Today is my second day in Palm Springs, California, where I am participating in my VERY FIRST Matrix Imagination event!
Not only am I super excited about getting out of snowy Chicago, but I am ecstatic to be hanging out with some of the coolest peeps in the industry. As you may remember from my previous blogs back in December, I was asked to be a guest judge for Matrix's Spread the Love competition-in which the Matrix team and I interviewed and selected the 6 winners from the 22 finalists to participate in a 6-month, all expenses paid tour around the country!
Well…. The 6-month tour begins NOW! That's right, each team of two will depart Palm Springs after the event to begin their first leg of the journey.
In fact, I was on the SAME FLIGHT at two of the winners-woot woot! Jo Pickering from Illinois, and Kayla McCormack from Michigan (she had a layover). I was soooo excited to see them at the airport! Jo snuck up on me and I couldn't stop smiling, and Kayla came running up and gave me a huge hug. Ugh, I just love them.
So right when we got here, each Spread the Love winner was matched up with one of Matrix's artists.. it was so exciting to watch all the students run toward their new mentors! Here they all are waiting anxiously for the winners to pull up!
In addition to the six winners of Spread the Love, there are also 51 salons (1 from each state, but Illinois got two… because Illinois naturally is the coolest! JK), who were chosen to be Spread the Love salons. In fact… there's actually a Spread the Love salon owner who sat right across from me on the airplane--she's from Tennessee. Each salon received a laptop from Matrix, and are asked to create a blog. These blogs will give them SO much exposure in their communities, the professional beauty industry and with their friends and family on social networks. But… not everyone knows how to blog, right? THAT'S WHERE I COME IN! Today, I hosted a blogger training workshop for both the 51 salons (2 peeps from each) and another session for the Spread the Love winners. That's right, four hours of Alison Shipley-that's a lot of Alison Shipley! Check out the quick vid below for a taste of the action!
I was so excited to share some tips about blogging that I've learned over the past few years I've been at Modern Salon Media. In the beginning, I was writing blogs about different events I attended, fun salons I visited, and reviews on awesome products, irons and tools I tried out.
Since I became so obsessed with the beauty industry, I also decided to enroll in beauty school-which you may have read in my Beauty School Diary blog on Modern's student website firstchair.com. This is where I really fell in love with blogging. I write about what my class has been up to, what we've learned recently, and interesting client interactions I had in the salon. It's been SO much fun!
I definitely plan to post some of my blogger tips here for you, because I strongly encourage EVERYONE to create their own blog. It's an amazing creative outlet that really gives you the platform to host interesting conversations, engaging dialogue and fun tid bits about the beauty industry and other topics. DO IT!
Bye for now, remember to check back for more of the happenings at Imagination… AND be sure to check out MODERN's Facebook page for additional status updates and pics from the event! Ciao for now!
Alison
xoxox
<<Me with Aileen.. one of the nicest.people.everrrr!!
<<<With Sandra Smith and Karrie from Matrix!!
<<<Nicholas French, OMG!
<<<GORGEOUS!
<<<We <3 Spreadin' the Love!
<<<Dr. Lew!
<<<With Colin Walsh!
<<The winners with the VERY FIRST print editorial on Spread the Love in Feb MODERN!
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