I downloaded Dreamweaver the other day. Talk about confusing. I’m screwed.

Links updated…Nancy, Nikki, Carrie, Dave…have I forgotten any fellow Okies?

“your cards are beautiful. don’t you dare change a thing. i know you are going
to do so well. i love it all. you are very talented and very good with color. it
was nice to meet you verbally. i look forward to meeting you in new york.” I
just had to hear it from someone new.

So I called a fellow manufacturer and asked for her feedback on all these reps
do-thises and don’t-do-thatses, and let. me. tell. you. That girl knew her mind.
No way jose was she doing anything a rep told her, unless that rep was writing
orders. So, I listen to the ones that write, and ignore the ones that don’t.
Interesting feedback.

This morning my phone woke me up, ringing away at 8:13. I popped an eye open,
glanced at the caller ID, and not being able to recognize the area code, rolled
back over. I have my calls forwarded from the office for this very reason:
caller ID. I’m too cheap to pay for it at the office, and since I have an
outrageous amount of unused minutes on my cell phone bill each month, figure
what’s the big deal about paying for call forwarding? At 8:13, it couldn’t be a
store, even on the east coast, because UPS doesn’t usually arrive at stores
until about 10:30 or 11. It had to be a rep, and a good one at that, already
making calls at 8 a.m. It was, and I called her back, patiently listening to her
suggestions, and biting my tounge on a couple of ideas I wanted to give her
about doing her job. I know that reps have the best intentions in making
suggestions to me, but it’s always precedented with “Well, I’ve been doing this
for 18 (or 20 or 12 or a gazzillion) years, and that’s just not industry
standard.” It makes me want to snap! I’ve been doing this for two years, and
before that, I did something similar for 8 years. I know there is no “industry
standard” and that if they want to make money, they just need to figure out how
to put a positive spin on things. This brings up a liberal point of view I have
on “the way things are done”. Sometimes, even though change is scary, “the way
things are done” is going to evolve. Drastically. Easy for me to say, since I’m
the one changing things, I know. But I’ve long had the theory that the only way
to survive in this world is to be a catalyst for change. Roll with it; don’t
fight it. Be the pollyanna. Maintain intact your principles, but with all
possible creativity. The nature of this beast is that the reps are going to
write the orders, and I’ve got to kiss some in order to get the orders written.
I don’t want to be an ogre, but I have to run a business. This involves making
decisions. Some of those decisions will not please everyone. How do I politely
maintain that ground?

I think what I’m doing is a good thing. I have my days of wonder, though, as I
peruse my way through MS Weddings, a magazine I’ve been reading for a decade,
and suddenly find full page ads and double page spreads taken out by my
competitors. It’s like they know I’m out there, and they’re not about to be
taken down. I know it’s the nature of competition, and I’m as competitive as
they are. And willing to starve, if need be, which is an added benefit. I
haven’t been living on the wings of sales in six digits, and though I would like
to, I know I don’t have to. I want to be one of the best, if not THE best. I
don’t want to be sly or sneaky, but I want to sniff out the trends, and build a
brand around classics, and I want to be a company people can identify with.
Sometimes I wonder if the stationery industry will last. Greeting cards have
proven that they will not die, despite the onsurge of email and technology. Are
invitaitons the same thing? Will people continue to buy them? So many stores are
opening? It’s just such a POPULAR business to be in. Sometimes I wonder if I’m
here because it’s easy, and then I remind myself of the unearthly hours I’ve
kept for the past two years and shrug off that notion. It’s not that I think I
will fail; it’s just that there are days that I step back and gasp at where I’m
going and wonder if I’ll really get there. OK, back to work.

So I could be spackling my living room walls, or getting quotes on shipping of
my booth to NY in May, or cropping pictures for the dreaded scrapbooks, but I
decided to take a day off. Woke up late, watched a thing on Britney Spears on
VH1, the last half of Dirty Dancing, and am now halfway into Head over Heels. So
the commentary of the day is: do I hate or admire Britney Spears? A conversation
I don’t want to get into at the moment. Dirty Dancing never gets old, no matter
how many times the USA network runs it. I want to grill out and drink some beer
tonight. And crash and then get up and begin the giant todo list tomorrow. For
today, relaxation.

well what do you know. Tina Fabulous has a website.

So God smiled favorably upon me today. I’ve had a wopping fabulous month and
just shipped out 15 or more so sample decks to new reps. I’ve had two
thousand-dollar orders in one month. In March, go figure. Donna got her first
order for her new company today. On top of that, I found myself standing on the
shipping scale and realized I’ve lost weight. Crazy good things were happening.
I’m not a holy roller, but when things are this good, I pinch and remind myself
that it’s not my glory.

Today, I’m in work mode. Usually, I operate in one third creative mode, one
third work mode, one third fun mode. Today, it’s just work. Interestingly
enough, it’s dull, but quite satisfactory. I’m getting things done.