How to Navigate Fear Based Decisions in Times of Uncertainty

Hello, my friend. Welcome back to the Modern Hairstylist Podcast. Today, we're gonna be talking about some touchy shit, I guess. I don't know.

We're gonna be talking about some people... So, we're- we're gonna be managing emotions today, all right? That's what we consistently have to be doing as CEOs and as business owners, is managing emotions. I know I am an emotional rollercoaster, and I know that Caitlin can attest to that.

And I know that, you know, everybody, including Caitlin, I'm sure, um, not gonna speak for her, but I know that we all, as business owners, get really fucking emotional and get anxiety and just, like, existential crisis sometimes. And so, today, we're gonna be talking about navigating emotions in your business, specific to making decisions and changes based upon emotion. Research shows that 70% of decisions are based on emotional factors, and only 30% are based on rational factors, right? And so for you, as a CEO, that is not cute.

That is not fun, right? Because normally, data-driven, rational factor decisions are normally gonna be the ones that actually move the needle forward the most and set you up for success in the long term, not emotional decisions, right? And I think that there's something to be said for emotions and how they do help to navigate your moral compass and, like, certain parts of your business. I don't think that- that we should completely remove emotion from the business whatsoever, but I do think it can often jade us and point us in the wrong direction.

So, today, we're gonna be talking about making fear-based decisions specifically, and what you definitely should consider, especially in this specific economic time, um, as far as, uh, if- if you should do this or if you should do that, what you should do, what you shouldn't do, whatever it may be, I'm gonna try and give you a little bit of perspective and pull you out of the emotional, uh, emotional downward spiral and feeling like you have to change everything, burn everything down, build everything back up, and go all crazy. 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.

And I'm Caitlin, the CMO for Team Hunty, here to offer additional perspectives and kickass marketing advice. 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. What's going on, Caitlin?

Oh, not much. How about you, friend? Not much, honey. I've been wanting to make an episode like this for a long time, but you know, calendaring and scheduling and- and making sure that everything is in alignment has been tricky.

So, I'm really excited that we're finally doing it. And I've talked about this a little bit on social and in emails and stuff like that up until this point, but I'm glad that we're gonna be doing, like, an entire episode about it. So, Caitlin, I'm gonna challenge you. I'm gonna ask you, as far as, like, fear-based decisions go, especially specifically, like, with this weird time that we're living in right now in the world, what are you, what have you seen or what have you heard from stylists, or what do you think that people are going through as far as the emotions go right now?

Uh, the one that immediately comes to mind that I've been seeing a ton lately is wanting to reduce prices, which is horrifying to think about, and creating, like, mini-services or, like, mini-packages. And I- I don't know. Like, I- I'm not one to judge because I'm not currently behind the chair and- and I don't actively feel what they're feeling. Um, but I- I feel like that's just, like, trying to, like, put a bandage on something that might not need a bandage, I guess.

Well, why are, why are people, why are people considering those things? I mean, the name of the episode, fear-based decisions, 100%. Like, and I completely understand it. Like, their feelings are valid.

Like, they feel like people aren't gonna wanna spend their money with them, and they're gonna lose business, and they're gonna, like, basically, like, their bus... I'm sure, I'm sure that a lot of people feel this way, that they feel like if they don't do something to, like, counteract this whole, like, recession situation, then, um, their business could crumble. And I'm sure that... I mean, it's a super real fear.

We all, we all have felt that at some, one point or another. Abso-freaking-lutely. So yeah, I think that as far as, like, the way that you and I have had the finger on the pulse of things, that we've seen people being really nervous and scared, right? But that's the thing, is what I'm seeing more than actual things happening is people being afraid, right?

Like, that's the thing. Like, I'm seeing... What I see a whole lot more of is people being afraid of things happening instead of anything actually really happening, right? So, that's where my inspiration for this episode is- is coming from.

Now, if you're listening to this, right, and if the economic state, status of the world and consumer behavior is directly affecting your business, right, then just know, like, I'm not invalidating your- your experience at all. And if you are fearful, I'm not invalidating your experience at all, 'cause we go, we all go through it. I'm- I go through it continuously, right? We all have to, we all have to manage these things, and- and everybody's experience is valid.

What I'm gonna be speaking to today, though, is number one, making sure that you're taking a step back and you're looking at things from the long-term, bigger-perspective picture. Okay? Because doing that will set you up for a whole lot more success in the future. Everything is temporary, right?

Like, every single thing that we go through, every period of life that we go through, every period of the economy, right? It changes so fast in today's day and age. And so, what decisions you make right now in response to either fear or things that you are noticing in your own business, you have to realize how that affects you later on, right? So, what I'm gonna......

roll back to is, is, is if you personally right now, right? If you feel like you absolutely need to make a change to make sure that your business survives, or that you survive and that you can put food on the table, that's where I'm gonna say, do exactly what you need to do, right? Do everything that you feel like you need to do to make that happen for yourself. But also, consider doing things as strategically as possible, right?

And, and I'd so much rather people be safe rather than sorry in these circumstances instead of going from zero to 100, and possibly unraveling and undoing a lot of hard work that you've put into everything that you've had up- up until this point, right? Or setting yourself up for more hardship in the future, you know? So, now that I've talked to the people who, you know, if you are going through things right now, then you absolutely sure can consider changing things up. But I don't know if going straight to reducing prices is going to be the way to go ahead and do that, right?

So, let's first talk about reducing prices, okay? Reducing your prices is absolutely the very last resort to any response to a downfall in your performance as a business. Like, that is, like, absolutely the last resort. Like, we never wanna get there, right?

And we should be trying every single thing possible before we get there. And the reason why is because your, your clients right now who are paying those prices, who are happy to pay those prices up until this point, they're, you are going to then lower their price, right? And then people are going to expect more from you for less. And when you raise your prices in the future, it's going to be a little bit more difficult for you, right?

You're going to be lowering the, the perceived value of your services. You're going to be lowering your customers' threshold for what they expect in exchange for a certain price, and that does not set you up for long-term success, and it undermines you, right? And what I also wanna talk about really quickly too, another emotional freaking decision that I see a whole lot, and it's pissing me off. Again, I get it, I understand.

It's making me so upset to see, is that people are putting their clients before them fucking selves. Like, no. Absolutely the fuck not. I understand making these shifts to save yourself and your business.

What I do not F with at all is being like, "My clients are going through a hard time. I'm going to take care of them and do..." What about you, girl? What about you?

What about your family? Why are you undermining yourself when you don't even have to, and it's not a strategic business decision? So that way your clients can feel better about what's going on in their li- It's like, that doesn't make any freaking sense. So, it's one thing to make a decision because your business is not doing well, and you need to make a decisions to take care of yourself and continue, m- continue with the business, right?

But it's another thing to make these decisions because you feel bad or you care, right? Of course we care, but let me tell you something. If you, like, lower your prices out of emotion, right? Instead of need, just to serve your clients and make them feel better, or out of fear, right?

What you will end up doing is you will ostracize everybody out of your business, and yourself out of your business, because you won't be able to afford your freaking business moving forward, right? Like, I would so much rather you take care of yourself and leave somebody to go to somebody else than just not see anybody anymore, because you can't afford to run your business anymore. And that's what lowering your prices and making those emotional decisions ends up doing to you, right? So, let's make sure that we're not making an emotional decision as far as being selfless, you know?

In the name of being selfless, where that'll end up screwing you and your clients over in the long term. And then if you're in a situation right now where you're fearful, but you're looking at the data, and you're looking at what's going on, and nothing is fucking changing, then guess what? You're good, friend. I don't want you to make any shifts or any decisions if there is nothing bad going on.

If there's a teensy bit of a decline, totally normal, totally fine, totally cool. Every single business goes through dips and shifts. But if it's a large decrease, that's when we wanna make a, that's when we wanna make a shift and a decision. But we're not there yet.

So if you're not there, right? If you're doing just fine, and if you are still booked out, right? Uh, just as much as you used to be, right? And, and if, if people are still showing up and paying the prices, right?

If you're still putting in 100% of your efforts, and they are working the same way, do not make any shifts out of fear of what might happen, because if you do that, you'll be messing yourself up in the long term. You'll be digging yourself a hole that you'll have to dig yourself back out of later, and you might actually screw up your current circumstance by making changes for something that might happen. So, for example, we ta- Caitlin, you brought up people are considering adding, adding mini services to their menu, right? So, like, budgetable options, right?

That's what I'll call them. Well, you might have clients in your chair that are completely cool with paying the price, and are, are very understanding of the price, right? They're like, "Yep, this is, like, what I pay. This is the per- this is what this person expects to be able to get me from A to Z.

I want A to Z, so I'm gonna freaking pay this price." Right? And then you are going to add these mini services, and those same exact people who are totally cool with paying your prices might then be like, "Oh, there's these, like, budgetable options."Um, maybe I should try those, and then be com- then be completely cool with the budgetable options, and then you literally just took a client who would have continuously paid you more, invested more into your business, and then you pushed them into paying less with you in the long run.

And then what happens when economy is stabilized, we're seeing a rise again, and you have these fucking budgetable options that you now have to be like, "Oh jk, those aren't an option anymore for you." It's not a good long-term strategy. It just, it just isn't, right, for those specific reasons, 'cause you will screw up the, the current situation and you'll screw yourself over later. So the tea is I don't want you to make any shifts like that right now unless it is absolutely necessary, and there are a lot of different things that you should try, you should consider before getting into a space where we're, like, effing with our prices.

Not to mention if we create these more budgetable options, what's gonna happen is, is you, as the emotional human being that you are, 'cause I am one too, right, and this is why I set up systems in my business that hold me accountable, because I know my emotions will get the best of me, right? That's why I teach what I teach, is I will stretch what I can do outside of those budgetable options, right? Just for clarity and understanding, let's say I do a full balayage and a haircut on somebody, right, and then I come up with, like, this cute little, like, face framer highlight service for people to opt into instead, I'm gonna stretch how much I do in that face framer highlight mostly, especially if this is somebody who is consistent with me, who I've always done the same result on. I- it's impossible for you to stretch out exactly what you're doing if you're offering these little things if you don't stay extremely strict and strategic towards them and if you don't manage your clients' expectations around them, which is adding even more stress and more complication to your business, because now you have to manage expectations, right?

So those are, like, my ADHD trains of thoughts when it comes to this topic, but I'll pause and I'll ask Caitlin what, what she thinks. So I'm completely in agreement with you. I think the big issue that we always run into as hairstylists is we, we are, like, typically we're empaths, most of us. It tends to be very common.

But, I mean, at the end of the day, we're also just humans and we're trying to do people a solid because we have full control over the business. So when you take yourself out of the business and look at it as a physical business, like McDonald's, they aren't just offering people a discounted cheeseburger because they're having a hard time or they think that they might not be able to afford a cheeseburger. Like, it's, it's such a black and white kind of situation, like, if you really look at it as just a physical business, but I know it's, it's just a matter of making that separation and understanding that, like, you don't have to discount and, uh, you don't have to emotionally discount to make people feel better or s- anything along those lines. And I know too, like, a lot of the feelings that you might be having right now about, like, this, like, crisis, this impending doom that you feel like is coming, is because your clients are talking about it, and you're hearing them say, like, "Man, this is freaking me out.

This is stressing me out." And, like, as much as you wanna, like, put your wall up and not let that phase you, like, you do take that into consideration, and then you go out and you check them out, and it's like, oh, well they, they're having these feelings, they're like, they're, they're a little bit tight on money right now, and, like, that's when the emotional discounting really comes into play. So, like, I don't necessarily have, like, a solution for that, but it is something that I feel like you just have to be really aware of, like, you have to treat it as a business. You can't treat it as like a, "I'm gonna do you a solid 'cause you're my client."

I have some fucking tea to spill about that 'cause I think it's a really good fucking point. Your client is sitting in your chair . Your client is sitting in your chair complaining about how life is expensive right now. So this is exactly what I'm talking about.

We're talking about it, we're hearing about it, but you're not considering what's actually right in front of you. What is happening, like literally, like w- on paper what is literally happening, instead of what is being talked about and what is being perceived, right? 'Cause those are very two different things, and the one thing could cause you to make a decision that you may very much regret, and the other thing, the analytical what's actually happening, is what, how you should be making decisions as a CEO, right? So your client is sitting in your chair talking about h- I- girl, I'm, I'm talking to m- with my clients every single time I talk to them about how expensive everything is nowadays, but guess what?

There's, my average ticket's still fricking, like, $300 and they're still buying my shampoo and conditioner, right? They're still coming back to see me. You don't get to control how somebody spends their money nor do you get to even predict how somebody is budgeting or prioritizing how they're spending their coins, right? I know that people are very much so going to prioritize their beauty services over other things.

I know that people are prioritizing escapism as much as possible, things that are gonna make them feel really good, over anything else right now. So yeah, you may be hearing your clients who are going through these hardships, right, but that doesn't mean that you have anything to do with solving that issue for them, nor should you assume that just because somebody's talking about those things that they're also referring to you and your business, because they might think that what you're doing is absolutely completely fair and absolutely something that they wanna prioritize budgeting for. And on top of that, right, like, where we're talking, we're talking a lot and we're perceiving a lot and we're hearing things, right? Just because you are seeing things in other spaces does not mean that that same thing applies to you and your own business.

So I want you to take a look at yourself and what's going on on paper...... analytically, and block out all of the noise, block out all of the talk, block out all of the fucking marketing 'cause there's a lot of marketing that will make you feel like this as well too, that companies will put into your brain, right? There's a lot of outside factors that affect your emotions, which then, by domino effect, affect your decisions. Instead, throw that all out the fucking window, put your blinders on, look at what is actually happening right in front of you, and that is how you make decisions, right?

So before we consider F-ing around with our pricing at all in any way, shape, or form, what are you doing to optimize your business, optimize your marketing, optimize your client experience as much as you possibly can, right? Are you still showing up with that same 100% efforts as you always have? Have we let it, uh, uh, I, I see all the fucking time, I literally see this all the time, "I'm not getting as many new guest requests as I used to. Granted, I am not showing up on social as much as I used to."

I'm like, "What do you expect?" What do you expect? Like, if you're not showing up and if you're not doing the work, then, of course, you're not gonna get the same results. Whatever you put into this is what you're gonna get out.

So instead of focusing on going to these resorts, right? They should always be the last resorts. Let's focus on what we have right now and optimize that and figure out, how can I make what I have right now work for me? That is what we should be doing always first.

And after you have exhausted all of those options, and you have gotten second perspectives from mentorship, community, people who know what the F they're doing, right? After you've exhausted those options, that's when you can lean into last resort options to stay afloat, right? But only if you really need them to stay afloat. And again, all of this is temporary, right?

So even if things are go- are dipping a teensy bit, it's not gonna be forever. And as long as you keep showing up, and you serve your people, and you do exactly what you know you have to do, right? You'll be completely fine 'cause we're all in this shit together, honey. That's the damn, that's the damn tea.

So, my friend, thank you so much for tuning in to this episode of the Modern Hair Stylist podcast. I know things are scary, I know things are weird sometimes, and I know bus- being a business owner fucking sucks sometimes. I truly get it. Um, I know that it's emotionally taxing sometimes.

I truly 100% understand, and I hear you, and I see you. And that's why I love showing up here and being able to serve you, and I really hope that it is helpful to you. And if you find this helpful, I'd really appreciate if you could help us reach more people with this podcast and this information and this message by leaving a five-star testimonial wherever you're listening to this. And I will catch you on the next episode of the Modern Hair Stylist podcast.

Peace out, girl scout. Bye-bye.

End of transcript. © 2023 Hunter Donia LLC.