in 2027, so almost, or excuse me, 2007, so almost 20 years ago. And when I graduated cosmetology school, it was very difficult to find a great assistant or associate training program. I’m in the San Francisco Bay Area, so I’m in a huge market. And I can think of four in the entire Bay Area that were like very well respected at that time. One that was like North San Francisco, that area. Two that were in the South Bay. So more like San Jose, Santa Clara, that kind of area. And then one that was a little bit more peninsula. So, and, and we’re talking, you know, millions of people, huge metropolitan market, and I could think of four. And it’s not that there weren’t tons of salons. There was always tons of salons, but there were so few really committed, dedicated assistant training programs where it was like a true mentorship.
So because there were so few that were like really dialed in and really well known to be exceptional, you know, those salons got the best of the best applicants. And it’s funny because I look back now at those programs that, that we all were like dying to have a shot at. I remember me and like the 30 people I graduated with were all applying to these four salons for the vast majority of us, at least two-thirds, were all trying to get into these salons. And a couple of us got picked up and it was so tough. We were competing against each other. And I look at what was being offered then, and maybe two of the four, if they still existed now, would even have that kind of pull because what was acceptable 10, 15, 20 years ago is just white noise today. Because now, if you throw a stone, you’re gonna hit a salon that has what they call a training program.
I think that salons started to see like, wow, if we don’t have some kind of training program, we’re not gonna get new stylists wanting to come in here. Even back then, 20 years ago, stylists were saying, “I need more education.” They were aware of the skill gap, but they didn’t wanna just learn trial and error as booth renters behind the chair. They really wanted that mentorship. So salons kinda created these mentorship programs. Some of them bought into coaching, you know, systems and formats. Some built them themselves. And it was good because it was something. Well, now at least 50% of salons have something. And so because training programs, I’m using air quotes, are a dime a dozen, if you actually wanna be attracting the best of the best, and if you want to train people who are gonna grow quickly, and if you wanna train people who are not gonna leave on the backside of their graduation, we have to do things a little bit differently.
So a couple episodes I wanna call back to as I go into this one, episode 308 is called Salon Assistant Mentee or Liability. So zooming out, this episode is gonna be dedicated to training and education programs, but I do firmly believe there’s a difference between having an assistant in place in your business, having a mentee, meaning somebody in some sort of mentorship training program, or somebody who’s truly a liability. So a liability is somebody who is not adding enough value to offset their cost to the business. And when I work with salons, I really do see a variation of the three. And identifying what it is you’re looking to hire, what it is you have existing helps a lot. So if you haven’t listened to episode 308, I would go back and listen to that. Now, I want you to go way back to an episode from 2022 as well.
It’s called episode 243. And it’s the future of working with assistants or being an assistant. That one’s fun because I produced it four years ago, but I want you to listen to the predictions I shared four years ago. And I want you to compare them to the reality that exists now, because I think you’re gonna find the parallels. So what we were talking about four years ago is basically what now exists today. So I wanna read to you a message that a salon owner sent me, because I think it really sums up what a lot of salons are asking about creating their assistant program. So this message says, “I’m looking for advice from salon owners who have built successful assistant or new talent programs in today’s industry. When I opened my salon 14 years ago, I created what many people considered a very successful assistant program.
I put successful in quotes because it was incredibly successful for the new talent. But financially, it was a significant investment for the salon that I never truly recouped. We built a strong reputation for education, mentorship, and developing stylists.” So that was 14 years ago. So I want you to go back in time to, like, 2012, 2013, which was a totally different time for the industry. Then it says, “A few years later, influencer culture exploded. Many influencer-led salons began recruiting experienced stylists rather than developing new talent. And some even had assistants paying for the opportunity to assist them. That still exists today. There are some amazing opportunities where somebody can pay to shadow under an incredible stylist. I think it’s a really great way to learn, but we would have to do that as a totally separate episode. I found myself investing heavily in training stylists who often left for those opportunities.
And after COVID, I decided to pause my assistant program altogether. Now I’m ready to rebuild it, but the industry has changed dramatically. I know that what work 25 years ago when I was an assistant may not be the right approach today, or maybe it still is. I don’t wanna repeat the financial mistakes I’ve made in the past, but I also wanna create a program that develops committed, high performance stylists. I’d love to hear how other successful salons are structuring their programs today. The reason what I love about that specific question is she speaks to a few different things. She talks about how things have changed. She talks about how deeply expensive it is to have assistants, which is something that I don’t think gets talked about enough. And then she realized that she would train people on the fundamentals, but then what I don’t think she’s realizing and what I read between the lines on is they would learn the fundamentals from her and then leave her salon and pay for true mentorship under what she called an influencer stylist.
The word influencer kind of has a negative connotation. I want you to shift influencer and insert inspirational stylist. Because when she calls influencer, somebody else looks at and says, “I wanna be that person one day.” So much so that they’re willing to pay sometimes 1,000, 1,500, $2,000 a day to shadow under that person. Meanwhile, this owner is pouring in thousands of dollars to train this person and is like, “How come I, I teach you and then you go off somewhere else and pay for them to teach you? You didn’t pay me. I paid you. And then you leave my salon.” I want you to marinate on that part for a minute. The reason why the trainee. I don’t know exactly why they left the salon. I have some guesses. But you taught them a ton of stuff for free. You invested in that person. And the first chance they got, they cut arguably a big check, a four-figure check, to go learn under somebody else because they felt there was a skill gap.
They didn’t feel that they learned enough of the advanced education, enough of the skills that they were interested in with you. And the salon owners, I hear you in the room say, but they weren’t ready for that. According to who? According to you? You decided they weren’t ready for that. So when we have new stylists saying, “The owner is holding me back. They’re making this too slow. They’re not allowing me to grow forward.” We say, “Well, skill takes time.” Yeah, of course. Skill always takes time. Even the most experienced stylist is gonna be better at 25 years in than 22 years in. Like, that’s just the way any skill develops. But when we create training programs from the viewpoint of, we know what’s best for you, even if it’s not what you want, it’s the same as like when a parent is trying to get their kids to eat Brussels sprouts.
This is good for you. It’s gonna build strong bones and muscles. It’s gonna give you a great foundation for life. You’re gonna sleep better tonight. Better than eating, you know, a bowl of ice cream. This is what you need. I know it’s not what you want, but I know better. This is what you need. Well, a lot of kids are gonna take those brussels sprouts, slip them into a napkin and flush them down the toilet and never actually eat them, and they’re still gonna get the boil of ice cream. And then so when your assistants are getting the foundations with you and then bouncing, that’s exactly what’s happening. You’re trying to give them what you think they need instead of meeting them with what they want. I want you to zoom out for a second and just think about sales strategy. Have you ever heard the saying, “Sell them what they want.
Give them what they need.” You can’t sell someone on, “Come on in, eat the Brussels sprouts, you’re gonna love them.” That’s tough. But if you’re selling them on, “When you come and work with us, you will be an extension expert, a blonding expert, a well-rounded stylist. Within a year, you will have a 50% filled book. Like, wow, that, that’s what I want.” And then you backtrack it and give them the skills they need to get there. It cannot be the same 10 miles in the snow path that you took in 2010. It just can’t. It doesn’t work today. We live in a different world. So here are the questions that this owner had. Do assistants find their own models or does the salon provide them? Do you have a dedicated weekly model day? Is education time paid or unpaid? How do you measure commitment and progress?
How do you determine whether someone is a good fit for the program? And what agreements or expectations do you have in place to protect the salon’s investment in education? I totally get it. So what I’m gonna do is speak to some of the core tenants of thriving leadership. We have an entire module dedicated to training, and we have a full lesson and a ton of pages in the workbook dedicated to designing your mentee program, your training program, whatever it is you wanna call it. So let me talk about that for a second, and then I’ll go back and answer her questions. So first things first, we have salon owners go through a process of taking a look at what the job description for the assistant or the mentee is and creating a, a full framework around it with what we call key performance indicators. What are the, the most important things for your assistants or mentees to do during the workday?
And we don’t just verbally say them. They become key performance indicators. So the things that must happen or the person is fired. The things that must happen or the person is not promoted. And those are all in writing, okay? So we have a format for that. Then once we have a format for the basics of how they’re gonna spend their workday, then we take a look at the training program. I’m gonna give you some of our suggested mentee program key points. The first one is graduation in 12 months or less. Now, when salon owners say that’s impossible, for some of you, it is impossible. And I’m gonna get into the reasons why it’s impossible in just a moment. Number two, mentees are taking their first client one day a week, four weeks after being hired. Number three, mentees are expected to bring in at least eight clients each month with a requirement of 80 guests served prior to graduation.
So a benchmark of volume of how many guests they’re gonna see. Mentees should be receiving at least six hours of teaching monthly. This is beyond what would happen behind the chair or during the regular workday. Education should follow a specific order, keeping in mind that if you have multiple mentees, you’ll have to have multiple class sessions monthly or allow people to jump in and learn as they go. Next, mentees would be taking before and after photos of all of their guests. Next, once a month, the mentee sits down with the leader or another educator stylist to review all of their work from the previous month and get a touch base on their progress. Next, you create a target for when mentees are able to earn a second day a week on the floor. Next, there is no test to graduate because you are monitoring their progress the entire way.
You don’t need to test them. You’ve seen everything, you know where they’re at. And then last, they would continue to earn days on the floor aggressively as their demand increases while transitioning out of stylist support. So a few key things I think are missing from most current assistant or training programs. When I talk to salon owners about what they have cooking for their assistant or training program, I most commonly see one of two things. The learn as we go model is very common now, which is the new stylist, the new talent, the assistant, the associate, the mentee, whatever, is assigned to a master stylist or an educator or a handful of educators. And they’re assisting that person throughout the day. That’s very typical. And that’s what’s called the mentorship. Well, you are learning, you’re behind the chair, you’re formulating, you’re mixing color. You are foiling potentially with the stylist you’re working with.
You’re blow drying, you’re doing toners, shampoos, you’re watching cuts. Like you are hands in working with the stylist that you are learning under, and you’re learning that way. You’re learning by watching. You’re learning by being involved in the guest visit. I do think that is a critical part of any assistant or mentee program. That cannot be the entire education model. When you look at all of the different learning types that exist just in humanity, there’s visual, there’s oral, there’s kinetic. So some people learn by watching and having hands in. Some people need to learn by writing. Some people need to learn by reading what you have wrote on a flip chart. Some people need to sit there across from you with a, uh, book of color swatches and talk things through. And so I think often what happens is some assistants are considered to be failures or slow learners or we can’t figure out why they don’t get it.
And what’s missing is that the teaching is simply watch what I do and figure it out for yourself. That very rarely in any industry, any trade would be an effective way to learn. There’s so much nuance to what we do that you can watch it a hundred times, but if you don’t understand the why behind it, it’s very difficult to emulate on your own. Like the stylist is kind of left to guess like, did I, did I get that? Like, did I understand what they meant? Am I understanding in full why this would happen? And often a stylist, when you’re doing, you know, six, seven, eight, 14 clients a day, you don’t have the time to between guests be like, “Okay, let me talk about why we’re choosing this foil placement today.” Sometimes you do. A, a lot of times you don’t. And man, that’s so understandable.
Like everybody’s just doing their best. But there has to be time for formal education beyond the learn as we go model. I love the learn as we go model. I for sure got paired up with some amazing stylists. And I did learn about, a lot about formulation, watching their brains formulate, mixing the color, applying it myself, shampooing it out, like seeing the transformation. No doubt. I learned a lot from that. That was probably 50% of my education. The other 50% came from a much different setting. And I think it’s critical that there is a s – a consistent setting that is not a, we bring an educator once a month and, you know, everybody sits there, like, like a real intensive type of environment. We’ve really lost that. The next thing that’s become common is a self-study model. Listen, as somebody who is in digital education, it is a blessing and a curse.
Something I will tell you, there are people who are amazing educators and amazing teachers who are not good virtually. Do not create great online education. That definitely exists. Um, great at doing hair. Do not understand how to translate that into virtual education. On the flip side, there are amazing educators who have created online programs. I’ve seen a couple of them. My daughter’s invested in probably three good ones. Some bad ones. But three good ones where I was like, “Wow, this is good.” Like it feels as if you are there with the teacher and you really are learning and understanding and the way they’re explaining makes sense. Like that does exist too. But if the salon says, “Watch these videos. Let me know what you’ve learned and practiced.” That’s not a mentorship program. Uh, somebody could just invest in that program by themselves and, and do it on a doll head in their bedroom at night.
So you have to have some kind of education program that they can’t just replicate on their own. It’s not just watch this and do a doll head. So what it feels like is a lot of the industry education has become almost like DIY. And what happened was we verbally packaged that as I give them all the tools and then it’s up to them to do something amazing with it. But can you see how that messaging, even the way it stands, is basically saying, “I’m gonna give you all the tools and then you run with it.” Well, they’re running into the arms of a different educator. They’re running through the doors of another salon. The approach, the culture, the, the way in which we teach what it looks like to actually develop somebody has to change from day one. Like, if you wanna stop the bleed of people coming in and taking your basic training and walking out the door, it, it changes from your program.
It’s not that all stylists are crappy or all stylists are looking to leave. They are not. Trust me, leaving a salon is a nightmare for most stylists. They, they don’t start here hoping to bounce. Like that sucks. They’re leaving because you are lacking in something that they are desiring. If you’re not getting top applicants or people are completing, starting to build a little bit and bouncing, there is more than likely something off in the structure. So I wanna tackle some of the questions that the salon owner asked. She said, “Do assistants find their own models? Or does the salon provide them?” A little bit of both is usually a good happy medium. When I look at the salons that are doing really effective training programs, there is a really significant demand from models who want to sit in the stylist chairs. So the salon is able to provide a lot.
But the stylists should be, you know, building their own brand themselves and all the things too, so that should naturally be coming up also. So that’s a bit of a compromised meet in the middle. Do you have a dedicated weekly model day? Yes, I already talked about that. Is education time paid or unpaid? Uh, legally, in the United States, if you’re requiring somebody to complete education, it must be paid. Go back and listen to that previous episode I mentioned. If your education program is optional, if you’re like, “People can come here and just hang out and do shampoos and never graduate,” then maybe your education is optional. You’d have to really be able to prove that it is. But if taking classes is optional, you’re not gonna penalize somebody for skipping something, then there are ways to have it be unpaid. But for the most part, it’s essentially on-the-job training, which would mean it is an investment into their future and would need to be paid.
How do you determine whether somebody is a good fit for the program? We have a whole interview matrix that breaks that down, but a key thing is we have something called a dream team member profile. You create the profile and you identify all the characteristics that you’re looking for, and then combine that with the job description and the KPIs and the interview matrix, and it creates this real blueprint for does somebody fit this criteria or not? And it’s simple. It’s mathematical the way that we do it, so it makes it really easy. Next, what agreements or expectations do you have in place to protect the salon’s investment in education? You make a program in a salon that nobody would ever wanna leave. That’s what secures the education. And if you think it’s impossible, I mean, we coach hundreds of salons that have amazing programs and wait lists to work for them, and nobody ever wants to leave.
You create something so irresistible and so desirable and so wonderful that staying becomes the priority. And you might lose somebody because they start a family and decide not to be behind the chair anymore or they move out of state or something like that. But you’ll know you have something really special when nobody’s leaving for a better opportunity 10 miles down the road. There is no better opportunity. This is it. Well, we’ve created something really special and really exceptional. And the only reason that somebody would leave is they’re not achieving their KPIs. They don’t fit with the culture or their life priorities have changed. But you create a place and space where people start knowing they want to build their career with you. And you create the tools and the opportunities and the systems so that they can do that. And you have a graduation rate and a success rate and a build rate and a full book of clientele timeline that is so desirable that everybody wants a shot.
You will attract amazing applicants to a program like that. I wanna read the last part of this message because I think it’s relatable. She then says, “When I was an assistant 25 years ago, the expectations were very different than they are today. I was expected to work through lunch. There certainly were practices that wouldn’t be legal or appropriate today. I don’t believe those are the standards we should be recreating. At the same time, there were aspects of that experience that shaped the stylist and business owner I became. My mentor expected excellence, accountability, consistency, and initiative, and did not pay for any of my education outside of what the salon assistant program offered in the salon. After I completed my assistantship, he invested even more in me by paying for advanced education.” She talks about trips that she went on. “That mentorship changed my career, but I worked my butt off during my assistantship and 100% earned it.
Assistants should still 100% earn it. So if you’re not attracting driven applicants, you have to remember something. If you want a driven stylist, your program has to promise a fast graduation date. It has to promise very intense levels of education. The driven ones are not gonna go to the passive program. Like that’s, that is a disconnect. It’s a misfire. Versus 25 years ago, we would go to whatever. I was that person too. I talk about that very openly. I would’ve done whatever. Same thing. I never took a lunch break. I worked overtime. All the things. We can’t say, but 20 years ago it was different. Yeah, of course. Everything was different 20 years ago, and 20 years before that was the 80s, and that was different too. Like, we have to build for what is now. And I hear what you’re saying. What you went through then made you into the person you are today.
It will be the same thing for these new stylists in the industry right now. The strong will survive. It’s exactly the same. But we can’t say the way that I did it was the better way. It was a different way. There were pros and cons to the industry 20 years ago. Adapting to the new way is not an option. It is the only way you will attract driven stylists now, so just keep that in mind as you build. I am taking podcast requests in a brand new way now. If you follow me on Instagram and you go to the. Under my link in bio, there’s a section that’s called Break Time with Brit. You can leave me podcast requests there. So in addition to leaving me an iTunes rating or review, if you want to leave me a podcast request, you can head to BreakTime with Brit.
It’s in my Instagram bio. Join there. Follow along. You’ll get to see all the podcast requests as they come through. We drop little bonus resources in there, all kind of good stuff. So make sure you’re following along. And as I always say, so much love, happy business building. I’ll see you on the next one.
