[00:00:00] Antony Whitaker: Hello and welcome to another episode of the Grow My Salon Business Podcast. I'm your host, Antony Whitaker, and it's great to have you here with us today. If you're watching this on YouTube and you find this video inspiring, then make sure that you hit the like or thumbs up button. It's a small thing that you can do that goes a long way for me.
[00:00:22] Antony Whitaker: And if you like this type of content, then let me know in the comments below the video and make sure that you like and subscribe to the channel. And if you're listening to this on your favorite podcast app, that then leave us a review or share the podcast with those that you know will benefit from it. So with that said, on with today's episode.
[00:00:41] Antony Whitaker: My guest today is Dylan Bradshaw, Dublin based multi award winning hairdresser and salon owner who has just been awarded the Salon of the Year for the UK and Ireland. Dylan and his wife and business partner Charlotte have recently completed a total makeover of what was already a great salon and they've now gone and taken it the next level yet again.
[00:01:03] Antony Whitaker: In today's podcast, we will discuss the importance of building a brand identity, why brands need to continually evolve to remain relevant, and what it means to diversify the traditional salon offering, and lots more. 
[00:01:19] Antony Whitaker: So without further ado, welcome to the podcast, Dylan Bradshaw.
[00:01:24] Dylan: Thanks for having me, Antony.
[00:01:26] Antony Whitaker: Dylan, it's absolutely perfect timing because I wanted to start off this podcast by first of all, saying congratulations, because I think it was this week, the time of recording this, uh, that you just won best new salon design. So I want to be the first one on a podcast anyway, to, uh, congratulate for that and say that it's obviously a well-deserved, uh, accolade because you have one very stunning salon.
[00:01:50] Antony Whitaker: So yeah, congratulations.
[00:01:52] Dylan: Yeah. Thanks a million for that. It was great. It's really nice to be obviously recognized in front of your peers and your, you know, people that I've worked with for over the years and to be recognized that how hard the work we put into our business. Yeah, it was great
[00:02:06] Antony Whitaker: I'm curious about the awards thing. Um, you've won a lot of awards and so you've been in the industry pre social media days and, uh, you know, you've been in the industry really since the awards thing first started happening because I think it was I don't know, late eighties before any awards happened.
[00:02:24] Antony Whitaker: And sort of from then, you know, that's been part of your career, part of my career, but of course now that, you know, social media has a big impact on the industry, I can't help wondering if for the younger generation. So your younger staff members who are, you know, they're all over TikTok, they're all over Instagram.
[00:02:43] Antony Whitaker: Are they still as motivated by entering awards as what you were, or are they more motivated now by getting, you know, 10, 000 followers on, on Instagram or TikTok or whatever it is?
[00:02:56] Dylan: Yeah, it's a really interesting point you're making there. I definitely think if it was to generalize it, they'd be more interested in followers. Their win is how many followers they get, but rather than the effort of putting in for competitions and for, it's funny now is that I judge a lot of competitions, uh, business and hair over the years and for different brands and different companies, uh, I'm for different countries as well.
[00:03:18] Dylan: And it's funny. The one thing they do now is I think if anything, it's kind of dumbing them down a little or making them put in less effort because they're just taking pictures with their phone as in their entries, where, when we started, you know, many years ago, even as when I started, when I was working for somebody else and I went in for competitions, you would kind of go work with a photographer or somebody that was a photographer.
[00:03:40] Dylan: You'd have a makeup artist, you'd put effort into the clothing and you do all that stuff. To put in with your entry, and I think the way it's going now is that we're nearly just asking them just to show up and take a picture. So when you see the entries coming in that I'm judging, and there's hundreds, uh, in some, in some categories where they're trying to bring it down to the top 20, let's say. 
[00:04:00] Dylan: You've just seen people are just, it's nearly like Instagram shots or TikTok shots. They're not the most exciting looking things, and we don't really get to see an awful lot of hair, you know, as opposed to the styling of hair and so on.
[00:04:12] Antony Whitaker: Yeah. Yeah. It'd be interesting to see how that plays out. You know, we've both been around for long enough to, to sort of see that nothing stays the same. It's always just another stage that something's going through. So it'd be interesting, you know, to see where that lands, so to speak, in five years time, what's it going to look like, you know, in
[00:04:28] Dylan: Well, it's interesting with the AI now, because I'm just, I'm kind of, I'm worried now, are we going to get to the stage or whatever you produce, it's going to be edited by AI. So you don't even have to worry about the colour. You don't have to worry about the technical cost. You don't have to worry about the lighting, even the model, the makeup.
[00:04:48] Dylan: You don't have to worry about it because it's just going to layer upon layer upon layer upon layer about how you clean up your image where, you know, when I was. 20 years ago, when I was doing a lot of editorial work and shoots, we were moving from film to digital, and then there was uproar over the digital because we, you were able to go in and you were able to, you know, er, you know, touch, uh, your images or where even that became a fine art because people were doing them.
[00:05:12] Dylan: That was too obvious. And it looked, didn't look like the model. And then you had actually specialists that were doing it in a way that it was the model, but could make them look 20, you know, 10 years younger, 20 years younger, but now it's getting to the stage where, you know, We, people are going to have these tools on their phones.
[00:05:25] Dylan: Uh, you know, so it's, it's crazy.
[00:05:29] Antony Whitaker: Yeah. It's interesting. The whole AI thing. You know, I was talking to, uh, Anthony Mascolo on a, on an earlier, uh, podcast and he was talking about, about it and obviously playing around with it. Uh, and you know, because the, the ability that it gives you to be creative, you know, on the screen is quite incredible.
[00:05:48] Antony Whitaker: Um, and as he was saying with the award side of it, I think that what they should do eventually is have a, I have a category that is blatantly saying that it is for AI. Do you know what I mean? Um, because it's, it's, it's, it's almost, well, not almost it is, it's an art form in its own right. But I suppose it's when you're trying to show something that is meant to be, this is what I did with my hands.
[00:06:12] Antony Whitaker: This is a hair I did, and it's actually not the hair you did. It's, it's the hair that AIs did. That, that's where it gets a little bit sort of confusing to put it mildly. But, um, let's, let's move on from that. Cause I really want to talk about this new salon of yours. I mean, it's not a new salon in that what it is a new salon.
[00:06:29] Antony Whitaker: I mean, I. I went to your, I went to this salon about 15 years ago, you just opened. And I remember you gave me a bit of a tour around the salon and I was gob smacked. Uh, it was a stunning, uh, design, stunning, just stunning. Full stop. It was big, much, much bigger than what I'd anticipated. It would be spread over, um, you know, four or five floors or whatever it was, you know, Academy salon space.
[00:06:57] Antony Whitaker: I mean, it was amazing. Um, and then I saw on Instagram, um, I'm not sure how long ago it was now that you were, you know, reopening after doing a big refit. through Instagram before we jumped on this call and there was a video that you shot of you in the salon, sort of basically talking to yourself saying, this is the last day we've now got the salon.
[00:07:21] Antony Whitaker: We're going to do a complete refit. And you were sort of scanning around, you know, showing it and saying it served you well, blah, blah, blah. And I was looking at it thinking it still looks stunning. So here you go, 15 years later. And you have done this, I'm imagining, huge investment in a complete rebrand.
[00:07:42] Antony Whitaker: What was, uh, what was the sort of motivation behind doing that at the moment?
[00:07:47] Dylan: It's funny. I wanted to do it four years ago, except COVID got in the way. So there was an element of where we were just kind of, we came out of COVID, you know, it was a time for an, in our industry. I can't speak for the industry. I can only speak for myself. So I don't really kind of follow what everybody says or do.
[00:08:04] Dylan: It's just how I'd sit down and how I'd feel and how I'd reflect in my own business. Obviously, I talked to the team. I talked to the clients and my wife is my business partner as well in the sense that we do everything together. Um, so, so there's an element of where you were kind of going. I was just getting, I was getting a bit bored of what we were doing.
[00:08:22] Dylan: It was, it's really good. What serves as well. My team are busy. I have, I'd be. You know, it probably the lucky guys that I'm, uh, where, uh, our, our half our business from the four corners of the country, they drive, they were a destination space. So we have a really good name, a good brand, but I was just sitting on it for, in this space for such a period of time.
[00:08:45] Dylan: And I just said, you know what, I want to change this and I wanted to do it for our 21st year in business, but then COVID came. So when COVID came, it gives you not an awful lot of time to think about who you are. to the point that we weren't working in this country for the best part of the year, which is really tough.
[00:09:02] Dylan: So that was quite interesting as in the process of how it makes you kind of, you know, think about what you want in your business, how you want to change things and how you want to readdress, you know, your business and how you take care of your team, your clients and so on. So I'm glad COVID came in that sense because I even changed quite a bit as in how I wanted to do the business compared to the way I was probably approaching it.
[00:09:27] Dylan: On year 21, if you like next year, we're going into year 25. So much, much happier in that sense that there is a kind of, uh, I look forward to the next 10 years, if you like with the business and how it evolves, uh, with the brand. Of course, um, for me, I suppose the brand is kind of like a child. It's like, I've never wanted to extend the brand.
[00:09:51] Dylan: I've never wanted to have multiple salons. I've been approached many times. I nearly opened a salon in Mayfair 10 years ago, I was approached as well. And I just, at the time when I was ready to do it, I just said, you know what? There's no point in me spreading myself thin. I wouldn't be true to myself and my business if I think I want to do other things.
[00:10:08] Dylan: For me, it's a big unit that I have. It's a big ship to, to, to rudder at times. And I just want to make sure that I'm happy coming to work every day and love what I do. So,
[00:10:19] Antony Whitaker: Um, for context. Uh, I don't think I even said that the salon's in Dublin. Uh, so for our, we've got a very global audience on the podcast. So just, you know, a lot of them will know about you. Obviously all the UK hairdressers will know about you and they'll know about, you know, where your salon is, et cetera, but just give us a sort of an overview of, you know, the size of the business because, you know, it's, it's impressive in itself.
[00:10:41] Dylan: Well, you know, we're Dublin. Obviously Dublin is a population of like nearly 2 million people, you know? So it's a, it's a small city come comparisons to some of the major cities, especially from, if you're talking about our us friends or especially in the UK, the cities are much bigger. When you talk about the greater London areas, like 15, 18 million people.
[00:11:00] Dylan: And then when you talk about Dublin, it's the same, our population, the country's about 6 million, 7 million. It depends, uh, from North and South, but that's kind of it in context. Yeah. Tell me. third of the population is in one city. It's also gone through, uh, like most cities, there is an identity crisis with what we're doing because a lot of places now, because of the work way things work, people are working from home.
[00:11:25] Dylan: So you're only getting like three, maybe days of, of people working in cities where they used to be five. You're also now your new Friday's a Thursday. So the dynamic changes in business where Saturdays aren't like your craziest days that they used to be because. People kind of want to stay in the suburbs.
[00:11:42] Dylan: They don't want to come into the city in the same way. So our city life is different. So you just have to kind of figure out how you work your business if you like in that way so that it rotates well. You have the right team in for the business that's potentially there. But it's completely changed. So like Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, those three days are our crazy, crazy days.
[00:12:00] Dylan: So we, we work that and then our Saturdays and our Tuesdays are our Saturday's always busy, but it's a slightly different, where it used to be the manic day, it's not the manic day anymore, it's much more, it's a busy day, but it's a much more controlled day, where you've got your Wednesdays, Thursdays, or your crazy days, which we call them the trauma Thursdays, we always joke, because it's like, there's always a kind of a, it's probably the busiest day of the week for us.
[00:12:26] Antony Whitaker: Yeah. Uh, I'm thinking about, you know, when you mentioned, you know, the whole sort of COVID time and the amount of time you had to reflect on the business, um, and what you actually wanted from it. And. I mean, obviously when you do a refit. You do it. You do it well. And I'm, you know, I think that's also why it lasted so well is that it was an expensive refit.
[00:12:47] Antony Whitaker: It was, you know, you didn't scrimp on materials or whatever. So it had lasted a good 10 years. And as I just said, you know, it still looked like there was nothing wrong with it. And you've ripped all that out and you've completely changed the look and the feel of it. And it's beautiful. It's just as beautiful, but in a different way, uh, dare I say, and I suppose this is what you were setting out to do in a more modern way.
[00:13:13] Antony Whitaker: And, you know, hopefully that it's going to last you, which it is going to last you at least another 10 years, um, you know, as a salon and look current and feel current. So when you, you, you mentioned COVID and, you know, we sort of touched on You know, Gen Z, and we touched on different employee and consumer expectations and work life balance and all that sort of stuff.
[00:13:40] Antony Whitaker: How did you, and obviously you've got a great design, a great architects, et cetera, and I know your wife plays a big part in this. How was all that stuff influencing you in terms of the design and the look and the feel as in what is going to look right and be right for the way people want to live and work?
[00:13:59] Antony Whitaker: For the next 10 years at that sort of emotional level.
[00:14:04] Dylan: So I think for me was I really wanted to step away from having a hair salon. I suppose if we talk about the size of the building for 10, 000 square feet, I didn't want to work in the height of what we had. I had 80 people working under one roof space, uh, at one stage. And I just didn't enjoy it. It was too busy.
[00:14:23] Dylan: It was too manic. It was too crazy. It was just, and sorry, that was before I, and I had an academy as well with another, like, you know, 20 kids. On two levels further up with, you know, for educators, it was quite a very big, vast space. And I want, and I travel a lot with work because I obviously look after, uh, I'm obviously a global ambassador with Dyson, but I also look after celebrity clients.
[00:14:48] Dylan: I do shoots. I do all that sort of, all the, the, you know, personalities doing music videos and all that. So I'd be going away, but I'd also be coming back to this needs work. And I just, it nearly broke me to be honest with you. It was just a really, really tough gig. That's kind of one of those things that you learn where you just have to find that, the happy medium over time was what's the type of, what's the numbers like you, you know, turnover, as you know, and I'm sure you've spoken about this many times of business owners, it's a vanity thing.
[00:15:17] Dylan: It's just all of it. I can tell you how much we were turning over, you know, 10 years ago was an obscene amount of money, but actually your margins are shit is the, is the pure honesty to it. Because your, you know, it goes too far either way. So what you need to do is find that sweet spot where you can kind of generate some money to pay the bills, give good wage, give a high standard of service and enough money to, to give yourself a profit and not a profit for yourself, a profit that you're able to reinvest in 10 years’ time, that you're able to squirrel your savings away over the next 10 years to do the next refit.
[00:15:51] Dylan: So you're not taking loans, you're not taking and putting yourself into any sort of unfortunate space loop that works. You know, anything that we do, we don't own anything or we don't owe anything. I should say we don't do bank loans. We never have done. We do everything that the whole journey of what we've done in the last 25 years is to reinvest back into your business.
[00:16:11] Dylan: And when we sit and we talk to the staff, we go. We're driving our business a certain way so that we all we all have a good wage. We all make a good living, but we also get to reinvest it back into the place that we work. Behind the scenes are just important for us as well, as in look, I put a massive basement, I ripped out our old staff room and I moved it to the basement where it's like a thousand square foot and that's a staff room with amazing kitchen, a great kind of living area space, it's all that sort of stuff so that I can have all my staff and I can have a team meeting down there with nobody.
[00:16:44] Dylan: Is, uh, on top of each other made a lot. So it's just a nice way of better living. I wanted a great for my team as well as my, um, as my clients. It's no point in kind of saying to everybody, Oh, you'll be given a great service, but we're not giving it back to the team.
[00:16:59] Antony Whitaker: Yeah. Yeah. Um, you said 80 was the staff numbers that you peaked at. What, what have you found the
[00:17:04] Dylan: 86, I think it was, I think it was 86. The sweet spot now we're at is about 45.
[00:17:09] Antony Whitaker: Right. Okay. Okay. And you open seven days a week.
[00:17:14] Dylan: No, I only open five days a week. I open Tuesday to Saturday and then we are my Monday. We is all day education. So I have all my team in for the whole day and they're being educated on the Monday
[00:17:25] Antony Whitaker: Right. And as the salon component, cause I know you've got the academy upstairs, is the salon component take up two floors?
[00:17:34] Dylan: Yeah, it takes up two floors, but actually, um, we, I got rid of the academy after lockdown because it was actually another thing where I was, I looked at and I said, Yeah, it's doing okay. It's making money, but it's actually, it's too work intense for what we get in return on it. So I actually said, I need to use the space more kind of leading back to, sorry, reflecting on it.
[00:17:52] Dylan: And I'll come back to you on that again. But when, when I looked at the business model in lockdown, I said, you know what I want to keep, I want to merge, bring the margins back to the right number of staff, the right margins of profit. But I also want to bring in other revenue streams. And I also want to Keep the building like a hub.
[00:18:12] Dylan: So what I decided was, and through that journey was I wanted to have Dylan Bradshaw as a store, as a, not as a salon. And over the next couple of years, our education is with everybody. It's like Dylan Bradshaw is a brand that has other concessions within the building that we're able to use other revenue streams that come in, but it's all under the house of Dylan Bradshaw, if you like.
[00:18:36] Dylan: And that's what we decided that we wanted to do. So I have a barbers, a great barbers called, uh, faction and one of the guys that owns that business is a great kid. High trained him in, he was my assistant for four years, uh, but he wanted to go down the barber route and he's out five years. And actually he's come in and joined in taking one of our spaces upstairs or floors upstairs.
[00:18:58] Dylan: They're quite suited for what we are. They're a high end barber brand. And they do their men's haircuts as in they're not about just fades and that they kind of see the bigger picture down the line, which is great. So they're a really great suit for us and doesn't, uh, doesn't conflict with our business as well.
[00:19:14] Dylan: They're hugely, uh, they're complimentary to what we do, uh, in the space. We also have Uh, uh, L'Oreal now have decided to take my academy for a year. They want to take it for a year because they're, they're closed up down here and they're looking to refit and do a new space. So that works for us. But that space that we have, it's a beautiful Georgian space.
[00:19:35] Dylan: It's a gorgeous built, uh, room that looks out onto the, out onto the main thoroughfare if you like. And it's, uh, it's got all the old, uh, Georgian features and all the stuff inside it. So it's quite a lovely space with lots of light. That we rent that space two or three days a week. So we do lots of launches, press launches.
[00:19:55] Dylan: We do, uh, fashion shoots, uh, you know, TV people come in, record day sessions, stuff like that. So that's been another, uh, I suppose, revenue stream for us as well. So what we wanted to do was to focus on other ways that we can do it. So the funny, the story is I was going to put a cafe in the front four years ago.
[00:20:14] Dylan: Uh, and I still put it in, but what I did was I did it more of a smash and grab. Know, lots of people are putting cafes in their businesses, but actually we, we went put a lot of time and effort into it. I mean, I, I, uh, we put like a year and a half of research, uh, with the right kind of, uh, roasters, if you like, and the right support, obviously the right baristas.
[00:20:35] Antony Whitaker: Is this koo fee?
[00:20:38] Dylan: Yeah. It's called, it's called Ku.Fee. Yeah.
[00:20:40] Antony Whitaker: Yeah. Yeah. I love that. I was going to ask you about it. So, so it's, it's, it's okay. So you pronounce it coffee, obviously, but it's
Ku.Fee, Ku.Fee, Ku.Fee.
[00:20:49] Antony Whitaker: okay. K U dot F double E. Right. Okay. And again, like, you know, I'm really going to encourage everyone listening to this, uh, or watching this on YouTube, uh, to, to check out your Instagram and your website to, to see what Dylan means when he says he's put a lot of work into this.
[00:21:07] Antony Whitaker: Because. Everything looks absolutely, you know, five star. I mean, it's not just that it's a luxury brand, but the attention that you, and I know Charlotte  is your secret weapon here, your wife and business partner, in terms of the marketing side of this and the attention to detail is just, it's absolutely brilliant.
[00:21:28] Antony Whitaker: How much of a role I mean, I know you, you, you know, you've referred to her as your partner as well. And as I've just said, I think she's your secret weapon. Uh, and I don't apologize. I don't apologize for saying that because I know she's very much. You know, like, like my wife behind the business, they are very, very influential, but for whatever degree they, you know, do or don't want to, to, you know, have the limelight, so to speak.
[00:21:51] Antony Whitaker: Uh, but talk to us about the roles that you both have in the business. I mean, you're obviously the front man and the hairdresser, but she's driving a lot. So what does she do in the background with that?
[00:22:03] Dylan: Um, I suppose the best way to do it is to rewind, because the problem is, it's a bit like, um, as you know, in our industry, we feel like the next stage is to open a hair salon because your success is driven by, well, I can't do anymore. The only reason why I opened a hair salon is because I'm unemployable.
[00:22:18] Dylan: People would drive, I'd drive them mad because I just go, I could, why can't we do better? I'd be the guy that's outspoken going, can we not improve this? Or, so I know there's employers there to go It's like, this guy's wrecking my head.
[00:22:30] Antony Whitaker: yeah,
[00:22:30] Dylan: want to come to work, you know? So that was my thing. I just said, well, look, I have to practice what I preach.
[00:22:36] Dylan: I want to go and I want to do something. And when I opened my salon 25 years ago, it won like lots of architectural awards. Cause I got the best architect at the time, a young guy called Tom de Paor, and he won the, uh, you know, the, um, the Italian, the Biennale, which is this kind of It's art and architecture all soaked in.
[00:22:55] Dylan: So I had like French Vogue. I had British Marie Claire interiors came over and shot the whole thing. They loved the whole space. It was 25 years ago. It was really quirky. So I was like this guy that wanted to do the very best. And I will never forget. I opened the salon and it was like, I had the, it was like, it's like fur coat, no knickers.
[00:23:13] Dylan: I had this amazing space. And I hadn't got a pot of piss in after, cause it just went fucking so expensive. So, so it when kind of downhill from that, you know, I was this purist that it was like, we did all this shiatsu massage in this back room, lit on the floor. Like it was, it was so ahead of its time. It was crazy. And it was amazing. And it was getting so much press internationally, not just, you know, domestically, but the problem with it was, is that I wasn't running a business that I knew what I was doing. So it was, it was amazing work going out the door. The fucking, the place was incredible, but at the end of the day, it was like, um, uh, yeah, so how do I pay this bill?
[00:23:53] Dylan: And that sort of thing. And that was the problem. So it was like a stroke of genius. about two years later when I was really kind of like stuttering all the way, uh, through the, through the week, uh, I met this young lady, uh, who, uh, didn't want to have anything to do with me, who was an accountant by trade.
[00:24:10] Dylan: And that was Charlotte. So we just kind of, I think there wouldn't have been a Dylan Bradshaw hair salon at this point if I didn't have somebody that was watching the figures, you know, and that's something we got to. It's funny when you talk about it, like I'm, I'm like, I'm genuinely an open book. Uh, I get like, everybody kind of reaches out to me all the time through the UK, US, whatever you want, asking me questions constantly about what about this?
[00:24:34] Dylan: And I tell them, I said, don't do it. And I would a hundred percent say, if you want to have a partner and you're a hairdresser, don't have it with a hairdresser. Have it with somebody that's, you know, has, has a business background and accountancy background, you know, money and numbers background that at least will keep you.
[00:24:51] Dylan: And, and keep you at a level where you can understand to the point that you, it's, it's good practice when you're running a business that you can kind of say, okay, well, I can't make that happen. I have to work within this parameter. So you're not a busy fool where you've done all this and you know, it's like, what did they say?
[00:25:09] Dylan: The swan or the duck, you know, it's all this calm on the top and then peddling like shit underneath. It's, that's part of, you know, our industry that we have to be so, so careful. Right. And how we, how we run our, how we run our operation, our business.
[00:25:22] Antony Whitaker: I thought her background was marketing. So it's accounting.
[00:25:26] Dylan: No, no. She's an accountant by trade. Yeah. No. So listen, she's like, as I call her, she's a Swiss army knife. She has a different attachment for everything.
[00:25:36] Antony Whitaker: Okay. Good on her, Good on her Well, you know,
[00:25:39] Dylan: And the knife was to stick with me if I'm not, if I don't keep my stuff. Yeah.
[00:25:44] Antony Whitaker: All right. Um, yeah, when you were talking before you, Um, you talked about The investment you'd made for the break room downstairs for the staff for that You could,
[00:25:53] Dylan: Yeah, yeah,
[00:25:54] Antony Whitaker: of the staff experience.
[00:25:55] Antony Whitaker: And that's really good. And I, and I loved all that. But what I wanna ask you about is, with the refit, how did you want the client experience to change? 
[00:26:06] Dylan: the experience for me is different. It's not going to be a salon as such. It's kind of, I like, I remember I learned from the first architect I ever worked with, uh, in my salon 25 years ago.
[00:26:17] Dylan: Uh, people thought it was a sushi bar when it opened first  And then they didn't know how to get into the salon space and we didn't have a name over the door. It was just lit blue. And I took that away with me because I want people to rethink. I don't want people to come into your space and take it for granted because they, they see something and they can judge it.
[00:26:38] Dylan: So always with what I do is, is that I make us rethink and go through a different journey and a different experience. And it's the same thing with our clients. It's got a team. I want you, I kind of nearly want to kind of, you know, fuck it up a little bit in your head going, what is this when you walk in?
[00:26:54] Dylan: And it's very important for me that, you know, people go with, they come in for, uh, as we say a coffee and when they come in for a coffee, they're like, Oh, and they're nearly like, is this a salon? And we have this thing where I have my guys going, yeah, no, we, it's open for business. Come on in. We have a seating area outside and all that, which is great.
[00:27:13] Dylan: But actually the whole idea was to draw people in. So the design aspect for me was is that. If you're coming in for a coffee, you nearly want to go in and have a look at the salon, but then we also have homewares, which we haven't discussed. That's another revenue that
[00:27:27] Antony Whitaker: to that. Yeah, I'm coming to that.
[00:27:29] Dylan: yeah, so I want them to hang for that, you know, for that period of time where they're waiting for their coffee to be made.
[00:27:37] Dylan: And they're looking through the shelves and it's all this kind of, Oh, that's nice. I like that. And then it draws you down to the salon, which is, if you know, it's the theater, you know, it's the, it's the energy, it's the engine, it's the, it's the motivation of coming further into this, you know, into this space.
[00:27:54] Dylan: And that was the whole idea. So coffee for me was not just about a hook. Like, I want it to be like, it's a great product. It's a great brand. And we have great, great products, great baristas. The coffee is amazing. And I won't, I don't say it lightly. It's really good. The whole idea when we
[00:28:08] Antony Whitaker: love the name of it itself. I, I just love the,
[00:28:11] Dylan: Well, I'll tell you how funny the name, the reason why we did coffee was just because I'm dyslexic. And the whole idea was we wanted to make something sound. Uh, you know, you read it, but actually it kind of, ah, okay. And that was the whole idea. So when you read it, it's not like it doesn't say coffee, but as when you say it, you kind of, it kind of trigger something, Oh, coffee, you know, and that was the whole idea when, when I sat down, it's like those things.
[00:28:37] Dylan: I'm really good creatively. That's my thing. My wife is, she says, we jump off the cliff and we build the wings on the way down, and that's always been the case. So I have the ideas and she has to figure out how we pay for it. You know?
[00:28:49] Antony Whitaker: right, okay. Uh,
[00:28:50] Antony Whitaker: I mean, I haven't physically been into the new salon, but I've been looking at it online on your Instagram and website, et cetera, and it's got a very female influence about it compared to the previous one, it appears to. So again, is this, is this Charlotte, do you have a female architect?
[00:29:11] Antony Whitaker: Uh, this is what I was meaning when I said to you, how did you want the, the client experience to change? Cause it feels. You know,
[00:29:19] Dylan: wouldn't. I think. I think I disagree with you on it. Uh, and I, I don't mean it that way. I think it's softer, if anything, it's warmer as in colour because everything was black and white and it was hard and it was glass and it was a much more clinical bit out of the last one. But definitely this one was all, the whole inspiration was we, we wanted to bring back the heritage of the old buildings.
[00:29:46] Dylan: So we wanted to use materials like, so all our wood is hard oak. So our units is hard oak, all our, uh, our displays is hard oak, and there's a mix of it with our counters and with our, so we have, we have, what do you call it, like, um, terrazzo floors, we have brass, and we have green marble and green tiles.
[00:30:07] Dylan: That's our colour palette, that's it, five materials. So what it does is what we wanted to do was we consciously made the effort that we wanted to give this warmth as you come in. that just has a feeling of an older kind of fit out with the modern twist to it. So I suppose the only kind of feminine side of it, if you like, would be where we have a unit in the middle where we have these great kind of pods that you can sit in the middle of the space where there's just kind of dried flowers and floral kind of stuff that's attached into that.
[00:30:38] Dylan: So it does soften the feel on the on the salon floor, but kind of everything else Wouldn't be, it's just, I think it's a definitely a lot warmer as a fit out, you know, and it just has that kind of psychological, it's like a trigger when you just sit down and you just kind of feel it's homely and it's inviting. And that's what we wanted to do.
[00:30:56] Antony Whitaker: Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Um, with the refit and I know you said at some point you said to me, you know, you're not that techie yourself. Uh, the previous incantation of the salon. Um, I remember going in there and seeing the, the shampoo area and those amazing, you know, basins that you've got to forget what they're called.
[00:31:16] Antony Whitaker: Um, and so there was quite a bit of tech involved, or that was my impression in that design at the time. Have you brought, you know, these days there's so much new tech that's happened, you know, in the last five, 10 years. And it's just constant. How heavily have you integrated new technology into this new space?
[00:31:35] Antony Whitaker: Yeah,
[00:31:37] Dylan: So that's a really interesting that you bring up about the basin. So I drove everybody mad because in all of this that we're talking about, um, I wanted to try and reuse and repurpose. So we have a really interesting fitout but Uh, I reused all the basins. I got them all reconditioned, stripped down, resprayed, rebuilt and done.
[00:31:59] Dylan: So those basins are 15 years old. So we, we, we redid the basins. Okay. So I wanted to make sure that we are short, you know, are, are doing our bit to contribute within the fit out. So all our green marble I've used in the three salons and the three fit-outs. So I keep reusing this green marble. And.
[00:32:20] Dylan: Obviously, we bring more marble in, but I actually wanted to reuse all this and repurpose all these surfaces and materials that I can say that we have had a journey on this arc of 25 years, but I'm still, uh, it was very important for me to do that, that we're reusing stuff that we could bring back all my salon chairs.
[00:32:40] Dylan: I had, I had my suppliers driven mad because I wanted to reuse all my bases. To say that we didn't throw out the basis, or we didn't skip the basis, and we just put in new chairs, as in we bought new chairs from Olymp, and we kept the bases to put it on to say that we are doing our bit to reuse and repurpose.
[00:33:01] Antony Whitaker: that's
[00:33:01] Dylan: We're looking at other alternative ways to do, uh, with our electricity. Obviously, our recycling is a big factor within the salon. So we break everything down, eh, where I have everybody driven mad, I'm like a grumpy old man, most of the time just running around the place going, don't put that with that, don't mix that with that.
[00:33:17] Dylan: All our coffee grinds, ironically, we send off to a company that they reuse them for fertiliser for all our planting outside and all that stuff, so we reuse all our leftover and our waste of coffee so that we can use all our fertiliser products. To put back into all our planting and all our boxes and all that stuff outside.
[00:33:37] Dylan: So that's really important is that we have all these little journeys, uh, and what we're doing. And it's the same with our, our metals and all that sort of stuff. We're trying to reuse and repurpose as well. So it's kind of been an interesting journey that I, and let me tell you, it's not an easy journey.
[00:33:52] Dylan: It's almost more expensive. Actually, it is more expensive.
[00:33:56] Antony Whitaker: but, but, but it is, um, partially you're able to do that because you buy, you buy quality all the time. So if you buy quality
[00:34:05] Dylan: Oh yeah, a hundred percent.
[00:34:06] Antony Whitaker: if you buy some cheap junk, that's just a rip off of something that's, you're just not able to do that because it just doesn't have the integrity. It might look nice when it's brand new, but you know, four or five years later, you're chucking it out.
[00:34:18] Antony Whitaker: Whereas you invest in good product, good materials, you pay top dollar for it, but you really get the value out of it. So yeah, well done.
[00:34:27] Dylan: Well, you use materials that don't age, which is really important. I mean, you don't want gimmicky fit outs. That's the one thing I'd say to anybody. Timeless is, it's all about time. So when you look at design, if you look at architecture, you look at fashion, if you look at couture, it's timeless is your, has to be put into something where you can turn around and go, it doesn't age.
[00:34:45] Dylan: It's like when you said 14 years, or you looked at our fit out when we were closing, that was 14 years old. Is that the materials are timeless, but they're also good quality. So they, we maintain them well.
[00:34:55] Antony Whitaker: Yep, exactly. Uh, now you touched on homewares Um, the online part of your business has grown dramatically. Uh, I'm thinking that was one of the things that came out of this downtime of COVID to sort of reassess things about what the Dylan Bradshaw brand is all about. And what a salon Is all about today, what the potential is, uh, in a salon space.
[00:35:21] Antony Whitaker: So, so first of all, is it a big part of your business and talk to us about, you know, that whole homewares catalog side of things, because again, it's like, it's beautifully curated is the right word for it. You know, it's like, I, I just, I just loved it. I can't wait to go and have a look at it.
[00:35:40] Dylan: Yeah. It's funny. It's kind of, um, it's, uh, it's being, it's becoming more of a, of a bigger part of our business that we're trying to drive because, you know, uh, we want to have a better online presence. Uh, we want to do our little bit better. We want to grow our business, but you have to grow it naturally.
[00:35:58] Dylan: There's an element of the online business where I'm still trying to, we're still scratching our heads going. What's my return for what I invest online? You know, when we buy, uh, you know, Google, you know, and when we buy through our social media presence, how do we get a return for this? It's a very difficult one.
[00:36:17] Dylan: And it's a bit of a mine. It's a minefield, really. It's quite difficult to try. And so we're doing it slowly, slowly. We're building it slowly. The thing is, I would say to anybody, you know, even from an online point of view, there's no point in putting on stuff that you don't believe in or that you don't feel like you have a part.
[00:36:33] Dylan: Like our, our, our, um, our, kind of our, our point, our homeware stuff is stuff because my wife now really is in interiors and that's what she's been doing for the last couple of years. And she's really enjoying that part of a business for her. So we just kind of thought it was a natural kind of marriage for us and what we do, because it's, if you think about it, if a client's coming in to me today and she's spending time to get her hair done and we have her as a captive audience for two hours, let's say in the salon.
[00:37:02] Dylan: If they have color in their hair, they're able to jump up and walk through and look at the space and kind of go, Oh yeah, that's really nice. I like that. If they have a cup that sits in front of them to drink coffee out of, we spent ages trying to find the right ceramicist to try and, uh, to, to produce a coffee, that cup that represents our salon, but we have three colors in, it's a good heavy duty cup that has mileage to it.
[00:37:24] Dylan: And when we, when they get their crossaint on in this plate or on this board, we also sell that. It's part of buying into the the culture of when we go to Dylan Bradshaw's store. So it's these sorts of things that we kind of put so much time and effort in even two years before we even opened their doors because we were like trying to find these kind of products that really represent stuff that we love, that we want, that's our influence that we like.
[00:37:50] Dylan: And they're things that have actually. Clients kind of go, you know what? I love this fit out and they go, well, actually there's parts of it over there. So go over and, you know, knock yourself out and have a look. And if there's things there, the secret of it is for us as well as we don't want big, we want stuff that people can say, Oh, that'll make a lovely gift or a lovely, or I can put that on my table, or I could put that at my, you know, dressing table or in the kitchen.
[00:38:12] Dylan: We want people to leave not with boxes, just with stuff that they can go. That's 50, that's 80 Euro. It's a perfect upsell. In what we're doing, and then we're happy to do that, or if they want something for 10 euros. So that was kind of the whole idea behind it. And it's something that's growing really, really nicely.
[00:38:29] Dylan: Actually, ironically, I'm, I'm in Spain tomorrow for two days, and then we're going on to Paris for another two days for, for a buying trip. Cause we're looking at products and stuff that we want to do. So if you asked me five years ago, 10 years ago, that what I do in my business, that I'm going looking at interiors, I'd go, wow, that's interesting.
[00:38:46] Dylan: But actually it's part of what we want to do for our business to grow in other areas within that space under this roof, you know.
[00:38:54] Antony Whitaker: no, look, I'm, I'm all for that. I know, you know, other people in the industry who are looking at, you know, doing similar versions of that. Um, a lot of people get it wrong. You know, they sort of see it as we've got the space, we need to sell some other stuff and then they'll put all sorts of stuff in there and you'll walk in and it'll just be like, give me strength.
[00:39:10] Antony Whitaker: You know what I mean? Um, you've just made it like a bizarre, it's just not a fit. So it's gotta be. It's, it's, it's an exercise in taste and merchandising and curating just the right things. And again, if anyone wants to see a five star example of it, just go to your website and, you know, click on that, that, that homewares link, uh, on there.
[00:39:30] Antony Whitaker: It's beautiful. Beautiful.
[00:39:32] Dylan: it's kind of funny, Anthony. It's, it's just, um, you see the thing about this is, and this is what I would love people not to do, right, is your business, right, is your business. It's not anybody else's business. It's not a business that you should copy and paste what somebody else is doing down the street or the street behind you or in another country.
[00:39:49] Dylan: Find what your passion is. Find what you guys love. And if it can complement what you do, amazing, you know, try and work it. You know, the thing which is funny about, you know, uh, these sorts of salons that we have is we're in, we're in neighborhoods we're in. We have people that come through the space. So if you can sell something, uh, or there's a product or somebody wants to sub let, or there's a, or, you know, or, or you want to have a piece of somebody else's business and that it's a fit work with it.
[00:40:20] Dylan: You know, there's ways and means to look at. These sorts of spaces that we work in, that we can say, you know what, it's a, it's hugely complimentary and it's hugely, uh, it could be a really good part of what we do. And that's what we wanted to do as our business, because we want to have a store with everything in this, in this space where you can actually kind of go, it's actually a really interesting space when you come in and you go, I'd like that.
[00:40:42] Dylan: I'll have a coffee and let me try that or maybe I'll book in for hair. And it's just that kind of whole journey. And that's the way our journey works within design. And I'm saying salon and I should be saying store.
[00:40:52] Antony Whitaker: Store. Right. Okay. Um, we've mentioned Charlotte and you, you said something which made my heart sing before when you said that, uh, we don't get a bank loan and a lot of people. Would be surprised at that because often what I find salon owners do people that I you know Worked with coaching or whatever.
[00:41:15] Antony Whitaker: You know, they go. Oh we've been in business 10 years and you know We this place needs a refit. I need to go to the bank and get alone for 250 000 or whatever to do it and it's like Hang on, you know, the business should be able to finance its refit. So you, you know, today, like you've done that refit now, 2024, you know, that in 2030, 2033, whatever the number's going to be, I mean, you're going to get some longevity out of it, but let's imagine you went to, uh, 2034.
[00:41:45] Antony Whitaker: So we said it was 10 years, you know, now. That assuming you're still hairdressing, you know, now that there's going to need to be a ton of money spent on a refit, a reinvention of the brand. So if you know that now you need to do exactly what you and Charlotte have done, which is, you know, we take a thousand every week or every month of the profit.
[00:42:06] Antony Whitaker: We put it in account over here for the rebuild fund or whatever. So that when it comes time to spend whatever it is, you've spent all it. You know that you've got the money to pay for it as opposed to having to go and get a loan and then be paying that back and paying the interest, et cetera.
[00:42:23] Antony Whitaker: So, you know, congratulations. I mean, obviously you've got to have a profitable business to do that, but that's the sign of a very well-managed, financial department. 
[00:42:32] Dylan: Well, I'd love to take credit in that, Antony, but it has absolutely nothing to do with me
[00:42:38] Antony Whitaker: I know that.
[00:42:38] Dylan: all to do with that incredible woman that
[00:42:41] Antony Whitaker: Yes. I,
[00:42:42] Dylan: unmarried.
[00:42:45] Antony Whitaker: I, I know
[00:42:45] Dylan: loved it. As we say, I'm the ideas man, and she's like going, she's scratching her head going, holy shit, how are we going to do this? You know,
[00:42:52] Antony Whitaker: Yeah. But
[00:42:53] Dylan: why we have a good partnership.
[00:42:54] Dylan: yeah, together make it work. 
[00:42:55] Dylan: I think I would say to everybody is try and save, you know, uh, a percent of like what you said every week and squirrel it by, because you know, that 10 years that we all talk about that actually it's ages away.
[00:43:10] Dylan: Is the, is the part that actually will catch up with you that if you're spending it and not putting it back into your business, that's, that's always been our mantra from day one is that we, everything we make, we put it back into the business, like to, to, to, to run this salon just from Lecky, paints, you know, decorating maintenance, I'm not talking about the fit out cost would cost us 50, 60 grand a year just to keep, you know, looking new all the time. know, we would paint it every year. We would do, you know, we changed the carpets every couple of years, just on the back stairs and the front stairs. We always maintain and keep, because I don't want any sort of people looking at it going, oh, it's starting to age or it's starting to die. And that was the one thing, when we did the, we announced we were doing the fit, all our clients were saying, you're mad, I don't know why you're doing it, the place looks great.
[00:44:04] Dylan: But actually it looked, it was 14 years old in my head. So we had to change it.
[00:44:08] Antony Whitaker: What do they say now when they come in?
[00:44:11] Dylan: They all go, I'm so glad you changed it. It's funny. You know, it's like, it's the same thing. They go, Oh, now I get it. Now I understand what you want to do. The thing for me is genuinely, as I've always tried to push, I don't look at the industry. Uh, truthfully, it's nothing against the industry. I don't look at to see my influences come from other things, other businesses.
[00:44:31] Dylan: It's not from hair or beauty. I look at stuff and going, I really respect these people or this brand or this interior. So I take all that on board and I just feel like it's the right thing for me and my wife or our business to do. We want to keep pushing in ways and means that we can. I mean, I could sit here for 10 years and give you a hundred stories of the good things to do with your business and the bad things to do with your business.
[00:44:56] Dylan: But that's not what I do. The one thing I'd say to everybody is don't be fooled. Okay. And I hate saying this cause I sound like an old man, but don't be fooled by social media. Okay. It's an awful, it's, it's a great tool to have for your business, but it's not the tool that's going to bring in your clients, truthfully it won't.
[00:45:13] Dylan: Cause there's no longevity with people on social media. When you have people on social media, their appetite is just one time only. They want to, they want to taste. Of what you do until somebody else post something else and they get the taste of the next person. Your whole thing should be word of mouth.
[00:45:27] Dylan: That old school thing. Where we spend time with our clients. We look after them, we take care of them. We get to know them. We understand them and that they come back to us. That's it. It's old school. And that will become even a harder, a harder thing to have in the next three to five years where people will be able to communicate and actually communicate with you.
[00:45:48] Dylan: That human connection, that touch where people want to come in and go, Oh my God, you look after me, you take care of me. I feel good. I look good. But I'm also having a great experience. And that's something we must, must really, really, really take care of. And do really, really well. Because I think, unfortunately with phones and technology, we're kind of looking away a little.
[00:46:07] Dylan: That stuff, you know.
[00:46:08] Antony Whitaker: Um, obviously you are, you know, affected by this like everybody. Uh, and that is the changing. Business models that are happening all over the world of hairdressing. There are a huge increase in the amount of, uh, self-employed people.
[00:46:26] Antony Whitaker: I think in the UK, it's something like 64%. Um, you know, uh, and it's similar in the U S in, uh, the Australian market. It's everywhere. That, uh, there are a lot more self-employed people in the business. Uh, are you, uh, you did mention you had a barber upstairs who was like a business within the business, but are your team generally speaking, are they, is it an employee employer relationship or are
[00:46:51] Dylan: I have no, I have no, no chair rentals in the salon whatsoever.
[00:46:55] Antony Whitaker: Yeah. 
[00:46:56] Dylan: it's a process that I've fought hard with. You know, I've had lots of staff over the years, not lots of staff, sorry, that's a lot. I have staff over the years that have said, look, I want to rent a chair and I go, I can't do it because I can't control the brand.
[00:47:10] Dylan: For me, it's just an issue that if I go You know, it's not easy. And a lot of businesses, unfortunately have had a gun put their head where they go, okay, fine. But Sam, my, my job for me is, is I want to make a business for everybody that they can make a good living out of, but also support them in the ways that we can and give them the support with the, with the assistance and give them a great environment and a place that they really are proud to come to work every day.
[00:47:36] Dylan: And so my job is to do all the other things around it, to try and make up for that, the, the, the. I suppose the sidetrack of, Oh, I can make more money if I go work employed. Ironically, now when you talk to people, obviously I was in, I was in London on Monday and lots of people were coming up to me saying that they're finding lots of people are starting to come back now because obviously hairdressing and, uh, accountancy is probably not the greatest combination of, uh, it can be our weakness, if you like, that we have to make sure that if we are doing it, we have to run it really tight and run it really well and efficiently so that you're making a good wage.
[00:48:10] Dylan: If that's the route that you want to go, and that you take care of your business.
[00:48:13] Antony Whitaker: So one of the things that I think is really important that a lot of people perhaps a ren't thinking about, and I love the way that you're doing it and how firm you are about your stance on it, because that is your brand. And. I think the thing is, is that if I'm a young 18 year old or whatever, and I walk into Dylan Bradshaw and I go, Oh my God, this is incredible.
[00:48:37] Antony Whitaker: This is an incredible place to work. It's an incredible culture. It's a great brand. It's like, it just looks good. You know, being in a great space is fantastic to work in a great space all day. That is so much more aspirational. Then by and large, working as an independent in a little salon suite studio, you know, of one or two that obviously just simply can't afford to do that sort of fit out.
[00:49:07] Antony Whitaker: Now, I know there are a lot of people tinkering around the edges with trying to create different business models that are sort of co working spaces that do do that, and to varying degrees, some of them are doing it successfully, but, um, It's interesting. I just, you know, if I had a kid and they wanted to be a hairdresser and they were going to work at Dylan Bradshaw and I went in there as their mom or dad, I'd be pretty proud of where they were going to work.
[00:49:32] Antony Whitaker: And I suppose what I'm trying to say is that's a really good thing. And that. With there being so many, uh, renters being so many, uh, self-employed people. Um, is it hampering the aspirational aspect of I want to become a hairdresser? And I'd say the answer is probably yes. Whereas when I started hairdressing and you started hairdressing, there were places that were aspirational that you really wanted to work for.
[00:50:01] Antony Whitaker: And, uh, and your brand is, so, uh, let me ask you that question. Do you have people frequently that want to come and work there or are you like everyone else going, actually, I just can't find stuff.
[00:50:13] Dylan: I think you find staff because you have a culture within your business that they find the staff for you. You know, that sort of way. I mean, if you're going to stick stuff online and hopefully somebody's going to knock in and all that, that doesn't work. It's all word of mouth. It's like, I mean, I know where I'm not, I'm not banging on about
[00:50:29] Dylan: I'm anti social media. It's a huge part of what we do. So I'm not saying that, but what I'm saying is it's much easier to connect with somebody, as we've said, if they're sitting in a chair and you look after them, as opposed to doing something online, it's the same principle. If you're looking for people, I have a team downstairs and they're really, they really love what they do down here and they're passionate.
[00:50:48] Dylan: So they, they will know if somebody's out there. I also know that if we have somebody that works in the place, and they're not working out. My team will nearly reject them. And I don't mean that they're like, push them out. I mean, their standard will actually make this person sink or rise because they'll go, well, this person's not pulling weight or they're not part of the team.
[00:51:07] Dylan: So it's kind of a, the culture for us is about, we, we always find our way. We always find the right person. It's another thing is I've made mistakes in the past where you panic hard. Okay. So It's one of those things, I know we're getting a little bit off, but you always have to hold your ground, you have to hold your ground.
[00:51:27] Dylan: We, you might get one of your big staff or big team has left or is leaving, let's say they're going around the corner, they want to go self-employed or whatever. You nearly feel like you have to react and go, I need to get somebody else. We don't, we don't. Um, we don't pinch client or staff from other, from other businesses.
[00:51:46] Dylan: It's always been a no no for me. I don't agree with it. I just don't think it, it's kind of that thing I don't want it to happen to me. So I wouldn't do it to somebody else. It's been a really big part of my, um, and actually to the point where somebody has come to me in the past where they want to leave a business, I nearly ring them.
[00:52:02] Dylan: I say, well, look, you talk to your boss. These can't come to some sort of arrangement. I'm going to ring your boss and say, well, look, they're off. They're coming to me, but out of respect, I'll ring you and I'll talk to you. So I'm not doing it in a kind of a, you know, behind your back, it's just an old school way that I like, I would like it done to me.
[00:52:18] Dylan: Um, but I do think for me, it's kind of like, there's a great documentary I watched with Alex Ferguson where they had that lecturer from Harvard business and she, they basically studied his career and then turned it into a management style. It's brilliant. I don't know if you've ever seen it. But what I love about it is, is he's quite ruthless, uh, in all his, his 23 years as a, uh, as a man, as a manager, what he did was there was no such thing as personalities in the sense that he would, he wanted an equal 11 players on that pitch, regardless of whoever the superstar was, you know, and I think that's very important that we sometimes work too much around individuals as a rather than our team.
[00:53:05] Dylan: So we really must take care of our team and everybody has to have a bite of the cherry and get their, you know, their, and I've made those mistakes in the past where unfortunately we kind of, you know, it's, Oh, it's the bigger taker or it's the higher profile or the whatever, where we trying to look after them or what we're doing is more damage to our business because we're not taking care of everybody else partners wise, but we're also giving people the wrong impression about who they are in the big, bad world out there.
[00:53:30] Dylan: So, um, It's one of those things that are, you know, Ferguson used to get rid of these personalities on the team that people go, Oh my God, I can't believe you got rid of Jaap Stam who's the best defender at the time in playing for a United, uh, and he just was ruthless and got rid of him because he was like, Oh, nobody is bigger than what we do.
[00:53:47] Dylan: And that's our philosophy for a quite a, quite a few years is that look, guys, we're all equals. There's no hierarchy in this space. If you're from me down to the trainees, we all have to pull together. That's the one thing that makes your business much, much stronger and greater as anybody pulls together.
[00:54:05] Antony Whitaker: I, I, I absolutely love that. The final question, uh, that I was going to ask you, I'm going to ask you anyway, but you may have just answered it. And that was. You know, what is the biggest lesson that you've learned over the years? If you were going to pass on one thing to some aspiring, you know, 25 year old version of Dylan Bradshaw about to open up the salon, you know, what would you say was, uh, listen, if you're going to learn one thing from me, this is what you need to learn, anything you'd want to add to what you just said.
[00:54:36] Dylan: not really. I think life is about, I've learned most of my great lessons is from my failures. I'm actually, you're only going to learn those lessons by fighting. I think anyone that tells you this and sits down here and takes notes are going to go great. That's brilliant. But it's the journey that the journey is everything for me and my journey still continues.
[00:54:54] Dylan: You know, we, we still learn every day. So. I am this kid that always never listens. And actually I still continue to never listen. Now that's part of the journey, but the never listening is the good part because you go and you do things that people say, you're mad. You shouldn't do a fit out. Why would you do it at this time?
[00:55:10] Dylan: In the end, the industry's gone the way it's gone. So, you know, it's, you don't look back. You just look ahead. I've made so many mistakes, but they're not mistakes. They're, they're, they're just lessons that you learn along the way. I'm, I'm a lucky guy. I have a business that I love, a great team that I love, a great wife that I love.
[00:55:27] Dylan: I'm kids were happy were healthy end off. So the mistakes that we make brings you to this point now that I'm having this chat with you. Uh, I'm, you know, we picked up an award on Monday as in best hair salon in UK and Ireland. Uh, and there's more of those kinds of hopefully exciting parts to play. And there'll be also when I close this laptop, I'll go downstairs and somebody's telling me that one of our clients isn't happy because of X, Y, and Z.
[00:55:50] Dylan: So it's just a continuation. We just be pushing and moving on forward. So
[00:55:54] Antony Whitaker: Yeah.
[00:55:55] Antony Whitaker: All right. Well, where can people connect with you on Instagram or other social channels?[ 
[00:56:01] Dylan: Yeah, obviously I'm in Instagram. It's Dylan underscore Bradshaw. I mean, look, you can find me or my salon on. It's very, very easy. And if anybody has honestly any questions. Uh, drop me a line and I'll get back to you at some stage, but also it's kind of one of those things. If you're, if you're in Dublin, you know, we had for L'Oreal about five years ago, we had 80, uh, Americans.
[00:56:23] Dylan: We hosted for three days, uh, in the salon, which was great education wise. And we were also given the whole experience of it. So we, we reach out, call in the door, have a coffee. We'll have a chat. It's no problem at all. So, I mean, I would definitely recommend anybody wants to come and have a look at the space, please call in.
[00:56:41] Dylan: It's, it's, it's our absolute pleasure to show people around the space 
[00:56:44] Antony Whitaker: Great, ok. Well, listen, I'll put those links in the show notes for today's podcast. So if you listen to this podcast with Dylan and have enjoyed it, do me a favour and share it with people who you know will also enjoy it. And don't forget to subscribe. And leave us a rating review on the Apple podcast app.
[00:57:01] Antony Whitaker: So to wrap up, Dylan Bradshaw, thank you ever so much for being on this week's episode of the Grow My Salon Business podcast.
[00:57:09] Dylan: My pleasure. Thanks mate.