I hate final stories when they are premature. Warren Buffett got to write his autobiography and he is 81 and still going strong. Paul was only 56 and no one could predict his fate. Paul was a rebel rouser from the day he was born to the day he died. I knew him for more than 20 years and we shared a lot of history together. This is a story of his story.

The Rebel Rouser, Tolnafoil

Paul and his brother, Michael, started in the salon business in Virginia. It was there that Paul learned about nail fungus and nail polish. With his doctorate background (I never did know if he was a licensed physician), he developed a product to prevent fungus in finger and toe nails, Tolnafoil. It was jojoba-based and contained an ingredient called tolnaftate. He marketing it like crazy, did seminars preaching its benefits and it sold like hotcakes. Everyone thought he was crazy and the product was more of a placebo than anything else. Paul’s response to his naysayers was to spend more money advertising and sell more of it.

The Rebel Rouser, Formula 3

Never content, Paul went on to develop a product that would cure nail fungus and called it Formula 3. He advertised it in trade journals and gave the look of the ads a scientific feel and he was donned in a white lab coat. The icon I remember best was the microscope looking at the fungus. More than anything, he was a schemer and marketer. He learned well. Quickly, nail techs bought Formula 3 and it became a runaway best seller. It brought on a rash of imitators but stayed the leader through his relentless travel doing seminars.

The Rebel Rouser, Seminair

Paul and I had schemed together to create the first seminar on an airplane. We chartered a plane from Detroit to Atlantic City and actually did a seminar on the plane. On the ground, we completed the seminar, had a great dinner for all and went back the following day. Over 100 nail techs participated and it was an event never to be repeated again.

The Rebel Rouser, Peau Fest

By now, distributors were drinking the Kool-Aid and making a lot of money. Paul was never content on his success and he always wanted to share it and better yet, slam his competitors (his continued naysayers). The first Peau Fest was held in Virginia. He paid for all his distributors to come in and he wined and dined them for the entire event. Rumors were always going on how much money he spent on this. For his second Peau Fest, he actually rented a yacht and brought his distributors on board. I will never forget sleeping overnight on this boat and getting sea sick. But it was truly an experience.

The Rebel Rouser, Enamel

The nail polish market was dominated in the early 90’s by Essie, Forsythe, Charni and other $1.00 a bottle brands. Paul decided to get into the business and sell it for $5.00 a bottle. Again, his naysayers were many but Paul did what Paul wanted to do. He came out with a line of polish and I remember that the polish was packed in trays of 108, 648 to a pallet and we couldn’t keep them in stock. Star colors were French Pink and Soft White. While Orly invented the French Manicure, Paul re-invented it. At the same time, OPI came out with their polish and Orly became very competitive in the marketplace. Needless to say, Paul had his fights with both of them but continued to sell tons of polish.

The Rebel Rouser, Trade Shows

Back in the late 80’s and early 90’s nail trade shows were wildly popular and well attended. Paul wasn’t content on taking a booth, no sir. Paul took the equivalent of 8 booths and created a Peau de Peche store. I remember us doing this format at our shows and we would routinely do over $20,000 in sales in two days. Nail techs used shopping baskets and filled them up.

The Rebel Rouser, Dark Days

Like any brazen entrepreneur, Paul had his dark days and they came in the early 2000’s as distribution started changing and OPI became entrenched in the nail polish business. The Peau name was retired and Paul reinvented the company with a new name and a new focus: Tetra Corporation. See the reinvention start here.

The Rebel Rouser, New Horizons

Paul was granted a patent for Formula 3 in 2007 and thus became his crusade and mission to invade podiatrist’s offices. He hired independent contractors who visited podiatrists with his signature product. Slowly but surely, sales started to go up and within a couple years, sales exploded. Formula 3 would become the #1 anti-fungal seller in the podiatrist market. See the trade ad here.

A True Italian In Every Way

Paul loved to eat, drink and have fun. The BUB would refer to him as having a “puppy face”. Short and stocky, Paul had the art of WOO and people either loved him or hated him. He didn’t care. To his friends, he was a loyalist. For my 40th birthday, he and his wife flew in to Detroit, rented a limo, took us to the Whitney (very high end restaurant), bought us Dom and then left the next day. He was one of five guys in my wedding party. He attended my son’s Bar Mitzvah’s. Most recently, he would drive down with his second wife, Marta, just to have lunch and shoot the “s___.” Only a month ago, he held his first annual “Guy’s Feast” at his house. 400 guys attended the wild party in which Paul cooked 200 pounds EACH of Kobe steaks, lamb chops, lobster tails, crab legs, shrimp and deep fried pork belly. He had a 49 gallon oak keg delivered of Jack Daniel’s. Paul loved to be the ultimate host and expense was never an issue.

MSU Spartan

When he and Marta moved to Michigan, he became a huge Spartan fan. He tailgated every game with his Hummers, portable grills and heaters and personally cooked the eggs, hot dogs and other grilled food. Beer, cigars and fun were always free-flowing before and after the games. In fact, I just saw him at the Minnesota game where he was cooking up breakfast sandwiches with left over Kobe beef from his big party.

The Rebel Rouser, Big Dreamer

To his very end, Paul dreamt big. He loved big Hummers, big limos, big cigars and his biggest dream of all was the home he was building with Marta. All I know is that the home was to have an indoor riding track for his horses. If there was someone who lived life large, it was Paul. He experienced life right up to his last moment.

To those that knew him, he will be missed. I know we will miss him. Paul is perhaps my first contemporary that has passed away that was a friend. Steve Jobs too was 56 and died tragic. I will reiterate my stance on life: We each have 1/3 genes, 1/3 luck and 1/3 how we take care of ourselves. Life is short, enjoy each and everyday you get out of bed.

Soulful Monday.

What is going on in the world is nothing short of . . .shall I say “history in the making?”

Let’s face it, we all need to be led. Even leaders aspire to other leaders. Without leaders, we are lemmings and we know the fate of lemmings.

If you go back into history, individuals are the ones that shaped the world we live in today. Not teams, not groups, not activists, not even majorities. One person and one person only. That person is the leader.

Great leaders come to my mind, which come to your mind? Take a minute to think about this.

This will help. Pick a great leader in each of these categories:

• Politics
• Religion
• Sports
• Business

Now that you have selected your great leaders, define what made them great leaders. What qualities do great leaders hold that others covet? Great leaders lead just as great singers sing, great dancers dance and great quarterbacks win games. You can’t make this stuff up, it’s all about talent.

I feel lucky each day I’m in the beauty industry and help make women more beautiful. Even in this relatively peaceful industry, leadership is difficult at best to execute properly each and every day.

But let’s face, being a leader today is a thankless and anxiety-ridden position. People are quicker than ever to topple a leader for any reason. And as usual, people are hesitant to praise great leaders.

The recent chain of events over the past week is historic in nature and positions future leadership as a scary metaphor:

• George Papandreou, Greek’s Prime Minister, resigns
• Silvio Berlusconi, Italy’s Prime Minister resigns
• Joe Paterno, Penn State’s football coach is fired
• Robert Ficano’s top lieutenant’s either fired or resigned
• Rick Perry, Governor of Texas, can’t remember which departments he is going to eliminate.
• Herman Cain, presidential candidate, has five women ready to hold a joint press conference over sexual harassment claims

Worse, we can rattle off a list of other leaders who have resigned or quit this year alone.

Everything is under the microscope today. Society cannot tolerate leaders who don’t display honesty, integrity and trust at every level. But with powerful constituency’s, lobbyists, power grabs and the “good old boy” network alive and well, where will our next set of leaders come from?

Happy Thursday!

Have you noticed the proliferation of signs? They are everywhere. I especially love these signs:

• Employees must wash hands
• Do not throw napkins in toilet
• Do not steal someone else’s food
• No cell phones, no kids, no loud talking (perfect spa sign)
• Tip not included

I was in NYC for a photo shoot and there really is no other city quite like NYC. 9 million people always on the go. Definitely one of the top cities in the world for food . I had the best breakfast at Norma’s. Sorry to tantalize you with this:

Egg white shrimp frittata with sundried tomatoes, spinach, caramelized onions and potatoes on the bottom.

I was in NYC for the black 15in1 photo shoot. The models are out of sight and the talent for photography, video, hair, make-up and such is over the top. It’s no wonder NYC is the place to be for beauty. But hey, we do a pretty damn good job right here in Michigan.

Speaking of Michigan, we apparently are the second fastest growing economy in the U.S.A. thanks to you guessed it, the auto industry.

Starbucks’s already has their Christmas cups out and specialty lattes. It can’t be Christmas time, can it?

Looks like the Colomer deal isn’t done after all. It’s always fun to watch private equity firms battling each other.

More on the black 15in1 scene, we are launching the brand new Signature Travel Kit later this month. The kit features the two newest products that are most exciting: TWICE A WEEK Miracle Hair Shampoo and TWICE A WEEK Miracle Hair Conditioner. These are the first products in either mass or professional to target women that only wash their hair twice a week. The full size products launch January.

Businessweek did a fascinating story this week on the “anti-leader” of Occupy Wall St., David Graeber. No one is certain where this is going but recent port closures and other labor related issues will soon bring this to the forefront. One idea Graeber floats is for the U.S. to have a “Jubilee” and forgive everyone’s debt.

Isn’t it amazing how fast the hair feather craze took hold and how fast it died?

Will student loans be the next scandal? It’s surely the reason for unlimited tuition hikes over the years.

I’m loving the iCloud. Everything is always backed up and all Apple devices are updated simultaneously. If you haven’t updated your iPad software, plug in!

Happy Thursday!

For those that know me, I am inclined to throw the party and hand out the presents rather than be a guest at the party and receive presents.

Such was not going to be the case for my birthday this year. Fellow Rebels Carrie & Dawn teamed up to make my day quite memorable. And yes, they had some insiders that also partook in the frivolity of it all. And as such things go, they ended up having the most fun.

To plan the surprise, they patiently waiting for me to exit the building. But it was already 6:20PM when this happened. And just when they were ready to pounce into my office, they noticed I was sitting in the car doing something. They had no idea what but their beady eyes were focused and getting more impatient. Fact was I was hooking up my iPhone to Bluetooth. Finally I connected and they were on their merry way.

I came in the next morning to this:

If you look carefully, that is a full size cut out of me holding a sign “Happy Birthday.” The office was filled with blasted balloons, many tied to my chairs, glasses and other areas that caused just enough irritation to make both Carrie and Dawn smile. They even pulled out my chairs from the table causing even more irritation.

Giggles and more giggles from those in the know. Then came the nod to head upstairs and inside the lunchroom were more than 40 Rebels waiting for me. Cupcakes, cookies and cake were in full force. Luckily, they knew I wasn’t eating any of it. The cake even had a Spartan football on it.

Shortly thereafter, another nod came to head to the conference room. Inside were more Rebels waiting for me. This time it was platters from Steve’s Deli in full force. Luckily, they knew to have fat-free tuna, turkey, sliced chicken breast and healthy slaw!

Not to be outdone, marketing gave me a nod and I headed to their conference room with even more Revels waiting for me (by this time I was wondering if we were even open for business). Shrouded in black tissue paper was their special gift. I can’t explain it so here it is in video:

Overall, it was a great celebration and a lot of fun. Saturday off to Cattle Baron’s, fund raiser for The American Cancer Society. Kid Rock is playing so I will be initiated! Thanks for all those that made my day!

Happy Birthday!

OMG! The game of the decade, way more satisfying than beating up U-M the previous week (although that was quite tasty too). Spartans surge to #9 in front of Wisconsin and Nebraska. BIG GAME next Saturday against Nebraska. STATE will win that one too. OMG!

And then you have the Detroit Lions. How pathetic was that performance? No doubt Stafford has been injured since game 5 and playing injured without letting anyone know. His crushing end in the fourth quarter may be telling. But the Lions are faltering and faltering at the wrong time.

Why can we make a right turn on red but can’t go straight through on red? How many times are we sitting at an intersection with absolutely no cars coming on either side? Just think how many gallons of gas we would save.

Groupon is doing its roadshow over the next two weeks to convince investors that they are worth $11 Billion. Really? Is Groupon going to be around in a year or so?

Amazon.com not content on providing the world with just about everything is testing same day grocery delivery in Seattle.

I broke down and bought the iPhone 4S which replaces my outdated 3. Apple has once again delivered. SIRI which they acquired earlier in the year is one of the star attractions. Once again, a woman’s voice tells us what to do, how to do it and all the information we need to know. Brilliant.

How much longer will Ficano be employed? The bigger question is how can one governmental office investigate another governmental office? It seems like elected officials are only interested in staying in office as long as they possibly can, collect as much money as they possibly can, and collect enough favors so when they leave office they are well off. In regards to the voters who put them in office. . .YIKES!

What are you doing for 11.11.11? It’s going to be a BIG wedding day for sure. For one, we are going to offer the entire Cuccio line Buy 1, Get 1 FREE (limit 3 each)!

Are you into Zumba? Who dreams up these new exercise schemes?

You got to hand it to John DeJoria. Not satisfied with Paul Mitchell, he developed Patron into a powerhouse brand. Now comes the new Patron ultra-premium in a crystal bottle with even bigger margins and here comes Ultimat, the new premium vodka to compete with Grey Goose and Belvedere. And here comes Mitch, his new men’s line that is ultra-chic and targeting Crew big time.

Nostalgia is going to be the next big thing. With social unrest brewing, people will thrive for the fun and frivolity of the 50’s. But here’s the thing, there were no cell phones, texting or Facebook back then.

Happy Monday and GO STATE!

Simply told, this picture at Spartan Stadium this past Saturday told the story:

I ran the half marathon on Sunday and could barely walk afterwards. What did Robinson feel like after being sacked 7 times and leaving with four minutes to go with a serious injury?

Yes we won 28-14 and beat U-M soundly. But the score should have been 42-14 at minimum. We dropped several passes, turned the ball over twice on long running plays and committed more penalties than the law allows. Once again the Spartans were not a disciplined team but luckily the defense showed up and so did RB Edwin Baker.

Sitting in the stands on a windy day with rare glimpses of the sun, we spent as much time cheering the team as cursing head coach Mark Dantonio. “How could he call that play?” “”How could we get yet another penalty?” and the rumbling continued on all game. But in the end, Dantonio is the first MSU coach to beat U-M four in a row since 1959-1962. And a W at the end of the game is all that counts.

THE TALE OF TWO COMMENTATORS

Driving home after the game is always fun after a Spartan victory. Not only do we watch the game, we want to watch instant replays. Then we want to listen to the wrap-up. Then we want to watch more replays on ESPN. And finally, we want to read about the game in the newspaper the following day. This time however it was surreal. And it reminded me of political chatter we listen to on TV and on the radio.

WJR 760 is home of MSU sports. Their commentators focused on the victory, the defense, stopping Robinson and being tough when it counted. They spoke about RB Baker, Cousins making a few key plays and what it took to win the game. On the penalties, yes they were unhappy about some of the calls but were clear that be focused on a tough defense, sometimes you get some tough penalties.

On the other hand, WWJ 950 is home of U-M sports. Their commentators focused on the “cheap” shots the Spartans took on Robinson, head coach Brady Hoke went for a pass on 4th and inches on the Spartan 9 and how U-M should have won the game. They belittled the Spartans and didn’t give them credit for a quality win. Mind you, both stations are Detroit-based and both teams are Michigan-based.

In the end, MSU won. Spartans have yet another year of bragging rights and we will see what we can do to make it five straight in 2012.

Happy Monday!

P.S. Here is another reason why the U-M – MSU rivalry is so bitter. Fans start out very young!

This cartoon is right out of the October issue of Harvard Business Review. Are you The Thinker or are you The Doer?

Does it get much better for Detroit and Michigan sports than this week? Lions played in their first Monday night game since God knows when (and they won 24-13 making them 5-0 since 1956). The Tigers are playing Texas for the AL crown (they lost a heart breaker last night and now down 0-2), and the big college game this weekend is MSU-UM at Michigan State (MSU will win its 4th straight). And not to forget, the first ever sold out Detroit marathon.

$175 – $400 tickets, $40 parking, $10 beers, $8 hot dogs and $300 hotel rooms. And everything is sold out. Who said there is a recession in Detroit?

Speaking of Monday Night football, when did it become a religion? ESPN paid the NFL a whopping $15 BILLION to televise it for 8 more years. I think that comes out to more than $115 MILLION per game. YIKES!

Steve Jobs is smiling as anyone six feet under can do; the iPhone 4S broke all sales records and sold more than 10 MILLION in one day. More YIKES!

Why do we pay attention to red and green traffic lights and not much else?

The USPS is considering stopping Saturday mail? Who cares, when was the last time you actually wrote a letter, put a stamp on the envelope and mailed it?

Speaking of writing, will pens be around in 20 years?

The blow-out salon craze is spreading quickly across the country. As I wrote about a while back, still a huge opportunity for salons looking to grow their business.

October 26 is the day OPI Gel Color will ship to select salons. Will it be a game-changer or compliment other gel polishes?

When was the last time you took a bath?

I think I have the “gong to bed” thing figured out. Starting at the age of 20, each decade we go to bed one hour earlier on average.

And why is it some of us love going to staying up late each night and some of us love getting up early each morning? I’ll never forget the one day that my son got home at 5:30AM and his wife left the house to go to work at the same time.

We are all waiting for the next Harry Potter to come our way.

Happy Tuesday!

Steve Jobs was born on February 24, 1955. Bill Gates was born on October 28, 1955. I was born a day after.

First diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in 2004, Jobs fought a brilliant battle and held true to his vision: Think differently. Never did Jobs waiver when others thought he was delirious. Jobs always thought that we are on this planet for a very short time and if you have an idea, go for it.

I think about Jimi Hendrix and his signature album “Are You Experienced.” I think about the Doors and Jim Morrison with their breakout song, “Light My Fire.” I think about John Lennon and what the Beatles could have been. There are many more artists that died way too young (the age of 27 seems to be the mystical age for some reason). Even Elvis, look what he brought to the music world.

Early deaths are tragic. When they involve visionaries, leaders, game-changers and icons, it is even more tragic.With musicians, we get to enjoy their music for eternity. Heck, Elvis makes more money dead than alive to this day. The Beatles are just as popular today all because music never dies.

But Steve Jobs was no musician. He was a genius (very tough word to spell correctly) and perhaps the best genius of the past 20 years. What Jobs leaves behind is a world that has changed because of his legacy. How many learned of Jobs passing reading the news on their iPhone or iPad? Millions. And what device do we use most today to listen to the musicians I named above? The iPod.

I bought my first Mac in 1992. It was very expensive and the software to run it was costly as well. But it changed the way we created catalogs and advertisements. The Mac replaced T-squares, Exacto knives, and sticky type that if there was a mistake had to be redone. One of the programs that created this magic was Adobe’s Photoshop. Here is a bit of history:

n 1987, Thomas Knoll, a PhD student at the University of Michigan began writing a program on his Macintosh Plus to display grayscale images on a monochrome display. This program, called Display, caught the attention of his brother John Knoll, an Industrial Light & Magic employee, who recommended Thomas turn it into a fully-fledged image editing program. Thomas took a six month break from his studies in 1988 to collaborate with his brother on the program, which had been renamed ImagePro.^[5] Later that year, Thomas renamed his program Photoshop and worked out a short-term deal with scanner manufacturer Barneyscan to distribute copies of the program with a slide scanner; a “total of about 200 copies of Photoshop were shipped” this way.^[6]

During this time, John traveled to Silicon Valley and gave a demonstration of the program to engineers at Apple and Russell Brown, art director at Adobe. Both showings were successful, and Adobe decided to purchase the license to distribute in September 1988.^[5] While John worked on plug-ins in California, Thomas remained in Ann Arbor writing program code. Photoshop 1.0 was released in 1990 for Macintosh exclusively.^[7]

Steve Jobs was responsible for more magic than anyone can imagine. The things we take for granted are because Steve Jobs knew what we wanted before we knew what we wanted.

Today is a sad day indeed. Yesterday Apple released their latest version of the iPhone and it’s latest trick is that it everyone will soon have their own personal assistant. Ask the phone what the weather is and the phone verbally responds back with not only the temperature, but if it is sunny, raining, cloudy and so forth. Many were disappointed it wasn’t named the iPhone 5. But the iPhone 4S will sell millions (my guess the 5 was delayed due to NFC technology issues and delay of the iCloud).

No doubt Jobs will be with us for at least the next 2-3 years when we see new Apple innovations. What happens afterwards is now up to Tim Cook and the Apple team. But like Einstein, Edison, and Disney, Apple without Steve Jobs will never be the same. At least we have the Mac and all the iTools he helped create. And like Joplin playing “Bye Bye Baby,” we too will play songs, text, watch video and TV and live our lives thanking Steve Jobs each and every day. If Joplin were alive today, she could have updated her song to “Bye Bye Steve.”

Sad Thursday.

Every ten years, at least one brand in our industry makes it big. In 1980, we witnessed both Paul Mitchell and Matrix. In 1990 we witnessed ARTec. In 2000, we witnessed Pureology.

And most recently, the brand everyone is talking about is Moroccanoil. Moroccanoil has captured the hearts and souls of hairdressers and consumers like no other brand and its momentum continues to soar.

The Industry Source is very proud of its relationship with Moroccanoil and very excited to distribute the brand in the state of Texas through our Brand Ambassador’s and six store locations.

What we bring to Texas is Moroccanoil’s esteemed Loyalty Program and world class education. Salons are realizing record sales and profits along with the added benefit of being exclusive with the brand. That is because Moroccanoil only allows its products to be sold through authorized salons and spas, and never to retailers or chain accounts.

As a special kick-off, we are hosting a very exclusive launch tour featuring great education, models, food and drink and lots more. We will be in Austin on Sunday, November 13 and Dallas on Monday, November 14. We will also have a very special hands-on class at TheAcademy on Tuesday, November 15 for all our new Loyalty salons.

Indeed this is pure excitement. If you want to hop on board and be among the first Morocannoil Loyalty salons in Texas, give us a call right away. We have a limited number of openings available and like any hot brand, demand will exceed supply.

Put the power of Moroccanoil in your hands.

Happy Monday!

The trilogy is almost complete: Essie to L’Oreal; OPI to Coty and rumor has it, CND to Conair. Perhaps we will see Shellac colored hair dryers in 2012. The cottage nail industry sure grew up and the big boys swept up 30 years of hard work with the stroke of a pen.

Big announcement coming Monday. What is it anyways with big announcements, previews and so forth? Movie trailers really made it popular to give sneak peaks before the big announcement.

I am officially “Apple-fied.” I now own the iPod, iPhone and iPad. After using the iPad for the first time, it’s no wonder that Apple is king of technology.

What’s worse: Driving behind a slow driver who doesn’t care about the speed limit or the driver that speeds up so you can’t get into the next lane?

I was in Beverly Hills for business. The official SUV is the Land Rover, the official sedan is the Mercedes, and the official attitude of everyone is Excuse me!

This is the big weekend featuring Fringe and the Tiffany awards at Andiamo’s in Warren. What’s better than a good filet with Zip Sauce?

Speaking of Andiamo’s, Joe Vicari got smart and bought the Joe Muer’s name and recipe list. Now open in the Ren Cen, I can’t wait to try their northern bean salad and tartar sauce in paper cups that made them famous.

Chipolte can’t make enough burritos, now the founder is bringing noodle shops to America as the next big thing. Who says you can’t have your beans and noodles?

The fastest growing snack food: Pork rinds. Sales are up more than 20% and the two big suppliers can’t make them fast enough. How are they made you might ask? From pig skin which is fetching upwards of $.75 a pound. YIKES!

The Tigers are in the play-offs that start tonight. The Lions are 3-0 looking to go 4-0 for the first time since 1980. MSU is looking to beat OSU for the first time at their stadium since 1998. Sports are hot, now if we can get employment hot too.

What’s more popular on TV? Infomercials, HSN or QVC? With the economy in the tank and consumer spending flat, how is it these mediums are doing so well?

I needed a pair of running shoes. I went to Dunham’s (very large super store) and they had two employees for the entire store. I ran out as fast as I could. I then went to Running Fit, specialty chain of stores. They had just as many employees as Dunham’s, all with customers. But they didn’t have my size and weren’t too interested in getting my size from another store. I ran out as fast as I could. I then logged into Amazon.com. They not only had my size in stock, but offered free shipping and no sales tax. To survive today you need superlative customer service or none (i.e. Costco). The middle is now online.

With Christmas around the corner, what will be the two hottest gifts? Apple’s iPad and Amazon’s Fire. Both items are sold direct without retailers. Scream if you are Best Buy.

I think chocolate will be bigger than ever and companies like Godiva will have record sales. Have you tried the new Coconut chocolate M&M’s?

Happy Friday!