tribes-by-seth-godin

The S Word

October 29, 2012Nina KovnerGROW

 “Find your should and make it go away.”

Seth Godin

Seth Godin

We LOVE Seth Godin and his daily blog.  Seth is a best selling author, and is known to many as “America’s Greatest Marketer”.  He challenges our minds and beliefs and the status quo.  We heart.

Seth’s message to all of us on the S Word is one we all can benefit from…read on, will you?

“Banks should close at 4, books should be 200 pages long, CEOs should go to college, blogs should have comments, businessmen should be men, big deals should be done by lawyers, good food should be processed, surgeons should never advertise, hit musicians should be Americans, good employees should work at the same company for years… Find your should and make it go away.”

Click here to subscribe to Seth’s blog, and lets all try to replace the S Word with the W word, “would”.  Try it.  It can only make your life more awesome.

tribes-by-seth-godin

One of our favorite books from Seth is Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us.  In this book, you will learn about building community, whether it be your salon clients or brand customers, and how building your own tribe is the best way to grow your business. Click here to purchase.

(shared with LOVE from your passionistas Nina + Gordon)

Delivering Happiness

Delivering Happiness

October 26, 2012Nina KovnerENGAGE, GROW

“I had decided to stop chasing the money, and start chasing the passion.”

Tony Hsieh, Delivering Happiness: A Path to Profits, Passion, and Purpose

When it comes to providing service (with their own unique brand twist), few companies can come close to Zappos in “delivering happiness”.

Both online and off, it’s so important to remember why we are in business in the first place, to deliver value, an exceptional experience, and more importantly, to ensure our team feels the love, cause when they feel the love, most likely your clients will too!

This is also true when it comes to how you are engaging your clients and team members on your social pages.  How cool is it to know that your job is to deliver happiness, doesn’t that make engaging online a bit more fun?

We heart this video, a fun glimpse behind the scenes of this incredible company, produced by the Zappos team.  Awesome!

Delivering Happiness, the book by Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh, is about the connection between passion, purpose and profits.  We LOVE.  Click here to purchase this awesome book, you will be so happy you did!

To learn more about the Delivering Happiness movement, click here.

(shared with LOVE from your passionistas Gordon + Nina)

Your Content Is Your Marketing

The Tools of The Trade

October 25, 2012Nina KovnerENGAGE, GROW

“What you seek, exists within you. Every resource you need is available to you.”

Marcia Wieder

Your Content Is Your Marketing

When we think of “tools of the trade”, we think of scissors, combs, blow dryers and products, not about the platforms and technology we need to empower our business in the awesome new social + digital world.

Remember, it’s about providing value to your community and becoming more discoverable on the web, to ignite word of mouth and referrals, and this happens by creating fresh, consistent and relevant content on the web.

So we decided to share a few of the “resources” we use, in hopes of making it easier for you to begin your content creation process.

Websites and Blogs
WordPress
We use WordPress for our website. You are on WordPress reading this blog post right now.  It’s fairly easy, we have full control, and once it’s designed, it costs nothing.

Tumblr
Tumblr is a great, and free, social blog platform that is awesome for salons to “anchor” beauty content as its really about images and very few words.

Inbox Marketing
MailChimp
We use MailChimp for our inbox marketing (emails to you).  It’s super easy and free (up to 12,000 emails a month).  Email marketing is still one of the BEST ways to engage clients and drive traffic to your social and digital pages and most importantly, into your salon.

Images
Photo & Quote Apps
While we do not create anywhere near the amount of images you will for your salons social pages, there are some great apps you can use to capture some pretty fantastic, quality images.  You can find these in the App store.

  • Instagram

  • Camera +

  • Instaquote

  • Over

To learn more on this topic, we just had an awesome webinar this week on Content Creation and Curation for Salons. If you want to view it simple click here and we will send you the link to view the recording.

We also offer one-one-one coaching and mentoring to help you better engage in the social + digital space to empower you and your business.  If you are serious about taking your marketing to the next level, click here, and we can chat and see if our program is right for you.

(shared with LOVE from your passionistas Nina + Gordon)

Baby You’re A Firework

October 24, 2012Nina KovnerHEROES

  “The ordinary man is involved in action, the hero acts. An immense difference.”

 Henry Miller

Jodi DiPiazza, an adorable 11-year-old girl living with autism, uses music to connect with the world.

This video from Comedy Central’s Night Of Too Many Stars brought tears of joy to my eyes, to watch a young artist realize a dream against so much adversity. Beautiful.

It is so amazing what happens when we take a moment to step outside ourselves, and our never ending to-do list, and remember what living is all about; giving back and being of service to others.

If you are having one of those days, all wrapped up in your to-do list and need some inspiration or a reality check, please take a moment to learn Jodi’s story and experience Katy Perry and Jodi DiPiazza singing Firework.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=QX-xToQI34I#!

Jodi also loves the Internet, and created her own website when she was just 3 years old.  You can check out Jodi’s website by clicking here.  You can also follow Jodi on Twitter @jodigirl2001.

To learn more about how you can help beautiful young people living with autism like Jodi, click here.

Jodi + Katie are both true heroes in my book.  And I am so grateful to have discovered this story of hope.

(shared with LOVE from your passionista Nina)

Are We Too Connected?

October 23, 2012Nina KovnerENGAGE

“Social Media is about sociology and psychology more than technology.”

Brain Solis

When we talk about the social + digital revolution, many immediately think about the technology side of things.  The screens, the platforms, and the “smart” people behind all of it. It can sometimes be very intimidating.

We propose we think about it in a different way.  Instead of thinking about the medium or the technology, lets think about the power of the medium, and how it is engaging, empowering and connecting people both locally and globally.  Now we’re talking, yes?

Most people need to be connected, to be engaged, to be recognized, to be listened to, to seek knowledge and information.  And when we look at technology and platforms this way, it all becomes a bit more exciting and way less intimidating.

Beauty professionals are masters of sociology and psychology, you practice it every day in the salon, with your team and your clients.  So guess what, you got this!

But can society be too connected?  Check out this super funny clip from last weeks Parks & Recreation.  Can you relate?


(video discovered on NBC)

Is it really technology’s fault that we cannot put down our iPhone?  The honest answer is its not about the technology, its about how we choose to use the technology.  So no more hating on technology, instead, think about all the ways you can use these platforms to get closer to your dreams.  And yes, we can be too connected, but remember, its a choice.

If you are serious about learning how to engage and connect on social + digital platforms, we offer one-on-one coaching and mentoring to help you grow and 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)