PhorestFM: Building a Stronger Industry, Together

[333] Hair, beauty and aesthetics businesses are built on the promise of transformation, and today, the industry at large is being asked to evolve in ways that more than just grit, demand creativity, collaboration, community and intention.
In this episode, we explore the foundational shifts occurring across hair, beauty, and aesthetics in the UK and Ireland. Together with industry voices Nicky Pope (@nickytribute), Ellen Cummings (@ellen_cummings), Jennifer Paxton (@jenpaxtonevo), and Sophia-Fai Roche (click here to reach out), we unpack the challenges facing our markets today. But more than just a breakdown, I hope it feels like an invitation: to lean into collaboration, to expand our horizons, redefine what growth and success look like, to trust the unknown and what we weave into it!
We can choose to live in someone else's vision of the future or take an active role in shaping it. What role, in this changing landscape, are you feeling called to step into?
Stay up to date (and/or subscribe) with the industry bodies/magazines/media mentioned in this episode:
Professional Beauty Group
Aesthetics Journal
Salon EVO & Barber EVO
Tribu-te Magazine
British Beauty Council
All things Phorest
For all sources that made this episode possible, click here.
To watch the Lessons From the Salon Floor video series, click here.
Find out how Phorest helps top salons & aesthetic clinics steer their businesses toward happier clients, more productive teams, and greater growth. Say hello to life with Phorest!
Learn more about the Phorest Summit & secure your tickets: https://www.phorestsummit.com/
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This episode was edited and mixed by Audio Z: Montreal's cutting-edge post-production studio for creative minds looking to have their vision professionally produced and mixed. Great music makes great moments.

[332] Jules Molina — Guest Experience Team Leader, Consultant, and Shareholder — and Ashley Prowell — Phorest North America Education Specialist — share a deep passion for operational systems developed over years of hands-on experience in the hair and beauty sector. In this episode, they stand united in a philosophy that treats this part of a business’s operations as a high-value, dedicated profit center with its own distinct goals, KPIs, and clear career trajectories.
If the conversation begins with the early-2020s deskless salon trend, it moves through time, addressing common myths that keep business owners stuck, touching on coaching, verbiage and accountability, and lands on present-day realities and shifts, exploring how AI is beginning to impact this area of business.
This is a passionate, gracious, no-BS conversation meant to propel you forward with confidence, levity, clarity, and momentum for what’s next in this part of your business operations.
Connect with Jules Molina
Learn more about The Summit Immersive & reserve your spot: https://summitsalon.com/the-summit-immersive
Connect with Jules on Instagram @molina.jules or set up time with her: https://calendly.com/jmolinassbc
Get your complimentary diagnostic here and connect with the Summit Salon Business Center on Instagram @summitsalon
Connect with Ashley Prowell
Connect with Ashley on Instagram @_lady_ashley_
Learn more about Ashley’s Phorest-related education sessions & save your spot here
All things Phorest
Find out how Phorest helps top salons & aesthetic clinics steer their businesses toward happier clients, more productive teams, and greater growth. Say hello to life with Phorest!
Learn more about the Phorest Summit & secure your tickets: https://www.phorestsummit.com/
Enjoyed the episode?
Leave a rating and review on Apple Podcasts!
Click here to subscribe to the PhorestFM email newsletter.
This episode was edited and mixed by Audio Z: Montreal's cutting-edge post-production studio for creative minds looking to have their vision professionally produced and mixed. Great music makes great moments.

[331] Raquel Merlini is the founder of R SKIN Aesthetics in Michigan. As a seasoned Registered Nurse and Certified Aesthetic Nurse Specialist with over 14 years of experience in the plastics industry, she offers a real-world model of collaborative care and ethical practice for those who, like her, seek to educate, listen to, and guide patients toward treatments that transcend fleeting trends and instead align closely with their most authentic self-expression goals.
In the context of rising calls for tighter regulation, greater transparency, and stronger safety standards, this episode is a warm, grounding conversation about Raquel’s philosophy and approach, as much as it is about what it takes to build trust and one’s responsibility as a practitioner. Her insights cover what a consultation informed by her worldview and life experience entails, how she holds patient vulnerability with integrity as people face increasingly unrealistic standards, and how she balances it all with business growth.
Connect with Raquel Merlini (RN-CANS)
Learn more about Raquel and R SKIN here and apply or contribute to the Raquel Merlini Pay it Forward Scholarship here.
TikTok: @rskinaesthetics
Instagram: @rskinnurseraquel, @rskinadmission, @rskinaesthetics
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/raquel-m-14947b21/
All things Phorest
Find out how Phorest helps the top salons & aesthetic clinics steer their business toward happier clients, productive teams and bigger growth. Say hello to life with Phorest!
Learn more about the Phorest Summit & secure your tickets: https://www.phorestsummit.com/
Enjoyed the episode?
Leave a rating and review on Apple Podcasts!
Click here to subscribe to the PhorestFM email newsletter.
This episode was edited and mixed by Audio Z: Montreal's cutting-edge post-production studio for creative minds looking to have their vision professionally produced and mixed. Great music makes great moments.

Connect with Joanne Starkman and Innersense Organic Beauty
For Joanne’s podcast, check out Trust Your Innersense with Joanne Starkman, and EP58 for her interview with Louise Keane or EP59 for her solo cast unpacking her experience at the Sacred Spiral Retreat.
For Innersense Organic Beauty, learn more about the brand and mission here and here (salon pros)
Connect with both Joanne and Innersense on Instagram @trustyourinnersense, @joannestarkman, @innersensepro, @innersenseorganicbeauty
All things Phorest
Learn more about the Phorest Summit & secure your tickets for 2027: https://www.phorestsummit.com/
Learn more about Phorest Software.
Enjoyed the episode?
Leave a rating and review on Apple Podcasts!
Click here to subscribe to the PhorestFM email newsletter.
This episode was edited and mixed by Audio Z: Montreal's cutting-edge post-production studio for creative minds looking to have their vision professionally produced and mixed. Great music makes great moments.

[329] AI is soon coming to Phorest, and this serves as officially non-officially the first conversation in a string of ones to be sprinkled into the podcast’s schedule during Season 10.
A version of this conversation could easily live in extremes, but this one does not. Rather, it asks a valid and core question of our time: How do you adopt new technology, AI & automation more precisely, without losing what makes your business human?
In this episode, joined by guest co-host Rich Cullen (Principal Product Designer at Phorest), we sit down with Jennifer Jade Alvarez, founder of Naperville, Illinois’ Refined Beauty, to discuss what it has been like to bring AI and automation tools into various areas of her business. And beyond discussing tools, we also spend time discussing decisions: what to automate, the trust factor, and what should perhaps never be automated in a beauty and wellness business.
We unpack the opportunities, the trade-offs, the real-world lessons—including what happens when AI gets it wrong—and the paybacks. All of it, with a deep belief that the businesses that win in the future won’t be the ones to remove the human touch. They’ll be the ones who remove friction around the craft and care.
Connect with Jennifer Jade Alvarez
Download Jennifer’s Top 50 Ways Salon Owners Buy Back Their Time: A free checklist using AI, automations, and virtual assistants
Learn more about the Salon CEO Method™ coaching program, listen to the Beauty Business Game Changer Podcast, and connect with Jennifer on Instagram @JenniferJadeAlvarez
All things Phorest
Learn more about the Phorest Summit & secure your tickets for 2027: https://www.phorestsummit.com/
Learn more about Phorest Software.
Enjoyed the episode?
Leave a rating and review on Apple Podcasts!
Click here to subscribe to the PhorestFM email newsletter.
This episode was edited and mixed by Audio Z: Montreal's cutting-edge post-production studio for creative minds looking to have their vision professionally produced and mixed. Great music makes great moments.

[328] Thinking about change can often bring up questions about readiness. Are we ready to move into this bigger space, to move cities, to grow the team? Juliann Upton, the founder and driving force behind Mesh Hair Studio, Nail Bar & Head Spa, would probably tell you the distinction between change that lands at your doorstep and change that you initiate matters less than what you do once it's standing in front of you. That's when, with some curiosity, perhaps the more intimidating questions emerge: Are we willing to honor the pull toward something more? Are we willing to let this rearrange ourselves, or a part of our identity?
As we trace the pivotal moments of her 20+ year career in roughly 60 mins — a challenge in itself — Juliann shares the key lessons she’s learned along the way. And if you pay attention, you’ll find that each meaningful chapter she seems to have begun when she met her future self halfway, in the unknown.
If you’ve been looking for a sign or a gentle nudge to trust yourself in whatever decision or change is waiting on you, perhaps this is your invitation to recognize and act on the moments that invite you to grow.
Connect with Juliann Upton
To learn more about Mesh Hair Studio, Nail Bar & Head Spa, click here.
Instagram: @meshhairstudio, @juliannikki
References
On Martha Graham: Smithsonian Mag, Biography, Martha Graham History.
For Kitty Knorr's Reel on creativity and change, click here.
All things Phorest
Learn more about the Phorest Summit & secure your tickets for 2027: https://www.phorestsummit.com/
Learn more about Phorest Software.
Enjoyed the episode?
Leave a rating and review on Apple Podcasts!
Click here to subscribe to the PhorestFM email newsletter.
This episode was edited and mixed by Audio Z: Montreal's cutting-edge post-production studio for creative minds looking to have their vision professionally produced and mixed. Great music makes great moments.