It's Thursday night, I just created 3 Facebook boosted posts promoting discounts on a mini-backpack, a medium backpack and a crossbody bag that will run over this weekend. And I feel wiped out. These past few days have been dedicated to revising the product pages and their translations in French and Spanish. My Spanish is not that great but it's probably OK for product pages. I can't believe the amount of time this all takes. FAQs also got a new look, and the translations also had to be reviewed. I probably went over each translation 100 times by now. Every time I take a look at the website, stuff pops out that's not quite right. Did I not see it the time before?
Also this week, I continued to not believe in the marketing funnel and email sequences that we are supposed to send to potential customers, and in other things that we should be doing according to the marketing law. I just do not want to go that route. I do not feel like coaxing people into doing something. My husband and partner Peter is of the same opinion.
Whenever I feel confused or discouraged, the best thing I can do is go lie down and ask myself a question like "What would be wise for me to do about my business now?". I don't event expect an answer really. But many times what happens is as I relax and detach from the worries and doubts, some thought ends up popping up out of nowhere. And it's a good one. Rather than obsess about what's wrong and how to fix it, it works better to just give up and rest in silence. Let the universe do the work for you. I do it almost every day.
A new medium size Hazaña backpack came in this week, it was given the color name of Autumn. Gloria, the weaver, chose the colors and the design herself. My input was not necessary at this level, since she is the creative one when it comes to colors. I truly love it, and I am the first one to wear it. My son Louis tooks these two pictures:
This backpack is so perfect for the desert climate we have here in La Paz, Mexico. I would also use it in cold weather though, when we travel. As long as it does not rain, really, because it's cotton. It is available here
It's a good time to talk about Gloria. I met her in Oaxaca in Dec 2016, at an arts fair. The whole Oaxaca experience was delightful.
I love Oaxaca. The walking streets in the huge historical dowtown are really cool.
Gloria is the same age as me. We are in our late fifties. She started weaving at age 4. She loves it. She lives in a pueblo near Oaxaca. She excells at very delicate weaving and got professional prizes for her fine work. We do not sell this type of items yet. Their fineness is crazy. Gloria told me that her eyes are not tired and that she sees very well all the time, even when she is weaving these extremely fine designs.
Gloria is on the right side.
Reina on the left makes very high quality silk shirts.
Reina on the left makes very high quality silk shirts.
Gloria is the only weaver I met that accepted to take on the challenge of the Hazaña backpack. Most other weavers do not want to bother that much. Her patience and cooperation are endless. It might be that we both know that this backpack could become a big deal for us in time. My guess is that she sees the same thing as me in the Hazaña... Anyway, she also weaves many other products, like the ones you see on the picture, and more.
Gloria works with friends and family members, since almost all of them are weavers. This way we will be able to adapt when demand increases. But, there being no stock and knowing that it takes 12 hours to make this backpack, and that of course Gloria has many other customers, our delivery times have to be what they are. There is no round about way. Another cause for our long delivery times is that at times there are shortages of thread in Oaxaca and weavers have to wait up to 3 weeks to get the thread they need, or there can be week-long political strikes that impede entrance or exit from Oaxaca to everybody, including packages and postal workers! There is nothing we can do about this and it is no fun when this happens. People cannot go to work or go back home.
Gloria invited me to stay at her house for a whole week. I die to go there. I hope I can go next year. I would like to know a lot more about her life and her work, about the way her community functions, and she'll teach me how to cook Tlayudas and other local specialties. We'll get to know each other better. We'll go to the famous and spectacular mountain springs "Hierve el Agua" together, and maybe attend a "Temazcal", the traditional Mexican sweat lodge. Gloria has never been there even though she's lived in Oaxaca her whole life.
In those old pueblos around Oaxaca, people do not travel, they just go to Oaxaca and back. Few own cars - travel is done by bus or collective taxis. It takes a long time to get anywhere in this way.
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