Today’s Daily Dose of Seth once again just nails it. This is one of many reasons I don’t send my designs free to celebrities and don’t want to sell my brand to Macy’s or Urban Outfitters. I keep BB small and manageable so I don’t lose control and can keep surfing, but most of all, so it can remain win-win for my artisans, my staff, my self and my customers. In manageable scale.

Once, in 2007, my brand was on display at the National Retail Federation’s annual “Big Show” at Javitz Center in NYC, in the “Store of the Future” installation of a Pop-up Store.

I felt like such a prostitute when I saw who was coming. The C-Class of all the big box retailers marched through and I had to stand there and explain to them why they needed to make environmental and social responsibility a priority. A major shoes and accessories chain asked me to create a cheap line of jewelry for them which I felt would have necessitated exploitation of the people making them to get the price as  low as they needed it so I simply said NO.

Thank you, Seth, once again, for confirming what I already knew in my heart.

Ready for the doors to open.

Winter Morning Love in California by David Pu'u

Gratitude is something I feel more than ever now. Just an example:

Last night my production manager (who is like family) in Bali and I had a “meeting” across oceans. We chatted and shared pictures via online messenger and email with our respective smartphones. It allowed us to be so close, as if we were sitting together in her family compound where she houses the Betty Belts Bali headquarters.

We discussed numbers, financials and timelines, but we also laughed a lot and even shared cat pictures…  and  I am grateful for the connections like this, for the connectedness… I haven’t been back to Bali in over a year, but I am grateful that my business can still work due to  new technology wedded to a faith in my people there…

Connectedness is easier than ever now… with family, friends, business…

I couldn’t have said it any better than Seth Godin did today  here:

“… celebrate two things:

The people in our lives who give us the support and love we need to make a difference, and…

The opportunity to build something bigger than ourselves, something worth contributing. The ability to make connections, to lend a hand, to invent and create.

There are more of both now than there have ever been before…” (read rest of Seth’s blog here)

And this slideshow I created a while back says it all too.

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone. Thank you for being here and being authentic and being you.

May you find connectedness in all aspects of your life and enjoy the bounty it offers you.

So I’d like to offer up a post about Appreciation in the New Year because I know it will enrich our lives to practice more of it. There is so much to appreciate. Always look for it.

Tell people you appreciate them.
Tell God you appreciate him and what he has given/created.
Look around you and appreciate what you have, because there is always someone out there who has less to appreciate than you do.
It might not be an easy habit to develop, but it will benefit so many that the benefits will be innumerable.

I appreciate you.

Thank you for reading. Thank you for enjoying.
Thank you for keeping the Betty Brand pulsing in these unsteady times.

I’m wishing you a new year (a lifetime!) of love, sweetness, joy and most of all, appreciation!

Smiles from Ventura,

Donna von Hoesslin

Owner/Designer at Betty Belts/Betty B., Member Team Betty

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