I wanted to share the education story of one of the incredible salons we work with. Commitment to education, growth and learning can be a challenge when you’re trying to grow a business and it’s something to be admired when you see it done well. In particular, those that structure daily habits to foster that ongoing education and growth. Sage Hair embodies all of these things. Based in Longreach in central western Queensland, Sage is approximately 1200 kilometers from Brisbane, where we’re based. Longreach is a rural community of around 3000 people and Sage is a vibrant, modern up market salon offering, with an amazing culture and environment where guests love the visit. It’s established by Casey Kent, an award winning stylist herself and Sage provides a guest experience that’s unrivaled in the region. The cornerstone of this is their commitment to education and training of the entire team.
Casey is incredibly clear on the power investing in the team. I think that’s born from her apprenticeship, where she trained with some upmarket salons in Rockhampton. The commitments no more evident than in lengths that the salon goes to with their most recent apprentices. Jacinta and Lily, access the very best education they can. Casey’s empowered both of them to research and take control of their training, to find the college that best suits their needs. Lily’s recently graduated, but both the girls have made the 2 500 kilometer round trip to MIG on a regular basis. This quarterly trip to college includes rising at sunrise on a Sunday, catching a flight from Longreach to Barcaldine, waiting for a connecting 3 hour flight from Barcaldine to Brisbane, staying with relatives once they get here, and usually spending a whole week at MIG, to develop, be assessed and create new skills. Between visits, they stay connected by working through our online portal, and then they meet with their MIG trainer regularly via zoom.
Being prepared to invest in their own careers, and understanding the value of education are some of the traits that ensure that both just Jacinta and Lily are off to a stellar start in the hairdressing careers. By investing in themselves both of them have received support in kind from Casey and the team at Sage Hair. Casey believes there’s no boundaries to accessing quality education and training, regardless of location, or size and scope of the salon. And I suppose that positive culture and environment really rubs off on the two girls. By traveling and being away, both Jacinta and Lily are able to immerse themselves in their education and create networks with other emerging stylists from all over the state. Inspiration and techniques they get they are then able to bring these back to the salon to help and to inspire the team, and that supports the ongoing investment Sage have made.
While it is too often the catch cry that the current generation of emerging stylists aren’t prepared to invest in themselves and that they won’t go to the links necessary to build a career, Jacinta and Lily are evidence that this isn’t the case.
At MIG, we work with many household names in hairdressing to build their teams capacity and technical skills. We’d love to work with you and if you’d like to explore how that can happen, and provide advice on how we can leverage your greatest asset, which is your people. It’d be great to have a chat. Thank you.