Before I became an eBook Author, first there was a story…
“I lived it and then I wrote a screenplay about what it was like to be a hairdresser for a mob couple. Everyone who read the Mafia Hairdresser screenplay said they loved it. But my mentors advised me to first write and sell a book version before the screenplay. They said I would make more money. So, I wrote the book. The publishers and book agents who liked Mafia Hairdresser requested that I write another book. “No publisher likes a one-hit-wonder.” As I toyed with writing a second novel, I got a little distracted and I wrote a spec screenplay for a Hollywood director friend of mine, Bill. The screenplay was called “Success In Numbers,” but Bill was having a hard time getting funding. He said to me, “It’s too bad this wasn’t a play first, then we’d get the money to do this picture.” So I produced and directed the play version and it was a sell-out for six weeks! And then Bill died.
Since Hollywood was, well, too Hollywood, (God Bless ya, Bill!) I moved to Canada where I finished my first novel, Mafia Hairdresser. I also became a professional international party boy which begot another story and became my second novel, The Glow Stick Gods. By the time I went back to the agents with my two books, only reality show stars and tabloid-dirt biographies of A-list celebrities were being published. What does a writer have to do to get his book in print? Keep writing, self-publish, become an eBook author, and stop listening to everyone else!
1st Twitter Avatar
eBook marketing taught me all about social media. But marketing my eBooks sucked. It’s one thing to write fiction books about yourself but to have to keep talking about the events in media? No thank you. The hairdresser part of me that needs to create and learn about other people won out over being a self-promoter. But I did find a niche. When I realized that my own industry was not utilizing social media to it’s full extent, my expertise in social media became something I could share. Now I teach classes and seminars to salons and spas, and I coach anyone who needs me.
At 24 I owned my own salon called Visage Appearance Centre, in Long Beach, California. I’ve been educated by the masters of the beauty industry in cutting, coloring and styling. And I was the first hairdresser to be hired to assist at the world famous Sebastian International “Casandra 2000 Salon” directly from Cosmetology School. I’m an expert in salon management, salon marketing and retailing. My career spans more than 30 years, which has included years as a facialist and becoming a traveling Makeup Artist for Christian Dior Parfums. My first beauty column byline was in an Orange County magazine in the mid 80s. Agh! There’s where the writing actually started.
I scaled off the Wit Hotel in Chicago for the for the Respiratory Health Association
Now I’m settled in Chicago and I work at Joseph Michael’s Salon & Spa. Thank you to all of my clients who Yelped or City Searched me to the top. “Best colorist in Chicago!” I trained at Second City and acted in a few plays. I’ve done parade commentary, TV cable specials for charities and spots on the web. Because I have a swell media profile in Chicago and, I feel, I’m a decent guy, I get to be honored by hosting events and do lots of inspirational speaking. Some of the work that I’m proud of is my rallies for civil rights & the environment, and I just hosted an event for the American Cancer Society.
Because I ran what was call “The Green Ministry” I was honored to attend a city program designed to assist individual green groups and their causes. I am what is called a Chicago Conservation Corps Leader.
Through my rise to becoming a “Twitter personality” and eBook author, I have become acquainted with some of the most influential leaders where it concerns, health, family, beauty, social media and green related issues. In essence, I am who I hang out with.
My biggest and best gift I can give back to the salon business is to teach what I know about how social media can play a big part in the future and success of the industry at-large. I own a company called #SalonSpaChat. I will host open communication with clients, professional brands, and Salons, Spas, Barbershops and the people who work in them—I’ll share what I know if you will.”
Mafia Hairdresser aka Jon-David
’
