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 my loves? And welcome back to the Thriving Stylist Podcast. I’m your host Britt Seva, really excited to answer a question submitted by one of my listeners today.
These are my favorite episodes always. So if you’ve ever sent me a DM and not gotten some private coaching back or you’ve shot me an email, and you’re like, “This really complicated question, can you work me through it?” and my team, or even myself, has responded and said, “I would love to,” but we’re inundated with requests for coaching daily, probably 40 to 60 requests a day and I just can’t get to them all. It’s physically impossible.
So if you’re ever like, “I have a burning question and I wish Britt could answer it,” do you know how to get it to me? The best way to do it is head to the Thriving Stylist Podcast on iTunes and leave me a rating or review and ask your question there. That is where I pull inspiration for every single episode that hits the show. So if you’re like, “Oh, I just wish Britt could coach me through something,” you could get 20 to 40 minutes private coaching right here on the show.
I always keep it anonymous. Leave that rating and review, ask me your question there, and you might just get featured on the show.
So this week’s question comes from weiver76, who says “Britt, you’re so inspiring to listen to and have helped me navigate these difficult times. I’m listening to your podcast part two about a future closed down pandemic.” That’s episode number 133 of the show. It was called Preparing for a Second Wave of Pandemic and Business Closure.
So I’m recording this episode, end of summer 2020. As of right now, I live in California, we are ready. We’re hit with a second wave of closure, and for a lot of us, it was a blip to even reopen. But we went through all of the preparations, got ourselves ready… turns out, we were closed again.
And everybody’s like, “Oh my gosh, I feel for California.” And my gosh, do I feel for my state? It’s crazy out here. But I think that we all have to look at this as this could happen to any of us. All of the predictions I have seen are showing a second wave of pandemic is highly likely.
It’s not an, “If we’ll shut down again,” it’s a when. When you look historically at what pandemics have done, usually the second wave is more intense than the first.
What I like to do as a marketing coach is get out ahead of it. We can be reactive. And when, and if, that happens, I’ll certainly do my best, but those who navigate a second wave of pandemic, the best are going to be those who get out ahead of it. Being reactive in any of your efforts puts you in six steps behind the other guy and I want you to be ahead.
So if you haven’t listened to episode 133, please do.
So we’ve already did and this was the question that followed. Weiver76 said, “I found your point about salons abandoning their claims intriguing and I have seen a decrease in our clientele post lockdown. Do you have any advice for a stylist newer to the floor to help build my books when I’m a part of a salon where we absolutely did abandon our clients during the quarantine?”
So if you didn’t listen to episode 133, or you don’t know what I’m referring to, I’ve talked to a lot of real-life clients who chose not to go back to the stylist they had been loyal to before. Some stylists who had clients who had been with them for a decade lost them during social distancing and the pandemic.
Why? I asked clients, I was like “Why are you choosing to leave? What is happening?” The word that kept coming up was, “I felt abandoned,” and listen, I get it. When the pandemic hit, we went through a wave of emotions, too.
It’s so easy to say, “Well, you know, put your blinders on and just power through.” But this was a very emotional time for everybody: us, our clients. We were confused. We didn’t have any answers. It was overwhelming. And so a lot of us pumped the brakes for a second and we were like, “I can’t even worry about my business right now. I’m worried about my family. I’m worried about where to get groceries. I’m worried about keeping a roof over our head or livelihood all the layers.”
I totally understand. But for our clients, at some point, expected us to be that pillar of hope for them. We know subconsciously that we’re more than just a service provider for our clients, right?
If I asked why clients come to see you, what would you say? Just ‘cause you do good hair, or is it because they have a relationship with you, and they respect you, and there’s rapport there, and there’s trust there, and they enjoy their visits?
It is a relationship and a lot of these clients felt like stylists turned their back on the relationships. When the going got rough, this season has really put a spotlight on what the relationship looks like between client and stylist. They really do look to us to be their guide as to what to do next. They felt like they needed more support than we provided and it really gave us a chance to elevate, to not just be the root touch-up lady, to not just be the haircut guy, but to really be somebody who supports and mentors these men and women as they navigate looking and feeling their best.
That was the expectation, and unfortunately it was unsaid. A lot of us didn’t realize that was the expectation until it was too late.
I want you to think of it this way in business: We don’t want our income to take a break, right? We want consistency, predictability. You can’t let your marketing take a break if you want consistent income.
And if you want all of your clients to see you on the flip side of this, you can’t take a B word (a break); not an option. You take a break, they take a break. It only makes sense. That’s how it works.
When we were social distancing, it felt like business was on a timeout. It was an emotional, confusing time, and it still is to be totally honest. But the trick to that is we’re desperately craving that resurgence. “Can’t we just get back to normal? I want to be consistent again. I don’t want to have to worry about my business.”
The first step is not waiting for business to come back around. The first step is taking the bull by the horns in the way you present your business and that’s where you dominate your market. We can’t expect our business to continue to grow and boom, or even just stay sustainable if we aren’t choosing to be consistent and loyal. It starts with you.
We have to choose to be consistent and loyal first before we can expect that of our guests. I want to try and put this into layman’s terms and you have to go with me on this one.
I have a daughter, a beautiful daughter. She’s almost 17, you guys, if you can believe it. She’s in high school. Take yourself back to like your junior year high school self. And her and her friends are exploring dating, and relationships, and all of the things that looks like.
A friend of hers was dating this guy. They had been together for a long time, very established, you know that couple of the school where you’re like, “Oh my gosh, they’re probably going to end up together.” Very established couple. The foundation was they’re loyal to each other. Everything was great. Well, this boy’s family moved to Sacramento. It’s a town 90 minutes, two hours north of us. But this couple was like, “Oh my gosh, we’re in this together. We’re going to stay together. Obviously we’re going to make this work. Distance cannot get between us.”
Do you see where I’m going with this? So best of intentions, but distance happens by no fault of their own. Just that’s the way the world worked. Within probably a week, maybe two weeks—though I’m talking days, days of him leaving—he wasn’t as responsive anymore. She was trying to reach out.
My daughter was like, “I don’t understand what happened. Like he’s gone cold with her and she’s feeling really confused. She doesn’t understand what she did wrong. She doesn’t know how to reach him. She wonders if he’s okay.”
Probably some of the things your clients felt as well, right? He’d still call sometimes. He wasn’t really showing up on social media as much. You know, these kids use Snapchat, right. And not showing up on the Snaps as much, and she just felt like, “What the heck happened, man?” Like all of the magic is gone. Where did this go?
So she put up with this for a few weeks—you know, this is high school relationship world—and then my daughter was like, “Well, great news. She reached out and she broke up with him.She just feels like he’s not putting in the effort anymore. And what was once great is fizzled and she’s going to move on.” And I was like, “Well, that’s awesome. Good for her to choose that.”
Wouldn’t you know, what do you think he did? Called her right away and was like, “Oh no, I’m going to make this work. I’m coming to town and I’m coming this weekend and I’m gonna figure it out and I’m gonna stay with a friend. But I’m gonna spend all my time with you. We’re going to make this work. I’m going to recommit. I’m so sorry for what I did.”
Do you think she should give him a second chance? No. Logically, you don’t. He had a chance. He chose not to make it work. It’s not okay to just make the tremendous mistake and then have regrets.
A lot of people make that choice. And maybe to some of you, you’re like “He’s young. He didn’t know. Give him a second chance.” Some of your clients will feel that way. They’ll feel like you deserve a second chance, but a lot of your clients are gonna feel like that 17 year old high school girl, who was like, “No, if you wanted me, if I was important to you, you would have made me a priority.” That’s how your clients felt.
I know it sounds childish, but that is a natural human instinct to want to be wanted. Your clients want that from you. They don’t want to be client number 16, client number 96, Wendy-likes-to-come-in-Tuesdays-at-nine. They don’t want to just be a number in your books. They want to be important and if you didn’t show up for them during the pandemic, they felt unimportant.
And listen, maybe you showed up really, really well. You’re like, “I don’t know if this episode’s for me. I’ve done that really good.” Life is funny and there may come a time where you take a maternity leave and you really hope all your clients come to see you on the flip side, or you may face an unexpected injury, or go through something traumatic in your life where you have to take time away from the salon.
All of these lessons still apply. The more organized you can get ahead of a crisis, the easier it is to navigate and I want to set you up for massive success.
If you were somebody who did go quiet during social distancing, and you’re having a hard time bouncing back, or if you’re going to take a leave and you want to know how to prepare, or if you’re in California and are still shut down and are like, “What do I even do? Like I cannot keep having this conversation.”
That’s the thing too is I see a lot of California salons where every post is “We’re closed. We’re so closed. We miss you guys.” That’s not adding value. We can be empathetic to that, but if you want to grow and build and feel like that positive ray of sunshine and create that, “Oh my gosh, I can’t wait to get in to see them,” “we’re closed, we’re closed, we’re closed,” is not the way to create that feeling.
We can do better and I want to coach you through it because what I want—and I know this is hard. Trust me. I know this is hard—but I want the best for you on the flip side of this, so go with me on it.
Now, the other thing is not make light of this. If you listen to these podcasts in the car and they leave you feeling like, “Ooh, I’m fired up. I got a thousand ideas, I can’t even wait,” but then you don’t always take action. This is the day that changes.
Somebody left me a rating and review just last week and she was like, “I love your podcast. My only complaint is you only do it once a week. Give us more.”
I can’t give you more. You’re a podcast overconsumer. I used to be a podcast overconsumer too. You fill your head with good ideas and it’s like a rush of adrenaline, and you’re like, “Oh my gosh, I’m so excited. I’m going to do all these things.”
It makes us feel good and feel inspired, but if you don’t take action, you need another shot of adrenaline to get that feeling back up. That’s what happens when you just listen to podcasts or listen to trainings and don’t take action.
This is an actionable training. I want you to do the work I’m about to lay out here. Okay? So hit pause if you need to, get a piece of paper. This is a training. I don’t want you to just think of this as noise for your ears. Let’s dive deep and do this together.
Step number one, I want you to write out captions—wait for it—for 30 posts. Step one. If you’ve gone quiet on social media recently, if you’re just ready to kick it into high gear and you’re like, “Britt, I want to come out of this social distancing strong,” or “My salon’s been open for six weeks, but I know we can do better,” awesome.
Step one, write captions for 30 posts. Don’t worry about pictures yet. I didn’t say anything about pictures. I said write captions for 30 posts. Why Britt?
You start with the caption. A hundred percent. The caption chooses the photo. The photo doesn’t choose the caption. That’s where a lot of people get social media wrong.
So what can the captions be? They can be what you’re up to. Are you in the salon? Are you out of the salon? How has it been? Give it to me straight. You don’t have to give me the fluff talk. We want authenticity now more than ever. Give it to me straight. Meet the team, whether the team is in the salon or they’re still at home like our friends in California. Is the team just you? Perfect. Is it you and your pup, Samuel? Great. Show me Samuel. Show me yourself. Let’s talk about it. Let’s get to know the person behind the shears, right?
What’s going on locally. Are there any great things that you found to do? Did a local restaurant open up and you had a great dinner?. There. Show a picture of yourself drinking a glass of wine. What is happening locally? That can start a conversation. That’s another caption.
What is it like to be in your salon? What is it like to be in your salon should be 45 captions, not one. Often I talk about what it is like to be in your salon and someone’s like, “Oh, perfect. I’ll just detail our guest experience.” You can do that. But if I was going to do guest experience, it would probably end up being like five captions and I’d break it down over different posts and I would do—and it wouldn’t be like, “Over this week, I’m going to explain our guest experience. Join us Monday through Friday.”
It wouldn’t be like that. It’d be more authentic because what happens is when somebody goes to your social media, it’s not just a gallery of your work. It is a digital handshake.
I want to get to know you. What is it like to sit in your chair? What is it like to set foot through the door? What is it like to sit down with you? What is it like to have a conversation and what will my hair look like? And “What will my hair look like?” is almost like an afterthought. They want to know the rest first.
So what is it like to be in your salon? And not just in one caption, like don’t give it to us like a shot of tequila. Really walk us through it all the way. What is your specialty and why are you the best at it? You gotta be the best at it.
Some of you listening to this are like, “Well, I’m good, but I’m not the best.”
Yes you are. Everybody’s the best at something. What are you the best at? Double down on it. And if I take a blind look at your social media, I should be able to tell what you’re the best at. If not, we’re missing the mark.
And “best” could be through technique, knowledge, experience; lots of different ways to be the best, but you need to be a shining star because if you look good in a sea of good, you’re not going to stand out. We have to be better, right?
So start by framing out those 30 captions, use what I gave you there to let your wheels spin. Listen back to this episode if you need to.
I was driving in the car yesterday and I was listening to a really great, inspiring podcast. What I would do is, as I was listening, I would Siri to turn on voice memos. I left myself seven different voice memos for caption ideas that came to me as I was listening.
My captions are not based on the podcast at all. It’s not like, “Oh, that was a cool tip. I’ll write a caption about that.” That’s very inauthentic and generally won’t perform well for you. What you do is when you’re listening to something and get inspired, what comes up for you when I talk about these things?
So when I say “write about guest experience” and it should be 45 posts, be like, “Alright, what are 45 things I can talk about with guest experience,” and let your mind spin on that. Let it be a brainstorm, but I want you to really plot out 30 different captions and what they could be.
Number two—that was just number one, you guys—number two, once you have the captions, then we match those captions to photos and we have a ton of different photo ideas to showcase your work.
If you’re back in the salon, put those masks on, babe. I love seeing the photos of clients with their masks on. That’s authentic. Authentic is good right now.
Now what if you’re not in work? That’s totally cool. Throwbacks are great. I’ve been coaching to using recycled photos forever.
If you think that’s cheap, look at the social media accounts of influencers you follow. They all recycle photos. Everybody does it. Cause nobody memorizes anybody else’s social media feed. You’re not cheating. You’re playing the game, okay? So don’t be afraid to use throwback photos.
And what you can say in the caption is, “This is a photo of my client, Belinda. We did do this cut and color pre-pandemic. I can’t wait to have her back in my chair.”
That’s not an entire caption I gave you right there, it’s not complete and full, but you could put that caveat in there so it doesn’t look like you’re doing maskless hair if that’s not allowed in your city or state. But you can just give that caveat and it still is relevant, right?
Showcase yourself or your team. You should be showing up with your face, your team’s face, real shots of people really working in the salon all the time. Showcase your salon space.
And if you need ideas for what to post, your feed should not just be heads. It shouldn’t just be heads of hair. I don’t understand your personality or what makes you special by heads of hair. It has to be more than that.
So one of the great places to start is either with Thrivers Society, where I’ll just literally hand you a map of everything you should post, and when to post, and your posting rhythm, and I give you a hundred captions and all the things. I mean, that’s the fastest, easiest way.
If you don’t want to go that way, what I encourage you to do is find examples of salons you admire, not industry influencers you admire.
Your feed should not look like my feed. Your feed should not look like the feet of an educator. Why? Because a lot of the influencers we follow are not trying to attract clients. They’re trying to attract stylists. So you can look at feeds of successful salons and see what they post and get ideas from there if you want to, or you can join Thrivers and I’ll hand this to you on a silver platter, but if you’re stuck on, “I don’t even know what my feed should look like,” look around a little bit, like really look around with eyes wide open and get some inspiration.
Number three, schedule those posts in a social media scheduler. That’s the way you’re going to pair the captions to the photos. The more organized you can get, the more likely you are to stay consistent with your posting and consistency is going to be key.
Remember, this episode is about reviving social media, gaining loyal clients, brand domination in your market, recovering from a quiet period. You have to come back noisy. You really do. You can’t come back dabbling you can’t tiptoe back into your market. Full speed ahead. This is the time to do it.
So I want you to schedule all of those posts cause that’s the only way you’re going to stay consistent with it. And you are going to continue doing this; we’re creating habits through this exercise, okay?
Number four, if you have returned to work, take a look at who you saw in November, December, and January that has not been back in to see you.
If someone hasn’t come in to see you in eight months, they’ve moved on. They’re not doing their hair anymore. They found another stylist, they’re using Madison Reed or something else, and we need to just bring them back into the fold. They’re not just going to stumble back in on their own. You’re going to have to get aggressive.
Now this is if you are already working in the salon (I’ll talk to my California, loves in a second), send a handwritten card. This is something I did a ton when I was a stylist in the salon. I send handwritten cards—we call them “lost clients”— to clients I didn’t know where they went. It had been too long since their last visit. I would send them handwritten cards and bring them back. So handwritten cards is huge.
You can call them. You can DM them. We get aggressive. You can send a skywriting over their home. Whatever you need to do to get out in front of them is important.
Not a text message. I send a text message to my DoorDash driver. You don’t send a text message to your clients. It’s too casual a form of communication for something like this.
A text message is, “Oh, hey. Yeah. If you need a haircut…” And you can put all the heart emojis and all the exclamation points if you want to, but a text message is too casual for something like this, I promise you that.
I could not advise you to do that if you’re trying to gain a guest back. It’s a handwritten card. It’s a phone call. A DM is my third choice. Not my favorite at all, but that’s where you could go if you had to.
It should be an emotional reach. Not a tone deaf reach, not, “Hey girl would love to see you for a cut. Miss you.” That’s tone deaf. We can’t go that direction.
We’re going to have to go a little deep and a little vulnerable, right? You went silent. That’s why they chose to leave.
Or maybe you didn’t go silent. Like you felt like you did everything right, but they still chose to leave. You’re going to have to own that. You weren’t perfect if they chose to leave and none of us are perfect, but it’s not like you did everything right and they still left. Something failed. And we might not know what it is, but we have to own it.
So I would say something like this, “Hey Melissa, I’m thinking of you. I haven’t seen you since December. It’s been such a wild year. I wish we could have seen this coming and plan better for how to support you during the social distancing time. Well, I can’t make up for that lost time now. I would love to help you. We can certainly rebook you for your full highlight, talk about lower maintenance color option in case we do see a second wave of closures, or just look at some at home maintenance/short term options. Please let me know if there’s anything I can do to support you. Miss you and hope to see you soon.”
Emotional, vulnerable, own your piece.
“Well, I don’t want to get into that.” Okay. Then don’t get into it. But if you don’t get into it, somebody else will, somebody will steal your client.
We have to go there. This is a time when emotional connection counts and we can’t just glaze over it. Vulnerability is very hard for me. It’s uncomfortable for me. I am telling you, we have to push through. It’s just too important not to.
Now if you’re in California or have chosen not to return to the salon yet because you don’t feel comfortable, first of all, I respect that health, safety, family first always, okay?
I would do this still: be connecting with your guests from afar because you are still in this zone of clients are looking to you to be the leader. They do not want to be abandoned.
I was teaching a Thrivers Alumni class earlier this week and one of my California stylists was like, I check in personally with 10 to 15 guests a week. So that means these clients are hearing from their stylist every month. Even though she has not taken a guest in six months, she is messaging them saying, “Hey, still thinking of you. Is there anything I can do for you? Here’s an update on what we’re hearing. I can’t wait to have you in my chair. Do you want to just go ahead and preplan a holiday appointment?” She is staying on top of it. That’s incredible. That’s a stylist who will never be abandoned because she didn’t abandon her guests, right?
Following up aggressively. This is going to be about human personal connection.
I want you to be posting four to five times a week on social media. Throwbacks are fine. Pictures of you are great. Just make sure you keep it professional. I have seen some stylists divert their Instagram into a personal account, like a personal blog. And it was accidental, I can tell, but it was like they had this great professional feed going. And now I look and I’m like, “Oh, are we still doing hair?” It’s hard for me to tell. And I know you’re not in the salon, but you’re always planting the seed for future business.
It’s highly unlikely someone sees your Instagram one time and books an appointment. They’re going to look and come back and come back and come back and we have to stay consistent there.
Now, when we talk about social media and posting, that’s all mass marketing; you have to do the focus on the personal connection. So if you’re like, “Oh, I’m just going to do that. I’m just going to say super consistent on social. I’ll send DMs when I can,” that’s what I’d consider mass marketing. It works okay. It doesn’t help with retention much.
The more you can get personal, the better. You guys, you’re not the UPS driver. You are somebody that these clients deeply connect to. You change the way they look and feel about themselves. We can’t have a casual relationship with these people. It has to go a bit deeper than that, okay?
Number six, I want you to create a long-term strategy for both in-salon and between guest-visit experience. I actually put more weight, if you can believe it, on what happens between guest visits, then what happens in your chair. Why? Because so few stylists and salon owners put priority on that gap between visits that it’s like the cheap shot. It’s like so easy to be a standout there. It makes it really easy to build a clientele.
So what can you do between visits to add value to the clients’ lives, to stand out from the crowd? Clients right now, especially those who maybe felt a little abandoned by the shutdown, aren’t feeling like absence makes the heart grow fonder at all. They’re feeling like, “I want you to show up. I want you to prioritize me. I need to feel important.”
We have to make a long-term strategy to show that we remain the best, that we stay confident, that we are well equipped and more qualified than any other salon in town to take care of our guests’ needs. That’s how your business will boom.
Okay, you guys, that was a huge plan. I told you this was an actionable show. This should take a few days, if not a couple of weeks, to plot out. This is a massive project, but success comes to those who are willing to work hard for it, and I’m here to support you.
If you need a roadmap to make all of this possible, you can certainly head to thriverssociety.com and hop on the wait list. There we are about to start a new season. It is going to be better than ever. I’m so excited to welcome our new class.
You guys so much love, happy, happy business building, and I’ll see you on the next one.
