Diary of an Educator

Blog Spot - With Collette Saunders

BY FRASER FORSEY

On my final instalment of Diary of an Educator I’d like to take you through the last couple of months of what I have been up to and also hopefully share some points and tips on how you can grow and prosper in this wonderful industry.

Clocking up over 100 flights across Australia and Internationally this year, it’s been a crazy one! Let’s start with one of the highlights of this year, being invited to host the Tommy Gun’s Canada National Summit with fellow Canadian Educator Ciara Teo. This was a 4-day event that kicked off with the inaugural National Barber Battle “TG THROWDOWN” which saw 13 of Canadas finest Barbers lay down some amazing work on stage in front of 200+ attendees cheering them along. I hosted this event with TG Canada owner Keenan Fisher and ensured that I taught the locals some Aussie slang and ‘barberisms’ we use here in Australia.

The following day I held a private workshop for those 13 that battled it out the night before. Diving into a full day covering topics such as the importance of customer experience/ consultation and the relentless passion required to be as successful as you can be.

What a day this was, absolutely the greatest thing as an educator is a room full of like-minded individuals that just want to grow and are hungry and hanging on the edge of their seat to grasp at any and all information shared. Collaborating ideas, formulating haircuts to maximise quality and efficiency, adjusting mindsets from sales mentality - to problem solving through education and prescription, based on pure skill and knowledge, as for the professionals we are.

The following 2 days were our Mentor ‘Train the Trainer’ sessions which takes the Tommy Guns Canada - Head Barber from each shop and brings them all together in one room to become the best trainers possible.

The importance of these days is so crucial to their business model, with over 1500 barbers in the TGC network, these Mentors need to be able to identify within their teams, learning types, skills gaps, training types, personality traits, customer influence techniques, formulations of efficient work, training program development, retail opportunities, inspire, motivate, and educate their teams.

This event was hosted by Ciara Teo, Kurt Keuffner, and myself, with multiple guest educators joining us such as Keon Washington from Olaplex USA, Sean ‘SPANKY’ Caudill from Uppercut Deluxe and Luke Swenson from The Bearded Chap.

Heading back to Australia after such a career highlight moment, I’m geared up and pumped to do some amazing things here back home. We kicked it off with 4 separate and simultaneous 10 Day bootcamps for Barbershops in Queensland bringing through and signing up in total, over 20 new apprentices to our industry.

These were run by fellow educators Anthony Nafatali, Kat Cruz, and Jono Goodwin! What is a 10-day Bootcamp? Well, in these 10 days and the lead up we advertise, interview, and hire 5-10 brand new individuals that have never cut hair before but have an eagerness or interest as to what being a barber might be like. Once we have selected the standouts that we believe have what it takes to fast track the basic cutting fundamentals, we gear up, kit out with tools and get cracking.

Busting through about 100 cuts per attendee ranging from your typical short back and sides, skin fades, long hair solid forms, layering, face shaves, beard trims and everything in between we have then managed to hire these shops, the top performers from these bootcamps and sign them up as an apprentice - fast tracked through the 6–12-month phase.

Most business’s look at as some form of a loss financially with apprentices in the usual format. These bootcamps have been such a success and have been a valued solution to the problem we are all facing now, no barbers anywhere, not enough staff! Obviously learning never stops and it doesn’t with these apprentices however it gives them and the business the kickstart they all need in this uncertain time we face now with the shortage of staff across Australia.

Lastly, Barber Temple partnered up with Gamma + and Level 3 to bring to the barbering industry a National Education Tour called “FUSION”. As I’m writing this, we are all on a plane on the 4th and final leg of our trip to Melbourne!

We kicked off in October in Perth and wow, what a show, what a turnout, thank you to the West Coast Barbers/Hairdressers that came along and really made this event what it was! 2nd trip took us back to our home turf at Barber Temple with another 130 strong pumped-up crowd eager to network and grow, then down to Sydney, hosted by Hair2Beauty which was a smaller crowd but very interactive and collaborative crowd none the less.

We have 100+ locked and loaded for tonight’s gig in Melbourne hosted by HairCo. we are pumped and ready to turn it all on for tonight’s show. Special thank you to our partners Gamma + and Level 3 and the team that has made this Tour possible Carmelo, Cory, Tony, Christian, Dion, and Daniel you guys are the true legends!

Also, huge ups to my team Clipper Kayne, Lance Liufau, Jono Goodwin, Kat Cruz, Finley Forsey, Anna Tahana, Roxy Diversi, Georgie Bullus, Michael Doolan, Nate Alback, Christie Palmer, and Joel Bankier for making this so special and sharing your knowledge, wisdom, skills and organising/marketing/designing such an event that has seen over 350+ attendees come along and enjoy this incredible industry.

Thank you to my business partners and friends Sam Jarred, Steve & Kiera Purcell, Cory Anderson & Keenan Fisher for riding this wave together!

Thank you to Linda Woodhead, Rex Silver, and the Mocha group team for following my journey this year and allowing me the opportunity to be a part of this great magazine with my Diary of an Educator series.

Australian Modern Barber Awards (AMBA) saw Barber Temple become a Finalist in our 1st year of Business as Education Organisation 2022 which we were so stoked and proud for! Well done to our fellow Educators at The Barbery down in Adelaide for taking out the win Don, Anna, Anthony, and their team deserved the win!

Thank you to anyone that has shown support to Barber Temple this year we appreciate every person involved or a part of our journey, you know who you are, there would be thousands of names to list here! It’s been one of the most memorable years of my career to date and I’m heartfelt to see the reactions and love that has bestowed us all at Temple by the amazing people in our industry. THANK YOU! Keep growing, keep striving, push harder, be consistent, be relentless let’s bring on 2023!

Fraser Forsey Lead Educator & Director of Barber Temple.

@barbereducationbyfraser @barbertempleaus