Hating Social Media as an Esthetician Business Owner

In this episode, Brittany Hagemann discusses the challenges and mindset shifts needed to effectively use social media for esthetician businesses. She emphasizes that social media is a tool for connection and should not be solely equated with making money. Brittany compares social media to other tasks in a business, such as cleaning, that don't directly bring in money but contribute to overall success. She encourages estheticians to view social media as a daily maintenance task and focus on providing value and building relationships with clients.

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Brittany Hagemann (00:00.59)
You are listening to the Estheticians Earning More podcast with Brittany Hagemann, episode number 163. Happy Monday. Welcome back. I'm so excited to talk to you today. I have been having a lot of fun talking to my clients and really trying to understand one of the things that I hear a lot of from my clients and also just people.

who DM me and talk to me in social media. And that is that a lot of you hate social media or you feel like you're really bad at it or you feel like you don't know what to post. But usually the, it's not my thing, I hate it, I'm not good at it is the thing I hear the most from clients in regards to social media.

I think it's one of the most things that I hear from anyone ever in this business. And so I wanted to kind of talk about that if that's where you are today and how you feel about social media. So I first wanted to say that there are things about social media that we know are not good for our brains, right? Like it's supposed to keep you on it, have those dopamine hits to keep you on it for hours. It's supposed to be addictive, right? Like those things are

Right? But you don't have to go on social media for hours and scroll to be effective at social media. The two are not the same. You can use social media as a tool in your business and not get sucked in or not and try really hard not to get sucked in. I know it's gonna be hard to the algorithm grabbing your attention and keeping you

Right? Like you can decide I'm just going to post, engage with my clients and social media, and then move on my day.

Brittany Hagemann (02:07.874)
I had a coaching call this week with one of my clients who wants to do more marketing and was feeling like when she goes to do any kind of marketing, whether it's writing posts on social media or whatever, she kind of goes into sales mode and is trying to think about how she can get people to book, buy products, all the things, and it can be really overwhelming. She just doesn't do it. And I imagine that may be the case for you. And I know I've talked about this in this podcast before.

but I want to continue to help you understand if this is where you are, the things that you can do to help get yourself out of that situation and actually make an impact in your social media. So let's first talk about how that mindset of I'm going on social media to sell and to get clients. I know I've been saying this a lot lately, but like that is the problem one. One of the problems of

you hate social media because you equate social media with making money. And if you aren't making money when you do things on social media, it confirms the belief that you cannot and you are not making money. So of course you hate it. my gosh. Like, of course you hate it. Of course your brain is gonna do everything it can to prevent you from doing it. Cause you're like,

I go on social media, I do a post, I don't make any money. This sucks. It's a lot of time and energy and I get nothing in return except feeling bad about myself. Of course you hate it, right? I would hate it too if I had that expectation, right? And so I think that's the first mindset shift to switch away from that problem, which is social media is

thing that you do in your business, but is not a thing that brings you money. the same, I think it was the same client. was talking about how like cleaning your studio, cleaning your space in between clients and like a deep clean once a week or whatever, that doesn't directly like you sweep and now you just made a hundred dollars. That doesn't exactly directly affect your money.

Brittany Hagemann (04:33.646)
You don't fold towels and then you make money. You don't clean your sink and then you just made $500. You get a booking. Those tasks that you do in your business don't bring money right from that task, unless you're a cleaner. Unless you clean people's houses and stuff, then of course that does equate. But if you are like me, sole business esthetician owner,

that I cleaned my own studio all by myself. No one ever cleaned it for me. hire anyone. I had to clean it every week, every day. Cleaning my studio did not instantly give me money. But cleaning it every day consistently, keeping it really clean, contributed to me making money, right? Because people came in and the studio was clean. And coming to a clean place is, you will,

that is really important for a lot of people getting services. I think I shared this on my Instagram stories. I don't know if I shared that on my podcast, but I was trying to find different waxing or sugaring places in my area. And I went to this one wax place that had great reviews and it was hot outside so I was wearing flip -flops and so I wasn't wearing shoes on the table. And

When after the wax, there was like wax everywhere on me, which I had never experienced, like little pieces of wax. obviously it was breaking and she was not working cleanly. And then when I stood up and put my foot on the ground, there was wax all under my foot, like little pieces of wax. And I was so grossed out. I was like, this is not just my wax on the ground. This is other people's wax. So they are not cleaning.

in between appointments. I knew it instantly, obviously as an esthetician and just like as a person. And I'm like, what else isn't clean? Right? So I never went back. The woman I see now who's fantastic, her studio is always spotlessly clean. So cleaning.

Brittany Hagemann (06:39.502)
Her studio, me cleaning my studio, you don't get paid from doing that instantly. It's not an instant transaction of money. But by keeping it clean every single day between every single client, it adds towards you making money because people see that and they want to come back to a clean place. I also got my nails done somewhere that was really good. The area was not a clean studio. I was like, I don't want to go back again. What isn't clean?

Right? So it's the same thing with social media. Just like you are mopping your floors every day, cleaning your sink.

Having clean towels, right? Like I don't enjoy any of those things. It's not like I would always be folding towels in between clients because they had like a washer on site so I would time it the best that I could so that I could, like if I had a half an hour break between clients, I would be folding towels really fast. I never was like, yay, I get to fold towels. I much rather would have just laid on my table or

I've done anything else, like gone and got a cup of coffee or a tea or I don't drink coffee. But you know I mean? There's so many other things I'd rather do that time than fold towels or scrub my sink. But I knew that keeping my area clean, only because I also want to have a clean area, but keeping an area clean is really important to people when they come in and having me clean their face or whatever you do, waxing, whatever.

So why don't you have that same mentality when it comes to social media? A social media post will never equal money instantly, almost never. If it does happen, that is a rare unicorn day that is very fun and exciting, but almost never happens. I don't think I've ever experienced that personally. I don't know if I've even known people who've experienced that personally. I don't know, I have to think about it. It's not a common thing.

Brittany Hagemann (08:49.378)
And I know like maybe the big accounts, that's the case, like people who have thousands and thousands of followers. But.

Brittany Hagemann (08:59.98)
Cough

Brittany Hagemann (09:06.03)
For a business like yours, business like mine, where we can't accommodate thousands of people in our business, that generally isn't a thing that you see. So if you take that expectation out of your mind that a post, five posts, 20 posts equal money,

and we look at what it actually is doing, which is, if we're gonna go back to cleaning your studio, sweeping the floor, cleaning the sink, it's the daily maintenance of that space. So it's the daily maintenance of marketing, which is just another task in your business.

It's not this big fail or success, right? It's not it worked or it didn't work. Like sweeping the floor, it's not like, yes, you just sweep the floor, you didn't sweep the floor, but it didn't work or not work to bring money in, in that exact moment. A cumulative effect of sweeping the floor will affect your money. People will be booking for sure, 100%.

A cumulative effect of you posting on social media will affect people booking for sure. But if you look at it individually, it almost never will translate.

So let's look at what social media, why, why, why, right? And I want you to really allow yourself to be wrong in this situation. Because I know you're like, but Brittany, I have lots of reasons why it's actually different for me. But social media is a social platform of connecting with people. That's all it is. Social media is not

Brittany Hagemann (10:58.862)
a place that people want always be sold to. They want to connect with people. It's not, I know that there are advertisements obviously on social media, but the reason that I go on social media and the reason I imagine you go, even if you hate it, is to feel connected to other people. Right now the Olympics are going on, the 2024 Paris Olympics.

And I love going on and seeing the athletes celebrating the women's gymnastics team just won the gold. And I love seeing everyone so happy and seeing them so happy and all the things, right? That is so fun, that social aspect of feeling connected to the athletes, feeling connected to their experience, right?

Like, obviously NBC is also trying to sell us stuff. I'm not aware of that. Obviously there's the trolls that say really mean things about Simone Biles, who are horrible people. But I still like to go and like feel like I'm a little bit embarrassed with her and you know what I mean? Like, I like that connection still.

The connection is the point of social media, connecting with people. Like if we look at you cleaning your studio, the point of it is keeping it clean. So you're just cleaning it, right? There's no other reason to clean it than to keep it clean, right? That's the reason you clean it. You clean it to clean it, right? You go on social media, be social. That's

Social is a place to be social about your business and talk about like a social space for your business versus cleaning space for your business. Do you see the difference? You see how if you look at it from that perspective, it's just a thing that you do. It's not a make or break. It's not a this post.

Brittany Hagemann (13:07.758)
Got five likes, this post got zero likes, this post got 10 likes. I only can do posts like the 10 likes and the zero. I feel terrible. I may even delete it because I feel terrible about myself.

if you

Brittany Hagemann (13:36.568)
Like if you mopped the floor in your studio and then you went and got a coffee or a tea, if you're in my case, and you came back and you spilled some tea on the floor, you're like, dang it, I just mopped it. I have to clean it again. But you won't ever not mop again because you spilled tea. That doesn't make any sense. It's not like it's been ruined forever because I mopped, I put in the work to clean the floor.

Now the floor has become dirty instantly. So the mopping didn't stay. It didn't stay clean like I wanted it to. So now I will never mop again because I didn't get the result I wanted from that one action. It doesn't make any sense. Doesn't make any sense. Same thing with social media. It's like the posts, did not perform the way that I thought they should. And so I won't do it again.

for a while because it didn't work. The floor didn't stay clean. What's the point in mopping? Like my husband and I have a joke whenever like one of us kind of take turns folding laundry, depends if he's home or not. If he's home, he does it. If he's not home, I do it. And we always joke like no one's allowed to wear any more clothes because we've washed all the clothes like yesterday. Dora was watching the Olympics live and I was catching up on.

all of the clothes to be folded. And of course, since they were in the basket for so long, I had to steam all the shirts and my daughter's dresses. And I'm sitting there steaming and I'm like, no one's allowed to wear clothes anymore. It's exhausting. I don't hate laundry, but like...

It's just a task that you have to do if you want to have clean clothes and you've just seen them or ironed them if they've gotten wrinkled unless you want to wear wrinkly clothes. This is your decisions, right? Some people wear wrinkly clothes. Good for them. I have many times. I'm trying to wear less wrinkly clothes. More I don't want to send my daughter to school in wrinkly clothes, but I have before. know I will again. But again, you can't be like, I did laundry.

Brittany Hagemann (15:48.686)
I got everything washed so no one's allowed to wear clothes. That's not a thing. A post doesn't work the way that you want it to work. It means you have more work to do. The work will never end. One, 10, 20 posts and then you're done and you're like, I don't have to be on social media anymore. Yes, I understand there are aestheticians that don't post because they are so busy for sure.

I definitely was at that place many times in my business where I didn't need to post, but I always posted because I wanted to help my current clients. Even if I wasn't, room for new clients, I loved helping my current clients. It's for me, that was always my motivation is like, how can I help my current clients? Not how can I get more clients?

Brittany Hagemann (16:39.329)
And

Brittany Hagemann (16:44.888)
What has happened to you if you hate social media and you think I want to be like so and so who I know does really well in their business and doesn't post, it's like being frustrated that you can't afford a house cleaner to come in and clean your house. So you just don't clean your house. Like don't clean it. Cause I can't afford someone to do it for me. I'm just not going to clean it. Like that doesn't make any sense.

Right? I mean, I, know I want to, I'm waiting for a house cleaner. I'm almost to the point. I think I can afford one. Can't wait. I don't like cleaning my house. It's not my favorite thing to do, but I two options. Either wait until I can afford a house cleaner or I clean my house. There's no other options, right? But you can't say I want to be at this stage of my business where I don't have to post and put that in quotation marks because my business is so busy.

And so I'm just not going to post hoping my business will still get busy. Did you see the logic is not there? Someone is still cleaning the house. Like if you're paying someone to do it, someone's still coming to clean the house. The house is being cleaned. And the business is still being grown if someone's not posting it maybe in other ways.

Brittany Hagemann (18:04.418)
So I just really want you to look at it as just a task that you do in your business, not a reflection of who you are and the result that instantly comes from it. You're not trying to get a new client from one post. You are trying to be social with your current clients and future clients and give them lots of value.

and make them feel really good. So when they do come across your page, they feel good and validated versus.

like something's wrong with them, like you often see in social media. Okay? Keep thinking about this. I know this is maybe like, wait, what? And we just think about it and think about re -changing that mindset that you have. I promise you it'll make it so much easier for you. Okay, I'll talk to you next week. Have a fantastic week. Bye for now.