Thriving Stylist Podcast

When stylists tell me they need to make more money fast, they often add that they're doing everything right and still not seeing results. I have audited a lot of businesses and I can tell you that has never once been true. None of us are doing everything right, myself included.

So this week I'm giving your business a check-up. Recent Thriver Society members have hit $10k months, doubled their revenue, and booked 23 new guest requests in a single month, and none of them did it with discounts or gimmicks. I'm sharing the 5 places I look first when someone wants to see more money in the next 90 days, plus a bonus sixth that most stylists overlook.

Making money as a stylist has become more strategic and this episode is where you start!

All the episodes of After The Last Client are now available! Head over to www.afterthelastclient.com/ to watch the episodes, binge the series, and nominate the guests you want to see featured next season.

Do you have a question for me that you'd like answered in a future episode like this one? A great way to do that is to head over to Apple Podcasts and leave a rating and review with your question. I'm looking forward to answering your question on a future episode on the podcast!

If you're not already following us, @thethrivingstylist, what are you waiting for? This is where I share pro tips every single week, along with winning strategies, testimonials, and amazing breakthroughs from my audience. You're not going to want to miss out on this.

Learn more at: https://thrivingstylist.com/podcast/

Something is happening in our industry right now that I can't stop thinking about. In early October, a TikTok trend started with clients raving about getting their hair done at Ulta, and it caught like wildfire. It has since moved into mainstream media and my DMs have been flooded with it for weeks.

I'm not here to take a side. I looked at what clients are actually saying about why they're leaving independent stylists and salons, what Ulta stylists are saying about their own experience, and what the compensation really looks like. What I found says a lot about where our industry is heading and what it means for the way you market, price and position yourself right now.

This story is still breaking in real time, and I want you to hear the full picture before you decide what it means for YOUR business.

All the episodes of After The Last Client are now available! Head over to www.afterthelastclient.com/ to watch the episodes, binge the series, and nominate the guests you want to see featured next season.

Do you have a question for me that you'd like answered in a future episode like this one? A great way to do that is to head over to Apple Podcasts and leave a rating and review with your question. I'm looking forward to answering your question on a future episode on the podcast!

If you're not already following us, @thethrivingstylist, what are you waiting for? This is where I share pro tips every single week, along with winning strategies, testimonials, and amazing breakthroughs from my audience. You're not going to want to miss out on this.

Learn more at: https://thrivingstylist.com/podcast/

I know insurance is not the most exciting topic I've ever brought to the podcast, but I'm covering it today because I recently learned just how many stylists are either completely uninsured or carrying coverage that wouldn't actually protect them when it matters most.

77% of US small businesses are underinsured, and I'd bet a good chunk of those are in our industry. In this episode, I'm walking through the most common types of insurance for booth renters and salon owners, the more nuanced coverages most people don't even know exist, when it actually makes sense to file a claim and when it doesn't, and the specific gaps that tend to catch people off guard.

This is one of those episodes you won't think you need until you really need it, so listen up and as always, let me know your thoughts on this one!

All the episodes of After The Last Client are now available! Head over to www.afterthelastclient.com/ to watch the episodes, binge the series, and nominate the guests you want to see featured next season.

Do you have a question for me that you'd like answered in a future episode like this one? A great way to do that is to head over to Apple Podcasts and leave a rating and review with your question. I'm looking forward to answering your question on a future episode on the podcast!

If you're not already following us, @thethrivingstylist, what are you waiting for? This is where I share pro tips every single week, along with winning strategies, testimonials, and amazing breakthroughs from my audience. You're not going to want to miss out on this.

Learn more at: https://thrivingstylist.com/podcast/

In the fall of 2026, a wave of Instagram posts flooded the industry with stylists and salons announcing they were going cash-only and ditching credit card payments altogether. It spread fast, it went viral and a lot of US-based stylists started jumping on board without realizing one very important thing: those posts weren't meant for them.

In this episode I'm breaking down what actually triggered this trend, how it applies to Australian businesses and not American ones, and what the real pros and cons of going cash only look like for a US stylist or salon owner. Before you make any changes to how you accept payments, listen to this one first and hear what's really going on!

All the episodes of After The Last Client are now available! Head over to www.afterthelastclient.com/ to watch the episodes, binge the series, and nominate the guests you want to see featured next season.

Do you have a question for me that you'd like answered in a future episode like this one? A great way to do that is to head over to Apple Podcasts and leave a rating and review with your question. I'm looking forward to answering your question on a future episode on the podcast!

If you're not already following us, @thethrivingstylist, what are you waiting for? This is where I share pro tips every single week, along with winning strategies, testimonials, and amazing breakthroughs from my audience. You're not going to want to miss out on this.

Learn more at: https://thrivingstylist.com/podcast/

Back bar fees have been an industry norm for decades, and a lot of salon owners have been running them without ever questioning whether they're legal, fair, or even necessary. I'm bringing this topic to the podcast now because a court case out of Colorado just changed the conversation in a big way.

In this episode I'm breaking down what back bar fees actually are, why they've started collapsing across the industry, what the legal landscape looks like state to state, and what a cleaner, smarter alternative looks like. This one is important for both salon owners and stylists to hear, and I can't wait for you to listen.

All the episodes of After The Last Client are now available! Head over to www.afterthelastclient.com/ to watch the episodes, binge the series, and nominate the guests you want to see featured next season.

Do you have a question for me that you'd like answered in a future episode like this one? A great way to do that is to head over to Apple Podcasts and leave a rating and review with your question. I'm looking forward to answering your question on a future episode on the podcast!

If you're not already following us, @thethrivingstylist, what are you waiting for? This is where I share pro tips every single week, along with winning strategies, testimonials, and amazing breakthroughs from my audience. You're not going to want to miss out on this.

Learn more at: https://thrivingstylist.com/podcast/

Every single day my team and I get flooded with questions: in the DMs, in Apple Podcast reviews, in emails. So today I'm doing something a little different and bringing back a format I haven't used in a couple of years - a listener Q&A!

I pulled 9 of the most recent and most relevant questions submitted across all the places you reach out to us and I'm giving you my honest, unfiltered hot takes on all of them. We're covering salon owners, commission stylists, independent stylists, and some topics that apply across the board.

No deep dives today, just rapid fire real coaching across some of the questions I hear most!

Get up to $200 off Square hardware when you sign up at square.com/go/thriver! #squarepod #sponsored

All the episodes of After The Last Client are now available! Head over to www.afterthelastclient.com/ to watch the episodes, binge the series, and nominate the guests you want to see featured next season.

Do you have a question for me that you'd like answered in a future episode like this one? A great way to do that is to head over to Apple Podcasts and leave a rating and review with your question. I'm looking forward to answering your question on a future episode on the podcast!

If you're not already following us, @thethrivingstylist, what are you waiting for? This is where I share pro tips every single week, along with winning strategies, testimonials, and amazing breakthroughs from my audience. You're not going to want to miss out on this.

Learn more at: https://thrivingstylist.com/podcast/

This is the episode a lot of you wait for all year! Some of you don't even listen to the podcast regularly, but always come back for this one. And I get it, because my track record on these predictions is pretty hard to argue with. Almost a decade in, maybe two misfires across dozens of calls…

Before we get into what I think is coming for 2027, I'm going back through everything I predicted for 2026 and holding myself accountable. Then we get into the 8 (actually nine) predictions I'm making for the year ahead. Some of it is exciting. Some of it is uncomfortable. All of it is backed by data I'm seeing across thousands of salon and stylist businesses right now.

If you want to know where this industry is heading and what it's going to take to stay ahead of it, this is the episode to listen to before the new year begins!

Get up to $200 off Square hardware when you sign up at square.com/go/thriver! #squarepod #sponsored

All the episodes of After The Last Client are now available! Head over to www.afterthelastclient.com/ to watch the episodes, binge the series, and nominate the guests you want to see featured next season.

Do you have a question for me that you'd like answered in a future episode like this one? A great way to do that is to head over to Apple Podcasts and leave a rating and review with your question. I'm looking forward to answering your question on a future episode on the podcast!

If you're not already following us, @thethrivingstylist, what are you waiting for? This is where I share pro tips every single week, along with winning strategies, testimonials, and amazing breakthroughs from my audience. You're not going to want to miss out on this.

Learn more at: https://thrivingstylist.com/podcast/

I know how it sounds when I say you can make 6-figures working three days a week, but I'm not here to sell you a fantasy. Today, I'm here to show you the math, the real case studies, and the specific things these stylists are actually doing differently.

I've spent a lot of time this year deep in the backend of some of the most successful styling businesses I've ever seen. Solo providers clearing $300,000 behind the chair. Stylists working Thursday, Friday, Saturday and taking home well above 6-figures. People who are not double booking, not grinding themselves into the ground, and not charging $600 a haircut to get there.

What they are doing is very specific, very intentional, and very repeatable. In this episode I'm breaking down the math, the commonalities, and exactly what it looks like in practice so you can start building toward it too.

Get up to $200 off Square hardware when you sign up at square.com/go/thriver! #squarepod #sponsored

All the episodes of After The Last Client are now available! Head over to www.afterthelastclient.com/ to watch the episodes, binge the series, and nominate the guests you want to see featured next season.

Do you have a question for me that you'd like answered in a future episode like this one? A great way to do that is to head over to Apple Podcasts and leave a rating and review with your question. I'm looking forward to answering your question on a future episode on the podcast!

If you're not already following us, @thethrivingstylist, what are you waiting for? This is where I share pro tips every single week, along with winning strategies, testimonials, and amazing breakthroughs from my audience. You're not going to want to miss out on this.

Learn more at: https://thrivingstylist.com/podcast/

A business advisor said something to me years ago that completely reframed the way I look at revenue. He told me my biggest blind spot was that I was so focused on the clients I had, I was completely ignoring the ones I was turning away without even realizing it. He was right…and it changed everything!

That's what this episode is about. Not the clients who are leaving, but the ones who would have come, could have come, almost came, and then didn't. Because in 2026, clients are not stopping getting their hair done. They are just getting more particular about where they go and what they'll put up with. And if your business has any of the 7 destroyers I'm covering today, you are losing demand you don't even know you're losing.

Remember, being open and willing to change is the first step in seeing a stronger result!

Get up to $200 off Square hardware when you sign up at square.com/go/thriver! #squarepod #sponsored

All the episodes of After The Last Client are now available! Head over to www.afterthelastclient.com/ to watch the episodes, binge the series, and nominate the guests you want to see featured next season.

Do you have a question for me that you'd like answered in a future episode like this one? A great way to do that is to head over to Apple Podcasts and leave a rating and review with your question. I'm looking forward to answering your question on a future episode on the podcast!

If you're not already following us, @thethrivingstylist, what are you waiting for? This is where I share pro tips every single week, along with winning strategies, testimonials, and amazing breakthroughs from my audience. You're not going to want to miss out on this.

Learn more at: https://thrivingstylist.com/podcast/

I've taken two maternity leaves, recovered from shingles, herniated two discs in my neck, and navigated extended time away for grief. None of those were things I saw coming except for one, and the difference between the leaves I was prepared for and the ones I wasn't was everything.

This is one of the most requested topics I get from stylists and salon owners, and today I'm finally bringing it to the podcast. Whether you're planning a maternity leave, staring down a medical situation, or just a human being who could face an unexpected leave at any point, the systems and strategies I'm sharing in this episode are what's going to protect your clientele and your income when life happens.

A 15% client loss during a leave is normal. Anything more than that is a systems problem, and that's exactly what we're solving today!

Get up to $200 off Square hardware when you sign up at square.com/go/thriver! #squarepod #sponsored

All the episodes of After The Last Client are now available! Head over to www.afterthelastclient.com/ to watch the episodes, binge the series, and nominate the guests you want to see featured next season.

Do you have a question for me that you'd like answered in a future episode like this one? A great way to do that is to head over to Apple Podcasts and leave a rating and review with your question. I'm looking forward to answering your question on a future episode on the podcast!

If you're not already following us, @thethrivingstylist, what are you waiting for? This is where I share pro tips every single week, along with winning strategies, testimonials, and amazing breakthroughs from my audience. You're not going to want to miss out on this.

Learn more at: https://thrivingstylist.com/podcast/