Having new or innovative ideas is essential to pushing the world forward and so we asked the community to share stories of the most innovative things they’ve done in their career. Our hope is to inspire folks who think only scientists or tech-wizards can innovate – innovation is possible for everyone, regardless of job title or function, industry or geography.

Kenisha Tiana

Since becoming a Loctician, I have been blessed to encounter hundreds of crowns. Broken crowns, crooked crowns, damaged crowns, healing crowns….you name it! Our mission is to heal a nation through hair. Every time we heal one member of a generation, we heal 6 generations before and 6 after. An inventive asset we use in our salon approach is through chakra meditation. Each client is greeted in the shampoo room with a fresh incense, notes of lavender essential oils, and chakra meditation music by artists like Jhené Aiko. Read more>>

Kunal Khorana

I don’t know if this innovative but it something I did during the pandemic that no one did. I had to open my Diesel Barbershop Franchise location in the middle of the pandemic. So I had to find a way of building a relationship with my customers during an era of social distancing and give an added perk. So after every week I called every new customer, introduced myself as the owner, ask them how their experience was. If it was great, then we just talk get to know each other and now they know the owner. I tell them, “this is my personal number, call me if there’s ever an issue. I’ll handle it personally.” If it was a bad experience, I apologize and tell them “try us one more time and I’ll cover the cost.” Read more>>

Emma Vollrath

Emma Lou came to fruition when I was 19 years old. I noticed there was a white space in the athleisure market since I kept hearing my clients complain about their bloating problems and how it was a huge insecurity for them. I realize now that every woman knows about the notorious lower stomach, but the only product I could recommend to them that targeted this area was a waist trainer. Which, no shade, but they aren’t *super* effective or sustainable. Worst of all, you can’t walk into Trader Joe’s wearing one without everyone giving you the disapproving side-eye while you’re picking out avocados. There wasn’t a single product on the market that wasn’t A) a waist trainer or B) a digestible supplement that aided women with bloating in the lower stomach area. Read more>>

Patti Smith

Thank you for asking. I have two that come to mind: 1. I am a RN and have been associated with the Career and Technical Education profession 30 years. When working as a Health Education Consultant I was given the opportunity to create a health education program in an elementary school. It was so fun. I was invited to work with the school IT/Librarian and we created a HOP program at Paris Elementary school for Kindergarten through 5th grade students. The HOP stands for Health Occupations at Paris. Our program was given Thursdays as the HOP specials day, much like other specials days at many elementary schools for music, art etc. Read more>>

BIANCA FESTEJO

My journey in the beauty industry began in 2015 when I established my first salon, which quickly expanded to six branches. While it was a thriving venture, the pandemic dealt a severe blow, and I found myself facing bankruptcy. This challenging period led me through a phase of mild depression, but I soon realized that dwelling on self-pity wouldn’t improve my situation. I knew I had to reinvent myself. During that time, I had been offering tattooing services to camouflage stretch marks and scars using skin tone tattoo ink, matching it to the individual’s skin. Interestingly, people from all over the world started inquiring if I provided training in this unique technique. Recognizing an untapped opportunity, I decided to venture into teaching, as there weren’t many educators in this particular field. Read more>>