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Life and Work with Fallene Wells

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Today we’d like to introduce you to Fallene Wells.

So, before we jump into specific questions about the business, why don’t you give us some details about you and your story.
My story is probably very similar to most people, in that I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do in my life. I moved to Denver from Vegas when I was 17. When I turned 21, I met my now-husband, and I was unfulfilled in my current position in corporate America. I always had a passion for fashion and thought of enrolling in FIT, a college for Fashion in NY, I also enrolled in beauty school at the same time. I had an interest in makeup and thought if I could get into makeup maybe that could lead me to fashion. I thought whoever calls me back first is the direction I’m going in. Needless to say, FIT was full and beauty school worked out. Fast forward a few years, I interned at The Parlour downtown in Denver and left a few years later to start out on my own as a booth renter working at Synergy in Uptown Denver.

While I worked there, I wanted to revisit my passion for fashion, so I decided to plan a fashion show and create a collection for it. I called my design label Let Em Have It. Let Em Have It was inspired by an old propaganda poster from the Navy, that hung in my husbands living room when I met him. I felt it perfectly fit with my personality, I’ve always let people have it! In addition to fashion, I loved collaborating with others. I thought it made the most sense to have a fashion show that I could promote other designers, artists and raise money for charity. The annual fashion show was called Forever Darling and was produced up until 2011. A few years of producing Forever Darling, I thought I would try out for Project Runway as a designer. I got accepted as a contestant for season 9. That didn’t go as I expected, self-doubt and lack of sleep got in the way. When I returned, I started a Kickstarter to manufacturer a collection locally, and produced my first solo show, on the side, I was a still a hairstylist booth renting at a salon.

After my attempt to produce a collection, I couldn’t make it work produce all of it in Colorado and I didn’t feel right about producing it overseas, so I decided to wait until I had the money and the resources in America to make it work. I refocused all my energy on growing as a  hairstylist and realized that the environment I was working in was not conducive to growth. I began to imagine my own salon what that would feel like, and I found it incredibly hard to work at my current salon. I started to get serious and create a business plan and look for a space. Finally, while we were at the Horseshoe in Denver, we walked by our future salon location in Uptown on 20th. It really called my name, I knew immediately it would be the right space. We originally started out as a booth rent salon in 2013, I realized that was not a way we would ever be able to be profitable or have our company vision come to fruition with so many businesses working under one roof. I developed an apprenticeship program to train stylists and we then changed our pay structure to be commission.

I’ve always wanted something that had a purpose and with a lot of different experiences I’ve realized something that I’m really passionate about is helping people to discover their true potential and live life with purpose. We heard about a certification called B Corporation, and I fell in love with the idea that businesses are volunteering to be assessed and get certified for being good for the world. That’s something I wanted to get behind. It took us 2.5 years to become a certified B Corp, and we have continued to evolve and refine our culture based around this assessment. We changed our pay structure again this year to become a team-based salon where all of us work together for one goal, making our customers the #1 priority. Now, our company after six years is finally going in the direction of what I envisioned from the beginning. It’s been a challenging journey, I’ve stepped away from behind the chair after 16 years to grow our business and train our team. My husband has now joined this entrepreneur lifestyle with me, we opened a coffee shop last September and are working on opening the 2nd location this October!

Has it been a smooth road?
The challenges that I faced, was myself. Understanding that to be a good leader and help people grow and always do what’s best for the business as a whole means that you may not be liked. I think when I struggled the most is when I took things personally and wanted our team to like me so I would forget about our vision for the company and build our company around the people that worked there.

When you have an issue make sure to address it, don’t wait and get resentful. Don’t allow high performers to hold your business hostage. Be true to yourself and have values that are non-negotiable. Really dig deep and think about the things that really tick you off and then create values around that. Our values for Let Em Have It Salon, are Leadership, Education, Humble, Innovative and Sustainable (LEHIS Let Em Have It Salon) I think about our values when I hire, coach, in performance reviews, and in our training. I find the more that you live your values the more people you’ll attract that also want to live those values, it’s a win-win to take the time to discover what you are really about.

So, as you know, we’re impressed with Let Em Have It Salon – tell our readers more, for example, what you’re most proud of and what sets you apart from others.
I’m a salon owner, was a hairstylist for 16 years, now a full-time educator at the salon and running our business. Our Salon is a certified B Corporation, we’re socially and environmentally responsible. We’re the 3rd in the world to become a B Corporation. We’re so proud of this accomplishment because it’s a very rigorous test and to continue to care about reaching the highest standards of business to make sure we’re ethical, sustainable and are adding to our community is very fulfilling. We throw away around 1lb of landfill waste per month and divert, recycle or compost the rest. We believe in being better then we were yesterday and inspire our team and our customers to have more of a positive impact for the world.

We do a lot of different events to support our community, one of the areas we are currently working on is to learn more about naturally textured hair and be more ethnically diverse in our clientele and our team. We’re hosting a class open to all salons in October called Texture vs Race to learn more about hair textures. We always have advanced education for the salon community and open our doors to all stylists to take classes. We believe in working with each other to make the industry stronger and not compete. We’re all in this together and there are plenty of people in the world to serve.

Who have you been inspired by?
Eileen Fisher hands down! Our team is probably sick of hearing me talk about her. I discovered her when I started designing in 2007. I liked how she was self-taught and helped other women that were up and coming giving them grants to start a business. I also loved how effortless her fashion is, the fabrics she uses and her ethical practices. Her company became a B Corp shortly after ours and I couldn’t believe it, I’m excited to potentially meet her next year at the B Corp Women CEO gathering next year!

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Image Credit:
Uri, Lia, Fallene, Aspen

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