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By Alexander Irving —
Sharon’s tough!
Her previous post asked the “Supermarket Conversation” question  . That is enough homework for anyone. But there’s one more exercise that goes with that question before we move ahead and change topics.
It’s been our experience in our classes that very few of us are ready to answer the ‘supermarket question’ off the top of our head. We do that exercise to make the point that if we actually got the chance to do a spot on a morning news segment, most of us are quite ready for ‘prime-time’ yet. Reporters invariably ask questions about salon, work, or philosophy’ of fashion, color, style, etc. Minds race trying to say something . . . ‘cool’. But, without pre-thought and a basic script , . . it just doesn’t come out the way we would like . . .’cool’.
The PR Process
As you hopefully read in the free copy of “Life Changing PR for Salon & Spa Owners” you received when you subscribed, PR is a process. It’s not only being able to do good hair, writing press releases, taking photos and sending them out. The process involves a learned skill set requiring preparation on your part. You must think like the ‘actor’ you need to be everyday with your clients. There are lines to learn and a stage to set before you are ready to take your ‘show’ on the media road. I’ll post more later about ‘being an actor’.
Preparation
Being ready for PR requires clarity of thought, ideas, goals, and the ability to express them to others. Some of these early posts talk about the process each of us needs to go through to get clear in our own minds (and on paper), to be ready to answer all kinds of questions interestingly, simply and with your wonderful personality. Most of us can’t do it without a ‘rehearsal’ and having found some of those wonderful ‘sound bites’ that writers and TV editors love so much, on topics like:
- Who you are and why you chose to become a salon professional?
- What your salon represents to you and your clients?
- What is your ‘take’ and commentary on where fashion has been, where it is now, and where you see it going next season? Beyond?
- What is it you bring to your clients that is truly unique?
Those questions are just for starters. I’m sure you can imagine some fascinating interview scenarios for yourself.
A Fun and Practical Exercise
- Select your favorite local morning/evening news show you would like to appear on.
- What kind of segments do they do on that show?
- Think about a segment for that show. Imagine it in your mind. Write it down!
- What questions would you be asked?
- What are your answers to those questions?
- What are some good ‘sound bites’ that sound ‘cool’ and fresh.
- What would you want to show or demonstrate?
This exercise is even more fun is when you do it with a friend that you enjoy and feel safe to have fun with. Do the ‘supermarket’ question and this exercise, and keep following along here at beautyprpro. I assure you that many of you will have the chance to ‘pitch’ that fantasy segment to that show you selected.
Have a fun weekend.
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By Sharon Esche —
Who You Were, or Who Your Are?
The very fact that you are here means you’re probably thinking about your professional image and rep . . . perhaps making it a bit stronger, edgier, more competitive, and maybe even measure up to modern civilization as we know it <g> in the salon/spa world. Others just want to freshen up their image to attract new clients and excite existing ones.
Of course there’s the X-treme make-over salon owner who wants to re-invent themselves for a totally radical change in image (that’s great for the ‘Tabatha’s Salon Takeover’ salon/spa set but you are probably not in that drastic frame of mind . . . at least not at the moment <g>).
Whatever the reason you are thinking about your PR, you’ve probably got some homework to do before you start writing anything and hitting the phones. Like building a house, you start with a vision and a plan. You need to know what your house looks like before you start grabbing at hammers, nails and screwdrivers over at Home Depot.
A Great Place to Start
What we observe is that many salons and spa owners are often just plain ‘stuck’ on what their image is (or should be). They are ‘stuck’ in the past because work and life is so busy, and they simply don’t have the time to ‘mull’ on it and ‘envision’ what else it might be. When I ask “Well, tell me about your salon?”, it’s often clear they haven’t sat down and really ‘put into words’ what they represent, what they stand for, how they feel about fashion, how they feel about their clients . . . their identity, their point of view, their ‘unique selling propositions’. Your image should be just that . . . an image in your mind and down on paper to start.
Like everything else about your business, If you don’t know where you are now and where you want to go, how will you know when you have gotten there? How will you measure success? When you are asked about your salon/spa, you should know exactly what you are going to say in a few brief sentences. When asked what you do, again, you have those words at the tip of your tongue. Great training for getting ready for that moment, that opportunity, when an editor, a producer, a potential employee or a potential client asks you about your salon. Think about it.
We do an exercise in our PR Power Workshop called “The Supermarket Conversation”.
In this exercise everyone has an opportunity to answer the question, “If you heard two people discussing your salon in the next aisle in the supermarket, what one thing would you want them to say about you and your salon the most? What is the second thing you would most like to hear?”
Food for thought.
If you found this article useful, get a free subscription to BeautyPRpro. You’ll receive a FREE copy of our ebook, “Life-Changing PR for Salon & Spa Owners” and receive each article post minutes after it hits the blog.
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By Sharon Esche —
The debut of our BeautyPRpro blog . . .
. . . means everything to us! Why? Because you mean everything to us!. So many of you in the salon/spa industry we have known over the years have asked us to write a book, do more classes and do more PR Power workshops for salon owners, managers and staff pros during the year. Unfortunately, there are only so many hours in the day and until we thought of doing BeautyPRPro, we would have had to clone ourselves to serve our contract clients as Esche & Alexander Public Relations, and then do everything else.
BeautyPRpro is the perfect answer!
It’s your idea forum and workshop. It’s your place to get the PR help, information, advice, updates and suggestions you need. With your comments added to the articles we post, we all can share our successes and our (ahem) ‘not so’ successes with each other. BeautyPRPro is all about you and we are excited and proud to offer it to you.
No Advertising, No Hype
 BeautyPRpro is not, and will not be, ad-supported. We have two simple goals. The first is to offer our guidance, experience and support to those salon and spa owners interested in listening and willing put in the ‘elbow grease’. You will reap the benefits. Second, to make what we do for our contract clients more cost-effectively available to those who can’t afford a full-time PR firm at this point of their development but want a way to access the brains (and occasional brawn) of one.
Who is BeautyPRpro for?
Those salon and spa owners who:
- have never been in the news (and are discouraged . . . think it’s impossible)
- are brand new owners who never tried (but know they should)
- get into the news once in a while (lucky breaks)
- are in the news fairly consistently (have a strategic PR plan)
- are always in the news and just ‘own the media’ in their area (lucky and
lucky by design)
- are interested in ramping up their visibility among their peers in top
salon/spa industry publications
- are now looking for more editorial exposure in national consumer magazines
Our Categories
Right now, we have imagined the following categories for our posts and article information (in alphabetical order):
- Blogging
- Consumer Publications
- Editorial Insights
- Email
- Events
- Industry Publications
- Industry Opportunities
- New Media
- News Releases
- Photography
- Salon Industry Contacts
- Strategy
- The PR Mindset
- Tips & Tricks
- Your website
As we all move along together, I’m sure other categories will emerge.
We hope you will join us on the journey. SUBSCRIBE NOW! It’s free via Mailchimp, and we’ll make sure you don’t miss a post or article.
Thanks for stopping by.
Sharon Esche and Alex Irving
If you found this article useful, get a free subscription to BeautyPRpro. You’ll receive a FREE copy of our ebook, “Life-Changing PR for Salon & Spa Owners” and receive each article post minutes after it hits the blog.
Feel free to click on the ‘Share This’ icon below to send this post to a friend or mark it at your favorite social bookmarking site.
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