Lately we’ve had several members inside The Lashpreneur Society asking about this topic and I thought -if I’m seeing this come up with this level of frequency with our members – chances are, a good percentage of you are thinking the same thing. And that is about a recession.

 There is a lot of talk on the radio, media, and social media – pretty much anywhere you get your news and information from – about a looming recession here in the US. What to do, how to prepare, will your business survive, what should you be doing with your finances right now….it’s enough to make anyone want to bury their head in the sand.

Be careful what you feed your brain

There’s something called the reticular activating system in your head. It’s basically the filter in which information goes from your subconscious to your conscious mind. The job of your reticular activating system is to filter out relevant information from our subconscious mind into your conscious mind to increase your likelihood of survival. So if you are constantly feeding your subconscious mind negativity, bad self talk, people who have a negative or fear based view on life’s circumstances, you regularly watch the news and all of the tragedies they report on like shootings, global crises, wars, recessions, surging gas prices and plunging stock markets -the sheer volume of bad news and ick and struggling people is going to be the primary messaging leaked from your subconscious into your conscious brain. 

The beauty of the Reticular Activating System is that you can be a lot more intentional about what you “feed it” so that it actually leaves you feeling empowered, hopeful, excited or at peace and this can leave you with a feeling of having much more control of your life. Because here’s the thing, when we allow the media or even the people that we surround ourselves with to influence us in a way that is not motivating, that creates a lot of fear. We stay stuck. Why? Because we’re afraid of the unknown. We’re afraid of negative outcomes. And therefore we don’t want to venture out of our comfort zone because our comfort zone is known – even the level of pain/sadness/misery we may be currently experiencing is far less threatening than the risk of the unknown.

So let’s look at how our perspective and what we feed our brains about a current or looming recession might shape how we operate our business. If you’re like some of our students inside of The Lashpreneur Society, you might be asking…

“What do I do if there’s a recession?” 

The statement “what do I do if XYZ bad thing happens” is a fear-based statement. Because the event hasn’t actually happened yet and we cannot predict the future. So all of us anxious types try to plan for EVERY possible situation so we can be “prepared” and every one of the possible situations is now “known” and not unknown – because we’ve thought through all the things that could possibly go wrong and have processed what our steps will be to minimize the negative effects of any outcome.

Sound familiar? Let’s tie this back to a potential recession.

Let’s just – for a moment – imagine the worst case scenario. 

Now that worst case scenario as far as a recession is concerned is going to be different for each and every one of you. But let’s just say the consequences of a recession in your head would be that the clients can’t afford your services. 

Here’s a possible perspective shift for you if you’re worried about a recession tanking your client’s ability to afford your services… If you are building a clientele that has to choose between filling up their gas tank and getting your services, it DOESN’T MATTER if there’s a recession, a job loss, a car accident, they run over a nail in the street and have to pay for a whole new set of tires – they are so “price sensitive” that ANY SORT OF FINANCIAL HICCUP is going to derail them from being able to afford your services.

This is a target market issue – not necessarily a recession issue. 

You likely have attracted clients to your business based on deals, discounts, and competing on price rather than charging a profitable price point and finding a clientele that can afford that level of pricing.

Having the majority of your clientele being price sensitive is bad news when it comes to growing your business or having long term stability in the growth of your business. Inflation here in the US was around 9% over the last few months – so that means that in order for you to be able to afford the exact same lifestyle you currently live – you’d need to increase your prices by 9% for your money to afford you the same things as it did 6-12 months ago. How many of your current clients would be upset or unable to pay an increased price just to account for inflation?

Surging gas prices are constantly talked about in the media and felt by the general public – do your current clients risk the possibility of having to choose between filling up their tank or filling up their lashes? If yes, that’s a price sensitive clientele and it’s a clientele that your business cannot thrive with through a recession.

Here’s some hope for you! If you’re worried about your business lasting through a recession here’s what you CAN be doing.

So if you’re at all concerned about a recession, I want you to get curious at who are the types of clients that you are drawing into your business? Did you draw them in based on price alone? Are you trying to be the cheapest artist compared to somebody else? Is your current price point allowing your business some breathing room (we call this profit!) or are you barely breaking even each month?

Knowing how to market your business at ANY price point is a skill set that will absolutely help to make your business recession proof!

Imagine if you decided to increase your prices to account for increasing costs AND because you realized you’re not going to be profitable in your business. Now imagine that you have a marketing GAME PLAN that gets your services in front of clients who can AFFORD this new price point AND who don’t even notice a $5-10 price increase because they have the extra income where $5 is not a deal breaker.

What would that type of reality do for your business?

I imagine you’d be able to kick those recession worries to the curb and have more hope and stability for your business in navigating this recession with flying colors IF you had a plan to make more money and create demand for your services by marketing!

So I want you to be mindful of what you’re feeding your brain. I want you to challenge those thoughts that come up and ask yourself “Is this a fear or thought that I want to continue to choose to believe?” If the answer is no, then choose a different thought and set your focus on the belief you CHOOSE, not the default belief that fills your head based on what you’re feeding it. 

Whatever you believe, your brain is going to look for evidence that supports that belief. So if you’re thinking -I don’t have enough money, I don’t have enough time, the recession is going to tank my business – your brain will be in tune with evidence that matches your belief.

Choose a more empowering belief and go out and find evidence of that new belief being true.

That’s your little mental pep talk for today. If you need help with fear-based thoughts and beliefs or you want to learn more about marketing your services or creating a profitable price point, send me a DM on instagram at www.instagram.com/thelashpreneur and let’s chat. We can come up with some better, more empowering thoughts together!