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This week the top 100 stylists and salon owners in the industry are gathered in San Antonio, Texas at a five star resort property learning, growing and building business that actually works for their lives. This kind of education and networking that those stylists and leaders are experiencing is what's possible when you stop trying to make it in this industry alone. Every stylist in our coaching program grows their income. This particular High Performance group are among the thousands of members who have doubled or tripled their income working with us and they've earned the opportunity to join us for this limited capacity, invitation only experience. Follow along on my Instagram stories. Brit Siva all this week if you want to see what our High Performance members retreat is all about and visit www.thrivingstaylist.com x ClubRetreat to learn how you can get into the room. Do you feel like you were meant to have a kick ass career as a hairstylist? Like you got into this 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 Brit Siva, Social Media and Marketing Strategist Just for Hairstylists and this is the Thriving Stylist Podcast. What is up? And welcome back to the Thriving Stylist Podcast. I'm your host, Britt Siva and today you are going to dip back into my DMs with me again. Fun fact. I am asked every single week for my take on other coaches advice. I'm sent Instagram posts from other business coaches constantly. I'm never having to seek them out. They're always finding their way to me. If you've ever sent me a post, you know it's me in my DMs and I almost always respond. Unless it's a busy day or something and I just can't get to it or I'm traveling. I do respond to everything. One of the things that I have pretty strong feelings about in our industry is that we are so fortunate to be working in a time where education is in abundance. When I joined the industry in 2007, it was so hard to educate yourself. There was no online education. Instagram didn't even exist yet. I know that makes me sound a hundred thousand years old, but it didn't. And so to educate yourself as a stylist, you had to work at a teaching salon where there were educators or at least stylists who were able to educate a mentor or, you know, educators would be flown into the salon or educators would be flown in locally to your area and you find out about it through like a local rep or there were education hubs. Like, I know going to the Sassoon Academy was like really on my dream list. They had a five day cutting program. I think it was ABCs of cutting. And that was on my bucket list. Redken Exchange, like, you know, all of the major hair care, hair color brands and houses had these really incredible education opportunities. But they were A, expensive, B, often required a plane ticket. The logistics, the taking time off, it was tough. Now we're living in a time where anybody can be an educator, literally anybody. And the opportunity there is gorgeous. What has become very hard, particularly since 2021, which was the independent educator boom, I think we picked up four times more independent educators in 2021 than we had ever had before. Like there was this massive shift in change and some of those people should have been teaching all along. Like we saw incredible educators grow out of that time. We're seeing incredible educators come now. There's also, I'm going to say, thousands of people calling themselves educators or sharing advice that's either just not well thought through, not tested, or potentially harmful. And it really upsets me when I see the harmful stuff in particular because often I look at the comments and I'm like, oh my gosh, people are buying into this. People are seriously believing this. And it's such a massive step backward for the industry. When I see post words, educators who are just figuring it out, I can tell that too. I'm like, oh, they'll get it. They're on their way. They'll get there. They're just starting. And that I have much, much respect for. And then there's educators out there that are killing it. And sometimes somebody will send me a post and I'm like, whoa, I love that. I never thought of it that way. That's really cool. And I'm going to share one of those with you today too. I do. Unfortunately, a lot of the posts across my feed, I'M going to say the majority. I end up saying like, oof. That's definitely not advice I would give. And here are the potential repercussions. And I always end with, you know, trust your gut, do what you want to do. But for me, these are the concerns that are raised. So I'm going to try something today. If you like it, I'd love it if you left me a rating or review on itunes and let me know that it was of interest to you. If you see any posts that you just kind of want some feedback on, you can also send them to me in the Instagram DMS as well. My DMs are always open and it's a piece of my business I've not yet delegated and don't think I ever will. So what I'm going to do today is pull some of the Instagram posts that were sent my way by my followers, posts made by other educators or other education brands. And I'm gonna rank em and I'm gonna rank em on a scale that I made up right before I recorded this podcast. Five being. I freaking love this concept. This is so good. It should be shouted from the rooftops. And let's clap this person up because I'm so impressed. This genius, like, breakthrough idea. I don't see a lot of people doing it. I'm obsessed. We have a five, so I'm excited to get to that one. I'm saved that one for last three is going to be. I see what they were trying to do there. I think the execution is off. And let's talk about why. Like, I totally see where they were going, but here's the area that's gray that those who take this advice could get into trouble with. And then one is going to be like, genuinely bad advice. I can't believe this is being talked about. It makes me nervous. The influence this person or brand has on people. Two would land somewhere between one and three. Four would land somewhere between three and five. Ready? Okay. This first post was shared on Instagram as a video, but I'm going to read you the transcription. I actually can't play the Instagram video. It's not my content to share in that way. But I can read you the transcription and read what I saw. So I'm going to read word for word, the transcription of a video that was posted on Instagram as business education. What I'm seeing Now is these 20 year olds that are being told on Instagram that they can be happy right out of beauty school. Yeah. And I know people want to be politically correct and say that can happen. I don't believe it. You got to work on Saturdays sometimes. You got to build it up. I still work Saturdays. I'm still in the salon on Saturdays, guys. I'm fully booked. And yeah, that's okay. That's what we do in this business. There's these young girls. I heard this the other day. I'm not kidding you. This one girl is like, I'm fully booked on Saturdays for the next couple of months and I'm done. I don't want to work Saturdays anymore. And I'm like, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. You just said you have the dream. You're telling me that you have the dream and you're booked every single Saturday, which everyone wants. But yeah, you don't want to work Saturdays anymore. I mean, you'd rather work, you know, Tuesday through Friday when you're not busy. So you're willing to give that up and yet you're complaining that you can't afford the car and you can't afford the rent. And I'm like, so stick with your busy days, guys, and then build the other ones up before you make the transition. This to me lands as misinformation, unfortunately. I understand the point. And the point is it does take drive, hard work and determination to build a clientele. I'm sorry, it just does. Like, I don't know of any other formula or recipe. However, I know too many people who have built a full clientele in under a year not working Saturdays to be like, and if you don't work Saturdays, it's not going to work. Like, it's just simply not true. Like the data doesn't support that. I think there was a time when the that was true. 2020 was a huge turning point in that you now look at how many people work from home. Work flex schedules are able to come in on the weekdays. And there has been a shift in people who say, I don't want to be in the salon on a Saturday. I'd rather be at my kids soccer game. I'd rather be at home on the couch. I'd rather be doing whatever else. We used to live in a time where the weekends were when you like did all your self care stuff, your personal care stuff. If you had to mail a package, you did that on the weekends. Like, we spent our weekends doing the busy work. I went to the grocery store with my mom on the weekends. Like, I remember doing all that kind of stuff. That is how it went. And then Weekdays, if you had to go to the doctor or something like that, you had to take time off, take a sick day. It was like a huge ordeal. We are living in a different time. I think there are some markets that prefer to come in on Saturdays, like some target market clients for sure. And just like I could argue, there's some target market clients who would prefer to come in on Sundays or whatever. There is a stylist in the thrivers community who starts taking her first client at 5:30 in the morning and she's like, my 5:30am slots are always full because I get the. It's often for her like working moms where maybe their partner's at home still, they're able to zip over to her salon, get their color done and be home by 7, 7:30, 8 o' clock to get ready for their work day and head out. Like they don't miss any time at the office. Maybe their partner's able to take the kids to school that day or whatever. They're like, that's golden time and she'd rather be at the salon at 5:30am Getting those people who want those spots so nobody has to lose their weekend to build a clientele. What I'm saying is nothing has to be in absolutes and this post runs in absolutes for me. And I just think it's spreading like old school, 25 year old misinformation and it's giving the I walked 10 miles to school in the snow and you should have to too. Which I do think continues to plague our industry. Speaking of my own generation, I joined the industry almost 20 years ago now. And it was harder then. Sorry, it just was. And the expectation is different now. And we were from a generation where I've said this a hundred times in the podcast. I jokingly say it now, but if I had been asked to like lick the floors, I would have done it. Like I wanted to do anything to have the job. And I think those of us who were in the industry back then are like, you know, they don't make them like they used to. And we worked so much harder. It was just different. Just like our parents said that things were different and like generations before that there was only ever one working person in the household. Like things change all the time. The workforce changes, lifestyle interests changes, the world around us changes, client behaviors change, everything changes. The other piece about this that really bothered me was this middle part where the person who's giving advice says one girl said, I'm fully booked on Saturdays for the next couple of months, and I'm done. I don't want to work Saturdays anymore. And I'm like, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. You just said that you have the dream. You're telling me that you have the dream in your book every single Saturday, which everybody wants. I disagree. That's clearly not her dream, because that's why she doesn't want to do it anymore. And I think that there was a time where being double booked, being fully booked on the weekends, but being fully booked in general was like cash money in your pocket. And I have talked to too many successful stylists. I'm talking thousands. I'm not talking, like five people. I'm talking thousands who are not working like that. And young people. I have a interview that's going to be coming out publicly very soon of a young person who is able to create a lifestyle that works for them from the jump without having to sacrifice everything in the process. There's just too many ways to do things now to talk in absolutes like this. And that was my main point. I think that the point that was trying to be made by this post was when you join into the industry, you have to have drive. You have to be willing to work hard. You're going to have to work either, you know, long hours, long days, be flexible to your clients, or be a monster at marketing and branding to fill your chair fast. But this reality where you have to work weekends to make it, I don't agree with that. There was a piece at the end where this person was heading in that direction where they said, you know, fill your weekdays first before you cut your Saturdays. I coach to a different strategy than that in my training programs. And there is a way to get people to shift to the schedules that you prefer them to work so that you can get to the lifestyle that you want. But I just want everybody to know and understand that 20 years ago, this was the method. This was the model. You know, new stylists have to work nights and weekends. That's where they fill their books. There is a salon that I'm very aware of that has their new talent working nights and weekends, and it's like a freaking ghost town. And the salon is packed during the day and nights and weekends. I mean, you could hear a pin drop. It's just. It's not so absolutes anymore. You have to know your market. And if this industry is not fair serving your lifestyle, man, if burnout doesn't hit hard, like, you can have it all, you can build fast. There are ways to do it. It does take strategy. I just want to make that super clear. So this piece of advice for me, I'm going to rank as a one. I just think it's a bit dangerous and irresponsible to talk in absolutes like that when the industry as I know it and a lot of us know it is working in a different way today. Okay, so now let's dig into coaching advice. Post number two. This one, I'm going to rank a solid three. It's a. I see what you were doing there. The execution failed you a little bit for this post specifically. There's pieces of this that are totally true and totally valid. My issue with it was it was speaking in absolutes like this is good, this is bad, and the this is bad is not accurate. And posts like this make me nervous because there's pieces of it that are correct. And the concept itself sounds so good that I could see people abandoning something that is actually exactly where they're supposed to be and exactly what they're supposed to be doing. Looking at this shiny new thing and being like, oh, I love the way that sounds. This person told me what I'm doing is bad, therefore I must do this other thing. And the problem is the other thing that this person shares is half baked based on what I could find on it. Okay, so this post is also a carousel post. I'm going to read you the caption first. I'm going to read you all of the graphics and images. So the caption says ditch the a la carte. Stop putting the authority in the client's hands for elements that require a professional outlook. Tiered pricing benefits you and your clients. Everyone's on the same page and everybody wins. Okay, fair enough. So then there's a graphic image with text over it and it says, does your price menu look like this? Partial 125Half head 250Full head 325Root touch 95All over color 125Like very standardized pricing menu, right? Here are some things to take into consideration. There's one major theme here, limitation. First and foremost, a la carte is outdated based off today's services and trends alone. Partials used to be a mohawk of foils. Half head was the parietal up and full was a three hour foil. That's simply not how we do hair anymore. There's baby lights, teasy lights, balayage foliage, low light. So many techniques implemented to achieve one look. Totally like blonding has evolved from the days where it was like highlights or like pulling through a Cap, right? Like we've come a long way. Right off the bat your verbiage is confusing. A full head but giant spaced apart painted sections you can bang out in 20 minutes. A partial but micro sliced foils that take precision and time. A balayage that's really four different techniques in one to achieve an inspo pict. It's confusing for the client when the services sound like one thing and the process looks like another. So now let's talk about add ons. Your client sees 250 half head on your menu and books with you. But now that they're in your chair, you let them know that it will be an additional 30 for a treatment, 45 for a smudge root, 24 for another conditioning treatment and 10 each extra bowl of color. Suddenly their bows from 250 to 375. Your client's saying no thanks, I don't want the treatment or I want to skip the smudge route. Just half the head please. The ball should never be in the client's court. And no, this isn't about making a sale or we are the professionals and we know the exact tools and steps required to give our clients the best results safely. Clients don't understand the value and necessity the way that we do. They're not always going to choose to spend $100 more than they budgeted and I don't blame them. That's why I don't provide a choice. The same goes for a root touch up when a glaze is separate. That means my client can choose whether or not they want to spend the extra money on refreshing the dull ends, neutralizing brass or adding rich depth. I don't want to have to fight my way to giving my clients the best hair. I want that to be the non negotiable standard of what happens when they sit in my chair. If they don't need a glaze, I'll throw on a treatment. Either way there's no skimping. So what's the solution? Okay, so before I get to the solution, I want to identify the problems that this person is pointing out. So one of the biggest red flags to me and I think the reason why this post was sent to me is it was sent by a student of mine who said I'm confused. This business coach is saying that a la carte pricing is outdated based on today's services and trends alone. I do not agree on that. I have had the benefit of really taking a good deep look at a lot of stylists, businesses and pitfalls and success stories. And I've been able to see a lot of trends, which does give me an advantage a lot of people don't have. And I'll be the first to admit it. So I get to see a lot more data. And we started coaching to pricing using different formats and methods based on a couple of different things. One, whether a stylist specializes or not, and two, how sophisticated their business is. When I look at the data of the people I've coached and people who have made pricing mistakes, a la carte is the way that most stylists should be pricing themselves. It simply is. And I said most and I meant most. When we shift to something that is not a la carte, it's done strategically, it's something that gets graduated into. So a la carte is one method of pricing, then there's hourly pricing and then there's session based, which we're going to talk about in a second. Those are the three methods that I coach to in my coaching program, Thriver Society. There's probably other ways to price and format things also. Those are probably the three most common. Oh, and then there's hybrid. Then hybrid is something that we do as well. But it's not talked about in this post, so it's not really relevant here. That being said, I do still think all three of those systems are relevant. I don't think a la carte is outdated like this post says. So if you're charging a la carte, please don't be like, oh my gosh, I shouldn't do it. It's outdated, it's off trend. The data that I've looked at doesn't show that. And for some of you it is the smartest way to price yourself based on the clientele that you have now. Not for everybody. And we'll talk about when that changes for sure. Then this post goes on to talk about a client sees, you know, one price point for they called it a half head of foils, but it could be anything. They see a price for a tent, they see a price for a half head, whatever. And then they come in for the consultation and the stylist verbally says, like, listen, in order to achieve this result, I would suggest, you know, this bond building treatment, I would suggest a conditioning treatment, a toner, a haircut, whatever it is. And so when that's the way that as it goes in the client's mind, they booked for a partial highlight and now you've increased their ticket by 30% and they have sticker shock. That sucks. And we want to avoid that completely. That I totally agree on this concept, that that's what happens for every stylist. I don't think is true. But I also don't think this, this business coach was saying that either. I think they're more saying what I agree with, which is like pricing transparency is very important and a client should know their price before they come in. I do think that's the crux of a lot of what this post is trying to say and that I agree with 110%. I think you nailed it on that. That. So here's where it gets a little off for me is this post goes into the solution being something called tiers. I call tiers session based pricing. I used to call it block based booking. There's lots of different ways to talk about this method of pricing. This business coach happens to call it tiers. So they say tiers create a tiered system that includes all the bells and whistles and quote accordingly. Your client's getting a tier three. That's it. They know the price and you have the freedom. You know your product cost and time is covered and you can go soup to nuts and pull out all the stops and get them from a full highlight to a dimensional caramel teddy bear. Because reverse balayage with a side of low lights, painting baby lights and a tip out isn't on your menu. Then this person says, like the sound of removing sticker shock overselling and holding back on creating a masterpiece. And then this person has a resource to walk you through their tiered pricing method. So I was like, oh, okay, interesting. I clicked on this person's Instagram bio and I clicked their link in bio. And for me, whenever somebody is coaching to a concept like this, I'm like, interesting. I want to see how they're doing it because maybe there is something in the sauce that they're doing that I just don't understand. Like there's a chance that somebody's doing something really innovative I've never even heard of before. And you'll see in the next share I give you. Somebody totally is. And I found them in this process too. But I was like, okay, let's see how this person's doing it. So I took a look at their website to see what booking looks like. I clicked on the website. The space is gorgeous. The website itself is simple. Very simple. When I take a look, I can see a couple of things. I have a few photos of the space, a breakdown of what their guest experience is like, and it looks dreamy for sure. Then it says, check out our artists and there's names of all the stylists. Then I have the option to fill out a virtual consultation, in which case the salon coordinator will get back to me and I'm going to assume, like walk me through booking my appointment, which is great. Or I have the option to just book online. Now, when I click to check out any of the artists, if I click on any of the names, it opens up their Instagram. I don't see on the website and I don't see on the Instagram anything about prices or services or anything. So for me, as the person who's looking at this, I want to see the services. That's the whole point. So I clicked on book online and I was like, okay, let's see how they're doing this tiered thing. And opened up. And I have two options. I can either choose by services or choose by staff. When I open up services, let me tell you the services listed on the booking page. Balayage full head highlight, glaze, gray base blending, hairline single half head highlight, individual foil. Add on single process, Single process with individual foils. So that's, I don't know, eight or so what I would consider to be like a la carte color services. And I didn't expect to see that because I thought we were coaching to this tiered pricing. And then I went down and then I saw the tiers. There's tier one, which is 80 bucks. Tier two, which is 250. Tier three, which is 350. And tier four, which is 450. Okay. So I was like, okay, there it is. Now I see it. So what it looks like as a client is I can pick and choose. I can either choose these a la carte things or I can choose the tiers. So I was like, let me get to know more about the tier. So I clicked on tier one. There's a button that says see info, then it says 80 bucks. Our tiered services are designed to prevent the sticker shock that often comes with a la carte services. We don't charge extra for for bowl mixes, bond strengthening treatments, deep conditioners, glazes, smudge roots, etc. The price includes the entire color service and whatever it takes to achieve the look you're going for so you know exactly what you'll be paying at the time of checkout. Please note our receptionist will reach out via text to confirm that you've booked the appropriate service. So don't worry if you aren't 100% sure upon choosing. So the process is a new guest, I'm going to assume books one of these tiers if they didn't choose an a la carte option. So they're choosing tier 1, 2, 3 or 4. And then the reception cross checks it, reaches out out to them, gets more details about what they're looking for, make sure that what they're looking for is actually what they booked within their tier and then either shifts them to a different tier or confirms that they're in the right tier. But there's no way to be certain that they're booking the correct tier at time of booking. With the way this is laid out. That's what it looks like, that there's like this cross check system. So then it says for tier one, for minor changes, face frames, low light, subtle dimension, partial or full head service, depending on the desired result and hair density. So let me ask you, if you were a client, you're like, I'm sold on this salon. And you've got this tier one thing. And it says for minor changes, face frames, low light, subtle dimension, partial or full head service, depending on the desired result in hair density. It doesn't say anything about haircuts, blow dries, anything like that. So if I just want to face frame, I'm going to book this for 80 and then I don't know what else it includes. So maybe that's why the coordinator reaches out to me. I'm not sure about that part. And then if I Click on Tier 2, oh wait, wait, I take it back when I go to book one of these tiers. Interesting. Okay, so I choose my tier and it says 80 bucks or whatever. Then the next screen that pops up is styling. So now it's add ons. So it says bang, trim, barbering, blowout, conditioning treatment, haircut. So now I'm confused because I chose a tier and I thought the tier was inclusive. But then the next option that pops up is do I want to pay 25 for a conditioning treatment? I'm not sure. Yeah, I'm confused. So if I'm a client, I'm a little confused as to what's happening in this booking process. Okay, so I'm going to go to tier two, I'm going to click info. And then for tier two, it starts with the same description but then it says for moderate changes, full head, lightning service. So is a moderate change like a root touch up? Is it a big haircut? I'm not sure that we don't have details on that. And then if I click on the Tier 3. Under Tier 3, it actually still says Tier 1, but then it says for large dramatic color overhauls or full head detailed lightning work on extra thick or long hair. For me, when I look at this concept, it's similar to what I see stylists and salons struggle with when they a don't have a well built website. A well built website with great service descriptions and a clear pricing menu will work fine. Whether you're a la carte session based. I coach to session base, which is very similar to tears and the way that we do the sessions, you have to have very clear verbiage on what's included and how it works and what's not included. And I think that's a piece that's missing in this one. The other thing too is when I went to book, it looked like they're still offering both a la carte and this tiered. So maybe they're in the transition. They're just like testing and working it out. But I think when you're in the phase, when you're testing and working it out, it might just be a little early to like create a guide on how to make this tiered pricing when it feels like we're just getting started with it or it's in process. Just my two cents. And like I said, the concept itself, there's really good parts to it. This is where coaching sometimes makes me nervous because I think this person has a good idea. Has it been well thought through enough and well researched enough for them to coach on the nuances and the intricacies and the challenges and when this fails and what to do if it does and how you know if this is right for you, I'm not sure. And maybe there's more information somewhere that I'm not seeing that breaks it all down. It was hard because I wasn't able to see it worked out clearly in practice on their website to be like totally sold on it either. So this was one for me. That was a three. It was like cool concept. I see some good parts to it. I think it just wasn't maybe be fully fleshed out now. I saved the best for last because this last one is a five. I thought it was so smart and I'm gonna fully give credit because this person, I'm like shouting from the rooftop and saying is amazing. So this person's Instagram handle is at Madison Kelly and Kelly is K E L L E Y dot M U A so makeup artist. It's a carousel. And it says I stopped taking deposits as a Bridal makeup artist, which is, like, very controversial for somebody in the wedding space. And I was like, ooh, interesting. Most makeup artists require 50% upfront to secure a date. But I realized something. I was doing hours of work before the wedding day and not getting paid for it. Emails, timeline, scheduling, trial coordination, constant communication. That's real work. So I changed my structure. Booking fee up front, full service total due later. My booking fee covers reserving your date and making it unavailable to others. Backend admin work, communication, and planning, usually about a year's worth. For me, this means I get paid consistently throughout the year instead of waiting for months. And then when the wedding comes, I'm receiving 100% payment for the work I'm doing that day, not just the remaining balance for my brides. It's actually easier, too. Lower upfront cost, less financial stress early on, easier to collect from the bridal party later. A small fee to save your date and start the magic behind the scenes. No more having to come up with your hundreds of dollars a year before your wedding. Makeup artist, would you ever switch from deposits to booking fees? Let's start the conversation below. I thought this was very smart. Very smart. Because imagine if Madison has a bride who requires an overabundance of calls, an overabundance of emails, wants to have an extra consultation, and now she's kind of in a tough spot where she's like, ugh, I said that this was the charge. And now she's got to go back and be like, well, now you're, you know, adding things on, so now it's gonna be more. And you potentially have an upset bride versus. She's completely changed the context. And she can, like, you know, Absolutely. We can definitely do an additional consultation that will impact your final full service total due later. And I can just add that on. It just. It's a reframe. It's like a very small reframe that to what Madison is saying really impacts her cash flow, makes it easier to work with her as a bride, and it puts her in the full driver seat of what the final bill total will be. I just think this is genius. So, like, Madison, thank you for sharing this. Thank you for breaking it down in full for me. It was like, oh, wow, that's innovation. I just really, really liked it. And just props to you because I think it's just a genius concept. And I hope a few more people or hundreds or thousands of more people hear this too, and get inspired by you, because I think you're up to big things. Okay, let me know what you think. I'd love to hear more about it. Leave a rating or review on itunes if you like this format that send me anything you have questions about in the Instagram DMs. My hope and goal through this is never to make anybody look or feel bad. It's simply to prevent people from feeling misled or potentially taking bad advice. My goal is for everybody who educates to be incredible and make positive impact and all good things. So much love. Happy business building. I'll see you on the next one.