Profiles in Leadership: Roger Azadganian Forges Diamonds

For Roger Azadganian, success didn’t come simply through Fate. Like many salon owners that are members of Intercoiffure, he aims for the best and works hard to attain it.

In his 35+ years in the professional beauty industry, Azadganian spent many of his early years as a platform artist and working many fashion shows. In 2003, he became a salon owner with a series of salons in Seattle, then opening Salon 8 with two locations in Charlotte, North Carolina. And, in 2019, he launched äz Craft Luxury Haircare in 2019.

SALON TODAY recently sat down with Azadganian to explore his leadership style and what has led to his success:

SALON TODAY: From where does your entrepreneurial drive originate?

Azadganian: “From wanting to be the best at what I do, always.  I learned the lesson the hard way… the higher your standards, the higher your income and that money is a byproduct of purpose. Having clear goals that I set twice a year helps keep my focus and drive towards attaining them.”

ST: What is your strongest leadership quality, and how has it helped you grow your business?

Azadganian: “Coaching others to help them grow into the best stylist and business individuals that they can be.  Diamonds are created under the most intense heat and pressure, I love pushing and challenging my team to constantly grow and be the best version of themselves, because as the law of nature states - you grow or die and if a business is not growing, it’s dying.”

ST: How would you describe your management style?

Azadganian: “I think I succeed at being a coach and not trying to be the boss.  The boss is the client that walks through the door and sits in our chairs. I coach to help others deliver the most they can at the highest standards they can deliver it in.”

ST: Throughout your professional career, what’s the best lesson you’ve learned after making a mistake?

Azadganian: “I’ve made more mistakes than I can remember.  The key is to own them, be accountable for them and to learn from them so that I can continue to grow.  I also learned that the more I think I know, the less I really know.  Kinda like then I thought I was the “shit” and then realizing I was just full of shit, which then helped me grow.”

ST: As you grew your beauty business, what “Ah-Ha” moments of clarity helped you shape its future course?

Azadganian: “That it has nothing to do with me.  It takes a team to succeed and that we all have a responsibility to ensuring the success of that team because we don’t have the right to affect someone else’s life negatively.”

ST: From whom or what do you draw your strength, courage, vision?

Azadganian: “My kids.”

ST: As you’ve built your career, who has been your biggest mentor and what have they taught you?

Azadganian: “Gene Juarez—he taught me what it really means to be part of a team by firing me when I misrepresented his brand.  Best thing he did for me, and it catapulted me to where I am today.”

ST: How do you set goals for yourself?

Azadganian: “Well, to get to the top of the stairs… you must go one step at a time.  Try and hop two to three steps or more and you can trip and fall back down.”

ST: In your opinion, what is the single biggest threat that beauty businesses like yours face?

Azadganian: “The mindset of the individual stylist.  I think more often than not stylists forget about customer experience, that we’re not selling a haircut or , but ultimately we’re selling a feeling that comes through the experience we provide giving that cut and color. The same exact Diamond is worth more at Harry Winston than in Zales.  Mindset overcomes anything.”

ST: In your opinion, what’s the biggest opportunity for beauty businesses like yours over the next five years?

Azadganian: “To raise our standards as an industry and take responsibility for the new generation of hairdressers coming in by leading them by example in how we do thing. Remembering how you do one thing is how you do everything and educating them on our rich history and heritage. Teaching them the true potential they have to create an amazing life for themselves while serving others, because ultimately we are in the service industry and must serve to the best of our ability each and every client that we have privilege of taking care of.”

ST: If you weren’t in the beauty business, what would you be doing now?

Azadganian: “Making music.”

ST: If you were training someone to take over your job, what is the most important advice you could offer them?

Azadganian: “Take the emotion out of making decisions, when the ripples have settled it’s much easier to see through the waters.”

ST: If you were to look at a scrapbook of your professional career, what would be your favorite page? Which page would you like to remove?

Azadganian: “My favorite would be the page I’m on now, and I would love to remove the page with me having platinum hair and a perm!"

ST: Whom do you lean on for advice?

Azadganian: “My family and Gene Juarez.”

ST: Describe your company’s culture, and as its leader, what do you do to drive that culture?

Azadganian: “We strive to constantly grow and to improve as much as we can with each day.  I drive the culture by bringing attention to how we think and how those thoughts on a consistent basis shape and mold who we are and what we do.  I like to get people thinking differently than they were otherwise and to help them realize that success is a state of mind… and so is failure, we get to choose.  That’s the hardest thing I’ve had to learn and the hardest to get others to realize.”

ST: What business project are you working on now?

Azadganian: “Growing our haircare brand, äz Craft Luxury Haircare and making it the bbrand in our industry because we made a conscious choice that we can do more as hairdressers with less. Brands with 45+ SKUs is too confusing and too much waste in all respects.  I decided that after 35 years that I will create a line based on what’s needed and used by every hairdresser and client each and every day!  Making a line that is an inch wide and a mile deep in performance.”

ST: If someone were to write a book about your life, what would be an appropriate title, and why?

Azadganian: “Hairitage—because I believe in the theater and romance of hair!  I’m passionate about our history and heritage.  And I’m excited that we have the opportunity like never before to take back our industry and steer it to a higher , like Vidal had envisioned.”

ST: How do you like to spend your time away from your business?

Azadganian: “Hanging with my family.”

ST: What would people be surprised to learn about you?

Azadganian: Yoga has been my savior and is my passion.

ST: What do you hope is your legacy?

Azadganian: “Bringing the haircut back to the forefront of our industry and helping to raise our standards to what they were once again.”

ST: Why did you want to join Intercoiffure?

Azadganian: “Someone said they had great meeting with free food and drinks:)”

ST: What has been the biggest benefit you have received from your ICA membership?

Azadganian: “Community.”