Writer's Block or Just Fear of Failure?

It's been a month since my last blog entry. It's not always easy for me to click "publish". I make endless lists in my head about what I will write about and tell myself that this is the day that I will write. I draft these ideas, second guess myself and click delete.

I don't think of myself as someone with a loss for words and most days I'm pretty good at conveying my message, but lately I have been feeling really insecure about how my blog is perceived and asking myself -

1. Why am I afraid of failure?
2  Who is my audience?
3. Will my readers like what I write?
5. What causes one to stop and read a particular blog?
6. I wish my blog was as good as so & so's. How can I make mine just as interesting?
7. Do people want advice, tips or stories? All of the above?
8. Where can I find inspiration?
9. Why am I here and what does this all mean?

Okay, #9 is an exaggeration, but you get the point. Clearly, from the list of questions, my problem is not writer's block. It's simply 2 parts fear of failure and 1 part fear of not being liked. As a business owner, I want you to discover my product line, visit my website and purchase products. As me, Jennifer, I want you to get to know me and like who I am. I want you to comment on my entries as a way for me to know you. I love people and I love to please. In a lot of ways that is why I am on the greeting card business. Greeting cards make people happy. They give people a sense of being thought of and liked. When someone buys my cards they feel confident that the recipient will feel thought of liked, or even loved.

Do you own a Twitter or a Facebook account? Don't you just love when someone "Likes" your post, "retweets" your tweet or "follows" you? What is it about all those actions that gets us so excited? There are days when I seemingly can't stop checking the stats and comparing them to others - A BIG MISTAKE! I am certain that these actions are the source of my blogger-low self esteem. I convinced myself that these numbers meant something; as if numbers were representative of who I am and the products I produce. I forgot why I became interested in social media in the first place. So what changed? What caused me to return to my blog? I realized that:

1. I love sharing articles about design, typography, the arts and other topics.
2. I love sharing/introducing new products through various social media channels.
3. I enjoy meeting my customers and staying in touch with friends.
4. I love gaining knowledge and seeking out information through other's tweets, blogs and Facebook pages.

My worries and insecurities take the enjoyment out of one of my favorite daily activities. I realized that failure would be not trying at all. Failure would be abandoning my blog and letting the numbers and worries get the best of me. Fear of failure is unhealthy and unproductive. Fear of failure would be never giving myself the chance to succeed and grow.

I think Theodore Roosevelt said it best  

"It is hard to fail, but it is worse never to have tried to succeed."

Today is the first day of letting go of my fears. I have many ideas and many stories and designs to share with you. Let it be said that there will be days that I just won't have anything poignant or brilliant to say but that I will surely not be afraid to fail.

Correspondence: Any substrate will do!

Was there ever a time in your life when you were excited about sending or receiving a handwritten letter? Did you ever have a pen pal? At the age of five I was fascinated with correspondence and spent hours composing my thoughts on a folded piece of typing paper which most always read:

Dear (my first penpal) Gretchen,

Hi! How are you? I'm fine.
I can't wait until summer.
Well I have to go. Have a great day. TTYS!
F/F,
Jennfer

My favorite part about writing a letter was not in the composing but in the decorating. If there was white space, I would fill it with hand drawn hearts, swirls, rainbows and maybe even a sticker or 12.
After carefully folding my decorative (certainly not a literary) masterpiece, I would seal the envelope and lovingly address it in the most fantastical handwriting possible and then embellished it with hearts, swirls and rainbows, using my best set of magic markers. Those poor postal workers! It's a wonder that any of my letters made it to their destination.

I am still in touch with Gretchen. Although I have her address, we mostly correspond through social media. I saved each and every one of her letters and a few years ago I wrapped them all in a ribbon, placed them in a decorative, hand painted box shaped like an antique lunchbox. Rather than mailing them back to Gretchen, I hand delivered them to her. She was shocked that I kept them. As we read them, we laughed at ourselves, our handwriting and our love for decorating envelopes.

The other day I opened a plastic bin and laughed myself silly over my unique collection of correspondence with friends.

I came across a letter from my older brother Todd. His creative way of wishing me a Happy 18th. Birthday was to scribble words of wisdom - on a napkin! His college roommate, Paul, wrote me a birthday wish as well. He decided to write me a note on the back of his OSU math class homework.

My favorite letter came from my father in 1992 after I moved to New York. It was his wish that I would find my way home, so he wrote a short letter to me on a map of Richland County (Mansfield Ohio).

It is from receiving and creating heartwarming, silly and inventive letters that inspired me to marry my love of correspondence with my art to create my company, Jennifer! Designs, Ltd. I think that the advent of emails and e-cards is awesome but sending a handwritten letter or note goes one step further. The process enables you to put your personality into it whether your handwriting is beautiful or not. A letter or card in the hands of the receiver is sure to engage and touch them.

I encourage you to take part in the rewarding experience of handwritten correspondence where friendships form, develop and last a lifetime.

Who knows? You just might get a response on a napkin!

How Joining Pinterest Led Me to Move My Company Forward

In April of 2012 I received an email inviting me to join Pinterest. I had heard about it, so I immediately jumped on the bandwagon after perusing the site. I became addicted, especially after I discovered the iPhone app. I justified every second of every minute of every hour that I spent building boards, searching for images on my own and pinning other member's pins.

My favorite boards are Typography, Design, Posters and Art - well anything that has to do with art and design. A few weeks into it another "Pinner" who follows just a few of my boards pinned a handwritten Post-It note that read "Hi, I'm Mark @TOGO Media on Twitter. Please Join Me on Twitter." with the caption - A little shameless self-promotion never hurt anyone (I hope). Please join me on Twitter..... I was in stitches and felt the need to share. In the comment section I wrote "Hell yeah!" That post began a dialogue between us which evolved into a friendship. Because of Mark's social engagement, I am now Pinning, Tweeting, blogging, Facebooking and G+ing with purpose.

This new found purpose all came about after Mark pointed out that my business had zero online presence. Mark is a leader and an expert in the field of marketing, so of course he did his homework to find that Jennifer! Designs, Ltd. was practically invisible to the virtual world. When he pointed this out to me, I felt like an out of touch business owner.

In 2004 I sold my products to stores and spent a lot of money exhibiting at trade shows. Business was steady until 2008 when a lot of small business gift stores (my clientele) began going out of business.

As clients disappeared, so did I. I gave up on trade shows and began selling my products at craft shows while servicing what was left of my costumer base and working full time in an unrelated industry. I became complacent and began to lose site of my dream. I realize now that I had let my business become a hobby.

Mark's remarks were a wake up call - one that I needed very much. The world and how we market, buy, sell and engage is changing every day. My world has changed dramatically since I began Tweeting, blogging, Pinning, and building my website. I discovered that I could restructure my company and sell online by marketing through social media. It's a lot of hard work and lot of fun and it's also a great way to learn from others. Follow the leaders, I say! Best of all, it's a fabulous way to engage with my customers as well as meeting potential customers.

I traded traveling and selling at trade shows for photographing my products in my studio and importing them into my computer. My clients have changed as well. Now the client is YOU, the end user. This is exciting because I love people. Designing stationery and greeting cards is my passion and I want to hear about your passions. I want to know you and I want to make products that make you happy!

If you have a Twitter, Pinterest, G+ or an FB page, let me know and I'm sure we'll meet up.


~This entry is dedicated to my mentor and friend, Mark Strauss - @TOGOMedia on Twitter, togo-media.com and Mark Strauss on Pinterest. Thanks Mark!