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 you guys, and welcome back to the Thriving Stylist Podcast. I’m your host, Britt Seva.
If you’re a US listener, I am sending this message to you the week of Thanksgiving. You guys, I hope you have a beautiful Thanksgiving holiday, whatever that looks like for you.
I have always said that Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. I know everybody has a personal favorite, partially because they get to eat as much mac and cheese and dinner rolls as they want to, and nobody judges me.
However, the real reason I love it is because gratitude, I believe, is what has brought me to the place and the life that I have. I can’t credit anything other than the fact that I am so incredibly grateful to the point where it makes me emotional. Every time I talk about it, for all of the blessings that life has given me—and that’s not to say that I haven’t endured heartache or pain or incredibly difficult loss, because I have endured all of those things and personal setbacks and challenges.
But when I think back to what being grateful, even for the hard times, has done for me and what has brought into my life, it just makes me pinch myself. I just can’t help but wake up grateful for the journey, this lifetime has presented me, for the challenges that I’ve overcome, for what is yet to come, for the beautiful family that I have, for the beautiful community that I get to connect with every day—you being a part of that—I’m just so incredibly grateful.
And so I thought this week, especially we could work on reflecting and planning for an amazing year ahead with gratitude.
If you’ve been following me for some time… Raise your hand if you’re an OG. Raise your hand if you’ve been hanging with me since 2015. I see you raise your hand. If you’ve been following me since my Periscope days, when I showed up for free trainings for hair stylists every single day of the year, video trainings, 20 to 30 minutes a day, every single day, raise your hand. I know you’re listening to this, right? Okay.
So since way back in those days—2015 is the very first time I hosted Britt Seva’s goal setting workshop. I’ve done it for the past—this will be our sixth season, which is so exciting. We are going to be doing that again this year—and it has been an incredible journey.
One of the things that I always say is I’m a self-professed goal hater. I think goals are stupid. I think that they are discouraging, and so I’ve created my own methodology around creating goals that are non-traditional. My method for planning for a year ahead and choosing objectives to work for is very different than how most people would do it. I’ve been coaching to that methodology for several years. Well, in the last about year and a half, I started coaching to a program called Best Year Yet.
Best Year Yet took the industry by storm in 2019. It was a landslide victory. We had no idea how badly the industry wanted this program. I taught live for the very first time with my friend, Deanna of Studio 37 Salon in Huntington Beach. That was an incredible experience. And after we sold out that room in about 24 hours—I had 60 stylists in there working the program with me—I produced it as a digital training at the end of last year, December of 2019. Over 1000 stylists participated.
I have been getting DM after DM this year. “When’s that coming back? That’s the best education you’ve ever produced!”
Oh, we one-upped ourselves this year. The Best Year Yet program this year is off the charts. It includes a physical planner mailed straight to your door and it is the only comprehensive training on the market for hair stylists that will help you to plan out an entire year.
All of your marketing, all of your retention strategies, all of your referral strategies, all of your email newsletters, your captions, your hashtags, what classes you’ll take, setting goals, benchmarks. We have stickers to mark off when you achieve things. This is the only program where that is available for you.
So what I thought I would do is walk you through a bit of the methodology from my Best Year Yet program.
Now I will say, I’m not going to spill any secrets, so if you get great value from this podcast, amazing! Just imagine what you’d get if you actually took the program! But I want to share a bit about the methodology.
So in Best Year Yet, we have five different stages that we walk through. We have reflect, dream, strategize, execute, and then something that I call the North Star. It happens in that order.
Today, I want to work on the reflection piece. We can’t effectively plan for a year ahead until we reflect on what got us here today. If you ever heard that adage, all of the actions you’ve taken up until this point have created your existing reality. Everything you’ve done up until this point has created this reality for you, everything. So to continue doing what you’ve been doing and expect a different result would be what? Insanity. That is the definition of insanity. Repeating the same thing over and over expecting a new result is called insane.
In order to have a different life next year, we could use the word better. We could use improved. We could include say expanded life next year. We could say any of those things, but I’m just going to use the word different because for some of you, that’s what you’re looking for in order to have a different lifetime.
Next year, you have to do things differently and we can’t plan for what to change until we’ve reflected. Now, even when I talk about deciding what you want for next year, deciding what for next year is something that we do in my coaching, but we can’t dream and strategize and execute until we know where we’ve been. Because reflecting on those former decisions and the former actions can help us to choose a brighter tomorrow.
So I want you to do first, because we’re reflecting with gratitude today, is I’d really like you to take some time. It can be today. It can be this week. It can be next week after the holiday, whenever you want. I want you to take some time and look back on all the new guests you served this year, who came into your business for the first time this year from January up until now.
For some of you, I’m in California. I know some of our salons were shut down for many, many months. For some of you, you didn’t really experience that. Whatever your reality was, what were the new clients you met this year? How many were there? Do those new clients still come to see you? Like, have they seen you for a second visit, third visit, whatever? What have you done to nurture the relationship? Ooh, interesting question.
To me, when I look at what is upcoming and what is going to be important in salon marketing, moving forward, I think everything that happens between the visit is going to become a sweet spot.
So everybody’s like “Britt, what’s the newest salon amenity?” The salon amenity game is actually getting a little tired. That’s not to mean it’s not still important or it doesn’t happen, but we have been so hyper-focused on “how do I make the in-salon experience now next level?” that it’s become pretty next level.
If you’re in-salon experience right now is good shampoos, good consultations, I’m a nice person, my clients like talking to me, obviously, that’s not going to cut it, right? It has to be above and beyond that.
But for a while, it was almost like going to the salon was like a circus. You have wine, you have champagne. We have cookies. There’s a confetti popper that goes off. It was like all these things we did for amenities and it was great.
However, the game has shifted. Consumer behavior has shifted and clients now want to be nurtured between visits. So my question to you is what have you done for your new clients that have blessed you with their business this year? Can we drop them a card? Can we say, “Hey, Janet! It was so great to meet you in January. What a year we’ve had. I know I haven’t seen you back in the salon. I’d love to get you back in my chair. If you want to reconsult, I’d be happy to see you.”
What can you do to nurture those guests? Now, if Janet has been coming back, she started seeing you in January and she’s still seeing you now. It sounds like maybe she’s coming up on her one year anniversary, her client anniversary. What can we do for her? What can we do to make Janet feel appreciated that she’s been supporting your business for the past 11 months, right? Reflect from a place of gratitude.
Now you can do that same exercise with your existing clientele. Who were some of your best clients this year? Who were some of the most supportive clients this year? What can we do to double down on making them feel supported? Also, what can we do to maybe start connecting, to get some referrals from those clients?
I know when I start talking about things like referrals and sales, we get that feeling in the pit of our stomach, like, “Ooh, I don’t want to ask for anything.”
Okay, so your clients aren’t your best friends. Your clients are your clients. This is a business we’re running and it’s important that when you have a client who’s good, right? When Noel is your client and she’s amazing, she’s always supported you, and you have so much fun and you belly laugh when she’s in your chair because you guys totally connect that you say to Noel, “Noel, I absolutely love seeing you, you know that you’re my fave. If you ever have any friends looking to have their hair done, I would love to see them.” Explain your referral program and work it, make it something that is exciting for her.
It doesn’t have to feel scammy or spammy. If it does, you’re doing it wrong. But it’s important to look at the opportunities that we have to double down on our business growth, right? So that’s one of the reflecting exercises I want you to do.
Now, I want you to reflect on social media this year. Ooh, I know when I said that it was a cringy for some of us.
Social media was hard this year. There were moments where it was hard to put on a happy face and post something cute on the ‘gram. We weren’t really in the mood. It was difficult, right? You’re like, “Well, I have not had a paycheck in 12 weeks, but here’s a cute picture of me and my dog.”
It was very challenging for some of us, right? That’s okay. Let’s reflect on what happened this last year. Were you as consistent as you want to be? And let me ask you this question: If you were consistent, were you posting the right content to drive the right business to your chair?
This is something I see very often. I see stylists or salon owners using their social media almost as if it’s a personal blog sharing. Very inspirational quotes, very adorable family photos, and all of that is wonderful so long as it is continuing to fill your chair.
I know we can say, “Well, it’s not just about business, Britt.” Well, your professional social media is just about business. That’s why we have it. I post cute pictures of my kids and my dogs all the time on my personal Instagram, none on my business.
One, those are two totally different conversations, so while I think you can incorporate your family and the inspirational quotes and whatever, were those actions driving business to your chair?
And if not, are those things you want to do next year? If so, why? How does it make you feel when you incorporate those things? Does it still make sense for your business?
Now, if I was to look at your social media feed and compare it to the feed of five other stylists in your community, would I choose you if I was new to your community? And I looked at your feed, would I choose you? If not, why not? Right? What are some of the things that we can do to improve our feeds, make it feel better?
Now in the mindset of reflecting with gratitude, what I would like you to do is spend this week liking and commenting on the posts of your clients. This is something that’s very important to do on social media. A lot of us can become guilty of t the old post-and-go. “Here’s a photo of my work. Here’s some hashtags, here’s a great caption, have at it.” It’s like we’re waiting for something amazing to happen.
The amazing thing that happens is you. The amazing thing that happens is you interact on social and giving back to your existing clientele is one of the best, smartest, fastest, easiest, most gracious things that you can do. If you’re not following all of your clients on social media, you’re doing something wrong.
If I go to your following, if I go to who you follow on social, and it’s lots of other stylists, maybe it’s me. It’s some food bloggers. It’s a couple of your clients you’ve become friends with. I would question you, and I would say, “Are we intentionally building this feed? Are we intentionally engaging on social?” Because you showing up on the feeds of your clients will make their friends and family notice you and it’s only going to help to build your brand, right?
So what I would ask you to do this week, you can do it into next week as well, is to just post and interact on your clients’ feeds graciously. When they post a photo of their family photo at Thanksgiving, double tap and say, “Oh my goodness, what a beautiful family you have! You must feel so blessed.” Give back, be gracious, right?
Now, what I want you to do is take a look at your review sites. Oh, review sites. This is such a tough subject. When I talk about review sites, I’m talking about Yelp and Google My Business. Both of those things to me are social media sites. Very important.
Why? Because social media is anywhere people can have an online conversation about a business or a person. So that’s going to be Google My Business and Yelp.
You can say, “I hate Yelp.” You can hate Yelp, but consumers love Yelp. So Yelp is not for you. Yelp is for consumers. We can say things like, “Well, I don’t like that. They put fictitious reviews up there.” You can get fictitious posts on Instagram. You can get negative comments on Facebook. That can happen anywhere. The reason it happens more often on Yelp is because Yelp is a booming platform and it is a place where people have conversations about local business.
Now, there are several stylists I coach that only have a handful of reviews. I’m talking 10 or 12 reviews and they say they now don’t have to do much on Instagram or Facebook or anything else. They just post photos on Yelp a few times a week and it is their number one referral source.
So knowing that clients and consumers today like to see reviews online, it’s part of their research process, are you nurturing those review platforms? And if not, can we get better at it now in the spirit of gratitude?
What I would ask that you do is you spend some time this week leaving reviews on either Google My Business or Yelp or Facebook or Instagram, even. I want you to go to a business that you admire and give them some love and write them a review, give them an amazing caption or post. Even do a post on your own feed with a shoutout to them, sharing about how they’ve impacted your life.
The more good you put out into the world, the more you’ll get back. It’s that reciprocity thing. So let’s reflect with gratitude around what businesses or what individuals have greatly impacted our life. This and give them a little love this week, right? Show them that you appreciate them and I guarantee all of that good energy will come back to you as well.
Now, once you reflect on how you spent your time this year and reflecting on how I spent my time, I think every single year always bites me in the butt a little bit.
Time is a funny thing. Whenever we’re looking at the resources we have in life, our two greatest resources are what time and money. You can always make more money. You can never get time back. Once time is gone, you’ve lost it forever. There’s no way to recapture it. You can try, you can play catch up, but those minutes, moments, years are gone.
I want you to look back over the time that you spent this year. Where did you spend it? Where did you invest that time wisely? Where did you invest it poorly? How do you spend your time in ways that makes you sad? When do you spend the time when you’re the happiest? Then choosing how to get more of that time in the year ahead. Really think about, “Okay, of the dozen moments where I was the happiest, I felt like my time was really well spent. How can I choose to incorporate more of that time into my year ahead?”
Going back to being grateful and gratitude for me, one of the best ways we can honor the blessings in our life is to make room for more of them. So often we’ll say things like, “I wish I had more time. I wish I had more money. I wish I had more energy. I wish I had more friends. I wish I had more love. I wish I had more support,” whatever. “I wish I had more. I wish I had more. I wish I had more.”
Life is funny. Life is like your Thanksgiving plate, okay? You can load it up. Most of us are carrying around a real heavy plate. How many of you are carrying around like a 15 pound plate right now? It’s about to crack. It’s so heavy full of stuff, right? And yet you’re likely wanting more.
If I asked you, you would give me a list of 10 things you want more of, and maybe a couple of things you want less—but we are real good at asking for more, right? I just rattled off a list of a half a dozen mores: more money, more time, more love, more connection, more friendship, more whatever.
You don’t get to have more until you create space for it. You’re going to have to knock off that big scoop of mashed potatoes. You’re going to have to let go of the green bean casserole goal. I don’t know. Something’s going to have to get off the plate if you want more.
As you reflect on what time you were grateful for, where the investment of time was well spent, I’m also going to ask you to really think about what time made you sad, what time you don’t want more of, and let’s choose to clear those things off of our plate and to say, “Okay, if working nights makes me sad, I’m not going to do that in 2021.” You have time to adjust your schedule.
Everybody listening to this podcast can, by March 1st, not be working evenings anymore if they choose to create a structure to make that possible. For those of you who are like, “I’m already booked out in March,” you need my coaching more than you can even imagine. You should not be booked out in March at the time of this recording. You’re actually losing money if you are, right?
I want you to think about how you’re going to curate your time next year so that you have more money, more love, more joy, more peace, more sleep, more balance, more happiness, more of all the good things we want and less of the burdens and overwhelm.
You have to clear the decks. Life will not give you more of what you want until you eliminate more of what you don’t. Life is funny like that.
I always talk about life being like a purse. Where are my women at? How many of you have big purses and small purses? And no matter what size purse you’re carrying, it’s always full to the brim. Can I get an amen? I know you agree with me on that.
For me, I carry the biggest bag. It looks like I’m going on vacation every time I leave my house. It has snacks and first aid kits and all kinds of wacky stuff. But if I have a small purse, it’s still exploding. Big, small, whatever.
Life is that way too. It will fill to consumption every single time. You just get to decide what you want to be filling that with, right? I want you to really reflect on what are the things, what are the time investments? Where did you spend your life this year in ways that made you happy and let’s fill your plate with that moving forward into 2021.
That was just a taste of what I like to do in reflection when I’m planning for the year ahead, making sure that I’m setting every year’s goals with intention.
I wish you a beautiful holiday week with your family and stick around here for the next few weeks. We’ll be doing a lot of goal setting and intentional planning for the year ahead.
You guys, so much love, happy business building, and I’ll see you on the next one.
