MONEY EXPERIENCE: Featuring Ken and Donna
Ken Washburn and Donna Hazley have been in the beauty business for decades. They’ve worked as stylists, owned salons, consulted, and both serve as Master Educators at Pivot Point International. Naturally, when we launched Qnity for Schools and the MONEY program, they were two of the first people we reached out to.
We sat down to chat with Ken and Donna last week for a Q&A after they had a chance to review the MONEY program and sample some of the modules with their students. Here’s what they had to say.
Why do you think teaching money to the next generation is so important for our industry?
Donna talked at length about how students today don’t understand the importance of money management, especially when they’re starting out in a trade or career. They tend to spend money however they want.
“They have this mentality of… I’ll buy this or that, I’ll go out to dinner. But I really should’ve been watching my pennies,” she added.
Ken remembers starting out his career with a similar mindset, saying, “I made all this money in a week, and I’m going to make it next week too so I can go out and spend. Having money in hand is so easy to spend – it’s like running a faucet of water and it’ll fill up next week.”
Both agreed that this attitude probably comes from what young adults learn from their parents, many of whom don’t understand financial language themselves. According to Ken, “a lot of our students come from vocational families with less education, and parents just don’t have the tools to teach their kids. It’s important to get this education in the beginning of their career, so they can carry it on.”
Ken is a great example of this himself. With limited guidance growing up, Ken didn’t start researching money until he was far into debt. He had 7 credit cards, a house, and a nice car, but he was still in debt. Having this personal experience, he sees how this situation affects students today.
You experienced some of the MONEY program with your students. Can you tell us a bit about what you liked about the program? What stood out to you?
According to Donna, one of most impactful elements of the program for her students was the real-life money stories. ”We saw a video featuring an instructor who had different jobs with celebrities like Madonna, Rihanna and other big names, but she didn’t have any money because she couldn’t save – that really resonated with our group.”
Ken agreed, saying, “the videos highlighting real people in real life really hit home. Our students hear us and think ‘yeah ok, whatever’ but a guest speaker talking about their story really hits home.”
Another aspect Ken mentioned was the breakdown of the program, saying, “I like how it’s broken down into pieces for the students to comprehend it.”
They also both talked about the discussion questions prompting thoughtful conversations. Donna shared, “no one wants to admit that they’ve failed with money before, but once someone spoke, then everyone spoke up too and shared their stories.”
How do you think the MONEY program will help your students?
Donna put it simply, sharing that “Life is never for free. Everything costs money.” Something we know all too well.
“Most of our students are 17,18,19 years old. They didn’t pay for their own car, and they don’t work. They don’t know the value of working and saving. These are eye-opening classes. Starting in this industry so young, you can be a 6-figure stylist or esthetician in 10 years. You’re sitting on all of this liquid money, and you have to be smart with it.”
Based on the stories both Donna and Ken shared from early in their careers, it’s clear they feel like they could’ve really benefited from this education themselves.
How do you think the MONEY program would help you as instructors to further support your students?
Both Ken and Donna cited the discussion questions, the exercises, and the demonstrations. “The resources are there to help us when we’re teaching it,” said Donna.
“The math is really simple and easy for the students to understand. Everything is in layman’s terms,” added Ken.
One of the biggest themes in Ken and Donna’s feedback was balance: they spoke about how everything is broken down and simplified, but still has so much good information. How it’s detailed, but it’s not too long. And that the lessons moved fast, but they understood it.
And lastly, as we wrapped up our conversation, Ken added, “I give it, out of 100… well, I give it pretty close to 100.”
