Building Foundations

A few local contractors here in Nantucket have unearthed bits and pieces of antique china on the projects they are working on. One of them, I mentioned a while back, commissioned me to do a piece for the homeowner. I just LOVED that project and since then have a had a run of a few special orders that also came with sweet stories and cherished memories. Anyhow, the connection I am drawing here is between the foundations where these relics have been discovered and the foundation I am setting with Wild Bull Designs (Just so no one gets confused in my meandering of words).

Wild Bull is but a fledgling business, we are in our first year and working through so many details and kinks that many days it is hard to wrap my  mind around all that needs to be addressed without bursting at the seams. As I have shared many time in my blog what has brought me personal success in dealing with the insane amount of details is my commitment to a spiritual meditation practice, sharing with my trusted loved ones and heading wisdom in any form it comes my way.

Over the winter I pursued many options for potentially marketing Wild Bull in this new community I live in a store, a salon, farmer’s market and festivals off island. A few weeks ago I launched at a downtown shop and have since made the choice to exclusively market and sell my work in venues where I am fully managing the merchandising and selling, at least for now. Many reasons went into the final call to pull my jewelry and get back to slow and steady growth. When I sell at a store I miss out on being present to share about my business and connect with the people buying the product I also lose merchandising control and the opportunity to really express what is so unique about my business. I have realized that in this developing business, it is just that still developing. While I am clear about the values that form the foundation, I am only now getting clear about how I want the end result to be received by the client. Branding is truly everything and while it may be an overused advertising term, branding really sums up the total image of a product, business and at the end of the day the person running the show. All the reason to spend significant critical time at the branding stage and to develop relationships that support the special type of branding you may want for your business, whether in the hiring, marketing, training process. It is so hard to get back to this stage, the laying of a foundation or the branding of an organization.

People here decide to winterize their 50+ year old homes and in that must lift up the building and pour a foundation, 50 or more years into the life of a home cannot make that process simple or cost-effective. What would make that simple and affordable is to do it in the beginning. I am fortunate I am at that stage of building and have the opportunity to take my time pouring the foundation: how is my work displayed?, how do I want people to talk about my work?, what feeling do I want them to have when they walk into my booth at a festival?, what kind of stores would I want to show my work in? All of these questions and more are springing out of earlier work where I dove into the values I want this business to develop out of: creativity, community (communication) and sustainability.

The next step beyond these values is to take the time, and as much time as I need, to choose wisely the type of packaging I want, the display I see representing my work, the images on my business cards, the business’ where I buy supplemental products from, the type of venues that match my values, etc. There truly is so much for me to wrap my mind around that sometimes it is a welcome breath to take a step back, get back to ground level and ask some more questions. I am noticing that this growth process is about taking maybe a few too many steps forward only to have to take a step back, get curious, gather wisdom and wait for the moment to move forward. Once the next foot is out, stay really present and aware if something isn’t matching up or doesn’t feel right, LISTEN, try something new. Development is a process not an end.