Here’s the full transcript of business speaker Liz McKeon‘s chat with Jane Farnham of Great British Speakers:
00:00:08:18 – 00:00:16:13
Jane Farnham
Hi, I’m Jane Farnham from Great British Speakers, and I’m here today chatting to the leading female entrepreneur and business speaker, Liz McKeon. Have I said that correctly, Liz?
00:00:16:51 – 00:00:19:51
Liz McKeon
You have indeed. Thank you. It’s lovely to be here.
00:00:20:22 – 00:00:49:17
Jane Farnham
It’s so lovely to speak to you. Now, of course, you are an internationally renowned salon business expert. You build your own and you also have worked alongside other women to create theirs. And you’re also a published author and highly active in the area of anti-domestic violence. So maybe firstly, we should talk a little bit about your life and business prior to your speaking work. So what came first? Obviously, the business, the beauty business. So tell me how that all happened.
00:00:49:17 – 00:01:11:31
Liz McKeon
So i suppose, business came first and then I trained in beauty and then I had a series of businesses. My first business was a health club. Then I had a distribution company. I had day spas, actually brought the first spray tan machine into Ireland. And then I had a small skincare center where we focused on really good treatments and selling the corresponding home care.
00:01:12:07 – 00:01:30:00
Liz McKeon
And so that was like my work in the salon environment in that industry for a good number of years. And then one day, my rep, my sales rep just said to me, Liz, I wish you would just teach other people to do what it is you do. And I said, What does everybody have to do what I do?
00:01:30:01 – 00:01:54:37
Liz McKeon
And she said, No, nobody runs their businesses the way that you do. And I was due a change, and I just felt, you know, it was time to move on to something else. So I felt I had enough experience, hands on experience under my belt. And then I, I trained as a business coach and then I set up salon business expert, literally going into other salons, working with them to teach them to run better businesses.
00:01:54:37 – 00:02:10:15
Liz McKeon
Because it’s my observation that we’re all good at what we do. But actually, if you run a small business, you’ve got to learn how to work on your business, to mind your business. You’ve got to learn the business skills. And I think, you know, a lot of us are very good at what we do, but we haven’t been taught that.
00:02:10:35 – 00:02:17:34
Liz McKeon
So I just found a niche in the market based on her suggestions, and that’s how Salon Business Experts started.
00:02:18:33 – 00:02:19:49
Jane Farnham
Are you still in contact with her?
00:02:20:38 – 00:02:26:49
Liz McKeon
Yeah, we still laugh about it now. You know, I might see her for a long time, and then when I bump into her, I say, Now look at the mess you got me into. So it’s an ongoing joke.
00:02:28:20 – 00:02:41:04
Jane Farnham
Oh, good. Well, Liz, what’s the, what’s the biggest mistake that small salon owners make, do you think? Are you able to share that with us? Is there one that you think people don’t get right?
00:02:41:11 – 00:03:08:51
Liz McKeon
Yeah I think it would be, my, my observation at the start that somebody in my industry lends itself to that, that somebody starts off by themselves or could be one room or working for somebody else. And then they then, you know, they run a very successful, we call it a column, you know, this column with their list of clients, and they run a very financially successful column on their own, and then they start to expand out and move to a bigger premises and take on staff and assume that the staff will make the same amount of money.
00:03:09:39 – 00:03:27:52
Liz McKeon
And that’s that can be the downfall because then they end up having to work twice and three times as hard to pay for the staff. And that’s, that’s the one thing that I noticed at the very start that I really had to teach people. If you take on a staff member, they make the same money or more money than you do.
00:03:28:21 – 00:03:36:28
Liz McKeon
They’re not running a business, they’re just running a column. And that continues, that continues to be something I teach quite a lot.
00:03:37:04 – 00:04:03:10
Jane Farnham
I can see that, and I would imagine that stretches across lots of industries. Unless you’re actually entirely invested in a business, your mindset is slightly different as well as if you were employed to compare to being a business owner, then your mindset is different, totally different values, haven’t you, as a business owner? Whereas as an employee, you’re not going to have that same, not necessarily the same drive as you would if you owned the business.
00:04:03:25 – 00:04:04:31
Liz McKeon
That’s right. Yeah.
00:04:04:48 – 00:04:10:02
Jane Farnham
And you assume they will and work to the same the same work ethic. And that’s not always the case.
00:04:10:10 – 00:04:10:39
Liz McKeon
It’s not.
00:04:10:53 – 00:04:16:03
Jane Farnham
I see that. Then how did that all turn into speaking?
00:04:16:35 – 00:04:42:24
Liz McKeon
It just snowballed because I started this work and I was, I suppose it took a few years and I was just in and out of salons just turning them around. And the success that people were experiencing surprised me because it just became apparent that, you know, people would often double or treble their turnover. And literally from the processes that I would have given them that I would have developed, you know, when I had my own salons and spas.
00:04:43:08 – 00:04:59:58
Liz McKeon
So I trained as a coach and then people started asking me to work with their team. So then the numbers started to grow. So then I was, so then I trained as a trainer. So now I’m a coach and I’m a trainer. And then I started working with teams and then companies started asking me to work with their stock.
00:05:00:01 – 00:05:33:34
Liz McKeon
So then the numbers got bigger and then I started getting asked to speak at trade shows. And then from there I got asked to speak at bigger events like theaters and the Barbican Center and those sorts of places for, for big industry events. So, yes, it’s just, now I continue to work with small numbers and then it just grew and grew and grew and then it changed again during, during COVID and during the lockdowns that I started working then with women and business groups outside of my industry.
00:05:33:34 – 00:05:40:26
Liz McKeon
So it’s, it’s always just just changed. Yeah, Yeah, it’s grown. It’s just grown over the years. Yeah.
00:05:40:51 – 00:05:42:59
Jane Farnham
Are you like me, do you get bored very easily?
00:05:43:03 – 00:05:58:15
Liz McKeon
I do get bored very easily and I found when I had salons, you know, I work really hard to get them up and running. And then when they were up and running at the stage where you take your foot off the pedal, then I was bored and on to the next thing and the next thing, well that’s good because that gave me so much variety for what I do now.
00:05:58:48 – 00:06:09:57
Jane Farnham
And that’s great. So have you got any examples where you’ve gone and spoken to a business and their employees and you feel that the clients have developed at their end? Any specific examples?
00:06:11:00 – 00:06:30:50
Liz McKeon
They all develop and yeah, it all changes. And I think my delivery is different to other people insofar as I might have the background knowledge and information, but I never feel it’s my job to tell other people what to do. And in fact, one of the reasons I trained as a coach was I was worried I’d be too bossy.
00:06:31:21 – 00:06:57:55
Liz McKeon
So I thought, I thought if I trained as a coach, then I’d have a process. And really, I find it’s, it’s my job to help other people figure out what it is they want. And it’s my job to help other people be the best versions of themselves that they can possibly be. And I think if we combine both of those and I just facilitate, in getting the outcomes that they want, then that for me seems to work really well.
00:06:57:55 – 00:07:15:48
Liz McKeon
And that’s the formula I bring onto the stage and that’s the formula I use when I’m training. And I really want people to come away with more than what they came into the room. That’s, you know, better for having listened, this Irish accent for an hour or half hour or whatever. You know.
00:07:16:10 – 00:07:32:02
Jane Farnham
It’s the formula that makes you a winning success, for sure. And I could listen to your accent all day. Now, given all the well-documented upheaval with COVID and lockdowns and working from home now, that must have had a real impact in the world of beauty and treatments. Did it hit as hard as you would have thought?
00:07:32:15 – 00:07:50:31
Liz McKeon
I found it quite interesting. And where my office is, is based, it’s, it’s in a business park with about 20 other companies and and, you know, when we were going into lockdown, the people, the admin staff were saying to me, it was very nice knowing you Liz, and I was like what are they talking about. And you know, because we know other people will be back.
00:07:50:31 – 00:08:12:46
Liz McKeon
We’re not expecting you back. Why? Your industry is shut, your industry will never recover from this. But that just was not on my radar because I just thought, okay, this is time, you know, peculiar time. The world is shut, my industry is shut. But I was very in my own mind, I was very much like, you’ve got to make this time work.
00:08:12:46 – 00:08:33:14
Liz McKeon
You’ve got to make this time matter. It’s got to count for something. Now, I wasn’t expecting to go on, obviously, for two years. I sort of thought, this is for a month. I wasn’t on two years, but yeah, it was very severe on my industry, but it was very severe on everybody because we were literally shut down. And I think you’ve got to kind of look for the good parts.
00:08:33:17 – 00:09:02:22
Liz McKeon
I, and my work changed obviously because I couldn’t travel. And so it ended up on Zoom. So you know I had to improve our technology and learn all of that and so did all my customers. But, you know, the feedback that I got and I worked with thousands of salon owners all over the world during the lockdowns was that they got time to work on their businesses, they got time to enjoy working on their businesses, time to think about their businesses.
00:09:02:38 – 00:09:28:39
Liz McKeon
So from my perspective, it was really good because people were saying to me, Now I understand this, why you’re always saying, work on your business. And they understand that, you know, when the world reopened to continue with the disciplines that they had started to enjoy. So now I’m sort of saying the 80:20 rule, please don’t forget, if you’re running your columns and running, working with your clients, then please allocate 20% of your time to continue to work on your business so it can grow.
00:09:29:13 – 00:09:48:46
Liz McKeon
So it was a very topsy turvy time. But I also think, you know, it was good for people to realize that, you know, we all have an inner depth to us. We all have more resilience. We’re all stronger than what we think we are. And I think as entrepreneurs in or out of my industry, it doesn’t really matter.
00:09:48:46 – 00:10:21:32
Liz McKeon
You know, entrepreneurs have this like secrecy. It kind of, like it’s like a secret mental weapon, isn’t it? That no matter what happens, you will pick yourself up and you will go forward. And if it doesn’t work, as it won’t be for the lack of trying. And so I think, yeah, that was my observation that a lot of the people I worked with were more confident about their businesses and felt stronger as entrepreneurs coming out of it, which is, yeah, you know, my granny used to say it’s an ill wind that blows no good and it’s true, and we’ve got to find the we’ve got to find the good in everything.
00:10:22:04 – 00:11:09:27
Jane Farnham
Oh, absolutely the positive in everything. I mean I, we, we did exactly the same, you know, so. Oh my goodness, our industry is going to be annihilated and then literally within a couple of days we were like, right. Okay. This is the opportunity that we’ve been looking for to, so to our websites, it was things because we’re so busy firefighting day to day. Yes. That we just never had to really sit and plan things. We’re just flying by the seat of our pants. At that time. And I think it was really welcomed. Yeah. And I didn’t expect it to go on for two years, you know, these things happen. So then moving forward say to the next 2 to 5 years, do you see more opportunities if you’re a female entrepreneur or is there still lots more work to be done in this area?
00:11:11:07 – 00:11:30:16
Liz McKeon
I think there’ll always be a lot more work to be done and I think there’ll always be room for progress. And, you know, I was thinking this morning I was driving into my office because I knew we were going to talk. I grew up in the construction industry and I can remember working for my father during my summer holidays, answering the phone.
00:11:30:57 – 00:11:37:49
Liz McKeon
And this man said to me, Can I speak to somebody intelligent?
00:11:37:49 – 00:11:43:51
Jane Farnham
What did you say?
00:11:43:51 – 00:11:47:15
Liz McKeon
I think I said, nothing. I got such a fright that anybody would say that.
00:11:47:27 – 00:11:47:56
Jane Farnham
Now you.
00:11:47:56 – 00:12:02:20
Liz McKeon
Probably had a problem. But yeah, I know nothing about construction, so I obviously couldn’t help them. That didn’t make me stupid though. So it was yeah, So the implication was like, you’ve answered the phone and you’re thinking.
00:12:02:45 – 00:12:14:11
Jane Farnham
Yes, it is bonkers isn’t it. I mean, obviously that that is going back. But I just to this day, you know, you’re still fighting stereotypes.
00:12:15:36 – 00:12:41:15
Liz McKeon
So that’s that’s my, you know, early entrance in, in into commerce and, and into business and, you know, a lot of my work obviously is in the industry I do. But a lot of it is, is outside of my industry. And, you know, certainly during COVID and during the lockdowns, my work shifted into, into empowering female entrepreneurs and actually won an award.
00:12:41:15 – 00:13:09:00
Liz McKeon
I won a lifetime, I was very proud of that, I won a lifetime achievement award for empowering female entrepreneurs in 2020 and, but the research that I do, have done, yes, there’s definitely room for progress, because in terms of female entrepreneurs, the cleaning industry has more female entrepreneurs than any other industry. The caring industry is number two, and number three is the hair, beauty and spa industry.
00:13:09:10 – 00:13:32:52
Liz McKeon
So those three industries are the norm. The cleaning, caring and the hair and beauty industry are the number one, two and three in terms of, in terms of pushing female entrepreneurs out into the world of entrepreneurship. So those statistics alone prove that there’s a lot of industries where there must be more scope for more female entrepreneurs to emerge.
00:13:33:19 – 00:13:40:28
Liz McKeon
So we’ve made enormous progress. But yes, there’s definitely room for, lots more room there is in there.
00:13:41:11 – 00:14:25:19
Jane Farnham
Yeah, absolutely. I think as well, it’s just empowering women to be more confident and to take risks. And you can do it. And, you know, I’m, what’s always fascinated me Liz, and I don’t know whether you’ve experienced this, is that sometimes women don’t seem to have other women’s backs and you might be in the same industry. And there’s so much competitiveness. And they just think, you know, there’s enough for everybody. And I hate that kind of feeling where, you know, your, they, they, they may be your direct competitor, but that doesn’t mean you still can’t work together and better yourselves together. Right. I see it all over the shop, particularly in somewhat, you know, where I live. And you just see these women sort of bitching and backstabbing. We’ve got to move forward from this.
00:14:25:19 – 00:14:43:01
Liz McKeon
We have to. And it’s something I’m actually quite proud of because I do workshops and like, obviously I’m going to do work with men, but like in my industry, about 90% of the people I work with are female. And when I started doing workshops was when I started doing my coaching, then I realized I was seeing the same issues everywhere so I couldn’t get round to everybody.
00:14:43:01 – 00:15:10:12
Liz McKeon
So I started doing events and workshops after that where I would bring entrepreneurs into the room, and it was, it was something I was quite adamant about with myself that, you know, I don’t want people I don’t want competition in my classroom. People in my classroom have got to be a support to one another. My courses and workshops are incredibly interactive and I encourage people to talk as much as they possibly can.
00:15:10:31 – 00:15:38:36
Liz McKeon
And I’m so pleased that, you know, I get really proud and humbled by how helpful people are to one another and how they support one another and the great friendships that evolved from my classroom. But I think as a facilitator, it’s up to me to remove that fear at the start. And, you know, we’re all here to help one another, and together we can go forward and we can learn so much from one another and we can all save one another so much time.
00:15:38:36 – 00:16:07:37
Liz McKeon
Because if I, if I have a problem and you’ve had it previously and you have the solution, if you share the solution with me, well then, you know, I don’t waste time getting it wrong. So that was really a requirement when I, when I started my workshops that it’s, it’s we’re here to help one another. And I totally agree with you. And I think it’s a slight block that maybe female entrepreneurs have, are fearful of one another, whereas in actual fact there’s no need because you’re right, there’s enough business for everybody.
00:16:07:55 – 00:16:49:39
Jane Farnham
Yeah, absolutely. And play to your strengths. What was it, what’s that phrase, someone said to me today you can’t be everybody’s cup of tea otherwise you [inaudible]. It’s like not in business terms but yeah I just, I think it’s really relevant that, you know, you need to not spend time doing what you don’t do well, and maybe outsourcing that and then focusing on what you do do well. I thoroughly believe that. Now, the other interesting thing about you is obviously you talk about entrepreneurship and women and health and wellness and beauty, but your latest keynote is around domestic abuse. So how on earth, how did you get involved in that subject?
00:16:50:38 – 00:17:21:23
Liz McKeon
So if I go back to let’s make this time of the lockdowns and COVID, to make this work. So when I look back now in 2020, I got that all star award for empowering female entrepreneurs. And then in 2021, I was, I became the ambassador for an online industry training called Share Haven. So I see coming out of, as we emerge from the pandemic, they were sort of the two things that I felt I achieved.
00:17:22:10 – 00:17:55:17
Liz McKeon
So in relation to Share Haven training, in Ireland, our first lockdown, we couldn’t go any further than two kilometers. That was in 2020. And then in our lockdown in 2021, which went on for five months, we couldn’t go any further than five kilometers. So, so there was nothing really to do and no place to go. So on Valentine’s Night last year, which would have been a Saturday night, I was sitting in his home like at 7:00 and feeling really sorry for myself.
00:17:55:17 – 00:18:19:42
Liz McKeon
It’s Saturday night. It’s Valentine’s night. I’m here in my dressing gown. There’s nowhere to go. There’s nothing on television. And I was just flicking through LinkedIn and I came across the link to Share Haven and I just said, This is for the industry and, you know, an awful lot of time in my industry was spent with people upskilling and training and it was all online and which was hugely helpful.
00:18:19:42 – 00:18:57:28
Liz McKeon
So I found this twenty minute training and I just did it. And I said to myself, Well, you know what? This might help other people in our industry. Now, if I go back a little bit to 2020, I would have a very large following on social media. And I remember, you know, I used to be looking at my newsfeed all the time, and I had started to observe salon owners that I perhaps might have worked with in the past, writing, you know, putting up posts to people because as a salon profession, you’re a very close, you know, not strange but different relationship with your clients.
00:18:57:59 – 00:19:19:12
Liz McKeon
And I started to see these posts going out and, you know, I’m not seeing you at the moment you’re not coming to me for treatments, but I’m here if you need me or, you know, if you need any help with anything, just call me and ask me about blue eyeshadow. If you need me to call the authorities for you, say I want cream number such and such, and I will do that for you.
00:19:19:12 – 00:19:40:33
Liz McKeon
So I started to see that trend happening. And you know, I love saying this to my salon owners and you know, something really important and significant shifted in the industry in 2020 insofar as every and, every survey that was done globally about, you know, what’s the first business you’re going to go back to when this is over.
00:19:40:33 – 00:19:58:53
Liz McKeon
And it was always the hair salon and the beauty salon. So I was able to say to salon owners that I’m working with I hope you appreciate just how important you are in your, in your clients lives. So I started to see the trends shifting. Then I watched, I watched this training and I was just sat there with myself and I thought, well, you know what?
00:19:59:11 – 00:20:21:05
Liz McKeon
I have personal experience of this. And, you know, you know, it’s a long time ago now, but there was a time where I just literally had to, literally run for my life and go into hiding for several months. And it was very serious. And, and, you know, I never underestimate, you know, where I was at that time. And I was in like, really significant danger.
00:20:21:36 – 00:20:40:51
Liz McKeon
And to get up and leave and run was, was really tough. And yet we saw in 2020 that the, you know, the call lines to all the domestic violence centers, it was just escalating. And it isn’t a gender specific problem. You know, it’s male and female. And so I saw this and I saw this training and I watched it.
00:20:41:07 – 00:21:11:15
Liz McKeon
And it was developed in Nashville, in Tennessee, by a salon owner, also a domestic violence survivor. So the training was 20 minutes long. The training was done in conjunction with the YWCA, where the refuge, from the refuges in Tennessee. It was 20 minutes long and, you know, it was very well done. And it wasn’t teaching people how to solve the problem, it was literally if you have somebody in your chair and they, you know, and you can see the signs, here’s what to do.
00:21:12:18 – 00:21:31:12
Liz McKeon
So I thought it just hit the spot. So it was very good. And I felt, well, you know, I’m just going to put this link out on my newsletter next week. So I put it out of my newsletter and just as I did this training at the weekend, and if you think it might be of interest to, you know, to your teams, you know, I suggest you ask them to do it.
00:21:31:44 – 00:22:08:42
Liz McKeon
Now, I subsequently found out that the, the Shear Haven training was, was downloaded by 4,000 people in the, in the UK that week and 500 in Ireland, which I didn’t know at the time because nobody answered me, nobody responded or anything. But that number of people did the training, but I didn’t find that out straightaway. And then I sat and I felt myself well, if that was me 20 years ago or whatever length of time it was since, since, since I was in that situation, if I could only go two kilometers, then I don’t think I’d be around today.
00:22:09:14 – 00:22:33:25
Liz McKeon
If I could only go five kilometers, I would not have made it. And I really felt for all the people that were in that situation. And then I also thought of the times in the course of my work. It’s happened too many times where I might be working with a hair salon owner in their office or whatever, and, and a stylist would come in and say, I’ve somebody out here with alopecia, you come and have a look at this.
00:22:33:54 – 00:22:54:45
Liz McKeon
And I would know from what they’re saying, what they say, that’s not alopecia. That’s somebody who has had the hair ripped out of their heads or, you know, I know myself from doing massage or or skin care treatment. When people are undressed, you see bruising and I, there’s one salon that I used to go to once a month and, we only used to work in her office in the back garden.
00:22:55:01 – 00:23:03:41
Liz McKeon
And every time I went, this man was walking up and down outside. And I used to see this therapist coming out on a break and at lunchtime. And I.
00:23:03:41 – 00:23:05:11
Jane Farnham
Why?
00:23:05:11 – 00:23:30:59
Liz McKeon
Said, why is that man always there? And she said, Oh, it’s so-and-so’s husband like one of her team members. It’s one of her. It’s so-and-so’s husband. And he’s mad about her. And I thought, no, he’s not mad about her. This is his power and control, you know, struggle. That was like, you know, that was so familiar to me. But, you know, the owner was not aware of it in any shape or form.
00:23:30:59 – 00:23:50:13
Liz McKeon
And I just decided then the next month when I went back, if he’s still there, then I’m going to have to explain to her what’s happening. And then another occasion I was working with a very well-known salon owner, high profile, high profile chain salons and I planned to work with her for a day. And when I got there, she was just like, Liz, I’m not there.
00:23:50:13 – 00:24:05:43
Liz McKeon
You’re going to have to come to my house and pull me out of the house and go to the house, and you have to get her barring order and get her children out. And so I’ve had this experience in my own work down through the years, and because I have personal experience, I felt I was in the position to help.
00:24:05:44 – 00:24:47:34
Liz McKeon
But it’s got to be so much more widespread than that. So I felt my industry has a role to play in this and I just went about contacting Share Haven in America. So we have a very good working relationship now. And I asked, could I be the Irish and UK ambassador? And that’s when they told me that they were wondering why the numbers had gone up so much, so since then it has, is now evolved that we have people in Australia and New Zealand wanting to take it on and we’re partnering with very large companies in the UK and over 43,000 some people have done major.
00:24:48:55 – 00:24:54:16
Liz McKeon
So it’s just sort of mushroomed and it’s been downloaded in 101 countries.
00:24:54:43 – 00:24:58:30
Jane Farnham
Wow, well, that’s phenomenal. Thank goodness we’ve got you.
00:24:58:30 – 00:24:58:33
Liz McKeon
I don’t know about that.
00:24:58:53 – 00:25:09:34
Jane Farnham
But now bringing it to the salon owner’s attention, it’s baby steps. It’s a step. You know, if we, every one of these steps is significant, you know.
00:25:09:34 – 00:25:27:45
Liz McKeon
It really is. And, you know, the, I think, you know, I’ve been in business a long time. You know, I’m used to doing radio. I’m used to doing television. I’ve always got PR going on in the background and I’m used to that. But what I was not used to is we launched this last year on the 5th of July.
00:25:27:57 – 00:25:52:22
Liz McKeon
My phone did not stop ringing with, you know, with trade press, with consumer press, with radio stations, TV stations and the, you know, the appetite for, for improving this and creating awareness around this. You know, it’s sad that it’s required, but it’s wonderful that, you know, that people are ready to take it on board now.
00:25:53:15 – 00:25:59:49
Jane Farnham
Well, good luck with all of that. Honestly, it’s been such, so inspirational talking to you this morning. Thank you so much for your time, Liz.
00:26:00:23 – 00:26:01:22
Liz McKeon
It’s my pleasure.
00:26:01:37 – 00:26:24:30
Jane Farnham
It’s really been wonderful. So thank you. I’m going to take a lot of that away today as well. But if you’d like to book business speaker Liz for any events, mentoring or any speaking event, then do get in touch with us.
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Liz McKeon, business speaker at Great British Speakers
