I started Strategies in small office at 40 Main Street, Centerbrook, CT, on September 13, 1993.

My first priority, when I started Strategies, was to write and design the first issue of Strategies Magazine, that issue was dated January 1994, Volume 1, Issue 1.

I published Strategies Magazine for fourteen years with the final issue being December 2007, Volume 14, Issue 12. We published 168 issues in all and I was proud of each and every one.

There was no Internet to speak of back then. By the early 2000’s, print media was quickly becoming obsolete.

$89 subscriptions for our 16-page, no advertising, magazine were tough to sell and Strategies primary business shifted to business seminars and coaching. It was time to say, “goodbye” to my beloved little magazine.

We held our first Incubator seminar in the Spring of 1994. From that very first Incubator, we began teaching what eventually became known as Team-Based Pay. From day one, Strategies and I became known as that “Team-Based Pay” guy/company.

That moniker never bothered me. To this day, I never wavered on my belief that commission pay creates the “I/me/mine” culture and behaviors that hinder salon/spa growth and delivering extraordinary customer service.

In the summer 1995, we moved to the more spacious second floor offices that we still occupy today.

In 2000, we published my first book, Fast Forward. It was a 484-page business resource that owners often referred to as their “business bible.” I was always flattered by how owners would show up at seminars with their copies of Fast Forward with tons of Post-It Notes marking key pages. To me, it proved the value of my book.

In 2001, we launched our Certified Strategies Coach program. We were growing and needed coaches to help deliver our seminars and to coach owners. We also, rented a small office on the first floor in 2001 that became our first Strategies Business Academy.

There were 16 coach trainees in what became fondly known as Group One. There were 16 because that’s all our little Business Academy could hold. Seriously.

The academy space was just too small, so in May 2002, we took over the entire second floor for our Business Academy. We also started Certified Strategies Coach training for another 16 owners called Group Two.

To this day, there remains a “friendly” rivalry between members of Group One and Group Two.

• From Group One: Daryl Jenkins, our Director of Coach Development, and Dennis Gullo, our resident “numbers whisperer,” are both full-time Strategies Coaches.


• From Group Two: Michael Yost is Strategies Director of Education.