It’s Been Awhile

It’s been over a month since the indiegogo grand finale.  It feels like it was six months ago.  I swear that days are entire lifetimes.  I have been saying that for about a year now.  And each day ends with me not getting everything done on my To Do list.  I have to smile at that.

Happy Easter.  Last year on Easter day, I set out in my rental van with my best dog, Moscow, from Portland, Oregon.  I didn’t have a car, a place to call my own, or really much of anything.  I set my sights on River Falls with the intentions of starting a coffee shop.  It really seems miraculous to be where I am at right now.  Truly.  That is what I have been humbled with this week.

I have lots to tell you.  I really do.  Things have been happening and adventures have been had.  But for today, I want to leave you with an essay that I wrote for the American Cheese Society.  Their annual conference is in Raleigh, North Carolina and I applied for a scholarship.  That just seems like a good place to start.  We’ll continue to get reacquainted in the coming days, I assure you.  Welcome back.  WeatherVane never left.  We just have been hunkering down and fighting the good fight.

Aside from being a cheesehead at heart, having grown up on a steady diet of 2% milk and cheese curds (ok, ok and maybe some other things in there as well), my first formal introduction to the industry was in 1994 when I joined the Dairy Judging Team in my local, urban FFA chapter in Oshkosh, Wisconsin.  We watched movies on cheesemaking and sampled all of the varieties of cheese to prepare for the competition.  Without a dairy farming background, I placed 8th at the state competition.  During that time I first got my hands dirty vegetable farming.  In college at the University of Wisconsin- River Falls, I took Food Science 101 as a part of obtaining my degree in Horticulture.  When most people think about Horticulture, they think about the ornamental side.  My passion has always been the edible side:  fruits and vegetables and the humanity behind our food chain.  In 1997-2001 I oversaw the dairy buying in my General Manager position at the local food cooperative and made sure that we offered the best artisan cheeses. 

Over the following years, I continued working with local farmers (albeit vegetable) in my roles in the produce industry.  In my last position, I was in food service sales in the Portland, Oregon metro area.  The grocery buyer and I always had a healthy debate about whether Oregon’s Tillamook Cheddar was better than Wisconsin’s.  Once I moved back to Wisconsin and was working on my business plan, this friendly debate is what ended up fueling me in adding specialty and “utilitarian” cheeses as a major component to my café and retail store concept.  I was shopping at my local grocery chain store in River Falls, Wisconsin looking for some “good” cheddar.  You know what I found?  Tillamook Cheddar.  Then, the following week I needed some gruyere for a recipe.  I had to ask a friend who worked 45 minutes away in Minneapolis to bring some to me because I couldn’t find that either.  My next stop was the James J. Hill Reference Library in St. Paul, Minnesota.  It was there that I discovered the facts behind the current specialty cheese trend.  I found that the demographics for those cheese eaters exactly matched the demographics of the town that I set my sights on opening my business, River Falls.  It felt serendipitous.  Not to mention that it has a nice shelf life and that I would once again be able to work with farmers.

WeatherVane Creamery is a “Wisconsin Only” specialty retail shop and café featuring wrapped farmstead, artisan and specialty cheeses, organic, small batch churned scooped ice cream, malts and floats, soup, gourmet grilled cheese sandwiches, carefully selected frozen meats, Wisconsin kitsch items, exclusive locally roasted coffee beans, other edibles such as maple syrup and honey, and the customer experience of the pour over coffee and tea method.  Part of WeatherVane Creamery’s mission is to provide the community with a local business that is smart, quirky, accessible, and magical. It will be an “iconic Wisconsin destination store that successfully combines and appeals to traditional sensibilities with a hip and modern feel.”  It is not your grandmother’s cheese shop.  

The question “What do you most enjoy most about your position?” can be answered by four simple statements:  A business plan.  A dream.  A commitment to my community.  A difference to be made.  

In February, WeatherVane Creamery launched an online crowdsourcing campaign to raise $100,000 to cover 50% of the opening expenses.  We raised roughly $6,000.  Since the campaign, we have been pursuing investors.  On Wednesday, March 21, 2012 I flew out to the Starbucks Annual Shareholder Meeting in Seattle, Washington and invited the ceo, Howard Schultz, to become an investor and mentor for WeatherVane Creamery.  He, in turn, connected us with the CEO and President of the Opportunity Finance Network.  With the help of OFN, other organizations, banks, and interested investors, we will open in the summer of 2012.    

What I expect to gain from attending the American Cheese Society 29th Annual Conference & Competition is a greater understanding and appreciation for the specialty cheesemaking craft and lifestyle.  While I have done a lot of eating, reading, and speaking with people in the industry in my life and especially in this past year, I still do not have a full picture of what it takes to produce a pound of artisan cheese.  An analogy is when I was a Produce Manager and I accidentally dropped a case of organic Chilean blueberries.  Having farmed myself, I had the full appreciation for what it took for each individual berry to grow to maturity, be harvested at the right time, to pass international organic inspections, and be shipped to Portland only to be dropped on the floor by me.  To me, it was a tragedy.  And even though I never personally grew blueberries, I was able to convey to my staff and customers what it took that made them special and precious.  This is going to be the key to success for WeatherVane Creamery.  As the leader of the business, I need to bring that knowledge and understanding to each product.  Since cheese and grilled cheese are our primary products, this is imperative.  Aside from that, it is also an amazing opportunity to be on the cutting edge of innovations in the industry and to network with fellow trades people.

I am the best candidate for the scholarship because WeatherVane Creamery is all about making big moves that people watch.  We forward the Wisconsin specialty cheese market within our own borders, as a travel destination, and online.  The time is now for the cheese shop to be redefined for new generations (and old) and we are doing it.  We have local and national media coverage.  People (like Howard Schultz) are paying attention to what is happening.  We have a deep commitment to honoring the hard work and passion that goes into producing a quality, local product and having pride in celebrating our regional treasures with the world.  We are making a difference in the community of River Falls, the state of Wisconsin, and beyond.  

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The final countdown!

Did you hear that I was on the Fox 9 Morning Show this week?  That was such an amazing experience!  I got an email from one of their producers right after the article in the St. Paul Pioneer Press was released.  I assumed that is where they got the lead.  Turns out I was wrong.  The producer is a UW-River Falls alumni and a community member that I don’t even know passed the lead to her.  She was very excited to promote her alma mater’s town.

I had a lot to do to prepare.  Carrie (the producer) asked me for a list of questions that I would like to be asked.  Based on advice from Robbie at Rush River Brewing, I started with the answers and then worked backwards to what the questions would be.  From there, I staged my clothes (ironing and pantyhose!), wrote down Carrie’s cell phone number, cued up the navigation on my phone, and packed up my purse with everything I would possibly need.  I wanted to be able to roll out of bed and get to the studio without having to rely much on my brain.  The studio was an hour away from River Falls and I had to be there bright and early, after all.  And I wasn’t going to let rush hour traffic get in my way, either.  I had my friend Tony on standby to help me clear my head that night and right before.

As I was driving to the studio Wednesday morning, I had my note cards with my questions and answers on them.  I recited my answers to the rear view mirror.  I arrived at the studio in Eden Prairie, MN an hour early so I found a little nature sanctuary and changed out of my heels into my boots and took a walk through a prairie to a pond and focused on being “in the moment” (kind of hard for me these days with so much going on).  Then I got to the studio and asked how long my interview was going to be.  The woman replied “Three minutes”.  I laughed and thanked her.  You can see the results in the video below.  It also includes the footage that we took last week out at Johnson’s Mann Valley Farm here in River Falls. The pictures are all up on our facebook page as well. Click here to connect with us on facebook

You can see where we are at. Things always continue to move forward. I have been meeting with potential investors and will continue to do that until the money is raised. I am a badger at heart and I don’t have it in me to stop short of the goal, so be assured you are on a winning team! There are only 5 days left on the campaign, so share this video and website generously and encourage people to contribute. My phone team and I have some time set aside on Tuesday and Thursday to be putting effort into raising the dollars, so expect to see some big jumps in numbers. And let me know if you want to be a part of that. We have scripts and phone lists!

857 youtube views, $2238 indiegogo, 59 indiegogo funders, 2427 indiegogo views, 5 indiegogo favorites, 143 fb fans, $2,000 private loans, $4,238 total funded

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Who is funding the indiegogo campaign

Just a fun blog to tell you what our funders are saying:

“I want to help making someone’s dreams come true”

“I know that you are interested in making a difference out in the world and I want to support you doing that”

“Because I am your friend”

“I want to live vicariously through you making your dream come true”

“I believe in you”

“I love your enthusiasm and positive attitude”

“I wanted to be an early supporter and wanted to forward your momentum and initial excitement”

“Like, duh!  This is what you love to do… working with farmers.  It makes perfect sense”

“I thought the video really showed your credibility and research”

“I believe in the management of WeatherVane Creamery”

“To have the opportunity to contribute to someone’s dream”

“It’s a cool idea and I want to be a part of it”

“I love grilled cheese and consider myself to be a foodie who doesn’t get into wine and cigars and all that stuff”

“It would be nice to help someone out in getting started”

“My daughter forwarded it to me”

 

 

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Create Jobs for USA

I worked in management at Starbucks Coffee Company for 3.5 years in Chicagoland.  I don’t think I would have hired me.  I recall saying that I couldn’t drink coffee- that I had a physical reaction to it.  And that was true for drinking crappy coffee.  As it turned out, I *could* drink Starbucks Coffee.  And drink it, I did.  Anyway, over the course of those years I developed a great fondness for the ceo and founder of what we know Starbucks to be today, Howard Schultz.  I have read his two books (Pour Your Heart Into It and Onward) and have always been inspired by his public speaking.  The company itself is impressive with the difference it makes in so many different areas and he has such an earnestness about him.  For the last three years I have had the pleasure and honor to attend the Starbucks Annual Shareholder meeting in Seattle.  And I have never left any of those meetings without shedding an inspired tear.

A few months back when I was knee deep in numbers for the business plan (I now know more about volts and amps for refrigeration than I ever wanted to), I received an email from Starbucks about their Create Jobs for USA campaign with the Opportunity
Finance Network.  The heart of the campaign is that people can contribute $5 which then translates to the Opportunity Finance Network granting $35 to a Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI) which then supports small businesses getting loans to be able to employ people and strengthen the nation’s economy.  This was the first I heard about a CDFI.  I did some research and found two in the state of Wisconsin that I can work with.  And needless to say, I had a new reason to be grateful to Howard Schultz and the impact that he and his company has.

Next month I get to go to my fourth Starbucks Annual Shareholders Meeting.  Back in August I found myself needing to come up with a double deposit for my apartment and made the extremely difficult choice to sell all but one Starbucks share.  I knew it was my golden ticket to be able to be able to keep going to the meetings,  to continue to be inspired by Howard, and keep on the cutting edge of innovation for WeatherVane Creamery.  The other night I wrote Howard a letter inviting him to have coffee with me and consider being an investor.  I know it is a radical idea.  But you’ve never known me to have a radical idea before, have you?

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“Halfway There” or “We Haven’t Found The Rainbow Yet”

I am sitting at the second Caribou Coffee of the day across from a lady in a leather chair eating stretchy grilled cheese.  I had to evacuate the last Caribou because I was embarrassed by the tears and breakdown I was having there while accompanied by my friend and colleague, Erin.  We scooped up my things and got me to my car where I cried and laughed and cried some more.

The long and short of it was that I received feedback from MANY places today about the campaign.  And I don’t know if it was there before, but today it was LOUD and clear and consistent.  It just kept coming in many forms.  Some nice, some not-so-nice.  So I am writing this blog to address one of those things and will continue to address more in the coming days.

I can understand why it would seem preposterous for a for-profit business to use this sort of campaign for “handouts” and that was never my intention.  Allow me to explain how this all came about.

Last summer I made a trip to Chicago where I had a conversation with a former customer from my Starbucks days.  I told him about my idea to start a coffee and ice cream shop in River Falls (at that point that is as much as the product mix had evolved) and he told me that he wanted to be an investor with a 30% stake.  He said that he knew how I ran businesses and was involved in my community from watching the work I did at Starbucks and that it would be successful.  Little did he know that 30% is *exactly* the number that banks want to see when financing a small business.  My investor also said that I needed to act fast and get a business plan done so it could open within 6 months.  We even threw a few numbers around that told me he meant business.  I promptly returned to River Falls and started working with the Pierce County Economic Development Corporation, River Falls Chamber of Commerce, and the Small Business Development Center on the plan.  Long story short, I headed back to Chicago in November with my business plan in tow to seal the deal.

*sigh*

We met on a Monday afternoon for lunch across the street from my former Starbucks store in Palatine.  I gave him everything and brought out my laptop to show him pictures of the proposed storefront and other “inspirations”.  He looked at me with weary eyes and said “Sarah, I just found out that my business partner from another venture has been stealing from me.  I can’t do it.  I am sorry.  It’s not that I see anything wrong here.  It all looks great.  I know I told you I could do it, but I can’t.”

I got back to River Falls and started working with many friends on brainstorming ideas to fund the business.  We spoke of microloans, investors, being a co-op, and other ideas.  I had piles of library books on the subject.  And I was getting frustrated with the “banking system” just like everyone else.  Somewhere along the way my friend Maikol asked me “Have you heard of crowdsourcing?”  I hadn’t and I mentioned it noncommittally in brainstorm sessions with other friends.  Then I got acquainted with Adrienne in Portland, OR through some mutual friends and it wasn’t long before I learned that she is a consultant for these types of campaigns.  *shrug*  The rest is history AND the story isn’t over.

So I start the campaign two weeks ago.  I was naive to think that people would open their wallets to throw dough in my direction.  For those of you who did, I am humbled that you were able to see my heart in what I am trying to create with it.  But my idealistic vision didn’t quite happen as I envisioned it.  I just thought that everyone would take the time to read the copy of the campaign and would be so excited by the possibility of making a small town more alive and that they would feel all of the romance that I feel for River Falls- the river, the artists, the cookie factory, the university, and Main Street.  And Wisconsin- the cheese, beer, and farmers.  It became clear relatively fast that this was going to take a lot of conversations for $1 or $3 to hit the goal.  AND, I thought (and still think) “How cool would it be to have a business start in such an impossible way… for the people of the community to rise up and take action and do something that could be a trigger for other cool businesses to come to town and give residents, businesses, and students alike a reason to really patronize Main Street?”   I pictured a Lifetime Original Movie.  Why couldn’t River Falls be *that* town?  All it takes is one person to be the tipping point.  One domino to start the rest to fall, right?  Well that remains to be seen.  And with that being said,  I also started using the campaign website and all of the other online  tools to start talking to investors and personal lenders.  And that is where I am at.  So far I have several interested investors and other potential lenders that I am working with.  Two lenders have stepped forward and given me checks written out to WeatherVane Creamery.  The rest is in the works and I am committed that it ALL be wrapped up by February 23rd.

I’d be remiss if I didn’t take this opportunity to tell you about what that looks like in case you or your friends would find yourself in a position to be an investor or lender.  Here it is- if you are interested in being an investor, that is a very special conversation.  Please contact me and we can have that conversation.  If you are interested in becoming a lender to WeatherVane Creamery for a sum of over $1000, what is involved is  a promissory note where we agree to an annual interest rate up to 10%.  WeatherVane Creamery will start paying the sum off in three years of the date on the note and also will have the option to pay it off sooner.  That’s how it works.

Thank you for your support.  The indiegogo site is TOTALLY important to this process.  Those funders as individuals are JUST AS IMPORTANT to *any* big time investor or lender to me.  They are the ones who give from their hearts and want to be a part of the fun and adventure.  They are putting in their votes and have a voice.  I love you all.  The ride isn’t over yet.  There are surprises and magic around every corner.  Stay tuned!

640 youtube views, $1620 indiegogo, 52 indiegogo funders, 1462 indiegogo views, 48 indiegogo favorites, 130 fb fans, $2,000 private loans, $3,620 total funded

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17 Days Left

Today’s Victories:

  • Erin and I came up with a very comprehensive plan, complete with accurate calendaring,  for the rest of the campaign.
  • I asked three people for loans* and was told “no” or “not now” or some version of that.  I didn’t die.  I am still here to tell the tale and I even think I am stronger for it.
  • I interviewed with the St Paul Pioneer Press (watch this Thursday’s food section!) and the Stillwater Gazette.
  • I sent out a casting call for Saturday’s video shoot.
  • I got some things done on time and had that feeling of “what do I do now?” confusion.  It’s a nice feeling.
  • WeatherVane got our first international contribution from New Zealand!
  • I have more confirmed guests for my Home Introduction to the Landmark Forum tomorrow night than I have ever generated before.  (The Landmark Forum is the flagship course for Landmark Education and I am offering a partial scholarship to employees of WeatherVane as an optional benefit.)
  • I took care of some personal paperwork issues that have been plaguing me for some time now.
  • I get to pay my lawyer bill for the WeatherVane Creamery Business Plan nondisclosure agreement tomorrow with the funds from the campaign.  It is the first expenditure to be taken care of as a result of the fund raising.
  • My dear friend, Christian, scored me an iPhone from my dear friend, Randy.  You guys fricken rock!  My poor “dumb phone” will get to go to phone heaven soon.  Farewell, my technological marvel of small proportions!
  • My roommate and I got to bond by kidnapping the neighbor dog and playing with him in the house.  Don’t worry, we released Chopper back into the wild and he was not harmed and his owners are probably none the wiser.  Unless they read this blog.  *shrug*  Not worried.

559 youtube views, $1514 indiegogo, 47 indiegogo funders, 1210 indiegogo views, 43 indiegogo favorites, 122 fb fans, $2,000 private loans, $3,514 total funded

*I am currently seeking personal loans from individuals for $1000 and up. Said individuals get to name their interest rate (up to 10%). WeatherVane Creamery will begin to pay back the loan three (3) years from the date on the promissory note with the option of paying it back early. Please email me at wvcreamery@gmail.com if you or someone you know would like more information.

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18 Days Left

This campaign is quite the journey.  Things have been growing every day and new ideas abound.  It keeps me on my toes.  Tomorrow I am sending off a LinkedIn email to my 400 contacts.  I am wondering what the impact of that will be.  On Tuesday, some updates are going to be made to the fb page and I will start dabbling in fb advertising.  Oooh and we are releasing the video interview of Cedric, the owner of Bo’s ‘N Mine here in River Falls.  That interview cracks me up.  The word continues to go out.  I am just wondering what the tipping point will be that takes things to the next level (the domino effect).  On Saturday we will be filming for our next video.  It will be released in the last week to take us to the finish line.  And on the side I continue to seek private/personal financing from friends and colleagues.  My next focus for that is to find 19 people to lend me $5000 each.  The end goal is in sight!

546 youtube views, $1501 indiegogo, 45 indiegogo funders, 1206 indiegogo views, 45 indiegogo favorites, 119 fb fans, $2,000 private loans, $3,501 total funded

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21 Days Left

This campaign is full of feeling both victorious and defeated.  Like today for instance.  We had a media mention on the Wisconsin Farm Report website.  Yay!  And then we had 4 funders that I don’t know.  Woot!  But the activity on the indiegogo site was only $27 today.  Boo.  Had a successful email newsletter go out to over 100 people and had a super high read rate (in my humble opinion).  Hooray!  Burnett Dairy Cooperative put the link on their fanpage of over 1000 fans and offered to donate a basket of cheese for a perk on the campaign.  So cool!  And then I got a late-in-the-day confirmation of a personal loan of $1000.  Our facebook fan page activity is up.  Overwhelmingly everything is up.  Up enough to get $100,000 in 21 days?  I feel like I have to constantly be thinking of new ways to get in front of people like a monkey jumping up and down shouting “Over here!  Over here!”

473 youtube views, $1127 indiegogo, 37 indiegogo funders, 1060 indiegogo views, 37 indiegogo favorites, 119 fb fans, $2,000 private loans, $3,127 total funded

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23 Days Left

 

Hmmm *sigh*  What a day.  Just like all the other days.  I swear I can live an entire lifetime in a day.

I started my day with area mom, Heather, and her daughter, Fiona.  They came by to discuss the logistics of providing (the most perfect, heaven-sent, and genius) bread to WeatherVane for our grilled cheese.  We spoke of commercial grade kitchens and 40lb bags of bread flour and about how things would work when she would need some time off to give birth to Fiona’s new little sister this Summer!  And Fiona was very pleased to get a taste of Castle Rock’s Sweet Cream ice cream.  I have to say that I really LOVE to give children ice cream.  They just light up.

Then I had a call with Jeanne who writes the Cheese Underground Blog (http://cheeseunderground.blogspot.com/).  I hunted her down via LinkedIn after I read about her blog in the Master Cheesemakers of Wisconsin book a few months ago.  Jeanne and I have never met in person but I think it is fair to say that we have a fledgling friendship.  Jeanne has been so generous with information and today we were discussing my press release.  She offered to share some regional and national contacts that she has been collecting over the years.  Well, not 45 minutes later I had a phone call from a freelance writer in New Jersey that pitches stories to many well-known national trade and consumer magazines.  He wanted the exclusive rights to my story!  I have to tell you that nothing screams “Shit is blowing up!” than a phone call from someone with an East Coast accent saying the words “exclusive rights”.  And that shit is blowing up in a good way, I assure you.  The Stillwater Gazette (http://www.stillwatergazette.com) called shortly after and said they are running a story on me tomorrow and I am going to go over there next week to talk more.

Lunch was with “The Sign Guy” David.  His logo design won WeatherVane’s logo contest a few weeks back and we had to go over some revisions.  He is going to mock up some different color schemes and I am excited over what we came up with:  an antique green dragon, cream colored sun (an element we took from one of the other logos in the contest), and antique red for the lettering.  It was almost an afterthought that the dragon and sun are Green Bay Packer colors and the lettering Badger colors.  Almost.

Then I had my phone blitz appointment with my friend, Christian.  Oh how to characterize my friendship with Christian?  I think our nickname “The WonderTwins” captures it pretty well.  The other day I was having a meltdown and feeling like the clock of the campaign was ticking.  I was hyperventilating even.  Well, anyway, I called Christian and asked him if he would join me in a friendly phone competition of raising funds.  He was so happy to do it and even offered to do it twice this week!  The game is for Christian to call our mutual friends in Portland while I make my own calls urging people to contribute.  The national media is watching after all!  We need to give them something to look at.   Towards the end of the night, I was a little nervous about Portland outdoing the Midwest on that competition but we rebounded and secured our position in the end.  And I have to admit,  I played a little dirty as we were getting close to the midnight deadline.  Our next competition is Thursday.  I will try to keep it clean.

394 youtube views, $1010 indiegogo, 27 indiegogo funders, 650 indiegogo views, 26 indiegogo favorites, 109 fb fans, $1,000 private loans, $2,010 total funded

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24 Days Left

Wow.  I just read my press release.  I wrote one and sent it out to some friends and colleagues for feedback.  So, the press release is *not* the one I had originally crafted.  No, it is WAY better and super amazing.  Mine totally was outdone.  I can’t wait to send it out tomorrow to the regional and national media.  Woot woot!  And just think:  you knew about WeatherVane Creamery before the cool kids figured it out.

Another amazing thing that happened today was that WeatherVane Creamery got its second employee, Erin (I am the first).  Erin is a dear friend and colleague of mine and I have worked on a few other projects with her.  She recently became available and WeatherVane Creamery is so blessed to have her on the team.  She will be managing the “project” of opening and keeping me on task.  And I don’t know where I came up with the idea.  Maybe it was when I changed my own title from “Owner” to “Visionary Extraordinaire”, but I decided that employees of WeatherVane will be able to make their own titles.  Having been a Manager at multiple places, I know the pitfalls of having a group of folks with the same title.  There is a lot of pointing of fingers at those who aren’t doing certain tasks and about who is getting paid so much to do the same job that everyone thinks they are doing the best at.  And over time, I figured out that no one does everything the best and that it is more important to have a team of various talents.  Some people are really great workhorses that enjoy taking a toothbrush to that dark, dank cranny behind the backstock refrigerator while others are really great at getting to know customers and draw people back again and again.  Both of those people are important.  To put an equal value on either job is silly.  And how cool would it be to make your own title?  As long as the toilet gets cleaned at the end of the day, I don’t care who does it.  Erin and I deliberated for over a half an hour with a thesaurus (or rather, dictionary.com) and we came up with Chief of Operations Fulfillment.  I get to call her “Chief”.  No hierarchy.  Everyone is the best at what they do and as time goes on their talents are discovered and, hey, change the title!  I can’t wait to see how it plays out when WeatherVane has a staff of ten or twenty.  Ownership, Empowerment, and Team all rolled into one.  Yay!

And here are the numbers:

367 youtube views, $597 indiegogo, 17 indiegogo funders, 565 indiegogo views, 18 indiegogo favorites, 108 fb fans, $1,000 private loans, $1,597 total funded

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