Ted Gibson & Jason Backe- CONVERGENCE

<p><strong>Ted Gibson and Jason Backe Live at ABS Chicago</strong></p><p>Some conversations remind you why you got into this industry in the first place. This is one of them.</p><p>Recorded live at ABS Chicago with co-host Geno Chapman, Corey sits down with Ted Gibson and Jason Backe for an hour covering three decades of hustle, heartbreak, reinvention, and beauty from the inside out.</p><p><strong>The Roads That Led Here</strong></p><p>Neither Ted nor Jason took a straight path in. Jason was a raver kid in Minneapolis who walked into beauty school and for the first time felt seen by a teacher. Ted was a Texas athlete who walked into a salon called Zan and Friends, saw a room full of stylish people in starched Wranglers, and decided that was the life. What followed was barber school, a cross-country move seeking fame, a detour to Atlanta to answer phones while switching his license, and a room with Confederate flags on the wall. He stayed anyway. The sacrifices nobody sees are always the foundation of the success they do.</p><p><strong>What Fame Actually Costs</strong></p><p>Saying yes to Angelina Jolie&#39;s hair for Tomb Raider changed everything. Vogue. Marie Claire. A PR firm that told them to drop the name Fame and call it Ted Gibson. A Fifth Avenue salon. A DC licensing deal tied to the Real Housewives. A move to LA where they gambled everything and learned more than they earned. Three years in Palm Springs that have brought more inspiration than anywhere else they&#39;ve lived. Success is not linear. It never was.</p><p><strong>The Client Relationship... and When It Ends</strong></p><p>Ted&#39;s rule: treat every client like it&#39;s the first time you&#39;ve seen her. She is a different person. Jason goes deeper, describing 20 years of New York clients who didn&#39;t care what it cost, and how COVID ended it overnight. He had to create a new category... client friends. Losing them felt like grief. It changed how he understood his work entirely.</p><p><strong>Ted Gibson Beauty Wellness Science</strong></p><p>After Ted&#39;s mom was diagnosed with dementia, they dove into brain health and found lion&#39;s mane mushroom. They felt it. They kept going. A scientist in Oregon with 30 years studying fungi and algae helped them build a superfood powder: lion&#39;s mane, chaga, reishi, tremella, and blue-green algae in a coconut milk base with vanilla and coffee. Tremella is shown to be 100 times more effective than hyaluronic acid at moisture retention. Mi