524: From Nothing To Multiple 6 Figures With Lacey Gebo – Client Interview Series Ep #4
On today’s podcast, we are joined by Lacey Gebo, an accomplished salon owner and stylist who has successfully built her business from scratch! Lacey started recording training videos inside her salon in 2020 during the lockdown, focusing on teaching other stylists how to bring on and train assistants. Recognizing the potential, she launched her platform, LG Education, in 2021, offering a specialized online assistant course. Lacey’s unique niche offer quickly gained traction, attracting salon owners who were eager to improve their assistant programs. As Lacey’s business grew, she recognized the need to level up her marketing strategies.
Lacey and I discuss the power of consistency, showing up, and executing ideas quickly. Lacey’s willingness to adapt and learn from her mistakes has been instrumental in her journey to building a thriving six-figure business. She emphasizes the need for continuous growth, recognizing the value of having a coach and mentor to hold her accountable and guide her along the way.
Listen in to hear our inspiring and insightful conversation that sheds light on Lacey’s remarkable journey from a salon owner to successful educator, offering valuable lessons and strategies for entrepreneurs in any industry.
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READ THE EPISODE TRANSCRIPT
Emily Hirsh
Hello Everybody welcome back to the not for lazy Marketers Podcast I have another amazing guest, a friend and client who’s worked with us. Lacey Gebo here and I’m so excited for this conversation. Welcome lacy.
Lacey
Hello Hello So excited to be here.
Emily Hirsh
Yay! Well let’s start with a kind of a recap of you and your business and let everybody know about your story a little bit.
Lacey
Oh my goodness. Yes, so I am a salon owner and stylist in Claremore, Oklahoma. I have been behind the chair for about 12 years um and Twenty twenty when we couldn’t work. Um. You know this lawns got shut down and I really started to think do I see myself doing this forever and I had grown a team split from a business partner long crumbled rebuilt my team like I mean I’ve started over pretty much from scratch and in 2020 started recording videos like training inside my salon and that was kind of my niche I’ve always had assistance I’ve always worked with someone with me besides you know behind the chair for 10 years now um, and I started training in my salon other trainers to take assistance and we started recording videos in 2020 when we couldn’t work and I was like oh my gosh I had a light bulb go off I was like what if every salon had this what if every salon had an efficient assistant program and that’s kind of where my education started. It was really in 2020, so in 2021 I launched my platform. It’s Lg education and I started training other salon owners around the world and now internationally we have international students which is pretty cool and how to bring on and train assistants inside their salon. So it’s a very specific niche offer that we do offer and we’ve grown our offer has now expanded both ways. It started out with our online course and I had an evergreen webinar and now we do live in-person Education. Um, and we even have an offer that we fly out to you to film videos and put together an entire digital Academy. So It’s grown, but like a lot of trial and error things that have worked, things that haven’t worked and oh my It’s just been a journey. So yeah.
Emily Hirsh
Yeah, yeah, which I I’m excited to to get into that a little bit the trial and error and you you definitely embody that like I’m just gonna do it type of attitude of like we’re gonna make it happen I Remember like you started in our done with you program so you started coming on calls with me and I remember Like. Just noting that you were one who was like an implementer like okay here’s my question and then I’m like okay here’s what I would do and then you’re like okay I’m going to go do it then you good? Yeah, and yes, yes, which I love because that’s just like me. Let’s talk about that beginning time like tell me about your.
Lacey
Yeah, and then I’d do it tomorrow like it’d be done like the next day
Emily Hirsh
Kind of developing that offer but like your first sales. How did that kind of work?
Lacey
Yeah, so when we first launched in 2021? Um, I mean I didn’t know what I was doing and I was like okay, we’re gonna launch this platform and it’s an online assistant course so everything was consumed through videos. And when I put it together I did hire a coach. I hired someone to help me put the course together and then I hired a marketing coach. So I did hire 2 people and they really helped me set up the foundation. They helped me set up my offers, my payment plan and I think one of the best things that I did especially if you’re listening and you’re just starting out with an offer and a course is to do a prescell and to start selling your offer before your offer is even done and so I did a precell and I was like okay, all online assistant course launching March Fifteenth and I opened the doors up In February and I think I did like something crazy like $30000 before I even launched my program like it was stupid I was like oh my god there was a need I was selling something that people needed more training and with assistance it was like huge at that time and so that gave me cash to start like building my business because I mean I didn’t I was still working behind the chair at the time. So my mainstream income was doing hair so I was just starting this and I was like it was huge for me to be able to get cash coming in and money coming in before the course is even done and so it also lit a fire under my ass is like okay you have to be done by March Fifteenth because people have paid for this product. So get it done and I was like oh my the time was ticking and I mean I worked up on it until the night before it was launched. Was it perfect? No, but it was still a pretty damn good product. You know, but it wasn’t perfect. Perfection doesn’t exist and if you’re trying to wait for the right time Or to do everything perfectly. It’s like just get started, just do it and you’re going to make mistakes and you can course correct along the way so pre-sell was a big thing for me.
Emily Hirsh
Yeah, yeah, yeah, and what was that like making that first you know $30000 for you were you shocked yeah you like this is way more lucrative and fun.
Lacey
Well I was like okay I’m going to retire from behind the chair now. Yeah and I had just had a baby you know like well no I had a baby in November sorry that year and so I knew I like after my second baby I was like I don’t want to be tied to an appointment schedule all the time like I wanted more flexibility in my work and and in life in general and so my whole goal was this is like if I can get this up off the ground running I am going to retire from behind the chair. So I can spend more time at home like I’m in my office right now and my kids are right in there I can see them all the time. So It was important for me like that was my drive behind it was I wanted to be with my family more.
Emily Hirsh
Yeah, yeah, and ah and a theme in these interviews where I am polling like some of our most successful clients is the offer being completely nailed and I think a part of the reason you’re able to do that is you were your ideal customer so you had that like super deep understanding. About the pain and what they needed and that this was a huge problem that nobody was solving and it is super niche and specific because I don’t know if there’s other courses out there. But when I heard it I was like this is really cool like this is super niche. Yeah yeah.
Lacey
There’s not. I have no competition in this realm. I am just being honest, I Really don’t. There’s a couple other assistant programs that they’re either outdated or they’re not to that capacity that mine is like it’s very detailed and very thorough. So.
Emily Hirsh
Yeah, yeah, yeah, and because you had that understanding you were able to nail the offer and the messaging around the offer because you knew the frustrations, the pain and the desires related to that. Yeah.
Lacey
Yeah, yeah, I mean like after so after I ended up watching it, I hired my 2 coaches in the beginning. I know I always say like new level new devil and so like as you grow things change in your business. And so you need something different at that time and so at that time I had got into Haley Burkehead’s course because I was like I need something more I want it to be like an evergreen where it’s not open and closed open and closed like I was done like doing that and so I wanted something more so started out and did a webinar which was very successful. It did great and that’s how I got introduced to you because you were plugged in there. You had a little segment in there in a video and so I was like okay I’ve never thought about ads like it hadn’t even crossed my mind and so I mean it kind of had but I was like I wasn’t ready yet and I don’t think we were at that threshold like I needed to be you know $10000 a month or you know, whatever it is I wanted to make sure that we had a strategy that was working before we put you know ads on it and even more and so finally you know with some time I realized this is working. It’s only growing. It’s only getting better and better every month. So after launching the evergreen um webinar then Met you and started doing ads and it just I mean you’re right? It’s just a numbers game at that point and I didn’t have a solving problem, I had a lead problem. So like if I can get ads out and reach more people I can sell and convert people like it like talk about it’s just a numbers game I just need more leads. So yeah.
Emily Hirsh
Um, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly yeah. So those first sales that you didn’t run ads did you have a following of hairstylists and that you had built up how long were you building that up beforehand.
Lacey
Um, yeah I started really getting into social media marketing in 2019 so a couple of years so I had a decent following also with doing extensions. These salon owners and other people that are doing extensions with me. My peers are my ideal Target Market. Like those are all the salons that I want to buy my program to take on you know assistance and do my course so like everyone and in my social media following was my ideal Pretty much to be so I did have a little bit of a following and I think that’s what helped me in the very beginning is because all these people that were already I was you know posting I had a very strategic like post schedule five days the week I was this morning lunch afternoon I would get my stories like multiple times I would go live every day like I had a very strategic Social media strategy because that’s all I because I wasn’t doing ads at the time. So that’s how I marketed it and just oh.
Emily Hirsh
And during that time of starting in 2018 to launching your program. Did you say in 2021 okay were you selling anything to hairstylists during that time or were you just like creating the content building the following.
08:56.19
Lacey
I launched lg education in 2021 yep Um, I had no education so I was just behind the chair selling extension. So I was an MBr artist and all I did was natural beader rose that they had to come sit in my chair to get that service so it was just behind the chair I had no offer anything like yeah.
Emily Hirsh
Yeah, okay, yeah, yeah, but what I think is so cool to point out is like so you had that huge successful launch when you launched in 2021 and people might be like oh my gosh $30000 that first launch but you spent years beforehand building your audience. And then nailing your offer and you did that without necessarily yet having like an offer for everybody because you said it’s in person. So if you’re building this like a virtual audience. They all can’t qualify for the extension. So. That’s you know that’s a future like That’s future investment in your business and so you spent years and so I think not enough people to realize that like you just said I had a rigid posting schedule I showed up I went live every day I posted 3 times a week I mean you were creating content for the purpose of consistency and showing up and putting in the work. And you had you behind the chair and you had the extensions as the goal too. But you were really just like showing up consistently and you had that discipline and I think that’s huge because you combine that with then creating the best offer and killing the offer and then you get the $30000 successful out the gate launch but I feel like not enough people realize like you did a ton of work before then to get to that point in building an audience building trust with them and showing up and probably showing up when you didn’t know the pathway exactly yet because you were still behind the chair.
Lacey
I didn’t no and my pathway is still changing. You know I also feel like what prepped me was like the blood but sweat and tears of 10 years of working with assistants and owning a business and hiring employees for 10 years that to me. Like you have to walk the walk and that’s what prepped me to teach other people how to bring on assistants and employees in their business and how to coach and mentor people like the 10 years of experience behind the chair and running my company was the blood sweat and tears that made me so passionate about this offer because I am super passionate because I’ve failed a lot of. I failed more times than one I want to admit and I’ve hired one hundred plus people and people come and go and I think that that’s something that people get so caught up on especially in my industry is like a hired assistant. It didn’t work out. It’s not for me. I’m like you tried 1 time you have to constantly in hiring and recruiting mode. So You know it’s like in my mind I mean I’ve hired for 10 years it’s like it never ends because you’re always looking for someone else is always going to come around. So yeah.
Emily Hirsh
Yeah, and so that work is what was able to create your success and and I think so so often that part is not seen once people blow up or launch the offer and start to see that success but your power is in your consistency and your grit in showing up. And then I saw that afterwards like as we would pivot or things would come up. It’s like you said I’d implement it tomorrow. It’s like that is a trait if you want to know a trait of successful entrepreneurs. It is the speed. It’s being willing to fail and it’s Executing No matter what and sometimes it’s just making consistency the goal and not exactly knowing what that’s going to lead to but showing up. Anyways, Yeah, yeah, so I would love to get into. Um, so you launched the offer that was successful and then you said you’ve made Mistakes and you’ve learned like what are some of those lessons throughout the process that you’ve learned.
12:31.82
Lacey
Oh my goodness I always feel like you need a coach and a mentor in life. I feel like you can’t ever stop growing and I feel like there’s been times especially because through launching Lg education and you know starting my education platform I had a baby and took some time off.
And felt like oh I can do it myself. Well then sometimes when you think you can do it yourself is like no one’s holding you accountable and so for me I need to be invested in something to where I have a coach you know and I’m paying for something to where someone’s telling me you need to do this. Because I’m very much so like I can fall back into patterns to where I’m not self-motivated I say I’m gonna do something and I don’t do it or I don’t take quick action. You know how long I’ve needed to to change my checkout pages with my offer and I still haven’t done it and that could be losing me self because they go to this and they’re like this is crap. What is this? So like I mean that’s a mis like it needs to be done and I’ve been saying it for 2 like 8 not 2 years a year and a half I need to freaking change. Talk out pages and I haven’t so you know it’s things like that and I you know it’s just you can only I try to prioritize what is the most important thing right now and I still do live launches. We have a lot. We just did a hiring challenge Like yesterday and so I definitely think that like with success. It’s like trying all these different avenues and figuring out what works for you because what works for me might not work for someone else. My watches work for me. So I’m going to keep doing them. So yeah I mean.
Emily Hirsh
Absolutely yeah, yeah, yeah, so being willing to try a lot of different avenues and then you said that’s actually a point I wanted to touch on is you from the beginning have hired. That’s kind of your thing hiring assistants and in your in-person business. But You’re not afraid to hire. You’re not afraid to take that step and make that investment and take that risk that some people wait months or years to actually take that step.
Lacey
Yeah, you’ve got to spend money to make money and for anyone that thinks that you can’t you like oh I’ll do it myself or oh I don’t have the money right now is like that to me has been some of my biggest success is spending money on coaches and courses and. Following people that you look up to that you find successful and like they’ve already walked this path. Why not learn from the best You’re the best in ads Why not learn from someone that’s done it when I have no idea what I’m doing. You have a strategy behind it that works and I’m like why not follow up, follow someone that is the best and learn from them. And you know what I mean because I can’t do it myself and you can take like you said years and years researching it or listen to every single one of your podcasts but who’s time for that because I don’t have I don’t want time for that. So I would rather someone tell me how to do it tell me now let’s get to work and do it and create results faster.
Emily Hirsh
Um, right exactly? Yeah yeah. Yeah, and so when you look at what your next investment will be or you know what your next support that you’re bringing in is, how do you make those decisions for yourself. Yeah.
Lacey
I’m kind of trying to figure that out right now. So I don’t really have a set answer for that. But I think you need to find holes in your business. You need to figure out What’s not working and why and then who can help get you there and what’s you know, like there’s definitely still holes in my business right now. We just hired on in April our first executive assistant in Lg Education so it’s my first employee that I’ve had. I’ve hired lots of employees in the salon. But I’ve hired my first employee in Lg Education because I was so tapped for the last year I was constantly in reactive mode and couldn’t even be Proactive in the visionary of my business because I was just doing tasks. So now that I have help I am starting to crawl out of that hole and see light at the end of the tunnel and see be more the visionary to say like we need to take Lg education to the next level. We just now yesterday planned all of 2024 All of our dates, all of our um like in-person experiences and I’ve never planned that far in advance. So finally I feel like I’m finally getting on top of the game and not in reactive mode all the time. Yeah, yeah, finally yes so I’m excited.
Emily Hirsh
Um, yeah, yeah, yeah, that’s and that’s huge for you. I’m so excited to hear that that’s all. Yeah yeah, um I think what you do is you recognize when you’re not an expert in something. And then you go and find that support and I think whereas a lot of other people make the mistake of like well I’ll just power through and try to learn it or figure it out or do it myself or live in that like kind of scarcity mindset of not getting support and the reality is that actually usually costs you so much more time and money. In the very beginning of your business like you just said I was doing tasks. It’s like you do have to wear a lot of hats for a while in your business until you have a full team and things running but you should identify like here’s the things that take me the most amount of time or I am. Farthest away from proficient in that if I try to do it. It’s going to cost me time and money and I think that’s what you did with like coaches and ad support and marketing. If you were like okay this will be way faster for me if I go and get this support.
Lacey
Yeah, time is money and I feel like if you wait too long. You’ve just wasted so much money and so that’s the big one to me is like where are you spending your time and what’s the most important thing that you need to be doing right now. Could you delegate and someone else be inside your business helping so you can create.
Emily Hirsh
Yeah, absolutely. Um so I don’t really believe in mistakes because I think mistakes always lead us to a better thing right? but I would love to know if you were to look back and say okay here are the things the biggest like lessons I learned or what we would call mistakes but they were.
Lacey
So you can be the visionary of your business..
Emily Hirsh
You know good because they led to opportunities. What are those things?
Lacey
Oh my goodness I’m going to have to think about this one for a minute.
Emily Hirsh
Yeah I know I throw people off of my off the cuff questions or if you have like what were the biggest impactful um, moments or decisions. Um paths you took throughout the last couple of years
Lacey
Yeah, when I look back at the last couple years some of the scariest things were some of my bigger investments like it’s Hirsh Marketing with and Haley Burkehead and at the time I was scared because I’m like that is so much money to me like there was a lot of money and I’m like I’m making this big investment Will it pay off but every investment that I made has gotten bigger and bigger And bigger I only keep making bigger investments in my business even coming back to Mel hiring my executive assistant that’s by far the biggest investment I’ve ever made and and so I feel like you have like I said you have to spend money to make money and you can’t be scared to to know that it’s okay if you. Fail and like you’re not going to fail. But if you do you get back up and you try something different. It’s okay if that didn’t work. Try something else and just because you do something right now doesn’t mean it’s a forever thing so I can’t think of anything like big mistakes. But I think some of the biggest impactful things was hiring on coaches that have pushed me further in my business And not being scared to make those big investments because to me that means they paid off and then I end up making a bigger investment but I also implement and do the work show up every day if you’re going to invest in something go all in and if not then you might pull yourself because that’s you know if you’re not going all in. You’re not doing yourself. You know justice.
Emily Hirsh
Yeah, yeah, yeah, and and you had moments where you were like really bogged down in your business and you had to relook at a few things and I’m like you got this assistant help. But I think that’s something too is like you’ve got ah you have such a joy and excitement for your business And passion and I think that’s something we haven’t said yet. But I think that’s really important because the way that you show up, like if you were to go to your Instagram it’s like you see the passion in your content. It’s how you were able to build that following. It’s how people trust you and so I think you’ve also made decisions to make sure that always stays and you always felt really. In alignment and like excited about your business, and I’ve watched you make decisions around that and I think that’s important too because that matters a lot.
Lacey
Well thank you I That means a lot to me because it’s something that I’ve always worked really hard on to never lose the passion and not ever get bored or stagnant because you can and I feel like why would someone want to buy your offer If you’re not even excited about it and you have to like I think social media is like. It’s good and bad. You know you hate it at times you love it at times but I look at it as something that we get to do every day I get to show up and talk to these people across the world for free and maybe they didn’t you know they might be brand new to my page and I can make a difference in these people’s lives and that’s what is ultimately working with an assistant changed my life behind the chair. I mean drastically and if I can do that for other people I want to make an impact on their life and their business to where they have freedom and they’re not hide behind the chair and they have they can make so much more money in a shorter amount of time working with someone so it’s about impacting these people’s lives.
Emily Hirsh
Yeah, yeah, and coming from that place is what makes your content So Successful your webinar So successful. Your challenges are because you have that passion and belief and like you come from a place I talked about this in another interview of like. Sales become a byproduct of you serving and showing up and having that impact and changing people’s lives and then the sales really become pretty easy because you’re doing that and that’s like where you’re coming from and what the priority is first Yeah um, okay, well.
Lacey
Yeah, for sure. Absolutely yeah.
Emily Hirsh
Do you have any other takeaways that you’d want to share just from your journey of someone that’s like Wow She’s super successful and you make it look easy. But I’m glad that we uncovered the work you did before I didn’t actually know that part of your story because you came in you know after you’d already launched and so I think The fact that you showed up every single day live is like just so telling to me because there’s like 1% of people who’d be willing to do that and actually show up that consistently and I think that’s so key. But anyways.
Lacey
We were coached on daily four. It’s doing an audio video picture text every single day inside of our extension method that I did and the video portion was alive. You have to live every day and I really did for about 2 years consistently and that’s what Bolton Extension business I Had to do it live which now I’m like who does lives now you know now the reals were hey at the time it was a live video and I did a live almost I stuck to daily four that is what built my business of extensions of a high ticket you know 2 3 $4000 tickets That I had people coming in from all over not even just in Oklahoma I had people from like Arkansas Missouri because I was the best extension artist in Claremore Oklahoma but I was so consistent with my marketing and I was like if they tell me that this works I’m going to do it and it did work and so I’m like it’s just It’s being consistent for sure and if you’re new to this. Don’t give up like that’s my advice to you is like just because something works for 1 person doesn’t necessarily get to I mean it’s going to work for you but take action I’m an action doer jump in and figure it out because I’m not 1 to sit there and ponder every detail is this going to work is it not going to work. I’m one that likes to go for it. Go all inm show up and you’re going to do great.
Emily Hirsh
Yeah, yeah, and I bet out of like the program that you said you were in who told you to do that I bet you were one of very few who really did do that for 2 years consistently like and that’s the differentiator there like you want to be successful.
Lacey
Um, yeah, it was a long time right now.
Emily Hirsh
You got to take those types of actions and you’ve got to show up in that way and as I say it’s like it’s not a matter of if it’s just a win. You know if you show up that way and you’re relentless with creating the success and you said it earlier too. It’s like my path is still changing. That’s true for everybody like lacy’s created a successful business with a successful offer And she’ll always be pivoting and adjusting and changing things and going in different directions and so will I because the industry changes we change our priorities may shift and change sometimes as being a mom like you know and so you don’t have it all figured out but you still show up and that’s the key to it all.
Lacey
Never never gonna have it all figured out. I feel like I’m constantly gonna be learning and pivoting and that’s the beauty of the business is like I think that’s what makes that fun and worthwhile and worth the ride.
Emily Hirsh
Um, yeah, yeah, absolutely awesome. Well thank you so much for your time if anyone wants to come check you out where would be the best place for them to go.
Lacey
Yeah, so I’m mostly on I G and it’s at lacey_gebo That’s LACEYnderscoreGEBO and for anyone that’s on that’s a beauty entrepreneur I would love to chat with you because obviously that’s my niche my specialty. So if you want to come. Purchase any of my offers or come hang out with us. That’s like we are targeting hairstylists and salon owners that want to grow their teams. So.
Emily Hirsh
And she truly is the best at what she does and you’ll enjoy her content. I love seeing you on Instagram like you are so great at video and someday I’ll have hair like yours because.
Lacey
Thank you.
Emily Hirsh
It really does help the video and I remember when I was like I get my haircut once a year and you message me on Instagram you’re like are you kidding me? ah.
Lacey
Ah, never forget 1 time you talked about how your stylist wanted to talk to you and you didn’t want to talk and I was like Emily like you because I was someone that says hairstylist they’re just wanting to make conversations and I’m like you are the most low maintenance person. I’m
Very high maintenance person. I wear extensions and lipstick and a full face every day. So yeah, I was like go get your haircut every six weeks.
Emily Hirsh
I know you were like are you kidding? Yeah I know I literally do once a year a haircut I’m going to try twice a year this year. That’s so funny. Yeah cause I take inches off.
Lacey
Um, it’s funny I can always tell when you do I’m like she just got her hair done. It’s like you do you do like you do like massive changes I can tell when you get your hair done.
Emily Hirsh
Efficiency man. Ah. Um, yeah, because once a year I go clean it up. Now I’m gonna try twice here this year. That’s so funny. All right? Thank you so much Lacey.
Lacey
Um, yeah, woo that’s an improvement and absolutely.