Category Archives: Don’t keep your day job

Baby steps

Two posts in two days, I don’t think that has happened since I challenged myself to make a kite a day for kite month (too many years back).

I made slight progress toward marketing my miniature kites over the evening, despite having a hike with the Cubs that took twice as long as it should have when a half dozen kids showed up 5 minutes after everyone else had started walking, and then we had to wait for a parent to return (from goodness knows where) for some of the late comers.

I have thought that selfie-sticks are about the silliest things ever, but it occurred to me that the attachment could let me point my iPod at a miniature in flight. The first test was a little rough (of course), but the concept is promising. I’ll post results after I make some refinements and look for some backgrounds that aren’t at my house. I think this has some great possibility to help put these and some of my other indoor kites out over social media.

Also I tried the modification that I was thinking of for my easel cards, and it works well (will work even better if I make the kites just a little differently). I’m very excited to make up some more cards (and some new kites to fit them properly).

So there are a baby step on packaging, and one on marketing. That’s all for now, but I’m just so excited to be taking any steps forward after the months of stagnation.

Smooth Winds

Time for progress

The locksmith job (and being a Scout leader) sure does eat up time, but it is time for me to start shifting my focus back to kiting. Part of this realization is due to the Don’t Keep Your Day Job podcast and community, led by Cathy Heller. I recommend that everyone start listening today. Whether you are happy in your day job or not, there are morsels from every episode that can help shift your perspective on the world for the better.

One of the challenges (and for me it is truly a challenge) from a podcast in April 2017, was to begin recording progress. I accept, but really I need to do it. I aught to post daily, but hope to a least make it weekly.

I have floundered with my miniature kites, being unhappy with the cards that I was trying to package them with. Yesterday however, I made a little progress with the minis, on two fronts. First, I realized that I may be able to use the cards after all, just by changing my approach a little, more on that after some testing (I hope to have some mail ready to go out to my beta testers soon). B, after a brief but enjoyable experience at a local kite shop, I plucked up the courage to show off a couple of pictures and ask if they might be interested in having them on their counter. If the test with the card works out, I’ll be dropping some samples by early next week, and adding them to the list for the beta test mailing.

I intend to get a little more aggressive with the minis, in the attempt that they might start generating a little income, but more importantly getting the work some attention and thereby justifying putting more energy into banners, Codys, and then the original Crossed Lines designs that I have bouncing around in my head and tucked away, “safe” in some notebooks.

So, there you are. Progress on 3 fronts: packaging, outlets, accountability.

TTFN