Not Going to be All Things

It’s a brilliant reality for both business and life:  You’re not going to be all things to all people.  I’m not going to be all things to all people.  We can read that in two ways:  One is the simple reality that it’s not possible to be all things to all people, and a second is that I refuse to try to be.

I would like to get into a local shop, one in particular.  As I met with the store owner, some of her preferences emerged.  One, because this friend of hers makes soap without palm oil, then that’s apparently best.  (I’ll dig more into the palm oil issue in another blog post.)  Using lard or tallow was out, because some of her customers are vegans.  Alright…  Not my thing, but I can respect folks for whom it is.  In a follow-up email, she didn’t care for the exfoliant in one of the free, full-size samples I’d sent her.  So here it is – three strikes against my soaps.

I addressed the palm oil issue with her and how I handle that myself.  I began to think of ways to get around the palm oil while keeping it vegan (shortening works with the same properties) and even went so far as to reformulate the soap recipe in order to avoid the palm and owing to the fact that my stock is hydrogenated soybean oil-free at the moment.  I graciously suggested a way to use the scrubby remnants of the soap, based on a question I fielded at Spring Fest.

Then it hit me.  Where does it stop?  So I reformulate this one soap, changing up the oils and leaving out the exfoliant.  But then I’d have to change all my wholesale-offered soaps when I have dozens of them ready to go to appreciative customers now.  For fun, I did make the reformulated soap; check out the video of my swirling work!

As I say here, I will not be all things to all people, and I declared that on Friday.  My older daughter in all her teen wisdom said, “I thought it’d be a bad idea for you to do that.”  And so it goes.  I went down that road before, and I ended up stressed out, disheartened, and frustrated.  Lesson learned!  Here are my tips for avoiding the trap of trying to be all things to all people:

  1. Declare now that you’re happy with YOU, however this manifests itself.  Is it in who you are, what you have, where you live, what you make?  Whatever it is, find a way to be happy with it.
  2. Internalize that happiness to find peace with yourself.  It’s one thing to declare something is true, but it’s another thing to feel it.  Geraldine in The Very Fairy Princess declares, “I know I’m a fairy princess, because I feel it inside.”  Maybe you’re not feeling fairy princess-y, but feel who you are deep down.
  3. Be prepared to let opportunities go in exchange for your integrity.  I’m not vegan.  I don’t co-opt to the “organic” label.  I use both essential oils and fragrance oils.  If I co-opt my integrity to any of these trends or preferences just in order to attract customers, then I will no longer be selling me.  I would be inauthentic in my business, which in itself would suck my soul dry.
  4. Always be honest about your you-ness.  Yes, I’m willing to pass up opportunities in order to hold on to my integrity, but I also refuse to sink to dishonesty in order to grow my business.  We prefer to run a fully transparent business, holding secret only those things which are proprietary, like our fragrance blends.  I can say with pride, “This is who I am, and these are my products.  Let’s find the most perfect fit for you.”

Embrace you.  I bet you are pretty wonderful, though not everyone will appreciate your unique wonderfulness.  Be you, anyway.

Some Are Not What They Appear

Poorly cut grass and well cut grass
“Professional” grass mowing

Take a look at this picture.  The grass in the foreground was cut by a so-called “professional” lawn mower company.  The grass in the background (up to the driveway and just beyond it), my husband cut.  The “professionally cut” lawn is scalped – cut way too short – and was cut wet.  I took this picture 4 days after it was mowed, and it’d rained some in the interim.  By contrast, Peter (aka “swirl god”) mowed our yard, cutting it wet (it just hadn’t had a chance to dry out between showers), but mowing it with a 20″ push mower and high.  The “professional” service uses a heavy-duty, top-of-the-line riding mower, has the big trailer, nice truck, and so forth.

The point I’m making is, not everyone who presents themselves as a professional knows what they’re doing.  My husband is a true professional lawn care expert, knowing both the chemical care needs of various types of grasses and the best way to maintain those lawns.  The company who butchered our neighbor’s lawn has demonstrated repeated ignorance of lawn care.

I see this same behavior in my industry.  There are hundreds of great soapmakers out there.  There are dozens of fabulous cosmetic manufacturers I know.  Then there are the rest.  They’ll claim their lotions are “all natural” and “preservative free,” not realizing the safety value of preservatives in lotions.  That always leads me to wonder, Are they ignorant of good manufacturing practices, or are they intentionally mislabeling?  Some soapmakers will say they make their own soap and do so without lye.  That’s pretty much impossible, because without lye, there’s no soap – not the real stuff, anyway.

I’ve seen other soapmakers claim their soaps as “all natural” and “fragranced with essential oils.”  Yet, they leave me wondering, Just which part of the gingerbread cookie do you have to press or distill to get the essential oil out?  So-called “professionals” from all fields – not just lawn care and cosmetic and soap manufacturing – drive their businesses on their own ignorance and that of their customers.  The part that really bothers me, though, is that these business owners or employees can cause some significant harm and expense for the people they deceive and who are ignorant enough or gullible enough to believe them.

Having business cards doesn’t make one a professional at anything, any more than wearing a choir robe means one can sing.  Professional people exhibit certain characteristics.

  1. True professionals start at a place of knowledge.  Those of us who have been in the business for a long time know that it takes a lot of time and hard work to become an overnight success.  Before we start, though, we learn as much as possible about our business fields.
  2. True professionals never stop learning.  Whether it’s books, forums, peers, videos, seminars or conferences, professionals always look for what more they can learn.
  3. True professionals accept feedback graciously and seek to learn from it.  Being defensive helps no one, and certainly does not keep customers.
  4. True professionals work with integrity.  Whether it’s a mislabeled soap or shooting weed and grass clippings onto a neighbor’s yard, accepting responsibility for sub-standard work only makes one look better.
  5. True professionals realize that appearances don’t matter as much as quality work.  I see lawn care companies in old trucks and open trailers do exceptionally good jobs on lawns.  I mean, every.  Blade.  Of grass.  Is.  The same.  Height.  I watched one guy, and was just waiting for him to get out the ruler and scissors.  Yet, the guy who cut the lawn above has jazzy equipment but doesn’t know his stuff.  A soap company can look charming and adorable on social media, but doesn’t know correct labeling or the difference between fragrance oils and essential oils.  In absolutely every facet of life, the inside needs to match the outside.

What other characteristics do you see in companies or businesses that strike you as being truly professional-grade?