EP 8: How Mackenzie Became Queen of Reels

Mary Harcourt: 

Welcome to Ready Set glow, a podcast where I interview the person behind the brand. We're going to talk about what it took to get started, the lessons learned along the way, and the advice they have for you on your own journey. I'm your host, Mary Harcourt, founder and CEO of Cosmo glow. Today we're talking with Mackenzie from backlash mom, she's a lash artist, turned salon owner, and now spends the majority of her time training others. She specializes in helping artists feel more confident in their social media strategy, and overall business mindset. She's an open book who loves sharing everything she knows with her students. And today we're going to talk about what that journey was like, how long it took, and the lessons learned along the way. So let's get started. Okay, girl, so you're a lash artist, you're a salon owner, you're a trainer, you're a master at creating reels and growing a following. You have such a likable personality that shines through in everything you do, which I'm sure is helps, like, spin you into your success. But how did it all start for you?

Mackenzie Graham: 

Well, thank you so much. I'm really excited to be here. Um, honestly, I feel like lashes fell into my lap. And I was really shy. And I wasn't someone who was like, comfortable with putting myself out there. And of course, once I got to know people, I would, you know, it was a lot easier to open up. And it was a lot easier to create those connections. And I feel like so much of this. And so much of me getting thrown into things has helped me build that confidence and just kind of find my own path or realize, oh, okay, like, Actually, me being me is helping me rather than, you know, looking at what other people are doing, or looking at what I think should be done. And I feel like, that helped me so much just show up as myself and become more confident in it. And but yeah, so it basically fell into my lap. I didn't know what I wanted to do. I dropped out of college after a month. I just felt like I didn't belong there. It was so funny. I called my mom, I think it was a Wednesday, I called my mom and I said hey, so I unenrolled myself, and I'm coming home today. And she was just, she was shocked her and my dad were like, what they had no idea was unhappy there. And so long story short, I was getting my lashes done. And the guy was like, I think you should learn how to do lashes like you love makeup, you know, you're interested in the beauty world, I you know, would that ever interest you? And I was like, Yeah, might as well being 19. You know, I had no vision or expectations of what I wanted for my life. And I felt like I had to have it all figured out. And so it really truly fell into my lap. And it's, it's been awesome, because I've been able to find my passion through it and just kind of use this as a tool to help other women feel confident, whether that be doing their lashes, or hiring them as an employee to find their own creativity within this craft, or having people come in to train and, you know, encouraging them to go on and start their own businesses that they can become super successful with and, you know, long winded version.

Mary Harcourt: 

No, that's great. I love it so much. I think it's so cool that as a creative, we sometimes don't fit in the normal mold. I mean, I'm wondering the same thing. I couldn't ever figure out what I wanted to do in college and thought, well not gonna spend the money if I really can't figure out what I want to do. But it's lashes and the beauty industry is such a perfect fit for me where it's like, I love having that one on one interaction. I love being able to be creative. I love the instant gratification of you do someone's lashes, they get the mirror and they're instantly in love. Like that's such a good feeling that you don't get from sitting in geometry 101 Exactly. So you started when you were 19 How long has it been since you've been doing lashes because you've built quite a little Empire for yourself already.

Mackenzie Graham: 

I'm 27 now so I've been doing this for a little over eight years, it's it's been such a wild ride. And especially it's so cool to to look back at my mindset being 19 of looking at it, like, Oh, this is just an easy way for me to make quick money. And, you know, realizing that I could turn it into something so much bigger and something so much bigger than myself. And so it's been really cool to kind of just be on this journey, especially thinking about where the lash industry was in 2014 versus where it is now and how much I've grown with the industry as well. It's just been really cool.

Mary Harcourt: 

And just where it's going I feel like we're just on the tip of the iceberg like things are finally just starting to crack open getting ready to explode.

Mackenzie Graham: 

Oh absolutely. i It's so it's really really cool to see kind of like what's become popular or what's like stuck around from the beginning or what we're completely changing what we used to tell people about it. After care, and so on and so forth. And I think you're totally right. I think there's so much more room for growth in the industry.

Mary Harcourt: 

So I found out about us on Instagram, because your reels are hilarious and are so addicting and they go down the whole list. And then I feel like I like no, you like you trust you that whole thing. But it's interesting, I would have never thought that you're eight years into this, I would have thought you're like a year in because everything just looks so fresh and cute and fun. What are some examples of things you've learned along the way that maybe somebody can benefit from hearing your little side disasters?

Mackenzie Graham: 

I feel like, first of all, I've learned so much and grown so much, not only as a business owner as a lash artist, but I feel like as a person too. But there's so many things that I felt like I had to do on my own, I had to do my taxes. I had to do my bookkeeping, I had to do all this stuff. And I learned a big lesson about hiring out when, like, you don't know what to do. And so, funny story, I got a letter in the mail from the IRS saying that I owned about I owed about $6,000. From, I don't know, it was must have been like three or four years ago now. And I was shocked. I was like, what what do you mean, I filed my taxes wrong. And so I very quickly after that, paid off that $6,000 and hired a bookkeeper and a CPA, because it isn't something I'm good at. It wasn't something I wanted to spend the time to learn. And it was so much easier and less stressful for me to hire that out. And I feel like I put so much pressure on myself to like, no, I really do, I have to wear all the hats, I have to do all the things. And so if you can realize that early that you can hire those tasks out that you don't love doing, you get to spend more time focusing on the things you do love to do the creative side of things, the reels for me the social media. And, you know, speaking of a couple other lessons, like if you don't know something, learn it if it is something that you are excited about or do want to focus on. Like I've put myself through so many online business courses or online social media courses. And even if you get one or two little nuggets from it, it can change the way you do things. And it can change how confident you feel in those things. And I feel like for me, I guess the bigger lesson in that is, don't be afraid to invest money in courses, if you feel like it's something that you could benefit from, especially in the short term. And in the long term. You know, think about those things that you could benefit from right now.

Mary Harcourt: 

I'm a huge cheerleader for always learning always growing, the faster you can master more things. And it doesn't mean you have to know from A to Z on the topic, it means you have a general understanding, you're gonna Excel and because sometimes having a general understanding allows you to realize this isn't my niche. This is not I'm not good at it. Because I also am not good at numbers, and finances. And I realized that early on as well to say this is not something I'm good at, let me pass it off. Because the journey of me trying to master that would have taken years, or I hire someone that can do it in 15 minutes, and they just check in with me once a month. And here's, here's the questions I have. And then you're all entitled or wrapped up in a bow. Here you are, there's so much better than me trying to understand everything and learn it all. But it is so true. I mean, there's so many good books out there. There's courses they have the conferences, you can go to and sit in courses. For I think most conferences are like two days a week. And they have multiple classes. There's podcasts, there's courses you can take online, like there's so many ways to get the knowledge and education and it really does pay to to invest in yourself.

Mackenzie Graham: 

And don't be afraid to ask for help. It's okay to ask for help. Absolutely.

Mary Harcourt: 

That's where it's all up. When it comes to Instagram, somebody asked how do you run your Commission's with your salon? And do you have an employee handbook? How do you bring in new employees? So how would you say that you kind of summarized all of that of your onboarding with employees in your salon?

Mackenzie Graham: 

So I'll start with that last question. First, bringing in new employees, I feel so grateful I got really, really lucky. Every single one of my employees with the exception of two had already taken a previous training with me. So they had already had like the foundation of what my expectations were for them being an employee kind of the standard of work that or the quality of work that I wanted to uphold in this space. And we already had that connection. And so they actually just reached out to me and there was a time where I posted on Instagram but what really helped me was having a clear vision of exactly, you know, having that application process that would weed out the people who weren't going to be a perfect fit for the salon. So I actually did have a video submission if they weren't comfortable getting on video and kind of, you know introducing themselves. I thought felt like, for us as a whole as the business, you know, I wanted them to feel comfortable promoting themselves on their Instagrams. And, you know, obviously, nothing was expected to be perfect, but I wanted them to be willing to try and be teachable and coachable. And I was really more concerned about hiring people that I really vibed with. And that felt like a good fit, because I can train people I can help in that way. Or I can send them to a training, if that's something that, you know, is outside of my scope of work. And so I really wanted to find people that I really liked. And then as far as an employee handbook, we do have a loose guidelines, I don't have a noncompete, I don't have a you have to stay here for this X amount of time if you take my training, because ultimately, I wanted to create a positive environment. And if someone felt like they weren't a good fit, or they, you know, felt like they had to stay here for six months or a year and they were coming in with a bad attitude, I just didn't want to welcome that in my energetic space. And so we have loose guidelines. You know, along the lines of, you know what to wear however, like I come in, in my sweats and I've got my you know, hair and a bun and stuff. And that's okay with me. And if the quality of work is still being upheld to that certain level, I'm okay with everyone dressed in a little cozy and our clients really don't mind because we've done a really good job of attracting the clientele, that don't expect us to be put together head to toe. And that's just kind of our vibe. And then, you know, as far as our commission goes, I actually did a couple different things I started with, you know, really high commission, and I realized our product costs were so high that we weren't even breaking even at that point. And so that was something I learned, you know, it's okay to change and adjusting. So we implemented a sliding scale after I hired a coach to kind of help me with the salon. So we have a sliding scale commission. So it is dependent on how much they work. And it's actually worked really, really well. And it's been really fun for me to have my one on ones with my lash artists, for them to be like, Okay, I want to make more money. I'm like, almost to that next bracket, like how do we get there, and having those kind of brainstorming, you know, one on ones has been a lot of fun for me to get them to reach their goals as well, because ultimately, I want them to make really good money too. I just have to also keep the business afloat. And so making those changes, it was a really good learning experience for me. And it was something really hard that I had to learn. And you know, we have such a great team, everyone was really understanding and everyone's like, you know, you have to do what you have to do. And it makes sense. And luckily, everyone's still here.

Mary Harcourt: 

Okay, that's, that's amazing. I'm glad it worked out. I also had a very similar situation, where I was so excited to be the best employer ever that I just gave everything away. And it came crashing down on me knowing like you live in Los Angeles, the rent is not cheap. We were straight away from the beach, and I cared quality product. And yet everything was great until you do the math. And it's like, okay, things have to change. And it was a little bit of the same thing where we had a whole raw, tear filled talk of like, Hey, guys, I worked so hard to get to this point. And if this is how it's going to continue, I might as well just close my doors now. And I hate to bring it to you that we have to like reassess where we're at. But it does come down to how often are you booked? What's your booking rate? What's your rebooking rate? What sales are you doing? You get paid off of that builds numbers. And I think sometimes when you're going from like a solo aesthetician, or a lash artist into having a staff, you don't quite know what you don't know. So if anyone's thinking about that, learn from our mistakes, get all those numbers figured out before you bring on a staff, but also know that you'd have a real conversation and figure it out along the way. What are some of the most important things we should keep in mind when trying to make reels and grow the business through social media?

Mackenzie Graham: 

There's a couple things and I could talk for hours about social media and making it making it one making it fun and to making it so you're attracting the right people. I feel like people and I did the same thing. I thought about it so much. I made it a lot harder than it needed to be. And when I broke it down into I know, and I'm different in some other coaches, which is not bad or wrong. I just have a certain philosophy, which some people might align with. And other people might be like, You know what, that's not gonna work for me. And I guess my best advice for people who want to run something similar to the way I do and they really want to put their face forward for themselves on their social media in their business, it's going to be a lot easier to just show up as yourself and attract the right people to you. When I was trying to be super rehearsed and super formal and really, you know, just what I thought social media should be so long ago, I wasn't attracting the right clientele to me, and I wasn't attracting the right students to me either. And I feel like the more I just acted like myself off, and was normal and just started showing up. But the biggest thing with reels is you just want to be really clear on who you are, what you do and where you are. If that's like your basis, like very beginning, and then you want to be relatable, so if you can tie that into sharing a little bit of who you are sharing a little bit of that personality. And then I think when you're thinking about those making those reels, obviously, people connect to a face. And I feel like that's what's worked really well for me, and it's made it a lot of fun for me. And I don't put a lot of pressure on myself for it. Because I know, in the past, I used to have my five pillars and all my different branches off of what, uh, you know, categories I wanted to talk about, and what things I wanted to stay under the umbrella of. And now I'm kind of throwing all that away. And for me, if I can help women feel confident, whether that's in their lashing tips, you know, in their actual performance of doing the lashes, if it's mindset, if it's business, if it's money mindset, if it's talking about, you know, taxes, and learning from my mistakes, something like that I can help people feel confident. That's my framework for what I want to be posting on reels, and it made it a lot easier for me to come up with ideas. And I feel like another important thing is, don't overthink it, just start testing. I feel like a lot of the times, it's like, oh, it has to be perfect. Or like maybe that doesn't sound quite right. It's like just get the content out there. Because you're gonna learn really quickly and really easily what people prefer to see versus what isn't performing as well. And if you're testing and you're trying all of those things, it's going to be a lot easier. The more you produce, the easier it is for you to field, what pieces of content perform better. And then you can just create more stuff like that.

Mary Harcourt: 

This is such good advice. I feel like I need to like hang up right now and go and start doing some reels. Someone else asked, I find it hard to find time to work on my Instagram after having clients all day. What are your tips for staying consistent on social media while balancing of business and managing social media?

Mackenzie Graham: 

This is such a good question. Because I had the same problem. So when I was lashing full time, spoiler alert, I Don't lash anymore, I have three clients that I still see, because they're my Oh geez. And I can't get rid of them. Slash don't want to get rid of them. But when I was lashing full time, I totally felt that burnout, it was like, Oh, my gosh, now I feel this pressure pressure that I'm putting on myself to now make all this content and be consistent and do all the things. And that could be something where it could be a number of different things, you could work on batch working. So you can do it all in a couple hours. Maybe it's at the beginning of the week, or beginning of the month, if you're really feeling on top of it creating all the content, you know, for your days that you want to post, or you can hire this out. If it's something where you want to do reels, I would recommend batch working your reels. And then maybe that's something where you hire a social media manager that can focus on getting that content out there for you. But ultimately, when I was able to take a step back from taking clients full time and work on other streams of income for my business, I was able to feel a lot more creative and hop on and make a lot more content. And I don't have any expectations on myself, or my social media for myself, because I don't work well that way. If I have a structured plan of I have to post five times a week, I have to go live twice a week, I have to post on stories every day, I get really overwhelmed. So you have to kind of like we were talking about before you have to test you have to figure out how you work best. And if you like that regimented schedule, then stick to that schedule. Plan your hours on when you're going to make content. And if you don't have the time freedom like I do. Now, that might be the best route for you. But if you are working on passing off tasks in your business, so you can be the creative and you can focus on the things that you want to focus on. Maybe that's something where you kind of jot down your ideas one day, the next day you do your video, the day after that you do your captions. And sometimes I have probably 30 reels, sitting in my drafts right now that I just don't have ideas for yet. But I've done the work. And now when they come to me, I just kind of post them here and there. And that could be something you could do as well. And that's just the batch working or like okay, instead of trying to create one real, and you do your filming, you do your captions, and you write it and then you post it do filming for a bunch of different lip synching ones or maybe that's something where you just take videos throughout your day. I mean, ultimately, it's batch working has helped me a lot or hiring it out. I feel like is the main one or two options that you can go for.

Mary Harcourt: 

I mean, that's great advice and I think that's really helpful. I'll even add to it to what's worked for us is collectively as it See, when we find a funny real like a sound, you know, you get that sound bite, it's like, I have no clue how I can use that. But it's hilarious definitely save it, we save all bars to kind of like a Google Drive. And we label them as far as funny, inspirational, educational this than the other. And each of those sound bites, get a category. And then when you're feeling super inspirational, or you're feeling just in a goofy mood, and everyone's laughing, and joking around together, it's like Alicia fill in the real, you go down and see which ones are there. And they feel like just having them lovely labeled. All of a sudden, your whole team gives you input, if you have a team, if you're by yourself, and you give your own input. But you can go down and hear the sounds and then all of a sudden it clicks because you're already in that funny goofy feeling. Or you're already in this inspirational feeling. And so when you hear the sound bites, all of a sudden, it all clicks on how you're going to record them. I know you're a trainer, are you more of a lash trainer, are you a business trainer is a crossover of both.

Mackenzie Graham: 

It's kind of a crossover of both, I definitely started as like strictly lash training. And that's kind of where my passion lies, is I really just wanted to help other people feel confident in their lashing skills. And so I started training in 2017. And I was just doing small one on ones here and there. And then I noticed that a lot of people just during their training, instead of talking about like pricing or whatever, they started asking me about social media, and I started realizing like, oh, maybe I need to go more into the business side of it as well to kind of package it nicely together. And that really inspired me to talk more about pricing your services. And I think it's something that not a lot of people talked about a long time ago, and everyone was just basing prices off of each other or they were like just kind of figuring out social media for themselves. And so it's been a lot of fun, because even now in my trainings, even though they're, I would say 70% lashing, it's kind of shifting to like 5050 people want to hear the business side of it. And now I feel like that's what I'm excited to talk about. And I do still love, you know, training with lashes, but you know, kind of focusing the last training to online courses. And then also, you know, dripping business inspiration and you know little tidbits of information here and there through online courses. And the in person training, it's inspired me to want to do like in person workshops that are just all about social media are all about the business side of things that could be beneficial to other business owners, not just lash artists. So that might be something kind of in the works in the future as well.

Mary Harcourt: 

Well, how does one get started making an online course because so many people have great information to share, but they don't really know how to start what program or how to even break it down into bite sized bites to create an online course.

Mackenzie Graham: 

I feel like I definitely struggled with this whole creating online courses and like putting it out there. And I had so much fear and doubt I don't know why. But all of a sudden that imposter syndrome started to come up for me like who am I to be putting this online course out here or doing this and then breaking it down and realizing kind of like we were talking about before, like you're going to attract the right people who want to learn from you. And just kind of getting out of your own way. But I feel like there's so many different ways to make online courses, you can make an ebook, you can start with free guides. One thing I learned from a podcast years ago was to put out two different free guides and see which one had more downloads. And whichever one had more downloads, go with that for a full, full course. And so it really ultimately I so to break it down even more, I really love being on video, I feel like I can share my magic, I feel like people can feel my energy and get excited about the course, just as much as me. Whereas if you told me I had to sit down and create an ebook, I'm like, my words aren't, it's not going to make sense. Or it might make sense. But the way I'm describing it, or like my words just aren't translating correctly. So I think it comes back to testing, figuring out what you like best, there's so many different ways to do it. You could host a live webinar, you know, record it, and then sell the replay. But I feel like what helped me was kind of just having an outline. So for example, when I wanted to create my social media course, I was like, Alright, what do people need help with? What is the struggle? And a lot of it were like little things I wouldn't even have thought of and I got a lot of feedback, I asked questions and people didn't know how to set up their bio for one or how many DMS I had gotten. And I'd click on their bio, and I didn't see a name. I didn't see their location. I just saw, you know, 100 times certified. I've been doing lashes and so whatever year and that didn't really give me a feel for who they were. And so for me I wanted to come in and help people be able to show people who They are, what they do, where they are, kind of what their magic is. And so that kind of sparked that idea for the Social Media course. And then just helping people understand what they should be saying, or how they should be framing their captions, or how they should be showing up to attract the right people to them for whatever services or whatever product they had. And so I started to create an outline, and I thought, okay, we want to go over bio, we want to go over like marketing, how to write captions, we want to go over, you know, Shadow ban, people had a lot of questions about being shadow banned, or, you know, just kind of all the starting points. And I just started asking people questions like, what questions do you have about social media. And that really helped me see what my audience needed. Because I could have gone in and done it all without asking any questions and been like, I think I know what they need. But it was a lot easier for me to be like, Oh, I never thought about putting that little thing about looking into insights, because I've assumed that everyone knows how to check their insights, and they know what to look for. And so first of all, asking those questions, creating that outline, figuring out what your audience actually needs, is going to be a lot easier for you to create something, and then just sitting down and filming it. A lot of the stuff that we filmed is exactly like I've pulled up my little zoom on my laptop and recorded me giving a presentation. So it has that little talking head, there's so many different ways to do things, you can do your screen, and have your slideshow and just do audio, it ultimately comes down to whatever you're comfortable with. But just starting somewhere. And I think starting with those bite sized mini courses can be really helpful to get feedback. And don't be afraid of constructive criticism, because it is only going to help you make your course better. And then be able to create a bigger course from there and market it for more money. And really, truly making a difference in these people's lives who need help with social media or need help with lashing or business or whatever that may be. And just ask questions and start there.

Mary Harcourt: 

I love it that is gold yours. I love the negative information for two different topics. I think that's something that it's it's just such a light bulb that people miss. And it's so simple. I mean, see what the audience wants and maybe even see what you're best at speaking about. Because what you think you might be like, Oh, I know this so well. But it doesn't translate into being understandable by other people is so important to help me. So what is the outcome for people when they take your social media course? What do they say at the end that they really helped they gained from it?

Mackenzie Graham: 

You know, it's really, it's been really, really cool for me to get feedback and messages after people have taken my social strategy course, I've gotten a couple messages. Like hey, like it, the reel did exactly what you said it was gonna do like it did, okay. And then a week later, it started blowing up. And because there's a lot, there's a lot of fear of putting yourself out there and actually going for it. And I've had DMS of being like, oh my gosh, my insights, I have 200% more engagement than I normally have had, and seeing the people that actually put in the work and do the testing themselves to see what is going to work best for them and what they like doing. It's been really, really cool for me to see them start to blow up and feel more confident with reels. And some of them I'm like you guys are posted way more than I am. Now I see your face all over my feed. And so that's really cool for me, because ultimately, now a mine, I'm just a small, small stepping stone into giving them that tiny bit of confidence or tiny bit of understanding how they can start to reframe how they're marketing themselves, and marketing their services. And then they can go shine and be their own magical person that's going to attract all the people who are right for them. And so it's been really cool for me to just again, be just a small, little spark to ignite their magic. And so the feedback I've gotten has just been awesome to see them start to grow and have reels go viral. And it's just been really rewarding.

Mary Harcourt: 

I mean, it sounds rewarding and definitely I think once you have a real go viral, it's a little addicting like you kind of just want to keep doing it and have them go more and more and if you can break it down into here's how they work and here's what you need to do and then they go and do it and it works that was so worth the time invested to how does your training work you have a monthly membership and then you also offer in person.

Mackenzie Graham: 

So we do have in person one on one trainings and I do small group, which is consists of four students about once a month I've been trying to scale back a little bit because I did every weekend in January in February. And so I'm like okay, now I'm getting over whelmed again don't want to get to the point of burnout. So typically, we'll try to do one one on training a month and then one small group training a month. And that is my last training that we can also touch on all the business things I've kind of incorporated that and incorporated social media pricing services, everything in the in person one day or two day courses. And then I have my online courses. I have nine courses online now. And then I have our membership, which is really, really cool. It's it actually includes all of the courses. And there's new information, new video modules added every month. And there's two live trainings one with me and one with a guest speaker, which has been a lot of fun for me to kind of see other people share their magic with the group as well. And then we also have a private community Kate page, which is included in the lash mob society community. And that's been really fun for everyone to kind of connect and ask questions and give me feedback again, to you know, make it just a really great program. So a lot of online stuff, I have a couple other courses in the works that we're going through. So it's just, it's a lot of fun, able to be the creative totally. And I see

Mary Harcourt: 

why you don't do many lashes anymore. Yeah, 9% is amazing. And then you still run a salon full of girls that are lashing all day long, which is, I mean, it's work, it's definitely work, trying to balance all of that will keep everyone's schedules full, and the customers happy, and payroll coming in and going out. You have the shop, you offer trainings, you're so well known and respected in the industry. What's next on the horizon for you? Like do you ever think you'll have a product line or is that just not you have more exciting things coming up?

Mackenzie Graham: 

You know, I really wanted a product line for a while. And I did the whole I was ordering product all the time, I was staying up late to communicate with everyone overseas, I was doing all of that stuff. And then I felt like it brought me so much stress. And I just kept being let down. And I kept feeling like I kept hearing stories about people having to throw away $20,000 worth of pallets of lashes, because the quality wasn't right. And I was like, I don't know if I can handle that stress in my life after a $6,000 IRS Bill thinking about throwing away $20,000 with a product that you can't use and stuff. So I just realized, there's so many other ways for me to make money that are less stressful and require less time from me, my whole thing is I want to start, I don't want to trade my time for money anymore. I want to work on those things that can be a little bit more passive, like the online courses. Of course, there's a lot of hard work put into them. But once they're created, they're created. Any other little modules I want to add in there are pretty simple for me to hop on, and deliver that information and upload that. And so definitely not a product line. Nowhere in the horizon for me. But I think just continuing to do online courses. I love doing one on one zoom coaching, I'm kind of thinking about doing a mastermind to bring in you know, eight to 10 Women who are wanting to grow their businesses in different ways and have like that kind of tight knit high level community. But there's so many ideas going on at all times. But I think just we'll continue to do online courses. There's a couple challenges I'm working on putting out which I think will be a lot of fun. And just a lot more reels, I think a lot more, a lot more emphasis on mindset as well. I think that's really helped me become the person, business owner lash artist that I am I used to be in a really negative mindset and lack and scarcity. And like you were talking about books and podcasts and I started to throw myself into that like self improvement world. And my whole mindset changed, which has in turn changed my life to be dramatic, but not really. And so I feel like I want to be able to do that for other people as well not only help them in the lash world or social media world, but their own world in their mind because it is so important.

Mary Harcourt: 

Well, I mean, you have the lash courses, you have the social media, you have business now you want to do mindset. It's like backlash University. Right? You got to figure out what works for you. If this is something you're naturally talented at. It's really, really good. You're very likeable person, you're knowledgeable, you've been through it all. And you can identify that a product line is just not what's on your Horizon. Like that's great, good for you because you already know what is working and you can double down on that and change more people's lives through that. But let's go back to mindset what are some of the like little nuggets that have really helped you come out of your shell and grow your company that you want to pass on to other people?

Mackenzie Graham: 

There are so many, I feel like there, okay, so a couple of different books that I've read, kind of get you in the mindset of looking at who you are now or who you are in your mind right now. And then thinking of your other self, or thinking of you know, who you want to become. And basically, what my interpretation of that was, is like, you're acting like the person you want to be is so far from you. And if you can do something, to bring that person who you want to be closer to you, and start showing up as that person, you're gonna get there a lot faster. Especially when it comes to habits. There's so many bad habits or little things even especially thinking about, I mean, I could scroll on my phone all day long, but realizing that wasn't serving me that wasn't serving the person that I want to become. And putting it on Do Not Disturb getting my stuff done in two hours, and then realizing, Oh, I I'm allowed to have the rest of the day. And just understanding that I'm kind of going off topic here. But like things don't have to be hard, just because I've looked at and that going back to how you think things should be or what you think you should be doing. Or you think of business and you think, Oh, this has to be a hustle 24/7, I have to be grinding, I have to get up at six, and not put my laptop down till midnight, and do it all again the next day and realizing, you know what, I'm allowed to literally create whatever life I want. I'm allowed to create systems that set me up for the life that I want to live. And I was listening to a podcast and it said to write a letter to yourself from your future self. And it was actually at lash con, I couldn't sleep. I got up super early. It was like 430 in the morning, I went down the coffee place wasn't open, I UberEATS myself coffee, I sat down and I started writing a letter to myself from my future self talking about all the things I had accomplished talking about everything. Where I was whether that was myself a year from now, two years from now, five years from now, I sat there and started tearing up because it was like, oh, like, this brought that future self closer to me. It made me realize, why am I not doing these things right now? Why am I not taking those steps. And I think really, when we realize we are the person that's in our own way, when we can get out of that mindset and realize, Okay, I just got to take the first step. And understanding that there is another thing I heard it was be so busy thinking about your business yourself, what you're doing, concern yourself with yourself, that you won't be concerned with other people's thoughts of you. And there was a long time I cared so much about what other people thought of me. And I didn't do things because I was worried about what so and so. And I would say or I didn't go after something, or speak my mind because I was worried about what somebody else would think of me. And now I'm like, I couldn't care less what people think about me because I'm so concerned about my own personal growth, my business growth, the things that I'm focused on, so that if someone's thinking about me, in my mind, they don't have enough things going on for themselves that they have to sit here and worry about me and think about me. And that's just kind of what has helped me kind of get that tunnel vision on focusing what I want to do. Because ultimately it comes down to you have one life you have one life. And why would I want to sit here thinking or worrying about what other people think of me, when I can go be that magical, sparkly person that I want to be and that I want to become that I'm becoming every single day. And I can't get there, if I'm worried about what other people are thinking about me, I can't get to that best version of myself if I'm stepping in my own way. And that really helped me really just get out of my own way.

Mary Harcourt: 

I mean, that's a big, that's a big nugget. If you can adopt and activate like just that it's so powerful everyone is in their own way or they're not. And I always like to put it down into other people's thoughts. It's like, they're not on the path that I'm on. I'm only on my own path. They're on their own path. And if they're so concerned with what I'm doing, then they're getting derailed from what they should be doing. And that's not as my you know, it's none of my business. And it's so good to visualize who you want to be as you're doing and grow into that person every single day. Every day is one step closer every day is one movement closer to who you're going to be in five years. And that should inspire you because look at how much you've grown in the lash industry in just eight years. You've I mean come leaps and bounds I bet you never thought you wouldn't be where you were when you picked up tweezers on that first day. And yet here you are eight years later doing it for everyone else and it's so Howard Hold on empowering. And it's exciting to see where you're gonna go from here.

Mackenzie Graham: 

It's been, it's so much fun. I had literally had no idea what this path was going to mean for me. And now I'm just so grateful that tweezers did landed my hands.

Mary Harcourt: 

Absolutely. And I think I think it opens the door for a lot of people as we don't quite know where to plug in. And so you find something that works for you. And then because you it works for you, you're so good at it, you can excel and then all of a sudden, you see where you're supposed to plug in in that industry. How do you stay current and relatable without it being completely overwhelming? While getting all these before and after pictures? And making sure they're up? And then making sure you post at the correct times? Like how does it all work where you can find a really good balance in being authentic on your page?

Mackenzie Graham: 

Ooh, that's a really good one. I feel like I feel like to start I mean, you just have to think about what are you selling? Like, obviously, you're marketing lash extension services. But think about framing it in a way of like, what transformation are you're creating for those potential clients wanting to come see you, you're saving them time in the morning, you're saving them, you know, you could market it in a way to say you're saving money on, you know, makeup or whatever other services that they would do, instead of lash extensions, but I feel like the biggest one is saving time in the morning getting ready and especially to like, I used to say all the time, like oh sleep and an extra 15 minutes because you wake up feeling like your makeups already done. But I think that's a really good way to look at that transformation and talk about that a lot of the time, I'll see people post pictures and be like, Oh, this is a point 07 Or point 03 Mega volume. And right now you're marketing to another lash artist and other lash artist is going to look at that and be like, Oh, that looks beautiful. I want to try those lashes. I want to try that brand, whatever that is. But if you're trying to attract clientele, think about what matters to them. Because a client who has no idea about lash extensions is going to look at that point. 07 or point 03 And be like, um, what, what is this? What is that? I don't? I don't know the difference? Yeah, exactly. So think about how you can talk about what transformation you're going to create, feel more confident after laying down on my table for two hours for three hours, whatever that looks like. So think about that transformation. And then as far as staying current, I love market research, I will sit there and I will look up different hashtags. And I will go through and I'll try to find other lash artists, what other people are doing. And obviously there's a line between copying someone and taking inspiration from someone. And I think and again, that just comes back to you got to test for yourself what feels good and find your own creativeness in there, find your own magic within inspiration from other people. And you might be drawing inspiration from people outside of the lash industry. There's a lot of artists that I follow, or even thinking about fashion brands that you know colors that they're using. Or if you're super on brand, and you have your aesthetic figured out and things like that, like you can incorporate those in lash photos to make it your signature. Because when people see that they'll they'll think, oh, that's Mary, or oh, that's McKenzie, I see that whatever colors or whatever font that is kind of making it your own, but do that market research. And then just think about the transformation. And honestly, it just comes back to for me sharing your face and like getting your personally personality in there. Because like you touched on in the very beginning, you want to grow that like and know and trust factor you want those people to like you, you want them to know you and you want them to trust you. And the only way they can do all of those things. If you show up and you share your magic and you share what transformation you're creating for people, whether that be you know those testimonials, testimonials sharing that social proof. And that could be as easy as you texting a client, a newer client and saying, Hey, like, I hope you loved your service had a great time having you in the space. Please let me know if you have any questions. So looking forward to seeing you at your next appointment, taking that extra effort to just reach out to the clientele that you do have. Because word of mouth is also incredible. It doesn't all have to be writing on social media. But then if that client texts you back and be like I had such an amazing service like I love my lashes so much. Thank you. How easy is that for you to screenshot that share to your story that social proof is going to help those other people who are on the edge of booking with you. It's going to push them over that edge because they see that extra person saying I love my lashes like maybe that's all it's gonna take for them. But thinking about different ways that you can, you know, take care of your current clientele. And honestly you can use that as content as well,

Mary Harcourt: 

follows are so important, they are so valuable when you can reach out to a client and check in on it in a nice friendly manner. It's like, all of a sudden, they feel important and they weren't just another person in your bed, they had a connection with you. And now it's, it's just stabilized. They are your client forever. And then when you have them come back in the second, third, fourth time, and you will always know when you have a great client, they love you, you love them, the service is great, they're happy with it. And all of that, send them a little link to your Yelp or she your Facebook reviews, or your website and say thank you so much. I've really appreciated the times you've come in, if you have 30 seconds to leave me a quick review, it would mean the world to me and my business. And all of a sudden, now you're getting more social proof. And you can screenshot that text messages that DM saying, I love my lashes and put that stuff out because people are sitting on the sidelines going, hmm, should I or shouldn't I and help them get there. And I think there's another really cool trend going on right now. And I really like it as a person for me as a client, I judge people, if they have this, it throws me off to the edge. But the ones where it say like watch me get ready for a client for the day. Or let me take you through a tour for my studio. Because if you're wondering, it's great that everyone has pretty eyelashes, but a WHO ARE YOU which we talked about show your face so people know who you are, and be shown what your salon looks like? Because they want to know, when they arrived there are they going to instantly be able to recognize it is it going to be a place that they vibe with me some of these studios because we show everyone's room that has a Cosmo glow in it. The rooms aren't freaking adorable, and they're so different. We can tell someone's personality through it. And every day, we're wowed by the studios. And it's like girls show that off, like you worked hard to create that. And that's a selling factor for a client going wow, her room is so neat, clean, organize minimalistic, bright colored, however you want to describe it, that that's another way for that client to connect with you. If they look and go, I just love her style. I mean, we have some crazy creative ones where I look at it and go, I don't even understand how that came through your mind. But you pulled it off. And that just tells me that you're a cool person that does incredible work just from your room I already know. And I think that's a really good thing for you to do. If you're looking for content ish. Take a client through your studio, take them through your setup of the day, show them what bed the Lee lane and if you have something cute, I've even seen it where the They're upstairs. It's like, Hey, let me show you how to get to my studio and they run up the stairs when you go through the hallway and open the door that to a client instantly relieves them because they know where they're parking. They know how to get there. They know it takes all that fear. Like what if I can't find parking? What if I can't find them. And it lets you connect with your audience. So all of a sudden, they know where they're coming. They know who they're looking for. They know what service they're gonna get, and they know how their lashes are gonna look. And it's gonna bring you a lot more clients.

Mackenzie Graham: 

Oh, absolutely. I think it was like 2018. And I was still taking clients full time. Someone came to my door and said, Am I in the right place? Are you Mackenzie, they had no idea what I looked like they had no idea what my space looks like. So exactly to your point, like you want to eliminate that fear, you want to make them feel comfortable from the very beginning. Because if they're stressed coming in, because they don't know if they're in the right space, like there's a very easy way for you to eliminate that and just make their experience that much better. So show your face and your space. But as far as like diversifying your income. So you can step away from that there's a number of different things that I recommend doing to you know, people looking for that is raise your prices, raise them dramatically, people will still pay them. If you want to only see two people two days a week, and you want to raise your prices to reflect what you want to be making do it you will be able to find people who want to pay that you just have to market yourself in a different way, you have to realize what you have to be producing to charge those super luxury prices. And you just got to find the right people and people will pay it. There are some people who want to pay the most because they want to go to their friend group and tell them that they paid $500 For a full set $200 for their bill, or whatever, you know what I mean? Like you're allowed to do that it's your business, you can run it how you want to, but there are so many different avenues. There's online courses, there's in person training, it ultimately comes down to obviously, you this is where you could ask questions from your audience and say what do you want to see from me? But ultimately, it comes down to in that sense, in my opinion, what do you want to do? Because if your audience tells you they want in person training and you start doing in person training, and now you're burnt out from in person training and doing all of this, it's not going to be sustainable for you. And it's going to be a lot easier for you to really do some self reflection and figure out okay, what's gonna be sustainable what what do I actually enjoy? What can I do to make more money and not require me sacrificing my body? And sometimes what I like to do is I'm a huge journaler I really like to write down or ask myself questions. One question you can write down and start brain dumping on a piece of paper is how can I double my income this year, start writing down every single thing that comes to your mind, you might have 100, bad ideas, but you might have one that's going to be right on the money, and it's going to help you, again, just become the person that you want to be. And it's going to help you create the life that you want and create the business that you want. And sometimes you have, it's going to be something that you didn't expect. And that's okay, and just figuring out what works best for you. And now how you can market that to your ideal audience, ideal clientele.

Mary Harcourt: 

It's so true. And you have like, at that point, you have years in the industry, so you have knowledge and experience, and that knowledge and experience, others will pay to shortcut, I can spend eight years learning how to do this, or it can pay you to help me understand it better and be able to jump from where I'm at now to doubling my income in a year and then doubling it again in year two. And maybe that's a way that you kind of take a step back from the chair and reduce your clients and ease up your body aches and body tension. But still, you're having a fulfilling moment where you're just sharing that knowledge and sharing that experience that you will live through and work through on a firsthand basis. Well, Mackenzie, thank you so much for coming here today. You're such an inspiration and the lash and beauty industry and I can't wait to see you like blow up and get more courses out there and have a whole like matte glass University.

Mackenzie Graham: 

Thank you so much for having me. I really appreciate it. I remember the first time I reached out to you. I was like these are the coolest lights like I need them for my space. And we got them literally like the day before we opened and I was so excited that they arrived and like I just think you're incredible. I love your product. And I love this podcast. I think you're super cool, and I'm just really grateful to know you.

Mary Harcourt: 

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 cosmic glow light. I hope you enjoyed today's episode and many more to come