ChatGPT RUINED my bridal hair business to hitting $13K month

I am here with Kirby. So I would love to know if you could start us off with where you're from and the services you offer and walk me through, like, how you got into the wedding industry or the hair world.

Okay. Well, I've been a hairdresser for like 20 years, so. So crazy.

I didn't know.

But yeah, 20 years. So I live in Nova Scotia, Canada now. I lived and grew up and worked most of my career in Ontario, like close to Toronto. And I moved here in 2020 during the pandemic and basically started my career over. So I was working in salon behind the chair, doing a chair rent, and I was starting my bridal business, but I was maybe doing like seven, ten weddings a year. And then when I moved out here, I decided to go all in and start booking weddings. And it was really easy at first because it was fresh out of the pandemic. Yeah. So, yeah, it took me no time to create a name for myself out here and connect with photographers, vendors, and I just started rolling.

I love that. Where is Nova Scotia? What part is that? East or west coast?

East coast.

So walk me through the. So you started your wedding business during COVID So again, super easy to like, fill your books.

So it was very easy.

I know. So walk me through a little bit to today. Like what has. If you started during COVID Was it 2020.

2021. Okay. And then bulk of my, like weddings that I did out here were in 2022 because people are booking about a year ahead. So I got like some very last minute in 2021. I moved here in December 2020. So.

Okay.

The year was over. Got it.

Got it. Okay. So you start bulk of your weddings 2022. Are you still at the salon at that?

I still. I still am. I have a salon suite, so trying to get out of it, but we're still in there right now.

I know. How's that going for you, working salon and weddings at the same time?

It's busy. It's difficult. I've gotten a lot better. I've cut down from five, five days a week to just three. So yeah.

Oh, that's good.

Things. That's making things much easier.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay. So when did you. How many weddings were you working in like 2020 versus now. What does the climate feel like? Different wise, because you said it was easier. So how's it feeling for you now?

It's a little bit harder to get inquiries and like the turnover bookings is harder. I have made a lot of changes, like in terms of Price increase in that time, too.

Yeah.

So it was just a lot of things, but basically everything was really easy. Like, really easy. They were just coming to me. Referrals. And then I started thinking, maybe my prices are on the lower side. Sister playing, you know, price increase. And then I would get nervous and drop them back down.

Yeah.

And then I would try to increase again, and then people wouldn't book with me, and I dropped them back down. And I started thinking it must be my professionalism, you know? So I got really into ChatGPT and I redid all of my emails and rewrote my whole website, and it murdered my conversion. I had nothing. It made things 10 times worse. I'm like, what is happening? So that's when I decided to sign up.

Oh, wait, wait, wait.

Did I jump ahead?

No, no, no, you're fine. No, when you said murdered, I was assuming, like, your chachi BT crushed it. Like, she would a good job.

She did a bad job, ruined my business.

That's so funny.

I think it was just, like, extremely not genuine.

Yes. Yeah, yeah. Like, I love. Don't get me wrong, I am literally a ho for chatgpt. I do love her.

I love chat.

I love her. But I totally feel you on that. If you're not giving her the right prompts or feeding her your personality, and if you're just literally copying and pasting from there and putting it on your website, pay to your business.

Literally.

Yeah.

I don't think I got a booking for three or four months.

No. You're kidding.

Yeah, I was like, I'm. It's over. I don't know. What did I do?

No way. Okay, okay, okay. I have so many questions. All right, so you go the ChatGPT route, which we love. I do. Like incorporating AI. But then for three or four months, you weren't getting bookings, and then was that the moment when, like, how did you find the Academy? Was that the moment you kind of.

So, like, I have a lot of, like, you know, online hairstylist friends that I chat to all the time, and I think you are doing a lot of promotions about the Academy. And then you ran a Black Friday sale, and I started looking at that, and then I was just messaging, like, a couple of the girls that I know are in the Academy to literally get their experience. And, like, they were hyping you up. And I was like, okay. I know. Very sweet. Would have loved to see what they said, actually. So I was like, you know what? I think I am going to join because I had tried Everything. Price increases. And I'm like, maybe it really is my messaging, which I didn't want to admit. I thought I was so good at social media, so it can't be that. So it was.

Wait. That is so sweet. I'm gonna have to get those names later so I can thank them. Um, but when it comes to your. You said you had tried everything. What were some. That you had tried to get more inquiries and get more bookings.

Um, well, I wasn't trying to get more bookings. I was just trying to make more money. So I just started, like, offering everything. I was trying to get extension rentals with no plan on ordering the extensions. How to manage that. Selling hair accessories out of my suite, selling jewelry out of my suite, Forcing myself to teach education. Even though teaching was literally stressing me out. I hated it. So I was like. Just started pushing one on ones. I enrolled in an educator program that, like, sent me on a detour, trying to make, like, somehow I got talked into, like, a canva course, and then I threw that in the garbage. Like, I went wild goose chase for an entire year of my life.

Wow. Actually, that just, like, struck a chord with me because you don't know how many times I've gotten derailed. When you're in a course and then you're like, oh, I. This feels like a natural next step. And then all of a sudden.

Or if someone convinces you something you say in passing is a great idea, and then all of a sudden you're like, oh, I guess that's what I should be doing instead.

Yeah, this is really.

I should have just. I just should have just focused on my brides the entire time.

We took a little detour. Fine.

Yeah.

Took a little detour. And then you found me. And I'm so happy.

Me too. You have no idea.

Okay, so you find the academy after we've done some detours, maybe some other courses, realizing, like, you want to go all in on your bridal business versus. I feel like we all do the same thing. We kind of, like, sidestep little side hustles to make extra cash versus full with the bridal business. So when you got in, tell me what your experience was like, since you've been in other courses. What was the first thing, your first, like, aha moment?

Well, first of all, I was immediately blown away with the detail. Like, you had so much in your course, you wouldn't believe how much you could spend on other courses and get very little. Oh, I will. Yeah. Oh. I bought a lot of programs. It was Incredible. And I just started working through. It was quite humbling at first because it was like, okay, I'm doing this wrong. I'm doing this wrong. Maybe I need to go back a little bit and, like, start at the beginning. But I just, like, start at the beginning and step by step, redid my website, started going back to talking like I do in real life, which I think that was really big for me. It built a lot of trust with people, and I get the most aligned brides now.

Oh, do you really?

Oh, yeah. Yeah. Like, they'll message me months after the wedding. Like, we're just chatting.

Oh, my God. That's the best compliment ever, is it not?

Yeah, it's so nice.

Just a vibe.

Yeah. Family, adopt me, please.

Literally, you guys. Yeah, I'll live in the spare bedroom.

Yeah. I'll do your hair every day.

Okay, so you're right. That comes down to your messaging. Was that, like, the biggest thing thing that you kind of adjusted with your business once joining the academy?

Yeah, my messaging and the packages that made everything really clear. I actually was able to take the package lesson, lesson and transfer it to my salon pricing.

Oh, no way.

Yeah.

Wait, that's so interesting. How do you do that?

Like, well, I wanted to increase those prices at the same time, so I just started looking at my menu. It was so confusing. I had everything, like, itemized, right? Like, highlight, balayage, foilyage, shadow, root, root, melt. Nobody knows what that stuff is. And, like, just the way you're talking about the wedding packages, I'm like, this is making so much sense. So I just, like, put in custom color menu and gave them cute names. Blonde as a luxury, blonde as a lifestyle, and now my clients love it.

Oh, no way. That is actually really, really sad that.

I don't give it all up. But, like, it really helped. That is so funny there too.

Yeah. That is so, so smart. Okay, so you were a la carte before. Yeah. Walk me through how you felt going to packages, because I feel like a lot of people struggle with that. Were you nervous about it? How was the feedback from your brides?

I wasn't too nervous about it because I was, like, halfway to packages. So I had an elopement, and then I had, like, a bride plus four that I was doing. But the what I changed was included a little bit of travel, and that made a big difference for me. Brides liked it because they felt like their travel was included. Um, they also felt like they knew my radius, even though I will go beyond it.

Yeah.

And I'm Actually driving a lot less as a result. Because I think before, I was being incentivized by my travel rate, so I'd be like, oh, this wedding's really far away. I'm gonna take it.

Yeah, yeah.

And then I'm driving seven hours in one day.

Yes. That's actually so relatable, because when I worked on a team, I felt like you were incentivized by the. By going further away because that's how you would make more money, buy your travel fee. Have you ever worked on.

Yeah, the further you drive, the more money you make.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

But then I was like, I don't want to drive anymore. No, it was great. When I first moved here, I'd never been to Nova Scotia before. It's. It's beautiful here. So I'm like, oh, I get to see the whole province. This is so much fun. And I'm like, I never want to drive there again. No.

Really?

Yeah, a few times. Like, I've seen the ocean now, but.

Also when I think Nova Scotia, I think you. You probably have a ton of snow and driving. Oh, no. Okay.

No. Like, some will get, like, lots of snow, but, like, everything just shuts down in the winter. Like, there's no weddings. Like, no one does anything. Even, like, the road clearings, it's like, it's just not there. Like, it would be risky to take a winter booking.

Right.

In case you can't drive there. So. But, like, it's pretty mild. Like, in comparison, Toronto, way colder.

Oh, really?

Yeah. Yeah.

I literally think Nova Scotia and Alaska, that's, like, where my brain goes. I don't know.

No, it's pretty far south. Like, on it. We're, like, really close to Maine, honestly.

Oh, okay. Okay.

Okay. Yeah. So, like, similar to that type of weather, probably not too different from where you're at.

Probably not. So are your winters the same, like January, February, March?

Yeah, yeah. Really picks up in January. Like, December, I find, kind of mild.

Okay, so that's like, your slow season still.

Yeah, yeah. My wedding started about May.

Oh, okay. Yeah, yeah.

Till November. Yeah.

So when you decided to launch your packages, how was it received by your brides? And how are they love? Are they liking it today? Do they book better for you? And are you able to earn more profit?

So much more.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

It really helped me increase my minimum. And, like, they love it. I actually just did some polls in my story recently. I was getting really good feedback about the packages and what they liked included. Also learned some things I was including were unnecessary so I'll be taking those out.

Yeah, I love that. Yeah. Because I remember in the community you made a post that you had like a 12k month with your bridal business. Walk me through that.

So it was combined with my salon business. But like I wasn't busy in salon that month because I had the most weddings and I actually had to travel back home to Ontario for a full week. So it's another time off. And I don't know what it was. It's just like the volume of weddings I was getting. I don't know if it was because I was traveling and maybe more active online, but I was getting so many requests while I was away too. So I just like booked a lot and I was like, I think I made 13k that month. And I'm like usually about 6.

What? That's like more than double.

I know. And then there's been a few that have been close, like during the peak wedding season. So I'm really excited to see what my books are going to look like next year because a lot of my bookings this year were already secured before I signed up for the course.

Oh, because they were from last year for this?

Yeah. I booked so far out.

Okay, so would you say majority of your bookings when you join the Academy are for 2026?

Yes.

How's your 2026 shaping up?

I've got 20 bookings, so that's not bad. That's really good. Yeah. I think I have six, five or six Saturdays during like the peak season and then I'd like to fill in like some weekdays.

Yeah.

As well. So I, I did a lot of those last minute. Fine. So, yeah, it's looking good. I think I'm like, it looks like I'm going to make probably like 20 to 25,000 more than normal.

That's amazing.

I think almost 20 this year. Like there was a huge jump in my bookings, just the ones I secured since the price increase. And then next year I think I'm probably like, my bridal business will be sitting at about 50 or 60 where normally it's been bringing in. I think 20.

Okay. That's insane.

Like I'm. I'm gonna get out of my salon suite.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Just do the wedding.

That's like, that is starting to break even at this point. Do you know what I mean? Like with the expenses are so high.

I know. For a salon suite.

Yeah.

Is it like a sola, the color?

Yeah. Uh, no, no. Is it just owned by a girl Locally? There's no Chains at all here.

Oh, okay. Okay.

It's so small, but yeah, So I have a very reasonable rent, but I just, like, I don't wanna do it anymore.

Yeah, it gets kind of exhausting and taxing when you're doing that. And then you're shifting to bridal parties. Like, it's a different kind of exhaustion.

That I. Yeah, yeah, it's completely different. And, like, those customers are not getting the customer service that they used to. Yeah. Because I'm, like, just not in it anymore, you know? Yeah.

So when you look at your salon business, how much are you making there versus your weddings? Because you. If you're supplementing it.

Truly not that much, I don't think. You know, it pays my bills during the winter. But, like, once you factor in everything you buy to provide those services, like, it's not that profitable.

Right.

Unless you have an employee. Like, I don't really think it's that profitable to work in a salon. I get that. I mean, unless you're, like, in it. In it. But, like, I don't want to go back to five, six days a week.

No, I'm done.

I'm done doing hair color.

Yeah. Like, I put my dues in. I paid my dues.

Yeah.

That's a long time.

Long time. I know.

Let me ask you, if you were. If you had income flowing in during the slow season, would you feel a lot safer leaving the salon?

Yes, a hundred percent.

Girl, I hope you're going to be doing the wait list.

Oh, I'm signed up.

Okay, cool. Because I'm like that. That is your ticket. That is your ticket to get income during the slow season when you're not even.

That's the only part I can't solve. I don't. I don't know. I'm like. I take their deposits and then I get paid on their wedding day. I'm like, how do I make this money in the slow season?

We front load the bookings.

I'm so excited.

Oh, it's gonna be so good. That's gonna be a game changer for you. I'm really excited for that.

I already have a little wait list, so coming in. Ready?

Oh, for what, 20, 27?

Yeah.

Nice. Okay.

Okay.

Oh, we're gonna light it on fire. Yeah. Because you're so talented. Like. Yeah, you are. You are. We're gonna.

Thank you.

We're gonna blow it up. I'm excited for that.

I'm excited for it too.

Okay, so we got 20 bookings for 20, 26. That's phenomenal. What Would you say when you were going through the academy was like your biggest takeaway? Was it email templates, your packages? What was your biggest takeaway that you packages?

Not so much the templates, but the idea of the templates, because I ended up rewriting most of them, just did not sound like me, but like emailing, like towards the buyer type, that was like very eye opening to me.

Oh, yeah, yeah.

So I can notice some of them. I have a little trouble with like the driver buyers, maybe. Maybe I just don't get them and that's why I can't recognize it. But yeah, yeah, that's. That's been extremely helpful, isn't it?

Like, you can't unsay it. What do you. What's your buyer type? Who did you resonate with?

Amiable. They're my favorite. Yeah.

Yeah, I love that. I love an amiable, I think because.

I'm like that too. Like, sort of somewhat indecisive. So, like, I don't know, I like talking to them.

You like the collaboration?

Yeah, I do.

Yeah. I love that Buyers, I feel like they get a bad rap, but they're really great.

Yeah, you just gotta. They're just. Yeah, they're just a little lost.

Yeah.

Gotta reel them in.

Welcome to checkout. Fine.

I have pretty good luck with them.

Yeah, no, I love that because it is something that I think goes back to your messaging. Like when you're in ChatGPT, it's giving you, like, very standard AI conversation. So have you noticed that now that you're, you know, leaning back into your personality, leaning into the sales psychology, the communication with your brides is different.

Yes. So it's so much easier. It just like took so much pressure off to like sound like uber professional all the time. That is so forced for me. I'll never be like that.

Yeah, me either.

No, I don't know how.

I don't.

I don't know. Yeah, so like once, once it like clicks that, like, you don't actually have to be that way for people to like you, respect you, or want to book with you. Then it just made things so much easier.

Yes.

And yeah.

Yeah, psa, you don't need to be professional. You could just be yourself.

Yeah, I actually get, like a lot more referrals lately too. I don't know, maybe that's just resonating with the other vendors as well.

No, it probably is. It's coming back. But also it's probably your social media presence.

Yeah.

How would you say? Because social media for me is typically what I teach to, to get inquiries. And I know you said like, you didn't have inquiries coming through for a couple months. So how were you able to shift that and what does it look like now, inquiry wise?

It's good. Yeah, I do get a lot more inquiries. I get a lot through DM now on social media. But I just, I stopped letting that bother me and I, you know, I think it was bothering me because other people were complaining about it. So I'm like, why do I really, why do I care if I have to DM someone? It's not that hard. It takes two seconds to go on my Honeybook and grab the link and be like, here's mine. Fire it later.

Thank you.

And now I can be like, since I already have your info, let's skip a step. I'll just send you the agreement. It's made my bookings faster. I think I forgot to answer the original question.

But no, you're fine. Wait, wait, wait. Now I'm curious. So you will. Because I don't have honeybooks. When you have Honeybook, does somebody need to fill out an inquiry form to get into your system?

I can manually put it in, but it's easier for me if they put it all in themselves in their file. And like contract, everything is just filled in already with like wedding date, wedding location. So it just takes a lot of like manual labor off.

Yeah.

But wait, I assume Dubsado is the same. I honestly want to switch. Honey goes.

I love Dubsado.

Yeah.

So you're booking brides in the dms. Like you'll send them the contract and everything there?

Yeah, well, I'll get them to like go through email to open it. I don't know how to send it directly through DMs.

Okay.

I actually think there's a way to do it with square that I'm looking into. I just gotta wait. I gotta finish my weddings.

There is a way you could do it with Dubsado.

Okay, good to know. I'm. I'm so ready to get rid of Honeybook. The price increase and then the changes that they made with it are not matching up. Oh no.

What are the changes?

There's like AI. They have an AI assistant, but it auto types every reply for you. So as soon as someone emails you, it's just there and it's like, okay, well none of this information is correct.

Yeah.

And you have to erase it. And it's really hard to like on your phone to get rid of it. And sometimes I'm like, I'm doing things from work. So just pisses me off.

Oh, that's annoying. That would be so annoying. But I know.

And they also have like a code sometimes if you don't turn a setting off and like a planner books through you. Like they have to type in like a passcode every time they want to access a file, which is very annoying for wedding planners.

Yeah.

And I don't want to be pissing off. No, they have a lot of power.

Yeah. No, but you should definitely look into Dubsado because Dubsado has a new feature where so it's their proposal and that'll have. They select their package goes to the contract invoice all in one. You can take that link and give it to someone in the dms.

That's amazing.

Yeah, yeah, that. I thought that's what you were doing just in Honeybook, but that is.

No, I would just send them like anything they need, I would get from them, put it on their honeybook and then say, can you check your email? So it is still extra work.

But it is still extra work.

Don't want to email. I had a bride tell me to my face this year. I think email is such an archaic way to communicate. I'm like, okay, okay, girl, I'm sorry. I'm gonna email you though.

You're like, assignment understood. Heard you loud and clear.

All right then. So sorry that I sent you an email.

No, that's. Honestly, that's what I'm. That's what I'm hearing across the board. And that's why I had to shut down the academy to like rework it because I'm like, we can't stay in the archaic times. We gotta.

Yeah, that was very honest and direct feedback I got about it.

Yeah, No, I love her for that.

Tell it to my face.

Yeah, But I also love that you don't have that like mindset block anymore of like everyone else says you shouldn't be in the dms or some people say it's not professional, you know, and that will hang us up. But honestly, you're an amiable buyer. We tend to attract our own buyer type. And they're going to be in your DMs.

Yeah, I DM people.

Yeah.

Yeah. So I'm like, why am I acting like I'm better than the way I behave?

Yeah, right. Yeah. You know, and we're supposed to have like, we have like a year long relationship with our brides. Why wouldn't we want to communicate and chat that way? That's just meeting them where they're at you know what I mean?

Yeah.

Yeah.

I'm really not a fan of it seeming like it's, like, an inconvenience for your clients to contact you. I hate that attitude. Yeah. See it a lot.

I love that point of view.

I do. Yeah.

Mm. I love that. So when it comes to your bridal business now versus when, before, when you join the Academy, what would you say has been the biggest shift or difference that you've seen?

Feel more confident, I think, about the bookings, and if they take longer to, like, you know, agree, I don't get too stressed out about it. Not everyone decides 20 seconds after you send them your prices, so let that go, and everything just makes a lot more sense. I'm getting ready, I think, to put my prices up again for 20, 27 lessons and how to price everything, lay the packages out makes that so much easier.

Okay, so were you able to use the pricing calculations to create new rates?

Yeah, a little bit.

Amazing. That's probably why you're seeing so much more profit for next year.

Yeah.

I love that. I love that. If there was something in the academy when you were going through, what was. What's something that you were like, ah, I wish this was included. Was there anything you think was missing?

I don't think so. Off the top of my head, I can't think of anything. Okay.

Have you used any of the. Are you in braddapreneur socials?

Yep.

Have you ever used any of the Instagram story templates?

Yes. I was trying to do the story challenge, and it fell off. I was not doing a good job. You know, the editing those takes a long time. It does.

Takes a while.

I bang a bunch out on the weekend. I go work in my Sloan Suite. And then I'd have four days where I'm like, I can't do anything. And then I was trying to catch up, but I saved some of. Some of the ones that worked, I saved. And I'll put them off occasionally, but I haven't been too good on my stories lately, honestly.

I love that, though. You saw the ones that worked, and you just saved those and repurposed.

Yeah. Smart. Yeah, they're helpful. All my highlights are done with those.

Oh, really?

I know we're losing. I think we're gonna lose highlights soon, but don't. It's gonna crush me not talking about it.

Don't bring it up. Don't bring it up. They're just gonna get moved, but it's just not gonna be the same. We're gonna have to leave on Pin post. Because they'll live at the top of the profile.

Yeah.

I feel like, what if they do like a series? I feel like they might do that. Like how TikTok.

Yeah.

Series up at the top. That could be good.

I think it is going more like tick tock direction. For sure.

It is. They're readjusting.

Yeah. Change a whole lot.

We love that. So if somebody was on the fence about joining the Academy, what if they were like, I've taken a ton of other courses, I've spent so much money doing other stuff or, you know, this just seems like a high investment. I don't know if I'm going to get it back or. What would you tell them?

I would tell them, definitely go for it. You will make your investment back. Oh, honestly? Yeah. That's what someone told me before I joined it. They said, you will make back your money and raise your prices. And I was like, okay.

And look, she did it.

What? Yeah, I did it. I would. I tell. I tell people all the time. Oh, so sweet. Same thing, I guess.

Do it, do it. You heard it from the girl. You heard it from the girl.

She saved my business. Oh.

She made her investment back.

I did.

I love that. So where can we hang out with you? What's your Instagram?

Kirby McGrevsky, hairstylist.

Can you spell that for us?

I was like, you're probably gonna need me to spell that. So it's just my first name. Last name. K I, R B Y. Kirby. M A K R E V S K I dot. Hairstylist.

I love it.