If there is one thing I have learned in the past 5 years as a business owner, it is the ability to have diligence and faith. Not all business ventures work out and most of the time you encounter the really difficult scenarios that no one can ever equip you for. I have been really lucky though to have successful CEO’s as friends and mentors. The most important thing I have found for a business to be successful is PR & Marketing… I hate to say it, but it is kind of true. In order for a business to thrive, you have to have a great network, whether that is social connections or a social media following… I’m at the age where friends I went to ballet school with are retiring from ballet and moving into other fields… A lot of them have started business, dance schools or even launched a product… A lot of these friends have asked for help and now that this blog has really taken off I can help even more…

Ballet is entertainment & art, therefore it falls into the same category as pop culture. Young students and dancers have built incredible followings as we follow their ballet journey. We cry for them when they get injured, we laugh alongside them when they fall, and we celebrate when they receive their contracts… We follow professionals because they have amazing photos, and we follow their careers… It’s just like celebrities… Here is the problem with this… The fashion industry that includes like everything in mainstream pop culture is monopolized by conde nast… don’t get me wrong… I subscribe to like 7 of their publications and love them all…. The dance world is monopolized by Dance Media (pointe, dance magazine, dance teacher, dance retailer, dance college guide, dance spirit) Like the fashion industry, ballet runs the same way… In order to land in the magazine a lot of campaigning goes on… Anyone can buy their way in, but it costs a great deal… The list goes on and on and on… The issue also is that these magazines can’t be biased because of their board, or their backers, or their financials… No one wants to be affiliated with my blog… totally don’t blame them because I am completely biased…. and I curse… and I frankly don’t care… The difference is, that my blog has turned out to be a success and I am really committed to it.

I have been very lucky and fortunate with this blog to be able to help individual students either financially or technically or give parents advice. I was also blessed with the ability to draw and illustrate and through that I have been extremely fortunate and am planning to help companies and projects around the ballet world with that. Now, a lot of business have asked for help as well… Here is the tricky part about that, and I am going to explain how instagram and facebook have turned into the newest marketing force for an individual ballet career or a business… People pay insta celebrities to feature their product… Or businesses gift away hundreds of dollars in product for people to use and feature on their instagram… This is totally great, but there is no way for a business to know how successful that was… which in turn makes advertising $ hard to track… it is always been that way… No one can say how many people came into the store based off a billboard… but they can say how many people saw it… Same with insta… You have to cast quite a huge net to catch one fish on online sales…

Here is how I am going to help everyone who has written in asking me to feature their product, blog, company or whatever… I am going to publish 1 massive digital issue a year. Something I have been wanting to do, but now I am in a position to. It is going to be called: a Ballet Christmas. This issue will be published in October 2016 and will feature the following:

a cover story… because that is what attracts people… which is great…
I will be featuring must have Christmas buys that are picked by me and professional dancers around the world…
Advertisements for Nutcracker….
Advertisements for Summer Programs, which might be hard because usually the national audition lists aren’t announced until December… buuuut, I am going to hope and pray that companies release them early to me because people need to plan financially….
Articles about summer programs… like how to financially save and raise money for them…
How to plan your auditions… how to audition… the list goes on and on…

You might be thinking I am dumb to leak the content publically because other magazines might steal them… buuuuuut, it is something I am going to have to risk for my first and hopefully annual issue… But the plan is to make this a commercial success for small businesses around the world because I will be introducing new companies, start ups and hopefully use this network to help other businesses. I mean sure… would it be nice to smack Olga Smirnova on my cover and interview her… sure. But reality is… probably not going to happen as this is basically going to be a magazine built for you… my reader… about all of the available products out there for your Christmas shopping… and remind you that from October – January is going to be the most crucial for your family to save for summer programs and all of that jazz… I am enlisting former employees and colleagues around the world to help me convince all of you business owners out there to become a part of my Ballet Christmas (which starts in October…) and help promote each other’s businesses. I started my fashion magazine five years ago to help new upcoming photographers, models, designers, MUAs, hairstylists in the LA area as a platform to launch their careers… I hope that a Ballet Christmas will also help launch a lot of ballet businesses, help increase Nutcracker-ticket-sales, and more… we shall the though… it is a risk I’m willing to take.

Okay, you also might think I’m crazy to start something in addition to the workload of this blog… but the reality is… I will not be the one doing all of the legwork for this… I am just overseeing the entire issue… I have now luckily enlisted quite a long list of great and talented individuals to help support this project- including a copy editor. haha.

To learn more about this digital issue click here. You can find our first draft media kit, and advertising rates. As the issue grows and as the project develops further, the pricing may change, but for all of those readers/business owners/companies out there who are willing to take the risk on me and my team I offer you 50% off your advertising deposit. Basically, it saves you $50 on your advertising package you build. So, if you are willing to make this commitment with just reading this post- and the media kit the coupon code is earlybird50

Again, thank you all for supporting this blog and all of these endeavors.