“I can’t afford monthly PR agency fees“, or, “I can’t afford multi-month commitments right now“. Those two have always been among the biggies.  Well we’ve solved that one for you. Check out PR [...]]]> Some writings resonate

We’ve heard every reason and excuse in the book for salon professionals not becoming successful with their own PR.

“I can’t afford monthly PR agency fees“, or, “I can’t afford multi-month commitments right now“. Those two have always been among the biggies.  Well we’ve solved that one for you. Check out PR a la Carte.  Let’s not hear that particular excuse anymore. OK?

On that topic, here’s a post we received a copy of this morning from Seth Godin’s Blog . If you don’t subscribe to his blog, we suggest you do. Here it is, short and sweet.

Click this link and put a few extra bucks in your pocket. Well, not instantly, but eventually it means we [...]]]> Takes Only 30 Seconds

This is an unusual post for BeautyPRpro. We think you’ll understand why we deviate from our usual offerings when you read just a little more.  The action we ask is simple.

Click this link and put a few extra bucks in your pocket. Well, not instantly, but eventually it means we will all will make a few sheckles more.

The link above is to send a message to your elected representatives to support the “Small Business Tax Equalization and Compliance Act” that has been introduced in the Senate.

This act provides the beauty industry businesses a dollar for dollar tax credit on FICA (social security and Medicare) taxes paid on employee tips.

Write a Letter? Nope, done for you.

The letter process is automated and took us all of 30 seconds.

The restaurant industry already has this, we don’t.

Here’s the link again

http://bit.ly/kqN6JK

Any questions?

Visit probeauty.org/advocacy

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The media loves the ‘bleeding edge’.  News is about ‘new’ after all.  As always, it’s the ‘early bird that gets the worm’.  In this case the ‘worm’ is neighborhood, industry, and even national news pickup.  What’s the scoop?

… Smart Phone Technology and ‘smart’ [...]]]>

Early Birds Get the Worms

The media loves the ‘bleeding edge’.  News is about ‘new’ after all.  As always, it’s the ‘early bird that gets the worm’.  In this case the ‘worm’ is neighborhood, industry, and even national news pickup.  What’s the scoop?

Geolocation, and QR codes

… Smart Phone Technology and ‘smart’ marketing!  It’s not the future … it’s now!

Although the mass appeal isn’t totally ‘mass’ yet, several of these new social media tools are hot-hot-hot and just starting to hit ‘in the news’.  You can be the first salon or stylist in your area to be really ‘cool’ and ‘in the news’ because you are using one or more of them in your salon to your client’s benefit.

It’s not difficult to grasp, but it does require you do more than read this post and move on.  It takes some looking into, thinking, and pondering.

Of course if you don’t … not a problem … it’ll be so much easier to learn about when the salon down the block shows you how.  (<sigh> how come he gets all the press?  Darn.)

Once you implement even the simplest idea using one of these concepts however, it’s only a matter of writing your news release and getting that news out to the media AND your clients.  I can almost promise you local news pickup.  Your clients love it when their salon is “a leader’ … and in the news.

“But So Few of My Clients are Techies”

Fine … who cares?  This is about marketing and pr leadership.  Don’t look at it strictly from a “how many of my clients use it now” point of view.  That’s not what this is about.  You’re first!  You’re going to share your knowledge with your clients and make life wonderful for them.  Trust me on this one.

Remember when you used to say “Facebook is for kids”?  Missed the Twitter curve eh?  Did you learn anything from that experience?  Smart Phone marketing is very shortly going to be a major component of everyone’s marketing and right now is your opportunity to have the world grow into your leadership for a change.

I’ll say it once again — Being first makes you newsworthy.  Remember the plethora of “Oxygen Bar’ stories around the country in the early 90s?  That was ‘cool news’ back then.  You remember the oxygen bars don’t you?  Well just in case you don’t … it was a unique and slightly controversial ‘service’.  It caused conversation, questions, and was a real curiosity.  Here are some leftovers from that ‘wave’.

• Oxygen Party Bar
• Solase Massage & Oxygen Bar
• Bubble Lounge
• Oxygen Salon & Spa

So What are These Smart Phone Hotties All About?

Geolocation Apps

Geolocation social networks are to 2010 what microblogging was in 2008.  Currently the geolocation leader is Foursquare, with Gowalla, MyTown and Loopt trailing along behind.  Here’s PC World’s recent explanation of Geolocation and here’s what readwriteweb.com has to say about it.  Start reading and watching this technology.  Although geolocation, and the apps for it have a way to go yet.  it needs your awareness.

QR Codes

QR Codes are absolutely now! …  And they are THE hot trend in Japan.  They contain addresses, information, and web URLs and are starting to appear in magazines, on signs, buses, business cards, or just about any object that users might need information about like the city of Manor, TX that gives users with a camera phone equipped with a ‘reader app’ guided tour information.

Lots of Apps

There are lots of apps (many free), like Quickmark (cool), neoreader, optiscan, to name a few with better reviews.  A quick Google search on “QR Codes” will net you lots of choices.  The phone scans the image of the QR Code causing the phone’s browser to launch and redirect to the programmed URL.  Techie phone users snap a picture and immediately are taken to a website’s special info, promotion page, special offer, value, coupon, and contest puzzle piece … whatever.

Happening Now

Don’t think this is where it’s going?  The Feds do.  Paper boarding passes will be ‘the old way’ within a couple of years.  The TSA pilot program is at 48 airports right now.  Read good info here. Here are more examples what’s happening right now.

… and it’s coming to Facebook soon too.

Stickybits

You can embed digital content on any ‘object’ and when someone scans that object they can “tune-in to the conversations around that product”.  Your object’s message and the conversations around it are delivered to those scanning with their smart phone and on the Stickybits website (which gets Googled).

It is your message and the social media conversations that form specifically around your object/product.  Ben & Jerry’s, Campbell Soup and Doritos already have content forming around their products.

What if your object is a bottle of shampoo or hairspray?  Prospective customers can view your video, photos, text, or audio right at the point of sale and make their own comments on it for the next prospect to see.  What’s that worth?  Your counter card might have a barcode that brings all the details of what your salon promotion is all about.  Tell a story.  Share your cause.  Whew.

Get Busy!  Be First!

Three new things to learn about shouldn’t be too difficult?  Huge payoff here.  It took me all of three hours to learn enough to ‘envision’ how a salon or stylist might use them and then find all this info for you.  Took a little longer to write the post though J.

After you do your own homework, come back and share some ideas with us.  We’ll share a few with you in future posts.

Question: How could you use QR Codes and geolocation in your salon or next public event?

I love meeting amazing and straightforward people like Thia Breen.  She lifts me up with her own phenomenal career success story but stops me cold with forehead-slapping simple solutions  to ‘OPSCOCC’ – other people’s self-created overly-complicated career challenges! (my term, not hers <g>) How does [...]]]>

Thia Breen - President, North America, Estee Lauder Companies

I love meeting amazing and straightforward people like Thia Breen.  She lifts me up with her own phenomenal career success story but stops me cold with forehead-slapping simple solutions  to ‘OPSCOCC’ – other people’s self-created overly-complicated career challenges! (my term, not hers <g>) How does Thia know about all that? She was one of those ‘other people’ once! I recently inhaled (along with 300 others) every word that Thia shared as guest speaker at the Beverly Hilton for the Cosmetic Executive Women. It was all part of CEW’s ‘West Coast Women In Beauty’ Series addressing “Building Beauty, Brands and Careers”. I have to admit to you that Thia won me over at the phrase…

… ‘bloggers are the new beauty editors’.

Remember that as you increase awareness of  ‘your’ brands: You, Your Salon and Your Services.

I figure that if anyone can keep any of us from catching ‘OPSCOCC’, it’s the person who oversees 29 of The Estee Lauder Companies’ brands for their North American operations (including our salon world giants Bumble & Bumble and Aveda). Surely, stress and hard work are no strangers to this role-model beauty industry career pro in the retail world and now professional side of beauty. We would all do well to pick up a few career-building tips from her no matter who we are and what our level of experience within the beauty field. New stylist … salon or spa owner… seasoned colorist … aspiring student … corporate exec or publicist/writer like me … we can never forget that at those times when our career feels like we’re running in place but going nowhere fast, it’s probably ‘little ole me’ who is standing in my own way and self-sabotaging my advancement.

Now in her later 50′s, Thia Breen remains a knowledge ‘sponge’ and a passionate powerhouse every day at work, be it at the office or most often, on the road and in department stores.  She inspires others to work smart – not harder, be organized and above all, ‘get a life’. Carving out quality, nurturing personal time is key to performing great on the job and getting ahead.

We all know we can get to feeling ‘sluggish’ at times and can easily drift toward blaming other people and things for our own ‘ho-hum status quo’ career.  I have no time. I can’t work any harder than I do. My boss doesn’t notice my good work. Or the flip-side classic: I know my boss sees what I do and will promote me soon.

These statements are all what I’ll call the ‘self sabotagers’ But after listening to my newest ‘fav’ role model, phrases like these are officially ‘shunned’ from my vocabulary and brain waves from this blog forward!

Allow me to share how Thia got through to me…and maybe you, too (if you’re open to what the President of 29 amazingly successful companies has to say <g>). Let’s start getting out of our own way and unleash  that career path!  As Thia quipped to us that night: “The beauty business is a great business to be in. Just think of what you looked like this morning – and now, how you look tonight.”

Top 10 Tips For Greater Beauty Career Success:  Inspirations from Estee Lauder’s Thia Breen

1. Compartmentalize:  -  Thia keeps her amazing focus on many different things during the day by ‘leaving work in her mind’ at night. She loves being home and turning off her Blackberry at 8pm to just relax and ‘be’. At 8am the next morning, the Blackberry is back on again and Thia is back at work and focused 100% on the work at hand.  (Thia admits that early on in her career, she was th essence of “all work and no balance”.
2. Make Something Happen: Thia encourages us all to not be afraid to make decisions. She says ‘Be Fearless!’
3. Don’t Be Afraid To Make Mistakes: You don’t want to move too fast or quickly but just look around the corner, anticipate what’s coming, and MOVE.
4. Be Sensitive To Other People’s Feelings: It’s great to be an achiever and successful, but avoid that ‘killer instinct’ and the desire to be #1 at someone else’s personal expense. You don’t have to be ruthless or hurtful to get ahead. Be very aware of other people’s feelings!
5. Be Aware Of How Your Customer Is Responding: Thia reminds us that the consumer or client today has been changed forever by a number of things…technology, the economy, media, etc. She/he is thinking differently about everything. Some consumers just want information when she wants it and doesn’t want to be ‘sold’. Others love the element of ‘service’ like the ‘beauty advisor’ at the department store counter (and certainly the professional in the salon and spa!). Everyone today loves ‘value’ – and many love ‘options’ (like having choices of smaller-size products to try  before committing to the big size of something).
6. Manage Yourself, Too – Avoid the ‘24/7 Mentality’: You need down time! From the management perspective, Thia wants her team to have ‘non-work’ on their schedules to really look forward to. In my business, those who are working that 24/7 schedule are just plain working too hard. “They ‘crash and burn’ when I really need them…like over the holidays when things really get busy, etc.  I tell them: “Your jobs aren’t that hard!”  A good manager has to manage herself, too. You just get duller and duller with a 24/7 work mentality.“
7. Give Feedback To Others: Thia shared that a good manager has to give consistent feedback to be effective. According to this ‘ultimate manager’, good feedback means saying things ‘whether people like it or not’.
8. Get A Mentor: If you don’t have a career mentor, then get one. Thia reminds us that very often, you need mentors to advise you along your career path.  Says Thia: I had mentors…and remember one in particular early on in my career  who really believed in me…who took a chance on me. It made a big difference.
9. Make Your Own Career:  Sad but true…there are a lot more bosses that are ‘not great’ than bosses who are.  Don’t assume they are always going to recognize your talents and pave the way for your career promotions. Thia remembers learning a critical lesson in her first days working in a small-town drug store in Benson, MN. – “I learned the hard way that I am totally responsible for my own success.  Up until that time (that I first got fired’), I kept expecting – believing — that there would always be someone else there to take charge of my career. I also learned that it is entirely up to you, and you alone, to ask for what you need.”
10. Customer Service Reigns Supreme:  I couldn’t agree more with Thia…and what she says is as true of our professional side of the beauty biz as it is of her retail beauty world and brands.  “The only thing that really matters is customers coming to the beauty counter,” she says. “If someone gets great service, that’s the reflection of the brand.”

What was your biggest career success blunder?

What did you learn from the experience?

If you don’t get it ( or [...]]]> Why Have Over a Million People Watched This Video on YouTube?

It was shot at the Sasquatch Music Festival this year.  Either you get it, or you don’t.  Either you will do something with it … or you won’t.  As always … the ball’s in your court.

If you don’t get it ( or you get it, but don’t do anything with it) … no problem, you’ll be fine anyway.

But, if you do get it, and really think about it, perhaps you’ll want to do something about it, like make it a brainstorming focal point at your next staff meeting.  How can you use what you see happening in the video and make it work for you and your salon or spa?

How can you joyously start something in your neighborhood … city … state … Industry … that others can join in on and take as much joy out of it as you do?  It doesn’t have to have anything to do with beauty, style, or fashion.

A few of our observations:

• People are looking for inspiration and a passionate leader.
• You need to do what you do passionately and have fun at it.
• You need to make sure as many people as you can muster see you doing it.
• Trust that if you keep doing it long enough, and passionately enough, people will join you.
• Only a few join at first … Just keep doing it.
• Suddenly, a tipping point … and what do you know … a movement is born.

Leave a Comment!

What Other Lessons Learned Can You Share?

Related Posts

Getting Passionate About Your Industry

Consistency Counts

Is Your Salon/Spa Beloved in Your Community?

Susan Boyle: Why the Biggest Youtube Sensation Ever?

Why?  What touched us so deep down we were forced to watch it beginning to end more than once?  What ‘possessed’ us to immediately [...]]]> Wow!  Multi-millions of views on YouTube.  Susan Boyle’s appearance on “Britains Have Talent” has captured the world’s attention … and moved millions to tears.  Everybody who saw was affected … everybody.

Why?  What touched us so deep down we were forced to watch it beginning to end more than once?  What ‘possessed’ us to immediately tell our friends about it and insist they watch?  What inspired that audience to turn around so quickly to cheer and support rather than jeer and ridicule.

Was it her singing voice?  I suspect not.  A very good voice for sure, but so is Celine Dion.

No, it was something else.

Getting Audacious

I suspect it was Susan’s audacity in the face of all that negativity and scorn.  Susan was audacious.  Audacious defined as:

1. extremely bold or daring; recklessly brave; fearless
2. extremely original; without restriction to prior ideas; highly inventive
3. recklessly bold in defiance of convention, propriety, law, or the like; insolent; brazen.
4. lively; unrestrained; uninhibited: an audacious interpretation of her role.

Through her fear, she completely and assuredly believed in herself and what she was doing despite everyone else’s doubt and negativity all around her.  What an actress.

To be newsworthy, you need to be a bit more like Susan.

Step out of your everyday. Reach high.  Think big.  Be humble.

Whether you are already ‘famous’, or if no one has ever heard of you … same questions …

• What are you doing that’s audacious?
• How are you going to rivet people’s attention on what you are doing?
• How are you going to touch our hearts?

Those answers will make you newsworthy.

Oh … I almost forgot … never judge a book by its cover

If you’re seriously interested in gleaning more [...]]]> Are You a Catalyst for Change?

Back a while we posted Good PR in a Bad Economy. We looked at ‘catching the wave’ specifically relevant to consumers looking for ‘value-added. But, there are trends galore for you to capitalize on. You simply have to recognize them early on.

If you’re seriously interested in gleaning more media attention (and clients), you must be prepared to feed both of them what they are looking for.  The media wants to know “what’s new” for the same reasons you do.  In your case it’s to fascinate and keep your clients.  In their case it’s to inform and keep their readers.  Both of you do it by being the resource your client, and their reader, feels can bring them news of what’s new and next.  As a ‘newsworthy’ salon professional, you know it’s your job (literally) to bring to both those groups knowledge of emerging trends and styles (and you thought you were a salon or spa owner).

To do that you need to regularly partake of what is ‘trending’ in the public eye and prepare to quickly capitalize on what you learned, in its early stages, before your competition beats you to the punch in your market, and in the news.

What you need are fresh ideas and things both your clients and the media haven’t heard a lot about yet.  What you need are the resources to help you discover the early stage of trend and to flesh that information out in some way that works for you, your business and makes you the harbinger of that trend in your area.

Start here

• Trendwatching
• Trendhunter
• Trend Central
• Yahoo Buzz
• Trend Magazine
• Glow Like a Star

Happy Trending!

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