The Aspiring Stylist with Tracey Franklin

Morgan Franklin: Welcome to the
Aspiring Stylists Podcast with

Tracey Franklin. Where to
begin,grow and aspire to become

the best stylist you can
be.Whether you're thinking about

becoming a stylist opening a
salon, or developing your skills

as an experienced stylist the
next step of your beauty career

starts here. Each week we'll
discuss strategic ways to

design, plan and execute on
becoming a stylist that excels

behind the chair and above the
bottom line. Here's your

host,Tracey Franklin.

Tracey Franklin: So I want to
share my predictions for the

beauty industry. But in order to
talk about the future, we need

to take it back to the
beginning, I'd love to share

some of the things that were
really popular early on in my

career and how they've evolved.

One of the things that has
completely changed since I

entered the beauty industry is
how your clients find you.

Imagine opening up a phonebook
and looking in the Yellow Pages

for a place to get your haircut.

I know that's really hard to
even imagine right now. But that

is literally how people used to
do it. And it was really

expensive, like anything bigger
in the phonebook than like a

business card was I don't know,
like $1,000. And so when I first

started out, I just had a small
three chair salon. So I took out

that little business card ad
size in the yellow pages. And

that was how people would find
me. Another way is I would go

places and I would hand out
flyers, I would come up with

specials and discounts. And I
would go stand at the local

college and I would stand in
front of grocery stores, I would

go to career fairs, and you
know, the fair and places like

that, and really just have to
promote myself in person. And

that's just kind of unheard of
these days. And then of course,

business cards, I still think a
lot of business cards, I know

there's lots of really cool ways
to exchange information with

people, but I still like an old
school business card. And I

still usually have some in my
purse. But those were like the

top three ways that clients
would find me back when I

started. Another thing that's
really changed his hair

extensions. Now if you've
listened to a few of my

episodes, you probably know how
passionate I am about hair

extensions. It's one of my
favorite things. And back in the

day, you know, we were applying
these strand by strand hair

extensions. And it took all day
and it was 1000s of dollars. And

hardly anybody could get them
right, like really wealthy

people, celebrities, pageant
girls, things like that those

were the only people that were
really willing to sit that long

and willing to pay that much
money for longer hair. So let's

fast forward to even 10 years
ago, when people were finding

your business through your
website. You know, that was the

most common way for people to
find you. They would Google

hairstylist or salons in their
community, and they'd get a list

of salons and then they would
click on them. And they would

you know, kind of look through
the menu and they would look at

the gallery of pictures. And the
thing about that was you know,

for the salon, it was great, but
it really didn't help promote

any individual stylists, you
know, it was just promoting the

salon itself. But at least it
was something right, you could

go on, you could look at the
pictures and make sure at least

someone in that salon knew how
to do good hair before you tried

it. So let's talk about hair
extensions. 10 years ago with

hair extensions was the tape
extensions, the Tape In Hair

Extensions are all the rage.

It's completely blowing
everyone's mind how different

this technique is. I know for
me, for the first time ever, I

was finally willing to wear hair
extensions. I was always willing

to perform the service. But it
just wasn't for me when we were

doing those strand by strand
because I never really thought

they looked that good. But when
I got certified to do tape and

extensions, and I was seeing
these incredible makeovers that

I was able to do on women in an
hour or less. I was like, oh

yeah, this is for me. So I
personally became someone that

wore hair extensions. And quite
honestly, I've never looked

back. So let's bring it up to
speed to today where we heavily

rely on social media. And let me
start by saying like, I

understand that this industry
changes at such a pace, it can

feel really scary. And it can
feel overwhelming, like you're

always behind, like you're never
going to catch up. But I think

social media is one of the best
things that's ever happened to

our industry. So I know things
change in this industry at a

rate that can feel a little bit
scary sometimes and a little bit

overwhelming, like you're always
behind. But hairstyles are being

able to be seen in a way right
now and represented in a way

right now that they never have
been able to be before. And

that's all thanks to social
media. So you know, sometimes

change is good, and that's why
it's so important that we're

always willing to evolve. Same
with hair extensions, you know,

now we're working more with WEPs
than we are individual pieces

and that's being able to give
you know women more hair and

less time I think it's important
to talk about why as a creative

service provider, being able to
pivot and adapt is the name of

the game. If you weren't
growing, you're dying. And so

making hard decisions is a huge
part of growth. And one of the

hardest decisions I ever had to
make in this industry was

raising my prices. 20% Let me
give you a little perspective, I

got in this space in my head.

And in my business where I
didn't give myself a price

increase for four years, for
some reason I had let fear take

over. And I was so worried that
I would lose clients, if I raise

my prices that I just became
paralyzed by that fear. And the

thing is, my book was full, like
I was experiencing immense

success. But sometimes we get in
our head about stuff. And fear

was just a huge thing. For me, I
loved my clients so much, I

couldn't even imagine losing one
of them. But what that did is it

put me in this capacity, you
know, where like, I wasn't able

to take new clients. And looking
back on that, that wasn't a

really great decision for me,
because new clients are

exciting. new clients are a new
opportunity to make a new

connection. And wow, someone for
the first time, you know,

there's a level of excitement
with a new client that just is

different from a consistent
client that you typically see.

And I had just gotten to the
point where I wasn't able to

take anybody new because my book
was full. And to be quite

honest, I wasn't educated on how
to measure the metrics, I didn't

really know whether or not I
qualified for a raise. And

that's why I think it's so
important to create partnerships

with people that know more than
you know, so that they can shed

light on the changes that need
to be made in your business. So

raising my prices, 20% was a
really hard decision for me. But

after I made it, I was so
surprised to find out that some

of my clients were like, it's
about time, we were wondering

when you were going to have a
price increase. It made me feel

good. But it also made me feel a
bit like a fool. Like what was

holding me back. Why was I so
paralyzed by this fear that

everyone would leave me, at the
end of the day, you don't have a

choice, guys with inflation, you
have to raise your prices, or

you are literally doing the same
amount of work for less money.

If you think about it, when the
cost of hair color goes up, and

the cost of gloves, co op and
everything goes up bills, rent,

everything is going to be
raised, because that's just the

way inflation works. If you
don't raise your prices, you're

making less money. It's so
important that you pay attention

to what's going on in the
economy, and that you raise your

prices whenever expenses go up.

So in an industry that is ever
changing, it's probably hard to

imagine getting bored, right?

Like feeling stale in your job.

But it happens. Stylists burnout
is a very real thing. And it's

really important that you're
paying attention to the signs

because they will show up. And
they'll start screaming if

you're not listening to the
whispers. So you need to be

paying attention to the things
that you're thinking when you're

looking at your book, like are
you looking at your book, and

you're completely uninspired.

And you see you know, Sally on
your book, again, for the same

thing she always gets, well,
it's probably time to level up,

it's probably time to learn
something new and get out of

your funk. There's no reason to
get stale in this industry. It's

okay that you do but it's
important that you pay attention

to the signs and do something
about it. So how do you identify

new trends and be a leader in
this industry? I hear this

saying a lot that you either
need to be the first or the best

and I hate to break it to you.

But in the beauty industry, you
are never going to be first but

you can be the best you can
always be your best. One of the

best parts about being a
hairstylist in the AI boom is

that chat GPT is never going to
take your job. A robot is not

going to be cutting hair anytime
soon. But that doesn't mean that

technology and techniques aren't
evolving and that you need to

evolve to because you do how
cool is it that you can

literally get on YouTube and
watch a video of Chris Appleton

doing Kim Kardashians hair in
the morning and then go straight

to the salon and recreate that
same look in the afternoon. When

I think about the evolution of
that idea alone, it completely

blows my mind. Looking for
inspiration, even 10 years ago

was like flipping through, you
know hair magazines and old hair

books and looking through the
Enquirer and just trying to find

out what the celebrities were
doing with their hair. But there

were no How to videos like there
are today. Content is widely

available for anyone who's
willing to take a few minutes to

level up their skills. So how do
you become a leader in this

industry? How do you position
your itself as a stylist that

not only knows what the trends
are, but are actually bringing

them to the chair. I do consider
myself to be an industry leader,

not only in my local community,
but nationally. So how did I do

it, I did it by never sitting
still, I did it by constantly

elevating myself. And, you know,
I was willing to do the things

that other people weren't
willing to do. And when this

industry calls you to pivot, you
have to be willing to do so I'll

use social media as a really
good example, posting pictures

of your work just does not pack
the same punch that it used to

people are not responding to
that type of content anymore.

Video is king. And I tried to
ignore that for a really long

time. And I saw my social media
declining in a major way. So I

decided to just give it a try. I
said, Okay, I'm going to make

some of these reels, some of
them are going to be

educational, some of them are
going to be funny, some of them

are going to, you know, touch on
some of the more tender topics.

And I noticed, you know, a huge
surge in the amount of people

that were liking my content and
following my page. And it's

really great when you finally
give in to something and it was

the right decision all along.

You have to pay attention to
what's going on and what's

trending and what's changing
about our industry, and you have

to be willing to pivot with it.

So what are some of the biggest
changes that I'm seeing in the

industry in 2023? I gotta say
it's technology. I think

technology is impacting most
industries right now. And the

beauty industry is no different.

One of the really cool things
that we've implemented in the

salon and at Aspire is the fish
technology. So there's a company

out there called Vish, and it is
a color weighing system that is

designed to help reduce the
color waste in your salon. And

it also has a ton of other
benefits, we're able to store

all of the clients formulations.

So if a client comes in and has
to see a different stylist,

everything that we've used on
her hair is saved in the

software. And that makes sure
that the client gets a

consistent experience, no matter
which stylists they have to see

with as being a green salon, we
really love the way that this

helps us reduce the waste. Not
only does it help the

environment, but it also helps
the bottom line, it tells us

exactly how much color we need
to mix up for that particular

guest when they come back for
their next appointment. So we're

not mixing up some standard
formulation that the

manufacturer recommends. This is
a very customized color

formulation, including the
amount that the guests needs, so

we're not wasting any color on
their service. One of my

favorite things about the kits
for the Aspire barber and Beauty

Academy is the iPads that they
get. So they are learning on a

digital platform. And so what
that means is we have replaced

standard textbooks and workbooks
with an iPad and their entire

curriculum can be found
digitally. And they also do all

of their tests and all of their
book work on these iPads as

well. And I think they are
thrilled with the technology.

And I think it's really easy for
them to access anywhere. So

something I really see changing
with clients and I think will

change even more over the next
five to 10 years is their

expectations for their
appointments. So you used to be

lucky if a client was willing to
book their next appointment. And

now it's very common place for a
client to book out their

appointments for the entire
year. Now, that's not to say

that, you know, something may
come up and that a rescheduling

may have to take place. But I
find that these days when a

client finds a stylist that they
really click with. And when

they're really happy with the
work that the stylist does, they

want to make sure they have that
appointment time, especially if

they're busy. If they're a busy
mom, and they work a really

tight schedule, they want to
make sure that they're able to

come in and get their hair done
when they need it done. So if

you are still writing your
appointments down in a notebook,

then you are way behind the
times you absolutely need to

have online scheduling. And you
need to make it as easy as

possible for clients to find you
and book with you. So we can

make all the predictions in the
world about what's coming for

our industry. But at the end of
the day, your success and your

future in this industry is up to
you. You need to make sure that

you're honoring yourself and
taking care of yourself as a

stylist and that looks a lot of
different ways. Making sure that

you are pivoting with this
industry is not only good for

your clients, but it's also
really good for you. Find out

what you're good at and become
an artist of your craft. You

don't have to be good at
everything. You don't need to

keep up with every single trend
but you do need to find what

makes you happy and you need to
go for it. And you need to get

really, really good at it so
that you can do more of it. This

industry is not for the weak,
it's physically emotionally and

mentally draining. And if you
ever feel like you're constantly

trying to get ahead you're never
going to catch up every stylists

needs to see themselves in their
future. What makes you happy?

What kind of work do you want to
do? What brings you joy? Fill

your own cup burst and then you
can pour into others.

Morgan Franklin: Thank you for
joining us on this episode of

The Aspiring Stylist Podcast
with Tracey Franklin. If you

enjoyed listening and you want
to hear more, make sure you

subscribe on Apple
Podcast,Spotify or wherever you

find your podcasts. The Aspiring
Stylist Podcast with Tracey

Franklin is a Morgan Franklin
Production. Today's episode was

written and produced by Morgan
Franklin editing and post

production by Mike Franklin.Want
to find out more about Tracey

and the Aspiring Barber and
Beauty Academy go to

aspirebarberandbeauty.com