As one year ends and another begins, I hope you’re off to an incredible start. I’m grateful and believe with every new day comes strength, passion, and new ideas to share. It’s an opportunity to release the past while still embracing precious memories and invaluable experiences. Even those incidents that weren’t especially positive had valuable lessons that have brought us to where we are today and help prepare us for the future.
Sometimes it’s nice to look at a new year like a blank canvas . . . and I’m dreaming BIG and making BOLD plans to fill it with exciting new education!
Our goal is to continue to deliver insightful tips, stories, and conversations that challenge your mind, impact you daily at the chair, and urge you to move forward in the pursuit of excellence. Our intention of helping stylists be better and evolve from good to great has not changed, we're just diving deeper this year.
Highlights from last year included (since lockdown/April 2020 – December 2021):
- 259 weekly live shows
- 12 “Show Must Go On” 4-hour digital shows
- 2 “Socialathon” and “Fabric of Change” digital fundraiser events
- 273 total events
- 3,005,284 total views
In 2022, we’re approaching things from a slightly different angle and have many new offerings:
- Weekly virtual education from special guests and Sam Villa ambassadors. Our hope is to offer you insightful education you can learn at your own pace and immediately take to the chair and use. Experiment, expand, fail, and try again . . . and above all, make it your own.
- Live shows and events with Sam Villa ArTeam members and “Sammy & Friends.” It will be exciting to see you in person!
- NEW in-salon education catered to individual salon needs with hands-on experiences.
- Collaborations with host salons to offer demo events for the local salon community. #ArtistsSupportingArtists #BrandsSupportingBrands. Experiences will be customized to offer the education and tools you need to continue the journey forward.
- The “Show Must Go On” series with special guest artists will also continue with an exciting new vibe.
- We will continue to embrace and change perceptions of hair texture and how it is communicated. We will use education to bridge the divide.
- We’ve hired Teresa Romero as artistic director to help evolve the brand’s visual expression to new levels of inspiration and education. She will be working closely with me, and we plan to collaborate with many talented artists.
We’ll be narrowing our focus to bring you intentional techniques and tools that are useable in your day-to-day work to encourage you to try new things. I’ve always held on to an attitude of knowing more than one way of doing something—it encourages growth. Education pushes you out of your comfort zone with an opportunity for discovery. It’s so important that we, “Sam Villa” the brand, continue to be inspired by the quest for knowledge and pledge to be an educational resource for the connection of ideas, people, and the salon industry.
We learned this past year that blessed are the flexible—when problems arose, we were forced to change, rethink, and rebuild. I found myself being presented with a choice: evolve or remain . . . choose to remain the same and we are presented with the same challenges and the same boring routine; we become stagnant. Our industry continues to grow and evolve—it’s up to you to decide if you want to evolve with it. Sometimes the darkest, most difficult experiences and people lead us to the brightest places and teach us the most important lessons. So, have HOPE that sharing ideas and connecting with others will keep your heart and mind (and hands!) on track.
And, my friends, always remember that an investment in education continues to be an investment in your future.
Peace,
Sam
Tune in weekly to learn more valuable information from Sam Villa and team, including “Mannequin Mondays,” “Transformation Tuesdays,” and “Wellness Wednesdays” on Facebook @SamVillaPros and YouTube @SamVillaHair. Quarterly “Show Must Go On” events can also be accessed on the same channels for FREE!