PODCAST SHOWNOTES

Nicole Otchy: When an existing personal styling client comes back to work with you, do you know what to recommend next? And I don't mean generally. I mean, do you know what makes sense for that client, now, that you've already worked together? Or does it become something you're figuring out in real time? Okay, so they probably don't need the full package again. What am I going to offer them now? Maybe something smaller? Do we just need to go shopping? Or maybe they need a seasonal refresh. But what if they don't want to spend that much? What if I recommend something and then they say, no, I'm going to be so embarrassed. And somewhere between trying to be helpful, meet their needs, and not lose the sale, you land on something. If that sounds familiar, I want you to consider something, you might be missing having a clear client life cycle mapped out in your business. Instead, you could just have a collection of transactions. And that could be one of the biggest reasons your styling business feels like you're starting from scratch every month. Because if every client relationship essentially starts and ends with one transaction, then every month you're going back out there trying to replace people that you've already worked with. And I think a lot of stylists assume that this is because they have a marketing problem. They don't have enough eyes on the business. They don't have enough people coming in. I need more people to find me. I need more leads. I need more hosts on social media. I need to get these sales calls. And maybe you do, but you may also be much further along than that and the solution could be closer, because you probably actually do know how to get clients. The problem might be that you've never really thought through what happens after you get them.

This is The Six Figure Personal Stylist Podcast. I'm Nicole Otchy and this is a show for personal stylists building world-class businesses and setting the standards in the industry. We're talking all things profitable growth, thought leadership and real client transformation. Because the best stylists don't just edit closets, they shape culture.

So let's talk about why this happens, because I really don't think most stylists intentionally decide to build their business around a set of disconnected transactions. I think, from watching this closely for almost two decades, this happens, because the way you build a styling business when you're brand new, is super different, from the way you need to run one, once you are established. When you're new, you're going to take any opportunities. And that makes sense. Someone wants a closet edit, you're doing a closet edit. Someone wants to go shopping without any Pinterest board work before. Amazing. Let's do it. Someone asks if you can help them with something you've literally never done before. Honestly, you're just going to figure it out. You're getting experience. You're learning what you're good at. You're figuring out what you like doing. That's okay. You're trying to figure out what people are willing to pay you and what you're actually willing to do. All very normal. That's how almost all of us get started.

The problem is when you don't graduate from that. Because eventually, you do start to have regular clients. You have made money. You can pay yourself. You've gotten testimonials. You know you're good at what you do, or at least you feel that way most days. But you're still making decisions the same way you did, when you were trying to get your first few clients. Someone asks for something, so you figure out how to say yes to them. Someone comes back and you'll offer them whatever they're going to say yes to. Someone has a smaller budget, you'll figure it out somehow, even if it ends up costing you time they are not paid for. And after doing that for so long, you can have what looks like an established business from the outside, but underneath it, you're still just really good at making the next transaction work. And that is very different from having a business model that gets you out of survival mode and gets you into consistent income. Because a new client and an established client are not the same. They should not be approached the same way. So when someone hires you for the first time, they're usually coming to you with a bigger problem than they will later on. Something isn't working. The closet, their bodies change, their careers change, their lifestyles change. They have clothes, but somehow none of them work, when they put them on. And your job is to look at the whole picture and diagnose what's going on. And then make a recommendation about what they need. That's why they're hiring you. And then you work together.

And what most stylists drastically undervalue in their own experience and process is that after you have worked with someone specifically in, you know, a larger kind of package, where you have multiple sessions with them, you have something important that you didn't have when they first came to you that is very valuable for you and the client. Context. You know their wardrobe. You know their lifestyle. You know the things they didn't tell you on the sales call that actually brought them there. You know what they're going to wear. You know what they're lying to themselves about what they're going to wear. You know that they've been telling themselves they will wait till they lose weight for 10 years and there's no plan in sight. So you are addressing the reality of their wardrobe and the way they're getting dressed, not their fantasy model that they've been thinking about for years that's kept them stuck. That's wildly valuable and is also something that most stylists don't even understand. That is, it's an intangible thing they should be factoring into, how they work with their clients in the future and what makes them valuable.

Because you can spot their patterns before they can sometimes. So you're not starting from zero with them and they're not starting from zero with you. So why are you starting this relationship from zero again, every time they come back? Because this is where stylists accidentally stop leading the experience and just go into reactionary mode. The existing client comes back, something's changed in their life and they need help. And instead of diagnosing the problem and making a recommendation, based on where they were before and what they're telling you now, you start trying to figure out what you can sell them. What do they want to do? Do they need to shop? Do they want something smaller this time? What if they can't afford it? What's going to sound good to them? What are they not going to walk away from? But I remind you, now you have two advantages you didn't have when they were new clients. You know them better than they might, in terms of what's holding them back. And you know your process better than they do. All they know is they're still not getting an outcome or something has changed, they know they need help. Maybe they tried to do this without you and realize this is a lot more work.

And so your job is to say, based on what I know about you and the work we've already done together, here is what I recommend and then give them the service. That's what an expert does. And when you don't lead with that process, because you haven't thought out your client lifecycle, your clients, including the established ones, will start to price shop you, instead of you leading the experience. So it is a no brainer that they're coming back. They start looking at your laundry list of services, or the thing that you just threw out to them, you know, in an email response without really thinking it through and trying to decide if this is quote worth it. But it should always be worth it, if you already have an existing relationship with them. The only time it's not worth it is when you have not set up that relationship properly. And now it's costing you, because they're going to go somewhere else, because now they're thinking, well, I don't know. I'm not sure if that's the right thing. Do I want to pay that amount for something I'm not so sure about? They should always be sure about what you're selling them next. Because the most valuable thing that you can have as an established personal stylist isn't a longer list of services. It is your judgment. It is your ability to understand someone's situation and know what they need now, because you understood what came before.

And that's really what I mean when I talk about client lifestyle. I'm not saying that every client needs to follow the same rigid path in your business. That's not going to happen. They need to, it's not that they necessarily need to buy package A and then package B and then package C. That's not what I teach. The goal isn't to manufacture reasons for people to keep spending money with you. The point is that after you've done this initial work in your business and with your clients, you have a point of view about how the relationship evolves to get everybody involved in the best possible place at the end, you and the client. What are the things your clients tend to need after a major, say, seasonal service with you? What changes in their life tend to bring them back to you? What does it usually make sense to recommend as ongoing support, after you've worked with a client for a full year, say? What does it make sense to tell them they genuinely don't need anymore, after they worked with you for a year. And by a year, I mean two big seasons, right? Not on a retainer, most stylists, some have retainers, but not as many need them as they think. Because you should be thinking about that before you're sitting on a call with them trying to figure out what you can sell them, or what they're going to say yes to.

And there's a really, really practical business reason to care about this. This is critical. And it's why I'm so surprised how few programs teach client lifecycle, especially high-touch one-to-one service industries, because it is almost always easier to sell someone who has already bought from you than it is to convince a complete stranger to trust you for the first time, especially in the marketing climate we're in right now. A widely studied business benchmark puts the probability of selling to an existing customer somewhere between 60% and 70%, compared to, get this, roughly 5-20% for a new prospect. That isn't personal styling data, so I'm not telling you that 70% of your clients are automatically going to buy from you again, but I am going to tell you that the principle matters, because it is based on high-end one-to-one services and that's what styling is. That's what the people that are going to hire you again and again, view it as. So the principle is critical. You have already done the hardest part in your business and you don't even realize it. This client knows you. They've experienced your work. They know what it's like to be your client. They've probably had you experience them in some vulnerable moments or uncomfortable moments. You built that trust. You have their life context.

And I see so many stylists putting almost all of their energy into getting their next new client, while barely thinking about how they continue to create value for the people who already trust them. And this is also where I see some stylists, particularly those who come from retail, or a very heavy sales background, get themselves into some trouble that I want to talk about here. Because I actually think that a retail background can be one of your biggest competitive advantages as a stylist. You know how to sell, you understand the products, you understand clients, you know how to talk to people, you know how to make recommendations that feel authentic. But if you have spent years being trained to connect, helping people, by just selling product to them, that mindset can fall you into your styling business and it can cost you a lot of money. So somebody needs something, you find it, they buy it, great. Okay. Listen, if you can get affiliate income on top of that, even better, because I think commission can be a fantastic addition to a styling business.

But the sale can't be the thing that is driving the recommendation. And I say that because sometimes your repeat clients are going to come back and they're going to need clothes. They're going to need to shop. Great. If that is the case and you've diagnosed it, help them buy clothes. But sometimes a repeat client needs to stop shopping. Sometimes they need to better learn how to wear what they already own. Sometimes the most valuable thing you can do for them is to tell them they don't need to spend more money right now. And if every recommendation you're making as an expert and a stylist somehow leads to more shopping transactions without any vetting, you are not guiding them. You are selling to them, or just trying to get the sale. You're not advising them. That is not the relationship I am talking about. It also generates a different price point, because people are just paying for your recommendations, not your judgment. And your judgment becomes valuable, when your clients trust that you are recommending what is actually best for them. And when you say no to constant shopping, people trust you more.

Now again, I'm not saying there aren't clients that do need a lot of shopping. Fair enough. But I want to recommend to you that if you're very worried about how you're getting your next sale, it may be the case that you are overlooking the way of interacting with your clients that's going to keep them longer, just to get the thing that's in front of you, handled. Whether that be get the commission, whether that's, you know, charge a small amount of money to do a lot of work, just to keep them in your world, whatever that is. Because even when you advise someone and it doesn't create the biggest transaction today in your business, what it can do and what it almost always does is it builds their trust in your judgments and they start thinking of you as a person that they can hire for random wardrobe tasks or to be their personal shopper. You are a personal stylist. That is different. They start seeing you as a person who understands them and can help them make decisions over time. Completely different relationship with a client. And that relationship starts before they ever hire you.

Because your marketing teaches people what kind of relationship they can have with you. So if your marketing is showing individual tasks, tons of shopping. People are going to come to you looking for individual tasks. I need shopping. I need a one-off closet edit. I need help packing. Not what it should be demonstrating, which is that you are here to advise people and figure out the higher, bigger level, bigger picture problems in their life that is impacting them in a way that it needs to be fixed right now. But if your marketing demonstrates how you think, how you identify real problems underneath what someone thinks they need, but they don't need, how and why you make recommendations, people start to come to you for that bigger picture expertise that I'm talking about, not because they have a task that you're available to do. And that will change the relationship from the beginning.

And that's important, because if you want to fix your client life cycle, you have to figure out, are you getting the right people up front, in order to maintain the right people longer, in the back of the business, as established clients. It all fits together, but nine times out of ten, when I'm working with a stylist in my Accelerator program they can clean up their established client business and start earning 30% to 40% more almost immediately, because I even give them the emails and all of the outreach they need, to do this gracefully and almost nobody loses clients. I mean I can think of three people that had people say no to them and every single one of them were like you know what they actually were not my best clients and I feel so relieved. I'm not going to promise you everyone's going to come with you, but most people do.

So I want you to look at your last 10 clients, not to turn this into some huge homework assignment, but just think back. Look at the patterns of the clients that you've worked with and they've fallen off. What were you recommending to them? What were the offers? Did they come in asking you for something, or did you vet them as an expert and tell them what you thought they needed. And once that initial work was done, did you have a clear path forward for the relationship to go? Or did it essentially end and you waited to see if they came back to you, when they had another problem? Because I think that many of you are going to realize something in this conversation. Even if it doesn't feel like it right now, you've probably gotten pretty good at getting clients if you're in this position. Doesn't mean you necessarily can just call them into your business on demand. There's probably some things to sharpen, but you can have high periods where people are coming through the doors. You know you can do the work.

And you've been building this business one transaction at a time, not because you aren't smart or couldn't do better, but because you were just trying to survive. So you created services unintentionally, just because people asked for them. You made decisions based on whatever opportunity was sitting in front of you, because you were scrappy. You've hoped that the good clients that you've had would come back, but you didn't necessarily know how to make sure that that happened. And then you wondered why your revenue still feels unpredictable. Why you're constantly trying to figure out where your next client is coming from, why every month feels like you are starting from scratch. And this is where I see so many of the established stylists I work with trying to solve established business problems with beginner level solutions. They try to post more. They change their offers. They offer more. They say yes more. They try to get more visibility. They lower the barrier to entry to work with them, in order to make it easier for people to hire them.

But you've already proven you can get clients. So maybe the question isn't just how do I get more people in the door? Maybe the question is whether the business you've built, while getting established clients, is actually designed to take you where you are going next. Because that's a harder question to answer, when you're inside your business, because you're busy, you're serving clients, you're emotionally attached to these clients, you're making decisions as they come up. You're trying to keep everything moving. It's really easy to keep doing what you've always done, without stopping long enough to look at the bigger picture. Are you sure that the way you are reacting to the things people ask of you, are the decisions that will create consistency in your business over time? Is there a strategy to what you say yes to, so that you know you are bringing people in that are going to stay with you long term and not just because you're willing to do whatever they ask?

That's exactly the kind of work we do inside my Accelerator mentorship program. It is for stylists who have already built businesses. They've already proven that their ideal clients will pay them. They are already proven that they know how to do the work. So I'm not going to teach you how to become a personal stylist, or build your business from the ground up. I am going to show you how to refine and build upon the successes you have already had and start to look at yourself as the creative CEO of your business to get where you are going next. Because the things that helped you get here are not necessarily the things that are going to help you get there.

So if you've been listening to this episode thinking, this is me, I have had clients that I love, I have made good money a lot of months, I have been doing this for a while, just saying yes and I've never actually thought about what happens to the relationship after somebody becomes a client. And then you're dealing with established business problems, not beginner problems. And that is exactly who I designed Accelerator for. So if you're ready to stop winging the parts of your business that got built while you were busy getting clients and start intentionally looking at what needs to change for you to hit your next level income goals, you can apply to my next round, in October 2026 of Accelerator through the link in the show notes.

Before you go, I want to leave you with this. If your styling business feels like you are starting from scratch every month, do not automatically assume that you need to get better at finding your next client. Look at what happens to the clients you've already worked so hard to get, because you may not need to get better at starting over. You may need to refine your business, so that your client relationships actually have somewhere to go next. I will talk to you next time.

Thank you so much for hanging out with me. It turns out that social proof is actually pretty important. So if you could help me out, I'd so appreciate it. If you just had a quick free moment and could leave me a rating or review on the podcast app, that would be killer. And even better, if you wanted to share this episode on Instagram and tag me, that would totally make my day and it would bring so much more awareness to the podcast and would help other stylists just like you who are looking to build lucrative styling business. Because the better each of us does, the better all of us do. Thanks for hanging out with me and I'll chat with you next time.