Authenticity

I was reading an interview with Rosie O'Donnell the other day. In it, she was discussing the fakeness of Hollywood, what she dislikes about the whole fame situation -- a common theme for her since she sort of "retired" from the whole scene.

I had also been contemplating my own little biz at the time . . . something I spend most of my time doing actually.
Little swirls of "how can I make this little endeavor more successful"

Dancing with "how can I connect with my customers better"

Swimming around with "am I being honest and genuine about my products"

oh and lots more stuff in the whole cha, cha, cha line dance - dosey do-ing around in my brain.

For some reason, it has always seemed to me that this little business is not just a fanciful hobby, or just some little scheme to make easy money (ha! easy? No Way!), but that this soap business is more important than that. I'm not quite ready to state that it's my life's mission, or my true calling, or some high-falutin' sharing of my soul. But I keep coming back to the idea that this is meaningful work for me. And the path to so-called success, is for me to really shine within in. Feed it more of my real personality, connect with my customers in an honest way, make it a relationship -- not some faceless service. And rewards will come out of that relationship. Not just money, but satisfaction. Of course, money and profit needs to be there too, since this is my sole source of financial survival. But it seems to be all wrapped up together, and if something in the recipe is missing, the whole cake falls flat.

So, I've been working on shifting perceptions, making little changes, and trying to get into that sort of synergistic flow -- that I think was there at the beginning, and seemed to have drifted away for a while. The energy and excitement of doing what you love to do, and having others love it also. Not just toiling away at tasks to make a buck.

Oh, so back to the Rosie article -- here's her quote which made my eyebrows jump and my skin tingle . . .

"Authenticity is the only thing that people want to buy." -- Rosie O'Donnell

She's a smart cookie, and I believe her. Kind of. I mean, I think that's true in a perfect world. But we're not living in a perfect world. It's full of cheap imports, and Wal-Marts, and tough economic times, and war. People need to make decisions to buy stuff for all kinds of reasons, and desperation and budgets have a role in that. But I do believe that people are drawn to authenticity, and can spot fakes a mile away. They generally don't like to be duped, snowed, manipulated, etc. out of their hard earned cash. And they like to support things that they believe in, buy stuff that makes them feel good for reasons bigger than the instant rush of acquisition.

/end of rainbows and kittens and kumbayah songs . . .