The Best Of 2012

December 31, 2012Nina KovnerGROW

“Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards.”

Søren Kierkegaard

As this amazing year comes to a close, we took a moment to look back at what made your heart sing.

Not surprisingly, you loved posts about our hair heroes such as Vidal and Ann Bray, and our profile on the incredibly talented family of hairdressers, and our friends The Teals. Our plea to “just do it” in our post What Are You Waiting For stuck a cord with you, as did our super easy social + digital cheat sheets and stories. These were your favorite blog posts of 2012.

1. Why Heroes?

 

2. The Rose Heard Round The World

 

3. Why Social?

 

4. Are You There Salon? It’s Me Client.
Are you discoverable on the web?

 

5. Passionista Profile:  The Teals
The Teals

 

6. The Truth About Yelp
YELP

 

7. What Are You Waiting For?
Are you ready to ignite your passion?

 

8. Awesome Facebook Cheat Sheet

 

9. Instagram Cheat Sheet

10. Our History, We Can All Learn From It

It has been an awesome year creating and sharing our passion with you, thank you for being here with us and taking the time to engage with our form of art. It matters. You matter.

(shared with LOVE + GRATITUDE  from your passionistas Nina + Gordon)

You Are Not A Tree

Follow Your Inner GPS

December 28, 2012Nina KovnerGROW

“Follow your inner GPS, not some busted old map given to you by others.”

Rose Etheridge

 

You Are Not A Tree

In a few days we will be ringing in a New Year. Another year of life, success, learning and challenges.

I am not one for traditional New Years resolutions, in reality, there is not much I do that is traditional. But one exercise I like to do when the year comes to a close is focusing on what I want to keep, what I want to discard and what I want to add.

This allows me to get real clear on how I want to enter the new year. It really is amazing what happens when we get still for a moment, gain clarity and listen to our inner GPS.  Maybe you have a practice similar to this? If so, I would love to hear what works for you.

My 2013 List

What I want to keep.
My passion.
My Utopian view of the world.
My deep desire to help others.
My work ethic.
My daily gratitude practice.
My belief that people are good.
My love of family & friends and making them a priority.

What I want to discard.
My fears. (I have a lot of them)
My anxiety. (Created from the above)
My sadness. (Losing my Dad has been devastating)

What I want to add.
More focus. (It’s been a pretty cloudy year)
More activity, both socially and physically. (I’ve been pretty lazy to be honest, and my clothes are a sore reminder and my friends are over it.)

We are not trees. We have the ability to focus on and do anything we want to. We have the freedom to follow our inner GPS. What is yours telling you?

(shared with LOVE from your passionista Nina)

#26Acts

#26Acts of Kindness

December 21, 2012Nina KovnerGIVE BACK

“If you do good, you’ll feel good.”

Ann Curry

 

#26Acts

As I sit here and write this, I am still numb thinking about the tragic events of December 14, 2012 at Sandy Hook Elementary. Like many of you, it’s been difficult to find the words, to go about our everyday lives, knowing that there is so much suffering happening. It sure does put things in perspective.

This post is in honor of the beautiful, precious and innocent children and teachers we lost and for the survivors and the families, whose lives are forever changed.

How Will You Use Your Voice?
When events such as this take place, we all have different ways of coping. Some lash out and get hateful and mean, as many of us have seen on the social web.

But the social web can also be very empowering, used for good and a beautiful example of this is Ann Currys #26Acts movement. An idea, a hashtag, and taking action. Those three simple yet powerful things have launched a movement for good around the world. Simply awesome.

It’s moments like these that make me proud to be part of the human race and stands as a great reminder that there are so many good people in this world who are standing up for love and using their voice to make a difference.

I Believe In Love
You see, I believe in love. I believe that love is more powerful than hate. And I believe that the more love we put out into the universe, the more love there will be. And in our heartbreak and pain, we have a choice. We can get mad and hateful, or we can get empowered and do something good, like Ann Curry did.

I believe that if we all made a choice every morning when we woke up that we would be more loving, more kind, more compassionate, and more careful with our words and actions, our world would be in a better place. It begins with each of us.

Are You In?
I am participating in #26Acts. As of today, I am at #6. And each day I will find more ways to help make another life better. I am making a difference. I am doing something. And it feels good. Will you join me?

To learn more about the #26Acts movement, click here and become part of something greater than yourself.

(shared with LOVE from your passionista Nina)

Happy Holidays!

December 20, 2012Nina KovnerENGAGE

“Let us be grateful to the people who make us happy; they are the charming gardeners who make our souls blossom.”

 Marcel Proust

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dOyKom5BQ8M&feature=youtu.be

Thank you for all your love and support this year and for being the charming gardeners who make our souls blossom.  We appreciate you <3

Wishing you a Happy Holiday and an awesome New Year!

Your Passionistas-
Gordon, Nina, Zen, Faith and Cody

Rave Reviews Infographic from Milo

Raving Fans

December 19, 2012Nina KovnerENGAGE, GROW

“More contact means more sharing of information, gossiping, exchanging, engaging – in short more word of mouth.”

 

Gary Vaynerchuk

There is no denying the facts. In today’s world, it is so important for local businesses to be engaged on review platforms such as YELP, Google Places, Citysearch and the like. People are talking about you, people are looking for you, your job is to know what they are saying and to be discoverable on the web.

Check out this super cool infographic that shows the facts about how potential new clients use review sites. Powerful stuff, and even more powerful for your business if you pay attention and use these platforms to help generate word of mouth and attract new clients.

Rave Reviews Infographic from Milo(infographic discovered on Google courtesy of Milo)

To learn more about how to claim your YELP page, click here to view our webinar.

If you are looking to engage more deeply in the social + digital web in 2013, we offer one-on-one mentoring to help you craft a plan and learn how to use these platforms to help you achieve your dreams. Click here for more information. We look forward to hearing from you.

(shared with LOVE from your passionistas Nina + Gordon)