Sign up for Mindset to Magic: https://stylistsoultribe.mykajabi.com/mindset-to-magic-sales-page
Connect with Lisa Huff
Sign up for Mindset to Magic: https://stylistsoultribe.mykajabi.com/mindset-to-magic-sales-page
Connect with Lisa Huff
Welcome to Stylist Soul Tribe Conversations. I'm your host, Lisa Huff. Over the last five years, I've coached hundreds of hairstylists and beauty industry professionals, helping them work their dream schedules exclusively with their dream clientele, and earn their dream income. income, all while fostering genuine connections and lifelong friendships inside the beauty industry. And this podcast, we dive deep into abundance, manifestation, business building strategies, and creating a life that you are truly proud of both behind the chair and at home. Are you ready to embark on a journey of personal growth, success, and sisterhood then hit that subscribe button now and get ready to experience the pure magic of Silas Old Tribe conversations. Welcome back to Stylus Old Tribe Conversations. I am so excited to be joined with my friend and Stylus Old Tribe member, Laurel, I always mess up your last name. Let me say Guadarrama. Yeah, you said it right. Laurel Guadarrama, aka looksbylaurel, much better known as looksbylaurel on Instagram. She's a hairstylist of almost nine years who teaches baby stylists how to build a clientele quickly. Laurel utilized Instagram to grow her own clientele to a point where she was able to go independent six months after receiving her license, surpassed the national average income for a cosmetologist after 10 months, hired an assistant after two years and passed the six figure income mark four years into her career. Those are pretty impressive stats, my friend. How are you doing today? I'm good. Thank you for having me. You're so welcome. Laurel has been such a, it's actually funny. I, episodes that haven't even been released yet that you haven't even heard yet. I have these people like Laurel, like Taylor, like these people that have been on the podcast who almost every week are hitting me up on Marco Polo. Just. Totally cheering me on and ramping me up and, like, speaking my words of affirmation, love language. Laurel has been pumping me up on the podcast. She really liked, you really liked the, I mean, now when we're recording this, when it comes out, it'll be a while back, but the victim mentality versus creator mentality. You just sent me the nicest polo. Like, yep, Lisa, somehow you did it. That's my new favorite. Like, you keep saying that episodes are your new favorite. So thank you. It feels good that every time she follows me, I'm like, well, get your ass on here. Like, you have so much to talk about. So I'm glad you're here. Yeah, I, as of right now, that one's my favorite just because I feel, I, I love when things call me out in like the best way. That one, oh, I needed that. See, it's funny for me because I've actually been eavesdropping on a lot of soul tribe groups. I feel like a lot of people who I I don't think I would have placed in that category have been saying that they've been called out but that just again goes to show that we all we all have that we all do that because I've been hearing people say that where I'm like, well, I definitely don't think that about you whatsoever. So like if you're dealing with that internally, I wouldn't know about it. So that's actually really interesting. Okay, go ahead. That I think that people think that they do it more than they do realize that That, that the victim mentality is a thing. For instance, after I listened to it the first time, by the way, I sent it to everybody I know, not just hairstylists. You're like, you're allowed to call me out. Everyone I know. But I sent it to my best friend. My best friend is an MFT. She is. Like, a professional therapist, and I sent it to her, and she was like, you don't do this. I'm like, yes I do. So I think we do it more than we do. Well, we all do it in our own way, but I, to me, it's just getting stuck. And I agree, it's like, once you hit the awareness, then you start to become like, almost hyper aware. And actually, without saying too many, like, personal details, I share this a little bit with Taylor's episode. I recorded that episode when, like, things were super smooth, super beautiful, easy for me to say, stop being a victim. Like, I really wasn't, hadn't experienced challenges in a while. Obviously, we all have, but, like, life was pretty easy breezy for me. And then as soon as I recorded that fucking episode, I swear to God, it's like, I was like, I'm bored. Like, there's, there's not enough going on. I started dealing with really challenging things with my son in school. And I. To the point where I started asking myself, I'm like, who are you to even say this? Who are you to even put this out? So again, it just goes to show that we all do deal with this because I'm like, I, I instantly became powerless, scared, feeling like a victim of my own surroundings and not knowing what to do about it. Everything's fine. Nobody get worried about what I'm talking about. It was just, it's just, it was just a parenting hurdle that I've never hit before. And I was quickly like, Eat your fuckin words, Lisa. How dare you? But, so, I feel you. I feel you. I get it. Anyway obviously, I know your story. I would love for you to share with everybody listening just a little bit about you, who you are, where you're from, what's made you who you are, and then I'm sure I'll interrupt you 15 times and a conversation will flow from there. Do you want me to start, like, with my career, or do you want me to talk about, like, life? What feels authentic to you? Like, what, tell us a little, I mean, what feels the most, like, like, for me, when I told my story, I went back to, like, the pivotal years of, like, who I became, who I was. So start as early back as feels relevant. I feel like something that plays a huge part in my career, and that I don't talk about a lot, is that You know how when you say you're going to hair school, typically the reaction of your parents are like, Oh, that's not So, my mom did have reservations, she was very hesitant, but she never she let me do it. She was like, okay, you do you. She didn't even really pressure me to do anything else. I Myself chose that on pressure you what? Yeah, I I took business. I got So I took those business classes before but like she never put that on me, but she did tell me years later She was like, yeah, I was really hesitant when you High school wanted to do this but she didn't say anything and my dad didn't say like no but neither of my parents could say anything because my obsessed with that is My dad's a professional musician and has been my entire life, his entire life. He's he was in a band in the 90s called the Blazers. It's very, it's very similar to Los Lobos. They're kind of like brother bands. They grew up together since high school. My dad was. My dad's band got so big that he was like touring Europe multiple times, you know, it was crazy. But another career path that statistically doesn't look, look very promising, but he knows that with the right, you know, hustle, the right grit, the right luck, anything is possible. So I love that. Exactly. So that was something that really played a huge part is that I spent my whole life watching my dad not only do what he loves and do it well, but the, that book big magic. I know you love that book. It's one of my favorite books. When I read it, I remember thinking there's only one person in my entire life I've ever known to live big magic. Oh! And it's my dad. That's so sweet. Like, I wish that someday you're gonna meet my dad because he's I can't wait to do that. That's a special human. He's, not to say my mom isn't, but like my dad is For sure. A magic person. And so because my dad lived a life like that, I saw that. And it became so clear to me that you can do what you love and do it well and have a meaningful life. And the money doesn't matter. Because we also, I mean, we were not super well off, you know, when I was growing up. Musicians. Musicians. do make, you know, money. So like we did we didn't have extra money when I was growing up, but I saw that that didn't dampen his happiness and joy. And that's huge because also like That just shows that the mindset around life and your financial current situation are so completely different and do not go hand in hand and like you can meet or someone can be raised with a parent who has more than enough resources and it still doesn't feel like it's enough, but they're going to have a completely different own set of their own fucked up stories and and issues. So that's beautiful. I love that you can speak that way about your parents. I love that so much. Yeah. My dad's a, I love both my parents, but like my dad is a special human for that. And it wasn't like he taught me that. I just grew up watching that. And so firsthand. Yeah. Yeah. It was, it was firsthand. It was authentic. It was real. And is what made me so comfortable and almost like fearless because when I got licensed, I grew so fast because I was absolutely fearless to just be like, let's try this because nobody had warned me against failure. I don't even think failure was. An option in my head. It was just this like, young naivety that, that served you well. Yeah, and like, well, failure to most people is that you don't make any money and you stop doing it. But to me, I was like, if I don't make any money doing it, I'll still be okay because I'll be happy. That's not what it was about, yeah. Yeah, so it just, it really created the launchpad for me. Yeah, and obviously what you shared in your bio, that like crazy run after cosmetology school and the success you saw so quickly, I guess like walk us through that journey as well. so I got licensed in 2015, I think I was 24, or about to be 24 or something like that. So I was kind of mid, almost mid twenties. Like I said, I did my business classes first, I got all that taken care of and then I went back. I got licensed in February of 2015, and then by August of that year I was renting full time because I had too many clients to only, I was renting three days. Wow. That, and then I was assisting the other two days. Mm-Hmm. And I was, I ended up being there most nights till like 11 o'clock at night to try to fit everybody, and it was too much. Oh, wow. Granted, I was slower because I was fresh, so For sure. That would take me two hours now, it was taking me four hours then, so it was, I was a little slower, but I had enough that I needed to rent full time. And so did you start, like, marketing yourself in beauty school, or how did that, how did you go within six months that overflow of clients that quickly? I know that I had my, I know that I had my Instagram in cosmetology school because I started it, I'm, if you scroll all the way back to my beginning, it's doll heads in cosmetology school. So I know I started it then, and I don't really remember how I started marketing in the beginning because I remember when I got licensed, I already had people set up to come in the following week. I told the per, I told the owner of the salon I was assisting at, I said, Hey, just so you know, I do already have clients that I've been doing. Can I just have one day a week behind the chair daily? And were these just your friends or like, how did you have those to start? Yeah, friends, people I worked with. I worked at the movie theater when I was in cosmetology. You did a lot of networking. Yeah, it was a lot of like my friends, people from high school stuff like that. You know, just people I don't really remember how I started getting people I didn't know. I do remember that that was the, that was the six months to when I was renting full time was getting people I didn't know from Instagram. And I would. I, I remember spending, I would go to work, and I would come home from work, and then I would work on my phone on Instagram until like midnight, one in the morning, and then I'd do it all over again, and then Friday night, Saturday night, all day Sunday, all day Monday, I never stopped. Ever on my phone. I would sit on my couch, I would play Gilmore Girls, it would just run, like one episode after the other, and then I it on my couch with my phone and just keep working and working and working. It was also that like magical unicorn of time though, because it's funny how everybody's story, the timeline kind of happens. I mean, it was like when Instagram was getting big, so it was still this like brand new, exciting, the world's your oyster kind of thing of like. This is so cool. How can I connect with so many people? The fact that I can search a local coffee shop and find who's hanging out there, like, because I remember you speaking at Thrivers Live about, like, sharking, that stuck with me, and I was doing that for years as well where you were just, like, super active and aggressive marketing and I honestly, obviously, I did Thrivers, I know you did Thrivers, I know that was a big period of it, but I don't love coaching stylists on, like, how to grow a clientele, because for me, I did follow certain, you know, strategies, things like that. Other than that, it was just like, Every moment of every day. That's all I thought about. And I just did my, I did a million gajillion micro moves that compounded on like every day. I was just like, okay, well, I'm going to make a post, but then like nobody's booked from that post. So now I'm going to like run a contest. And then if I don't get tracked, and then I'm going to like seek people out. And I know you were really similar in that too. So is that what you mean when you say Gilmore girls is playing and you're just on Instagram or like, what were you doing? Right. Yeah, so I would not only, like, create posts and stuff, it was way different back then, though, because there was no, there were no scheduling apps, you couldn't schedule stuff in Instagram, so I would create stuff in my notes section of my phone, I was either writing captions, or I was going through and trying to speak to as many people as possible, I, since then, I've seen the movie Ralph Takes the Internet, I know you have kids, so you have probably seen it, Is that like a Rocket Ralph? Oops! It's Wreck It Ralph the sequel. I don't think I've seen that one. Oh my gosh, okay, so this is, I'm literally, this is Tell me. So, the concept of the movie is that Ralph now has to go through the internet, and he's In the internet, like, exploring throughout everywhere, and he can just pop up in all these different places, like, one, at one point he finds himself in YouTube, and at one point he finds himself in Google. I think I have seen that. I think I know what you're talking about. Yes. Yes. So I felt like that was me. I was sitting on the couch, but my little digital Laurel was going. Was in a whole different world. Yes, like I was able to network while I sat on the couch in my pajamas versus 10 years before that you used to have to go to the grocery store or Target and then talk to people there. I was doing it while I was sitting on my couch. And I spent. Hours and hours. Wow. And hours doing that. And it was fun to you, right? Like that's how you wanted to be spending your, and that's not the case for everyone. I feel like you and I have that similarity and it's probably'cause we're about the same age, you know? Again, it was just kind of that timing of it. And we'll get to this later in the conversation, but I, I really am glad that you said you're cool with going there with this conversation because not long ago, Laurel. had a baby, had lots of, you know, life things. I told you I'd interrupt you 10, 000 times before you get through your introduction. But more recently, she's been rebuilding a clientele. And I was curious as well, the same way you were, do those moves still work the same way? Because like, it was almost like this brand new thing. And I even look back, my engagement was crazy back then, better than it even is now. And I have way more followers now. Like, it was just a different time. But Obviously, we'll get to this in the conversation, but it's really cool to know that even in 2024, obviously, the strategy has changed quite a bit, but Instagram is still capable of doing that. So, keep, keep introducing yourself, keep explaining that, and then we'll, we'll circle our way back to that, because I already want to go there, but I definitely want people to be acquainted with you. But yeah, so I did that, and I did it for a couple years. A couple years in, I got busy enough again where my schedule maxed out and that's when I hired my first assistant and I Will forever love her to death Her name was Genesis and I will forever love her because it was my first time ever having an assistant I was still kind of fresh in the industry. All I knew how to do was to not do the things that hurt me So we kind of learned together. It was We, we love each other. We still, you know, talk. We adore each other and it was a great relationship, but she was so generous to me because it was, I'm learning just like you are right now. And so she was my first assistant and It was two years after that that I started hitting six figures and the entire time Almost up to the six figure mark I was only doing the Instagram like what I was doing the shark method all of that stuff where I go in and I really It's like guerrilla marketing, but digital guerrilla marketing. And in the year before For someone who doesn't know what you're talking about when we're saying sharking and guerrilla ing, like, explain that, I guess. Well, guerrilla Well, guerrilla is just, like, getting your feet on the ground and going. And, like, guerrilla warfare, which is, like, ground soldiers. Well, guerrilla marketing is just get on the floor, just go. Just put your feet to the pavement and just go, talk to as many people as you can, you know, spread out. And then shark The shark method is my method of going through and basically sharking out clients that are the cherry picked clients on Instagram. There's a big difference between throwing out a big net and hoping that a bunch of fish come in versus going out with your harpoon and hunting down the one perfect person you know is going to fit with you. So my shark method is the method I teach my coaching clients how to attract perfect clients every single time to their business. Love, love, love. Keep going. But after, after a couple years of having it, I think I had, I was on my second assistant. I wasn't hitting six figures yet. I was very close. I was on my second assistant. That's when I opened my suite in Pasadena, so I went really independent. I opened a two chair suite in Pasadena, and that was when I started running Yelp ads. Mm hmm. Simply because I, as much as I loved and enjoyed doing the Instagram marketing that I did, because like, like we were saying, we're those people. It's fun to us. Mm hmm. I didn't have the time anymore. Totally. And part of the reason why I had worked as hard as I had all those years was so that I could work less and make more. Mm hmm. It didn't seem, I, you know, I was almost hitting six figures. It didn't seem important enough for me to waste all of my evenings doing that anymore when I wanted to reap the fruit of my labors, you know, like, yeah, I, I leaned into Yelp. I did run Yelp ads the entire time I was in Pasadena. So that's what surpassed me past six. Just out of curiosity, what were you spending on Yelp ads? Because I've never run Yelp ads, but also Central Illinois Yelp, like, isn't a thing like it is in California. Yeah. So I was spending about, I know the Yelp ads themselves were 500. And then there was an additional add on that I did for another hundred. So it was probably about 600 a month. Okay. Good to know. Yeah. It was, it was pricey, but most months. That was one client for you. Yeah. Yeah. I do. I do big projects. And so, yeah, it was about two clients for me at that time. Maybe one big one. I was getting about 25 to 3, 000 worth of services from the y'all. And so it was obviously worth it. And the only reason I stopped running them is when COVID hit and we were shut down. Yeah. Wow. Yeah. So fast forward to COVID, when was Salem, when did you, are you pregnant with Salem? How did that, how does that timeline? Cause that's, we were obviously very close then we got close through Thrivers Elite, the Marco Polo that I've had, Jess, Kristen, Angie, all these people on Laurel was part of that. So we were very good friends during that time. How does that timeline start to intersect? I think I met you. I met you, I don't know when I actually met you, but you and I became friends and joined that little group and got closer after I was already pregnant. I think I was in the trimester. Oh wow, okay. I joined Elite in June, I think, and I was pregnant, I got pregnant in May. Okay. So I think I was already pregnant when we joined our little group. And I had her February of 2021. So her birthday is actually next week. So awesome. Yeah, it's really crazy. Yeah. Yeah. So I had her 2020 beginning of 2021. So shortly after COVID started in the world, shut down that we did get pregnant. We were actually planning to start trying. Literally, like, March or April of 2020, and then everything happened, and we were like, Oh, let's, I don't, Maybe not. Huh. We're scared, what? And then we just decided, after a few months, we were like, This is how the world is gonna be, it looks like. For the foreseeable future, yeah. Yeah, and you're pregnant for a long time, so if this is still going on by the time we have the kid, this is, this is a long time coming. So anyway, we had her beginning of 2021, so I spent most of 2020 with all the shutdowns and I shut down, or I closed down two suites. Mm. I mean, you know, that year was that. That was a year. Crazy time. Whole year pregnant. Mm hmm. Mm hmm. Oh, yeah, that was crazy. Mm hmm. Fast forward into where you are now. Obviously there's been, you know, different, different seasons, things that have come and gone. And, and what's your situation right now? So right now I, I'm in my first six months at a new salon. I Am able to Network a lot better at this one. I'm able to They they get a lot of walk ins, which I normally am anti walk in But at the time that I moved salons, I just needed all the help I could get because I was Also, from what I've seen, just because, through your Soul Tribe group, it's a very, it's very targeted walk ins, because the salon is very impressive, the branding's good, so I would have to assume it's not, it wasn't like my SmartStyle Chase walk ins, you're getting better walk ins than that. Yes, yes. It is they have a very, very uh, their brand is very close to mine, and it's very well done, and so, It is very much so my kind of clients that are coming in but I did start there about six months ago and things have been on the uptick since because i've also dove back into instagram You know, we we put her in preschool and that freed up a lot of my life again but also at the same time that we enrolled her in preschool I was able physically to work again because I had a lot of postpartum complications that prevented me Returning to work totally the last couple of years have just been a roller coaster of I want to work more I can't work more. I want to work more. I literally can't use my hands. I want to work more We have no child care because it's covid and nobody we don't want anybody in our house. It's It's been a, it's been a, but I think talking about that is really important because I've definitely seen that just with how many women I see through soul tribe that an extended ass unplanned maternity leave is the reality for a lot of people. So like some of us have a baby and six weeks later we're back at work. Some of us life does not start to feel any kind of new normal for many years after. So like I have seen that for, for many people. So I'd love to hear. Obviously, you adopted strategies back in the day that worked. You still use strategies that are working today. I'd love to hear how those strategies have changed or what has truly stayed the same. I know you said you'd love to talk about, like, batching content. Today, I would love for this podcast episode to be super valuable nitty gritty. People can, like, bust out their notebooks and, like, start to batch some of their own content. So share that a little bit with me. The biggest thing, I would actually say that the strategy hasn't changed because the strategy should have always and should always be that when you're doing anything with marketing, you have to think of the customer and the consumer. So strategies change only because the consumer has changed. So the strategy of matching the consumer where they're at is the same, it's always been the same, it will be the same. The consumer is the thing that's changed in this. So the biggest difference I'm seeing with the consumer that I was targeting and sharking back in 2015, 16, 17, 18 and the ones People are not gonna like when I say this is that they're super picky because they can't be it's like walking into a Nordstrom and seeing you know, oh my god, Balenciaga. I'm trying to think of like one of those brands like I've seen Balenciaga There is only Balenciaga. Mm hmm, and you know, I go to I don't know, I'm trying to think. Like, I go to Target, and I look at the Target brand of stuff, and then there's, like, if I'm in the skincare aisle, there's, like, Target, and then there's, like, Yeah. And all this stuff. I have options, and they're all kind of similar, so I can really pick and choose, and that's how the market has become with us. We need to be The Balenciaga, the Chanel, the Gucci. You need to be How does one do that? Because I can already hear people's limiting beliefs start to pop up, so like, what's Laurel's take on that? It is not a pricing factor at all. It has nothing to do with what you've priced yourself. It has everything to do with the vibe that you put out there. Yes. Yes. And everything to do with branding and the right branding will target, you know, people who are willing to go for your brand versus another, but if you don't have good branding, nobody, people looking at you, they're not going to know it's another basic target brand that we look over. Yeah. Yes. And then you're going to be generic with all the other hairstylists out there. And. You have to think at the end of the day that these clients can go anywhere and get a mm hmm at least decent haircut Mm hmm. These clients can go anywhere and get at least a decent balayage. Stylists are very talented. Yeah, we're very talented and you know There are some out there that Aren't for sure, but not like there used to be in 20 15, 20 16. No, it's not the same. It's really not. No. And most of the time back then, you would see somebody who's not talented, you would assume, oh, they're just newer. Mm-Hmm. They, they need to learn still. Now the new people are coming outta school. They are hot like coming out. Mm-Hmm. They know so much. And you need to create a brand and a vibe and a. A subtle, silent communication to the client that you're worth going to above anyone else. You need to separate yourself from everyone else because they are allowed to be choosy and picky in these, these, these times. Like for me, I was gonna say I, I'm doing the same exact thing I did back then and I am getting less requests. But the ones I'm getting are really, really, yeah, yeah. And they also. are kind of, I feel like they're almost more loyal right off the bat from back then. Interesting. Where it was, it was just kind of like the wild west a little bit. Like, we were trying new things, but then there was another new enticing thing that popped up. And Okay, that's really interesting. So, someone who's listening to this, you're saying all this, and I don't know if you're gonna be, like, ready to go with this answer or not, but I'm just curious to hear it. Obviously, Laurel knows Laurel knows Laurel, and if you've been following Laurel for a while, like, there is a vibe there. There's a feeling there. You, you, you know it. There's a confidence. There's a brand. There's all of that. If somebody feels like they don't have that, obviously emulating what you're doing is not going to be authentic to 99. 9 percent of the people. So what did you have to do? And I know a lot of this does come natural to you, so I'm going to ask you to try to dissect it a little bit and I'll throw in my opinions as well. What does someone have to do to start to recognize that vibe before they even get a content strategy going, right? Because like we need to get the underlying tone, the underlying brand, and like know what that like messaging is and that vibe is before we even start creating the content. So like, do you have feedback? If somebody did like a one on one coaching with you and they're like, I don't even know what that like voice is for me, what questions would you want to ask them or have them think about? So I actually, I do it a little differently than, because I've taken a lot of branding classes and I do it a little bit differently than a lot of others that I've seen teach it. I pretty much start with, I've heard a lot of people say, Don't do what you like. Mm-Hmm. don't you know the colors? You're not your brand. Mm-Hmm. Exactly. And it's funny'cause I, in 2015 I was my brand. Yeah. And now do, I'm do, I'm in the middle of a rebrand and I'm starting to build again. Mm-Hmm. I've felt so old because I'm so not, my people are 22 and I'm not so I get it now. I get it now. How pain. It is to create a brand that is not you because I'm doing it and it is more difficult, but it's doing energetically. You can still be her, right? Like you still know her very well. I know the vibe because the vibe in front of me, ideally. So I always tell people. You know, I, I know that you've been told not to do what you like, the colors you like, the things you like, all of that, but I do want you to pick one thing that you like. I want to know what is the service you like doing most. And that's where we start with branding. That falls down into What service do you like doing most? What do you want to specialize in? What do you want to attract? Then who is getting the service? And then we go into who that person is. So it all trickles down from there, but it starts with something that you truly want in your heart. At the end of the day, this is your career. So And you're going to be able to speak more authentically and naturally when it's in alignment with your own, like, beliefs and desires as well. Because, like, let's just say, You know, I'm this like trendy up and coming or even vice versa. Let's say I'm this like older middle aged woman, nothing wrong with that, that shops at Kohl's and lives in the middle of central Illinois. Like let's say, but like all of a sudden you're trying to attract this like fun spunky young, like that would never, you wouldn't know how to talk to them because you don't know how their brain works. So I have always been on the side of like, I am my brand and I kind of am my target market because How else do I, like, speak to them? And obviously, I'm not the exact same as them. My clients aren't the exact same as me, but I always say that to my clients, too. They're always like, do whatever you want. I'm like, well, if I do whatever I want, you guys are all going to walk around with a head like mine because I would love to just do balayage and a basic trim on everybody. Like, that's, that's just me. So, I fully agree with that, and I agree. I've taken a lot of branding classes as well, and that is one thing. And maybe that's not going to be the case for everyone. Like, I guess maybe there's, like, totally hetero masculine men who do women's color. And so I guess then it's hard for you to understand and relate. But yeah, for me, it always has rang really true of like, they are a version of me and I am a version of them. But the, when you are further separated from your Perfect client. It does get better. I will say that it does get better, but it's not impossible because if you start with the perfect service for you, the service you want to do day in, day out, then you, you do know how to talk to them because they're getting that service by your definition. And there's a reason you like it. You've clearly done it. Yeah. Yes. So even if you are a guy who has no vivids and you want to do vivids, you can talk to the vivid clients because that's your perfect. Goal service or if you have a buzz cut and you're, you know, this chick who shaved off all her hair want to specialize in balayage or extensions or yeah, or anything like that, you, if that's your perfect service and you love it, then you know how to talk to the people who want to. Get it from you because you know that you should know that service inside and out with that, you know, funny. You say that Tawana just like posted something the other day. I don't know if you saw that where she shared a statistic that like 15 percent of OB doctors are men. Same thing there, you know. Yeah. And I love that post too. Huh. It was so good. Okay. So obviously you get, you get an idea of your branding, get an idea of who you're trying to attract, who you're talking to. Now, you know who you're talking to. What does batching look like for Laurel? Cause you have it down to a science. Yeah. So I, I batch in chunks. Okay. What I mean by that is there's three parts to it. There is. Getting the content there is writing the caption and then there's whatever editing you need to do for that content Since the easiest to do is you take a photo you write a caption There's probably no real editing in that the hardest is going to be if you're creating a graphic like The, the carousels with all the infographics. If you're creating one of those, obviously that's heavy editing. If you're doing a reel, that's, you know, it can be very light editing to very heavy editing. But I do it in those three parts. I create the content. I write the copy. And then I add the caption. And I do them I'll do one thing in one sitting. So let's say today I have to do some batch work. I will pick one of those three to do. I haven't done caption writing actually in a while. So my next batch session I do, I'm going to sit and I'm going to write a ton of captions. Then later I have this entire caption bank. to pull from, and I can pull whatever caption works with the photo that I just took and decided, okay, this is, doesn't need to be edited, this caption goes with this, perfect, good. Or the reel that, you know, the audio on the reel has something to do with one of these things, so let me take that, I'll put the caption in there, and then later, when I'm editing, I'll go back and see if that reel needs to be edited. Tie it all together. Are you just doing this all in the drafts? Yes and no. I lost all my drafts twice. Mm hmm. The first time I didn't have a backup and I was devastated. Yeah, I've been in that situation too. I mourned for seven business days, but the second time it happened, I did have backup. So I save everything to my device, my phone, and so everything's in my camera roll. And then I save them to an album in my phone of reels. So if my drafts disappear, I can just go through and plug them back in. How about captions? Where do those live? Only in the drafts or where do you keep those? Oh, it's Trello actually. I use Trello for my captions. Awesome. Yeah. Love it. Awesome. And I use. I always forget the names of the apps. I think InShot. I think that's what you're about to say. That's another thing. Hang on. CapCut. CapCut, InShot Splice is another one that I sometimes use. And there's this app that's called Reels. I have found that that one is really easy for Never even heard of that one. Yeah, it's one of the girls at the salon where I used it and it's very useful. And it's not like affiliated with Metta or Instagram or it is? I want to say it is. Okay, cool. I feel like it is. I didn't look too much into it, but it's just creels. I think it is affiliated with them. That's cool. But I have found that that one I use, I never use it for my looks by Laurel Content because it doesn't go with what I do there. But for my, I have a separate Instagram for my behind the chair work, that app. is amazing for creating those really quick. They look professionally edited, but it's literally play type of app that. So it's like templates almost. Is that what you mean by plug and play or? Yes. Yeah. So you pull up a template and it has the audio in it and then you plug all your videos that you want in and then you generate it and then. It has to be affiliated because it lets you open directly in Instagram. It definitely is audio. Wow. I'm gonna have to look into that Yeah, you don't post your original audio, you actually go to the audio page and if it's trending, you get a trending audio. So, that's a great app. It's pricey, but it's a great app. How much does it cost? I think it was like 40 bucks for the year. Oh. Which is, I'm cheap, I won't Poor app, yeah. I have a hard time spending money on apps as well, other than Marco Polo. That's an easy one for me because obviously that's my job. But same thing with this. If it's that good of an editing app, then it's going to be worth it. Cause it's a business expense as well. Okay. So I appreciate that peek into your drafting content or batching content situation, I'm gonna ask you to go even deeper just because I feel like I've almost, we've heard that, we know that. Let's say after this call, you're actually sitting down to write captions. Where do you begin? You, personally, because we all have our own interesting flair, and we all get bored of our own interesting flair every once in a while, like, what are you actually doing? I, okay, so there are so many saved albums, or like a, you know how you can save stuff on Instagram and you send them to me? I have so many saved albums of inspiration from other people. Not to say a copy, just inspiration. Because sometimes somebody will say something about color, like vivid colors, in a way that I'm like, Dang, I love the way, like I love the angle she came out with this. And so I save a bunch of stuff like that, and when I'm feeling uninspired, I go through all of those. And sometimes I'll read one of the captions that inspired me. And it instantly sparks an idea. Yes, and sometimes it has nothing to even do with that. It'll just, it just makes me, I save posts that are inspirational and excitable to me, so that it can get those juices going. That you know spark ideas in your head. Yeah. So you do that passively. You're consuming content, you're saving things that you, in this moment it sparked an idea, but rather than writing the idea down in this moment, because you're just scrolling, you're not trying to create content right now, I'm going to save it, and I'm going to know when I go back, and I watch that as a consumer again. Hopefully it sparks the same thought or a different thought, even when I just said about Tawana, you could have saved that and then you can go back and say, even if you're a chick with a buzz cut wanting to do balayage, like, that's the caption right there. You're not copycatting, but it's completely sparked that idea. I did save that post for that reason, because I was like, it is such a great angle to come at this with to get people to understand. And I love analogies and that was a great analogy. So I did save that post and that's the kind of stuff that I save. I also never scroll Instagram passively ever when I'm scrolling Instagram, I'm saving all of these posts that have inspired me. If somebody does a real edit that I really like, I will save that. If somebody, you know, those you know, those reels that have like the. Like the meme on it, like they have, they have a ton of the Pedro Pascal. Mm hmm. Like look over smiling at Nicholas Cage. Yeah, green screen or something like that, yeah. Those kind, I always save those because I have a really hard time finding them later. I'm just not good at finding them. Totally, but then you know you can hop on a trend. Mm hmm. Yes. So I say, I always save those, although I don't use those that often, but I save them. And another thing I do is when I'm scrolling, I will always. Watch out for audio, and I save audio, I save probably audios a day, and I probably delete like 30 a week of, I'll go through every once in a while and be like, eh, I'm not gonna use this one after all. I'm constantly saving and resourcing things, even if I'm just, Scrolling. Love. And you're doing all this on your phone. This is not done on the computer. Everything's on my phone. Which is why it's so easy because you have your phone everywhere with you. If I go to the doctor's and I'm waiting, even though my appointment's at 4 30, I know they're not going to see me till after 5 because that's how it always works. I get out my phone. And I scroll. I can't tell you how many times we've gotten like, Chris has wanted food, and I'll be like, I'll go, I'll go to the, through the drive thru, because I know it's going to be a wait. I know I'm going to sit in the car. And you can get work done. Yeah, so my latest habit stack, which my husband hates, but I love, my latest habit stack, me and Ryan have been on. A really, really, really good groove of weightlifting every single day when he gets home from work. I mean, obviously we have rest days, but like, we have not fallen off this groove for like more than two rest days and Since spring, probably. Like, we have been on our shit. So I have found a habit stack that, in between sets, I am posting my TikTok content, because that's what I've been trying to show up on, is clips of this podcast. I'm trying to do three a day on TikTok because they say that that's helping it grow right now, and then if I'm, like, due to post on Instagram, then I'll post on Instagram while we're working out as well. But it drives Ryan nuts because he's, like, You know, he did his set. He's racking weight, taking weight off, and I'm down in my phone again. He's like, can we just have a day where you do where we work out and you aren't doing that? I'm like, this is just passive time. The music's blasting. We're not talking. I am going to HabitStack and I am going to get this done. What difference does it make? I'm right here with you. I'm sorry. I'm taking a little bit longer. I'm a little bit distracted, but I swear I've been posting consistently because of that. So I'm a huge fan of any HabitStack. So yours is drive through, mine is weightlifting, and I love that. Anytime you can find those. Anytime that we have somewhere, like, further to go, Chris is the, he's a, such a control freak that he has to drive. You're the passenger princess. I am the, I'm seriously the most productive passenger princess. So see, we're the opposite. I have to drive, but I love that you don't get carsick creating content in the car. That's amazing. I don't, as long as I sit in the front seat. So I sit in the front seat, like, you drive, you play whatever music you want. Don't talk to me until we are actively parking. I'm dead to the world. I'm going into this. Yeah, I mean, we have to sit here anyway. You may as well get it done. So anytime you guys find yourself one scrolling and like not loving the way that's like, like you said, I'm never scrolling passively. Again, you have that creator cap on even when you're consuming, you're consuming as a and you're studying behaviors because the, your underlying, you know, identity is a creator and you know that you're, you're going to then go back to creating content. So I love, love, love that. It's kind of like a sickness, in a way, because I, I cannot turn it off. I can't stop. And so, as great as that is, in the months after having Salem, Mm hmm. It was so hard to just accept that I had to turn it off and that I wasn't working. Mm hmm. Because work was at work, my clients were at work. Like, everything was able to be left there, but my phone was what I did most of my creating in, Mm hmm. Mm hmm. You know, I'd be up in the middle of the night breastfeeding her at 2am and I had my phone there and it's like, do I play Sudoku or do I create a post? You can't sometimes turn it off, you know, the pendulum swings the other way into productivity, which isn't great either. See, that's really interesting and I feel like it's funny that you say your strategy hasn't changed much because I feel like my strategy has changed a lot, but I also feel like. I have gotten really good at turning that off, personally. I, and maybe that's why my engagement is down a little bit. You know, I don't, I am not excited by Instagram the way that I used to be. Unfortunately, I wish I still was. I used to feel that way. It was like, this is a hobby to me. I would rather be doing this than watching a show. I'd rather be doing this than reading a book. fun and fulfilling to me. I've lost that over time. It's not gone. It's still there a little bit, but I interact with it very differently. And so even hearing you say what your strategy is, I'm like, that used to be mine, but I've really lost that. So I asked you, are you happy that you still have it? You just said it is a blessing and a curse, but clearly not enough to pull you away from it as much as I feel like I've been pulled away from it. I don't know. I think I'm happy with it now because it is. Serving you again? Well, it's not unhealthy. Okay. Like, it made me miserable when it, when I do, and when you and everyone else around me was telling me, like, just, you, you don't have to work. I'm like, that's my identity, like, and I feel like that's, you know, the downside to being so productive and work driven, you have to find that balance, and I do think I've gotten better with it, but that was my I think you have too. I know. That was my first dose of, you need to, you need to be able to turn it off. How often would you say you turn it off now? I do turn it off every, every Sunday. Mm hmm. But every Sunday has, for years and years and years, since pre COVID, every Sunday was a no work day. Okay. I do turn it off when, once Chris walks into the door to the time that we put her to bed. I've gotten really good at not doing stuff in that time, unless I am doing something that has to be done in that. Like if it's a time sensitive thing, then I will, but I'll tell Chris, Hey! I have to go in the other room for 45 minutes, and I don't try to do it while I'm being, I like, separate myself so that I know, okay, you have to get this done and then go back, but I've gotten really good about turning it off in the evenings and on Sundays. I'm glad to hear that. Now, at any given time, how much content would you say you have batched? Like, right this moment, if you had something come up where you weren't in a creative space for a while, how long would you be good for? And on average, how long are you typically good for? I, at my height, I had Over a hundred reels drafted just really have over a hundred drafts right now They're not finalized by any means, but I do have over a hundred drafts right now. I know that I I at my height. I had over a hundred reels. Huh as far as photos go my saved in my phone, my album of pictures that I could use on my hair, it's over 3, 500. But that's not just hair photos, that's also photos, like photo shoots I've done. But you can pull from any time. Yeah, so hair photos I have about 2, 000. And I Like right now in my drafts, I have probably like 30 on this phone. I just got a new phone and the drafts don't for sure. So my, my old phone has probably 25 working through and then my new phone has about 30 right now. You probably won't see half of them. Exactly. I create, this is the thing. I have a messy creative process too. I love to hear you say that. My Canva's like that. My Instagram drafts are like that. My creative process is bonkers. If somebody else were to look in at it. It's. If somebody looked at all of my drafts, they'd be like, you're the most untalented off the wall. Like, what are you, how did you build But they're half cooked ideas that could turn into something. Yes, it's, I don't know how to explain it, but whenever I It's how, whenever I'm trying to encourage somebody who's afraid to create, just to create, it's like, this isn't from 20 years ago, where you have to take the photos, go to the CVS, get the pictures developed at the one hour photo, and buy the frame. Yes, it's not, it's not like that. It is take the photo, get home that night, look at it. If you hate it, delete it. No one will ever know. And so especially taking photos of yourself in the salon. I went a couple weeks ago. I blocked out a day. I went to the salon. I took 700 and something photos. It was insane. So many pictures. I cannot tell you how many I was looking through. I'm like, Oh my God. Oh my God. We've got 20 good ones. And that's what, that's what it takes though. That's really what it takes. So for anybody who's afraid to create content, you live in a digital age where you can wipe the slate clean at any Film yourself. Just take the dang photo. Like, it's not uh, it's That is a lesson to be, because there are so many people in Soul Tribe where that's their homework every single freaking month. It's like, I just have to take pictures for some reason I can't take pictures. I, it's like, just do that and then, then we have another hump to get over once you do that. But start there. There's no reason not to. Yeah, it's, just, just create it. Just do it. Because if you don't, then you're gonna, like I was saying earlier, Today's client is super picky. You have to be the cream that rises to the top, and if you're not creating anything in the first place, you're not even putting the cream in. Well, and almost like we said, 100 drafts, 15 of them end up getting posted, that's the top 15%, which shows if I wasn't taking it, like, I would be right along with the other 85 percent of people because it takes that many shots to get, like, a home run, you know? Like, you have to be constantly And I say half loosely because this is not the route everyone has to go and it's a fine balance of like strategy and going all in and like finding that balance and knowing that this isn't the way everybody needs to build their clientele but me and you are very similar in our relationship with social media and just that kind of like hustle and like that game of it. It's a game. I know how to play the game. It's like playing you know, bejeweled on my phone. It is a game. There is, there are moves. I do the same thing every single time. That's what it is. But it's even better than a game. It's like gambling in Vegas, knowing you're gonna win because at the end of it, there's money. Yeah. Or if all of them don't win, you're not losing money. Certainly you're losing time. Definitely. But yeah, anyway, because I was, I was, for instance, On Saturday night, you know, Salem was at her grandma's spending the night, Chris went out with his friends or brother and his friends, whatever, for the night. I was home alone. I put on the last three Harry Potter movies. I was going to sit there eating gummy worms, watching Harry Potter for six hours anyway, just to keep from pressing because it was the, I was like, oh my god, there's no one in the house. Yeah. No one in the house. Yeah. And while I did that, I was just scrolling, saving stuff as I go. And I haven't even looked, that was Saturday and, you know, today's, I haven't even looked at the stuff that I saved, but I'm going to go back. You're just like me with that habit stacking of time. I feel the same way. I feel like I'm wasting anyway. Save some stuff. Yeah. It's so passive. It doesn't need to take brain power. Yes. Hmm. I love that. Okay. I wanted, I had another thought with batching, but I can't remember what it was. So I want to know how many you had. Okay, here's one final thing. And I know we're, we're kind of coming up on an hour and my software gets weird if we get over an hour because the video won't upload. Anyway You have, let's say, 30 to 50, however many end up getting posted. You wanted to touch on batching, though, because there have been times where you've lost that uh, you've lost the, where you haven't been in a position to be creating. Postpartum issues, traumatic things happening, personal stuff going on. Talk about that a little bit of why you find batching so valuable and that even when Laurel was going through her lowest of lows, the social media could still keep flowing consistently because there was a strategy there. So there was only two times where I stopped posting all together for a couple weeks and it's to me a couple weeks is a lifetime and to a lot of people a couple weeks is like nothing. I, I've been told by a lot of people that it didn't even register on that. That you weren't there. Yeah. Yes. But when I first found out I was pregnant, the week I found out I was pregnant, I was crushed in my car. And I was literally car accident. Yeah. Like actually crashed in my car. I don't, I still to this day don't know how I am, how like this kid walking around in the world like perfectly okay and that I didn't even break anything. It was, it was unbelievable the way it happened. So, but after that I was so afraid. I didn't even want to leave my bedroom for weeks. The front of our house, the living room, faced a main street. And so my thought was if I go up into the living room, a car is going to fly through and it's going to crash me. So, So I would stay in my bedroom at the back of the house where I knew get to me and it was weeks of this. It was really, I clearly had PTSD. Like I had to go to therapy. It was, it was the thing. But during those weeks I didn't post at all. And I start, I created one post when I finally was like, okay, I need to move on with my life. I need to like, it's, it's over. I have to move on. And I created one post in that moment and it was basically me sharing what had happened. Also kind of, cause I was, it happened right outside of my suite in Pasadena and I was having a difficult time going back. And that was ultimately the decision why I closed it. Cause it was. I didn't, I still to this day don't want to go to Pasadena, like I don't drive out that way. Very traumatic. Yeah, yeah, I just don't think it's done. So, I remember creating a post that was talking about possibly closing the suite, like, kind of like an update of what was going on, and then from then on for the next three months, it was pretty much just auto generated content. And all I had to do was wake up in the morning, push post on the one I wanted to post, and it was already there. It's graphs that were created back when you were inspired back before you were dealing with PTSD symptoms. And that's why that's so valuable. When you're binging Harry Potter, if you are in a state where you can do that, It pays off for you to take a month or two or three off. Yes. Yes. It's, I put in the hard work when it wasn't hard so that when it was going to be hard, I got a chance for it to be easy. You pick your hard. Like you, if it's going to be hard now or it's going to be hard later. And I've always set myself up in a way where when shit hits the fan, not if, when, because this is life. Something's gonna happen to you at some point or another that's gonna, you know, knock you off your ass. Mm-Hmm. this is gonna make that time easier for you. Yeah. Easier to get through, easier to digest, and so that you don't have to worry about work while you're trying to heal yourself. Yeah. Which is what I was gifted. And then the same thing happened after I had Salem. Mm-Hmm. I didn't disappear as long for that one, but for months, you know, I mean, anybody who's had a kid postpartum time is a haze. Yeah. It was nice to be able to have so many drafts set up to just churn out. Another thing is, is if you create this consistency and you have all of these posts that you have going on and on, not only do you have to pull from your, or not only do you have your drafts to pull from, but you have your past content to pull from. So much content that nobody knows the difference. Yeah, so much of what you're seeing on my pages right now was actually written Years ago, some of these photos are like five years old You'd never know the only ones you know is if anybody's watching this video right now, you know that i'm blonde so when you see the blue pictures like That's not now, but it's no It's it's you know a never ending well of content from between what you've saved and have drafted and from what you have That you've previously posted that when something comes up, you don't have to have your business suffer for it too. Yeah. Yeah. I love that. I'm so glad we touched on that. That's amazing. Okay. I know you have plenty of offers. As I said, before we got on, you said you have something cool that you're going to be waiting until this podcast launches to put out. So we will obviously have that in the show notes. Why don't you share with everyone what you've got for them? So we're recording this in January. And so I have recently put up my annual goal crushers workbook. So on my website right now, there's only the goal crushers workbook. But today, the day that this podcast goes live, I will also have a brand new. Instagram survival kit. Everything that we've talked about so far and then some is going to be in this kit. I'm going to talk about batching. I'm going to talk about how to schedule these things. We're going to build kind of like a mini version of your brand so that you at least know the vibe to go with. It's, it's everything that everything I did. In those first couple of years, I put it on paper for you. Yeah. So if what Laurel has shared like resonates with you and you kind of want to snag and copy and paste her strategy a little bit, that's going to be the major deep dive into that. Amazing. This was a great conversation. I knew it would be. Any final thoughts before we wrap up? You just need to do it. Like I know you hear that a lot, but you just have to do it. Just take the damn picture. Record yourself passively. The worst that can happen is you, you know, feel a little insecure and you delete it at the end of the day. But if it takes five days of you recording yourself to keep one video and post it, you just have to do it. Because if you don't, just know that there's stylists around you that are. Mm. And the more you do it, the more comfortable you get. Like, I'll have people say now, like, Oh, Lisa, easy for you to say. You've been, like, sharing yourself for years now. And it's like, I wouldn't be able to do this today if I hadn't been doing it micro every single day. I remember the very first tutorial I ever recorded. It was sped up. My voice wasn't on it. I was mortified to post that. We all have to go through that eventually. And then it compounds and it gets much more comfortable and you become much more used to it. When I first started at that first salon, like we were saying, that was like the start of Instagram and so most people were not doing what I was trying to do, what we do now. I was being actively laughed at. Actively. One girl laughed. I hired a photographer and I had a model come in and I was working on them. She literally was doing a client, just two chairs down, laughing at me with her client in front of me. And then a few years later, I was making six figures. So, you know, and I'm sure she's at least posting some content now or still scared to. Yeah. But either way, you know, it's don't let other people get in your head. Don't let yourself get in your head, which is the true, you know, thing that happens. You have to just do it because if people are laughing at you, or you think people are laughing at you. Who cares? You have to do this. This is the way it's going. So, like you said, the more you do it, the more you're comfortable with it, and the more that you'll want to do it. I love it. Thank you so much for being here, Laurel. Thank you guys for listening, and I will talk to you all next week.