We were lucky to catch up with Goodie Audette & Natalie Hansen recently and have shared our conversation below.

Goodie & Natalie, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. What do you think it takes to be successful?

Success can be found all around us, the hard part is allowing ourselves to see it, feel it, and enjoy it. We are strong driven women and our to do list is always long. We always have our next project queued up to help support our clients and staff. The moments in between when we get to sit down for our weekly owner meeting, and our you and me monthly check-ins with our employees is when we see the success. As owners we feel the success in the systems, expectations, and communication we have created. We see the success in our systems by watching our employees grow their client base, knowledge, and income all while supporting a balanced life with boundaries. This was our goal all along! Do great hair, build amazing community with clients, and care for our employees in ways we thought our industry had overlooked.

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.

Hello Hair Collective was realized by co-founders Goodie Audette & Natalie Hansen. We are two women that are hard-working, open-minded, believe in continual growth, are socially and environmentally conscious, are ridiculously intentional, and have a passion and compassion for humans. We met through our love of community and exercise and when we realized that we both worked in the hair industry we became fast friends. It was actually the shutdown in the pandemic that lit our fire to start dreaming up Hello Hair. It’s amazing what you can get done when you have creative mental space, passion for the hair industry, and ZOOM. We both felt hopeful about the future of our industry and we believed that we could create a space and environment that was unique by putting clients and employees first. We believe that the humans in our chairs and the humans working behind the chair deserve equal compassion and attention.

We see the “beauty” industry beyond stereotypes. Beauty is so much more than body size, gender, race, or what your hair looks like. We wanted to nurture the beauty of treating clients with kindness and respect all while providing them with custom hair styles that support their lifestyle.

Hello Hair focuses first on our employees’ growth, we are building a collective of staff that believe in the brand of humans first. The “beauty” industry is AMAZING but has been functioning under antiquated operations that were created to benefit product companies and driven by sales and quotas. We knew that if we opened a salon that focused on our employees’ holistic growth, through coaching, advanced education, fair pay, metrics, healthier products, and freedom the to be involved in their own evolution in the industry, it would be a success.

Our industry has always focused on the client in our chair! The truth is that to provide the best service and experience you need to focus on the service provider first. Energy trickles down so taking care of our team will foster the best experience for our guests at Hello Hair Collective.

What’s been the best source of new clients for you?

The most successful way to attract and build loyal new clients has been by believing in our brand and creating systems to allow the client journey to be welcoming and easy. When we first opened Hello Hair we asked ourselves how do we get new clients in our doors? We created a plan around building a seem less client journey from beginning to end. From how clients find us on search engines, to how we introduce our brand through Instagram and our website, to ease of booking their appointment, to communication and laid out expectations with emails and texts, to welcoming them into our space filled with sunshine, plants and treats, introducing them to their welcoming hair artist, creating a custom hair plan and educating the client on maintenance, inviting the client to visit us again with a new client gift, and following up after with a sincere thank you for choosing us. Each of the steps in this journey have been intentionally crafted and curated to feel like the Hello Hair brand. All of these steps matter but the truth is that the client needs to feel a connection to the stylist they see for their service, THIS human interaction is what creates loyalty. The best way to foster this client loyalty is by caring for our employees so they can care for their clients. through continued education, mentorship, strong culture, respectful communication, clear expectations, and helping them shine for who they are. This is what our brand is all about!

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

We had to unlearn how to be hairstylists! Being a service provider is amazing, fulfilling, creative, and exhausting. Being a business owner is a whole different story. Working behind the chair doing hair, connecting with clients, being part of a community of creatives is incredibly fulfilling and rewarding. We both feel so grateful for the enrichment and success we have had as hairstylist BUT being a business owner who has employees takes a different mindset, inner strength, and attitude. We had to literally unlearn how to focus on one client, one color, and one service at a time. To communicating with a team, communicating with all salon clients, learning how to build technology, understanding accounting and work flows, monitoring metrics of business and employee growth, growing a culture and brand that we are proud of and fully believe in, and most of all creating a sustainable business where we all get to succeed. We are beyond lucky to lead the lives we live and no matter the outcome we have learned that we get to define our own success.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.hellohairmn.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hellohair.collective/
• Facebook: https://www.instagram.com/hellohair.collective/

Image Credits

spacecrafting photography