Jane Pollak’s Blog

I received the best speaker gift I’ve ever gotten when I presented for the Women’s Jewelry Association last March–elegant personalized stationery. One hitch though. They spelled my name incorrectly: JANE POLLACK. I considered tossing the box away and saying, “Oh, well, that would have been nice.” But, no. I’ve been saying affirmations daily, one of which is: I ask directly for what I need in a clear and loving way.

What I wanted was to have this generous token of gratitude from the Women In The Know committee who organized the event. I wanted to have a reminder of the connection with these powerful women and the day I spoke at their conference. The cream-colored note cards with my name embossed in burgundy could be tangible reminders of that moment in time.

So I emailed the co-chairs and described my thrill at the gift and then my disappointment that I couldn’t use it. I requested that, if possible, I’d like to have the stationery redone.

Today, two months after the talk, UPS dropped off a great surprise. I just opened up a package of gorgeous, thick cream-colored note cards with JANE POLLAK correctly spelled in burgundy letters.

Lisa Quirk is a brilliant surface design artist re-entering the market now that her kids are older. She wanted to create a business card to bring to networking events, but wasn’t entirely ready to invest in a full identity package. I suggested she cut up business card size swatches of her hand-painted renderings, which she did, then rubber-stamped her contact information on the reverse side.

At networking events she’ll spread out 6-8 of these swatches and offers them like a hand of playing cards, “Pick a card” which immediately creates a sense of play and invites conversation–which is what you want when you’re networking.

Lisa feels good having these cards until she’s ready to commit to an official business name and brand. “I feel good,” she says. “It has my touch.”

This is a great example of starting where you are rather than procrastinating because of perfectionism.

On my morning walk recently I saw a fancy sports car in a neighbor’s driveway. Its bumper sticker said: The older I get, the faster I was.

I filter pretty much everything I see, hear and do through the senses of an entrepreneur so I thought about how that applied to me and my clients. Since I’ve completely closed down the art part of my business, I can say with full confidence that it was an enormous success–always profitable, highly publicized, nationally recognized with tons of customers. The truth is, while I was in it, I NEVER referred to myself as a success.

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This lesson from my book, Soul Proprietor is: Getting advice from an expert is critical. You’ll save time and money.

Clients and colleagues have been telling me for months now that it’s time to start a blog. “It’s so easy. You can set your own up in an hour, really!” they said. Somehow I never found that hour.

But, I trust the wisdom of my friends and supporters and was fortunate enough to get a referral to an expert, Lena West who had recently spoken at EWN (Entrepreneurial Woman’s Network – Norwalk, CT). After a couple of introductory discussions I became clear, motivated, and willing to take on this new communication. Yes, it costs money for this expertise, but I always ask myself, what is the cost of not doing it and how many coaching hours would it take for me to figure it all out on my own.

Lena walked me through the process, got my blog up and running on my site, and is there to answer questions as they arise. Without her help, and my trusted webmaster Steve White, I’d still be promising to get started. Now I have.

Welcome to my blog!