Abiding by traditional business practices isn't exactly Presley Poe's jam. Despite that — or maybe because of it? — business is booming.
“I’m so in my lane, I don’t even know what the hell other people are doing!” says Poe, an influential stylist, educator, and owner of Gold Studios and Gold Studio Academy.
Recently, Poe published an Instagram post about some of her controversial business techniques, “and people went super bonkers over it,” she laughs.
American Salon sat down with Poe recently to chat about her secret sauce and why it involves going against the grain,
AS: Your pricing model can best be described as “rent controlled,” Meaning, you don't raise prices on existing clients, just on new incoming clients. How did you arrive at that method?
PP: I don’t need to nickel-and-dime people. What I need is consistent income.
When I moved to the Pacific Northwest 10 years ago I implemented my loyalty program. Clients are locked in at their price point they paid when they started coming in. The person who comes after them is charged at the current price point. So yes, I have some clients who have been with me for years still getting that $45 haircut.
t works itself out, because the margin of clients you lose per year is the margin for you to gain every year.
My clients never falter. They prebook throughout the year. They continue to put money in my bank during recessions. I want them for life, but that doesn’t mean they can pay me every time I go up in life.
For me, when you raise your rates and tell clients who can no longer afford you that they have to find someone else — you’re saying they are expendable. But that’s not the way it works. We stylists are the expendable ones. We are the ones who can be replaced.
Do you get pushback from other business owners on why that pricing model wouldn’t work for them?
People who say my business model doesn't work — that's not accurate. I have a beautiful salon that I built with cash. I paid all my people during Covid. I have doubled, at times quadrupled, my income every year for 10 years.
The way I run my business in general is not very palatable to some people. I make a great living … and I genuinely think it is because I don’t lead with other people’s pocketbooks, I lead with our connection and how I treat them. it’s about the client experience, 100 percent. That’s what the industry is founded on, client experience.
We are a safe space for tough communications, a safe space to feel honored, valued in your skin, and I don’t think ego has any place in that. The goal is never to be above someone, but to be with them.
I tell people I’m a hustler, but I hustle with heart.
Are there any other conventional business or career practices that just don’t seem to work for you?
I was on was a social media panel and they were asking everyone their tips and tricks. The way people were talking about it was wild to me — how they schedule everything, how they generate hashtags, how they tag local businesses … I was like, whoa.
Now I had double or quadruple the amount of followers as the entirety of the panel up there. So they were wanting to know my secrets. They get to me and say, Presley, what do you think? I say, well — I don’t do any of that stuff.
I think I pissed a lot of people off! But that’s a ‘them’ problem. I’m just out here running my business.
The true secret of my success on social is being altruistic, sharing what I love and telling people why I love it, and having a consistent message that is client-forward and education-forward. The biggest part of that is being consistent.
Another controversial subject you brought up on Instagram was the fact that yes, you do offer discounts on your services.
It is controversial to talk about discounting services. That's because it’s important for stylists to be perceived as valuable — so everyone says if you discount yourself, your perceived value decreases. We try to make ourselves more exclusive so more people will want us.
But my value is not directly related to the amount of money I charge. It’s: am I doing things I love? Am I educating enough? Is my team happy? Is my wife happy? What is the quality of my life?
Something I’ve done throughout my career is lottery appointments. Once a month, if I have last-minute availability, I will send texts and emails to my clients and offer 10, 15, 20 percent off specific appointment times that are open.
In a time of recession and in a time of uncertainty, to have someone say I’ll take 20 percent off your haircut is huge. And in my book, 20 percent less is still 80 percent more.
This year I’m going to be offering another lottery system for low-income people. Ego aside, heart stepping in, either way I’m bringing value and still making money.
In fact, last year I conscientiously decided to make $100K less per year because of how it was affecting my relationship with my clients and my natural life.
Does that mean you’re putting a cap on your income? Or do you plan to make up the $100K another way?
The long-term plan is to make up this money. Not by taking it from my clients and not by taking it from my students, but by shifting the paradigm to where my physical body works less.
I’m focusing on my salon and traveling less. I’m switching my output from feet on the ground at shows and in outside classrooms, to shifting everything online. Working on passive income instead of using my body to make money. Because it was breaking me.
For example: I’m focusing more on my photography studio. I want to rent out that space to local content creators for hair specifically. I have a thing no one else has, a shampoo bowl in my studio. It’s perfect for hair shoots.
How does this new paradigm affect your teaching?
I’m gearing myself not toward the advanced students, but to those who are fresher in the industry and who need me more. If you look at the greats, if you look at Sam Villa — he’s my main mentor — Sam stays connected to the youth of this community. He understands that in order to stay with the flow, you have to stay with the youth.
Sam treats you as though you matter, because you do. He remembers your name, he puts his heart next to yours when he hugs you. In the words of Sam Villa: heart to heart, human to human, and then we do hair.
We are an industry of people first, hair second. Hair is the conduit through which we have connection with the community.
When you teach a live class, you ask your students not to record and post your classes online because you want to keep your time together exclusive. Tell us a little bit about what’s gained by this philosophy.
I believe in exclusivity; however, I want to be both inclusive and exclusive. I’m never concerned about how many people can fit in the room. I’m concerned about who is in the room.
That is, anyone can be there. All humans, all hair, all bodies are welcome in my classes and in my chair. I service everyone. But that does not mean I’m accessible to everyone.
That’s the exclusivity. I am accessible to those who want to help themselves. I like to move in small spaces and intimate ways with people to make real impact, which means not everyone can be in the room with you.
If you’re there to make videos for social media, I’m not interested. If you’re there to do something for yourself and it involves me, I’m 100 percent in.
Presley Poe will be teaching "Interactive Cutting for Curls & Beyond," "Signature 3-Section Curly Cut," and "Interactive Cutting: A Fundamental Guide to Cutting" at the International Beauty Show-New York from March 23-25, 2025. Register here.