Feast or famine.

Life's weird, I tells ya. I've been working on my business for almost a year now, and I was beginning to despair that I would ultimately fail. Being forced back to work for The Man isn't something I would have detested if the job was rewarding and creative with a wunnerful team who would take me under their wing. I've just always been the type of person who normally doesn't start something unles they're 99 44/100 sure they will succeed. I suspect that type of person is really a defeatist deep down, but I'm not ready to admit that yet; better to think I'm a good judge of what I apply my time and talents to.

Part of the problem was my inability to shift into "Active" mode. I have such confidence in my ability, I was worried that once I got my product out there, the response would be so great I wouldn't be able to keep up. Yeah, go ahead and laugh, it's true. However, the last time I glanced at the balance of my chequing account, I came to the harsh conclusion that it was do or die time for my little venture.

Three weeks ago, I was shopping here for my baking supplies. I shored up my nerve and approached the daughter of the owner about maybe displaying my product at their establishment. To my surprise, she was very open to checking out my stuff. She was even happier when I told her I buy most of my inventory from her and I would be happy to link my site to hers as well. It's a consignment gig for the first two months, but a girl has to start somewhere.

Two weeks ago, I happened to be bagging product in the livingroom with the telly on. The local cable show was on and their show Daytime was asking a trivia question. I knew the answer, so I grabbed my cell and called in. Voila, I won! I knew one of the hosts had a chocolate lab, so I tossed a bag of Trainin' Treats and a product list in my purse as I headed to the station to pick up my prize. As I handed it over, the receptionist said others in the office had pets and could she make copies to pass around? Hell yeah! She asked where she could get my stuff and I stupidly told her only from my house at the moment. Once it sunk in past the scar tissue that I'd made a huge mistake, I called to tell her that my product was available at one of the local businesses. She told me it was really weird that I'd called back because she had passed my info on to the Daytime producer and they wanted me to do a segment on the show! I'm all camera-shy, but what the hell, I'll take a bullet for the team, you know what I'm sayin'?

Tuesday, I'm at work at the other local station, (I'm doing an internship there), and Bevin shows up to do Talk Now, a segment of the noon news. They always have a question of the day and Tuesday was "What's Your Hobby?" He always asks us before he ventures out to find Joe and Josephine Man On The Street in case everyone bails on him and he has to fill time. I told him my hobby turned into my business and he was very interested. A few minutes later, I hear a knock on the glass of the office and he's calling me out to the main lobby of the market.

"You're gonna be on tee vee!", laughed Lenka, my producer.

Indeed. He ushered me in front of Jeff the cameraman and proceeded to interview me about handmade dog and cat treats. In the rush, we both forgot to mention the bloody NAME OF THE BUSINESS! Point a camera at me and watch my brains ooze out my ear, kids. I mentioned it to him afterward and he found it rather funny, so I made him promise me a five-minute segment in the very near future to make up for it. More telly. *sigh*

My new mantra:
"It's all for a good cause, it's all for a good cause".

Posted at 2:35 p.m.