AI for Growth: Lessons from Leaders Sarah Mason

Megan Driscoll: to AI for Growth Lessons from Leaders. I'm so excited to have Sarah Mason here with me today. ⁓ Sarah, I'm gonna let you kind of introduce yourself say little bit about yourself ⁓ and your company. Sarah M.

: Awesome. Thank you so much. I'm Sarah Mason. I am the founder and owner of Cape Cod Nail Company.

I founded Cape Cod Nail Co. in 2016 as the first mobile nail salon serving south of Boston on Cape Cod. Since then, we've grown into our own nail polish line. Then we opened a brick and mortar salon in December of 2020, which was wild.

And now I'm sitting in our second location that we just opened last month. So thanks so much for having me today. Megan Driscoll: Yeah, thanks for coming. I love the growth story and I also really love a mobile clinic.

I love that idea because nobody's doing it. Have people followed you since you started it? Sarah M.: Yes, yeah, we have so many clients that ⁓ have been with us since the beginning.

When I started Cape Cod Nail Company, I worked as a nail tech in a woman's gym. So, so many of my clients have followed me from the gym. I've serviced them mobile. Then when we opened the nail salon, they come into the salon.

So, it's been a really fun journey, yeah. Megan Driscoll: So cool. Great for weddings and events and things like that too, right? Do you get a lot of business from that?

Sarah M.: ⁓ yeah. Yeah, we started marketing like in the wedding industry. So that's kind of like how I've catapulted.

Yeah, it's been fun. Megan Driscoll: Yeah. Yeah, I would imagine that's great. So Sarah and I were talking, you and I were talking about like, just, you know, ways in which small companies like yours are using AI.

⁓ there were a variety of things that you were doing on an ongoing basis that were things that other companies could do and, and, and, and, and, to make their lives easier. And I love just the simplicity of it. And I also love that you didn't have a lot of experience with AI either. So you kind of like learned as you went, which I think what people are doing.

And this show is really for business owners who aren't really using AI beyond maybe just a simple touch EPT or kind of, you know, creating small things. ⁓ And so this, this, this whole podcast is about like practical tools. So can you tell us a little bit about how you're using AI in your business? Sarah M.

: Yeah, absolutely. So ⁓ I am a very ⁓ reliable ChatGPT user. It's my favorite tool that I've found so far. I know that I'm kind of starting to dabble in other platforms, but primarily I use ChatGPT.

And I'm constantly trying to find ways in my business that I can streamline being a salon owner. ⁓ I employ eight nail techs and my job as the owner is to fill seats. So I'm constantly analyzing my salon numbers, figuring out my financials. So I use it a lot to help me like look at the schedule, find gaps.

I know exactly how many hours we need per month booked at what productivity to meet, know, break even like. making profit and then crushing it in business. So it's a lot of financial salon analytics that I use it for. Megan Driscoll: Cool, talk us through the specifics of that.

So what exactly do you do? What exactly do you feed it? What's the output? How are you exactly using it for financial pieces?

Because I think that's actually, I do the same thing, and I think it's actually a really helpful tool, but the to do, how do you actually do it? Sarah M.: So first I usually try, I usually start with like what my problem is, right? So in the winter on Cape Cod, we're so seasonal, ⁓ our business really drops off.

earlier this year, I like took a really hard look at our winter numbers and I wanted to find the pattern of where the business drops off and then kind of dive into what exactly is causing that. Like, yes, we have less people. on Cape Cod, but I really wanted to find that break even number and find where the inefficiencies in our schedule was. So I started by looking at cost per hour, ⁓ what our cost per hour is in the summer versus what it is in the winter.

And then I had it analyze ⁓ recurring client numbers. I broke it down into asking it very specifically to find ⁓ like not only cost per hour, but how much revenue we're generating per hour, and then worked backwards from there to kind of create goals. ⁓ I run reports in the salon based on appointments. ⁓ So how many hours we have on the schedule, and then I ask it to ⁓ look at our retention rates and then factor that in.

And I just keep adding layers. So like, okay, if we're... We found our cost per hour and our revenue per hour. So how many hours based on that do we need to book, which leads us to this productivity.

So it's a very like layered ⁓ back and forth conversation that I have with ChatGPT when I do these sort of analytics and I'm constantly pressing it and asking it questions. How did you get this? What if we did this? Where did this number come from?

⁓ So I don't take what it says for face value. I'm always challenging it, always asking it. for another perspective, which I think is really, really helpful when you're working with AI. Megan Driscoll: Yeah, for sure.

Do you actually have it output into an Excel spreadsheet, a CSV file? Like how do you export the data that it's giving you? Sarah M.: I usually end up creating like a really nice Google Doc PDF that I can look at.

I'm like more of a visual person. So when I'm looking at like revenue goals and all of those numbers, I'll actually have it create the PDF for me so that I can just drop it right in. I know exactly where to look. I'm not a spreadsheet person.

I really struggle with it. So I like that visual, that visual doc. Megan Driscoll: Yeah. Yeah, I think that's important too.

And you can also do like kind of the waterfall look where it's kind of like, if this, yes, then. And I like seeing it that way too, especially as I'm thinking about like, OK, if this works, this is what's going to happen. If it doesn't work, we got to do this. ⁓ That's super.

⁓ And do you feel like, can you attribute ROI to that? Do you feel like there has been an ability to increase bookings and create more revenue? Did you actually feel like by? Sarah M.

: Yes. Yep. Absolutely. Megan Driscoll: by using this as a tool that you've increased your revenue.

Sarah M.: Yeah, absolutely. So when I started in the season, like looking at our off season numbers, we found that the number of clients that were coming into the salon was actually not too far off than what we see in the summer, which is wild. But what was happening is that our ⁓ revenue per hour was going up.

But because we had reduced clients coming in, there was this cash flow. gap, which sounds kind of backwards, but in the summer we're so busy, so we're not doing those longer, more high value services. People just don't have time in the schedule, but they're doing less of the higher value services in the winter, which are pedicures. So it sounds so obvious, like people are not doing as many pedicures in the winter.

You're not in sandals unless you're going on vacation. So it really helped me dial in on our marketing strategy. So now my job this summer is to, ⁓ I'm in the process of creating this whole winter pedicure marketing campaign to really push people to get those pedicures throughout the winter more for foot and nail health rather than being cute when you're out in your sandals for the summer. ⁓ Yeah, so like when I first started using ChatGPT, it was really easy to be like, ⁓ give me a content calendar, you know, like a marketing plan.

But unless you have that like really specific goal on what that marketing plan needs to be for your customer at that specific point in time, it's going to create you a marketing plan, but it's not going to really like push that business and be as successful as if you really figure out those layers and dial it in. Megan Driscoll: Well, and I think that's true too, like ⁓ with anything, it's all kind of like input, whatever you put into it, you get out of it, right? And so, you know, this is why to some extent people talk about like AI is going to eliminate people and it is going to eliminate jobs.

There's no question about it. But AI is reliant on a person telling it what it needs, right? And that prompting is so important. Do you have a specific process that you take when you when you're thinking about prompting or do you just keep asking it questions till it ⁓ like some people have?

a strategy like where they sort of do context, ⁓ tone, like they have a ⁓ set group of things that they use every time they prompt or do you just kind of go at it the way you want to go at it. Sarah M.: Yeah, I typically kind of go at it the way I want to go at it. And a lot of the times I like know the end answer.

It's just like a matter of talking through it almost and asking for that feedback and running through different scenarios. I'm constantly trying to evaluate things from all angles to find the gaps. So I ask AI a lot of questions and I, like I said earlier, I like push back on it a lot, like. Why would you tell me to do this and not this?

Why is this better to do it this way than this way? So ⁓ I really try to be like so specific. And also when I'm prompting it, there are things that I don't always think of right away. So I'll come back to it and be like, ⁓ actually I forgot about this.

Like, you know, we're only open five days in the summer versus seven days in the winter. So how does that change my numbers? If we added a day, what would this look like? So it's a constant process of just figuring it out.

Megan Driscoll: Yeah. Well, it's like having a, you know, the way that you're using it, it's like having a financial advisor that's sitting in your business that's telling you, right? Like how to, you know, even just like if you, if you increased your costs by $10, what would that do your revenue overall? Like, you know, those kinds of things.

⁓ so you mentioned that you were doing a little bit like content calendars, things like that. How are you using AI for marketing? Sarah M.: Yeah.

I usually ask it ⁓ to help me develop that pedicure marketing winter. I don't really, I'm not a marketer, I'm a nail tech by trade and I just kind of have been learning in my business as I go as an owner. ⁓ But I do understand people and AI has actually taught me a lot about how to view marketing and really specific, you have to be so specific. Who is the customer that you're trying to market to?

What is that message? and how are you meeting that end goal? ⁓ So I usually do like specific campaigns and then I break it down into like a social media campaign and I'm really protective of my brand voice. I'm not a salesperson and Cape Cod Nail Co.

is very much like community forward and we wanna be helpful and give quality educational content as well. So I always am really careful not to be too salesy. ⁓ So I've worked really hard and long to create this brand voice for AI. And sometimes it tells me to do things that I'm like, no, no, that is not my voice.

We don't want to push sales too hard. We actually want to educate people on why these pedicures are important in the winter. ⁓ So we do social media. Megan Driscoll: Yeah.

It does seem to revert to a sales. For me, I feel the same way too. I'm often taking out the sales. I'm taking out the sales, salesiness of things.

It does seem to have that interest. Do you have a paid account or do you just still use the free? Sarah M.: Yes.

I have a paid account, I think Chat GPT is just like $20 a month. It's not expensive. Megan Driscoll: Yeah, it's not very expensive and upgraded account. And then it allows you to do projects and, you know, and, and that kind of thing.

love, I love chat GPT. I really love Claude too. ⁓ Claude, I really love for coding or if you're really like trying to build something like, let's say you wanted to, ⁓ build a new, ⁓ booking calendar, you know, something like that. You'd want to use Claude code for that.

Cause that would do that. Yeah. So what do you use now? Do you use like mind body or.

Sarah M.: interest out. So for our salon software we use ⁓ mango mint and that's really all I have and then I use we have HoneyBook for like our mobile party events ⁓ and then for content I use Plan sometimes. I'm not like super consistent in there ⁓ but Plan helps me like visually map out my feed if I'm having a hard time and putting a campaign with our like regular marketing stuff.

yeah. ⁓ Megan Driscoll: Okay. Yeah. And so are you doing this all yourself?

Do you do all the marketing yourself? Okay. Sarah M.: Yeah, I do.

I do everything myself, yeah. Megan Driscoll: So, okay, so just getting off of AI for a minute, just want to talk about your business in general. you started this business, do you have any like financial backers? Are you just basically, is it sweat equity?

Like how did you get your company funded? Sarah M.: I've really just been organically growing since the beginning. When I first started, it was just me and my mobile kit.

The first year I did like eight events and I realized very quickly, yeah, yep, yeah, I have like my little kit, my bucket for my pedicures and then a tote bag. And the wedding parties just getting started getting like bigger and bigger. And I was like, okay, I really need some help here. So I just started like finding other nail tacks.

Megan Driscoll: like in your car, just like driving around in your car, okay? Sarah M.: When I started my business, I was a stay at home mom, so my hours were really limited. So working weddings, who are always on the weekend, was helpful.

So I found all these other nail techs who were moms that couldn't really hold salon jobs consistently, that just love doing nails. And from there, we kind of realized that ⁓ we wanted to be a brand and not just, people started calling me like, ⁓ the nail girl. was like, no, no, we're actually a real business. I'm not just a nail girl.

So I wanted a brand ⁓ and nail polish was actually our biggest expense working mobile parties. Once we got like eight techs on our team, I had to build out eight different kits that had maybe 30 polishes in each kit. ⁓ So the polish line was a really great, ⁓ you know, like solution to creating that brand. We needed a little bit more income.

Our mobile parties were so seasonal and ⁓ cutting our costs for product as well. So yeah. Megan Driscoll: Wow, yeah. Yeah, you one of the things I always kind of ⁓ don't, I never quite understand and maybe you, you know, I get my nails done all the time, obviously.

⁓ All the women are gonna love this show, but I always like, I want to leave with the color. Because if I chip it on vacation, I want to be able to fix it on my own and not have my nail chipped while I'm away. And I've never really understood why nobody offers that to me. No one is like sending me out with like a $15 thing of nail polish, which I would 100 % buy if it was the same color as the one that was on and I'm going on vacation.

Or even if I wasn't going on vacation, I often use the same kind. And it's not that I want to do it myself at home. It's that I just want to have it there if something chips. Is that something you're integrating into your business?

actual color that the person's actually using. Sarah M.: Yeah, definitely. It's definitely like built into our model that we, you know, train our tax to offer the product.

This is what color I use. We offer ⁓ like a 10 % discount on product if you buy it with your appointment. ⁓ And our product line is like super fun Cape Cod inspired colors. So ⁓ they all have really fun names like here in Orleans, Skate Get Beach, we have a color called Skate Get Till You Make It.

Megan Driscoll: Yeah. Sarah M.: We're going to need a bigger boat, beachcomber blonde. So not only are they really great to have for touch ups, it's like really great, you know, like to sell to people who visit Cape Cod, who love Cape Cod, which I think is a perfect segment into talking about SEO and how I also use AI to craft the backend of my SEO on marketing nail polish to people who are outside of Cape Cod.

Megan Driscoll: Covered one! Yes. Do that. Let's do that.

I love this. So you can go into your website and I can buy your line now online. Is that correct? Okay, super.

All right, so tell me about how you've optimized SEO using AI. Sarah M.: Yes, yep, that's right. So ⁓ through learning about marketing with ChatGPT, over the winter, and I always do this way too late if you're gonna be using ChatGPT to optimize your website for holiday, definitely start it in August or July even better.

But ⁓ I started thinking about who I actually wanted to market the nail polish to. And the retail that we do in salon is actually like very minimal compared to what we sell direct to customers through our Shopify website. So I started thinking about like, we have so many people in the salon coming from Connecticut, New York, ⁓ like Rhode Island, Florida. A lot of our clients will go to Florida in the summer and they, or in the winter, sorry, and then they come here for the summer.

So I wanted to... Optimize our SEO on our website to reach those people who are living in Florida to find our polish and they're gonna see it and the colors are hello hydrangea like well, that's so cute hydrangea fest and chatham so Megan Driscoll: love that. Okay, so what did you do? Sarah M.

: Yeah. First I had it ⁓ tell me and analyze like what I had going on. It gave me a prompt. You might know this.

Correct me if I'm wrong. I think it's site dot dot and then your domain. So it's site dot dot capecottnailco.com.

And that prompt blew my mind. I put it in and it shows you what Google thinks your website is about. Megan Driscoll: Yes. Sarah M.

: Google did not know that my website sold nail polish when I first did it. I was like horrified. was like, ⁓ my gosh, it was all so random. So I screenshot everything and then I give it back to ChatGPT and I'm like, okay.

I also talked to like my friend. I was like, ⁓ my God, this is what's happening. Like it's not showing nail polish at all. I need to fix this.

This is what I'm seeing. Where do I start? And it really just walked me through it. Like, okay, first you need to go into your Shopify.

and change the SEO on your homepage. And I was like, okay, what do I write? And it told, I was like, I want to market my nail polish to people who live off Cape for holiday sales. So we really like dialed it in holiday themed for this one.

⁓ And I just started going through it like line by line, screenshotting it, feeding it back. Then we went through. Megan Driscoll: Mm-hmm. And my screen, what do mean you screenshot it and then you just uploaded the picture?

Okay. Great. Sarah M.: ⁓ yeah, all the time.

Yeah, especially if I'm having a problem with something like I'm not very good with computers at all. It's not like spreadsheets and computers are not my strength. So I screenshot everything. Megan Driscoll: This is why this is so great because you actually think you are terrible at something and you're like a million times better than most people.

So I love this. I love this humble approach. This you are actually doing way more than most people are doing. So I love, I've never screenshotted and put anything into chat.

GPT. So I am more of like a wordy explain kind of thing, but I love that you did that. That's so easy. Okay.

So you, so you went, so you basically went and found out that you're Sarah M.: Thanks. Thank you. ⁓ really?

Yeah. Megan Driscoll: SEO was not correct or not what you wanted it to be. then, right, okay. And then you went and asked, you obviously you said to Chad, where do I need to fix this?

And then you showed them what was there now. And then it told you exactly what to do. Sarah M.: It was bad.

Yeah, yeah, exactly. And then we walked through like every single page. Then I was like, okay, like, I've heard something about tying backlinks. What does that mean?

What is that? And it was like, ⁓ yeah, good point. You know, like if you have a blog, which I do. So then I sent it photos of all my blogs and how can I backlink products?

It was just we literally went through a page by page. It probably took me ⁓ five weeks and I went through every page, every product. I even updated like ⁓ the meta or the text on photos and just really curated it for holiday selling to people who don't live on Cape Cod. Megan Driscoll: Amazing.

So you said you did it a little too late for a holiday. When would you have said you would have started in Naga? Sarah M.: ⁓ I got it done.

It wasn't like perfect, but we actually had like a record breaking holiday ⁓ sales. Yeah. Yeah. It was wild.

We had like one of the best holiday seasons that we've had in years. ⁓ And then like on top of the SEO, I started thinking about like collections and creating collections. We got into Facebook ⁓ ads a little bit, which we didn't even talk about this. I kind of forgot that I did this and Megan Driscoll: Well, this is what I was going to ask you.

Okay, so what happened? You do it and what happened? Sarah M.: I saw like huge success with Facebook ads too from the SEO.

But what I did learn is that like all of this was so great and I learned so much. the one thing that I really missed the mark on and I want to figure out how to work on this too is I got people to come to my website and maybe buy it, but I don't have any systems in place to like follow up with them and continue and like really keep them as A client, a customer, I know, I know. Yeah, yeah. ⁓ Megan Driscoll: That's where I'm going to help you.

Yes. You want to turn your every customer you want to turn into a forever customer. Right. And only way to do that is to like link it.

So essentially what you do is on the back end is you create an automation to collect that data and then ⁓ you'll have an automation that will forever speak to them. It'll be forever selling your new line or right. You'll always be reaching out to them about something else. It'll be automated.

Yeah. So ⁓ ultimately too, I think that's, you know, that problem for you. Sarah M.: Yeah.

Yes. Yes. Yeah. Megan Driscoll: is a problem that a lot of small businesses have.

⁓ it's like SEO, like the holiday backlink and the SEO changes that you made for the holiday resulted in a big ROI. So too does automation and follow-up and consistency with existing clients because they are your best buyers ultimately, right? Like they have already used your line, they will buy it again. And also too, like ⁓ for you, you've got such a cute niche like, Beachcomber blonde is so adorable.

There are a million people who've gone to the beachcomber. And like, how fun is it to put a beachcomber blonde nail polish in your kids stocking at Christmas, right? Like, whatever. It's just such a sweet, or people who get married on the Cape.

You should do a whole wedding line of like the names of all the places to get married on the Cape, like Pomp and Ness at. Sarah M.: I know. ⁓ Megan Driscoll: purple or something.

You know what I mean? here I am giving you a... Sarah M.: Yeah.

No, please send me all the nail polish color names. We're always asking people to send us names if you think of something. Drop it in. Megan Driscoll: Yeah, I think you could do a whole wedding.

Think about a whole wedding line and then your entire, all your girls in your wedding, get them, or you can make it a gift for everybody. And then it's just such a like cool, people always like want to go back to that wedding day and whatever. So anyway, yeah, I love that, but that's, that's the key, right? It's like, you're doing so many amazing things.

And then how do you continuously mine those existing clients who have bought from you before to continue to buy from you since they're already a great customer. So I'll help you fix that. But you're Sarah M.: Thank you.

Megan Driscoll: You're doing such an amazing job. It's unbelievable. I'm super proud of you for this. So tell me a little bit about it, because people always wonder Facebook ads and whether it's worth it.

And it's a little bit different than, I think, a Google ad, which is more expensive. But you're getting much more targeted. Someone's saying, nail salons on Cape Cod. And you'll pop up, Facebook ads is a little more broad.

You're sort of saying, anyone 18 to 27 or whatever. Sarah M.: Thank you. Yeah.

Megan Driscoll: 65 female like who lives in this area who follows nail salons or you you know, you're figuring it out How did you think that went for you? Did you feel like it was something that worked for you? And would you do it and are you gonna continue to do it? Sarah M.

: think it did, it really did work for me, but like working with chat GPT and all this back and forth, I realized that you like really have to have like, you have to be so specific with everything. So I started running just like a general ad and then ⁓ I don't understand like how to read Facebook ad analytics at all, still to this day. So every single time I would like screenshot it. and then put it into ChatGBT and ask it, like, can you break this down for me, what does this mean?

And it would say, like, ⁓ so many people are seeing your ad and clicking on the link and getting there, but your website isn't converting that sale. So it'd be like, okay, like, I can run as many Facebook ads as I want, but if my website isn't set up for the conversion, then I'm wasting money. So then I would go back to it and be like, okay, like, this is my website, this is the product page. Megan Driscoll: Mm-hmm.

Sarah M.: what can I do here to increase conversion? And then it would be like, ⁓ if you can add a couple of product reviews to your product page. So it really, it's like a building block of ⁓ back and forth.

But I realized too that having those specific collections, like a bridal collection or like a Cape Cod beach collection, we have a white shark themed collection. So this year I've been working on, it's, ⁓ gills just wanna have fun, we're gonna need a bigger boat in great white. So Shark Week is coming up and I'm really, I'm excited to start building out this whole Shark Week campaign using Chatcha Veezee to help me. yeah, just see what happens and see if we can get it to kinda take off, but yeah.

Megan Driscoll: Mmm. love it. I love it. I love it so much.

I think what you've said today is really helpful. don't think, again, even the screenshot thing, I've never done that. So that was super helpful. like, huh, can you screenshot this and not have to describe it?

That's kind of going to save me some time too. like, I love this because I not only learn things from these guests all the time, but also people who are listening pick up some really good tips. And I think this has been like super helpful. And you're Sarah M.

: ⁓ no. Yeah. awesome. Megan Driscoll: like an incredibly authentic person.

And I love it. So you're so humble. You're doing so much better than you think you are. You've got an amazing business.

I'm so excited for your future because you're definitely the kind of entrepreneur that is going to be successful because you're creative and you're working hard and you're innovative and all of the things. So you're doing a great job with your business. Yeah. It was so lovely to have you.

Let's just make sure people know where to reach you. So tell me about where the salon is, how they can find you, what the website is, all that kind of stuff. Sarah M.: Thank you.

Thanks. Thank you. Thank you. Sure, so you can find us at capecodnailcode.

com. We have two nail salons now, one located in the Mashpee Commons, one in Orleans. We're right at the Orleans Rotary in the Nostad Surf Plaza. ⁓ We'll always come to you or you can always grab a bottle of polish to DIY at home as well, so.

Megan Driscoll: Amazing, amazing Sarah. It was so great to have you. Thank you so much for being here today. Sarah M.

: Thank you, thanks so much.