17 September 2012

Ingredient Info - Tocopherol

Tocopherol; selbst erstellt; gemeinfrei Katego...
Tocopherol; selbst erstellt; gemeinfrei Kategorie:Bild:Strukturformel (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
I received an email from a customer the other day.  Her granddaughter and she are going to make lip glosses for her granddaughter's teachers and friends for Christmas.  She'd looked at my website and noticed I list "T-50" as an ingredient, and she wondered what that is and how she could find it.  This was my response.

T-50 (tocopherol-50) is a natural, broad-spectrum form of Vitamin E.  It's a very dark amber, viscous liquid.  It's also rather outrageously expensive right now, too, for some reason.  You can purchase tocopherol acetate easily from pharmacies, grocery stores, etc. where the vitamin supplements are.  They come in gel capsules; you've probably seen them before.

Tocopherol is an antioxidant, which means it slows down the oxidation of oils and butters.  Vitamin E, as it's more commonly known, has no preservative properties at all; it doesn't kill or prevent the growth of bacteria, mold or fungi.  It slows down the rate at which oils and butters will turn rancid, plus it's good for skin, but that's the extent of this fabulous additive.

I don't mind helping customers find out more about the ingredients I use in my products.  Is there a particular product about which you'd like to learn more?  
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06 September 2012

Great Text Message Convo

The Trouble With Tribbles
The Trouble With Tribbles (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
I'm an avid text messenger.  Sometimes, I'd really rather text than talk, because texting is just like short emails.  I can read my messages when I have a chance, reply when I can and the other person can reply when they have time.  In other words, texting cannot really disrupt my day like the poorly timed phone call can.  I bought a smart phone in April to replace my dunked flip phone (and a smart phone does allow me to do more business when I'm away from home), and the autocorrect on my phone comes up with some interesting alternatives.  Unfortunately, I am not able to take screen shots of my phone screen.  This is one of the great conversations that happened on Labor Day.

Me:  "I was just texting the word 'trouble' to someone, and my phone suggested 'Tribble' as an option.  Really?  It's in my phone's dictionary?  When would I reference that?"

Him:  "Tribble is a great word."

Me:  "It is a good word, and Tribbles are cute (and a lot of trouble), but outside of this totally inane conversation, when would I use it?  Screen is blurring from the tears of laughter."

Him:  "I got your tribble right here."

Me:  "No, I got nothing in response to that."

Him:  "LOL."

Me:  "You want the Tribble?  You can't handle the Tribble!"

Him:  "That's too funny."

Just a little snapshot of how silly things can get here, especially on holidays.  What are some of your best text message fails or conversations if you want to share them?
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03 September 2012

Starting New Habits

Cover of "Financial Peace: Restoring Fina...
Cover via Amazon
It all came together in a rather serendipitous way.  I'm helping a dear friend change his money management habits, and he is already doing very well. My husband and I needed to reclaim our own efforts at achieving financial peace, and I as CEO and Soap Goddess of Sara's Soaps 'n Such needed to ramp up my efforts with putting out my newsletter, writing my blog posts and making sure I was using my time on Facebook to the best advantage for my business.  That's a lot of change in a little bit of time!

Donna Maria, my friend and mentor, facilitated a conference call last week in which she outlines her "2x2x2" plan for communicating with customers.  At the same time, Dave Ramsey, who has written books, led seminars and has radio and TV shows about achieving financial peace, reminded me through my reading of The Total Money Makeover how financial peace can only happen through discipline, sacrifice, hard work and following his proven seven steps in order - and there's a reason they're called "baby steps."  Since these two thoughts were foremost in my head, I decided to merge the two ideas into making Donna Maria's guidance work for me.

First, a little background.  Dave wants everyone to become millionaires - or billionaires - and he says that if you want to be a millionaire, then you do what millionaires do.  These things are antithetical to what the majority of Americans do and these millionaires get to where they are in life by making sacrifices and doing smart things that most people would think are dumb.  (Those would be the broke people in this case.)  Baby steps... It's all about baby steps.

If I want to be successful in business, then I need to do those things that successful business people do, and one of those successful people is Donna Maria.  However, I know I will not achieve dM's success in the first month of practicing her social media principles.  So, I decided to attack this, too, in baby steps.  For a business woman who only posts to her Facebook page when she remembers, struggles mightily for a weekly blog topic (and eventually just gave up) and has let two months pass without publishing a newsletter, I knew that I would fail quickly if I tried to put dM's 2x2x2 plan into action the first week.

Last week, I attacked the Facebook challenge - two Facebook posts a day (except for weekends), one morning, one afternoon/evening.  That's easy enough, and I was able to make that happen for me.  This week, I'm adding on the two blog posts for the week to the daily recommended FB posts (and am happy to say I've written both posts today).  Next week, I'll add the newsletter back into my brand promotion.  This is going to help ensure I'm successful without getting frustrated.

Are you signed up to receive my newsletter?  The quick and easy form is here.  You can go over to FB and give me a like here.
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06 August 2012

One Super Hero Among Many

Title sequence from show opening; containing f...
Title sequence from show opening; containing from left to right, Martian Manhunter, Green Lantern, Wonder Woman, Superman, Batman, Flash and Hawkgirl. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
I get called many things - Mommy, sweetheart, CEO, Sexy Soap Goddess and a myriad of other names (most of them nice).  A lot of times, my friends call me "Wonder Woman."  I guess it'd probably fit, but I don't have the bullet-repelling bracelets or the great boots.  CEO, Mom, Teacher and Home Manager are some of my titles, which I guess does make me Wonder Woman.

I've learned something through these years of being something like Wonder Woman.  Wonder Woman flies solo for the most part, as do Superman, Flash Gordon, Green Lantern and Spiderman.  Truthfully, Batman is my favorite super hero, because he doesn't have to rely on external powers, but he does have Alfred, Robin and Batgirl.  Eventually, all these super heroes banded together and became the Justice League, so suddenly, instead of a bunch of great super heroes with their own individual powers fighting to save the world (or "Truth, Justice and the American Way"), you have a very strong group of super heroes who each have their own strengths and weaknesses but who work together to be even more formidable to the forces of evil.

With all that I have going on in my life and all the roles I have, this Wonder Woman needs her Justice League to back her up, and I want to give a shout out to them.  First, there's Superman (my husband), able to work 40 hours a week and come home to demanding daughters and an exhausted wife, juggling them all with aplomb.  Then there's my friend Bobby, who's Batman, a great team player and who intuitively knows what I need when I need it, usually in the form of the question, "What can I do to help you take care of this now?"  He keeps me in the present, which alleviates some of the sense of "overwhelmed" I often feel.  Last but not least are my sister Amazons, a group of incredible ladies with whom I've bonded online - Denise, Ginger, Stephanie, Elizabeth, Babs, Renee, Tammy, Lucy, Merilee, Sindy, Marj and Petra, in addition to Melissa and my rockin' business mentor Donna Maria.  These are the people I go to who understand all that goes into being Mompreneurs and how hard it is to balance the demands of work and family.  These are the people who have my back, who'll come to the rescue when I'm tied up with super villain red tape and who'll intercede when there's the fear that I could release my super temper on some unsuspecting soul.

With which super hero do you most closely identify?  Who in your life makes up your Justice League?
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17 July 2012

The Army Goes Rolling Along

Who doesn't love to travel, to explore new places, meet new people and see new sights?  While I love my home and am something of a homebody, I really enjoy seeing new sights and meeting new people, even if I'm traveling to somewhere I've been before.

Although she's only 10 years old, the damsel in the tub who represents Sara's Soaps 'n Such is getting ready for her first overseas adventures.  Destination?  Afghanistan.  She graced 68 bottles of lotion and 70 tubes of lip balm as she settled into dozens of shipping boxes to head to so many soldiers serving in the Middle East.
Our dinette table the night before the supply drive
This came about by the hard work and efforts of the Cary High School class of 1991 alumni, coordinated by Patti Clapper.  One of our own, Jonathan, is serving in Afghanistan currently and has alerted us to soldiers who don't receive a lot of packages from back home.  Patti organized the Soldier Supply Drive, and quite a few of us came together to help.  Even Jonathan showed up, surprising his eight-year-old daughter, which one of the local news outlets covered.
Jonathan and me
Here are all the boxes lined up on the table, each one filled with goodies like hygiene items, food and other treats.

A whole lotta boxes!
If you wish to help us with future supply drives, please watch this space, my Facebook page and subscribe to my newsletter to find out when the next one is and how you can help.


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