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, really excited to talk about a topic that’s come up a lot for me recently. Do you need to have two Instagram accounts?
Some of you may have seen this podcast episode and thought oh my gosh, is that what people are doing right now? Or should I have already created two Instagram accounts? Or that’s crazy, I definitely don’t want any more Instagram accounts.
You might not want more Instagram accounts. You might need them. You actually might need less Instagram accounts. I want to just explore all of those realities today. One of the worst things that we can do in our business is fly blind. It’s a common thing that we do.
Often what we do is we say, well, the guy next to me is doing it so I guess I should do it too. Do you know if the guy next to you is even successful or what his idea of success is? So you could be chasing somebody else’s reality that is the complete opposite of what you’re looking to obtain.
That’s what happens when we fly blind in our business is we say, well, so-and-so does this or this guy over here did that. He looks like he’s doing good. She has a hundred thousand followers. This must be working.
Your followers don’t pay your bills. You can’t pay a mortgage with 50,000 followers. They want the money. Instead I want you to make the decisions that are going to bring you the money, not feed the ego. That’s what this episode is going to be about.
I just wrapped up my monthly Thrivers Society coaching call and one of the questions that came up on that call was I’m now opening my first salon, first-time salon owner–which, big props to you. That’s so exciting. She was saying, so now is the time I need to create a salon Instagram account. Which yeah, probably. She said, I’m definitely thinking I’m just going to turn my personal Instagram into a salon account. I just instantly started closing my eyes, shaking my head, and being like, no. So often, we do this.
What’s going through this new salon owner’s mind is: I have too much on my plate. Two Instagram accounts sounds like at least one too many, if not two. Instagram is hard. It’s a lot of work, so why don’t I just make this easy on myself and merge my personal brand with my salon account? Because it’s not appropriate.
I want to walk you through deciding, is it right to turn your personal account into a salon account? Is it right to turn your personal account into an educator account? Is it right to create hybrid accounts for anything? Are you launching a retail line? Does that become part of your salon brand or is that an individual brand in of itself?
I want to walk you through an exercise that’s going to help you decide if you need more accounts or not. Do you guys know that I have multiple Instagram accounts? You can follow me @brittseva, which is where most people find me and follow me. But actually we have a second account that has higher engagement and is growing faster. It’s called The Thriving Stylist. It’s on Instagram and both accounts serve very different purposes.
The reason I needed to have two different accounts is I have two different businesses. In order to honor both, it was necessary. Many of you are actually in the same boat I am, but you’re not zooming out far enough to be like, oh wait, I think I need to do this differently.
I’m going to walk you through some questions and as I’m asking these questions I want you to ask them of yourself. We’re kind of going to go through this workshop style together and evaluate, are you doing the right thing on social media or do you need to make a split?
Now I’m talking Instagram because it’s, without a doubt, the platform that our industry loves the most. That being said, if you’re part of Thrivers Society you know that I say that not every stylist even needs to be on Instagram. Some stylists should just be focused on Yelp. Some should be fully focused on Google My Business. Some should be all about that Facebook. Some people should be here, there, and everywhere. Here comes the guide. It should be your number one social media source or whatever.
I’m going to use Instagram because I think it’s the easiest, most tangible, and where our industry likes to hang, so I’m going to start there. But you could actually translate this to essentially any platform and get the same goods.
The first question I want to ask you is how many businesses do you have? Generally speaking, the knee jerk reaction is I have one. As soon as you’re a salon owner and a stylist, you now have two businesses. This is something I always tell my aspiring salon owners and my salon owners: the day you chose to become a salon owner is the day you chose to take a second job. A lot of people didn’t explain that to us.
We get in and we’re trying to run our salon and we’re like, well shoot, this is a lot of work. How am I supposed to have time to serve all of my clients, take care of all of my stylists who have so many needs, run the salon, pay the bills, do the insurance, this client’s mad, answer the phone, hire a reception team?… You have two jobs now, whereas before your only job was servicing your guests, taking care of your individual business. You have taken on a whole other world. You have two businesses.
For those of you who are stylists and are just dabbling in independent education… for those of you who are stylists and were recently hired by an extension brand to be an educator, you have two jobs. I want you to think of it that way. For those of you who are a stylist and a salon owner, and you’re launching a private label retail line, how many jobs do you have? You have three jobs, and you need to honor it that way.
Let’s just classify for a second. I’m not even talking about how many social accounts you need right now. All I’m asking you to think of is, realistically right now, how many jobs do you have? Then I’ll be honest. One of my jobs is as a mother and a wife. I know not everybody categorizes it that way. That is the most full-time job that I have.
The reason I’m bringing that up as important is because I personally have chosen to have social media accounts to be a mom and a wife. I have social media accounts that none of you follow me on, and it’s where I share my family photos and the funny annual Christmas photo of us in our matching PJ’s. That’s a different brand and it’s a personal brand and it’s not something that’s monetized. But it’s a different job of mine. It has its own social media.
Why do I bring that up? Because people ask me all the time, how much of my personal life should I show on social? Here’s the cool thing. There’s no set rule to that. I believe there’s guidelines. If you’re in Thrivers Society, I talk about doing things personal with a professional twist, meaning you can share some of yourself but it has to be through a professional lens or you start losing credibility. You may actually increase the relatability, but you sacrifice credibility.
That’s a really vulnerable place to be and it’s something a lot of people don’t talk about. Cause they’re like, well, I got a lot of likes and people say I’m relatable. That’s cool, but if you’re trying to create a social channel that produces revenue, as much as authenticity and relatability is great, credibility is what’s actually going to bring the revenue. So just keep that in mind, balancing the relatability with the credibility.
For me, I only show little tastes of my personal world because I think showing my family in our matching Christmas PJ’s, as adorable as we are, it doesn’t make you want to invest with me more as a business coach necessarily. I do share parts of my personal life to be human, but that’s a different brand in and of itself so my job as a mother and wife has its own social channel. Just something to think about. How many businesses do you have?
What is the goal of each business? Let’s use the stylist and the salon owner for an example. Maybe you’re like okay, I guess if I’m a stylist and a salon owner, I have two jobs. But maybe the goal of each of those businesses is actually identical. Maybe the goal is to bring in clients who have the same set of values, who live a very similar lifestyle, and are looking for the same guest experience. The guest experience you’re trying to create as a stylist is an identical guest experience to what everybody else in the salon is trying to create.
Okay. If the goals of both businesses are exactly the same, then I start to make an argument for, yeah. Maybe you could blend your personal Instagram account, turn it into a salon page, and have it actually achieve your goals. It’s possible. I’m not saying if that is true, it’s 100% guaranteed. I’m going to ask you some more questions as qualifiers but just ask yourself, of the businesses that I have, are the goals of each exactly the same? If you’re a stylist and an educator, the goals of those businesses are not the same.
Even if the goal is to make money, making money is not a goal. Can we keep it 100 on that? The goal can never be to make money. That’s a very empty goal and that’s why you see a lot of people who were in the quest to make more money, but they never actually get there. It’s because you’re chasing the wrong goal. Everybody wants more money. That’s not a goal. That’s a by-product of achieving. We can’t say the goal is ‘make more money’.
What is your goal as an educator? What is your goal as a stylist? What is your goal as a salon owner? What is your goal with your retail brand? What is the goal of each of these businesses you’ve chosen to create?
Then we start to ask, does each business serve the same target market? This is the womp-womp part of the exercise, because this is where most people realize, well, gosh darn it. She’s got me there.
Generally speaking, as soon as you start to serve multiple businesses, you’re serving multiple target markets. Let’s use the educator as an example. If you’re an educator and you still take clients, you’re serving two markets. One of your markets is stylists or salon owners if you’re educating within the industry. You’re trying to empower stylists and salon owners to achieve. That’s great. That’s one market. Then you’re still trying to attract clients to your chair, I’m guessing. You’re still taking clients behind the chair. That’s a secondary market. You have two target markets.
You can’t possibly share a social channel as a stylist behind the chair and an educator and maximize both. It’s actually impossible. You can find success with doing it that way. I’m not saying that you can’t, I’m saying you can’t maximize and I’m all about maximizing and scaling. Why would you leave something on the table that’s truly, rightfully yours? That doesn’t make any sense. We want to capitalize on all the opportunity that’s at our fingertips.
If you’re serving multiple markets, you can’t possibly serve both well with one channel because what happens? I know that there are some coaches who were like, what percentage of your revenue do you want to come from being a salon owner and what percentage do you want to come from being a stylist?
Okay, let’s say it’s 50/50. Great. Then let’s say you have a shared account. 50% of your posts would be about Britt Seva, the stylist. Then 50% of your posts would be about Britt Seva, the salon. Well, cool. So then 50% of the time, 50% of the followers are getting what they need. That doesn’t make any sense.
Wouldn’t it be better if 100% of the time, 100% of the followers were getting 100% of what they needed? Why short change yourself? If you are serving multiple markets, you definitely have to have more than one social channel. It only makes good logical sense.
Let’s say that you are launching a retail line and you’re a stylist behind the chair. You’re shortchanging yourself yet again if you don’t create a separate channel for that retail line, because that retail line could take on a life of its own.
If you are creating a private label, isn’t the dream that you would sell beyond your clients who sit in your chair? Isn’t the dream that maybe other salons would choose to invest in your line ‘cause it’s so well-designed? Isn’t it the dream that if Noelle is a client of yours and she tells her sister, Alicia that your hair care line is so amazing that Alicia is going to start ordering from you?
Could Alicia just order from your personal stylist Instagram? Of course she could. But how is Alicia’s sales experience going to be if she goes to one Instagram channel and it’s literally just a breakdown of your retail line, why you created it, the meaning behind it, the ingredients in it, why it works so well. She’s never going to come see you for hair services. She lives 3,000 miles away. She lives across the country. She doesn’t want to see your latest haircut. It’s not of interest to her. She wants to buy a bottle of shampoo. Don’t make her scroll your feed to find the bottle of shampoo she’s looking for. Make it easy.
Could it work to have your retail line on your stylist page? Of course it could work. Are you maximizing? You are not, so why would we do the things that don’t maximize us? Does each business serve the same target market?
Okay, if you thought that wasn’t hard, we’re getting into it. Now it’s going to get good. You ready? Do you both businesses equally? Ooh, got you in the feels on that one. I love this question. This question actually came from my branding coach, who I was speaking with today. He was asking me this.
I have two brands and he was like, which one do you love more? I said, don’t make me choose. It’s like making me choose between my children. That’s not fair. He said, well, you know what? This is how business works. I’ll never make you choose between your children, but I will always make you choose between your businesses.
This is something I even coached too in Thrivers Society. If you think, well I have two businesses; they each get 50% of my love. How well do you think anything will grow with 50% of your love? It will grow to maybe 20% of its potential versus giving one thing 100%. It’s always going to flourish faster.
Do you love both businesses equally? Because if you do, they should definitely both have their own social channel. If there’s one business where you’re like, I do this business cause I committed to it but I don’t love it. Then maybe it doesn’t need its own social channel. Then maybe it can be a sidebar on this other feed that you already have going on.
When you make that choice, you’re essentially allowing that business that you don’t love as much to die on the vine, if that’s what happens. I’m okay if it’s gone in six months. I don’t need the revenue from it. It doesn’t matter that much to me. It’s going, but I wouldn’t care if I lost it.
I guess that becomes the clarifying question. Would you be sad if that business dried up in six months? If you would, it likely needs its own social channel. If not, if you’re like, honestly I could give it or take it. I don’t need the money. I don’t need the business. I don’t love it anymore. It just kind of is what it is, then yeah, you could totally let it just fizzle out. No big deal. Talk about it from time to time on your existing platform. All good.
If you want that business to thrive, if you’re a stylist and a salon owner and you need your business behind the chair to be there in six months, you definitely need your own private social channel. If you’re trying to grow as a salon owner–because in 5 years, 10 years, you don’t want to be taking clients anymore–you definitely need a booming salon page and no, it should not be attached to your personal Insta. It depends on your goals and where you’re going with it. But I want you to ask yourself, do I love both businesses equally?
Then, final question: do you see yourself doing both businesses long term or do you see one as an exit strategy for another? Mic drop. Is one of the businesses you’ve created an exit strategy for another? A lot of times people become salon owners hoping to one day be absentee or hoping to one day just manage and run the day to day, not have to do hair. I respect that. That’s what I had wanted too. I totally get it. If that’s not your aspiration, I respect that too. You don’t have to go that path. Totally fine.
But if one day you’re like yeah, being a salon owner that is profitable is my exit strategy. Maybe I hope to sell my salon one day, without a doubt, you need two channels; one for your business behind the chair and one for your salon. Without a shadow of a doubt, they have to be separate. If you’re becoming an educator because you don’t want to be doing hair in five years, without a doubt they have to be different channels. Without a shadow of a doubt.
If you’re hoping that your business as a bridal stylist booms and takes over so that you don’t have to be behind the chair anymore because your aspiration is to grow a bridal team that you’re able to just manage and train and facilitate, but you don’t actually have to go to the weddings, without a doubt that bridal business needs its own social channel and you need your own social channel for the work you do in the salon. Two different businesses, two different goals, two different target markets. You likely have a deeper love for one than the other and you need to respect them that way. So important.
So I hope I’ve got your wheels turning a little bit and I hope I’ve given you something to think about. Now, if you’ve listened to this episode the whole way through and you’re like, wait a second. I just do clients behind the chair. I don’t have a second business cooking. What should my second business be? Friend, you don’t have to have a second business.
What’s funny is, I always say the best business is built in the gaps. The gap right now is actually just being a badass stylist. So many people are multi-passionate, which I’m raising my hand right now. I’m multi-passionate so I get it. I want to do everything, all of it, and all of it right now. I understand.
Being hyper-focused on one thing to be like, nope, I just want to take clients three days a week, make 150K a year, and spend four days off with my family–that’s the gap, you guys. That’s actually so much easier than doing anything else. You can have all of that. Thrivers Society shows you how to do all of that. If that’s your aspiration, freaking beautiful. Then all you need is one social channel. You don’t have to overcomplicate it. All good for you.
But if you are multi-passionate like I am, you really need to think, am I taking easy street? Am I doing this appropriately? Is there more that I could be doing to reach my market, to speak to them, to speak to their pain points, to serve every single person that follows me, and to be sustaining my existing income while supporting my future dreams?
Hope I got your wheels turning. You guys, so much love, happy business building, and I’ll see you on the next one.
