Why Your Clients Aren't Rebooking (And the Simple Fix That Changes Everything)

We are live. All right, ladies and gentlemen, today we're talking about, again, client journey, why clients aren't rebooking. So if you're following on the podcast, you're going like podcast to podcast to podcast. Some of this info might be a little repetitive, but the goal here is to help you guys understand the whole client journey. How do you get them to pre-book? How do you get them to rebook? How do you get your average ticket value up? All of that stuff. So James, what is the actual title today? uh why your clients aren't rebooking and simple fixes that changes everything well i guess we gotta stay on par with that don't we so that is the topic why why should everybody listen to you nick you're not some schmo um well i've been in this industry since 1997 probably a good percentage of you weren't even born yet but i built salons from scratch i grew them i took them over and grew them 10x on what they were doing and i've probably made every mistake possible so you don't have to make them and you can learn from the that i did wrong and not make the same mistakes and go through all the pain and the heartache and this blood sweat and tears and just deal with the annoyingness of being a salon or not having any idea what to do so this is why i do this video so you can learn and you don't have to like just deal with the pain that i went through because that's what i want to do i want to teach but james why don't you rebook james when you get a haircut from a barber why don't i rebook yeah because my barber is your brother-in-law and he's right right across the way and no i meant like in the past in the past yeah they could have you got a bad haircut uh i don't know i went to the same barber for 10 years and then i went to barber in vegas took me a while to find one and i just good when you found one right yeah what was the reason why you didn't go to the other ones again why yeah uh because they charged way too much and for not a great haircut Okay, James is really cheap guys. Yeah, I'm a cheap I'm cheap as fuck but I'm I'm also a researcher to find the best best quality. All right lowest price That's James but quality if you got the best haircut ever and you weren't going bald Would you pay a little more if it was the best haircut consistent every single time you went in there? You had no questions no worries. I should say about it being the best haircut That's why I try to find a good barber. Okay Once I find a good bar, I stick with it. That's great. So I'm glad you brought that up. There's going to be two types of clientele. And so when you guys talk about your rebooking rate and your retention rate, you're going to get people who are just price shopping. And no matter what you do, you are going to never make them happy because you're always looking for the cheaper price and cheaper alternative. Still want a good result. Now, this is kind of going to piggyback off the conversation from yesterday. If you're competing on price. and a lot of people were like well people don't want to pay it's really hard don't compete on price don't ever compete on price position your services to be luxury very expensive and then you eliminate people like james who are price shopping i'm not going to you yeah so if my price 75 for a haircut i'm not going you're not gonna have to worry about that yeah but here's the caveat you have to deliver at least a 75 or better haircut if you're charging that much money Like what is the reason why you're charging that? And for highlights and for extensions, all of that. If you're charging a premium price, you're going to eliminate the people who are price shopping. So right out the gate, if you have your prices on your website or a service menu somewhere with pricing on it, you're going to eliminate these people who are just like looking for a deal. Because if you just stop them coming into your salon, you don't have to worry about your rebooking rate or this type of clientele who's not going to come back the next time. Billy Cots says I was too afraid to say the barbers suck. No, that was not the case. I actually found a barber that I liked in Vegas He was just he was just he was actually good He cut my hair really good, but he was a little bit of a dick and he was a little expensive. Ah, beautiful. All right, there we go I'm gonna take my best off guys. I was like nah, I'm not gonna give you money I'm gonna go somewhere else and I found an awesome awesome barber Juan I'm I miss Juan Juan like Juan in Vegas. He was my favorite bar. He was awesome. All right, so here's your proper good point. So don't hijack my show Jesus So ladies and gentlemen, there are two aspects of being an amazing hairstylist or amazing barber or whoever. And I use this analogy multiple times through multiple lives. Picture a pie chart, right? For those of you who didn't really do well in math, here's a pie chart. It's a circle, right? Kind of like a pie. Split it down the middle. Half of this is personality. Half of this is skill set. like how good you are cutting color and hair everything that pie chart needs to be a hundred percent filled at all times so it's 50 personality 50 skills you're 100 you're going to get people to rebook because they like you and your personality plus you're really good at what you do now if you're new or you're not good at what you do like your 30 skills that personality part of the pie chart needs to be 70 so you're still 100 if that's true then you'll have a decent business people rebook because they like you Now, if you're really a trash hairstylist, it's going to get annoying and they probably might stop coming to you, but at least you've got some time to build your skills up to make up for the lack of skill with your amazing personality. Flip it around a little bit. If you're a little bit of a bitch or you're a little bit of a dick and you're a barber and you kind of like, you think who you are, but you have an amazing service you provide. Like I can deal with you being a little bit annoying because you cut my hair that good, right? 30% personality, 70% skill. then you're going to be busy. You're going to be good, right? You're okay. People will rebook with you. What happens though, when you're 30% personality and you're 30% skill, then 40% of that pie chart is missing. You're never going to be able to build up a big business. You're never going to be able to build a clientele. You're never going to be able to really make a substantial income in this career because you're always chasing new clients who try you for the first time, maybe the second time and never come back. So that's why it's important to both work on your personality and your skillset. Now, if you're 100% skill and you're 100% personality, like you just dominate, you're super likable, you're funny, and you're really good at what you do, like the best in the area, that's when you could charge what you want, become oversubscribed, and people will pre-book, re-book for the whole year for you. That's where you want to get to. Don't think because you're really good at what you do that you don't have to still be a nice person. Like don't let... your skills get to your head and give you an ego and like turn people away you'll still won't make money because you're really good at what you do but so that's how you honestly get really busy behind the chair and you get people to rebook and come back again the problem with a lot of hairstyles is they're lacking one of those areas and they're not completing that pie chart so i want you to ask yourself right now think like hey like my clients come to me one time maybe two times and they don't come back again are you inconsistent Like, are you not consistently giving and delivering the best haircut and best color? Because that's going to reflect on how people come back into your book again. There's a lot of the client journey that you need to address from reaching out to people before they book an appointment to reaching out after the book an appointment to communication in between appointments, how you, how you set your email marketing up. Are you just saying, Hey, come to us for 10% off or 20 offer. We miss you. Or are you delivering really solid advice based on their challenges they have with their hair? or their concerns they have with their skin or whatever the thing is that you do behind the chair in the in the esthetician room communication with your clients post service is just as important to get them to come back to the salon again but a lot of people drop the ball on that like a lot of people just take your money or you just take their money and then that's it you don't talk to them again until six weeks from now and you send the email hey we miss you time for your color again that's annoying you're just asking for stuff and just switch it around give them information when they come into your salon have them fill out an intake form but the intake form should be stupid but like do you box dye your hair it should be questions about their concerns so this way you can curate uh an amazing email strategy to keep them up to date with solutions to the challenges they have with their hair or their skin or whatever service you provide no one does that It's such an easy thing to do, especially with a Shopify store, because you're able to upload a quiz app and then they can fill it out on the iPad or their concerns. And then you pair up not just services and tips, but products to go along with those concerns. So you could share them with them on a regular cadence. So throughout one visit to the next, they're constantly getting updated with great tips and information on how they could keep their skin from getting too dry or too oily. how to get rid of the wrinkles how to keep their hair healthy how to make sure their color lasts how to make sure they're able to keep their style looking great from a monday blowout to a friday happy hour about having to do the hair blow it out in between monday to friday so all of this stuff ties into you making sure your clients come back again and if you thought you were just cutting and coloring hair you're not that's just like the surface layer of what we do as business owners There's so much more to running a successful business than just being good at cutting and coloring hair. Because if that was the only thing that was required of you as a salon owner or a stylist, every person who is really good at cutting and coloring hair would be fully booked and would be a millionaire right now. But that's not the case. You've got people who are down the street who aren't as good as you at any of the services. They charge more than you and they're fully booked. So there's a reason for that. They mastered the marketing game. They mastered communication. They got them to rebook again. How? By maybe being funny with their personality. They have an experience in their salam. They're probably in my program, to be honest with you. And they're reaching out before that first visit. They're reaching out after the first visit. They have a lot of touch points from the time they book an appointment to the time they rebook an appointment. They got a great pre-booking process inside the salam. There's so many facets to becoming a busy, oversubscribed hairstylist that if you're just focusing on your skills, you're missing opportunities to create an experience in your salon or your barbershop or your studio. So there's too many people that are just relying solely on their skills and not the other aspects of this business. So James, we're going to probably launch into some Q&A right now. All right. I got our one o'clock call today. So if you guys have any questions, if you're like dealing with an issue about like why clients don't read book, it's not maybe your haircut. Maybe you're just like, maybe you're a little annoying. Maybe all you do is talk about yourself. I was reading guys, cause Reddit's great for this. Like if you are, I think it's Fox and Jane is a salon in Brooklyn. I was looking at cool things like on, on Google to look up. what people are searching for. And somehow I stumbled upon a Reddit thread that had Fox and Jane in there. And they were talking about a stylist at Fox and Jane. Like people were bashing them. The people saying they were great. And then the people going back and forth, right? And they spoke about a stylist. I forget his name. Maybe Jay, maybe something like that. But if you find it on Reddit, you'll see what I'm looking at. And the client was a first time client. And she's like, my haircut was not that great. It was okay. But I feel like he didn't deliver what I want to deliver. And all he did was talk about his vacation and traveling with his partner. Guys, the service is about the client. Be more interested than interesting. You don't really want to hear about your vacations with your partner, especially the first visit. Speak to them. Get to know them. Make sure you know every detail about their life. Where are they going? When's their anniversary? When's their birthday? They're going on vacation. Where do they work? What do they do? This way you can really provide the best haircut, the best color that aligns with what they do for a living, what they do for hobbies. Do they go to the gym? Do they not go to the gym? There's so much to learn about a person on that first visit. It's not about you. It's about them. And if you make that person feel like they're the most important person in the world while they're sitting in your chair, they're going to rebook, especially if you nail their cut and nail their color. So here's a quick little quote for you. be more interested than interesting. And if you can do that on their visit, when they're in your salon, sitting in your chair, they're going to leave the salon. They're like, wow, like Nick is awesome. Like it just felt so great being around him. And I didn't say really three words, except for ask questions. And like, that's amazing. They got a chance to talk about themselves. And when you talk about yourself, you feel great. So for the hairdresser who needs reassurance about feeling good, stop talking about yourself. Like stop, talk about the client, have them talk about themselves. I promise you they're going to love it. And they're going to think that you're awesome because everyone's waiting for their chance to talk. They're not even listening to what you're saying half the time. So truly be interested. All right, James, you got any questions rolled up? Yeah. Riley Michelle. How do I speak to stylists about their skill as a business owner? Do you suggest every first haircut I give to the best barber? James, ask that again, but not like hooked on phonics. I'm just reading what is being written. Read it to me again, please. How do I, how do I speak to my stylist about their skill as a business owner? Do I suggest every first haircut I give to the best barber? So I'm guessing someone that, that comes in for the first time. Okay. Always give them to the best barber. Yeah. I would tell them, Hey, well, look at their retention rate. I would use, I would use data to, to explain why you're doing things in the salon. Hey guys. We do a lot of advertising and marketing. I don't want to lose a client that we paid for with their advertising by them not having a hundred percent amazing haircut. So Bob, you have a 34% retention rate. That's substandard in our shop. We need to get you into some training here or find out what's going on. I would then sit in Bob's chair, have him cut my hair. I would see what's going on. Like what's he doing wrong? how is he busy banging my head is he putting the comb in my head is he nicking my neck with the razor like what is he doing that people aren't coming back for how is that experience then i would coach him on how to become a better barber your job as an owner isn't to be an employer your job as an as as an owner is to be a mentor so find out what they're doing wrong by either sitting in a chair observing them the one thing i like to do is run tape like i wasn't even big as i hate sports i don't like football at all i think it's stupid but Like what they, what makes people great in, in, in athletics is the fact that they watch film on the game. And so they study the other team study, like study people in the salon. Why is the one barber who's always, what's he doing? Why is he, how could be so fast? How's he cut hair? So great. Film them, watch it, study it. Like I'm sure it'd be cool with it. It's good for content. And then the guy who's not good film him, let him watch himself, see what he was doing differently. Maybe he's going from a zero up to a four, going down from a four to a zero. Like, are there, is the one guy doing something different? And then he can now truly identify what he's doing wrong behind the chair with some visual representation of his skillset. And I think that would help him connect the dots and become better. And then I would tell him until you get your retention rate up to 60, 70, 80%, we can't give you new clients. So you got to form your own. I think that's what you, that's your job as an owner is to be clear and transparent with people. I had to had, I had, I had had a hard conversation with people who were in my salon. We had to take highlights out of their book because they just butchered people. And it wasn't because they weren't good. It was because they were inconsistent because when we went through a breakup, they would just talk about themselves and they would ruin someone's hair. And then we have to go back and fix it again. So how good they were was dependent on their mood. It's up to you to coach your team and mentor your team on how to leave everything outside of the shop. And so when they're working behind the chair, they're a hundred percent. their best version of themselves james next question uh samantha samantha styles oc how far should we be booking how far out should we be booking six weeks eight weeks i never know what to say depends on the service i like booking out for a haircut it depends on the haircut is it a long layered haircut that will grow out pretty effortlessly you've got three months honestly as long as they don't crush your hair with like heat tools but 12 weeks is ideal. If it's hair color, four weeks for a root touch-up, four to six weeks, I would say no more than that because your roots are going to look crazy. And then when it comes to, it just depends on the service, to be honest with you. So what you need to do is have the conversation about them and what's going on in their life. And be like, hey, Barbara, that wedding you're going to is in five weeks. Typically, you go every six weeks. Do you want to get in here? a little earlier so your roots don't look crazy for the wedding. Or you ask them what's going on in their life and then you plan out the next few months based on what's going on in their life with their hair. Because their hair is their best accessory. Like it's their biggest accessory. So if their hair doesn't look good, no outfit they wear is going to look good. So it starts with the hair. So what I would do is I would take their little planner out or get their phone out. Like, all right, you got a couple of weddings coming up. You got this coming up. You got that coming up. The Christmas party at work. Let's figure it out. If we do your hair in regular six weeks, you are going to be eight weeks out or 12 weeks out from this other party. Let's push your next visit out two more weeks. And so this way you have it fresh for the Christmas party. Then you have it fresh for your anniversary. And then when you go on vacation, you're getting a roots on right before. And now you just filled your book with this person for the next couple of months. That's how I do it. It's strategic. Like you're not just booking it every, like every six weeks or every four weeks, take a look at what's going on in their life. So it makes sense for the events they have going on. That's a different caliber hairstylist, different caliber owner. Again, this is why I was able to really have such a great success behind the chair. Cause these are the things that I did. And if you want to learn this and you are in the North New Jersey area or the land Florida area, I have a couple locations up here in New Jersey. So if you're looking for a salon to help support you and really help you build a career, do me a favor, reach out to me. Because there's too many salon owners out there who don't know what the fuck they're doing. And your career is turning to shit and you're getting 40% and you're getting a service charge and you're making no money and you're ready to quit this career and go work as a front desk person at a medispa or go do real estate or go bartend. There's no need for that. you're a hairstylist and you want to get busy and you want to make money and you want to know how to build a real business and like work with me every day, then do me a favor, reach out to me. I'd love to get you on my team. James Diamond Phillips, question. Do you train your front desk to do this or should it always come from the stylist? Love that question. There's something I teach called objective and key results. So when it comes to rebooking, the objective is to get a better rebooking rate. So it's a combination of everybody's communication with that stylist. I'm sorry, with that client. Your stylist needs to be doing it and your front desk has to do it. Think of like a baton pass on a relay race. The stylist now is like, hey, we got to change some appointments around for Barbara. She has a wedding coming up in six weeks. We're going to get her in a little earlier and then push her next one out so she's ready for her vacation. Do me a favor, work with her and get her, just move her schedule around. The stylist gives the information to the front desk. The front desk executes on it. The reason why I like to use the word team in a salon is because we move like a team. Again, I don't like sports, guys. And James, you do, so you can help me if I'm wrong. If the offensive line sucks at what they do and it's the best quarterback in the world, he's going to keep getting sacked. He won't be able to make the plays to get the touchdowns to do what he needs to do to be an efficient quarterback. That was actually a really, really good sports analogy from you. Thanks, James. And so you, as the owner of the salon, guess what you are? The coach. You need to make sure that the persons are in the position, doing their position the right way, so every single player on your team is successful at their particular role. That's where objective and key results come out. So you, as the owner, need to have a dedicated position agreement. for each one of those positions they know exactly what they're doing when they're doing it how it should be done their definition of success you inspect what you expect as the owner and guys this is why working behind the chair is actually hurting you as a business owner it's not giving you more money it's actually taking money away from you because when you're not behind the chair anymore you can now look at the salon how it's running and then you can make these executive decisions based on data and based on what's going on in your salon but you can't see that because you're stuck behind the chair So that's the problem with like being the busiest person in your salon is the owner. You're not an owner. You're a hairstylist who happens to own a salon. You have to change your mindset and your identity to become a salon owner and an entrepreneur who might happen to do hair every now and then. This way, you can implement things like this. So I'm going to be dropping a lot of call to action today. So if you're a salon owner right now and that's you, do me a favor, reach out to me on Instagram because there's a much better way. And you're not really a business owner. You're just a hairstylist who happens to own a salon. If you want to learn how to put systems in place so you can actually grow a team that grows abundance financially and with freedom for you. So you could spend time at your daughter's dance class, at your son's soccer game, at all these life events that you're missing because you're stuck behind the chair. Because if you take a day off, you can't actually make any money in your salon. Trust me, there's a better way. Reach out to me. I'd love to help. Because it's so frustrating to see owners just... miss out on life because you think you're the only person who can make money in your salon. Wow. I'm going on a lot of rants today. James, we got hair extensions by Genesee. Didn't she just join the community? Jesse, welcome. What do you got for us? Uh, as a business owner, should I go live on Instagram? If so, how often and what topics? Okay. I love the question. Don't forget we're going live, uh, on our Thursday call in a half hour. So I'm going to, I'm going to, I'm going to break this question down more in depth for you because you're part of the community, but yes, go live 100% every single day. What I would do if I were you as a business owner, I would go live with my consultations. I would go live while mixing color in the back. I would just go live all the time. Live is where it's going to differentiate from you from the average person because the average person doesn't have the balls to go live. They're too scared. Listen, I get it. It's overwhelming. But the reason why I go live every day is because whether you guys think I'm AI on YouTube or not, it's not AI. it's not pre-recorded there's no edits here i if i make a mistake live i look like an idiot that's why you don't have to make a mistake unlike the other coaches in the world that teach salon stuff they don't really go live because they don't know what they're talking about unless they have a pdf in front of them so as you see there's nothing in front of me i have no computer i might check the time on my phone here and there but this all comes off the experience and the knowledge that i have from actually doing and being in the trenches so You as a hairstylist should go live every day because as you're mixing color back, all right guys, so here I'm mixing this color from this brand and doing this and doing that. And then I'm going to show you guys the, uh, the after in a minute and like clients get engaged with that. I would go get ready with me in the morning. I would talk about as you're doing your color order, go live as you're in the slot. Just stop. Don't waste time while you're in the space. if you're doing your color order or you're doing your order extensions or if you're coloring someone's extensions for them or you're prepping someone's extensions go live explain what you're doing explain the difference between a genius weft and machine weft and and hand tied extensions and the difference between this kind of extension and that kind of extension so take every opportunity you can to go live you're going to get better at speaking too so i'm going to give you a quick tip it's going to help you out a go live every day don't post a live like post it but then what i want you to do is go to your your repost app on instagram copy the link repost the live so you actually take it off of instagram it's like a legit good quality video then archive that live take that live and edit it so that if there's any gems that you dropped during that live you can use that as a real or as content on your regular feed that way you can double dip on your content and you've got multi uses out of your life you can repurpose that live the other thing i want you to do because you're new to the community is this is a free gift for everybody when you're filming you want to get better at filming you film yourself on your phone looking at the camera just go on like a five to ten minute ramp just speak then what i want you to do is you can do it right after or do it the next day put your phone down so you can't see it turn the volume all the way up listen to yourself do you say i'm a lot do you say like you make up words like can you get nervous do you go mama do you like stumble on your words do you speak clear like i'm a very fast speaker so a lot of times I have to slow down because I get excited. But listen to yourself. How many filler words do you have? Do you like make up words? I've, I got people in my world who are trying to make content. And when I do this with them, I do the exercise. I'm like, the fuck is that word? Like you just make shit up. It's even a word. Then what you do is you look at the camera, watch yourself on the video you just made, lower the volume, no volume. And you watch. your mannerism your facial gestures your tics that you have do you move your hands a lot do you cover your mouth when you talk like do you do certain things that you kind of look a little ridiculous on camera or do you look confident do you know what you're saying that's part two now part three is print out your transcript so what i mean by that is like extract the words that you said in the video for those you don't know what a transcript is you go to dscript you can go to notebook lm A lot of places you got to do cap cut cap cut is one of them. Uh, so what you do now is read it. You print it out and you read and you cross off all the filler words and then you look at, Hey, does this make any sense? Did I just ramble on? How could I, how can I be better with my articulation and word choice for this length of time? And then you're going to become a really good speaker and, but you need to put the reps in. So by you going live all the time, you just put more reps in. I don't know if you guys know this or not, but I don't like public speaking. I hate public speaking. Makes me really nervous. Like I hate doing it. Like my first couple of lives, I was petrified. I just don't like doing it. It was to the point where I couldn't even speak to my team as an owner of a salon. I would get nervous before meetings. I know that might sound crazy to some people because some people just speak really well. And then I'm always doing these kinds of lives, but it really takes a lot. It took a lot for me to start doing this for if you're thinking right now, like, I don't know if I can do it. Like I'm not good at speaking. Neither was I, but guess what? I dealt with my friends making fun of me. I dealt with me making fun of myself. I dealt with me looking stupid on camera, but the beauty of it is in the beginning, nobody's watching. So the last thing you want to happen is you do one really good video, you go viral. And then all of a sudden everyone's watching you because now you have a hundred thousand followers. So put the reps in now before that happens. All right, James, next question. We got, um, Jennifer Oakley, my clients are mostly older women and they hate being pressured. Any softer language that works? What was that question? My clients are mostly older women and they hate being pressured. Any softer language that works? I'm guessing that's to do with pre-booking. Oh, yeah. Exactly how I explained it. Make it about them. I think I spoke about this yesterday. Hey, Barbara, your anniversary is coming up, right? Are you guys going to dinner? When are you guys going? Friday or Saturday? All right, typically your roots are grown out in like four to six weeks. You come back every like eight, but you want your hair to look good for the anniversary dinner? And then what are you guys doing when you go on vacation? And just have a casual conversation about their life and then position their hair appointments around the things that are important to them so they look good. And do it at a time when their hair looks really good. They're looking in the mirror, like, wow, my hair looks fucking amazing. Like, I want to always look like this. And then when you do their hair, here's another good reason why. Hey, you have this anniversary coming up with this dinner or this event. Do you want to style your hair a little bit like we would do it for the event? You want to see what it would look like for your son's wedding? You could just do it right now. And so you style their hair a little differently, unless it's like an updo or something crazy for the wedding, but it could be a Christmas party, it could be an anniversary, whatever the event is. Do their hair a little different that day. So they feel like, oh my God, I want to look like this for that event. Guys, this isn't rocket science. This is like. I used to do, but yeah, use the language you need to. If you want a good book, read the book called the five love languages. It works for just more than relationships. That's a really good book. James, um, Balayage queen, ATL. Do you offer any incentives for, for rebooking or is that a bad habit to start? No, your incentive to rebook is you can get your appointment with me. If you don't, you have to wait two or three months to get an appointment with me. So this is why it's important. to always be oversubscribed. I love using that word, but if no one can get in with you, they're going to be pissed that their hair looks like shit. So that's what happened. Like I was always available for my clients. I always, like I was like, I'll come in at five o'clock. I'll come in at two o'clock. I came in at three o'clock in the morning for somebody before. I just do a lot of crazy stuff, but then it got to the point where I was so busy, right? Now I had a little more leverage because I didn't need to do that as much anymore, even though I still did it a lot of times. The problem was I would get everybody in all the time and squeeze them in. I would be so busy. I had to say no to people. Then they had to push off their appointment. Then they thought only I can do their hair a certain way. Then what began to happen was that they would get in with me two weeks later, dealt with their hair looking crazy because they wouldn't go anywhere else because they knew I was the best at what I did. So when they came in, they're like, hey, let me book my next two appointments now. Does a dentist give you anything for rebooking your next cleaning? No. Maybe a sticker. You might get a sticker. It's just the language. Yeah. So if you make it so hard to get in with you because you are so busy, because you are so good, it's just a no-brainer. They have to do it. We have stylist angel tip. As an owner of a salon, do you feel printed data works to encourage your stylist, letting them physically see where they can do better? Only if you tie it to their goal. Printed data probably would be better. I love the fact that you even brought that up. A lot of times you just tell them what their numbers are, give them something tangible. But what I would do for that is print out your data and I would have their goals. When I onboard people, I want to know what's important to them. What experiences you want to have in life? Like, what do they want on this career? They want a new house, a new car, pay off, whatever the thing is, right? Then I'd be like, hey, if you were to increase your retention rate by X and then we increase your prices by Y, When you add these up, you're going to make an extra this amount of money. So I'll give them the data on that written and your new car you wanted is this much. You would be able to buy that car or have a down payment for the house if you repeated this three months in a row. So I would tie the success of them following through on all the KPIs or however you want to measure stuff in your salon with a goal that's important to them, something tangible. This way, it's not just some number that makes you more rich as the owner. It's like something that, oh shit, I'm only like two months away from my new car or two months away from moving on my parents' house or two months away from paying off my debt. And so you want to make sure you truly know what's important to that person and then position the data that they have in their hand with the goal. So when they flip that sheet over, if they hit all their marks, then guess what? There's a picture of the Rolls Royce they want or the new house they want or the zero amount on their... on their Amex. That's what I would do. They're actually gold, by the way. We have XX Westwood. The salon I work at plans to close the first week of January. Wouldn't that week be ideal to promote the New Year New Me or offer some type of discount? I don't like discounts. However, I'm going to show you guys something. If you're listening on the podcast, you're going to be beat because you can't see this, but if you're on YouTube, you're going to be able to watch this in a second. I teach. This is one of my favorite lessons to teach in my community. So this is an envelope. It says no peeking. Winner in every envelope. Prizes include $5, $75 off your next visit, free blowout, conditioning treatment, a bunch of other stuff. Grand prize. This one says $500. $1,000 hair transformation or $1,000 makeover. This has to be open in the salon in front of your stylist. This has a... um expiration date it's only valid through january 15th or february 1st get in front of my camera or my mic there's a um there's fun things you put in there you put uh tickets to like a free appetizer at a restaurant down the street you collaborate with you can put scratch-offs in there where they get fun little prizes and that's in your salon it could be a free blow dryer you can mix and match whatever it is i have a amazing lesson where i teach that to increase your retention rate and increase people coming back to the salon it literally like my one of my best clients in my in my program danielle shot that you know she always listens always takes notes always executes she's crushing it with this right now like clients that were taking three four months five months between visits were coming back in six weeks so that's what you should do do that tell your owner to join my program so this way you get that done all right next one james we have oh no discount so ulterior salon lamont how are you managing your marriage with working that much because it's starting to cause problems with my wife she's a stay-at-home mom of three all right well your wife has to understand if you're a business owner you got to go out there and hunt she hurt like there's roles in life her job is to take care of the kids and stay at home with the kids your job is to provide an income it's just sorry it's that's the card the cards were dealt what you should do is take a look at your calendar and then with your wife, sit down and fill in all the important dates that are important to her and you. Block all family time at a certain time because I have family time six to eight o'clock at night no matter what or six to ten really and I go to bed. But then anything that we have in our life that's important for both of us is scheduled in my calendar. Now I work a lot. My wife probably doesn't want me home anyway because I probably messed the house up too much for her. I'm in her way. We have specific goals for our family. Those goals can only happen if I'm out there working. So yeah, she gets frustrated sometimes, but then I'm like, Hey, do you want a bigger house? Okay. Shut up. Hey, did you see the truck that's in the driveway? Okay. That's not a $20,000 truck. It's $120,000 truck. It's like these things don't just happen out of thin air. So obviously I have a better form of communication than what I just said you to do right now. But to get back to the exercise, go on your calendar, fill out all the important dates, put a date night in there. Make sure you're doing things that make her feel like you care because her love language might be your presence. And if that's what it sounds like it is, then make sure you're more present. If you're home, be home. Don't have your mind at work. And if you're at work, don't be guilty because you're at work because you're not spending time with your wife and your kids. So when you're at work, be at work when you're at home be at home block off your calendar so no matter what you like you know exactly what you're doing with your wife when with the kids when then all the other space you could be working at because you feel you fulfilled your obligation of being a father and being a husband that's one of the exercises i do with a lot of my busy moms all right james next one uh hair by jessica marie okay what do you do when they uh when uh what do you say when they hit you with i don't know my schedule that far out because i get that all the time Oh, perfect. So it's probably clear. So let's put it in. That way you can work around your hair. But if they don't know their schedule that far out, then you didn't do the proper questioning beforehand about what events they have. So, Barbara, like what do you have going on? What's going on for the spring? Have any weddings coming up? Just small talk, having them talk about themselves. Remember, be more interested than interesting. Then when they tell you that they have these events coming up, now you know their schedule because they just told you. So you don't have to deal with that bullshit answer. Like, I don't know what's going on, but you let them know also, Hey, let's do your hair around this, these events that you have going on. If they have nothing going on, then don't pre-book them for anything. Just do the standard rebooking. Like, Hey, your hair grows out in this many weeks. Let's get you in then. And honestly, they have an iPhone or some kind of a smartphone that should have their calendar in it. And if they don't big, Hey, well, let's just lock it in now. Cause I know I'm going to get busy. I don't want to work. I don't want you to have to wait any longer than you should. so let's lock in the appointment now let's get you in if they change it no problem we could change it but at least you're in uh xx westwood nick what's your love language um my love language i would say like money would be my love language but also i like um terms of endearment encouragement i like i like to be told i'm doing a good job that's probably my first language than money Because I could go on without making money as long as I'm being told, hey, you're doing a good job. And I know the payoff is going to happen at the end. Because we're in the service industry, right? We get instant gratification for being a really good hairstylist. It's like you do someone's hair, they look in the mirror, and they love their hair. That's like a dopamine hit. And I don't have that because I don't do hair anymore. And so that's not the way my wife speaks. Because I'll ask her for something. She's like, why did I tell you that? like that's you you know you're doing a good job what the i want to hear from you right that's not her language so as long as you know that that's not the person's language and you're you're privy to the information in that book then you know like that person speaks in this language so hers is like literally she's like supermom she makes sure the house is clean she and she works too like i don't lift the finger a lot of times even though i'm not saying that to be like chauvinistic it's like she doesn't give me an opportunity to right well you yelled at for trying but she also like when i clean the garage and do like i like to hire people for that kind of stuff one day i remember i cleaned the garage and like i took everything out air blew all the dust and like the shade on the garage was like for after winter and spring organized the shelves like it was like dialed in and uh she went to like pilates in the morning or did i don't know how she was doing but she came home and she was like the happiest she could ever been because that's what she does i did something she enjoys because she shows her love to me in that way that when i did it she felt like i was paying attention to her and this also works for your team in the salon as well so it's so important you learn your your teams i call it leadership languages if you want a copy of that uh pdf that i created or that ebook let me know i'll send it over to you uh courtney ray what do you do when a client read books but then reschedules like four times is it last minute rescheduling if it's not then don't worry about it. If you could, like, that's the whole point of them. It is what it is. If they don't show up though, like if they no show a couple of times, like four times, then what I do is they prepay for the appointment. If they no show, it's a wash. They don't get it. They got to prepare for the next one again. It sucks, but I mean, Hey, I can't keep blocking all my time for you, but as long as they're ahead of their schedule and they, they change things around. It doesn't bother me because I have clients do that. Like they would come in, they would do the whole year. Then the next visit, they will come and change three things around. Then they will call up and change two more things around. I don't really give a shit. That's why you have a front desk. Let them do what they got to do. And if it's you personally, if there's a way for your booking software to help them do that, they'll do that. But it doesn't bother me, honestly, unless it's like causing an issue where it's last minute, then let them know like, hey, we can only book two or three out or just book the next visit every time. A lot of people are in the chat. They said they want the PDF. When this closes down, we don't know who wants it. So if you want the PDF, make sure you shoot Nick a DM. Say leadership. Call it up 5L. When you go to Instagram, be like, hey, hit me with the 5L. And that's my shortcut to send it out. So then James can send it out too because I'll put it in there. Because that's what he's going to do. Hey, can you send this to everybody? I have a whole lesson on that inside the community. So if you really want to learn how to communicate with your team properly and show up as a leader that your salon needs you to show up as, then shoot me another DM. Like, hey, I got to join the Love Up Academy and really help me transform into the entrepreneur I know my business needs. All right, James, fire one more at me. We got to go. We have, how do you handle it when they say yes, but then ghost when the reminder comes? Are you for rebooking? Yeah. Some people just, they get bombarded with like, do they show up to the appointment first off? Like if people don't say yes to the reminders, it's fine. I don't care. That's fine. As long as they show up to the appointment, they just hit them up and call back. Hey, you're definitely coming, right? Or text them like, Hey, this is actually Nick. Like you're still coming, right? Or I know you didn't say yes. Just have the conversation with them to be like, if you need to cancel, just call. I don't care if you say yes or no. To me, it doesn't bother me. what happens if they know no show if they no show then you charge them for the no show fee and if i don't like doing no show fees but i do like to do like i said before if you no show the next time you book an appointment you need to leave a hundred percent deposit for what we think that service will be so if you no show again you lose that deposit and you have to prepay for your next appointment again i literally had a girl do this like four times to me And on the fifth time, I just don't even book an appointment. I don't want to take your money. I refunded her the last money, like the last time she paid, but I don't even want your money. Just don't book with me. Just tell people not to book with you. It's so like, don't come to my salon anymore. Go book with the stylist you don't like. Tell them to go down the street. But yeah, I would have them prepare for the appointment because now they already paid for it. It's a much different feeling when you prepay for something and you don't show up than when you have like the cancellation fee or the no-show fee because you could just kind of like it it's just different like oh i could i could just save my telecredical company no like you pre-pay for the appointment so to me psychology is different on it i don't know how to articulate it the right way james i'm gonna give one more question because that answer sucked uh we have uh i'm a barber and a lot of my clients are walk-ins is this realistic for barbers or is it really only salons love the question my old partner was a was a barber and he used to do the same like people just walk in and they would sit down him and his dad were both barbers and i would try and get a haircut on like a regular day and it was lined up like people all day long and he was exhausted he had no idea when he was gonna be done and it was just he had no schedule right he used to come in late anyway so it didn't really matter like he was really terrible with time. Gave a real fast haircut, good at cutting men's hair. I was like, dude, why don't you have them book appointments? No, no, no. Because his dad, then eventually he was like, he booked appointments. And guess what? He had a real schedule. It works in barbershops to make a long story short. My brother-in-law's a barber. That's how he does it. I work with a lot of barbers in the community. That's how they do it. Trust me, it will change your life. Because then your clients know they don't have to sit and wait. The clients will be happier. 12 o'clock. Get Booksy. Booksy is a book for anyone, really, but Booksy is a really simple platform. You get book online. A lot of barbers use it. It's worth the money because you know your schedule. And then you know when you're going out of work. Because the thing that sucks is you have 15 people and it's 5 o'clock on a Friday or Saturday, but you have dinner plans. It's frustrating. It's better for everybody. and it works in barbershop i would go to a barber and if there was a line i'd i'd leave i'd turn around and leave i'd be like i'll come back another day so i'm not waiting that long all right ladies and gentlemen so if you guys are following on youtube make sure you click follow or subscribe if you're on facebook same deal instagram make sure you're following or if you're on one of the other platforms watching right now and you're listening to podcasts just go to instagram it's the best place to reach me leave me a message say hey nick uh i'm doing almost a million dollars a year in my salon and i want to do over a million Can you help me? I'm going to say yes. We're going to get you enrolled in the program and you're going to dominate 2026. But guys, if there are any topics you want to see me speak about on these lives, do me a favor and let me know. Don't struggle on your own. There is a better way. Stop taking advice from people who don't own hair salons. Stop filling out workbooks that are 55 pages that aren't going to get you any more success than you have right now. There's a much better way to run your salon, much better way to become an owner and a leader. Change your identity. Remember, you're not an owner. Sorry, you're not a hairstylist that owns a salon. you're an owner who might do hair like really change psychology about how you treat this as an owner and if you're a hairstylist take ownership of your book if you're a barber same deal think of yourself as an owner of your business because you do this is your career in today's day and age with social media and online booking like you literally could have such abundance in your life from not just money but freedom of your time Like if you are a busy hairstylist, you don't need to own a salon to make money. You can make a lot of money behind the chair, same as a barber. Then if you don't want to own a salon, invest your money. Buy a laundromat, buy some rental property, let that money start working for you. Then you could cut down to three days a week to make this, this is play money. And that's all your assets are all your investment money. There's a much better way to organize your life around the dreams that you want to have. And if no one's talking to you about these, about this stuff, then do me a favor, reach out to me and I'll get you into the community so you can actually. Become an entrepreneur. All right, ladies and gentlemen, I'll see you on tomorrow's live. James, we're out. Everyone, thank you for watching and thank you for listening. If you're in the community, we'll see you over there in 10 minutes.

Most salon owners and stylists are bleeding money at the checkout counter without even realizing it. That client who "needs to check their schedule" and walks out the door? There's a 70% chance they're not coming back for 6+ months, or ever.

Today at 12 PM EST, I'm breaking down the exact rebooking system that gets 95% of clients to schedule their next appointment before they leave your chair. No awkward sales pitches. No pushy scripts. Just a simple framework that makes rebooking the natural next step.

If your books have gaps, your retention is inconsistent, or you're tired of chasing clients down for appointments, this one's for you.

🔴 LIVE at 12 PM EST