Why You’re Stuck at 5 Figures (And How to Finally Break $100K)

If you're a bridal hairstylist or makeup artist and you're wondering why you're stuck at 20k, 30k, 50k a year, and you want to finally break past that five figure year and step into your six figure era with your bridal business in 2026, this video is for you. I'm Marissa Grace. I spent a decade in the wedding industry as a bridal hairstylist, scaling my business from 6k a year all the way up to half a million in just three years without having a wedding team doing weddings without me. And since then, I've been able to help over 400 plus bridal hairstylists and makeup artists scale their own business hitting their six figure. So today I want to give you the brutal truths behind every single income level. Why you're stuck at five figures and what is actually going to get you to your six figure era. Lock in clock and let's go. If you're hovering anywhere from zero to $90,000 a year in your bridal business, you're actually stuck in a completely different business identity. This is the gap that I see between five figures and six figures. It's not about talent, the algorithm or luck. It's about how you're operating your business. And everything you've done so far in your business got you the business that you have today. Let me repeat that, everything you've done so far up until today got you the business, the results or not the results that you want. And that's why I see so many incredibly talented bridal hairstylists and makeup artists feeling like they need to post more, they need to do more in their business. And the real energy behind this stage is you're in survival mode. You need money now. So you're only thinking in the now versus thinking in a 12 month, 5 year, 10 year, year plan instead of that long term growth. And they stay stuck at the same income level year over year over year. Let's break down why the jump from five figures to six figures feel so hard. What's actually holding you back and the mindset shifts that you need to make. And this is what's going to separate the people who stay stuck versus blow past six figures. Now, these are the five figure mindset traps. And this is where pros get stuck the longest, including myself. For five long, brutal years at the five figure level, the most common patterns look like you wait until things are absolutely perfect before before you take action. And this can look like you're not posting on Instagram because the background of your photo is too messy. Everything needs to be professionally edited and cropped to be perfect to show up on Instagram. You don't know what to say in your caption and it's not politically correct or perfect. Somebody might have a thought or opinion about it, so you're not going to post it. You hit one learning curve and immediately you trash your business. You throw everything away, questioning, am I actually meant for this? You're chasing quick hacks like the perfect hook for your reel instead of boring, repeatable, predictable activities. Because most of the work that builds a six figure business is slow, it's invisible and it's so boring at first. And because you get bored, you're not getting that dopamine hit. So instead you want a quick fix which is going to look like you hyper focusing on your Instagram bio. Because if you change your Instagram bio, it's something that you can see in the now versus tweaking small things behind your business that you're not going to get an immediate ROI from. Same thing with your captions, your websites, your sales page, because those feel productive in the moment without forcing you to confront rejection, sales, conversations or release control with having systems that run your business without you needing to do every manual piece. Yeah, that's what kept me stuck for so long. So let's take a look at somebody who has a five figure mindset versus somebody who has a six figure mindset. So you can start stepping into that six figure version of yourself. A five figure mindset is going to be you're slow to take action. You're waiting for everything to be perfect versus somebody who's scaling, earning six figures. They are fast to take action. They watch a class, they watch a training, they watch a YouTube video. If there is an action step in it, they're on it the second the video ends. Not perfect, just forward. Operating at five figures looks like overthinking that first step instead of just taking action. Six figure operations look like you hit a roadblock. You sit in that uncomfortable shift for a day and you move on five figures. If something doesn't work out instantly, you give up and you're done. Instead of sticking it out like if you don't get views on a post, you're like, I'm done posting. Delete it, archive it. I never want to see it again. Versus six figure mindset is going to be you become a problem solver versus why did this happen to me? You operate from that experimental mindset of how can I make this better? 5 figures, you say stuck too long thinking you can DIY everything out of fear that you're a fraud, that you can't invest into anything because then somebody's going to see like, oh my God, I'm not as good as I thought. Six figure mindset. You see the roi, return on investment for hiring models for content days, having content days, investing in mentorship, education, beyond free things. Because you know that's where the real skill is going to get built and the real transformation is going to happen. And your five figure mindset is telling you focus on the quick hacks instead of the slow, boring, profitable activities. Avoid boring at all cost. And a six figure mindset is willing to spend money to make money. They value efficiency and their time above all else. And when it comes down to it, after working with hundreds of pros, myself included, the real reason you might not be showing up as much in your business on social media like you want to isn't laziness because you likely have everything ready to go. It's fear. The fear that people are going to send my posts in a group chat and make fun of me. Other pros will say I'm wrong or that I'm a fraud or I don't know what I'm talking about. If I talk about something in my content or my caption, if I teach too much, people are going to steal my ideas. Or you might tell yourself, what if I try and it still doesn't work? So you stay quiet, you stay small, and you stay safe in your little comfortable comfort zone bubble. But my girl, safety is the fastest way to cap your income and put a glass ceiling on yourself because more brides need to know you exist. And I know this because when I started my bridal business, I was in the depths of the self sabotage cycle. I worked a 9 to 5. I did weddings on the weekend. I took any bride that had a pulse so that I can make extra money. I had zero systems because nobody could do it better than me. No consistent transformation. Absolutely paralyzed by saying no. So I said yes to everything. I stayed stuck making around $20,000 a year for five long years. I never stayed long enough in one strategy to actually let it compound because I didn't have patience. And it got boring. And that's the part that nobody tells you. And I want to show you this bridal pro sabotage cycle. Because once you see it, you can't unsee it and you can finally step out of it. So here's the sabotage cycle phase one. You have no bridal inquiries, so you don't have Enough inquiries coming in now you start to panic. You need to start making money, like, now. So you head into phase two, which is offering more. You think, okay, I went to cosmetology school. I could offer makeup. I could all offer boudoir photo shoots. I could reach out to photographers, I could pick up some days in a salon. And you start running through all the skills that you have that you can offer. You take on any service that comes in your inbox. Maybe you get that side hustle job. So that moves us into phase three, which is not enough time. You feel great in the moment because you got some cash flow rolling in, but you notice you're still not getting wedding inquiries. You're like, what's going on? You're juggling all of your new clients, services, side hustles that you got going on. And you don't have enough time to promote your wedding business. Which leads us to phase number four. No Instagram presence. You're scrolling instead of posting. You're waiting for it to be perfect. Nothing in your camera roll is perfect enough to post. You're comparing yourself to everyone. She's showing up so great. My content isn't as good. I can't post. And if you're not posting, no brides know you exist. So you're not getting clients. And this cycle repeats and repeats and repeats. And if you found yourself in this cycle, here's how we're going to break it for you. To get to six figures, here's what you need to do. You have to master one ideal client, one transformation, one marketing channel, and one booking framework. Notice I didn't say a bunch of different services. Yeah, but here's the issue. Most people don't want to do this beginner work after they've already been in the industry for some years. I was absolutely guilty of this because when I started my bridal business, I was already like five years into doing hair, so I didn't think I needed to take any hair classes. Yeah, I was really wrong. My ego kicked in, cash flow pressure kicked in, and starting over, it felt absolutely terrifying. What do you mean? I have to figure out one client, one transformation. It just felt really hard. So I stayed in the what's already kind of working, even though that wasn't taking me where I wanted to go. And after going through this and seeing my clients go through this, I was able to break it down at each income level of what the issue is and what you want to be doing instead so you can get to the next income level. Because each stage is going to require something different from you. And what you learn at a certain income level is going to take you to the next one. So from 0 to 50k a year, here's what we need to learn at this stage. Mastering one technical skill, hair or makeup. But the problem is you're not as good as you think. Because at this level, most people are still working for wedding teams. They're not on their own. Likely still working in the salon a couple days a week or with a side hustle 9 to 5 job. So you're treating your bridal business like a side hustle and you're shocked when you have side hustle income versus six figures. And at this level, I'd constantly tell myself, I've been doing hair for five, seven years, I don't need to take hair classes, I know what I'm doing. And I was not aware how much I sucked until brides would tell me at their trials. And all of the red flags were there. Brides were constantly coming back asking for second trials because their look didn't look like their inspiration photos or brides would cancel after their trials and they didn't want to move forward with the wedding day. With me, I would get bad reviews if I put my work side by side with their Pinterest inspiration photo. They looked nothing alike. Jump scare. And so if you are a bridal hairstylist, I actually have a full playlist of my signature looks like my clean low bun glam waves for free here on my YouTube channel. So you can get out of this level. The next income level is going to be 50,000 to $90,000. And at this stage, what you really want to master is finding one ideal bride and mastering one marketing channel, not trying to diverse your attention and being on every single platform. And here's the problem. Nobody wants to do the beginning work, which is experimenting with your content, seeing what hits with your audience. So you start and you stop constantly. This post and it work. I need to create something new. And you're constantly starting from scratch versus experimenting, posting for 30, 60, 90 days, reviewing that, looking at your best performing posts, worst performing posts. And instead of reinventing the wheel every single time, you're rinse and repeating what already works for you. Or you're posting on Instagram for two days and then you're scrolling and somebody says oh, I found some brides over on TikTok. So now you've moved your entire strategy over to another platform that you don't even know. And in reality what you're looking for is A quick win which is views on a post versus Brides in your inbox. What's also going to keep you stuck at this income level? You're afraid to say no to brides because you don't want to turn money away so you say yes to every everybody when in fact you need to stop saying yes to everybody because not everybody's your ideal bride. Remember, we need to master one ideal bride. At this income level. When you're at 0 to 50, you're likely working with a bunch of different brides trying to figure out what styles, makeup looks, brides you like servicing versus now in this income level. We need to leave that one in the past. Figuring out those venues you want to work at so you're not always working at the barn venues. Narrowing in your Instagram profile to signature look so that way you're creating a consistent, repeatable transformation that that one bride is looking for. And likely what's keeping you stuck at this income level is also you can't stay focused on the long term. You're only thinking week to week or month to month versus year over year and creating goals based on a 12 month plan, a three year, five year plan. Because if you gave me 12 months I absolutely could get you to six figures. But you need to let the strategy compound. You can't jump from strategy to strategy thinking week to week or month to month. All right, once you narrowed in that one ideal bride, you're working on that one marketing chann. Now let's move into what's going to take you from 100k to 500k. So at the six figure income level, here's what you need to work on. You want to have one channel that is bringing you consistent wedding inquiries every single day, every single week. A framework with a sales process to consistently book brides, a consistent delivery for client transformation. Meaning on the wedding day you're consistently delivering what your clients are asking for with their hair, with their makeup. You have systems to manage clients onboarding, offboarding payment plans, workflows that are automating, taking manual work off of your plate. The problem here, you likely feel like you have no time to put systems into place because you're constantly working or by the time you get to slow season, you're so burnt out or you're still searching for quick cash. So you're like I don't want to take time off to work in my business. I'm going to pick up a side hustle during slow season. So that's going to take up all of your Free time versus taking that slow season focusing on working in your business, setting up those systems automation, CRM, making your client experience better hire assistance so you can cut down on timelines for wedding mornings. So tell me in the comments what income level you're at right now and this is exactly what I'll help you build. Inside Bridal Boss Academy. We'll build your six figure systems, mindset booking sales process packages and booking frameworks that actually get you to scale to six figures in your bridal hair, bridal makeup business so you can skip those five painful years that I had to go through just to hit my first six figure year. It's all inside Bridal Boss Academy waiting for you and I linked it down below. Below. Okay, so now you know everything you need at each income level. But even with that, here's the competence gap because most five figure businesses get stuck in the I'm aware of it. I need to learn more versus you need to be doing the action because you know what you're doing isn't working but you don't have a clear path. And positive reinforcement for the path that you're on when you're making all of these changes is really slow. So you lose focus and you're like let me go chase the next shiny thing that's going to give me positive reinforcement versus six figure business owners. Stay long enough in the discomfort knowing that it's going to compound over time. So in the now you might not be seeing results, but over month it's compounding and you're attracting that ideal bride in repelling all other ideal brides. Consistently repeating the same messaging on your social media versus constantly trying something new again because what you're doing right now is kind of working. You're safe here at this level and you might be telling yourself I'm ready to step into my six figure self. But then I'd have to rebrand and then I need money to do the rebrand. I don't know how to create a website. I'd have to say no to some brides. I need to practice more. I need to talk with more brides to learn the bride that I want to work with. I'd have to spend more time working behind the scenes without getting immediate money. Yeah, and that feels like work that most people won't do because they're too comfortable with where they're at and they don't want to get uncomfortable yet this is where the hard work gets done. All of those decisions that are holding you back are keeping you stuck and so I want to normalize what it actually feels like to start stepping into that new identity and operating from a six figure business. Because again, you're operating from a five figure business. We're going to need to step into a new identity and it gets kind of glorified online that it's like sexy and fun, like, oh, let me dress the way that she dresses, let me set my backgrounds the way that they do. I'll create a new fun vision board. But this is what it actually feels like because I've done it so many times over the years. And so this is what it's actually felt like for me to operate at a higher level. It straight up feels like nauseous, butterflies in your stomach, anxiety, anxiety, sweaty palms, like you're about to go on a roller coaster or you're about to go conquer your biggest fear. So think about that thing that you're afraid of and you're about to go do it. That's what it feels like when you're taking these small micro actions in your business. And that's why you haven't done them yet. Because all of those feelings start bubbling up, you start second guessing yourself. You want to quit, but in reality you're not going to die. And these feelings don't mean that you're doing it wrong. It usually just means that you're doing something that's new and it's unfamiliar. So you don't know what the result of you taking action is actually going to be like. Think of the first time you started a new job or makeup look or a hair look. You weren't an expert the first time you did it and you probably felt all of those feelings like second guessing yourself. And I want you to be aware of these because they're all going to bubble up and you have to stay strong and push past them because you're going to be doing a lot of things that are new and unfamiliar that you just haven't done yet. And that's okay. And so jumping from five figures to six figures isn't about doing more. It isn't about creating passive income. Swear to God, if I see somebody else talk about, oh, get brand deals, sell a $7 makeup guide. No, that's taking your focus off the long term vision. It's about doing less but better. It's about releasing the version of yourself that needs instant validation, committing to fewer things longer, building systems before you get paid for it, and trusting that the work is going to compound. And so if you're feeling stuck right now, it's Not a sign that you're failing. It means you're standing on the edge of an identity shift. So let me speak to that five figure version of you. You what habits and routines are no longer serving you. What needs to be swapped out so you can hit that next goal? How are you showing up in your business that's no longer serving you? And now let's talk to six figure version of you. What are the daily habits and routines of a six figure earner? What did they prioritize? How do they show up on social media? How do they show up daily in their emails, in their inbox with their brides? Write these out on a piece of paper, your five figure version of you and your six figure version of you and get super hyper specific and start taking a daily the action to step into that six figure version of you. And now if this video hit a nerve with you, that's a good thing. It means you're closer than you think. You just need a new way of operating. And if you want help building those six figure systems, mindset and booking framework that actually gets you to six figures, I teach all of this inside Bridal Boss Academy link down below for you. And if nothing else, let this video be a reminder. Everything you've done in your business got you the business that you have right now. You don't need more ideas. You need to let the right ones compound. I'll see you in the next one. Bye.