#389 - Rethinking Guest Journey with Kaytlin Garland

Summary

Thriving Stylist Podcast: Episode #389 - Rethinking Guest Journey with Caitlin Garland

Release Date: June 9, 2025

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Introduction

In Episode #389 of the Thriving Stylist Podcast, host Britt Seva engages in a transformative conversation with Caitlin Garland at the X Club Retreat 2025 in San Antonio, Texas. This episode delves deep into the evolving landscape of the beauty industry, emphasizing the critical shift from mere technical prowess to strategic business and marketing acumen necessary for sustained success.

Setting the Scene: X Club Retreat 2025

The X Club Retreat 2025 serves as the backdrop for this insightful dialogue. Described as four "incredible days" filled with connecting, networking, learning, and feeling inspired, the retreat gathered approximately 80 high-performing stylists and salon owners. The attendees, all of whom had to qualify to enter, benefited from an environment ripe for collaboration and growth.

Britt Seva [01:04]: "We just finished four really incredible days together of connecting, networking, learning, feeling inspired, decompressing, relaxing, a little bit of everything."

Guest Introduction: Caitlin Garland

Caitlin Garland hails from Frederick, Maryland, positioning her firmly within the DMV (District, Maryland, Virginia) area. She operates a five-chair salon employing three other stylists, each specializing in areas such as extensions, color, and curly hair. Caitlin's long-term vision includes transitioning from a hands-on stylist role to a leadership position, fostering growth and development within her team.

Caitlin Garland [04:29]: "I own a 5 chair salon, currently employ 3 other stylists besides myself and I specialize..."

Experience at the Retreat: A Room of High Achievers

Caitlin recounts her initial feelings upon entering the retreat’s main room—overwhelming yet exhilarating. Despite feeling like the "smallest fish in a huge pond," her outgoing nature enabled her to connect effortlessly, debunking fears of cliquishness and fostering genuine interactions.

Caitlin Garland [02:39]: "I felt like the smallest fish in this huge pond. And that's my favorite kind of environment to be in."

Britt echoes Caitlin's sentiments, highlighting the collective growth that occurred as attendees shared their unique experiences, triggering personal insights and connections.

Key Insights from Joey Coleman: The Art of Retention

A pivotal moment of the retreat was a workshop led by Joey Coleman, a bestselling author known for his works on customer and employee retention. Joey emphasized the often-overlooked significance of customer service experience and retention compared to the plethora of marketing and sales literature.

Caitlin Garland [06:40]: "What pings when you say where have you had a great experience? We can all think of something right off the bat... keeping that in mind and kind of knowing from a guest perspective what they're experiencing from before they meet us through after."

Joey's assertion that retaining a guest is more efficient and cost-effective than acquiring new ones resonated deeply with the attendees, including Caitlin.

Joey Coleman [Paraphrased]: "It's so much more efficient and effective and cost-effective to retain a guest."

Caitlin highlighted how this insight necessitates revisiting and refining the entire guest experience journey, ensuring consistency and excellence from the first interaction to post-service follow-ups.

Caitlin Garland [07:49]: "Revisiting what the entire flow of the experience looks like is super important."

The Hot Seat Experience: Mapping Caitlin’s Guest Journey

One of the retreat's standout activities was the Hot Seat session, where Caitlin was selected to have her guest journey meticulously mapped out by Joey Coleman. This exercise aimed to transition a clientele from mere patrons to raving advocates who actively promote her salon.

During this session, Joey challenged Caitlin to narrow down her target market, prompting her to refine her focus from a broad age range to a more specific demographic.

Joey Coleman [During Hot Seat]: "What does the average... Do you think women aged 40 and women aged 60 have the same style, the same needs, the same challenges, the same budget?"

Caitlin realized the importance of segmenting her clientele to better address their distinct needs and preferences.

Caitlin Garland [12:01]: "I would say more than 50% of the time, my guests have never worn extensions prior."

This revelation opened new avenues for targeted marketing and personalized communication, especially for clients unfamiliar with extensions.

Actionable Takeaways: Caitlin’s Path Forward

Post-retreat, Caitlin identified two primary actions to enhance her business strategy:

1. Increase Pricing: Recognizing the need to elevate her services' perceived value, Caitlin decided to raise her prices, acknowledging it as a barrier to entry for further growth.

   Caitlin Garland [15:05]: "I do need to increase my prices... that was really clarified for me as really the first barrier to my entry of growth."

2. Train Her Assistant: To foster leadership and delegate effectively, Caitlin aims to train her new assistant thoroughly, enabling her to focus more on leadership roles and less on day-to-day tasks.

   Caitlin Garland [15:05]: "I would like to get my newest assistant really well trained so that she can take a lot of extra things off my plate."

These steps not only promise to streamline her operations but also ensure the long-term sustainability and scalability of her salon.

Conclusion: Embracing Strategic Growth

This episode underscores the imperative for modern stylists and salon owners to transcend traditional reliance on reputation and referrals. By embracing business acumen and strategic marketing, exemplified through Caitlin Garland's experiences and insights from Joey Coleman, industry professionals can navigate the complexities of today's beauty landscape. The Thriving Stylist Podcast continues to be a vital resource, offering actionable strategies and inspiring success stories to empower stylists in building wealthy and fulfilling careers.

Britt Seva [Closing]: "Caitlin, thank you so much for joining me today. This is an absolute pleasure to have you here. So much love. Happy business building, and I'll see you on the next one."

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This comprehensive summary captures the essence of Episode #389, highlighting the transformative experiences at the X Club Retreat, the critical insights on customer retention, and the actionable strategies that Caitlin Garland plans to implement to elevate her salon business.

Transcript

[Brit Siva]

Do you feel like you were meant to have a kick ass career as a hairstylist? 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.

[Britt Siva]

Maybe you're ready to truly enjoy the.

[Brit Siva]

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 Brit Siva, social media and marketing strategist just for hairstylists and this is the Thriving Stylist Podcast.

[Britt Siva]

What is up? And welcome back to the Thriving Stylist Podcast. I'm your host, Britt Siva. I'm here live at X Club Retreat 2025 with Caitlin Garland in San Antonio, Texas. Caitlin, thank you so much for joining me today.

[Caitlin Garland]

Thank you so much for having me.

[Britt Siva]

It's my pleasure. So we just finished. I'm calling it four really incredible days together of connecting, networking, learning, feeling inspired, decompressing, relaxing, a little bit of everything. And I want to talk about that before we get into why we're featuring Caitlin today. Caitlin, would you let us know why you chose to come to the X Club retreat?

[Caitlin Garland]

First of all, I will never turn on anything Britt is offering because I've been to every live event you've ever hosted and it's always filled me up beyond what is even in my realm of ideas. And I've made connections that have forever changed my life. So I will always say yes to any live opportunity that you offer, but specifically where I'm at in my career right now. And what's funny is we signed up for this a year ago, right? And I really fully believe in aligned timing and all of that stuff. And when I signed up, I was like, of course. Because yes. And also now that I'm here, it couldn't have been more aligned and the timing is just absolutely perfect.

[Britt Siva]

So, yeah, I love that. And you know me, I believe in alignment and divine timing. And I truly believe, especially after going through the four days we had together, this was so timely for all of us. It was incredible to see how many shared experiences we've had over the course of the year and how truly this time was right for, I think most if not everybody in the room. Tell us about the room and what it was like for you. So we had about 80 ish high performing stylists and salon owners. You had to qualify to be in the room. What was being in this room like for you?

[Caitlin Garland]

So initially I would say overwhelming. I felt like such. And I still, you know, I always like to play small a little. So I'm like the smallest fish in this huge pond. And that's my favorite kind of environment to be in. I don't want to be smartest, most successful. I want to soak in and sponge up everything. And there's so much to get to learn from the people that were in that room. Luckily, I'm pretty outgoing and I approach everyone with a smile and hope that they're going to, you know, accept that. So I really had a great time just at first observing and kind of seeing, and none of it felt clicky. I didn't come in and say, oh, I can't approach them or whatever. And so that felt incredible. And. And just also, you don't know who you're gonna sit next to and what they're about. And then just throughout natural conversation and then they get featured or then they something and it's like, oh my gosh, like they do all of this and it's just so great to connect with the human and then learn about how incredible their business is.

[Britt Siva]

I completely agree. And I noticed exactly what you were noticing. It was like a peeling of the onion. But in a room full of 80 people where you would sit at these tables and you would know in your heart these are all incredible people. There's nobody in the room that you couldn't learn something from. But you would hear somebody share something and it would like ping or trigger something in you and be like, wait a minute, you've done that, or oh my gosh, you're the person I'm looking to speak to. And that was the big thing for me, was watching that happen over and over and over as a collective. It was amazing to get to know people that you probably wouldn't connect with otherwise, if not put in this situation, having these conversations. Absolutely, yeah. Totally agree. Okay, so let's talk about you specifically for a moment. So, Caitlin, tell us about your business. Where are you located? What does your business look like? Give us a little context.

[Caitlin Garland]

Okay, so I'm in Frederick, Maryland, so East coast represent. I am kind of in the center of the DMV area. So around Some major cities and I own a 5 chair salon, currently employ 3 other stylists besides myself and I specialize and one of my other stylists specializes in extensions and color. And then I have a curly haired specialist and then a brand new stylist who's assisting me.

[Britt Siva]

Beautiful. What is your long term vision? Well, when I say long term, what is your three year vision for your business?

[Caitlin Garland]

So my three year vision would be to step back a little bit behind the chair and step into more of a leadership role. I've taken thriving leadership, and I mean thrivers in general is how I've been able to grow into the space that I'm in now. And I just see the need for me to take more of the leadership role. And I'm definitely not someone who feels that I need to hang on to doing all of the hair myself. However, it's kind of just happened because of, you know, guest needs and things like that. So I'm feeling very called to grow the next stylist up so that I can offload some of that and just be able to focus on leadership. And I was an educator for nine years, so that's where my heart lives. So yeah.

[Britt Siva]

And you're creating capacity and space and a plan to make that your exact. I love that. So one of the things we did here at X Clubber Tree is we brought in a best selling author. His name is Joey Coleman and he's written two books. One is called Never Lose a Customer Again and the other is called Never Lose an Employee Again and it's the Art of Retention. And one of the exercises that really stood out to me was remember at the very beginning, when it was very beginning of his presentation, he talked about how there was something like 36,000 books on marketing and sales and a fraction wild on customer service experience retention. And it really clicked, I think for all of us in the room when he said that. And, and talking about how it's so much more efficient and effective and cost effective to retain a guest. And we all know at the end of the day it's the most important thing. And yet all of us are so focused on the sales and the marketing and the funnels and all the things with such a great reset for the room. Do you have a big takeaway or two from Joey that you could share?

[Caitlin Garland]

Oh my gosh, so many takeaways. I would say one of the things to your point, when we talk about like what pings when you say where have you had a great experience? We can all think of something Right off the bat, you know, and for me, I was like, I want to be remembered and I want my salon to be thought of for having a great experience. So just keeping that in mind and kind of knowing from a guest perspective what they're experiencing from before they meet us through after. Which is what we're taught in thrivers. But sometimes I think we get a little bit too. We got to stay on our Instagram, we got to stay on the things to gather the new guest and things do slip through the cracks. And so I definitely think just revisiting what the entire flow of the experience looks like is super important. So that was a huge takeaway for me. And he also gave very tactical. This is a really great example of what someone else is doing in a different industry perhaps, but also could be related to ours. And I took so many notes on those things and just how we could possibly implement that. And it just. That was totally mind blowing for me.

[Britt Siva]

So, yeah, for me as well and my team. And I kept it as he was presenting, whispering back and forth to each other like, oh my gosh, this is incredible. We never thought of this before. And you're right, he shared so many real life examples that did feel practical and tangible and made sense in the eyes of us as consumers. Like, absolutely, that would make sense. Such a huge difference for us. I loved that too. So you got to have a very unique experience with Joey. So we selected Caitlin for something called a hot seat. One of the things that Joey taught the entire room throughout our workshop we had together. Joey was with us for about a day and a half is how to map out the ideal customer journey. And it starts from the moment they even realize they might need you to becoming your raving fan he calls an advocate. So they're shouting your name from the rooftops. They're your number one referral and everything that would have to happen in between to make that magic possible. And we had the opportunity. He said, you can voluntel somebody to come up and I will map out their journey for them. And we chose Caitlin. Such an honor. And I was telling Caitlin a few moments ago, there was a few reasons why we chose her. One, I feel like she was a great representation for a good cross section of the room. We wanted somebody who had somewhat of a team, but not too huge of a team. Not a big, huge commission salon. We didn't want a unique, independent stylist either. We wanted somebody who kind of bridged the gap. And Caitlin, almost perfect. The other thing was I knew that Caitlin would Be able to come on and be very open and vulnerable and honest. And she was. So she made the perfect candidate for this experience. So when I told you you were going to be the one who was spotlighted, how did that feel?

[Caitlin Garland]

My first words out were, I'm so honored and thank you so much. After that, a little bit, I went back to my room and did some very deep breathing just for the simple fact of I'm going to expose myself here and, you know, what is that going to look like? And will I get emotional? Which I didn't, by the way. So that was great. But it was definitely. Will it be impactful for anyone in the room?

[Britt Siva]

Because we've talked about this a little bit too. When we share our own unique journey, it is very vulnerable. And there's also the fear of being up in front of your peers and what do they think about what is running through their mind as they're watching me go through this experience? Absolutely. It's not very difficult to turn that switch off, no matter how it's positioned or what is happening. That's so incredibly real. So from my perspective, Joey brought Caitlin up and what he said was, I don't want you to come prepared at all. I want you to sit here and I'm just going to ask you a series of questions about your business. And he said, tell me a little bit about your specialty. And to which you said, what did you say initially was your specialty?

[Caitlin Garland]

I originally said that I owned a micro salon and that I specialize in extensions and hair color.

[Britt Siva]

And he quickly corrected you quickly corrected.

[Caitlin Garland]

Me and said micro. That doesn't sound, you know, he's like, what does that mean? And it was interesting to hear his perspective on because it's a term that you hear tossed around in the industry. And I was just trying to downplay the fact that, well, I'm in a five chair salon, but I don't have five employees. And I would argue that I used to be in a micro salon. I had a small suite with just two chairs. So it was kind of my initial instinct to say that. And I loved that he recorrected me there and made me kind of take that power back of like, I own a salon now.

[Britt Siva]

I did too.

[Caitlin Garland]

Yeah.

[Britt Siva]

The other piece that I loved about that is he said, what's your target market for your extension clients? What was your initial response?

[Caitlin Garland]

My initial response was women ages 40 to 60. And he said, that's way too broad.

[Britt Siva]

Make it smaller.

[Caitlin Garland]

Yeah.

[Britt Siva]

And the second time you said, I.

[Caitlin Garland]

Believe we narrowed it down to 45 to 50.

[Britt Siva]

Yes.

[Caitlin Garland]

Yeah, yes.

[Britt Siva]

And there was this push to really refine it. And what he said was, does the average. And he pulled the room. He said, for the women who are 40 and the women who are 60, raise your hands. Do you think you have the same style, the same needs, the same challenges, same budget? And you watch the head say, no, we don't. We're living different lives. And it was such a great collective moment for all of us to kind of see that happen in real time. The other thing I love that he dialed in on is he said, are they mostly new guests, new clients who have never gotten extensions anywhere before, or is it people who are coming because they're not happy with their extensions? What was that process like for you?

[Caitlin Garland]

I actually loved hearing that question. Just because it's not really something I've ever considered even in marketing or talking about things. I mean, I often focus on the solutions that extensions can provide for anyone. Never considering the fact that they might a have never. I do consider that they might never have actually worn them before, but I don't zero in on that, which is. Was my response, is that I would say more than 50% of the time, my guests have never worn extensions prior. So I do of course have the people that transition from different methods or different areas or they're moving. However, I would say a huge part of my market as brand new people. And that just instantly I thought, oh my gosh, there's so much I can use in marketing and communication with these people who have never any do it in person. And you educate and all those things, but to attract those people and let them know that there's solutions for everyday women, you know, is huge.

[Britt Siva]

So huge. I thought that was such a breakthrough, not just for the room. And then we continued to use that qualifier throughout the exercise. You'd say more or less than 50%. More or less than 50%.

[Caitlin Garland]

That was so helpful.

[Britt Siva]

So for all of us. And it really narrowed down the target market. And sometimes you'd say, well, there's a chunk, but no, it's not more than 50%. And you'd say, pay them, we scrap it. I loved that.

[Caitlin Garland]

That was amazing.

[Britt Siva]

Okay, so tell us about what the experience was like for you as he's asking questions about your journey. So my perspective was, we're sitting there watching and he's saying, okay, Caitlin, how does the client find you? What happens when they want to book an appointment? What does the communication look like? What does the first visit look like? So as you're without talking about all the nitty gritty details as you're going through that, what's coming up for you is he's asking these questions. Questions.

[Caitlin Garland]

Honestly, it was.

[Britt Siva]

I.

[Caitlin Garland]

The whole time, felt like he was holding a mirror up and going, look, look what's happening. You know, because you just get so into. Okay, this is a system that I may have created for a different period of time and. Or a different target market and. Or a different size salon. And now this is the reality of where I am. So is this still working? Is this system too much for the guest? Is it too much for me?

[Britt Siva]

Yes.

[Caitlin Garland]

So it was really eye opening. I mean, I can't say enough about just the light bulbs of. Oh, my gosh. Yeah, that doesn't make any sense. But, you know, it's not that I'm not successful doing those things, but could I be more successful and have more time, freedom and, you know, actually get that balance of being able to lead my team more? Because now I've saved the time doing such unnecessary work or doing more things to gain more guests for my stylist.

[Britt Siva]

Absolutely. And I love the way you said that. One of the other reasons we picked you is that you did have so much good going for you. It would have been so much easier to pick somebody who had no guest experience. We could create it from the ground up, and it would be perfect with you. From the outside, people would be like, yeah, but Caitlin's already got it dialed in, and he was able to say, it's good. What would great or exceptional or unbeatable look like? And it's reaching. That's what you want to be, of course. And it was reaching for that next level. And as he showed you the mirror, I think we all saw the mirror in ourselves as well. So now going through that experience, what are you gonna go home and do?

[Caitlin Garland]

Oh, my gosh. So, first step. I would say that I have kind of two goals in line with being a leader and being a stylist. So my first step as a stylist is that I do need to increase my prices, which has been something I've known for a while. And I've looked at my calculator and thought, okay, it's time. So that was really clarified for me as really the first barrier to my entry of growth. And then secondly, I would like to get my newest assistant really well trained so that she can take a lot of extra things off my plate, and she gets to then have this amazing opportunity to grow her book. So those are my first two, which seem so simplistic when I say them, but they will be so impactful.

[Britt Siva]

The impact will be massive and the ripple effect will be felt for years to come. Caitlin, thank you so much for joining me today. This is an absolute pleasure to have you here. So much love. Happy business building, and I'll see you on the next one.