After close to two years of turmoil and uncertainty, salon owners are finally starting to catch their breath and look towards the future with a renewed sense of hope. But oftentimes, moving forward and ascending to your full potential requires turning back to resolve the past.

“Then you can accept change and create innovation. It’s at that point you have the energy and mindset to build a new reality.”

Just as soil is upturned in a garden to promote vibrant growth, Serious Business 2022: Upturn invites participants to uproot their challenges of the season for an ultimately fruitful and fulfilling energy lift.

Attendees will enjoy mainstage messages and interactive breakout sessions from speakers invited to expose, evoke and evolve thinking. Categorized into the “elements of an upturn”–heal, innovate, and build–guest speakers will offer fresh perspectives and tools for navigating a new reality in 2022.

See You in New Orleans

Who doesn’t want to reunite with a big in-person hug with their friends from afar? Serious Business we will be back live and in person at the Saenger Theatre in New Orleans this year. Salon professionals will also have the option of attending the event in New Orleans virtually.

When: January 16 & 17
Where: The Saenger Theatre, Roosevelt Hotel and JW Marriott in New Orleans
Virtual: Buy a virtual ticket and watch speakers and breakouts live from New Orleans
How: Purchase tickets for the live or virtual event here. Note: Ticket prices increase on November 15, and again on January 15, so buy tickets now!
Bonus: Serious Business will be available to both virtual and in-person attendees to watch online for 30 days. Instead of having to choose which breakout to attend, salon professionals will be able to hear every breakout speaker (another Serious Business first!)

THIS YEAR’S POWER LINEUP

Genein Letford: Are you talking about intercultural creativity in your salon? Thought leader Letford will share the framework to help develop diversity and inclusion in your salon in a positive, creative way.  “Most people think of creativity as artistry, but I’m bringing forth a new definition of creativity as the process of problem-finding and problem-solving with relevance, value and novelty. While people think of culture as ethnic or national culture, I’m defining culture as a group of people with defined values, beliefs and systems.”

David Kessler: One of the world’s foremost experts on grief and loss, Kessler is the author of six books, including Finding Meaning: The Sixth Stage of Grief. He will share how you can learn from loss and live a happy, fulfilled life.  As we look at the way the world has changed around us we have all been grieving and looking at what once was.

David Whyte: Serious Business is thrilled to welcome its first poet. “When I heard David Whyte speak on NPR, I called Carol and told her we had to have him,” Neill Baker says. “His work and words have moved me in a way I’ve never been moved before.” An Associate Fellow at Said Business School at the University of Oxford, he is one of the few poets to take his perspectives on creativity into the field of organizational development.  His work includes Conversational Leadership as his mastery of language creates a sensitivity to the words we choose to speak.

David Bosscher & Cyd Charisse – Founders of Destroy the Hairdresser offer provocative perspectives evoking a commitment to critical thinking and emotional intelligence.  Their mission is to deconstruct, transform and rebuild our industry in a way that benefits the professional.

Gigi Dunn: Gigi’s life path and professional interests dance at the intersection of consciousness and health.  Her calling as a physician educator is to awaken awareness to create healing spaces, first within us and then around us, as resilient, thriving individuals create resilient, thriving communities, much like we do in the beauty industry.  Gigi has been studying the role of trauma in our mental and emotional health.

Garry Golden is a professionally trained futurist who writes, speaks and consults about the driving forces that will shape society and business in the 21st century, based on the current trends of societal change and economics.  He will be sharing his insights on how we must respond to the current and possible future changes.

Bold Breakouts

Monday’s six breakout sessions offer practical advice and tools on how to have an upturn in your business. 

Financial Literacy: Erin Kuhn, President of Qnity, Inc. will be offering education that’s traditionally missing in salons—financial literacy for service providers.

Mental Health: Gigi Dunn takes a deep dive into her keynote presentation with a focus on her study of the role of trauma in our mental and emotional health.

Recruiting: Stefanie Fox, founder of Talent Match, a recruitment and team-building agency that specializes in the beauty industry, leads this hot topic. 

Branding: Managing Partner and Strategy Director at High Tide Creative, James Allan offers guidance on customer engagement and how to focus on the positive impact your company is bringing to the world.  

The Business Side of Beauty: Jen Baudier, owner of Bella Style Salon in Slidell, Louisiana, works with salon owners across the country who want to scale their company to seven figures and increase profits through PIP University.

Rebuilding Culture: Genein Letford leads imagination training in her breakout. “One exercise I do is attached to the idea of bias—I have people close their eyes and imagine they are going into a house, but I give them different roles. For the people in the class who are born in the first six months of the year, they are going through the house as a prospective buyer, and for those born in the last six months, they are going through as a burglar. It really shows how different perspectives can change the way you view something.”

A New Energy

These keynote and breakout speakers expand upon the Upturn theme and also the new awareness and appreciation consumers have found for beauty professionals.  

“I recently read an article about how much the author missed her beloved beauty professional during the pandemic,” Neill Baker says. “How many other professionals are referred to as ‘beloved’ by their customers?

“There is an upward turn toward our work and our calling—and we’re just at the beginning of this upturn. That doesn’t mean there won’t be turmoil. But at Serious Business, we want to evoke an energy lift—not just a mere shift. We need to turn up our personal volume, vibration and energy.”

Neill Baker says this year’s call to action is: “We should all become a contagiously optimistic influence on everyone we touch.”

Learn more about Serious Business 2022 here.