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? Britt Seva here about to blow your mind this week, so just take a seat as you listen to this episode or be ready to listen back to it a time or two. Cause this is going to be one for the record books.
You may have seen it coming across your social media feed (or if you’re an email subscriber, it already hit your inbox), but I released something that I’ve been using as a tool behind the scenes for years. We have finally boxed it up in a beautiful bow ready for you so you can have a deep-dive analysis into exactly where your business is today and what you need to do to get to where you want to be. I call that tool The Four Stylist Archetype Framework.
I’m going to break the framework down for you here on this episode, but I’m going to break it down in broad strokes. So if you want to know where you actually fall within this archetype, you’re going to have to go to brittseva.com/quiz. From there, you’ll be able to answer a series of eight questions. We will email you your results with a breakdown of what you should be working on based on the stage your business is in today.
Now, if you want to dive even deeper, you’re going to want to sign up for the masterclass that I’m hosting on Sunday, September 20. You can not even register yet, but I promise we will keep the registration updates coming here on the podcast.
And also if you are registered at brittseva.com/quiz, we’ll be sure to get you all signed up as well, so make sure you register for the quiz today.
I’m going to break down for you, the four archetypes as a whole, so you can have a better understanding of who you are, where you are, and where you want to be.
Now, before we dive in, I should probably go back in time and explain to you how these archetypes came to be. I started coaching stylists and salon owners back in 2012. When I was first coaching, I was terrified. I had this ever-going thought running through my mind of “Who am I to be coaching people? What do I know that they don’t know? What if somebody hires me as their coach and ends up disappointed? What if I leave them walking away, feeling let down?”
It was a terror. And once I had coached, I don’t know, 10, 11, 12 stylists and salon owners, I began to see these patterns. I started being less nervous walking into the coaching meetings because I was like, “Well, it’s going to be one of these few things that they really need help with,” and within four or five minutes of starting the coaching session, it was very clear to me where they were, what we needed to work on, and what the path was going to be to get there.
It took me years to really define all of the patterns and sum them all up into a way that really makes sense. In the past five years especially, I’ve really refined the framework and I’m really excited to share with you guys the archetypes that I’ve uncovered through my years of coaching.
The first archetype is the Struggling Stylist.
The struggling stylist has plenty of free time, but they’re barely getting by. So for all of us, everybody listening to this, you were the struggling stylist on day one. Day one when you first took your first paying client, you were the struggling stylist because you had plenty of time on your books and not a ton of money.
There’s nobody in the industry who day one, first time they open and close their shears outside of beauty school, was making 200 grand. There just isn’t.
We all started off as struggling. Now, some of you have graduated beyond that. Some of you never have, some of you graduated beyond it and then slipped back to it, right? There can be a boomerang effect with all of these archetypes, but the Struggling Stylist is categorized as having plenty of free time, barely getting by the challenges you’ve got the time, but what you really need is the clients.
If you’re a booth renter or a studio suite owner, you likely choose to rent just a few days a week because you can’t afford to pay full-time rent because you don’t have the clientele to do so, right?
You’d like to fill three to four days a week behind the chair, but you don’t have the base clientele to do that. You go to the salon when you’ve got clients on your books, hang out when you can try and get walk-ins, but you find yourself really only going into the salon a few hours.
Most days, the thought of paying rent is suffocating. Sometimes because there just isn’t a lot of extra cash to give, it’s stressful but you want to make this work. The Struggling Stylist is dedicated to the industry. They desperately want to make it happen, but they almost feel trapped in an endless cycle.
Now, if you’re the Struggling Stylist, but you’re a commission stylist, your story is similar, but it’s got some nuances. You’re trying to work your way up your salon’s commission scale program, but it feels futile. It feels like running in quicksand. You are working, you show up, you do what’s expected of you, but progress really isn’t happening and you can’t seem to earn any more money or days on the floor. Your base clientele isn’t growing quickly and you’re becoming increasingly frustrated.
You feel like you’d enjoy working as an administrative assistant somewhere. At least you’d be less bored and you probably make more money and this salon job doesn’t feel like it’s going anywhere anyway.
Can I get an amen on that?
Any commission stylists who can echo that story? I saw tons of stylists in my salon who were in this boat, who felt running in the quicksand for years. Like they couldn’t catch a break.
Now, what if you’re a salon owner who’s also the Struggling Stylist? You don’t know how you got here. There was a time your business was booming, but slowly over the years, it seems like clientele dried up a bit. Don’t get me wrong, you still got a solid handful of your ride or dies who come in faithfully, but business certainly isn’t growing and you seem to have more gaps in your schedule than ever before.
You want to lead your salon team, absolutely, but you want to have your own solid clientele too, and business isn’t feeling secure. Where are my salon owners at getting a little choked up? Hearing me say that I see you? I feel you, I’ve coached you, I know what you’re going through. And there is a way to get to the flip side.
So what’s missing? If you fall into this Struggling Stylist category, what is missing in your business? For me, the Struggler is always lacking direction. You need to focus on building a solid base clientele. We can get fancy with specialty service, more layers, pricing, nuances, all of that stuff later, but we need to get this phase solid.
You should use your extra time to execute a marketing strategy. When it’s tempting to use the extra time to take a run with the dog or just enjoy an afternoon to yourself, you won’t break this endless cycle until you get down and dirty with your marketing.
I remember seeing Struggling stylists in my salon who were like, “Hey, who’s got an hour and a half to kill? Let’s go to the clothing boutique down the street and spend our entire paycheck there.” Retail therapy, right?
I understand why we do that. It makes us feel better. It’s painful to sit in the back of the salon, your mind starts to race of like, “Oh my gosh, how am I going to pay my rent? How am I going to do it?” and you panic. It’s so much easier to be distracted or to say, “Well, I don’t have any clients this afternoon. Might as well enjoy the time I have and do something amazing with my friends.”
I understand why we would make that choice. You will never break the cycle until you stop that habit. You need to embrace the fact that you have time and with small shifts, you can use that time more wisely to grow quickly.
It will not always be like this. Once you become a scaler—which we’re going to talk about in a second—you’ll have the free time and plenty of money and you’ll get to have it all.
Whenever I coach a stylist, you’ll hear me say this: “It’s short term sacrifice for a long term game.” So when I coach the Struggler, do I expect them to show up and do more? Yeah, but do I expect them to do that long term? Heck no. Nobody wants to. How can I expect that? But for the short term, we must.
That sums up our Struggler.
Then we have the second archetype, the Sacrifice Stylist. The Sacrifice Stylist has no free time but is financially comfortable. So the complete opposite of the struggler: zero free time, tons of money.
For a lot of us, we’re like, “Pfff, sacrifice stylist seems to have it all. All I want is more money.” Not true. If you talk to a Sacrifice Stylist, they are some of the most miserable people in the industry right now and they don’t know how they got here.
Sacrifice Stylists have a solid income level, but you might as well move into the salon because you are working long, hard days to earn those dollars in your bank account. If you’re a booth renter, a commission stylist, or a studio suite owner, you are the stylist we all grew up wishing we could be.
Some of you are admired and revered right now. We’re asking you for advice. How did you do it? We’re looking up to you.
Like you have everything: booming clientele, eight to 12 hour workdays, five days a week or more behind the chair, you’re booked out six weeks or more with a waitlist a mile long. Maybe you’re even an educator flying coast to coast.
The problem is your personal life is paying the price and you’re actually, generally speaking, taking a fairly significant financial loss.
“What? That sounds crazy. What do you mean, Britt?”
Some of today’s top stylists are in this boat, 110%. Here’s why: they’re overbooked and because sacrifice stylists have closed the flow of new business, they’ve tapped out.
And if you’re booked out six, eight, 12, 14 weeks, you can say your books are open. I am telling you, you’re tapping out. I am telling you it is a slow decline from here. The only room to grow is by expanding your schedule, which you can’t do. You’re already maxed out and you can’t take those new guests. So you’re literally losing $12,000 to $50,000 a year, depending on your price point.
However, we look up to you like you’ve checked all the boxes, you’ve done all the things. And this is the mind F part of being a Sacrifice Stylist because you have accomplished everything we were taught in beauty school, we’re working so hard to earn. You’re working nights. You’re working weekends. You’re working everything in between. Maybe you’re a bridal stylist giving up your weekends all summer long. You can’t remember what it feels like to take a lunch break. There is so much pressure to do more than it is practically suffocating you.
Now, if you’re a salon owner, do you ever want to scream, “I am not a machine?” Have you ever wanted to say that? “Doesn’t anybody see me as the human being I am?”
Because I’m sure it feels like your team sees you that way. You’re a max capacity and the money doesn’t even feel worth it anymore. You’re being pulled a million directions all the time. Your family says they miss seeing you and you’re like, I’m missing myself too. I’ve lost myself in this process. You know you want to have more time to lead your team, but because you have so much pressure to serve your clientele, and honestly you need that cash, you get annoyed when your stylists want your attention.
You wish you could have the time to lead them. You truly want it, but you are already completely overwhelmed and you feel like you are on a train ride that just won’t slow down. There’s no light at the end of the tunnel. You can’t see a way out and the money isn’t worth it.
That categorizes the Sacrifice stylists and salon owner, and that represents the bulk of the people I currently coach privately. I don’t even advertise private coaching, but there are some people in the industry who were like, “Honestly, if I joined Thrivers, I’d be a little bit embarrassed that people would see me needing this level of coaching at the level that I’ve achieved.” And I get it because it sidelines you; it’s almost like a curve ball. You can’t even imagine that a stylist would end up in this position. Because like I said, we look at them as if they’ve achieved all the things, and then you have all the things, and you’re like, “Somebody take it back. Like what in the heck did I join this industry for? This is where I’m supposed to land?”
It’s not where you’re supposed to land. That’s old school. There is a better way.
The Sacrifice Stylist is lacking structure. They need to focus on raising prices, cutting back their schedule…and you can’t just do a price increase. Well, you can, but it’s not going to work out. You’re getting that back in misery, like you were before.
You should maximize each guest’s value. And for the record, I don’t mean see your guests as a sales opportunity. That’s not the way I coach. I mean, step back, reconsult ensure you’re truly serving all guests in full.
You also need to create the margin for magic, which is if you’ve joined me for Hair Stylist Business-Building Bootcamp in the past—which we are not hosting the season, sorry guys. I know there’s a huge demand for it. We’re doing something new and fresh this year—but you’ve likely heard me talk about the margin for magic.
Generally speaking, sacrificed stylists and sacrifice salon owners don’t have a margin for freaking anything. They don’t have a margin for a lunch break, much less a margin for magic with every guest they see and it’s a major missed opportunity.
You need to get clear on your priorities. What do you really want out of this career? What do you want out of this lifetime and are the choices you are making actually creating that reality for you?
Now we have the third archetype. We got the Sinking Stylist. No free time, barely getting by. So no time, no money. You’ve got a huge list of things you should be doing yet. You never seem to make progress and you really need results.
Like right this second, if you’re a booth renter, commission stylist, or studio suite owner, you feel like you’re drowning. You really want to build up a solid and growing base but you’re living paycheck to paycheck. You’ve got your hands full with kids, maybe even a second job, or life’s other distractions, so the thought of finding additional time to market your business, take a class or pick up an extra day feels impossible.
Maybe you’ve put off a price increase. Maybe you’re the discount stylist king or queen; either way, things have to change or this industry is going to swallow you whole.
Raise your hand if you’ve said, “I know I got to get better about marketing, but I don’t have the time.” “I know I’ve got to take such and such a program, but I don’t have the time and I don’t have the money.” “What if I could, but I can’t.”
And then you’re in this crossroads of, “I don’t have time for my kids. I don’t have time for my work and I can’t pay my bills.” Desperate.
Desperate is a great way to describe the Sinking Stylist. If you’re a salon owner, you question why you ever thought about being a salon owner. Why was this ever a good idea? You’re on the verge of going broke. You’re exhausted. And yet the work that needs to be done just to stay above water keeps piling up. It feels like you’re running on a hamster wheel.
You keep working around the clock yet your income never comes close to covering the bills. You feel like you’re failing as a stylist, failing as an owner, and are on the verge of throwing in the towel.
Salon owners, I know I hit you in the feels with that one too. Again, I see you. I see you every day. I hear your cries in my DMs. I see you on social media. I’ve walked by your salons. I know the pain that you were experiencing.
Sinking Stylist, I’ve been you. I was sharing a car with my husband. We had a beautiful three-year-old daughter at home and we were living off government aid, trying to get by. I know what this feels like and it was not for lack of effort. It had nothing to do with that. We were truly sinking and desperation hit.
So what’s missing for the Sinking Stylist? The Sinking Stylist is desperate. Sinking Stylists have to go all-in on building their clientele.
I know it feels like you don’t have the time or you don’t have the money. You have to make it work. This is a time for short-term sacrifice for long-term gain. Not forever, but for now.
You have to commit to at least 365 days to dig deep, push hard, develop a marketing strategy and go all in. If you change nothing, nothing changes. The effort you’ve put in up until this point got you here today, so do you think that continuing to do those same things is going to change your reality? That’s the definition of insanity: doing the same thing over and over and over again, expecting a different result.
It’s not going to happen. You have to make a change.
You have to embrace the idea of short-term sacrifice for longterm gain. No matter how long you’ve been in the industry for, you’re essentially in the startup phase. There are some 20-year veterans in the industry who are currently the Sinking Stylist.
I feel for you. Your story is all too common. You have to look at your business as a startup right now and nurture it as such.
You need to make the time to focus on marketing. Marketing isn’t optional. It’s the fuel in your gas tank. Not all marketing is created equal, and you’ll find that you are much more productive. If your efforts are focused in the right areas versus just throwing stuff at the wall to see what sticks.
Last but not least, the fourth archetype is the Scaling Stylist. Plenty of free time, plenty of money.
Now that is what we are all working for, yet less than 5% of the industry ever achieves it. Scaling Stylists are working a dream schedule, and by dream schedule, I mean no nights, no weekends, unless that’s your bag. Unless you’re like, “I want to only work Saturdays and Sundays and be off all week long with my kids.” That’s cool. Great. If that’s what makes you happy, I’m here for it.
So then the question becomes what’s next? Scaling Stylists have it all. They don’t have to work too hard. They make tons of cash. So they’re done, right? No way. If you’re a booth renter, commission stylist, or studio suite owner, you are living the dream. You only work with dream clients. You’re working two to four days a week, never more than eight hours, just working the days that make you happy.
So what’s next? Who knew you’d get to this place and still want more? That is the crazy caveat to being a Scaling Stylist is those who achieve that level are looking for the what’s next, because those who are driven to that capacity and get to this place are always looking for the what’s next. That’s how they got here in the first place.
Now they’re at a crossroads of how to make a great business, an exceptional business. If there’s one thing I’ve learned, it’s that there’s always a next level.
If you’re a salon owner, you are goals right now. I coach a few of these scaling salon owners and oh my gosh, they make my heart flutter. Like they’re absolutely incredible. They’re running a business that turns profit month after month. They’re never in the red. There’s always a healthy margin to the degree where they don’t even have to take clients anymore. They’re just leading their team full-time or even leading their team part-time with management in place to take on the heavy day-to-day load.
They don’t feel like they have to be at the salon 24/7. They’re able to take vacations without texting their team every single day and checking in. They’ve stopped taking clients or are really close.
So what’s next? That’s a great question and these salon owners are at a crossroads and staring down the barrel of a lot of possibilities.
So what’s next for our Scaler? What is missing for them? Continued improvement on their marketing efforts can allow them to create a business that runs fully on autopilot. They’re able to delegate, organize, and restructure. They’ll have a marketing manager on board, a virtual assistant, and a team supporting them strategically so they don’t have to do too much themselves.
They continue to raise prices and scale back their schedule. If you’re still taking clients, you should have a very limited schedule that doesn’t include working any hours you don’t want to. The focus should be on leading your team.
Even if you’re a solo stylist, like I said, you should have an administrative team supporting you. If you’re at the scaling level, you’ve earned it. You need it. That’s how you’re going to enjoy this livelihood you’ve created. You should be able to delegate much to them. You’re going to focus on the inevitable wealth method, which we cover in Thrivers Society, and this allows you to set yourself up for successful retirement while traveling, contributing to charities you love, and living a full life.
We’re estimated to need at least—wait for it. This stat always gets me—a million dollars cash in the bank per adult at a minimum to modestly sustained in retirement.
I don’t know about you guys. If my parents or in-laws retired with a million, it would be gone. They didn’t retire with anything. I’ll openly say that neither of my parents and my in-laws didn’t successfully retire. They’re not living that big, good life, but even the million would have been gone. It wouldn’t have lasted. When you look at everything that is needed during retirement, you need a strong financial security to make that possible. The value of your home doesn’t count towards that unless you’re planning to sell your home and downsize, but you need that liquid cash in order to safely retire. That’s a really good thing to Google and research yourself. You know, “How much am I going to need in order to retire?”
If you say things like, “I’d never be able to save up $3 million in cash,” that’s not how you do it. It’s wise investments and actually having an investment strategy and a retirement strategy that you start as early as possible that makes that achievable…and it’s never too late to start. Today is the day it has to happen.
If you are Scaler, you’re also able to start a second venture. This is when we can dive into things like education, opening a salon, starting a side business, starting a nonprofit, like doing some really incredible things. Those are the things that are big and sexy and exciting to these Scalers. And some of you are a Sacrifice Stylist or a Struggling Stylist, and you’re like, “Oh, I want all those things. I want to start a nonprofit. I want to be an educator,” awesome. I want those things for you too, but I have to get you scaled first.
Otherwise, all we’re going to do is make a mess. Your salon business is going to suffer. Your new venture is going to suffer. Your lifestyle is going to suffer. Your mental health is going to suffer.
We’ll talk about all of the layers of wealth next week on the episode, but I want you to know I’m here in your corner, working to get you to that Scaler level so I can coach you beyond.
That’s what lights my fire. And I know everybody listening to this episode can get there.
So what I want you to do now is head to brittseva.com/quiz. Take the quiz because likely as I was reading those breakdowns, you identified with a few pieces of each of them, right? Like, “Well, I could have been Struggling. I could have been Scaling. I could have been Sinking. I could have been all of those.” I know.
So go take the quiz, then make sure you join me on Sunday, September 20, for a new masterclass we’re hosting that day. Registration will be available soon and I can’t wait to help you make 20 21 your best year yet.
You guys so much love, happy business building, and I’ll see you on the next one.
