Stylist to Educator: The Mindset Shift

Becoming an educator sounds exciting - creating courses, teaching students and sharing your knowledge with others. But what nobody really talks about is the transition itself.

In this episode, I share my personal journey from stylist to educator, from attracting clients to teaching students, and the mindset shifts I had to make along the way.

I open up about:

✨ Feeling like a beginner all over again
✨ The imposter syndrome I experienced as a new educator
✨ Why teaching felt more stressful than working with clients
✨ Changing my content from attracting clients to attracting students
✨ Finding my ideal student and building trust

✨ Why perfection doesn't exist in education
✨ The lessons my students have taught me over the years

If you're a lash artist thinking about becoming an educator, currently teaching, or feeling stuck between clients and students, this episode is for you.

Main Sponsor: This Episode is Sponsored by London Lash, the go to brand for professional lash products, education, and tools designed to help artists achieve consistent, long-lasting results.

Enjoy an exclusive listener discount on your next order: 20% off with code KARIS20 T&Cs apply.

Shop London Lash: https://londonlashpro.com/?utm_source=podcastsponsorship&utm_medium=videos&utm_campaign=behindthetweezers&utm_content=episode14

Episode Sponsors: This Episode is Sponsored By Lash Oasis. want to try their new Hybrid Korean Lash Lift system?  Use code: KARIS10 on your first order!

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

What if I don't explain things properly? What if they leave disappointed? I actually used to lose sleep over that. Students felt like a responsibility. Students don't just buy courses because of certificates. And if I'm honest, becoming an educator felt like becoming a beginner all over again. The biggest challenge was changing my mindset. This episode of Beyond the Tweezers is brought to you by London Lash, a brand that I've trusted and used throughout my entire journey as a lash artist and trainer, and one you'll always find in my lash room every single day. Hey my lovelies, welcome back to another episode of Beyond the Tweezers. In today's episode, it's one that I've wanted to record for a while because it is something that I've personally experienced, and honestly, I don't think enough people really talk about it in the education world. We hear a lot about becoming an educator. We see people launching courses, becoming trainers, speaking at events, creating education, content, building successful training businesses, but we don't often talk about that transition itself, that bit in the middle, the hard, lonely part. The part where you've spent years becoming a stylist, building a clientele, attracting clients through the door, and creating an amazing client experience, and then suddenly you decide you want to teach. Because they're actually two completely different businesses, they're two different audiences completely. And if I'm honest, becoming an educator felt like becoming a beginner all over again. I think I was around 21 or 22 when I first decided I wanted to become a trainer. It was around COVID time and the world was on lockdown. And I thought, what a great time to complete my award in education. So what I did is I started the essays, started creating the manuals and putting everything in place to eventually teach. And then during that time, I got approached by a brand. And if I'm honest, I was over the moon. I think when somebody approaches you rather than you approaching them, it feels really validating, like they've headhunted you. It feels like someone sees potential in you. And at that age, I don't think I even questioned whether I was ready. I was just really excited. And how it came about was I like I said, I was doing my coursework, I was sitting at the laptop, and it was actually one of my friends who worked for this brand in particular. And our paths had crossed when I did my first ever live competition in London. And I saw her with this brand. They were all there, they were all supporting each other, and she won, I won, a few of the other members in the brand, they won it during this competition. And I remember connecting with one of the girls from the brand, and we were chatting away, and she was like, Do you know what? We're actually looking for an Essex-based trainer. And I was like, Really? And she was like, Yeah, let me let me put a word in. And she told the brand, she was not the owner, she was like the UK distributor of the brand because the brand was Polish. And yeah, she put a good word word in with me. And then one day I was literally doing my coursework and I had a message on my phone saying, Hi Karis, absolutely love your work. So-and-so's obviously spoke to me about you. I would love to ask if you would like to become a trainer for this brand. And I remember looking at my phone, like, oh my god, someone has approached me to become a trainer. I am currently doing my award in education, I'm currently writing my essays, and it kind of felt like everything just linked, everything just connected, and I was like, is this meant to be? But like I said, I was so young, so I didn't know if I had that in my mind. Like, am I ready? I was just so excited to be a part of a team. So I mentioned before the brand itself was a Polish brand, the products were amazing, the glues were amazing, the lashes were really high quality. They just weren't a huge household name in the UK at the time. But like I said, one of my friends was already involved with them. So they were looking for UK trainers to build up the trainers in the UK. But the funny thing is, is I became a trainer for them when I didn't actually use or know the brand. I literally just jumped feet first to work alongside them and become an educator instead of doing it on my own. And I don't regret that decision, that decision of working with them. But I think I was so quick to say yes to a brand that I didn't really know anything about or didn't even use. I think the excitement got the better of me, and the people that were in the team, they were all quite well known, and I was just like, I've got to grab this opportunity with both hands. And you know, one of the best things that came from that opportunity was actually meeting Mariola. Mariola is known in the lash lift world, but during her early days before she became so well known as like the lash queen, she was actually a really incredible educator for brows, lash lift, lash extensions. She won multiple competitions, she was judging competitions, she was someone I was so inspired by by such a young age, like she had judged my work, I'd watched her in conferences, and Mariola for this Polish brand was like the UK distributor. So she was the one who looked after all the girls, educators in the UK, and as well as distributed the products in the UK for the brand. And when I got to become a trainer for them, it was actually Mariola who approached me. She was like, I love your work, like I said before, loved your work. Do you want to become a trainer? And we had like a four-day training programme where I went up to Northampton, trained with Mariola, she helped me mould into an educator, it was an intense four-day course, and at the end of it, I got my qualification as a trainer for their brand at the time, and it was the most incredible training, but also I got to connect with Mariola, and we have been friends ever since. It was like our paths, like our paths are always we're gonna cross. I actually saw her at that competition in London. Uh, if you remember me saying earlier when I entered and it was live, and some of the girls in that brand, they were they were winning, I won, but Mariola was there. I didn't know who she was at the time, but I saw her from across the room. Months passed, I then got her message to ask if I wanted to be an educator. I then went on to working alongside her and her team, and yeah, me and Mariola have been good friends ever since. And I think that's one of the loveliest things about opportunities. Sometimes they don't just bring you career growth, sometimes they bring you people into your life too. And me and Mariola don't work together anymore, but but despite not working together, we're still such good friends. Like we will always connect where we can, meet up when we can, and we talk often, and I just feel like you meet people along your journey, and when you connect and build that friendship, it just will always stay. I owe so much to Mariola. She believed in me when I didn't really believe in myself, and she's just been a huge part of my whole entire career, if I'm completely honest. Even though we went separate ways from the brand, she's always been someone who's always been in my corner, always there to lend me advice and yeah, to be my biggest cheerleader, and for that I'll always be grateful to her. But let's talk about education. Because what I wasn't prepared for was the confidence side of becoming an educator. Because when I look back, I don't think I lacked skill, I think I just lacked confidence. I was confident with working with clients. I spent years working with clients, I knew how to build relationships, I knew how to build a great experience, I knew how to make people feel comfortable, I was fully booked, but students felt different. Students felt like a responsibility, and I remember I remember questioning myself constantly. What if I don't explain things properly? What if they leave disappointed? What if I can't answer all of their questions? What if I'm not actually good enough to teach? And in fact, I still remember my very first student. I remember her booking in for like a combined course, so she had classic and volume, and I was like, oh my god, I've got my first student, I know how to do lashes, like I have built this successful business, but now I have to break everything down into baby steps, they're complete beginners. I need to make sure that I'm explaining it in simple terms. I'm I'm breaking everything down so that I'm not overwhelming them too much. And I actually used to lose sleep over that. I'm not even gonna lie. I used to lay in bed the night before and be so stressed and anxious because I really wanted to give them the best first training for them to enter this industry and have such a good foundation. And the thing with me is that I care so much. I often get told that you care so much that you put so much pressure on yourself. I do, I admit that I am like that. But do you know what? I care so much, and I think that's why I care so much, and that's why I think my trainings are always going to be good. But at the start of being an educator, I didn't believe in myself. I was really stressed, I was really anxious, like I said, wasn't sleeping the night before, and I would start the morning feeling like I was gonna have a panic attack because it was like the unknown. I'd never done it before, and I like I said before, I felt like I was a beginner, a beginner again, but in a whole different new world. Just a quick one before we get back into the episode because I need to tell you about a product that I generally can never work without London Lash Superbonder. Honestly, Chef's Kiss. It's one of those products that lives on my trolley and gets used on every single client. What I love about it is that it helps seal and cure the adhesive within just a couple of minutes while still creating flexibility in the glue bond. This means the bond is less prone to becoming brittle and breaking, which can improve retention up to 30%. For me, that is an absolute game changer. And here's a little tip: when applying it, don't brush it over the top. Make sure you're only applying it directly to the glue bonds from both top and underneath to get the best results. Trust me, once you start using it, you'll wonder how you ever worked without it. And of course, I have a little discount for you. You can short the London Lash range using my code Caris20 and this will save on your order. Now, let's get back to the episode. Looking back now, it's funny because at the same time I was entering competitions, I was winning awards, I was getting recognition. People were complimenting my work, telling me how much I was smashing it. I was doing well. But confidence doesn't really work like that, does it? You can have all the evidence in front of you and still doubt yourself. Because during that time, around 20 years old to 22, I was winning an awards left, right, and centre. I literally was. And even though I was getting the awards, I think just at that fundamental age of your early 20s, you're still trying to figure things out, you're still trying to figure out who you are, and I was still overcoming self-doubt and that imposter syndrome, and then on top, I was then thinking, right, it's time to be an educator, and I think all of that combined just consumed me, you know. I think I was maybe doing too much all at one time, and I think looking back now, I knew I was good at my lash skills, but I didn't really trust myself, and that's probably something a lot of educators experience but don't necessarily talk about. I was good at my job, I was good at clients, I was good at my skill, but maybe I just wasn't believing that I could give my skill to someone else at that time or know how to do that. Do you know what I mean? Even though I could do it and I was getting the feedback of my students, would be like, Oh my god, you're such a great teacher, da da da. I'd always afterwards be like, Did I explain that well? Did I need to change this? Do I need to do this? And yeah, I think I was just putting so much pressure on myself, but I was super young. But if I'm honest, the biggest challenge wasn't actually teaching. The biggest challenge was changing my mindset. Because as a stylist, my whole business was built around clients. Everything I posted online was aimed at clients. Before and afters, availability, client reviews, treatment information, prices, aftercare, everything was about attracting clients through the door. Then suddenly I needed students, and students are completely different. You have built this audience online to get clients. A lot of people who may follow you are clientele, you know. You're posting in your captions that you can make their day easier every single day with lashes on or a lash lift, have a low maintenance, da-da-da-da. And then you now have to completely shift your mind to look at your ideal student. Who are you talking to? You have to completely change your content and your target audience, and that is something I admit I struggled with at the beginning. I couldn't get out the stylist mentality. I then would overthink my content. Should I be posting this? Should I be posting that? I still do clients, so should I say that they can book in here, but then I want to have students? You know, it got confusing. That even sounds confusing, me saying it, but that's how my brain was. And you really have to shift that mindset into okay, who is your ideal student? What are you fixing for them? And your content should speak and be directed to that type of artist. So as a stylist, I would be posting pictures and videos of before and afters, and then in the captions, I would usually put like if you want a book, follow the link in the bio. I would then say the price, um, call of action. You know, I'd be directing my clientele. But then I had to completely shift my mindset from stylist to educator. So from what I was used to post back then to what I post now, I am posting to a different target audience. So I am now talking to lash artists, my ideal student. What can I fix? Tips and tricks, fanning techniques, pre-treatment products, retention tips, you know. I am changing my content so much from back then when I was just trying to get clients through the door. But that transition I found really, really hard because I was still sometimes in a stylist mentality. I spent so long building a clientele, so long building this audience online to get people through the door, and then I had to completely shift it and no longer talk to clients when that's all I'd ever known for about four or five years. That shift is very difficult. I remember feeling really stuck in this stage because I still had clients. I was still lashing clients, but I also wanted students, so I didn't really know who I should be talking to at that stage. Should I post my availability at all? Should I post educational content? Should I do both? And I think a lot of educators get stuck in this awkward middle stage where they're trying to attract two completely different audiences at the same time. Something else I found really interesting was this. I knew how to get clients. I spent years learning how to do that. I'd built my clientele, I knew what worked. But getting students through the door to me felt completely different, and honestly, it felt much harder because it felt more personal. If a client didn't re-book, that was okay. But if a student didn't book a course or I was struggling to get them over the line, that felt different because now it wasn't just my work being judged, I felt like I was being judged. And I think at the beginning, when you become an educator, you might find that you have empty course dates, you know, you might find that you've got all your manuals done and you're ready to teach, and you put it out there, and it's like crickets. No one's booking in for your course, no one is jumping at the chance to buy your course, and you're sitting there thinking, hang on a minute, I'm so good at my job. Why is no one booking in? And the thing is, you have to now nurture a completely different audience, clients, students completely separate. You've got to build trust and connection with your students, potential students, for them to invest in you. Something else nobody told me is that becoming an educator never really stops. I think when we're new educators, we put so much pressure on ourselves to deliver the perfect course, the perfect explanation, the perfect training day, the perfect experience. But the reality is every student teaches you something too. Every single course I've taught has made me better. I've finished the training days and thought next time I'll explain that a little bit different. Or that analogy worked really well. I'll use that again. Or I think I can make that section a little bit easier to understand next time. Because every student learns differently, and that's completely normal. We have to adapt our teaching style to suit them. And it's like I did an online course where I'm gonna give you an example of this. A lot of the time you see online that a lot of educators tell you one way to hold a pair of tweezers. Okay, so usually it's your free fingers and then your thumb and your pinky is more of the support. Whereas with me, I have bendy fingers, so the way I hold tweezers doesn't work. And I remember on my online course, I showed two different ways of holding tweezers. The way that everyone says is correct, and the way that I hold them. So share what you know because I generally think there's no right or wrong way of doing something. Of course, you need it to be safe, but if you find something helps you, share it with your students because that might be the smallest tweak that makes all the difference. I think one of the biggest lessons I've learned so far is that perfectionism doesn't exist in education. You're not aiming to be perfect, you are aiming to improve. And the day I stopped trying to deliver that perfect training course and focused on delivering the best course I could in that moment was the day I actually enjoyed teaching a lot more. But don't get me wrong though, I still have my moments where I worry if someone actually enjoyed it, even if they say, Oh my god, Caris, I love that. Um, thank you. I always have sometimes that little niggle that creeps in and goes, Did they actually enjoy that? So I always ask my students for feedback. I always want to know exactly how the training went for them, and for me, that helps me feel reassured that I'm doing a good job, but also know where I need to do better next time. I'll be honest, one of my biggest fears when doing a lash lift is accidentally using step one twice. Most lash lift brands have solutions that look exactly the same. So if you get distracted for a literal second, it can be easy to second guess yourself. I actually saw a lash artist online do this once and accidentally overprocessed their clients' lashes, which then needed a complete reversal. Safe to say, my anxiety levels went through the roof just watching it. But this is one of the reasons I love the Lash Oasis Korean lash lift system. Step one is blue, step two is red, so there's absolutely no confusion about which solution you're using. It's such a simple detail, but honestly, it makes a huge difference when you're working. I also love how fun they've made the whole system with their colours and the packaging. Sometimes it's the smallest details that make your treatments feel so much easier. I've recently stocked up myself, and if you want to give it a try, I have an exclusive discount for you for your first order. Just use the code CARIST10. Head over to lashoasis.co.uk and grab yours today, and I'll leave all the details in the episode description. Now, let's get back to the episode. The more I teach, the quieter that self-doubt is, as I truly believe I have make a difference to others and my experience helps them grow as an artist. But at the end of the day, we are all human, we're all learning, and just because you're the educator doesn't mean your learning stops too. The thing that really helped me was getting clear on who I was exactly talking to. Because if you're trying to speak to absolutely everybody, you're speaking to nobody. Once I started creating content specifically for Lash Artists, everything became easier. The content became easier, the captions became easier, the messaging became easier because I knew exactly who I was trying to help. So, for example, my ideal student is someone who may be struggling with retention, direction, symmetry, styling, getting fully booked. They may be someone who is lacking in confidence, who lash work, they look at and they think, hmm, something just doesn't look right with my work. That is my ideal student. I then create content for that ideal student so I can do content on how I would map a client's eyes, I would talk about how to elongate eyes, I would talk about how to create perfect symmetry, fan consistency, how I create my fans, tips and tricks on how to create the perfect width in between each lash in the fan. You know, the content, the ideas just flow because I know who my ideal student is, and that makes the world of difference because you can literally write your ideal client down and then just bullet point all these content ideas that you can do to specifically help them. And don't worry about feeling like you're giving too much away because, like I said before, students need to trust you, they need to see what you can help them fix. So share what you know. Of course, you don't have to tell them absolutely everything, but give them a sneak peek into what your course will involve, and they will learn to trust you and be like, she is the educator for me. Something else I've learned over the years is that students don't just buy courses because of certificates, they buy because of the connection. Of course, they want the skill, of course, they want the knowledge, but they also want the person, they want someone they can trust, somebody they can relate to, somebody who inspires them. Whenever I invest in education, it's because somebody is doing something that I can't do. Maybe they've mastered retention, maybe they've built a business I admire, maybe they're creating results I want to achieve, they're solving a problem that I currently have, and that's exactly how students think too. They're not buying a course, they're buying a solution. When I look at my own courses, whether that's my retention course or mentoring or webinars, students are usually coming to me because they have a problem they're struggling with or they want help solving. And I think that's an important mindset shift. You're not selling a course, you are providing a solution and fixing their struggles. I think one of the most important things as an educator is remembering where you came from. Sometimes I think we become so focused on looking professional online and we stop talking about the struggles we faced, the mistakes, the setbacks, the things we got wrong. But actually, those are often the things students most connect with because students don't connect with perfection, they connect with progress. They want to know you've been where they are, and that you found a way through it, that you know exactly what they're going through. It's like when I was a beginner, I used to struggle so badly with clients getting red eyes, it used to really knock my confidence. I never really knew that the eye flickering open, the fumes were gonna get in. I was like, why is people's eyes going red? Like when they're talking and stuff like that. And that was a big struggle of mine. So I used to do content tips on how to keep the eyes closed and carry out a safe treatment. I used to struggle a little bit with inconsistent retention. It was never really bad, but it could have been better. So I focused myself solely into mastering my retention, and now I'm known for great retention. Students come to me to learn about how I get such good retention. So all of the experience and struggles I had as a beginner throughout my career has moulded me into the educator I am today because I've been there. You know, I've had the struggles, I've had the sleepless nights, I've had the worries if I've damaged clients' lashes, you name it, it's a journey through beginner to where I am today. But I can safely say, like right now, in my whole career as an artist, as an educator, as a podcaster, I'm so confident in myself more, but it took quite a few years, it wasn't over an overnight job, and I'm 28 now, and it has been a process, but all them experience mould you into who you are. It's like I had one of my students the other day message me, and she did a model, and her eyes were really watering, and she was really struggling with the set she was doing. She messaged me, she was in a panic, she sent me the photos, the photos looked beautiful, but she told me how stressful that experience was, and I said to her, Listen, you need these experiences, you need these struggles as a beginner because you firstly will know what to do next time, you will know how to adapt, what gel pads to use, maybe phone tape to use, taping techniques. You will know how to handle that if you have a paying client in. Unfortunately, as much as it's stressful and you're gonna have in a panic attack, you need these stressful moments for you to experience them, for you to be a better stylist educator in the future. I honestly think students find that more inspiring than somebody pretending they've always had it figured out, because nobody starts out as an expert. Every educator was once a beginner, too. So if you're currently making that transition from stylist to educator and you're feeling a little bit lost, please know that is completely normal. You're not just learning how to teach, you're learning how to think differently, how to market yourself differently, how to communicate differently, and how to build a completely different side of your business. Looking back now, working as one of London's elite trainers, mentoring artists and creating educational content, my focus is completely different to where I was a few years ago. But it didn't happen overnight. It happened one student at a time, one course at a time, one piece of content at a time. And if there's one thing I'd leave you with, it's this. I thought becoming an educator meant teaching people how to do lashes. What I didn't realise was that first I had to learn how to become an educator myself. My biggest advice when it comes to teaching is whatever you are wanting to explain, explain it in the most simplest terms. I really hope you enjoyed this episode. And if you did, please comment in the comment section and don't forget, don't forget to press that like, follow, subscribe, or whatever button is in front of you so you never miss an episode. Thank you so much for listening, and I'll see you next week.