Lifelong Learning
Reading through this issue, it’s pretty easy to imagine there is a strong correlation between successful salon, spa and barbershop owners and those who dedicated themselves to lifelong learning—those who keep their minds and hearts open to new ideas, invest in continuing education to help themselves become better leaders and who are willing to experiment with a new idea and measure its impact.
That observation prompted me to think about how our editorial team has learned, evolved and pivoted over the past few decades. For example, when I first started freelancing stories for SALON TODAY, I used to copy stories onto CD disks and snail mail them in, because SALON TODAY’s publisher had not yet embraced email. Back then, it was all about this print issue. Our editorial team was much bigger than it is now, and we produced one thing—a monthly print edition.
While still valued, our print magazine represents a small minority of what we do. It’s just one communication product in a portfolio that includes a website, email newsletters, email alerts, webinars, video interviews, social media and a few live events including Data-Driven Salon Summit and Data-Driven On Tour. Over the years, we’ve learned to embrace an array of technology tools from content management systems to project management tools, and our editors have transformed themselves from curious introverts behind computer screen to SMEs (subject matter experts) in front of them.
When Colin Sutherland purchased our parent company, Bobit Business Media, last October, he encouraged us to lean further into video production and in January, each division of the company was tasked to create a weekly show.
Together, MODERN SALON’s Editor Anne Moratto, our Digital Content Strategist Nicole Johnson and I launched Salon Insider, a program that invites you to a front row seat as we explore industry trends and topics and interview industry leaders. It’s the first in what promises to be multiple shows on our streaming channel b2xsalon.com. Through it, Anne, Nicole and I are embracing new skills, including scriptwriting, broadcasting, basic video editing and reading from a teleprompter. As you watch our very first episodes, be patient with us as none of this comes naturally. But like everything else in life, we should get better with practice.
While the process of learning these new skills sometimes is frustrating, it also can be quite fun. I’m quite proud of what we’ve accomplished so far, and also very grateful for the patient sources who’ve let us practice with them as we’ve tapped into their wisdom. Check out some of our first episodes including Making Wellness a Priority; The Power of Black Barbershops featuring Wahl Pro Educator Steven Wren; How to Fire a Client featuring Daniel Mason-Jones and Eric Fisher; World-Class Esthetics Education featuring Repechage’s Lydia Sarfati; Texture Vs. Race featuring Keya Neil; and Hair Toppers to the Rescue featuring Kim Cloud.
Each of these episodes is about five to seven minutes long, and we hope in that short amount of time we get you thinking in new directions. To tune in, please visit b2xsalon.com and check out the different episodes!
