July 14, 2025 • 46 mins
This episode is all about building your clientele. Not from a simple numbers perspective, however. We want to help you build a clientele that is specific to the services and people you WANT. We put together audio from clients and industry professionals to give you strategies, advice, and techniques to fill your books with the people you WANT.
SHOW NOTES:
Ep. 59 - Street Interviews #3 – How clients find their stylist
Ep. 45 - Lucas Doney @lucasdoney
Ep. 160 & 161 - Ryan Weeden @ryan.weeden
Ep. 157 & 158 - Victor ValVerde @victorval
Ep. 126 - Amanda Lyberger @thehairygodmotherr
Ep. 124 - Maximizing Your Success as an Indie Hairdresser w/ @philipwolffhair @nealmhair @dasibstudio & @edithnavarroartist
Video versions of our episodes are on our YouTube channel for you to watch! Subscribe to our channel The Hair Game on YouTube and check out ‘The Hair Game Podcast’ playlist.
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Each rating & review helps us reach more and more of your fellow hair loves, and our goal is to help as many hairdressers as we can find success. Thanks in advance!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:19):
I'm Jessica Warburton.
Hey, this is Ryan Weeden.
Welcome to the Hair Game Podcast.
(00:44):
Here's the question.
Do you have a normal hairstylist that you go to regularly or do you find somebody new eachtime?
You first.
Normal.
Like regular.
Normal one.
Both of you.
Okay.
So when you found your normal hairstylist, how did you find them?
From her.
She's my best friend's best friend.
So.
And it's cheap.
Okay.
(01:05):
That's really funny.
Okay.
So friend.
So friend of a friend.
Okay.
Got it.
Alright, I'm standing here with Carolina.
Hello, Carolina.
Where are from?
very good.
You speak really good English.
Thank you.
Almost zero accent.
Thank you.
Okay, are you in town for just fun?
No, I live here.
you live here?
Okay, very good.
Alright, so here's the question.
(01:26):
Do you go to the same hairdresser every time you go to the salon or do you look forsomebody new?
So far, so many.
Somebody knew each time.
Yeah.
And so how do you search for that hairdresser each time you go?
I think through friends.
Recommendations pretty much.
Recommendations word of mouth through friends.
Any other way?
Have you searched any other way?
(01:47):
Sometimes myself.
Like online or something?
No, I do my hair myself.
Got it.
I noticed that I need help.
That's really funny.
Yeah.
So after you mess it up yourself, you then go look for a hairstyle.
Exactly.
That's awesome.
And then I have to lie to the dresser saying, oh, my friend did it for me.
Yeah, of course.
That's really funny.
OK, so I'm standing here with Rebecca.
(02:09):
Hello, Rebecca.
Where are from?
Charlotte.
Oh, very good.
And what is this line for?
Oh, cool.
Nice.
Who's the guest?
yeah, very good.
That was a pretty good movie.
Okay, so for the hairdresser community, I'm asking you this question.
(02:29):
Do you go to the same hairdresser each time or do you find somebody new?
So if you do a new search, where does that search begin for you?
Where do you look?
(02:53):
And when you search, you search for like geographic hashtags.
You're searching like Charlotte hairdresser or how do you start that?
You heard it right here.
(03:15):
OK, what's your name?
I'm Karina.
Karina, where are you from?
San Francisco Bay Area.
OK, welcome.
Thank you.
So do you go to do a hairstylist uh regularly, same hairstylist, or do you find somebodynew each time?
um I don't go regularly, but for the past two years I've been going to the same one.
OK, good.
And how did you find that hairstylist?
Do you remember?
(03:36):
I was in Ukraine.
OK.
And my aunt suggested me to go to her.
And I've been going for the past two years every summer.
So your aunt in Ukraine gave you word of mouth to a hairdresser in San Francisco?
No, in Ukraine.
So maybe that's why you don't go to the salon very often because it's on the other side ofthe world.
Exactly.
(03:58):
So have you thought about finding a salon in San Francisco?
Yes.
OK.
So if you were to look for a salon in San Francisco, how would you embark on that search?
Yelp.
Yelp.
You would look for Yelp.
All right.
And you would look for what on Yelp?
Maximum reviews, good reviews, pictures?
I look at the bad reviews.
yeah.
to see what people experience poorly at the salon, and then I just look at the pictures.
(04:22):
All right, very good, thank you.
I am standing here with?
Rosa.
Hello Rosa, how are you?
Good.
Where are from?
I'm from the Bay Area.
Okay, so you're down here just visiting?
Yeah.
Very good.
All right, so here's the question of the hour.
Do you go to the same hairdresser every time you go to the salon?
Every single time.
Every single time you go same person.
For how long?
Years.
(04:42):
And how did you find him or her?
Through a friend.
eh Through a friend, so word of mouth.
And you're happy with everything and you're all good.
Awesome.
If, let's say, this hairdresser moved out of town and you had to find a new one, how wouldyou begin that search?
em Probably recommendations through other people.
So you'd ask your friends.
(05:05):
Great insight there into how the client searches for you.
The vast majority of people we talked to found their stylist through word of mouth.
With all the hype and noise of social media platforms, and trust me, we're part of that,it is easy to forget about how effective word of mouth is.
Let's hear from Lucas Doni about the power of those referrals.
(05:28):
What are the most effective ways to market yourself as a hairdresser these days behind thechair?
I mean, I think tried and true, one of the most effective ways to market yourself ishaving great, satisfied clients.
m
is a satisfied client that leaves the salon is going to be your number one person that'sgoing to send you new clients.
So that's word of mouth.
Word of mouth.
You have a happy client leave, they're going to tell 10 other friends.
(05:51):
I think social media is an incredible way to get your work out there.
But a lot of times, like I said, some people just put their work out and they may notrelate to a client on a personal level and they may not like hit it off.
Like personality wise, they may technically do a great thing, but as far as the serviceexperience goes, it may not be the right match, which is okay.
There's nothing wrong with that.
(06:12):
But I think when you have a happy client that's telling all their friends and braggingabout you, that's going to be what builds your clientele.
I can safely say I've got six to 10 people that are very loyal and passionate about ourexperiences together, and they've built my entire clientele.
Wow.
Over how long?
I've been at the salon at this.
I mean, over the past three, five years, I have a massive clientele that's built by 10people.
(06:38):
Amazing referrals and then they refer someone and they refer someone and then it just kindof six degrees of separation.
You gotta, you gotta full book.
Right.
Yeah.
That's amazing.
A passionate client base is incredibly powerful.
But what if a passionate client recommended you to not just a few friends and familymembers, but thousands of people.
(06:58):
That's the power of the online review and Ryan Whedon built a six figure career on them.
And I was basically working seven days a week because I was up three to four days atStarbucks, know, 32 hours a week.
And then I was going in and trying to fill in time at the salon and I didn't have anyclients and there wasn't any walk-ins.
(07:21):
So I didn't sit at the salon.
When I was at the salon during salon hours, I was on the streets.
I was handing out business cards.
was...
making a list of everybody I knew and asking if they had referrals that know somebody thatwould want to come to me.
Yeah, beating the bushes.
100%.
Were you like passing out cards on your shift at Starbucks?
Like, how sick would that been?
100 % I was.
(07:41):
Like, as you're on the point of sale, as you're on the register or whatever, you're likepassing out cards?
I was doing that, but then the problem with that is I felt like an imposter because I'mlike, why would you come to me?
Of course.
I'm working at freaking Starbucks.
Totally.
Like, I'm not successful enough to do this, but I want you to come do business with meoutside of this.
Totally.
So that was the hardest thing.
I still did it and got over that.
(08:01):
I tried and I did get some clients that way.
But it was hard in my head to really get a handle on that.
Like why would somebody, why would I go to somebody that hands me a card from there?
Obviously they're not doing that well.
Right.
It seems like the percentage of people that you're going to get from there is going to belower than those people out on the street.
I would get people that were in college.
(08:21):
that we connected with, that I connected with, or that were similar age or something likethat, that were like, that sounds cool.
All right, and that would give me, you come in for the first time, I'll give you adiscount, or you come in and if you like what I do, then maybe you can recommend me on
Yelp.
And that's what I did for a lot of my clients to start building that Yelp reputation.
And I saw the value in Yelp early on, and that focus on building that reputation helped meto excel at such a high speed, exponential rate.
(08:49):
Within two years, I had one of the highest
ranked salons on Yelp and I was booth renting.
So as an independent, you were one of the highest rated uh salons on Yelp.
That's crazy.
Yeah, it was insane.
And this was simply from maybe offering, like you said, offering the discounts for areview or at least just asking for the review.
(09:10):
Exactly, yeah.
would actually, the way I set it up was I had this idea, I'm like, okay, Yelp is about, Ididn't want to get people to lie.
I didn't want to make a bunch of fake reviews just to get reviews because
When somebody gives you a review, it's coming from their mind, their head, and it's hardto replace that.
It's hard to get inside somebody else's head.
So I could maybe come up with a handful of fake reviews, but I didn't want to do that.
(09:33):
I wanted to get hundreds of reviews.
So I figured, OK, I have worked on a lot of people over the years.
Sorry about that.
I had worked on people over the years in everything from cosmetology school or Friends inthe Kitchen or anybody.
So I made a list of everybody that I'd ever touched their head.
and reached out to them and said, hey, I'm starting a new business in San Diego here.
You're always one of my favorite clients.
(09:54):
I loved working on your hair.
Would you mind taking a few minutes and posting a positive recommendation for me on Yelpto help me face all this competition around here and start to fill my business?
I'd really appreciate it.
And I created this game.
had this whole chart where I would have a list of everybody that I wanted to reach out to.
(10:16):
And I had learned in sales that
to make a sale, sometimes it takes seven to 12 contacts to actually get the sale or to geta hard no or a few or something.
Right.
Right.
So I made it a plan to like, I'm to reach out not just once, not just twice, not justthree times, but as many times as it takes to either get a hard no or to get, yes, I'll
(10:38):
review you because they liked me, they appreciated me.
And as long as I'm not approaching them in a in a jerky kind of a way and be like, yo, yousaid you're going to review me.
What's up?
No, I'm still reaching out like, hey, just want to follow up.
I know you're super busy.
I'm very respectful for your time.
I would greatly appreciate it if you could do this.
I would give them a link so they go straight to the page, it as easily accessible aspossible.
(10:59):
any excuses that they might have.
So are you going as far as to say that your lame-ass corporate job and maybe somesubsequent jobs actually helped you building a clientele?
It actually did.
Amazing.
And before that, in college, I had actually had some terrible phone jobs, too,telemarketing jobs where I would
make some money and that was also but but the training there you just go through thesescripts and the scripts use downtones use this this is how you come back with this and you
(11:26):
learn how to be a salesperson and how to control a conversation really get your messageout there unfortunately learn how to sell things that nobody needs right which was just it
made me feel like such a bad person at the end of the day but it's like I needed to makesome money and they were flexible skills you're going to use for the rest of your life
exactly right okay so I love the fact
(11:47):
that you're using these skills, not necessarily to get people in your chair directly, butyou're using them in order to get reviews to get people in your chair.
Yep.
Exactly.
It's not always a straight path, right?
Not at all.
And I always mention this when I'm telling people about this.
I always say don't use the word review, use recommendation.
Because recommendation is obviously positive.
Keep things positive.
(12:07):
Because I don't just want any old review.
I don't want be like, went to a, I got a haircut, it wasn't that great.
Because that's a review.
I want like a positive recommendation if they like it, you know?
That's a really good point.
So I focused on that and I built up this incredible reputation and then I moved, finallywas making enough money to quit Starbucks.
Pause.
So when you thought, at what point do you feel like the Yelp reviews get to be verybeneficial?
(12:33):
Is it 75 reviews?
Is it 120?
I think it's depending on the area that you're in and whatever sub locale that you're in.
San Diego, some salons had been there for a long time, they had three, four, five hundredreviews.
That was gonna be hard to compete with.
But I was in La Jolla.
And in La Jolla, a lot of salons didn't have a lot of high reviews.
(12:56):
So, I would say to be successful in that area, I only needed 30 to start to stand out.
But because it wasn't a focus of any of these other salons, that was highly achievable ina very fast way.
So some of these salons that been in business for 10, 15, 20 years,
that had a few five-star reviews or maybe 15 or even maybe 70, they weren't growingbecause they weren't focused on it.
(13:20):
But me, I kept taking screenshots every time I went up in reviews.
And it was such a game.
I'm always competing against myself.
Like, how can I make this better?
How can I do better than I last week?
And every time I went up a few in five-star reviews, I would take a screenshot of it so Icould document the journey of it.
And to this day,
(13:41):
where my salon is the highest ranked in La Jolla by far, still one of the highest in SanDiego.
And just because we put these different systems in place to keep generating these reviews.
We follow up with our clients after and ask them to review.
(14:02):
So then I started to make six figures after a couple years, two and a half years or so.
I broke into the six figures, first time in my life.
And I was like, this is
really amazing feeling, right?
And now I'm starting to see these, my monthly income increase almost like I'm doubling andI'm doubling.
A focused strategy can make all the difference.
Are you targeting people who can afford the services you want to do?
(14:26):
Are you targeting people who would even want the service in the first place?
Successful salon owner and stylist Victor Valverde shows us how to think strategicallywhen it comes to client demographics and shares with us his referral strategy for bringing
in more of the exact clients that you want.
(15:38):
And you get the word out consistently, It's not like you do it for a little bit and youstop doing it.
uh why don't we go into how, because I like where you're going with this, so I'm justgoing to go with it.
uh Nowadays, obviously, marketing has changed a little bit.
How would you recommend to someone who wants to go out on their own, whether it's with astorefront salon or a studio or a booth rental or whatever,
(16:04):
How do you suggest that they consistently get the word out and that they convey thatthere's value in the service that they're offering?
(17:01):
Interesting.
Let's go one by one and explain why.
Why nurses?
(18:01):
Let's do real estate agents.
(18:48):
oh They also meet a lot of new people who are moving into the area who of course are goingto need a hairdresser.
Dental hygienists.
(19:52):
you
(21:00):
She's your micro influencer.
(21:50):
How do you encourage referrals?
Of course, there's going to be some that happen naturally, but how do you encourage more?
(22:47):
And this of course is uh in order to get the more people that you want, that you get alongwith, you your ideal clientele in your chair, right?
(23:56):
Right.
You're just using that as an example.
mean, with all the hairdressers I've known in 20 years, many of them, their targets were55 to 80.
(24:19):
Some of them, their target was 10 to 20.
uh So it's a very subjective thing, and I think it's a very powerful thing that if youidentify your target, your goal, and the type of client that you like doing and is gonna
make your
job and life behind the chair better, that's going to make your life better, right?
(25:10):
So cool, and probably takes years to get to that level.
Okay, so continuing on with the, let's see, we just talked about referrals and I kind ofstopped you to talk about details.
(25:32):
I do have a question regarding referrals.
What do you suggest when, as the listeners are driving down the street on the freeway,they're thinking, okay, well, should I offer the referee, the client that I really like,
should I offer them something free when they bring me somebody?
(27:13):
Tons of great advice there from Victor.
Thank you, Victor.
So you've targeted the exact people you want in your chair and you want to build fast.
Does doing free hair jumpstart that process?
Is it worth it?
We asked stylist Amanda Lieberger, who has rebuilt her clientele twice in two differentstates.
Just that question.
(27:35):
I would pick somebody who's also a social butterfly.
And then that way, I have two or three clients in Dallas who probably got me 30 clientseach.
That's so important, it?
Over the last six years.
it's incredible because you might have somebody who, I have people who have all kinds ofreally cool jobs.
I have people in the tech industry and they probably only see three people a day, maybe.
(27:58):
And that's the people that they're the closest to.
But then you've got your people who go to clubs every weekend and who always meet newpeople and who or you know I have a lot of cosplayers or people who do you know em just
different convention scenes and music and stuff like that.
They're highly visible people and those are the people that it's a good idea to offer todo their hair for free as long as you don't have any expectations and you try to do your
(28:23):
best you know.
Right.
Right.
They'll promote you if they really like what you did you know.
Totally.
So those are micro-influencers.
And micro-influencers is something that I think we're seeing a lot more, the power of amicro-influencer.
And I'm not talking about somebody with an Instagram account necessarily.
I'm talking about somebody like my wife, who is a social butterfly, you know, in real lifewith all of her friends and we have little kids.
(28:51):
ah There's a school.
She knows all the moms at the school.
They communicate.
you know, that's a micro influencer.
So if you get her on your side, she's going to tell her 74 mommy friends about you.
And there's nothing more powerful than that with a localized business like being ahairdresser.
(29:11):
Exactly.
And you also have to find those micro influencers that are like the clientele that youwant.
know, because it wouldn't do me much good to find, you know, queen of the mommy group, butit would do me probably a lot of good to find queen of the cosplay group.
Totally.
or it would be do me a good to be the hairdresser of the punk scene queen, you know.
(29:34):
Right.
Yeah.
And if you're good at blonding, you want the queen of the mommy group or whatever it isthat happens to be.
So for the listeners, whatever they may specialize in, there are going to be groups whereif they want to build their books, they need to get into these groups and they need to get
(29:55):
known.
You said doing free hair for a micro influencer, so to speak, but like forever or?
No, one time a pop.
One time.
One time a pop.
that person...
you mean a pop?
Just like find different people.
referral?
No, I would say just do somebody's hair for free one time.
(30:17):
And if you do your absolute best, there's a good chance that that's the best time they'veever had their hair done and that they'll probably continue to come back to you even
though you cost money.
And they'll sing your praises from the mountains because they value what you do.
And then of course you try to take care of them.
You try to take care of all your clients.
But if I was trying to build my book, I would try to fit that person in maybe outside ofmy hours.
(30:43):
And that is exactly what I do too.
I mean, some of them have now become my best friends because we've been friends for somany years and it, you know, maybe started out as a client thing from, you know, a friend
who
got their hair messed up or whatever referred them to me and then eventually we juststarted hanging out outside of doing hair and you know now we're best friends and they
(31:04):
don't have any problem like shouting me out and being super awesome and like generallythey're just awesome people.
In the first interaction when they're sitting in your chair and you are doing their hairfor free are you just trying to essentially convince them that you're a good hairdresser
and you're good for other people and then later on?
You're going to ask them for referrals or are you just right out of the gate?
(31:27):
I don't ask anybody for referrals ever.
I just try to do my best job on their hair and hopefully they'll be happy enough to shoutit out from the mountains.
was funny that yesterday during y'all's podcast that I was listening in on, um somebodysaid that they send their clients two of their after pictures.
(31:50):
And I do the same thing, and usually they're so excited and happy by the after picture,because they do a little bit of face editing.
I'm not going to post a picture on my Instagram account that has a million bajillionfollowers without taking a pimple out.
um And usually they're really grateful for that, and they think they look so cute in theirphoto.
that's the cutest their hair is going to look in the next six weeks, usually.
(32:11):
And so they're super happy to post it.
And then usually they credit me, and it just kind of spider webs out on social media.
That's amazing.
So you don't even ask.
No, you don't go through the discomfort maybe of asking because I know some people aregoing to be I mean, when I move here, I'm definitely going to be like, hey, also, if you
have any friends that would like their hair done or like seem like they need my services,throw them my way.
(32:33):
Nice.
OK, so you're up in your game.
You're up in your referral game already.
OK.
And I mean, it should come up organically if you're not busy and you need more customersand stuff like, you know, that somebody could easily help you with a referral.
You know.
At that point, of course they want their friends to have good hair too.
Right.
(32:53):
Who doesn't want to see their friends happy?
So how much free hair, for every micro influencer that you get, how much free hair haveyou had to do?
Like 10 heads, like one micro for I actually did the math last year and I lost out on$4,800 of the services on free hair.
(33:13):
But, I mean, was that a good investment of your time?
I think so.
Yeah.
because that brought have the flexibility to move around and do what I like and uh I getreally cool people because I seek out in particular like lots of people who let me have
creative freedom and stuff so I get a lot of really cool content and I feel like I canstretch my artistic wings a little bit.
Yeah.
(33:34):
And meet new people.
fun.
Yeah, absolutely.
Doing free hair is definitely an effective tool when used strategically.
Many of our guests on the podcast share similar stories of building the clientele theywant
by doing free hair.
Okay, let's put this all together and hear how some very successful independent stylistsbuilt their clientele.
(33:55):
Edith Navarro, Neil Malek, Dasi B, and Philip Wolf joined me for a panel discussion atISSC last year and shared the strategies they use to put the right clients in their
chairs.
So, Edith, let's start with you.
How do you do it?
Okay, cool.
So new clients can come.
(34:15):
different ways.
We can ask for referrals, which is essentially what we do the most.
And we're more comfortable with that, I feel, because it's been going on a little bitlonger.
I wanted to kind of step out of the box and do something different.
So I pretty much set up a Google page, a Google business page, and a Yelp business page.
And what I did with that is that you claim the business on both Google or Yelp.
(34:39):
And I know Yelp for a lot of us is kind of like,
do I really want to go on there?
What if I get a bad review?
Like who feels that way?
Right?
Like I'm sure a lot of us feel that way.
So what you want to know about Yelp, and I've been playing with this for a while, is thatyou want to ask your current clients that are on Yelp to go on there and review you.
(35:00):
Those are like your main people to go on there.
You've been doing their hair for a while.
They know your work and they can happily review you, no problems.
I haven't had any issues with that, but what I like about claiming the business on Yelpand on Google is that the minute that somebody searches my name or my salon name, it comes
up immediately.
They don't have to scroll to find me.
(35:21):
It comes up and they're able to see the reviews.
So for example, on Google, I claimed to the business there and my husband brought up to myattention last month that I had over 10,000 views in December.
And I'm not paying for that advertising, which I thought was amazing.
If you see like the map on Google, you see the bit like my salon suite, but then you seemy salon, like my influence hair loft and you don't see any of the other suites around me.
(35:45):
So I'm the only one in my area that is on Google.
It lets you know how many people are searching for you, how many click the button to call,how many click for directions.
So that's a, that was a really great way for me to get new clients without me even havingto go out there and look for them.
Same thing with Yelp.
oh If you get a bad review, not saying that you ever have, but if you get a bad one, doyou suggest that you respond?
(36:10):
Yes, so you always definitely want to respond.
This is the thing, if you get a bad review, and I did on Google from somebody that I don'tknow, is a male haircut, and I'm like, I don't cut men's hair, but okay.
So I responded, hi, I don't cut men's hair, so I'm not sure that I'm the right person.
Can you please take this off?
And I don't think that guy ever went on there, but I had
(36:31):
three that were five stars, it completely knocked it off.
And then you can report it on Google.
So it's super easy.
And on Yelp, you always want to thank the people that are saying, giving you good reviewsthat are saying you're great.
If you don't respond, what happens is that that message kind of gets filtered out, so thatfive star review goes away.
If you say thank you for reviewing me and write whatever you want and then click on theThink button, then at that point, that review stays.
(36:59):
If you get a bad review on Yelp, you can actually call Yelp and say, this is not me orthis didn't happen if it didn't happen to you.
And they can remove it.
I also know that if you go on there and you say, what's the problem?
Because sometimes they do confuse you with other people.
And they know it's not you.
They'll take it off automatically.
That's great.
(37:21):
Yeah.
Neil.
All right.
So I took a little bit more of the stalker approach.
So what I would do is I'm
to get new clients in my chair.
I had a goal from the beginning, like I said, and the goal was to do fun hair, like, youknow, get myself to LA eventually and do some photo shoots and do different things with my
(37:43):
career.
I'm not necessarily doing hair behind the chair all the time, but I had an ultimate goalof somehow getting out here and doing some entertainment work, doing something fun.
So how did I get these clients in my chair?
How did I get the rainbow client on my chair five, six years ago?
Well, if I saw them at Walmart, I would just follow behind them closely with a cart.
(38:04):
And then, you know, I'm sorry I'm not stalking you, but I kind of am.
And then I would talk to them, and I would just put myself out there.
And it worked 99 % of the time.
I would do their hair for free.
I did a lot of free hair.
ah And like I said, you have to have a goal, but you also have to forgive yourself too.
You know what I mean?
So you have to take chances.
(38:26):
And if you don't take chances, then
You're not going to get any real gain.
So if you do take a chance and you fall, then you just forgive yourself and you keepworking on it.
OK, so that's going to get you great pictures for your gram, right?
But talk about your hashtag strategy.
So for the hashtag strategy, I did was, so somebody had told me early on that if youwanted to take over the world, you have to take over your country.
(38:51):
And if you want to take over your country, you have to take over your state.
So if you want to take over your state, then you must take over your city, right?
So what I did was, as I started small and I looked at my city and I created hashtags likejust Orlando hair, Orlando hairstylist, Orlando hair colorist, Orlando colorist.
I would just like, you know, knock the daylights out of it.
(39:12):
And eventually that brought me so much business that I was able to grow outside of that.
And I was able to, you know, expand to a Florida and then, you know, go west coast.
So before I moved here,
I would say six months before moving here, I started hashtagging LA hair, LA colorist.
And within two weeks of being here, I've already had eight clients find me.
(39:34):
Some people worry about hashtag spamming.
Should they be worried about that?
No.
All right.
Thank you.
Dossi.
(40:51):
I thought it was keep it simple stupid, but okay.
Yeah.
(43:34):
Absolutely.
Philip.
Alright, so for me, let's see, um I can't really tell you what's good, what's not good.
I can just tell you what I've done and what has worked for me.
There's been different uh stages in my career, So I know back in the day, it's a differentera now, but in the beginning, what I would do is I actually, it was a point in my career
(44:02):
where
I moved from one coast to another.
So for me, that's 3,000 miles.
I don't know about you, but not as many clients are going to follow 3,000 miles unlessthey're by coast or by nature, right?
So with the exception of those few.
So I had to start over, you know?
And for me, it was very similar to where I would just go to those local businesses and forthe women or men, for that matter, who were seen a lot, such as maybe a concierge or
(44:32):
uh at a makeup counter or at the local lounge, the bottle service girls, the hostesses,what have you, I would just do for free.
And I would say, look, every other person you bring me in, I'll just keep doing it free.
And that kind of worked for me.
Spending time, it was almost like working at night, just connecting.
(44:56):
and getting yourself out there and then you do it long enough and there's, yeah, that hairguy, that guy right there, you should see him or whatever.
Word starts to spread a little bit.
So do that somewhere near where you would work.
Obviously don't go too far out.
People will be like, I'm not going that far.
uh I think also now in my career, I'm still behind the chair.
(45:18):
I don't do it as much as I used to.
now it's a little bit more, I have my clients and I don't really
bring too many new in, although I do make some exceptions.
I think also, this happened not even trying, but video I know works really well.
And I know that if you target the type of style that you would like in your chair, so forexample, if you love doing bright colors, know, do bright colors.
(45:46):
If you like doing funky mullets, do that.
People find it somehow, you know what I mean?
And if you're more commercial and you want to go with just, you know, soft glam, put thosein, you know, I, there's a lot of friends I have, they're models and stuff like that.
Of course, we'll, we'll, do it free.
Um, or, uh, or they'll, I can use them for a shoot, you know, you barter that way and ithelps bring in clients just like that.
(46:12):
So for me, that's what's worked.
I'm Jessica Warburton.
Hey, this is Ryan Weeden.
Welcome to the Hair Game Podcast.
(00:44):
Here's the question.
Do you have a normal hairstylist that you go to regularly or do you find somebody new eachtime?
You first.
Normal.
Like regular.
Normal one.
Both of you.
Okay.
So when you found your normal hairstylist, how did you find them?
From her.
She's my best friend's best friend.
So.
And it's cheap.
Okay.
(01:05):
That's really funny.
Okay.
So friend.
So friend of a friend.
Okay.
Got it.
Alright, I'm standing here with Carolina.
Hello, Carolina.
Where are from?
very good.
You speak really good English.
Thank you.
Almost zero accent.
Thank you.
Okay, are you in town for just fun?
No, I live here.
you live here?
Okay, very good.
Alright, so here's the question.
(01:26):
Do you go to the same hairdresser every time you go to the salon or do you look forsomebody new?
So far, so many.
Somebody knew each time.
Yeah.
And so how do you search for that hairdresser each time you go?
I think through friends.
Recommendations pretty much.
Recommendations word of mouth through friends.
Any other way?
Have you searched any other way?
(01:47):
Sometimes myself.
Like online or something?
No, I do my hair myself.
Got it.
I noticed that I need help.
That's really funny.
Yeah.
So after you mess it up yourself, you then go look for a hairstyle.
Exactly.
That's awesome.
And then I have to lie to the dresser saying, oh, my friend did it for me.
Yeah, of course.
That's really funny.
OK, so I'm standing here with Rebecca.
(02:09):
Hello, Rebecca.
Where are from?
Charlotte.
Oh, very good.
And what is this line for?
Oh, cool.
Nice.
Who's the guest?
yeah, very good.
That was a pretty good movie.
Okay, so for the hairdresser community, I'm asking you this question.
(02:29):
Do you go to the same hairdresser each time or do you find somebody new?
So if you do a new search, where does that search begin for you?
Where do you look?
(02:53):
And when you search, you search for like geographic hashtags.
You're searching like Charlotte hairdresser or how do you start that?
You heard it right here.
(03:15):
OK, what's your name?
I'm Karina.
Karina, where are you from?
San Francisco Bay Area.
OK, welcome.
Thank you.
So do you go to do a hairstylist uh regularly, same hairstylist, or do you find somebodynew each time?
um I don't go regularly, but for the past two years I've been going to the same one.
OK, good.
And how did you find that hairstylist?
Do you remember?
(03:36):
I was in Ukraine.
OK.
And my aunt suggested me to go to her.
And I've been going for the past two years every summer.
So your aunt in Ukraine gave you word of mouth to a hairdresser in San Francisco?
No, in Ukraine.
So maybe that's why you don't go to the salon very often because it's on the other side ofthe world.
Exactly.
(03:58):
So have you thought about finding a salon in San Francisco?
Yes.
OK.
So if you were to look for a salon in San Francisco, how would you embark on that search?
Yelp.
Yelp.
You would look for Yelp.
All right.
And you would look for what on Yelp?
Maximum reviews, good reviews, pictures?
I look at the bad reviews.
yeah.
to see what people experience poorly at the salon, and then I just look at the pictures.
(04:22):
All right, very good, thank you.
I am standing here with?
Rosa.
Hello Rosa, how are you?
Good.
Where are from?
I'm from the Bay Area.
Okay, so you're down here just visiting?
Yeah.
Very good.
All right, so here's the question of the hour.
Do you go to the same hairdresser every time you go to the salon?
Every single time.
Every single time you go same person.
For how long?
Years.
(04:42):
And how did you find him or her?
Through a friend.
eh Through a friend, so word of mouth.
And you're happy with everything and you're all good.
Awesome.
If, let's say, this hairdresser moved out of town and you had to find a new one, how wouldyou begin that search?
em Probably recommendations through other people.
So you'd ask your friends.
(05:05):
Great insight there into how the client searches for you.
The vast majority of people we talked to found their stylist through word of mouth.
With all the hype and noise of social media platforms, and trust me, we're part of that,it is easy to forget about how effective word of mouth is.
Let's hear from Lucas Doni about the power of those referrals.
(05:28):
What are the most effective ways to market yourself as a hairdresser these days behind thechair?
I mean, I think tried and true, one of the most effective ways to market yourself ishaving great, satisfied clients.
m
is a satisfied client that leaves the salon is going to be your number one person that'sgoing to send you new clients.
So that's word of mouth.
Word of mouth.
You have a happy client leave, they're going to tell 10 other friends.
(05:51):
I think social media is an incredible way to get your work out there.
But a lot of times, like I said, some people just put their work out and they may notrelate to a client on a personal level and they may not like hit it off.
Like personality wise, they may technically do a great thing, but as far as the serviceexperience goes, it may not be the right match, which is okay.
There's nothing wrong with that.
(06:12):
But I think when you have a happy client that's telling all their friends and braggingabout you, that's going to be what builds your clientele.
I can safely say I've got six to 10 people that are very loyal and passionate about ourexperiences together, and they've built my entire clientele.
Wow.
Over how long?
I've been at the salon at this.
I mean, over the past three, five years, I have a massive clientele that's built by 10people.
(06:38):
Amazing referrals and then they refer someone and they refer someone and then it just kindof six degrees of separation.
You gotta, you gotta full book.
Right.
Yeah.
That's amazing.
A passionate client base is incredibly powerful.
But what if a passionate client recommended you to not just a few friends and familymembers, but thousands of people.
(06:58):
That's the power of the online review and Ryan Whedon built a six figure career on them.
And I was basically working seven days a week because I was up three to four days atStarbucks, know, 32 hours a week.
And then I was going in and trying to fill in time at the salon and I didn't have anyclients and there wasn't any walk-ins.
(07:21):
So I didn't sit at the salon.
When I was at the salon during salon hours, I was on the streets.
I was handing out business cards.
was...
making a list of everybody I knew and asking if they had referrals that know somebody thatwould want to come to me.
Yeah, beating the bushes.
100%.
Were you like passing out cards on your shift at Starbucks?
Like, how sick would that been?
100 % I was.
(07:41):
Like, as you're on the point of sale, as you're on the register or whatever, you're likepassing out cards?
I was doing that, but then the problem with that is I felt like an imposter because I'mlike, why would you come to me?
Of course.
I'm working at freaking Starbucks.
Totally.
Like, I'm not successful enough to do this, but I want you to come do business with meoutside of this.
Totally.
So that was the hardest thing.
I still did it and got over that.
(08:01):
I tried and I did get some clients that way.
But it was hard in my head to really get a handle on that.
Like why would somebody, why would I go to somebody that hands me a card from there?
Obviously they're not doing that well.
Right.
It seems like the percentage of people that you're going to get from there is going to belower than those people out on the street.
I would get people that were in college.
(08:21):
that we connected with, that I connected with, or that were similar age or something likethat, that were like, that sounds cool.
All right, and that would give me, you come in for the first time, I'll give you adiscount, or you come in and if you like what I do, then maybe you can recommend me on
Yelp.
And that's what I did for a lot of my clients to start building that Yelp reputation.
And I saw the value in Yelp early on, and that focus on building that reputation helped meto excel at such a high speed, exponential rate.
(08:49):
Within two years, I had one of the highest
ranked salons on Yelp and I was booth renting.
So as an independent, you were one of the highest rated uh salons on Yelp.
That's crazy.
Yeah, it was insane.
And this was simply from maybe offering, like you said, offering the discounts for areview or at least just asking for the review.
(09:10):
Exactly, yeah.
would actually, the way I set it up was I had this idea, I'm like, okay, Yelp is about, Ididn't want to get people to lie.
I didn't want to make a bunch of fake reviews just to get reviews because
When somebody gives you a review, it's coming from their mind, their head, and it's hardto replace that.
It's hard to get inside somebody else's head.
So I could maybe come up with a handful of fake reviews, but I didn't want to do that.
(09:33):
I wanted to get hundreds of reviews.
So I figured, OK, I have worked on a lot of people over the years.
Sorry about that.
I had worked on people over the years in everything from cosmetology school or Friends inthe Kitchen or anybody.
So I made a list of everybody that I'd ever touched their head.
and reached out to them and said, hey, I'm starting a new business in San Diego here.
You're always one of my favorite clients.
(09:54):
I loved working on your hair.
Would you mind taking a few minutes and posting a positive recommendation for me on Yelpto help me face all this competition around here and start to fill my business?
I'd really appreciate it.
And I created this game.
had this whole chart where I would have a list of everybody that I wanted to reach out to.
(10:16):
And I had learned in sales that
to make a sale, sometimes it takes seven to 12 contacts to actually get the sale or to geta hard no or a few or something.
Right.
Right.
So I made it a plan to like, I'm to reach out not just once, not just twice, not justthree times, but as many times as it takes to either get a hard no or to get, yes, I'll
(10:38):
review you because they liked me, they appreciated me.
And as long as I'm not approaching them in a in a jerky kind of a way and be like, yo, yousaid you're going to review me.
What's up?
No, I'm still reaching out like, hey, just want to follow up.
I know you're super busy.
I'm very respectful for your time.
I would greatly appreciate it if you could do this.
I would give them a link so they go straight to the page, it as easily accessible aspossible.
(10:59):
any excuses that they might have.
So are you going as far as to say that your lame-ass corporate job and maybe somesubsequent jobs actually helped you building a clientele?
It actually did.
Amazing.
And before that, in college, I had actually had some terrible phone jobs, too,telemarketing jobs where I would
make some money and that was also but but the training there you just go through thesescripts and the scripts use downtones use this this is how you come back with this and you
(11:26):
learn how to be a salesperson and how to control a conversation really get your messageout there unfortunately learn how to sell things that nobody needs right which was just it
made me feel like such a bad person at the end of the day but it's like I needed to makesome money and they were flexible skills you're going to use for the rest of your life
exactly right okay so I love the fact
(11:47):
that you're using these skills, not necessarily to get people in your chair directly, butyou're using them in order to get reviews to get people in your chair.
Yep.
Exactly.
It's not always a straight path, right?
Not at all.
And I always mention this when I'm telling people about this.
I always say don't use the word review, use recommendation.
Because recommendation is obviously positive.
Keep things positive.
(12:07):
Because I don't just want any old review.
I don't want be like, went to a, I got a haircut, it wasn't that great.
Because that's a review.
I want like a positive recommendation if they like it, you know?
That's a really good point.
So I focused on that and I built up this incredible reputation and then I moved, finallywas making enough money to quit Starbucks.
Pause.
So when you thought, at what point do you feel like the Yelp reviews get to be verybeneficial?
(12:33):
Is it 75 reviews?
Is it 120?
I think it's depending on the area that you're in and whatever sub locale that you're in.
San Diego, some salons had been there for a long time, they had three, four, five hundredreviews.
That was gonna be hard to compete with.
But I was in La Jolla.
And in La Jolla, a lot of salons didn't have a lot of high reviews.
(12:56):
So, I would say to be successful in that area, I only needed 30 to start to stand out.
But because it wasn't a focus of any of these other salons, that was highly achievable ina very fast way.
So some of these salons that been in business for 10, 15, 20 years,
that had a few five-star reviews or maybe 15 or even maybe 70, they weren't growingbecause they weren't focused on it.
(13:20):
But me, I kept taking screenshots every time I went up in reviews.
And it was such a game.
I'm always competing against myself.
Like, how can I make this better?
How can I do better than I last week?
And every time I went up a few in five-star reviews, I would take a screenshot of it so Icould document the journey of it.
And to this day,
(13:41):
where my salon is the highest ranked in La Jolla by far, still one of the highest in SanDiego.
And just because we put these different systems in place to keep generating these reviews.
We follow up with our clients after and ask them to review.
(14:02):
So then I started to make six figures after a couple years, two and a half years or so.
I broke into the six figures, first time in my life.
And I was like, this is
really amazing feeling, right?
And now I'm starting to see these, my monthly income increase almost like I'm doubling andI'm doubling.
A focused strategy can make all the difference.
Are you targeting people who can afford the services you want to do?
(14:26):
Are you targeting people who would even want the service in the first place?
Successful salon owner and stylist Victor Valverde shows us how to think strategicallywhen it comes to client demographics and shares with us his referral strategy for bringing
in more of the exact clients that you want.
(15:38):
And you get the word out consistently, It's not like you do it for a little bit and youstop doing it.
uh why don't we go into how, because I like where you're going with this, so I'm justgoing to go with it.
uh Nowadays, obviously, marketing has changed a little bit.
How would you recommend to someone who wants to go out on their own, whether it's with astorefront salon or a studio or a booth rental or whatever,
(16:04):
How do you suggest that they consistently get the word out and that they convey thatthere's value in the service that they're offering?
(17:01):
Interesting.
Let's go one by one and explain why.
Why nurses?
(18:01):
Let's do real estate agents.
(18:48):
oh They also meet a lot of new people who are moving into the area who of course are goingto need a hairdresser.
Dental hygienists.
(19:52):
you
(21:00):
She's your micro influencer.
(21:50):
How do you encourage referrals?
Of course, there's going to be some that happen naturally, but how do you encourage more?
(22:47):
And this of course is uh in order to get the more people that you want, that you get alongwith, you your ideal clientele in your chair, right?
(23:56):
Right.
You're just using that as an example.
mean, with all the hairdressers I've known in 20 years, many of them, their targets were55 to 80.
(24:19):
Some of them, their target was 10 to 20.
uh So it's a very subjective thing, and I think it's a very powerful thing that if youidentify your target, your goal, and the type of client that you like doing and is gonna
make your
job and life behind the chair better, that's going to make your life better, right?
(25:10):
So cool, and probably takes years to get to that level.
Okay, so continuing on with the, let's see, we just talked about referrals and I kind ofstopped you to talk about details.
(25:32):
I do have a question regarding referrals.
What do you suggest when, as the listeners are driving down the street on the freeway,they're thinking, okay, well, should I offer the referee, the client that I really like,
should I offer them something free when they bring me somebody?
(27:13):
Tons of great advice there from Victor.
Thank you, Victor.
So you've targeted the exact people you want in your chair and you want to build fast.
Does doing free hair jumpstart that process?
Is it worth it?
We asked stylist Amanda Lieberger, who has rebuilt her clientele twice in two differentstates.
Just that question.
(27:35):
I would pick somebody who's also a social butterfly.
And then that way, I have two or three clients in Dallas who probably got me 30 clientseach.
That's so important, it?
Over the last six years.
it's incredible because you might have somebody who, I have people who have all kinds ofreally cool jobs.
I have people in the tech industry and they probably only see three people a day, maybe.
(27:58):
And that's the people that they're the closest to.
But then you've got your people who go to clubs every weekend and who always meet newpeople and who or you know I have a lot of cosplayers or people who do you know em just
different convention scenes and music and stuff like that.
They're highly visible people and those are the people that it's a good idea to offer todo their hair for free as long as you don't have any expectations and you try to do your
(28:23):
best you know.
Right.
Right.
They'll promote you if they really like what you did you know.
Totally.
So those are micro-influencers.
And micro-influencers is something that I think we're seeing a lot more, the power of amicro-influencer.
And I'm not talking about somebody with an Instagram account necessarily.
I'm talking about somebody like my wife, who is a social butterfly, you know, in real lifewith all of her friends and we have little kids.
(28:51):
ah There's a school.
She knows all the moms at the school.
They communicate.
you know, that's a micro influencer.
So if you get her on your side, she's going to tell her 74 mommy friends about you.
And there's nothing more powerful than that with a localized business like being ahairdresser.
(29:11):
Exactly.
And you also have to find those micro influencers that are like the clientele that youwant.
know, because it wouldn't do me much good to find, you know, queen of the mommy group, butit would do me probably a lot of good to find queen of the cosplay group.
Totally.
or it would be do me a good to be the hairdresser of the punk scene queen, you know.
(29:34):
Right.
Yeah.
And if you're good at blonding, you want the queen of the mommy group or whatever it isthat happens to be.
So for the listeners, whatever they may specialize in, there are going to be groups whereif they want to build their books, they need to get into these groups and they need to get
(29:55):
known.
You said doing free hair for a micro influencer, so to speak, but like forever or?
No, one time a pop.
One time.
One time a pop.
that person...
you mean a pop?
Just like find different people.
referral?
No, I would say just do somebody's hair for free one time.
(30:17):
And if you do your absolute best, there's a good chance that that's the best time they'veever had their hair done and that they'll probably continue to come back to you even
though you cost money.
And they'll sing your praises from the mountains because they value what you do.
And then of course you try to take care of them.
You try to take care of all your clients.
But if I was trying to build my book, I would try to fit that person in maybe outside ofmy hours.
(30:43):
And that is exactly what I do too.
I mean, some of them have now become my best friends because we've been friends for somany years and it, you know, maybe started out as a client thing from, you know, a friend
who
got their hair messed up or whatever referred them to me and then eventually we juststarted hanging out outside of doing hair and you know now we're best friends and they
(31:04):
don't have any problem like shouting me out and being super awesome and like generallythey're just awesome people.
In the first interaction when they're sitting in your chair and you are doing their hairfor free are you just trying to essentially convince them that you're a good hairdresser
and you're good for other people and then later on?
You're going to ask them for referrals or are you just right out of the gate?
(31:27):
I don't ask anybody for referrals ever.
I just try to do my best job on their hair and hopefully they'll be happy enough to shoutit out from the mountains.
was funny that yesterday during y'all's podcast that I was listening in on, um somebodysaid that they send their clients two of their after pictures.
(31:50):
And I do the same thing, and usually they're so excited and happy by the after picture,because they do a little bit of face editing.
I'm not going to post a picture on my Instagram account that has a million bajillionfollowers without taking a pimple out.
um And usually they're really grateful for that, and they think they look so cute in theirphoto.
that's the cutest their hair is going to look in the next six weeks, usually.
(32:11):
And so they're super happy to post it.
And then usually they credit me, and it just kind of spider webs out on social media.
That's amazing.
So you don't even ask.
No, you don't go through the discomfort maybe of asking because I know some people aregoing to be I mean, when I move here, I'm definitely going to be like, hey, also, if you
have any friends that would like their hair done or like seem like they need my services,throw them my way.
(32:33):
Nice.
OK, so you're up in your game.
You're up in your referral game already.
OK.
And I mean, it should come up organically if you're not busy and you need more customersand stuff like, you know, that somebody could easily help you with a referral.
You know.
At that point, of course they want their friends to have good hair too.
Right.
(32:53):
Who doesn't want to see their friends happy?
So how much free hair, for every micro influencer that you get, how much free hair haveyou had to do?
Like 10 heads, like one micro for I actually did the math last year and I lost out on$4,800 of the services on free hair.
(33:13):
But, I mean, was that a good investment of your time?
I think so.
Yeah.
because that brought have the flexibility to move around and do what I like and uh I getreally cool people because I seek out in particular like lots of people who let me have
creative freedom and stuff so I get a lot of really cool content and I feel like I canstretch my artistic wings a little bit.
Yeah.
(33:34):
And meet new people.
fun.
Yeah, absolutely.
Doing free hair is definitely an effective tool when used strategically.
Many of our guests on the podcast share similar stories of building the clientele theywant
by doing free hair.
Okay, let's put this all together and hear how some very successful independent stylistsbuilt their clientele.
(33:55):
Edith Navarro, Neil Malek, Dasi B, and Philip Wolf joined me for a panel discussion atISSC last year and shared the strategies they use to put the right clients in their
chairs.
So, Edith, let's start with you.
How do you do it?
Okay, cool.
So new clients can come.
(34:15):
different ways.
We can ask for referrals, which is essentially what we do the most.
And we're more comfortable with that, I feel, because it's been going on a little bitlonger.
I wanted to kind of step out of the box and do something different.
So I pretty much set up a Google page, a Google business page, and a Yelp business page.
And what I did with that is that you claim the business on both Google or Yelp.
(34:39):
And I know Yelp for a lot of us is kind of like,
do I really want to go on there?
What if I get a bad review?
Like who feels that way?
Right?
Like I'm sure a lot of us feel that way.
So what you want to know about Yelp, and I've been playing with this for a while, is thatyou want to ask your current clients that are on Yelp to go on there and review you.
(35:00):
Those are like your main people to go on there.
You've been doing their hair for a while.
They know your work and they can happily review you, no problems.
I haven't had any issues with that, but what I like about claiming the business on Yelpand on Google is that the minute that somebody searches my name or my salon name, it comes
up immediately.
They don't have to scroll to find me.
(35:21):
It comes up and they're able to see the reviews.
So for example, on Google, I claimed to the business there and my husband brought up to myattention last month that I had over 10,000 views in December.
And I'm not paying for that advertising, which I thought was amazing.
If you see like the map on Google, you see the bit like my salon suite, but then you seemy salon, like my influence hair loft and you don't see any of the other suites around me.
(35:45):
So I'm the only one in my area that is on Google.
It lets you know how many people are searching for you, how many click the button to call,how many click for directions.
So that's a, that was a really great way for me to get new clients without me even havingto go out there and look for them.
Same thing with Yelp.
oh If you get a bad review, not saying that you ever have, but if you get a bad one, doyou suggest that you respond?
(36:10):
Yes, so you always definitely want to respond.
This is the thing, if you get a bad review, and I did on Google from somebody that I don'tknow, is a male haircut, and I'm like, I don't cut men's hair, but okay.
So I responded, hi, I don't cut men's hair, so I'm not sure that I'm the right person.
Can you please take this off?
And I don't think that guy ever went on there, but I had
(36:31):
three that were five stars, it completely knocked it off.
And then you can report it on Google.
So it's super easy.
And on Yelp, you always want to thank the people that are saying, giving you good reviewsthat are saying you're great.
If you don't respond, what happens is that that message kind of gets filtered out, so thatfive star review goes away.
If you say thank you for reviewing me and write whatever you want and then click on theThink button, then at that point, that review stays.
(36:59):
If you get a bad review on Yelp, you can actually call Yelp and say, this is not me orthis didn't happen if it didn't happen to you.
And they can remove it.
I also know that if you go on there and you say, what's the problem?
Because sometimes they do confuse you with other people.
And they know it's not you.
They'll take it off automatically.
That's great.
(37:21):
Yeah.
Neil.
All right.
So I took a little bit more of the stalker approach.
So what I would do is I'm
to get new clients in my chair.
I had a goal from the beginning, like I said, and the goal was to do fun hair, like, youknow, get myself to LA eventually and do some photo shoots and do different things with my
(37:43):
career.
I'm not necessarily doing hair behind the chair all the time, but I had an ultimate goalof somehow getting out here and doing some entertainment work, doing something fun.
So how did I get these clients in my chair?
How did I get the rainbow client on my chair five, six years ago?
Well, if I saw them at Walmart, I would just follow behind them closely with a cart.
(38:04):
And then, you know, I'm sorry I'm not stalking you, but I kind of am.
And then I would talk to them, and I would just put myself out there.
And it worked 99 % of the time.
I would do their hair for free.
I did a lot of free hair.
ah And like I said, you have to have a goal, but you also have to forgive yourself too.
You know what I mean?
So you have to take chances.
(38:26):
And if you don't take chances, then
You're not going to get any real gain.
So if you do take a chance and you fall, then you just forgive yourself and you keepworking on it.
OK, so that's going to get you great pictures for your gram, right?
But talk about your hashtag strategy.
So for the hashtag strategy, I did was, so somebody had told me early on that if youwanted to take over the world, you have to take over your country.
(38:51):
And if you want to take over your country, you have to take over your state.
So if you want to take over your state, then you must take over your city, right?
So what I did was, as I started small and I looked at my city and I created hashtags likejust Orlando hair, Orlando hairstylist, Orlando hair colorist, Orlando colorist.
I would just like, you know, knock the daylights out of it.
(39:12):
And eventually that brought me so much business that I was able to grow outside of that.
And I was able to, you know, expand to a Florida and then, you know, go west coast.
So before I moved here,
I would say six months before moving here, I started hashtagging LA hair, LA colorist.
And within two weeks of being here, I've already had eight clients find me.
(39:34):
Some people worry about hashtag spamming.
Should they be worried about that?
No.
All right.
Thank you.
Dossi.
(40:51):
I thought it was keep it simple stupid, but okay.
Yeah.
(43:34):
Absolutely.
Philip.
Alright, so for me, let's see, um I can't really tell you what's good, what's not good.
I can just tell you what I've done and what has worked for me.
There's been different uh stages in my career, So I know back in the day, it's a differentera now, but in the beginning, what I would do is I actually, it was a point in my career
(44:02):
where
I moved from one coast to another.
So for me, that's 3,000 miles.
I don't know about you, but not as many clients are going to follow 3,000 miles unlessthey're by coast or by nature, right?
So with the exception of those few.
So I had to start over, you know?
And for me, it was very similar to where I would just go to those local businesses and forthe women or men, for that matter, who were seen a lot, such as maybe a concierge or
(44:32):
uh at a makeup counter or at the local lounge, the bottle service girls, the hostesses,what have you, I would just do for free.
And I would say, look, every other person you bring me in, I'll just keep doing it free.
And that kind of worked for me.
Spending time, it was almost like working at night, just connecting.
(44:56):
and getting yourself out there and then you do it long enough and there's, yeah, that hairguy, that guy right there, you should see him or whatever.
Word starts to spread a little bit.
So do that somewhere near where you would work.
Obviously don't go too far out.
People will be like, I'm not going that far.
uh I think also now in my career, I'm still behind the chair.
(45:18):
I don't do it as much as I used to.
now it's a little bit more, I have my clients and I don't really
bring too many new in, although I do make some exceptions.
I think also, this happened not even trying, but video I know works really well.
And I know that if you target the type of style that you would like in your chair, so forexample, if you love doing bright colors, know, do bright colors.
(45:46):
If you like doing funky mullets, do that.
People find it somehow, you know what I mean?
And if you're more commercial and you want to go with just, you know, soft glam, put thosein, you know, I, there's a lot of friends I have, they're models and stuff like that.
Of course, we'll, we'll, do it free.
Um, or, uh, or they'll, I can use them for a shoot, you know, you barter that way and ithelps bring in clients just like that.
(46:12):
So for me, that's what's worked.
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