Stylist Soul Tribe Conversations

043 - Replay from the Stylist Soul Tribe Resource Fair - Branding Panel

August 21, 2024 • Lisa Huff

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Welcome back to Stylist Soul Tribe Conversations! This episode is a special one—a replay from the recent second Annual Stylist Soul Tribe Resource Fair. We hosted this event last month, and the content was so valuable that we couldn’t resist sharing it with you on the podcast.

In this episode, we’re diving into the Branding Panel, where three incredible members of our community—Anna Durej, Kimber Chapman, and Autumn Rue—shared their expertise on building and refining a powerful brand identity. These masterclasses are packed with actionable insights and strategies that can help elevate your business to new heights.

During the Branding Panel, you'll learn:

  • How to identify and align your values with the brands you use behind the chair
  • The importance of establishing a strong brand voice that resonates with your target audience
  • Tips for creating an authentic and aligned brand that stands out in a crowded market

Each panelist brings a unique perspective, and together, they provide a comprehensive look at branding in the beauty industry. Whether you’re looking to refine your current brand or starting from scratch, this episode is a must-listen.

Important Notes:

  • This episode is best experienced on YouTube, where you can watch the panelists share their screens and walk through their presentations. If you're listening on audio, consider checking out the video version for a richer experience.
  • We’d love to hear your feedback! Should we repurpose more content from the Resource Fair into podcast episodes? Let us know by leaving a review, sending an Instagram DM, or reaching out on Marco Polo if you're a Soul Tribe member.

Links Mentioned:

Stay Connected:


Sign up for Mindset to Magic: https://stylistsoultribe.mykajabi.com/mindset-to-magic-sales-page

Connect with Lisa Huff

Hi, friends. Welcome back to Stylus Soul Tribe Conversations. This episode is a little bit different. This is a replay from an event that we put on last month. The second Annual Stylus Soul Tribe Resource Fair, The content from this event is just so good, I feel like I need to recycle it and repurpose it into a podcast episode. So this event took place inside of a free Facebook group will link the Facebook group in the show notes in the YouTube description of this video. So if you want to get into that Facebook group and watch all of the replays from this event, not just the podcast, This branding panel that I'm going to share with you today. You can go ahead and do that. This is also the Facebook group where we hold all of our annual events. So every January we do a vision casting workshop and every July we do a resource fair, that's the new flow. So during the resource fair, we did three different panels highlighting members inside of the Stylist Soul Tribe community that are doing really amazing things in their business right now and seeing really amazing results. And this episode specifically that you guys are listening to is all about branding. So we did a branding panel, a nurturing panel, and a marketing panel. I honestly haven't decided if I'm going to turn every single. Panel into a podcast episode. I do think there's a benefit to that for a few reasons. One, it's a little bit easier to find than having to go back through and scroll a Facebook group. I would love for people to just be able to come to Stylist Whole Tribe Conversations and search resource fair branding panel and be able to find it. And obviously, the content is so good, and if not everybody has watched these panels yet they definitely should. And if you've even watched them, say you were live at the Resource Fair, I highly recommend going back and giving this a listen and a watch again. Only concern about turning this into a podcast episode is this is definitely going to be a more visual heavy, piece of content. So if you're listening to this on audio only, it may be a little bit hard to consume. So I haven't decided if I'm going to upload all three of the panels yet. I'm going to see how this goes. This podcast episode, this, it goes this week, how people respond to it. I may upload the other two as podcasts. I may not depending on how this episode specifically performs and what kind of feedback I get from you guys. So if you are listening to this on audio, I would recommend going to YouTube, watching it on YouTube because all of our speakers and panelists are going to be sharing their screen and teaching these mini masterclasses. So the branding. panel specifically is Anna DeRay, which she's been on the podcast before. You guys have met her. Kimber Chapman, who's going to be on a future podcast episode. We actually just scheduled that. And Autumn Rue, who has also been on the podcast before. So these are all Stylist Soul Tribe members that are doing really incredible things in their business. That's why I asked them to be part of the resource fair. They are going to be talking about all things branding. So this is value packed, jam packed. They're each going to be doing a 20 minute Masterclasses, and then it's going to be followed by 30 minutes of Q& A. So we're going to have 20 minutes from Anna, 20 minutes from Kimber, 20 minutes from Autumn, followed by 30 minutes of Q& A. All right, I'll quit blabbing so that we can get into this content because it's going to be a very long podcast episode. Again, I highly recommend watching this one on YouTube and I am very open to your feedback on whether you're like, yes, Lisa, love this, love that this content lives in one place. I can always come back to this podcast episode or this YouTube video and find it. Or if you're like, meh, girl, I was really looking forward to new podcast content this week, don't bother uploading the other two panels. I'm open to that feedback regardless. So don't be shy in leaving a review, sending me an Instagram DM. If you guys are on Marco Polo and you're Soul Tribe members, polo me, tell me your thoughts. Okay. I'll be quiet now. Enjoy the branding panel. Like I said, check it out on YouTube, buckle up. It's about an hour and a half of content. And I hope you guys enjoy. Okay. Bye. Hi, friends. Welcome to the branding panel. I already see some people on here that weren't on our welcome video, so if you are behind on anything, or you feel like you're getting thrusted into this, or if you're watching the Facebook Live or a Facebook replay. Go back and watch things in the Facebook group in the order that they went out, if you're feeling confused. You don't have to, but that will give you a lot of clarity on everything. So we're here for the branding panel. We're gonna go Anna, then Autumn, then Kimber. We have tech checked everything. I think everyone knows how to share their screens. Everyone's audio sounds good, so I think we are gonna be good to go. So Anna, I'm just gonna pass it off to you, and I am right here if you need me, okay? All right, just let me get my screen shared with you guys. All right, you see it? Yes, ma'am. I was just unmuting. Looks great, Anna. Okay, so first I, before we do introductions, I just wanted to start with I want you guys to imagine that you're in the salon and you're working behind the chair. And you have one of your favorite clients and they are asking you a bunch of different questions about like the products you use and just all of that good stuff. Your conversation is flowing smoothly, and then all of a sudden they ask you, Oh, Hey, why do we, why does it even, why do we still have to look for silicone free? Like, why is that even a thing anymore? If everybody knows that they're not great and they do all these bad things, why would they still be in our products? And as a well educated hairstylist, because let's face it, if you're here today, we know education is important to you. Do you know how to answer this question? Or would you feel like a deer in headlights? Because I know in the past when I got these types of questions, I was very like, Oh Yeah, I'm going to look into that or you know what, maybe I was in the bathroom for that part of the class and just try to like make some kind of an excuse because I didn't know how to answer it. Oh, there we go. So let me give you a little bit of a background on silicones and why they are still used today, even though a lot of people dislike them. So silicones are a large class of molecules with many different functions. There's something like over a thousand different types. of silicones. And in haircare, we often think of them as one thing, but there are many different types of them. So silicones are wide, widely regarded as some of the best conditioning ingredients. When consumers are asked about their favorite conditioning properties, they consistently point to benefits that silicones. Silicones are easy to work with from a cosmetic chemistry standpoint because they can be tailored to provide very specific benefits in hair care and cosmetics. All conditioning ingredients adhere to the outside of the hair shaft and form a protective barrier around it. This is not unique to silicones because proteins, oils, fatty acids, fatty alcohols, waxes, you name it, they all form a protective barrier that helps prevent damage and seal the cuticle. So now most silicones are actually designed to wash away with one shampoo because that's better for brands. They can sell you more products. There are a few products out there though, that do have silicones that are designed to last for longer, but those ones usually state on it, that like it's going to last for X amount of shampoos or X amount of weeks. So you're going to know if you're using one of those products, we usually see them in treatments. But that, this is all stuff that we don't normally hear about in our product education. Okay. So now that I've explained all of that to you I'm going to start with a little introduction. Hey, as Lisa said earlier, I'm Anna and I am a hairstylist that went out looking in search of a clean ingredients list because I thought there just had to be one out there. And you guys, I never found it, but that's okay because I learned a lot while I was on this journey. And now I'm really passionate about sharing it with other hair styles because everything I learned really Just completely blew my mind. And wait, I forgot what I was going to say. You're good. Thanks. Never found it. It blew your mind. You're all good. Okay. But anyways, so now I've created translating the label where we provide hairstyles with unbiased breakdowns of the claims brands make on their websites to promote their products. We primarily do this through product line reviews, which are like your ultimate guide to navigating professional haircare brands. To truly love the products you use in your business behind the chair, your values need to align with the brands that you're using. So this creates more of a natural passion for the brand. And when you have natural passion about the brands you use, your enthusiasm will shine through to your clients. And that of course helps you to effortlessly sell more retail. Oh, I remembered the part that I Bear with me guys. But anyways, so I was going to tell you guys how I learned all of this. And it was because I dug into the cosmetic chemistry side of things. I am really into learning about everything that goes into ingredients as well as like brand management and regulatory stuff. Like I want to know everything that's going on behind the scenes. So I have dug into an, a hands on formulation course. I seek out industry events just any kind of education that I can gain access to because I am not a cosmetic chemist, but there's actually tons of stuff out there that is available to us. So I do all of that. But anyways, that's why my information is a little bit different because it's coming from a cosmetics industry perspective and not a consumer perspective, which is what we get as hair stylists. I hope that all made sense. Okay, but anyways, translating the label we we like to get you guys into knowing what your values are because your values are an important part of your brand. So the first thing is to identify what values are most important to you, like what is going to spark your passion. And now it's okay if your values are very straightforward, such as you just want a product that performs well, or has good experience, or you like the packaging and it performs well. That's great. Now others may have more in depth values such as like clean, holistic, environmentally friendly, and that's great too. What matters is not the specific values you hold, but that you understand them and you choose products that align with them. Okay. So now what are you guys, or what are we looking for in a brand? So the first thing we're going to look for is actually On the website. We want to visit the brands about me section. Now, this honestly comes under so many different names, but you'll know it when you see it. And then you want to see if the brand's values match your values, how much detail did the brand provide around your values, and then does the brand use vague verbiage or definitive verbiage? This is something that we often don't even think to look for, but It's really important to, to just to be aware of that. And then what makes the product different? Cause every brand is going to, has something that makes them different. So you want to look for that as well. And then lastly, do you feel aligned after reviewing a brand's website? If the stars align, Then that may be a product you want to test out. If it doesn't, then you're going to want to move on to looking into a different brand. Okay. So now what are you looking for in products? So performance is always going to be the top priority because the performance is what your clients take home with them. Even if they don't buy retail, they took home the performance of the products you use on them that day. So then you want to look into, do you enjoy the experience? And the experience actually starts. at the store when you're looking at the packaging. And it continues all the way until after the hair is dried and styled. And you want to see do all of, did everything meet your expectations? Are you happy with it? Okay. And then again, we're going to talk about performance because Again, it's what your clients take home. So when clients leave the salon, they carry the performance and experience of your service with them. And by purchasing retail products, they extend these benefits into their daily routines at home. This natural extension boosts your brand and keeps the magic of your salon experience alive until their next visit. But, and this is the most annoying thing you guys, but it is It's up to you to test the products you're using and that you're, er, sorry, to test the products that you're interested in. We can read all the websites we want, but hands on is Yeah, super important. Okay. So now we're going to like peel back the label and look like behind the scenes into the hair care world a bit. You may have noticed that there are brands that will state that their products start as organic. And this is actually a really good thing for them to state because you Organic products, it's very challenging. Many organic ingredients such as like oils and proteins, they can be hydrolyzed into smaller particles that adhere and benefit to the hair. However, after hydrolysis, these ingredients are no longer considered organic due to processing. And it doesn't just happen with proteins and oils, but this happens a lot. You have to break down the ingredients to make them beneficial and then they lose their organic status. Starting out as organic is a really, it's a really good way for brands to get around that and it's pretty transparent. Okay. The next thing is key ingredients. Now, these are story ingredients used to create a compelling story around the product, enhancing market appeal and connecting with consumers on a deeper level. So some of these ingredients benefit the hair and some of them do not. Their benefits really depend on the intent and the overall formula. formulation and supporting ingredients. So unfortunately, as consumers, there's no way for us to really be able to tell if an ingredient is beneficial or not. That is part of the like formulation secrets. And it also, depends on a lot of other factors. All right. So this is another really big one. Clean beauty. So some of you may know this, some of you may not, but clean beauty has no legal definition, regulations, or guidelines to follow. So any brand can market themselves as clean if they choose to. And I know that a lot of salon professionals, whether you're like a rental stylist, a suite stylist, a salon owner, you will base your your branding around being clean. And that's great. I'm not saying anybody should stop doing that, but because we know that this definition varies from brand to brand and person to person you want to get crystal clear on exactly what clean means to you, write that down. And then of course, choose brands that that state what clean means to them and make sure that your values align. Okay. Now, Lisa, how am I doing on time? You are 13 minutes in, so you have seven more minutes, ideally. Okay. We'll just do this one real quick. So toxicity is a little bit confusing because a lot of people, myself included, think that toxicity is based off of the substance itself, but it's actually the dose plus the delivery, which could be topical, which would be like skin inhaled or ingested. So the delivery plus the dosage equals poison. And there's a whole lot more details there if you want to screenshot it, but I'm going to move to the next slide because this one's Alright, so ingredients list. The ingredients list on the back of the cosmetics products are not the actual ingredient names, and do not give you as much detail about the ingredients as one might think. The INCI, which is the International Nomenclature Cosmetic Ingredient, also referred to commonly as INCI, that's what I like to call it these names represent ingredient categories. So brands select raw materials by their trade names, which are then converted to inky names for packaging. So that's what we would see over here. Some brands you'll notice will do I'm not going to try to pronounce that, but they'll say blueberry, right? Which is fun. Okay. Now, companies use inky names to provide detailed ingredient lists, ensuring transparency for consumers while maintaining formulation privacy come from competitors. Like for example, Coca Cola is not going to share their recipe with us. Neither are our haircare brands, right? That's not true. they're entitled to that privacy. Now, the main purpose of an Inkey list is to inform consumers with allergies. That was the original intent and Inkey names are a globally standardized requirement on cosmetic products to ensure consistency, transparency, and safety for consumers and regulatory compliance across international markets. This also means that we could go to I don't know India, for example, and buy a cosmetic product and we will still be able to read the ingredients list because This is an international standard. Okay. So now we're getting to the end guys. So product line reviews. This is to help you decide if a product line is right to carry in your salon, because honestly, this can be an overwhelming choice. I don't know about you, but I have walked into a Cosmocrop and a salon centric so many times thinking that I was going to pick out a new product line and then ended up leaving. So overwhelmed and didn't buy a thing. Maybe color, but not what I thought I was going to be getting that day. Okay, so these help you discover if a professional product line aligns with your business and values. It explains the reality behind marketing claims, elevates your conversations with clients. Reduces the overwhelm from clean beauty and green claims, provides an in depth deep dive into a professional haircare brand, offers an unbiased look into a professional haircare brand without trying to sell you on it, and provides industry insider insights, offering a unique perspective not typically available to hair stylists. So you guys we sell these reviews that are already done. However, we also have a product line guide, which is a free tool you can just download off of the website. And it teaches you how to do all of this yourself as well. Because I know some stylists want to do it themselves, and then other stylists are like, I don't have time, I just want it done. Whatever your option is, We have it. And then lastly, let's keep this conversation going in the Marco Polo group. So I wanted to prompt you guys by to go in there and let us know what are your, do you know what your values are for you and your business? Share those. Also, if you have any questions, I'm happy to answer them in there as well. No, I just want to say there's no like right or wrong answers. There's no judgments. So whatever you put in there, feel free, don't worry about it. And then, yeah, and then I just put the, if you guys are in the VIP group. Also, if you're looking for some values, here's like a list that you can screenshot real quick to get you started. Don't feel like you have to check off all of these. You could check off one. It doesn't matter as long as you're happy with it in the end. And then thank you so much for taking the time today to be here and obviously listen to the presentation and let's keep in touch. Feel free to reach out to me at any time with questions. I'm here to help. I'm happy to help. So you can of course send me a message privately at translating the label at gmail. com or you can reach out to me on Tik Tok or Instagram, both. Same handle, translating the label. And then, of course, there's the website. Okay, and now I'll turn it over to Lisa. Boom! 19 minutes, Anna. That was perfect. I can already tell that Q& A is going to be beyond fire because the questions that people are asking are things that I've already dove deep with you on. And people, oh, Alicia just linked it, people There's so much misconception that we don't have time to dive into it right now. So Q& A is going to be so good. We need to keep the conversation going on Marco Polo. And if this is something that is intriguing and interesting to you guys, I highly recommend that podcast episode because I find, anyway, I could go on. I was about to go on a tangent about what I've learned from Anna, but I won't do that. Okay, I think we should probably just turn it over to Autumn so that we stay on track. Autumn, you want to try sharing your screen, make sure we're good to go, and then I can turn it over to you? Absolutely. And then just a reminder for everyone, I wrote down two really good questions for Anna that we'll kick off Q& A with, so continue as Autumn's teaching to put your questions in the chat box as well. Alright, it's loading, Autumn! Here, I'm going to try and stop sharing and then go and re share. I know we just tested it and it worked, so I'm sure we will be good. Try double clicking, because that's what it says to, or double click to enter full screen mode. No matter how many times we test it, this is what happens when we get live. I your patience. All right, it says double click. Did you double click? I sure did. Give me one more try. I can also share your slides if I need to. Okay. It's not popping up on my end either. It's not popping up on my end either. All right, you want to send me your slides, Autumn? I don't have them from you yet, do I? Yes, give me just one. Send me that Canva link. Go to share and send that. Okay, give me one. Yeah, and I'm going to just browse the chat while we're still fresh on Anna's stuff. That was great information and a good time frame, Anna. I could listen to you talk about this all day. That's what Melanie said. Thank you, Anna. Such an important conversation for us to be having within the industry. So good. The little blurb I was going to say in just seeing you guys go off about the UK regulation and toxicity. It's a bummer that Anna didn't get to go into toxicity, because that's what I mean, that it's not what you think it would be. But it's also a huge relief. It's actually all way less scary than you think it is and way more comforting. And what I've learned from Anna is just the power of regulation and that like we actually can trust that there are systems in place that keep things safe. And so we get to then go into, like she said, performance, values, things like that. What else about hair care brands do you love? Because sometimes that like toxic spewing stuff back and forth is just a lot of fear mongering, truthfully in marketing. All right, pull them aside. I feel like I just scratched the surface. The baby surface of that, yes. Autumn, any luck? Do we want to maybe jump over to Kimber, and then you can troubleshoot? You're muted, babe. Autumn, you're muted. There we go. Am I unmuted now? Yes. Okay, if you want to pop over to Kimber, that's fine. I'm just re opening my preven presenter view. Okay. But if Kimber wants to go ahead, that's Kimber, are you ready to jump in, unexpected? I can do whatever the collective needs. Okay, if you're ready, we will jump over to you. Or if not, I'm sure everybody can be patient. But I know when it's go time, and there's all these people and a text starts being issued. It's like you start fumbling the ball because there's just so much happening. Yeah, I think that I'd rather take the pressure. That way Autumn can take her time to solve it out. I'm ready to go whenever everybody else is. All right, share your screen. Let's take it away. Autumn, reach out to me if you need help, and we'll troubleshoot while Kimber presents. Okay, so as I'm presenting today, I will be able to see your guys faces, but I don't have the chat in front of me, so I'll be excited for Q& A. But I am super excited to share with you guys this new presentation that I developed just for resource fair, and it's called developing your brand personality. And so by the end of this little workshop, we'll be able to sound more like a stylist and less like a cyborg when we use AI tools in our marketing my masterclass that the VIPs get access to. to was about brand identity and the four pieces that I think are super important to develop your brand identity. So this is a good flow off of that. So I'm really excited for you guys to see that as well. I am Kimber Chapman. Let's get rolling. Okay. So for those who don't know me I want to help you figure out one of the biggest distractions that you might have in your brand perception, and that is your brand voice. So in the beauty industry today, a lot of stylists are relying heavily on generative pre training trans transformers. So chat GPT or Google's has one, like a lot of these GPT models. And that's if you've ever wondered what that stands for, that's it. And we're using those because we don't have marketing degrees. Nobody really told us how to style. Speak to the people that we are trying to speak to. It used to be that word of mouth was enough and it just isn't anymore. We have to speak to them first. So while brand identity is something that does take a lot of intentional time to fully discover, and we cannot do that in 20 minutes today, I do wanna share a quick prompt that will help. You get started, that uses chat, GPT. Without sounding like chat, GPT I do recommend having a device ready to take screenshots of slides'cause we're gonna be, if you gimme 20 minutes, I'm gonna give you 20 minutes of information. So a couple things about me. I played varsity lacrosse in high school. I'm an espresso junkie, but I'm trying to back off right now. I am a Taylor Swift super fan and peanut butter is hands down my favorite flavor. I will not be able to avoid it. So I want to do a temp check of the room. And you guys can go at this in the chat, or if you want to unmute, you can. Do you currently utilize and establish brand voice in your marketing? So with actual brand traits that you refer to when creating your content I want to see what's going on there. I do have the chat open for a little bit. Perfect. Do you struggle with creating website email and social caption copy? Are you ever stuck with that? Do you struggle with that? Is it something that is a real big issue for you? Good good. Awesome. Then we're going to get into it. Okay. Last question, I believe, do you struggle with not knowing what to post and what to share to reach your actual target client? Perfect. Awesome. Thank you guys for being vulnerable and sharing that with me. Oh wait, there is one more question, Lordy. What is your current process for developing copy with GP, GPT models? So when you're getting into like chat GPT, are you saying, write a caption for a hairstylist specializing in curly cuts? Or are you saying, give me four caption ideas for a hairstylist or whatever? Is that kind of what's going on right now when you're using GPTs? It's usually the case. That's what I'm finding. Okay. So the problem with chat GPT is that since it's being widely used and it is an amazing tool, the captions that you generate with GPT, because it's learning as you were using it and not telling it whether it's right or wrong these captions become really easy to spot because the AI tool is using similar language in all of its responses. Although it seems really high intelligent level, it's. Actually not. So it just keeps using the same things over and over. So it has the potential to streamline your marketing efforts because of that, but it doesn't actually teach you how to fish, which we'll get into at the end. And I think the number one problem with GPT models is that they never actually really sound like you, you sound robotic and I'm just being honest. But there is a way to use chat GPT to streamline your marketing and streamline your brand voice without actually having GPTs do the work for you. So the one thing that you need before we get into brand voice, and I want you guys to take a screenshot of this slide because we're not going to have time to get into all this today is your aligned guest profile. You will need this in order to use the GPT prompts that we're going to be talking about today. So the six things that I think are really big and that aligned guest profile is demographics values, the brands that your current aligned client already loves the pain points that they're experiencing, the motivations behind what they're doing. And the hobbies that they have. So I did examples for the Tone Salon Align Guest Profile in these. We're not, again, we're not going to deep dive, but basically really deep demographics, even going into income, where they live what this person values, where they shop in our area where like a small town salon that's in a really big growing community. So most of our new clients are new to the area. What is going on in her life? So she's just approaching a spot where she wants to reinvent herself and like her hobbies. So she's in a content creation. She loves to binge watch Bravo all those sorts of things. So once you have all of this information, which you might already have, you might not. You can create an align guest story. This is another one. I won't deep dive into every single word on this slide, but feel free to take a screenshot of all of these slides to help give yourself an outline or a template for your own brand story. So our line client is named Megan. She likes to indulge in experiences. So she's super into anything that's new. So we are the new salon in the area. And she's excited to come to us. She values travel. She shops at Aritzia. She likes having fun with her look, but right now she just feels blah. And the thing about Megan is she's going to trust you. We own, we are aligned with clients that trust us ultimately and aren't looking to lead the appointment. And to her, this hair appointment is ultimately about discovery and we can help her connect with that truest self because when she's with us, she's not mom, she's not wife. She's not babe. But for a couple of hours, she is just Megan. Now, how do we speak to this aligned guest? So in our case, it's Megan. I'm going to be saying Megan a lot in these examples. So once we've done the work, we can scale the effort. So we are going to input the details of our brand guide into ChatGPT or that aligned guest profile into ChatGPT and ask for the following. So we're going to copy and paste each one of those brand profile categories. So the brands, they love the demographics, the motivations, the hobbies, you're going to copy and paste all of that into chat GPT. After you say develop five brand traits, brand voice traits that would help me reach my target customer with reasons why, and then you would put a little colon and then paste all of that information. I'm going to leave this up for just another second while you guys finish taking a screenshot because this is going to be exactly what you copy and paste. And these are the exact results that we got which actually align. I did not use track to BT to create our brand voice traits, but these exactly go in line with what we do. And this is how I know that this works. So I got five results and the first one is empowering. Megan values flexibility. She's. seeking a salon experience that makes her feel better about herself. So we're going to use language that uplifts, uplifts her spirit, encourages self discovery, and will appeal to her desire to invest in herself. Then we have authentic. So where she shops is local boutique. She values sustainability. So we are going to highlight our commitment to sustainability as a salon and what the brands we use. That's why I love that Anna went before me, because I think that's so important and the personalized experience that she can expect akin to her favorite local spots. The third was educational. So Megan needs straightforward routines and she trusts us. So we are going to give tutorials that provide clear explanations and tailor to her needs. And it helps provide tips and insights that simplify her hair care routine and her understanding of the products and services you offer. Inspiring. So she's ready to invest in herself. She's ready to embrace her truest self. She's looking to explore new styles and hair treatments that align with her lifestyle. And so we are going to share stories and examples that inspire her to try something new or experiment with her look. And the last one is welcoming. So she feels comfortable with us. So we're going to use a brand voice that is warm and welcoming. We're going to create that same atmosphere in the salon where she feels relaxed and valued. We're going to use inviting language that will assure her that she has a positive experience from the moment she walks in. So real quick, I want to reiterate that when I copy and pasted this into ChatGBT, I got these five traits and then I copy and pasted into this presentation, the reasons why. So I did not come up with this. ChatGBT came up with the reasons why for each brand voice trait, which takes a huge load off of your shoulders. If you're like, okay, so the voice trait is empowering, but what does that mean? So I think that's super important to remember, but now that we have our language traits that feel right to our business, we will use the following prompts to develop a brand voice guide. So using the five traits from the previous example, create a guide and table format where each row is a brand voice trait with columns for the following. Why? What to say, what not to say, and short examples of usage. So you're going to take all that information, you're still in the same chat GPT, like chat, or whatever AI form you're using, and then you're going to say, okay, taking all of that you just gave me, what can we do next in a table format? So you would copy and paste this right into chat GPT, make sure you take a screenshot of this. Perfect. And then this is exactly copy and pasted from ChatGPT. And this is the free version that got asked me in the tech check, and I think it's important to say that I used the free version for this. It's not, you just have to know how to use ChatGPT, so now we have a brand voice table with reasons why. What to say, what not to say in examples for usage. And I'm not going to go over all of these in detail. Again, feel free to take a screenshot. And I only put a few examples up there because the whole table wouldn't fit on the slide. But one example is, again, empowering. We do this because Megan seeks confidence and authenticity. We are going to use language that uplifts and encourages Megan versus client shaming or any of the things that seem to be going around on social media right now. We are going to avoid patronizing or overly directive language that undermines Megan's autonomy or choices. And I think that is an important thing to note. So we see these reels, we, or TikToks and we're like, Oh my gosh, that's so funny. I want to do that. It might not even be like super rude, but it goes against the brand voice guide, which we are trying to avoid. So we are not going to do that as a brand. And then an example of usage. So I do think that these examples are a little bit general. which is why I want to take this table and give you one more chat GPT prompt that will help you actually utilize your voice trait and give you ideas. So for those who said that you were feeling like you just don't know what to share, this is the next thing for you. So now that we know what to say, we, I still don't have words. There is a prompt for that too. So take another screenshot of this slide and I'm going to read it real fast. You want to, with the information that's already been given to you, create a content calendar in table format with post ideas, utilizing all five brand language traits. And the content calendar should have 31 post ideas, and then specify if the content is an Instagram feed, post real tick talk, Google business update, or email. So literally whatever outlets you guys use. You can use those instead of the ones that I use, but I think I got pretty much all the ones that a normal hairstylist in this industry would use. So I didn't say anything extra. I just then asked Chachapiti this question and then Chachapiti created a 31 idea content guide. I did put a QR code for this actual guide here. So that way you guys can see it on your own time. But it gives you like the date, because I said to give me 31 ideas the type of content it would be the actual post idea. So showcasing a client transformation. And then what, why would I do that? So what brand voice trait Does that go along with and so for that one, it would be empowering. So Chachi Beauty did this like in order. So it's basically making sure that you're using all five brand traits. And I feel like that's what people struggle with a lot. They're like, okay, I know my brand traits, but how does that actually translate into the content that I'm creating? So this, if you follow everything that we just did, should be similar to what you end up with. Obviously you're going to have your own brand values, your own voice traits, but there's a QR code here to this guide. in case you just needed some ideas and maybe you feel like yours aligns with mine. Make sure you get that QR code before I head to the next slide because we are about done. So I want to end with this quote. I'm hoping that I'm good on time, but I didn't even ask Lisa. I just like just went for it. You got four minutes still. You're doing great, but I have been tempted to interrupt you. Can we just get your slides inside the Facebook group because this is good and we need to dig through. So I will send you because I did forget that I sent you the link like that is backed up with the template. So I'll send you just the, I would just say post in the Facebook group once it's ready. No rush. Perfect. Yes, I'll do that. So I want to end with this and this is what I lead in my coaching. It's a very old proverb that almost everybody knows, but I feel like we forget sometimes because we're in an industry where an educator will just shoot out here's five tips Creating captions on Instagram or here's my email headline that gets clients looking at my emails every time or whatever the case may be. And I've been that educator before, but I decided to lean more into being the coach versus the educator. And so this is really old and should be in everybody's brains, but it brings true that if you give a man a fish, he eats for a day. And if you teach a man to fish, he eats for life. So once you finish these 31 ideas, guess what you do with them? You just. Start over. Like you don't have to keep continuously reinventing new content. Use what works already. Do it again and do it until you're blue in the face. The other example that I tell people is like, how many times are you watching Hulu and the same ad pops up for months? So it's not a bad idea to reuse content and never be afraid to do that, but there are no shortcuts. There's just a way to be more efficient. And thank you guys for your time, I'm all done, and I can't wait to see you in the Q& A. We are doing so good on time. You, I put a comment, I was like, Kimber was given 20 minutes, and she said, Hold my shit, because that was so much fucking information. We really could go on and on about that. I think everyone is just trying to like, wrap their head around what was just shared with them. Hold her macho, I love it. Okay, so yes, would love to see those slides eventually in the Q& A. Facebook group. I already have a few questions for Q& A. I know we'll have plenty more questions for Q& A. And those of you that are VIP, get in the Marco Polo group. Kimber's gonna be in there for the next nine days helping you with all of these questions. And those of you that are not VIP, if you need more information and you need to say, Okay, Kimber, slow down, tell me all that. piece by piece, we can do that inside of the Marco Polo group. Okay, Autumn. I really thought that I was going to run over on time, so then I already talked fast, so I was just talking faster. You killed it. No, but you got us, you caught our attention. We see how easy it can be done. We're like, now we just know, need to know exactly what to type in, because it was really GBT lover so it was really sweet. Okay. still speaking to me and you're still using it even a cooler ways than I am in more creative ways than I am. Okay. Chats going crazy. Autumn. Are you ready to do it? I have your slides in case we have any issues again. Go ahead and try to share your screen again and we will roll right into Autumn. We're doing so good on time. Thank you, Kimber, for stepping in so quickly. No problem. All right. How are we looking? There it is. All right. We see it. Amazing. Thank you guys for bearing with me through that. I'm so happy to be here for this amazing event hosted by Lisa and I'm super excited to have the opportunity to share how I built an authentically aligned brand. My brand is really just a representation of me as a person and I think that you should be your brand. And so that's what my whole theme for today is over the past year, I've really come to realize how crucial it is to have a strong brand identity and how it can truly transform your business. Before we get into dissecting that whole creative process, I wanted to share a little bit about my business and I, just so you get a better idea. All right, about me, my name's Autumn and I'm a proud owner of a spa located in Dayton, Ohio. We've had our doors open for about four months now, and we offer a wide range of services, including nail treatments, massages, full body waxing, eyelashes spray tans facials, all delivered by a team of five professionals, including myself. And that was my whole vision. I had, I wanted a one stop shop. I wanted businesses. to support businesses. And as much as I love going and having to a hair salon and having a bunch of different people to choose from, I think it's really cool and empowering when a bunch of women can share clients and have a one stop shop for something. So my nail technician journey began in 2020 at a commission based salon where I really honed in my skills. Skills and learned everything that I know today at this salon. I built a loyal clientele over two years, and then once I realized that I was really picking up traction and I had a very consistent clientele I ventured out as an independent nail technician and then I. Wasn't able to find a place that I felt was home. So I was really driven by the idea of creating an empowering salon environment. And that is when I founded soul beauty wellness, a sanctuary where both clients and beauty industry professionals alike can thrive. So less than a year into salon ownership, I am one team member shy of fully staffed. So I know when Lisa gave my introduction, she said I was fully staffed and I was, but with the nail technician position I had to be very picky because, I wanted to do like a 90 day trial with someone, make sure that the business that I'm about to give to them, because I do have a big wait list that, and I'm trying to step back from being in the chair a little bit more so I can accept that. Span my business and focus more on those things. I knew that this person was just going to have to be a perfect match, and I knew that was gonna be a little bit more difficult and I wasn't going to get as lucky as I did with the other four girls that I have that were just so smooth. I will say being in stylists soul Tribe truly helped me. Validate my own emotions and feelings and navigate new ownership because this is my first time doing this. And I've only been in the industry for four years. So I needed help. I needed validation in my feelings and how to go about these situations. So I can't rave enough about how much stylists will tribe has, given me that community to know what to do next So I've truly just been able to see a lot of success for myself and the talented individuals working alongside me in this short span of time. And it really has to do with the strong brand identity that I've been able to achieve and see some rapid growth and really get a foot, a strong foothold in this industry in my area. So that's how I created this brand and why I feel passionate about it. Here are some little pictures I wanted to share. That is my husband and my daughter. My husband actually was my contractor when I was building out my space. So it really helped me be able to communicate efficiently, like what my vision was and what my goal was, which I know can be really hard even when, it's like, how do I verbalize something I see in my brain? So that helped a lot. And. Then the second picture is my team on our grand opening night outside of my sign. And I was very lucky to be able to attract these women before I even opened. So they were all there with me for my grand opening, which was just a dream come true. But I do believe it was because of the clear branding that I was putting out before I even opened my doors. Even at my grand opening party, something to make my event very unique and authentic to my brand. I had. Permanent jewelry there. I had an angel card reader. So I paid her outright and I had free angel card readings for people which is something that you'll see just goes along with my brand. And then the third picture is a branding photo that I had gotten done before I'd even opened my doors to because I knew that this was going to be a crucial part of creating a successful brand that was going to attract people. And obviously I do nails. So some of my nail. Okay. Stuff so a little bit about soul beauty wellness and what my process was when I was trying to find inspiration so I have a store, central timney in ohio and it's named paloma and that was my inspiration for my shop And I think you know in an industry of trends you do have to make it Unique to what you're doing, but I can say that Paloma was honestly what I wanted to replicate and make my own it's a wellness store that offers like aura photo readings and They do like meditation groups and they do sound bath healing but they also do facials and they sell crystals and when you walk in you're just hit with this an amazing aroma of Incense going and I wanted people to feel the way in my space that I felt when I walked into there they definitely have a minimalist boho style And then when I was like brainstorming what I wanted to do with my shop, I found out that this style is actually called like Japanese, like wabby, savvy, wobby, sobby. I don't know. It sounds weird anyway, you say it, but that is like type of the type of style that I wanted to go for. And I really wanted people to, come to a space that they can disconnect from our all fast paced lives and create healing through self care. A quote that I have on my website is self care saved my body and self love saved my soul. And I wanted people to feel that when they come in and then experience that for themselves as well, because I think what we do is so much bigger than what some people want to see. Because people come to us. And I think everybody here probably knows that. And so then my visual style, I wanted colors that created a calming, tranquil environment. So I went with warm neutrals with accents of dark green and gold. I wanted ambiance lighting. You walk into a really fancy place and you just have ambiance lighting. You have Sound systems throughout that is like all clear, like you're getting hit with all of the senses. And then I wanted plants to bring in some liveliness and that goes in with just like the natural calming greens and stuff. And then some authentic touches I put in my business is I decorated with some healing stones. We burn incense or diffuse oil or have like our candles going. I offer affirmation cards at the end of the appointment or empowerment cards. And if I remember sometimes you're just going and your client after client, but that's also why I put them out in the waiting room. So people, if they're sitting out there waiting for an appointment, they can maybe pick out one for themselves. And there's also like a little Zen garden out there. And it's so funny to see what people put in the Zen garden while they're just waiting out there. It's super cool. And then being a nail technician, I don't have much product that I can sell. So I sell like pumice stones, cuticle oils, nail brushes, hemp's lotions. But I wanted to be able to have a retail line that was like unique to me and added a personal touch into my brand. And so we sell candles and my sister actually is in the process of trying to get away from like corporate America and she has a passion for creating these products. I worked with her very close to create the sense of soul. And so like our candles are called soul flames and then the simmer pot bags that we do, which is a low talks way to have a fragrant in your home. They're called soul simmers. And then we sell wax melts that we have, like I have a wax melt in the bathroom. And so we sell those. And then like some rendered tallow bomb for your hands. So those are, that's just a little bit about my business. And then I wanted to share some of the photos of oopsies. Or let me go back. Here we go. So that is my storefront with my logo. And then these are some of the branding photos that I've done. Some of these were in the studio before I got into my space and then also having just like multiple different like variations of your logo. I think is really important and then I wanted to share just some more photos. So I wanted to show some personality in my photos and so in one of them I have my shoes off and I'm in a more comfortable position. It's not super stuffy. And then my retail is down there as well. So you can see some of what my retail looks like. And then I think getting like in action photos is really great because it gives people a visual of what they're going to experience when they come into your space. All right. So why is brand identity important? I truly believe that proper branding will showcase who you are and what you have to offer. This will set you apart from different other companies in your area. Cohesive branding also attracts top dollar clients and aligned staff members. It's not full proof. You're still going to get people that want to come work for you that are not going to align with you, even though you are being very clear about what, who you are and what you have to offer and same with clients as well. But I do believe it's For the most part, what you put out you get back in. And I think it, it works really well and it seems to be working for me. And it just gives a clear visual to your target market. And clients really want to see more than just good work nowadays. They want to see personality and, anybody can post good work online. Our industry is full of it, but they're choosing you for you. And that's what I've really come to learn. And then just a little statistics, consistent brand present presentation can increase revenue by 23%. And I would honestly say that's on the low end. That's like a very low end number that I've seen. I was actually talking with my esthetician. Her name's Amanda and she gave me permission to share some of her business insights because of what we've seen in the past four months as well. So she was at a salon beforehand where the branding was not very consistent. There was just some things that were missing for what she was trying to do with her business. She's only a year and a half in and. When I was talking with her, she was investing in a lot of like high end education and products for skincare and she was not having any biters and she was getting really discouraged because she, she wasn't in the place to attract clients that were going to pay 250 for a chemical peel. She gave me permission to share her numbers and I'm Very happy about that because I think it's just the proof is in the pudding. So from January, when she was at her last salon, she was averaging about 3k months between, so the past four months, she is now at the point where she can hire an employee and she's in the process of doing that and she's hitting 11 K months. And so she has seen some major success in the past four months. And it's just beautiful to see. All right, so here are some of the four pillars that I think that my creative process, like I went through. Finding inspiration for your goal and create ways to be your own. Autumn, pause real quick, babe. Sorry. Are you guys hearing that crazy audio situation too? Are you like hitting your mic or something? You're good most of the time, but then we get this like crazy static randomly. So I don't know if it's your hands moving. I don't know what it is, but keep going. My hands moving. Do you hear it now? No. Okay, maybe I was hitting my computer. I'm sorry. Yeah, we hear it a little bit. Keep going. I think you're good. It might honestly be my dishwasher. I can turn it off. No, it's not like that. It's like a staticky. It's like a staticky, almost like when you used to be on the phone back in the day and it would get staticky, like crinkle up the candy wrapper Parent Trap style. Keep going. I think we're good. Interrupt me again if you keep hearing it. I will. If it gets bad, I will. Okay, sounds good. So find your mission. What do you want to be known for? And, I've said this time and time again from when I'm talking to people about this business endeavor. What do I want? Autumn, we're losing you. Audio again. Have you done anything to your microphone? No, I have not. That's so strange. Any tech people in the room know what this could be? It is bizarre. Because your video quality is great, so I don't think it's your Wi Fi. You using your computer mic? You don't have an external mic, right? Yes, I am. I'm using my computer mic. Is it still really bad? No, it's not when you're quiet, but then once you really get into it, it starts doing it again. All right, try again. And then I don't know. I'm going to try to just let you go and see if it works itself out. Okay. Caitlin says her first guess is that it will be something rubbing the mic somehow. So try to just adjust. It wasn't doing it the whole time. And now all of a sudden it's doing it. So maybe make sure your computer, nothing's rubbing up against it. And I'm going to try to just be quiet and let you do it, and then I guess if we miss anything we'll really dive into Marco Polo, but it sucks because I really want to hear what you have to say. So keep going. If it gets real, real bad, I'll interrupt you again. Maybe I just need to talk a little bit quieter. Maybe I'm just being a little too loud. Yeah, maybe it's just blowing out your speaker a little bit. That's how I am. I get so excited. Okay, but honestly, when you're talking quiet and a little slower, it's not doing it. So let's see if that does the trick. Who knows? That's probably it. Probably it. So again, just, finding your mission. What do you want to be known for? And that's like kind of a journal prompt as well to really be able to figure out, your whole mission in this industry and then creating a visual style. So visual language that expresses your personality. know, choose a consistent color palette to go with that. I would suggest three to six, different colors, six being the max, but what you're going to see when you walk in your shop or you walk in your suite, and then also what's on your Instagram and your Facebook and your website and all of these things being very cohesive. And then for everybody, this is going to be a little bit different, but colors that evoke space. And then creating a memorable logo. This is the visual centerpiece of your business. And it is like one of the first impressions people get from your online presence. And then when you have all of these things together and you have this. You can create a tagline. So creating an authentic tagline of your unique presence in the industry. So mine Because I knew I wanted to stick out from the large salon or spa. I wanted to be like a sanctuary people could come to And then bringing your vision to life. So finding a branding photographer that matches your style is key Like I'm stuck with the same branding photographer. And I really like that Went through a lot of different people's Instagrams to really see do they edit the way I want them to edit? Like with what, and how are they going to be able to portray my business and capture my business? And then learning your content style. Do you want to be educational? Do you want to be funny? Do you want to be motivational? For me, it's a little bit more, I want to be motivational and I do want to be educational about what people are getting out of this service and why it's worth it. And then setting time aside for content creation, because if you don't set time aside, you're not going to find it. And this is something I struggle with. And then if content creation is not your strong suit, but you want to keep up your brand's online present, I really suggest contacting a social media manager or even reaching out to them to see if they can, you can pay them to educate you. Maybe you don't take them on if that's not in your budget, but maybe Hey. Would you do a class for me? That's what we're doing at the end of this month for my team. I'm having a media manager come in and do a class for the whole team to really educate everybody on what's working right now. And then here are some exercises that you can do. You can either take a picture of this or just write it down, but I suggest gathering all of your businesses, social media accounts, websites, marketing tools, pictures, et cetera. And try and spot any. Any color or mood inconsistencies from there, create a list of what you noticed and then create a plan of action. So you don't overwhelm yourself with having things to do. And then something I did with my website designer, when I was having like brand strategy meetings with her, she had me select five to 10 words that you would like your business to align with. And that really gave me like a lot of clear insight of What I wanted people to get out of my business and then learning and using the five C's of branding, clarity, consistency, content, connection, and confidence. I think confidence is one of the biggest ones, because if you're confident in your brand and people are going to feel that and they're going to be drawn to it. And then here are some journal prompts. This is what I want to keep going in the Marco Polo group is people sharing like what they're journaling and what prompts they're using. But if you do just one a day for the next week and just take 10 20 minutes to like really think about this, I think it could be beneficial. So what values do you want to share and promote? What does my target audience look like and how do I cater to their needs and wants? What would make me feel confident and proud of my brand? Where does my brand and visual style need improving? What is something personal and special to you that can be incorporated into your brand? And then obviously I feel like a lot of people here already have a clear brand. So if you answer these questions and you're like, I don't feel like I need any work, then that's something that you could just feel really good about yourself and just take it for what it is. But also a lot of people like to rebrand. I've rebranded multiple times and and it can do a lot for your business. Thank you all for listening and dealing with some of my technical difficulties. Now, just go out there and be you. Woo! And we're perfect on time. Okay. And who was it? Local Lather, that is. Lauren said, I need these prompts. I definitely need a deep dive to gain confidence again. Maybe if all of the panelists are open after tonight, can Maybe put everybody, feel free to put your slides inside the Facebook group because I took a picture of that, but I think we could all go into the slides. And it did get better. It never got to the point where we couldn't understand you. Laura sent me a private message and she said maybe there was a device close to your mic? Is your phone right there? I'm just curious. My phone is right here. That would be crazy if that was I don't know. You know what else is my theory? And this happens every time we get on live with Kristen Sosman. Those of you that have done Energy Trifecta, you know this. Autumn, I just think you're a fucking energetic magnet, like super charger, that tech was starting to get a little wild once Autumn got into her flow and started raging because the energy was so fucking powerful that it couldn't handle it. So that's what I'm going with. I'll take it too. Yes. Okay. I want to finish this thought that I was writing down for Q& A. We got some messages in the chat. So good. Thank you so much, Autumn. That was super valuable. Great presentation, Autumn. I have to go. Bye, Karen. Thank you so much for today. I'll catch up later. Energy is high vibe. LOL. Love it. Okay. I have some questions that I pulled while each person was talking. And we're going to start to get into them. If you guys know how to use Zoom well, there is like a hand raised feature and that will bump you up in this little grid. If you know how to use the hand raise feature, do it. If you don't know how to use the hand raise feature, throw your Paloma, great question. It's under reactions, I think? Yeah, raise hand. So go to reactions, down at the bottom, see mute, stop video, share screen, reactions. You can raise your hand. Here's what it looks like when I'm raising my hand. See how it bumped me over to the top left? Yep, Lauren just tested it too. And then we can lower hand after you're done answering questions. That just makes it a little bit more organized. So you can put questions in the chat. You can raise your hand on Zoom. God, I've been searching like crazy for several calls. All right, we got it. And I'm just going to kick us off because I know sometimes nobody wants to be the first one to ask questions with things that I pulled from the chat. So we're going to go ahead and get started. Is it true? And I've heard you answer this question before, that it is more difficult to get the clean beauty designation, I don't know, in the UK. So that's everybody's question. Go off. So it is currently true. So clean sorry. The EU is actually getting rid of clean beauty or like free from claims and all that kind of stuff. Because it's not based. They're not. All those claims are evidence based. They're just marketing based. So the EU is saying, Hey we're gonna put a stop to this. And oh my god. I have the answer written down so much more eloquently than I'm saying it right now. You're good. It's a lot of pressure. You're all good, girl. How would I find it and put it in the chat? And I think that, and a lot of people said this too, they were talking about, this is another question about the apps, like clients pulling up these like toxicity apps. And again, I've learned so much and I'm less nervous than you, so I'm going to just pop off and you chime in too. I would say, based on what I've learned from Anna, when someone pulls up that app, Anna, tell me if I'm wrong. Giving them resources to do actual factual research themselves, because I've started following a couple pages. What is that one girl, Anna, that you told me to follow? She has like the short haircut. She's so good. You're muted. What? The EcoWell. Yes, the EcoWell. Put that in the chat, because I've started following her too, and it's things that I've already heard you say, but again, it gives me so much peace of mind. So when it comes to things like those apps, again, When Anna went through this process of unlearning all of these things that she dove into this because she was so passionate about them she had to do a ton of research to realize that when she says marketing claims, not factual claims, 99 percent of all of these things is just marketing mumbo jumbo. Yeah. It was actually a huge letdown when I learned that and realized it because I realized that I had based so much of my business behind the chair on stuff that was purely marketing. And you guys, like I'm, I always say I'm like a closet tree hugger. So I always want to do what's right for the planet and what's right for everybody's health and all that kind of stuff. But I found out that all of the efforts that I had put into that, they weren't harming anybody. anything per se, but they weren't having a positive impact on the environment in any way, and they weren't having a positive impact on anybody's health. And that was so disheartening. It actually took me over a year just to get over it. Because But then I did find the answer that I have written down. Okay. And she'll share that on the face. Oh, you pulled it up? I pulled it up. Do you, moving quick. Emma likes facts. Go ahead and share. Yeah, go ahead and read it. New regulations regarding free front claims. The EU recently passed regulations. That bans around free from claims because they imply that some ingredients are unsafe when there is no evidence to support it. Brands that sell globally must change their marketing claims to comply with EU regulations. So this will have an impact here in the U. S. at some point as well as other parts of the world. And then they're trying to say that because the EU is starting this now, remember it will take years to adopt. But just the industry in general is starting to make a small shift more towards sustainability, which we're seeing a lot of right now. And they're also making more of a shift towards wellness and moving away from fear based marketing. So again, these things will slowly take years. And there is, there's a whole lot There's a lot to unpack with actually what's with this whole question and what's currently happening in the US. Yeah. Oh, also because we did talk about the eco you guys, if you go onto my website, I have a resource hub and that shows you like the websites and stuff that I like to go to, to learn information from. And I like to just be very transparent about that. That's why it lives on my website as a whole section dedicated. Mhm. So we can continue to unpack some of that in Marco Polo, because I know it's a lot. And again, just breaking that into understandable English, free from claims is basically what we hear, free from sulfates, free from silicones, free from parabens, crackdanna. Yes, because what I am a learned is that the claims that those things are toxic is actually not true. And if it doesn't have a sulfate in it, it has a sulfate alternative in it, and it has enough conditioning agents to help with whatever dryness sulfates cause. So that's what she means when she says free from and fear based and what was that last word you use. It's fine. That's what it is. Sometimes the alternative is worse Melanie said. That's what she means when she says free from. So again, I really think you guys should listen to our podcast episode. And Anna is your coach. I'm gonna chime in and say, write down some notes of these questions as those are good social media posts. for you because it really shows you, Anna's so deep into it that she's thinking so much further than what these questions are even scratching the surface on, and we need to really bring it to hairstylists in like the simplest format to make it comprehensible. Okay, Lauren's got her hand up, go ahead Lauren. Okay, I'm using the computer. Can you hear me? Yeah, you're doing great. Okay. So I guess this would be a question for Autumn and Kimber. So part of the confidence thing. So you know, I opened my salon, I had this vision but I used with what was here, right? And I It has changed so many times in the four years. Right now. Everything feels so incredibly, Oh, blurred. Like I don't feel confident in my brand whatsoever. I don't know what the hell that is. Does that just mean that I need to look at something else, or is that something like, okay, what, four years from now, like four years past that is maybe I need a rebrand instead of would you suggest looking further into something else to gain confidence before considering oh, you might need a rebrand? Can I go first? Kimberly is Lauren, I would say it would be more of looking at yourself and saying why don't I feel confident? Is it, I wouldn't look externally. Do you feel, I feel like it starts with you. Is there something that you need to do to gain your confidence? And if you don't know what that is, it like I feel like this group obviously is amazing for that But I think your personal confidence will shine through in your brand's confidence And if you're starting with somebody else's brand Is that because if that's what you did, that's not you so like a rebrand might be scary But you would probably feel more confident in it if it was more you and i'm figuring that out and you I don't know if it's you or kimber said it was Like you need to be your brand not like I understand be yourself, be your own brand, but then your target market is not necessarily you. It's a specific person you're wanting, but your brand is still yourself. Not necessarily what other people want. Correct. Correct. Correct. I think that's where like our stuff differs just a little bit because I believe that like an aligned client is different than necessarily your brand, but your brand does need to speak to your client. Does that make sense? Yes. And be an extension of you. Autumn, those of you that are in the room, a lot of you have been in Thrivers, and like Brit, that's how a lot of you found me, talks about you're not your brand, you're not your target market, and so it's been so ingrained in our brains, that, of that way of teaching, and there's truth to that. This is where I say not one size fits all, but Autumn was telling me she showed me the Be Your Brand slide, and I was like, I'm actually so glad that you're going into that, Autumn's never been in Thrivers, or taken any super formal role. Branding education, but I'm like, I'm actually glad that you're leaning into the, be your brand. You are your brand. Not saying one is right or wrong, but I have always resonated with that as well. Like I have always had a hard time pulling my, like having the target market, not be myself. Like people will always say, Oh, do whatever you want with my hair. Laura's in the room. She's a client of mine. Do whatever you want with my hair. If I was doing whatever I want with your hair, you guys would all have long ass balayage hair. Because that's just what, that's what I love to do. That's what comes natural to me. It's never for me personally felt authentic to brand, not an extension of who I am. I'm just like so probably overly transparent and authentic that it all just melds together. And for some people, that is not the case and that would not work for them. For some people specifically, they really are not their brand. Say you're a let's talk about Lucia's husband or something, Mateo. You're a male hairstylist who is doing colors all day. He's not his brand. But for me, I always have been in Soul Tribe and behind the chair. So I, I think that could go either way, Lauren, and I think a lot of it is going to come to just some soul searching, more so than one person giving you the key. But I think asking these questions, having these conversations, Is just gonna continue to like, give you the breadcrumb trail of what you need. And I wanna point out I, how proud I am of you for how much you have been discovering and cracking the code little by little. And I think with that confidence will come plo. Oh, go ahead Lauren. I chime. Just a little bit on this because I feel like it would help other people who might be struggling with the same thing because I know that I have struggled with it hardcore to exactly what Lauren's describing when you go from like being on your own to then being a salon owner. Here's the piece that I missed and like my therapist had to point out to me. I am a people pleaser by nature. It may not seem like it because I'm. I have boundaries, but in the end I am a people pleaser. So when you have a team, whether it be one person, three people, eight people, you start giving your ideas to the rest of your team. And they are not the visionary of your business. And the salon didn't fall into their laps and it didn't fall into yours. It was an opportunity that you set up. because you had a vision for your business. And so I have had to do a lot of deep work in the past two years because I've made a lot of decisions trying to make other people happy to align back to the vision that I originally created. And I have to remember every day and what I would recommend to every owner of a business, whether again, you're on your own, or you have a team every day is to look in the mirror and say, I am The vision I create the vision for my business like that was mine and it will continue to be mine And other people may not be happy and I actually think that brit Speaking of brit did say something that I think I needed to hear was like the team that you start with might not necessarily Be the team that is going to be in your dream version of your salon Like there's people that get you there and then there's people that stay there. So I think that The more that we remove like talking about our ideas around our team and then just only bringing it to them when we feel confident about them makes a huge difference. Love that. And that stood out to me too. The what and who got you here is not what and who will get you there. And I think that goes for clients as well. Like it goes for me. For staff members, that goes for clients. Sometimes that goes for friends. Sometimes that goes for business relationships. I remember that standing out to me as well. So thank you for continuing that thought. We had a lot of good thoughts in the chat too. And I'd also love to keep the conversation going about confidence inside the Marco Polo group, if that's what we need to do, because as much as I want to give you guys all this big business education, Soul Tribe typically turns into mindset conversations that just seems to be who I attract in. Okay. Paloma said she had a question for Anna. You want to go ahead, Paloma? Yeah. I just wanted to ask, say you're in a situation that a client does bring this up and like maybe you're using something that isn't like a hundred percent clean beauty or whatever but you use it because it works well for you and you as a stylist know how to use it obviously safely like how would you approach that client like you have any kind of verbiage that you know use that to calm the situation or diffuse that? Okay so I mean it does depend on the specific client and feeling them out. But basically you guys, every single ingredient that is used in hair care and cosmetics, it has a toxicology report. And in that toxicology report, it has how the ingredient is safe and how it is toxic. It has all, all of the information in between there. Like how can it be used for specific things and then how it can't be used for specific things. So basically this is why there is no clean ingredient list because every ingredient has a toxicology report. That toxicology report has pros in it and it has cons. So if anybody were to put out We'll say a clean ingredient list. It could be so easily dismantled by a competitor. So I would basically just answer it by saying every ingredient has a clean side and a dirty side. And then I would also say I have extensively looked into this brand to make sure that everything they're doing aligns with me. And I trust that they are using this ingredient safely. And as ways where it would, be a benefit and not a toxic. Something I learned from Anna as well was like water can be toxic when you drown in it. Salt can be toxic if you inject a vial of it into your vein. So like that being said, go ahead Anna. You can ingest too much water and you can die from water toxemia. I don't know if you guys knew that. So again, where I find comfort is you guys truly, and I think you should listen to the podcast episode when you do actual research. And this is where it depends on how far gone your client is, or even how far you guys believe. I'm not out here trying to change someone's core belief. If someone is so committed to this, like lifestyle or whatever, but Anna was committed. She did a lot of research and she found that Legally, no brand can put a toxic ingredient into a cosmetic product and sell it, so it doesn't exist. Pantene, Tresemme, nobody can. These brands that we say are terrible, truly, all of them are safe. It comes down to performance. experience, values, things like that. So that's like Anna's, what I've gathered from her, but sometimes people are not in a spot to hear that and then you just say, I respect whatever you need to do and this is why I love my products, anybody else have any questions right now in real time? If not, I can pull a couple from my chat. I don't see any hands raised. Michelle has a Oh, Michelle, go ahead. Or she has I did notice, because I did go through the comments Michelle is interested, or she uses Intersense, and they claim to be clean, organic, and non toxic. So I've actually looked into Intersense a bunch of times and they're a very interesting brand. So Intersense, from everything that I have gathered, and remember, I am not within their inner formulating circle, right? So I can't say this for dent for definite, but I believe inner sense does put a ton into picking out the ingredients that they use. And they also put a ton into ensuring that the forms of those ingredients, not only Also perform very well. But as far as like being an organic brand, a lot of ingredients start out as organic, so they get organic raw material, or I'm sorry. That's not the way to say that. So they get ingredients that started out as organic, but a lot of times in hair care, if have you guys ever gone to Trader Joe's or Whole Foods and bought hair care products and tried it on yourselves? They suck. Okay. Because I have tried this. They're awful. And, but the reason that is, is because those ingredients haven't been processed to the point where they're actually beneficial to the hair. So this is something that like inner sense where they would be I think they're taking Ingredients. I think they're raw material suppliers source from organic places and then convert it into a form that's beneficial for the hair. And then they put that into their products. Another thing that's really interesting with how products are made is that typically what a lot of brands do is they will actually come up with a base formula. And then that base formula, they will tweak. and create different versions. So like for a shampoo you'll have your base shampoo formula and then you'll tweak it so that it's volumizing and you'll tweak it so it's clarifying and you'll tweak it so it's color safe and you'll, so you'll adjust things accordingly so that you can get all of these different forms of shampoo, but the base formula is the same. And Intersense is super heavy on Oh my gosh on the story ingredients. They love their story ingredients. They have pages upon them. And again, I just want to point out story ingredients aren't bad. Tomorrow we're going to talk about marketing. Intersense is one of, I would say, a fan favorite in Soul Tribe. Jamie Anderson did a masterclass about how she sells 43, 000 a year worth of products and she is madly in love with Intersense and that's the brand that she sells with. It's not to say anything is right or wrong, but it's just fascinating to learn from Anna how much of this is actual the ingredient matters, or it's a story ingredient saying, I put oatmeal in your hair care product so I can build a story on it, so I can build marketing material on it, so that I can sell you on it. Not a bad thing. All brands have to do that. Versus, is oatmeal the best thing you can ever put in your hair and your hair needs oatmeal? Not really. I Love hearing Anna chat about this. I love blowing people's minds. I love opening people's minds. I remember getting the clips to Anna's podcast. I was like, Ooh, this is going to ruffle some feathers in the best way. I am excited for people to hear that. Okay. Anybody else have any real in time questions? I can pull some from mine that I've written down. Michelle said, thank you for addressing it. I always tell my clients it's clean, non toxic line. Makes me wonder. I sell a lot of it too. It does perform well for me and my clients and nothing about that Michelle, is a lie. It is clean. And it is what is clean? Because can the ingredients be toxic if you drown in water? Yes, they can. But it is a great line that you're in love with, that you're obsessed with, and you can pass on their story ingredients into your business as well. Thank you, Anna, again, for blowing our mind. Okay Kimber, I have written down about paid version of ChatGPT. Okay, Laurel asked this question. I saw you answer it in the chat, but I don't know if everybody saw it. How do you get ChatGPT to create those charts? You just tell it to, right? Put it in table format? So when you're doing those prompts, I know that we breeze through them. You would put like in a table format or like at the end. Whatever you say to ChatGPT, say create this, or if you don't, even the first time it responds to you, say, can you reformat this into a table? It's just asking it to make a table. It can make all sorts of things. I actually think that Google's is better for graphs and more math equative stuff, but ChatGPT can make a table really easy. Yeah, you just say put this in table format. Anybody have any questions about Kimbers as well? I know we're having some questions. A lot of people said, is there an app? Is this OpenAI? Yeah. I've been using only ChatGPT. I haven't played with Google, but you go to OpenAI. com, they now have an app. Open AI has an app and it was asked in the chat as well if I'm using the desktop version for this and I am I use the like mobile version sometimes but I'm just a person that likes to work in my office on my computer so I personally use the desktop version for a lot of different things and I use a lot of different GPT models that's why I wanted to specify that this is like a mobile version. All GPT models, not just chat GPT. Okay, tell us which ones you're using too in case some people. I use the video one that's open AI. I forget what it's called. That's what I knew you're going to ask that next. I'm like, I forget what the video one's called, but I do use that. I use chat GPT. I use Google a lot when I'm doing like reports and numbers. One of my clients who's in data actually told me that Google's AI is better than chat GPT because Google has the power of Google. That's like Google's knowledge is Incredibly infinite, and I feel like sometimes if you're not getting exactly what you want from ChatGBT, I would go to Google. They just changed the name. What is Google's called? Yeah. It was called BARD. They just changed the name of it. I remember hearing that too. I can't think of it too. I'm sure a Google search would tell you. Yes, Google would tell you. Oh, Gemini. That's what it is. Awesome. Paloma. Alright, Jennifer DeHaven has her hand raised. Go ahead, Jennifer. I'll help you out. Asked on me. Got it. Kimber, after you have done that search and you have all of this info to apply to your social media, how do you store that? How do you organize it and keep it straight and playing your social media and stuff out? Do you have an app for that? Do you just. I'm not organization. What? To be honest, no. I keep a lot of it. I use Motion AI, which I also did a masterclass on Motion AI. So that's in the Would it be really nice of us to just plug that into the portal too? I think we could probably do that. Yeah, huh. So that is, like, how I organize my day to day. But as far as my ideas, I'm not gonna lie, they're I do have a Google Doc and I have I don't have time to share it cause we just don't have enough time, but I have a brand guide that is a I think it's 50 to 60 page booklet of everything so that my team stays in line. Cause I think that this is this was answering Lauren's question. The way it was answering is I will say stuff to my team sometimes, and they're a different generation than me and they do things differently than me. That is going to happen. Bye. One of the girls brought up I just feel like sometimes we're all the same at one of our team meetings. And I was like, and I know why we're the same because it works. That's why we're doing that. And this guy's actually a solid brand. Yeah, exactly. And I'm like, you don't go into a Louis Vuitton or Gucci store and they're all wearing different stuff. Like they're all wearing the same things. They're all speaking the same way. And in some environments that might not work, but in ours, I want to keep things very consistent. So I will share my brand guide in the Facebook group. It is. intense, but it's because that's what I do. Yours doesn't have to be that intense, but I would say that's where all of that stuff gets organized. And then I just refer to it. I don't have like organizational system, but that's where I go. Love it. Does that help, Jennifer? Yeah. Awesome. I utilize Canva whiteboards, Notes app, Google Docs, etc. for, this is Caitlin that said this, for organizing everything and it makes folders for my folders that have folders. It makes things very neat and tidy for my ADHD brain. That sounds lovely. It all reminds me of What people explain Trello as. Canva whiteboards. What is that? Laurel said. Oh, I'll drop that in the Marco Polo after the call. Okay, so we'll have to stay tuned for that. Anything in four minutes, Kaitlin, that you can share or is it way too much and it's got to go to Marco Polo? Yeah, I can, do it really quickly. If you've ever used like quick, I think it's called quick note or something like that on Apple devices. Or if you've ever used Miro it's basically that, but it's in Canva. Like I use Canva every single day. So Canva whiteboards is just like a very like nice spot for like brain dumping. You can use like little post it note looking things. You can do different like graph charts tree charts, like all sorts of stuff. I have the most chaotic like thought process for things. So instead of writing things down on like physical notepads, I'm just able to do it right there in a Canva whiteboard and you can make it as big or as small as you want to. I use them for everything. I project plan with them. I content plan with them. I schedule I make schedules for things and then I'll plug that into my automatic scheduler. later on. But yeah, Canva whiteboards are like my favorite thing. Incredible. And just a shameless plug Caitlin does do one on one marketing consulting calls. So if you guys ever wanted her to whiteboard it out with you, I'm sure she could do that. And then you could continue that system in your own business. Alicia said, I think there was a question on if Kimber has tested these prompts in, Oh God, I lost it in. The Google AI versus ChatGPT, and I might have missed if she actually said this or not. Have you tested the prompts both in ChatGPT and Google's AI? I did not test these exact ones in Google AI. I did test these in chat GBT. But I copy and pasted the responses. So what you guys saw for the voice traits and their reasons, what you guys saw for the table, what you guys saw is like the brand story stuff that was all copy and paste. I didn't add anything to that or alter it at all. Cool. But also, you've used the Google AI enough to say you feel fairly confident that it would give you pretty good results with it. I think it would be similar. Yeah. Okay. Love. Would be a fun experiment to test out. It's called Motion AI. So yeah, I saw you say that about Notion. It's Motion. And I'm gonna just for you. for fun. Because that's what I'm saying about this resource fair. I hate that these masterclasses just sit there forever and collect dust. I want people to see these. The content is too good. So I will plug that in to the replay vault that you guys all have, all the VIPs have access to. It's not really going to make sense. It's just going to be right under Kimber's other one that says branding, but it's going to be all about motion AI. If you guys want to dive into that as well. Do you find the older generation is afraid of AI, or is it just me, Michelle? I would almost say, I think, I don't, maybe age a little bit, but I would say just, I don't think so. Humans are afraid of ai. I was just about to say that. A type of human, yeah. The people who struggle with using these tools. I do one-on-ones with my team once a month, and I talk about AI tools a lot with my team. The ones who struggle the most are actually the younger ones. I don't know if it's that they're like I'm, I should be like, knowledge in this because I'm young and I'm supposed to be up to date and trendy, but I'm like, you guys are the ones that struggle most with your content. And because it's, you're trying to recreate the wheel every time you make a post instead of using these tools and actually creating strategy. So I feel like we have a benefit as millennials and up knowing that strategy creates consistency. I personally think that the Gen Zers struggle with it more than. I do. That's fascinating. Laurel just said it makes me feel stupid, and I think we talked about this in the panelist Marco Polo group that we had, and you said you were gonna add an in camera, and I don't think you did. I think it was maybe Laurel who said, talk to ChatGPT like it's a human. That makes it a lot easier. And actually, I was gonna say this before, too. The mobile version of ChatGPT has a really cool voice feature, and it sounds like very scary human. I have an idea, maybe one day I'll bring it to life, of interviewing ChatGPT on my podcast, just because the mobile version? It's like a voice. You can choose out of six voices and if you're feeling really confused when you open chat GPT, literally just, it's weird, but pretend like it's human and just say, I don't know what I'm supposed to tell you, but here's what's happening. Blah, blah, blah. I know, Kimber, I want to. I was going to do it. It was a, it was an inspired idea. I was going to do it right away. And then time has passed and I haven't done it. I need to do it. That could be it. I love to learn, but for some reason I have a block to this. And Michelle, I'd be lying if I said that it. AI as a whole, if you let yourself go there, can freak me out a little bit. Absolutely it can, but is that going to happen regardless? Is it an incredible tool currently? And statistically, is it going to take over the human race? I doubt it. Okay. So we are at one o'clock. I feel like we got majority of get with it or get left behind was Kimber's quote. I feel like we've gotten majority of the questions answered. So those of you that are on here live, that are VIP, feel free to take your breakthroughs. Michelle, if you want to start talking a little bit, I'd love to see your face in the Marco Polo group about why it freaks you out. Let's talk through it. Let's briefly, I'm definitely not someone that will coach to do something that makes you uncomfortable. So do you want to work through that mental block? I'd love to chat. And whether at the end of that conversation you still feel like, no, this isn't for me, or you feel like, yeah, maybe it is, we could totally do that. So going back to the agenda, there should be another little exclusive video dropping in the Facebook group right now. And then we are going to come back at 1. 30. So in about 30 minutes, let's wrap up so we can all potty break, grab a snack if we need to. I think there's going to be a whitespace prompt again. Yes, Leisha? Another whitespace prompt? Okay, another whitespace prompt is going to drop in the Facebook group. So everybody, get yourself settled, do what you need to do. We're going to meet back in 30 minutes. Maybe put your feet in the grass like Paloma said on Marco Polo, because this is a buffet. We are being force fed right now, but we're going to go into nurturing. And I know this already blew your mind, but nurturing is going to blow your mind as well. Get in Marco Polo. I will see you guys there and we will be live again in 28 minutes. Bye friends.