BONUS: Small Business Day Special! How-to Level-Up and Unlock $$$ Working in the Beauty Industry with Lead by L'Oréal

0:00The following podcast is a dear media production.

0:07Welcome to Breaking Beauty, the podcast all about the breakthrough people, products, and moments in beauty. We're your hosts, Jill Dunn and Carleen Higgins.

0:20Hello and welcome back to Breaking Beauty podcast. I'm your host, Carleen Higgins, and I'm here with my fierce co-host, Jill Dunn. Hello, darling. Hi, Carlene, and hello, Breaking Beauty pod fam. We're almost at the weekend. You know, we're coming into your feeds for a little bonus this week. And longtime listeners know that we are two beauty editors turned beauty podcasters. And we're in your feeds each and every week chatting about the breakthrough people, products, and moments in beauty. And today we are delighted to deliver an uninterrupted bonus episode on this Friday in partnership with our friends at LEED, the Rolf's Global Institute powered by L 'Oreal Professional USA.

0:59So this is the award-winning first ever college and university degree program designed specifically for beauty professionals. And it's fitting that we're chatting about this now, given that tomorrow is National Small Business Day. Yay! And so many amazing individuals own a small business in beauty, whether they're a salon or spa owner or an independent creative in the industry. So love that this timing seems just right. Yes. And Lead by L 'Oreal is single-handedly transforming the beauty industry from trade to profession by offering a Bachelor of Science degree in beauty and wellness. So cool.

1:36And today we're joined by Frances Tesmer, founder and CEO of Lead Rolf's Global Institute. This is Frances's sophomore appearance on our show. She first joined us back in 2022, and she is with us alongside Sherry Lynn Smart, who graduated from the program last year. And Sherry Lynn is a Redken Regional Education Manager at L 'Oreal. I love Redken, by the way. Get me that Sabrina Carpenter here, please. She's having begun her career as an educator and an artist back in 2001. And now she leads in-salon and virtual training experiences, empowering beauty professionals through education and industry innovation.

2:17Yes. And I know a lot of you listening are in the biz as well. So if you're interested in a career in the beauty industry, or you're already a beautician, maybe you're interested in a degree that can help empower your business or propel you to executive status at a beauty company, you're definitely going to want to tune in today. And just ahead, we're going to be chatting about how the LEAD program works, the new international apprenticeship program launching this year, and what Sherry Lynn's experience has been like having gone through the program. Yes. And for more information about the program that we're going to be chatting about today, you could visit leadinstitute.degree.

2:56Welcome to the show, Frances and Sherry Lynn. Thank you so much. It's wonderful to be with the two of you and happy to be here. Amazing. Frances, you were on the show. We talked about this just before we jumped on the mic. This was a few years ago now. And I kind of want to rewind to how you got this whole program started. So you collaborated with a team of academics and higher education specialists over the course of 11 years, I read to create this, you know, innovative higher education degree program. So tell us why it took over a decade and what was the breakthrough moment that finally made your vision a reality?

3:40Yes, absolutely. Everybody forever for a long time has seen the beauty industry as like a secondhand industry and its workforces as a group of people, as a population that are not so important, maybe not so educated, maybe not many many things so that understanding of the beauty industry itself and particularly the workforce has been in the beginning now we are over that for the most part a challenge right so when you go to the academia and say I want to create a degree for this population the very first thing is like, what do you want to do and why? Right. So you have to overcome that piece of it.

4:38Right. Let me explain to you. The beauty industry is over 800 billion dollars. The beauty matters. Beauty has impact. We need beauty and so on and so on. So just that psychology or the image or the understanding of people on all fronts, including beauty professionals themselves, was a challenge to begin with. And then, of course, you have to navigate all the system within the academia world that on its own has its own politics, has its own system, legal system, administration system, et cetera, et cetera. So that's that part of it that that really took a long time to do. I mean, honestly, congratulations to you, because I do think that, you know, there may have been, again, certificates that you could create.

5:41You know, anybody could probably create some sort of educational institute that could be at a community center and give a certificate. But to actually have a bachelor and a diploma at a proper degree, I imagine is is challenging and a whole different thing. You know, you're so right. You know, it's interesting you say that because a lot of people told me, well, why not a certificate? Why not a seminar? Why not? Because that's been happening and continued. No, you are not letting this population have also access to higher education, accredited higher education nationally and internationally. Why do you think any they don't deserve that being they don't need that and see that that's not important to the rest of us?

6:42and the work. Why do you think that? And then I would challenge them that, look, your mindset is wrong to begin with. You don't even know what these beauty professionals do on a daily basis. How much psychology they need, how much science they need, how much math they need, how much communication. I mean, the list goes business, acumen, marketing. if we want to set them up for success, financial success, not to mention that it is time for the world to respect this profession. This is why we've had so many outsiders come into the beauty industry and they say, you know, oh, I had nothing to do with the beauty industry, but they come along because they have the business acumen, but they don't have the hands-on skills.

7:36But it's true. The industry has evolved completely. And now we see makeup artists who are running very successful lines and some of them try to create a brand, but they may not be as successful because they don't fully understand it. So it's true that we're, you know, we're living in a different world now. And I think it's great that there's really this 360 education for people, as you say, to really invest in the industry that they're passionate about and get that payoff instead of always, you know, relying on on just that one system where you're doing service after service and you can't grow beyond that.

8:18And Sherry Lynn, you're in a bit of a different spot because you worked at a company already when you took the program. So I'm very curious to talk to you and find out what your experience was like and what made you decide to go back to school to get your bachelor's degree at LEAD. Well, first off, and thank you for having me, number one. And number two, I'm super passionate about this industry. and why I wanted to go back to school is because I felt like I was super smart and I was successful in my industry behind the chair, right? I moved to a corporate position, but I didn't feel like there was some gap that needed to be filled.

8:59Some of the business acumen, as Francis was talking about, some of the self-confidence you have when you feel like you've earned this education that lets your voice be heard a little bit more. but really I needed to do it for myself and it really has changed my life and my career how I always say like how how I stand a lot taller today than I did like three years ago so I did it through my work and I worked full-time I graduated with straight A's and I learned so much along the way and some of the things like yeah it was so great I got to even speak at our graduation. Thank you, Francis, for that.

9:39It was amazing. But I think when it's really done, mostly for not just myself, but other beauty professionals, because you can't even imagine how many people, how many people were impacting with this, because really the hairdresser behind the chair, which we're calling beauty professionals today, really, they want to get to that next level. They need to know how to treat this beautiful profession like a business versus I heard you saying earlier that it was just like not just service after service. Yeah, correct. It's service after service after service. But how do we treat this as a business?

10:16How do we raise the bar of the industry? How do we raise the bar of how beauty professionals see themselves and what they bring to the world? And how, again, do we let them make the best living that they possibly can? Yeah. So this has really changed my life and how I feel about it. And I feel like now I have the tools to help the industry get to a higher level. Yeah. That's awesome. So question for both of you, we'll start with you, Sherry Lynn. How much of a time commitment should a person expect to invest to get a degree with lead? Like you mentioned, you were sort of working full time. So how long did it take you in total and how did you manage it all?

10:56So it took me a total of three years from start to finish. The greatest thing about this program is it allowed my beauty school hours from school and my tenure in the industry. And it gave me credits towards my first year. Right. And so then after that, we went to regular college courses all the time. Then we also had additional courses from LEED, which were really amazing as well, because that taught us a different type of relevancy of how to bring it back to your everyday life, which I really loved because that's what I'm doing. I'm still living every single day as an adult going back to school.

11:33So I would say three full years and I would say a couple hours a day if you have that is great because you're not only like you're learning, but you're studying. And as an adult going back to school, the first six months I was learning how to be a student again and understand that work-life balance. And then after that, it became a lot easier once I could manage my schedule and really know to block out priorities of time. So what I ended up doing was being able to, like time management is huge, I think in the workforce, but to really know what was important to me of eating dinner with my family was important.

12:09I blocked that on my Outlook calendar, 6.30 to 7.30, this to that, study at this time. And it just went all the way through in little blocks of time. And so maybe you could tell us, Frances, for our listeners, are there part-time programs? Are there in-person programs? Like, how is it sort of flexible to, you know, the newcomer compared to somebody who already is working full-time and might have a family? Absolutely. This program was created to be mega flexible for this population. We know most people in this space, 92 % women, many are single mothers or mothers in general or working full time.

12:59So we made this program right from the beginning with this population and their lifestyle in mind. So individuals can do the whole thing online from anywhere in the world. And to Sherri-Ann's point, we give them, as you already know, basically one year of college free of charge without them doing anything and not even paying an application fee against their beauty license. They get that 100 % free of charge. And then they only have two semesters to get a college degree. Already that you're talking eight months to one year, depending on if you're going to be full time or part time. And then you go on to university for another two year and boom, you have a bachelor degree of science or you can stay with with the associate degree.

13:54So, yes, you can do the whole thing online or if you want to go in person, you can do that, too. Most people rather do it online because they can manage their life at the same time. The degree was designed to take as little time as possibly humanly, academically is at all possible. And to give the student, because the degree is customized to this population, All of the professors are trained first by us to understand the beauty industry, to understand this population, and to customize the classes to serve this population. What was very important to us is that the knowledge they get, they can actually implement it in their professional life as well as in their personal life.

14:52Because at the end of the day, it should all be about the student, not some rules, not some policy, not some policy, but the students themselves. Now, Sherilyn, I'm wondering, you worked in the industry already. Is there something that you learned that you thought, oh, I really see what I do on a day-to-day in a totally different way in terms of something you learned? A hundred percent. I will tell you, I learned a lot of, I would say critical thinking skills of trying to put the pieces together. I felt like, again, working for a corporation, I was doing my job and I was hitting my goals. I was doing it well, but all of a sudden it started to get a little easier.

15:40and I started understanding the why and the why and just different layers of business. And I think that is what really has helped me like to understand it. It's given me a bigger global view too of what we're doing and the why behind it. So I would say that is like the number one because otherwise I was kind of on the other side of it. How you say you're going to all these skincare things and the haircare thing. I was doing a lot of the hair shows. We were doing all these beautiful looks. I mean, I did covers of magazines. I've done things like that, but it was always like the end result of it was working backwards.

16:15And so I feel like now I'm working from the inside out with a different understanding. Right. What was the class or the course that you took where you really were like, I can't be on TikTok right now. I got to study. What was the one where you were like, I'm putting in the hours here. And maybe it didn't come as natural. Like I definitely used, I can recall plenty of courses like physics and whatever. And I'm like, oh, this maybe isn't my natural forte, but I'm glad I'm learning it. And, you know, proud when you come out on the other side of it. Well, one that was really important to me was communication, because I realized that there were so many different ways of communication that we do that every single day in our lives and how everybody is different and how you're going to communicate and different like cultures and how we yeah, I mean, we're all different.

17:04So it gave me a wider perspective of who I'm talking to, what I'm talking to and how I would do that. And then the one that I might have to say that was a struggle for me the most was some of the finance classes. Oh, yeah. Because those are really hard to do and to learn, but I did learn so much. And like, fiscally, I feel like I'm so much more responsible than I've ever been. And again, really understanding just even applying some of the principles of money to life. Like it just compounds and compounds and compounds of whatever you're doing of like getting interest in it. But also like, how do I do that with my habit to make them compound on each other?

17:43You know what I mean? And just grow. So I feel like I was able to take some of that information and use it all over my life. Yeah, I love that. And Frances, I wanted to ask you about the new apprenticeship program that you have on offer now. Maybe you could tell us about that. I'm so excited about that. I don't know where to start. For the first time, those who love beauty and want to make this industry their professional career, they can do that through apprenticeship program. They don't have to necessarily go to a sort of a classic or in some cases, old fashioned, in some cases, better school, not so school.

18:30Anyway, we have all kinds of school in the US offering different programs. They don't have to do that. Now is a parallel pathway. If you wish to learn beauty through apprenticeshiping, actually hands-on inside of a salon, now that's available to you for the first time. And one of the, there are many beautiful things about that A, you learn and you get paid at the same time. So that's really good. The other thing is that we are bringing the latest education, the most modern, technologically driven education. So all of the apprentices will have access to global beauty, global vision of beauty, practical beauty, And that in one year, in one year, they can, in fact, go out of the apprenticeship program and be a great beautician, which in many cases, that's not the case when you go to a classic sort of beauty school.

19:47And it's not the fault of beauty school. They have to follow certain systems, certain things, and so on and so on. It takes two years. But when the students go out, they actually don't have real life experience. They actually cannot perform great hair or great anything, skin or makeup, whatever, on client and actually earn top money and be successful. So this is the first time ever in the beauty industry in America that we are bringing this apprenticeship program. And it's a game changer. It's just a whole new way of learning and earning and getting your license and going out in the world and actually being successful.

20:37We're bringing virtual reality to our apprenticeship program. A lot of technology whereby for the first time on your phone, on your computer, you can learn how to cut and you can learn how to color. Wow. Yes. Now you can go to classes. There is a campus though, right? If you wanted to, you can go to the physical university in Arizona, right? College, college, university. Okay. Your favorite place, Carleen. I love Arizona. I love it. Come on over. You're always invited. Canvas visit. I can volunteer for one of the haircuts, you know, the student haircuts. We love to. We love to. We'll be a fabulous mother.

21:26You have both hair. Now, Sherilyn, I wanted to ask you as well about, you did the program virtually. I wondered what that looked like for you in terms of networking. Were you able to meet other people, other graduates? Is there anyone you've kept in touch with or anything like that? A hundred percent. Yes. With that, because we're in class and where it's all virtual, we see each other's faces just like we are right now, like on a Zoom call or on a Teams call or anything like that. And so you ended up getting to know a lot of your teammates or your other fellow students. And that was really great.

22:07And they were all interactive. So it was really great. Plus, especially the ones that we did through LEAD because then we had everyone in the group together and then we would get to talk to each other. So when we met each other at the end of our journey, it was great. I felt like I already knew half people. Yeah. Yeah. That's very cool. I remember when I was in college or like a postgraduate diploma I got in publishing. And I'll never forget when our professor, like at the beginning of the semester said, look around your look around the room. These people are going to be your colleagues in the future.

22:39These people are going to hire and they're going to have, you know, they're going to be the future of the industry. And I just like never forgot that because it just reminds you of the power of networking. And a program like this definitely is going to introduce you to people from all over, I assume. I love that. So that networking also, I have to add, because we have students from all over the world as we are talking today, all over the world. So through this program, they also get to see other culture, other people, other system, because that's what Beauty does. Beauty unites us. So we need to learn that.

23:17So that's also a focus. And Sherry-Ann and all the team, they've collaborated, they supported each other. It was just fantastic to see that happening in real life. And Sherry-Lynn, I'm curious, before your degree and after, was there anything that happened for you in terms of a promotion or getting more recognition at work or anything like that? Well, I'm glad that you asked. Yes, I did get promoted to become the regional education manager. And then within that time, I got even more responsibility. So now I have like seven direct reports. And I always thank my education for this. I really feel like I've earned my seat at the table.

24:06And I felt that again just the other day because I was in a meeting that before I probably would have never been privy to. and it was just nice again to learn more about what goes on the thought process and everything else that happens to make the decision a business does and so at that moment I was really very grateful for my education and just the confidence that I have gained from all of this so yes and there are people at that same seat at the big table that went to school with me too So amazing. I love to hear that. Rise of tides. Yeah. And it's true. I mean, no matter where you work, but I can imagine in a salon, like if you move up, you're going to need to manage people.

24:48And if you don't have skills in that, it impacts everything, like the actual work culture. And I can remember years ago before I worked at a fashion magazine, I worked at a hair magazine and it was called Salon Magazine. And I remember I always remember one of the articles because it was only distributed to salon, you know, salon professionals. And one of the articles was something about gossip in the workplace. And I thought, oh, what a funny article. But it really was tapped into the salon culture and it was trying to help managers to understand that, you know, that kind of culture can end up getting really toxic.

25:30And so just things like that, that I feel like, you know, any way of helping to to educate and foster that like a lead, a leadership position to have like a healthy work environment is is so key. Right. Yeah. I like to add something to that, because what you just shared is so important. you know as we all know a lot of people from outside of this industry they come and they own to be an entrepreneur right however the beautician who work in the salon don't understand why those entrepreneurs or business owners make the decision they make have the processes so it's always this this what do you call it misunderstanding and and all of that happening between the two, which is only because of lack of education and things fall apart.

26:28And the thing is, in this industry, when you don't understand, it turns into resentment. It turns into gossip. It turns to everything that is nonproductive. And by the way, it's not beautiful. We are the beauty industry, right? We should only have a beautiful thing happening. We even see it with beauty influencers. Like they're their own mini businesses now and they have teams around them and they may have started out as a teenager and now all of a sudden they're running a team and they're running a business. And, you know, these are skills that that could apply to so many areas, really.

27:20And Frances, I wanted to ask you, how many graduates have there been from LEED at this point? We have more students applying that we can even manage. Right now, we have over 500 that have graduated. Then in the LEED program, we have nearly 4 ,000 students. At the bachelor level, Sherri-Ann is among the very first team member that got the bachelor because it takes three years. Now we have a group of going that have already graduated on the college level. And now they are in university. And we just got it started. So yeah, yeah, we're really excited. That must have been very fulfilling watching the first, you know, the class of 2024 with their university degrees.

28:09Oh, my God. I am going to send both of you the video of our graduation. You are going to cry. I promise you tears of joy. Sherry Lynn was the speaker at the graduation. She made all of us cry. Of course, the whole, and we did a very elegant top of top line graduation. And we wanted to, to celebrate it for the historical moment that it deserved. and it was so it was that's wonderful I was gonna ask are there limos were there limos and champagne involved I get the feeling that there was all the way my friend all the way it was it was an incredible day I will remember that forever and ever and every time I look at it I cry again amazing i mean the tears thinking about it too and sherry lynn with the position you're in now which is you know you're it sounds like you're absolutely crushing it in your career and looking back i'm curious would you recommend doing it you know right after high school or after beauty school or working first getting the real life experience what's your perspective i would i think it doesn't matter i think wherever you are in your life is what you're going to get from it.

29:34Like I went to beauty school, I was in high school at the same time. So my experience would be something different, but I think like whatever you're doing, like if you are, if I was just at a high school and I had started earlier, I'm not going to lie to you. There's a part of me that says like, how much more could I have done? And that is actually one of the things that turned me on to doing this is because I had a conversation with my mom and she was in the hospital and I had told her, you know, she asked me if I had any regrets. And I said, the one thing I wish I would have did differently was get a formal education, you know, and she asked me why.