We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Christopher Trevena a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Christopher, appreciate you joining us today. Can you talk to us about your team building process? How did you recruit and train your team and knowing what you know now would you have done anything differently?
So I purchased my salon in 2018 and it came with a staff of incredible women who were entering the end of their careers. They were patiently waiting until retirement and one by one they did.They taught me so much about the energy a salon should have.They have had the same clients for 20-30 years cultivating such a connection and relationship.As each one of them would retire their career, I would have to fill a spot. Filling Fame & Foils Color Bar wasnt too difficult because we had built a pretty good reputation at that time , winning Best of The Bay by creative loafing in 2019. I was very picky about who I would let enter our space. I only wanted people in this salon that would inspire their coworkers and stylists that were hungry for more.Each and every stylist at Fame & Foils and extremely well educated not only in how to do hair amazingly , but how to properly run a business and for that I am grateful.
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.
I was a very eccentric kid with rainbow but yet goth style. I started coloring my own hair at a very young age and that transferred into me doing my friends hair. I had a stylist when I was 15 or 16 years old who said to me ” You know , you would be a great hair stylist” and I am so happy she did. Her name is Laura Collins and I still to this day consider her a great mentor.I attended Paul Mitchell the School when I was 17, graduating a year early as a High School junior just to get a jump start on my career.From the get go , I had a love for blended hair styles that made a statement. I started working in my first salon at 19 and was fed a very healthy new clientele in Ybor City that really gave me so much experience in different things.Back then , I was doing it all. I did hair from crazy neon colors , ombres , all the way to just taking someone back to their natural silver color. To this day I still love that I have a ton of knowledge and experience on every facet of being a hair stylist even though I consider my self a blonding and red head specialist. If you were to sit in my chair and let me do whatever I wanted or specialized in , odds are you are going to walk out of that door with an effortless traffic stopping look that indeed took a lot of effort.
Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?
So I joke with my friends and family that my life should be a book.Ive gone through some pretty traumatic losses in my life.When I was 17 my house fell into a sink hole and it absolutely crushed my family. Losing majority of our belongings left us in a mental rut and put us in a very low place , however we took that time and experience and didnt let it stop us. We re built and did it practically on our own.Fast forward to the age of 23, I lost it all again in an apartment fire. I immediately had flashbacks to the sink hole and grieved for the loss of everything I had worked so hard for as an adult but I didn’t let it bring me down. I talked myself into making sure it grew me and made me better and it did. I focused on my business even more and told myself if I was ever going to go through such loss again , I would be ok and could handle it.It taught me so much about being independent and standing on your own two feet. It taught me so much about who I am not only as a person but who I am as a business owner. I took charge and re built my life yet again but I know I always will.
What do you think helped you build your reputation within your market?
I think alot of things helped me build my reputation in this industry. I took my career very seriously and it showed. I have been always very invested in my education, even if it isn’t always seen. In my free time I listen to podcasts specifically for stylists and business owners, I read books on how to level up and how to be a great employer. I also think kindess and being relatable helped me tremendously. I just finished up with what has now been my 5th assistant and every single one of them I have told, I can teach you how to do hair flawlessly , however I cant teach you how to be likable, genuine, and personable. You have to deep dive into your own life and put work into what makes you happy and what sparks your joy , then you apply those things to your personality behind the chair and people will come.
Contact Info:
- Website: Fameandfoilscolorbar.com
- Instagram: trevenastyles
- Linkedin: https://l.facebook.com/l.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.linkedin.com%2Fin%2Fchristopher-trevena-20b88261%3Futm_source%3Dshare%26utm_campaign%3Dshare_via%26utm_content%3Dprofile%26utm_medium%3Dios_app%26fbclid%3DIwAR1_As4ukHjwjtpMUnIHmZ-B_GtIK_Cz1rpYYBoapIjykSfc1_GH_exiBV0&h=AT0yfyMlanuoxtO1Ev9KK4hXIZLVF1wV2XddjVxv_m2TvKe0wRcwmnN3ixJkbjscOlIIclKs1JeHjDYLpN9f_eTcfNakNERYDYIoXKWk6P9ehBzd9lORZK8rCltxCL3yWfOe4L9eo70fFn7NXhNnRefi
- Other: www.TrevenaStyles.com