The Shortbread Chick and the Peanut Hunt

Happy new year to all.  My buddy, Dina, the copywriting and marketing chick commented that she missed me yesterday.  And I've missed her too. 

After a holiday season that showed a decrease in sales from last year (apparently this was true across the board, not just in the shortbread world), I decided to set up shop on e-Bay with cathartic cleaning of my closets and basement and a commitment to get rid of that which no longer serves me to make space for something new.  I started with the self help books.  I had millions...okay, maybe hundreds of them.  Do you know what a big business the self help book industry is?  Everyone (including me) is looking for that ONE TRUE CHUNK OF WISDOM that will change his/her life.  One cold morning in early January, I decided that the ONE TRUE CHUNK OF WISDOM does not exist in any book.  It's somewhere already clunking around in my brain...and in my heart.  So, one by one, I let the books go (with great profit, the entrepreneur in me is happy to add). 

Then I moved onto clothes.  I've lost a bit of weight lately through illness and nothing fits.  Additionally, I have a closet the size of Rhode Island full of clothes and shoes from the 1980s when leg warmers and acid washed jeans were in.  Yep, I even had a thong leotard for my Buns of Steel class.  Let's face it, there's something very sad about a middle aged woman who hangs onto stuff that doesn't fit or isn't age appropriate to remind her of better times.  I got rid of most of it on e-Bay.  I posted on e-Bay old jewelry from old boyfriends, long gone...reminders of the unhealthy relationships I used to pursue with great vigor, old kitchen gadgets I never used, DVDs and CDs that I'm sick of.  I even posted a discount on shortbread in my e-Bay store!  Check it out; you get a 10% discount through Valentine's Day if you order from my e-Bay store.  Buy some 80s junk or a self-help book while you're there. 

May I just say this cathartic experience has been full of personal epiphanies AND money?  As of today, January 27 I have sold $600 worth of stuff on e-Bay in just shy of 4 weeks.  Not too shabby. 

Between the busy holiday season, family obligations, emptying my life of junk, and just needing a rest, I've been frightfully neglectful of this blog.  Until yesterday.  Something woke me up yesterday and set my creative, introspective, questioning wheels into motion again.  So I'm back to the blogosphere and ready to share shortbread, small business insight and my own bizarre brand of wit and whimsy. 

So here's the thing that thrust me into 2008 and into the 21st century: the Vermont 3.0 Creative/Tech Career Jam.  A day packed with interesting speakers from academia and the business world, an expo, and good company and I came home excited about my professional life...and optimistic about the future. 

You see, for a long time, I have said, "I don't really know what I want to be when I grow up."  I have a degree in English literature (1984).  Having no technical or business background, but with a hefty dose of knowledge about the arts, literature, and music, I entered the workfarce (that was a purposeful typo, Dina...) and clumsily landed in a job where I was forced to work on an old PC (no hard drive, old green screen, DOS).  I had always made fun of computers and the people who worked on them.  "Pooh-pooh," said I.  I assumed these people knew nothing about the arts, nothing of writing, public speaking, public service, classical music.  I was a terrible snob and I loved it. 

And then I realized that in the early days of PCs, everyone was scared.  I said, "Hey, it's just a silly machine...a puzzle...I can figure this out."  So I began reading everything I could find.  I learned how to write batch files in DOS using Edlin (a line editor).  I began taking programming courses on the System 36 (RPG).  I quickly became the go-to person who knew how to help my colleagues out of a computer jam.  I knew how to write documentation that helped them.  I knew how to teach others what I had figured out. 

Here's the secret:  I never really knew what I was doing.  Anytime I was asked if I knew how to do something new, I'd smile and say, "Of course!"  Of course, I had no clue, but always knew I could figure out the puzzle.  And I kept doing that until I got promoted to a programmer/analyst position in the corporate headquarters of the company for whom I was working.  I loved programming, but even more I loved documenting and teaching.  So I became the tech writer before I even knew what a tech writer was.  This all happened in the mid to late 80s, long before there were any degree programs in technical communication.  It probably couldn't happen this way today; I was in the right place at the right time. 

So, on one hand, I had the high tech writing background and on the other hand, I had the right-brained creative entrepreneurial, grass roots small businesss background.  And it perplexed me a lot because I always felt scattered and unfocused.  I never quite understood how it was all going to play out in my future after I got laid off from IBM in March of 2007.  I'm very sure I can't sit in a cubicle and write tech documentation all day, but I'm also sure that I am not CEO material.  I enjoy inventing stuff and marketing it, but I do not enjoy being the big cheese in charge. So what's a mid-life crisis shortbread chick to do? 

So, I went to the first Creative/Tech Career Jam.  I wasn't expecting much, yet I was blown away.  Before me and beside me were folks from the gazillions of little software companies right here in Vermont, representatives from the universities and colleges right here in Burlington, entrepreneurs, corporate types - all with one message. 

The message I got was this.  We are in a new age.  It's not enough to be arts and literature-savvy.  It's not enough to be a math or technology guru.  The most successful people are not the ones with the bright, shiny MBAs, but the ones who know how to figure stuff out...how to ask questions...how to envision new applications to solve old problems...those who are not afraid of technology, but also know how to build a relationship with a human being.  Let's face it - in this day and age of the impersonal, you have to differentiate yourself as a genuine, warm, human...stuff no computer will never be able to do. 

So where do we go with this?  Where do I go with this?  I got some great insight about education for the future which is amazingly helpful as I have a teenage daughter who will go to college in a few years.  I got some affirmation for my own path, which previously seemed very disjointed and odd to me.  I now know that's not true.  I also got some good insight about where I want to take Vermont Shortbread Company in the next 5 years.  One thing is for sure: the perfect job, the perfect business opportunity, is NOT out there waiting for me to find it.   

That ONE TRUE CHUNK OF WISDOM for everyone already exists.  I have no idea what it is for my professional life, but I know it exists.  I know that for me, it has something to do with creativity, technology, and teaching others.  And I'm getting closer to it. 

I am reminded of a peanut hunt at my 7th birthday party.  Peanuts were hidden in the grass, in the drainspouts, hanging from trees.  We were all grabbing hundreds of peanuts and cracking them open to see if there was a meaty nut inside or just a dried up piece of crud. 

Maybe I'm a meaty nut...or maybe I'm getting closer to biting one.  I'll let you know how it tastes.   

Comments

[Michael at Eddiesenergy.com]

YAY!! I am so happy to see you back in the blogosphere! I really wanted to go to the Career Jam--I bet it was fun.

I have often told my mom that I want to clear my life of everything pointless--especially at home. She said I was crazy, but not until I grew my business 5.5 fold did I realize the need to be organized. It's like Thanksgiving--there is so much on my plate right now. Some of it tastes fantastic, but some of it I want to push aside.

Best of luck with the new found passion!

Michael

[Chris]

I've missed you so much! Thank you for this blog. It was better than coffee! I am ready to go tear open my bag of nuts and blow past the crud and munch away on the meaty ones!

[Julie Lerman]

Ann
I kept seeing you when I was in the middle of talking to people (actually just trying really hard not to cough on them). But it was still good to see you, even if it was from afar.

The event was amazing, wasn't it? Who would have guessed!

Hope to see you soon. Mabye you can just come up the road for a walk in our woods (when I've finished with the coughing fits that is.)

Julie

[Cathy Resmer]

Hey, I thought I saw you there! I was going to introduce myself, but I think I was interrupted? I can't remember. It's all a blur. Glad to hear you enjoyed the day!

[TEA (Thia Artemis would like to appear as just TEA)]

Hi Anne!!
We met at a brief but fun Wild Passionate Women bitchsession (Feel free to edit and even not post, this is how I found your email?!!) Funny that just as I return to Vermont with entrepeneurial proposals of my own, and think fondly back on my many mentors here, I rediscover you, blogging wisdom and inspiration about the techie fair that had me a bit boggled by it all!! I was training horses and herding dogs as the old 'Animal Answers', right up until I broke my back and then bank account, on a laptop and more school. Solution to really healing was to travel internationally again, teach ESL and ecology.... Back now to see if New England will be my permanent base as the new Animal Answers involves teaching, and the new home will be my proposal for rescueing and housing abused women, dogs, and horses. We'll keep the women safe and busy keeping the dogs and horses safe and busy and seeking safe permanent new homes for anyone who's ready to leave. I can see myself staying there forever, a word I think we discussed others defining differently!

Wondering if you have time and interest in advising me on where to direct my newest proposal, and/or how to get a website up and running for a non-profit that has yet to win even survival funds (when without in VT, declare yourself yet another non-profit!)(my "need help starting one!!???" under URL was rejected!!)Hoping to get back into email contact with you, glad to see you're going techie with shortbread, shortblog chick!! Fond hugs hello again, TEA