"So you have a cosmetology license, now what?" With Lindsey Nelson at Cosmetology Grad School.

In this episode Lindsey, owner of Cosmetology Grad School, goes over exactly what to do after you get your cosmetology degree! Cosmetology school is not business school. Her education platform is an amazing program that walks new and seasoned stylists alike through how to narrow down on who they want to serve, how to market, how to gain new clients, how to do your books, and SO MUCH MORE! She truly cares about you and your success behind the chair. There is so much amazing information packed into this episode! If you want more you can find her here:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/491687339398588/
Website: https://www.cosmetologygradschool.com/
Instagram: @cosmetologygradschool

Transcript

  Welcome to the Smart Wealthy Stylist Podcast. I'm your host, Emily Carton. Over here we are dedicated to helping hair stylists manage their finances, stay organized, healthy, and manage their time and mental wellbeing. We focus on staying healthy in all areas of life and maximizing productivity. If you're a hair stylist looking for these things, then this is the podcast for you.

Will avoid burnout and step into being the smartest, wealthiest stylist that we can be today. I have my friend Lindsay, she owns cosmetology grad school. Lindsay, I am so glad you're here today. I'm so excited to share with the smart wealthy Stylist community, um, what you're doing. You're doing some awesome things.

So tell me a little bit about. Hey, thank you so much for having me. Um, again, my name is Lindsay Nelson and I'm a hair stylist in Louisiana. I've been doing hair for about 18 years, and I am a mom of two. I'm a wife of 15 years and I'm just doing the thing, you know. Um, I just started cosmetology grad school because I just felt there was such a big gap in between.

What, you know as a brand new student who just got licensed to where you need to be in order to jump on that success train. So I saw that there was a need and I said, you know, I've learned so much in my 18 years. Let me just help somebody, um, not make the same mistakes that I have. Of course you're gonna make mistakes because that's how we learn and grow.

But if I can help somebody just. The mistakes that really detoured my career. I think I've done my job. So that's my whole goal. Oh my gosh. Yeah. Cosmetology grad school was just to kind of like say, Hey sis, these are the things that I messed up on. These are the things you need to look out for, and here you go.

So that is so cool. I so wish that I would have had a mentor or a coach or someone. To guide you right outta cosmetology school. There is such a huge need for this because, you know, cosmetology school gets you your license. It is not business school. Correct. It does not teach you, you know, how to find your target market or you know how to set your prices, how to offer a, a perceived value or what, like there.

Nothing that fills that gap for these young students coming or whatever age you take cosmetology school. Of course. Not young necessarily, but you know, new hairstylist in general. Yes. I just feel that cosmetology school, while at no fault of their own theirs, their whole purpose is to get you to your state board test and get you licensed.

But there, and there's the rest of it. Like I feel we needed a business school in order Absolutely. To get with the program. And, um, a marketing school as well. Um, because once you get your license, you're now an entrepreneur. You're now responsible for gaining new business and running your business appropriately.

And I feel like I didn't get all of that in beauty school and I needed to learn how to do it all. And while I did have mentors on the technical side and formulations and how to cut hair and how to round brush and all. Things within our, within our industry, I still needed somebody else to teach me how to grow a business, how to do bookkeeping.

Yes. Um, how to do taxes. What's an llc? Do I need an llc? All of these questions, and I'm not to over, not to overwhelm a brand new license cosmetologist, but these are very important topics that need to be at least presented to. So they're exposed to it. So they don't go in blind and say, oh my gosh, I had no idea this existed.

Yes. And I, I just told my husband, like, now that, you know, I had my whole come to Jesus moment, and all of these things have occurred in my life. I was just like, I wish I would've had someone te and especially the budgeting part because, you know, with my, with my family history and stuff, my mom and dad did fine.

I never learned any of that stuff and had I had someone saying, okay, right out the gate, if you budget this way, if you do your finances this way, if you implement bookkeeping and accounting and hire an accountant, who specifically caters to beauty, beauty people, you know? Right. Had I had this information, I would have insurmountable amounts of retirement already.

I would have, you know, I, everything would've been. Now, maybe I didn't have the ears to hear it back then, but that's also true, you know? Yeah. That's also true. I have now you have to put yourself into your young stylist self or just young adult self is Would I have listened? Would I have heard? Yeah. And you know, the, the question always is, well, I guess it would depend on who you are as a person at that time of your.

But if you plant the seeds now, eventually they'll understand. Like just, it's like teaching your kids. Eventually they'll understand and recall back and say, that's what my mom and they'll missed. They'll go, wait. Right. I remember about, yeah, I remember when somebody told me about that. Yeah. Right, exactly.

So, um, in cosmetology grad school, what exactly do you offer? Like, what are, are you doing modules? Are you, is there a Facebook page? Like what is, how can people. Um, implement your systems and like what, what's going on in the actual business side of things for you? Okay, great. So essentially cosmetology grad school is a blog where I share my journey as a hairstylist from when I got my license.

Um, and then I go through the journey of the first salon, second salon that I had gone to, the good, the bad, and the ugly because we all have made some, we all have worked for, Really interesting individuals for sure. And so that through that journey I kind of show the path that I've taken and the wrong decisions or just things to look out for, like red flags, how to spot a good mentor.

Um, different things that you would like to, let me think. We can cut this part out. Different things that you would like to see in your salon owner. And, um, just all the struggles that I went through and how to have a new hairstylist, find success quicker, and avoid a lot of the mistakes and detours that I had in my career.

Also in cosmetology grad school, there are some shorter, more actionable posts in there too, where it's all about market. And those, those posts are called Level Up Lab because we are leveling up our marketing efforts. And so there's a lot of big infographics where I show you what I'm talking about and I actually give examples of my own social media so you can see how I'm implementing exactly what I'm saying, because it just kind of depends.

And this is on Instagram, right? Yeah. Is this on Instagram or Facebook? Well, some of them are on Instagram and some of 'em are on, um, about Facebook in general, like Facebook groups or Facebook Pro business profiles so you can understand how to implement it into those different platforms and why you should have those platforms.

It all depends on going back to target market. Who are you trying to attract and how are we going to attract them? I love that. So that is also just built into the blog as well. Very cool. I love that you're catering to both platforms too, because I do think like once you find who your target market is, there are different social media platforms for who you're trying to reach out to because you know, the 20 something lived in color, balayage and extensions is probably gonna be Instagram and then you're gonna have your, you know, say you wanna do.

S not senior cuts, but you know, like gray coverage or whatever those people are gonna be on Facebook. So having both platforms and showing people how to market correctly on those platforms is huge for speaking to your customer base that you wanna build. I just love that. I think that's fantastic. Um, so was there a personal struggle that you went through to see that there was a need for this niche?

Yes. So when I first started doing hair, I was a. An employee at a salon. And eventually I started to find that I needed to grow a little bit more. I wanted to level up my client experience and I wanted to get into a more luxurious, higher end salon. And so I had made the jump to another commission salon while I was there.

I was learning, I was growing. Um, I was, it was all it was. Uh, coworker, a past coworker of mine was like, Hey, so we are gonna go do booth rental salon and we're gonna be in, you know, self-employed and all this stuff, and it sounded great and grand. I had no idea what that really meant for me. So my first struggle was not understanding what it meant to be a booth rental employee or just self-employed.

A booth rental stylist. So my first struggle was jumping into booth, renting prematurely, not having my pricing dialed into where I was going to profit. I just went off the prices that my previous employers had told me, but before. I didn't have any expenses, and so whenever I went into being an independent stylist, self-employed, I had these expenses that I really couldn't afford because my pricing wasn't set correctly.

So fast forward 12 years later, I was an employ. I was self-employed for 12 years. I just struggled all of those years. My husband, Was really there as the most supportive husband you can have. He always encouraged me to grow and to gain new clients, and always told me how great I was. Because he really did see the potential in me, even though I couldn't see it in myself.

Does that make sense? That's so awesome. Oh yeah. So while I was struggling just trying to make ends meet, I couldn't afford to take any classes. You know, this was back in maybe 2007. So this online education platform didn't even exist. Instagram, what? It started what? In in 2014. So we're talking Yeah. Yeah.

Baby steps into Facebook. We didn't, you didn't advertise on Facebook. This was just to see what your girlfriend from high school was eaten for lunch. That's, that's the kind of timeframe we're talking about. So if you want an education, you had to. Um, like a branded educator to come to your salon, or you had to go to like your local distributor and get education from them.

Some of it was great, some of it wasn't so great. Or you had to travel to go to a hair show. Well, if you're so busy trying to make ends meet to try to pay your expenses, did you have money? Or at least I didn't. I didn't have the money to go and get education, so it was like, At Catch 22, you knew you needed to get education in order to grow your business, but you couldn't afford to do it in the first place.

That was my main struggle. Confidence was my main struggle because I wasn't mm-hmm. Doing all these things. It killed my confidence, so, yeah. Yeah. When you feel like you're failing in your business or you know, you're just so lost, I mean, that can absolutely have a huge impact on your confidence. Right. So we're gonna fast forward like, like I said, 12 years.

We're gonna fast forward back into 2019 Now, after I had me and my coworker, we decided to close the salon that we had opened together and sell everything. And I had a little bit of cash, you know, in my pocket. Yeah. So I had, um, discovered Brit Sivas Thriving Stylist podcast. I started listening to I'm a Too Love.

So I started to implement all the things that Brit had te had taught. I joined her program and that's when I started to see my business evolve. I started to have money in order to put into education to. To bridge the gap from, from where I was to where I needed to be. I didn't know how to do. Yes. I didn't know how to do a root mal.

I didn't know how to do all these things, and it really affected how I felt as my have, I looked at myself as a stylist. Yeah. So I learned all these things. I got education online and I've decided I'm, I'm gonna go with it. You know, I'm tired of struggling. I'm tired of being broke. I was tired of being a broke hair stylist.

You know, I was gonna shut that door. Season of my life and it has brought me to where I'm at now. And I just felt that all those years of struggling was not for nothing. I wanted it to be for something. And so that's where I felt this was a calling for me to teach somebody else how to avoid all the things that I went through so they can find success faster.

That is so powerful. Like that is so impactful to me. And you know, I'm see like listening to you through. Yes, you are catering to the brand new students, fresh outta cosmetology school, but you could so speak to and resonate with those struggling stylists who have been behind the chair forever, stuck in the dark ages, aren't doing, you know, social media.

They're ready to hang up their apron because they are tired and broke and their body hurts. Like exactly. You could even help them. Totally rele. The way to run their business. Right. Too. I mean, that, that's just awesome. So I, and you know, I was gonna ask like, what problems are you fixing with cosmetology grad school?

But like, you've got it. I, I mean, I just love what you're doing. It is, thank you. So thank you. It's just amazing. Um, so on the business side of things, like how are you building brand awareness and how are you. Attracting your customers to your business? So when I first started Cosmo Grad School, like I said, it started off as a blog and um, I had no idea how to do a blog, so I had no idea.

Really how, how to start the blog, what platform to use, do I need, um, a course for that, right? And, um, I started asking my friends who had online courses and who already were doing the thing not even relevant to our industry, just in general. And they told me a couple different resources to reach out to.

Um, they told me, you know, you can take a course by Amy. Uh, it Porterfield, I can never pronounce her name correctly. Yes. I just read her two weeks notice book. It's so good. She's so helpful. So I just started Googling, like how to start a blog, what platform to use. Can I do the blog for free? Do I need to get, um, a website domain?

Like all these little things. I feel like it was one step forward, two steps back, but I did all the dirty work so I could help somebody else later be like, Hey look, this is the steps you need to take. Yes, but going back, so I have a Facebook group that is specifically designed for brand new hairstylists.

It's just called cosmetology grad school. I do posts inside of the, um, Facebook group that have to do with building your local awareness, gaining new clients, gaining confidence. And I also post whenever I have a fresh blog post in that, um, in that Facebook, I'm also a member of several other hair stylists Facebook groups that I don't moderate, uh, that I don't run myself.

So when another hair stylist posts a question and then they raise their hand and they say, I'm a new stylist, or I'm a baby hair stylist. I first comment and give them my genuine feedback on how to solve their problem. And I also invite them to my group. I ask them, would they like an invite? And of course, they are more than happy to get the invite.

And in that tactic, other people see that I'm, they're aware of my group and they ask to join as well. I have an Instagram page, I have a Pinterest page. And then I have some free resources, um, on the Facebook group and on the Instagram, in the link in the bio to where people can, um, join those several different accounts.

They can download a free resource, five unique ways to gain new clients. And, um, yeah, so I'm just slowly growing, but at the same time, I just felt like it's gonna, it's gonna take a little minute, but you know, Once it gets going, I feel like it's gonna be really helpful for a lot of people who struggle in the same areas that I had that have struggles.

Yeah. And I have to tell you guys, Lindsay is doing all of this for free at the moment. Yes. But it's a labor of love. Services need, need to be monetized on, girl. I mean, what you're offering is gold and I love your heart and I love that. You know, thank you so much. You are doing this just to. To better people's lives.

Like this is just seriously awesome. Um, so how do you stay dedicated to your vision of your business? Like, what keeps you pumped up? Do you pour into yourself other, you know, educators and stuff? Or what, like what keeps you dedicated? So, honestly, staying dedicated to this vision and my goals for this movement.

I mean, it can be challenging for sure. Mm-hmm. I still work behind the chair five days. I'm married, I have two kids. I have a house, we have a life. And you know, I get distracted just as easily as anybody else would. I struggle with imposter syndrome. Mm-hmm. As most people do. Yes. And I just kind of find myself asking, you know, God, is, is this really what you want me to do or is this like an ego-driven goal that I have?

Like, I wanna be all these things. I wanna be a coach, I wanna be a mentor, but then something else comes along and makes me. Wow, this is where I'm supposed to be. Absolutely. I'll have like a cosmetology school reach back out to me from my per from my first email, and they'll say, yes, we would love for you to come talk to our students.

Or I'll have somebody in my group message me and they'll say, thank you so much for what you're doing. I'm so glad I don't struggle with this alone. I'm glad to know that I have support. Um, so those little things like that just reassure that I'm, I'm doing what I'm supposed to be doing. If I am not equipped with the knowledge to help somebody, that doesn't mean I can't learn it or I can't send them to somebody else and say, Hey, look, this girl is really good with pricing, or This girl's really good with formulas.

I recommend that you speak out to her or that you join her her course. Cause I'm not trying to say that I know everything, but I am here as, as somebody to like, you can talk to me. I, I've been there, girl, I've struggled for many years and not saying that I don't still struggle. I'm. And, um, yes, I'm still growing and evolving.

That is so great. Um, and I, you know, I think that that's also a huge part of being a great leader, is knowing when to delegate out your students or, you know, a question, you know, there's, there's so much power in saying, you know, I don't know the answer to this, but I know someone who might, you know, that is, that is something that is such a.

Character trait to have, because I think that shows people that you genuinely do care about their wellbeing. You know, you, you really do care about them. Yeah. Even if it's not me giving the advice. Exactly. I can point you in the right direction. So what is something that you would have told your younger self, like thinking back on, you know, when you were fresh outta cosmetology school, or what is like one super impactful thing that you would've told yourself?

I did do this, but I still tell brand new hairstylists. This one thing is when, when you get out of Cosmo school and you get licensed, you need to immediately start looking for a mentor. Yes, I had a mentor, um, not right out of school, but when I started to, when I finally found my first true home as a hair stylist at a school, um, cuz I had went to.

Salon and ended up, you know, not working out and I was in and out. Within a couple of months I found a mentor and she really helped me learn how to cut hair. Not lit. Mm-hmm. Literally. But yeah, she taught me all the things about hair, how to formulate, how to seek to clients, all the things that you would have wanted your master stylist if you are an apprentice, teach you.

So I really felt that that helped me get the thing going. And I really do think that finding a mentor, whether it's a, a general all around mentor or one that has a specific niche like, um, technical or formula or pricing or marketing, finding a mentor that now this is the key that that isn't going to, I, me make sure I say it correctly, isn't going to.

Okay. I'm gonna have to pause this real quick. Okay. We can edit that part out. Fine. Yes. I just find that finding a mentor that's really going to help you through challenges in your career and maybe say, Hey, look, so that sounds like a good idea, but have you considered this? So that really helped me a whole lot also, um, not stopping education.

Yes, I had stopped taking classes because I couldn't afford. But that to me, looking back, was the worst decision that I could have made because, yeah, all my growth stopped when I stopped growing my, my education when I stopped growing my knowledge in this industry. Also, um, one thing that I, looking back that I did prematurely was I jumped into booth running prematurely.

I didn't have the client base, I didn't have, um, any knowledge on how to run a. Uh, looking back, I, I wish, I wish I would've said no to my friends who wanted me to come with them, and I should have said, no, I have a little bit more work to do. Um, yeah, and I think so many people do jump the gun on that. They think, well, I've been behind the chair for a year.

Yes, exactly, Shirley. I have enough clients. Like, let's go. Yeah. You know, and that's, and some people can do it like, no, no doubt. Like some people I know, they jump into being a booth runner two and three years after getting their license and they. Also, you have to remember the timeframe that we were in when I did that, that was back in oh seven.

We didn't have the social media thing. Yeah. You know, you were handing out business cards at restaurants and gas stations. I mean, you Yeah. Things have so changed. I graduated cosmetology school in 2010 and it was kind of that way back then even, you know, I mean, it was, when we go out, we'd meet people when we were at the bar or whatever, you know, and you, you hand them business cards or you.

I went to church too, so we'd go, I'd hand out business cards at church too. I mean, there was, yeah, gas stations, restaurants. You leave a good tip and hope that the waitress comes in because you know, waitresses and waiters usually tip good. I mean, it's just a totally different world and our reach is so much bigger now with social media.

And I wanna touch back on. So you said when you said, you know, you need to find a mentor. I just now like really within the last two years have learned that there's a difference between coaches, educators, and mentors. Yes. Like I didn't even know. I didn't either and I wish I would've had a mentor too, you know.

Uh, do you have any advice on how to find a good mentor? Like maybe just looking on social media, like I, I know this isn't on our questions, but I'm genuinely curious, like, how did you source a good mentor and how do you know if you need like a mentor or a coach, or do you just need an online education?

Like, do you have any advice on that? So for mentors, the way that I found my first mentor was because she worked in the, the chair next to me. You know, she. She was Oh, handy. Yeah, exactly. Um, she, she works in the same salon as me. We were close in age. We had the same likes and interest, and she really did see like a diamond in the rough kind of thing.

She saw it was rough around the edges and she's like, this girl, let me just take her under my wing. Take her under my wing, let me help her out. So that's kind of how, and that's how we. Kind of became a mentor mentee relationship and we're still friends to this day. I've been knowing this, this girl for, shoot, 15 years now.

Mm-hmm. And so, uh, we're still close friends now. We don't work together anymore, but, you know, we've built a relationship and we've built a bond that it's not gonna ever go away. That's true. Now, how would I suggest that you find a mentor if you don't work with anybody that you think is suitable? Yeah. Yes.

I mean it, I would say, One, see if they're even willing to invest in you. If they don't have the time or they don't even have the, the will to do that, then you need to keep looking, you know, talk to them. Say, Hey, would this be okay? Can I ask you questions? Are you willing to help me out? Um, if you're, do you have, so maybe find them on social media first.

Like, okay, I like what this lady's doing. This is what I'm wanting to do. Send them a DM and say, Hey, you know, I'm fresh outta cosmetology school. This what your business, what you're doing is something I wanna do. Would you be interested in mentoring me if I have questions? Like, is that something you would suggest doing?

Yeah, sure. You can find 'em on social media. Maybe you can find them locally that you know of a hair stylist that's killing it in the salon, 14 blocks from you. You. You like where you're working, but you like her business as well and you want your business to kind of emulate hers. Not to copy, but you want your business to soar.

You wanna get on those, that success frame that she's on. You know, if somebody reached out to me and they're like, Lindsay, hey, I work in Baton Rouge and I know you're in Walker, which is like, 10 miles away, but I really love how you're doing your business. Would, would you be willing to meet with me for coffee?

Would you be willing to kind of help me through some things? I would be one flattered, absolutely. Oh yeah. Flattered that somebody would give me such a compliment like that. And I would love to help somebody grow. See, that's not taking away from my business. It's actually putting more value back into me because I'm helping somebody else.

And then it's like you're stepping into your. I love that. You know what I mean? Yes, yes. But if, but if somebody is, and if you could find someone local, that would be even better. That would be great. Actually. Meet in person. Yes. Yeah. Yes. You can do like meetings and coffee and lunch or whatever. Um, yeah.

But I have found other mentors. I have a mentor, um, with technical things like blonding formulas, hair cutting, and those are all people that I have found on Instagram. My number one person that I always refer people to is, um, Carly Zoni, and she is the Dot blonde Do Chronicle. She has a subscription that I've been a member for for three years, and I found her during Covid when we all were sent home and I decided, you know what, what else am I gonna do for seven weeks?

Let me learn how to do the thing. And through her subscription, I have gained so much confidence and so, Um, knowledge on things that I had been missing for so many years, and now I can come back and say, this girl knows what she's talking about. This girl has helped me build confidence and build my business, and now I can say, You, you need to at least invest.

It's $15 a month. I have a code right now cuz I'm an ambassador to where you can get your first month for $10. So you save a little bit of money there. But I mean, you spend that much money on coffee at Starbucks. Oh yeah. In, in one purchase. And it doesn't make you money. If you invest, can you share with our listeners what your code is?

Uh, for the, for the Blonde Chronicles University. Right. So, right. Um, my code is just Lindsay five, so it's l i n d s e y five. And you enter that in the discounts area when you check out. And you can save $5 a month for the monthly subscription or $5 for the annual subscription. So you'll get it for one 60.

So her. Her education platform is V dot bcu, and I love Carly. She's awesome. And she'll answer your dm. She has over a hundred tutorials on her platform. There's a website as well as an Instagram private page profile. I love that. Um, so what are your visions for the future of your business, um, behind the chair and cosmetology grad school?

So, My first vision would be, my first goal would be to start launching maybe like a mini course, whether it's on the business side of things or on the marketing side of things. I really am passionate about growing your business with marketing, but I also know that sometimes in school you have to actually do the hard things too, and you have to at least be exposed to some of the elements in our business, although they're not super fun and sexy, but it's necessary.

Absolutely. I wanna start taking on the role of being, you know, a mentor for someone, help them through things, and, um, guide them in areas that I felt, I feel that they need a little bit of, you know, work on. And then I also want to, whenever I implement this, I'm gonna have to step back a day, um, behind the chair.

So, mm-hmm. I've been doing it for 18 years. It's definitely taken a toll in my body. Um, I feel. Coming summer, I will scale back and I will go to four days a week. And so I have the availability to take on coaching clients or take on mentoring clients and start working on offering a mini course. Just really start things off.

That is so awesome. I'm so excited for you. Um, the value that you're gonna bring to this community is insurmountable. I really think that there's a huge missing link for this type of thing. I think that you're gonna be very successful. Um, you have a heart of gold and you're cranking out amazing, uh, information.

So I have no doubt that you're gonna do amazing things. Thank you so much. Um, so is there any, like, gimme just a few actionable steps that someone can take, um, you know, when they're fresh outta cosmetology school. Gimme just a few little actionable steps that you think that they should. To start moving forward in their career.

They need to start taking photos of every single client no matter what. Even if it's just a simple haircut. Just take really good photos of their work. They should start taking their photos of their work when they're in school. Agree, because people mean like, I agree. It's no, it's no mystery. We know you're in school and you need to start taking photos so you can post them.

Any platform that you're at. You know, reels are super big right now, so start taking video content. Yeah. And piecing them together. And it's okay if you repurpose your content. It's not a big deal. The biggest influencers and the biggest names in hair repurpose their content. It's still your work. Plus people that followed you 10 months ago maybe not follow you anymore.

Maybe they, you know, you have a brand new. Stream of new clients who haven't scrolled back 10 months. You know, you need to just keep showing your fresh stuff and showing your old stuff so people can be exposed to it. Um, also start an Instagram page for your business, not necessarily for your personal.

Like they, they need to be separate. Start a Facebook having a business. Business. They, yes, they need to be separated. Having a Facebook profile, like business profile again, yes, it needs to be separated. Um, if you're an independent stylist, I know this really doesn't count if you're brand new, but if you decided, you know, I have enough base, I have a big family, I go to church, I have all these people that are gonna come see me, and you wanna go be a booth runner or you wanted to step into a salon suite, Google my.

I think it's now called, just Google Business Profile is really an awesome way for people to find you on Google because Oh yeah. I think that Google and, and Yelp both. Mm-hmm. If you don't, if you are a business owner and you do not have Google or Yelp, even if you're in a commission type business, your business itself can have its own name and you can have a Google Business account within that establi.

And having Google reviews, I have had people, the, the last like 10 clients that have found me, that are new, that are my target market. I do invisible bead extensions, you know, sewing hand tied Wes. And, um, all of them have found me off of Google and they are my target market to a T. Yes. So do not sleep on Google.

Don't sleep on Google. Like it's, yeah, it's, it's. Imperative that you have it right. Especially, um, I don't know about. Types of phones, but the default search engine for an iPhone is Google. So when you go in Safari and you search, you know, keyword like hair stylists near me, hair stylist in the city you live in, uh, Google is gonna show you their product first.

And if you're on Google Business, it's gonna sh you're gonna populate at the top. And the more you. Um, interact with that app, whether it's having people leave reviews and you commenting back on their review, uploading, um, maybe Yeah, posting or on their weekly, just like Instagram posting content important.

It's, it's, it's just another thing to keep on the list of things to do. However, um, it's not as involved as the other platforms, but every time I take pictures, I upload it to my Google business, all the. Yep. And I get so many people that have just said, oh, I found you online. And I'll ask them, well, did you search?

What did you search? How, what product did you find me on? And they'll say, oh, Google. Oh Google. I just searched hairstylist near me. I just searched this. And that's exactly the point, um, of the whole platform. I'm having a website too, I think is, you know, a beautiful website for sure. Yes, having a website definitely helps because it's linked in to all those platforms and, um, they, they click on your website and fall in love with you, and then they follow the path to make an appointment with you.

That was so great. So do you have any, uh, last words for our listeners? Well, let's see. So I just want to. My whole path is, my whole point of this whole movement is to really help hair stylists, whether they're new or whether they're just trying to revive their business. Um, I really wanna help them grow themselves as a person, grow their business, or evolve their business.

Cause that's really where I was. I wanted to grow my business and I wanted to change so many things about my business. Brit had helped me a. Yes. You know, getting education online education really helped me a lot. I really learned who my target market is and how to attract her and what she needed from me as far as how to take care of her hair at home.

Mm-hmm. And, you know, I just feel that I could offer new hair stylists or veteran hair stylists, a lot of, a lot of, um, things that can really help them grow in the areas that I had just said. I just feel that. Can really help also, um, demystify this question. So I have a cosmetology license. Now what? Yes.

Because I feel that these girls and guys who get a license, they're like, okay, that was cool. Now, now what do I do? Yeah. Now what do I do and where do I go? Well, I, like I said, I know I've said this like a hundred times this episode, but I, I really do love what you're doing. There's a huge need for this and you know, I'm just so excited for you.

I really think that people are going to find so much value in your content. Um, so if you are a new stylist or you are a existing stylist, you've been in the business for a while. Lindsay's content is amazing. I you need to go check her out. Um, so where can we find you at if we are wanting to look into your content?

Okay, so I am@cosmetologygradschool.com. That is the website. I'm also on Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest, and they all have the same name, cosmetology grad school. If you care to email me, it's lindsay cosmetology grad school.com. My name is Lindsay, l i n d s e y. Awesome. Well, I enjoyed having you on the show so much today.

It was a real treat for me and I can't wait to listen back and take notes myself. I just wanna thank you for joining us and, um, I, I'm just so thankful that you came on my show today. Thank you so much. I had such a good time and I appreciate you, um, giving me a platform to talk about my, my blog and all the things that I'm doing.

Absolutely. Well, we will, uh, see you guys later and talk to you soon. Thanks a lot, Lindsay. I'll talk to you later. Thank. Thank you for listening in today. If you have a burning question or a topic you want me to cover, leave a review and ask the question in the review. This is the best way to get your questions answered.

Just remember, you are a smart, wealthy stylist and you are capable of anything you set your mind to. I'll catch you later. Don't be a stranger.