Figuring out your MOOD

One of the things I realized I need to figure out in developing the Big Girl brand was what is my overall VISION for the company. What is our culture, style going to be? What is our VISUAL communication?

I want Big Girl Cocktails to be the company that is like a friend who is fun, funky and stylish... but not over the top... more importantly, warm, approachable, and accessible. My vision is to give and share ideas, creativity and what inspires us.. whether it's a new cocktail recipe, a great big girl tip or amazing advice or stories we've heard.

I got addicted to a site called Pinterest (click on the link to see my page). It's a wonderful place to make online Vision boards, or Mood boards as we used to call them in art school... but then, we used exacto knives and glue. It got pretty messy. Now opportunities online with sites like Pinterest, it's easy and the options are limitless....

As I created boards for myself and for Big Girl, I realized my vision was more than just a visual style, but a feeling... I'm not sure how to put my finger on it.. but with a "MOOD/VISION" board, I want to convey the company character I am trying to develop and share with Big Girl Cocktails.

Recently, I met some career/entrepreneurial coaches who suggested that companies create Vision/Mood boards regularly -  at least once a year.. to visualize and assess who and what they want to be as an organization. It's a challenge, in the hectic life of entrepreneurship to stop and think about our vision.. but I'm glad I'm doing it, it's helping me as a business owner to describe and define who and what I want my company to be as I go along. 

So go make yourself a great cocktail and create a mood board!
- Cheers to all those who see and share their visions!

Lessons from Princesses

I attended my first big girl conference last week... Startup Princess - I didn't go for some other company I was working for as I have dozens of times in the past, but for me, for my own company, for support on my own ventures.. THAT was an amazing feeling.

I met some of the most inspiring women who had some great lessons to share... advice I needed as a new business owner.

the two biggest .....

1. Be TRUE to yourself.

One of my biggest lessons was that as an entrepreneur -  I'm not just developing my product but myself, from the inside out - it's an important time where I'm developing my image, my brand, how I present myself, my message... how I look, speak, show my own personality. I am Big Girl Cocktails. Developing this company to be the most that I can is my passion.

2. SERVE to sell
The second biggest lesson I learned, hit me as big as the first. Serve to sell.  How do I SERVE others with my product? You don't just sell if you're a sales person, everyone sells in one way or another. Everyone has the opportunity to serve with what they sell.

How do you serve the community with your business, what you sell?

As I listened to the speaker.. I thought.. I'm not sure this fits me, how can I serve? then it hit me - I am serving.. not just with my stories of Big Girl Cocktails as a company...

I'm reminding women to celebrate themselves. Looking around the room at all these brilliant over-tasked women -  professionals and moms, I thought to myself... that could be pretty huge. 

Stop. Celebrate yourself, your friends.. other women for being "big girls" and tackling the world every day. As I've said before, that's definitely worth celebrating!

I actually re-wrote my mission during the conference.

Big Girl Cocktails is a company that celebrates and champions women.. that happens to sell the cocktails worthy of them.

- Cheers to all the ladies and the lessons they taught me!

Training a big girl

I ran my first 1/2 marathon in over 2 years Sunday. I was nervous as hell I wasn't going to be as good... I'd lost my timing or even worse.. I wouldn't enjoy it as much as I used to - but none of that happened. In fact, I rocked it and I LOVED every moment of it. From picking up my number and getting that pre-race excitement at the expo, to not sleeping all night planning my strategy because I was so excited to run, .. to actually taking off down Lake Shore Drive along Lake Michigan in Chicago. I was energized by it all.

It had its bumps along the way.. including my cab driver getting lost among the dozens of cabs taking runners to the race, somehow mine didn't know how to follow others, and I ended up running in about a mile to the starting line, through the Southside Chicago.. which if you've been there, not really an area people would get up at 5 am to run through. I got to the race 26 minutes after the start and just hauled ass. It ended up being a great thing.... Running an 8+ minute mile, I caught up to my new running buddy Nadia, who also had a bit of a late start to the event and also ran my normal pace of a 10:30 minute mile. It was her first race, and I was feeling frazzled so we joined forces and ran together. We killed it.

For the next 8 miles we kept a very respectable 9:30 -10:00 minute mile. We talked running, training, careers, sharing more importantly what was on our respective playlists and visions of how great the beer garden was going to be once we hit the finish line.

We crossed the finish line in 2hrs 30mins.. no stopping, no walking.. just hard core, big girl running.

As I thought about the run after.. sitting in the beer garden, drinking my nasty victory beer - which at that moment...was the best thing I ever tasted - I thought to myself.. I did well because I really worked at it. I trained really hard. 5 - 6 days a week I hit the gym and ran my miles, at least 45 minutes to an hour a day of running. I did all my long runs, and cross training... all the work I was supposed to do to prepare for a run of that distance - and it paid off.

I reminded myself, Big Girl will go the same way. I'm an entrepreneur "in training". If I put in the time, have the dedication to do the work, prepare, build some strong business muscle and take some time to step back and "stretch" from time to time -  I'll rock the business race just like I did with this first half marathon.

Cheers to Nadia for getting me through, and cheers to all the other runners out there, giving everything they have to the time they are running... you're all rockstars!

Labor Day advice on getting it done!

My first Labor Day weekend as an entrepreneur! I'm happy to say I did take some important chill time, but that being said as a new business owner, Big Girl Cocktails is always on the brain. I think a lot about how to move forward, how to keep motivated, how I'm going to get it all done.

I was pondering all of this yesterday while on my last big training run for my half marathon I'm running next week. I had lots of time to think - 9.5 miles worth.  Between miles 7 and 8, I started to get a bit sore and a little tired... and I heard something in my head I hadn't heard in a while.. "if you're tired and you want to stop, don't... don't stop, just keep running." It was kinda weird hearing Rob's voice randomly in my head. Rob is my best friend Helen's husband. He gave me that advice over 8 years ago, before my very first half marathon. It was funny at the time since he's not a runner and I was expecting him to tell me it was ok to stop and say screw it... Instead it was his voice I heard kick in as I ran my first race.. "don't stop, keep running", "don't stop, keep running" - which ultimately got me through.

This made me think of how Big Girls is like running the marathon and that the "don't stop, keep running" mantra definitely fits with starting a new business. If I ever get frustrated, or feel beaten down, I just need to keep going as I do when I'm running. It ended up being some of the best advice anyone gave me. Thanks Rob.

That got me thinking of other life changing advice I've gotten over the years.

While working on one of my final papers in my first year of business school, I was way burnt out from the year and didn't seem to have any brain cells left to write. I was completely frustrated with a blank page and nothing to say. One of my dear friends from school said.. "Sam, don't think... just write!" "You can go back and make it perfect later... for now, just write." That advice got me through writing my first book.  Several times I'd get disheartened trying to get everything out perfectly that I wanted to say with the book... that's when I would hear my friend putting me in line... "Sam don't think.. just write!" ... so I did. Thanks Dana.

Finally, one of the best ones that I constantly rehear, was advice from someone I don't even know. I tagged along with one of my classmates for her entrepreneur interview we were assigned for school. Randy was the head of a company in the aircraft industry - completely different than anything I did in my world. Towards the end of the interview, he turned to me and asked about my background and what I did. I had just started contemplating Big Girl Cocktails at the time. I told him I wanted to be and entrepreneur, and that I had some ideas in mind, but was still working some things out. Randy brilliantly responded to me,"What is there to work out?"  "You just gotta get out of you're own way and do it!" I hear that advice about once a day. Thanks Randy!

So this Labor Day... here is my big girl advice to share with those pursuing a goal or a dream - you can apply them to anything you're working towards.

1. If you want to stop, don't just keep running!
2. Don't think... just write!
3. If you want something... get out of you're own way and do it!


- Cheers to all my advice givers!
You don't know it, but you changed my life with your words of encouragement!