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Well, March Was Interesting

This morning I flipped my calendar with a definite good riddance to March. One of my Facebook friends shared a similar attitude when she said, “Well, March was interesting,” to which her friends added a barrage of colorful comments.

March was interesting, to say the least. Like many of you, the first half of my month was filled with the usual outings and obligations. The second half was nothing but cancellations. However, just before the start of my cocoonment, my husband surprised me with a day of meandering through Wisconsin’s countryside, all based on his accumulated stack of gift certificates. I’ve gotta say, spontaneities are not his norm so there was no way I could refuse. Besides, isn’t that why I’m self-employed?

I’m so thankful we did that day. What seems like such a long time ago—only three weeks actually—is now saved in my bank of precious memories. Little did we know it would be the start to a universal slowing down and spending time with those you love.

Edwin Brix Winery, Juneau
Our first stop was a scheduled meeting with an architect (we’ve been contemplating a garage addition, like, forever). We met in the upstairs loft of what once was a grainery and is now a tasting room for Edwin Brix Winery. Seriously, you have to go there—rural, rustically quaint, and so very welcoming. Plus they were just featured on Discover Wisconsin.

Wollersheim Winery & Distillery, Prairie Du Sac
Our next stop was two counties west to the ever-impressive Wollersheim Winery & Distillery. We had a nice, slow lunch in their bistro while perusing decades of family pictures hanging on the wall. We bought wines for the large Easter gathering we would host (which, of course, we now can’t) and brandy for the raspberry cordial we’ll make this fall (which we most certainly will).

Stoddard’s Meat Market, Cottage Grove
From there, we drove to the small town of Cottage Grove for a first-time visit to Stoddard’s. What a friendly shop with a drooling selection of meats! We happily spent our gift certificate and more.

James J Chocolate, Lake Mills
My husband has been married to me for 41 years, which goes to show he’s a very wise man. These two things he knows so well: 1) A woman needs her chocolate, and 2) happy wife, happy life. We made this necessary stop to James J Chocolate, a store I normally only visit at Valentines and Easter. This year I’m placing online orders. You should too, they truly are the finest!

Tyranena Brewery, Lake Mills
What’s a road trip without a brewery stop, right? Tyranena’s Headless Man has been our Friday choice of beverage for years, but always with a fish fry. Sitting down to a friendly server in Tyranena’s taproom was super fun, but alas, they’re discontinuing our favorite amber. Instead, they’ve introduced Mangy Fox, and equally tasty copper ale. We left with a growler of Mangy Fox and one of my favorites, the Chief Blawhawk Porter.

How have you been this month of March?

“Interesting” is certainly a facetious way to describe March 2020. For some, it’s been bitterly so. Local, family-owned businesses everywhere, just like these we visited a few weeks ago, are now hurting—some to the point of closing their doors. People are sick and dying. We all wonder what April will bring.

If you find yourself needing something to grab onto during this COVID chaos, please consider listening to Hope Lake Country or one of the many churches now offering online services. No matter who you are or what you’re going through, this could be a nice chance to slow down and spend time with people who care about you.

Take care and be safe!

Working Through the Madness

In just two short weeks March Madness went from being a tournament to a pandemic. It also permeated our internet with how-to wisdom, everything from the proper way to cough to productively working from home. 

The fact is, being self-employed for 15 years, I already was a sponge for the subject of working from home. And while it’s all sound advice, I’ve come to realize when it comes to our business we each must do what we’re each wired to do. 

Here are some examples.

Tip #1: Set consistent work hours
This morning I started work at 5:30 and later spent a FaceTime breakfast with my 2-year-old granddaughter. Tomorrow I may forego work until noon and spend some morning time in the sun. Obviously, I’m a highly unscheduled person. For me, freedom from routine is a necessity.

Tip #2: Keep your work and personal lives separate
Let’s be honest, this is as unrealistic as the separation of church and state (see this more applicable tip #4). Who isn’t going to take a break and throw in a load of laundry? And anyone who bakes bread knows it’s a wonderful way to work through a creative block. 

My point with all this rambling?

Yes, it’s good to be open to ideas. But it’s also important to know yourself and how you operate. Whether you’re outdoors with your hands in the soil or you’re indoors with your eyes at a computer, each of us must run our business in a way that works for us. 

LET’S WORK TOGETHER

What I’m Working On This Month

Meet The Real Estate Duo—fun-loving, highly skilled Realtors serving the Lake Country community. We’ll debut their new website soon. Stay tuned! 

What I’m Tuned In To This Month

  1. Love in the Time of Coronavirus, by Regina Brett. Love could make this our finest hour.
  2. Chicken and Dumplings. Chaos behooves comfort food and no one does it better than Smitten Kitchen
  3. InstaCart: Kudos to innovative business ideas. This one’s a lifesaver, especially for the elderly during stay-at-home guidelines.
  4. Help for Small Business: The more local you go for assistance, the faster and more personal it is. This site has A-Z information.

Stay safe everyone. May God protect you and keep you well.  

Celebrating St. Patrick’s Day with Pandemic Panache

Happy St. Patrick’s Day in what surely has been the strangest month most of us have ever seen. I won’t dwell on the chaos, since we all know what that’s about. Yet, two weeks ago, who would guess we’d be scrounging for toilet paper!

While I feel few effects of the coronavirus—after all, I regularly cocoon in my home office—it has adversely affected many of my customers. Restaurants, small farms, and family-owned businesses have all suddenly found themselves in difficult situations. To them and everyone else hit by this pandemic, my heart goes out to you.

On a Positive Note: Blessings Still Abound

What I love about people is how we pull together in times of need. I admire the creative ways we keep truckin’ right along, sometimes even better than before. Here are some of my favorites.

  • Indie Coffee, in Madison, offers curbside delivery. Many other businesses are as well. Check them out!
  • With no place to go and nothing extra-curricular to do, we are slowing down!
  • Rather than forcing its markets to close, Minnesota Farmers’ Market Association realizes people still need to eat healthy food and farmers must make a living.
  • Cocooning means connecting. Families are spending quality time together. Special memories are in the making!
  • Colectivo Coffee has closed its cafes but is committed to continue paying its cafe employees.
  • Spending time outdoors! It’s spring and what a wonderful time to get out and enjoy!
  • Hope Lake Country, like many other church families, gathered virtually for a fun and meaningful, live-stream service. Join the celebration again this Sunday!

Stay safe everyone. Step 6-feet aside and raise your Irish cream for a toast. May your blessings outnumber the shamrocks that grow!

Who Owns a Name?

Last week The Cap Times ran an interesting story titled ‘We Are A People.’ It’s multifaceted to say the least and I was surprised it didn’t evoke more conversation.

The story talks about Kickapoo Coffee, a fair trade, organic roaster from southwestern Wisconsin. But first, let’s explore a bit of geography for those unfamiliar with this part of our state. Kickapoo is the name of a 126-mile river winding through a unique bioregion known as the Driftless Area. Both the river and the region are beloved, like really beloved, by those who live there and those who visit (myself included). Naturally every other business and its offshoot has incorporated Kickapoo into its name. And why not? Why not celebrate the land where your business has its roots, right?

Except Kickapoo is also a group of people. They’re a sovereign Indian nation who once lived in this area—before they were forcibly removed, that is— and the Kickapoo River was, in fact, named after them. This brings us the question of who owns a name.

And the subject of Kickapoo Coffee.

Last year Kickapoo Coffee decided the Kickapoo name was not theirs to take and they announced they were rebranding the business. “The decision to use their name, and to continue to roast under it, was an act of appropriation,” said co-owners TJ Semanchin and Caleb Nicholes. “In an effort to right that wrong, we have decided to change our name.”

How Should One Feel?

White privileged woman that I am, it’s hard to know what to think about this. I’m ashamed that throughout history those of European descent have mistreated indigenous people everywhere. I feel it’s unconscionable that it continues today. Really, who do we think we are?

Yet, I grew up singing, “I’m from Owosso, down where the Shiawassee flows.” My hometown is named after Chief Wasso of the Ojibwe tribe (also known as Shiawassee and Wan-dor-gon-ing Indians). It’s beside the Shiawassee River, in Shiawassee County, which is named from an Ojibwe word meaning “sparkling waters.” It’s within the state of Michigan, also named from an Ojibwe word meaning “large water.” Being born and raised in Owosso, can I claim a regional pride the same way Kickapoogians do in Wisconsin? At what point does a heritage become one’s own?

Business and Legal Considerations

Choosing a business name can be hard. Changing a business name is even harder (think mega-expensive and time consuming). Yes, there are the usual considerations like descriptiveness, emotional connection, and domain availability. Add cultural awareness to that list and it definitely becomes a lot to think about.

“Indigenous rights is a really interesting aspect of intellectual property law. It impacts copyright, trademark, and patent law,” said attorney Erin Ogden in her comment to the story.

Your Thoughts?

Some have called Kickapoo Coffee’s rebrand a PR ploy. Others say they’re conceding to a trendy need to absolve ourselves of the guilt our white forefathers laid upon us. Still others applaud Kickapoo Coffee for showing cultural sensitivity and respect to others.

As I said, this is multifaceted. What do you think?

5 Reasons Business Cards are Still Relevant

I just returned from the Women in Sustainable Ag Conference (WISA), followed by a glorious vacation. Now that I’m back, I’m cultivating relationships with all the wonderful people I met. The business cards I acquired make this an easy task.

Which leads me to ask, what do you think of business cards? Do you still use them?

In the Be a Better Self-Promoter workshop I presented, I specifically mentioned the importance of business cards. I greeted the attendees at the door with my card and asked them to leave theirs behind after the workshop. Even though some believe business cards are dead, here’s why I see lots of life in these small, printed exchanges of information.

1. Personal Touch

Yes, technology is all around us but there’s something truly personal about giving and receiving business cards. The tactile-ness of a card says you care enough to go the extra mile and give something of yourself. When receiving a business card and you take a moment’s pause to look at it—perhaps even comment on it—it says you care about the person doing the giving.

2. Tangible Expression of Your Business

When designed well and according to your brand, a business card speaks loudly of who you are. I had my cards printed on a heavier grade of linen stock and I love how it feels in my hand. A quality card reflects a quality business.

3. Physical Reminder of Who You Are

One of my attendees approached me afterward with a question on web design. She gave me her card and wrote her question on the back so I could respond later with more information. There’s no way I would have remembered otherwise.

4. Quick Exchange of Information

When attending events, conferences or meetings, there’s no quicker way to exchange information than business cards. Yes, you could get their email and type it into your phone, but that’s certainly not as fast. Plus you have to look away from the person to do so. How rude.

5. Opportunities for Repeated Connection

The more ways we can connect with people, the better relationships we can build with them. The physical act of exchanging business cards is a wonderful debut to digital followups in the future. Those followups then become a permanent way of managing contacts. Unless they’re exceptionally creative (I am a graphic designer, after all), I don’t keep my contact’s business cards. Instead, I make a digital input and have all the information I need right at my fingertips.

Need new business cards? I’d love to help you with a great design and advice on cost-effective printing. Drop me a line!

Wisconsin Women are Go-Getters

I’m always proud to be a Wisconsin woman. However, this month my heart swells even more as we celebrate the 100th anniversary of Wisconsin’s ratification of the 19th Amendment, guaranteeing women the right to vote. On June 10, 1919, Wisconsin—movin’ people that we are— was the first state to take such action. We even beat the U.S. Congress, which didn’t ratify the amendment until the next year.

The Wisconsin Historical Society has a great exhibit on display in our beautiful State Capitol Rotunda all the way through November. My pictures don’t do it justice so definitely take time to see it for yourselves.

Certainly, a tip of the hat is due to those progressive thinkers of Wisconsin’s legislature. But the real heroes are the women who fought more than 70 years to bring the 19th amendment to fruition, women like these Wisconsin demigoddesses.

Women’s rights groups began forming in Wisconsin in the 1860s and they rallied for an array of social reforms such as anti-slavery, temperance, education, health, and married women’s property rights. The Wisconsin Women’s Suffrage Association (WWSA) was started in 1869. Besides campaigning for suffrage, these ladies fought to improve public schools. By 1869 they were running for school boards and by 1886 women could vote for issues “pertaining to school matters,” according to the Wisconsin Women Suffrage in School Matters Referendum.

Notice a whole lot of nurturing going on here?

“Bitches get stuff done.” — Tina Fey

When women rise up, they by nature don’t do so with self-serving ambitions. If we examine the motives behind what some label as “women being bitches,” we see they’re most often raising their voices for the welfare of others; family, children, the sick, the poor. Even 19th-century women’s quest for rights to their property was done with their children in mind; to prevent a drunken husband from taking a mother’s earnings or to will a woman’s inherited land to her own children rather than those of her husband’s second wife. Sometimes women being bitchy is the only way people listen.

Today I’m admiring…

These days inspiring Wisconsin women continue to stand up for the good of others. I’m thinking of several in my world alone, caring women who have dedicated time out of their busy lives to basically make things better in Wisconsin. Women like:

Be a Wisconsin Woman

Wisconsin women are gutsy go-getters. They get things done. But really, you don’t have to live in my beloved Badger state to be so emboldened. Just get up and go wherever you are.

And don’t forget to vote!

Yesteryear’s Brewery: Today’s Small Business

While enjoying last year’s Octoberfest Brewery Tour, I came across the book Badger Breweries, Past and Present. Definitely on the rare list, it’s a detailed account of all the breweries known to have existed in Wisconsin. Look at how many it shows for my small town alone.

Badger Breweries: Past and Present

According to the Wisconsin Historical Society, nearly every town in the 1800s had its own brewery. A town’s brewery was its heart, providing steady employment, commerce and togetherness. It was also its fingerprint, each with a unique history and terroir.

While most of these breweries have died long ago, we’re now savoring a renaissance with the craft beer movement. These new breweries—most of them small and independently owned—strengthen communities just like the old days. But like an egg in our beer, their innovative owners have been bestowing neighborhoods with food venues, tourism and charitable causes.

As interesting as beer history is, what I really want to talk about are small businesses. This week is National Small Business Week and in the same way those small, 19th century breweries were the lifeblood a community, so small, locally owned businesses are today.

According to the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA), more than half of Americans either own or work for a small business, and they create about two out of every three new jobs in the U.S. each year.

Maybe you want to become one of those owners! Maybe you want impress your fingerprint into the community. The SBA has great information online to get you started, everything from funding to launching your business.

And if you’re looking for help branding and marketing your new business, please keep me in mind!

Earth Day and Double Duty Composting

Today, on Earth Day 2019, I’m thinking back to the roundtable discussion I was honored to lead at the MOSES Organic Conference. It was on marketing and it overflowed with interesting conversation. Today though, two particular points come to mind: composting and responsibility.

As we discussed innovative ideas to promote our farms, a woman whose name I missed (someone help me, please, I’d love to contact her) mentioned the composting campaign they’re doing for their CSA farm. They give buckets to their members and encourage them to bring food scrap compost to the farm each week where it will help to create fertile ground for next years’ crops. And I, whose marketing brain spins 24/7, suggested she be sure to put her farm name and website on the buckets.

Seriously though, isn’t a composting campaign a great idea in so many ways?

Full Circle of Sustainability

This year’s Earth Day theme is Protect Our Species and from bees to trees, good soil is vital for sustaining all of God’s creation. Composting is a small way to make a big impact on the enrichment of our soil. When we return scraps of food to the very soil from which it was taken, we complete a full circle of sustainability.

How cool is that for CSA members to participate in this full circle!

Responsibility + Ownership = Good Marketing

Marketing gurus tell us that allowing customers a sense of “ownership” is proven for building customer loyalty. We discussed this in our roundtable and how responsibility enables that sense of ownership.

The CSA farm’s composting campaign allows members to share in the responsibility of improving its soil for more nutrient-based produce. The result? These members become proud owners of the vegetables they helped to grow and they talk about them with their friends. Word of mouth marketing at its best!

What About You?

I’ve been composting for years and, gee, it’s such an easy way to put food waste to good use. Now, after touring the facilities of my newest customer, The Farmory, I’m inspired even further—maybe composting with worms?

What about you? Are you a business looking to heat up your environmental stewardship? Or a gardener wanting healthier soil? Earth Day is a great time to start composting—actually Earth Day celebrations last all week so you have time to find yourself a bucket.

So let’s get going and may the joyous rotting begin!

Want to learn more?
Soil health is a big conversation these days. Two recent and interesting articles are Compost, like the Earth Depends On It, from the Willy Street Co-op Reader and the Dirt Issue (Spring 2019) of Yes!