“Whether you think that you can, or that you can’t, you are usually right.”
Henry Ford
I’m Not Good At That
How many times have you said I’m not good at that? I would suspect, more than you care to admit. Before you went to beauty school, were you good at it? If you were like me, the answer would be a big NO!
To be honest, I could hardly use a curling iron and had no clue how to put a roller in someones hair. But I made a commitment, and I tried, and after a while, realized I was actually really good. This is my story. Every step along the way, every opportunity that was presented to me, if I did not know something, I figured out a way to learn it.
I have always believed I could do something, and with the skills I acquired along the way, my undying passion and my ability to execute on ideas, I made good things happen.
Passion + Skills + Execution
No matter where you are in your career, there are three things you must possess to be successful in business and live a fulfilling life.
Passion
Many of us discovered our passion when we walked through the doors of beauty school. Well, at least that’s my story.
Passion is misunderstood. There are a few articles written recently that say “follow your passion” is a completely misleading phrase. Meaning, if we are taught to follow our passion, and our passion is, let’s say, watching TV all day, then maybe that’s not exactly how we will live a happy and prosperous life. Unless of course, you are independently wealthy.
What I believe is if you find something you are passionate about, it is entirely possible to turn that passion into an awesome career & life. However, passion alone is not enough, you must take the steps and do the work to turn your passion into something meaningful, and something that pays the bills.
Skills
You may learn these in school, in advanced classes, or you may be self-taught. And if you did not learn what you needed to, find out where you can learn it, or find people who know it, or who have done it.
I have had awesome mentors, and have made a commitment to lifelong learning, no matter where I was or what title I had in my career. I still do.
When Gordon + I set out to create Passion Squared, I did not know how to use WordPress, the platform I am using to write this blog, but that did not stop me. I made a decision to learn, and found the resources I needed to learn, then sat down, and learned. Sounds simple, but how many times do you stop at this step, because you think, “I’m not good at that”.
So, either learn the skills or hire the skills, doing neither will not help you get closer to your dream.
Execution
This is what separates people who make things happen and people who talk about making things happen. Execution does not get talked about enough. We are told to follow our passion, and work really hard, and things will just magically fall into place for us. Not true.
How many times have you said you wanted to do something, and just never followed through? How many times did you have an awesome idea to generate new referrals or marketing program, and realize six months later it never happened?
Execution is everything. You can have great ideas and great intentions, but unless you make a decision and commitment to execute on those ideas and intentions, they are just ideas, not executed.
So now you have the secret recipe. Take two cups of passion, add a cup of skills mixed with a gallon of execution, and you are well on your way to doing big things.
Promise me you’ll remember, you are smarter than you think. You are. I know. I am you.
“Now go and make interesting mistakes, make amazing mistakes, make glorious and fantastic mistakes, break rules, leave the world more interesting for you being here, make good art.“
If you are an artist, pursuing a creative life, an entrepreneur, a hairdresser just starting out or are unsure of what’s next in your pursuit of making good art, you MUST take 19 minutes and 55 seconds to watch this video. It may be one of the best investments you make in yourself & your career.
Neil Gaiman’s inspirational and heart-warming message to the 2012 graduating class at the University of the Arts tells a story of what it means to live a creative life and the importance of staying committed to making good art.
In the new world of the social + digital web, making and sharing your art is more possible than ever before. YouTube, Blogs, Twitter, Pinterest, Facebook and the other social platforms we play on allow you and your art to become more discoverable than ever before.
So what are you waiting for? Today is the day to embark on your journey to make good art and share it with the world. Awesome.
If you are serious about learning how to share your art on social + digital platforms, we offer one-on-one coaching and mentoring to help you become more discoverable on the web. Click here to learn more about our program. We look forward to helping you live your dream.
(shared with LOVE from your passionistas Nina + Gordon)
PS: We discovered this awesome video on a super cool blog called The Story of Telling, thank you to them for sharing this incredible piece of inspiration.
“Nothing is original. Steal from anywhere that resonates with inspiration or fuels your imagination. Devour old films, new films, music, books, paintings, photographs, poems, dreams, random conversations, architecture, bridges, street signs, trees, clouds, bodies of water, light and shadows. Select only things to steal from that speak directly to your soul. If you do this, your work (and theft) will be authentic. Authenticity is invaluable; originality is nonexistent.”
Jim Jarmusch
(image by Austin Kleon, Steal Like An Artist, discovered on Google)
We LOVE Austin Kleon. He masterfully shares in his book Steal Like An Artist how to use your creativity in the digital age. With the gazillions of images, articles, and information being shared, is there a right way to steal? The graphic above is an awesome illustration the new “rules of engagement”.
Your content is your marketing in the social + digital age, so understanding how to creatively create and curate (find + share) content is now a super important part of how you engage on your social pages.
If you love books like we do, click here to purchase Steal Like An Artist. It’s awesome!
(shared with LOVE from your passionistas Nina + Gordon)
PS: A big shout out of love and thanks to Austin Kleon for teaching us how to steal like an artist. We heart you.
“Family is not an important thing, it’s everything.”
Michael J. Fox
Meet The Teals, a beautiful family of uber talented artists, educators plus one fantastic photographer.
Ryan, Deannalyn and their daughter Tuesday (who just graduated from beauty school!) are by far one of the coolest families in our industry. What makes The Teals so awesome? They are authentic, kind, creative and have turned their passion for hair into a successful family business. Ryan and Deannalyn are masters of long hairdressing, and won the NAHA Salon Team of the Year in 2008.
Passion Squared: What are your current goals as a salon owner?
Tuesday Teal: The current goals that our salon has set are specific; we make them detailed so that we have more to work toward. For us we want a balance and rhythm of our guests to be happy, as well as to be continually growing.
We are working toward a specific number of friends on social media places. Our newest project is we want as much local traffic as we can. We have local only cards that give everyone in the area a chance to come in a meet us.
Passion Squared: Which social platform are you focusing on to reach that goal?
Tuesday Teal: Well I think that the best way to make friend is by shaking hands. You have to be real. If you are trying to just get random people in your chair that you don’t care about, this is not the industry for you. I like social media because it’s so easy to keep in touch!
Facebook is amazing because you can talk to people and they get nice comments about their hair.
I also love Instagram because there is not a lot of talking just pictures. The fun part is whatever you post is cool no matter what it is. Funny things in the salon are even funnier on Instagram.
The results of using Instagram and Facebook are fantastic; our clients love watching our lives play out.
Passion Squared: What did you do with those platforms?
Ryan Teal: One thing I did was to let my teenage daughter handle most of the social media. I don’t feel like any thing I do is super interesting mainly because I came from a pre-computer generation.
Tuesday, my daughter, grew up with Facebook and knows how to have what I call the Facebook face, which says “we are always having fun and everything we do is great.” For me everything we do is great I just didn’t think any one cares. But I guess they do?!?!?!
Passion Squared: What have the results been?
Ryan Teal: According to our Google Analytics we had 111 visits to our salon website in the month of September. 105 of those visits were new visits. We also have recently claimed our YELP page and have become more active promoting YELP. Two weeks ago, we had 4 new clients call in just one day who found us on YELP.
In my opinion that kind of return is amazing. A business card is typically 2 inch by 3 inches so very little can be printed on it. How many people can you hand out a card to in a month? I feel like spending more time & money on the social media side and less on the traditional advertising side, it’s the only way to grow your business in our new world.
You can find the The Teals traveling the country at shows sharing their passion for hair, at their super cool salon in Portland, Oregon and on the social platforms they play on.
“Tell me and I’ll forget; show me and I may remember; involve me and I’ll understand.”
Chinese Proverb
In the world of the social + digital web, many of us are still unsure of how to engage for our business on social platforms in terms of “context”.
The Definition of Context
n. Context
1. The part of a text or statement that surrounds a particular word or passage and determines its meaning.
2. The circumstances in which an event occurs; a setting.
You may have seen the graphic around the web using donuts (doughnuts), but we found this super fun explanation of the context of engaging on social platforms using bacon (for our vegetarian and vegan friends, click here for the donut edition).
Now its your turn. Using this graphic as a guide, try putting your business into context. Try it, you will be amazed how much you really know and understand about the context of engaging on the different social platforms you use for your business. Ready. Set. TRY!
Once you have created yours for your business, we would love if you shared them on our Facebook page or via email.
A big thank you to Corey Smith for creating this awesome and easy to understand graphic, and for putting engaging on the social web in context.
(shared with LOVE from your passionistas Nina + Gordon)
PS: We use the term “social web” vs. “social media” as we believe this revolution is a global movement to engage and connect to world, it’s not just about media. The web is about “we”, while media is about “me”. We choose WE.
(image by Austin Kleon, Steal Like An Artist, discovered on Google)
