Julia Grace Salon, Madison, Wisconsin
Twenty-two years open. Eleven in this room.
Tabatha spent twenty-two years behind the chair before stepping back to run the business. Her title is President. Her salon's posts are written in her voice - and writing them isn't her job anymore.
What we actually run
A marketing department, not a posting service. The strategy, the tactics, and every expression - one system, corrected by one person.
Strategy
One program in the spotlight per month. Rewards told as one story instead of five. Recruiting always on - because a great salon's feed has two audiences: clients, and the stylist thinking about where her chair should be.
Tactics
A capture program built for the team to run themselves. Instagram stories as well as posts. Publishing infrastructure with its own approval flow, delivery checks, and a working call with the salon.
Expressions
Designed posts for Instagram and Facebook - real photography from her room, composed as one canvas, in her voice.
Strategy: the operating surface
Tabatha runs her side of it from one page - the studio desk.
Built like her salon's own appointment book: the days that ran, inked with real results. Today, open in gold. The week ahead, pencilled. The whole plan walks through this page on a working call with her - no PDFs, no decks.
The teaching: her rules, enforced
When she corrects something, it stays corrected.
what a promo draft wanted to say
Last call - the sale ends tomorrow. Four days left. Grab it while it's on.
what her salon actually says
Ten percent off Keune this July. When you're ready.
No countdowns, no urgency theater, ever - that's her standard. So is "twenty-two years open, eleven in this room," which she corrected exactly once. Both now run as checks before anything ships: a countdown can't go out without failing review.
Tactics: the capture program
The salon photographs itself. We made that a game.
Shot Bingo: a printable nine-square card of shots to take, taped up by the front desk. One person on the team took the camera and played the card - nine shots, no quota.
It plugged into a game the salon already played, so it didn't need a training session. It changed where the pictures come from: the team's own shots feed the posts, the stories, and the recruiting story. Real brick, real beams, real hands at work.
Expressions: the feed
Composed as one canvas, then sliced.
One chapter of the grid - nine cells designed as a single composition, a JG monogram threading through the quietest cell. Green Circle certified since 2014, told through the shelves instead of a badge. The design system was rebuilt from the salon's own photography; none of it could be swapped onto another salon without looking wrong. The live feed is at @juliagrace.wi.
Tabatha's job is the corrections only she can make. Everything else runs.
Tell us what's stuck and we'll bring what we found.