Vermont Shortbread Company

Organic Shortbread?

Is anyone else out there confused about all the marketing hype and consumer frenzy around "organic" products? 

Many people have asked me to make "organic" shortbread and honestly, I don't really understand what that means, except that I think people are asking me to invent a healthier version of our shortbread.   Alas, shortbread is not a healthy food. 

As a wordsmith, I want to be accurate.  As a marketer, I want understand the language of my customers. I've been confused about organic for a long time and I'm relieved to see that great minds are struggling with the same questions I have.   

Here's a great article from the NYTimes science blog about the confusion over what organic means in marketingspeak versus what it means in the scientific terms.

I'm so confused I feel like eating a Twinkie. 

My Declaration of Independence

With a twinge of bittersweetness, over a year of soul searching, and steadfast clarity about my purpose on this earth, I have decided to sell Vermont Shortbread Company. 

For twelve years, I have baked, marketed, delivered, packaged, promoted, mailed, taught, blogged, coached and written about shortbread - most of the time while I held down other full time jobs and single parented.  I am now married to the most compassionate man in the world and I have a job at National Life Group that provides me with the creative inspiration and intellectual stimulation I've been craving for many years. I would have never predicted these paths for myself a few years ago.  I don't remember the last time I felt so engaged, so absorbed and curious.  I want more of that. 

The truth is this: while food is still a passion for me, shortbread has taken a backseat to other more compelling dreams and goals as I approach middle age, menopause and newly awakened senses of confidence, creativity and passion that have nothing to do with running a baking business.  I want baking to become a hobby again rather than something I MUST do...something I do for fun to nurture my friends and family.

For twelve years I was passionate about this little business and built it to the best of my ability, with a lot of help and support from some creative and well-respected professionals.  Now it's time to hand over the reins to someone else; someone who can take it to a new level; someone who can give it the love and attention I can no longer provide. 

I have carefully and mindfully planned my exit strategy.  I have a vision for what I'd like the sale to look like and my intention is to approach this slowly, until that vision becomes reality...in my own time, in my way - the way I've always approached business, personal matters and work.  I do not know when this process will be complete.   

I will continue to fill shortbread orders for friends and family on a limited basis (as long as it's fun!), however, my online shopping cart will be disabled.  I will continue to blog about my experience because 1) I enjoy writing and 2) any good business plan has an exit strategy. It continues to be my goal to share my entrepreneurial insights and lessons through this blog - selling a business is part of that sharing.

I've achieved a good deal of local and internet "fame" with this business and have been most afraid of the following question:  Who am I if I'm not the owner of Vermont Shortbread Company?  In the past year, I've meditated, prayed, had panic attacks, cried, talked and written volumes in my private journal asking this question.  I believe I know.  And I believe it's time for me to make room for a new adventure in my life.  Vermont Shortbread Company has served me (and our customers) well.  Not only have I learned personal lessons, but I've received an education and credentials no grad school could ever provide.  Now it's time for me to continue my personal education and learn some new lessons. 

I love this company like a parent loves a child who has grown up and is moving out.  I will always care and now it's time to let go.  Vermont Shortbread Company will always be a part of me.               

What Will They Put in Your Food Next?

I ranted a few weeks ago about Activia yogurt with its lab-created frankenbacteria that's supposed to be good for you...not to mention all the sugar, fructose, aspartame and gelatin they throw into these "yogurts."  I tasted the stuff a few weeks ago and the aftertaste was naaaaasty.  While I don't believe organic is always better...I'll stick with my organic non-sweetened or lightly naturally sweetened yogurt with bacteria I've heard of.  I have a funny feeling that someday they're going to discover that Activia and similar products cause big problems.  Just a hunch. 

Today I saw Crest toothpaste with green tea extract added.  Why, oh why, the heck would I "need" green tea extract in my toothpaste?   What is Crest trying to tell us?  While the effects of green tea are well-documented, do I really care if it's in my toothpaste or my shampoo?  Gimme a break.   

I don't know, maybe I'm getting old.  I'm not against trying new things, but lately, the marketing scams are blowing me away. 

Entrepreneurs Who Take Traditional Jobs: Sell Outs or Smart Cookies?

I suppose the answer to my question is highly personal and different for everyone.  It's certainly something I've been thinking about a lot and my answer continues to evolve. 

Read the article in today's Hartford Courant, When Giving Up Your Freedom Succeeds: Some Business Owners Make Smooth Transition Back To A Day Job in which syndicated columnist, Mildred Culp of Workwise.net, interviewed me and several other entrepreneurs who have gone back to traditional employment.  The article also appears in the Dallas Morning News under the title: What Happens When You Don't Fit In In Your Own Shop? 

Interestingly, Andy Wibbels mentioned on his blog that Pamela Slim of Escape from Cubicle Nation wrote about this just last week in her blog post Are You Selling Your Entrepreneurial Soul if You Take a Day Job?.

I read so much about mid-life women who ditch it all to follow their dreams of an entrepreneurial life.  I haven't read much about the other way around. 

I neeeeeeed to read more. 

Good Stress Bad Stress

Stress is not a four letter word.  Stress is not all bad. 

Good stress challenges me to learn.  Good stress puts me just outside my comfort zone and encourages me to take a leap of faith.  Good stress gets me up in the morning eager to figure out how to solve the logistical problems of the project at hand. 

Bad stress wakes me up at 3 a.m. in a cold sweat with my heart racing so fast I think I might die.  Bad stress makes me grumpy and restless 24/7.  Bad stress impacts my marriage and my relationships with friends.  It makes me helpless because I know I am in over my head. 

Last week, I launched an e-newsletter at my new job. Previously, the newsletter was printed weekly and distributed to about 1000 employees and retirees.  That's a lot of paper!  So, I've been on the job two months and the company has been talking about an e-newsletter for years.  This was my first big challenge in my new position.  I got great feedback and felt so energized and "in the zone" all week.  It was heady and it was stressful.  I learned so much and I earned a healthy paycheck.  Good stress?  Definitely. 

Running my business, Vermont Shortbread Company, had been causing me the other kind of stress for about the past 2 years.  Panic attacks, sleepless nights, physical manifestations of stress such as backaches, gastrointestinal weirdness, and psoriasis flareups to mention a few.  Anxiety has always been my Achilles' heel, but I've learned to manage it in the lifetime I've dealt with it.  But this anxiety was paralyzing and severely impacting my ability to function.  Bad stress. 

So, it's become clear to me that I've made the right choice in going back to conventional employment.  My good stress level is up.  Bad stress is waaaaay down. 

I've also learned that true entrepreneurs are creative folks who figure out how to handle the bad stress in unique ways, by outsourcing tasks, getting coaching or mentoring, or getting financial assistance.  They recognize a sinking ship and let it go or they recognize a sinking ship and hire deckhands.  True creative geniuses figure out ways to turn bad stress into good stress.  I hope to be included in that crowd when it comes to Vermont Shortbread Company.  But, I'm not sure how yet.  It takes money to make money.  I don't have any money right now...which is part of the bad stress for me.    

As an entrepreneur, what are your good stressors and bad stressors?  How have you turned bad stress into good stress? 

Entrpreneurs Who Return to Traditional Employment

Recently Mildred Culp, of WorkWise, interviewed me about entrepreneurs who decide to go back to traditional employment.  WorkWise provides content about workplace issues to newspapers nationally.  One of the papers in which Mildred's column appears is the Hartford Courant, which, for this Connecticut native, is exciting.  I don't know when my interview will be published, but I've set up some Google alerts so I will know and I will provide links here. 

I've been reading a lot lately about mid-lifers who pack it all up in the corporate world to pursue their creative, entrepreneurial or altruistic dreams, but rarely do I read about the opposite.  (Hmmm...I should be writing articles about this!)

The interview was fun and by doing it, I forced myself to become very clear about WHY I went back to traditional employment at National Life Group, honing in on the knowledge that I cannot separate my personal values from my business values and that I will never work for a company in which all my values are not in sync, and taking stock of what I'm great at and what I don't want to do after 24 years in the adult work force (running your own business really forces you to face yourself in a way that no conventional company performance appraisal ever can because you are the executive AND the employee).

For me, it goes even deeper. After deciding to look for a conventional job, I felt like I had to apologize, like somehow I had failed at running Vermont Shortbread Company, that somehow going back to a "real" job meant that I was selling out on myself.  And honestly, it's going to take a bit of time for me to get beyond that.

It helps that I love my new job and the people with whom I work.  It helps that I now sleep at night knowing I can pay my mortgage, send my child to college, put gas in my car, and continue to support myself on my own dime.  It helps that I'm not having panic attacks and my husband says, "Gee, Ann, you are so...different...since you started your new job."  For me, all of this challenges the "work and life shouldn't be fun", "if work and life are fun, don't get used to it because someday it will all suck", and "if you're not miserable than somehow you're not living a worthy life" ethics that have been so deeply routed in my brain. 

It helped to participate in this interview with Mildred.  She asked me what I had learned as an entrepreneur that helped me land my new job.  I could write 100 pages on that topic.  Networking, internet marketing, public relations, customer service, assertiveness, exposure to new kinds of writing, speaking, teaching, coaching, a respected presence in the local community, leadership, creativity, courage, gratitude for little things, better understanding of the logistics of running any business, budgeting, costing, marketing...shall I stop now?  I am sure I could think of at least twenty more things. 

Whew, after I listed all of that, I had to laugh at myself.  If I was really calling myself an entrepreneurial failure would I have been able to list all of those skills and experience?  I was always simply doing what any entrepreneurial spirit does best.  Trying new things, being open to new ideas, and always seeing the opportunities in problems.  Entrepreneurs are born this way.

I didn't choose to be an entrepreneur.  I was born this way.  Where I choose to set my laptop is irrelevant as long as I can keep on writing and creating. 

Grocery Marketing Scams

I'm all for convenience, but yesterday while grocery shopping, for some odd reason, I had a food and grocery marketing scam bee under my bonnet (i.e., all the ridiculous products out there that advertisers would like us to believe we can't live without).  Here's what I came up with.  Got any to add? 

• Activia yogurt - have you ever read the list of ingredients on this stuff.  I wouldn't feed it to a dog.  And what the heck is bifidus regularis?  Sounds like a lab-grown bacteria mutant to me. Ummm...maybe some good old PLAIN Greek yogurt with natural bacteria and a side of good old fiber might do the trick.  Not that I've ever been constipated.  I'm just saying...
• All those trendy cheeses and yogurts that followed Activia - These days everyone's got some proprietary bacteria to get you regular or protect your immune system.  Whatever happened to fruits and veggies? 
• Antibacterial soap - Unless you work in a hospital, what's the point?  Doesn't real old-fashioned soap do the trick?  Wait a minute...perhaps we need the antibacterial stuff to take care of all those mutant yogurt bacteria? 
• Bleach antibacterial kitchen cleaners - Here's a hot tip.  We use this in the Vermont Shortbread Company bakery.  A very small amount of bleach mixed with water in spray bottle.  Kills germs, costs  pennies.  We use it all the time to clean our surfaces.
• Oscar Meyer Lunchables - Just one word, "Why?" 
• Smucker's Uncrustables - These are pre-made peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.  Again, why?
• GladWare  - These are plastic storage containers. In this day and age of everyone going "green" and trying not to create so much trash, why would anyone buy these?  Surely, everyone has a bevy of old plastic containers in their kitchen.  Hey, here's an idea...why not use old yogurt containers.  Please note: the Activia containers will not probably work.  You have to throw them away.  Here's to landfill! 

Yeah, I'm on a bit of rant.  So, add your favorite silly products to my list.  I need to go compost my leftovers now. 

My New Job: Corporate Communications and Dessert, Oh My!

Here's a photo of what I did at work on Wednesday.  No, I did not EAT these beauties, I made them! 

Yes, really.

Many people do not know that the National Life cafeteria is run by NECI (New England Culinary Institute).  If they do know about the NECI cafeteria, they often don't know that there's a whole lot of great learning going on in the huge, impeccable, beautiful kitchen below the cafeteria. 

I am writing a series of articles for the National Life newsletter focusing on food.  Let's face it, reading about insurance and financial services can be a tad ummmm...dry and dull.  Sprinkle in a few articles about the food employees eat every day, well, now it's fun! 

As part of my "research" I took a class. I participated as any student would, though my dessert artistry was not nearly as creative as some of the students who attend NECI. 

See why I love my new job?   Chocolate mousse cake, anyone? 

Where's Ann? Where's Vermont Shortbread Company Going?

Readers who know me well know what's going on over here at Vermont Shortbread Company, but occasional readers...forgive me for being remiss about this blog, my business, and for keeping you wondering what the heck is going on at Vermont Shortbread Company.   

I could write a book about the past year of my life (and I probably will) - going from full time corporate employee with part time entrepreneurial aspirations then back to full time corporate employee who realizes she does not want to be the CEO of anything.  Failure?  I think not.  Recognizing what one wants and doesn't want in work and life can never be called failure.  Yet, corporate America gets such a bad rap these days and working for oneself can seem so glorious.  And personally, I've had a pretty big chip on my shoulder about independence, not needing a man to support me, not needing a conventional job, not needing much of anything for a long time. 

The chip is dissolving.

If you read my blog even a year ago, I did nothing but winge and moan about big business and how much I wanted out of the IBM environment.  When I got laid off in 2007, I felt relieved, even blessed.  And now I'm back in corporate America.  Guess what, I feel relieved and blessed again. 

In March of this year I joined National Life Group in Montpelier, Vermont working in corporate communications.  I don't love my job; I adore it and I am passionate about the company I work for.  If I don't feel the love, I can't do a job well...I can't even fake it.  Now, I wake up every day excited to go to work, thrilled that I get paid to be who I am (a creative, marketing, writer-chick with just enough technical savvy to stay abreast of cutting edge communications) AND they pay me to be me.  Wow, that's a first.  All the benefits of my entrepreneurial life with the security of a regular paycheck...I would have never guessed this possible a year ago. 

Vermont Shortbread Company is still in business, although on a much smaller scale...for now.  I do intend to have it all, but I need to take a few steps back and figure out how to work smarter.  That's never been a strength of mine.  80 hour workweeks, single parenting, and juggling several jobs simultaneously left me burnt out, unhealthy and spiritually and financially empty.  For now, I'm focusing on one thing at a time (my new job) and I'm working on figuring out how to get Vermont Shortbread Company the help it needs to grow into a force for Walkers Shortbread to reckon with.  I don't know quite how to do that...yet.   

Right now, I just want to smell the roses.  Do one job well.  Take some vacations. Enjoy my daughter's last few years at home.  Write. Write. Write. 

A few years ago, I once determined that my mission in life was "to observe and record".  I know this is true because I feel it in every cell.  So, that's my focus for now.  It is what I was born for. 

Much of the recording will be here on this blog, so please come back. 

Mother's Day and...National Vermont Shortbread Day

If May wasn't full enough already...wait, there's more! 

If you were with us last year at this time, you'll remember that I pronounced May 16th (my birthday) National Vermont Shortbread Day.  Last year I hand delivered shortbread to lucky buyers all over Chittenden County (in the pouring rain, but hey, it was my 45th birthday and I was stoked!). 

This year, it's my 46th birthday and we're celebrating again.  Due to the rising price of gas and my environmental conscience, I cannot personally deliver this year.  However...all shortbread gift boxes shipped between May 12- May 16 will come with a free shortie (flavor of your choice as available).  That's an extra $3 gift from me to you as a thank you for nearly 12 years in business and 46 (and counting) years of experience, joy, trials, tribulations and just the smallest touch of arthritis (which of course, just makes me appreciate my good health and good fortune all the more).

Like middle age, Vermont Shortbread Company just keeps getting better!  Celebrate May 16th with me.  Order today.   Email ([email protected]) or phone call are best (802-264-4835).