180. When the “Unsexy Tasks” Win for Hair Education with Stephanie LaFlora

Stephanie LaFlora is a consumer turned beauty business owner shaking up the industry. As a consumer, hair salons constantly rejected her because they didn’t know how to style her hair when all she wanted was a wash and a blow dry. She later learned that cosmetology schools weren’t teaching their stylists how to style or care for curly or oily hair.  Driven to solve the problems of her own customer experience and already a serial entrepreneur, storyteller, marketer, and creator, Stephanie founded Crownhunt to make life easier for people with curly hair while helping under-resourced entrepreneurs thrive. Stephanie realized she’d always found her stylists through word-of-mouth. After she moved, she had no one to help her find a hairstylist, and calling around to local salons found her turned away in their lobbies when they realized they didn’t have the knowledge to style her hair. At first, Stephanie said she was worried that she’d moved to a place where she would not be welcome. Being turned away so many times, even graciously, felt personal.  She sought out hair braiders, recognizing that there was likely a cultural aspect to her search. “I found a braider who is incredible. And what's so funny is once I got my hair braided, I would be walking around the city, and I would have black women that I do not even know literally cross the street to say, ‘Hey, hold on one second, let me talk to you.’  “And they will come over here and would say, ‘Who did your hair?’ And that happened to me everywhere I went because I wasn't the only person having this problem. So that validated for me that this is a real thing that I should solve,” says Stephanie. She kicked off a focus group where it was revealed the opportunity was even bigger than she had imagined. She turned her search to hair educators and reached out to stylists and hair product suppliers to create a focus group to identify the common gaps in their customer journey.  Over a three-hour Zoom call, each group mapped out their process, answering questions like “How do clients find you? how did you get your education? do you sell products? etc.” They identified three places that were the most urgent to create resources for. At launch, they did an e-commerce library of classes, and 2,500 people signed up. With millions of hairstyles in the country, there was a lack of resources to help people. “The average hairstylist has to figure out their own health benefits, they have to find all their own customers, they have to rent their workspace often that they're in, and they are usually like 22 years old. They went to school for two years, they went to cosmetology school, cosmetology school, and taught them how to do 65% of people's hair in the country, and they barely ever teach business. So you are effectively a 20-year-old entrepreneur with no business skills and lacking the skills to do half the people in the country's hair,” says Stephanie. The feedback from stylists has been positive, but it’s a continued exploration. Stephanie found that the hair industry itself is very insular. She says it’s worth investing in feedback that is aligned with your next steps in business so you’re taking those steps from an informed place. Let’s get to it! ===== Free Gift for Listeners =====   Early entry pricing is available of $99/year for continuing education subscription at https://www.crownhunt.io    ===== Connect with Stephanie LaFlora =====   Website: https://www.crownhunt.io  Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/crownhunt        https://www.instagram.com/stephanielaflora    ===== Connect with Sarah ===== It’s time to make more money, expand your reach and LOVE your life: https://sarahwalton.com/abundance-academy/  One Goal. 4 Weeks. A Coach By Your Side. Sign up for a Sprint: https://sarahwalton.com/sprint/ Other Game On Girlfriend podcast episodes you might want to check out:  5 Tips to Create an Environment for Abundance  https://sarahwalton.com/abundant-environment/  Why Zigzagging Your Path Means More Success https://sarahwalton.com/susan/  Coaching Session: When You Need An Immediate Breakthrough  https://sarahwalton.com/coaching-limiting-beliefs-breakthrough/  How Can I Feel Worthy? https://sarahwalton.com/feel-worthy/  Committing Until It Takes with Kimberly Spencer https://sarahwalton.com/business-commitment/  You can check out our podcast interviews on YouTube, too! http://bit.ly/YouTubeSWalton   Thank you so much for listening. I’m so honored that you’re here and would be so grateful if you could leave a quick review on Apple Podcasts by clicking here, scrolling to the bottom and clicking “Write a review.” Then we’ll get to inspire even more people! (If you’re not sure how to leave a review, you can watch this quick tutorial.)