In this episode recorded in June of 2018, we interview Tyffani Allen. Tyffani began her career at Sport Clips in 2014 and has been climbing the ladder of success ever since. The best part of Tyffani's story is that she achieved her dream through pure determination and hard work. Enjoy the podcast!
| Episode Air Date |
Guest Name |
Guest Title |
Topic(s) |
| June 13, 2018 |
Tyffani Allen |
Coach and Artistic Team Member |
Journey from Beauty School to Rookie Coach of the Year / Aristic Team |
Each episode of the Podcast is also available on iTunes and the Google Play store.
Transcription:
Chad Jordan: All right. Well welcome to this edition of the Sport Clips Hall of Fame podcast. This is Chad Jordan, I'm the director of marketing at Sport Clips, I handle the digital services department.
I am joined today by, Tyffani Allen, who is a mother, a former stylist / manager, / jack-of-all-trades at Sport Clips, she's currently a coach and a member of the artistic team, and recently won at our national huddle, Rookie Coach of the Year.
So we knew she'd be a great person to interview, so welcome to the podcast. Thanks for joining us.
Tyffani Allen: No problem. Thanks for having me.
Chad Jordan: And we have a fancy podcast booth today. Podcasts are audio, not visual, so you can't see what we see, but we're actually in- actually this isn't too shabby. We're in a hotel and we have a private room here with our microphone.
And for those of you that know Tyffani, we're recording this in June, and she is about five or six months pregnant with her fourth boy? Fourth boy, so we have a whole slew of chocolate and fruit and other things and water for her.
I did not get a jar of pickles, so I apologize if you have pickle cravings and ice cream. I couldn't help you out there.
So we're gonna try to record this in one take, but being pregnant she might need a break at some point. And so if we have to do that, that's quite all right.
I was told if this podcast went well, Chad is in the running for the name for the fourth boy, so we will find out when the name gets revealed how she feels about this podcast, so Chad or Christopher or Jordan is another great boys' name.
So anyways, I'm just throwing that out there.
So what we do in these podcasts is we like to talk to rock stars at Sport Clips or partners of Sport Clips, and we like to find out a little bit about their journey. And so we're gonna do that today with Tyffani, who has obviously risen through the ranks, she's a star, a rock star here at Sport Clips.
And I wanna know, personally we're friends, but some of these questions I'm gonna ask her and find out about her story, I don't know the answer to, so I'm asking as someone who might be listening to the podcast wondering what the answers to these are, so we haven't- can you confirm we have not prepped really much of anything other than we know each other, but it's not like, I didn't send her a list of 30 things she had to get ready for today. We're just talking, hanging out.
And the style of these podcasts is very conversational. So I wanna find out from her, a little bit about her story, the beginning, the middle, and the end. That's the style of these podcasts, basically what made her what she is today, what is she doing today, and then kinda where are her sights set.
And then what she doesn't know is at the end of the podcast I do have a couple questions and we'll set that up here at the end, once we get to that part.
So, no one's here listening to this because they wanna here me, I think they get enough of me on social media and all of that kinda stuff-
Tyffani Allen: All your life-
Chad Jordan: And Huddle, yeah, so they're definitely ready to hit the snooze button on me and they really obviously are tuning in to listen to you.
So, a couple things, I'm not gonna try to embellish my questions either, I'll let them go and then you answer when you feel like we're ready, you can signal to me, enough, cut it out, they can't see this so you can give me the throat, the slashing throat sign.
But, all right, so first of all, it's Tyffani with an I.
Tyffani Allen: At the end. There is a Y.
Chad Jordan: At the end, but there is a Y, but not where you think it should be, so much like 99% of our stylists across Sport Clips, she has a name that is impossible to spell the first try.
So Tyffani, you're growing up, you're originally from where as a kid? Where are you from?
Tyffani Allen: Collinsville, Illinois.
Chad Jordan: Okay, so that's like right around the corner from here. Okay.
Tyffani Allen: Yep, about 20 minutes.
Chad Jordan: And as a five, six, seven year old girl playing with your Barbie and Ken dolls, are you already doing the hair? Do you already figure out, "This is what I wanna do with my life?"
Tyffani Allen: I was, however, it wasn't re- I took all of my Barbie dolls' hair and gave them short haircuts.
Chad Jordan: Okay.
Tyffani Allen: I did not want to do women's hair. Ever. There was that one part of me that never wanted to do women's hair.
Chad Jordan: Okay, so you were already chopping the hair and then having to buy new Barbie dolls every time because you cut the hair too short and you couldn't do it anymore.
Tyffani Allen: Got in trouble a lot at school for cutting kids' hair.
Chad Jordan: Wow. Really?
Tyffani Allen: Yes.
Chad Jordan: So what? Would you sneak scissors - or would you use the scissors at school? Like the little-
Tyffani Allen: Yes! Like-
Chad Jordan: The little arts and craft ones with the jagged little edges?
Tyffani Allen: The ones that are always on the school supply list.
Chad Jordan: So those are not Wahl approved, okay. Got it.
Tyffani Allen: Not recommended for use and store by any professional ever.
Chad Jordan: Lesson learned.
Tyffani Allen: Yes.
Chad Jordan: So you knew straight away. I mean did you ever have any other career mindset, or was it always you wanted to get into hair in specific?
Tyffani Allen: There was a small part of me that wanted to be a lawyer, only because I was really good at arguing, and I think my parents have a lot to do with that. So they were constantly telling me, "You're great at arguing. You should be a lawyer." And I was like, "No."
Chad Jordan: But now that you're a coach, success checks and with team leaders, you can bring out the lawyer side and at least get your kicks that way.
Tyffani Allen: Yes.
Chad Jordan: So, you're from this area, you knew, okay, lawyer route wasn't where you were gonna go. So chart your path for me for cosmetology school, did you go locally-
Tyffani Allen: I did. So I went to Regency Beauty Institute, which they all unfortunately closed down.
Chad Jordan: And nothing to do with you though, right?
Tyffani Allen: No.
Chad Jordan: Okay. All right.
Tyffani Allen: It did not. Well, I like to think it didn't. But you know, there was a lot of other students there too. But, I graduated high school on a Saturday and I started cosmetology school the following Monday.
Chad Jordan: Wow.
Tyffani Allen: So my summer vacation ended up being one day. Started school, unfortunately had some family stuff going on. I dropped out with I think 320 something hours left to complete.
Chad Jordan: Oh wow. What is it here? What did you have to-
Tyffani Allen: 1500 hours.
Chad Jordan: 1500. Okay.
Tyffani Allen: Yeah, in the state of Illinois. So, I dropped out for about four and a half years or so, which in Illinois here, hours are good for five years, so I went back and-
Chad Jordan: Right under the wire!
Tyffani Allen: Finished, yeah, I was fresh out of a previous relationship, single mom with two kids. We actually moved back in with my mother for me to be able to go back to school and finish up and I went back to school and finished up. Graduated in, I think it was April, 2014. And then took my test, started with Sport Clips in July of 2014.
Chad Jordan: Wow. So, was Sport Clips your first real hire?
Tyffani Allen: It was.
Chad Jordan: I mean that's kinda where, wow. You went right from school to Sport Clips. So you are a home-grown, made in the USA-
Tyffani Allen: Yeah.
Chad Jordan: Real, a real rock star.
Tyffani Allen: Made in the Sport Clips world!
Chad Jordan: That's awesome. Okay, I didn't know that. So, you started as a stylist? You mean they didn't recognize right away, "We gotta make her manager?" It's just kinda-
Tyffani Allen: Oh no, I was right out of school and knew nothing.
Chad Jordan: Okay, all right. So you start, and what was your first store? What number?
Tyffani Allen: I-L-6-0-4
Chad Jordan: 6-0-4. So was it a Keyser store?
Tyffani Allen: It was.
Chad Jordan: Keyser store at the time? Okay. And who was the manager then?
Tyffani Allen: Ashley
Chad Jordan: Okay. She treated you great and-
Tyffani Allen: She did. She helped me with my haircuts, she trained my on the Five-Point Play, she taught me everything I knew. Afterwards she put me on the floor and I took off. I had a few mishaps with haircuts here and there of course, but she was super supportive. I honestly would not be where I am today if it wasn't for her and her support.
Tyffani Allen: She's unfortunately no longer with the company. She's no longer doing hair right now, but-
Chad Jordan: Well, we'll make sure she gets a copy of this. Shout out to Ashley? Is her name?
Tyffani Allen: Yes.
Chad Jordan: All right, way to go Ashley. Thank you for everything you did for Tyffani. I'm really interested. You said a few mishaps. I'm always interested in finding out, that was me clapping by the way. I need, so, okay. In my line of work, I can make mistakes and, you know, they're easily get-over-able. I just delete the Facebook Live video or something, right?
When you make mistake on a guy's haircut, it's four to six week-able before it really- so give me, can you give me a highlight, we're talking the early days still, right?
Tyffani Allen: Yes.
Chad Jordan: So give me a highlight of one of your first memories of, "Oh snap. I just messed his hair up, and what are we gonna do?"
Chad Jordan: You got a story or-
Tyffani Allen: I do, which actually, the way that the story ends, he ended up becoming a regular client of mine.
Chad Jordan: I thought you were gonna say your husband. Okay. All right.
Tyffani Allen: No. No, no, no.
Chad Jordan: All right.
Tyffani Allen: But no, he became a regular client of mine. He came in every-
Chad Jordan: So this is a good ending? Okay, happily ever after. Alright, but, all right, how about we don't say his real name. Let's call him Dana. Alright? So Dana, tell me about Dana's hair and what went wrong.
Tyffani Allen: So, he was sitting in the chair and he walked in at 8:04 to get his haircut.
Chad Jordan: PM?
Tyffani Allen: PM.
Chad Jordan: Oh, and you closed at what time?
Tyffani Allen: Well, we closed at eight, so we accept clients until five after, of course.
Chad Jordan: Oh my word.
Tyffani Allen: Yeah, so he walked in at 8:04, and I greeted him the same way, you know, you greet your client from the beginning of your shift. And we were just joking around back and forth and he was putting jokes out, I was putting jokes out, everything was great, we did the consultation. I reached into my locker to grab a three guard, that is what he had asked for.
Chad Jordan: Yeah, he requested.
Tyffani Allen: Yes, and in the midst of doing do, however, I dropped the three guard and where I had my one guards at-
Chad Jordan: I see where this is going.
Tyffani Allen: And whenever I reached in to grab it, I slapped that one guard on really quickly and just started going to town. Unfortunately I started on the back of his head, so the whole back was done.
Tyffani Allen: Now I did take it pretty low, because he wanted a low three fade, not a low one fade. Anyway, he was very upset.
Chad Jordan: Is it the minute you see skin, you know, "Oh wow. This is not a three."
Tyffani Allen: Well see, here’s the thing, I wasn't to that point yet. I wasn't at that point in my career in this industry to know the difference between-
Chad Jordan: You're just talking to him, you're having a good old time.
Tyffani Allen: You know, giving him that client experience that, you know, he deserves, and I totally messed up. I got to the side of his head, his eyes were the size of silver dollars. He was like, "Uh, that's not a three." And I was like, "You are right. It's not." And he was mad. He started yelling at me, going off on me. I gave him the option to have one of the management team members come and fix it.
Chad Jordan: Was Ashley or a manager there at the time this happened?
Tyffani Allen: No.
Chad Jordan: Okay.
Tyffani Allen: She was not there at the time, I think she actually was on her honeymoon maybe. Because she had gotten married right whenever I first started.
Tyffani Allen: So, any-who, he decided against having somebody else cut it, even though I just royally messed up.
Chad Jordan: Yeah, jacked it up. Yeah.
Tyffani Allen: I ended up giving him a one low fade, and faded it up, cut the top, he acted like he hated it when he left, like he was still angry and mad.
Chad Jordan: Does he pay full price at that point?
Tyffani Allen: He did not pay for any of his service that day.
Chad Jordan: Does Jessie know this, or do we need to delete this part?
Tyffani Allen: No, actually, I honestly don't know if Ashley ever told him that.
Chad Jordan: Okay.
Tyffani Allen: In all honesty. But, I'm sure he would be fine with it, so anyway, he ended up leaving, I cried my entire way home. Did not want to go into work the next day.
Chad Jordan: Or ever cut any dude's hair again, right?
Tyffani Allen: But it wasn't because I failed at it, I was embarrassed. And I don't get embarrassed. And it wasn't the haircut that embarrassed me, it was the way that he spoke to me on the floor. Because then it was like my other team members heard and I was like, "Oh, now they think that I don't know what I'm doing-"
Chad Jordan: Was it totally emasculating, I mean in terms of, was he ... I'm a guy, right?
Tyffani Allen: Yeah.
Chad Jordan: So, was he talking down like you were in trouble and you're a bad person, or-
Tyffani Allen: He wasn't, he was younger, so it wasn't that-
Chad Jordan: Younger than you?
Tyffani Allen: Yes.
Chad Jordan: Oh, okay.
Tyffani Allen: He was younger than me. So I didn't think that it was, your dad's talking to you and you're a horrible person. It's just some of the things that he said and the words that he used were not very nice.
Chad Jordan: Oh my gosh.
Tyffani Allen: But anyway, he left, and like I said, I cried my whole way home, didn't wanna go into work the next day. I did anyway, you know, you fail, you get back up and you try again.
Tyffani Allen: Went into work, I talked to manager about it, the assistant manager actually, at the time, and told her, "This is what happened, do you have any tips for me?" And she, from that point forward, she told me, "At any time you put a guard on your clippers, make sure that it's the right guard."
Tyffani Allen: And to this day, guess what I do.
Chad Jordan: Right.
Tyffani Allen: I make sure that it's the right guard. He came in two weeks later and requested me to cut his hair.
Chad Jordan: Did he want a number one this time?
Tyffani Allen: He did! He wanted the exact haircut-
Chad Jordan: So he went home, and whoever saw him was like, "Dang! That haircut is fine!"
Tyffani Allen: He actually went out that night.
Chad Jordan: Okay.
Tyffani Allen: And all of his buddies complimented him, Edwardsville is a college town, so he got all those compliments from his buddies and then two weeks later he was my client. And he was my client until I left that store.
Chad Jordan: That's amazing.
Tyffani Allen: Yes.
Chad Jordan: I'm always intrigued by, A, the feeling of what you just described, that experience of, "Oh, I messed up." And it's visible. I mean that's the thing about our industry, right? There's no hiding.
Tyffani Allen: [Client's face 00:14:42] said it all too.
Chad Jordan: Yeah, and then you carry that, your dejected and you carry that whole thing around with you. But I'm always interested to find out from whether it's a manager or coach or whoever I'm talking to, how do you bounce back? I mean, can you bounce back from it, and then how quickly, and I mean, like you said, you learned from it and to this day you never assume the guard is right. You always check it, so I love that, and that's a guy too. Be mad in the moment because he didn't get what he wanted, until someone complimented him, and then he acted like, "I know, yeah. I told her to give me a number one this time."
Tyffani Allen: So much better.
Chad Jordan: Oh, see? Almost like you knew what you were doing.
Tyffani Allen: Right.
Chad Jordan: So I love that. So I'm always asking those kinds of stories because they super intrigue me.
Chad Jordan: Earlier, you mentioned Ashley, obviously Jessie Kaiser being the first team leader hired you right out of cosmetology school. You have any other early mentors or people that kind of steered you, one way- you mentioned an assistant manager, but steered you one way or another that you can mention here?
Tyffani Allen: Amanda Rachel was really amazing with me. She helped me whenever it came to my retail sales. Gave me all my product knowledge, everything like that. And I'm the type of person that once you tell me, I retain it and I take off.
Tyffani Allen: So she was super, super helpful-
Chad Jordan: And for everybody, Amanda Rachel is-
Tyffani Allen: She was the assistant manager.
Chad Jordan: Okay.
Tyffani Allen: She is currently a team member at I-L-6-0-1.
Chad Jordan: Oh, I probably just saw her yesterday.
Tyffani Allen: Exactly.
Chad Jordan: Okay.
Tyffani Allen: So she, shorter, she has really long dark hair.
Chad Jordan: Oh yeah, they were awesome over there too.
Tyffani Allen: Yeah. Yep, so she was super helpful. I still talk to her to this day. I mean we don't talk as often of course, but again, another person that I owe a lot of my career to.
Tyffani Allen: And then Chris Bossio, he is a barber. Never met him in person, but his tutorial videos were absolutely amazing, and they taught me a lot about different techniques.
Chad Jordan: So you're telling me, so you'd cut hair all day and then you'd go watch tutorial videos at night? Was that essentially what was happening?
Tyffani Allen: Yes.
Chad Jordan: It wasn't like-
Tyffani Allen: Days off, didn't matter-
Chad Jordan: It wasn't in the break room that you're- or the equipment room that you're going and sneaking these in between haircuts.
Tyffani Allen: No, no. I was not on my phone in between haircuts-
Chad Jordan: Oh, right, right. No one's ever on their phones in between-
Tyffani Allen: I was a single mom, I was ready
Chad Jordan: Yeah, you needed to make that money. Every day you were hustlin'. All right.
Chad Jordan: So, that's a great tip. What's the guy's name? Chris?
Tyffani Allen: Chris Bossio.
Chad Jordan: Bossio? Spell that.
Tyffani Allen: B-O-S-S-I-O.
Chad Jordan: Okay. You can find him on YouTube or-
Tyffani Allen: Yep.
Chad Jordan: Or whatever.
Tyffani Allen: Yeah, he has his own YouTube channel. He puts different tutorials out, he also just has different haircutting videos. That's a really good thing with social, like social media is huge.
Chad Jordan: Yeah.
Tyffani Allen: Especially in this industry, everybody is doing tutorials, and so finding somebody that you relate to, somebody that you can learn from is exceptional in this industry.
Chad Jordan: I wanna get to, so you're a team member, accidentally giving guys the best haircuts of their life. And purposefully, even when you messed up-
Tyffani Allen: I totally did it on purpose.
Chad Jordan: Yeah, right. Even when you messed up, you still salvaged it, but- so give me that, when do you then take the next leap? You go from rookie team member, to what was it, assistant manager? Key holder? How did it go?
Tyffani Allen: I was a stylist for about two weeks, and then from that two week marker, they asked me to be a key holder. So then I went through all that training. I did that for-
Chad Jordan: What do you think it was about you that made them go, "Two weeks, we can't let her go another day without being a key holder." How did you get that?
Tyffani Allen: I followed the Five-Point Play. I followed the Five-Point Play, my numbers were exceptional, and the client experience was there. So I think a lot of it, and with this specific company is leading by example. If you're able to produce those numbers, if you follow the Five-Point Play and your clients love you, your team loves you, that's how you move up.
Tyffani Allen: So, like I said, it was like two weeks, and I was a key holder. And I only did that for, I think I was a key holder for a month?
Chad Jordan: Describe, so there are non-Sport Clips people listen- Sports Clips people listening, for those non-Sport Clips people, everybody can guess what a stylist, you know, all that. Key holder means what?
Tyffani Allen: So you get a key to the store.
Chad Jordan: So you get to open the doors.
Tyffani Allen: Yep.
Chad Jordan: Lock up.
Tyffani Allen: Yep, they train you on the opening procedures, the closing procedures.
Chad Jordan: Okay.
Tyffani Allen: Also, closing the register and opening the register. Taking care of the deposit, stuff like that. But it's also being part of the management team. So you're a secondary to the assistant manager per se. If the manager and the assistant aren't there, and you're-
Chad Jordan: They're at a leadership or something-
Tyffani Allen: Right. You're the one that's running the floor. You're the one that's making sure the clients are taken care of and the stylists are happy. You're there to make sure that your team is running smoothly, like a well-oiled machine.
Chad Jordan: So a key holder essentially is a manager in training.
Tyffani Allen: Mm-hmm (affirmative)
Chad Jordan: So a key holder, essentially, is a manager in training. I mean, once you make it to key holder, that's a signal that you're on this career path for us, we love you, we want you to stick around, and this is you getting your feet wet management-wise and seeing how we roll, not just at Sport Clips, but as a management team at maybe the store or the region. So you're a key holder but not very long, as just a key holder. You then move ... was it straight to manager or did you go to ...
Tyffani Allen: To an assistant manager.
Chad Jordan: Okay, assistant manager. Still at 604, or have you moved stores at this point?
Tyffani Allen: Still at 604. So I was still at Aisle 604 and then I was the assistant manager ...
Chad Jordan: For two weeks.
Tyffani Allen: No. Not for two weeks. I was the assistant for about, I think, three and a half, four months before I became a manager of that store.
Chad Jordan: And at this point, you're a single mom, still, right?
Tyffani Allen: Still.
Chad Jordan: You have two kids, age ... What were they, four or five years old at that time or ... ?
Tyffani Allen: Yeah, I had a five year old and a two year old.
Chad Jordan: And how are you pulling all of that off? How are you being a single mom, having this career? Do you have family helping? Do you have daycare? What exactly? Are you bringing them in and they're being coordinators or something? You're putting them to work? How are you dealing with all that?
Tyffani Allen: I have a daycare. The daycare that I was using at the time, was open until midnight, thankfully, because a lot of it I was pulling open and close shifts, multiple days a week, sometimes seven days a week. So I would drop my kids off in the morning, I knew that they were in a safe area, they had people around them that loved them. The daycare was absolutely exceptional, but they were open until midnight. So, we closed at eight o'clock, sometimes I was there, I mean in business, when we have short cuts, and the credit-card procedures for short cuts, sometimes it could take two hours.
Chad Jordan: That gets lost in the shuffle with some salon ultimate aches and pains here and there is like how bad it was before. So we're making vast improvements.
Tyffani Allen: You miss one credit-card slip and you're there for two hours. So there were times that I didn't pick them up until midnight, and there were times that if something was going in the store that was that crazy that we were there until after midnight on occasions.
Chad Jordan: But you're not, at this point, you're not working multiple jobs, right? Like it's Sport Clip ride or die.
Tyffani Allen: No, there was only Sport Clips, yes.
Chad Jordan: That is, at least at that point in your career, as a single mom, two small kids, you're paying for daycare, right? I mean, daycare wasn't free, right?
Tyffani Allen: No.
Chad Jordan: You were paying for daycare.
Tyffani Allen: Unfortunately, it's not free.
Chad Jordan: So, and you were getting on your feet, you're making ends meet, and this isn't a plug for any career, we're just talking, but I just want to know, did you have to supplement in any way?
Tyffani Allen: No.
Chad Jordan: Okay, so that's pretty amazing.
Tyffani Allen: Sport Clips was amazing. As I mentioned before, in order for me to go back to school, we ended up moving back in with my mom. I worked for Sport Clips for about two and a half, three months before I had my own house and my own car again.
Chad Jordan: That's amazing. You were there three months and then you're back on your own.
Tyffani Allen: Yeah, I was back on my own two feet with my kids and able to give them what we were working towards, giving them the lifestyle that I wanted to provide them.
Chad Jordan: Oh, that's so cool. I love that. So you're assistant manager for how long?
Tyffani Allen: I was an assistant for, I think it was three and a half, four months, and then I became a manager. I was a manager starting at the beginning of December in 2014.
Chad Jordan: So this is still 2014 we're talking about?
Tyffani Allen: Yes.
Chad Jordan: So you finished school in July? No, something like that.
Tyffani Allen: In April.
Chad Jordan: In April.
Tyffani Allen: Started in July.
Chad Jordan: Started in July at Sport Clips.
Tyffani Allen: And was managing in December.
Chad Jordan: That's awesome and is it 604?
Tyffani Allen: Yes, still all 604.
Chad Jordan: Okay, because Ashley, at that point, has she left or ... Okay.
Tyffani Allen: Well, she got married.
Chad Jordan: Oh, that's right. She had her honeymoon.
Tyffani Allen: Yep, she had her honeymoon, and then she took a little bit of time off and came back as a ... she came back as a key holder starting in January.
Chad Jordan: All right, so you have now filled that manager role and which was the biggest leap?
Tyffani Allen: All of them.
Chad Jordan: Okay. I was going to say, from school to ...
Tyffani Allen: I don't remember, I was right out of school.
Chad Jordan: So, now how about this. Did you ever imagine, you're in school doing the last little bit of hours that you've got in April, are you thinking, "By December I'm going to managing my own location"?
Tyffani Allen: I was not. I knew, though, that I was going to work with Sport Clips.
Chad Jordan: So you had your eye set there.
Tyffani Allen: Before I even graduated, yeah.
Chad Jordan: And how did you find out? I mean, did you know dudes that were getting their hair cut at Sport Clips or had they come to the beauty school or ... ?
Tyffani Allen: There was a commercial. They'd never came into my school, but there was a commercial that ...
Chad Jordan: That the Marhay Apartment put together?
Tyffani Allen: Yeah.
Chad Jordan: Hey oh. Okay, all right.
Tyffani Allen: I think it was ESPN on a day that I was watching football and I saw it and I was like, "Hm. All right. Well, that's where I'm going to go."
Chad Jordan: All guys, good environment.
Tyffani Allen: I saw the towels on the face, the girls were all really happy in the commercials, the clients seemed really happy. I was like, "I could work there," so that's what I did.
Chad Jordan: Wow, okay. So by December you're managing and you're managing at Sport Clips, so let's call it now January 2015, so now we're still in the before-phase of your career where you're not even a coach yet. So tell me management, give me that transition, how did it go? Did you have any good days? Any bad days? Any in between? What's that ...
Tyffani Allen: I had a little bit of all of them. I think in any management position you're going to have good days and bad days and it's really about the face that you put on for your team to make sure that they don't see your bad days. But I was manager for eight months. The store grew like crazy. It was like weeds whenever I was there. I think it was 16% within that short timeframe.
Chad Jordan: I believe it. I was just there today. It was rocking and rolling.
Tyffani Allen: Yeah, I think my last week working in store, they did ... Let's see. We went from doing about $6,000 weeks to, I think, 10 five.
Chad Jordan: Wow.
Tyffani Allen: Yeah.
Chad Jordan: In eight months that you were there? So, you give me quickly the best part of being a manager.
Tyffani Allen: Being able to help mold and develop new team members right out of cosmetology school. I think especially because that was me at one point, so I had a soft spot for taking them under my wing and showing them the ropes.
Chad Jordan: Consoling them when they had a bad hair cut and the guy yelled at them.
Tyffani Allen: Yeah, exactly. And I mean, seeing where they are today is even better.
Chad Jordan: And the worst part about being a manager?
Tyffani Allen: The long days. I think, the long days, the not-so-great phone calls when your team members are experiencing something that you wish on even your worst enemy.
Chad Jordan: Is this, you're getting these phone calls while you're at home or when you're in the store and they call ...
Tyffani Allen: Both, both. And they can be anything whether it was family stuff, a car accident, anything. That was probably the worst part of the job. But, being able to help pick the girls up off the ground after they experience something, I mean, that was wonderful, it was a great feeling. But seeing them through all of that stuff was not, not fun.
Chad Jordan: Can you tell me a little bit about when you're a manager, how involved are you in the hiring process for team members?
Tyffani Allen: I did all of it.
Chad Jordan: Okay, so a manager handles all that stuff?
Tyffani Allen: Yes. I did recruitment, which Jesse helped out with recruitment with his letters and his postcards and stuff like that. I did a lot on Facebook recruiting, though.
Chad Jordan: Which means what? You from your personal Facebook page would be like, "Hey ... "?
Tyffani Allen: Yes, I found different stylists and say, "Hey, this is me. This is where I work. It's a great company. We're growing. Come join my team." Pretty much.
Chad Jordan: So you're not running Facebook ads or anything?
Tyffani Allen: No, no, no, no.
Chad Jordan: You're just being Tyffani on Facebook and Tyffani with an I on Facebook. Did you have good success that way?
Tyffani Allen: Yeah, I did. I actually had great success. When I first started managing the store, we only had, I think, five or six team members and we got up to like 12 or 14. And retention turned around and was great.
Chad Jordan: Well, I was at the store today and there were still some people that were there when you were there.
Tyffani Allen: There is actually a lot of them are still there.
Chad Jordan: Yeah, that says a lot. So we've covered you cutting hair of Barbie dolls too short as a five or six, seven-year-old kid, to now you're a manager, so this is now 2015 we're in, right? So what happens around August or September of 2015? Is there another transition that ... ?
Tyffani Allen: I became Jesse Kayser's area manager ...
Chad Jordan: Okay, so area manager is the next step?
Tyffani Allen: Yes.
Chad Jordan: What does that look like? What does an area manager do that's different than a store manager? And tell me a little bit about that process.
Tyffani Allen: So really my main goal was to go in and build relationships with the managers.
Chad Jordan: How many locations? Six or seven, something like that?
Tyffani Allen: Well, this was before he had the St. Louis stores. So when I first became area manager, there was four stores, and then we grand-opened the fifth in Forsythe, yeah.
Chad Jordan: And so you're traveling to each store, you're getting to know the team members?
Tyffani Allen: Yeah, Champagne, Springfield, and then the original store. I got to know all the team members, built a relationship with the managers.
Chad Jordan: Are you ever filling in if somebody calls out sick kind of thing.
Tyffani Allen: Yes. Yes, I did that quite a bit, actually. I would cut in store, in all of my stores at least once a week. But I would also go to my stores at least once a week, too. So, I would go off to Champagne, I would stay overnight and visit the two stores up there. And then I would be in Springfield for a day. I would be in Edwardsville for a day. Sometimes I was in Edwardsville more, because I was still seeing my clients there, but really it was just developing the managers and kind of like helping to mold them into being able to run a successful location.
Chad Jordan: So has every area manager at one point been a manager? Is that the way it works? Is that usually the ladder?
Tyffani Allen: Yes and no. It depends on the team leader. Some of our area managers are hired from outside. So Christina, is that [inaudible 00:30:43] ...
Chad Jordan: Yeah, saw her today.
Tyffani Allen: She was hired from outside. So she never worked at Sport Clips before.
Chad Jordan: Well, I like the perspective of both. You're able to see it through the eyes of I've been a manager of Sport Clips and she's able to be kind of fresh eyes.
Tyffani Allen: Yeah, absolutely.
Chad Jordan: That works. Area manager two or three weeks, or are we talking now ... Is this a ...
Tyffani Allen: Just over a year. I was an area manager for ...
Chad Jordan: So you're stuck as an area manager because you've been accelerated so fast, they're like, "We got to slow this down or we're going to run out of things to give this girl."
Tyffani Allen: It was nice to be able to plant my feet and breathe a little bit, though.
Chad Jordan: Okay, so now we're in 2016, right?
Tyffani Allen: Yes.
Chad Jordan: And area manager, it becomes what?
Tyffani Allen: Coach.
Chad Jordan: Coach, all right.
Tyffani Allen: Yes.
Chad Jordan: Who picks you as a coach? Is that Sport Clips? Is that Jesse?
Tyffani Allen: I found out that they were hiring for a coaching position in my area and I reached out to Jesse just to get the feel, get his feel, his vibe on, "Hey," like, "I'm interested in doing this."
Chad Jordan: That's got to be tough for team leaders, right?
Tyffani Allen: Oh, yeah, oh, yeah.
Chad Jordan: They got these rock star managers/area managers who then ... These team leaders have to kind of sacrifice these great assets to Sport Clips to become coaches. And so how did that go? Was he cool?
Tyffani Allen: He was.
Chad Jordan: I mean, if not, I'm going to see him later. I'll give him a piece of my mind if he wasn't cool.
Tyffani Allen: I didn't think that he was going to be and it wasn't because that I didn't feel that he didn't want me to move up within the company. It was more so a loyalty thing for me. I learned everything from him. He was the only person that I ever worked for. And so really it was more on my end than it was on his, that I was really worried about even saying, "Hey, I'm interested in applying for this position. What do you think?" But he was really supportive. He told me to go for it and we talked along the way. We talked after every interview. I had three of them.
Chad Jordan: What is that interview? Is it in-person? Is it over the phone?
Tyffani Allen: In person. My interviews were all in-person.
Chad Jordan: Are you going down to Georgetown? Where are you getting hired from?
Tyffani Allen: I work for an area developer, so I work for John Kohler.
Chad Jordan: So you go up to Chicago for these interviews? Or he comes down here? How does that work?
Tyffani Allen: So Nina and Rachel, which Rachel is my sister coach down here, so her and I work in this area. But they came down and we interviewed here twice.
Chad Jordan: Nina? Full name.
Tyffani Allen: Nina Teacher.
Chad Jordan: Okay, and Rachel ... ?
Tyffani Allen: Sparkman.
Chad Jordan: Thank you.
Tyffani Allen: Yes. So we interviewed here, in Missouri, twice. And then, my third interview, they flew me up to Chicago to do a final interview in front of the entire team.
Chad Jordan: So what is that interview? You're obviously not cutting hair. They know you can do that. So, are they firing scenarios at you or ... ?
Tyffani Allen: Different scenarios, different questions, why I think that I would be a good fit, what I can bring to the team that no one else can. Pretty much like why should I bring you onto our team rather than the next person.
Chad Jordan: A candidate, right, X, Y, or Z.
Tyffani Allen: Right.
Chad Jordan: So you obviously survived.
Tyffani Allen: I did. And I was pregnant at the time.
Chad Jordan: This is number three.
Tyffani Allen: That was, yeah, it was my third.
Chad Jordan: Your third boy.
Tyffani Allen: Yep, yep.
Chad Jordan: So did you name him John or Kohler or anything like that?
Tyffani Allen: I named him Killian.
Chad Jordan: Killian, okay. All right, all right.
Tyffani Allen: We're a K-name family.
Chad Jordan: Oh, is that it?
Tyffani Allen: Yeah, we have Kamden, Kyler, Killian.
Chad Jordan: Oh, my middle name's Kristofer. All right, shout out Kristofer with a K. All right, maybe we work our way into that. But so you walk out of the interview. Do you even make it back to the hotel or are they like, "No. We can't let her walk out of this room"?
Tyffani Allen: I didn't even walk out of the interview. So the entire team was there. And then ... Well, they had me walk out, I guess.
Chad Jordan: An entire team is who at this point?
Tyffani Allen: So my entire team, so the entire Kohler team was there. Yeah. So all my sister coaches that is in John Kohler [crosstalk 00:34:48].
Chad Jordan: Got you.
Tyffani Allen: So I walk out and then the team is conversing and I guess deciding on whether or not they're going to bring me on. Then, of course, they let Jesse know prior to offering me the position to make sure that he was truly okay with it, and he was.
Chad Jordan: He didn't have a nervous breakdown or anything?
Tyffani Allen: Not in front of anyone.
Chad Jordan: Take a long walk ...
Tyffani Allen: Yeah, not in front of anyone. Yeah, like I said, he was really supportive and I walked back into the room and they welcomed me onto the team and I filled out all of my paperwork. And we decided on a date that I would leave Jesse and start with them, which was about two months. That way, I could give him enough time to bring somebody on and we'd go through the onboarding process. I could help with the training and the development for her.
Chad Jordan: In hindsight, do you feel two months was the right amount of time or was it too much, not long enough if you had to do it over again?
Tyffani Allen: I think it was a good amount. I do. I think it was beneficial for everybody, because even after I started as a coach, Christina had come up and stayed with us when we had a MTC room, so then I was still able to do some side things with her as far as scheduling and things like that, so I think it was beneficial for everybody.
Chad Jordan: So that was the beginning?
Tyffani Allen: Yeah.
Chad Jordan: Now we're in the middle, right, part of your career? You're currently still a coach?
Tyffani Allen: Yes.
Chad Jordan: Right? Not only are you a coach, you were just named Rookie Coach of the Year ...
Tyffani Allen: Which was really exciting.
Chad Jordan: So walk me through that. You're on a list with all the other rookie coaches, and who read the name? Was it Edward Gordon? Do you even remember?
Tyffani Allen: I think I blacked out.
Chad Jordan: Okay, you blacked out. All right. That happens.
Tyffani Allen: I was staring at the screen and I saw my name on it and I just sat there and I was like literally like just staring at it like this. And then my team, like the people around me ...
Chad Jordan: Picked you up?
Tyffani Allen: ... they were like all cheering and clapping and standing up and I'm like ...
Chad Jordan: Oh that's nice. I see my name up there.
Tyffani Allen: ... "Oh, that's my name." And then I was like, "Oh wait. Oh my god." I was like, "Are you serious, guys?" And then I got up and walked up on the stage, so that's why it took me so long to get up there.
Chad Jordan: Yeah, we were getting a little worried. You know, I kept going, "Oh, she's pregnant. Just give her a minute."
Tyffani Allen: She's probably in the bathroom.
Chad Jordan: Right, exactly. Give her some space. So Rookie Coach of the Yeah, that happens. Before I get to the next question, describe, what does a coach do? We have non-Sport Clips people listening. As a coach, you obviously know everything there is to know about everything, but walk me through ...
Tyffani Allen: Well, you can always learn, you can always learn.
Chad Jordan: Yes, you can, but you started at beauty school, you became a team member, a key holder, an assistant manager, a manager, an area manager. By then ...
Tyffani Allen: Are you out of breath yet?
Chad Jordan: Yeah, I'm lost over here. And now you're a coach. Still learning some things, but you obviously know your stuff. So what does a coach do? Walk me through a little bit of that job description and what a typical day or week looks like for you.
Tyffani Allen: Working with the management team, really we're a support too, not just the managers and team leaders as well. So answering any questions, helping them to be successful with their companies. We don't want to set anybody up for failure in this company. We want everybody to be successful, so as a coach, we're one of the tools that is provided to team leaders and managers to help them to become successful.
Tyffani Allen: So whether we're training in a classroom setting and teaching the Sport Clips core classes or advanced classes or we're in store doing success checks and making sure that the team's following their five-point play and the store looks great, it doesn't matter what we're doing. At all points in time, we're helping to develop somebody, to develop an individual, which is why I wanted to become a coach.
Chad Jordan: So I asked you earlier, what was the best part of being a manager. What's the best part of being a coach?
Tyffani Allen: Now, I just get to work with a bigger team. So I get to touch a wider, I guess, variety of individuals and help them with their development.
Chad Jordan: And same question I asked earlier. What's the worst part of being a coach?
Tyffani Allen: I haven't found one.
Chad Jordan: Oh, come on.
Tyffani Allen: No, I really haven't.
Chad Jordan: I'm not human resources. You can tell ... I thought it was going to be the same answer, which I believe, at the time was the long days.
Tyffani Allen: Oh, well here. I think the worst part of it is seeing an opportunity and it not being taken.
Chad Jordan: Everybody that's familiar with me knows hashtag dream job. I love my job, I love everything I do.
Tyffani Allen: Right, absolutely.
Chad Jordan: But of course, there are some parts to it. Every job, even dream jobs, you got to find a way, and like you're saying, spotty in areas that could be improved upon and you cringing because, "Ah, they're missing out on this opportunity."
Tyffani Allen: And it's like the smallest thing. Just the smallest little thing.
Chad Jordan: We don't need plastic surgery to put fake smiles on. We have great jobs, but at the end of the day, there's some things that have to done, and we will do them. I love your take on that. Now, we're still in the middle part of your career. You're not just a coach, you're also on the artistic team.
Tyffani Allen: Yes.
Chad Jordan: I've got to find out more about that. For those that don't know Sport Clips, I know your hand, you get tired from signing all the autographs, but the artistic team there are rock stars, not just Sport Clips world, but in the hair care industry. Tell me a little bit, what is the artistic team? How's it comprised, give me just a little background on it?
Tyffani Allen: Whenever I first saw the artistic team perform, it was in a Huddle, and they were on stage-
Chad Jordan: When you say perform, what do you-
Tyffani Allen: Cutting hair-
Chad Jordan: Okay, they're cutting hair.
Tyffani Allen: Yeah, yeah, they're on stage.
Chad Jordan: To music-
Tyffani Allen: Music in the background-
Chad Jordan: Dancing all over the place-
Tyffani Allen: They have models, and dancers, and it was great show. There was a part of me that always wanted to be a platform artist. After seeing them, I was like, all right that is my next step. I will be there, I will be on that stage at some point in time in my career.
Chad Jordan: When was that?
Tyffani Allen: When did you first see them?
Chad Jordan: Let's chart this.
Tyffani Allen: That was at my first Huddle, so that would've been in-
Chad Jordan: Where was it Houston?
Tyffani Allen: No, that was Las Vegas, 2015.
Chad Jordan: Okay, all right.
Tyffani Allen: Yes, so yeah, I'm pretty sure that was the one. Yeah.
Chad Jordan: Yeah, so at the Mirage?
Tyffani Allen: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Chad Jordan: Was that the year-
Tyffani Allen: No, that was at Caesar's.
Chad Jordan: Ceasear's.
Tyffani Allen: Caesar's.
Chad Jordan: Was it the one thing guy was there I believe, if I remember right, 2015?
Tyffani Allen: What was it the dog sledding lady maybe.
Chad Jordan: Dog sledding lady?
Tyffani Allen: I don't know there's been so many [crosstalk 00:41:45] I can really-
Chad Jordan: All right. That was your takeaway from Vegas.
Tyffani Allen: Right, she was awesome.
Chad Jordan: Dog sledding, I don't think that really happened, I think you might've-
Tyffani Allen: My takeaway from the Vegas one was I wanted to on the artistic team.
Chad Jordan: Yeah, right exactly. Okay no, but that's my point. Huddle is so life ... For me-
Tyffani Allen: It is.
Chad Jordan: I've told this story a million times. It was at Huddle 2017, when Tim Storey spoke. I was like, that guy, every day I'm hustling, I want to be on that stage.
Tyffani Allen: I still have girls that are saying that.
Chad Jordan: Yeah, he was super inspiring. We have these national conventions, they're inspiring, and something, a light bulb goes on, and you're like, "Yes, that's what I want." You see the artistic team-
Tyffani Allen: Yes.
Chad Jordan: You go, "All right, I want to go for that." You see them perform, but then what? How do you go from seeing it, wanting it 2015, to being on it by 2017?
Tyffani Allen: You just work really hard. It wasn't, so being part of the artistic team, it's not just about your technical skills, you have to have those. You're building brand awareness. One of the requirements for being on the artistic team is you have to be a coach. I don't know, I think that is a great thing only because of the fact, we're the face of the company at that point of time. We're building that brand awareness. I don't think it's going to be like that forever per se, but for the time being, you don't have to be a coach. You have to have the technical skills, you have to have a really strong social media platform. Social media is a big thing. Like I was saying earlier, this industry social media is huge. This is how you're building your company.
Chad Jordan: What is your platform? Your weapon of choice of social media wise?
Tyffani Allen: Instagram.
Chad Jordan: Instagram is yours?
Tyffani Allen: Yes. T_fades7.
Chad Jordan: Okay.
Tyffani Allen: Yes.
Chad Jordan: Got it, t_fades7, but the number sign seven.
Tyffani Allen: No, just numbers.
Chad Jordan: When we post this podcast, we'll put all that stuff on there as well. Okay, so you're heavy on social media, you're technical, you're a standout coach, and then is there a nomination process?
Tyffani Allen: There is an application process.
Chad Jordan: Okay, so it's on you.
Tyffani Allen: It's video submission.
Chad Jordan: Okay.
Tyffani Allen: It is not a written application.
Chad Jordan: Okay, so are you twirling buttons and doing like the beauty pageant kind of thing? What are you cutting hair? What is your submission video supposed to look like? What did yours look like?
Tyffani Allen: Really, so there is a few question that they want you to answer in your submission video. Pretty much like what do you love about the company, and why should we choose you to be part of the artistic team? Why do you want be part of this team? I actually created my video in a parking lot.
Chad Jordan: Wow.
Tyffani Allen: Crazy right. I'm a really busy individual, so yeah I was in a parking lot-
Chad Jordan: Was this planned or this was like, I'm here in a parking lot, I've got to do this video, I might as well do it right now?
Tyffani Allen: It was not planned. It was, "Oh hey, you're here, can you video me doing this really fast?" We did probably, Kristine, she was one of my sister coaches up in-
Chad Jordan: Christine-
Tyffani Allen: I can't pronounce her last name.
Chad Jordan: It's okay.
Tyffani Allen: It's [crosstalk 00:44:49] I can't. Kristine D?
Chad Jordan: Yeah, Kristine D. All right, I just want to be able to tag her later.
Tyffani Allen: She's one of my sister coaches, she works in the Chicago market. She was there with me, and she recorded me about, I don't know 27 times before we finally were just like, just submit it.
Chad Jordan: Was it, did you not like the side? Did you not like the take? I mean, why do you keep doing-
Tyffani Allen: I would be speaking, and then it was just silence.
Chad Jordan: Right, okay.
Tyffani Allen: I would just lose all of my words. Any thought process that was going on in my mind, was completely [crosstalk 00:45:21]-
Chad Jordan: Thank God it wasn't a live submission video or else you would be a deer in the headlights.
Tyffani Allen: I think a lot of the video though, the reason that they have you do it, is to show your personality. To see, like, how do you speak? How, like how do you present yourself, how do you hold yourself, what's you're body language like? I think that has a lot to do with it, because with the artistic team, we are constantly presenting. Whether we are at, you know, we are in [Barbercon 00:45:45], so we are going to be in Barbercon, this is our second year there. That is this weekend actually. We have [Crystal Cearus 00:45:52] and Frankie Delgado that are gonna be up there. We were just down in Florida for a show.
Chad Jordan: Orlando.
Tyffani Allen: Yeah, Orlando premier. We had, Andrea was down there, I know Erin was down there. I think there was one that was there too.
Chad Jordan: Linda?
Tyffani Allen: Linda, yes. She was down there too, but we are everywhere. We are doing cosmetology schools, we are doing big huge beauty shows, we're everywhere.
Chad Jordan: When you go do they say hey ... Does the show say we want you to do x, y, or z? Do they say, come do your thing? Then you just do it.
Tyffani Allen: Most of it is just come do your thing.
Chad Jordan: Okay. There's not an agenda that they've given you.
Tyffani Allen: Yeah, you get like your area, you have your specific set-up, I mean between Julian and Julie Vargas, like we, they are-
Chad Jordan: Julian from-
Tyffani Allen: He works with Paul Mitchell, sorry.
Chad Jordan: That's okay.
Tyffani Allen: Between the two of them, we always have like-
Chad Jordan: Julie Vargas, our Senior Director of Recruiting, did I saying that right?
Tyffani Allen: Yes.
Chad Jordan: Okay.
Tyffani Allen: Sorry I'm really bad at this. Sorry.
Chad Jordan: No, I'm just getting that all in there so that the non-Sport Clips people.
Tyffani Allen: Yes, good job Chad.
Chad Jordan: Alright. That's what I am here for.
Tyffani Allen: That's what you're Director of Marketing, see how I got that in there.
Chad Jordan: Yeah nice.
Tyffani Allen: Yep, but between the two of them, they really help us out. Whether it's a specific haircut or just guidance through a haircut. They really make sure that we are looking professional and that we know what we are talking about. There is a lot of training that goes behind it though. We train once a quarter.
Chad Jordan: As the artistic team? Together?
Tyffani Allen: As the artistic team yes.
Chad Jordan: Okay. Where you go to Texas?
Tyffani Allen: Yep.
Chad Jordan: Okay.
Tyffani Allen: Georgetown, Texas, so we are down at the home office.
Chad Jordan: What's that for a week or a day?
Tyffani Allen: Three to four days.
Chad Jordan: Okay.
Tyffani Allen: Yeah. It just depends on when it is and what everybody's schedule looks like.
Chad Jordan: Is it just a refresher or here's a new hairstyle we want you guys to own?
Tyffani Allen: We go through different haircuts, we go through the directions, the movement, and we go through all of it.
Chad Jordan: Okay. How many times, I know once a quarter you're training, but how many times is the entire artistic team together and not just two or three going to different shows? Besides [Huddle 00:48:01] obviously.
Tyffani Allen: It just, it depends. It depends on what shows are coming up, it depends on where they are, and how big the show is going to be. We did Paul Mitchell's Caper in January.
Chad Jordan: The whole team?
Tyffani Allen: Yes.
Chad Jordan: Yeah and there is how many people on the team? Nine?
Tyffani Allen: Yes.
Chad Jordan: All right, I was told there would be no math. I'm trying to figure it out and count it in my head, but nine.
Tyffani Allen: Yeah.
Chad Jordan: Alright nine, all coaches.
Tyffani Allen: Yep, all coaches.
Chad Jordan: What's the tenure, is it a year?
Tyffani Allen: Two years.
Chad Jordan: Oh, it's two years.
Tyffani Allen: Yep, you're on for two years, and then you can submit another video application, after your two year time frame, to do another two years. It's only a four year term. Kind of like presidency.
Chad Jordan: Yeah okay. Give me ... You've submitted the video, all right, and the video goes to Georgetown or somewhere I assume. Julie-
Tyffani Allen: Julian looked at it, I think the artistic team member saw it, Julie Vargas saw it, I don't know who all saw it, but-
Chad Jordan: Whitney Reed's probably in there somewhere.
Tyffani Allen: Yeah I'm sure she was. We would be lost without Whitney, she does so much for us, so shout out to Whitney.
Chad Jordan: Yeah [crosstalk 00:49:07] for Whitney.
Tyffani Allen: I submitted it and then we found out it was announced at the coaches' hall in November.
Chad Jordan: The coaches' hall ... Oh yeah, also in Georgetown, it was right after Sheraton or something right?
Tyffani Allen: I believe so yes.
Chad Jordan: Yeah, it was at this big hotel, and was it just all the coaches were in the room? How's that go down, the announcement? Julie comes up?
Tyffani Allen: Julie comes up, she talks about the artistic team.
Chad Jordan: How many people were getting added at the time?
Tyffani Allen: They were selecting three.
Chad Jordan: Three, okay. Whey say whose name is number one? Give me the other two and then we will get to you.
Tyffani Allen: It was Frankie Delgado.
Chad Jordan: Frankie from...
Tyffani Allen: From San Diego in California.
Chad Jordan: Okay and Brittany from-
Tyffani Allen: Brittany Burton from Texas.
Chad Jordan: Texas, and then-
Tyffani Allen: Myself.
Chad Jordan: Tyffani Allen from Chicago Land area, St. Louis.
Tyffani Allen: St. Louis
Chad Jordan: Does confetti start falling down? What is this moment like?
Tyffani Allen: It felt like it. It actually, in all honesty, it seemed like-
Chad Jordan: Out of body experience?
Tyffani Allen: A blur almost, they called us all up, the existing artistic team was up there, they were giving everybody hugs and I was-
Chad Jordan: Mascara running all over the place, crying your eyes out.
Tyffani Allen: We were really excited like it was a really big moment for all of us. It was like a dream come true. Something that we've always wanted to do. Something we've always looked forward too. It's a big goal to accomplish.
Chad Jordan: Mm-hmm (affirmative), and so you are in the first year of that, at least two year process. How was the travel with, you've got three boys?
Tyffani Allen: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Chad Jordan: One on the way.
Tyffani Allen: Yes.
Chad Jordan: Are you able to manage your travel schedule with obviously maintaining your pregnancy and being healthy and all that kind of stuff.
Tyffani Allen: Mm-hmm (affirmative), yeah.
Chad Jordan: They're working around your schedule.
Tyffani Allen: It's worked out really well. We get our schedule for the artistic team, like all year long. We're able to kind of plan on like what is coming up. Instead of saying like, "Oh hey by the way, tomorrow I need you to leave." That is impossible whether you have kids or not. They do, they plan out in advance. We have our shows booked, we have our training booked. We know when we are supposed to be going. Then the travel, you know being a coach anyway, there is a little bit of travel there but, in all honesty, I mean I have a really good support system.
Chad Jordan: We've gone, I've said beginning, middle, and end, I don't want to call it the end, you know.
Tyffani Allen: Yeah, don't call it the end.
Chad Jordan: The next, how about the beginning, middle, and next-
Tyffani Allen: There, the next.
Chad Jordan: You're on the artistic team, Rookie Coach of the Year. Obviously not just a rising start, you're already a star, what's next? What happens next in the life of not just Tyffani Allen, but someone that's positioned themselves the way that you have? What more is there? Help me out.
Tyffani Allen: Just to keep growing. You can always grow. There is always more goals to achieve. I, in all honesty will retire from this company, unless something happens crazy.
Chad Jordan: Meteor or aliens abduct us all.
Tyffani Allen: Right.
Chad Jordan: Okay, yeah I get that.
Tyffani Allen: Alien abduction, that's what it'll be, that will end my career with Sport Clips. I'll just disappear off the face of the planet.
Chad Jordan: Right.
Tyffani Allen: Now you know.
Chad Jordan: Yeah okay.
Tyffani Allen: What will happen.
Chad Jordan: Look for UFOs.
Tyffani Allen: If I disappear, then you better fly [crosstalk 00:52:32]-
Chad Jordan: Spaceship to Mars.
Tyffani Allen: Come find me.
Chad Jordan: Yeah, we're after you.
Tyffani Allen: Tell Gordon he better get on it. Yeah, no, I think a lot of it is, you know, what's next is just continuing to do what you do. Still working with your manager, still helping to develop team members.
Chad Jordan: It's not like you've lost any of that edge?
Tyffani Allen: No.
Chad Jordan: That you've already spent four or five years getting.
Tyffani Allen: There is so much more that can be accomplished with this company.
Chad Jordan: You're just scratching the surface.
Tyffani Allen: Yeah. It's not just about whether you've become a coach now, what are you going to do now? It's not about moving up further than that. Like, I'm find with being a coach until the day that I retire from this company. I enjoy my job, I love my job, I love the people that I work with. Now, I think I've gotten to a point in my career that it's not about my development anymore, it's about the development of everybody around me.
Chad Jordan: Mm-hmm (affirmative), I love that. One question, and then I'll ask a couple questions, the quick ones.
Tyffani Allen: Okay.
Chad Jordan: My last question here, because we're coming up on our hour is if you can think through, what is the number one piece of advice you'd give, maybe, I don't know at any point? Somebody coming out of beauty school, somebody that's a team member, somebody that's a manager, whatever, you can pick what stage of the career. It might apply to everybody, but what's the number one piece of advice, the secret to your success essentially that you'd want to offer?
Tyffani Allen: Never give up on yourself.
Chad Jordan: Okay.
Tyffani Allen: You're going to fail, and it's whether or not you get up, and keep pushing through to reach your goals on what matters.
Chad Jordan: Yeah. Just like that Dana experience where you did the hair, and it turned out for the better.
Tyffani Allen: It turned out great, right.
Chad Jordan: I love it. All right, so we end these series of podcasts with a number of questions, and the way they work is I do not ask followup questions, with an asterisk. I can choose on one question. I don't know which one it's going to be, to ask a followup, or I've got to hear more about that, all right?
Tyffani Allen: Okay.
Chad Jordan: Other than that, these are the 10, you can just answer them. They don't have to be one word answers, just know I'm not going to ask a followup for most of them. All right, which superpower would you most like to have? Which superpower would you most like to have?
Tyffani Allen: I would love to talk to animals.
Chad Jordan: Hold on-
Tyffani Allen: No followup questions remember.
Chad Jordan: This is not a question, you can talk to animals right now.
Tyffani Allen: No, like I would love to be able to communicate, like them talk back to me, like Dr. Doolittle status.
Chad Jordan: All right, okay. I talk to animals all the time, they just don't talk back. Number two, what is your persona motto?
Tyffani Allen: I don't know, never give up.
Chad Jordan: Never give up, okay.
Tyffani Allen: Never give up.
Chad Jordan: Which is your advice, that's fine. Other than where you live now, where else in the world, would you most like to live?
Tyffani Allen: Somewhere with a very clear beach, and white sand.
Chad Jordan: Okay, so that could Florida, Hawaii-
Tyffani Allen: Anywhere, anywhere with a clear beach and white sand.
Chad Jordan: Fiji. Okay.
Tyffani Allen: As long as I'm not going to get eaten by a shark.
Chad Jordan: Instead you picked St. Louis, Missouri.
Tyffani Allen: Hey, I was born here.
Chad Jordan: All right, okay, no followup. Who is the celebrity you would most like to meet one day?
Tyffani Allen: I don't know. In all honesty, I don't think I have one. I don't think I have one.
Chad Jordan: I'm going to let it sit one second.
Tyffani Allen: Does it have to be like an actor?
Chad Jordan: It doesn't, it could be anybody that everybody knows.
Tyffani Allen: Okay, Chris Bossio.
Chad Jordan: Okay.
Tyffani Allen: He's a barber.
Chad Jordan: Yes, that's a celebrity.
Tyffani Allen: He's not like an actor or a singer-
Chad Jordan: No, no, no, but he's a celebrity in the hair care industry.
Tyffani Allen: In this industry yes.
Chad Jordan: Yes. All right, and we've just put it out to the atmosphere that you want to meet him. When it happens-
Tyffani Allen: I'll give you your shout out.
Chad Jordan: Which words or phrases do you most overuse? Besides um.
Tyffani Allen: Besides um, that's a word that I always an issue with. Let's see here. I don't know. Keep rocking it I guess.
Chad Jordan: Keep rocking it.
Tyffani Allen: Keep rocking it.
Chad Jordan: Let's see, when you did your coaches video, I think you went ba-bam.
Tyffani Allen: Yeah.
Chad Jordan: Is that one you do a lot?
Tyffani Allen: Bam
Chad Jordan: Yeah, with the little finger point?
Tyffani Allen: Yeah. Bam.
Chad Jordan: Bam. All right.
Tyffani Allen: Bam or boom. That's compliments of Jesse [Kaisee 00:56:54].
Chad Jordan: Ah. Oh boy.
Tyffani Allen: I picked that up from him.
Chad Jordan: What sound or noise do you love?
Tyffani Allen: The sound of clippers running through hair.
Chad Jordan: The sound of clippers, I like it. What sound or noise do you hate?
Tyffani Allen: People eating.
Chad Jordan: People eating.
Tyffani Allen: Yes, I can't stand it.
Chad Jordan: Here I've been stuffing my face the whole time, not knowing. Okay. What profession other than your own, would you have been good at or at least wanted to try? We said lawyer.
Tyffani Allen: Lawyer.
Chad Jordan: That was what you had wanted when you were a kid, but looking back, what is one you would have liked to have done or tried?
Tyffani Allen: Maybe be a vet.
Chad Jordan: Okay.
Tyffani Allen: Yeah, I like animals.
Chad Jordan: Oh, so you could talk to animals.
Tyffani Allen: Yes, like Dr. Doolittle.
Chad Jordan: Okay, all right. What do you consider your greatest achievement, doesn't have too be career, but what do you consider your greatest achievement?
Tyffani Allen: Being a mother to three amazing boys, about to be my fourth.
Chad Jordan: Yeah to three and a half amazing boys?
Tyffani Allen: Yeah.
Chad Jordan: Potentially fourth, that's a great answer. All right, last but not least, if heaven indeed exists, what you like to hear God say when you arrive at the pearly gates?
Tyffani Allen: You did it.
Chad Jordan: You did it, I love that.
Tyffani Allen: You accomplished everything that you set out to accomplish, yes.
Chad Jordan: Awesome. That has been an interview with Tyffani Allen, a coach, Rookie Coach of the Year, and artistic team member here in the St. Louis area. Tyffani, we thank you so much for not just this time today, but also for all that you do for Sport Clips, it's been a pleasure having you.
Tyffani Allen: Thank you.
Chad Jordan: We'll retire together here one day.
Tyffani Allen: Yes.
Chad Jordan: All right.
Tyffani Allen: Well you'll retire well before we do.
Chad Jordan: What are you trying to say how old I am? All right, anyways, thanks everybody, tune in next time for the Sport Clips Hall of Fame, until then this is Chad Jordan, see you then.