We were lucky to catch up with Lauren Rorie recently and have shared our conversation below.

Lauren , appreciate you joining us today. What do you think matters most in terms of achieving success?

I once heard a quote from an icon in my industry, Vidal Sassoon, and it has stuck with me through my entire career. he said that “the only place where success comes before work is in the dictionary” You won’t ever achieve success without doing and putting in the work.
There is no “overnight success.” One could think that about someone if they seem to have come into some success and achievement very quickly but what many don’t see is the years of hard work that went into getting them to that place.
There were many years that went by and it felt as if I wasn’t getting anywhere in my career. I worked two jobs, and was STILL broke. There were multiple days i thought I would never get to where I ultimately wanted to be in my career as a stylist but I still just consistently showed up, did the work, and learned everything I could one day at a time, one client at a time and then “all of a sudden” (and many years later) I was the top producer of the company I worked for at the time and stayed that way for several years.
But It took work, consistent hard work.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I don’t have the typical hairstylist answer of why I got into the industry that usually sounds like “i was always creative and artistic as a child” or “I’ve had a passion for doing hair my whole life.” I frankly just wanted a job that I wouldn’t dread going to everyday. I figured you spend most of your life at work so you might as well enjoy it.
A brief backstory on me is that my mother was diagnosed with leukemia when I was 12, and battled it all through my high school years. I was homeschooled my last two years of high school and spent a lot of time being with her, taking her to Doctors appointments when my dad wasn’t able to, taking care of the things around the house that she wouldn’t feel up to doing, as well as taking care of the things she would normally be doing for my Fathers construction company.
My Father has been building homes for 40+ years and my mother did all of his office work but when she was diagnosed I took on a lot of her role at a very young age.
So basically I was just trying my best to get through high school and get a diploma,I truly hadn’t even thought about what I wanted to be or do when I “grew up.” I just couldn’t think that far yet. It simply wasn’t important at that time.
One day after I had graduated my Dad said to me “what do you plan on doing? Are you going to school or what?”
I was working a job at the time but I didn’t have a career path and for the first time in years i had to think about what I wanted for my life.
(He also told me that until i was enrolled in school somewhere that I had to pay my own car insurance and phone bill so you best believe I was on the phone the next day trying to enroll myself in a cosmetology school!)

I graduated from Paul Mitchell and immediately started working in a salon but of course had no clientele and bills to pay so I got a part time job at Victoria Secret because my thinking was “women work here, women shop here, that’s how I’ll build my clientele”
It’s so hard starting out in this industry and trying to build up your business, I kept saying “I just need clients to come in, I need all the clients”
Then one day it just clicked with me that I don’t need “all the clients” I just needed one.
I just needed one person to come sit in my chair. Just one to listen to and solve any problem they were having with their hair. If I could do that and they felt good about themselves when they left my chair then they would tell someone and one by one I would build.
18 years later I still live by this. I teach anyone that comes to work for us the same. Take care of one client at time. and if you do that well you will always have a business. Do such a good job that they can’t wait to tell people about you.
I credit that simple motto for the success I’ve had In my personal career and in my business. Something I feel we do very well at The Local Salon & Parlor is taking the time to get you know you and your hair and what concerns or issues you’re having that we can help solve. Doesn’t matter if you’ve sat in my chair personally or any chair in the salon we, as a team, want to get to know you. We will learn your name, how you like your hair, your favorite color, food, your dogs name…. We want to know it all. Its just part of the culture we’ve created here.
While our main focus is on you, your hair and making you look and feel your best., We truly value the relationships we build with our guests.
I’m most proud of the environment we’ve created in this space that whether it’s your 1st time or your 50th time in to see us that you feel welcomed, comfortable and taken care of. That everyone here will greet you with a smile and a hello and is there to help you in any way we can.

Can you talk to us about your experience with buying businesses?

I actually purchased the business from my previous employer. I had worked for them for many years. They were wonderful, supportive people. I truly couldn’t ask for better people to work for and have to credit them for helping push me to become the stylist I am today. I just knew that deep down I needed something “more.”
It’s kind of a known thing in our industry that once a stylist gets to that point they just leave and go do their own thing….and usually it’s not done in the best of circumstances. It can just be weird because you have your own clientele and most want to follow you wherever you go and of course the salon owner doesn’t want to lose that business either so it’s kind of done in a way that usually blindsides the salon owner. The stylist leaves, takes all their clients and the salon owner is just left to deal with it.
I’ve seen it done so many times like that over the years and just felt like their had to be a different way to go about it.
I also just had too much respect for my boss to do something like that and I’m also a firm believer in not burning bridges. So when I started to feel like I was looking for that next step in my career, I honestly consulted with my boss first. She had always been a huge supporter of me so I felt it was best to just talk it out with her. They had several successful salons and didn’t NEED to sell the business and could’ve easily have said no and that it would be best for us to part ways but she didn’t. We both agreed that it didn’t have to be the way we had seen it go down in our industry for years. We agreed that I would purchase the business and worked out a deal that benefited us both. She has continued to be a mentor to me and I couldn’t be more grateful to her for the opportunity, I hope that Im able to provide the same opportunity to someone on my team if they ever chose that path.

Have any books or other resources had a big impact on you?

I think the best thing any business owner or entrepreneur can do it have a support system of other Business owner/entrepreneurs to get advice, bounce ideas off of etc. Running a business is hard and you can feel like you’re alone and that no one else get its but business owners get other business owners even if it’s not in the same industry. It’s vital to have people like that in your circle.

Books I would recommend to help any business owner/manager/leader or just any human would be:
The E-Myth by Micheal Gerber
Lynchpin by Seth Godin
Fierce Conversations by Susan Scott
The 4 agreements by Don Miguel Ruiz

Contact Info:

• Website: Meetatthelocal.com
• Instagram: The_local_parlor
• Facebook: The Local Salon & Parlor