Transform Your Salon With Art for Client Wellbeing & Additional Revenue Streams

Sue Davies: 00:00:02

Please note the transcript is produced by AI so if using it for any purpose please ensure accuracy with the recording.

Welcome to Inspiring Salon Professionals, the podcast that allows every therapist, now tech and stylist, to level up, build their career and reach for their dreams.

Each episode we'll be looking at a different area of the industry and along the way I'll be chatting with salon owners, industry leaders and experts who will be sharing their stories on how they achieved their goals, made their successes, all to inspire you in your business and career. I'm Sue Davies, your host, award winning salon owner and industry professional. Welcome to to Inspiring Salon Professionals.

Hi there and welcome to this week's Inspiring Salon Professionals.

I'm delighted today to be introducing you to someone who you probably won't have come across previously unless you caught her article in the last edition of the Salon Education Journal. Today I'm going to be talking to Paolo Minikov, a wonderful Bulgarian artist who's been living in the UK for a really, really long time.

And, and apart from being an artist, she's also a web designer and she also has a magazine called Elysium.

And I kind of brought her into the magazine and I said I'd bring onto the podcast because her view of art and well being is perhaps something that we could, we could tap into. And it's a bit different from what I normally talk about. So I don't know quite how this is going to go today. I'm by no means an artist.

I love looking at art. I'm, I'm not an aficionado.

I am aware from reading up on Paola that she creates a really, I mean her work is really distinctive and apparently not that, as I say, I'm not an arty person. It's a combination of abstraction and figuration and it evokes the spirit of early modernist tradition.

Now I kind of understand what abstract is and I kind of get what figuration is like grammatically so.

But you, if you go and look at her website, if you look her up, you'll see exactly what her work is and it is very, very distinctive and it is beautiful and I love her cityscapes.

Her career has taken her from the canvas, from canvas to large scale mosaics and murals and she's even painted a life sized elephant sculpture for charity. So her passion does extend beyond art and beyond her studio, beyond her studio even.

And she grew up around her dad's sculptures and developed a deep understanding of how art can influence our emotions and our perceptions. And this is kind of where we get into that well being element.

This connection has shaped her mission as an artist and it is something that she tries to use to help transform people's daily lives through the power of art.

She believes that art is not just about intellectual understanding, which is good because I have no intellectual understanding of art, but it is about an intuitive connection. I think that's the bit of art that I love.

And it's a sentiment that she applies to her commissioned work, both private clients and for corporate spaces.

So today, what we're going to do is look at how you can use art in your salon space and we'll explore how the presence of art and the thoughtful use of color can enhance not only your client's experience, but also the emotional and even perhaps the financial success of your salon.

And I'm going to, I'm not going to talk about it now because I'm going to have a bit of a chat with Paola about how art can impact down to our core when it's correct.

So I will see you on the other side and I'm sure this is going to be an interesting conversation and that Paola is going to give us some really valuable insights into how we can, yeah. Use art in its truest form and in its coloration and all that kind of stuff in our world. So see you on the other side.

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If you're ready to simplify your business and get your time back, check out Jenna today. Find the link in the show notes and see how Jenna can transform the way you work. So, hello and welcome, Paola.

And yeah, it's so good to have you on the show. We've been talking about doing this for ages and you've been poorly. I've been poorly.

So we might still both have a little bit of a cough here and there. So apologies to anyone listening if you. If we have the odd throat, interruption.

So Paola, you are an artist, a web designer, a magazine publisher and also starting a new thing you just been telling me about about business for artists and helping them develop their businesses. So you got. You're a bit like me. Many, many hats and. But first, can you just kind of just tell us a little bit about how you came to be the artist.

Because today we are here mainly to talk about art and how that can impact in the salon world. So can you just tell me a little bit about how you came to be an artist and where that all comes from?

Paolo Minekov: 00:05:19

Well, I am born into a family of artists, so my father is a sculptor, my mom's a designer and an artist. And it was always. I mean, I have other family members that are and were artists and musicians and so on. So it's kind of really in. In my heritage.

Sue Davies: 00:05:39

Yeah. Creative family.

Paolo Minekov: 00:05:41

I know. And it's always been kind of the expectation that I will also become an artist.

Sue Davies: 00:05:47

Yeah.

Paolo Minekov: 00:05:48

So I started bad.

Sue Davies: 00:05:49

If you couldn't do it, then I.

Paolo Minekov: 00:05:52

Tried not to do it, hence the way. Because, you know, you come to an age where you kind of revolt against your.

Sue Davies: 00:06:00

What.

Paolo Minekov: 00:06:00

What's expected of you. So like. Like teenagers, I did that as well. But I.

I started painting and drawing very early on and then my parents started actually teaching me how to paint and draw very early on.

Sue Davies: 00:06:14

Yeah.

Paolo Minekov: 00:06:15

Because in Bulgaria, where I'm from, there are high schools specialized to teach art.

Sue Davies: 00:06:22

Really?

Paolo Minekov: 00:06:23

Yeah. So basically the emphasis, the focus really is on painting and drawing and technical skills. And that part of the education is really advanced. It's.

You start quite young, obviously, when you go to high school. So the conceptual bit isn't quite as developed because you're working with children. But it was quite hard to get into these schools.

So children would get art lessons for two, three years before that. And it was. Yeah, it was very.

Sue Davies: 00:06:53

Just to get them in.

Paolo Minekov: 00:06:54

Yes. So it was very, very competitive.

In Bulgaria, we've got specialized schools for languages and all sorts of things, high schools, and some of those are for art.

Sue Davies: 00:07:04

Wow.

Paolo Minekov: 00:07:05

I could already draw quite well at age 12.

Sue Davies: 00:07:08

Yeah.

Paolo Minekov: 00:07:09

Alongside all the other children that actually got into that school.

Sue Davies: 00:07:12

Yeah.

Paolo Minekov: 00:07:13

And, yeah, that's. That. That's how it happened. I was always surrounded by art. I was surrounded by my parents, friends, who a lot of them were also artists.

It's just always been there for me.

Sue Davies: 00:07:28

And so how did you find? Because your, Your style is. I was trying to explain it in the intro and Google tells me that you're an app.

You're a combination of abstracts and figuration, which was like. It doesn't. I thought, you know, I think, you know, if you're not.

If you're not massively into what you kind of understand some of the concepts of, like abstract and figuration is obviously about figures, but what How. How do you as an artist, like find the thing it is that you do? Because you look at some.

You look at art, you know, and obviously there's like, you know, the. The great masters like Holbein and stuff that do all the big portraits and.

And then you've got people like Dali who do like, really abstract that I think it's absolutely. No, he's not even abstract, is he? He's something else. But. So how do you find your. Your flow in what it is that you do?

Paolo Minekov: 00:08:18

It comes from the inside a lot of the time. Like we try to define styles and art and everything in life. We try to put it in a label. Yeah. To compartmentalize it, to understand what it is.

But I mean, I suppose I have some more abstract work. Not that much. I've got more figurative work.

Sue Davies: 00:08:39

Yeah.

Paolo Minekov: 00:08:40

But I've got different styles and different things that I do and I can do. And I like to play with different mediums. I like to paint on my iPad. I like to paint with oil paint. I like to make mosaics. I very rarely.

But on occasion we'll do a bit of sculpture or collage. So it really also depends. It's. It's about self expression. So it depends what I feel like doing as well.

Sue Davies: 00:09:04

I know because I look at your. We were saying, weren't we, just before we came on, and I was talking about the. The. The painting that you've got of San Francisco.

Because I've been there and that's. It's actually, I've just thought. Sorry, is it because there's a cubism thing as well? It's just that word popped into my head.

I think it is very straight lines on certain bits of it, but with movement. And so I was sort of looking at. And it just intrigues me. So it's slightly going off, really what we're supposed to be talking about.

But how you make those beaut. Those sharp lines. I was just imagining you with lots of masking tape to get those perfect.

Paolo Minekov: 00:09:37

No, I do it by hand. I. Well, it depends on what you can do. So I've got very precise eyes and I am incredibly clumsy when it comes to serving tea, for example. Yeah.

I'd been a waitress and that lasted all of five days in some parts hotel. And then I spilled the tea over everybody when it comes to drawing.

Sue Davies: 00:09:58

Yeah.

Paolo Minekov: 00:09:59

Somehow becomes really balanced and stable and I can do like a massive circle on a wall and it's perfect. Or straight lines. Yeah.

Sue Davies: 00:10:06

Yeah.

Paolo Minekov: 00:10:07

It's. I don't know. Clearly I can do it. But, yeah.

Sue Davies: 00:10:11

Do you know what is interesting? Because in the salon industry, like, one of the things that I've always worked in and was, like, the predominant part of my business was nails.

And a lot of the people that listen are now technicians. So they do a lot of. Some of them. I mean, the work they do is. It is. It is art. And they are now artists.

And there's always been this thing of, you know, so you can't. You can do that. And I had a client once asked me to do her like a Harry Potter lightning strike. And I can't. I can't do it. She.

I did it and she went, yeah. Should we just try something different? Because that clearly hasn't worked. Because I. I'm just. I. It's. I have. I have a problem. Not this.

I don't know why. This isn't what we're here to talk about, but I have a problem in transferring what's in here onto the paper.

I think I'm not meant to be a literal artist. I think I'm just meant. I'm. I'm good. If there's no rules, I'm okay.

But as soon as I've got a rule to follow, just don't ask me to do it, because I can't. I can't manifest what I can see doesn't come out on the paper. So clearly I'm meant to be abstract or something. It's not my thing.

Paolo Minekov: 00:11:13

Well, I mean, you don't have the training like I've been trained since I was nine years old.

Sue Davies: 00:11:18

Yeah.

Paolo Minekov: 00:11:19

So that is. Well, it's repetition, isn't it? It creates the neurons in your brain to be able to do that with your eyes closed. I can do that.

You know, I can do it with my left hand and I can do it with my right hand, but that is because I've done it so much. Had I not done it since I was a. But I probably wouldn't be able to do it either. Art. Art, perhaps not so much.

But drawing, technical skills, the painting, that is a learned skill.

Sue Davies: 00:11:46

Yeah.

Paolo Minekov: 00:11:46

And learn about colors, you can learn about art materials, you can learn how to do it. And it takes a lot of work, but you can become a really good technical artist regardless of talent.

Sue Davies: 00:11:58

Yeah. Just don't ask me to paint a lightning strike, a cut or lightning bolt. I can't. It is. I don't know what it is.

Paolo Minekov: 00:12:04

Five times and on the sixth time you'll do it.

Sue Davies: 00:12:06

Yeah. You never.

Paolo Minekov: 00:12:07

You know, it's like learning the time stables.

Sue Davies: 00:12:10

Yeah. Maybe I just need to keep practicing. I know that client, the client, that client still, still goes to my old salon where I, when I sold it.

And she's, she's. And my cousin who who now owns it is far better at lightning bolts than I ever was. So she gets nice now, like done now.

But yeah, I've always been quite limited in what I can do, but I know some of the girls.

Paolo Minekov: 00:12:29

Yeah, I mean, do you really need to learn something? We can learn everything. We've got the potential to be neurosurgeons and artists and nail artists and cut hair.

We all of us can learn it, but we need to. So, you know, I learned things that I need and you learn the things that you need and that applies to everybody.

And art in terms of self expression, now that's different because you want to express yourself, you want to feel better, you want to find your flow, you want to, I don't know, use it as a meditative technique or whatever it is that you want to achieve with it for the majority of people just to sit there and feel better. You don't need to be able to draw a perfect straight line like me.

Sue Davies: 00:13:14

No, no. And I think this is.

And I think, you know, it's something that, particularly in the now industry because it is so arty when once, you know, if you get. And it's now people come in to salons and I know that the girls or now techs are having this problem.

A lot people are coming in with like AI created nail art that is physically you just, you know, even an artist as well trained as you probably struggle with, because it's just like that is. That's been created by a computer, you know, and humans are not going to be able to replicate. Well, most humans are not be able to replicate that.

And so I think it is interesting because we all get limited by different, you know, by the level of our training. We get limited by. And my level of training for art is really, really limited.

So I was okay doing certain things and as I say, one of my friends, many of my friends can create masterpieces. I mean and it is. When you think the size of a Now to create something that is visually understandable is quite miraculous really.

But anyway, so I just, Yeah, I just really wanted to kind of get a bit of a backdrop into, into how you got to be. Yeah. The artist that you are really. And just to be able to convey is that. So that whole kind of heartfelt thing, isn't it?

Of, of what it is that you're seeing and trying to get that connection with somebody else and get them to see that connection.

Paolo Minekov: 00:14:38

I paint. It's very different from web design. I paint what I feel and I paint the way I see it. It's weird, perhaps.

Maybe it comes down to talent and maybe it again comes down to training and doing it a lot.

Because when you do something a lot, use, you subconsciously think about it, and then creativity kind of happens when you think, when you look, when you observe. But yeah, I.

I often can see what I'm going to paint before I've painted it, and I can reproduce it quite precisely without having to do a lot of sketches.

Sue Davies: 00:15:18

Yeah.

Paolo Minekov: 00:15:18

So I see it in my head and then what other people see in it is hopefully something that they can relate to. But I don't try to impose it. I often, on the more psychological pages that I have, I put an explanation there.

Sue Davies: 00:15:35

Yeah.

Paolo Minekov: 00:15:36

But I am not going to impose it on you to feel the same way as I do. I think partly art is. It's meant to be liberating rather than structuring you.

Sue Davies: 00:15:47

Yeah, I suppose, isn't it? And. And when, if someone does come to the. Come to it with the same emotion that you had to create it, that must be sort of like a bit of a.

A wonderful thing for you. So if they can actually really feel exactly what it was that you wanted to portray, or. Or is it. Is it nicer when they just have a.

Have a reaction to it?

Paolo Minekov: 00:16:08

Regardless, it's quite nice for me to see how other people experience it differently because there's this thing like art is, you know, your painting.

Anything you do, I suppose, is a bit like your baby while you do it, it's like you start working on it, you draw it, you apply paint, you work on it perhaps for a day or a week or a few months, depending on how it's going. And then at some point it becomes this thing of its own and it's no longer such a part of you.

It's like, you know, your children grow up and then they become adults and then they're different people and they will always be a part of you. But, yeah, yeah, it's like, you know, at some point the painting is finished and I've got nothing more to add to it myself.

And for as long as I do have something to add to it, it could be years that I go back to an old painting is because I felt that that was not complete and I'm not entirely happy and there's other people might not see that, but I'm not happy with It. So. And that's literally just happened with one of my paintings that I painted a few years back.

I even posted it on Facebook, and there were things about it that I just did not. I mean, I never exhibited it. I never showed it again. I didn't put it on my website, none of it.

And I've literally just finished it, I think last week or two weeks ago. Yeah. I finally saw how the things that bothered me, I fixed them.

Sue Davies: 00:17:32

Yeah. And now you need to work through something to find what it was that was missing.

Paolo Minekov: 00:17:38

Yeah. Now I've got nothing else to add to it.

I mean, other people responded very positively when I first posted it on social media and stuff, but I would not. It wasn't it. So. And then at some point, now it's finished, I've got nothing else to. To do it.

Nothing else to add visually or emotionally or in any other way. I might put it in a frame, but I might even just put it like that and like.

Sue Davies: 00:18:05

Yeah.

Paolo Minekov: 00:18:06

Take it or leave it. Right.

Sue Davies: 00:18:08

Yeah.

Paolo Minekov: 00:18:10

How wonderful people will feel about it. It's.

Sue Davies: 00:18:16

That one behind you is lovely. The one behind you is lovely.

Paolo Minekov: 00:18:20

Not entirely finished. So this is part of my dancer series. Yeah. It's.

It's oil paintings of basically moving figures, and I painted with a palette knife, so it has a lot of texture.

Sue Davies: 00:18:36

What was her name? There was. Was it Nancy? No. There was an artist, wasn't there, in the 70s, and she would. In the.

In the UK, she had a TV program in the 70s, and she did everything with a palette knife. It's amazing.

Paolo Minekov: 00:18:48

I wasn't living here in the 70s, I don't know, but I.

The way I paint these paintings, they have a lot of texture, and I feel that adds to the movement, but also the way I create the compositions I want to depict, you know, energy and movement and figures, connection between them.

Sue Davies: 00:19:10

Yeah. So. So moving on a little bit. So we were.

We were talking about emotions and stuff, and one of the things that I wanted to bring you on today to talk about was about how regardless really, of what salon space you.

Whether you're, you know, you've got, like, a lovely cabin in your garden, or you work from a bedroom or whatever, or you've got a beautiful salon space that has, like, 10 rooms in it, or you're a hairdresser wherever you are, art can be incorporated. And I know I always had.

Aside from all of the advertising images that we have to have in our salons of like, well, you know, this hair looks like that, or this spray tan looks like this I always had images in my salon that were there as like a sort of a backdrop to who we were.

One of the things that we were talking about previously you wrote when you doing the article for the magazine for me was about how art, you can use art to resonate with your clients and to kind of give them more of an experience in the salon.

And it does, it doesn't matter whether that's one person space or if it's a, you know, a space where you've got 20 staff and that, you know, and that number of clients. How, you know. So how can art connect with your clients, do you think, to help them?

Paolo Minekov: 00:20:25

Well, first of all, it's in most spaces, art, the way you, you know, in terms of interior design, perhaps quite often you need this focal point in your space and art can often be that.

And also I think people are already in your salon, for example, they don't necessarily want to be advertised further, they would like to just have a nice experience.

Now your salon needs to be the space where they go back to and it's calm and you take a break from your other, I don't know, like the kids screaming at home or whatever's going on in your life. And you've got these two hours of me time. It's nice to be surrounded by beautiful things. And art is one of those things.

Sue Davies: 00:21:10

Yeah.

Paolo Minekov: 00:21:10

Also, I mean, there are studies that show that it does improve mental health. There's a lot to look at, a lot of to experience, but it's just, it's, it's a bit of a miracle, isn't it?

Because it's one of those things that we do that isn't one of the few things that we do that isn't entirely commercial. Like, of course, as artists we want to sell our art so that we can make more art. But, you know, because that's how life works.

But most artists don't really make art to make a lot of money. We enjoy it. And that's why you've got so many artists who also have a job on the side.

And art or the art is their main thing, but they might do something else as well. And of course, like you mentioned colors and stuff, it can be related to your branding.

So it could be a way for salon owners to advertise their brand without advertising, if that makes sense. Like, you know that. Yeah, it's, it's subconscious, isn't it? So you can use your colors, you can use shapes that are related to your logo.

Perhaps you can use, you can. There's all Sorts of things that you can do to keep in style. And that's probably something that you do with the whole interior of the salon.

Not just the artwork or not just the ads. But, you know, you go to a dentist and they have, don't know, five posters of teeth.

Sue Davies: 00:22:43

Well, yeah.

Paolo Minekov: 00:22:44

Doesn't make me want to have my, like, it does not improve my experience of dental care.

Sue Davies: 00:22:52

No, no. And I think actually it's really.

That's a really good comparison because I think, you know, most people, when they come to a salon, are looking forward to the outcome and they're looking forward, you know, if you're having something like waxing done or some aesthetic procedures, they might not be that comfortable, so you might feel a little nervous.

And having, you know, like a beautiful image that you can look at, something that's sort of like flowy or, you know, nice gentle colors and stuff, it probably does help calm the mind a little bit, doesn't it? Because you can kind of have a moment to get lost in that image.

Paolo Minekov: 00:23:24

Yeah, I think it's. It's a number of things that probably work depending on the procedure you're having.

I mean, if I go and have my hair done or something, I'm probably looking forward to that. Or if I'm having a massage now, if I'm having waxing.

Sue Davies: 00:23:43

What sort of wax it is. But.

Paolo Minekov: 00:23:44

But I suppose you could again, use color psychology for that. So there's the calming colors. There's the colors like blue that increase trust. There's yellow, which makes you happier.

That's a lot of my paintings, by the way. Blue and yellow. Yeah, I know.

Sue Davies: 00:24:02

I. I know. I did notice that looking through your website, that there's a huge amount of blue through your paintings.

Paolo Minekov: 00:24:07

Yeah. Yeah. I don't know. It's my favorite. It's always been one of my favorite colors. Blue and yellow.

I like both and I like the combination between them because it's the coolness and the warmth and the way they work together. But of course, you can do this with. With any color. So you could.

If you've got somebody who knows how to do this, you could incorporate purple and yellow as well. If purple is your color. But you want to make somebody feel happy, it's about accents and stuff. It's not.

It doesn't have to be like in your face, like a big yellow wall. It could be something completely different. Yeah.

Sue Davies: 00:24:46

Just. Yeah, because it's funny. I was. I was like. It was like my. It was a well being thing, actually, a little while ago and we were Asked.

It was like a color therapy thing. And we were asked to sort, you know, to sit and, you know, you know, be a bit meditative for a moment and. And. But see what kind of color came up.

And for me, I just kept getting yellow. And it's really odd because I really don't like yellow. It's my. It's one of my least favorite colors. I never wear it. I don't.

I wouldn't buy anything that's yellow and this. And I just kept getting yellow all the time. So I'm trying to embrace it and. And be more. More forgiving of yellow because I just.

I do struggle with yellow. I don't know why.

Paolo Minekov: 00:25:23

It's a very bold color.

Sue Davies: 00:25:24

Yeah.

Paolo Minekov: 00:25:25

I did my web design agency website.

Sue Davies: 00:25:29

Yeah.

Paolo Minekov: 00:25:29

Yellow. And it's not a very easy color to work with. I also don't really wear yellow. I don't.

I mean, I wear a lot of purple, for example, and I wear blue, but yellow, not so much. I don't have a lot of yellow clothes. Doesn't mean I don't like yellow in. Like, I do in my art.

Sue Davies: 00:25:47

Yeah. Maybe that's where I need to. Maybe that's where I need to find my love of yellow is in art. Because it's not. Yeah, it's not.

It's not a good color on me.

Paolo Minekov: 00:25:57

I think it's a very powerful color. And then if you have too much of it, it could be a little bit intimidating.

Sue Davies: 00:26:04

Yeah.

Paolo Minekov: 00:26:05

Opposed to, for example, green, which is quite calming.

Sue Davies: 00:26:08

Yeah, I love green. A lot of green.

Paolo Minekov: 00:26:09

And purple, which we as women. Purple, pinkish, which we like quite a lot.

I find purple and pink, for those reasons, a little hard to work with in art because they're so feminine that people naturally assume that, oh, that's a bit cheesy.

Sue Davies: 00:26:24

Yeah.

Paolo Minekov: 00:26:24

And I'm. That I. I have tried to do paintings entirely in purple. Exactly.

For that reason, because I like to give myself a challenge, like, can I make a purple painting that is a serious painting that you. It's not just like, something people go like, oh, it's like purple, or, you know, such a girly thing. Because it doesn't have to be.

I mean, traditionally, historically, purple was. What do you call that? The color that you wear when you're in morning or. The royal color.

Sue Davies: 00:26:57

Yeah, it's a. It's a royal color. And it was a point where you weren't allowed to wear purple if you weren't royal.

Paolo Minekov: 00:27:03

Yeah. So it's not just, you know, maybe women are just quite regal.

Sue Davies: 00:27:08

I think we Are. But well, and in the, in this. In within the salon sector, you know, pink is. Especially in beauty salons. Pink is like the.

One of the go to colors for many, many people and there's so many salons that are pink and rose gold. Pink and rose gold coloring is huge in the salon. They're absolutely beautiful and they, they blend beautifully together as colors and. But they do.

They kind of. They stereotype salons and people and, and we do sort of talk about the pink and fluffy salons and it isn't. It's fun, you know, and if that's what.

If that's what people's branding is and that's what they want to portray and that's how they feel, it's absolutely fine and fantastic. But it does give that whole. It kind of. It doesn't make it necessarily feel that serious, does it? Because it is that pink and fluffy thing.

And I think that we probably do ourselves. No favorites. Women. Well, we kind of demote pink because it is. It's. It's. I suppose we. It's seen as a color that could be a weak color or something.

I don't know what it is.

Paolo Minekov: 00:28:07

It is really. Well, it's not as strong as yellow. No, but that's, that's. It's. That's his strength, isn't it?

Sue Davies: 00:28:18

I did it my son and I was always very my. When I had the cut. My initial seller when I had. It was very sort of like aubergine and cream. And it was. It was a.

So I had this like very, very bold dark color with the light. And then, then I. But then I went really odd. I think I was.

I think I was having a bit of a situation going on in my head and I went for mainly sort of like very deep reds, gold and black, which was. Which was unusual for a salon. Very baroque. And. And then after a little while I couldn't deal with that anymore.

So then I went for sort of very much more mulberries and. And then all the sort of like the gen. More gentle pink tone. So I had whole palette of. Of sort of like mulberry through to cream.

And that was actually really nice because you still had a little. That you could bring in that little element of the femininity of all the soft pinks. But you still had quite a bold. That mulberry.

I just love that mulberry color. It's just. Yeah. And all those raspberries and stuff. Very berries. Yeah, it was a very berry. Yeah. But I love all that.

I love all those Sort of like winter, autumnal kind of colors. When you have. When you blend colors like that, it gives you such an opportunity to kind of.

To just bring those little highlights, like you sound like where you can use yellow. And I still bit of like. Sort of like metallic tones in there as well, because I do love metallics.

Paolo Minekov: 00:29:38

That's who you want to be as a business and who you want your customers to be. Because, I mean, obviously it's really important not just what you like, but what your customers like. Yeah, you are quite both.

So you like those bold accents and perhaps your customers do as well.

Sue Davies: 00:29:57

Yeah, I know. I think they were all quite shocked because no one. No one saw the red, black and gold coming. I don't think even I did it.

It started off as pastels and ended up as that. Quite a bit of a. I don't know what I. If I'd gone through a burnout or something. I don't know quite what happened. But, yeah, I did.

I did like it at the time, though, and it did look I. Why I liked it. I think a few people struggled with it because it was a little bit. It was very bold. Very, very bold. But anyway, yeah, I don't know.

Paolo Minekov: 00:30:26

I mean, you've got the very hip saloons who go for, I don't know, like very graphical art and fine. You've got more gentle ones. It's a combination of things. It's not just how it looks, but the way it looks should make you feel better. So if.

If somebody like. I probably depends on also the age of your audience, like a number of things.

Sue Davies: 00:30:48

Yeah.

Paolo Minekov: 00:30:49

Universally, pink and purple would work for most. Most women would relate to that.

But then you will have the women that, I don't know, want to have blue hair and they don't want to do it in the Peach Saloon.

Sue Davies: 00:31:01

No, no.

Paolo Minekov: 00:31:02

This is it, isn't it?

Sue Davies: 00:31:03

I think it's. There is. I can't. I can't think what her name is. There's a salon and she is quite known for her use of yellow, actually, and everything she does.

And she has quite often has yellow hair and. And she. Yeah, she embraces yellow in its fullness. But she'll have a very particular kind of client that will probably go there.

I don't know that I could. There was a salon down the road for me, actually. She went quite yellow and I did go there once, but I did find it. Because it was a lot of yellow.

Paolo Minekov: 00:31:28

And I found it quiet, probably is quite overwhelming.

Sue Davies: 00:31:31

Yeah. I didn't. I wasn't keen. Well, it's an indication of like how color can turn people away from your business. And I struggled with the yellow.

I really struggled with that yellow.

Paolo Minekov: 00:31:41

In terms of branding, you probably always start with who your client is, like with any other business.

Sue Davies: 00:31:50

Yeah.

Paolo Minekov: 00:31:51

So based on that, based on that archetype of clients of your ideal client that you want to work with and you want to attract, you go from there. How? Do you want to be perceived as more playful? Do you want to be perceived as more trustworthy?

Do you want to be perceived calmer or hip or, you know, it just basically every business has to decide that for themselves. Yeah. Because you want to attract the person you want to work with.

Sue Davies: 00:32:19

Yeah, absolutely.

And I think that a lot of people make the mistake of only ever choosing the colors that they love and, and being very stuck with that because it is, it isn't always what your client wants. And if you. And that whole ideal client work needs to be done probably way.

Well, as soon as you even start thinking of going into business, you need to start thinking about who your ideal client is so that you can get all your branding and, and even down to.

So, you know, like the logo that you use, you know, like, you get like the acrylic packs where they do all that sort of marbling and so that we get a lot of logos in the southern industry that are like that. So you'll get very often very pink and goldie kind of ones, maybe some sort of like bluey greeny toned ones and stuff.

But they are used so constantly. And they just differentiate yourself. No, and it doesn't make you stand out.

And although they're very beautiful, but it doesn't differentiate you because there's probably another eight salons locally or eight businesses locally that have had the same idea and are using something that just appealed to them and it doesn't make you stand out. So you know how you use in.

Paolo Minekov: 00:33:31

Terms of branding, you want to probably do something different that is more memorable.

You can probably still do it within the same color tonality that the client has chosen, but you want to do something that again, people will notice because otherwise they forget we are so bombarded with images. I think mentioned that in the article as well that I wrote for you.

Like, we see millions of ads at the moment all the time on social media, on our phones, on the street and television. Now with AI those data just being produced, like, I don't know, like there is no end to it.

Sue Davies: 00:34:12

No. And maybe as well, it's something that, you know, that people could come to somebody like yourself and you know, and actually commission a logo.

You know, I, I kind of did that.

I found an image that I loved when I was opening my salon and my friend who is a graphic designer and artist and he was doing all of it, he was doing all my stuff for me and all of my signage and all that kind of design work and he, and he kind of took the idea of it and changed it slightly and manipulated it a little bit and he made me what became known as Gladys because we were. The salon was called Gorgeous. So it was about the gorgeous ladies. So we had this like play on words to make and.

But she, but she was part of the business and she, you know, she was like this very sort of 50s retro looking lady with a big full skirt and you know, the hair up in a bun and everything. It was only. All it was was a silhouette, but it was so part of who we were. And she's still on the wall outside the salon now.

And, and, but she was, you know, she was very distinctive and everybody knew, you know, you can use it independently of the word. You can do whatever you want with it.

Paolo Minekov: 00:35:18

They know it's your image.

Sue Davies: 00:35:19

Yeah.

Paolo Minekov: 00:35:21

The whole point of the logo is to have a good mark. Yeah. If it's memorable then. Well, it depends on the business, of course.

Like if it's a personal brand, like I'm an artist and I'm the face of my business.

Sue Davies: 00:35:34

Yeah.

Paolo Minekov: 00:35:35

But if it's a, a salon, then yeah, then you have to have a good logo.

Sue Davies: 00:35:40

Yeah, absolutely. I wanted to kind of touch on. Because we were, we were sort of talking about this in. While we were.

Just before we started recording and about my, I suppose maybe my experience with art and I was saying to you about how I'd been ridiculed by a teacher and had kind of lost my way with her. I always used to love drawing and doing stuff before I went to secondary school and then I kind of lost it and, and I never came back to it.

And I've had. And I'm not, I'm not. I'm not a good technical drawer. I'm really, really not. And. But everyone always says me, oh, you can do all this stuff.

And I was saying she was not about. In Covid Grayson Perry and the program that he did and how it kind of.

It gave people a different understanding perhaps of art and what they were able to do and the fact that there are really no rules. Art is what you're saying is just that kind of feeling and what you can create for other people to Experience as well.

And it kind of gave me such a different view of art and how I could connect with it, whether it's me sitting, drawing or whether it's me actually appreciating art on the wall. And like, do. I mean, I don't know, do you find that there is a, you know, that emotional connection that you get? Because it really.

That program moved me to tears so many times where people were rediscovering art.

And is there a way, do you think that you can like a salon can kind of use art in a way to bring their clients in as like more community and to help their clients? Well, being through that kind of understanding of. I can do that because it was something like a real epiphany for me.

Paolo Minekov: 00:37:23

I. We come from a culture where I don't know why teachers used to do that. I think it's not done so much anymore.

It's still done sometimes, but now it's looked down upon.

Sue Davies: 00:37:33

Yeah.

Paolo Minekov: 00:37:35

And there's this thing, right. If you're just an art teacher, you're probably not really an artist.

Sue Davies: 00:37:44

Yeah.

Paolo Minekov: 00:37:45

So there is the thing of like, why did they do that? Did they look back and want to just like pretend that they're better than the kids? Like, was that about silly? Right.

You don't do that to children, people. Teachers in my school may have done that to an extent.

I think it's like cultural thing that has changed and now we don't try not to do it anymore because we have a better understanding of children's psychology.

Sue Davies: 00:38:08

Yeah. But also damage me. It's like, it's terrible though, isn't it?

Paolo Minekov: 00:38:13

But like, like, I mean, why do you want to pretend that you're better than a 12? You probably are better than a 12 year old or a 15 year old if that's what you've been doing. It doesn't make you somehow special though, does it?

So I think it's a very strange thing that, that some, some teachers used to do. Comparing yourself to a much younger child is not really a way to boost your ego.

Sue Davies: 00:38:35

No, definitely not. But I think like one of the.

Paolo Minekov: 00:38:37

Things being damaged in this way is actually really not.

Sue Davies: 00:38:42

And I think that there's a lot of people that are like me.

And watching that program, it became quite apparent there was a lot of people that were like me and that had gone through an experience where they used to really enjoy doing art and then they kind of got that taken out of them through, through whatever reason that you, you lose the. That joy that comes with it.

Paolo Minekov: 00:39:02

And that didn't feel that it's. It becomes really hard to learn to draw like a child again because you lose that time.

And now I think we've, we've come to the understanding that this self expression with children is much more important than being able to really.

Sue Davies: 00:39:19

Yeah.

Paolo Minekov: 00:39:20

Or the shading correctly. And when I started teaching, I.

I didn't teach my child to actually draw for a very long time because I really enjoyed the way he was just drawing and it came from the inside. I did a lot of art with him, but I didn't sit there and go like you should do this like that. And if you don't do it, your wrist right.

We don't do that.

Sue Davies: 00:39:40

Yeah.

Paolo Minekov: 00:39:42

I think it's like the longer you can keep that the better. Like how children explore the world through art.

Like he said there in drew circles again and again and it turned out it was balloons, then it became cars, then it became dinosaurs. Like he learned how to use these shapes to, to depict his interests.

Sue Davies: 00:40:04

Yeah.

Paolo Minekov: 00:40:04

Very fascinating to watch.

Sue Davies: 00:40:07

Yeah.

Paolo Minekov: 00:40:07

And the same thing can be done with adults. But of course it's harder because we've got so much resistance to expressing ourselves. Because what is somebody gonna think, Right?

Sue Davies: 00:40:18

Yeah, Absolutely. And I think especially that or if.

Paolo Minekov: 00:40:21

I painted my hair blue or if I have like, I don't know, purple nails or whatever it is that I do about the way I look and the way I express myself, things that I say, we often think like what is somebody going to say like me if I don't do it right? And I did the chart for couple of years before COVID at studio in London called the Dali Chart Group.

And a big part of the training for the tutors was like, how do we find the positives in the people that we teach in their work as opposed to trying to like teach them in a negative way. Because you have to be a bit, a bit sensitive with other people's self expression.

You want to stimulate them to, to enjoy and continue doing it rather than achieve the opposite.

And I suppose art groups and things like a lot of people started, went back to like doing drawing and art and creative stuff and craft during COVID because they couldn't go to the office and I don't know, they needed something to do and it was this horrible time of gosh. You didn't want to engage with, with what was going on because it was so awful.

So I think a lot of people went to, to the beautiful sides of looked for.

Sue Davies: 00:41:37

I definitely kind of rediscovered. I mean I've never, I've never I've never sort of sat and had done sketching or drawing, but when we were in Covid, I ended up. My husband was.

Ended up being quite ill. We got. We were in Scotland visiting my daughter and he got taken quite poorly and he ended up in hospital up there for nearly a month. And.

And I just lived in a hotel room for a month. It was really quite. It was quite. And I went out and I bought myself a scout. And I thought, you know what?

I'm just sat looking at all this beautiful skyline I was looking at in a hotel that overlooked the River Clyde in Glasgow. And. And I went and bought a sketchbook and I started drawing and. And I discovered I actually, I could.

I could make something that looked nearly like what I was looking at out the window.

Paolo Minekov: 00:42:20

It was.

Sue Davies: 00:42:21

And I was sending these photos to my husband. He was absolutely gobsmacked that I'd a gone out and bought a sketchbook.

And I created something that was okay because I've always gone, I can't draw. I can't draw. I can't draw.

But I think having watched the Grayson Perry program and seen these other people that like me had been told, oh, no, you can't do that. You're not good at that. It can't. It was really liberating to actually do that. And I still got them.

And I went to Costa Rica last year and while I was there, I actually. I bought myself a little sketchbook to take and some pencil, and I actually did about three pictures when I was out there. So I kind of.

I have kind of semi re. Embraced it.

And my daughter bought me a watercolor kit for Christmas and we've done some watercolors together because she's a really amazing artist and. And she sort of.

She's trying to make me kind of live through it, but I found doing it so therapeutic when I do sit and do that, and it's so rewarding. And I was thinking like, you know, do you. Do you think it's something that salons could use?

You know, we do like, you know, some salons now do like meditation circles and mindfulness sort of teachings, and they bring clients. The clients in to create like, sort of like a. Not necessarily a club, but just sort of like an experience, like a workshop.

So, you know, it'd be amazing, wouldn't it, if you could. It's a salon space to bring people.

Paolo Minekov: 00:43:39

In because it's a mindful experience, isn't it?

Sue Davies: 00:43:43

Yeah.

Paolo Minekov: 00:43:44

So why not? You could totally get a group of people and an art tutor or Somebody who wants to engage people in some kind of art or craft or creative activity.

Could be collage, could be poetry. Could be poetry. And art could be all sorts of things. Give them, I don't know, a glass of bubbly and some chocolate.

Sue Davies: 00:44:11

Yeah.

Paolo Minekov: 00:44:11

I think a lot of. I mean, dart experience side of things is. Is a thing that happens. People sign up for it to do. I don't know, like, can do.

I did a drawing class with nude model for. For Party one time. So, yeah, they think it. And they. They said to me it was their most popular class that they offered.

Sue Davies: 00:44:36

Yeah.

Paolo Minekov: 00:44:36

I mean, people will engage with art. And they were. The girls were quite serious about how they wanted to draw and they did a good job.

Sue Davies: 00:44:45

Yeah.

And I think as well, yeah, if you can do something that releases the mind from the daily stress and all of that kind of stuff, it's got to be beneficial to people, hasn't it?

Paolo Minekov: 00:44:59

Well, as somebody who does, it is very beneficial to me. When I start painting, I kind of disconnect from other things. And for as long as nobody's bothering me, I could go on for a couple of hours.

Sue Davies: 00:45:13

Yes.

Paolo Minekov: 00:45:13

It's a very, very weird experience because I'm not necessarily thinking about the painting, but it could be that I might be processing all sorts of other information subconsciously and come to solutions of other problems unrelated to my painting while I engage fully with the painting. It really is this. I think they. They do call it flow, isn't it? Where you get into the state of mind that's a little bit bit different.

Sue Davies: 00:45:41

Yeah, absolutely.

Paolo Minekov: 00:45:42

I experienced that a lot with my art.

Sue Davies: 00:45:44

Yeah.

Paolo Minekov: 00:45:45

And I did, I think, as well.

Sue Davies: 00:45:48

I think it's really freeing, isn't it? And I know I've done a couple of. And I really. I actually want to become a potter. It's one of my things in life is I'm going. I want.

I've got a space in my garden. We've got an old piggery and it isn't very tall. I can fit in it. Not many other people can fit in it because it's quite short.

But that would make such a beautiful place to create pots. And I've been on a couple of pottery workshops and I absolutely love it. And it is. And I think that whole.

Taking your mind from all of the stuff that's going on up here and focusing it on something you're doing with your hands on.

Paolo Minekov: 00:46:23

Your hands on touching material. Yeah. And all of that stuff.

Sue Davies: 00:46:27

Yeah. It's just so amazing. And I think if you can, you know, if you've got us, if you've got like a.

A space in your business where you can, you know, especially if you. A lot of salon businesses might do training and education as well, so they'll have a classroom facility or they can.

Paolo Minekov: 00:46:43

Create a different sort of experience, a more creative experience. Well, it's great because it's community building, isn't it?

If I go and do an art class in a salon, then chances are I'm going to also go and do my hair there or whatever else.

Sue Davies: 00:47:00

Yeah, this is it.

Paolo Minekov: 00:47:02

You also become more familiar with the space, with the people. Yeah, it's like. Yeah, you stay in front of, I don't know, your. Your client's eyes.

Sue Davies: 00:47:12

Yeah, this is. It's just something different, isn't it? And I think, you know, people like.

And obviously we're recording this a couple weeks before Christmas, so it's like, you know, I've just been doing some Christmas shopping this morning and, you know, we're all so full of like, then you're just stuck, like, now what am I going to buy these people? And.

And I think that probably off the back end of COVID as well, and all the pandemic and all of the loss of everything that we had to lose during that time, the.

The connection experience has become something that we've realized as humans is so important and that freedom to express yourself and all of that stuff.

And so to me, art in a salon is, you know, is a way that you can kind of engage your clients in a very, very different way that will impact them positively and give them an experience. Is either art on the wall or maybe if you can incorporate it into like a workshop experience for them, you know.

Paolo Minekov: 00:48:08

Well, yeah, why not? I mean, you could have art on the wall and then bring that artist while they're exhibiting in your salon, for example, if it's.

If you do offer your venue as an exhibition space to artists, which some salons, you could just bring the same artist to do a workshop or just to work there and engage the. The clients.

Sue Davies: 00:48:31

Yeah, isn't it? You could. I think that that's the thing, isn't it? There's. I was saying, she was like, my local pub is a community pub run by.

It's run by community people. It's all done by volunteers. And they've recently, they've just one of the girls that. That is very active in the pub.

She has kind of reconnected with her in artist and she's been going to this art club. She's going to make people not making me go. I'm going freely, but I'm going to go with her to this. I'm going to actually go and do some art.

But she's been painting and some of the stuff she's done is beautiful. And so now she's got her own little exhibition in the community pub. And it all.

Instead of having all of these like very manufactured black and white images that the pub had previously, they've now got her on the wall for sale. And I want to buy about four or five of them.

Paolo Minekov: 00:49:17

Oh, wow.

Sue Davies: 00:49:19

They're just lovely. And we've obviously got the same kind of color palette that we like and. And some of them are just so beautiful. And I.

And so that whole experience now, going into the pub and being able to just see what she's created and I'll now walk around the pub and have a look and see what's there. Do I want to buy one? Have I got the money for that?

Because some of you know, hers are very reasonably priced, only about, I think, 50 or 60 pounds for sort of. I know they're very reasonably priced, but it really is just beautiful to see all of her art on the wall. And especially knowing her, you know, well.

Paolo Minekov: 00:49:54

It elevates the spaces and it's. Elevated is one of those words that I try not to use a lot since AI, because everything's being elevated now.

But I think on this occasion it really elevates a space and elevates the experience because it changes it from your local pub where you just go get a pint to. Yeah, a whole different experience, isn't it?

Sue Davies: 00:50:14

Yeah, and it isn't. We were a networking event there on Friday and. And I discovered that morning that it was.

Heard what it was this particular person that did the art and she was being very sort of like self deprecating about it, saying, oh, no, they're not, you know, they're not that good. I'm not really that good. And we were all like, no, they're absolutely stunning.

And I said to her, like, actually, I'm going to make you walk around and tell us about them because you've spent all this time doing them and I want to know why you did that. You know, what. What was in your mind, you know, had. How did you decide?

Because there's one and it's just this beautiful spiral and it's all like sort of really sagey dirty greens and purples into pink and it's got little bits of metallic stuff going around and it's like a sort of. I don't know what you call it, like a whirlpool kind of thing. It's beautiful. And. And I was like, just like, that is. I need it. I need to buy it.

I just have to have, you know.

Paolo Minekov: 00:51:06

But go for it. I mean, like, if you really like. Also it's 50, 60 pounds. It's the impulse buy anyway. I find it 200 pounds.

Artists and most things in London anyway are an impulse buy for people. It's not something that you have to think about so much because what is it? It's less than a dinner.

Sue Davies: 00:51:28

It's Christmas. I need a. Yeah, I'm just gonna buy it and give it to my husband to wrap up for me. But, but the thing is, but it. But.

And I don't know what arrangement they have going on in the pub for like, for how she gets paid and the pub receives benefit or whatever. But so for example, if a salon owner. Because I know you've exhibited in salons, so does it work? So can you ask an artist to exhibit in your salon?

And how, how does that kind of work in practice? Practice financially for the salon owner and for the artist? How does that benefit?

Paolo Minekov: 00:52:00

Well, it depends on the arrangement really.

Like, some salons would expect to get a commission and some will just want nice pictures on the wall and to give that added benefit to their audience. Yeah, artists don't particularly mind paying commission.

We know that we pay commission when we exhibit in galleries or online galleries and all of that. But I think for the artist, the artist probably needs to show up if they want to sell any art. Yeah.

You know, it's not so easy as just putting a picture on the wall and expecting that the salon owner will necessarily sell it for you because that's how. Different job. Of course you can do some of that if somebody like Yard. But would you really take the payment for the artist?

Probably not, because you've got separate business with your cards and things. I don't know.

Sue Davies: 00:52:53

So it'd be quite. But it'd be quite a good. Like if you're having like an open evening, I don't know if you've got like a product launch or something like that.

You could have like, you know, a combined evening where you introduce and not like, you know, you. You could introduce a local artist, couldn't you?

Every time you do an event, you could have local, local artists come along and, you know, they can help support your. Your opening. Because we have a lot of open evenings in the summer.

Paolo Minekov: 00:53:15

I started organizing organization together with a friend of mine who's an architect and also an artist for. For artists to help support them in career development and stuff. Because, you know, being an artist, quite different from running a business.

Sue Davies: 00:53:28

Yeah.

Paolo Minekov: 00:53:28

And I know from my web design business and she, from her architecture firm, she's called Natalia Giacomino. So she, she's Italian, I'm Bulgarian, I'm Paola, but I'm Bulgarian. So we're both not from here.

And we both came here and we built our businesses with a lot of networking, a lot of talking to people. I mean, this was how I met you. And going to face to face events and applying various business practices to grow marketing and all of that.

And as artists, we don't do that so much because art is really personal. But if you did apply some of those things to, to your art career, then while you may not become Damien Hirst, you may.

You probably will at least have sustainable business, art business. So we want to do networking events as well as part of professional development workshops.

We have a business directory for artists and the businesses that we want to connect artists to businesses. So very much what we're talking about, actually. So connect, for example, artists to the salons that want to exhibit them.

Sue Davies: 00:54:39

Yeah, but I think it's just such a lovely idea, isn't it? Because we, you know, we, we need to connect with our clients. As a selling industry, we are all about human touch.

You know, if we, if we don't touch our clients with, with our hands in some way, they're not going to receive a service, they're not gonna come back cutting their hair, doing the nails, doing a facial, doing a massage, you know, doing their lashes, whatever it is, we are making a connection with those clients.

And I think sometimes just having an alternative way of doing that, you know, if you could, if you can hit their heart in a different way, I think it's. Yeah, it's a different opportunity, isn't it, that remembered in them with them going forward if they had a.

An experience over and above coming to have a facial, you know.

Paolo Minekov: 00:55:24

Oh, yeah, that's what we wanted to. To do. We want to have networking events and they want to bring one or two artists who just bring their work for that evening.

So a lot of networking events is a bunch of people that say hi and come into little groups and have a drink and then move on to the next group. But if we center it around the art because we are an arts organization, then it's going to be that much better. Right.

And we're looking at obviously, like really nice locations for that as well. So I think you can always add with it and I don't want to, I don't mean to say like, you know, we don't. Because I'm an artist as well.

Don't want to use the artist. Just, just bring your work and like benefit from it. The artist has to also benefit from being out there. We don't.

I think there's this thing like where people often say, oh, you're an artist, so will you, will you do that just for the exposure? Yeah, we may have had enough exposure.

Sue Davies: 00:56:19

Just like I know, but we have it.

So I think to do lots for nothing like all through our industry, every, every trade show, you know, if you, you, you get invited to speak but you don't get paid for it because it's exposure and it's. Yeah, but you know, it would be.

Paolo Minekov: 00:56:35

Some point you have to like start getting paid for things and sometimes obviously for, for certain projects it will always be worth it to do life to children if it's for a good cause and all of those things. But then again, sometimes you have to say no to the good causes as well. It's really important, I think for businesses.

And I was writing like the interview questions because for the directory that every member that, that signs up will have an interview on my online magazine Elysium as well as on the directory website. And I thought like at least one of those questions has to be like, what do you bring to the artist as a business?

Because it's not only what the artists bring to you, it's like that's quite clear and scientifically proven that art, art increases well being and makes people feel good and opens up the mind and all of those things and viewing it as well as doing it. Yes, but like how do we then also support the artists to make this whole experience worthwhile for them.

Sue Davies: 00:57:38

One of the things I wanted to say to you as well is I, I think how art can impact on you is there's two pieces of work that I saw when I was, when I was stuck in Glasgow and, and I couldn't do anything for that month I went to the. One of the biggest art gallery in Glasgow called the Kelvin Grove.

And in there I don't know if you've ever been or if you've come across this painting, but. And it was, I was really surprised because it's a Dali.

Now to me Dali is all about the melting clocks and the face that everything being very, very peculiar because it's abstract or cubism or whatever, whatever is he does. Because I don't know. But then this painting, and I'm sure you must have come across it, Christ of St. John of the Cross. And that painting. I haven't. I.

To this.

I'll forever talk about it whenever anyone brings up painting, because that painting is everything about what we've been talking about is that connection. And I'm not religious in any way whatsoever, but that painting of Jesus on the cross is like nothing else. And it. I said they've got it in.

It's under staging of it. Have you ever. Have you ever seen it in real life? Sorry, yeah, but that. That painting. Have you seen it and have you ever seen it?

Paolo Minekov: 00:58:55

Not in person.

Sue Davies: 00:58:57

It's. It's worth the trip to Glasgow because it's. They've got it in a little room. The room's about 10 foot square, maybe. Maybe a little bit.

Because it's really hard. It's. And it's pitch black in there, apart from the lights that like the painting.

And you queue to go into this room to see they've got a doorway in and a doorway out. It builds up like, you know you're going to see something special, so you're already, like, you're.

You're already on the verge of emotion before you go there, because you know you're going to see something special. And I'd never heard of this painting because I'm not in that. I just never heard of it. And I walked in and it literally took my breath away because a.

It's a Dali and it isn't a dolly. And it's like. It's like nothing else that man has ever painted. I don't know if he's.

I'm sure he probably has painted lots of, you know, more traditional art forms. I'm sure he has. But we all see melting clocks, don't we?

And if you can create even a moment of that in your business where someone gets to connect on an emotional level with something. I mean, we can't all have Dali's paintings in our salons because they're a bit expensive.

Paolo Minekov: 01:00:05

There's a lot of talented artists. Yeah. And also something about the way you create the whole experience.

What you were describing, like if you want to deliver to see the Mona Lisa and there's piles of people around, it's not very large painting. It's a bit new, isn't it? It is very much the way you present it.

Whereas if you go to Amsterdam, see the Night Watch, which is a very grand, large painting which takes the whole wall, then you are presented with something very grand spectacular as well. So it's also, you know, it's the whole space again of going back to the salon idea and interior design.

The whole space you create, which can be the experience. And art is a part of that and might be the hero of that as well, if you want it to be. Could be the focal point. Because why not? It's.

It is very much presentation as well.

It's like, I suppose a comparison could be that if we're more put together as women, we make a different impression for other people, but also for ourselves.

Sue Davies: 01:01:06

Yeah.

Paolo Minekov: 01:01:06

Compared to, you know, just being in our pajamas during COVID all day long.

Sue Davies: 01:01:10

Yeah. I think we are a lot.

Paolo Minekov: 01:01:12

A lot of us lost a little bit. Thank goodness we have. It's presentation matters. How you behave, how you look, how you dress, how you hang your paintings.

Sue Davies: 01:01:25

Yeah.

Paolo Minekov: 01:01:25

There's for the way other people perceive you. And it's not like they say they welcome you by the looks, isn't it? And you have to keep up with that first impression.

But that impression is important. I don't know if I'm like making a lot of sense here, but nobody is tripped.

Sue Davies: 01:01:41

I don't understand what you're saying because, you know, everything that. And salons are really very much like that. We.

We have like, there's a whole thing in the salon about front of house and the back of house kind of thing. And so, you know, our front of house is, you know, when you walk into reception, you go into your treatment area and it's, you know, that.

That's the floating swan of. Of the world. And so everything's perfect and everything's lovely and so. And that's like your client's experience.

And then in the back end, it quite often is. It can be a bit messy sometimes and it can be a little bit uncoordinated.

And it's all of the stuff getting ready for all of the perfection that you're going to show. And it's all. It's all of like the. Yes, like your storage area and. And all of those. The bits of life that are a bit messy.

But then, you know, we walk out of that door and we walk into our front of our front of house and, you know, the smile goes on and, you know, you're in uniform and you're looking professional and it is. Everything about it is, you know, we can't. We can't walk into our client space in our pajamas.

I mean, it would be nice if we could, but we can't do that. And it is about that what you present to the world. And if along the.

Along the way, you can present an alternative view of the world to a client that they may see a piece of art that connects with them and gives them something emotional, that releases something or makes them have a moment of joy, you know, why wouldn't you do that? It's like.

Paolo Minekov: 01:03:02

Yeah, I think it's a good business sense to do it, actually.

Sue Davies: 01:03:05

Yeah.

Paolo Minekov: 01:03:06

And again, provide that. That calm environment that's away from all the, I don't know, saturation of images and constant advertising that everybody tries to. To push on you.

Sue Davies: 01:03:18

Yeah, definitely. Anyway, thank you so much for coming on Paola. All of the information that Pal has been talking about will be in the show notes and she's.

We'll be sharing all of Paula's links. So if you want to go onto her website, you can go and look at palace and maybe even buy one because her stuff is very lovely. And.

And I think as well, one of the things with what you do, like your figurative work would work so beautifully.

Some of, like the dancers and that series that you've been doing, you know, that would work because we, we, especially in the beauty side of the industry, we're so much about the human form and, you know, and things like that would work so beautifully in our kind of environment.

So you really should go and have a little look at Paola's website and go and see if anything takes your fancy and maybe have a chat with Paola or any other artist to have a little conversation about how they can interact with your business and help you and your clients be a little bit more liberated, a little bit more free. So thanks very much for coming on Paola. And it's a slightly different conversation this week and I wasn't quite. I wasn't sure how that.

How it was going to go, because art isn't something, I mean, as much as, especially if you're in nails or in making makeup.

You know, art is something that's very much part of what we do and maybe even in some elements of hair as well, when you start getting into the avant garde stuff. But we don't generally do art as a salon sector. I was just having a chat with Paola after we finished and. And something that we probably should have.

It was my mistake and I didn't really pick up on it at the time and I didn't use the right words, but what I wanted to reinforce was that you can use art. You know, we talk all the time about having other revenue streams and art is a different revenue stream.

It brings something to your salon that enables your clients to have an enhanced well being. It brings in a revenue stream so you can ask the the artist for commission for selling their artwork.

You can use it to have open evenings and connect with your clients in a different way. You can use art to have workshops to help your clients with their mindfulness and with their well being in that way as well.

If you have a, if you have a workshop space, if you have a training space anywhere that you can put a few tables together, really think about creating a workshop. You know, get in touch with an artist, they are all over the place.

Find a local art group and ask them if they'd like to come in and even have it as a space for them to come and do their art in. You know, it's a different world and we're actually really quite connected by our creativity and the way that we want to connect with other humans.

You know, everything we do in the industry, like we were saying in the interview, everything we do in the industry, we touch people. We are human to human in this industry.

And if you can find another way to connect with them to bring them into your world, maybe our is some a way of doing that.

So as we said on the thing on the episode, all the details going to be in the show notes and I hope that you get a nice takeaway from this and just maybe give you a slightly different view of how art can maybe enhance your client journey, enhance your client's experience and maybe give you a new way of being thought about in your community. Anyway, that's it for me for this week. Bye for now.

Salon Inspector: 01:06:58

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Sue Davies: 01:07:53

Thank you for listening to inspiring salon professionals.

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