06.29.07
Posted in Everyday Journal at 7:01 am by admin
Yesterday I attended a “Whole Foods Summit” meeting where local producers were invited to attend a seminar and then meet with local and regional buyers. Making this contact was something I’d been wanting to do for some time, but it meant a trip to Louisville, an hour and a half away, and it just hadn’t happened yet. I jumped on the chance as soon as the invitation arrived, and was not sorry.
I have to say I seldom attend meetings of any kind which don’t bore me to tears or frustrate me to the nth degree. This was definitely not the case yesterday. There were regional and local team leaders (mostly but not all young people) in attendance, and they gave a very winning account of Whole Foods and its programs. It is just so heartening to hear a company offer a genuinely well thought out program for environmental caretaking — of earth, animals and people.
In order to conserve transportation costs, among other reasons, they are attempting to set up working relationships with local producers who meet their high standards. And since high standards in soapmaking mean a lot to me, I couldn’t be happier about this.
In conversations with the buyers, I found them to be very helpful. One of the things I took to show them is a shelf developed for retail display and made by a local carpenter. They suggested a different approach — a box with my signage on the front instead of across the top that fits inside a shorter shelf height than I had anticipated.
Now is the time to look at my labeling also and make whatever changes I want.
If anyone out there has experience working with Whole Foods, I’d appreciate knowing about it. It appears to me working with the local store will be relatively easy. The next step would be selling regionally and I’m not sure what has to happen there.
More to come….
Sharon
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06.11.07
Posted in Everyday Journal at 6:13 am by admin
I was very happy and honored to win a scholarship this year to the Platinum 10 program run by the state of Kentucky. If I haven’t said this before, I want to say it now. In my opinion, Kentucky does a fantastic job finding ways to support its artists, many of whom are amazingly talented. From the mountains in the east to the rivers in the north and west, Kentucky is home to artists and crafters who take a back seat to none. And it’s to Kentucky’s credit that leadership has developed here to help those in the arts and crafts make the difficult jump from producer to marketer.
The Platinum 10 program is just one of many programs in that vein. Each year 10 Kentucky artists are chosen to participate in a year-long series of seminars designed to help raise awareness on marketability of products and how to take advantage of current trends in the marketplace.
After being selected to participate in this year’s program, I traveled last week to Lexington to attend the first seminar of the year led by New York consultant Keith Recker. As we all sat down around the table, I was glad to see bead artist Ann Kleim and a couple other familiar faces. In addition to myself, others were woodworkers, fine artists, a collage maker, a jewelry maker, a paper maker and two photographers. This first session was taken up by going around the table, introducing ourselves, and then making another turn to get an idea of where each artist is in his or her endeaver and what problems he or she is working with and would like to solve. Keith Recker gave a thought-provoking presentation about trends (colors, styles, products) in the marketplace (purple is back!).
An interesting thing always happens when you ask 10 artists to talk briefly about themselves. As artists, we tend to be more “inward” turned than most, and claim not to like talking. As individuals we invariably indicate we don’t have THAT much to say, until we get started talking about ourselves or our art. Then we turn into people who can’t seem to stop!
Of course, it was all fascinating. I just felt sorry for the last two people at the table. Their time was actually cut short because the rest of us had been so wordy! Ah well. They’ll know to sit at the head of the table next time.
When it came my turn I was sure I wouldn’t make that mistake. In addition to being unsure what to say and not anxious to do so, I wasn’t feeling well and was having slight waves of nausea. At the time I wrote it off to nerves and the stress of travel. (Turns out it was more likely a case of food poisoning because when it hit in full force that night, I was pretty sure it was not caused by nerves!)
Anyway, I began by telling everyone how I started my career of handmade soapmaking all those years ago. I think I went into my own priorities (health and wellness) and the ways I distribute soap (markets, festivals, shops, etc.) I couldn’t possibly have been talking for more than couple minutes (could I?) when the consultant interrupted me and told me that he liked my story.
Was I through? Had I said enough? Too much? He went on to compliment my solving of the problem of bringing a new product to market in ways that fit my own style (wine soaps developed for the growing number of wineries in Kentucky, combining a wine fragrance with compatible essential oils), and raised a couple of ideas that I might use at soap tables to boost sales which I will think about how to implement.
At the end of the day we were assigned homework which includes creating an “elevator pitch” of 40 seconds or less … something you can say in that short period of time to introduce your products and hopefully induce someone else to be interested in them … and to develop a new product. Right now I’m at a loss, but my Oklahoma soapmaker buddy, Charlotte (Laughing Rabbit soaps, www.lrsoaps.com), emailed some ideas which will help jump-start my thinking. I tell her she’s the idea part of this duo…we’ve been friends since meeting at a soapmaker’s conference many years ago, and I count that as a very happy meeting of soapmaking hearts.
The next seminar session will be a telephone conference, and in the meantime I’m mulling over what I heard and thinking of what I REALLY wanted to say. Ah, surely one day I’ll get it right!
Sharon
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06.07.07
Posted in Everyday Journal at 1:44 pm by admin
Each spring it’s touch-and-go getting ready for the beginning of farmers market and festival seasons, and this year was no exception. I really thought I had all the soap I needed made, cured and ready. Once again I realized I was short by this or that and ended up frantically doing up the last-minute batches. I’m still short by one or two, but this has been a big production week and there’s no more delaying … the farmers markets have started!
I have a love-hate relationship with markets. They are where I get to touch bases with lots of my favorite people, and I look forward to seeing everyone again each year. On the other hand, I know that from now until Christmas it is a grueling schedule … every weekend somewhere. But after I get going, things get better.
Last week I got to visit with people I hadn’t seen since last fall at the market. What pleased me most were the people who came up to the table knowing exactly what they wanted or bringing praise and good testimonials along with them. Most soapmakers know what I’m talking about here. When a person has a chance to use a good handmade soap, and if their skin is sensitive enough to let them tell the difference, they are usually very vocal in their praise.
Plus my 85-year-old friend, Henry, the one without a wrinkle on his face (which he kindly and with tongue-in-cheek attributes to my soaps), stopped by to chat. Henry is an elegant man who has come through the trials and tribulations of life with a keen mind and gentle spirit. For whatever reasons, we’ve been able to connect in good ways, and both of us, I think, have the sense of our each listening to the other as we talk.
After years of being in excellent health, Henry has had two operations and several illnesses within two-and-a-half years. He’s gone through them with a combination of irritation and grace, and I admire him for it. The irritation comes from not wanting to give an inch to age and from all the inherent humiliations that flow from the way our culture views age. And the grace is what he gets around to after he works his way through the irritation.
Before his illnesses, Henry used to tell me he calculated his job, in that stage of life, was to keep his body in as good a functioning state as possible. To that end, he and his wife, who has more physical problems than Henry, were driving 30 miles a couple times a week to Lexington to work with a personal trainer. Now Henry is valiantly trying to be sure his wife continues to have good care, and worries about what might happen if he’s not there.
I asked him once if he thought going through the operations (open-heart) were worth it, because we agree that often when you find yourself in the clutches of the medical profession, you never get out. He nearly died more than once in his ordeal. Today he brought that question up again. In fact, he opened the conversation by telling me that in his opinion I should do my best to stay away from any path that includes medication and medical procedures. (He knows as I do that these things are often necessary and sometimes helpful.) He went on to say that it was important to him to have these operations because he worried about his wife’s care. But that looking back on it now, he would say that if it were only himself involved, it would not have been worth it because he has been so weakened by the result. I’m sure his quality of life has suffered significantly. He said he felt living one extra year or even more in a situation where you must be cared for in a nursing home or some other situation is not worth the trade-off.
I know there are no one-size-fits-all answers, but at this point I feel the same way, and I respect his position. I’d like to live my life fully and not have my final years be marred by surgical procedures designed to keep me alive at all costs. Let me go stirring up a good pot of perfect soap!
By the way (and this has absolutely nothing to do with soap), I happened on a charming and very enjoyable series of books by Susan Wittig Albert — the Beatrix Potter series. I think there are three so far. I just finished one and was tickled to find the other two in the public library today. So I head home tonight with treasures as valued as gold.
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