Making Your own Path with Permanent Makeup Artist Carrie Hunt & her Signature Blended Brow Technique
Mary Harcourt
This episode features Carrie Hunt on the Ready.Set.Glo! Podcast 💫
Carrie Hunt is a wife, mama of three, artist, trainer, and business coach. Carrie has spent the last decade perfecting her signature techniques and helping women all over the world feel confident and beautiful. She is the founder and CEO of Stella’s Room, located in Roanoke, Texas.
Her obsession with creating the most natural looking healed results led to developing her Signature Blended Brow Technique.
Carrie’s passion for helping others has resulted in over 8,000 permanent makeup procedures on clients all over the world.
Since then, She began sharing her technique with other passionate artists, training hundreds of permanent makeup artists worldwide.
Her mission is making an impact on her clients heart by restoring their confidence, while helping other passionate artists build a business and a life they adore.
Tune in as we talk about:
How Carrie pioneered permanent makeup
Creating her Signature Brow Technique
The importance of setting the scene up for success
Making Your own Path with Permanent Makeup Artist Carrie Hunt & her Signature Blended Brow Technique
Collapsible content
Transcript
Mary Harcourt 0:05 Hi and welcome to Ready Set glow, a podcast where I interview entrepreneurs, brands and idealist, people and the stories behind it all. Discover what it took to get started, lessons learned along the way, and the advice they have for you starting on your own journey. So join me and my guests as we talk about all things business, beauty and brands. I'm your host, Mary Harcourt of Cosmo glow as we discover the stories behind the names.
Today I am chatting to the beautiful Carrie Hunt. She's a rockstar permanent makeup artists, business owner, educator, and entrepreneur. She got her start in permanent makeup before PMU was really even common knowledge hints she felt the pain of not having readily available education. She chose to do something about it and now offers online and in person classes. Carrie and I are going to talk about how beneficial education is to those looking to advance their careers. And we talked about the real life side of owning a business roller coaster it can be and where she's at these days in her career. She hosts an amazing podcast called Six Figure beauty boss, which aligns her passion for educating and helping others with her experiences in the beauty industry. Enjoy the magnetic energy of Carrie. Carrie, welcome to the show. Tell us who you are and what you're all about.
carrie hunt 1:40 My name is Carrie hunt. And I'm a mom of three kids. I'm a wife, doing permanent makeup for almost 11 years, I've been a trainer for six years, I have four sisters. So lots of girls and no boys like I've always loved doing makeup and I was the go to girl with all the girls like doing their makeup and playing with their eyebrows and doing all this stuff. So I should have just went into the beauty industry. But all of my sisters went into cosmetology and I'm very rebel spirited. So I was like, Well, I'm not going to do that. And so I was a nurse for a while before I had my daughter, I decided that I was going to be a stay at home mom. And I was terrible at it. I mean, I was so bored. Like, this is the hardest job ever, like I need something else to do. But at the time, because it was so long ago, you couldn't find any information regarding new styles of it, it was all very outdated. And it was really hard to find good mentors, because everybody was so far. And it was so foreign to the United States. So there was really just one other person in Beverly Hills, and then one in like New York and one in Miami. And then I in our Southern, you know, region, like there was no nobody. So that is how I got really, really busy really fast, because I didn't see real market research. And that's kind of how I started into it. So I feel like we kind of married my passion for beauty with the medical industry. And we just kind of like marry the two my sisters and I and it was a lot of fun.
Mary Harcourt 3:25 Well, I find that so many people are nurses and have that passion for nurturing people helping people the medical background, and then just get a little tired of that environment and switch over. It's a story here over and over and over again. And something with a permanent makeup. It's so great, because you do already know all of the health side and the sterilization side. And it's like a natural progression. I think
carrie hunt 3:51 it is I feel like it's a natural progression. And one that I feel like I wish I would have picked up on like when I was so much younger because I didn't start this business. So I was 30 So I always am like imagine if I did that when I was 20 You
Mary Harcourt 4:06 make it sound like 30 Is that bad? Like that's great. You're finally at a point in your life where you're ready to start a business
carrie hunt 4:13 I guess because I feel like I flailed around a lot you know, I tried everything we didn't have a whole lot whenever I grew up I didn't really realize it but I never would have asked to you know do an art class or do anything that I thought would have put any financial strain on our on our family so I just never got to hone in on any thing like that. So you know how waiting tables I worked at an airport Daveed at 14 I've done everything you could think of and everything I would do like I would love it and then I would be like well you know after about a year like this isn't really for me like that was like my Trend forever. So My poor husband whenever I was like well I don't think I'm going to nurse any you know anymore. He was probably like you Here we go. But here
Mary Harcourt 5:01 you are looking at how awesome of a career it's led you to and how many lives you've changed and how many eyebrows you've changed. And now you're offering your own training, correct?
carrie hunt 5:11 Yes, I've been a trainer for six years, I never thought I could be a teacher I never wanted to teach. But I kept getting so many messages because Texas was really lacking for teachers and trainers. And there was just really nobody and online training wasn't a thing. So people just kept begging and asking me and so I just finally decided, like, Hey, let me take, like the knowledge that I have and put this on paper. And then I'm just going to walk them through what I do every single day, which is how you develop, you know, your signature methods and stuff. That's really all I did. And then over the years, I would add on to that manual and get more detailed and change, you know, as everything changed in progress, and everything's changed in our industry so much. And that's really it, I really didn't think I would like teaching. My mom was like, just try it once. And if you don't like it, you never have to do it again. And I absolutely loved it. I feel like that's where my heart is. But I do love making my clients feel really confident.
Mary Harcourt 6:12 Absolutely. Well talk to me about this. What's your training? Like? Do you do group settings? Do you do one on one? Is it one day to day, like, how does that work?
carrie hunt 6:21 So I have lots of different options, I have a five day training, if somebody's really like wanting to make that investment, in kind of like really get extra models and stuff in. That's how I started. But then I had a lot of people having a hard time with getting that much time off of work, or being able to be away from their children that long. So then I kind of shortened it. And then four days still felt kind of long. So my, I feel like my most popular one is three days. And those three days, we really work on all the techniques like hair stroke shading, I kind of teach them all of it, and they get a live model, they get support, they just become part of our family. I feel like that's what I love about it. But I took it a step further this last year and created an online training. That way we can prepare them before they get here. So we actually get a full like day and a half back to really hone in on their skills. So we don't feel like shortening would make them learn any less. So we can give them access to all of the videos. And it can be really overwhelming. I feel like because it's a lot of information. And they're so nervous because they're going to be tattooing somebody's face. So I feel like there's the fear factor. So I feel like they can forget a lot or, you know, it's just a lot of nerves. So I feel like it's nice for them to be able to go back and watch the videos and hear the modules again. And kind of like when they're really, you know, getting prepared for their first client, they can go like, Listen again. So I kind of hit it on all parts. We have one on one training, we have group training, and then we have online training and we have hybrid training. You do hit
Mary Harcourt 8:00 it on all of them. I love it. That's great. So I love in yours. I feel like I didn't even know about permanent makeup until six years ago, that seems like such a veteran for me. What do you feel like has changed since the time that you started to where we're at now?
carrie hunt 8:16 Everything, everything. It's so funny, because every I don't see my clients, but every two years probably. So when they come back, they're always like, what, wow, this, you know, this is so different, or, you know, every year it's up leveling so much because it's so much popular, you know, more popular, and like, I guess it's not so taboo anymore. Like people didn't want to have a tattoo or you know, do anything like that. And it was so ugly back in the day. I feel like we had to work a little bit harder at first, like convincing people especially when we switched to from a blade to machine they kind of got nervous again because they were thinking of it the way that it used to be. So it took convincing, but it Everything's changed. Machines are changing and kind of catching pigments are saying like really true to color. Now, they're pre modified, the namings are way better. Like just everything every single year is so different. The clients can feel it, you know, they're like, Wow, this your machine isn't as loud and scary anymore. Or they'll just say stuff like that, you know, every single year like, still like everything gets better,
Mary Harcourt 9:30 or Yeah, I got it done recently, about six months ago. And then we started with a blade it didn't take and went back and got the machine at first and like oh my god, oh my god. Oh my god. Oh my god. Oh my god. But now I love it. I'm so glad we did it. It's amazing. And I feel like I'm glad I'm thankful I waited a little bit longer. I feel like I'm late to the game. In those terms of permanent makeup. Do you feel like it's just now starting to pop or is it huge and it's gonna get bigger? Do you feel like it's true? really still undiscovered? Like, where do you feel is the temperature gauge on that?
carrie hunt 10:04 Man, I feel like it's just peeking. Like, I feel like it's just getting started. Like we've made all those errors back in the day, I was a microblade ER for four years. So that's all that I did besides eyeliner and lips, of course, I used a machine. But I was just so unhappy with the way that my clients were coming back. I felt very much like an imposter. I felt like people were really excited when they came in, because they were seeing our beautiful photos from social media. But when they were coming back for their follow up, they had a whole new vibe. Like they were kind of looking at you from across the room like about to tell you about how I feel, you know, like, it didn't take very well, they spent all this money. And it really started getting to me like in a way where I was like, I don't think I could keep doing this anymore, because it just feels like I'm taking their money and making false promises that I felt kind of slimy or something about it. Even though that wasn't my intentions at all. So I had a client one day, and this is probably not, I wouldn't recommend this. But I already had a machine for eyeliner and lip. And this is before people were using a machine. And I said, Can I try something because it wasn't taking on her skin. She was the nicest sweetest person. I loved her so much. She was coming in like every like four or five months, nothing was there it was creating scar tissue. And I just felt so bad, you know, and she was so nice about it. It never made sense to me, in my mind to use a blade when we were using a machine with a even smaller needle for eyeliner and lips. And I'm like if you can use this on as thin as lips are and eyelids are and like, surely we can do this on eyebrows. And so she said, Sure. What's the worst that can happen? That's what she said. And I was like, well, and so we did it. I did the exact same thing I was doing with a blade, I used a single point needle in my machine, and I just did it like how I thought you should do it. I had no training on that didn't know what I was doing. But the amazing part was it was night and day like she didn't feel any pain. She was like, wow, this is so much better. And the color was very true to color. It was just how she was wanting it. And that was my aha moment. Like, uh huh, I have to do something different. You know, I can't keep doing this. And at the time, I had five girls working for me, we all I had taught all of them how to microblade. And I told her, okay, we're not Microblading anymore. And two sisters worked for me. They were like, how about you just do that. And then we'll keep doing because it's way harder with a machine because you have movement, vibration, you have all these good, the needles much, you know, smaller. So there's all these different things that they weren't having to deal with before. So they were just scared to death. But I did seek out a trainer that actually did that. And it was very hard to find somebody I found one lady, and she was from Dublin, Ireland. And she offered the technique that I was, you know, wanting to do. And I reached out to her and she was coming to Florida to another artists studio that I knew. And so I went and met her and she trained me and she tweaked it all for me. She just said carry like don't lean it like this and you know, move your hand slower and you're gonna have to change your aftercare and she really did those tweaks for me that really helped. And then I came back showed all my girls and rest is history.
Mary Harcourt 13:48 Wow. I mean, it really does help when you have a professional, show you how to hold your hand like such a small movement makes such a big difference. And that's amazing. You're able to make that change. So is this how you've created your signature blended brow technique?
carrie hunt 14:04 Yes, this is how I created by segments your technique. So the trainer that I used from Dublin, her name is Monica Vani. I'm sure a lot of people will know her that listen to this. She's an angel. I love her so much. And she taught me how to do the hair shoots at the machine. And then I added in some shading and some more depth in there and created my signature blended brows what we called it because at the time there was no nano brow or Andre Rao there was nothing online at that time that anybody wouldn't realize that it wasn't Microblading I wanted to name it something different for marketing purposes so people would actually know it was different. And one thing that I did was I went on a Facebook Live when I when we really wanted to go full force with it. I did a face a random like Facebook Live and I think I titled it. I titled it i Have you ever had Microblading and it didn't work for you. And then I put like, even if it was with me, and so I had so many people call that day because I was like explaining it to him, I was telling him microvilli, it's not Microblading, that's bad. Microblading is good. It's just Microblading is only efficient for very like, flawless skin, young scan, no visible pores, or acne or mature skin. And that just wasn't my clientele at all. I had a more mature clientele, I didn't have anybody really, with that skin. But that was what we were taught to do. And we did it on everybody. So it was cool, because people were commenting like, Oh, I did it. But my you know, I just, it was crazy. Like how many people out there had actually tried it when it really became popular, and they really just thought that they weren't a candidate, and they had given up on it. And so it just revamped those relationships me owning that, I, you know, didn't do it right. And just coming out and saying, like, you know, I've just learned so much more about skin. And me just being honest and owning it for all those clients, like, you know, all those comments back and I just said, Hey, I'll just refresh it as a refresh price. And I promise you, you'll be so much happy. And they became clients again. And then they referred a lot of people and we got, you know, amazing reviews. And it just Yeah, revamped everything, we got to change our pricing structure, and everybody was lasting a lot longer. So it was it was awesome.
Mary Harcourt 16:34 And why like a humbling experience to also say, hey, even if you've gotten it with me, and it just wasn't the results you wanted, try this because you could see how many people were receptive to that and they still loved you and love the service. Maybe it just didn't last as long for them. But that takes a lot.
carrie hunt 16:51 I think you just have to own it. And people appreciate that. They appreciate you being honest with them and telling them the truth. It was really hard. I remember typing that and then deleting it and then typing again, like don't want to do that. It's just gonna backfire on me. But it actually was really, really good. I mean, I kid the phones were ringing, like while I was on the live and my mom answers the phone for me. So she's just over there just, you know, booking and everything. And it was cool, because I we just got, we just we just exploded again. So which was really cool. Yeah, you've done
Mary Harcourt 17:24 8000 permanent makeup procedures on clients all over the world. That is so many. What's your number? Now?
carrie hunt 17:31 That was probably about two years ago. So it's definitely probably been way more than that was just the estimate. You know, we can see it on our report. All right. So what if we spent 10,000? Have you done 2000? Since Oh, for sure. Yeah, for sure.
Mary Harcourt 17:48 So you've done over 10,000 permanent makeup procedures on clients all over the world. That's insane. Like, that's so many. You've been in business for 11 years. So that's how long it's taking you to achieve that number. What do you mean by all over the world? Do you go to see them? Do they come to see you.
carrie hunt 18:05 So when I was new, when I was new, and I was hustle mode, and I wanted to like that's when I really like I had no boundaries. I would go anywhere anybody wanted me to go, people would reach out to me because nobody was doing that 3d brow. So I would travel quite a bit to Austin a lot. But I never really went out of the state. Like it was just different places that would have me and I just kind of did that for like a couple a good couple of years. And it just kind of trickled but at the time when I started Oklahoma, it was illegal to get a tattoo anywhere on your body. So anybody in Oklahoma could not get a tattoo. This is fun fact. And they were coming in groups these girls like they were coming like six D all the time. And is this gonna make me sound very country but they were buying all this beer when they got here. And then they were all getting the resin. I was like what? Alright, finally I was like, what is happening? They were like, oh, yeah, it's illegal for us to get a tattoo and we can't even buy cold beer. And they had closed up all the shops. So if they wanted to get a tattoo, they had to go to Texas or Arkansas. And these girls really wanted their brows done. So literally still, probably 75% of my clients are Oklahoma girls, which I love. And then I have been I have people from everywhere. So I have lots of clients are in California. I want to clients from Louisiana, Hawaii, Florida. I don't know they just fly in and they hang out for the day. Sometimes they fly in and fly out like the same day because they don't have to come very much. So I just happen from February.
Mary Harcourt 19:43 Not sure and I think like the comfort of having someone with experience who knows what they're doing and has been around the block to say hey, this isn't actually the procedure that's working the best this this now works for me, and having that education and experience and now Even as a trainer, I feel like once somebody says they're a trainer, and I can bet that I have so much faith in them, that I think people do apply for services. Because of the background because of the resume because of the experience you've built over the years, I would do it. I think
carrie hunt 20:15 that people are way more cautious these days than they were in the beginning. In the beginning, they would go to anybody, it was so new, they, they were saying it was semi permanent, it wasn't permanent at all, like, people weren't doing the research, they would go to anybody. And then I feel like now that there's so much not good work out there. And Texas has such lacks, like laws, like anybody can do it. It's a good and a bad thing. But I feel like people are way in like way doing the research a lot more. Now. I actually had a virtual consultation a couple months ago, and it was from a lady from California. And we were having a zoom call. And I said out of curiosity, why do you want to come all the way here, she wanted to come for her birthday, like her 50th birthday, that was her gift to herself. She wanted eyeliner and brows. And she said, I saw a tick tock with you and your daughter. And I was like, why she was like, Yeah, my sister sent me a tic tock a funny tic tock of you and our daughter and I went down a rabbit hole. And I really love your work. So I just know that that's where I wanted to go. And we we had the best time. So that's funny.
Mary Harcourt 21:24 And that's I was gonna bring up to what you were talking about people do their research, I think social media has made us aware of all that can happen, where before you go in paying for service, and that's all you know, is the service you're gonna get. But now there's all these horror stories and pictures of people that have brows across their forehead, that they went in and didn't get what they thought they were gonna get. And so we're a little bit more alerted into the whole spectrum of what can happen with lashes, brows, any procedure, I mean botched as a TV show for a reason. And a lot more research goes into picking your person now
carrie hunt 22:02 that is so true, which is great. Like, I just I encourage all my clients to do a lot of research, I don't want them to walk in and not understand what it is. And just feel pressured to do that. Like I really want them if they come in, and they're not really sure I really want them to think about it. Like sometimes I'll even say look, I've just feel like you have more research to do. You know, you really want to be sure there's a permanent factor here. Like, you really need to know, like, I want to make sure that they know like 1,000% that they want this, like, even if they're super young, and they are of age, I still try to tell them like hey, you know, this is something you're gonna have to maintain for a really long time, you really want to think about it, you know, it does like permanent makeup is amazing. If it does change people's lives, I've seen people come in and not ever want to make contact with anybody in the room and not be able to look at anybody and they hang their head down. And you can tell their competence is so low. And then the next year, when they come in, you don't even recognize them as a person because their demeanor is 1000 times different. And that's what I love about our industry.
Mary Harcourt 23:08 I mean, that sounds super fulfilling. What is the most fulfilling part of what you do? Is it seeing that before and after the transformation? Or is it training? Is it just what is it
carrie hunt 23:18 I think the most rewarding is, I guess just teaching other women how to be more independent, and how they can truly like make a really good living with this and they can be happy and they can find their passion. I just feel like so many people don't give the beauty industry the respected they need because we do well for ourselves. And I love having somebody come in that is a single mom and they don't know you know if this is going to their be able to make it and then they invest this money and it does actually change their life. I love seeing the apprentices that come through my program and then the difference that it makes in their life and their family's life but they don't even think they're like really shocked whenever they see how much they can do and how much they love it. That's probably the most rewarding part of it. Is it the clients for sure. But I really feel like watching the women like take their career into their own hands and really realize the potential that they have.
Mary Harcourt 24:19 Absolutely. We're in the beauty industry. So we're all full of I think creatives and artsy people, it's so cool to to find a career that you love doing. Like you get to have the earliest all day and something that you truly truly enjoy doing around usually a group of women that you work with or if you work solo, and hang out with your clients all day. And then you also have a podcast, the six figure beauty boss, which you I would imagine it helped people earn more money and be able to stand taller for themselves, which is amazing. Let's talk about that.
carrie hunt 24:52 So that's my little my little side project that I absolutely love in my training programs. I was mostly getting questions about The business side of it because these girls are getting out of cosmetology school and esthetician school and they don't have a business background, they don't understand any of the business side. And I don't think that any of us really realize how much business we're gonna have to do whenever we do this. And that I kept seeing that as a trend. And I wanted to be able to kind of have a voice and answer questions and stuff like that for them to express myself in the way that I love to help people. So I just, I love that so much, me and my husband, we actually just created a new course it'll be coming out in like, probably about a month. And it's called the beauty business blueprint, it really your roadmap from when you get out of school or whatever. And a lot of my students are taking a three day class like they have no idea what an LLC is, or a DBA. Or you had a number like they're like, what? And I remember when I needed those things, I had no clue what they were, like I told you before, I grew up poor, and we didn't talk about things like that, you know what I mean? We didn't my parents didn't know stuff like that. I felt like I had to google my way through every single step. Or I would go to the bank and say I need a business account. And they would say, Okay, well, I need a DBA. And yeah, and I'm like, Okay, let me go get it. And then I would go in my car and like google it really quick, like, where do I get this? And what does that mean? And that's what I felt like I did every step of the way through my business where this could help people get there so much faster, they could get there way faster than me where it would take years for me to get there, it could take them a month or two to really have everything down and make sure that they're protecting their assets and their family and things like that. So I don't know, I just I love that part. I love the business side of it. Now. We need
Mary Harcourt 26:46 it, we need it. I'm so excited to see this new movement of not only do you train on the skill, but you also train on the business because it is true. I was an 18 year old cosmetology student that thought skill is everything. And then once you got good enough to have your own business, it would run itself because your skill was so good. And that was a very rough wake up call to realize, I don't know how any of this works. I don't understand cashflow. I don't understand what a p&l is, I don't understand what I need an accountant for. And through the years, I obviously gained those skills. But I wish it was more highlighted when I was in school or even had resources. I mean, that was decades ago for me. So I love it. There's resources now for people because it really is truly multifaceted in the fact that you can have your skill, you can be the most skilled person ever and run a terrible business. And you could run a terrible business and have a terrible skill and near those are to succeed. So skills, not everything. But building up that business background and understanding how everything goes. That's when you can really excel. And if you have a beautiful background in business, and an amazing skill, you're unstoppable. And like really the sky's the limit, especially in the beauty career. And in something like brows. I mean, brows are taking off, they're just a bit on trend now for years, and it just keeps going up. It's the most highlighted thing of everyone wants to know what to do with them, how to get them, how to get them fuller, and all of that I think it's great. So I love that you're doing that I think your course is going to be amazing. And everyone should at least understand the basics of how a business runs. If you're thinking about going out on your own start there, you have to know the basics of business. I'm really
carrie hunt 28:25 proud of that course. I always say my husband's the brains of the family. I'm just a fun one. No, just kidding. He's very, like finance driven. And he's always like, kind of kept me looking at my goals and trying to like line me out. Cuz always say is type A and I'm like, if there's a Z, that's me. And I like that we got to do this. And he got to help and really put his smart finance in there and everything where it will be it'll be so helpful. So I'm just I'm excited about that. I'm probably like, more excited about that course then brow course just because I know it can help people all across the board. At first it was going to be for brow, you know, for brow artists. And then I was like no, the beauty business needs this course because lashes, you know, I didn't want to exclude any of them. And it just it goes all across the board. Right? So
Mary Harcourt 29:17 let's talk about that. What what does your course cover?
carrie hunt 29:21 So of course, it's going to start with mindset because my husband's huge on mindset. And I feel like owning your own business and coming out of Cosmetology I know that this word gets thrown around every day all day right now, but it really is true. It's the fundamentals. If you don't understand you're or have your mindset under control. You'll never understand how to excel in your business because it's never it never shuts off. Right. And you could have a million things to do that day. So I don't think people realize you can't just be like, Oh, well, you know, I'm not going to get out you have to be your boss that tells yourself to get up to go to work like nobody's gonna tell you to get up Do things, you can't skip over that part because it's just preparing you for bossing yourself around and leading yourself like self advocacy, self leadership, and all those things that you need. And then the it's gonna, of course, go on over structure and how you structure your business and tax wise and how to prepare for your taxes and how to protect all your assets. And then it's going to go over how you, you know, nurture your clientele, because I feel like I'm really big into nurturing like, I'm more of a nurturing leader. And so I just feel like in the last year, so I really wanted to focus on nurturing my clients, and not always just hustling for new ones like to actually nurture the ones that I have. So we have like, how you know how to elevate your client experience, and how to streamline everything and how to automate everything if you don't have a front desk, because you're probably not going to have that at first. And so it has all of those things, how you do your consent forms, and your booking and your photos, your marketing, your social media, your Google My Business, all those things that you have no idea whenever you get out of school, so it's jam packed, so we're excited. And then we're going to have an add on where you can pay a little bit extra and have that monthly like mentorship to kind of hold you accountable.
Mary Harcourt 31:14 I love that it's definitely needed. I mean, everyone needs to educate themselves in business. And the accessibility of courses these days is great. I wish they had it around when I was younger, because it would have helped so much like you said, just shortcut the hard lessons learned you go in with skills and understanding one through 10 versus Well, that was a hard lesson that hurt too. I messed that up. Now I have the skills where you could just learn it in front run all of that it's great.
carrie hunt 31:41 I'm sure if you had a course on how to build that light right away, what a saved you. Probably not great a lot of time, if somebody was sitting there going no, you do this, this this, you could have got there so much faster with your idea. But it just kind of takes that sweetness away though to
Mary Harcourt 32:01 it that I had to hit my head and stub my toe so many times until I finally made it but absolutely, of course would have been so valuable. So yeah, let's touch on this because you brought this up nurture your clients versus new clients, I actually am giving a talk next week on this exact topic that so many people are so obsessed with finding new clients, new clients, new clients, new clients, and you spend all of your time money and resources into new clients. But sometimes, and most likely, usually, the value is in those clients you already have. They've already gone through the vetting process, they've already had the awkward first visit. And if they like you or not, they already rebooked and now they're a client of yours, and they already came back. And clearly they love what you do, because they're a client of yours. And it's so interesting to put your resources into those faithful clients and let them do the speaking and the word for you. Ask them to write you a review, if you're close to them, see if they can give you a video testimonial and put that on your website. Because those is what's going to attract the new people. You saying I'm the best in the industry, please book my service is going to make them question but are you and then they're going to do their own research. We're having a client that says I've been coming to her for seven years, and I would never go to anyone else. She's always been like such a beautiful person to work with the work has been great my brows have lasted, I enjoy my time, it's my solace, I get to be here and just forget about life for those two hours. That's what's going to have that next person go, wow, they say the best soda, she the reviews are awesome, I'm booking. So it's great to touch on the fact that we do need to nurture our current clients, our faithful clients, they're valuable. And so our new clients, you always have people that are moving and slots are opening. But really, it is so good to make those connections and the relationships with your current clients. I was
carrie hunt 33:53 so guilty for so long of not doing that. It's almost embarrassing. You know what I mean? Because you're just trying to build your business and you're trying to get as many people in and you know, sometimes you're double booking a little bit and you're here and you're there and you're just Fred So then, and you're not even thinking about it. But I really set back this last year and wanted to provide more values. I am a higher ticket price, but I wanted to be able to tell them explain to them exactly why I am that with the experience and everything but also wanted to treat them like that. Part of my value when I tell my clients in a consultation is you're going to get my undivided attention for three hours. And it might not take us three hours. But if it does, we're going to have it and we're going to make sure they're perfect. And you know, just the refreshments and it could be small like a phone charger or a blanket if they get cold or there's so many things you can do new client gifts. We have little Starbucks cards in there like the girls can give away if are running out a tad bit behind like just to show them that they value their time. So instead of us giving them this huge discount or something like that, it's like, Hey, I'm so sorry that that happened, I hope you can go have a drink on me, you know what I mean? or something, just showing them that you are aware that their time is valuable, and that you value them as a client, or if it's your birthday, and you didn't know it, and they mentioned it. I mean, we just, that's what we like pride on ourself on here, which is really, really nice. And the girls are amazing at it. And I wrote a manual for my artists coming in and my apprenticeship program and basically gave them verbiage, the way that I speak to my clients, the playlist that I use, when I'm here, those sent that off in the diffuser, like everything so that it's recreated. So if they're taking on one of my clients, like it still feels like me, even with their little spin on it. So just little things like that, just to make sure that the environment stays the way that I would love it to be because I built these clients. And I always want them to be taken care of. So that's another little touch.
Mary Harcourt 36:08 And that makes so much sense. And that's such a great idea. But it really does set the scene and if the scene is set, they're already relaxed, because it's what they're used to human nature. We like what we're comfortable with. And so you're already setting them up for success. Even if it is a new stylist, it's not you. They're relaxed into knowing this is close enough to what I'm used to that now I'm open for whatever work you're going to do today, it's going to be great.
carrie hunt 36:35 I love that was great advice. Yeah, I love that. And the girls are. So I think that your if you do hire and bring on new people, it's something to think about, because a lot of people are scared to do that, because they feel like that's gonna get lost, you know, with their clients and things like that. But I think that my artists that work here now, just going through that program, and seeing and hearing it and being immersed in it and all that, they appreciated that because they're new, you know, they get nervous, doing consultations and stuff like that, but you would never know it because they just feel so good about it. The
Mary Harcourt 37:08 verbiage is huge. I remember taking courses and hearing how they brought up things. For me it was lashes or even in the hair industry, how they approach a allergy and how I just watched them go through it, you took what can be a terrible situation of someone have an allergic reaction, and you don't know how to handle it. And so everything so panicked and freaked out, and learning the verbiage of how to walk them through it and disarm them into like, Hey, I'm here for you, here's probably what you're going through and what you're feeling. And here's what I can do to help you through this. And I remember my mind just exploding being like, Well, that just sounds so much better. And your level of professionalism is always elevated when the words are coming out nice and smooth and received. So well.
carrie hunt 37:53 I love that it can be something so small that they could say somebody comes in for a touch up and they say, I don't love this about this spa or this color, whatever instead of don't say, Oh, let me fix it or do this. Like they say words like, oh, we'll perfect it. We're going to she's going to do a little adjustment or whatever, just things that they say like just Yeah, it does. It changes the whole scenario. And I had to really think about those things for a while whenever I was writing all of this. And because I never took all these steps in the beginning because I was new, right when I hired I had family that work for me, which I would not recommend. And I didn't have this all written now and I didn't tell them verbiage and it got a little squirrely, you know what I mean? And I didn't ever feel like I could take that power back. And one day I'll have my whole team go. Like, I'm just gonna clear and I just want to be alone. And I was alone for about six months. And I wrote this Associate Program apprentice program manual, of if I could recreate this again, what would I do differently? And what would I like to say? About six months later, I was like, No, I really want to do this. Like I love having the team atmosphere, I have this beautiful studio. It was night and day just giving them everything up and really sitting with them. Just giving them your time instead of throwing them in and just expecting them to do things the way that you would and then getting upset if they didn't and you're not really communicating properly. So it's just been completely different with the team now versus before. And it really was all on me because I didn't know how to communicate visually. I was a new business owner. I was just getting busy and hiring getting busy and higher and getting busy and hiring. And I wasn't stopping to do systems and all the stuff that I knew I shouldn't be doing but we were so busy. And so once I stepped back and yeah, it costed me a lot of money but it will be so much better in the long run. You know just is taking the time if you ever want to hire doing it the right way.
Mary Harcourt 40:03 Oh yeah, you gotta have structure, you gotta have structure and you have to set them up for success, you know, a new person walks in wanting to do well, nobody shows up going, I'm gonna suck at this job, I'm gonna have burn all my bridges. Like they want to, they're excited. They told all their friends about I got this job at the salon, I'm really excited. And it's almost doing them a disservice if you walk in and go, Okay, start, but I'm gonna judge you for everything you do wrong. It's gonna create a toxic environment. So I mean, I have to been what was the internal struggle, like having a place where you're so busy with multiple stylists, and then choosing one day to go back to one,
carrie hunt 40:40 it was hard, it was very hard. And I did tug of war in my own head about it for months, like I knew it was what I needed to do. And you never knew, like, what was really happening. And it was weird, because I just felt it wasn't my I just felt like I had lost all control. It wasn't mine anymore. I didn't run anything, I could say something, it didn't matter. And I just came to this place where I was just like, it's just gonna have to be me for a while, you know what I mean? It was nothing against those because I'm the one that said it, they were so talented, which was the crazy thing, I had poured my heart and soul into them for years, like some of them five and six years, they had all been here for a really long time. So not only do you feel responsible for them, and for financially and everything, but I don't know. So it was really, really hard. But it was honestly the best decision for me and for my company. And there was so much I wanted to do and to rebrand, and I wanted, you know, more structure, and I wanted set schedules, and I want them to be employees, I didn't want, you know, contractors, I wanted a uniform, you know, there was just so much resistance from everything that I was never going to win. It was okay, you know, like, they weren't totally happy about it, but they're all thriving and doing well. So I knew that they would in my mind, I was like, they're going to do great wherever they are, it just probably isn't going to be here.
Mary Harcourt 42:11 And that happens. And there's I mean, it's life's a journey. Sometimes it's with the same people. And sometimes it's not, and you poured into them enough skills, that they will be fine the rest of their life. But it sounds like I mean, having turmoil in your daily life, especially in your own personal business is no way to live. It's really taxing and it's really stressful. And I commend you for taking a change and saying I'm I'm gonna go back to one and really, now structure what's important to me and what I want, and you're lined up for success now. And I think your clients have stuck with you to see all the changes, you're attracting a new client or a new stylist base that's really going to respect that and you're gonna win.
carrie hunt 42:54 Yeah, you're saying exactly what my husband was saying. My husband, I was I remember coming in and just crying. I just hit that wall one day. And he was like, Look, you look what you did, like, look what you created, look at how much money you make in a month. This doesn't just go away, you just pause it and you just gonna redo it, but better, you're not going to be starting over you know, there's that quote, you're not going to just be completely starting over, you're going to have all of your knowledge to back it up. Which was really cool. Because I was way picky. Whenever I started hiring had contracts in place, I had very specific manual, like things that had to be done on certain days, this is the music we listen to, this is what we were this is your contract, like this is your goals, you know, like, it was so streamlined, that these girls grew so much faster. Just because I took that time to really figure out what they needed and slow myself down even how many clients I take a day to make sure I can really nurture them for a while my husband's like, just think of it putting in good six months, like what that's gonna do. It's not going to be like that forever. And I just put my head down through the whole summer. And that's what I did. And they're, they're amazing.
Mary Harcourt 44:10 And there's gotta be people listening right now that it's going through the exact same situation and thinking in their head. At that hit home because we've all been in a situation where you know, you have a choice to make, and you don't want to pull it because it's hard. It's uncomfortable to make that change. But listen to how good it can be on the other side. When you do rearrange your life and make the changes and do those hard calls and then restructure is you walk in and you enjoy work again. You enjoy your life again, you enjoy your family. When you come home and you don't go home crying, you come home excited. I'm like look how successful the girls are and how fast they're booking and the reviews are flying in and everyone's at a better place. So if you have a choice to make, this might be a little sign that it's time to make that choice. And
carrie hunt 44:56 also listen to your heart because whoever's on isn't like, there was times where I mean, when I did this, just to give you some context, Mary, each girl had about three months worth of clients on the books were all my girls are booked. And I was completely booked too. So I didn't have that capacity to take on all these clients, you know what I mean? Our procedures are really long, and I was that that was my catch 22. Like, what am I going to do? I don't know, this might not work for a lot of people. But for me, I just followed my heart. And I shot an email out to these clients. And I said, Hey, I'm taking my business in a whole different direction. And I completely understand if you want to stick with this artist, if you're not, you know, and this is her phone number. And I gave them their phone number, their personal phone number because they said that I could. And I said, this is what you can do. Or of course, I can accommodate you, I'm going to open up days, or you can wait a little bit like however I can accommodate you, I promise I'll accommodate you, if you want a refund, I'll refund if you want to go see them. Here's their personal phone number like and everybody thought I was just crazy. You know what I mean? Because the big argument was No, those are your clients. Those are your clients that you work for, for, you know, these 10 years in Utah, everybody, everything and you, you know, you poured all this into it. But at the time, it just made me feel like it was taking care of my clients. It was like, Hey, if you have an event coming up, if that's what you were looking for, these girls are so talented. That might be your cup of
Mary Harcourt 46:37 tea. Exactly. Um, so many people do that. I love the transparency of you. Because it is true. And I had to do this many, many times with my salon as well. And I used to describe it, why am gonna fight for someone who isn't going to be here. Like, let them make that choice. My stylists were amazing stylists, they were incredibly talented. If I would never want to take that away from the person because I wouldn't want to be the person calling to book my salon, my hair, and then being like, Oh, they left we'd have no clue where she's at, like, please just tell me where she's at. I just want to get my hair done, like the way she really did it. If you've established that relationship, then that relationship is established. And now with social media, they're just going to go find them anyway. So then you're going to look even worse, that you're the person that didn't connect the dots where it really takes no extra effort. And to top that off, I've even had people, clients, I said, Hey, here's their phone numbers, why don't you go to call, see if she can fit you in what she's doing now. We're always here for you. We're always here to welcome you, we will use those as needed. And I had people that would follow the old stylist, but still refer us their friends. So we were building clients of them because they always had a wonderful service with us. It was never anything was bad with the service. They just were attached to that client but or that stylist but sometimes they move hour and 10 minutes away, your friends aren't going to drive an hour and 10 minutes away for a brand new stylist, somebody that's been with you for three years, maybe they will. But I always thought that was such a nice touch of like chef's kiss, you know, you did the right thing. When that client is still happy that Silas is still happy, and they're still referring you more people to your to your business. I feel like that's like the good karma. It is the
carrie hunt 48:15 good karma. And I think that they respect you for that just like we were talking about earlier, just always owning it and just saying, Look, I'm so sorry. Like, I hope this didn't inconvenience you, of course, because like you said they can find anybody on social media anyway. So how do you want to be the person that looks like that, then they're really never going to trust you or want to come back to you? What if they call them and they're working 45 minutes away? And then they're like, Oh, well, I'll just go, you know, they knew that I would take care of them. And I would do everything in my power to take care of them. I would stay late, I was staying. I mean, I worked my butt off for months because I had to I mean it was it was hard. But it was also very amazing. And I think you don't grow unless you go through those hard things. And you just have kid hit head on is direct as you can. And then you're like, Oh, that wasn't as bad as what I thought. Because I'm a middle child. I'm a people pleaser. Like I have all of the all of the things. So I have to battle through that a lot. And I feel like in my 40 I turned 40 last year and I just feel like that was one thing that I just was like, I'm just going to say how I feel, and I'm going to do what's best for me and one of my really good clients and friends. She's precious. She just kept talking to me about self advocacy. She was like, if you're not going to advocate for your yourself in your own life, then you're doing yourself a disservice. And if people can't get on board with that, if they you know they're mad at you for that then those aren't your people. Everybody that loves you will still love you. So I just that just really stuck with me.
Mary Harcourt 49:51 I love that I'm a huge self advocate. You know, I think you're the person that is going to be there every day for you. You're the one that will wakes up next to you, you're the one that puts go to bed, however you go to bed, that if that person isn't happy, it's not going to be a great morning. It's not going to be a wonderful good night's sleep is you have to make sure that person's happy. And it's just you looking in the mirror asking yourself like, do I need to restructure because this isn't how I see myself enjoying life? And yeah, it's a painful process and like you said, you're gonna come out of it stronger. You've learned so many lessons and then you restructure and you start over that it really not to say that it's worth it or not worth it, but it's worth it. It's worth it to trade your misery for tomorrow's better if you know that you can be the one to make those changes. Okay, so where can people find you for trainings you train in person as well as virtual Where do they find you?
carrie hunt 50:45 So I have all of my information on my website, which is Stella's room studio. So my studios name is Stella's room. It's after my grandmother. Her name was Stella and she never left her house without her eyebrows on it Stella's room studio.com. It has training information, everything or the PMU academy.com.
Mary Harcourt 51:03 Awesome. And then what do you think this is kind of an on the spot question, what has been your proudest accomplishment so far in your career, just
carrie hunt 51:11 be unable to watch this grow as a whole. Because when I first this was even just a thought my husband said write your goals down, of course. And I'm trying to order a drink. I'm like, I'm not listening to you. And I said, I already know my goal. It's two clients a week. That's it. That's all I want to do it. He was like a goal is a stretch carry. And I was like, No, that would be perfect. It's like I kept limiting myself. So if I failed, that it wouldn't be heartbreaking or anything like that. But now to see the way it's grown, how it's changed my life, how it's changed my family's life, my children's life, the people that work for me, the people that are trained, just my kids being able to come up here and see it and see that you can do something like that. That's probably like what I'm most proud of my daughter loves all things beauty. She's my child. And so to see her come up here and be able to integrate like my children was my life and flexibility and seeing how all of it just has come full circle and just 10 years, I don't know, I'm just proud of everything as a whole. And I'm proud to even have the business that I have, like I never even allow myself to dream like that.
Mary Harcourt 52:19 I mean, lucky you found a niche, you're passionate about what you do. You grew up with women, your whole life, all these sisters and then found the beauty industry coming from nursing. It's like a perfect storm where I feel like you are where you're supposed to be. And that's when it really starts to get beautiful that you just have shared with us. Well, one last thing before we go is what advice do you have for a permanent makeup artists that maybe got through training but aren't quite fully confident yet? What tips do you have for them,
carrie hunt 52:50 I think a lot of people don't realize how hard it is. They don't realize it is so hard, but it's so rewarding. So I just say practice, like a lot. Don't have any shame in practicing on latex and you know, drawing on your friends and doing all that for months. If that's what it takes for you to feel competent, you're not just gonna go out there and just kill it and look like other people's the very first time but you do have to at least try. And I think that's what makes permanent makeup so much harder than a lot of the industry because it is permanent, right? It's a permanent factor beer, I can get them all cheerlead it on like, then whenever they really come to grips with it, it's like I had just had to push and push and push up. But um, like if you could just practice at least every other day, if that's what it takes to keep your hand in it. And just moving forward, you can do it. I couldn't even draw a stick figure whenever I first started. And I don't know if it's because I've ever tried. But just practicing and practicing and practicing like never stop practicing. Never stop practicing. Just push yourself. And I think what pushed me in the beginning was a I borrowed the money for training and I had to pay it back. But be I went and got a sweet, a really inexpensive sweet. Even though I didn't really know what I was doing. I got that suite. And I think that was one of the best things that helped me because I had to pay for the suite. So I would push myself to at least do one client that week so that I could pay for the studio, which it was only like $100 a week but at the time it felt massive to me, but I think if I wouldn't have had that I probably wouldn't have done it I would have let that fear kick in but just knowing that I had that contract and I had to pay it and all that it really kept me accountable for myself and pushed me a little bit more so I loved that I got that sweet and forced myself to do it. But if I could do it over now because there's so many good permanent makeup artists, so I would definitely try to find an apprenticeship program somebody I could work under for a year or two at least now that they have Those things available. They didn't have that available whenever I started, but if I could start over now, definitely I would do an apprenticeship. I would work for free. I would do hourly, whatever, just to learn, you know, soak in as much knowledge as I could before I went out on my own, but you have to take steps you got to do so.
Mary Harcourt 55:17 Yeah, I love it. Magazine advice. Well, thank you so much for spending your time with us today. I'll put all of your information in your bio and everyone can access either on my page, Mary harcourt.com, or whatever platform you're listening to your podcast on and then we'll be able to link everyone to you.
carrie hunt 55:33 Thank you so much, Mary for having me. I was honored and I love everything that you're doing. I listen to your podcast. You give amazing advice. I love what you're doing for our industry. So thank you so much for thinking of me and taking the time to have me on.
Mary Harcourt 55:48 That wraps up today's episode. For more information on our guests. You can find them at Mary harcourt.com under the episodes tab. You can always find me on Instagram at Mary Harcourt underscore and at the Cosmo glow light. I hope you enjoyed today's episode and many more to come
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