20. Meevo Founder John Harms on Salon Technology, AI & Business Success

Hey everybody, welcome to The Connector, Intercoiffure's weekly podcast connecting salon owners and professionals with the leaders, artists, and innovators, shaping the future of the professional salon industry. I'm your host, Claude Miller, General Manager of Intercoiffure America Canada, the industry's only not-for-profit association representing employment-based salons across the U.S. and Canada. To learn more, visit us at intercoiffure.com. While you're there, be sure to sign up for our free weekly newsletter. And also, be sure to check us out on Instagram, where you can find us as at intercoiffureac. All right, before we get started, a reminder. The Intercoiffure Fall Atelier is coming up fast. We will be in New York City October 3rd through 5th. We've got a brilliant lineup of educators and artistic presentations and a few surprises. To learn more, head over to intercoiffure.com and check out the events tab. All right, on to today's guest. He is the OG of technology and salons. He's the founder and chairman of Mevo by Millennium, a great friend to Intercoiffure America Canada and to our larger industry. He is an innovator extraordinaire. Mr. John Harms, welcome to the Connector podcast.

Hey, great to be with you, Gordon. Saw

you recently. I don't get to see you very often, but we were both at Premiere Orlando at the Beauty Changes Lives dinner. It was so great to see you and your whole team at a table. Yeah,

again, just

nice to do the face-to-face

in occasion. Yeah, I know. It's great. And as a matter of fact, I mean, we're doing a lot with Beauty Changes Lives as far as like with MevoPay trying to generate money and easy money for, for that great foundation. But more importantly, more importantly, but as important for me was, um, I'm kind of getting back out there to some trade shows and, uh, you know, Bob and everybody in my company have represented us very well, but, and I've been kind of knee deep in product and those things, but I miss people. I was great seeing you was great seeing, you know, a bunch of people, the industry walk in the trade show floor, kind of brought back a lot of nostalgia.

Well, in the interquart, your fall atelier is coming up. I know you go everywhere. You can't be everywhere, but Mevo is going to be a part of it. And I hope we get to see you there in person. Oh, absolutely. Yep. All right. Well, we're here for a podcast. So we've done these before. Always have a great conversation. We've both been around for a very long time. And if we talk too much about our careers, it'll be a five-parter. But... To those who don't know you, as a reminder to those who do, you've been at this for a long time. And as you and I've talked before, you were kind of first at the party when it comes to tech and salons. And so give us the fast version because you were a teenager.

Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Yeah. I was a 16 year old that had taught myself coding and I was writing some code for a company called services for product development that was across the street from a salon. Well, the owner,

how long ago we go, how long back are we talking?

1986. I'm 57. I'm 57. So, uh, my sister was a stylist. So I already kind of knew a little bit.