Welcome to the For Love and Money podcast, the show where business and social purpose meet to inspire a movement for positive change. Here's your host, Carolyn Butler-Madden. Paloma Rose-Garcia is the owner of Paloma Hair Salon in Paddington. I first heard about Paloma over a year ago after reading a Guardian article on the workshops that she runs.
So So in collaboration with climate experts, she trains hairdressers on how to have conversations about the facts on climate change, and she helps clients who want information on what meaningful climate action they can take. And she does this in her hair salon, but she also trains hairdressers from other salons.
She has become known as Australian Hairdressing's Climate Influencer, and she uses her voice and connection as a hairdresser, her power to educate clients for change and supporting other hairdressers with the knowledge to do the same. The program is called A Brush with Climate. I think you're going to absolutely love this episode. Apart from the audio quality, I am so sorry, rookie error, I forgot my microphone when I interviewed Paloma.
But please bear with it because this episode deserves to be heard all the way through. If you don't fall in love with Paloma at the end of this interview or by the end of this interview, I think I might have to check your heart for signs of life. She recognises her power and the power of her business to create important, meaningful change, and she uses it, doing it in such a beautiful and delightful way. Enjoy.
Paloma, welcome to the For Love and Money podcast. Thank you so much for having me. Very honoured. It is an absolute pleasure. I have been stalking you for a year and trying to get you, for a good year and trying to get you on, so I'm absolutely delighted you have joined us. So I'd love to kick off with the question I ask all my guests, which is when it comes to business, is there a role for love, do you think? Always. I mean, my business is based off passion, so with passion comes love.
Yeah. That's it. it that's it that as simple and powerful as that thank you so tell us about your business um if you can just give our listeners first a bit of an overview about your salon and then I'd love you Paloma to just share you know your journey what brought you to what you're doing today yeah thank you so I started hairdressing when I was super young as a Saturday girl in year seven aged about about 12 or 13.
Definitely my parents instilled strong work ethic in me and the importance of earning your own money. So I quickly found my love and passion for hair and engaging with human interaction. By the time I was about 15, 16, I was, I was grew up in the North Shore and I was traveling over to Darlinghurst to probably Australia's most prestigious salon called Synergy back in the day, late nineties.
So worked there as a Saturday girl, started working in school holidays and just putting my hand up to work for free and getting really involved in a really brilliant salon. I think they had about 30 staff then. And we had, you know, Kylie Minogue coming in and Russell Crowe and Megan Gale and all the likes of that era. Started full-time the day after to my HSC exam. So when I was 17, fast forward by the time I was 26 years old, I'd bought half the salon. So that wasn't Synergy anymore.
We moved up to the owner of that salon, unfortunately passed away of cancer, moved up to another salon in Paddington, had an ex-business partner, Oscar Cullinan. He's a very successful hairdresser and franchise salon owner. So he offered me 50% of the partnership with the salon in Paddington, which I wasn't passionate about becoming a business owner, but I was up for the challenge. And as soon as I started, I learned to realize I loved it.
I think naturally I've always been a bit of a leader and I'm a pretty decisive woman. So yeah, just fell in love with running the business, running the team, always had about 12, 13 staff at that point. He had multiple salons. I think he had about 14 at the time. So he wasn't around a lot physically, but from a mentoring capacity, he was, and he was a strong businessman, which does often lack in hairdressing in such a creative industry.
So over the years, I learned and grew and always had amazing mentors behind me, was always reading books and going to courses and seeing Brene Brown and Simon Sinek and all those, you know, wonderful mentors and leaders. Yeah. And I think, I've been, my salon's just about seven years old. She turns seven on July 1st when my third child is due. Oh, wow. A double celebration then. I know.
Well, we'll see when he comes. So that's up to him. but yeah and then I ended the the partnership with Oscar just woke up one morning and I was like no I just want to do this myself and like I said I'm a very decisive and there's not much gray area with me I'm very black and white so I just woke up one morning I was like I just want to do it myself I want to have my own brand and my own vision and purpose so then Paloma was born and I guess
what I love about my business and I think what I've managed to do really well is I have a very strong sense of personal beliefs and values and they've really come through now into my business like obviously at the core of what we do is beautiful hair and a harmonious team environment so that's really important to me so we create world-class incredible hair for all our guests. We're there to make people feel better, look better. And essentially it's a human interaction.
It's servicing. So we're there to, I guess, have a space of great energy and assist people's mood and how their day's going. It's a really unique and special thing that hairdressers do and we never take it for granted. So that's always obviously at the core of who we are and what we do. But then my journey personally for about six years ago really started around climate and social injustice and just prevalent issues arising around us.
Yeah, my journey in climate really started when I got involved through the Art Gallery of New South Wales through a young benefaction group there. I joined up as a member and I started becoming exposed to obviously a lot of small different like spaced events. But I think with the arts comes a lot of issues arise around climate and anything socially unjust. So I started my own personal journey, understanding about climate. What is climate change?
How is it affecting us? And what can we do about it? And I was invited to an incredible trip to Heron Island. Yeah, five years ago it would be now, 2019, with 50 incredible creatives. We had like Paul Kelly Kelly there and Simon Baker and Phoebe Tonkin. So like a lot of actors and musicians and fashion designers, a lot of, people leading in the country. And then we had about four days of, it was like being in school.
Different lectures on all day with all the top climate scientists, social scientists, anyone working in the climate field with Tim Flannery there. And I guess for that, that was the really pivotal moment in my life where once I knew that and I left that trip, there was no no turning back.
And then, yeah, I found my own journey as a hairdresser, as a leader in the hairdressing industry and my love for climate and combining the two and creating this incredible initiative called A Brush With Climate.
Wow. That's extraordinary. And, you know, what I love about it, Paloma, is you say you started, your journey started at the art gallery event and you know that's where your awareness started and your curiosity started and it's what you've done since then because so many people are exposed to opportunities like that and you know and you see so many people saying oh my god what's happening terrible terrible isn't it yeah and then,
they go back to their normal lives and I think it's I'm not saying that in a judgmental way No, it's just not the best. No, I'm saying it in a way where I think most people... Feel that they can't do anything about it. They feel disempowered. And what I love about your story is that you've been able to identify that we all have power and you've chosen to use the power you have in the way you can. And you've done it in such an extraordinary way.
I mean, I definitely already believe that hairdressers are really powerful. It's funny, just over the years in my career as a hairdresser and people would be like, Like, oh, you're just a hairdresser or you the hairdresser or you get labeled a bit, even socially, oh, Paloma the hairdresser. And it's like, we're so much more than that. We are a confidant to so many people. So many of my guests still say to me, you are my longest and happiest relationship.
And the way that we exchange personal information that's going on in our lives, the intimacy, you know, instantly being able to touch someone's head straight away within five minutes of them entering the salon that's already such a powerful thing so I never take away from the power of being a hairdresser like I own that and I love it and we have so much opportunity as hairdressers to make a big impact on people's lives whether it be small gestures or checking in with someone or you know anything
yeah I really believe we're powerful so then I guess you know knowing the power that we have as hairdressers and I'm obsessed with human interaction and and people like you just constantly still learning the art of communication. All of it so then yeah combining my love for the climate stuff and checking in with people and understanding and socially as well checking in on social media and stuff like that everyone felt hopeless. So yeah, I quickly turned to being this solutions based.
I created this little checklist after that trip to Heron Island, probably within two weeks. Cause once I came back from that, I was completely changed. Like I dropped the Kool-Aid. That was it for me. I was having really big conversations with clients. And so in the salon, I specialize in cutting hair and the hourly appointments. So a guest comes in, they're coming for a haircut.
Have you been pee? What's going on how the kids oh I saw you were in Heron Island like obviously I'm definitely not going to corner someone into having this conversation it's a big conversation the hair appointment is for the guest first and foremost and I will never hijack that but when I see curiosity from a guest of course I'm going to open up that conversation and I just I quickly understood what. That so many people were concerned but didn't have solutions.
And I quickly understood by my clients as well, there's a big misconception between sustainability and climate change solution. So, oh, I'm so concerned and, you know, like I love shopping at Scoop and I'm really aware of my keep cups and all of that. That's great.
That's not going to lower our emissions and that has nothing to do without issues around the fossil fuel industry in this country so yeah I just it all just came very naturally I wasn't working hard at it it just yeah blossom tell me how did that first, conversation go like were you nervous at all or was it just very natural I'm not a very person unless you put me in front of 500 people I'm gonna say it's like I'm a pretty like self-aware and confident woman yeah yeah yeah but
how did it go that first conversation I can't remember in my mind like I think what keeps coming up for me and what I'm constantly. Just taken aback by is the misconception between like between people really actually understanding the fundamentals of what climate change is and our issues with rising emissions and the fossil fuel industry. Like the fossil fuel industry is the number one biggest concern globally and in this country.
So then speaking to ethical banking and superannuation and those tangible things that everyday civilians can make changing their life, like that's always, that blows people away. Wow. I think, honestly, a lot, my understanding is, in my observation, a lot of people, they're frightened by it, they're anxious about it, but they don't totally understand it and they don't know what they can do. So I just offered solutions and they were so grateful.
And the solution, I mean, the fact that you are offering solutions to your clients who you've built a relationship of trust with, yeah I mean that's huge isn't it rather than someone just you know talking at them who they don't know yeah someone's standing at the train station giving them a flyer yeah. I was looking at some content on you before and what came across is that you're very, very clear on who you target. Like you've got that spectrum idea of that scale.
You know, some people are so well informed, they're all over it and, you know, you don't need to pick it up with them and the other end of the scale are your climate deniers. Yeah, I don't waste my time or energy on those people. So I guess it's the, and what I've learned through the social scientists that I work with Rebecca Huntley, who's an incredible woman, is we work with people that sit in the middle. They're alarmed and they're unsure of what they can do.
Yeah. Yeah. So I imagine that would have provoked a lot of conversations. And so you've trained not only your own team, but you train. So I've got the addresses now. Wow. That is believable. through you know small events at pubs for 15 hairdressers up until the biggest one was for 200 that was an industry are they sent by salons or are they individuals who are putting their hands up majority are hustled by me and salons and incredible brand partners.
Kevin murphy for example we is our color brand of choice and they're an incredible company so obviously working with a plant-based naturally derived hair product company of course they're on board to support me yeah but I have I have full alignment in my business with all relationships it's not for me I'm not an account it's not like that I don't I don't position it like that it's got to be it's got to be a true relationship for it to work
I think it really flourishes when you have that absolutely and so how long have you been doing this for The brush with climate events, I think it was about two years. I haven't done anything for about, I'd say, nine months. Okay. Okay. So from two years ago. And what changed as a result of that? Has anything changed within your business, within your team, your customers, yourself? I mean, the brand of Paloma is only gets stronger and stronger. And for me, I only get more and more clarity.
Like I said to you before, first and foremost, it's the hair and it's amazing. It's my team. I've got about 17. They're incredible. So always looking at different ways of progressing their skill and their personal development work. There's involvement in fashion industry, fashion week, all that stuff that I partake in and I'm super passionate about, but then it's who we are and what we stand for and how we can help.
So for example, last year for Pride, obviously it was Pride month, like global Pride, Sydney was going off. It was the most amazing energy for that whole month of March.
We worked with transcend a beautiful melbourne-based organization that work with young gender diverse and trans young people so we work to support their work we opened up i think we donated about 43 hair cuts to that community so i already know that we're powerful giving a great hair cut is a very powerful thing giving that to someone in need who's gone through you know potentially gender transformation whatever it is is 10 times 100 times thousand times even more powerful so that's a way
that we could give back so always finding different ways of giving back. Business strengthens more and more my partner had a really good idea the other day about a bit of a roll-up donation thing on checkout like the worst does with OzHarvest so that's the next thing I'm going to tackle and then we'll work with two different charity partners for the year and do and change that every six months so just naturally I don't sit down and think oh what am I going to do next things evolve naturally,
Yeah, because each action begets another action. Every step you take, more opportunities open up, more people are attracted to you for what you do, you know, not just the beautiful hair. Yeah, and it's, you know, and I loved your first question and everything is heart-led. And when that, you know, when you have alignment in your business around all of that, the success comes. I never focus on the dollar signs. I never focus on a successful year.
When you're heart-led, the rest follows. Yeah, and that's the money piece, the love and money. It's, you know, when you lead with, as you say, heart and purpose and love. It attracts people who are aligned with your vision and your values and it builds the level of trust. So I know with your existing clients, you've got that trust, but I'm sure it's brought new clients in the door who are open to that trust. We get it all the time. We get DMs on Instagram. We get Google reviews.
We get feedback for new guests, for existing guests. My God, amazing work you're doing. We have community events. We had two big community events last year, one based just for climate and one for the referendum.
And we, you know, invite friends, family, clients, local store manager everyone and they're really beautiful yeah wonderful and you've mentioned the word powerful a few times and I feel that so much with you not just talking to you but you know seeing what you've done but also seeing the power that hairdressers, do have you know i think about my own and i i think they're counselors for so many people.
I'm a paid psychologist i mean back in the day it was like the barber store was where all the political changes happened all those meaningful conversations and it's the moment where you know people are forced to stop and you know in a world that's just gone crazy and you know we were always doing things, always on the move, it's that invitation, that opportunity to stop and, okay, you can bury yourself in your phone or whatever or you can look up.
Yeah, and that's definitely something that's very well educated to my team, new team members, is first and foremost it's a guest time.
The music is, you know, the music that we choose to put on for a certain day or a certain time of the day and for the guests that are in is relative to them we have beautiful different touch points in the salon that is all based on them and you know calming the nervous system taking a moment for themselves they do a beautiful wellness procedure for every guest that comes in with some ayurvedic oils a little like shoulder and neck massage so it is all guest focused I had
a great opportunity last year of being interviewed on the project which I love but they kind of made me out at the end to be like cornering all my clients absolutely not always.
Enjoying the podcast if you're looking for more inspiration head to our website, thecauseeffects.com.au for more resources on how you can start using your business as a force for good or buy the for love and money book every copy sold allows us to protect one square meter of rainforest help us save 10 000 square meters by 2025. So how do you start? Tell me about the conversation pivot because you've got like ways in, haven't you?
Yeah. So it could be as simple as like, okay, so the number one thing always spoken about in salon is the weather, whether it's really hot, whether it's really cold, whether there are floods, anything going on, people love to state the obvious. Okay. So for this year example, the last few months, the humidity has been crazy.
So that is a concern of all our guests and it's as simple and having these climate conversations are really, the pendulum can swing as to how much you want to go into it and how detailed you want it to be. So it can be as simple as acknowledging, yeah, it's really interesting to see such a shift in our weather patterns. There's no denying it. So it's as simple as that and that could be it. And then I guess it's up to the client. You can pick up the cues on whether
they want to have the conversation or they don't. Yeah. I mean, obviously the floods and the bushfires, there was a lot more concern around climate with natural disasters around us and, you know, horrific disasters around us. So that was much the conversations would have happened a lot more frequently and they would have been a lot stronger. Wow. My kids were coming home with bleeding noses from school.
Like every hairdresser knows someone affected, whether it's a client or a family member, someone that lost a home, someone that whatever. Everyone knows someone that was affected either in those the black summer or in the floods. And that was such a moment, wasn't it? You know we could have seen and done so much more with as as was the pandemic.
Yeah as was the referendum absolutely where are those guys now from the no campaign yeah well there's a lot of apparently there's quite a bit of regret i've interviewed someone the ceo of welcome to country just recently and he said i'm getting so many people talk to me about their regret, you know, not understanding. We had Thomas Mayo come as a guest. Oh, I know Thomas.
Through the gallery, he's divine. I've supported the Uluru Statement from the Heart for years through him and my kids have his book and he's an amazing man, amazing. He really is and he came on the podcast in the lead up to the referendum to try and dispel some of the, you know, it's representation going on and I and you know even in the salon I had very small but powerful conversations around it as well and I guess for me like the difference that I do is that I always.
Try and be a student like if I don't understand something I seek to understand it and that's where my frustration can really my frustration lies with definitely individuals not being responsible enough and for corporations and businesses not taking a stance like put out a statement straight away and put my business on the line but why not it's a reflection of who you are your identity you know the fact that you are able to do that with your business is it's a wonderful thing
i know there are i had i had some clients who i i was advising i said you know this is a really powerful moment in the lead up to come out and actually say where you stand and it's interesting right there are some who supported it with such passion and emotion but because well they supported it the three days before which isn't enough no no no no but um in some cases you know because they're stakeholders it's yeah it's frustrating
i mean a lot of people are concerned with money they're concerned with what they might lose they're concerned with who is upset, and that's majority of australia and that's majority of people. Change is what we've always done. Doing something different is new and that's why you always say that with the younger generation. And that's it. It's the younger generation who don't really have a choice in having to face up to certain things who will drive the change that's needed.
But, you know, I think if we can sort of try and make it a little bit easier for them because they've got their work cut out, that would be really helpful.
Helpful um so what would you say to a business owner or leader who goes yeah that's great but you know it's not going to make any difference me doing anything what would what would be your response to that i mean everything makes a difference meaningful conversation makes a difference every conversation you have makes a difference and i think a lot of people you know even with climate issues and issues around the fossil fuel industry for example in australia they'll just blame
it on the government but there is stuff we can all do and we saw that we've seen that in you know different periods you know over the last hundred years through social issues we've seen the power of the people absolutely and and it's the ripple effect isn't it so for every client that you and your team and the people you've trained the hairdressers you've trained for every conversation there's a ripple effect the conversation doesn't end there there's a ripple effect
with their network and with their friends yeah i think it's it's an important time in history to be bold with your actions you've got to stand in it like you've got to know what you're talking about so understand what it is and like stand in your power well good advice So Paloma. If a genie gave you your week. Looking five years from now, if you could be sitting.
Where you are today and reflecting on what has happened since then, and it could be personal for you, it could be for your business, it could be for Australia or for society more generally, what would your world look like? The transition to renewables would be very prevalent in this country. There's huge opportunity in this country to really take the lead. Yeah, wind and solar. We're like the windiest and sunniest country in the world.
So I would love to see that, an end to all fossil fuels, because that would really be the solution to all our issues. You know, there's other issues in fashion. There's, you know, fast fashion. You know, there's other and there's things that we do with waste.
And you can't fight every battle. No, and that's something that my partner and I, he actually has worked in climate for 20 years, and we speak a lot to that is that, I mean, obviously everything that's happening overseas and the wars and you know there's so much going on but we try to stay focused on what we do and I have this initiative up and running to hopefully one day close it down because we've found the solution yeah that's that's yeah yeah,
I hope to see a happier motherer I don't care too much more for my business I'm so happy with it I I love the people that are in there and I think what we create is really magic, more of the same with that. And then, yeah, I'll be birthing my third beautiful son in a few months, so happy and beautiful life and the love of my life that I met only about a year and a bit ago. Oh, wow. Yeah, it got set up through Climate Friends. Oh, there you go, right?
So it's been an incredible journey so far with Josh and, yeah, Yeah, just more of the happiness. I love that. And I love that you said that because it's like, you know, I feel like people are scared in their businesses. We've got this idea that business should be fit in a box and it needs to be professional, but professional means clinical, aloof, cold, don't get emotional, God, love it, business, that's just a bit weird.
Do you know what I mean? We've got this vision. It has to be a lot more head-focused, head-driven in my business. So probably I sat a lot more of my masculine side.
Years ago probably in my old in my partnership and over the years of personal development have I learned and understood the power of sitting in the feminine more so more in the love and the heart so that's been part of my own personal journey that's and that's not just me in business that's me in life that's yeah yeah that's probably a lot more heady in my 20s yeah looks very hard had to to do this had to do that had to prove myself and yeah I'm a lot more heart focused and there's
a balance isn't there but because we can't we live in a world that is very head focused and very, masculine leadership attribute we need to swing that pendulum and bring in more of the feminine, yeah but I've done lots of I continue to invest in myself always I've done a lot of work understanding that and yeah growing and evolving myself Paloma you an inspiration you are a leader like you you said you said your vision was that Australia takes the lead take
the lead we need leaders and you know you are one of those people and I think your leadership. I'm not using inspiration in the fluffy sense, but, you know, will truly inspire people to hold up or to do something and to empower them to actually take action. And I love that and that's why I've talked to you for an hour, for a year to get you on this show because it is such a good thing. I'm such a typical hairdresser. I'm so bad with my emails.
I'm always in front of people doing all the, having all the conversations and having all the meetings but on my laptop is this not where you'll catch me but we did it and i'm going to include in the show notes all your contact details so people can find the salon and find you on instagram on the salon website is that checklist the climate check yes i've got it in front of me it's brilliant so people can just download it and it can really reach
out to me on socials email if you need any help and assistance existence but yeah definitely my biggest my my hottest tip if you want to take action on climate is to understand ethical banking and ethical superannuation and make the change personally.
With your business with your mortgages with your super fund and do it in a way where you're not putting pressure on yourself like we're all human beings I have two home loans one I can't change for three years and that isn't with an ethical bank and that's okay and I have another one that I did change so just be okay with that and be gentle and kind on yourself but banking and where your money sits is very powerful and sitting in the hands of great people that don't invest
in the fossil fuel industry will make for a better world. That is wonderful advice and if you're listening to this episode and you want to know more about Ethical Bank or Superfund. On markethorses.org. Or listen to, I think it's episode 58 which just came out recently with Bank Australia. That's who I think. Yeah, Bank Australia and then my superannuation is with Ethical Super.
Yeah future super no my partner's with ethical super and i'm with future super so we had we've had the simon fake from from future super on episode so i'm gonna need a good friend yeah i don't know i thought he might be so she's the one that pushes me into doing all this work oh fantastic fantastic she's a force to be reckoned with i can imagine and he is so So I pick Gillette. It's one of our most popular episodes here in the interview. Wow.
So, yeah, and there are so many options of choices you can make from travel companies like Intrepid Travel to household products like XeroCo, Sunglass Brains. Yeah, we just started. We got XeroCo at the salon. We just got Skipper at home. So they look cool, a little tablet. Ah, okay. And that's it. There are so many opportunities now. There are so many leavers who actually. And that's the most exciting thing about climate. It's not like we're dealing with the awful disease that is cancer.
With climate, all the solutions are in front of us. So it's actually really exciting. Yeah, opportunity, opportunity. So lean into the optimistic idea of it because it is there.
Paloma, thank you. is that i'm gonna ask you to close out the episode with any last words of advice or anything you'd like to say but thank you so much for taking the time to be on the podcast love advice like love personal oh no any advice not necessarily love just any advice i think something i always encourage when i'm with my clients and something i notice a lot is a lot of self-deprecation especially by women. So I just invite in kind of dialogue for everyone internally with themselves.
Beautiful. Thank you. Thank you so much for having me. Have a wonderful day. Music. Thanks for listening to this episode of the For Love and Money podcast. Podcast if you'd like to take a deeper dive into the purpose movement visit us at thecauseeffect.com.au and remember doing good is good for business so if you're not doing good then what are you doing.