Intro: Do you feel like you were meant to have a kick-ass career as a hair stylist? Like you got into this industry to make big things happen?
Maybe you’re struggling to build a solid base and want some stability. Maybe you know social media is important, but it feels like a waste of time because you aren’t seeing any results. Maybe you’ve already had some amazing success but are craving more. Maybe you’re ready to truly enjoy the freedom and flexibility this industry has to offer.
Cutting and coloring skills will only get you so far, but to build a lifelong career as a wealthy stylist, it takes business skills and a serious marketing strategy. When you’re ready to quit just working in your business and start working on it, join us here where we share real success stories from real stylists.
I’m Britt Seva, social media and marketing strategist just for hair stylists, and this is the Thriving Stylist Podcast.
Britt Seva: What is up, Thriving Stylist Podcast? I’m your host, Britt Seva, very excited this week for two reasons. One to talk about social media, which is always so much fun. And two I’m answering a listener’s question, which is always such a pleasure.
If you don’t know this trick or hack, what you can do if you have a question you’re hoping I answer on the show is head to the Thriving Stylist Podcast on iTunes and leave me a rating or review—rate the show honestly, please—and then in the comment section, let me know what your question is, what you want to hear more about.
This question comes from Linds. So Linds, thank you for this one. She says, “Britt, I love your show and I’ve gotten so much wonderful info over the years. Can’t thank you enough. I wanted to ask you a question regarding building and/or rebuilding a clientele base while stepping away from social media. Is this possible? Are you hurting your business by removing this funnel of marketing? I know this subject has been spoken about before, but was wondering if you could go into a deep dive on the podcast. Thanks so much.”
What’s funny is I saw this question a few days ago and I was like, “Oh Linds, I can’t believe you’re asking that,” in a way because partially, yes, I definitely talked about on the show, but when I talk about the marketing funnel, I talk about social media.
But then I was doing an Instagram live last night and somebody asked me the same thing. And what I realized is, oh my gosh, Linds, you’re exactly right. This is exactly what I should talk about on the podcast. So thank you for asking this question.
And two, this is a thing like this is a trending thing and I almost wish that I had seen it myself before. I feel a little bit silly that I didn’t, because I know that there’s a big shift in the way that people are using social media, right?
I want you to think about it for a second. Think about an app like Clubhouse. Do you remember how big and massive Clubhouse was for about four or five months? It really surged when the world was shut down and not fully shut down, like people were headed back to work. Salons were reopening, but life was still not feeling super normal.
A lot of us were cooped up at home. We weren’t feeling comfortable going out or for whatever reason. We were still living in this very digital world where we were all living this virtual life through social media.
Beyond Clubhouse, I mean, when you think of all 2020, we were living this weird virtual life where Tiger King ruled the world because all we could do was watch Netflix and people were obsessed with social media and we have seen—you can even see the platforms are reporting a huge shift away from that.
We got a little bit oversaturated, a little bit overstimulated, and now it’s like living your best life again, and we don’t want to feel like we’re on our smartphones for 10 hours a day anymore.
Things have really shifted and changed. I’m having to rearrange my whole business model because not everybody wants to live on their smartphone and amen to that. I’m here for it, right?
So when people start asking me the question “Can I grow without social media?” I used to think of it almost like, well, you just don’t want to learn the skill set, so no, you’re going to have to learn it. You’re going to have to do it.
But now I think that that question actually comes from a very different place. It used to, like two, three, four or five years ago, come from the place of, “I don’t really want to have to spend hours on Instagram. I don’t want to have to learn Facebook. I don’t want to have to film videos of myself. It doesn’t feel like me or I’m just not into that aspect of the business, so can I skip it?” That was the reason why.
I think we’re in this place in space in life where that’s not always the reason why. I think that for some of you listening to this, certainly Linds to ask this question and the stylist I was talking to in the DMs a couple nights ago, it comes from a place of, “I don’t like using social media myself. My clients are stepping away from social.”
We know that people are spending a little less time on social media platforms. Authenticity is super sexy and trending right now, and when we think about when Instagram blew up, it was about creating an iconic lifestyle, not like actual lifestyle, but like aspirational, “wouldn’t you like to be me” kind of lifestyle on the ‘gram and that’s gone. That really took a dive.
Now it really is about showing up authentically. It’s why video is doing so well. It’s why Reels are being promoted. It’s because that’s the real stuff. It’s hard to fake that, like that is you, that’s how you’re showing up as yourself. This is not a photoshoot. You got to have personality in video of any form.
That’s why social’s switching that direction because consumers today don’t want the picture of you on your private jet, headed to the private island that nobody can get to without an invite. That’s so far beyond authentic, aspirational lifestyle for most of us.
I want to talk to humans. I’m here to learn. I’m here to actually connect on a deep level. And so, because of that, there is a massive shift in the way people use social media.
So when somebody asks, can I build without it? Yes and no.
One, even the fact that I still use the term social media, I feel like I’m talking in mainstream terms when I say that, because in my mind, social media is simply slang for awareness level marketing.
If you’ve taken any of my classes, if you’re in Thrivers Society, if you hang out with me to any degree, you know that my trademarked methodology is around the Successful Stylist Hourglass and the Hair Stylist Marketing and Retention funnel. Those tools are based on consumer behavior and what works for stylists and salon owners today.
When we look at the marketing funnel specifically, there is a level, it’s the second level from the top, and it’s called Awareness. The only thing that lives on that level is social media platforms. When I say social media, it’s things like Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, Pinterest, NextDoor app, Yelp, Google My Business, YouTube would go on there.
Social media by definition is anywhere people are having digital conversations about a person, place, or business, period. So any platform or app or digital conversations about a person, place, or business happening is social media, right? It only makes sense.
So when you say, “Can I skip the social media funnel altogether?”, to me, social media is not a funnel. Social media is the set of tools that lives on the Awareness level of our marketing funnel.
Can you skip the Awareness level of the marketing funnel? No, you can’t, because the marketing funnel is not something that I designed to be cute or fun. It is consumer behavior, period. That’s what the whole system is based on and it’s not what I want. It’s just what people do. It’s based on observation of how people are acting in our world as consumers and consumers today want that Interest level, period. They just do.
Let me talk about the funnel for one more second, and then I’m going to answer your question. Above that Interest level, we have the Awareness level. The Awareness level is how people become aware of you. So also living in the fantasy of, “if I get 10,000 followers on Instagram, then I’ll be successful.”
Friend, I actually wish it was that easy. I know so many people who have 10,000, 12,000, 20,000, 30,000 followers on Instagram and are struggling financially because unfortunately follower count doesn’t equal money in the bank accounts. Two separate things.
So yes, understanding how to build your interest level. You know if you’re going to build a YouTube channel, if you’re going to build on Pinterest, TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, whatever, learning how to use those platforms is important, but being a superstar on the platform doesn’t guarantee any level of success, period.
When you look at the Awareness level, those are the actions that you take to drive eyeballs to the Interest level. So building a beautiful platform, but then getting it out in front of the right people who are not actually going to invest in your business might feel good to the ego, but it won’t feel good to the bank account.
I want us to all remember we are first and foremost here as business professionals, and I am the first to say that I don’t think wealth is just about money. It’s a full-on lifestyle where you get the free time and the love and the health and the balance and all the things, but the money is the boat that makes that all possible, right? The oil to our engine, like we’re going to need that money. And that’s why you’re here listening to a business-focused podcast.
So we need the awareness of ourselves and of our business that drives eyeballs to that Interest level, which is the social media platforms—which Linds, I promise we’ll get there in a second— and then everything that we do on that Interest level that was made public by the Awareness efforts we put in drive eyeballs deeper down our funnel to our Desire level, which is the website, which is the tipping point, which is the catalyst.
Which when we look at what the Desire level, does anybody know what the whole point of it is? Trust. Which Trust is the level just below Opportunity, but I’ve been saying for quite some time, if you’re not building trust with those who are interested or aware of you before they come into your business, you’ve already lost them.
Trust is way more important coming out of 2020 than ever before, so if you’re skipping any part of the Trust in the website and the Desire level in anything, you are losing guests, just period. Even if your business is good, you’re missing out on greater exceptional, because you’re not building that trust through your website.
Okay, so that’s Desire. Then we have Opportunity below that. Opportunity is the potential of gaining a new guest, the potential of getting somebody new into your business, and we will never get that opportunity if our brand and our messaging are not correct. And that opportunity feeds up into the funnel.
I have visuals of all of this in Thrivers Society and all of my programs, of course. And then below all of those levels, we have the Retention Funnel, which is how you will get referrals and continue to increase your income and all that good stuff.
But we’re talking about social media right here, right now, and the option to eliminate that Awareness level of the funnel.
Based on consumer behavior today, it’s not an option.
Now I might come on here in two years and the Awareness level might be gone. We’ll see. We don’t know, right? The Awareness level didn’t even exist when I was building clientele in 2007, 2008. I mean, there’s Facebook, but that wasn’t for business at all. That had been for college students, and it certainly wasn’t what it is now. It’s totally different. The idea that one day people would share pictures online, and that’s how they’d be able to build clientele, that was so foreign.
We’re naive to think that in the future, there won’t be something else. Of course there will be something else. There’s always something else. But right now that Awareness level is social media and it’s not optional.
So here’s the thing. So Lindsay, when you say, “Is it possible to build without social media?”, it is possible to build without Instagram. It is possible to build without Facebook. It is possible to build without video marketing, it is possible to build without TikTok. It is possible to build without Reels. It’s possible to build without YouTube.
It is not possible to build without interest. And if you are somebody who is like, “I just don’t want to be that social media icon person anymore. Like that’s not the game I want to play,” I encourage you to dive deep into either Yelp or Google My Business or a combination of both.
I talked about on the podcast a few episodes ago, the core four platforms. Yelp and Google My Business are half of that recipe. And for those of you who were like, “Well, I hate Yelp,” you can hate Yelp. Consumers. trust it. It’s fine for you to hate it. If you can’t—listen, and they’ve got some ethical issues, just like every other business does. Just like Facebook does, just like Instagram does, just like—they all do, big time.
However, when you look at what clients do or what consumers do, they are there. If they weren’t, the platforms wouldn’t exist.
I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again. I’m the parent of an 18-year-old. She’s not on Instagram, and hasn’t been for a long time. She’s annoyed that us old people are infiltrating their TikTok, and I’m certain something will change in that. But what I will say is when my daughter’s looking for a fun place to go with her friends, when she’s looking for a hair stylist, she goes to Yelp. All of her little friends do. They all use Yelp and you’d—listen, you might not be trying to attract my 18-year-old daughter to your business, but she’s not the only person.
What I’m telling you is consumer behavior has changed and you need to pay attention.
For most of you who were like, “I don’t like Yelp, Google My Business isn’t feeding my business,” okay. How much time, energy, and effort have you put into those platforms? “Well, I’ve posted a lot of photos and I’m asking for reviews.”
That’s not what I’m talking about. That’s like saying, “Well, I post on Instagram three times a week and I have been for six months and I write captions, so I don’t know that doesn’t mean you’re using the platform.” Well, that means you’re showing up and you’re doing work, but you can’t just show up and do work. You have to show up and do the right work. You have to show up and nurture the platform.
You have to show up and do the things the platform wants you to do in order for it to promote you. The act of just showing up alone is not good enough.
Imagine if we owned a salon together, you and I are both doing hair and we’re doing what we’re supposed to do. And then we’ve got this co-stylist who just shows up and stands in the middle of the salon. She shows up every day and she’s always on time, and she has her shears and she knows formulation and she’s very smart. But literally, all she does is she shows up and she stands there in the middle of the salon. That’s it.
So a few months go by and you and I are like, “Listen, we got to fire this person. This is not, I don’t even know what they’re doing. This is so weird, but it’s not working out.” So we go and we tell the stylist, “Listen, it’s just not working out. We have to fire you.” And the stylist is livid. The stylist is like “I don’t understand. You told me to be on time. You told me to be prepared, to have my tools, to know my stuff. You interviewed me and you hired me because you said I was a great person for the job and I have been here on time every time you asked me to be. What more do you want?” I want you to do your job.
That’s what these social platforms want you to do. Do your job, not just show up, not just be present, not just learn some stuff about the craft, like actually work it. It’s like any other job, social media.
If you show up on a social media platform, friends, we can hate it if we want to. They’re your boss. That’s how it works. You can’t just do whatever you want and they have to take it for what it is. And then your wishes, their command? That doesn’t even make sense.
You have to show up and play their game by their rules, and if you do, you’ll be handsomely rewarded.
And so, Linds, do you have to show up on social? You have to show up in the Interest level. You got to, and that’s not my rule. That’s a consumer behavior rule. Will it change in two, three, four, five, ten years? Probably. And we’ll get there when we do, but for right now, showing up on the Interest level is not an option.
Do you have to showcase your entire life on Instagram? No, you don’t. I certainly don’t. Do you have to become a master of funny, funny Reels and funny, funny stories?
No, if that’s not you, you don’t have to do that at all. You have to be authentically yourself, show up in the places where your target market clients are most likely to find you with the content that most resonates with them that solves most of their problems so they find trust in you.
That’s the name of the game. It’s as simple as that. You don’t have to be everywhere. You don’t have to learn all the platforms. You have to show up on the Interest level in the place that’s going to have the biggest impact for you, your life, and your business.
I hope this has been helpful, freeing in some ways, eyeopening in others. And if you need my help, I’m always here to help you through Thrivers Society and all of my other training.
With that, so much love, happy business building, and I’ll see you on the next one.
