I celebrated my 30th anniversary this year with my store! Here are some reflections on the journey and our year.

A common response from a customer hearing we’re celebrating our 30th anniversary at The Fossil Cartel: “30 years?! What were you, 12 when you started?” Of course it makes me feel good that at 58, I don’t look quite as old as the fossils in my store...yet. :-) When I first started at 28, people would incredulously ask, “You’re the OWNER?!” I suppose 28 is a little on the young side for being a business owner, but I always wondered if it also had to do with the fact that I was a woman. Fast forward 30 years, if my husband happens to be in the store helping me out, people -- especially men -- often approach him assuming he’s the owner, even though I am standing right there. It doesn’t really bother my ego, but it does show me that misogyny is still a thing, and that’s a problem. I see it as a symptom of the greater malady of dishonoring the feminine principle, from raping women to violating Mother Earth, causing her to become uninhabitable. 

In order to reverse course, bring balance and heal this world, women need to take responsibility and take action. The powers that be in our patriarchal society will not do it for us. One of the best ways to empower women and amplify the feminine is to bring women together for that purpose. Besides running The Fossil Cartel, for the past 5 years I’ve been gathering women by hosting Red Tent women’s circles and other events through my Moondays project.

Another way we can honor the divine feminine is to appreciate all of her beauty and mystery. I have always appreciated crystals and fossils as some of the most amazing treasures, gifts from the Great Mother. I hope others honor them the same way. I still delight in seeing faces light up in the store as people marvel about what they are seeing, holding and hearing about. Being able to actually see, touch and hear about something you’re considering purchasing has got to be better in so many ways than shopping online. Plus you’re supporting a local small business! 

It’s been a really great 30th anniversary year for us. With all of our celebrations, contests, special promotions, having Nicolas Cage shop in the store, and being on TV, we’ve had a lot of fun and got to connect more with all of you. I am so grateful to all our customers for appreciating the mineral and fossil kingdom as much as we do. Thank you for continuing to keep us in business all these years! May we all tread softly and treat Mother Earth kindly, so she may continue to provide a wondrous, bountiful, beautiful home for us all.
Here are the links for the two segments we were in, on the show More Good Day Oregon:
https://www.kptv.com/good_day_oregon/more/rare-and-unique-finds-at-the-fossil-cartel/video_59c9b05c-c0c1-5147-8814-afff14c55224.html
https://www.kptv.com/good_day_oregon/more/holiday-gift-ideas-that-will-rock-your-world/video_3848a274-b38a-574e-9567-73f0a345374a.html

We’re off to a good start! My heart is full from all the wonderful support that’s come flooding in from all of you! 
Every day things come up to remind me why this project is so important. Last night I went to a women’s business networking event. I spoke with a lawyer who, besides having a regular practice, also has a start-up that services attorneys online. She told me about a recent experience with a potential investor. After they talked for a while, he said to her flat out that he wasn’t going to invest in her company because he figured she was just going to become a mother and devote all of her time to being a mom. My blood boils when I hear stories like that! How dare he?! He would never say that to a man!
We need a place to come together to shore each other up and strategize how to deal with the day-to-day and the big picture. Moondays will be the perfect gathering place for sisterhood, women’s empowerment and self-care.

I just sent out the emails asking people if they would commit to backing the project. It's so hard for me to ask for things. I remember one time when I was a kid and I was with my dad in a store. There was something I wanted very badly, but I couldn't bring myself to ask for it so I stood there and cried because it was so painful. I think many women have been in the same boat. Men have the feeling of entitlement in our culture and we just don't because of the way the patriarchy is structured. I've been getting a lot of yeses, so that's a relief! :-)
I finally got to see the video and it's great! I'm very excited about it. It's interesting how the filmmaker had to edit together bits and pieces of the footage to tell the story.
We're creating a bunch of Facebook ads, so you'll be seeing us a lot if you're on that platform.
I'm so excited and nervous because we go live in just 4 days!!!!!

We did it! We filmed the video last Sunday. It was really fun to build-out a mock up of a Moondays. Michael, the filmmaker, was very professional and I'm excited to see the finished product. It was a blast working with a bunch of sisters who were totally jazzed about it, too. And I am so grateful for their help!
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My critical perfectionist eye kept going to all of the not-so-perfect details, or second guessing things like my outfit, the way my interview went, etc. I was so grateful for Morghannah and Morgan agreeing to be the two other interviewees. They are such eloquent, articulate speakers and passionate about the project. I was also overjoyed with how our volunteer models help set up some of the shots, for instance in the "cafe." They did such a magnificent job making the food and place settings look beautiful, way better than I could have done. It was a lot of work to set up and take down in 5 hours and get in all the different scenes we wanted to capture. Then Michael and I went downtown to shoot some scenes at my store, The Fossil Cartel. All of that time and work and the finished product will only be 2 minutes long! It will be interesting to see which cuts make it in the video and how Michael puts it all together. ​

I've sent the preview link out to those who agreed to help review it. I am amazed at how many thorough responses I'm getting! People have been so kind spending time to really look it over, take it in and make suggestions. I've already changed the page a great deal due to the feedback. The power of having a couple of hundred eyes looking at it is phenomenal. People think of all sorts of improvements I would not have thought of. Plus I've received a lot of encouragement through positive responses and messages from others who believe in my vision. It helps to know I'm on the right track! It makes all of this hard work so worth it.

I hired someone to do a rendering of what Moondays could look like. I only had one revision after the initial submission. There's so much I'd like to change, but it would get too costly to keep going. Hopefully it will help people picture it, along with the video that's coming and how I describe it in the body of the Kickstarter page. 

Nervous about my video. Michael asked me to journal for 4 days leading up to the shoot to " lubricate my mind" for the interview.  Will I say the right things? Will I say everything I want to say? Will my mental health be okay?

Sound bites I'm working on:

1. What is the pain point/ issue?
2. What's my solution?
3. What will users learn?
4. What is my background? (that's the easiest!)
5. What future am I creating?

There are many various pieces to the video shoot: 2 main interviews besides me, and these scenes: cafe, retail, henna, massage, tarot & astrology reading, hair braiding and Jen playing her dobro. Will the various vignette scenes work? Will we remember and have all the right props? We have from 8:00am-1:00pm to get it all done. I have a feeling we'll have to rush to get everything all cleaned up and out the door at the end.

Having to keep track of thousands of emails and people's responses is a big task. I wonder what people's responses will be after they see the link. Will I be inundated with billions of responses? Hopefully, all good? :-) This is definitely an interesting adventure.