http://www.savorthesuccess.com/member/lynn-colwell/blog 2009-04-20T23:23:00Z Lynn@thegreenyear.com (Lynn Colwell) en http://www.savorthesuccess.com/blog/lynn-colwell/strange-lessons-from-our-encounters-with-npr-and-assorted-other-media We've done quite a bit of media over the last few months, most recently last week and today. One thing we've discovered is that no shoot or show is EVER the same. It's kind of like having kids. The first one is born and she's a screamer. You (that would be I), tear your hair out trying to figure out how to stop her from crying. You finally discover that driving her around without ever stopping for red lights for about four hours starting at 2 a.m. quiets her. Then her brother comes along and ... 772 Lynn@thegreenyear.com (Lynn Colwell) 2009-04-20T23:23:00Z http://www.savorthesuccess.com/blog/lynn-colwell/i-believe-this-video-will-change-you This video is not directly associated with business although I will make the connection. Since the day I let my hair go white, I noticed a not-at-all-subtle change in the way strangers treat me. Mostly, I'm ignored. Honestly. when Corey and I enter a room together, every single person walks up  to talk to her first. In our youth centered culture, I know that if I want to make an impression, I have to do something to convince people that I still have a brain, can contribute to a conversa... 746 Lynn@thegreenyear.com (Lynn Colwell) 2009-04-14T14:10:00Z http://www.savorthesuccess.com/blog/lynn-colwell/stop-the-world-i-want-to-get-off Most of you are way too young to remember the musical of this name, but when I first heard the title, I knew it would stick with me forever. It's applicable so often! And one of those times was this morning... I broke. A lot's been going right for us lately, but a lot's not been so hot. The final straw this a.m. was a partially missing blog. Yesterday, the center column started sprouting code like weeds after a rain while the right column was blank. Later in the afternoon, the code evaporat... 610 Lynn@thegreenyear.com (Lynn Colwell) 2009-03-05T17:13:00Z http://www.savorthesuccess.com/blog/lynn-colwell/catch-up It's been almost two months since I've written a blog post here. I took seriously the fact that I had reached my original goal and so was "promoted" to blogger emeritus, but honestly, I didn't mean to entirely forsake my STS blog. But strangely, it turned out to be more difficult for me to bop in and out once a month than it was to write a few times a week! Guess that's because there is so much happening, some of it wonderful, some of it not so great, that it's difficult to keep it brief and... 563 Lynn@thegreenyear.com (Lynn Colwell) 2009-02-17T23:45:00Z http://www.savorthesuccess.com/blog/lynn-colwell/like-your-blind-date-but-you-already-know-you-re-in-love That's what Corey said as we threw our arms around fellow STSer Nicole Sherwin after already having met and thrown our arms around Nicole Dunn! The setting was the Eco Gift Festival in Santa Monica, CA. I'd been looking forward to the event for months, not so much because we had a booth and would be showcasing Celebrate Green!, but because I knew this was the opportunity to meet the two Nicoles. I've been jealous of all of you New Yorkers who have been to parties and greeted each other like... 376 Lynn@thegreenyear.com (Lynn Colwell) 2008-12-17T19:18:00Z http://www.savorthesuccess.com/blog/lynn-colwell/where-am-i-and-what-s-my-name OK, I now know the true and literal meaning of "my head is spinning," because if mine could be, it would be. The last few weeks have been a blur, filled with so many exciting things that if I wanted to bore you to death with them all, I would, but I don't, so I won't. (See, I'm already in the holiday mood!) Instead of dissecting everything, I'm taking a page from Alisa's book and will enumerate some of the lessons learned: 1. Memorizing is not for me. We've done three tapings for various TV... 314 Lynn@thegreenyear.com (Lynn Colwell) 2008-12-02T17:40:00Z http://www.savorthesuccess.com/blog/lynn-colwell/move-over-oprah-well-maybe-not-quite-yet We survived our first big TV gig. Thank god it was two hours of filming for two and a half minutes of programming. My daughter is a natural. She looks beautiful, speaks with passion, a smile lighting her face, rarely stumbles, knows just where to look. Me? I'm a writer. Well, you'll just have to judge for yourselves (hopefully a station near you will be carrying this piece on celebrating a green Christmas sometime in December--will let you know when we get the schedule). We had a lot of fun ... 252 Lynn@thegreenyear.com (Lynn Colwell) 2008-11-11T03:25:00Z http://www.savorthesuccess.com/blog/lynn-colwell/dressing-a-window-is-more-fun-than-dressing-me Apropos of my last post (I know, I'm only supposed to do this once a month, but this is a goodie) (and by the way, thanks to everyone for your suggestions), yesterday Corey and I had a ball doing something we'd never done before. Mary Kay at Edmonds Bookshop, invited us to create a display with Celebrate Green! in one of her store windows. We became window dressers! We tossed around a lot of ideas, but came up with something very simple for a theme: Read Then Recycle We turned our books i... 238 Lynn@thegreenyear.com (Lynn Colwell) 2008-11-04T13:50:00Z http://www.savorthesuccess.com/blog/lynn-colwell/dress-me-for-success I probably should be following in Angela's footsteps and trying out for Tim Gunn's show on an emergency basis, but no way do I have the nerve for that! Why the bra shopping has to be part of every episode, I don't know. But I digress. Corey and I have an incredible adventure ahead of us. We had a great conversation the other day with a producer for company that syndicates TV segments to stations around the country. They are in nine of the ten top markets and contract with about half of all ... 227 Lynn@thegreenyear.com (Lynn Colwell) 2008-11-01T16:26:00Z http://www.savorthesuccess.com/blog/lynn-colwell/i-m-still-here Even though I reached my goal of launching Celebrate Green!, Angela says I can keep on blogging, but I'm going to limit it to once a month or when I absolutely, positively, can't stand to wait one more second to share something with you all. Actually, there's been a lot of that lately--stuff that is so amazing and thrilling that I want to stand up on the top of our roof and shout out the news--except the only ones who will hear are the oak trees and the chickens next door. Thank god for the ... 212 Lynn@thegreenyear.com (Lynn Colwell) 2008-10-29T13:10:00Z http://www.savorthesuccess.com/blog/lynn-colwell/from-a-grateful-stser I've been a member of a number of online groups over the last five years. Some have been great, others not so much. Just want to give credit to Angela for starting Savor the Success and keeping high standards so that the women participating are, regardless of their entrepreneurial experience, serious about their business, yet incredibly giving and a holwe lot of fun. I have no idea how she does it, but bravo! As I wind down my "official blogger" status, I also want to thankmy fellow STSers ... 187 Lynn@thegreenyear.com (Lynn Colwell) 2008-10-20T18:42:00Z http://www.savorthesuccess.com/blog/lynn-colwell/martha-daily-candy-blog-heaven-and-chocolate That five minutes on Martha Stewart radio that I posted about last week turned into twenty! Poor Corey was all prepared to stuff everything possible about Green Halloween and Celebate Green into five lousy minutes, but evidently, she was so terrific that the host just kept asking her questions. Since we don't have satellite radio, I couldn't listen, but Corey, who is usually pretty hard on her performances, was flying so I know it was good. The producer loved the segment and promised to invi... 177 Lynn@thegreenyear.com (Lynn Colwell) 2008-10-13T20:41:00Z http://www.savorthesuccess.com/blog/lynn-colwell/should-have-made-martha-stewart-my-goal I'm still here today so can share the news that Corey is going to be on Martha Stewart Live satellite radio on Monday morning. OK, so it's not the TV show, but as soon as I finish typing this, I'm on my way to the post office to fedex a book to someone in her office! Baby steps are still steps, right? It's pretty amazing really as we have a well-connected PR person who out of the goodness of her heart, is making these connections for us. Of course, it's not ALL out of the goodness of her hea... 167 Lynn@thegreenyear.com (Lynn Colwell) 2008-10-09T19:04:00Z http://www.savorthesuccess.com/blog/lynn-colwell/here-today-gone-soon So maybe you all saw this a.m. that I'm moving on from blogging here when Angela can find someone to take my place. That's what I get for coming up with such a short term goal. I probably should have said, "Get on Oprah," (who knows how long THAT will take). No, instead, I picked a goal that I knew I would reach, and even the day on which I would hit it. That said, writing this blog has been a lot of fun. And with my memory the way it is, it's nice to have a written record of the crazy weeks ... 164 Lynn@thegreenyear.com (Lynn Colwell) 2008-10-08T20:50:00Z http://www.savorthesuccess.com/blog/lynn-colwell/wash-out I was all prepared to write a thrilling description of having sold dozens of copies of Celebrate Green! yesterday at Salmon Days. Yes, Salmon Days, an annual celebration here in Issaquah (ISS A KWAH) WA that commemorates spawning salmon that are so thick in the river in places you can barely see the water. The festivities normally attract a couple hundred thousand people. Me and the book were a side attraction to the Green Halloween booth. A friend had volunteered to help Corey and me set up... 156 Lynn@thegreenyear.com (Lynn Colwell) 2008-10-05T18:50:00Z http://www.savorthesuccess.com/blog/lynn-colwell/blog-tour-mania I did it! I got the blog tour for Celebrate Green! set up and going. We've got more than 30 bloggers who have pledged to write about us or do a book review between today, October 1 and October 17 (including a couple of my very favorite STSers :). If you're not already a "villager" at www.CelebrateGreen.NET, pretty please at least once during the next few weeks, go to this link, and choose a blogger to visit. Then COMMENT. By doing this, you'll help show that blog tours can be a success not o... 150 Lynn@thegreenyear.com (Lynn Colwell) 2008-10-02T20:11:00Z http://www.savorthesuccess.com/blog/lynn-colwell/celebrate-green-s-birth-day-october-1-2008 I've used the analogy of birthing Celebrate Green! ever since I sent it to the printer. But tomorrow really is its birth day, the day it is "officially" launched into the world, the day we have been waiting for since last November when we received an email from the editor 15 minutes after we submitted the proposal that simply read, "Yes." If you've been along since the beginning of this blog, you know the road has not been easy. And you don't know half of it. Every single day, we've been fac... 148 Lynn@thegreenyear.com (Lynn Colwell) 2008-09-30T23:49:00Z http://www.savorthesuccess.com/blog/lynn-colwell/skidding-into-the-finish-line So a week from tomorrow is the date I had scheduled for launch. (And I guess that means the end of this blog?) When I started I thought we'd be doing a big birth of the book bash, but luckily I had the sense to put the cabash on that idea while I could still think clearly. As it turns out, October 1 is going to be anti-climactic becasue we've already launched the website, are selling Celebrate Green! (wholesale, retail and to non-profits that want to use it as a fundraiser) and are do as muc... 127 Lynn@thegreenyear.com (Lynn Colwell) 2008-09-23T21:40:00Z http://www.savorthesuccess.com/blog/lynn-colwell/pr-campaign-step-1-in-motion-step-2-done Step one of the PR campaign for Celebrate Green! was to set the wheels in motion for recruiting 500 villagers to support our efforts. In two days, I've recruited 60 willing people. Haven't even had to threaten them in any way. As I thought, people are excited to be involved (getting the book for a discount and a chance for some fun gifts along the way help, I'm sure). Sixty isn't 500 but it's a start. Step 2 was to get a video up on YouTube. Finished that today. Would love it if you would ta... 119 Lynn@thegreenyear.com (Lynn Colwell) 2008-09-21T02:24:00Z http://www.savorthesuccess.com/blog/lynn-colwell/they-re-heeeere-finally Yup, that's me looking exhausted after two nights of worried sleep and an hour drive to get to the place where 3000+ copies of Celebrate Green! were delivered this morning. Our babies really have been born! It was pretty emotional really. Corey and I hugged and I admit, a tear or two escaped my eye. It feels like it's been forever getting to this point. The last seven weeks have been especially rough. I feel like I've been ducking rock-throwing trolls determined not to allow these books to... 113 Lynn@thegreenyear.com (Lynn Colwell) 2008-09-19T03:36:00Z http://www.savorthesuccess.com/blog/lynn-colwell/big-fat-disappointment I had a number of conversations with two trucking companies that both reassured me countless times that 3000 copies of Celebrate Green! would arrive at 10:30 a.m. this morning. They didn't. Fortunately I found out before the four of us who were to help unload the truck (gee, we don't happen to have a loading dock handy), drove an hour to get to where we're going to store the books. What irritated me was that no one called to tell me the truck had been delayed at the border (from Canada) for... 103 Lynn@thegreenyear.com (Lynn Colwell) 2008-09-17T19:40:00Z http://www.savorthesuccess.com/blog/lynn-colwell/positive-steps To anyone who plans to self-publish a book or, have the publishing part thrust on you as we unwittingly did, let me tell you that the road will be rough. Every step you take will inevitably require more patience than you thought you had, more time than you can spare, and more steps than the Empire State Building. BUT, if you believe in your project as we do Celebrate Green! you can prevail. This Monday morning saw my to-do list topped by two biggies. Last night I received a message from a b... 98 Lynn@thegreenyear.com (Lynn Colwell) 2008-09-15T20:09:00Z http://www.savorthesuccess.com/blog/lynn-colwell/meetin-and-greetin Corey and I were invited to have a booth and speak at Green Edmonds (a city north of Seattle), an event organized by Green for Good We write montly articles for their newsletter and are their "Green Celebrations Experts." While I've done a lot of "speaking," I really don't enjoy it unless I can make it a lot of fun, which naturally I always try to do. So I came up with the idea of a "show 'n tell funshop," (who likes the idea of a WORKshop?) and that's what we prepared for the Edmonds event.... 93 Lynn@thegreenyear.com (Lynn Colwell) 2008-09-14T13:15:00Z http://www.savorthesuccess.com/blog/lynn-colwell/stamp-power Oh my gosh, this week has flown by with my desk piling higher and higher, my email in-box about to explode. So many details. Like this one. It turns out that when you send review copies to SOME bloggers so they'll review your book, they turn around and sell them. Not only do they make money off of the review copies, but a. they don't tell you they're going to do this and b. they undercut the price you're selling them for. What can you do to stop these nefarious thieves? Evidently not too mu... 86 Lynn@thegreenyear.com (Lynn Colwell) 2008-09-11T19:28:00Z http://www.savorthesuccess.com/blog/lynn-colwell/i-need-a-clone-or-a-ghost-writer Oh my gosh, only launched the website on Friday and already things are popping. Had an email today from someone who said, "My Christmas shopping is done. Just ordered 10 books." I didn't even know this person! On top of that we've been positively flooded with requests to write blogs and articles. And of course the deadlines are all...yesterday! And on top of that, a big story came out on Green Halloween in KIWI magazine and in the same issue, a review of Celebrate Green! That exclamation po... 73 Lynn@thegreenyear.com (Lynn Colwell) 2008-09-08T22:36:00Z http://www.savorthesuccess.com/blog/lynn-colwell/celebrate-green-website-is-up This will be a shortie, since I wrote yesterday, but I can't help myself. Going live with www.CelebrateGreen.NET is biggest step we've taken since writing the book, discovering the publisher was going out of business and getting tCelebrate Green! to the printer. I'm brimming with excitement. Designing and supervising the creation of www.CelebrateGreen.NET has been a lot of fun, some frustration and too many 16 hour days. It means that we are so much closer to the "official" book launch. It ... 66 Lynn@thegreenyear.com (Lynn Colwell) 2008-09-05T11:46:00Z http://www.savorthesuccess.com/blog/lynn-colwell/celebrate-green-magnets I'm sitting here about to revive a childhood habit, biting my nails. We are hours away from going live with the Celebrate Green! website. Actually, it was ready this morning, then I got another brainstorm which, as brainstorms do, put the brakes on the launch. The problem with my brainstorms is that although they're generally quite innovative and will make a real difference to the project, they almost always involve throwing a wrench into the works of some perfectly functioning machine.... 65 Lynn@thegreenyear.com (Lynn Colwell) 2008-09-04T19:04:00Z http://www.savorthesuccess.com/blog/lynn-colwell/i-m-building-a-village I'll just come right out and say it. We have no marketing budget for Celebrate Green! But that's OK. I'm sticking with PR, something I'm familiar with and that costs zippo. I enjoy coming up with slightly wacky ideas and seeing what happens. I showed in an earlier entry, the "bouncing baby book" birth announcement we sent out. The response was terrific. It got noticed and we got dozens of emails. People really got into the spirit of things with remarks like, "I'm sorry it was such a difficult... 53 Lynn@thegreenyear.com (Lynn Colwell) 2008-08-31T22:32:00Z http://www.savorthesuccess.com/blog/lynn-colwell/when-help-isn-t-helpful I assumed that getting our book, Celebrate Green! up on Amazon would be a simple process. After all, there are thousands and thousands of books listed there. For me, it's been an exercise in frustration. Surprisingly their system for e-mail help is one of the worst I've ever encountered. It's this type of situation: I send an issue like: I see the book is available when I search on my name, but not when I search on the title. Help please. The response I receive back is: We're sorry you are... 50 Lynn@thegreenyear.com (Lynn Colwell) 2008-08-30T11:02:00Z http://www.savorthesuccess.com/blog/lynn-colwell/coming-along In the past, I've generally used a template-based service like Dynamic Web Builder to create and maintain my websites. While I don't want to know any more than I absolutely have to about the back end, I do like having control and not having to ask someone every time I decide to change an exclamation point to a period. But the problem with template based sites is their lack of flexibility, so for the Celebrate Green! website, we bit the bullet and hired Spokane Web Communications to do the job... 43 Lynn@thegreenyear.com (Lynn Colwell) 2008-08-27T14:24:00Z http://www.savorthesuccess.com/blog/lynn-colwell/pi-dello-stesso Happy Monday! I just had to post this photo of my nephew's little girl, that I took yesterday at a family event. Seems like a great way to start the week! The title of this post ("more of the same" in Italian in deference to Italian friends who have been here for the last four days), refers to the fact that my goals for this week are the same as for last except that I've taken care of the post card issue which was not even a priority last week. I did get a lot of the Celebrate Green! web... 38 Lynn@thegreenyear.com (Lynn Colwell) 2008-08-25T15:00:00Z http://www.savorthesuccess.com/blog/lynn-colwell/week-s-check-in I've lost a lot of sleep this week over the printer's errors. I won't go into the whole thing except to say that it took four tries to not only get the proof right, but ensure that I was LOOKING AT THE RIGHT PROOF! You'd think they'd take down the incorrect one from the FTP site or at least tell me which one I should be looking at, but no. So after two days of back and forth, I looked at the incorrect one (but didn't know it) and freaked out. Then I had to leave. We have guests from Italy fo... 34 Lynn@thegreenyear.com (Lynn Colwell) 2008-08-22T21:54:00Z http://www.savorthesuccess.com/blog/lynn-colwell/downs-and-ups Received the proof of Celebrate Green! yesterday. Luckily, I'd had one sent to Jeff, our designer too. His arrived before mine and he spotted major problems. In several sections, text had mysteriously shifted which through off a bunch of illustrations and photos. That mistakes happen, I realize, but how whomever was supposed to proof the proof against a PDF didn't spot these obvious issues, was a mystery to me. I spent most of yesterday trying to get this dealt with. I felt like I was a pati... 23 Lynn@thegreenyear.com (Lynn Colwell) 2008-08-20T17:01:00Z http://www.savorthesuccess.com/blog/lynn-colwell/getting-organized   Back from vacation. Faced with dozens of possibilities about what could be done, I need to focus on what can be done. Quick brain dump for Celebrate Green! launch (I know there will be more): News releases Design post cards, have printed Purchase boxes, paper etc. (invoices, sticky envelopes for outside of boxes,  thank you notes) Email people in book with “as seen in graphic” Create sales sheets: wholesale, business purchasers, non-profits Book launch &ldqu... 19 Lynn@thegreenyear.com (Lynn Colwell) 2008-08-18T13:25:00Z http://www.savorthesuccess.com/blog/lynn-colwell/introducing-lynn-co-owner-of-the-green-year Project: Preparing to officially launch our book, Celebrate Green! Goal date: October 1 About 18 months ago, my daughter Corey (you'll be reading more about her) wanted to run an idea by me. The Halloween before, she'd been going house-to-house in her neighborhood with her two small girls. Never happy about the idea of her kids lugging home a ten-pound bag of candy (that's what the average child accumulates on this holiday), at one house, she was delighted when her children received a small ... 14 Lynn@thegreenyear.com (Lynn Colwell) 2008-08-16T13:48:00Z