conference Archives - Page 5 of 5

Calling all Portland Soapers

February 11, 2008 Filed Under: Bramble Berry News

– Portland Soaping Lunch –

Let’s get together and chat soap, laugh about our successes (and failures) and swap goodies!

On Saturday the 23rd at Besaw’s: http://www.besaws.com/
for lunch (noon).

I’ll be delivering orders (no shipping!) if anyone wants something delivered. I can’t fit too many in the car so you’ll want to get your orders in early. We’ll have schwag bags with the latest and greatest stuff from Bramble Berry AND prizes for the BEST soap and the WORST soap. So bring your checkbook for lunch, and your best soap and ugliest failure and there will be impressive prizes (hint: we’re thinking maybe a Sunnybrook mold for one of the prizes).

We’ve also inviting Catherine Failor from Milky Way and Rebecca Harder, the manufacturer of the Sunnybrook Soap Mold is confirmed to attend.

There are 15 confirmed ‘Dishers (thread is here). If you’d like to come and chat soap for a few hours, we’d love to meet you.

RSVP on this thread and if you want an order delivered, email your orders directly to me at brambleceo at qwest dot net by Tuesday the 19th.

I’m back from Arizona

June 4, 2007 Filed Under: Bramble Berry News, Business Musings

I’m back from Arizona safe and sound. And very tired. I changed my flight this morning so that I could get back to work and Bramble Berry sooner and get a half day of work in. I got to the gate just as the 6:25 a.m. flight was loading and was not able to make that flight but I easily made the 8 a.m. flight.

I was so happy when I boarded the Alaska flight because they serve Seattle’s Best Coffee, which was significantly stronger than the brown water I was served in the airport!

I learned how to make deodorant at the gathering. I’m looking forward to trying out my newfoundknowledge in the upcoming months and posting the results and recipes.

Phew, the talk is over

June 3, 2007 Filed Under: Bramble Berry News

I just gave the Arizona Soap Gathering Conference Keynote and I am so happy that it’s done and over with.

The reality of speaking in front of a packed room of 160 people is very different than what I envisioned when I was writing my speech! Ack!

The group was appropriately warmed up though and they laughed at my jokes (thank you thank you thank you) and even asked questions. I think it helped that Deborah from Wild Woman Soaps gave out our soapmaking DVD’s and lotion booklet to people who asked questions. I wish I could claim that idea as my own but no, that was her idea!

Right now, we’re watching some really interesting demonstrations on melt and pour and making room sprays. I love learning new techniques and tricks. It’s amazing how many ways there are to make a bar of soap!

On the way to Arizona Soap Conference

June 2, 2007 Filed Under: Bramble Berry News, Business Musings

I’m headed to the Arizona Soap Conference today! I can’t wait to meet Trina from Snowdrift Farms, Suz from Oregon Trails and Kelley from Soapie’s Supplies!

The gathering fun starts tonight with a Welcome Reception at 6 p.m. at the conference hotel and then, bright and early tomorrow at 9 a.m!

It’s going to be a jam packed day. I really want to go to the soap sculpting class and the mineral make up class in the afternoon. Kelley and Cherie did a great job packing in a large amount of content into a small amount of time.

It’s sure to be all soap all the time this weekend and I’m looking forward to learning new techniques and tricks for making a better bar of soap or batch of lotion.

Arizona in June? Who’s crazy enough to go there!?

March 12, 2007 Filed Under: Bramble Berry News

I am *so* excited to be speaking at the Arizona Soapmaker’s Conference this year. What a huge honor! I’m going to talk a bit about Bramble Berry’s history and helpful business lessons that I’ve learned from teachers and mentors along the way. Some of these lessons include things like my friend Bob Pritchett recommends (“Fire Someone Today”) and Verne Harnish (“Figure out your Values before you do anything else”) have taught me. Some anecdotes are sad little lessons that I’ve learned along the way through my own many many mistakes (“Don’t rehire people you’ve fired.”)

In addition to my talk, I think I’ll be delivering a bunch of Bramble Berry orders to the gathering so that should be a bit of an organizational nightmare as well as rewarding. I can’t wait to see customer’s reactions as they try our latest fun creations.

Martha likes our name!

February 5, 2007 Filed Under: Personal Ramblings

That’s me, on the left, along with the super cool chicks from Treasury of Memories in Bellingham at the Martha Stewart Keynote address at the CHA Show 2007.

And onto one of the higher points in my short business life: Martha Stewart likes our name. That’s right, she actually said, in front of 3000 witnesses that she likes our name. I personally am rather fond of the name “Bramble Berry” and it was a delight to hear her say she liked it as well.

The divine Ms. Martha was talking at the CHA show and gave the keynote address on her new foray into the scrapbooking industry. She shared some funny stories (like about the time she stayed up all night, making amazing cards only to have the recipients not realize they were handmade because they were too perfect). She showed amazing photographs from her magazine. She also answered three pre-arranged questions from the audience.

Thus, her commenting on our name. I submitted a question beforehand asking Martha who her mentors were. When the moderator read our question, Martha commented on how much she liked our name.

For the record, she said that her parents were both teachers so she looks for teachers in everyone around her.

I was hoping for an actual author or business leader’s name so I could devour everything they had ever written and hopefully get just a wee bit of Martha infused into me!