I was getting my apartment ready for a friend's visit recently, so I hired a cleaner I found through one of the expat Facebook groups here in Barcelona. When she arrived, her husband was with her, and she shared with he that he is a hairdresser with his own salon. This friendly exchange in my living room was a clear reminder of a topic I love to talk about —word of mouth marketing.
Two Weeks of Walking Past Salons
I had been looking for a hairdresser for about two weeks. I had walked past a few places in my neighborhood, but I never quite made it through the door. Part of my hesitation was the language, since my Spanish is basic and my Catalan is worse, and I couldn't always tell from the street whether I was looking at a barber shop or a salon, or how well I’d be able to communicate with the hairdresser.
The other part was that I had no real way of judging the work. Most of the local places near me don't show real pictures of their clients, so it is hard to get a sense of the quality before you sit down in the chair.
Why Three Neighborhoods Away Suddenly Felt Close
His salon is three neighborhoods away from my apartment, which on paper makes it a less convenient choice than any of the places I had been walking past. But he was friendly, his wife had already shown me she was reliable, and they are immigrants to Barcelona too, which gave us an easy bit of common ground. I liked his energy and he seemed nice.
What stands out to me is how little he had to do. He didn't push his services or make a pitch. He simply handed me his card and mentioned that his Instagram was on it. When I looked him up, I loved his work, and I could finally see what I hadn't been able to see anywhere else: real clients and real results. I haven't booked yet but I already know where I'm going when I do.
The trust came from meeting him in person, and the Instagram confirmed what I already felt. That pairing of a real human connection with a visible body of work is exactly what I try to help my own clients build.
What I See With My Therapist Clients
I see the opposite of this all the time in my work with therapists. Many of the practitioners I work with are wonderful at what they do, yet they rarely talk about their work unless someone specifically asks. As a result, they miss natural opportunities to let people know how they can help, and those quiet moments add up, especially when they have a new group to fill or an event coming up that they're hosting.
I often tell them that talking about their services isn't self-promotion. It is sharing something valuable that could help someone, and people can only find that help if they know it exists.
The Opening Hidden in "How's Work?"
The good news is that the opening is usually already there. When a friend or neighbor asks, "How's work?", most of us answer with "busy" or "good" and move on, but that question is an invitation to say something specific. You might mention that you're starting a new group in a few weeks for people going through a particular transition, or that you're hosting an evening event and would love for anyone who could benefit to hear about it.
Shared in that easy, conversational way, it gives the person in front of you something simple to pass along, which is how word of mouth travels in the first place. You never know whether they need your help themselves, or whether a sister, colleague, or neighbor does. And when they do pass your name along, it helps enormously to have somewhere for that person to land, the way his Instagram was there for me, showing the work clearly enough that saying yes feels easy.
Let's Help People Find You
In a world where so much of our attention lives online, I find it reassuring that a friendly face and a business card can still carry someone across three neighborhoods. I'm looking forward to that haircut, and to finally having a hairdresser in Barcelona I trust.
If your work is wonderful in person but harder to find or understand online, I would love to help you close that gap, both in how you talk about what you do and in what people see when they look you up. You can start with my free brand assessment, and I read every response myself, or you can book a Golden Hour call and we'll talk through where you are and where you'd like to go next.
