by Joyce Lancaster
Cathy Brown-Issel has a long list of achievements, but her greatest one – at least in the minds of her children, ages five, seven, nine and11 – is probably her involvement in the Kid’s Choice Awards in Los Angeles this spring. “Two of my stylists and I were among 25 hair designers selected for the event, and we worked on 400 kids who were either celebrities or children of influential people. It was a delight, fun, well organized and full of energy,” she says. Sounds just like Cathy, the kind of dynamo who lights up a room with her presence.
Cathy studied teaching in college and was a service trainer at Bill Knapp’s, but neither position felt right for her. “My mom was a cosmetologist with her own salon in Jackson for over 30 years. I remember how beautiful she always looked when she went to work and it made me want to be like her,” recalls Cathy. After graduating from cosmetology school, she worked for four years at Timm’s Place on State Street and soon realized she wanted to head her own team. In 1995 she became partners with Shannon DeLine and they opened a salon on Carpenter Road. Three years later Shannon sold her interests to Cathy, but continued to work for Shannon until Shannon recently retired. In 2004 the business expanded with a second salon on Jackson Road.
The roughest time she experienced was closing the Carpenter Road location this year and merging the two salons. “No one teaches you how to do that,” she says sadly, “but it’s a fallout of the economic times that we have to deal with.” Happily, she was able to retain all 65 employees in the merger. “I only hire the best,” Cathy states, “and everyone pitched in to make the move and worked together as a new and improved team.”
The salon also has a state regulated apprenticeship program that allows men and women to become licensed cosmetologists without paying the high cost of school. About 25 people have gone through the two-year program and many continue to work at the salon. She says, “I have a very loyal staff. “Some of them have been here for 10 years when the industry norm is 20 months.” Apprentices offer clients services free of charge during their training program.
Besides being an entrepreneur, an employer and a mother, Cathy is on the board of directors for Mandy and Pandy – an organization that teaches children to speak Chinese and she is also a business mentor for other salons. Each year she sponsors a charity. This year’s charity is Ele’s Place, a healing center for grieving children in the Lansing and Ann Arbor regions. “Whatever area of my life I am focusing on at that moment, I give 110 percent of myself to it.” And it paid off. Brown & DeLine was recently given Salon Today Magazine’s 200 Award for being one of the top 200 salons in the country.
As a sort of life-coach for her clients as well as her staff, Cathy encourages everyone to be focused, passionate and determined. “If anyone is having a bad day, I always tell her to find her superwoman cape and put it back on,” she says.
Brown & DeLine Salon
5245 Jackson Rd.
Ann Arbor, MI
Phone: 734-996-4511
Email: cathy@brownanddeline.com
Website: www.brownanddeline.com