Speaker 0:01

Welcome to The Heart-Led Business Show, where compassion meets commerce and leaders lead with love. Join your host, Tom Jackobs, as he delves into the insightful conversations with visionary business leaders who defy the status quo, putting humanity first and profit second. From heartfelt strategies to inspiring stories, this podcast is your compass in the world of conscious capitalism. So buckle up and let your heart guide your business journey.

Tom Jackobs 0:36

Today we have the delightful Mandy Wright. A trichology Titan, and the mastermind behind Hair-Oh Yeah! in Bellevue, Washington. With a passion for helping folks reclaim their confidence in luscious locks, Mandy blends customer care with cutting edge tech. So get ready to dive into the heartfelt journey of a true hair heroin. Mandy, welcome to the show.

Mandy Wright 0:58

What a lovely introduction. Thank you, Tom. Good morning.

What Heart Led Means

Tom Jackobs 1:02

Good morning to you as well. I know you're up very early today, so I appreciate you being here. And I'm excited to talk to you about this topic because it's dear to my heart,'cause I don't have hair. I could have used you like 20 years or 30 years ago now. I'm excited to, to dive into today, but of course the first question I always like to ask is, what's your definition of a heart-led business?

Mandy Wright 1:28

For me, a heart-led business is something that's so congruent with who you are and your values and how you, portray yourself to the world that it's almost seamless for you. It's comfortable, it's an extension of yourself, so to speak. And when you're acting from your heart, you can passionately drive your business and feel that you're not losing when you put in more than a 12 hour day because it's just, it just is what you want to be doing. I think that's the difference is that it's fulfilling for both your patients or whatever business you're in, but also it creates a circle back to you and fulfills you to.

Her Path to Trichology

Tom Jackobs 2:21

Oh that's nice. The, I like the part where you talk about the comfortableness, that it's an extension of yourself and feels lighter. Than putting your words in your mouth. It's not as heavy and like you're walking through mud. I've been there before and this is the heart-led business just feels lighter and easier to accomplish things. So thank you for that definition. That's great. So tell us a little bit about your journey into becoming a heart-led business.

Mandy Wright 2:50

I've had a very many varied background. I've done a number of different jobs because I've traveled from one country to another, and as a woman, you have children and your availability changes and you go to a new country and what you did before. There isn't a need for. And I think that's what happened when we ended up in, in Seattle. It was time to reinvent myself yet again. And I started working in the aesthetic industry here, and it was during COVID that we suddenly realized how many people were battling with hair loss. More so than before owning to the coronavirus, owning to obviously a buildup in different stresses. And it was also a time when everybody was on camera. So suddenly you want to look the best. You had more disposable income in your pocket. So many people were coming in for obviously Botox, fillers, things to look good and there was very little that was really working for hair loss. Suddenly there was a new technology out. And I myself had a little bit of a journey. I can tell you a story about that. I was recently divorced and I'd always wanted long hair, but my hair is a bit like cotton candy. There's not much of it, and it didn't really ever grow. So I put extensions on which put extensions onto cotton candy hair and it breaks off. I ended up looking a little strange after that experience, and I suppose that was another drive and that I want to do, have better looking hair and I would prefer to have done it naturally and as there was a gap. There was a huge gap in between. What was being provided. And even our hairstylists were not able to provide solutions. So there was this, okay, do I go to dermatologist? What do I do? How do I fix this? And what's available? So that, that kind of I think I naturally I am an empathetic person and I like to help and I like to feel like I'm contributing so it was also a win for me. I need that kind of feedback from a job where I at some point I get okay, this is my sense of satisfaction, this is my job satisfaction. When I get you hair and your hair grows, that makes me feel good.

Tom Jackobs 5:25

Yeah. You've transitioned from the aesthetics into trichology, which is this the fixing of hair.

Mandy Wright 5:36

Yeah, at that time I didn't know the word trichology at all, and I naively thought if I had a device that would be sufficient and that was not sufficient, I had to reeducate and become a trichology to understand more about what causes hair loss, how to identify it, how to treat it, because the treatment in itself is just part of the solution.

Tom Jackobs 5:59

Yeah, I can imagine that. Obviously stress, environmental factors, all that goes into and hereditary. I think that's, that's my thing. It all goes into why we lose hair, or hormones as well as specially for men.

Mandy Wright 6:13

It's so varied and it can be one thing, but it most often, it's more than one thing. It could be an insufficient diet. It could be dramatic weight loss from a new weight loss regime or a GLP one drug, it could be postpartum. It's so varied. And then you get the difficulty alopecia as well, where people have autoimmune conditions and how some of those are treatable and some of them need steroids and how the scalp is treated. You have certain cultures that like to use oil on their hair and it's can be fantastic, but it can also exacerbate certain conditions. So it's sometimes you're dealing with a cultural norm and saying, okay, that is now causing a problem for you. We need to take you in a different direction. And it's a huge combination and I think a lot of patients don't understand that until they start the journey that as much as I do, they have to partner with me. Because there's a lot of work that needs to go on this side of SC to get a result.

Building Hair Oh Yeah

Tom Jackobs 7:24

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, for sure. When you were starting from aesthetics to trichology and helping people with their hair. Was that a brand new business for you or did you just add that into the aesthetic business?

Mandy Wright 7:39

So essentially at that point, I was working as an office manager for an aesthetician who'd taken over practice and we bought her business and it was time for me to then branch out and yeah I essentially bought this huge device. It was, okay, you're gonna invest in yourself now instead of building other people's businesses. It's time for you. So it was, yeah, the Harrier was born from that. We built the business around the device, around the offering. And we are one of the few businesses who just do hair loss. We don't offer a plethora of different aesthetic services and that makes us unique.

Niche Focus Pros and Cons

Tom Jackobs 8:22

Exactly, and there's something to be said about the simplicity and I just saw an article today that was talking about Chipotle of all places, they have four, four things on the menu The same ingredients for all four things. And it's just so simple and they're able to do a lot more in less time. Or they're creating more burritos or food items in an hour than a normal restaurant would or another faster or quick food, a restaurant. Have you found that having just the one offering or one service has helped you in the business?

Mandy Wright 9:02

Yes, I do think so, because yes and no. It's a double-edged sword.'cause I agree with you. I lived in Dubai and we had Starbucks in Dubai, and it had a limited menu and it worked seamlessly. I get my order, no problem. I got to the home of Starbucks, Seattle. And I have to wait forever to get my coffee because they had so many fancy options on the menu that it was hugely frustrating for me. I actually stopped buying Starbucks. I just couldn't understand the difference in service levels and yes, so I think personally coming from a retail background as well, it's keep it simple, stupid, do something and do it well. And from that perspective, yes. I like to build things around my offerings. So like now I have products that support, I have nutritional nutraceuticals, but they all support their key offerings so that when somebody comes through the door, they might not be an ideal patient for my key offering, which is ultrasound. But I can still help them. I can offer, different elements and whether they buy for me or not today. There's obviously no coercion, but that's an additional revenue stream for me because I think that's the, maybe the downfall of having such a niche offering is that you, I don't have the opportunity to cross patients onto other treatments, other modalities so that I'm continually buying new patients, if you can call it that. I continually need to get fresh order, and that's expensive. Whereas in a normal practice, you would maybe bring somebody in for microneedling and then you'd move them onto laser and then you'd sell them products and then you do some Botox. So your patient stays within your fold.

Tom Jackobs 11:02

Yeah. A lot to be said about not going wide, but going deep with that offering. And I'm sure there's some things that you could add in that have continuity to them and probably the nutraceuticals would be one of things that you could keep people on for a while. How does the heart come into your business? You're working on people's head, right?

Mandy Wright 11:24

Yes.

Tom Jackobs 11:25

How do we connect to their heart?

Mandy Wright 11:27

Even you take anybody losing hair drastically where it's shedding all over, it's traumatic. Somebody post cancer and looking in the mirror and not recognizing the new hair that's growing and how they look. I have young people. Completely bored from things like alopecia areata and it's almost learning to live differently. So yes people come in and they're very vulnerable. Sharing their story can be very difficult. They often tears. And in the, in a sense, there's gotta be a lot of trust.'cause I'm like, hair doesn't grow. It's not like I inject Botox and you walk out and you go. Our results it's not instantaneous. It takes time. We have to heal the follicles and then slowly they begin to grow. And then you've got these fine baby hairs and then they thicken up. And if you haven't cured that underlying problem, maybe they fall on again. So it's a journey. And that's when we talk about continuity in the businesses, people we often need longer periods of time to support them through it, but in the meantime, they're giving me money. So there's a huge trust thing going on that there, there needs to be this partnering where they trust me that what I'm gonna do is actually going to deliver some kind of result while they give me money and, yeah, and I'm going, okay, this is what it is, and I need to trust that at home you're going to, whatever it is, you're going to be brushing, you're gonna be using these products to support your journey, you're gonna follow an anti-inflammatory diet, whatever it happens to be, that's required, otherwise it doesn't work. And then you get these reviews online. You've probably noticed Instagram is flooded with hair products and people, one person will say, oh, loved it. And the other person will say, oh no, it didn't work at all. That's the challenge. It's one solution doesn't fit all. I need to work out what's gonna work for you. You've gotta trust me and it might not be, we might need to tweak it along the way. So heart-led is, yeah, me investing my energy and you trusting me and putting your side of the work.

Tom Jackobs 13:56

Yeah, so how do you establish that trust? What are some mechanisms that you use to establish trust?

Mandy Wright 14:04

I recently read your book. Thank you for sending that. And I agree with a lot of what you say because my consultations start with understanding, I have to listen. Everybody's journey is different, and as people speak, the clues come out. The way the hair comes out. What has happened in their life? They had maybe had an operation or, they lost their job or there are triggers to hear loss, lots of things. They put a chemical on their scalp. Then it comes out and I need to give them time. And I think that is a huge differential when they're going to a dermatologist. Dermatologist has to see so many patients in a day. So the dermatologist, I continually get the comment that didn't even look at my scalp. It was a maybe 10, 15 minute consult. And the only tool that a dermatologist really often has is a prescription pad. So you end up with one of the prescription drugs. Yeah. And it's not always a fit. And if it is a fit there, there are a lot of side effects to those. So my consults in general are an hour long. And it, yeah it takes time. It takes time to work through the questions to understand the patience. What the patient wants, yeah. There's always a conversation. I also do this analysis on the scalp where we take photos and I look at it microscopically, but also it gives us a starting point, and we track the progress with AI. Because slow hair grows slowly. So it's how much, how many more hairs did you get? How much thicker did they get? We need it to be quantifiable. We need to, and if it doesn't happen to go, okay, see we need to address that. But it's a process. And sometimes I do have to turn around and say, I can't help you. So it's time with alopecia. I can confirm that this, I cannot treat him. I can. Maybe get you here, but I can't stop you from losing it. You'll need to look at this and that. And also it is, it's understanding the pain points. It's how much do you wanna throw at this? How much of your time, how much of your spend you are, 20, you're already presenting with this. You're gonna fight this the next 20 years. If not, so would you rather go bald? There's always that talk, can you embrace this? I can't make that decision for a patient that's for them to decide.

Setting Realistic Timelines

Tom Jackobs 16:32

Yeah. So how do you set expectations then with patients when they first come in terms, because it is a such a long process to regrow.

Mandy Wright 16:41

It's difficult. We live in a world of instant gratification.

Tom Jackobs 16:46

Exactly.

Mandy Wright 16:48

Yeah, Turkey offers hair transplants, so it's, and I think it's part of what I need to explain is the quick solutions like your minoxidil, your hair transplants. This is what happens and it's short-lived. Yes, it works. Then you plateau or you transplant the hair and you still need to support those transplants or deal with the underlying problem. Otherwise, they'll fall out too. You'll need to repeat and then you won't have as many hairs to harvest. I often have to talk through that. And even then there's still this, I still will have a lot of people coming in and going. I don't see much difference. And that's where the photos come in, because yes, in those few first few months when I see them, we are just waking everything up. So it is a little bit of a it's not, hair is not easy because it take time and yeah it can go backwards if it's not looked after so.

AI Progress Measurements

Tom Jackobs 17:50

Exactly. I imagine it's very similar to weight loss for some people as well, because if you're constantly looking at yourself in the mirror, you don't see the subtle changes that happen. Same with the hair. You wake up one day and it's all gone, which should of course, it doesn't happen that way. Or, it grows super long. It's wait, how'd that happen? But it doesn't, you know, it takes time and I think it's brilliant that you do the photos. And then you said you use AI to, uh, enhance or to give a measurement, or how does that work?

Mandy Wright 18:24

The AI interprets the data. So we have something called a growth track camera, and it'll count the follicles and measure the density of the thickness. So it can then compare it against, we normally use photos against the back of your head'cause that's where it's normally, normally, in most cases, closest to how it was before.'cause obviously I've known, see my patients before, so I need some kind of measure. So initially it compares with that. As we are getting more and more data into the system, we'd be able to say, okay, as a 25-year-old Caucasian man, this is your norm. And compared to the norm you are losing, maybe you're, you've lost 50% of hair. But this is a tricky one for me because I have more maybe of a European type of hair versus you take somebody with a Spanish background we're also mixed. We are not clear races anymore. We've all got a little bit of something. We have different genetic makeups and some people can have very thick hair. So when you lose a hundred hairs a day and I lose a hundred hairs a day, it looks completely different. So those kind of little tick boxes go out the window and I think that again goes back to the consultation if, yeah, some people stop brushing their hair because it's just too traumatic. Too much falls out. But yes, that AI tracking helps me compare you with you. Yeah. Are we making progress? Percentage wise, how much more are you getting? Yeah, it's important and yes, I think for patients it's invaluable. I do also ask them to ask their hairstylists to keep an eye. Tell them you're doing this, and let them give you their objective opinion. As to whether it's working or not.'cause they're working close on your scalp. They often, the hairstylist is a very trusted person. You go on a regular, you share a lot of your life. They may, they know all your children, all your divorces, your whatever's going on. They're shared. Another one is I ask them to ask children if they have young children in their lives.'cause children are honest and they will go. You are wasting your money. This is not happening. Somebody's having a laugh or you're looking well. You're looking better. It's thickening up.

Profit Versus Purpose

Tom Jackobs 20:55

That's, yeah. That's brilliant too to involve the people in their lives as well. That's really smart. Yeah. Very cool. Shifting gears just a little bit how do you balance making a profit and still being heart-led?

Mandy Wright 21:09

It's difficult because I think there's often a time where you go, if we just add this, it'll be better. So if you just add it in and it costs me. It's if patients often, they don't have, they don't see that perceived extra value or the extra treatment or whatever it is that you're doing. But it takes out of the profit of the business.

Tom Jackobs 21:39

Yeah.

Mandy Wright 21:39

And I think it's also, again the, I don't think patients realize how expensive it is to procure them in the first place. I'm up against huge chains and they're spreading that marketing across a number of franchises. For me, it's my website, it's my marketing, it's me, it's my time, my money. So the leads can be very expensive to begin with. And then if you offer something like financing cuts, that's the patient doesn't feel that. That's pain. But yeah, the providers feel the pain at the financing. So there are all these little things that under the surface, I think for me as well the cost of insurance. Medical insurance, you know, uh, our practice insurance very high. Warranty costs on the machinery very high. It's, there are a lot of things that are not conducive to small businesses in the US right now too. If keep banging your head. Most of a lot of my colleagues have shut down this year. It's just no longer viable to keep their businesses open. Yeah.

Tom Jackobs 22:54

Oh, that's too bad.

Mandy Wright 22:56

Yeah, it's just, yeah.

Tom Jackobs 22:59

Yeah. Everything has to be aligned just right. And the small businesses that I talked to on this show, the leading kind of message is, yeah, it's great to be heart-led. It is more difficult. It takes a little bit more time, but the rewards are so much better down the road because it's a lighter business. It feels more natural and you're just having fun and you're making money at the same time when it all works out. It's like pushing a boulder up the hill. You're waiting for it to get across the hill so it comes back down.

Mandy Wright 23:31

Yeah, you drown yourself in your patience.'cause that's where the pleasure is at. But you have to, you still have to do the back end, and it's ugh. And I like this. I actually like the business side of it, but it's just, there's so many scams and so many so many modalities at the moment.

Tom Jackobs 23:50

Yeah.

Mandy Wright 23:51

which one's real, which is gonna deliver.

How to Find Mandy

Tom Jackobs 23:55

Yeah. There's a lot to be said in terms of how to incorporate your marketing to hit that type of consumer behavior.'cause it, if it's on B2B, it's definitely B2C as well. Showing the proof and doing everything that you're doing, getting referrals from other medical providers. Mandy, this has been very very stimulating conversation around hair. How can people learn more about your business?

Mandy Wright 24:19

We're on the social platforms, but I'd encourage them to look at the website, hairohyeah.com. Everything is explained on there. They can book an initial trichology appointment. Our initial consult is free. And we do use a new modality, it's called Alma TED, and it's an ultrasound device instead of needles. So a lot of people have not heard about this, although it's offered worldwide. But it's also, if you're in another city, you could learn more about it and find out where that is offered in your country or your city too. I think it's important to understand that there are people like me out there, trichologist.

Tom Jackobs 25:00

Thanks.

Mandy Wright 25:01

So there's probably one around somewhere that you could see if you're not happy with what you're getting at a dermatologist's office.

Tom Jackobs 25:08

Yeah. And when you said 10 to 15 minutes, I was like, wow, that's being generous. It's

Mandy Wright 25:14

Yes.

Tom Jackobs 25:14

I remember it was like five minutes. There when lucky.

Mandy Wright 25:19

Yeah.

Final Thanks and Wrap Up

Tom Jackobs 25:20

Yeah, definitely check this out. Check out what Mandy's doing with that. So Mandy, thank you so much for being on the show today. Really definitely appreciate you sharing your business wisdom and your journey. And your story about your journey.

Mandy Wright 25:33

Oh, thank you Tom, and thank you for your book. I really enjoyed it. I think it's, it struck many chords in me and I appreciate you having me on the show today. It's lovely to be able to get the word out.

Tom Jackobs 25:48

Yes. Of course. Yeah. My pleasure and thank you listeners for tuning in today and watching or listening to the show, depending on what platform you're on. We do appreciate it. So make sure you're checking out everything that Mandy is doing. We're gonna put all the links down into the show notes so you can just make that very easy to go and click and check out our website and see if you are a candidate for this type of treatment, which is really interesting which I like. I go back to I really like being bald myself. And show listeners while you're down there checking out what Mandy's doing. If they see a review link down there, please give the show a rating and review. We really do appreciate it and just help spread the word about the Heart-Led Business Show. And until next time, lead with your heart.

Speaker 2 26:33

You've been listening to The Heart-Led Business Show, hosted by Tom Jackobs. Join us next time for another inspiring journey into the heart of business.