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Building your personal profile with Chris Foster
Chris Foster
High Profile
TOP BARBER, EDUCATOR AND FOUNDER OF THE PROFILE GUY, CHRIS FOSTER OFFERS HIS TIPS FOR BUILDING YOUR PERSONAL PROFILE IN THE INDUSTRY.
Building your profile within the industry is the second most important element of your career to master after honing the craft of hair. Why? The best opportunities come to those who are known within the industry. They say it’s not about what you know, it’s who you know, but actually, it’s about who knows you. So here are a few tips and strategies that will help you cultivate a successful career in hair.
01 Develop your speciality and get known for this skill set. This does not mean that you will not learn other techniques or that you will ignore other areas of the industry. Being able to distinguish yourself will help people to identify the value you can add to projects or programmes.
02 A social media profile is important to communicate your message to the world consistently. If you have recently qualified or maybe yet to qualify you may not have a lot of your own work right now, but you can comment and repost work that inspires you. To start with, emulate social media feeds of key people of influence. Study the way in which they post and the topics they cover. Then, once you have your own content use this formula to share
your message. The reason why this is helpful is that as humans we are attracted to people with whom we can find a common goal, inspiration or ethos. You will become someone they can trust and work with, attracting the opportunities and the career that you want.
03 Another strategy is consistently entering competitions. It is no secret that the most successful hairdressers are those who enter competitions and win. Get in the habit of entering competitions and constantly showing your work. Play to your strengths-there are many different types of competitions out there. Try to find the one which plays to your strengths. If you are someone that gets very nervous in live situations, then maybe a live competition is not for you. Think about entering a photographic competition instead. If you don’t have the money to do a competition shoot, then maybe consider a live competition which has fewer costs attached to it.
