word. with Gordon Miller

John Mosley is an iconic barber, educator/artist, Paul Mitchell Artistic Director, SalonCentric #ItTakesaPro team member, Andis Global Educator, CEO of the Popular Nobody brand, & NAHA's 2022 Educator of the Year. An entrepreneur at his core, John shares insights into the importance (and power) of a mindset focused on the business of doing hair (skin or nails). As John says in this episode "We are more than what our licenses are!"

For early access to future episodes, please visit www.socialbeautymakers.com and sign up for the free weekly e-newsletter.

Here are my Top 10 predictions relative to the pro beauty space in 2024. From big-picture shifts in thinking around social media for pros and the fascinating state of independence (and suites) to where we might be headed with e-learning, the economy, and the quickly evolving AI space, I do my best to offer insights coming trends to be watching. Please visit www.socialbeautymakers.com to sign up for my free weekly e-newsletter featuring my curation of new and interesting information, links, and more.

This week, I'm taking a shortform year-end look at AI - from the point of view of both personal and professional/business use. I dig into the AI personal assistant Pi (developed and funded by some of the biggest names in tech), and on the more pro side of life, Open AI and Chat GPT (which is continuing to add new tools almost weekly). Please visit www.socialbeautymakers.com to sign up for my free weekly e-newsletter featuring my curation of new and interesting information, links, and more.

Post Turkey Day feelings of gratitude that feel right to share (in part as an encouragement for all to reflect on what's good and meaningful in our lives). I also introduce a new feature - a weekly PSA (public service announcement)! In 2024, I'll start each episode with a 1 minute take on something good going on in the industry - before digging into the bigger week's topic. Today, I went 'long' with this new idea - as it's a big topic that I promise to be done with after this rant!

Antony and I have a faced-paced talk on money, business interruption vs the newer idea of disruption, and a reality check on financial expectations. Antony also shares his advice on how to best navigate what it takes to have a solid financial foundation from which to grow your business and/or career in a post-pandemic world. As always, this was a great conversation with @growmysalonbusiness - one of the industry’s leading thought leaders in business. 

For early access to future episodes, please visit www.socialbeautymakers.com and sign up for the free weekly e-newsletter.

ENCORE Episode: Today, social platforms like Instagram are searchable - including by way of Google; and that is a game-changer for salons and pros. Consumers use social content to make decisions about how & where they spend. Many pros looking at employment opportunities check out salons on IG to help them decide if they should apply; & many looking to hire use IG as a first impression before interviewing. Listen in for more on what this all means. Note: For early access to future episodes, please visit www.socialbeautymakers.com and sign up for my free weekly e-newsletter.

A pre-vacation audio 'braindump' to clear my head as I head to Mexico for some chill time. I share thoughts on 'hustle culture' followed by a longer list of WTF reactions to grossly misinformed chatter. Among the misinformed chatter can be found: (most)salons are toxic; (most) brands are evil; (most)hairdressers are manual laborers. Importantly, when you hear the connected "Trust us, we know more than you. We've done more than you. Only we can save you.... from THEM and YOU". Best advice: do your homework and dig DEEP into the resumes. Things are sometimes very different from what they might seem to be.

A lot has happened as of late in the world of artificial intelligence - especially over at the groundbreaking Open AI platform & ChatGPT. I offer my take on some of the social media-based chatter 'pooh-poohing' AI's potential relevance to salons. My hope? That some will change the way they look at technology and its relationship to career/business so that tech will change for them (to paraphrase Wayne Dyer's "If you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change").

My take on 'leveling out the crazy talk' that is all around us. Vetting coaches, an insurance update (nothing to look at here), the truth about getting hired (including job boards), more on bad beauty math (benchmarks), and more. Once more: "May the buyer beware!"

Just back from Premiere Columbus where I was inspired by Presley Poe, Ira Pope Sage, and Danny Amorim's (@successaddict) take on 'showing up' as professionals during the Beauty Cast Network student Power Hour - and so i'm adding my take on the topic here. I also do a riff on hairdresser insurance, hairdresser clickbait, coaches- and how we all need to do our homework around the information we are taking in. For early access to future episodes, please visit www.socialbeautymakers.com to sign up for my free weekly e-newsletter.