Debunking HUGE Misconceptions About THE MOST POWERFUL Strategy To Grow Your Clientele

Hello, my friend. Welcome back to the Modern Hairstylist podcast. Today, I'm talking about a very important topic, a very, very, very important topic, something that drives me up a wall. So you may hear me rant a little bit today.

I'm gonna be talking about biggest misconceptions when it comes to specializing or niching down or having an ideal client that you market to, okay? Because it's such a powerful, important strategy. It's a decades-old practice. It is something that beyond this industry, um, successful businesses understand and works very well for them, historically.

So this is not a new concept. However, I believe that it's much newer to this industry specifically, and I think that we take the concept a little bit out of context sometimes, or we don't implement it to its fullest, and we don't get the results that we're looking for. So we have probably th- three different types of people listening to this episode today right now. So number one, you could be somebody who has heard of specializing or niching down, but you're, like, still just curious about it, or maybe it didn't seem to work out for you, or, um, uh, uh, or you're just, you don't really know how to go about it.

Then we have people who have successfully implemented, uh, specializing, niching down. You are a specialist within your area, and that's how you're marketing yourself. Or we have somebody who may have no idea what the hell I'm talking about, and this episode is for all three of y'all, because I will be touching topics and issues in all three of those situations. So this is relevant to you, my friend.

Listen to this all the way through. It's so important that you do, because it could be the difference between you building a massively successful, wildly beautiful clientele, and possibly not, and trying to implement this strategy in a way that's not actually conducive to the success and the full potential that it has to offer you. So if you're ready to get into it, let's go. What's the tea, friend?

My name's Hunter Donia, industry business educator for hairstylists, but my friends just call me Hunty. Whether it be growing your clientele, making more money, or automating and streamlining your systems, in the next 20 minutes or so, you'll be hearing realistic, actionable strategies to create a beautiful career for yourself behind the chair. So if you're ready to get into it, welcome to the Modern Hairstylist podcast. Okay, I'm gonna start this off with a question for you.

If you had to get a surgery, and let's say you had to Google to find a surgeon in your area, right? What are you gonna Google to find your surgeon for your surgery? You would Google the type of surgery that you're getting. You would find the surgeon who is, who focuses in the practice of the specific surgery that you are getting done, obviously, right?

We as human beings, especially now with the amount of options and search engines that are out there nowadays, we as human beings and your consumers and your clients are searching and researching for their service providers in the exact same way. They want somebody who's going to be very experienced, the expert in, and very, um, trustworthy within their specific problem that they have and the solution to that problem. So that's why specializing is this thing that you keep hearing about. That's why you may have implemented it and it worked well for you, or you see other hairstylists who are doing this and just making a absolute killing.

It's because it really works well with consumer behavior. It separates you from the market. It differentiates you. It allows you to charge higher prices because you're exploiting somebody's pain, you're exploiting somebody's, uh, needs, right?

And that's not necessarily in a bad way or an immoral way, but you are now offering a solution, a unique, special solution that somebody in your area, your market has been begging for. And because you marketed yourself as that, because you got the education for that, and because you have the solutions for it, you are able to finally offer that s- those solutions to that person who has been begging for that, right? I guarantee you that there is somebody in your market, I don't give a shit if you're in a small town or a large town, especially for you small-towners out there, there is somebody in your market who really does not wanna have to drive or search endlessly or fail and, in their search for something, for somebody, they do not want to drive, search, whatever it may be, to go and get their problem solved. They don't wanna go, uh, to another city.

They don't wanna drive an hour. They don't wanna spend endless time on Google. They don't wanna scroll a million different pictures to see if you are the right fit for them. And it really grinds my freaking gears when myself, as a consumer, am looking for something super specific.

For example, actually, I'm gonna give you two examples, 'cause this is happening to me right now, okay? Right now, I am looking for a damn gaming PC, okay? I want a PC that is really good at, uh, running video games, okay? Yes, I'm a gamer, all right?

I know that's, like, weird and you wouldn't expect that from me, but I'm very much a gamer. I play Dead by Daylight, Fortnite, and some other things. And I want, like, a girly, cute, slay PC that's pre-built for me. I don't wanna build my own computer.

I just wanna buy it o- uh, off the rack. I will spend coins, okay? I just wanna buy it. And I want a girly, pink, cute PC gaming computer.

The way that I am on Instagram searching, like, like, "girly PC computers," uh, or "PC gaming" whatever else-ers, using all of those different word combinations, trying to search in every way, sh- shape, or form, to find a cute, pink, lit up, pre-built PC, and I just cannot freaking find somebody who specializes in building cute, pink, pre-built PC gaming computers. Okay? It is pissing me off. It's an endless search.

And I would spend top dollar for it, right? I am somebody, I have a, I have a large budget for this fricking PC computer. I keep saying PC-computer, but PC, like, literally is the computer. I- I'm, I'm, I'm messing up my verbiage right now, but bear with me.

I am somebody who will spend the coins. But guess what? Nobody is specializing in it, so therefore, it's really hard for me to find somebody to be able to sell this to me. Another example.

I am gay, right? And it's really scary for gay men to walk into traditional barbershop situations, because we never know what the energy's gonna be like in such a traditional, masculine, very heterosexual space. That's just the tea, my friend. Sorry about it.

So, for me, for, uh, uh, for me, for example, I just moved to a new city, and I am very much nervous about walking into barbershops. I was so sad to leave my last barber. I fricking loved her. And so I was on my Instagram and my Google and all the things, trying to find a queer-friendly barbershop for so long.

But because these freaking barbershops do not use the proper hashtags, do not put search engine terms within their post, because nobody is saying, "Hey, guess what? I am an LGBTQ+ barber sh- safe barbershop," right? I am n- I can't find somebody who can take really good care of me. It took me asking for recommendations and searching through all of them and trying different people, getting, not being in cool, great sp- situations, to finally find a place.

I would have paid so much money. I will still pay so much money to find a place where I feel comfortable and somebody can do a great fade on me. I will pay a stupid amount of money for a barber cut. But because there's no specialist out there for me, tuh, I'm n- I, I, eh, I, I, you're losing me as a customer.

You're missing out on my money. If you have talent, skills, or experience in some sort of solution, some sort of unique thing, some sort of something that is solving a problem, you can make so much money, if you remove your fear and you demystify what specializing and niching down actually does for you from a marketing standpoint. Now, let's dive deep into that, and that's where we'll jump off, is, is specializing, niching down, having an ideal client, is first and foremost a marketing strategy. So, a lot of people will say, like, "Oh, well, if I only advertise one thing, if I only specialize in one thing, then I will only get these types of clients."

And I am here to tell you, yes, you will get a lot of those requests, what should be a good thing for you, because it should be something that you enjoy, right? Like, if you're really good at something, normally it's because you really love it and you put a lot of passion behind it, you got a lot of education behind it. That is a great thing for you to get more requests for that specific type of service, or get people that you enjoy working with as well. And we'll cover that a little bit later.

But that does not mean that you won't get requests for other things besides that service. Like, anybody who has niched down and specialized really hard will tell you that they get requests from plenty of other people as well, too. The person who is coming to see you for whatever your specialty is, you don't think that they have a friend who has a completely different hair situation than them, or a mom or a sister or whoever else or, uh, a brother, right, who has a completely different service need that may be looking for a hairstylist and may request you although you market yourself as one thing? It is just a marketing strategy.

And it's up to you at the end of the day if you want to take on those other services, right? Like, it's completely up to you. If you want to take things outside of your specialty, you absolutely can. But the point of specializing and niching down is building your strong foundational marketing strategy and building that beautiful clientele of those people, because it'll allow you to charge top dollar.

It'll allow you to really get clear. It'll make your marketing so much easier. You'll understand the things that you need to say to, to resonate with people a lot easier. Like, if you ever are like, "Ugh, I do not know how to fricking post on social media to get more clients into your chair," I promise you, this is it, and it makes you coming up with content 10 times easier if you are clear on what your solution is and what pain points you're solving.

I promise you. So, just because you may specialize and niche down, and you may advertise yourself as the expert in whatever specialty that is, that does not mean that you're not gonna get requests that are outside of that specialty. There will be less then, yes, but there'll be enough to keep you on your toes, to challenge you continuously, to keep you excited, to keep you invigorated with what you're doing. And the tea is, if you wanna lean into this modern marketing strategy because you wanna build your damn clientele, but you're like, "Ugh, I'm so nervous about niching down, I'm so nervous about specializing 'cause I, like, love doing everything," you're holding yourself back, my friends.

Like, you are the only person holding yourself back because of this misconception, and there is so much opportunity within it. Like, I promise you. And guess what? You can change it later.

You can change it later. People switch their niches and pivot all of the time, especially as time moves along. I had, I, I, way back in the day, I had this conversation on, uh, Clubhouse, way back in the day. Shout out to the Clubhouse peeps.

You guys are OGs. Um, I had this conversation on Clubhouse. I was talk- we were talking about this topic, specializing, and somebody in the comments, who was a little bit more of an old school stylist, was like, "Yo, what happens to all you balayage stylists when your clients get a little bit older and they ha- need gray coverage?" I'm like, "Then we'll either switch our niche or we'll just keep doing their fricking hair.

What's the issue?" I don't understand. Like, it's not, like, you act like you're pigeonholing yourself. You act like you're boxing yourself into one thing and you'll never be able to do anything else.

Like-It's just a marketing strategy. That's really all it is, first and foremost. Later on, if you build your clientele, you grow a massively beautiful foundation of that specialty and those clients, you can choose to not accept things outside of that specialty if you want to. You absolutely can just— can refuse service if you want to, right?

You- you are licensed to. But that does not mean that you have to, right? The next misconception that I would like to get into on top of that is a lot of people say, like, "Oh, you're at the beginning of your career," right? "Like, when you're just out of beauty school, you should not specialize.

You should not just focus on one thing." And here's the tea. I'm kind of- I kind of go back and forth about this. But we- what we just learned was that this is a marketing strategy.

So that doesn't mean that operationally, in reality behind the Instagram, right, in- in- in your freaking chair, that doesn't mean that you shouldn't or couldn't continue to try new things, get educated in new things and different things all the time. I took classes outside of my niche and my specialty all of the time, and it only made me better. And sometimes you do absolutely have to try different things to figure out what you're focused on, right? But at the beginning of your career, to be able to build a clientele quickly, using this as a marketing strategy can be very powerful.

Where a new stylist should be getting their experience is by shadowing other hairstylists. That's really where you should be looking and seeing, like, what you like, what you're interested in, what you find to be asking the most questions about, right? Stylists nowadays do not put enough time in. I'm sorry, I'm gonna sound old school as shit.

I am Gen Z, honey. Do not come for me, girl. Do not come for me, because I am Gen Z, and I am saying this right now. New hairstylists do not put enough time in really, truly shadowing, taking a step back, and getting some experience with working with another hairstylist, and being able to see a lot of different types of services and a lot of different types of circumstances and situations, right?

That will then open your eyes to the path that you want to specialize and go down in, the one that's where you're really like, "Okay, I'm gonna take a lot of education in this, and this is really what I want to market and grow my clientele off of." That's where people should be getting in their time, before they're be- even behind the chair. If you're in beauty school, get a job in a freaking salon, if you have the privilege to do so. I understand people have kids, et cetera, et cetera.

But dude, if you can at least get into a salon, like, one or two days a week, please do it. I got into a salon when I— Girl, I was- I was in beauty school, in high school, and I was working at the salon. I would freaking get up at m- whatever awful time that they make these kids get up at, like 6:40. I would do school, go to my vocational tech school, and then I would get off, and I would go to my shift at the salon from 3:30 to 4:00.

And I did that for, like, four years . I did that for a long time, until I was finally on the floor, and I had so much experience seeing all of my s- fellow stylists, my mentors doing all these different types of clients. And I was like, "I just really love low maintenance color. Like, I love being able to offer that solution to somebody.

I see how awesome they look when they come back, and I want somebody- I'm so passionate about somebody loving their hair even when they come back to see me," right? And I found that through not the experience of actually getting onto the floor. I found that through my assisting experience, through my shadowing, through taking my time and taking a step back. That's where I truly believe that new stylists should be figuring out what their niche is, instead of going onto the floor and risking not using a powerful strategy to grow their clientele if we're- just so that they can figure some shit out.

And that's not to say that there's new- there- there's not nuances to this conversation. I understand that, you know, everything's gonna be different for every single person. But this is just my fucking hot take, okay? So, stop telling new hairstylists that they aren't allowed to just post on Instagram just the thing- the work that they want to take.

Stop fucking doing it. It's annoying. You know what, bitch? Literally, right before, right before I blew my shit up, right before I was three and a half months booked solid with five new client requests a week, I had an- I had a very experienced, very successful hairstylist tell me I needed to post more than just balayage and highlights.

I had somebody tell me that. And thank God I did not listen to that advice, 'cause I would have not been where I was and gotten to where I am today with that advice. So, stop fucking telling these stylists that shit. It's annoying.

Damn, I'm ranting. Okay. My last thing I want to say is, let's say that you're like, "Okay, I wanna specialize because I know how powerful it is. I know it'll get me booked and busy, but I don't really want to specialize in a technique.

Like, I think I'm really good at all these things. Like, I love doing all of these things, and it's really difficult for me to just go all in, 100% into one technique to market." Here's what you can also do. You can also specialize in an experience.

But here's the tea. If you do this, you have to go all in. I see a lot of people, for technique or experience, choosing something that is freaking general or too common. I see people say, "Oh, I'm a color specialist."

It's like, "Girl, what kind of color? Because everybody's a color specialist nowadays." I'm like, "You better be a color specialist, girl. In today's day and age, in the way that everybody can just learn and become a color specialist tomorrow with online education, right?

You better be a color specialist." That's not enough. You're not solving enough of an issue. Gray coverage specialists, low maintenance color specialists, um, something- something more specific, right?

Balayage, blonding specialists, whatever it may be, that is specific enough. With an experience, a lot of people will say something like, "I- I specialize in giving pe- people a luxury experience." Girl, you and everyone else. Your luxury experience should be implied, honey.

Like it should be implied that I'm gonna show up and I'm gonna be treated real fricking well. Okay? So instead of a luxury experience, how about you maybe possibly lean into the fact that you're in a suite? So you're leaning into that you have a one-to-one private salon spa-like experience.

That is much more specific and it's, and it speaks to a much larger desire and a much more specific pain point, right? We gotta get specific with these things. So if you're gonna choose to go into an experience specialty, right? Do you see how, how, how specific I was with that?

I was like, "It's a one-to-one, it's a private space, and it's a spa-like experience." Like this is where you can truly relax. And then once you have that, you need to go all in on it. You can't just mention it here and there.

It can't just be the thing in your bio. It has to live ... You, you as the brand, your brand has to live and breathe that. You have to own it 100% in order for it to take off.

100%. Oh my God, I ranted for this one, girl. I've been wanting to make this episode for like since the beginning of this podcast. I just haven't found a good time to do it until now.

So I could keep going on about this. Like there's so many different nuances and so many things to talk about here. But if you want more information about growing your clientele, about specializing, about niching down, there's a couple different episodes on the Modern Hairstylist podcast, but also you can check out all that I have to offer on hunterdonia.com and you can follow me on Instagram where I talk a lot about this stuff as well too, @hairbyhunti.

All those links, they'll be in the show notes. And I hope that you enjoyed listening to this episode. If you did, if this was insightful for you, if you agree with anything that I said today, I'd really appreciate if you left a five-star testimonial and a little bit of words, just a little bit of words of your honest truth so that way we can reach more hairstylists who need to hear these messages, to leave the next generation of hairstylists behind you with better equipped tools and knowledge to make it so we destroy the stigma of a $28,000 a year hairstylist. Let's fucking do it together.

Thank you so much in advance for leaving that review. So much love to you. Thank you for tuning into the Modern Hairstylist podcast. Peace out, girl scout.

Bye-bye.

End of transcript. © 2024 Hunter Donia LLC.