Recently, when I was on QVC demonstrating the Kreate-a-lope, a caller came on the air and said, “I just want to say that I own everything that your company has created and on a typical Friday night my family will get together and create things using all your templates.The QVC host was speechless as the caller continued to say, “and quite often we simply just make things to give away to people we know need it.”
At the end of the show, my pregnant wife came running on the set. She was visibly excited. I thought she was giving birth. Understand that anytime our small company goes on QVC it is a huge risk. For those of you who don’t know, QVC is like a store. We have to ship everything to their warehouse in advance. That means pay for materials and labor without a guarantee. If the item doesn’t sell the risk is ours and we not only have to take the product back but also we lose the money invested.
Well, that day our risk was unusually high. My wife was unusually large – ready for birth and our new life - and while confident in our product, the shows at QVC are unpredictable and anything can happen. As the well worn Hollywood cliché about being only as good as your last movie goes, so too, at QVC, you’re only as good as your last product. And we’re a small company so it only compounds the possible devastation.
So, most people would be thinking about the money. I used to be that way. My wife used to be that way. But for several years it was no longer that way. Pretty much since our first trade show it was no longer that way. The people we have met have taught us the real meaning behind our products. They make people happy. Our products show them how to create. From the woman we met in Puyallup, Washington with the severe arthritis that used our envelope templates with her group for therapy, to the bi-polar boy in Annapolis that came out of a depression because of the power of creativity he found by turning his lacrosse magazines into envelopes using our templates, to the family that called in to QVC that night. We knew it was about the abundance of creation.
So as my wife came up to me, I looked into her eyes. I knew her. I knew our thoughts were aligned. I knew what she was bursting to say, “How about that phone call!” she blurted. I had a tear in my eye too and chills up my spine to know that a family somewhere in America was bonding because of things I created. Things I actually don’t think I created but rather were “given to me to manage” by a higher power. It really does mean that much to us to know that people love our products.
I wanted to share this story with you, our customer – many of whom have become our friends throughout the years – a sincere thank you and best wishes in all you do.
Sincerely,
Nick Romer
President, www.greensneakers.com
