Saturday, February 20, 2010

Words

Mitch's vocab has blown up in the past few months. Since I am terrible in keeping up with his little baby book, I wanted to jot down a few of the great words and phrases that I hear daily.

His first words were ball, dog (doe-awg), uh-oh (at-oh), hi, bye. Those I heard last spring and early summer.

Since then we've heard apple, cookie (spoken in a low sinister voice), juice, chair, frog (rut rut then fwra), bear, cars, Apple Jacks, pizza, color, Elmo, snow (knowing), night night, and of course Mommy and Daddy. He had been saying mommy for a little while this past fall but chose Christmas morning to call for me from his crib. Since I have been laid off, I now hear "mommy home."

He also will now call for the dog, Jules. "Juuuuueeeessss" sounds more like Jews. We went through all the colors and then some the other day and he is repeating everything...pointing at everything...I finally came to understand that "a bears" is code for help or distress.

It is so fun to experience everything through him.

Wednesday, February 10, 2010

My Brand Vision

I've had a ton of calls and emails...many I've initiated, some from my connections. Everyone wants to talk. Initially, this excited me. In a matter of six weeks though I'm a little burnt out from talking...more burnt out from the realization that I have my own vision, my own brand (whether I knew it or not) and bottom line - there aren't that many people, places, or things (thus far) that are truly in line with who I am and what I want this company to be.


I'm doing an exercise right now that's helping me clarify via messaging what my values are, what my mission is, how that translates into my brand vision and ultimately, the markets I'll serve and how I'll go about doing so. It's the back end of my marketing plan. It's a PAIN IN THE ASS. But I love it.

As annoyed as I am, I'm also happy that I'm getting clarity. You realize what you want by knowing what you don't want. I have to turn down a lot of offers (or potential offers) - some I've even thought long and hard on - for the sake of maintaining who I am and not diluting my brand and wasting time and resources.

I have come back to the following values: Experience, Sustainability, Social Change & Community. I want to work with people and organizations that are just as passionate about these values as I am. I'm not sure if there's a crazy amount of money to be made here...most small or independently owned businesses tend to do a ton themselves because they can't afford consulting services (I'm also thinking back to my days at American Pie). I need to get past the concept that that small business = the indie craft shop. They are only one part of the pie. There are still other meaningful industries out there doing great work.