Stunned and Amazed by The Cakes

My Executive wife Jan, better known as "The Cakes" started on a journey last year to create her own business. Her dream, "All American Fair" is blinking on hold for the moment, the investment to do the business right, to make it what it can and some day will be, had to be put aside. I won't get into the reasons, but I will say, Venture Capitalists are short sighted.

So now what?

Cakes is a marketing professional, she's been a corporate officer at one of the largest furniture retailers in Southern California, she's worked on the manufacturing level marketing to the world's biggest retailers. Cakes has worked for an advertising agency, while there, she and her team produced a video for a local hospital, it won a Regional Emmy award. She's good, damn good.

So now what?

Cakes, her friend and colleague Barbara met in our upstairs office one day. They discussed their skills and contacts. They bounced their ideas off me, they listened to me and hopefully discounted most of what I said, as well they should. They did their research and they they came up with a plan. That plan created Moonstone Marketing and Media.

So now what?

Without a design staff and a computer genius by her side. Cakes went to seminars and web design classes. In 6 weeks of 12 and 14 hour days, she taught herself the skills, skills she needed and never had to learn in her past.

She learned the "front end" and the "back end" of web design, she learned "SEO", she learned how to secure platforms for ecommerce. Cakes learned to link social media to each other and make them work, bringing the various platforms together to make something bigger and stronger than the individual platforms. While Cakes was learning, Barbara was on the street looking for potential clients. Together they went to meetings, sales pitches really. They came back with reams of notes, notes that helped them create presentations to fulfill the clients needs.

So now what?

Her first client is a friend of mine, he had a terrible web site, no social media and a great concept. Cakes created a new site and in turn it created a new image for his services and his business has skyrocketed. So much so, he is starting to complain, a little anyway, about how busy he is. A few weeks ago he offered her an override on new business, she took it.

Barbara's background is in health care, Moonstone now represents a local pharmacy group, a high quality home health care service and another home nursing client focused on post surgical needs and individual services.

Moonstone has a new client in the human resources field. They represent a large commercial printing business. They are ready to close a financial services client. Next week they are making a presentation to 40 non-profit senior citizen services organizations.

Cakes works in the office upstairs. Yesterday, she was up at 7, at her desk before 8. She spent the day designing and writing for her clients, she was on the phone with them. She was still doing it at 7 last night. She worked in yoga pants, a fleece pull over and her pink slippers all day. She seldom took a break.

What did she accomplish? She designed and wrote 4 targeted electronic flyers and sent them out to over 100 targeted potential clients. She designed thank you cards for a client and started another design project. She took an introductory letter I wrote for Moonstone, rewrote it and sent it out.

She exchanged over 20 emails with a client and then on the phone walked the client through a painful conversation of why the client had to change the clunky image she had created herself and used for years.

I am stunned by Cake's energy, creativity, at how tenacious she is and the laser like focus she has.

She is on hell of a woman. I am so proud of her and completely amazed at what she has created in such a short period of time.

Moonstone is close to breaking even in 6 short months...know anybody who needs marketing help? They could put her over the top!

I don't think I need to mention I love her very much, do I?