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 friends, and welcome back to the Thriving Stylist Podcast. I’m your host, Britt Seva, and y’all, it’s happening.
I shared on the podcast several months back that there was a recession looming and that it would ultimately hit our industry like it’s going to hit every industry. And I was worried that it wouldn’t be a highly downloaded episode. Thankfully it was, which is good. That means a huge chunk of our industry is going to be well prepared when it happens.
One of the things I mentioned on that episode was it’s happening. It’s coming, it’s inevitable, but we don’t know when. And that’s the tricky thing about recessions is they’re almost like natural disasters. Like you can live in tornado territory and still not know that one’s going to come on January 4th, like you have no idea what day it’s coming.
Same with the recession. All the indicators are there. Has anybody looked at gas prices recently or wondered why the cost of living has gone up? Go back and listen to that episode ‘cause I dissect exactly what happened. This was built by design, so go back and listen to the episode in case you missed it, but you’ll understand why in the triggers and what’s coming and all that.
So I’m very fortunate that one of my amazing Thrivers, Caitlin Lozano—Caitlin Lozano is our reigning North Star. Caitlin is the stylist and salon owner that our community, not me, our community of thousands of Thriver Society members voted was the most inspiring of our entire community, which is, I mean, one of the top acknowledgements you can receive in the industry today. Like what other award means that thousands of other stylists and salon owners look up to you? Is there one? I mean, it’s not picked by a panel of five or picked by an organization, it’s literally picked by your peers. I think it’s pretty incredible.
I’m grateful that Caitlin reached out to me a couple weeks back and she was like, “Britt, I listened to your podcast episode and it’s happening.” And she explained to me how she’s seeing the effects of the impending recession and she agreed to do an interview with me about it.
I’m actually going to share with you some of Caitlin’s words. She’s going to explain exactly what she’s experienced as some of her clientele has receded and has changed what they’re getting in her salon space and I hope you really listen up because Caitlin is somebody who is an incredibly accomplished stylist, has built a beautiful salon and team. She’s going to come out of all this just fine. That’s not going to be the story for everybody. And I think if you listen up to Caitlin and hear these beautiful golden nuggets of what she’s already experiencing and how she’s adapting her brand, it’s going to give you that leg up and that advantage so you’re just six steps ahead of the next guy.
Let me go ahead and introduce you to Caitlin and Moxie, which is the name of her salon, so you can get a sense of her brand.
Caitlin Lozano: Yeah, so Moxie is located in Northern California in a town called Windsor, which is about an hour, hour and 15 minutes north of San Francisco. So we are Northern California, and we have a clientele that comes from all over. So we have a clientele that is immediately in our area within 15 minutes of the salon, 20 minutes of the salon, but we also do have a clientele that comes from the Bay Area, so an hour south, and then we have a whole clientele that comes about three hours from north.
For our average, I would say it’s about anywhere between 25 to 35, I think is our average clientele and it really is the girls who like to spend money on their hair. They really do spend a lot of time and a lot of effort. They love the lived in looks, a lot of that very beachy, effortless look along with extensions.
Extensions are a huge part of our clientele. Every stylist in the salon is certified and offers extensions and so we all have a pretty high demand of that type of luxury service and a lot of those clients are coming from all over.
Britt: Okay, so that’s a bit about Caitlin’s market and now I want to explain a bit to you about who she serves and how she’s built such an incredibly successful salon and brand.
So Caitlin, when we first met—which was, I think 2016 if I’m not mistaken, it’s been several years, we’ve known each other—she was a commission stylist, super successful commission stylist, like already doing really, really well for herself, but she’s of that millennial generation and she had a really big dreams ambitions for herself. I think she’s built like me, like that hybrid millennial, Gen Xer, and she’s very driven, very motivated. She’s going to build a beautiful life for herself. She already has and she wanted to get the most out of this career. And so over the years she’s decided that she was going to build a luxury brand salon for herself and the reason— she could speak to it herself, but my perception of why she left her commission salon— she actually really, really, really, really wanted to stay. She didn’t want to go. She would’ve much preferred to stay working for an incredible leader so that she didn’t have to build a salon team.
But what she found was she was not being led and there was an artificial glass ceiling placed on her, and she had reached her maximum growth there, and there were certain challenges she was running into and she decided she was going to create a space that she knew could change the industry.
Enter Moxie.
And that’s what she’s built and created. She’s always wanted to do a high end clientele from the time I’ve known her, and she wanted a salon that really serves at that place. and which is great. She’s just north of me, and in the San Francisco Bay Area and beyond, there is definitely that market for them. However, the reason I think it’s really impactful that Caitlin is the one sharing this with us is that because she is a luxury brand, she does serve high end, and like I shared on the podcast episode, that’s who I’m most nervous for in the recession is like these high-end extension all day long, color correction kind of clienteles. Do I think everybody’s going to let their hair go gray in the recession? No, 2008 proved to us that’s not what happened. Do I think everyone’s going to let their hair grow out and not get haircuts? No, I think those are really safe specialties to focus on.
However, Caitlin’s not going to be going back to those things. Spoiler alert, we’ll get to that later in the episode. But my question becomes how do you sustain a luxury high-end clientele in something like this? And Caitlin has the answer for us.
So we’re going to get into all the shifts she’s seeing and how she’s pivoting, but I want you to first understand how she built this booming luxury brand and what Moxie looks like today.
Caitlin: So for us with the extensions, we have, like I said, a huge clientele from about three hours north of us in a little town and I would say probably the majority of those clients are extension clients. That town specifically is really struggling right now with the economy and what I’m finding is that that particular group of people are really starting to make a shift in what they are receiving. They are starting to think twice about having extensions, taking them out for the summer or taking them out indefinitely, you know, and just kind of seeing what’s happening with their own businesses and economy up there.
Britt: So Caitlin started to notice a change in her luxury market and she noticed this change, ‘cause she’s actually really good about talking to her clients. She’s not afraid to broach the awkward subjects a little bit, like FYI, the economy’s kind of wild right now. And she wasn’t afraid to just go there.
So she caught wind that things were changing and as she explains the change, you’ll understand that she’s talking about seeing the change in a more rural area that is feeling this economic shift already. Like that’s how Caitlin got the teaser alert that, oh my gosh, the recession’s coming, like this is happening.
Yes, smaller communities are often where these shifts take place. So when she says that, I don’t want you to think like, “Oh, well that won’t happen to me. I’m in Manhattan.” No, wait for it. This is where things like this start.
We as a people haven’t seen massive layoffs at scale yet, we haven’t seen people losing their homes, which FYI, they’re saying in this next recession people might not lose their homes like they did in 2008. The 2008 recession was caused by faulty mortgages and literally an issue with the housing market. That’s not what this one’s going to be based on. We have massive inflation, which again, go back and listen to the podcast episode, I talk about it, but this is going to be different. That doesn’t mean we won’t see employment shifts.
One of the key markers of a correction or a recession is unemployment increases. Unemployment right now is at an extreme low, which low unemployment is a good thing. It means most people have jobs. However, we’re so extremely low, that’s one of the indicators that a recession is coming. It’s so far out of the norm. However, what we’re seeing is massive layoffs and hiring freezes, and they’re just now starting to hit. So Facebook, Tesla, and Coinable right, which is crypto, are all having a hiring freeze. So if you think about a slope, like a mountain hiring, hiring, hiring, hiring, hiring, and then like a roller coaster or a mountain, it plateaus at the top. When big businesses start to freeze, that’s the step before layoffs. It’s like, “Whoa, we got to slow down the growth” and they’re basically saying, “Let’s stall for a minute. Let’s cruise for a minute.”
When big companies start to do that, you have to pay attention. Netflix announced layoffs, Carvana laid off 2,500 people, Peloton laid off 2,800 people, you’ll remember that earlier in the year, right? Or last year, I think it was. Thinkific, which is a digital education platform, laid off 125 people. Unacademy laid off a thousand people. And I think it’s important to realize Loom—Loom is a digital recording platform, 14% of its staff. The reason I share that is because I want you to know this affects me too. The digital education space is receding. If you talk to digital educators and they’re willing to be honest with you, they’ll tell you everything has completely changed. It’s not the same as it used to be.
So when we look at the digital education platforms laying people off, I’m not surprised there is a massive change in big companies and in a lot of the even smaller segments, we’re starting to see it. When we see changes in economy, it starts with things like rise of gas prices. Small businesses are drowning in costs of goods, right? You’re feeling all that. Those are the micro shifts. So as these bigger companies start to make bigger choices, the dominoes start to fall and these shifts won’t be micro anymore. It’ll be macro. These little shifts we’re seeing are like the droplets and it’s going to prepare us for what’s to come.
Let’s listen forward to how Caitlin has reevaluated her clientele and renegotiated her business now that she’s seeing the effects of the recession.
Caitlin: I’m so grateful for them to spend that much time and money to be here, and so I’m doing everything possible to make their service what they would like it to be, especially given the climate of what’s going on in their own town and that they want to continue to look their best and look as they always did, but for a slightly smaller price tag.
Britt: You can see Caitlin was realistic about the changes and what was coming and chose to get out ahead of it, rather than just staying in denial and hoping that somehow everything would work out great in the end.
Then I asked her, “Clients are removing their extensions, has this change affected you financially? And how are you navigating these changes? And I’m sure that made you nervous about losing some of your clientele.” Here’s what she had to say about that.
Caitlin: At this point it hasn’t affected me financially necessarily, but what’s happening is I’ve had multiple of my clients want to take their extensions out. And so with that, of course, there’s this—they hate the idea of taking them out. They don’t want to take them out. I don’t want them to take them out, of course. But what that means is a) I have to figure out what to do with their hair so that they feel good about themselves. And that is something that is a difficult task because when you get so used to wearing extensions, you don’t feel like your hair is worthy and it’s a really hard pill to swallow for some of them. We looked at clip-ins and halos and things like that. I do have one client who went that route and she was so grateful. I helped her pick out the colors and everything. She was very grateful and she wears those just when she wants a little spice. She’s not wearing it all the time, but at the same time, over the years, I’ve really helped transform these women’s hair because they were wearing extensions because they had such poor hair. Now they’ve taken their extensions out and their hair is not that bad. So we actually, over the last few years of them wearing it, they’ve seen tremendous growth in their hair. They take ’em out and they’re like, “Oh, I guess it’s not that bad,” but they miss the fullness.
For me that was like a real winner because not only are they feeling confident because of what we’ve done over the last few years, but they’re feeling confident that they can go out and they still feel good about themselves without their extensions. Would it be nice to have them? Absolutely. But for right now, that’s just not in the cards for them.
It’s been an eye opener. And then the other part of that is now that they don’t have extensions where they had to be here every six to eight weeks to get that service done, now they’re starting to flex their appointments a little longer ‘cause now they don’t really have to be here. They’re that lived-in, very seamless look that doesn’t need a lot of maintenance.
So then it was, “Okay, how do I keep them coming back to me every eight weeks?” Sure, they’re not getting extensions, but we need to do something. I got to keep them in my chair. For that, doing a toning service in between your major services, doing a little trim, just freshening up their look for the next three months so that way they had a little something to get them through until that next appointment.
Britt: So all of that’s great, super solid advice. But a lot of you, as she’s talking, you’re like, “Well, yeah, yeah. I mean, obviously I would do all those things too. Basic,” but wait for it because here’s the little golden nugget that I think is key and critical, and this is the mindset piece I want you to adopt.
Caitlin: The other thing too is, up there, it’s very rural. They’re on well water and that sort of thing so they do need that service. They need the clean water here. They need us to really slough off all the junk, give them a fresh toner so that when they do come back, I’m not starting over on this major project because of their water. That was a big deal for me to educate them on why it’s important that they still come every eight weeks or so.
Britt: I think the point that Caitlin hit that was so poignant is it’s not about changing your whole business model when a recession hits. It’s just evolving your normal and choosing to be an adapter, like just adapting to what’s happening. Not trying to reinvent the wheel when things feel a little bit off, like the economy will recover, so we need to adapt in the short term. You don’t have to throw the whole plan in the garbage can. You have to remember that we’re service providers at the end of the day, like we need to get back to basics on that.
She’s doubling down on time with her clients, right? She’s choosing to prioritize the Nurture and the Loyalty levels of her retention funnel rather than focusing on the marketing funnel, right? The Success Hourglass is my trademark system that’s a part of the Thriving Stylist Method. The marketing funnel is what sits on top. It’s what drives traffic. It creates your brand, all that stuff. The retention funnel is the lower half. This is where the money actually comes from. The money doesn’t come from the marketing, the money comes from the lower half of the funnel and that’s where she’s focusing. And when you think about it that way, of course that’s how you’re going to survive a recession or any kind of loss is by focusing in that area, right?
Caitlin: It still is required that you have a color service at minimum, but the color service doesn’t have to be major. I mean, it could just be a fresh toner. So I don’t offer that. I don’t plan to offer that. I will keep it as my sessions moving forward. I won’t change that necessarily. My time is just too greatly pinched to offer just haircuts, so I really just expand that appointment time. If it doesn’t take me that long, I just spend more time with them.
Britt: But then I wanted to dive in further, so I asked her about that and I said, have you started thinking about switching specialties or expanding your service menu just to safe-proof? What if extensions totally falls out? Have you thought about reducing your prices or putting any kind of raises on hold and her spot response was just so beautiful and so in alignment with what I naturally coach to, so I’m going to turn it over to Caitlin.
Caitlin: You know, the new clients take so much time, energy, and effort, and just mental capability that keeping somebody in your chair that you have already been servicing is far easier than bringing in somebody new. I mean that in the nicest way possible, just new clients just take it out of you. And so what if you only saw one new client a week, but you maintained those other clients that you’ve been doing over the course of a time, that way it’s a win-win for everybody. It’s a win-win for you because you don’t have to mentally prepare for this new client. Not to say that we totally go lazy with our regular clients, but we know them, we have a rapport with them. It’s not forced conversation and it just is easier all around.
Britt: I love that. I mean, just so well said and such a great reminder that at the end of the day, like we are in the relationship business. That’s what makes our world go around. And I think it’s really easy right now to say, “Oh, I’m in the extension business,” or “I’m an influencer,” or “I’m in the social media business,” but all of that’s going to soften really big time when the economy softens. If we can remember to prioritize that we’re in the relationship business first, we can’t fail. That’s going to be the key to getting through it.
And if you think of just relationships in general, like anybody who’s married—I’ve been with my husband for a good 20 years this year—are so hard to believe when you’re in a long term relationship or a short term relationship, how great is it and how easy is it when times are good, right? Like when just dating and you don’t even live together yet, and you’re not fighting about the trash and you’re not sharing money, everything is great. When relationships are simple, it’s great. It’s also not sustainable. And it’s not where long-term trust and vulnerability and security is built.
I will say, full transparency, my husband and I have been through some dark times together. We’ve both experienced most of life’s lowest of lows at this point together and getting through those things made us stronger as a couple and as a people, like just as human beings in general. Our good times don’t make us a good couple. It is fighting and battling and learning to communicate and being there for each other when one of us is going through it and choosing to truly be partners is what makes our marriage.
Think of your clientele like that. Be there through the dark times. What did you learn from the pandemic? Y’all, the pandemic was our dress rehearsal for this recession. You learned what did clients want in the pandemic? To be nurtured between guest visits, for you to check on them and baby them like they were your whole world. That’s how they want it to be seen.
When this recession hits, you’re going to get round two. They’re going to want all of that again. The in-salon experience is going to change, the services that they’re looking for are maybe going to change. What’s going to be critical? Your perceived value, the way you continue to show up.
If y’all remember in the pandemic, a lot of educators—and no shade at all, I totally understand. I could have easily gone this route. A lot of educators got real quiet because they couldn’t sell. There was no one to sell to. I got real noisy. I decided I’m going to teach my little booty cheeks off for free and I’m going to serve up this industry that I love so deeply because I’m going to use this time to double down and build trust and really show that I’m here for the grind. I’m not just here for the good times, I’m in it to win it with you. In choosing to show up that way, I think I doubled down on trust in a lot of ways and it’s going to be the same with your clientele.
Show up bigger, do more. It doesn’t have to be financial. You don’t have to be giving discounts. I didn’t start discounting things. I just made sure I showed up and I was choosing to be there, right? That’s what it looks like.
So remember at the end of the day, you’re in the relationship business.
Caitlin, I love you, girl. Thank you so much for showing up. If you don’t already, you can follow Caitlin @caitlindoescolor on Instagram. You can also follow Moxie @moxiandco.salon, and you can see Caitlin’s interview in full on my YouTube channel and my Instagram @brittseva.
And as I always like to say so much love, happy business building, and I’ll see you on the next one.
