As I sit here in another very nice hotel, I need to log into the Internet and realize I don't even know my room number…even though I seemed to have gotten myself here.  I also realize how lucky I am and what an honor it is to be invited into salon professionals "homes" and share ideas with the team.

What I love today is so many artists understand the level of respect and understanding we must have in order to have the right to share. It's known as ETR or Earning The Right to share. There are so many artists I know today who definitely have Earned The Right to share, because they are successful business owners, amazing haircutters, colorists, stylists, photographers, makeup artists, etc., and they know how to share and how to inspire. These are people who when you sit down to watch, gave up your time and maybe even paid too, you walk feeling like you should have paid more, and when you apply what they shared, it works. That's Earning The Right and it’s an investment, not just expense.

How do you Earn The Right? Do what you do and be better than everyone else. You honestly don't have to be the "best" to Earn The Right to share. ETR means the thing we are doing now. A funny example from my life is from before I met my wife, Leah, I dated two women who ended up being black belts. My mother was BIG on manors, and even today when people comment on a door being held open or when I say ‘yes please’ or ‘no thank you,’ I comment that my mother would have corrected me if I didn't, and I think it's a good thing.

So, back to the old girlfriends… one of the women, we were just old enough to drink, was quite pretty, she was not big (I'm only 5' 6.5", I even list the half), she was smaller than me and she worked security at the A&S where I managed the Glemby Salon. She was well known for beating the heck, and I mean the heck, out of guys she was arresting for shoplifting when they assaulted her.  It was funny how big they were and how bad they looked after they tried to hit her, especially as she would school them about hitting girls at the same time.

So, we are on a date at the Jersey Shore late at night 25+ years ago and we are on a more abandoned part of the boardwalk, walking. It was dark and suddenly from a side street an obviously drunk guy emerged stumbling towards us as I moved my date to the opposite side of the boardwalk placing myself between her and our new friend. As I took one more step forward, she moved me to the outside of the boardwalk and placed herself in between me and our new friend, I realized that was probably a better idea as our new friend stumbled past off into the night. Honestly, that was probably the first time in my life I realized I didn't even need to try to earn the right and if I had it might have looked like a time I tried to teach styling on stage at the Tarrytown Marriott, it still haunts me.

So if you have an idea share it, and if you're the best in the group, stand up and share. And when you are looking for education, make sure you're making an investment, because those sharing have Earned The Right to have your time, to share and make you better.

-p