PURPLE BLAB

This whole thing – starting a business, becoming a manufacturer, raising money, balancing it with a day job, overseeing back and front end of all operations… it’s war, I tell you. WAR!

At times, it was war with the accountant.

At times, it was war with the bank – or the fact that it was showing no love.

At times, I cannot lie, my husband.

At times, every vendor.

At times, the friends and family who gave the seed money to help kick it off.

And much of the time, it’s war with yourself. At least it is for me.

It (FINALLY!) was time to actually assemble our product and get ready to rumble (i.e. ship to stores). 

We were working with a warehouse in Philly and Todd actually went there to supervise the situation. And by supervise, I mean do it himself. He lead an assembly line of white glove wearing (we didn’t want fingerprints!) girls  who would perfectly fold the boxes into their shape, place the inserts such that the gloss wouldn’t shake around, close, use a wafer clear sticker to ensure it stays sealed, and so on.

Who says we don’t get down and dirty?

Just want to pause for a minute to tell you about Sharon Hirsch.

She is Purple Lab’s Communications Director and she kicks ass!

She didn’t technically come into the picture on staff until late June, but I have known her – and been wanting to hire her – for over two years.

As we were YouTubing for some new vlogs, I took a call and Sharon jumped in (BTW, she currently works in the living room at my mother-in-law’s bridge table, sandwiched between the back of the sofa and the pole! Oh, the joy of a start-up!).

I told you about Felicia, the bloggess who won a major shopping credit at the fabulous Christian Louboutin store at PL’s launch event…

But I thought it would be better if I showed you!

Is it a coincidence that her new shoes are purple? I think not!

Wear them well, Felish!

Mwah!

Karen

Purple Lab Creatrix

So… I’ve been giving you the scoop on the launch event (even though product missed the shipping date – sorry… not yet over it!).

It went exactly as I had hoped it would. The girls were great – and so into it, even the pole dancing! They lived their So Low yoga pants! They got their smooches on. They salivated at Louboutin (I think I told you that Felicia Sullivan won a pair of shoes and I have an adorable video of her shopping moment – will share that next time!).

I gave you half of the story of the launch with the bloggesses last time – but the video was too long to keep it going. So here’s the second half that I had to rob you of! In a few days, I’m going to give you the full-on experience… a sizzling video from the day.

You’ll meet all the girls!

Yay!

Although we weren’t in store yet, we had a launch planned for some of my fave bloggers (bloggesses as I call them because they are like the lionesses – they rule the jungle online).

While I wanted to postpone the event – and do it when we had actual product in actual stores – but I couldn’t because all of the venues I booked would have charged us… and it was just too much to change.

Desperatley trying to catch up and doing so by video seems like the quickest way to the finish line.

This part of our journey was right after a moment of success – and it was a moment of S***! And then another moment of success. These ups and downs – so exhausting.

You’ll see. Please watch (BTW: though I’m not loving the way I look in these things… need powder, but what can you do!).  

Coming to you live from my home office…

 
 

After the hell of having 30,000 damaged components – and going through weeks upon weeks of debate with the manufacturer to replace them… missing shipping dates… losing the UK opportunity to star in 62 windows (and receiving a 13,000 pound bill for the screw up)… a whole lot of crying… an enormous dose of fear… thoughts of giving up… we had… finally… a moment of success!

In case you missed it, this picture shows you the kind of damage we had when we attempted to fill the components we didn’t know were cracked until we – well – tried to fill them!