Today we’d like to introduce you to Melody Van Drunen.
Melody, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
Davanti Salon started as a small group of women seeking focus and a renewed inspiration. With dedicated new owners (Tracee Herring & Randy Routon) and a newly hired Director of Operations (Melody Van Drunen), 2012 served as the turning point for the salon.
“Focusing on what drives us the most, creativity, commitment to the highest standards, and the community that we serve seemed like the most sensible place to start when breathing new life in the salon. We took a look at what worked and focused on that. What didn’t work, we removed it. Once we did this, growth happened organically and rapidly. The most amazing group of stylists gravitated to our salon and we invested heavily in their success. Today we continue to experience incredible growth all around and have a ton of fun doing it!
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc. – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
Our road was paved with challenges. Whenever you purchase an established business and it’s people, it takes work to reset. These were challenges we were ready to tackle head on.
We said from the beginning, we wanted to set the standards high. Our team was going to be the best team, our education was going to be the most well-rounded education program it could be, our culture was going to be one that the top talent wanted to be a part of.
We knew that young stylists that were committed to doing things the right way and not necessarily the fastest way would get to us, and they did!! We have incredibly low team turnover, and we think this is because each person that makes up who we are, is invested in and their strengths nurtured as best as we can. When we meet new talent in this industry, we always share that it takes time to build a sustainable career, find a place that teaches you the business of this industry as well as the technical/creative aspects of performing services.
We’d love to hear more about Davanti Salon.
As an AVEDA concept salon and spa, taking care of our guests holistically, from a service and an experience perspective is something strive to do and work on constantly. At the end of the day, we are a hair salon and spa, but our approach to making these types of services something different that our guests look forward to and share with the people in their lives is what we feel sets us apart from other salons and spas.
We believe that it is impossible to provide services like ours without knowing about our guests and little about what their daily life is like, so we focus heavily on the importance of a consultation prior to a service. This way we deliver the style that best represents who they are. We are so committed to making sure that we maintain the health of our guest’s hair that custom conditioning treatments (they would pay for at other salons) are included with all of our hair color services. In our spa, our specialists perform with the same expectations. We customize all treatments in order to make the decision-making process easy. Let us do all the work, and our guests leave having the concerns addressed and feeling renewed.
We’re interested to hear your thoughts on female leadership – in particular, what do you feel are the biggest barriers or obstacles?
We don’t believe in barriers. Sounds like an excuse to us. Male, female or fluid if you have a dream, work hard, excuse the excuses, ask questions and seek mentorship, grow humbly and without apology. When confronted with a challenge, a character is defined in how you handle it. You can get around it or blame it but unless you solve it and move forward the same challenge will always come back around to haunt you.
Contact Info:
- Address: 9530 Feather Grass Lane, Suite 222
Ft. Worth, TX 76177 - Website: www.davantisalon.com
- Phone: 888-990-4772
- Email: info@davantisalon.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/davantisalon
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/davanti.salon.spa/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/Davanti_Salon
- Other: https://www.yelp.com/biz/davanti-salon-fort-worth
Image Credit:
Madison Dimon, Sarah Phillips, Kaitie Hayes, Kippin Fuller, Keenya Hodges, Dahlia Knowles, Haley Sprabeary, Catelyn Vail
Getting in touch: VoyageDallas is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you know someone who deserves recognition please let us know here.
