29. The Future of Salon Leadership: AI & Culture with Jenna Noelle

[upbeat music] Hey, everybody. Welcome to The Connector, Intercoiffure America/Canada'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, Gordon Orth, General Manager of Intercoiffure America/Canada, the industry's only not-for-profit association focused on employment-based salons across the US and Canada. To learn more about ICA, visit intercoiffure.com, and while you are there, be sure to sign up for our free weekly newsletter. All right, my guest this week is Jenna Noelle, director and partner at Sam Brocato Salon in New York City. I first had the chance to host Jenna on stage at our spring gathering alongside Get About Salon Spa's Frank Westerbeek for a conversation about AI and the future of salons. And if you were with us at last week's fall Atelier in New York City, you saw Jenna back on stage as part of a panel hosted by Boulevard. All right, so here we go. I am excited about today's conversation, been looking forward to it. I'm gonna say welcome to The Connector podcast Sam Brocato Salon's Jenna Noelle.

Thank you so much for having me, Gordon. It is a pleasure and an honor to be, um, to be chatting with you and amongst so many legendary names and humans that you have, uh, interviewed prior to me. So truly, it is, it is such an honor. Thank you.

Thank you, Jenna. And we just saw each other in New York. We were at the f- Fall Atelier, uh, for I- Intercoiffure. I am brain-dead. It's only been a few days. You know, I mean, w- I'm a behind-the-scenes guy. You know, I was w- working on five hours sleep a night. And, and so today's my kind of first day quasi-normal. I'll say that to the audience. I am only quasi-normal. I'm so grateful to have Jenna with me 'cause she's so smart, and whatever shortcomings I might have relative to my brain today, Jenna will make up for. So again, thank you for being here.

Aw, thank you, Gordon. And I, I mean, I'm exhausted too because this week just rolled into, you know, Atelier straight into Tuesday work week. So I am with you, and I was not running the show behind the scenes, so I can only imagine. And it was absolutely amazing, um, I think the best Atelier personally I've ever attended. So congratulations to everyone, um, for putting on quite the show. I feel so motivated and so inspired. So when you wanted to speak this week, I, I don't think it could have come at a better time for me, um, feeling as optimistic about our industry and the future as I do in this current moment.

Well, and thank you for all that and, and kudos to Scott. Scott Bukat, the president of Intercoiffure-

Oh my gosh

... and, and the board, but you know, Scott's vision for Tapestry of Beauty, I mean, as, as our theme, it wa- it was brilliant. And, but give, give your 30-second review. Now, you said nice things, and, and, um, and that's why I'm asking you the question, [laughs] so you'll say them publicly. But your sense-

It's true. It's true

... here. What, like, what was your experience?

My experience was, like I said, it was so positive. I was really blown away, um, by how many new people were there.

Yeah, yeah. And young.

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