From the shampoo room to the boardroom, Nina L. Kovner took the world of pro beauty by storm with her thoughtful attention to detail and never-ending tenacity. After 26 years of conquering obstacles in an ever-changing business landscape and helping to build one of the most recognized professional haircare brands in the world, she respectfully walked away from a career at the top to help small business owners and artists discover and live their purpose with passion and empower their businesses. Now, as Chief Awesomeness Empowerer at Passion Squared, she wakes up every morning saying to herself… “How I am going to help people create awesome today?”

With special guest Jodi Shays, Owner of Queen Bee Salon & Spa.

Yelp can be a very scary thing to business owners, especially if you aren’t big in the social game. Keeping up with your clients from a tech front can be a challenge, but Nina has broken it down and empowered you to take control. You are going to fall in love with building your business and making your clients happy through Yelp. Here are a few of our “Ah-ha” moments during Nina’s class or as Nina would say… go ahead and Tweet that!

People don’t buy WHAT we do, they buy WHY we do it.

People can and will always be able to see WHY we do what we do. If we do it because we LOVE doing it, our customers will respond positively to that.

The best marketing strategy ever? CARE. – Gary Vaynerchuk

Show that you care about your customers and employees. Respond to online and offline comments and concerns or reviews. Share good reviews through other forms of social media (Facebook, Instagram or Twitter) with your online community.

Awesome OFFline experience creates awesome ONline reviews.

Giving the best customer experience while the client is with you is the first step. Asking them to share that experience on Yelp will create a foundation to work from online.

Descriptions matter.

When it comes to creating your “YELP page”, be precise and use terms that will be searchable. (I.e. Best Hair colorist in Santa Monica)

Keep in the know about your business.

Don’t let people talk behind your back(on Yelp) and ruin your business. Listen to your clients, even when they’re not in your chair.

Ignore the Crazies.

Don’t engage people you know you are going to get no where with.

The more we ignore it, the more we are going to be ignored.

If we turn a blind eye to the negative reviews online and don’t make an attempt at bettering them, eventually our customers will will not ignore them like we have been.

Be consistent in getting reviews and with your page activity.

Be continually interactive on your page. Respond to customer reviews and ask your customers to review your business. DON’T ask for 5 stars, ask for them to share their experience (may it be negative or positive).