"Should I Raise My Prices In A Recession?" Addressing Fear & Unethical Marketing

Hello, my friend. Welcome back to the Modern Hairstylist podcast. Right now is a really crazy time, and times have just gotten crazier and crazier and crazier, every month, every quarter, every year. That seems like re- recently and lately, right?

Like, everything just gets wilder and wilder. The world just becomes more and more scary, and we just keep on hearing more shit. There is so many voices. There's so many cooks in the kitchen.

There are so many different opinions and thoughts, and leaders and educators and philosophies that you hear from and that you ingest, and you bring into your brain and you consume, and it can cause a lot of emotion and confusion and chaos in your brain. And I'm here to tell you that I can completely relate to you, and right now is a scary time, and understanding if you should be doing this or you shouldn't be doing this can be really, really difficult. And so what I'm gonna be doing today is I'm gonna be pulling back the curtains and giving you a sneak peek into a conversation that me and my mastermind had, Modern Stylist Movement, in one of our most recent live group coaching calls. The reason why I'm gonna bring this to you today is because somebody asked me a really good question particular to how it's a little bit of a crazy time right now, and she's been hearing other coaches and educators say, "Do this, don't do this," whatever it may be.

And I went on a pretty lengthy rant that I was very passionate about about the situation, and the group really resonated with it, and I thought it was a really positive experience for them as they shared with me. And so I wanted to bring it to the masses and bring it to you, my friend, tuning in to the Modern Hairstylist podcast. So if you're ready to get that mindset together, if you're ready to ditch the fearmongering and the anxiety and the bullshit and the fear, then buckle up. Let's 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. Question for you on how confident are you? Uh, okay, so I'm in a couple of other coaching groups, and the message I'm hearing a lot of is, now is not the time to raise your prices, and if you're at the top of your pricing calculator, you're- you have a mishap in your business funnel and all the things, right? Uh, so I also own a studio salon, and I've been trying to kinda handhold some of the girls through some hard decisions within their businesses, and, uh, and, and even within my own, right?

And hearing that message from some other big coaches feels kinda discouraging. What are your thoughts on... 'Cause I just raised my prices in March, and I still have, like, a 20-person wait list, and I raised my haircuts to 150 to try to weed people out, and it's not working. Um.

Perf- Thoughts on that? My thoughts are... Another podcast episode I'll refer to is How to Navigate Fear-Based Decisions. It's kind of the opposite.

It's kind of like I'm telling people to, like, do not lower your prices, like, and do not start discounting or emotionally discounting. Like, that's what I rant about in that episode. And, but what I'm majoratively ranting about in that episode is staying in your own lane and making sure that you're being analytical of what your own real experience is, because that's the only thing you should be making decisions based upon, for the most part. Like, yes, there could be circumstances that are going on in the world, and yes, it's kind of important to take those in consideration.

And the way that we take those in consideration is, maybe we're not as extreme with this price increase, right? Maybe we're a little bit more conservative with the price increase. But if on paper this is what you need, this is what you deserve, then you do it, because that is literally what you're, what the numbers are telling you. The numbers do not lie, right?

Like, the results of your business, the numbers on paper, they are telling a story. They tell the truth, and that's the only truth that you should be listening to, right? And the way that you make those decisions, like I said, you can be a little bit more conservative with your increases. Maybe we're not doing a $20 increase.

We're doing a $15 increase, right? But the rhetoric of every single person needs to do this right now or should not be doing this right now is just so not correct, because we all have such unique businesses. Like, we are all in such unique circumstances. We all have unique results and numbers coming through on our papers.

You have clients in your chair right now who are paying you the same amount of coin, and we have been past this looming recession shit for a very long time at this point, right? It's been a while. Yeah. And it, so the, the tea is, right, the tea is, even if you raise the prices and that somehow pulls the rug from underneath you, there are so many things that you can do as a business owner to pivot and to make it so that price increase isn't the end of you or the death of you.

But the majority of the time, it's not gonna be. So I say it doesn't fucking matter what is going on in this person's business or this person's business or this person's business. It matters what's going on in your business, and you should be making decisions based upon what that looks like. And if the strategy is, I have demand in my time right now, I don't see it going down anytime soon, the wait list is crazy, then you need to raise your prices.

Here's the tea. You wanna know the tea? The new clients who are trying to get into your book right now- Will pay that. the new clients, they're the ones who want to pay the money right now.

So you are literally holding them back from getting into your chair, and they're the ones who would be paying you all the prices, all the things over the next year, next two years. Yet, you're leaving them out of your book because you're too scared of what's going on and the situation. And there's literally people out there begging to pay you, and you have people in your chair right now who would not pay those extra prices.Mm-hmm.

Oh, sorry. I'm getting, I'm passionate about this situation. It's just... No, I love that.

It's just- I love that. it's just... And, and here's the other fucking tea. Here's the flip side of this.

The flip side of this is, I feel a... And this is super, me being super vulnerable. I feel a lot of responsibility with every single word that I say in this group, on my podcast, on my social media, everything. And it can sometimes almost feel like, for me, like I should be telling you guys to be super conservative and safe and, like, not raise your prices and whatever, because I don't want to see anything crazy happen to you guys.

But that's all just fear and emotion and bullshit that, that it comes from the news and comes from social media and comes from fearmongering that is actually really great, awful, uneth- unethical marketing, right? That's truly what a lot is happening right now, is people are using this time, this fear, and they're monetizing it. And it's fucked up. And that's not the tea that I subscribe to.

So, what I'm going to do is I'm going to lean into my truth and lean into what I know and my experience and, like, understanding that no matter what's happening ev- everywhere else right now, what matters is what's happening on paper in your own business. Stay in your own lane and put the blinders up and make decisions based upon that. Do you feel like target market has a piece of that as well? Just because, you know, like, my guests are...

They tend to... They talk a lot about their money. You know, it's usually like- Mm-hmm. don't talk about...

You know, you don't have to assume people don't have the money. Well, mine let me know that they do, right? Right. So, they're more in the long game anyway.

And as a whole, the salon is collaborative. Yeah. So, we have skin injections, massage, right? And, and we all share my clients.

Yeah. So, basically. Yeah. And I just keep trying to remind them too, like, these people are playing the long game.

They're not concerned about right today- 100%. because they're concerned about what, two years from now, they're gonna be fine, and they know that. Totally. So, how can we share that message too?

100%. Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. Furthermore, even if you aren't necessarily working with a super affluent target market, right? Let's say you're working with these college kids, right?

I will guarantee you, they will literally, they will literally stop doing everything else- ... that costs money to fucking get their hair done if you are offering specific solutions to them that really blow them away. If you're offering solutions that are absolutely excellent that they find as a super high priority on their list, and if you have done a really good job at matching up, bridging your solutions to what their pain points are, right? Then they're never going to stop paying you that coin, right?

Some of them might, some of them may, right? It might happen. But the majority of the time, if you have created solutions that are so good, that speaks so directly to that person, where they literally could not find a better solution anywhere else, and your experience is, matches the value of what you're offering and the price that you're charging for, those people are not gonna stop coming to you. So, even if you're working with a target market who doesn't have a shit ton of money, they're gonna make it work, honey.

Like, I promise you. Here's the thing. If it's the opposite situation, if you have somebody sitting in your chair right now and saying, "I'm tight on money right now," right? They're saying that in your chair.

They're saying it in your chair. They are paying you while they're saying, "Money is tight right now." You are a priority for how they're spending their money. It's none of your business what this person does with their wallet and how they prioritize their money, right?

So, when they're talking about money is tight right now, that does not mean that you, like, that you are a part of that conversation. Actually, if they're telling you that, then that probably means you're not a part of that conversation a lot of the time, because they're comfortable sharing that with you. Because they know that they'll never stop paying for you. But yeah, groceries are fucking expensive right now.

I'm not gonna buy the Twinkies and all the extra snacks right now. Good. Right. Right.

I appreciate it. Good. Thank you for that validation, 'cause I've just felt like, how can this be the message that we're getting? Right.

I, I just, I just, I agree. I just, it's just, I'm not about it, the doomsday shit right now. It's just so unhelpful. It is so unhelpful.

It increases emotional decisions, and emotional decisions are almost never conducive to the success of a business. It, it literally almost is never, never helpful for a business. So instead, let's be analytical and let's not be all fucking freaked out and makes decisions based upon emotion. Like, let's keep our eyes on our own paper.

The other thing that we have to take into consideration, right, is you guys aren't the only people who are hearing this fear-based bullshit. It's, like, also the coaches that you're listening to, right? And so, what they are doing is, they're leaning into the fearmongering as well, too, right? Because they're themselves are scared.

So, they'll do anything, they'll say anything to get you to be scared as well, because that's just what the chain is, right? And I'm not blaming anybody. We're all just scared, and we're all just fucking trying to figure this shit out, uh, together, you know? So, I'm not saying per se, I'm not, like, trying to vilify anybody.

But I am saying that I think it's... I personally am not gonna take that route, because I think it's bullshit. And I think that I don't necessarily want to follow, uh, a leader or somebody who is using fear as a way to, like, survive or make more money. 'Cause that's just so not powerful.

That's somebody that doesn't have any power to me or somebody that I don't want to be following or be influenced by. 'Cause it just, it's like that chain reaction, right? So, be responsible for what you're consuming. And if something makes you feel like shit, stop consuming it.

Because genuinely, it will not help you. Like, it truly will not help you. That awful feeling that you have, like, the pit in your stomach, like, all of that, it's just not going to help you. So, unsubscribe from that shit.

All right, my friend. So, as you can, uh, hear, I got really intensely into that rant because I just feel so passionate about this stuff. I literally had my podcast editor, Pam, shout out to her, she's absolutely amazing, she's the reason why you're able to listen to these episodes every week. I literally was like, "I curse a lot in this.

Could you please reduce the, the amount of, uh, curse words I use in this episode, please?" And she was so kind to do so. This is just, you need to put your eyes on your own paper, all right? Keep your eyes on your own paper, take in consideration your own business, what the numbers are in your own business, because those numbers are the truth.

That is the story that you should be believing and making decisions based upon. And I know that I've been talking about that so much in my recent podcast episodes, but I just really want you to understand the importance of that. Furthermore, I want you to be careful about what you're consuming, what you are allowing to affect your decisions, and what you are allowing to cause you emotions and higher anxiety and all of those things, okay? Moving forward.

I try my best to make sure that I make you aware of the things that you should look out for in your business and give you strategic advice based upon, you know, my experience and the continuous things that I learn through my own education that I get sitting in rooms with multi-six-figure, even seven-figure business owners, and bringing that back to you without giving you this crazy anxiety spiral doomsday messaging all the freaking time. Like, I just... It's so... It's running rampant and I'm just so sick of seeing it, and I just want you to be careful because I just know how much it affects me whenever I consume that shit, so I'm gonna encourage you to take responsibility to cut that shit out of your own life and, uh, your day-to-day, all right?

So, I hope that this was encouraging for you. I hope that this gave you some hope for the future and encourage you to just keep your blinders on and focus on what you have going on in your own business and make decisions based upon whatever any other company would damn do, right? Whatever any other Fortune 500 company would do in this case. And let me tell you, they're not, they're not, you know, making decisions based upon the world solely, they're making decisions based upon what's going on in their business and their projections, et cetera, et cetera.

So, so much love to you, my friend. Hope that you have a blessed rest of your day. Thank you for tuning in to the Modern Hairstylist Podcast. Peace out, girl scout.

End of transcript. © 2023 Hunter Donia LLC.