Hi, my name is Ann-Marie Christell. I'm a coach for hairstylist that wants to grow their business behind the chair without feeling overwhelmed or working longer hours behind care. I have over 20 years of experience working behind the chair, earning over six figures if you wish to make more money without working longer hours bearing the chair, and bringing spiritual and sustainable principles into your business and life when you are in the right place. In this podcast, I will mix business strategies, marketing tips, personal development, spiritual practices, and sustainable ways of living and working. Welcome to the sustainable hairstylist podcast. Welcome back to the podcast. Again, I'm super excited to be here and share my thoughts and ideas with you. I'm going to talk all about saying goodbye to stress around social media. And I know as a hairstylist, it can be very overwhelming. Because there are so many different things that we need to be good at these days. There's so many different areas in our business that we need to focus on. In order for our business to thrive, we need to be a good photographer, we need to be able to do good video, we need to be our own social media manager, we need to be our own accountant, we need to be our own marketing strategist. Maybe you build your own website, you need to clean the salon, you need to be an expert in the many different services that you offer. And you need to be a barista. And the list goes on and on and on and on. And this is just a fact that we have many different things that we do in our business. And you might be the person that feels that you hate social media. Or you might be the person that really really enjoys it. Or you might be that person that gets struck stuck in the scroll, instead of actually creating a post and putting yourself out there. You might love it, you might hate it, you might be afraid to show up because you don't even know how people will react. What will your friends and family members say? What will your clients say? And to that, I want to say remember who it is that you want to attract in you to your chair. Because I see social media as a tool. I see it as a great thing that we can use in order for us to attract the right type of people into our world. If you are afraid of what your family members will think if you're afraid of what your friends will think if you have a lot of people around you that are a bit Genchi people, and you feel that, and it is something that is in the back of your mind, then I actually want you to actively go in and block them. block them from your social media channels. This seems drastic, I know that this seems drastic. But if you are worried about what people think of you, then blocking them is a way of you shielding yourself. It's a way of you actually removing the judgement. Removing the ideas are what people have. And I'm saying this from my own experience. Because I have people in my life that has sadly, many ideas and judgments towards how I'm showing up on social media, what I talk about and I notice that they are being triggered. And my mother, for instance, sends me text messages saying that I have ugly eyebrows. She sends me messages that I look fat or why didn't you were something else. She never says that, wow, that was something good that you actually said. No, it's always some kind of judgement of how I am showing up. And I know that this is something that she has to work on, it has nothing to do with me, it has nothing to do with what I share, because I'm here to help you and not her with whatever it is that I am putting out into the world. My mother is not my target audience. So I let that go. And at times, I've had blocked her, and at times I have let her see the content. But either way, she's so judgmental. So it doesn't really matter which way I go with her. But if it can help you to show up, blocked the people that are the most judgmental, and the people that you are afraid of what they will see, say. So going back to that I see social media as a tool, I see social media as a tool of market ourselves, to attract the right type of people into our world. And I see social media as building connections, building friendships, building trust with your followers, because it is when you start to build trust, and people start to like you. That's when they feel ready to reach out to you and to actually booked an appointment with you. And if you have a client that comes to you for the very first time, and when they open the door, they're super excited, because they are actually looking at your salon going like oh, this is the way it looks like I thought it would be placed out in a different way, or I thought this and they are super excited to finally meet you for the very first time. And they have so much they want to share with you because they have connected with you. What you have them is a client that is open, you have a client that really really wants you to help them with their hair. And in this way, they are opening up because they already like you and trust you. So the communication there is much much more open in a way because they are so excited to tell you a bunch of different things. I even had clients almost start crying when they meet me for the very first time because they've been connecting with me on social media for many years before it felt ready to get the locks or the hair extensions that they have always dreamed of. When you have a client that is open that trust you. It's so much easier to make them happy, it's so much easier to be able to really transform them not only with their hair, but from the inside and out. And in this way, you will have a client that leaves the salon that will scream all over the world about how amazing the experience have been when they've been to you also they will keep coming back for more and more and more and more. And, you know when you have a walking from the street,
those clients can be kind of awkward. When there is no expectation set up. Do you have no touch point of what is it that maybe you have in common or what is it that they are expecting or what do they know what you can actually create for them? Those clients can take so much energy out of you because you, it's hard to please them. So the more you can actually have these clients that love you beforehand, you will enjoy your time, so much more in this love. So this is why I want you to start to look at social media as a tool to market yourself so that you can actually attract more of these people into your world. Some people see social media as entertainment. And I can say that, I get stuck in the scroll as well. And at times, half an hour, an hour has passed away, I have no idea what I've seen. And I have to gently remind myself over and over again, that I go in, I do the different things that I'm supposed to do, when I am in the different social media accounts. I allow myself a little bit of time to look at inspirations from others, and so on. But I have a time limit on that. So I don't end up in the endless scroll. And at times, when I know I need to focus on something, I actually don't have the phone even in the room with me, or I don't allow myself to have any tabs on a computer open that can actually steal my attention. Because all of these social media chat channels are built up to feed kicks to us. It's a kick, we get like an endorphin kick, that's something that happens in our body. Because we are fed with so much. Usually your social media feed is tailored to what it is that you spend your time on on one and what it is that you enjoy. And they are so good. amazingly, amazingly good at getting us addicted. And feeding these endorphin kicks to us that happens in our body. And that's actually why we spend more and more time and get stuck in the endless scroll. And I want you to be aware that there's nothing wrong with you if you get stuck in it, because these programmes and platforms are made for us to spend more and more time on the platforms because then they can show more ads towards us. And then they make more money. That's their business model. That's why though most of those social media platforms are for free. And the question that I really want you to ask yourself is, what kind of relationship do you feel that you have with social media at this moment? The second question to ask yourself is, what kind of relationship do you want to have with social media in the future? Do you want to have it continue to be the same? Or do you want to shift it? If you are super stressed around social media? Then I also want you to ask yourself, what is it that makes you feel stressed? One thing if you are the person that has notifications on all of your social media accounts, and have that going, so I know some people have a bling sound for every single thing that comes on bling, bling bling. Or maybe you just have a pop up icon on your computer or on your phone. If you are the person that feels stressed around social media, I would want to invite you to actually remove all notifications on all your social media accounts. And I want to look over I want you to look over your computer and your phone, your iPad or whatever it is that you are using and look at how much distractions are you being fed every single minute, and it is interesting because the social media platforms are built up so that we're spending more time on them. The interesting thing Here's that not every single platform is actually showing you the notifications in real time. Some platforms are holding on to the notifications, just so that you go in and check an extra time or another time like, has nothing happened, what is going on, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, because they want you spend time on their platforms. Anytime, let's say you have a plane, or you have a notifications, or your phone is lighting up, I want you to ask yourself, for every single notification, you see on your phone, what happens with you in your body. And if you can, my recommendation is to turn off all notifications on everything, what I do is I have a designated time in the morning, and in the evening, where I go in and checks things. Some days, I'm really, really good at following my schedule. And some days, I'm really not good. I struggle as well. So I'm not saying here that I am perfect. But what helps me is to have no notifications on things. In I actively going with a system. I'm posting this, I'm doing that I'm interacting and responding to comments, and blah, blah, blah, and I have a system of what platform and where to go and like 12345 Because then I have my list. And the more I have 12345 and follow the that list, then I don't fall into overwhelm. And I don't think about Did I miss something? Was there something that went wrong? Do I have to go back and check that if you start to think about all of these things and not follow a list, then you won't be as efficient. And I hear this over and over again, from the hairstylist that I coach is that they get angry with people reaching out to them on the weekend, are reaching out to them on their free time. If you don't have any notifications on your social media platform. You might even know if they are actually reaching out to you on the weekend or the time when you're actually having time off. So I want you to think about what kind of boundaries have you set around social media and how have you set up expectations for your clients to reach out as well. You are the ruler of your world and in what way your clients can reach out to you and what they can expect from you. If you don't respond to things on the weekend, then that should be okay. On most social media platforms, if someone sends you a DM, or someone sends you a Messenger message, you can actually put an auto responder letting people know like Hey, thank you for your message. I usually respond within 24 hours or 48 hours are don't expect me to respond on the weekend or if you don't want them to have any conversation with you on social media platforms refer to your phone or your email or whatever it is the way that you are communicating. But I want you to be okay with you don't have to be there 24/7. Responding, chatting, being there for your people because you are allowed to have your own life as well. You are allowed to be with your family and friends without needing to respond and think that you have to fix people's hair. When they have panic when they are on vacation or whatever it is. That happens.
And I can say I had a situation where a client she was a client slash friend. acquaintance, we hanged out a little bit out side of my salon work as well. But I can tell you that what happened is, it was on a Christmas day, I was spending the day with my family. And I had actually turned my phone off because I wanted to be in the present moment with my family spending Christmas, which I don't see is something wrong with that in the evening. My husband's phones rings. And it's his best friend calling to say that. And Marie has to call, blah, blah, blah, because she has questions about her appointment. And she has to call straightaway. And reminding you this was Christmas day I was spending with my family. And my husband was shocked that this client had reached out to his best friend on social media to call him up to let me know that my hair client is hysterical about her appointment, maybe a week later or something, because I hadn't responded to her messages all day long. It was Christmas Day. And I had my phone turned off. And what I have is that I have a private phone, and I have a salon from the salon phone, I have a pay as you go card in it. When I leave the salon, I actually turn that phone off. And I don't bring it with me home. So my personal phone, there's only a few few few people that have that number that because I'm not that much of a social person that people need to have my personal phone number. So I have set up a boundary there. And I have set up boundaries where my clients can reach out to me and how I have set up emails and messages that I can just copy and paste to put people into the right directions. And I let people know, in every single platform, I'm on that these are my rules. And if you want to be claimed to mine, this is what you get. I can say that the girl trying to reach me on Christmas Day, I fired her because I didn't feel like I want to have that kind of client or friend in my life anymore. Because she really, really need to know something about her appointment one week later and being hysterical about it does not work in my world. So think about how much active Do you want to be. And today our lives are circulated around being on the internet or circulated around social media. More and more and more people expect us to respond quickly. People expect us to be there. And that people can reach us 24/7. And something I have also started to do is actually turn off my phone from a certain amount of time in the evening to a certain amount of time in the morning. So I actually shut it off. Because then the only time I don't do that is when my husband is out touring his musician and he's not with me. But otherwise I turn it off during the night because I don't want to be distracted. I don't want people to be able to reach me and there is nothing that is so important that someone has to call me in the middle of the night and if something happens in the middle of the night, and I miss it that is on me but this is for me to actually create space of not being distracted, over and over and over again. And this is all about removing the stress and creating space. Because we also need to have space for contemplation, to have space for rest, to have space for just being with ourselves. If we don't have space, then you won't figure out what it is that you want out of life. Or what it is that really brings you joy, or what it is that really makes you sad. Because you're not in the present moment, you're not being there for yourself are there for what is going on in your body. If you're fed with a million distractions all over again, and not looking up, you'll you'll miss life. And this is something
I really, really saw. When I spend time in Bali this winter. Because I saw and I was a bit shocked, because me and my husband had been going there for years. And we haven't been there for many, many years. And when we came back, I saw a difference in the people that were there. And the Balinese people, because all of a sudden there was internet everywhere. And people were living through their phones, they were not there looking at the experience they were having they were living through their phones. And that makes me sad. They weren't looking, feeling sensing through their eyes, they were looking through their phone, because it's more important to post and show off this to other people to actually validate that, wow, you're having an amazing vacation, instead of actually sitting there being in the present moment just being and me and my husband actually made a conscious decision of not bringing an extra phone and getting a local SIM card. So the only times people could actually reach us was when we had Wi Fi in the villa that we were living at. Otherwise. If the people that are friends with us wanted to meet up us up, they knew okay, I can only reach them by the here and there. We cannot change the location of where we're meeting them up. Because there is no way of if they have started to work from the house. There's no way of reaching us. And it took a few reminders for them to actually realise Oh, yeah, you don't have data on your phone. Yeah, right. And I actually really, really loved the fact that people could not reach me 24/7 And I'm contemplating on in what way can I live. Even more like that here. I have actually contemplated a lot around how much we are living through the digital world. I have a hate love hate relationship with it. And I noticed that me myself I do struggle with focus. I do struggle with getting distracted. I do struggle with being able to be in the present moment. And this is something that I'm working on every single day. And I am interested in this. So I actually read information and are interested in research that's going around and one of the latest research that is around is that a person that works on a computer. On the offset phase. Normally, we'll be able to work 20 seconds undisturbed, before you get a notification of some kind of 20 seconds until you get distracted. And I've seen this with clients. I've seen this how constantly they are being bombarded with notifications over and over and over and over and over again. Some people have notifications on news, some people have notifications on everything. I want you to question, what kind of impact does the notifications have on you? Because also, some research say that if you're focusing on working on something, and you're being distracted, it actually takes 40 minutes to get into full focus mode again, think about that. Do we really need to pay attention to things all the time? Or we can't? Can we let it go? And put in certain amounts of time where you allow that. So that you can actually live in a more calm, stress full way.
I have some more questions for you her if you feel distracted. Ask yourself, what is it that is pulling attention away from you? And in what way? Does that have an impact on you when you are interacting with your clients? In what way? Does that have an impact on you? On your family time? And in what way does that have an impact on your relationships with your friends? Let's say you're hanging out with your best friend. And your friend is constantly on your phone or their phone not being in the present moment with you. Or you're doing that towards your friend? Then you could rather chat on your phone and not be in the same room? In what way would your relationship be different if you actually allowed, distract free time just being in the present moment with each other? How much deeper will your relationship be. And we live in a world full of distractions. And it's going to be harder and harder and harder to just find the present moment and not listen to the ideas in your head going here and there and over again. Because the more we are teaching our brains to be fed fast, quick kicks and fast keep like information. Then your brain will keep on looking for that kind of stuff. So my question you know for you is, as a hairstylist, if you want to have consistency and build a steady clientele on social media, and using social media as a tool, not a distraction or not as spending your time just being fed with things. How can you start to approach social media from a new perspective? And like what I do is that I show up with my plan, I interact and then I let it go. Is this something that you can do? And the mantra I have, the more I show up and show who I am the more I will actually attract the clients that I do want to have in my chair So my question to you is, again, what days a week? Are you going to use social media as a tool? How many days, days per week? Are you going to go into your social media account? How many days a week? Are you going to post? And how many days a week are going to interact? And how many times per day? Are you going to go in and check these accounts? And if you want to remove stress, can you go in and actually add an automation? That sends a message when instructions? If let's say that you're saying that Sunday's are my time off? I'm not going to respond to anything, then? Can you put an automation in there? So it will like you set up the expectations for your clients? Can you use social media is without getting sucked into it? Also, one thing to also question is to have structure around the content that you actually create? Can you put in a structure to remind yourself of what kind of content that you're going to create? And actually check that off the list? Do you have a designated space in the salon, where you're actually creating content? Do you have room to create content of your clients, because if you make room, things will actually happen. I also do is I do some notes on the clients that I've had in my chair, just so that it's easy for me to actually create a caption around what was so special about the time that we spent together. If you want to learn how to solo show up on social media with ease, I have a gift for you, I have created five, your next five social media posts. This is a guide, where you have a caption, you just need to fill in the blanks. You have an instruction on what kind of photo or video to do together with that caption. So that you can show up on social media with these. It's a mixture of different types of social media posts that will actually help you to attract your dream clients into your chair, grab the free guide at Serene low.com forward slash social, you can find the link in the show notes to get in on the right link. So go over there and sign up for this free five social media posts. So that you can show up with social media already today without having to stress around it. And I want you to go back, maybe listen to this episode again. Because the more you can have an understanding around, what is it that stressing you out around social media, if you don't feel like you have a plan or structure into place, sign up to the free guide. And you can get inspired by me. I also have paid guides that are bigger, that we can also put into soap show notes. We have a 90 day social media guide if you feel like you really want to have help putting this into place so that you can show up with ease. Can you start to think of social media as a tool? Can you start to plan things ahead? scheduling things out, doing it once a week, removing all the distractions and start to use this with the mindset of social media as a tool. It's a way for me to connect with people, the more you can remove the stress, the better. But it starts with you thinking about what is your own relationship with social media? And the question is do you really want to shift it? I want to say thank you for today. I would love to hear some send me a DM on Instagram you can find me at serene flow underscore and I would love to hear what what's your biggest takeaway and if there is Something that stresses you out and you don't know how to get out of there. Send me a document and I can help you and guide you out of that. Don't forget to download the guide. You can find it in the show notes for your next five social media posts. And remember, you hold the key if you want to say goodbye to stress. How can you start to shift the perspective on how you're using it? What kind of distractions are happening, and how can you change that? I want to send you lots of love. Bye for now.
