Our fellow teammate Zelmarose is in the running for the Martha Stewart American Made Awards, a contest that is "searching for the rising stars in a new generation of small-business owners." Lisa has moved to the final round - down to only 100 people out of 2,000! Read below learn about her exciting journey through this process, what it's meant for her, and how its' affected her shop, and then check out the contest before voting ends tomorrow!
Me & Martha.
To say I love Martha Stewart would be the understatement of the century. She’s amazing. A top-notch businesswoman, intelligent, fierce, an innovative eye for trends and creativity long before the rest of us catch on, and a stamina that just won’t quit. She has built her business from the ground up twice, mastered all channels of media and baked brownies with Snoop Dog. Martha just plain rules!
You can imagine then my out of control excitement when my friend Kelly alerted me that Martha and her crew were having a contest to find unique makers from across America. No sooner did I get the message from Kelly that I received an email from the American Maker Contest that I had been nominated. Now don’t get too excited, to be nominated only means that you either nominated yourself, or a friend or fan nominated you. I didn’t care if it meant my mom had done it, I was psyched! I got to work right away. After checking out the other nominee entries, the first call I made was to my good friend Karrie Myers Taylor of Videokard. Karrie is gifted behind the camera and creates video based business cards for all kinds of professionals and businesses. I knew if I wanted to catch the eye of Martha’s editors, I had to get Karrie to shoot one of her trademark videos. Karrie was on board! Next step was to cram as much info as I could about me, my business and my goals into 1500 characters. Then on to choosing just the right bio and product photos. Luckily this was easy. My friend and Awfully Grand blogging partner Sarah Deragon takes all my headshots and model shots for Zelma Rose. I was set.
I started Zelma Rose a little over two years ago. I come from a long lineage of master woodworkers and seamstresses and crazy creative types. We Andersons make with our hands. I’ve always been an artist and worked as one for many years, but took a brief, okay not really, try 6 year detour to become a licensed psychotherapist. That was great and I still love psychology but through a wild series of strange events called life, I went back to my first love when my man and I started a family. I have my hands in many things, as a businesswoman. There is Zelma Rose, Wed & Roses, my wedding cake topper business, and Lisa Anderson Shaffer Consulting. I provide psychologically minded business solutions for startups, tech companies, and small businesses. Whew! That and I am a blogger. I blog here and there, for my own blogs, Zelma Rose and Awfully Grand, and provide content for IndieMade, Stitch Labs, and Rena Tom.net. I looove to write. This whole woman with many hats thing works for me and I am an endlessly happy worker bee.
My goal going into the contest was to just somehow someway get the Martha crew’s attention. I thought if I never got anywhere beyond being a nominee it still meant that for one brief second, someone over at Martha Stewart Omnimedia was going to be aware that I existed. A few days later, early in the morning while chasing after my toddler my husband called to tell me I made it to the final round. Yes, I totally screamed. The final round means that among over 2000 entries, I was chosen to be 1 of 100. Now it is the audience’s turn to pick one winner and Martha and her crew to choose 10 winners. Yikes. The audience voting ends September 24. My fingers and toes are crossed and I’m hoping for the best. I feel so much support and love from my customers, friends, SF Etsy teammates and family. Everyone has voted and kept the cheering section going strong. I definitely do not have thousands of votes, but maybe just maybe…
Whatever happens, I’m just thrilled to have been on the Martha Stewart radar for a brief moment in time. The exposure has been great and I’ve seen an increase in sales, Zelma Rose is spreading on Pinterest (The Martha peeps even pinned one themselves), and I’ve been contacted by some PR agencies, and press. All in all it’s been awesome. And mission accomplished! My fantasy is that somewhere on someone’s’ desktop at Martha Stewart is a folder with Zelma Rose on it. I’m waiting for that email saying that she absolutely needs samples of my work to shoot for the next issue. Martha, I’m ready and waiting!!
- Lisa of Zelmarose
If you're an Etsy seller in the San Francisco Bay Area, contact Katy or Steph about joining SFEtsy!
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2 comments:
Huge congrats to you -- and best of luck! Such an inspiring story. Thanks for sharing!!!
Congrats and good luck! It's wonderful to hear how you prepared and entered~very inspiring! We never know what chances will end up being the just right thing and I really admire your effort :)
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