By PT | 6.9.20

"Will this be just another movement like the many others, with little resolve?" Asked Rev. William Lawson, Pastor Emeritus, Wheeler Avenue Baptist Church in Houston Texas at the final funeral service of George Floyd. today, 6.9.20.

Today is the final home-going service for the murder of #GeorgeFloyd. Say his name.  Floyd, now a globally recognized inscription in American history,  the flame that sparked the fire for the 2020 civil rights movement against "systemic racial injustice" in the U.S. and globally.

Yesterday morning I gave myself a mani/pedi (my first since quarantine). As a former licensed nail technician, I can admit - I'm a little rusty. I started my day by making breakfast before home school, washing a load of clothes, cleaning the bathroom and beginning my first day of the Beach Body on Demand workout (in my head). By 12 noon I'd done all of this, plus completed three homeschooling assignments.

The relaxing sound of waves rippling, the soothing fresh green smell of the Atlantic Ocean and the soft squish of sand beneath my feet.  Yep, my perfect vacation and reflection space - #Beachlife

Family, friends, turkey, mac ‘n’ cheese and…a podcast episode. That’s right. If you’re looking for a reason to excuse yourself from the Thanksgiving dinner table, there’s no better reason than to evolve to your indie success. Even grandma won’t nag you about that.

Use your phone on
apple iTunes,
Stitcher,
or Google Play to peruse Evolving Beauty Runs Deep - Season 1 podcast episodes. Level-Up in :30 Minutes before the football games commence. Or check out these four episodes that are sure to inspire your next evolution. (The last episode selected will make you laugh on the inside as well as laugh out loud.)

1) Michelle Breyer, Episode 005
Michelle Breyer, Co-Founder Naturally Curly and Author of Curl Revolution.

2) TaNesha Barnes, Episode 006
TaNesha Barnes Founder & Owner of T. Barnes Beauty and Travel. Featured Woman in Motion in Evolving Beauty, the Planner, Essential Tactics to Being Happy & Successful.

3) Tiffini Gatlin, Episode 003
Tiffini Gatlin, Founder of Latched and Hooked. Featured Woman in Motion in Evolving Beauty, the Planner, Essential Tactics to Being Happy & Successful.

4) The Global Plug, Episode 004
​A capsule of inspiration, from local pastime to global phenomenon. Hosted by PT, the Culturalist.


​

 Welcome to our first edition of
FIELD NOTES for the EVOLUTION.
A monthly discovery series.

As Women in our culture today, we seem to be in one big hurry. A rush from one responsibility to another, particularly when it’s related to being successful. And what is success anyway?  Is it acquiring wealth?   I don’t believe it’s related to money. I believe success is self-imposed, a product of our will and definition of it. Success is setting your dreams in motion and smashing them through the ceiling.  The ability to conquer the daily, monthly and annual milestones to YOUR defined success.  Of course, money creates comfort, seemingly buys us more time and can create freedom, depending on your perspective.  Ahhhh, the FREEDOM to do.

I am so excited to release a NEW, FRESH, FREE WORKSHEET SERIES today--
BRANDING WITH AUTHENTICITY- A DIGITAL WORKSHOP SERIES 2017.      
It launches today, 11.8.16, at 5:00pm est., after you've voted for the Presidential Election, you'll be ready to dig in. We're on the brink of change and there's no time like the present to follow your dreams and empower yourself and your brand for what's to come--with longevity.

SMART DECISION MAKING. That’s the key to longevity and profitability.  With all of the mixed media marketing options today, the process of building your brand can feel overwhelming.  Of course you want to build your brand to last. (product or service). Well, you aren’t the only one. I want this for you too, and it starts with being real.  People are just naturally attracted to people that “keep it real,” so why should your brand be any different?  Authenticity is a natural brand magnet, and guess what? Being real it’s FREE, just as this worksheet series is. I want small businesses to become big businesses, and big businesses to become legacy brands. 

Join us for the FREE Four-Part Digital Worksheet Series released at 5pm, every two weeks through the 2016 Holiday Season. Just in time for 2017 planning. 

• 11.8.16 - PART 1 - DEFINE YOUR BIG IDEA. Is it Brand Worthy?
  
• 11.21.16 - PART 2 - KNOW THYSELF. Become a Brand Master.
• 12.5.16 - PART 3 - DOES YOUR BRAND STORY COUNT? It has to.
• 12.19.16 - PART 4 - YOUR DIGITAL FOOTPRINT...Minimize or Maximize, to Optimize?

Whether you’re a Beauty Entrepreneur, Executive, Influencer, Salon Professional, Millennial or Big Dreamer-- this worksheet series is for YOU.  Everyone can learn from the modules, do the exercises and reflect to measure--for what’s next?  Building your Brand with Authenticity, the whole way through.  Portions of this worksheet series are adaptations from my book, Evolving Beauty, The Business of Beauty in a NEW AGE, released earlier this year.  The New Age of Beauty includes: the communication of social media, the sales of e-commerce, the explosion of the multi-cultural population, and a brand dynamic matrix of consumer and product cycles in the beauty industry--an age we've never experienced before.  And, with new elements come new strategies and tactics. I introduced the Beauty Breakthrough Theorem™ (BBT™) a proprietary theorem to help navigate the brand building journey. Check our website or read the book Evolving Beauty, for a breakdown of this new navigational tool. A smart decision making compass for small and large brands during the challenging marketing-mix decision stages.

"

As a Beauty Consultant, a part of what I do is communicate ideas and strategies.  One way I convey ideas is through charts, images or presentations.  Decks, as we term them, I produce  almost weekly.  New business development strategies, for my consultancy, Shine Beauty Culture (est. 2007), project partners or communicate new ideas. Usually I include research and statistical data, the rationale behind the strategy or the perspective to be explained.

Over the last two weeks,  I've been researching a specific beauty topic and in part of the data, I discovered a simple view that is shared by many. It's so simple, so well known, and we are reminded of it daily  EXCLUSION. Being omitted, eliminated or shut out of the relevant beauty conversation on shelf or in cyberspace. It does not feel good and is simply disrespectful.  Respect, a value now over-demanded in my opinion, yet, understood,  (i.e, Bird Man, just jokes, lol)...I digress...

In the research I uncovered the relationship between the amount Multi-Cultural women spend on health and beauty products intermixed with the constant search for products.  Two opposing thoughts.  There is a huge disruption in the scales here. 


"Mintel (a market research firm) estimates the U.S. ethnic haircare business alone will reach $876 Million by 2019. Albeit, in the Multi-Billion dollar beauty industry, Multi-Cultural women spend 9x's times more than their general market counterparts (Nielson, 2013).  None of these financial statistics are about how anyone feels, it's about what is spend in the ethnic beauty category. 

I speak about inclusion and exclusion at length in my new book, "Evolving Beauty, The Business of Beauty in a New Age," available on Amazon. In the August 2016 Stylus Report, I was quoted on the topic of Breaking Colour  Barriers.  (a UK report)


Fortunately, with the never-ending ingenuity of African Americans, the resurgence of independent Beauty and Personal Care Companies, I believe INCLUSION in 2017+ will sing with  a voice of convenience and companionship. The conversation will  hover and penetrate the beauty industry shelves and cyberspace.
Businesses that took cues from pioneers like Annie Malone, Madame C J Walker, Fred Luster Sr. (Luster Products, the last man standing from the early days) and George Johnson Sr. (Johnson Products) are today's NEW AGE businesses serving up palettes of Multi-Cultural options.  Brands like Carol's Daughter, Walker and Co. , Alikay Naturals, the NEW Madame C J Walker Beauty Culture and Shea Moisture, who prefer to #BreaktheWalls.  Thankfully, in the last 10-15 years the revival of independent beauty brands, coupled with the informational sites of bloggers and vloggers, has introduced a resurgence, new categories and big spending in the ethnic beauty industry, like no other time in history, A NEW Age.

Check out Tristan Walker, a relatively new force in beauty and personal care and Co-Founder of Walker and Co.  (male grooming and women's HBA).  Explore his views of the world on Color/Colour Barriers, video below.  I think you'll find it's pretty consistent with my views, Shine Beauty Culture (Est. 2007) and most likely your own as well.  #IndieBeautyPursuit #ReDefinedBeauty Inclusion--#NotanOption

By PT  | Photo Credits:  Eye Design Media
On Saturday, June 11th, I was a thrilled to participate as a co-panelist and speaker at the Illustrious Women's 1st Annual Empowerment Mixer.  I shared my 15-year experience working with over 50 Beauty Fortune 500 Companies and producing events like Diddy White Party LA, Bailey's Beauty Shop and Crown Royal Barbershop to name a few. My co-panelist an Evolving Beauty-- Mz. Skittelz, author of "Icing on Top Ain't Always Sweet," business entrepreneur and mogul owner of the Cultural Classic Boutique Chain, Cup Cake Mafia.

 
The mixer was held in downtown Milwaukee, Wisconsin and presented by Founder & CEO Illustrious Women (IW) (another Evolving Beauty) Tina Brown and author of Defying the Odds, a native of Wisconsin, she now resides in Atlanta, Georgia.

The Illustrious Women's mission is to educate, empower, and drive aspiring and current entrepreneurs to their full potential--personally and professionally. The event was started with a vendor mixer followed by a panel discussion of entreprenuerial #girltalk related to being a women in business.  There were some talented and creative  vendors there too.  
Here are just a few of the beauty vendors present to include:
@lipsplashbykelvyb @toodamnglam_
@sosimplyluxe @markdcosmetics @incheshairsandheels @phylthiscosmetic

 WHAT MAKE ILLUSTRIOUS WOMEN SPECIAL?
This women's organization is supporting women to grow from small business to big business to legacy status, as we describe in Evolving Beauty, the book.  IW is about preserving, reinforcing and growing women collectively and their tribes, as it's termed in Evolving Beauty, the book.  Those demising, evil-spirited competitive and emotionally immature behaviors that women sometimes display--so passe.' They only weaken our community and society.  IW's mission in-part, seeks to unify women to dismiss the notion "there's only room for one and educate women to empower themselves."

This event was AMAZING!  The room was a full diverse women from ages 18 to 60+ years old, from a  variety of industries: beauty, fashion, culinary, travel and more...Whether you're already an entrepreneur, building your brand ? Or aspiring to become an entrepreneur?  Illustrious Women has something for you.               
Become a member of Illustrious Women, Inc.  today and stay abreast of their upcoming events, www.IllustrioiusWomen.com. #girlpower #empowermentmixer. Thank you Tina Brown.

I am still floating on air from last Tuesday's release of my debut book, "Evolving Beauty--The Business of Beauty in A NEW AGE."  This book is the culmination of over a decade of beauty experience segmented by insider strategies of smart/modern marketing and communication, coupled with a digital overlay.  Tactics to navigate A NEW AGE OF BEAUTY--an era in history like never before.  Digital Beauty (robust E-Tailers & Social Media) the Multi-Culturally explosive landscape and the Beauty Breakthrough Theorem, a proprietary algorithm designed as a decision making tool in  A NEW AGE OF BEAUTY.

But what made me most happy was being able to look into the eyes of passionate Entrepreneurs and ambitious Intrepreneurs on an authentic, soul level.  The  intention of this book is being realized.  I'm able to help small businesses become big business and big businesses become legacies.  I'm connecting with people on a LIFE + LEGACY level, bigger than I ever dreamed. 

By PT
Women are the cornerstone of civilization.  We are the creators, nurturers, care-givers and the power thinkers of the world. (Source: Me, lol)  March is dedicated to Women's History Month (Est. 1981) and all month long we'll celebrate Women.   Join us in celebrating women who have left or are continuing to leave an imprint on our culture and the world.  Here's to EvolvingBeauties, may we know them and be them.  Let us learn from their life work and help create our own legacies. We'll honor and highlight women of Beauty, Power, Strength, Grace and Love!                   
#EvolvingBeauties #Diversity #WomenRock!

By PT
At Evolving Beauty we're advocates of diversity, the premise of inclusion that Black History Month is built upon.  And so, with nine days remaining in BHM we’re proud to share our highlighted Divine-9 in beauty in the last days in February 2016’s BHM. 
 
Evolving Beauty’s Divine--BHM 2016 includes, Beauty Professionals, Brand Managers and Bloggers Extraordinaire!

With visuals of artists like Ray Charles, Bob Marley and Billie Holiday I already want to visit this barbershop.  With investors like Magjc Johnson, John Legend and Google Ventures, you have me, I wanna know more. 

BEVEL is a new grooming line for men, powered by WALKER & COMPANY BRANDS, founded by CEO TRISTAN WALKER,  on Feb 1, they arrived at TARGET. 

THIS BRAND IS ONE TO WATCH! 

By PT

Considering the cost of living, growing families, credit card and student loan debt, you'd wonder where do women get so much money to spend on beauty products?  How much cleansing, shampooing, clarifying, exfoliating, waxing, polishing, scrubbing, moisturizing, cutting, coloring and blushing of beauty products can we do?   According to EuroMonitor, 2015, U.S. women will spend an estimated
$81 Billion dollars on beauty and personal care products by 2017.  Further confirmation that the quest for beauty is an ever-evolving pursuit.