Not-So Kind Regards

How Free Content Built an 8-Figure Brand: Kaitlyn Elford’s Strategy

• Maddy Birdcage & Caroline Moss • Season 5 • Episode 4

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This episode dives into the raw journey of building a multi-million-dollar brand from scratch, balancing ambition with authenticity, and learning the power of serving your audience with real value. Caroline interviews Kaitlyn Elford, owner and founder of Lost Artistry Lash. Kaitlyn shares how her approach to social media, overcoming burnout, and creating products that genuinely meet industry needs propelled Lost Artistry Lash to success—and how staying true to your passion can help any business thrive. 

Episode highlights: 

  • The journey from starting a lash business in her apartment to running an 8-figure brand 
  • Balancing rapid business growth with family life and managing personal challenges 
  • Embracing authenticity and serving her audience with free, high-quality educational content 
  • Growing Lost Artistry Lash’s social media presence with unique strategies on Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube 
  • Transitioning from hands-on salon work to an e-commerce model focused on education 
  • Understanding all aspects of the business before delegating tasks 

 

Next Steps: Ready to take your social media game to the next level? Check out Birdcage School’s Full Library, offering tools, templates, and mindset resources to build your marketing strategy from the ground up. Access here: Birdcage Full Library.  

Next Live Workshop: 

22nd November at 10 am (AEST)
Price: $AU29 / $US19
Sign up link: https://www.birdcagemarketingschool.com/products/live_events/marketing-funnel-workshop

Birdcage School Full Library:
The Full Library (birdcageschool.com.au) 

Connect with us: 

 

To work with us, book your discovery call at https://www.birdcagemarketing.com.au/start-here

To discover the school, visit https://birdcagemarketing.com.au/

Speaker 2:

Welcome to the Not so Kind Regards podcast. I'm Maddie Birdcage and I'm Caroline Moss.

Speaker 1:

We are done with the digital fluff and pleasantries and we're here to talk straight about brand building, digital marketing and personal growth. This episode is, of course, brought to you by Birdcage Marketing, the forward-thinking digital marketing brand that started this all. We have a special birthday offer, running now until the end of the year, to celebrate Maddie Birdcage's birthday. Our no BS birthday blowout special is for the action takers who don't need more advice and want actual, practical steps to take your business forward fast. You get a foundational strategy, valued at $6,000. We'll build the bedrock of your marketing plan so you're not constantly chasing trends, but creating a strategy that works. We will complete a website audit for you, valued at $1,250, where we'll pinpoint exactly what's slowing your site down and give you the actual recommendations to improve it.

Speaker 1:

We will complete copywriting for a welcome flow and one times EDM, valued at $1,500, so you can nail your customer's first impression with powerful, converting email copy. We will give you one week of content done for you on Instagram. That's three reels and three static posts, valued at $1,250. You can stop stressing over content creation. We'll handle it, so you don't have to. And then, finally, we will throw in one 40-minute coaching session with a coach of your choosing from the Birdcage team. That is valued at $1,250. You can get laser-focused advice on your most pressing business challenges. You get all of this at a value of $11,250 and you only pay $6,000. We only have six available until the end of the year. So to get started, book your discovery call at birdcagemarketingcomau and let's do this.

Speaker 1:

Now back to the episode. Welcome to the Not so Kindergards podcast. Today I'm joined by Caitlin Elford. She is the founder and CEO of Lost Artistry Lash, which is an eight-figure global lash brand offering high-quality, affordable lash products and accessible education to artists around the world. Her journey from growing a business from a one-bedroom apartment to a 7,000-square-foot operation with her husband in Victoria, british Columbia, canada.

Speaker 3:

Caitlin, welcome to the show. I'm so excited to have you here. Thank you so much for having me. It's amazing to be here in Cairns in Australia. I can't believe that I'm on the other side of the world.

Speaker 1:

I know. So you're joined by two North Americans sitting in little old cans in North Queensland, australia, today. So some backstory. We actually met Caitlin at the International Lash Masters Conference a few weeks ago two weeks ago now and she was one of the presenters and she just had so much, such a cool story when we chatted to her after her presentation. So Maddie and I were like we have to get you on the podcast. And she's like, well, I'm going to be in cans. We said let's do. It Works perfectly. So cool, all right. So I like to ask all of our guests this question, because it's kind of our new thing. We don't like to give people too many labels, but we've kind of figured out that people in the entrepreneurial marketing space are one of two kind of people. You're either multi-passionate or you're perfectionist, and you can be a little bit of both, but you might automatically identify with one or the other. So do you feel like you identify with one already Both?

Speaker 3:

Both. Yeah, actually, I'm super passionate about lash extensions and I'm also the biggest perfectionist you will ever meet. Really, it's intense.

Speaker 1:

Do you feel like you have a million ideas and you act on them straight away, but sometimes it means you're doing too many things and not finishing them? Or do you feel like you like to overthink a little bit and like to get it perfect before you take action, and sometimes you procrastinate? Or it's all of them all the time?

Speaker 3:

I feel like I'm the queen of doing too many things and not finishing all of them. Okay.

Speaker 1:

I'm really Maybe a bit multi-passionate.

Speaker 3:

Maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe. Yes, I am a bit of, I am a bit bad for that, but the things that I do put out there, it's perfectionism. I'm like the reason why it takes me so long to put out the things that I work on. Like, let's say, for example, I'm in the mood to work on a course. I'm like, okay, today my vibe is to work on right now I'm building a train the trainer course. I'm like, oh, I'm like really passionate about talking about this today, so I work on that. And then the next day I'm like I'm not really feeling that today. Today I want to like create some reels, or I want to like do something completely different. So then I work on that and it takes me a long time to get to the finish line with all of them, but I'm always working on all of them but you're still keeping track of them and you're not like you don't completely abandon the project.

Speaker 3:

No, no, never, never. But it might take me like, for example, some of our courses have taken me like four years to make.

Speaker 1:

Wow, it's crazy yeah, do you like, do you go back to some of that stuff four years ago and have to refilm it?

Speaker 3:

yes, yeah, 100. And right now, our courses, because the lash industry is always changing. We make it our mission for anyone who signs up for our online trainings that as we upgrade the trainings, they get access to the new information, because the industry is constantly growing and shifting. So right now, we're actually about to dive into our old courses. Instead of even diving into any making any more, we're going back to our older courses and we're going to revamp all of the information in there to make it more modern.

Speaker 3:

So that might take you a little while it takes so long, but we just slowly do it and luckily everyone is so understanding with that.

Speaker 1:

So yes, it's really good and like we were saying before this, before we started recording, is that you have to do things, different things all the time, learning all the time to stay excited about the work that you do.

Speaker 3:

A hundred percent All I'm yeah, all the time.

Speaker 1:

And when did you kind of figure out that that's your style in business?

Speaker 3:

I think it's always kind of been. I do think that one of the biggest learning curves for me personally in business was understanding that I'm only one person and you can. My husband says this to me all the time you can do anything, but you can't do everything. And there was a point in business where I wanted to have my toes dipped in literally every single aspect of business and I learned quickly and in the hard way definitely the hard way that you can't be a master at everything. So I've really kind of moved down the path of just content creation and education, like product development and stuff, and kind of stepped away from the other things in the business which is-. Found your strengths, yes, and then now we have a big team of people who have their own strengths and we don't really overlap as much anymore, which is nice, that's so good.

Speaker 1:

So let's go back to kind of those early beginnings. Can you tell us as long or as quickly as you'd like how you started? I know you started working as a hair dresser, hairstylist, yeah, and then you slowly moved into lashing.

Speaker 3:

So I started my. Well, I was always obsessed with beauty ever since I was a little child. I would be like doing my grandma's hair, and I started doing updos for people's graduations when I was like in grade 10, for people who were in grade 12. Like, I was just so passionate about the beauty industry since forever, and after I got out of school, there was no question I was going to be a hairstylist. So I went to hair school and did that for a little bit of time. And then I in what year was it?

Speaker 3:

Maybe 2011, years ago, however long ago that was I was working in a hair salon and the lady who owned the salon was like, oh, you're so meticulous, you love, like, all these little details that go into hairstyling. You'd love eyelash extensions. And I was like, was like, what are those? I never even heard of those. So she actually taught me eyelash extensions and, um, I never turned back. Wow, never turned back, but I started. So she taught me. And then we quickly that was a really remote town, my husband was working as um, he was working in oil and gas and we were only there for a very short period, so I kind of learned lashes there not very well, and then we moved to. That was in Newfoundland. That's where I'm from, larius from. I grew up a lot of my time in a town called Dildo, newfoundland. Everyone always thinks that's really funny, but I did hear that I know everyone's like. Well, seriously, look it up.

Speaker 1:

Jimmy Kimmel put it on the map Is there like a certain accent. You have to say it in to make it sound less dirty.

Speaker 3:

No, it just is. It just is. There's literally a video of my pop on YouTube that's like petitioning to change the name of dildo. He was like it's too phallic, but anyway, too phallic it is. It is Jimmy Kimmel. It's actually such a joke. Many funny places around there's like shag, rock, spread, eagle, oh my god. There's like all these hilarious names all around. It's like what is this? And a couple months ago literally this is not we came on the podcast for but a couple months ago a iceberg floated into dildo, newfoundland that literally looked exactly like just google it, I have to iceberg I'm gonna go down like a tiktok and it was like the Just literally Google it.

Speaker 3:

So funny. But Jimmy Kimmel found it and now there's like a Hollywood sign that says Dildo in the hills of Dildo, oh my gosh. But anyways, that's not the point. So we were living in Newfoundland and then Carson, my husband's, from British Columbia. So we were only living in Newfoundland for a very short period. That's where I had my first son, at 22. So quite young, and we moved back to British Columbia, which is we moved in with his mom, my husband's mom, and I started lashing from her couch and then slowly grew into owning and operating my own at home studio when we were able to get our own place, and then from there ran my salon and now today our international lash brand and training institute.

Speaker 1:

Thank you, svetov glossed over a few things there. A little bit, so you went from, okay, I know I want to over a few things there A little bit. So you went from okay, I know I want to be a lash artist. Yeah, was there like an itch that you wanted to scratch where you're? Like I want to do something more than this and that's why you went into where you are now? Or like, yeah, what was the decision process or the leveling up that had to happen between in apartment to?

Speaker 1:

owning a big salon to opening this international business.

Speaker 3:

Yeah Well, my big push was having a child and having no money. So as a hairstylist in the beginning, it's really hard to get ahead and to make a good income and I was. I was struggling big time so I knew I needed to do something. So I had this skill now from working at the salon that I was taught and even though I was no good at it, I knew that I could become something with it. So I started. I was working at a salon when I first moved to British Columbia and I would do lashes at home when I wasn't in.

Speaker 1:

So you do hair during the day and then, yeah, lashes, weekends, nights.

Speaker 3:

Exactly so. That was on my mom-in-law's couch for a very, very short period of time and then when we got our own place, I had a little mudroom and I turned that mudroom into my studio and it was actually really funny because I was a mom and we didn't have any support where we lived in Victoria. My little boy he was like one at the time. He would be like running around his diaper, like running in and out of the room.

Speaker 3:

My husband was so good so he would watch him, and in the evenings I would just like hustle and make as much money as I could. Right, it's just to make ends meet. And then that grew and my evenings were booked up and I was like, okay, kind of sitting down doing the math. I'm like, do I make doing the math? I'm like do I make more money?

Speaker 3:

from this or do I make more money from hairstyling? And it was like the universe just like fed me what I needed, because at that exact time the salon that I was working at shut down oh wow, they literally close.

Speaker 1:

They don't have to make the decision.

Speaker 3:

They close their doors and I was like, do I get another job or do I just move with this? And then that I just I just started doing hair clients from home. They shut down so I was able to take all my clients at home. Yeah, I had like a whole operation going at home and then I became fully booked and I was like, huh, I'm turning people away. At this point I was like, maybe the signs, like there's a sign that it's time to grow into a studio.

Speaker 3:

So we were so blessed and so lucky. My husband was working as an HVAC tech and like all the stars just aligned for us. His, the owner of the building that he worked at, had this adorable loft, just this beautiful suite, and he was like, do you guys want to take it over? And he literally charges $500 a month, like so inexpensive. So that's where I started my first salon. It was at first it was just me and another girl. I knew we were doing lashes and hair out of there and by the time that salon shut down it was actually because we outgrew the space and and kind of moved, lost artistry into that when we shut it down. But before it was shut down there was seven people working out of there. It was like a fully packed space. It was so amazing and, yeah, from there that's actually it just kept tumbling into the next thing.

Speaker 3:

So when I was running the salon, we needed lash products, we needed hair products and stuff. And, with the lash industry being so young when I was doing that, it was like what? 2016, I think. When I started that salon, there was not really many products out there and what was available just wasn't really good. It was kind of garbage, if I'm being honest, and I was like what is with this? Like I'm ordering these products and they're no good. I was like I can do better than this. Like I knew what I needed at that point. I just didn't know where to get it. So we that point. I just didn't know where to get it.

Speaker 1:

So we started kind of like working with manufacturers and and tailoring our own products like really changing things to be what I wanted and what our salon staff wanted, and it's such a big process, though, like you know working with manufacturers, getting them to send you samples, saying yes, no, sending it back. It was always no, yeah, it was always no, it was always no, it always no, it was like yes about certain parts of it, no about this.

Speaker 3:

But we were so lucky in that we built relationships with our manufacturers where we were actually able to make lost artistry products that are completely unique to us, so that was really cool, and having the girls in the salon trying the products as well, it wasn't just me who was approving them, it was like these seven other people who were also like yeah, yeah, these are good.

Speaker 3:

Or seven other experts exactly, and we all got to kind of play and be like I like this, I like this, here's what I like about this and what I don't like about this. So we all kind of work together and I brought them in just for the salon staff we did our business was quite different I. I really liked the idea of having everyone be their own boss and just kind of like sharing a space.

Speaker 1:

So I was going to ask you about that. Were they your employees or they rented a chair?

Speaker 3:

I did do a few employees over the years. But for me, what worked best at that stage at least now it's a little bit different but was having them run their own business. So, yeah, it was really cool. And what ended up happening is, when I brought them in, they would obviously purchase them at a discounted price to do their services. And they started telling local people hey, lost Artistry. Lost Artistry Salon is actually where the name came from. I had no idea it was gonna be a lash brand later. And they were like hey, this is my owner. Like the owner of the salon I work at, she has these products that come by If you want some. They're good, whatever. And then we started selling locally.

Speaker 3:

But I was fully booked in my services. So I was doing like 14-hour days at this point and jam-packed in my schedule and people would be like coming by nonstop. Hey, I want to see the products. What can you show me this, can you show me that? And I'd be like holy smokes. I'm getting taken constantly from my services to answer these people's questions or get them their orders started locally. And then at one point I just like had a meltdown and I was like I can't do this anymore. I was like my clients. Like my clients, they don't have the services now that they used to have, and the biggest thing to me was customer service and being there for my customers and not kind of taking away from their experience. So I was like let's just put this thing online. And so my husband and I worked together to put it online.

Speaker 1:

Let's just put this thing online.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, not to sell like worldwide or anything. That wasn't the plan. I'm just saying like that's a big task. Oh yeah, totally. Oh, my goodness, Was it ever? You're like?

Speaker 1:

we'll just chuck them online. Yeah, we'll build a website, put all the products up.

Speaker 3:

An adventure and a half because when we first started working with companies, I feel like a lot of marketing companies. They kind of feed off of your lack of knowledge.

Speaker 1:

So you're saying, like when you worked with marketing agencies, yeah, yeah, they were like oh, here's build me a website and it's like okay, the website's going to cost this much.

Speaker 3:

Okay, oh, we're going to put up ads for you and my ads. They were like oh, this is a good conversion rate. It only costs you $200 to get a customer. They're like, but in the long run, that customer is going to buy you like, buy so much, more and more and more.

Speaker 1:

It's like that's on you to make them a lifelong customer.

Speaker 3:

Exactly, I'm like $200 per customer, holy smokes and then.

Speaker 1:

And how like, how much was kind of like an average order value.

Speaker 3:

Well, it can be anywhere from like. In the beginning stages it was probably around $100.

Speaker 3:

Okay so it's like negative, it was horrific, it was so it was horrific, it was so bad. But I mean, it was true that we were gaining lifelong customers and at that point, like pre-made fans and stuff were, they were our thing and no one else was carrying them, so we had the upper hand there. For sure, people were coming back because they couldn't literally couldn't get them anywhere else. But, um, yeah, it wasn't until we actually my husband's, my husband's good friend, she now owns Lost Artistry with us and she came in and she's like just a wizard and she was like this is not acceptable, we can do better. I'm going to do it for you and yeah, she, she now it's like.

Speaker 2:

Now it's like $10 under $10.

Speaker 3:

Like sometimes, it's like $3. Sometimes it's $10. But, yeah, $200 to under $10. Like, sometimes it's like $3, sometimes it's $10. But, yeah, it's $200 to like under $10. It's crazy conversion rate.

Speaker 1:

I hear so many stories like that of other marketing agencies and you always want to like. As a marketer. I always kind of want to hope that people have the best intentions and they just don't fully know what they're doing. But the amount of stories I hear that are just like that. I'm just like why are there? We call them like cowboys in the industry, like there's just somebody who took like one Google ads course and they're like oh, I have an agency now.

Speaker 1:

I'm going to charge you thousands of dollars a month and they'd have no idea what they're doing.

Speaker 3:

Well, and the truth is, is that a lot of people don't know, right. So, like it is easy to be, it's I, Is it kind of like Wild Wild West, oh my God. Yes, there's some people out there who really put their heart and soul into their business and they're giving their best, they're putting their best foot forward and they're putting care into their business and stuff. But then there's other people who are literally gluing like six natural lashes to one crazy thick lash extension and they're doing damage to their clients.

Speaker 1:

So I think there's just it doesn't matter what industry you're in. There's good and there's bad. Yeah, I'm sure there is. So I guess, going back to that growth process, how many years did it take, like what was kind of the timeline there, between doing it yourself to growing the salon? To then it was pretty quick.

Speaker 3:

So we'll just start, because I could go back in history for a while, but we'll start from when I opened the salon to when Lost Artistry Lash, the brand, started, was about two years. Okay, yeah, so it was pretty quick and that was when we, like, were booming. So 2018 is when we put it online. So we were kind of selling before. We were kind of like testing the waters, not realizing where we were headed, but it was two years from opening the salon to that. And then 2018, we opened our doors and I'm pretty certain that within a month, couple months, we had done a million in sales. Wow, just an online sales. It was absolutely insane.

Speaker 1:

Wow, and that's all to other. That's like business to business.

Speaker 3:

Yes, yeah, yeah, yeah. Just to other lash artists, what?

Speaker 1:

do you think like? If you think back or even now, what do you think your point of difference is?

Speaker 3:

I think back then the big thing for us was that we were the only company carrying pre-made fans, and there just were no other options For non-lash people?

Speaker 1:

can you tell our?

Speaker 3:

listeners what that means. So, as a lash artist, you isolate one natural lash and on that natural lash you're either going to place one other individual classic lash is what it's called or a fan of multiple.

Speaker 3:

So a pre-made fan is just, instead of us, as the lash artist, having to sit there and build each fan. So picking it up it's tedious, right? It takes time. You pick up, you fan it out, you pick it up again, you dip it, you hold, it wraps around the natural lash. If you're making it on your own, yeah, with a pre-made fan, it's already made for you, it sits in the tray just already pre-fabricated. You pick up, you place it's like a lot faster.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, so we were the only company carrying those at that point, and also we were the only company that was giving free education. And again, this wasn't me with, like my marketing plan. I wasn't like I'm going to give free education because it's going to sell these products and I'm going to become a millionaire. It wasn't like that at all. It was like I suck at this craft.

Speaker 3:

This is the hardest job I've ever had in my life. I'm a broke ass mom and I have. I have to figure this thing out. And if I ever figure this thing out, I'm going to be sharing information for other people who spend thousands of dollars on a course that absolutely sucks and then they spend all their last dollars on that and they can't get ahead. So I wanted to just be that like safety blanket for people and a place for people to go if they were lost, the way that I was when I first started, when I did my first like I don't know year of lashes. Maybe I would bawl my eyes out after every service because I sucked at it so bad do you think you were just too critical, or did you actually?

Speaker 3:

I sucked at it oh, I was gluing people's eyes.

Speaker 1:

Shut left brain center how did you grow the business if?

Speaker 3:

you were. Well, that was the first couple years before I actually started growing, but I was lucky too, because the lash industry was so young, I got in at the right time. So, even though I was so bad at doing lashes and my work then was nothing compared to my work now I was one of the only people doing lash extensions, like in our city. It was me and one other girl who were the ogs of doing lashes. So if you wanted lash extensions, you're either seeing me or her name's lisa, and that's it and like half your town has their eyes.

Speaker 1:

No, it wasn't, it was. That was like the first.

Speaker 3:

Maybe I'm just kidding maybe the first like, oh no, it was really bad. Maybe the first, maybe five or six sets I did was horrific. There's just like glue everywhere. One girl I had to remove her whole lash set.

Speaker 1:

And start over or just like let her go. No, I just cried. I was like you gotta go oh my God, I removed it and I was like I'm so sorry you don't have to pay anything.

Speaker 3:

Here's some free hair products Like. I'm so sorry for wasting your time, but how did you kind?

Speaker 1:

of build your confidence, that you just kept doing it. I had to yeah, I had to figure it out.

Speaker 3:

It was like if I don't do something, I'm not going to be able to feed this kid. I need to figure this out, and I knew that I could. I it kind of started clicking. Unfortunately, I didn't have good education, but after a while I was like OK, if I do this, this works. If I do this and this and this. Just repetition and learning from your mistakes.

Speaker 1:

Did you like? Obviously that's a very like tangible memory for you. Did you bring any of that doubt into when you started growing the business? Did that come up for you a lot or was it just kind of like let's just do it? It wasn't a lot of thought process there was no thought put into growing.

Speaker 3:

Now there is, it's a lot more strategy and it's a lot different now. But getting to where we are just happened, so naturally, there was no thought put into it. It was like, hey, I'm going to open the salon because the writing's on the wall that I need to because I'm turning away clients, okay, we need products for the salon, because the writing's on the wall that I need to because I'm turning away clients, okay, we need products for the salon. We're going to get products for the salon. And then it was like, hey, I can't handle these people who are coming in anymore and I'm packing orders in the middle of my lash service. I can't do that, obviously, so I'm going to put it online.

Speaker 3:

And then, when we were online, it was the social media. Social media was still pretty young in comparison to what it is now and I was like I want to help people. So I put videos on to help and through helping people, I wasn't realizing that I was selling my products, but I was selling them because they actually are working for me, not to sell them. So there was no thought or doubt. It was just like I'm just doing what I got to do and yeah, it all just kind of happened.

Speaker 1:

Seems like everything comes from like a place of service for you. Like you're like, okay, it's not that's what we always say. Like if you're ever in a stuck in sales, rather than thinking how can I make more sales, it's how can I serve more people.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, and serve yourself and your soul, like for me it's. If I'm not doing something that serves me and that makes me feel good, it just doesn't sit right with me. I'm not willing to do that. Have you had any?

Speaker 1:

like failed business ventures or thoughts that you're like. No toss it no, I haven't.

Speaker 3:

This is really the only business that I've done. But I definitely have had moments where I've said yes to things that haven't really sat right and I like, for example, let's say, I'm not going to give any proper names to anything, but someone would reach out like kind of, when you become an influencer, oh, I like promote this product for me, and I'm like okay, I'll do it because you're asking me to and I, I care about you, but I don't actually really care about your product, you know. So there has been moments where it's like, hey, can you make a post about this? And then I do it and it doesn't feel right, and then it doesn't get any views and like people can see through your inauthenticity, like that so quick and especially if you're not using the product, then it's like oh, I guess.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, you're like reading from a script.

Speaker 3:

You're like and this is the perk and you have like no idea what you're talking about. Yeah, I feel like as long as you're doing something that's true to you, it's going to succeed. But there's definitely moments where I feel imposter syndrome for sure. Like for me speaking like when we did that presentation the other day, there was like 250 people in that room and standing in front of that room. I'm like why would these people listen to me? And then I have to like self-talk to myself. I'm like wait a sec, you're here because you do have something to say. I'm like a lot of just like self-talk.

Speaker 1:

Your voice matters. Yeah, exactly, you have something special to share.

Speaker 3:

A lot of people who's more suited for this than me.

Speaker 1:

You know, like there's someone's got to do it, why can't it be you there's? If another human's going to be able to do it, what can another human do that you can't do? You know and we were talking before this interview how you've gotten to places in your business where you were like so stressed out as well and talking about, like self-talk and self-care can you walk us through some of those challenges, and then what you do now to make sure it doesn't happen again.

Speaker 3:

Well, the business in the beginning was really hard because, like I said to you before, I went in business with my husband, and I had a baby.

Speaker 3:

I was 22. That was when I first started. Lashing wasn't as stressful, it was kind of just like a day. It was like a job, a regular job. And then, once I had my, I had my second baby and I was already. I was already in the salon, or I was. We were like building the salon or something. When he was born I think it was right around the time that he was born he was very, very fresh and by the time, lost Artistry started like growing. It was like holy smokes, put your seatbelt on. We're going for this ride. We're definitely doing it. There's no turning back now.

Speaker 3:

My husband quit his job so that he could help out with the business. I think it was maybe under a month and he had a good job and he was like no, we need to go full into this thing, this is an opportunity of a lifetime. So he quit. We had a three-year-old baby and a fresh baby and so and I'm also now in business with my husband, which I don't know about you if you've had any experience with that, but it's not easy like being in a relationship with someone and having like emotions tied with that person and never like, you're never clocking out no of your marriage and you're never clocking out of your business like it's never clocking out of your business, like it's hard, and also now I have a newborn baby who's literally breastfeeding from me and your brain is completely different because you're postpartum.

Speaker 3:

Yes, exactly. So in the beginning it was like, ok, I need to. I felt like I had this magical opportunity that I couldn't let slip, but I also had this family that I couldn't let slip, so that was really really hard finding a balance. I have no experience with business we did not grow up with money Like I have no background in this whatsoever, nor does my husband and so managing family, the work-life balance, and that was really difficult. And navigating conversations in business with my husband was really different too, because when we would have conflicting views on things, it was like are you attacking me?

Speaker 1:

Yeah.

Speaker 3:

But it's like no, we have to learn to have business conversations and then also emotional conversations, like they're not tied. So that was a big learning curve. And then it was really hard for me because I was still taking clients and at that point they were my bread and butter and this was a new thing and even though it was exploding, I was like what about if it goes away tomorrow? I can't give up these clients.

Speaker 3:

So, like making the adjustment Scarcity mindset making the adjustment like do I let go of these clients? I was, I kid you, not breasts, so I would go to work for like 12 plus hours a day, 14 hours. Some days my little fresh baby was in daycare by the time he was like a couple months old and I would come home from work I would legitimately have a baby dangling off my boob and then I would be packing orders. Well, he's in a sling, breastfeeding until like one o'clock in the morning and then he would get up in the night like over and over and over again, and it was absolutely insane.

Speaker 1:

It was so crazy.

Speaker 3:

I just had to. I was like I got to do this. I have to. And then I slowly let go of some of my clients and I remember feeling so scared about that, but they were all so supportive.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I want to talk to you about that because I know we have actually a student in Birdcage School and we spoke to a lot of people actually at the conference who are in that same transition from going to salon to having e-commerce or having an education business. And it's so easy to do like be in the salon or the studio and like be busy, because you feel like you're doing something but you're treating yourself like an employee rather than a CEO and it's really hard to have faith in the stuff that doesn't have like immediate return either. What kind of advice can you give?

Speaker 3:

to those people and I think, just be gentle and kind to yourself, because it is, there's such different roles and if you grew because you're so good at your salon role, it's going to be really different for you and you might not be super good at this businessy type role. So at first, at first, or maybe not ever, and that's okay too For me I'm not I mean this, I am not good at the business side of things. When we first started, I was, like I said before, I felt like I had to have my toes dipped into everything because it was quote, unquote my business, because I started it and I was like doing I wanted to be in on the finance stuff, I wanted to be in on the marketing stuff, I wanted to be in on everything. And I legitimately started losing my hair Like it was just falling out.

Speaker 1:

It might have had something to do with the fact that I also was postpartum. Well, I was also doing so much.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, not sleeping, that definitely didn't help. Probably not eating, not eating well enough, literally giving most of my body to my, my baby. But regardless, I was so stressed and I was so overwhelmed and I was in a bunch of these roles that I didn't belong in yeah, at all. And it wasn't until we hired the right people for those roles that I was like wait a sec, I am not going to be a superstar at this thing, and that's okay. What I can be is a superstar at the things that I actually enjoy lashing. I am the face of the company. I like education. I like lashing. I like marketing. I like creating reels. I like that side of things.

Speaker 3:

I now no longer even talk to our accountant unless it's something that we have to annually. I have to sit in and I have to be in the loop, of course, but I don't do that anymore. I don't look at those emails. I don't do that. My husband does that. He's like money and finance and the business side of things. And then we have another person who does like our Google ads and stuff. So obviously, you're not going to hire for all of those roles right away, but make a list, like a conscious list where you're like here are the things that I'm doing day to day that serve me, that that feed me, they fuel me. And here are the things that I'm doing that I cannot stand doing, like cutting checks. Like maybe you don't like doing payroll, yeah, I can't not do payroll, it's not good for me like I can't, I can't do it.

Speaker 3:

So I'm like, okay, these are. Once you have a list that's like, whoa, okay, this there's. Actually. I have enough on this list now that I don't enjoy doing that. Maybe it's time for me to get someone who does enjoy doing those things and then handing them off to that person?

Speaker 1:

Did you find like an admin person who could do a bunch of different things to? Start, and then yeah, yeah, and then kind of get more specialized people, exactly.

Speaker 3:

And you just slowly, slowly do that. Of course you have to figure it out, though you can't just like dive in. You're like day one, doors are open, I don't want to do payroll and you end up loving it, you know yeah. I don't think.

Speaker 1:

so I mean, I don't think so I feel like maybe with marketing though that's something I want to talk to you about I feel like marketing is very scary to a lot of people, and then you start doing it and you're like, hey, I actually like this, or hey, I'm actually good at this.

Speaker 3:

This is the thing it yeah. Maybe you hate it, maybe it's the worst month of your life when you are putting yourself into that, immersing yourself in that field, but you'll learn something from it and you're also going to learn what the other person needs to do.

Speaker 1:

You know. That's it. I feel like, as a business owner, you need to understand the foundations of all of your business so that you know if someone's ripping you off, so that you know how to train people. So that's because I do a lot of coaching for small business owners and a lot of them are just my goal for them is to be able to outsource their marketing eventually and get that budget. But I'm like I need to teach you this. Even if you hate Facebook ads, I'm going to teach you it so that you know, so that you know, so that you don't where. You told me about where someone's getting you like negative two. You know a negative two return on ad spend. Like we want to be getting a four or five, even more than that.

Speaker 3:

You have to have a general understanding of all the things that are happening in your business, for sure.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, at least take the time to figure that out, yeah, so, speaking about marketing, so you have over 90,000 subscribers on YouTube. You have over 250,000 followers across your brands on Instagram. We talked about this before and you're like I don't really know what I did, I just started doing. But do you feel like, yeah, you have some advice on how you started growing that, or what your approach is? Or even just like, what does your day-to-day marketing or weekly marketing look like?

Speaker 3:

Yeah, so they're all such different platforms. There's Instagram, which is, for us at least, and I'm sure it's different for lots of people, but for us, instagram is where we have our connected audience. It's like where our customers go to see what we're doing and like really it's the place that we connect with people who follow us. And then we have our YouTube, which is this completely different experience of. It's like full length tutorials, it's like our training, it's like our free education, our free training platform. And then we have TikTok, and TikTok is actually our biggest platform. We have like 600,000 followers on TikTok, but TikTok is completely different. Tiktok is just like a quick look and go tiktok. On tiktok, our best videos are like our cinematic videos, but something that kind of like catches people like we have. So silly, if you want to go viral on tiktok, slash artists, get someone to kick off their shoes and have them have a hole in their sock, literally everyone's gonna comment on it we post that video again and again.

Speaker 3:

we post like 10 times. Every time it gets like 21 million views, it's crazy. And it's just something that people watch and they're like, oh, she can afford. You want on TikTok something where people can comment and they can like share it because they think it's funny or like it's something. It's more like lighthearted People aren't really going on there to buy our products. I don't think maybe I'm wrong. They're more just kind of like it's more brand awareness.

Speaker 1:

Relatable entertainment, entertainment.

Speaker 3:

You feel like a bit of like controversy, yeah that can be good on TikTok, for sure, ours is more cinematic, our cinematic stuff does better than anything. But I don't think that that's the norm on TikTok. I think it's more just entertainment. Silly, they're all so different.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, TikTok is. I find it's like figure out what works for your brand and then just keep doing it over and over again. It's like you can try to do the exact same thing that someone in your industry is doing and it can tank, and then you find some random thing that you did worked well and you're like, okay, I'm just going to do this over and over.

Speaker 3:

Repetition, different client or repetition different, different day, like whatever works for you, figure it out In the beginning. My biggest tip to anyone, on any platform, doesn't matter if it's YouTube, tiktok, instagram, whatever is to try everything. So what I suggest doing and what I did was I went online and I still do this today. I just scroll, but not scrolling to just pass and go. I scroll with the intention of deciding what I like. So I scroll, I'm like, oh, I like this. And then I stop on that video and I'm like why do I like this? Yeah, but why?

Speaker 1:

I'm gonna investigate yeah.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, I'm like but why do I keep liking this video? Okay, I like it because there's a catchy caption, or I like it because in the first one second, it offered me value, or I like it because it had a cinematic approach, or I like it. I like it why? And then I'm like wait, you'll notice that you have patterns of the things that you like and these are the things that you're connected to. So I might be connected to, like I said, cinematic videos. We'll just throw that out. I really love cinematic videos. That's why we post a lot of them. I'm like okay, okay, now I found my niche, my thing. How do I bring that to life on my page? Because if I'm posting things that I like watching, I'm going to feel more connected to making that content and I'm going to want to post it more and I'm going to want to create it more, versus if I'm posting something just to try to get views but it's not authentically who I am, it's not something I enjoy making. It's probably going to bomb.

Speaker 1:

Or you're going to burn out eventually, or you're going to actually hate your job.

Speaker 3:

You're going to hate going to work every single day, and you can definitely. There's lots of people out there who create huge pages, but they don't really like the content that they make of course, but that's not the life to live.

Speaker 1:

I don't know about you, yeah, so I think this is great, great breakdown. So you've got tiktok, which is like random top of funnel. Do you feel like you do get, do you feel like you build a bit of a community there and they might come over to instagram or youtube?

Speaker 3:

for sure. Absolutely from a sales perspective, I would say tiktok's more of like our fun, just like be free. Brand awareness, but not in like a serious way. We're not like offering a lot on there. Our captions might be like one sentence long and then on our Instagram it's more quick form education for us. So you know, if you go onto our Instagram pretty much every single day, actually every single day, you're going to get some value and it's going to be quick and easy to process.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, not a lot of mental load.

Speaker 3:

Exactly, but also something that you're like, oh, that actually really helped me. And then you put it in your business. You're like, holy shit, this changed my life. I can't believe that this one little, this one second technique changed everything for me. So that's kind of our big thing. It's like if things, things that actually impacted me and helped me, is what I want to put on my page.

Speaker 1:

How do you manage all of that? Do you have? Does your team help you Big time? Are they in salon as well?

Speaker 3:

Yeah, so we don't have a salon anymore. We shut down our salon. We do, and we don't Not a traditional salon where people book in. It's people reach out to Lost Artistry and we use them for content and things like that. So we have a salon. We just don't have a like book in come and get your service done. It's more like a book beyond film be a guinea pig for us. Exactly, exactly. We do have other artists who work in there. Now we have like a lash lift tech and anyways, lots of stuff going on in there. It's just not your typical salon, um, but we have a content creation team. There is five, six, five or six of us on just the creating content side of things. Yeah, we all have kind of different roles but we work together as a team all the time to create things.

Speaker 1:

Do they help you also fulfill the orders, or that's a completely separate team?

Speaker 3:

That's a completely separate team. On Black Friday, for example, it's the craziest time of the year.

Speaker 1:

We all are packing orders Like it doesn't matter what your job is. You're in there packing orders and you're going to set up the camera and document it too.

Speaker 3:

Exactly exactly, but we do have a completely different team who runs the warehouse side of things. So order fulfillment.

Speaker 1:

And did that all kind of grow organically as well? Or did you like hire one person to help you with content, then one more person, then one more person, or was it just like I know I need a team?

Speaker 3:

No, it all kind of naturally happened. We, we okay Backstory Cause I feel like you guys will like this but when we started so we were out of our salon, I said that we started bringing products into the salon. I was carrying products in this little tiny, um so tiny closet in our salon where we also had our hair supplies and stuff, and we were. We outgrew that and then I had no choice but to bring the products to my house. So we had my son's room.

Speaker 3:

He was a newborn baby. We put the products in his room. He no longer had a room. He shared a room with us and then he shared a room with his brother, and then we outgrew the spare room. Well, my son's room. It was only his room for like a very short period of time, and then we outgrew that, and then my husband and I moved into the spare room. So my husband and I. So there's now my rooms in the spare room. Our master bedroom is now a full blown warehouse. Then we outgrew that and now my husband and I sleep in the living room.

Speaker 1:

At this time or now. Right now, no, no, no, not right now. This is like back in the day.

Speaker 3:

So we went from the closet in the salon, spare room, spare room to master. We no longer had the spare room or the master because we literally slept in the living room, our bed in the living room, like we had a full blown bedroom in the living room. It was so crazy. And you had a toddler running around too, touching everything. Toddler, baby, it was insane. Then again, all the stars just aligned for us.

Speaker 3:

I don't know if this is what we were meant to do or what, but at that time we were like what do we do now? Do we have to get a building? What are we going to do? The tenants, so we were renting. At this point we did not own a house. The tenants moved out of the basement suite and we like call our landlords and we're like, hey, can we rent the basement? And they're like, yeah, so we moved all operations down to the basement suite and you had a bedroom. We had a bedroom, we had the. Both kids had rooms.

Speaker 3:

And then there was it was so full in there. There was you open up like the kitchen cupboards, and there's like tweezers, there's lashes, everything. Like you had to walk sideways to get in through the hallway. It was crazy. And then we got our own first warehouse, which we rented and that had a training institute upstairs and warehouse downstairs. Then we up, we outgrew the upstairs. No more training done with training up there now, and now it's all products up there. So upstairs and downstairs of the warehouse there, all products Outgrew that had to walk sideways to get into there. It was horrific. Then we took over the salon, so we had the upstairs and downstairs and the salon and then we finally bought our building that you're in now, that we're in now, and you shoot content in there and it's a warehouse.

Speaker 3:

Yes. And you run your business from there. Everything is under one roof now.

Speaker 1:

The cash flow side of things to ordering products. Was it always just like I know? Was it a leap of faith? Or was it always just like? People are knocking down my doors and everything sold out and we're doing pre-orders? Oh it was so hard.

Speaker 3:

Keeping stuff in stock in the beginning, like managing inventory that is not my strong suit at all. Luckily, now we have a team of people who I don't even. I don't do any of that anymore. I test the products and make sure that they're right and, if anything, let's say there's something going on where it's like, hey, this might be like a mislabeled tray or something. Obviously I'm. I'm in there making sure everything's good in that way, um, quality control wise, but no longer sitting there with spreadsheets ordering we. We have a team who does that, which is really nice. That's so good.

Speaker 1:

I'm sure so many e-commerce entrepreneurs are like can I just get to that stage please? Yeah, like that would be the bane of my existence.

Speaker 3:

Oh, it's absolutely so much more difficult than people think and we have 3,500 different SKUs to manage Wow 3,500. Yeah, and they're all small, so tiny, small things.

Speaker 1:

They're so itty bitty.

Speaker 3:

They're like this big, they're so small. But so, for example, right now it's Black Friday and we're like, oh my goodness, we don't even have room to put our Black Friday inventory in, because we need a lot of certain number of SKUs. And then some of them are like they're really important, people rely on them, they love them, but we don't sell them all the time. They're not going to fly off the shelves on Black Friday. So we now are doing actually tomorrow, so Monday in the Monday today in Australia, but Monday tomorrow in Canada we're doing a blowout of $5 to $10 lash trays. They might be regular like 50 bucks, but we're making room for for black friday, yeah you just like get them out the door get them out the door so we can get the new stock in and fill the shelves with yeah with those things.

Speaker 1:

Um. So, since you are on holiday, do you get to relax now? Like, 11 years being a ceo, a founder, you've got a eight-figure business. Like, do you get to switch off?

Speaker 3:

yes, more than I did before. I was actually sitting down the other day and I was like whoa, I actually have never clocked out completely for the last eight years.

Speaker 1:

Yeah.

Speaker 3:

I haven't taken one full day where I don't like respond to emails or be in contact with the team, and I have done that a little bit on this trip, but definitely still in the evening I'm like, okay, I want to make sure everything's kind of like set up, but we're still so you can go to sleep and feel like I can relax.

Speaker 3:

Exactly, but we now have everything so organized. We have an amazing team Like. We have systems put in place for everything, so I know what's going to be posted tomorrow and the next day day and we have it all organized. Our team's really connected. They know what's going on, so I have no worries. That's no worries anymore, which is amazing yeah, eight years.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, it's taking you a long time to get there, though yeah, and I have burnouts like all the time you do still. Yeah, yes, all the time it doesn't?

Speaker 3:

you don't just shut off your brain? I mean, yeah, I'm on vacation mode it's, it doesn't.

Speaker 3:

You don't just shut off your brain. I mean, yeah, I'm on vacation mode, it's. It doesn't work like that. I definitely needed this vacation. I feel like the last couple months have been chaotic. Like I was telling you before the podcast, we before we always had a full-time videographer who was in there like doing all that work. But he's gone and we were and he was like you don't need me, like you don't need to fill my role, like Like you guys got this, you, all you need to do is learn the camera. So we learned our whole team like learn the camera, myself included, and now we're like full-time videographers and stuff too. So I've, for the last little bit, learning that new role and, as you know, marketing is our biggest thing in our business, so there's a lot of pressure with learning and making sure that you're not only a videographer but a good videographer who can keep up with the content that we've been posting for the last eight years.

Speaker 1:

So I think that's. My final question is I know a lot of entrepreneurs worry that if they're in the education space, it's like if I give away a lot of free knowledge, does that mean people won't pay for the other stuff and what's kind of your strategy there, Because you have a huge YouTube channel where you teach so much?

Speaker 3:

That's so funny because people say that all the time. They're like, why would you do that? Like why would you ever teach people stuff when you should be charging them money for it? And I'm like, hey, I never started this to become super rich. Like I never started this business to be a multimillionaire. That's not, that was not the goal. My goal was to help people and that is just so. It's like it's at my core who I am and I'm not going to break that. So even if it wasn't making me as much money, I wouldn't really care. Like okay, people can buy it. Go, literally take the information, go sell it. Like go do your thing with it. I don't care.

Speaker 3:

But ironically and I think that this is something that if anyone's out there who's kind of contemplating, like, do I put this out there for free? Do I put it out there for money? Like what do I do? I will tell you that we have thousands and thousands and thousands of students who support us online and in person all the time. I think because I'm giving not just me, our whole team, because we're giving so much free education. People trust our programs and people trust that if they come to us, if our content is good that we're giving for free, our courses are going to be good and, it's true, we do make it our mission to make our courses the best of the best and we're always working on improving them to make sure that they stay the best of the best.

Speaker 3:

So I think, even though I'm giving stuff for free, people, even if they're re-watching a video that they've already seen, they're still getting a structured program and they still have a certificate hanging on the wall and they got so much more value from that than they ever could from the free platforms.

Speaker 3:

Like, when you think about your platform, yes, you might know like the person who's making the content might know that three months ago I posted something that's about classic and then I posted something else about classic two months later and then two months later and two months later I know that, yes, if someone were to go back in the history of forever on lost artistry lash, they would get so much value and they would get a lot of the value that's in our course, but it would be so hard to digest and so like out of order that it's hard to kind of process, yeah, you know. Versus when you do a course, you're like, oh, I'm going through the flow of this. I understand like this is leading into the next thing and the next thing and the next thing, and it all flows so much better. So, yeah, I think that was just a long winded way of saying that giving people value isn't taking away from your business at all. I think it's actually adding to it and I think it helps sell more of the things.

Speaker 1:

Definitely it's creating goodwill. It's like providing a service. It's for the people who can't afford you yet. But they're like you know, people sometimes take a long time, could be years before they're ready to work with you, but they've known about you for years. People tell us about Maddie all the time. Been following you for a year and now I've signed up to work with you. I've been following you for two years. I will will hang on everything you say, but I'm just, I'm almost saved up enough for your course.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, and you're building trust, and the question I think is is like are you someone who deserves this trust? And if the answer is yes, then you have nothing to worry about.

Speaker 1:

Exactly, Exactly. Well, on that note, can you tell everyone where to find your business online? Where to find?

Speaker 3:

you online, absolutely so. My name is Caitlin. As you said earlier, you can find us on Instagram, tiktok, pinterest, youtube at Lost Artistry Lash Amazing.

Speaker 1:

Thanks so much for joining me today. I'm so excited to hear what everyone thinks about this episode Me too, thanks.

Speaker 2:

Thanks for listening to this episode of the Not so Kind Regards podcast. We hope you enjoyed it. If you did, we would really appreciate if you left a review on whatever streaming platform you are using. It helps us to grow as a brand new podcast and to help many more business owners and content creators reach their goals, just like we hope this brought you one step closer to yours. Remember, connect with us on tiktok, at maddie birdcage and at birdcage marketing, and the same handles on instagram again, and if you really want to learn how to work with us, make sure you head to our website and book a call. We would love to speak with you.