Beauty Business Strategies
The podcast where salon, spa, medspa, barbershop, and lash studio owners — just like you — learn quick tips to make more money, inspire your team, and create world-class client experiences.
Beauty Business Strategies
Creating Safe Havens: Beauty Care for Cancer Patients with Kim Becker
How does one conversation change the course of a life? Join us for an inspiring story with Kim Becker from Hello Gorgeous, a nonprofit born out of a dream to help women battling cancer feel beautiful again. Listen as Kim reveals her incredible journey, shifting from a legal career to becoming a passionate hairdresser, salon owner, and now non-profit founder. Sparked by a pivotal discussion with her late husband, Kim envisioned a mobile day spa, bringing luxurious, free makeovers to women during their toughest times. This episode highlights the beauty industry's generous spirit and Kim’s unwavering dedication to her cause.
Tune in to discover the transformative impact on salons and the women they serve through Hello Gorgeous' certification program. You'll learn how this initiative not only supports women battling cancer but also enriches salon culture and fosters community involvement.
Conversation highlights:
0:00 How ‘Hello Gorgeous!’ came to be
6:10 How beauty care changes lives
9:00 The nuances of beauty services for cancer patients
12:25 The Hello Gorgeous Experience
18:06 How to get involved with Hello Gorgeous
20:00 How giving back transforms the culture at your beauty business
Learn more about Hello Gorgeous: www.hellogorgeous.org
Connect with Kim Becker: kbecker@hellogorgeous.org
Watch the video version of this episode: https://youtu.be/E2Sjsd7YFeE
To learn more about how Strategies can help you create more profit, fun, and growth potential for you, your business, and your team, schedule a free 60-minute strategy session:
Schedule a free 60-minute strategy session: https://strategies.com/free-coaching-session
Strategies: https://www.strategies.com
Salon/Spa Business Coaching: https://strategies.com/memberships/
In-Person Salon/Spa Seminars: https://strategies.com/seminars/
Podcast: https://strategies.com/podcast/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/strategies4biz/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/strategies
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@strategies4biz
The Beauty Business Strategies Podcast is designed to give salon, spa, medspa, barbershop, and lash studio owners, just like you, quick tips to make more money, inspire your team, and create world-class client experiences.
Welcome to the Beauty Business Strategies Podcast. I'm Michael Yost and today on our podcast, as we always do, we line up fantastic guests for you, and today I am really excited to talk with Kim Becker from Hello Gorgeous. How are you, kim?
Speaker 2:I'm good. I'm good. You know I would say hello gorgeous to you, but you know I don't know how often you're called gorgeous, so we'll just leave it. We'll leave it at, hello handsome.
Speaker 1:I'll take it as many times as you want to give it. It's fine. I'm good with all of that. I'm good with any warm greeting like that. That's a great greeting, by the way we could do. We could talk about that just alone.
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 1:So, you know, Kim, you and I, you know, we had a chance to meet at a trade show recently and again, what was so powerful was just learning about your organization and what you guys are about and what you do and things.
Speaker 1:I thought, man, this is a powerful story, that really I think I'll just set it up this way Our industry, the beauty industry, is a very give-back industry in my opinion, and every owner I talk to and every business I work with over multiple years always has something that they're trying to give back to the community or do well or be a benefit. You know, elevate people around them. And that's why, when I heard about, as we were talking and learning more about Hello Gorgeous, it really struck a chord. That I think really fits our industry in a lot of ways, and one of those is again, just that give back principle, but also what your organization's about. So why don't we start there, kim? Give the listener just the overview of Hello Gorgeous, where it started, what it's about and what your passion is. So, hello Gorgeous, you know where it started, what it's about and what your passion is.
Speaker 2:So Hello, gorgeous is a nonprofit organization that helps to restore the beauty that cancer steals and women battling any type of cancer. My background is that I was a hairdresser and a salon owner, and I actually went to beauty school because I wanted to be an attorney. I wanted to be a lawyer, and back when I went to school you know there wasn't a 529 plan and my parents said that's great, we'll support you, but we're not paying for it, so you have to figure out a way to do it. So I was working at a tanning slash hair salon and the girls there said you ought to go to beauty school, because if you go to beauty school, then you could really cut the hair of everybody on your dorm floor and you'd earn enough money to pay for law school. And I was like, oh, that's great. So that's what I did was I went to beauty school. But I got into beauty school and I loved it and I never left all opening salons right, if every stylist opened a salon, we'd be inundated with them even more than we are now, and so that was.
Speaker 2:My dream was to own a salon, and I was having a conversation about this with my late husband and I told him my dream I want to open a salon. And he said I have the perfect name for the salon. We should call it Hello Gorgeous. And I said that's the stupidest name I've ever heard. And he said, no, no, it'll be really great, cause every time you answer the phone you get to say hello, gorgeous, and make people smile. And I said, yeah, it's stupid, we're not doing it.
Speaker 2:So we owned a salon. We called it Shavu, which meant hair in French, and there was always something that was missing. We started off in about a thousand square feet and every year after the new year, we would remodel it and add, you know, a facial area or nail area and take out tanning beds, and we pulled everything out and had stylists, you know and I. There was just something that was missing. And so when that didn't work, I thought, well, maybe we needed to expand. So we went from a thousand square feet to 3000 square feet, we had 17 stylists and massage therapists and receptionists, and it was amazing, but there was still something that was missing. And so Mike and I would have this conversation on a regular basis and I thought, well, maybe it's me. So I started training at all these places Pivot Point in Chicago and Hair Color USA. I even went to Vidal Sassoon in London and that still didn't fill this emptiness.
Speaker 2:So we were driving back from Indianapolis. I live in Indiana. We were driving back from Indianapolis and I was having this conversation with him and he said I know what I said. I know what we need to do. We need to have a mobile day spa that caters to cancer patients, this beautiful, elegant palace on wheels that'll show up just a few feet from her door and make her feel like a queen for the day during a time where she doesn't feel very special.
Speaker 2:Now, as many owners not all of them, but many of them, you know, we encountered, you know just about the time we'd get a little money setback, the water heater would go out or the furnace would stop working, and so, you know, we just struggled to get ahead, and so Mike was willing to do anything to get us out of the salon, because it had been 10 years of just struggles. And then I looked at him and I said you know what? We're going to do this for free. And I watched all the color run out of his face and he said how are we going to do this? And I'm like I don't know. I just know that this is what we're supposed to do.
Speaker 2:So we continued our journey, got about 30 minutes from home and, again, 10 years had passed from the time he opened the salon to this moment. And our son was three years old at the time and was going to go into like a McDonald's play area and stretch his legs. And as we walked into there I grabbed a hold of Mike's arm and I said you know what, mike? This is supposed to be called Hello Gorgeous. I said the salon was never meant to be called Hello Gorgeous. This is supposed to be called Hello Gorgeous because that's how these women deserve to be greeted. And so for about six months we played tug of war. Every time I brought the subject up, he'd change it, and that was 18 years ago. And so we have helped thousands of women smile when they look in the mirror since the first time that we said Hello Gorgeous.
Speaker 1:So that is awesome. I mean so much in there. I love how it starts with the idea of you rarely hear the story about how I wanted to go to law school, but I started hair school first to get to law school, but then again. I love how that comes full circle with that whole hello gorgeous piece, comes full circle to where we are now. So, so obviously it came to the point where it's like yep, this is what we're doing. And you know, I love how you said. You know, like, hey, and the other inspiration of this is we're going to do this and we're going to do this for free and we're going to just make you know we're going to meet people's needs where they are and obviously, that being the inspiration. So you know, talk a little bit about when you first started the process of like all right, hello, gorgeous now came into fruition and you first started working with women with cancer and just, you know, cancer patients in general. What was that like?
Speaker 2:They have changed me. These women have changed me more than I could ever change them. So this is a calling for me. This is something God asked me to do. We always teased and said that God should have chosen two marketing majors from Harvard not a hairdresser and a man with a degree from Purdue University with pre-Columbian archaeology. We are so far removed from what we should be doing, and so I thought it was fluff in the beginning.
Speaker 2:I would feel like I would go to a woman and I'm so sorry you have cancer, let me paint your fingernails and it just felt like it was ridiculous until you watched it transform them. These women would come on and they would come to the salon and we'd have a red carpet rolled out for them and we'd greet them with a great big hello, gorgeous. And then they get a full day of beauty. So it was a full day of pampering, and they'd receive a manicure, a pedicure, a facial, we'd work with a clothier to get a new outfit. They'd got a wig if they needed one. We did their makeup and then planned a big reveal party for them afterwards, and so then they got to reconnect with family and friends that maybe stayed away because they didn't know what to say or do and I watched them come alive.
Speaker 2:Talk about impactful Like. I always say that when a woman is diagnosed with cancer, they impactful Like. I always say that when a woman is diagnosed with cancer, they have a light inside of them and it's dimmed when you hear those words. You have cancer, life changes, and what we were able to do was we were able to flip that switch and we were able to turn it back on and we watched just the transformation take place.
Speaker 2:And they came in, you know, all slumped over and and and just head down, and all of a sudden then they their shoulders were back and just head down, and all of a sudden then their shoulders were back and their head was up and it's just, it's amazing. It's incredible and that's what's so cool about what we get to do, because, as hairdressers, we have a license to touch, we've been given permission that we get to touch these women. Now, the crux of that is you have to touch them safely, which is something we weren't taught in beauty school, and so that's something that I preach on a regular basis is there are things that you can and can't do on a woman battling cancer, that you could do on a woman that just walked into your salon as a normal salon guest and so, yeah, it's pretty cool. I have the best job in the whole world and I'm really grateful that I get to do this every day.
Speaker 1:So that's really, you know, that's really fascinating. And I'll say myself, as a hairdresser, 25 years working in the industry, you know what I did. I guess I never recognized or realized that I'm intrigued, just to you know. I got to ask the question what are those differences? When you talk about the fact that we are used to in a normal day-to-day, we are used to touching, you know, the people that we serve in a specific way? What are the nuances? What are those differences that we normally do in a normal day-to-day but in a cancer environment you cannot do.
Speaker 2:So you know it's interesting. You know, when we first started this, we would have a woman that would come in and we would say to her you know, hey, we want to give you a pedicure, give you a manicure. And they would say, no, I can't. My doctor said I can't have a pedicure, manicure. And we would hear that over and over and over again. So I went back to the doctors and nurses and I'm like why are you telling these women that they can't have these services? This is when they need this, they need touch, they need to be loved, they need to be pampered. And it all came down to safety and sanitation and the risk of infection. So we took all of that out. So I created a program. I wrote a program that basically took as much of the scariness out of it that I could.
Speaker 2:So when we do a manicure, it's a manicure bowl with a disposable liner. When we do a pedicure, it's a pedicure bath with a disposable liner. We have disposable sheets, disposable pillowcases. Everything that's used on her is disposable and it's either used on her and thrown away, or it's used on her and given to her, so much so that nail polish like I can't get somebody to say or tell me that if I use a nail polish on me and say I've got a bacteria, and then I use that on a woman battling cancer, that that bacteria is not transferred to her. So all the makeup, all the skincare, all the nail polish, it's brand new, it's never been used on anybody else.
Speaker 2:And then we not only do we train the stylist what they should and shouldn't do, then we educate her Like she should invest in cotton balls and disposable makeup sponges and disposable eyeshadow applicators, because once you touch your skin you shouldn't go back and touch that product because now it's all contaminated. And again, we were never, until I actually was faced with that, with these women coming in and saying, look, I can't have this done because my doctor said no. I didn't know that there was a difference, and I'll tell you where else this really came in handy was COVID, because the training that I developed, right. We all became heightened on the sensitivity of non-contamination of others that come into our salons, right. And so, really, this works on anybody with a compromised immune system. This is something that would be helpful to anyone, because there are things we shouldn't shouldn't do on those as well, those clients as well.
Speaker 1:Interesting that's. I mean again hearing you say it now it's like, wow, that makes perfect sense, but again, you don't. The realization isn't there, you know, unless you really kind of dialed into it. So you know, thank'll tell people. Obviously you know a little bit later on. You know, if you know how to get involved, if you want to get involved, you know, with Hello Gorgeous and what that looks like, We'll talk about that.
Speaker 1:But the question I really kind of have right now is for businesses that are involved with Hello Gorgeous Is there when, when a cancer patient comes in or a woman's coming in that is involved in this? I guess we'll say that the program or whatever. Is there a specific set of services they receive? Is there a kind of written out like, hey, here's the for lack of a better word, I'll use kind of a strategies term, but it's a general. You know, overall, the system that they walk through, what does that look like? And is that kind of personalized to the individual? Or is it hey, here's the path we like to provide for people that are coming in for the services.
Speaker 2:Yes. So I have a complete training program and it's all outlined a step-by-step process that needs to be done. So every certified salon that enrolls in our program, they all get a red carpet. So the red carpet is rolled out on her. It all has to be a surprise. And the reason that it has to be a surprise is because women are selfless. So if I say to my best friend, who's a woman, come with me, I'm going to take you for a manicure because of everything you're going through, she will initially deflect and say you know what? Take my mom, because? Will initially deflect and say you know what? Take my mom, because my mom's had to take me through every cancer treatment. Take my daughter, because my daughter's had to watch me go through this. So we found that it has to be a surprise. She can't know why she's going to the salon. And then, once she's walked in, she walks in on the red carpet, everybody greets her with a great big hello, gorgeous. And then she's presented with flowers and candy and a certificate. She sits down scented with flowers and candy and a certificate. She sits down.
Speaker 2:There's a little bit of paperwork that has to be filled out and then in our program we start with the facial, and the reason that we start with the facial is because here you are, all these people are, you're around, there's a lot of anxiousness, and then it's is my wig on straight. You know, there's all this anxiety that comes with it, and it's also that now, all of a sudden, all this anxiety that comes with it, and it's also that now, all of a sudden, I feel that when you have a facial done, it's a very vulnerable position, right, and so now you trust me, you're laying on the table, the room is dark, I've invaded your personal space, but it's also that you just kind of get to forget about anything cancer related at this point in time. You're just treated like a normal salon guest. If you do the manicure first, she's looking around. Who's in here? Do I know anybody? Is my wig on? Are they watching me? Are they staring at me After the facial?
Speaker 2:She doesn't care, it doesn't matter. So we always start with the facial, right. Then you do the manicure and the pedicure, but you only take them up to the clear polish because we have to try on clothes, so you can't make it that. So we have a whole system. Everything is very thought out.
Speaker 2:The other thing is is that the services are abbreviated so they're just mini a mini manicure, mini pedicure, because you're dealing with somebody with a compromised immune system that can't have a whole day of beauty for eight hours. They just can't. They don't have the stamina. So we take that into account too, knowing that she may have 50 people at a restaurant waiting for her to surprise her to see her new look. To me that's the most important part. You know. You find that when a woman is diagnosed with cancer, people don't know what to say, so they say nothing and stay away. And so once she's had this amazing day of beauty and we normalize her right, we normalize her appearance, then we bring her back in and reconnect her with all these family and friends that may have stayed away. Now she's given the support that she needs to continue that journey, whatever that looks like.
Speaker 1:Awesome, Awesome. Well, again, this is man. I have more questions than I have time for at this stage of the game, but I'm loving this. One of the questions, though, that did immediately hit me was I was thinking about back when I was a business owner. I mean, I love this and it would be something I'd be like, wow, I want to be involved with this. But I will say, in my particular business now, we did not offer facial services or did not have a place to do pedicures or things like that, but, man, I still would like to be involved. How does that work for someone that might be like, wow, I really have the heart that I want to be involved in this, but maybe I don't have the ability to offer. You know, I don't have a room to do a facial in or I don't have the equipment for pedicures. How does that work?
Speaker 2:So the wonderful thing is is that when we all got our license, we were all trained to do this right. When you got your hairdressing license, if you went to the full beauty school, we were all trained to do manicures and pedicures. We can pull that knowledge out once a month. Right, you can make a makeshift pedicure area. You can make a makeshift manicure area and, if you had to, you could do the facial with the shampoo bowl, and so there are ways. What we chase after more than anything is the heart, right. If you've got the heart to be able to do it, we'll figure out what that looks like.
Speaker 1:Figure out the rest of it.
Speaker 2:We'll figure out the rest of it, cause the heart is what I can't. I can't make you have a heart, but when you've got one, all those other things we can make happen. The other thing is, too, is that I'm a control freak, a self-professed control freak, and so when a salon signs up for our certified salon program, we give them everything that they need All the makeup, all the skincare, all the nail polish. We give them everything wigs, the whole nine yards, because I wanted to make sure that the woman that was receiving the makeover was getting quality salon products used on her, and then everything that's used on her that day is given to her to take home, so that that way, then, it's not just that one day we've empowered her, because we've given her all the tools she needs to recreate the look the next day.
Speaker 1:I love it, so you know. So the understanding is, if someone here is listening and they're saying, well, what do I get all these supplies? What is happening? What you're saying is, hey, we're going to provide that, we're going to, we're going to give that to you, that's provided for you. Again, where there's a will, there's a way, and we can easily, you'll be able to easily, guide people, because I'm sure for the many businesses that were like mine didn't have the actual facility. But again, you got the right heart, we'll figure it out for you, we'll help you guide you through that. Talk to me, then, about all right, let's say I wanted to get involved with this. What does that process look like? And you know, let's say, all right, so walk us through kind of the process itself to be involved with that. And then actually I'll say my other question for after you get that one.
Speaker 2:Okay, so we have an application process. You know there's a caliber of salon that we're looking for to be a part of the program, so there's an application process. So on our website we actually have I think it's certified salons or salon professionals and you go there and you fill out the application. Then there is a phone interview that takes place to make sure that you understand all the things that have the expectations that need to be met. Then your commitment is to do a makeover on a woman battling cancer and your community one time a month. To make over on a woman battling cancer in your community one time a month. But we do all the training. So this certified program that I talk of and the different things that need to be taken, the precautions, we actually work with your team and we do all the training so that everybody understands that this is what you can do and this is what you can't do, and this is the process in which it would be done. The only thing that we ask is that there's no cost to you or to the salon, but we ask that you do two fundraisers a year.
Speaker 2:Being a salon owner myself, what I tried to do was to devise a program or design a program that you would want to say yes to right, and I never wanted a salon owner to feel like, well, do I pay the electric bill or do I buy an outfit for a woman battling cancer, like which one do I do? So we encourage you and ask you to fundraise so that all the funds that you need to do the program it's right in your you already have it right and so it's all right there and that money then stays in your community. But the other thing that that does is and I always tease I said you know I stood behind the chair for 30 years and I was booked out at one point in time. I was booked out six months in advance and so you know they always tease that they were going to sell my appointments on eBay and so I had a really good book filled. But not once did a media outlet ever come to me and say I heard you were doing an awesome haircut highlight, we want to do a story on you Not once. But you do a makeover on a woman battling cancer and you show the before and after pictures on her and you're doing a fundraiser for a cause that your salon is taking a part of this particular program. The media comes out of the woodwork, and that's advertising that you don't have to pay for, but it also sets you apart, right?
Speaker 2:There are over a million salons in the United States hair and nail and skincare what are you doing? Like we're all doing the same thing. We're all filling our Instagram and Facebook pages with, you know, a balayage or a highlighter, you know skincare. You get to do something different. You get to fill your Facebook and your Instagram pages with this amazing transformation that you and your team did together.
Speaker 2:This also transforms the culture in your salon, right? It's really hard to get mad at somebody that stole the lean cuisine out of the freezer that was yours. When you help a woman with stage four pancreatic cancer, smile, right, and she came in not knowing whether she was going to live long enough to watch her daughter graduate from high school. So it's amazing at what this does and I love the outcome that we've seen through this program. The salon affiliate program has been in existence for 12 years and at one point in time, prior to COVID, we had 33 different salons that participated in our program in 15 states. So these stories that I tell you we've seen it happen over and, over and over again, and it's just, it's good for your community, it's good for your culture, it's just it's a wonderful experience that you get to be a part of.
Speaker 1:Love it and you stole my question. By the way, the question was going to be, but you really hit it so perfectly is is I was simply going to ask then was what? What's the impact that you see on the businesses that are a part of this and also the impact that you see for the people that receive these services? And I think we got a good sense of that. But is there anything? I don't want to make any assumption there. Is there any, as we're kind of starting to wrap up our time here. Is there anything you would add to just what it does for the team, for the culture of the business itself and how this does impact the people that take part in it as the recipients of these services?
Speaker 2:So I actually have a salon in my office. So I have a corporate office in South Bend, indiana, and I have a salon here and we only serve women with cancer. And last week we had a woman come in. She was diagnosed with breast cancer for the second time and she her hair had started to fall out but she didn't want to brush it because you know she was fearful of that. We were able to help her with the wig and we have some clothes here and we were able to give her a new shirt and a new necklace and I watched her come alive. And we have a pink couch in our salon and a chandelier and a fireplace and it's just this very elegant area that they get to come and just forget about cancer for a while. And she sat on the couch and she looked at me and she goes. I think I feel better Now.
Speaker 2:That's impactful, right, and when you as a team get to come together and you get to have that impact on a woman battling cancer, it's incredible. It's incredible to watch that transformation and we watch the tears and the arms lock of the team members that stand there with pride on their face and say we did that. Look what we did for this woman battling cancer, right. And again, I go back to the whole thing. We're such an amazing tribe. We have the license to touch Not everybody gets to do that right. And again, I go back to the whole thing. We're such an amazing tribe, we have the license to touch Not everybody gets to do that right. So we get to lay hands on these women and actually make it.
Speaker 2:More than 927,000 women were diagnosed with cancer in 2023 in the United States, and that didn't include the women that were diagnosed the year before that continue to go through treatment. 93% of all of those women go back to work. Their appearance is very important to them, they are going to come to us, right, and so we need to be that voice of reason. And maybe there are some women that don't have a stylist that they go to, and so you find a salon that actually knows what to do and how to make sure to take care of this, of this particular woman, but to watch the team come together. That's been. That's been amazing, and it's over and, over and over again. It's the same result. It's the same end result.
Speaker 1:I love that. So, as we wrap up, here's the one thing obviously I want you to give us how to get in touch with you. So I'm sure there are probably people listening. They're like, yes, you know, this is something that I'm. You know, I'm feeling this in my heart. I want to get involved, I want to find out, you know how I can make a difference in my community, so how they can get involved. But again, also again that contact, because there are probably people out there listening that says you know what? I have a heart for this. I'm not sure where I might fit, but I'd love to have a conversation. So how did you get in? What's the best way to get in touch with you, kim?
Speaker 2:So our website is hellogorgeousorg. There's more information about the certified salon program. If you have direct questions that I can answer, you can email me at kbecker. That's B as in boy, kbecker at hellogorgeousorg. Awesome B as in boy, kbecker at hellogorgeousorg Awesome.
Speaker 1:And again, for those, we'll make sure we put that, all those, both of those links, in the description here at the podcast so you can have easy access to those as well. Kim man, I gotta tell you I've got a list here probably about eight more questions that I didn't even get to. That would be awesome to ask. But this has been fantastic. I love what you're doing, you know, you know for the community. I love what you're doing for people with cancer.
Speaker 1:And again, boy, this is one of those things that everyone knows, someone that's been impacted by cancer or is dealing. There's not a one person that probably listens to this that doesn't have that, that one or two people right around them that are very close that this doesn't impact with what we're talking about here. So thank you for what you're doing. I guess I should say thanks for not becoming a lawyer and thanks for following that passion that hello gorgeous. That at the time was not the right thing, but 10 years later, you never know where life's journey is going to take you, that's for sure. And so this is fantastic. So, man, we appreciate you, appreciate your time, and thank you so much.
Speaker 2:Thank you for having me, michael, this was awesome.
Speaker 1:Yep, great Thanks, kim. All right, well, as we wrap up again. Thank you to everyone listening in as we wrap up again. Uh, thank you to everyone listening in again. Look for, uh, the uh, the links that Kim shared about getting in touch with hello gorgeous, and Kim herself will have those uh in the link below. And uh, we look forward to seeing you again at our next podcast.
Speaker 3:Thank you. Thanks again for listening to the beauty business strategies podcast. If you liked this episode, be sure to hit follow To learn more about how strategies can help create more fun, profit and growth potential for you, your company and your team. We invite you to schedule a free 60-minute strategy session by clicking the direct link in the description of this episode.