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Friday, June 11, 2010

Being Clueless Is Not Necessarily A Bad Thing!


I consider myself an organizer, a planner, a person who likes structure in the day to day but shy's away from the practical planning of the larger aspects in life. Let me explain! I have friends who from the time they were kids, had an idea of what they wanted to do with their life than set off on achieving those goals with great discipline. A career, married by a certain age, kids by a certain age, financial status of a particular bracket, etc. etc.. There is something about that traditional method of setting goals that I admire immensely as I imagine it makes for a peaceful, balanced journey. I never possessed that gene and I wonder if it has something to do with my parents being artists working in a less than traditional environment. My dad began his career as an Art Director for a big ad agency and commuted from Long Island to the city everyday for eight long years. He traveled a ton, shooting big national commercial campaigns and as kids, my sister and I got to meet great people and travel to exciting places often with the privilege of seeing things in a way other's would never. One of my fondest memories was a trip to Puerto Rico when I was nine years old. My dad was working with a crew of  roughly forty men and woman shooting a commercial for Thom McCann shoes, (remember that brand) and they chose to shoot at the fort in Old San Juan. Not only was it a spectacular location, it was closed to the public leaving this nine year old to wander the historic halls with little clue of the unique opportunity I was experiencing. All I knew during that time was how much fun it was to be entertained by these crazy crew members and how glamorous it was to be one of the models. So while the other dad's from my childhood went to work at the same time and place every day, my dad would be boarding a plane for Puerto Rico, Europe, the Dominican Republic or California. Really wherever the brand and marketing of that brand would deem desirable. I suppose this lifestyle made it impossible for me to consider any traditional path.
When I was twelve, just about to turn thirteen, my parents decided to take a big leap by moving the family to NYC and opening a production company where my dad would Direct and my mom would run the day to day of the company. It changed all of our lives in so many ways for the better and the thing I remember the most is my parents having the courage to challenge their fears and go head first into a world they knew nothing about. My mother still says, "If I had any idea how little we knew, we would have been too terrified to take such a big risk."
Rump-Roast has been living in my brain for a few years now. It has taken the better part of a year to conceptualize the templates, work with a designer to feature the photos with simple border elements and accomplish the launch of a complex website while keeping it visually simple and very easy for the user to navigate. Throughout this entire process, I have had very smart accomplished business people ask legitimate questions about my business plan, how I will market, what my demographic would be and how I expect to achieve these goals? I did have a rough business plan but in terms of marketing, I really had not charted any kind of course. I knew one thing for sure, I believed in my product. The rest I will figure out as I go along because sometimes being clueless is not necessarily a bad thing.

1 comment:

  1. girlfriend, there is nothing clueless about you. what you're dong makes so much sense. i remember sitting at a mexican restaurant in berkeley just over 3 years ago talking about this project. and you've done it!!! your adventures are so exciting and i LOVE that you are walking us through the stages with each post. i will follow you every step of the way. i just tried to become a follower and it didn't work. we're having internet issues. i'll try again tomorrow. btw, the today show post with the sign had me laughing out loud. you are bold and brave. can't wait to see rump-roast take off.
    love, phyllis

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