107: Esthetician Models Strategy: Why Your Clients Aren’t Rebooking

We share the system that turns models into momentum, lashes into stability, and scripted consults into stress-free rebooks. The aim is simple: use repeatable services to buy time, then build authority so facials and premium treatments stick.

• why repeatable services stabilize cash flow 
• how to script a consult that sells early 
• when facial models help and when they don’t 
• using lashes to fund skill-building and training 
• turning feedback into authority, not discounting 
• guiding clients into higher-value services 
• hiring timing once your niche fills 
• practical steps to pre-frame rebooking

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Transcript

Opening And Bold Promise

Announcer 0:00

Welcome to the Esthetician Podcast, where passion meets prosperity. Your host, Kari Jo Patterson, transforms from a solo esthetician into a successful business owner, achieving ultimate time and financial freedom by the age of 38. Kari is the author of Fearless Prosperity, empowering estheticians to build their empire and achieve financial freedom. And the creator of the Empire Growth System for Estheticians. Get ready for some empire building wisdom. Now welcome your host, Kari Jo Patterson.

Newbies, Confidence, And When Models Don’t Convert

The Lash-First System That Built My Team

Lashes As A Repeatable Revenue Engine

Building Authority With Facial Models

Systems Create Confidence And Stable Income

Start With Services That Force Repeats

Action Steps And Borboleta Training Offer

Kari Jo 0:32

If I am being totally honest, and I had a start over today in my town, knowing everything that I know right now, I'll tell you how I'd build my schedule. I'd book it full of facial models all day long for an entire month. And I would do that because guess what? I don't think I know I could get them to rebook. I'm not kidding you. I know it. And that right there, guys, that word I know, like I know that is why I could do it. The truth is, is I know that I could get all of those facial models to rebook. Why? Because I have a system. I already know, like I don't think I know I have 20 years of experience on me. I know that I could get somebody who comes in from with acne and I could take them from I know what to do from the moment they walk in until their acne is cleared up. Same thing with pigmentation. Like I already have a system, I already know exactly what I'm gonna do. I don't have to guess, I don't have to play around. I know what works, I know what doesn't work because guess what? I've been doing it for 20 years. In addition, I also have a system. My consultations, they are nailed to T. I have a system for my consultations and I repeat it like clockwork. The funny thing is, is like most of the time, like if you're a client coming in, you wouldn't know that I'm repeating my consultation. But literally, if you sat in a room with me, you'd be like, wow, she repeats like the same thing. It's a system, right? I know that like from the moment it would work because from the moment that that client comes in, I'm already selling them from the moment that they come in. So that when we get to the closing and I need to get them to rebook, they're already sold on me, right? I've already taken them through the whole entire sales process. Instead of what I feel like does happen in our industry is we wait until the very end and then we feel awkward and we're like, oh my gosh, I'm gonna have to ask for the rebook. It's gonna be awkward. I don't have that awkwardness because I started way back when. So by the time I get to the end and I'm checking them out, it's like just that's the next step that they should be rebooking. Like that's just it, right? And the reason why I have all of that is because I've got 20 years, I have authority, so I know I can do that. I know I could get those model clients to turn back and rebook. However, if I didn't have any of that knowledge, right? I don't have my consultation scripts memorized, I don't have what I say to acne clients memorized. I don't, I don't know any of that. Like I'm just newbie. I'm a newbie, I'm right out of school, right? I'm gonna be honest with you. I probably wouldn't start with booking me models that are for facials. And that's the part that is probably making you confused. Like, wait, you would, but you wouldn't. Well, when do you use it? Okay, I am gonna walk you through the real version of like my business and how I use models and when to use them and how I would use them now if I was starting over. So if you are one year into your business or you're like, you don't have a lot of authority like I just described in the very beginning, then this episode's for you because I'm gonna tell you how I would use models to actually work. And I know it works because guess what? I did it repeatedly. I didn't even realize that it was a system, but I did it repeatedly in my business to build all of my girls' schedules. So let's jump into what I actually did in my business. I had no idea I was developing a system, but I did. Surprise, surprise, I love developing systems. But when I first built my business, I had a really big lash clientele. I did have some facial clients, but I had a massive overload of lashes. And I knew that I wanted to do more facials because I knew I made more money with facials, right? Like I gotta do lashes for six, like an hour and a half and make 60 bucks, or I could do my facial. And at the time, I think my facials were like, I don't know, $80. It was eight years ago, guys. I know nowadays I would have charged more, but okay. So I mean, it's just common sense. Like, why would I be doing lashes if I could make more money with facials? Right. The problem was is I had all these lash clients and they were dominating my schedule, and that is just the truth. I obviously started hiring people, and you can hear about that on another episode. How I got into hiring people. I would went on, I had to go on vacation for two weeks. I had to, I didn't really have to, but I had to vacation, you know. Anyways, um, I had to go on vacation for two weeks and I wasn't gonna have anyone to take my take care of my lash clients, so I needed to hire someone. So I hired out of necessity of my clients versus being ready to actually hire. What I did notice is when I started hiring people, something just clicked. And I did this exact same thing for literally. I hired I've hired like over like five, well, well, over five people. I was gonna count how many, but um, I did the same thing with every single girl, every single one. It was hands down, I just did it, but it worked, right? It was a system, and I didn't even know it was a system. But when I hired him, it was way easier for me to have them come on and start doing lashes. It was just easier to train them, it was easier to get them booked, it was easier to keep their schedule full. So naturally, what I started doing in my business is when I brought new girls in, I always started them with lashes. I didn't train them on facials, I didn't train them on anything other than a lash consultation, you know how to check out the lash consultations, things like that. That is it. And it's not because lashes were their dream. Now, you've heard in my business, everybody was niche down. I had a permanent makeup artist, I had NBR hair extensionist, I had all different things, right? Everybody was niched down into something, but everyone in my business started with lashes. And the reason why is because lashes constantly bring people back. Lashes gave us time to build whatever schedule it is that they wanted. While they were sitting there doing lashes, I would train them on how to do lashes first, and then we would fill their schedule with lash clients. Well, I know that lash clients are gonna come back. Why? Because when they start falling off, they look dingy and they're gonna come back to get a fill. With the facial, you get the facial. Is there anything that's like causing you to look wonky in four weeks to come back? Not really. Do you know what I mean? But lashes, you're you they're gonna look wonky, they got to come back. So I would fill their schedule with lash models. And then while they were sitting there lashing, and guys, here's the thing about lashes too. You don't have to be good at lashes because you're gonna get good really quickly because you're sitting there doing the same thing over and over again. Are your first sets gonna be good? No, they're gonna look really awful. I'm gonna be honest. You know what I mean? But I guarantee you, like two only lashes for a month, and you're gonna be pretty dang good by month two because super repetitive. But when they're doing lashes, it basically bought me time. So I was able to then start training them on facials. I was able to start training them on how I did my facial massage. I was able to train them on how to do the consultation process. And I could work on teaching them the systems, I could work on teaching them the confidence while the lashes were, they were making enough money to get by to buy me time, to buy them time. This is the part where some of my clients, or not clients, some of my employees, sometimes it would get a little bit uncomfortable because, you know, I would people who had gone through the system, like I had a permanent makeup artist, she was making bang amount of money, right? And then you have this lash artist coming in and she's like, I'm not making any money. Like, I want to be her, right? I want to make her money, right? Guys, it's just natural. The employees are gonna complain, they don't want to do lashes, they want to make more money and things like that. This is the one thing that I would tell them over and over again. And I'm not kidding you, this word for word would I say in my employees, I would be like, listen, I don't control your schedule, you do. What do I mean by that? I literally mean if you want more facials on your schedule, you have to build more facials. If you want to do permanent makeup, you have to build permanent makeup. If you want more hydrofacials, you have to book more hydrofacials, right? You've got to talk to your clients, you've got to guide them, you've got to start marketing that. The point was like I fill their schedule with the lashes because it's easy, it's repeatable, it's going to work, those models are going to come. And then after that, you get to build whatever schedule it is that ultimately you want. So if you want facials and you want to do facials, or you want to do permanent makeup, or you want to do like if you want to do more hydrofacials because they make more money, whatever it is, you use the lashes to hold you and then start booking hydrofacials, right? Now, if your schedule starts getting really booked with a bunch of hydrofacials, it looks like you can't do lashes anymore. And then when you can't do lashes anymore in my business, then I'm like, okay, then that's when I need to hire another lash artist, right? I need to bring on somebody else because this girl's too busy doing hydrofacial. She's built the schedule that she wants. In my business, my employees knew like you don't just get a different schedule because you want it, you get a different schedule because you ended up building it and talking to clients and you moved towards one thing. Now, if you have ever said, listen, models, they don't work, or model, I do models and they never come back. I want you to hear this right now. Models are not meant to make you money right away, they're meant to help you figure stuff out. So when I talk about um, I built their schedule with with lashes to hold them over. Well, if they want to have a facial clientele, right? That's when facial models come in again. So now I can start booking them models for facials. Now I know these model clients aren't necessarily going to rebook quite like a lash client, but why would I book a if you're saying that like facial clients don't rebook like the lash models do, then why would I use them? Well, you're gonna use them because now you need to build authority. What I was talking to you about earlier, what I had, like I everything was memorized. I had a system for everything. That's when your models come back in, your facial models. Okay. So they're not there to make you money to rebook, right? It's to get you your system to practice your consult, to test your flow, to see if something works, to see what is not working, to see what your clients are like, yeah, no, that that that's too much money, or whatever it is. You're you're using your models as test dummies. But if you're new and you're booking models that are for facials, and you're new and you don't have authority quite yet, but you're expecting people to automatically rebook, that's not really how they're gonna work in the beginning. However, with lashes, it is because they have to come back with facials, they don't. So if you're using a service where they don't need to come back, there's not like an obvious in your face reason, then you're just going to be hoping instead of actually leading. And then you're just gonna continue staying broke. So using facial models, like getting models for facials, it only works when you are an authority. That's the only time that they are going to work and rebook. And if they're not rebooking, they're telling you you're not an authority in what you're selling yet. So continue using the models until you get that authority. And that is why I probably would start with facials today if I knew all the knowledge that I had, is I would be able to start with facial models because I already know how to do it. But if you're early and you're still figuring it out and you don't feel confident yet, then facial models are going to feel really hard for you. And it doesn't mean that you're stuck, it just means that you're trying to start in a position where you're not an authority yet, and you've got to learn your systems. If your income feels like it's all over the place and everything feels so much harder right now, and you're questioning your prices, you feel weird in your concepts, you feel pressure to discount at the very end, or you don't feel comfortable asking for a rebook. That happens when you don't have a system yet. You're not an authority, you're not quite there. And that is why doing the services that create repeatable services gives you stability while you are trying to learn that. It's not just lashes. I know like waxing. I've gotten on so many breakthrough calls with these wax studios where they're like, yeah, I'm like one year in, not even one year in, and I'm like seeing 20 clients a week, right? Why? Because waxing, you see it, it's in your face, it's coming back, right? So you want to do models when you're at the very beginning that that is an easy, repeatable service so that you can then financially survive while you are trying to build up whatever it is that you want to do for the rest of your career or I mean for a time, right? So if I'm being straight with you and you're just starting over, you don't have authority yet. Don't start by going out models for facials. Start with something that people have to come back for. For me, that was lashes. Even though it was cheap, I wasn't making a crap ton of money, I didn't love it. It was able to hold me over. Once your schedule is full, once your confidence is there, once you know what you're doing, then you get to build whatever it is that you want to build. Now, just because I'm talking about lashes, I'm gonna throw this plug out there for anyone who's listening. Is I use Borboletta. Borboletta was the brand that I always used. And I anyone who came to work for me, it was required that they got certified by Borboletta. Borboletta has an online training, and I'm going to add the link in the show notes below. If you are thinking of maybe adding adding this strategy to what you are doing, you can click in the show notes below. It will take you to their training, online training. If you use code Kari Jo at checkout, you will get 15% off of that online training. That's incredible. I never got 15% off when I was in the business, which would have been helpful because I paid for that course for so many of my employees. But all right, guys. Well, I hope you guys try out this strategy. Let me know what you think. If you are wanting to work on your business systems, I want you to book a call with me. I would love to work with you. So in the show notes below, you will see a link to clicking to my coaching program. You'll click that link, we'll get on a phone call, you'll tell me what your biggest problem is, and we'll see if we're a good fit. Guys, thanks for tuning in and please like and follow the podcast. I'll see you next time on the Esthetician Podcast.

Announcer 18:32

Thank you for listening to the Esthetician Podcast with Kari Jo Patterson. Each week, Kari brings you real-world lessons on how to grow your empire. To learn more about Kari's fearless prosperity mastermind group, one on one VIP coaching opportunities, and more, visit www.karijo patternson.com. That's www.kar i jopatterson.com. See you next week for more insights and strategies on the Esthetician Podcast.