10 Minute Beauty Business Podcast with Lexi Lomax

I'm in celebration mode this month, and I'm using it to talk about the people who make my salon what it is. Every Thursday, Belle walks into Ooh La La, makes her rounds with hugs and compliments, and sits in Nadine's chair, just like she has for 35 years. Clients often ask me what makes our salon feel the way it does. My answer is always the same: it's the people. But the people don't just show up that way. You build it, you attract it, and it all starts at the top.

Today I'm sharing a few of the women on my team and what I've learned in 19 years about curating a team of incredible humans and creating a place they want to stay. If you've been saying "we just can't find good stylists," this one is for you.

In this episode:
Meet the team: Nadine, Laura, Jackie, and Faith, and what makes each one so great
Why culture isn't a value statement on your website or a monthly team meeting, but the sum of every tiny leadership decision you make
How clients feel your culture the moment they walk through the door, and how that feeling turns Google and Yelp searchers into a community
Why "we need new talent" is often a leadership problem, and why becoming a better leader comes before hiring or firing
Why your ideal client evolves as she ages, and why long-term loyal clients are still worth celebrating

Salon Visibility:
The training that builds your digital footprint so new clients can actually find you, on Google, on AI search, everywhere they're looking. This is the foundation everything else gets built on. Learn more: https://www.salonmindsmastermind.com/salon-visibility

I'm back at "turn up season" energy, and I'm sharing where my head's at going into the last stretch of the year. After a few seasons of running my own salon on autopilot (thank God for good systems), I'm coming back to my 11 out of 10, and this episode is one of the first things I want you to take action on.

Today I'm talking about one of the most expensive problems in the salon industry, and the sneakiest one: the client you lose without ever knowing she was there. There's no notification when someone finds your salon, starts to book, and quietly closes the tab. This episode is about how to find those leaks in your new client journey and fix them, especially if you're running a hybrid or rental salon with stylists on different booking platforms.

In this episode:
Why losing a client mid-booking is invisible, and why it might be costing you more than you realize
What I learned from having multiple stylists on multiple booking systems, and how that friction sent new clients straight to competitors
How to audit your new client journey step by step: count your clicks, check your booking page, and review your confirmations, reminders, and follow-ups
Why "we'll get you in within 48 hours" is losing you bookings, and how to give people a way to book now (even if it's just the consult)
Why visibility is only half the equation, and how your back-end experience has to match your front-end marketing

Switching to Mangomint:
Moving my whole salon onto one system meant one booking experience for every stylist, every time. If you're curious whether it'd work better for your salon, grab your first month free with my link: https://www.mangomint.com/referral/lexi/

Salon Visibility:
The training that builds your digital footprint so new clients can actually find you, on Google, on AI search, everywhere they're looking. This is the foundation everything else gets built on. Learn more: https://www.salonmindsmastermind.com/salon-visibility

I just spent four days in Coronado hosting my one-on-one clients for our annual retreat, and I came home fired up about Q4 in a way I haven't been in a while. Not because I have a shiny new three-step plan, but because being in a room with that many smart, badass salon owners for four days straight surfaced so many small, specific shifts worth making before the holidays hit.

This episode is me walking you through exactly what I'm doing right now, in September, to get my own salon ready for the most revenue-dense stretch of the year. It's about getting hyper-specific with marketing instead of just turning up the volume on what you're already doing, why the software you use for that matters more than people think, and why visibility work has to start months before anyone's actually searching for you. I also share a stat from one of my clients that made me nearly spit out my drink.

In this episode:
Why "know what you do and who you do it for" isn't just a tombstone statement, and how to actually connect it to service-to-product, product-to-service, and product-to-product marketing that converts
How I'm using client and retail data to build hyper-targeted campaigns around specific services instead of generic holiday promos
Why I switched to Mangomint, and how having every piece of client and service data in one place is completely changing how personal and specific my Q4 marketing can get
Why November is too late to start on visibility, and what 90 days of SEO indexing time actually means for your salon's Q4
Why refining your SEO and keywords is never "done," and the Ad Libs–style keyword doc I gave my clients at the retreat to help them get specific fast

Switching to Mangomint:
I finally made the switch after years of jimmy-rigging Zapier and Square to work for a hybrid salon. If you're curious whether it'd work better for your salon, grab your first month free with my link: https://www.mangomint.com/referral/lexi/

Salon Visibility:
The training that builds your digital footprint so new clients can actually find you, on Google, on AI search, everywhere they're looking. This is the foundation everything else gets built on. Learn more: https://www.salonmindsmastermind.com/salon-visibility

I looked at my bank statement and thought, "WTF am I paying for all of this?" Editing apps I forgot I signed up for. A JotForm plan that ballooned to $90 a month. Slack at $137. A pile of Zapier automations quietly duct-taping five different platforms together, and every time one broke, it cost me time I didn't have. None of it felt like a big expense in the moment. All of it added up to something embarrassing.

This episode isn't a framework or a three-step plan. It's me walking you through exactly where money was quietly leaking out of my business, what I changed, and why now, before Q4, is the time to do your own audit. I also get into a hiring shift I made instead of adding a new position, a retail line I'm swapping out after years of loyalty to bigger brands, and a genuinely big personal win I almost didn't let myself celebrate.

In this episode:
Why I finally consolidated five-plus software subscriptions into one platform, and how much that patchwork of tools was actually costing me in money and time
Why I built content creation directly into my assistant's job description instead of hiring or outsourcing it, and how that decision is paying for itself multiple times over
The honest reasoning behind switching our retail line, including what's really happened to margins and manufacturer relationships with the bigger brands
Why I'm cutting down the number of SKUs we carry per category, and the buyer-behavior shift behind that decision

Switching to Mangomint:I finally made the switch after years of jimmy-rigging Zapier and Square to work for a hybrid salon. If you're curious whether it'd work better for your salon, grab your first month free with my link: https://www.mangomint.com/referral/lexi/

Salon Visibility:
The training that builds your digital footprint so new clients can actually find you, on Google, on AI search, everywhere they're looking. This is the foundation everything else gets built on. Learn more: https://www.salonmindsmastermind.com/salon-visibility

I hired someone, trained her, sat across from her mid-shift, and watched her decide to walk out. Not dramatic, not a blow-up, just a quiet "I'm not sure" that turned into a goodbye. Someone I trust told me beforehand they didn't see it working out. I disagreed, went with my gut anyway, and my gut was wrong.

This episode isn't a framework or a three-step plan. It's me, mid-defining-moment, being honest about what CEO-style salon ownership actually looks like right now. Hiring, a software transition, and a deep dive into salon SEO, all happening at once.

In this episode:
The real story of hiring and losing a new assistant in the same week, and what it taught me about trusting my gut even when it's wrong
Why I believe the right people always stay, and the ones who aren't a fit self-select out, even when that's a hard thing to watch happen
What's actually going on behind the scenes as I switch salon software, including the hybrid-model headaches that made the old system unworkable
Why I've been going deep on my own salon's SEO, and the gap I found even after years of doing this work
The mindset shift I keep coming back to: the longer you're in business, the closer your highs and lows get, and why that's actually the goal

Switching to Mangomint:I finally made the switch after years of jimmy-rigging Zapier and Square to work for a hybrid salon. If you're curious whether it'd work better for your salon, grab your first month free with my link: https://www.mangomint.com/referral/lexi/

The Monday Club:
Business education, community, and tools to build a salon that runs like a real business, including the full salon visibility work that gets you found by Google and known by AI. Learn more: https://www.lexilomax.com/monday-club