Is it Time to Reinvent Yourself?

                                                                                            photo courtesy NAILS magazine

There comes a time in life, or maybe several times in life if you are older like me, that you find yourself stuck. Being stuck is an awful, frustrating feeling. We spoke last week briefly about an article I wrote for NAILS magazine about reinvention. I can't believe it was almost 4 years ago that I wrote it. What does this have to do with marketing? Everything. Marketing is about building your brand and spreading that message. Business is constantly changing, are you? I just read a great quote from Shirley Gordon NAHA winner. "People change and you need deep experience to satisfy every client who comes in the door." We must reinvent ourselves on a regular basis to stay relevant. Coincidentally this months issue of SUCCESS magazine is about resilience, how to bounce back after any setback, in other words getting UNstuck.  The moral of most all of the stories is to reinvent, rebrand. That most times success comes on the tail of the biggest disaster. So I thought I would share the key points on getting Unstuck and embracing your new and improved brand.

Reflection is key. This is so very important. Review what worked and why as well as what didn't work and why. Be brutally honest. It won’t do you any good to skim over the truth. Have you lost sight of what you entered this industry for? Are you too busy being who you are that you don’t have time to think about who you could be? Following your gut is crucial. Many say the gut is the second brain, alerting ones consciousness before the brain has even begun to digest information.

Get back to you and what challenges you. Have you gotten too far from your core strength or mission? Is your menu confusing? Are you spread too thin? What do you love? What have you wanted to do that you haven't yet made the time for? Is there an underlying passion that you tell yourself you will get to someday? Don't look to what others are doing, they are on their own career track. Stay on your own track and you will go farther by not getting derailed with the distraction of every move others make. Relieve yourself of things that are not working, not productive and not profitable, now.

Don't be afraid of feedback.  Robin Fisher Roffer, author of Make a Name for Yourself, recommends you assemble your own “board of directors” for building the brand that is YOU incorporated. It is impossible to see ourselves as others see us, try as we might. By assembling this team and asking them to describe your attributes as well as your faults, you will discover some hidden talents and truths that the world sees in you. Make a list of what your core values are and what you find to be intrinsically valuable. Ask family members what they remember about you as a child — what you loved, what you were always reading, what you said you wanted to be when you grew up. What did you like in school? What were your favorite subjects? What do others see in you or say is your best talent? Get back to your passion and amazing things happen.

Never stop learning. Become a life-long student. Keeping up with trends in all aspects of business is just a fact of business life. The good news is, keeping up has never been easier with the Internet, podcasts, and Nail Talk Radio.

Last but not least, Implementation is the key that unlocks the possibilities. Make sure once you have the lesson don't neglect to put it into action. It is the only thing that will move you forward. We have finished up the first quarter of 2012. Do you know where your business stands compared to last year? Are you ahead or behind last years numbers? Dust off that list of things to do in your business and get cracking on it. Even if it is one thing, just do it. Only then will you experience the growth potential in your brand.

Learn the Keys to Reinventing Yourself NAILS magazine

Blogging 2.1

This week's marketing tip is about building your brand through blogging. Why blog you might ask? I posted about the simple process of blogging back in February of 2010. I would be curious to guess how many of our listeners started blogging and actually kept it up. I recently attended a blogging workshop with Beth Schreibman Gehring. Beth is an obsessive blogger and truly believes it is the best marketing medium out there for small business. Small business owners are passionate about their business, and sharing that passion is the definition of blogging. Blogging is challenging, trust me I live it. The only way I have kept up with my blog is Mondays. I know I have to have a marketing segment every Monday night for this show, Nail Talk Radio. Some posts come easier than others, but I still have to come up with content. And that is the major issue of blogging. Content. Blogging shrinks the world, it turns the ordinary beauty professional by day into a writer, a creative force, an expert, a brand overnight. Well maybe not overnight, but with consistency your blog can expose your business to so many venues you never even knew existed. Blogging shares who you are with the world, an online resume that showcases your heartbeat. Your blog shares what's going on in your world immediately, no need to wait for the monthly newsletter or weekly fan page update. Your blog can give readers a reason to become clients. So let's reexamine blogging for building your brand. Start with a free account on Blogger, Typepad, or Wordpress. These sites are very user friendly and setting aside a couple of hours to familiarize yourself with the process is usually all it takes. The real work comes in setting up the time in your schedule to actually write the content. Have a few categories like What's new. Favorite services. Staff picks. Nail of the day. Art gallery. Having several categories will make it easier to categorize and post your content. Blogging for business should be done once or twice per week. Having a nail of the day category is a quick and easy way to update your blog without a lot of writing, just post the picture with a catchy description and done. How do I get readers?
Some great headline strategies to get your readers intrigued enough to read more.
1. Ask a question. What is all the buzz about no chip manicures? What are things to look for at a top salon? What are the advantages of regular manicures?
2. Ask Why. Why gel polish? Why pay more? Why regular pedicures are a must?
3. Write a How to. How to plan a killer spa party. How to create simple nail art.
4. Lists. Top three spring shades 5 ingredients that should be in your beauty products
5. Best and Worst. Worst spa products or ingredients Best nail styles Best or most effective nail treatments.
Posting to Facebook and twitter will give your blog social media muscle. Connecting with other local beauty bloggers is a great way to get your content forwarded to their readers. Everyone is looking for content and will often times retweet or repost interesting blogs to their audience.
Here are a few blogging rules to live by according to Beth:
1 Set up a time to blog. I know myself this is critical Add it to your day planner like any other appointment and don't blow it off.
2. If you use someone else's images please remember to give them credit. Why yes we have an issue with this in our industry as well. If you don't know the source, post unknown but don't put them off as your own.
3. Copyright everything. You can get a free copyright covering your writing and images. Put the badge on your blog so that others know the terms of your copyrights.
4. Stay relevant to your topic. It promotes you as THE expert in your field.
5. Blog what you know. This speaks to your authenticity. If you feature someone else's articles on your site make sure to give them credit and not pass the post off as your own. If your reader senses any fraudulent posts your credibility is shot and they won't engage.
6. Don't use anyone else's words without their permission. There are ridiculous covert ways anyone can track information on Google so again, give credit where it is due. Besides many people you quote may be interested in quoting you one day. Getting your blog in front of a whole new audience. and after all isn't that the point?
So if you haven't started your blog yet, don't wait. Get blogging and get the visibility and the credibility you need to move your business forward. Move your business forward with marketing products from Pro Beauty Success.

Re-Tooling for 2012

Let’s Get this party started. Last January I went through a marketing calendar outlining specific items you should be working on every month. If you missed it you can look it up on my blog under Year planner part 1. Tonight I will break down the most important steps to get your 2012 marketing efforts in hyper drive to get the best traction.
Get your 2012 marketing started by  re-identifying  your target market. This is where the Guest profile really helps your efforts. Find it on my blog under Guest Profile. Now is the perfect time to start using this if you haven’t already. Tell your guests in order to serve them better you are reorganizing your business files. Make sure each and every guest fills out a new Guest profile, no exceptions. Chances are your records may be out of date. Make sure you include your facebook link and encourage all guests to like your page on Facebook and follow you on Twitter. Send out posts a few times per week w/ specials, new products, and education events. You can have special Facebook fans of the week or Twitter retweet contests to keep your guests engaged with your social media by rewarding them. Check out all the ways to use the guest profile in your marketing efforts on my blog. So have you identified what it is you are going to implement in your marketing strategies in 2012?  Before you get too ambitious I want to share some insight from Darren Hardy, publisher of Success magazine. In our efforts to really hit 2012 strong we may try and work on too many things at once. In this months CD he warns against trying to put too many things into the mix. If we have more than 3 goals, we might as well not have any. Every time you put too many things on your calendar you water down the effectiveness of each one. I know from personal experience all too well. So I am encouraging you to set 3 business goals. That’s right 3. Take the time to fully research , implement and track these three strategies and you will be amazed at the progress you can make. Which three do you choose? Well if you were listening last week I discussed reviewing 2011 and really evaluating what worked and what didn’t. Once you know what worked, wash, rinse and repeat. Does your referral program bring new guests in on a regular basis?  Ramp up your efforts. Gaining a lot of clients through Facebook? Commit to engaging even more with your guests on your fan page. The face of social media is in a constant state of flux and in order to stay ahead of the pack you have to adapt to these changes. Many of you may have followed the urge to purge your friends list these past few weeks. Don’t fall prey to being purged from your guests newsfeed. Look into social media tools that make engaging with your fans easier and more efficient. Tools like UberSocial, Tweetdeck, and Hootsuite can let you manage several social media accounts with one inclusive site. You can even schedule your updates, tweets and blog posts throughout the day or week so you can focus on other parts of your business. Technology is moving at the speed of light and only those willing to adapt to the changes will survive.

                                                                                                        Shanghai Web Designers.
I don’t know if any of you caught the news blurb What happens every 60 seconds on the web but to name just a few things. Search engine Google serves more that 694,445 queries, 6,600+ pictures are uploaded to Flickr, 600 videos are uploaded to YouTube, amounting to 25+ hours of content, 695,000 status updates, 79,364 wall posts and 510,040 comments are published on social networking site Facebook, 168,000,000+ emails are sent, 320 new accoonts  and 98,000 tweets are generated on social networking site Twitter, iPhone applications are downloaded more than 13,000 times, 20,000 new posts are published on micro-blogging platform Tumblr. Don’t get lost in this ocean of information. Target your market, choose your strategies, provide value in everything you do and keep moving forward.

Dear PR Diary

Answer: Persistence, Persistence and Persistence. Question: What three things does it take to have a successful PR relationship. While I have had much success with the press in beauty industry trade publications the "media at large" have been a bit tougher to crack. I had a great connection a few years back at a local magazine. The editor was looking for a new salon and happened to see my menu sitting on someones desk from a leftover press release, no doubt. She called for an appointment and we developed a wonderful relationship. I even wrote a few articles for her. I still send out press releases on a quarterly basis at least. I also include events now and again. So while receiving nice notices I had never reeled in the big fish, until yesterday. Kim Crow Style editor from the Plain Dealer came in for one of my treatment services. I felt honored to find that I was also the start of her birthday celebration. I felt as nervous as a first date. Made sure everything was neat and tidy, got in early with plenty of time to pace, wander around forgetting what I was doing, the usual. What a refreshing delight she is! Very warm, I liked her instantly and noticed a very down to earth, hard working gal. I was immediately at ease and all my nerves were truly unwarranted. We chatted about everything from office quirks to social networking challenges, to airport security mishaps. I know I had a lovely time, I sure hope Kim did! We laughed and forgot about the cares of the world for 90minutes. She couldn't have been nicer or a more pleasant client. We talked about beauty, style and the press of course so watch for those updates to come. What is the moral of the story? Don't be afraid of the press, nurture relationships so that when the timing finally happens and the universe aligns you are prepared to enjoy it! Click the link here to read our press. http://www.cleveland.com/style/index.ssf/2009/03/spa_treatments_pamper_the_body.html