I recently had the pleasure of interviewing Keri Davis, owner if Gila Rut Aveda Salons and Beauty Backbone. We talked about being a leader and building salon education programs, and so much more. Our discussion lasted one hour on my live show, Huddle Time with Ronit. You can tune in to the show each week on America’s Beauty Show Facebook page.
Keri and I share several of the same values, which is why I had such a good time having her on Huddle Time. There are so many similarities between our core values, mindsets, and how we run our companies. Salon Cadence, my salon coaching business is built upon three pillars: MINDSET, WEALTH, FREEDOM. As you you will hear, Keri calls it “being in front of the narrative of your salon”. Keri and I have followed a similar path from salon owner to beauty business owner. So it was fun to compare notes in the interview.
I’ve always looked toward Keri as a mentor. Running salons is not a simple task, and working with so many different kinds of people is not easy. Keri created an amazing culture after opening a second (and third!) salon in San Diego, Gila Rut. She’s a lead educator and developer for Aveda Education Department. In addition, she provides her own unique salon education programs, Beauty Backbone. This all came from the success in the salon education programs she created at her salon. To me, watching Keri on stage and speaking is not only mentorship, it’s a shot of oxygen. Keri is an activist, a mother, and a wife. These days she fights for diversity, peace, love, compassion, and I’m proud to call her my friend.
At Salon Cadence, we look toward people like Keri for inspiration, leadership attributes, and a can-do mindset. Read on to learn more about Keri and her journey, opening a second salon and building a salon education business.
RONIT: How did you start your career as a salon owner?
KERI: When I was doing hair, I practiced for about 6 years before I opened a salon. I was always looking for something more in a company. Where I felt like I could be taken care of with healthcare, retirement, and paid vacation. I wanted to work in a company that offered those things. I didn’t find that so I decided to create my own. One day, 29 years ago, I asked my mom, “do you want to go into business with me?”, and she said yes!
RONIT: Year 2 your first salon, how was it? How did you get nirvana? Did your dreams come true?
KERI: Don’t take this the wrong way. When you have your first kid you’re like “what have I done?” I had such an easy life? Obviously you want to have a kid and a business, but you never really know the amount of work it takes. It was really hard for the first few years. You’re the cleaning company, the one that works 7 days a week. You compromise the lifestyle you really want to get the work done and build the foundation. When you first open, you don’t even know you’re doing that; you’re just trying to survive.
RONIT: Opening a second salon. And a third! What have you learned not to do when expanding?
KERI: Not so much what not to do, it’s what needs to happen prior to duplicating. Some of it you learn while you’re in process. But one thing I learned is to have duplicatable systems when opening a second salon. So you can say here are the checks and balances. Here are the systems for how we do education. How we coach people, and how we do customer care. What’s in place so that we can duplicate those things, and not feel like we’re starting from scratch.
And the systems that work for 2 will work for 3. But every time you continue to duplicate, you’re stretching yourself a bit more. So the support is super important. Always surround yourself with people that are aligned, like minded, and in the game with you.
RONIT: Tell me a little bit about Beauty Backbone and how you’ve built your salon education programs.
KERI: I travel all over a couple times a month. I had so many people messaging me after I did a salon education program asking me for the resources. I forwarded these to my business partner, Carla, and the managers. So much so that half their work was getting the info out to these people. Carla finally said to me: look we need to have a place where owners can come and get the things they ask for.
Then we created a “Train the Trainer” program. So that we have educators for our program. And if one educator happens to leave, we can get another educator up and trained in 6 weeks.
We did all this for Gila Rut too. I was bragging about it to my friends. Then they asked if John, our Education Director, could come out and teach them how to create a train the trainer program. So here it is again, and its bigger than us. I can’t be shipping John off. So we created our first program ‘Train You’ that trains any stylist to become an educator. And it’s online so you don’t have to go anywhere to do it.
From there, we asked “what is the overarching thing we need to do?”. So we developed our salon education business that encompasses all of it. Beauty Backbone helps to support owners to be more profitable. They become more sustainable, build stronger systems and create salon education programs in their company.
RONIT: How do you lead today, in our time, and create happiness and safety as a leader?
There’s 2 things. Creating and being in front of the narrative of your own company. You, as a leader, getting in front of what the story is for your company and your staff. Determining how can we ease their mind. What are the stats and whats the news? Bringing it to a level where they can eat it in bite sized pieces and not be overwhelmed. At the same time, how do we practice this muscle called empathy? Instead of ‘suck it up’ which is my natural way of operating. It’s different right now and I’m really trying to use and engage that muscle. My focus right now is to develop that mindset. Like “let me meet you where you are, instead of where I want you to be”. I can’t get you to where I want you to be, until I can truly understand where you are. I know I need to create or help in some way. So my team will feel happy and taken care of. That’s how I’m going to have a better team. I say yes way more than I say no right now.
RONIT: What are the top 3 things for any owner to do in order to engage your team and keep them level?
Take care of yourself. You can’t give away what you don’t have. If I’m not doing what I need to do to self care, then I’m not going to be a good boss.
One-on-1s are really critical right now. Asking “how are you, is there anything I can do to support you right now and make you feel better?”
Again, being in front of the narrative of where this is going. How it’s going to get better, and how we’re going to get through it together. Rising up as a leader and being the person they look too. Having the strength that people don’t have for themselves.
I am so thankful to have had the chance to speak with my friend and learn so much in this interview. Seeing how Keri leads her team is so inspiring. She has created so many salon education programs which is amazing. To see my full talk with Keri Davis, visit Youtube and subscribe to our channel.