PURPLE BLAB

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!

Everything was going exactly as planned at this point…

And then we got “the call,” the kind of call you’d imagine getting when a loved one dies. And a loved one did die… our product sich.

See below – watch and listen! All I have to say is… OY!

 
 

More coming soon

Mwah!

Karen

Purple Lab Creatrix

I am desperately trying to catch up on the Purple Lab story from where I am in the blog to where I am in real-time. To speed up the process, I thought I’d do it by video – VLOG!

Here is the part of my story about getting a B-plan and raising money (at least the start of it).

Wait – before you click – sorry that YouTube paused on this image… it looks like I’m about to throw up!

At this point, I was about 60k in the hole. Maybe more. I was losing count. And numbers were never my strongsuit.

Could I have spent less on press materials? Yes.

Could we have tried to negotiate better terms with our vendors – i.e. don’t pay half up front but maybe 1/4? Maybe. But I didn’t and I didn’t quite know how either. In hindsight, everything is 20/20.

In case you’re wondering, I was a good 60k in the hole. And believe me, every dime of it hurt – it was a life’s savings and it was dwindling with a list of expenses still ahead.

Could I have spent less on press materials? Yes.

Could we have tried to negotiate better terms with our vendors – i.e. don’t pay half up front but maybe 1/4? Maybe. But I didn’t and I didn’t quite know how to do so and as a new company, we have such little leverage.

In hindsight, everything is 20/20.

At a later date, I must come back to Space.NK – it’s a loooong story, sort of like dating the guy you always, always had a crush on only to find out he’s a terrible kisser!

But now we’re back on the press kit. I was finally able to nip, tuck, finish.

PR 101: Editors, writers, journalists, media types, bloggers… they get hundreds of press kits and product samples every week. When you’re in their position, everyone wants you to cover them so they drench you in product.