Somehow, this blog post didn't get published when I originally wrote it. I blame it on my computer. I'm sure it could not be operator error :()
It's been an amazing summer so far, busy, but so very enjoyable. Our local farmers market started year six with a bang. Ok it was more like a WOW with crowds of over 5000 patrons, our little booth was filled to capacity with happy customers getting their fix of sweet soapy goodness. Next up was our annual adventure of Bonnaroo Music Festival in Manchester Tennessee with 80k of our closest friends dancing, partying and enjoying great music. We visited one of my favorite small towns, Lynchburg Tennessee, to get some locally gathered honey and beautifully fragrant beeswax from some very happy bees. Of course we enjoyed lunch at Miss Mary Bobo's and then stopped by Nina's on the square for some tasty fudge. Then later in July, I got to talk soap, on a farm, with 40 kids aged 9-11yrs old. Now everything is all topsy turvy with construction happening right outside the Soap Studio. Inside the Soap Studio, I've been busy playing with some new product ideas and crazy good new scent blends for the fall and the Holiday season.
Happy rest of summer!
Lucky March 19 2014
I spent some time today going thru Pure Joy Soap Co. Facebook page. Seeing all the things I had hoped to do but have not done is a bit depressing and disappointing. I have lots of ideas but I am also easily distracted but the best intentions mean nothing without action. And saying isn't doing.
I have played at having a business because I could. Not really taking anything too seriously. I kinda kept an inventory and kinda kept sales records and kinda worked on some wholesale accounts. When my website was deleted back in July 2012, I half heartedly made an attempt at making a new one. I knew my current packaging would not work for getting my soaps in stores, so I hired a graphic designer to help. I thought to trade the hand drawn monkey in a bathtub for something more sophisticated and edgy. A year later, I was still with the monkey. I signed with a larger Branding company and spent lots and lots of money for them to rebrand my company. They, like the graphic designer, are bright and talented people who truly are good at what they do. The problem was me.
If you don't have the language to communicate, or the knowledge to even know what you don't know, you chase your tail a lot. If you don't honor your own instincts and inner knowing, you can waste a lot of time and money. If you are lucky, you find a mentor, who has been thru what you are struggling thru and has come out the other side successfully and is willing to share their experience. I got lucky.
I now have some very trusted and experienced advisors who are teaching me the language I need. I am ready to honor my customers and my craft. No lightly made promises. No half hearted actions. No more discounting my own intuition. I will put one foot in front of the other and walk my talk.
