Shownotes
In this episode of Salon Rising: The Podcast, Sam and Jen sit down with the amazing Chantelle from Telleish for an honest, expansive conversation about what it truly takes to build and lead a large salon business, without losing yourself along the way. From humble beginnings and major personal sacrifice to creating one of Melbourne’s most iconic salons, Chantelle shares the reality behind the growth most people only see from the outside.
Together, they unpack the identity shift from hairdresser to leader, the emotional weight of managing big teams, pricing with confidence, paying stylists well, and why heart led business can be both your superpower and your biggest challenge. Chantelle also opens up about motherhood, stepping back from the floor, navigating staff turnover, and building systems that allow a salon to scale sustainably while still feeling human.
This episode is a grounded, real look at leadership, money, team culture, and long term thinking, especially for salon owners questioning what “success” actually looks like in this season of their life.
What we cover
- The identity shift from stylist to leader (and why it can feel like grief)
- Building and sustaining a large team without burning out
- Pricing, profitability, and the roadmap to higher stylist earnings
- Why not everyone will like you — and why that’s part of leadership
- Creating a “salon for life” model that supports clients through every season
This episode is proof that there’s no single “right” way to build a salon. But there is a way to build one that feels rich in life, aligned with your values, and sustainable for the long haul.
Timestamps
00:00 Episode Summary
01:59 Guest Introduction
05:41 The Story Behind Telleish
09:56 Expanding and Innovating the Salon
22:44 Leadership and Team Management
30:00 Navigating Challenges and Personal Growth
41:30 Building Trust in the Workplace
41:46 The Importance of Team Loyalty
43:04 Challenges in the Hair Industry
44:00 Raising Prices to Elevate the Industry
44:48 Investing in Employee Growth
49:45 Balancing Business and Personal Life
55:06 Navigating Financial Challenges
58:26 Adapting to Industry Changes
1:12:22 The Value of Team Diversity
1:17:22 Concluding Thoughts and Future Plans
Mentioned in this episode:
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Transcripts
[00:00:07] Sam: She really, really sacrificed then for the fruits of it now.
[:[00:00:13] Sam: that she built.
[:Because you do mourn. Who am I? Who am I without those scissors or behind that comfort of knowing what I'm excellent at
[:[00:00:34] Chantelle: The biggest challenge is letting your walls down and having the team know that they can trust that you've got their best interest at heart.
[:[00:00:46] Sam: Yes,
[:[00:00:52] Chantelle: How do we get our stylist to a $100k Right. This is the roadmap because it's so hard to charge that amount of money to then pay that amount of money,
[:And my time is precious, and if I don't charge it, then what's the point?
[:[00:01:13] Jen: good lesson is that no matter which way you wanna take it, there's always a path that can feel rich in life and successful.
[:Go on back, your girls, subscribe now and let's keep rising together.
[:[00:01:46] Sam: man, I'm so excited about today. Like I
[:[00:01:50] Sam: this guest on for so long, and normally between all of our schedules. It's so
[:[00:01:57] Sam: and today we get to do it. I'm so excited.
[:[00:02:03] Sam: everybody welcome my dear friend Chantel from in Melbourne. Thank you for
[:[00:02:09] Sam: us.
[:[00:02:13] Sam: oh. Thanks for coming.
Honestly, your business is. Just
[:[00:02:20] Chantelle: Aw.
[:[00:02:21] Sam: Like it's incredible. But I just, I can't wait to share the story. And anyone that is listening go and Fallough Chantel at Tellish because you'll understand the magnitude. That is a massive salon. Like we think we have busy salons. And then you walk into Tellish and
[:[00:02:39] Sam: a very different story. I am, I was lucky enough to meet, tell in, actually, I watched her on stage. Um, I think I've started following your socials and then I watched
[:[00:02:52] Sam: was like
[:[00:02:53] Sam: Yeah. And I was just like, oh, I, I have got a really serious girl crush on this woman.
And it, it's kind of a bit weird. And then I remember messaging and being like, oh my gosh, you are, you've inspired me. I feel like, like her brain is so incredible. And then I actually, one of my staff went to work for Tell, um, she was on her front desk and then
[:[00:03:17] Sam: in Barcelona. And I was like, is it weird that like, I want this person to be my best friend. And then like I, we met and it was just like two pizzas and pod. And then tell would be like, do you wanna leave and get a blow dry by ourselves? And I was like,
[:[00:03:31] Sam: as much.
[:[00:03:35] Sam: And by the end of that trip, Chantel and I were inseparable and we were
[:[00:03:39] Sam: with each other. But I have just feel so inspired by you and the way that your brain works for business, that I would absolutely love you to share your journey because,
[:[00:03:52] Sam: the amount of knowledge that you have, it would not be contained in a one hour podcast.
It needs to be like 95 days. But also the things that you have moved through with and staff and all of the things is just, and then now
[:[00:04:08] Sam: you've got two babies,
[:[00:04:11] Sam: um,
[:[00:04:18] Chantelle: Love, just fresh off the boob. That one is, I timed this perfectly.
[:[00:04:40] Chantelle: yeah,
[:[00:04:44] Chantelle: yeah.
[:So,
[:[00:04:50] Sam: so um, go us some of your story and then we'll
[:[00:04:54] Sam: off of there.
[:[00:04:59] Jen: I think it, I mean, we, we call, you tell
[:[00:05:03] Jen: ish,
[:[00:05:04] Jen: I, I suppose we do need to acknowledge the other part of that ish
[:[00:05:09] Jen: started to, and, and I think you have to see that and appreciate where you are now. Like that's, that's a hell of a, and make like you didn't rock into this
[:[00:05:19] Jen: beast that you've got now.
So let's start at the very beginning.
[:My auntie, she still has it. She, she's definitely my inspiration. That's where it comes from. She's got a small country town salon, and she just still lives and breaths hair. And so my sister quality, my footsteps became a hairdresser and she, about 10 years in, I thought, you know what? I'm gonna have a break.
You know, I, I was sort of hit that 10 year mark of working for other people. I went into retail, worked for Mambo, the surf company. I don't know if you guys remember.
[:[00:06:08] Chantelle: Went to Chadstone, did some visual merchandising, you know, no people didn't have to deal with anything. It was so easy. And then my sister went, oh, we, we auditioned for a reality TV show called Big Brother.
And she yeah. Gets good. Don't worry. Hold on. She, uh, we got Jen. Hold your, it's crazy. It's, it's just, yeah, it's not, I mean, you imagine eight kids living in a three bedroom home, so you've gotta.
[:[00:06:37] Chantelle: Yeah, we come from not yet yet. Thanks. Yeah, we didn't come from a lot. Um, you know, I was lucky I didn't get the hand me down clothes, but I got all the tough rules as number one, you know, bedtime, seven 30, all the rest of it.
And I helped raise the younger ones in the end anyway, so I moved to Melbourne. I thought I'm gonna move to Melbourne, did the visual merchandising and my sister, we auditioned at the same time and I thought they're gonna put on sisters. This is the year they put on two sisters. No, that was the year they put on a couple not sisters.
And she ended up getting in. Now I was working away at the clothing shop and sure enough I was going, you know, like, this is before Instagram, before Facebook. This is MySpace era, right? I was running around the streets, tech, getting people to text, to save, you know, all of this sort of stuff. And lo and behold, she won.
She won the whole show. She won half a million dollars tax free. And she came out. Yeah. And she said, let's open a salon. And I was like, nah, I've got it too good at the clothing shop. And she kind of pushed me and I'm really grateful that she did because I dunno if I would be here right now if she hadn't.
And we opened, well we found a shop, it was for sale and in the interim, the guy actually, um, it was a sad story, it went under, so we ended up just taking over the lease. And so my sister's name is Telleish and I'm tell and that's Telleish, so
[:[00:08:04] Chantelle: it's cool. Hey. So she bless her. She actually put up the money on my half and I was to pay her back, um, weekly.
And that's how it sort of went about. And yeah, I think 10 years in. She was married, she had a baby on the way. I was sort of, I still didn't own a car, didn't own a house. I was still living in that shoebox apartment in St. Kilda eating, you know, half a banana one day and the rest of the next. And she said, do you wanna buy me out?
So I went to the bank and I remember sitting there, I had nothing like we were taking like four or $500 a week wage, and I was trying to pay her back in that interim. Like it's a bit, you know, really awkward. And I remember sitting there and you know, when like, your emotions just take over your body. And I was like, I, I, Nick's a nick too far.
My sister, this lady, she was just a gem. And she ended up, um, getting me a loan. I, I bought my sister out and then it just became mine. And then, yeah, we stayed in that location. I stayed in that location for 10 years. Then I thought, what do I wanna do? Do I want, you know, when everyone was doing two salons
[:[00:09:16] Chantelle: and I thought, do we want a mothership or do we want to spread ourselves too thin?
And I was, I was already thin, like I was thinner back then too. But I was spread thin already. I was thin in old ways. And, um,
[:[00:09:32] Chantelle: no.
[:[00:09:34] Chantelle: Hot banana. Yes. And so I was driving past this massive shop on my way to work and I just kept looking at it and I kept thinking, Ooh, that's a really unique kind of building.
It's like a New York loft. Um, it's got upstairs and downstairs, but you can view over the balcony. And I thought, I'll go get the key and have a look. And then I never locked it properly, so I just kept slipping in every night, every morning and just, you know, go and sit there and watch the sun and get the angles for the photos.
And then I was like, if I don't do it now, I'll never do it and I'll regret it. So I bit the bullet and did the new tle that's now six years old in there, which is wild.
[:[00:10:15] Sam: like for any, like, again, anyone that's listening to this,
[:[00:10:19] Sam: at it. It is.
[:[00:10:26] Chantelle: 100 squares. Yep. And this one is close to 300.
[:[00:10:31] Sam: and it's
[:[00:10:32] Sam: like, I remember walking in for the first time, like, 'cause you know, I remember being through there through the design process and stuff and you'd send photos and then we walked in for the first time and I was like, you can't even capture it.
[:[00:10:44] Sam: and I guess, I think I really do believe that your salon was one of the first that just kind of like, whoa.
We are upping the ante when it comes to salons. Like
[:[00:10:55] Sam: their coffee machine many and
[:[00:10:58] Sam: The COVID machine, but like the way that it was planned out and, and at this point, definitely, like Tel was gonna do it, she could never go small again, because you
[:[00:11:09] Sam: small with the size of what Telleish is.
You need receptionist, you need greeting, you need, like, you walk up
[:[00:11:16] Sam: stairs,
[:[00:11:28] Jen: Wow.
[:[00:11:33] Sam: Yes,
[:[00:11:34] Sam: yes.
[:[00:11:38] Chantelle: Yeah,
[:[00:11:39] Chantelle: I,
[:[00:11:53] Chantelle: Well, like, you know, you get your first car, right? You get your Datson, then you upgrade, and then you upgrade. Like, this is my fourth salon Reno. So I knew what, I knew the little tweaks that I needed from the first four that I wanted to take across. So I think that was the journey of the Renos in, and I did all the renos in the other one.
You know, like you'd get your boyfriend at the time. We've all done that and.
[:[00:12:18] Chantelle: I even had Ross, one of my old employees, he helped me paint at one Easter. You know, we drank wine with the roller brush. So it had, it had many lives, and then I knew what was working in the old one and what wasn't, and what I wanted to be different in the new one. Yeah,
[:[00:12:38] Chantelle: yeah.
[:[00:12:43] Chantelle: Yeah.
[:[00:12:45] Chantelle: Thank you.
[:[00:12:51] Sam: Yes. Agreed.
[:I reckon.
[:[00:12:57] Chantelle: was kind of like, you know, I, I invested a buck load, like, I think it was at least 600, 700,000 into that, that build. And it was sort of like, if I build it, I can then charge it.
[:[00:13:09] Chantelle: And that's what I wanted to do.
[:I think for anyone listening to this, that is a thing, like people expect start their businesses with this like glorious sell
[:[00:13:21] Sam: But like, as she said, it's a six or $700,000 fit out. So I knew what Tell had behind her before she decided to do that. Because it wasn't like, oh, my business is making 500,000 a year and now I'm gonna go spend 600,000 on a fit out.
It was like, I'm good. And as Tel said, then she was like, she didn't just take that $500 a week for period that her sister was there. She took that for a very long time
[:[00:13:46] Sam: allowed her business to build and grow. So she really s you know, she sacrificed, you know, where she lived, having kids, laid out like
[:[00:13:55] Sam: many
[:[00:13:56] Sam: half a banana, so many sacrifices were made
[:[00:14:01] Sam: get her to the point that she is now, it wasn't just like, oh, I lived the, a bougie life I wanted, like, she didn't spend money on cars.
Like, you know, she really, really sacrificed then for the fruits of it to be now.
[:[00:14:16] Sam: that she built. So it can't be both.
It can't be both. You can't have all of the things and all the houses and all the cars and everything personally, and then also have all this money behind you in your business unless you've got, you
[:[00:14:28] Sam: unless you've got, a mammoth business, which generally is not like that in here.
[:[00:14:37] Jen: Yeah.
[:[00:14:44] Jen: you that
[:[00:14:46] Jen: term? They need to change that.
[:[00:14:48] Chantelle: but you know, like I know it, there's pros and cons, right? I wouldn't have the maternity leave I have now if I was. Back five, 10 years ago.
So it's like, you know, there's, there's pros and cons, but
I think the money went back in and around Telleish until a good solid 12, 13 years. And that's a big life sacrifice. A lot of friends lost along the way. Missing out, missing out on so many things, you know, because I just, I got obsessed with building, you know, I also like to paint a picture.
My growing up, my last name wasn't amazing, you know, I had a dad that was a bit troublesome and a bit naughty and did some wrong things in a small town, and, you know, so I was in that, that, you know, I don't know that gusto that, that what's gonna, what's drives you? It was just to make my name better at that time, you know, like
here I was, had a, a celebrity sister, a naughty dad, and then there was me and I was like, okay, well what does Tel what does life look like for her?
You know, I know I'm good at hair. How can I become good at business? And, you know, all the lessons in between.
[:[00:16:08] Jen: The right time for you.
[:[00:16:10] Jen: Yeah.
[:[00:16:12] Sam: I just love that about you. You knew when your timeline suited and as you said, you now can have the things that you have, you can have the maternity leave. Tell's husband Jace works in the business and he's incredible. Like, and he came over like four years, five years ago.
[:It was too small. It was just too, like he would've just stuck out. So I think he's now been in there six years. So he's the best front of house I've ever had. I think though, because I can train him like you're doing that wrong. Nope. Yes. You know, he can be brutal. Um, but he is got a love for it as well. He is got a love for our PE people,
[:[00:17:05] Chantelle: isn't he?
[:[00:17:08] Chantelle: My God. I know.
[:[00:17:20] Chantelle: Yeah,
[:[00:17:25] Chantelle: I know. I remember I took him to the first,
[:[00:17:30] Chantelle: ours.
[:[00:17:31] Chantelle: Yeah. And that one feels like ours. Whereas the first one felt like my sister and I, who's got a salon now in Noosa as well. So she's still hairdressing and got her own salon on and you know, we talk all the time, which is awesome.
[:[00:17:45] Chantelle: Yeah.
[:[00:17:47] Chantelle: Oh, I don't know.
What was I saying? Oh, I took Jason to, I took him to a business, um, summit thing. I think Samara was there and I remember like 'cause Yes, this one. Yes. And so I was doing education for the hair care company that year, so I was a bit tame, you know, have a couple of wines, but then like Samara and I would go to bed or we'd do this and you know, the next morning.
'cause he went out of course with all the people. And then at breakfast they were like, Mr. Telleish come and sit with me. And I was like, are you joking me? You've been here for five minutes
[:[00:18:20] Chantelle: and you've just,
[:[00:18:22] Chantelle: yeah, not,
[:[00:18:31] Chantelle: I know.
[:[00:18:34] Chantelle: I go home.
[:'cause we both miss out together. And then
[:[00:18:37] Sam: get up the next morning and they'd be like, so Mr.
[:[00:18:57] Jen: Um, IVF journey. Are we okay to talk about
[:[00:19:03] Jen: because obviously, so I think we should say at the moment, would we consider you to be on maternity leave?
[:[00:19:13] Jen: on that?
[:[00:19:22] Sam: Good.
[:[00:19:25] Chantelle: I have just been incredible. Yeah.
[:[00:19:28] Sam: Do you
[:[00:19:29] Sam: tell No,
[:[00:19:30] Sam: Say what? Like talk about the kids. You've got a little boy
[:[00:19:34] Sam: now it's a little girl, little Fletch, who's
[:[00:19:52] Sam: did
[:[00:19:53] Sam: in order to have everything frozen
[:[00:19:56] Sam: go, didn't you?
[:I was like, you know what, I've got my last thirties little bit there. Let's get as much of the 35 to 40-year-old eggs as we can. And then I was sort of doing, I did five rounds, got about 15 eggs each round, which I thought was great, but only one embryo would make it through. So I was like, holy crap. Like,
[:[00:20:28] Chantelle: yeah.
[:[00:20:30] Chantelle: I.
[:[00:20:35] Chantelle: Yeah,
[:[00:20:36] Chantelle: I just thought,
[:[00:20:40] Chantelle: yep, let's bank 'em up.
[:[00:20:42] Chantelle: bank it up. Let's get it a good run at it. And then I had seven, I think by the end of it all last round I got three, which was awesome. And I thought, this is it. Let's give it a crack. Fletcher took first go, so then I had a bit of a stash. Frankie took a little bit longer, um, you know, lost a couple along the way.
But then, yeah, I've, I've ended up with the perfect pigeon pair of just living rich in life. Is, is definitely having time with those kids.
[:[00:21:10] Jen: for sure.
[:[00:21:12] Chantelle: am so done.
[:[00:21:15] Chantelle: Well really, you know, if you count your husband and your business, I've got four kids.
[:[00:21:21] Chantelle: Yeah.
[:[00:21:33] Chantelle: I live an hour. Yeah. I live an hour and a half to down the peninsula. Mm-hmm.
[:[00:21:42] Chantelle: I think
when I couldn't get pregnant, I became obsessed with the business.
[:[00:21:47] Chantelle: think I was like, I'm an all or nothing. I'm definitely like extroverted, introverted. So I've got the benefits of both at times. Um, but I recharge with my own downtime and I think being so accessible and so I guess in a sense, micromanaging that ship that I became obsessed with every little pocket, doing it all myself or having a hand in it, touching it, you know, doing all of that.
That I was still half on the floor, half trying to lead. And I think after COVID people management there, it's just a beast in itself. And I thought, you can't do both anymore. It's not with that size team. So
I had to succumb to Chantelle the hairdresser. Potentially like let's say this dying in a sense, right?
Because you do mourn. Who am I? Who am I without those scissors or behind that comfort of knowing what I'm excellent at and then becoming like, you know, I, the leadership for a while it was just going to the pub and saying, you're all right. Yep. Cool. Yep, you're all right. All right, great. You know, before COVID, and then I felt like after COVID, everything shifted.
So I had to dive into leadership, make that my sole passion, and now, you know,
I used to look at a head of hair and I'd be like, I'm gonna slay your foils. Like on my tombstone, it's gonna be like slayer of foils, right? Now I actually sit in an interview and I look at someone who, you know, has come across for an interview with me and I think, God, I'm gonna show you how amazing of a career you can have, whether that's skill, money, time off, whatever it be.
I just wanna be, I'm, I'm excited by the, by the person. Not so much the hair anymore. So it's, it's a nice place to be. But it didn't happen overnight. It took about four years, I reckon, the transition, well, Fletcher's nearly three, so I think, yeah, about four years and now I, I love leadership.
[:[00:23:34] Jen: So
[:[00:23:36] Jen: that's exactly what I was gonna say.
[:[00:23:40] Chantelle: I've got 30, yeah,
[:[00:23:43] Chantelle: 30.
[:[00:23:45] Chantelle: it's a lot of people, but I dunno, it doesn't feel, it just feels normal now, you know, like, I guess, yeah, I want, I want more, well, not more, but like, I want, um, you know, I just, I always, I'm always looking for the right humans.
[:[00:24:08] Chantelle: it.
[:[00:24:24] Chantelle: Yeah, it's.
[:[00:24:26] Sam: the re bookings in and all the, like, the structure behind it and how you run the team cannot be loose when you have a team of
[:And I was like, how is it tell me everything? Like, oh my gosh. Like, I wanna know how do they structure this? And he's like, Tel, you are so organized. And I'm like, really? Oh my God. Like, it's so nice to hear because you dunno, right?
You only know how organized you are to yourself sort of thing. And you, there's always open tabs, so you, you're always thinking there's more to do.
[:[00:25:19] Chantelle: Yeah.
[:[00:25:27] Chantelle: Yeah.
[:It's
[:[00:25:31] Sam: I
[:[00:25:32] Sam: you sat in a room with Tell for the day afterwards you'd be like, oh, there's 3 billion things I'm not doing. 'cause I know that for me, like I'm like still running like little Sam's cuts and colors. Like I'm all right
[:[00:25:46] Sam: Tell you sit in a room with tell
[:[00:25:48] Sam: just like the
[:[00:25:56] Sam: know what? I worked out the other day in my little salon, we did $62,000 worth of online bookings last year.
[:[00:26:04] Sam: Yep.
[:[00:26:12] Sam: it's not the wages, it's the fact that I don't book anything,
[:[00:26:16] Sam: unless
[:[00:26:18] Sam: not calling. And
[:[00:26:26] Sam: 10 online bookings per week.
[:[00:26:31] Sam: six staff, bro. Not even, six staff. If with 30 you'd be fucked. You'd be online.
[:[00:26:41] Chantelle: Yeah,
[:[00:26:42] Chantelle: yeah. I think I've gotten to a
[:[00:26:48] Chantelle: Oh,
[:[00:26:50] Chantelle: I know,
[:[00:26:53] Jen: I
[:[00:26:54] Jen: wanna
[:[00:27:08] Sam: yes.
[:[00:27:09] Jen: I do think the not broke, don't fix type situation.
[:[00:27:12] Chantelle: yeah.
[:[00:27:14] Chantelle: What I love about not booking online is I get to protect my team. So it's not just about the customer, it's ensuring like, I've got so many introverted stylists that I adore, like we we're the Motley crew. We're not the cool kids at all at Telleish. We, I love, like people from the country or overseas or we're just like, you know, just a random group of people, which, which is, you know, multi-generational.
I've got people in their fifties, I've got people that are 16 and I wanna attract that, that demographic as well for the salon. So we're not that young blonde salon, or we're not that young, you know, barber or whatever it be.
[:[00:27:51] Chantelle: Um, but I love when someone calls up and, you know, they're a lawyer and they've gotta go with your master level, or they're, or they're so introverted and quiet on the phone that, oh my God, I've got the perfect stylist for you.
[:[00:28:03] Chantelle: it's like, I can tailor make it a little bit more this way. So I don't know.
[:[00:28:09] Jen: Yeah.
[:[00:28:13] Chantelle: Yeah. And it is, look, if I'm honest, it's getting hairy. Yeah, it's getting too much. Yeah, it is getting too much down there. It's, that role is huge. It's just, it's too much, too many touch points. You can book on Facebook, sms.
[:[00:28:27] Chantelle: Oh, good question. I,
[:[00:28:32] Chantelle: oh,
yeah, I reckon it's like four, 500 or something.
[:[00:28:39] Chantelle: It is a lot of people. Yeah.
[:[00:28:47] Jen: Expectations,
[:[00:28:50] Chantelle: Yep.
[:Not so much stylist, but
[:[00:28:59] Sam: the
[:[00:29:00] Sam: so that you can keep everybody happy. And also, guys, if you think about it, it's like she's got this incredible, huge business, but the noise is louder because when you're looking after 500
[:[00:29:13] Sam: it's far more heads than looking after 50 clients a week where you can kind of control that a bit more.
500, you're going to have the, you
[:[00:29:24] Sam: the hit back in other ways. So I also think you have an incredibly thick skin over time. Like
[:[00:29:33] Sam: Definitely stepped into that role of a leader of being like, I'm not gonna let these little things affect me and I know how to handle them.
[:the biggest point in shifting and I build it, I'm now doing it with Jason, I'm doing it with Tegan, who's also one of the team leaders. Like we have a leadership team inside Telleish. Once you've been through everything once, that little, we're all still human, right? But
once you can switch off your heart and think black and white process, what does the outcome need to be?
What are they actually trying to say? Um, and how do we, how do we get to the middle and, and move on from that? It's so much easier and it's so hard to say, turn your heart off. Turn your heart off. But after a while, it, you do turn it off a little bit 'cause you've been through it all. Like if not,
[:[00:30:18] Chantelle: you have.
[:[00:30:20] Sam: I've spoken about tell on the pod when I said, you know, one of my close girlfriends was like, the first one is always the most painful. The
[:[00:30:27] Sam: that leaves you like, and each time someone leaves you thereafter, you're kind of like, all right babe, love you on your way.
And I
[:[00:30:34] Sam: like I'm only hitting that now and I'm 16 years in business where
[:[00:30:39] Sam: not. And that's my whole focus. It's not tearing me up anymore. And there's definitely still ones that hit hard, but it's not like I'm like, okay, you are moving on to do your journey. The business will be fine.
We're good. Let's move on.
[:The amount of times I've had people say, I'm leaving hairdressing, and then they pop up down the road, or they're two weeks later and, and you know, you look like a liar to your clients and your team.
That's the biggest thing is protecting the trust of the employee that's resigned and not mentioning the reasons behind why they're leaving, but then also trying to inform your team and keep them, they, they always know, they know before you even do.
I know,
[:[00:31:32] Chantelle: but you really wanna be respectful Right. Of, of what people have told you and all the rest of it. So it's such a double, it's such a, it's a hard one. It's hard to be in that balance of that middle bit. It's also,
it's also hard not to be liked at times.
[:[00:31:47] Chantelle: it, but it's okay. 'cause not everyone's gonna like you as a stylist or an owner.
Yeah.
[:I think when we become more comfortable with not being liked. Turning the heart off is a little bit easier.
[:And to be, to have that ear. I think we're lucky at Telleish, we've got three people. So you've got someone for everything. You know, you've got the dad at the salon that can change your tire, help you move, you know, tell that ex-boyfriend a few hard truths. And then you've got me, and then you've got Teagan and then you've got, you know, someone for skill, someone for heart, someone for this, someone for that.
So yeah, we are not trying to do everything.
[:[00:32:42] Chantelle: We're just,
[:[00:32:45] Chantelle: yep. Yep.
[:[00:32:50] Chantelle: Yes, they are. They definitely are. I've still done a check in Zoom with, um, with my team, um, just at little touch points and the voice notes. I love a voice note, like I'm in my voice note era. That's, you know, I'll get back to you three hours later and I can voice note you instead of trying to organize a call with a feeding time and all the rest of it.
So the team are just, yeah, really good like that. But they, the first time I went on maternity leave, my manager resigned two weeks after we left. I left, had the baby. I was still in nappies myself, calling, interviewing, being like, oh my gosh, what are we gonna do? And I went in, I think we had five resignations after that.
So I was just driving up to the salon.
[:[00:33:28] Chantelle: Pumping.
[:[00:33:30] Sam: had this conversation on one of my coaching calls with a group of women. like the first baby. It happens to everyone.
[:[00:33:38] Sam: Like both them were like, oh, I had a brand new baby, and they resigned, and all my team resigned. And it's almost like they're like, oh, this is a time I, and I can
[:[00:33:48] Sam: they're
[:[00:33:48] Sam: anymore.
And now I feel comfortable just like, I'll just do it then because they're not here. And then I can blame it on that and like, this is my good excuse to move out.
[:I've done it before where I wanted to break up with a boyfriend and, oh, you're annoying. You leave your towel on the floor.
This is, you are, you know, you pick problems because it's easier to break up with problems and then just saying, Hey, I think I've done all I can here. I'd love your blessing. I'm gonna move on to the next chapter. And it's like, Hey, where do you wanna go? I might know them. Let's try and work that out together.
Let's do it together. 'cause you never know. Full circle. I've had some beautiful emails from people that have left that have done a full circle and said, Hey, I was a really naughty apprentice to you and I just have grown up a lot and I wanna thank you, um, for, for being that mentor. I had one recently, not long ago, come and do a trial and was gonna come back and work for me.
Um, I was just not in the business at that time, so I thought, I said, you know what? I think I need to be there like for that if we were to do that. So like go somewhere else, have that journey and then, hey, you never know, we could revolve again. Um, yeah, so it's, it's, yeah, it's,
I reckon I've had maybe, what am I over a hundred employees over, over the time and do you know what?
I've had some epic people, like they've all shaped a Telleish, but they've shaped me more than they've shaped a Telleish. 'cause I've had a different journey with each of them. And from each of them I've learned something to not repeat the next time
[:[00:35:20] Chantelle: or the next time.
[:[00:35:30] Chantelle: Yeah, yeah, for sure.
[:[00:35:38] Chantelle: Yeah,
[:[00:35:47] Chantelle: yeah,
[:[00:35:50] Chantelle: yeah,
[:[00:35:52] Chantelle: yeah,
[:You're still the boss.
[:[00:36:05] Sam: you can have people that come in and take the piss outta your business. And I
[:[00:36:10] Sam: that and just being like the fuck.
[:[00:36:25] Sam: and
[:[00:36:26] Sam: that you ma Yeah. You learn, you were like, don't ever do this
[:[00:36:30] Sam: that you managed it and managed it with such grace
[:[00:36:34] Sam: that can feel so wrong and so
[:[00:36:39] Sam: so many situations where businesses, it's for the employee, it's not for the business.
[:[00:36:46] Sam: it's so difficult as the employee to go through it and be like, this is wrong.
[:Yeah. I think.
[:[00:37:17] Sam: comes up, tell
[:[00:37:19] Sam: Tell me how to move through this.
[:[00:37:37] Sam: it's just like sometimes you're just like, no. Like I remember that day sitting with you and just being like, no,
[:[00:37:46] Sam: didn't happen. No, that's not happening. Then what happened?
[:Other, I think we're in a world now where information can be, depending on what you give it, you can get different back, you know? And I said, Hey, we are so open to the chat, and if we've made an error at all, absolutely we will meet you at the party. But let's, let's go through that process and get independent people to, to meet in the middle so we can take the emotion out of it.
Um, because, you know, I'll first and foremost say we are not gonna get everything right all the time, but there's no malice behind it. Yeah. So let's remove that emotion. Let's get some people to sort it out for us. And if anyone's in the wrong, we'll, you know, and if we're in the right, I, I'll await your apology, so,
[:[00:38:47] Chantelle: yeah.
[:[00:38:49] Jen: It is only as brilliant as the input that is put into it,
[:[00:38:53] Jen: where the challenge comes.
[:[00:38:55] Jen: as brilliant as the
[:[00:38:58] Jen: give it.
[:[00:39:00] Jen: what's really hard is it's almost like letting a five-year-old out with a gun. You know? Like if you don't have the skills to wield that tool, maybe it shouldn't be your first port of call.
[:[00:39:13] Jen: I mean, don't get me wrong, I'm very, I am very pro ai.
[:[00:39:20] Chantelle: Yeah.
[:[00:39:41] Chantelle: Hmm.
[:[00:39:45] Chantelle: Yeah.
[:[00:39:47] Chantelle: And it's really hard to, you know, I remember being, you know, in my teens or my twenties and my first, um, you know, defense was, was. I thought I was. Yeah, for sure. Yeah, for sure. You know, I've been burnt. I'd been, I had horrible boss, I'd had this, I'd had that. So I get that. Not everyone's gonna trust you straight away.
I think that's probably the biggest challenge is, is letting your walls down and, and, and having the team know that they can trust that you've got their best interest at heart. Takes time. And I'm a Scorpio, so I haven't got the easiest roles to get into either, you know, but once you do, like, I've got some, some of my crew, they've been there for nine years, eight years.
Like I've got five, seven, like I've got some really long termers. I've got people that have done their apprenticeship with us that are now stayed on and, you know, I've so much admiration for them. One of the girls even had us in her, um, her vows of her wedding, talking about her promotion at work and stuff.
And I remember sitting there and I grabbed Jason's leg, like, I've got goosebumps now. And she was talking about her promotion at work and I was just like. Wow. Like those little milestones, you sometimes need a reminder of how special they are in people's lives and not to overlook them,
[:[00:41:00] Chantelle: you know?
[:[00:41:14] Chantelle: Yeah,
[:[00:41:21] Chantelle: yeah,
[:[00:41:23] Chantelle: yeah,
[:[00:41:30] Chantelle: And sometimes they don't let me in for a while. They've got the walls up. They're like, you know, and like,
you jump on those hair pages and it's just, they're, it's shredded like salon owners and this whole battle between like
[:[00:41:42] Chantelle: working in the,
[:[00:41:44] Chantelle: oh,
[:[00:41:44] Chantelle: sometimes I'm just like, guys
if we actually invested all that energy of fighting between ourselves and invested it into us collectively raising our prices, let's talk about a haircut. If we actually all just put our haircuts up to a certain point, like a call out fee for the washing, fix it machine, right? He's a hundred bucks, 150 before he gets to your house.
But yet we've just got such low barriers to entry that it's like, well, I, that's ridiculous to charge that much for a haircut. And we start fighting each other. You know, you can drive A BMW or you can drive a datson. The choice is yours. You don't have to drive a certain type of car. You don't have to charge a certain type of, you know, for your haircuts.
But there's no point shredding each other up about it. It's just, it's crazy. It's crazy to me.
[:[00:42:37] Chantelle: Yeah.
[:[00:42:47] Chantelle: Yeah. And our wages,
I'm on this roadmap. How do we get our stylist to a $100k Right. This is the roadmap because like, it's like, it's so hard to charge that amount of money to then pay that amount of money, but if we, if we can build your skill set up, if we can hone in really hard, really strong, really fast, build you to a certain, we can raise your prices, we can raise your wage.
You know, it's like, where are we at? Like, let's just, that's, that's the investment, right? Let's, let's upskill you, let's, let's get this to a higher level so I can charge more. Can pay you more.
[:[00:43:32] Chantelle: dunno.
[:[00:43:34] Chantelle: Yeah.
[:[00:43:39] Chantelle: Yeah,
[:And he earns twice the amount as her
[:[00:43:50] Jen: hour week.
[:[00:43:54] Jen: Oh yeah. I,
[:[00:43:55] Jen: understand the why, but like when you are a young person coming into an industry, thinking about the career that you're gonna have in front of you. And that's like, you're both coming home at the end of the week and you're both tired and you've both worked on and you've got this. It's like, hmm,
[:[00:44:12] Jen: okay.
Do you know what I mean?
[:[00:44:14] Jen: yeah, that's one of the things to, we really have to think about is, well, if we want to keep people it, everybody needs to elevate so that we can all be retaining.
[:[00:44:34] Jen: yeah,
[:We've just gotta take that pathway to get you there.
[:[00:44:52] Chantelle: Yeah, so there's roles that don't just mean you are slogging it out on the floor for, you know, 40 plus hours. Like my team do 37 hours a week, get paid for 38. We don't really go over unless they're like, Hey Tyler, I wanna go to Europe for two months.
I'm like, okay, we need to build up some time. You know, but it's sort of like we work the, I reckon we are one of the hardest working industries. Even Jason says it, he goes, my boys used to have Smoko lunch, you know, when he came on board, you guys will laugh. He's like, I've decided the whole salon's gonna shut down at 12 o'clock and we are gonna have our lunch break then, and everyone's gonna sit together.
And I was like, um, it's not gonna happen.
[:[00:45:32] Chantelle: Bless his socks. Yes, I know.
[:[00:45:37] Chantelle: Less, I know. How would a cutie, but yeah, it's just like, he's just like, what do you mean? You know, like, my team works so hard. Like they, they really do. And um. We're forever trying to work on their timing just to, to ensure that they're not running, running that mile of like, you know, running into the next one.
Into the next one. And that doesn't feel good as a hairdresser to be behind all day. It gives you anxiety.
[:[00:46:01] Jen: and we've all got enough of that.
[:[00:46:04] Sam: Is just important. It's like, and I just don't know how, it's like such a big industry and such an
[:[00:46:12] Sam: was so, I think as the industry becomes, the younger generation coming through,
[:[00:46:19] Sam: generation don't give a shit about their charging. They're like, I'm charging, this is the price
[:[00:46:24] Sam: Whereas we've still got the older generation who are very much just like a haircut shouldn't be more than $32,
[:[00:46:31] Jen: gosh.
[:You know, my mom worked for a clock for NAB Bank for 30 something years, gets the clock, and she's like, did my 30 years? Got my clock. Like,
[:[00:47:03] Chantelle: sorry,
[:[00:47:05] Chantelle: I'll give you a clock,
[:[00:47:08] Chantelle: but like.
[:[00:47:10] Chantelle: Yeah, it's like crazy. But then I also think, I don't know if I'd want that kind of loyalty either, because
every time someone has left Telleish, I've grown even my, my top performers that I was so scared to lose because people were able to step up into their shoes.
You know, I always say it's like
I always reference it like a book, a chapter, a chapter book and you know, a page gets ripped out and they were a really important page of the Telleish story, but then it opens up a blank canvas for the next people to jump that page and, and start filling in the blanks. And it's just kind of, I get excited by a fresh little shift.
Don't worry when it happens all at once. I cry like every other owner. Let's not sugarcoat it. There's some days where I'm like, you are kidding me. You know, the old can we have a chat in the office? And I'm like, what's going on? I just call 'em now. I'm like, you have to pull over on the side of the road.
What's going on?
[:[00:48:03] Chantelle: Um. Yeah, so I'm still human. Don't worry. Don't get, don't let it allude, like, get an illusion there that it's, it's easy, but it's definitely easier once you lean into the, the stuff that goes wrong. For sure.
[:[00:48:23] Chantelle: I have had so many, um, I think, oh, what's one of the biggest ones? One of the hardest times was separating the business from my sister, like, and, and, and talking about finances and money. And then our relationship, we, you know, she was having babies.
I was still flat broke. It was just a whole like, you know, that was really challenging. But, um. We worked around it and you know, we worked through that. But I think as an owner, I think the, when you're in that six to seven people and, and one leaves, it's like go backwards. It's danger zone. The beauty is if you scale it, if you get up to that 10 sort of people, you can, you can absorb someone leaving and you can filter it back through.
I think
in the early days I used to build independent stars at Telleish. Like I'd be like, I'm gonna build you up. Which, you know, and every post would be like. Betty did this, Betty did that, Betty's amazing, blah, blah, blah. And then Betty would leave and I'd be like, and they're like, well, what other styles do you have here?
And I'd be thinking, crap, I've gotta make sure that this is, like, there's, everyone's getting a little tiny piece of that. You know, sometimes when you've got someone on your shoulder going, I want more, I want more. As an owner, you're like, yeah, let's go. What do you wanna do? Like, you know, where do you wanna take this?
Sometimes you can miss out on the people that are sidelined, that are still performing really well, doing their job, but they're just, they're not in your face and they're not taking up so much of your time. So
I think one of the biggest lessons is to sometimes put aside the people that absorb all your energy and just try and reach down to the, down to the sideline and see who's there that may need it.
Um, I've got two business coaches. I'm looking for a third. So I think the biggest lesson would be to invest in yourself. I've done lots of therapy, which I think is really important. Um, I did therapy with a horse. That was really good. That was really good.
[:[00:50:18] Chantelle: It was really, really good. It, it taught me, it taught me a lot about myself and how I can be perceived in team meetings and things like that.
Um,
[:[00:50:28] Chantelle: I just think,
[:[00:50:34] Chantelle: yeah,
[:[00:50:38] Chantelle: I've always had one.
[:[00:50:40] Chantelle: Yeah.
[:And as you scale your business, you are gonna need people that can scale that with you. You are gonna need business coaches that work in a different way. Like, I could never coach you and I would never say I would because where you are at scale wise is not I've been and I'm, and so you need people that are scaling businesses and leading in a different way. So you have to keep evolving that.
[:[00:51:10] Chantelle: I think like one of my coaches I've had for 12 years and he is now like what he did with me, he's now doing with like our floor managers and now even he wants to do it with our apprentice team. But then he's also really shifted that coaching to, at my team and he just does one-on-one touch points with like, people that maybe need, you know, just someone to chat to or work, you know, something that you don't wanna talk to your boss about or your boyfriend or, so they, they can take on different hats for sure, but sometimes you've gotta really guide them too.
Like, Hey, I need you to do this for my business. Or, and then I've got another one now that I've. Taken on for the last year, and she's doing a lot of work with like our floor managers. So we've got an off the floor person every single day that is purely off the floor. It handles all the overflow. Double formulates can handle tricky consultations, can help quote, 'cause
quoting is actually the biggest money losing opportunity there.
It's like, you know, taking away that choice. Oh, she's only got short hair, dull that hair's to her bra strap. That's long. Come on. You know? I mean, I used to be that stylist. Oh. But she's, she's lost her husband and she's a single mom and, oh, just, just a fringe shrimp. Don't worry about it. You know, we've all been there.
That's what makes us,
our hearts are what makes us great business people, but also bad business people.
[:[00:52:28] Chantelle: um,
[:[00:52:31] Chantelle: really,
[:[00:52:34] Chantelle: oh.
[:[00:52:40] Sam: like, I don't understand why you don't charge more than us. And I'm just like,
[:[00:52:44] Sam: the people I've looked after for like 12 years.
[:[00:52:50] Sam: it's stupid because it's your business, it's what's in your pocket and you're working harder for it,
[:the margins are tougher these days. I'm gonna be honest. This is the toughest we've ever felt in the whole time that we've been open. I was just chatting to Teagan yesterday and we were trying to find a organizational chart thing for Instagram. I said, what for that app? Are you joking?
And then I went onto another thing and, and then it was 99 a month. And I was like, oh my God. Like when did this happen? Like, it's crazy. Yeah.
[:[00:53:29] Jen: yeah. It's
[:[00:53:31] Jen: like the sell on floor add-ons, it's all our add-ons, all those things that we have to add on to run a business, you know?
[:[00:53:44] Chantelle: Mm-hmm.
[:People are
[:[00:53:55] Sam: and
[:[00:53:57] Sam: I'm like, that's in a small business babes.
[:But until we get you into that next. Like getting taxed more means you have grown your wage into a next bracket, which means you can get a loan for something more. But what we're gonna do is open, okay, you're getting taxed 32%. We're gonna open you a raise account where you can gain back a percentage of that.
You know that you are gonna grow interest on the commission. So really we're gonna get it down to 17% or something. Oh, okay. That's a good idea. Or,
[:[00:54:43] Chantelle: mm
[:[00:54:49] Chantelle: mm-hmm.
[:[00:54:50] Jen: No, you don't.
[:[00:54:58] Chantelle: Super.
[:[00:55:05] Chantelle: And they can,
[:[00:55:15] Chantelle: know, but then I'd rather them not pay their tax and come up with this huge tax bill at the end of the year and then be on the Westgate in Melbourne wanting to jump. Like, I'd rather still
[:[00:55:25] Chantelle: sure that they're okay because I feel like the people that don't wanna own a business just wanna do that.
They wanna come in, they don't, you know, we are not mandatory with socials or anything. You don't have to run a social account. You don't have to go home and, and reply to dms and do all that kind of work. Like, you wanna work for me, work for you 37 hours. I will take care of your bookings. I will take care of getting your after shots.
We will help you. You know, um, do all of that. But it's sort of like, 'cause that's the benefit, right? That's the beauty of, of taking away all that. Your supers there, which is so important.
[:[00:55:56] Chantelle: So important.
[:it's such a conversation for me because that's why I'm like, I see, I work with salon owners who are
[:[00:56:06] Sam: I'm always like, you
[:[00:56:09] Sam: sure. Yeah. Like I
[:[00:56:10] Sam: books and
[:[00:56:11] Sam: you would be better working for somebody because if you are gonna go out on your own, make sure that you're including all of the tax, all of the super and holiday pay and sick pay, which is six weeks a year.
Like
[:[00:56:23] Sam: included into it, and then put in your stock and your rent and your insurances and then look at what that looks like because it is a whole nother job to take all of this on.
[:[00:56:36] Sam: if you are making the same amount to work for someone else and you can just walk in for 36 hours and walk out and be done.
[:[00:56:43] Sam: and you know, when people say, oh, people, everyone just wants to work for themselves now, they all wanna be, you know, solo artists. I'm like, they actually don't because the behind the scenes is so much more and once they do it, they're like, oh, I actually
[:But it's just, yeah. It's, it's a, it's a fun industry, isn't it?
[:[00:57:18] Chantelle: Ever evolving. I know. I feel so blessed that I chose, I chose this industry because, you know, we can sit here and we can say, you can't, it's hard to make money as a hairdresser and all the rest of it, but it's also not, it also can, it also can be bloody amazing if you lean into it and, and have someone pull you through and say, come on, let's go.
Like, you know, I'm so open to that, that door knock of anyone that wants to, you know, I even say to them sometimes, do you want your own salon? What do you wanna do? Like, what do we, you know, we, I'm like, I'm coming. What are we doing? What are we doing? But it's not a taboo topic, you know, because it's, yeah, I've seen it all.
I've been through it all. It's just, tell me what you want outta your life. Let me see if I can be part of it. Like Tegan who works for us now, she know she's, we've just started, a little side business together, which is cool. 'cause she was like, I wanna own something. I wanna do something.
So, you know, we've created. Created the tea, which is Teagan and Tell, which is cute. So all the names love a name, love a name and a business. So we're doing that together. And like, she came on board five years ago and then, you know, was just working for me, but she was someone that said like, you know what, what could we do?
I'm like, I don't know, let's just come up with something together. So I love, I love those sorts of journeys with team members as well.
[:[00:58:31] Sam: You are
[:Yeah, it's exciting.
[:[00:58:46] Sam: yeah, she, I saw her right at somewhere and I just text
[:[00:58:50] Sam: pardon me. What is this?
[:[00:59:03] Jen: yes.
[:[00:59:06] Sam: Yeah. I agree. There is, so even as I work through the salon some days I'm like, that needs to be done. That needs to be created.
[:[00:59:26] Sam: I love. All right. Tell what is your leaving advice for a
[:[00:59:34] Sam: size personally or professionally or something you are just like, that was a really good, like we could talk to you for hours 'cause your
[:[00:59:44] Jen: Yeah,
[:[00:59:45] Jen: I think it's really nice too. I will just say while you're having a think about what that is, I was in a meeting this morning with a couple of BDMs for a hair company I said, oh, you know, I've gotta go, um, I've gotta go and jump on her record a podcast. They're like, oh, who you recording with?
It's like, oh, tell, you know, Chantel from t. She's like, oh, she's just amazing. she's just so, I'm like, yeah, I totally agree. And they're like, so what are you gotta go home and do hair, makeup? It's like, no way. I trust that when the three of us get on this zoom today, we'll all be rocking a ponytail or a.
[:[01:00:28] Jen: in that?
[:my advice would be. The one star reviews, the people leaving the fair work claims, the work cover claims, the negative clients, the people that don't work out sit aside.
Put your emotions aside as hard as it is and look at it and think, what can I take away from it to learn for the next time? 'cause the minute you lean into the problem, even whether you are right or wrong, there's a problem. Some, there's a miscommunication or there's, this has happened. Look, we'll call it, there is two percenters that I like to put in, the two percenters that are just crappy situations that you would never have won anyway.
And they go in that 2% bin. But everything else, there's a lesson to learn from it. And if you can turn your little emotional heart off for a minute, see what that lesson is, and then grow from it and put it away like a problem would last a week. Maybe two bottles of wine. And now it's like, we are gonna talk about this problem for an hour, especially with your partner at home, right?
Because all we do is talk about the problems at work or you've got half an hour we talk about this problem, but then we're gonna talk about the solution for the rest of that hour. So it's like flipping it instead of it being like, I'm gonna tell my friend about this problem and this person at work and whatever, the problem's small, you draw that line and then you problem solve underneath it so that it's not the other way around.
[:[01:01:46] Jen: Yeah, that's very
[:[01:01:48] Jen: advice.
[:[01:01:50] Chantelle: Yeah.
[:[01:01:53] Chantelle: Yeah.
[:[01:02:01] Chantelle: Yep.
[:[01:02:11] Chantelle: Yep.
[:[01:02:15] Chantelle: Yep,
[:[01:02:26] Chantelle: you do. You do your.
[:[01:02:30] Chantelle: I think, you are so right, like living an hour and a half away, having two kids. Like Jason and I used to go for two days each at the salon and stay overnight and, you know, bust out 12 hour days, 12 hour day and then head home for a few days extra. I knew going into this maternity leave that if Telleish stayed the same or we went down in revenue, that that was okay because I was richer in life, right.
I was gonna be okay because the value of what I've been able to have is like, it would bring tears to anyone that you are like, how this time is just so precious when, you know, you just dunno what's around the corner for anyone. But , I think I'm quicker at making decisions.
Post babies than perhaps before. I'd like a, you know, a rogue employee that was troublesome or a little bit and I'd think, oh, I like a little, a little underdog or a little, you know, this. And I'd wanna work a lot. I'd wanna work. But now I think the tether is a bit small and my time is a bit more precious.
So I think, um, it's funny, your capacity for bull crab
[:[01:03:32] Chantelle: is very small. Yeah. So I think, I get this fire after I've had a kid. I know. Samara, you get it when you're pregnant or is it after? Yeah.
[:[01:03:41] Sam: after.
[:Um, and it's so hard to do a turnaround trip to the city for two, like two hours there in traffic feeding, trying to, and then see the team and then someone has to walk the baby around 'cause I'm exclusively breastfeeding. And then to try and turn around two hours, driving with a new, it's a lot, right? It's just impossible.
It's near impossible. But the team have just been so respectful of like, Hey, I know you've got a bit on, or hey, which is so nice, they haven't needed me. But I think, I think also removing over the years, I've removed myself a little more from being the first accessible person and now there are people in between.
So I think that's the blessing of a bigger team is that, you know, it gets filtered by the time it gets to me.
[:[01:04:30] Chantelle: Um, but still, you know, we'll get a bad review or we'll get a negative client and they're like, tell we need you because I'm, I'm so easy to talk. Like I can just cut through the emotion, like, let's just hash it out.
What are you unhappy with? How can we fix it for you? Where do we move forward? You know, without, I think it's all in your tone and all the rest of it. But yes, tell post kids is just gonna enjoy this next, I don't know, I wanna get to 20 years with Telleish and then see what, see what the future holds of after that.
You know, there's no timeline. I don't have a future plan. I'm a go with the flow kind of gal. But, time with the kids is, is of, is rich in life for sure. Over money. Yeah,
[:[01:05:09] Sam: and I think that's a huge one for you because you built Telleish so successfully and it was the success. You can see through money
[:[01:05:20] Sam: that. You have an incredible home. Like Chantel's House is just so awesome, you did without for so long to
[:[01:05:29] Sam: beautiful luxuries that you've always wanted,
[:[01:05:32] Sam: do that in your twenties and
[:[01:05:46] Sam: But the house before the, the house you have now, and it
[:[01:05:51] Sam: full Reno for like how long?
[:But that was the, the hustle in that, that got us this, you know, so there's always a background story. You know, there was no inheritance or there was no money. Like if Alicia hadn't had one big brother, I wouldn't have a salon today. That's just the black and white of it. 'cause I would never have
[:[01:06:26] Sam: But that your story becomes so
[:[01:06:29] Sam: like inspiring because
[:[01:06:33] Sam: the,
the principle behind that I'm trying to get is it
[:[01:06:36] Sam: overnight.
[:[01:06:37] Sam: not gonna just all of a sudden build this massive business with this team and these structures. Like you have really made sure that you put your business on the forefront for a
[:[01:06:47] Sam: and how you ran your personal life.
So how you built those houses and how you and
[:[01:06:52] Sam: to get what you want. Now, it is a whole process, so
[:say yes to everything. Sit in the uncomfortable get, like, if you've got a boss that is, uh, saying to you, Hey, what do you wanna do? Like, where do you wanna, like, if you've got ideas, go to her about them.
You just never know where, or him, you just never know where that can take you sort of thing. Or, and just, you know, you, you can't work 50% and expect a hundred in return,
[:[01:07:29] Chantelle: Yeah.
[:[01:07:31] Jen: I know.
[:[01:07:35] Sam: about 95 parts of this, because I
[:[01:07:38] Sam: so yeah.
[:[01:07:42] Chantelle: cool. I know. I'm like, we scratched the surface. I know,
[:[01:07:47] Chantelle: I know,
[:[01:07:54] Chantelle: I know. I was like, can I legally say all this?
[:[01:08:00] Chantelle: Oh,
[:[01:08:01] Chantelle: I know.
[:[01:08:03] Sam: forum like
[:[01:08:08] Jen: that for the group chat.
[:[01:08:16] Chantelle: It'd be cool to write a book. Hey,
[:[01:08:19] Chantelle: not of me, just of like other stories.
[:[01:08:24] Chantelle: Yeah, I know, right? I know the world we live in. It's tall, poppy. It's like a take her down.
[:[01:08:32] Jen: Yeah.
[:[01:08:34] Chantelle: Thanks mate. Aw,
[:[01:08:36] Chantelle: you.
[:[01:08:48] Jen: it's actually really nice to have a osi. Uh, it's positive, a positive spin on the big team journey.
[:[01:08:55] Jen: know what I mean? Like it is really nice to be like, yeah, it's great. This is why it's great.
[:[01:09:16] Sam: I am like, go small tell's like, go big.
[:[01:09:24] Sam: that. You're like, go hard or go home.
[:[01:09:27] Jen: good lesson is that no matter which way you wanna take it, there's always a path that can feel rich in life and successful.
[:[01:09:35] Jen: where that journey's gonna take you, and no matter which path you choose to take, can still be really rewarding
[:[01:09:59] Jen: for the best.
[:[01:09:59] Chantelle: Yeah. So you gotta work on your people, get that demanding, and then that'll scale your team. Yeah.
[:[01:10:06] Chantelle: Yep.
[:What do you feel like is the key for that for you of retaining these like big and
[:[01:10:13] Sam: clientele because you need a huge clientele, you know,
[:[01:10:17] Sam: a week. You need a huge clientele
[:That's cool. Come to my apprentice. Come to this person. So we are very open and transparent about what's your life needing right now. How can we support you and your finances inside Telleish? So you can have a haircut for $75 or you can have a haircut for 275. So your life is gonna dictate, are you shopping at Sports Girl or are you shopping at Mecca?
Are you doing this or are you doing, you know, but I can, I can incorporate that under one roof. So why, why break the formula of the color or the support of front of house or the booking or the luxurious basins or this, or
why leave our four walls 'cause they think they can't afford us anymore, when really you can, we've just gotta have a really transparent conversation about it.
And it's, it's, people feel like they're, oh, oh, I can't afford the haircut. Or, Hey, like when we have someone leaving, it's like, where, what do you wanna do? Do you wanna make this cheaper? Would you like to make this more expensive? Where do you, where do you wanna sit skill wise? You, you have the tiniest trim.
Can I, can I advise you? Let's drop this down to our, my apprentice at Learn Off Me went dust your ends off every six, eight weeks and save you, um, you know, a hundred dollars on your haircut. And they're like, oh my God, thank you so much. You know,
[:[01:11:53] Chantelle: it's, it's, it's that making that uncomfortable conversation comfortable and then trying to keep them in the four walls.
[:[01:12:03] Chantelle: Yeah.
[:[01:12:08] Sam: this is what I mean though, for like 10 years and be like, and,
[:So why not have that clientele? And, and all COVID taught me this. COVID was the one that said, we've lost our jobs, especially in Victoria. How do we, I hate even saying that word anymore, but like, how do we, you know, I don't think I can afford this anymore. Yes, you can. You can be a training model for us.
You don't even need to pay anymore. Let's get you in on our Wednesday night trainings. And then they do those trainings. They go, guess what? I got a job. I can come back to you. And I'm like, great. Sit in my chair. So it's like.
[:[01:13:04] Chantelle: It's not, it's not taboo. Yeah. But it's, people still don't know it. There's still people that go, oh, I didn't think that was there.
So it's, I think it's explaining it in your socials, explaining it in your website on your front desk. Like having that conversation, like, you know when people get bill shock and they're like, oh, I didn't think it'd be that much. Hey, just for next time, why don't you let me rebook you? I'll do your color and such and such, or do your haircut and we can save 80 bucks.
Like, oh my God. Amazing. So it's like we, we dictate it. We don't allow them to sort of, we bring it up so that they feel comfortable.
[:[01:13:36] Chantelle: Hmm.
[:[01:13:38] Chantelle: Sorry.
[:[01:13:43] Sam: we're gonna have Jen have this whole conversation after we get off the phone like.
[:[01:13:46] Jen: Agreed. Agreed.
[:[01:13:51] Chantelle: are you
[:[01:13:53] Chantelle: Oh, I love her. I love her.
[:[01:13:57] Jen: And like bingo. Same.
[:[01:13:59] Chantelle: Uh, that's cool. She's the best, isn't she?
[:[01:14:05] Chantelle: You are welcome, darling. Thanks for inviting me, pushing me to do it.
[:[01:14:11] Sam: think of things over time that you're like, I wanna talk about this on a forum,
[:[01:14:18] Sam: zoom, because I just feel like you'll be like, oh, this is a good conversation. Like the pricing conversation. Like,
[:[01:14:24] Jen: Yeah.
[:[01:14:26] Chantelle: Yeah, we could dive into some real money savers for business owners to generate more money in the salons and stuff like that. Like little
[:[01:14:34] Jen: Oh
[:[01:14:35] Jen: no, I'm Well, no. Do finish with that and we'll just lock in the next date. Like today, Richard, lock
[:[01:14:43] Jen: Yeah.
[:[01:14:51] Chantelle: Yeah, for sure. Mm.
[:[01:14:57] Chantelle: Okay.
[:[01:14:59] Chantelle: I'll think of some ideas and then you guys can tell me what you like.
[:[01:15:03] Sam: Just
[:[01:15:04] Sam: things. We'll
[:[01:15:05] Sam: time we've been in. So welcome. This is Sel rather podcast with Jen Samara and Chantel.
[:[01:15:14] Sam: new with
[:[01:15:17] Sam: We'll go with
[:[01:15:33] Sam: why
[:[01:15:35] Jen: Thank
[:You, I think, I think such and such from, you know, from um, the cash and carry. He sounds so sexy on the phone. You speak to him for a year and then you go in, you're like, no, it's not the case. Oh God.
[:[01:15:59] Chantelle: No. I mean, like you've got No,
[:[01:16:02] Chantelle: no,
[:[01:16:03] Chantelle: no. I'm saying your sex, your voice is sexy. Yeah. Your voice is really sexy.
No, I'm saying there's been times where I've thought other people's voices were sexy and then they were not sexy. But you, you've got a great voice stuff.
[:[01:16:19] Chantelle: You guys are killing it. I love listening to you too. You doing such a good job. Yeah. It's never boring. It's like you compliment each other really well, and, Yeah.
Keep doing it.
[:[01:16:29] Jen: Yeah.
[:[01:16:35] Sam: Jen
[:[01:16:36] Sam: how to
[:[01:16:38] Sam: Oh, when you've got your two hour drive.
[:[01:16:41] Sam: you've heard your name be on there. 'cause I have
[:[01:16:44] Jen: Yes.
[:[01:16:48] Chantelle: I know. When you were doing Monique McMahon, I was like, oh, she knows my name.
[:[01:16:55] Chantelle: I love her.
[:[01:16:56] Chantelle: I know, right.
[:[01:16:58] Chantelle: I know. So good.
[:[01:17:00] Chantelle: She's,
[:[01:17:03] Chantelle: Hmm.
[:[01:17:07] Jen: Yeah. And in truths,
[:[01:17:09] Jen: we often have conversations where we're like, are we still gonna do this?
[:[01:17:14] Jen: you just get another message from someone saying, thank you so much.
[:[01:17:18] Jen: week. I'm like, yep. See you at the next recording.
[:[01:17:22] Chantelle: Yeah.
[:[01:17:25] Jen: Yeah.
[:[01:17:33] Chantelle: Mm-hmm.
[:hopefully someone's listening to this and going, yeah, I'm worth that.
I'm
[:[01:17:39] Sam: and my time is precious, and if I don't charge it, then I'm not. Then what's the point? Because I've gotta support this family that I have or
[:[01:17:48] Sam: like, you know?
[:[01:17:50] Sam: I can't pay my team more and I wanna pay my
[:[01:17:52] Sam: that they're with me. So,
[:[01:17:54] Sam: you know, these conversations are that important in that way because we can give back in a way that doesn't cost somebody else.
[:[01:18:17] Sam: Mm-hmm.
[:[01:18:24] Jen: Yes.
[:[01:18:29] Sam: Yes.
[:[01:18:32] Jen: that's so good.
[:day out. Just,
[:[01:18:48] Sam: Yep.
[:[01:18:50] Jen: I'm not gonna lie, we're probably gonna keep talking
[:[01:18:52] Jen: So I'm just gonna cut this one off and say thanks for listening and Chantel will definitely be back and we are very grateful to Chantel for joining us today.
[:[01:19:00] Jen: Richard will cut the recording now, and then we can continue to talk for.
[: