Imagine That - The Pitch Is Good!

Well, I apparently have impressed enough people with my pitch. Unless things go utterly crazy with the voting in the next few days, it looks like I will actually be moving on to round two in the "pitch-off." How exciting, huh? And, nerve wracking...I gotta get to practicing my new pitch. At least it is written.

So, yesterday I had a bit of a disappointment, but that whole elevator pitch thing mellowed it out. It turns out that the BNI group I wanted to join doesn't want me. Boo hoo hoo. Or perhaps the more appropriate response is "eh, whatever." It appears that they like me but that they prefer people who have at least a year's experience with their business. I don't have this, of course, but I'd think that with the rest of my background they might have made an exception. Ah well...you win some, you lose some (look at that closely and you might get what made me chuckle ever so slightly when I wrote it). ;)

They're trying to set me up with a few other groups to meet and see if they'd work for me. These groups are all composed of people who haven't been in business very long. I'm not sure what I think about that. It seems that if they aren't established, much like me, they may not be bringing the clients to my door that I'm looking for. So, I'm going to go, but I'm kind of sceptical about what I'm planning to do in the end.

In other business news, I am now caught up with my calls from the Santa Clara show. Dearest Mark put some of his 24 hour Fitness call skills to work and ripped through the list. Way to be! :) That leaves me free to start calling brides from Pleasanton tomorrow evening.

Finally, it looks like I will have an ad in print very soon. I have just signed on with The Wedding Guide to have my ad printed in a number of regional directories. It was pretty affordable and should give me good exposure. Beginning shortly, I will start receiving leads from this source as well. I am hopeful that it will be worth my while...we'll soon see! I did go ahead and pay extra for a preferred listing on the website as well so I'll be prominently displayed...

And, now, onto non-business news...

We had a nice little visit from Mark's brother this evening. He was down from Tahoe for training for his new job. He's working as a mortgage broker for BWC Mortgage. We ventured over to the Hawaiian restaurant for some tasty kalua pig and conversation. It was an enjoyable time...

Other than that, we went to church this past weekend. Mark dragged me, to be honest (isn't that a funny piece of imagery). He apparently knows that I need it in my life to function best. He's right. I do. I felt so much better after going, though, to be honest, I was just trying my best not to cry through the whole service. We're going through a pretty scary time here with all the changes that are taking place and I'm a wee bit fragile at times. I guess I'm allowed...

As much as I hate to relate going to church to business (I guess it's still part of God's plan, but it seems out of place to me), it was good to go for that too. Not only did the readings and the sermon give me renewed hope that the Lord will provide for us, our outing provided the opportunity for me to speak to our priest, Fr. Rob, about my services, especially the newlywed financial planning, and how I'd really like to meet with clergy members to tell them more about it and maybe even improve it. I'd also like to maybe see if they can direct me to a few of their newlywed parishoners because I'd love to have a couple of couples to go through the process with to work out any bugs. I'm actually thinking, too, that I may check about offering this as a series of group classes in addition to the couple + me format. I think it could make it more affordable for those just getting started (because I could reduce my fees) and also, I believe it would allow me to help more people than I might be able to now. I think it would also make this portion of the business a great franchising opportunity.

I can't really think of anything else. I need to start working on bath salt bundles or other goodies for my next bridal show which is in about a month. I also need to arrange for a booth sign for a couple of them. It's an exciting time here and hopefully all my hard work and effort will pay off very soon! Please keep us in your prayers - we need all that we can get! Oh, and if you're into crafty stuff and want to volunteer to help with the gifties for the show, just give me a call...I can always use a bit of help!