Please continue reading and posting comments!
You can now access hi:lo through our website.
Happy Holidays!
Many agencies cut out the paper and go digital for holiday cheer. Here are ten of my favorite interactive holiday cards.
1. Naughty or Nice List (Global)
http://www.thenaughtyornicelist.com/list
2. Andy’s Christmas Story (Amp)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?gl=GB&hl=en-GB&v=09ZZEsrKgTc
3. Bad Elf Bailout (White + Partners)
4. Farrow Design
http://www.farrowdesign.com/christmas/
5. Naught or Nice (Greteman Group)
http://gretemangroup.com/holiday08/
6. 1983 photo (Orange Coat)
http://www.orangecoat.com/an-orange-christmas-circa-1983
7. Create Your Christmas Tree (zero seven)
http://xmastree.07.com.au/
8. Talking Snow Globe (Geary Interactive)
http://holiday.gearyi.com/
9. Snow Globe and Singing Moose (Start Team)
http://startcreative.co.uk/xmas.html
10. I don’t even know what to title this. (Bar1)
We didn’t go interactive this year and am not sure if we ever will. There’s something about a handwritten card that is authentic to our brand. Have a happyhappy holiday!
hi: it’s snowing!
lo: ran out of hot cocoa.
We were featured on 10TV last night as part of the ‘New Biz’ segment by Jerry Revish. The segment turned out great and we really enjoyed our conversation with Jerry! Of course we were more nervous watching the piece than we were while we were being interviewed.
You can read the story and view the 10TV video here.
today’s hi: it’s called treetreebranding.com and it’s launching soon!
today’s lo: seeing yourself on TV can serve as extra motivation to get to the gym!
today’s hi: the checkbook actually balanced for once, meaning all receipts got turned in and I didn’t screw up any addition or subtraction! The even better news is after all the bills were paid there was money to put into reserves. Woo hoo!
today’s lo: stumped on copy writing for a quick-turn project. This is when I miss Holly even more than usual.
1. Not Planned
Okay, we had a whopping three weeks to plan so essentially, like my daughter who, by the way I would NEVER consider a oopsie doopsie, treetree was an unexpected surprise.
2. Overdue
The over two and a half weeks, cankles, dry-your-hair-naked-in-the-middle-of-December-because-your-body-temperature-is-so-high-hot, convertible-top-down-in-January overdue. treetree, much like my son and daughter, eventually arrived when the time was right.
3. Changed my life.
Why didn’t I do this sooner??
4. No postpartum depression
God love Brooke Shields.
5. No sleep through the night (newborn)
S L E E P D E P R I V A T I O N.
6. Muscles jerk and startles easily (0 – 2 months)
Awkward. Need I say more?
7. Begins to relax their limbs (3 months)
Finally. It’s all good.
8. Stands, but needs support (3 – 4 months)
Thank goodness for for my business partner.
9. Interested in the world around them (4 – 6 months)
Network.
Network.
Network.
10. Finds the wee wee (7 months)
And, we are here to stay. Hello, world!
today’s hi: being a mama
today’s lo: This morning my son locked himself in my bedroom and due to my hysteria I’m pretty sure we are going to need a new door.
Here I go again with a Jon Steel reference, but I’m telling you, he’s a smart guy!
Ever heard of Craig Davis’ 5/15/80 rule? It’s a great rule that I believe applies almost always to business situations, particularly at the beginning stages of working with a client, and now as I think about it, there are direct parallels in the early stages of building a company (or anything, I suppose). The theory is this: you bring with you 5 percent you KNOW you know, you learn 15 percent that you know you DON’T know and you have to open your mind to the 80 percent that you DON’T KNOW you don’t know.
When we started, there were certain things we KNEW.
We knew what kind of company we wanted to create, the soul of it. The vibe. We had the gist of the ideals it should have. We knew we were NOT going to do certain things or act in certain ways. Sometimes starting with what you are not instead of what you are is a great way to frame a discussion, by the way (sorry, there goes my ADD). . . Anyways, back to the things we knew: the foundation stuff about the kind of company we wanted to be was the no-brainer. Then there were a whole host of things we knew we didn’t know. We knew we didn’t know anything about the bookkeeping and business law side of things. So we hired people who did. We knew better than to think we would have the discipline to carve out the time and attention our web site deserved, so we hired that out. We knew there were a whole bunch of people in our local community that we should know, so we asked to be introduced to them and learned from those connections.
And along the way, we have learned the things we didn’t know we didn’t know . . . like how do you make the decision about when it’s the right time to get an office space? Commit to staff and payroll? We didn’t know we didn’t know how much more personal the work becomes when your own ‘name’ is on the proverbial door. We didn’t know we didn’t know how much we would love the independence and risk and sometimes suffocating feeling of being so in charge of your own success and future. We didn’t know we didn’t know how much discipline and meticulous planning goes into each and every step of building not just a brand, but a company with systems and process and people.
And I bet we’re just a fraction of the way into the 80 percent that we didn’t know we didn’t know. And we’re completely okay with that. One day at a time, right?
today’s hi: that web site that we knew well enough to know we wouldn’t make the time or discipline to get done for ourselves? It’s getting closer and closer to launch thanks to our friends at dynamIt.
today’s lo: honestly hasn’t been one.
In my past agency experience I was in the partner circle. This meant I got to sit at the table with the big boys and girls, collaborate and help advance a brand. This is an ideal position to be in. According to the dictionary a vendor is a “seller” and a partner is a “sharer or associate.” I must mention there is no sales guy or gal in us. Over the last six months, I have had a dose of reality and two things occurred to me:
First, not everyone is going to consider treetree a partner (this really bites) and second, do we want that kind of relationship? There is more loyalty to a partner than a vendor. A partner is valuable and strategic. A vendor is replaceable and interchangeable. A partner’s value is not based on commodity price but on what the value of the insight, recommendations and ideas are worth. A vendorship might pay a bill or two but a partnership will contribute to the growth.
My goal is to get treetree to the place where anyone who considers us a vendor now lets us sit at the table as a partner and where our most successful (in profit for us and results for the client) relationships will come from those true partnerships. I can’t wait for that day!
hi: very productive day.
lo: sick babies.
Today is treetree’s half birthday. That’s right, folks. A whole SIX. MONTHS. The owners of treetree have not starved, the little-tree-that-could himself still has all of his leaves (phew! being his Mr. Miyagi is a high-pressure job), and we are all getting smarter and better every single day. I’m not sure about you, but we had a strange and hurried transition into business ownership. We didn’t have time to plan for months or stock up extra savings or even take a deep breath before making the leap. Friday we were someone’s employee and by Monday we were operational with treetree.
Our first day was atypical, like most of our days. It consisted of me going with Tiffany to her doctor’s appointment because we had somehow landed a new business meeting on our first day of business and this doctor was located a few blocks from the client. And the car ride was about all the time we had to prepare. We spent the rest of the afternoon at a pub getting a late lunch and a beer, trying to decipher what had just happened. We didn’t even have a business card to hand her. And try answering the question: “so how long have you guys been in business?” on your first day with a straight face. It was quite humorous.
I remember the first couple of weeks feeling as awkward about our name as I did during my entire eighth grade year of school. Do you know how many times we heard “TREE? T-R-E-E??!” with a shriek in their voice as they said it? Some people seemed horrified. I knew the name would surprise people and it took me awhile to get comfortable shrugging off their reaction. It’s probably the same way Gwyneth Paltrow felt when she had to introduce her daughter Apple to the world. Now, I believe picking a name that sparks inquiry, curiosity and questions was one of the smartest things we could have done. You know what? No one has ever asked us to repeat it twice.
I can’t go down memory lane without taking a moment to recognize some of the people who have been absolutely and breathtakingly wonderful to us and so, so helpful and supportive. I wrote an earlier post about seeing some similarities between the local business community and high school. Sure, there might be the “cafeteria” element at some points, but more than that, I see similarities to a close-knit community. We feel blessed to have been welcomed with such open arms to the “club” that is entrepreneurship. I’m so pleased to see how closely business owners stick together.
If I had a glass in my hand (hey, it’s 8:34 a.m., folks. Even I’m not that crazy), I would raise it to:
Susan Little and The American Dairy Association Mideast
Susan is not only a ball of fun, but a very smart woman. So smart, in fact, that she became our very first client. Knowing that we had that first project gave us the confidence to go forward. She was the first one to take a chance on us out on our own and we will always be very, very grateful for that. We hope to have a very long, wonderful relationship with her and her team for many years to come. It’s collaborative and enjoyable and very interesting work. And did I mention that they religiously pay on time? Debbie thanks you for that one, too! Thank you, Susan!
Debbie Price, Price Planning LLC
Debbie has been my personal financial planner for years. She has been part cheerleader, part parent (NO, Becca, you CANNOT spend that much on that!!), part mediator during my pseudo divorce and part teacher during the high and low times of my financial rollercoaster. She graciously offered to help treetree for one year with that first year’s tab being deferred until whenever we can. She keeps our books, reminds us to stay on top of payables and more importantly, truly believes in the vision and what we are trying to do. I find her notes of encouragement as exciting as when my mom would put notes in my lunch box in grade school. Thank you, Debbie. The IRS thanks you as well, because we would have this thing messed up in no time without you.
Nick Seguin and the dynamIt team
Probably goes without saying, but Nick is our business community’s most eligible . . . matchmaker. He has connected us with SO MANY people. Our network expanded ten-fold with the help of his beautifully written introductory emails. Competitors, potential employees or interns, the best and the brightest, other strategists and designers, anyone you can think of that we might have something in common. The “blind dates” Nick sends me on are hands-down the best I’ve ever experienced. And dynamIt is helping us build tretreebranding.com into something more strategic than we would have the time or resources to do on our own. It has been wonderful to work (again) with the entire team. Thank you, dynamIt!
Casyle Wise, Casyle Wise Photography
Casyle is Tiffany’s mother-in-law, but she is also an extremely talented photographer who has taken several afternoons and spent them at the loffice getting our mugs looking pretty-darn-awesome-if-I-do-say-so-myself. All of the photos on our Facebook page and social networking profiles were taken by her. Beyond that, she has been a wonderful support and cheerleader for us. Thank you, Casyle.
Mark Rigsby, Soul Theater Productions
We had a pitch come up in the middle of a very busy week that we knew would be better if we had some consumers on-camera talking about the product. ME? Me want to conduct research?! No. Way. Yes way, and when I called Mark to see if he had any interest in helping us in a crazy-fast timeframe and on a pretty much nonexistent budget, he volunteered to do it pro bono and produced a beautiful, wonderful video that took tens of hours of his time. We were stunned by his generosity and all he kept saying was he remembered what it was like starting out and he wanted to cut us a break like others had for him. Wow. Thanks, Mark.
This is a long post, but I can’t finish without saying I could not imagine or even think about one day of this experience being the same without Tiffany. Thank you for putting up with me, encouraging me and loving me for everything that is authentic to Becca. It means so much. And I know there are days when it takes an extreme amount of patience.
And to both our families and friends. Wow. The things you have had to put up with. The late nights, the “weekend creep” where work spills over to family time, the occasional mood swings. Thank you for believing in us and for celebrating with us, and for encouraging us. You are the leaves on our trees.
Happy half birthday, treetree.
I don’t know how I missed the parallels and comparisons in the past: maybe I had my nose in a book too often, maybe I was way too introverted in my former agency life, but I just didn’t see it as I do now. In some respects, the Columbus business community is like a very large high school. CBus Biz High, or something to that effect. Remember back to freshman year and that first time you had to find your seat at lunch?
Did anyone else pick the wrong one the first day? The first week? The first month? I remember feeling I maybe didn’t get it right on the first shot and ended up at a different table by my sophomore and then again by senior year. It’s hard because you have to pick not only your seat, but the table at which you will sit And who you align yourself with or flatter with mimicry will ultimately say a whole lot about YOU.
I’m pretty sure we have narrowed down our table based — most simply — on our capabilities, but as we further develop our brand and position in this market, we are determining which will be “treetree’s” seat at the lunch table.
Side note: I have noticed some other high school parallels. People talk. Gossip. People pick sides. Poke fun. People can be very passive aggressive. The table you want to be at might not accept you. You might get kicked out of your seat. Be careful who you decide to play Dodge Ball with. More on that another time?
today’s hi: strategy overload. Strategy work for treetree and three separate clients today. Feels good.
today’s lo: my lunch got rescheduled (hope you feel better Sherry!) And I was really looking forward to Chicken Tikka Massala. And NAAN! Lots of naan.
Oh, no. It has happened to me. A trait I watched another business owner obsess over has crossed over to me: I LOVE. Checking. The. Mail. I even love my mailman. One day he just might get a kiss. Getting the mail is a mid-day reward for taking my dog out for a walk.
What will be waiting for me for treetree?!
An event invitation? Yippee! Yes, I’ll attend, please.
A signed contract from a new client? Oh, boy!
A check for our work? An actual check that can be deposited and used as real, live money?? You mean it’s not Monopoly money? Someone actually liked what we did enough to PAY real money for it?! Well I’ll be darned, that’s way more exciting than finding money in your pants pockets!
A fresh, crisp copy of Harvard Business Review or Advertising Age or Business First or Fast Company? Heavenly.
A bill for us to pay? Well, alright, just get that over to the accountant and it shall be done.
I have no idea why, but getting the mail makes me as fascinated as a teenage boy seeing his first pair of boobies in person. It’s mesmerizing, really.
