Healthy Hairdresser is grateful for our Advisory Council, including new member Daniel Bouzide, president of Smart Step Salon and Spa! Bouzide and several other members let us peek into their gratitude journals to respond to the question:

As the holidays and year’s end approach, what are you grateful for in 2017—body/spirit/business?

I am tremendously thankful for our customers, distributors and the amazing team at Smart Step Salon and Spa, who are as dedicated as I am to providing the best Premium Standing Solutions in the industry. I am equally as grateful for my renewed health, my new wife and family. At Smart Step, we are in the unique position to create a product that is dedicated to providing a “healthy way of life.” I’ll be honest, it feels pretty great to know that our product helps people feel better! However, we realized we could do better. In 2016, we took time to really LISTEN to the industry. We spoke to our distributors, visited dozens of salons and barbers and attended multiple trade shows. We heard loud and clear that our customers love Smart Step Salon & Spa Mats, but they want more than just a plain, black mat. This is a creative industry—we owe them a beautiful, creative product! And we delivered just that. The Smart Step Designer Series is a new line of Premium Standing Solutions that offer comfort AND style, including more variety and color to complement the salon and barber space…beautifully. The response? Wow! The feedback has been phenomenal. Countless stylists have commented how much they love the new Designer Series—saying they even FEEL better. Maybe it is because they look better? Either way, we are ecstatic that they are happy. That is what it is all about.—Daniel Bouzide, President, Smart Step Salon and Spa

I am most grateful for my husband who gives me the opportunity to be me and make a difference. I am grateful for the love of my family—especially my nieces who are off at college and whom I love spending time with! I am very grateful to everyone who has supported the Beauty Changes Lives Foundation and has made a commitment to paying their success forward and mentoring the next generation of beauty and wellness professionals.—Lynelle Lynch, President, Beauty Changes Lives

I am grateful for good health for myself and my family. I am proud to work with such a passionate, talented and dedicated team at Mario Tricoci Salons and Spas (@mariotricoci). My opportunity to serve as president of Cosmetologists Chicago is an amazing experience. I’m grateful for our CC Board of Directors—all salon industry leaders—who have worked hard to provide education and career growth for so many working professionals. Finally, I am grateful for being involved in an industry that makes such a positive difference in peoples’ lives.—Larry Silvestri, President, America’s Beauty Show by Cosmetologists Chicago

As the year comes to an end, I’m grateful to the Sola community for continuing to inspire me to achieve my professional goals. From seeing them at the Sola Sessions to interacting with them from afar, I know that their passion, spirit and enthusiasm drive the Sola brand forward every day. We have continued to innovate and create programs to help them achieve their goals, which is incredibly rewarding for all of us on the Sola Team. On a personal note, this year I am grateful for my sweet puppy Taj, who joined us last holiday season and who has brought so much light and positive energy to my life and to the Sola home office. Also, as a New Year’s resolution, I got a FitBit and have been tracking my steps every day. We introduced a treadmill desk to the Sola home office, and I’m proud to say I’ve hit 10,000 steps (almost) every day!—Jennie Wolff, Marketing Director, Sola Salon Studios

As another year comes to an end, good health is what I am most grateful for. Personal health, health of loved ones, health of people we work with—it’s the common denominator for happiness personally and professionally. Health is one of the few things that money can’t buy, and without it nothing else matters. Here’s to a HEALTHY year for all of us!—Anna Manukyan, Assistant VP Education, Matrix and Biolage

This year I can’t help but think about the lack of compassion and love in the world. With that, it also makes me realize how lucky we are to work in an industry that not only embraces diversity, but encourages and appreciates it. Why is that? Is it because we are more in touch with the emotional connection of people? That we understand a smile on the face of a satisfied client looks and feels the same? No matter the reason, I’m grateful to be a part of it. On behalf of Pivot Point International, I would like to take this opportunity to say thank you to all of you who continue to make the world a more beautiful place—inside and out. We wish you all a happy and healthy holiday season!—Paul Suttles, Sr. Director, Education Implementation, North America, Pivot Point International, Inc.