26. Salon Today 200: What Great Salons Do Differently with Stacey Soble

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 Miller, General Manager of Intercoiffure America Canada, the industry's only not-for-profit association representing employment-based salons across the US and Canada. A reminder that Intercoiffure's Fall Atelier Tapestry of Beauty is happening in just two and a half short weeks, October 3rd through 5th in New York City. And it's not too late to register. You can book your hotel room still at our host hotel, the Midtown Hilton. Go to intercoiffure.com for hotel and registration links and also to learn more about Intercoiffure. All right, so today I am joined by Stacey Silb, Director of Brand Content Strategy for Salon Today. And I'm really excited. Salon Today has been, I mean, I moved to Mexico not too long ago, as many listeners know, and I threw away boxes of Salon Todays. I had been saving like, I don't know, 20 years. I probably should have sent them to you, Stacey.

I have them all on my shelf over there, and they have moved with me seven times, and they're expensive to move.

They are expensive to move and I just wasn't going to bring them across the border. But I'm a really big fan and I'm excited to finally be able to do a podcast with Stacey. And yeah, we're here to talk about Salon Today 200. That's coming up really soon. It also is kind of, there's some connective tissue in it that I find fascinating. I think I've been obsessed with the magazine and the digital publication for such a long time because it's the one place I can go where I know I'm always going to find just good stuff. and stuff that isn't talked about enough, which is running great businesses. So, Stacey Sobel, welcome to the Connector podcast. Thank

you so much for having me. I'm excited. I need to book my plane ticket, but I do have my room and I have my ticket, I believe, for InterCorp here.

I'm excited that we're going to see you in New York. And you're a regular. You know the

event well. It's going to be a really great, great event this year.

All right, so first off, speaking of the connective tissue, I mean, Intercoiffure and Salon Today 200, there is a lot of synergy there. So many of our members have been recognized. Two come to mind immediately. I read this using some AI myself and asking about our membership and the awards. And Bonnie Conti with Avalon Salon and Tony Gordon, Gordon Salon in Chicago, Over 20 years, both of them have, their salons have been recognized. I mean, that's kind of insane in a good way.

Yeah, I would say when I come to InterQuilfear's conference that about 70% of the people have been at the 200 at some point. Now, a lot of people, there are people like Bonnie and Tony who apply every year, and there are a lot of people that don't apply every year but apply when they feel like they have had a good year. But there's a lot of synergy in between the 200 and InterQuilfear.

Yeah, it's really amazing. So for anybody, which I don't know if anybody in our audience doesn't know Salon Today, but we may have