Slowing Down and Smallering for a New ME!

Posted by Jenni Feingold on

I have to honestly say the past 3 years business wise, personal wise & family wise have been such a whirlwind. From in 2010 my business grew to SIX TIMES what it had been in 2009 and 2009 had already DOUBLED 2008. I was in awe. I was and have been struggling to keep up ever since. I have felt constantly behind always wanting to do more, make more, be more, create more new products trying to fill everyone’s needs. The person’s needs I was ignoring most of the time were my own. In the past 3 years I have gained an additional 50 lbs on my already overweight 5′ 1″ body . I can’t even begin to tell you how many times in the past few years at shows someone would come to my booth and tell me they had been following my blog or heard from a friend about my products but just didn’t expect me to be so fat. I’ve mostly laughed it off saying things like “yeah 3 term pregnancies in 5 years will do that to you” or “I have no me time with 3 kids I’m homeschooling and an infant/toddler” when what I really wanted was to cry. Every single time I thought about a missed sale or connection because I was fat. It was time for a change. In the 20+ shows I did from 2009-2011 this is the ONLY picture I have of me with my booth, and the only reason is I was being photographed with the winners of the scavenger hunt for my herbal tea.

Image from http://fentonstreetmarket.com from 2010

What does this mean for Lana Bella? Well I recently started project me aka Jenni loses 100+ lbs by my birthday next year. To accomplish this for my self-esteem, for my health (please lets not discuss how there are plenty of bigger people in better health than some skinny people because I know for ME being 100+ lbs overweight is not healthy for my mind. body or spirit), for my spirit, for my family, I’ll be pulling back a little. I’ll be saying No a little more. I’ll let things run out of stock once in a while. It’s honestly a lot of work keeping 50+ soaps in stock never mind the other products. I’ll be keeping more accurate inventory. So when you order a 3, 4, or 6 pack of soap and you want x of something please don’t be angry if you get an email back and I say I’m sorry I only have b left would you like a substitution? I’ll be setting aside only two days a month for making what I get done will have to be enough. I will add a third day in and get prepped better for holiday. I will warn you though there will only be 45 bars total of the holiday soaps I won’t be making more that gives you from Nov 1 (I’ll have them ready a little earlier this year) until they sell out to get them. If you know now that you want 12 of something for teachers gift or stockings please contact me soon so I can get in into my schedule.  Also know that because of the multiple shops and the single inventory I am human so there may be time when an order comes in that I haven’t adjusted inventory elsewhere I’m sorry in advance, and hey you might luck out and get an upgrade in size because of it :) .

I find it a bit ironic that when I started my business back in 2004 I had found an article on another diaper makers website about smallering. It made so much sense then and I tried to follow the ideals. Then in 2010 doing shows was a total new whirlwind for me. I am ever grateful for all those shows financially they really helped us to do so much with our family, that never would have happened otherwise. For now to move forward though I need to slow down. Somehow I have a 3.5 year old and nearly two teenagers, life is moving too fast and I don’t want to miss any more of their childhoods.

You might find me blogging more though there will be a lot of transformations happening. I’ve also started a second blog. I was on the fence about this for a very long time. I only wanted the responsibilities of maintaining one blog, however I wasn’t sure how much I was ready to share about my weight loss journey. In the past week its funny it has 9 days I’ve decided I’m pretty comfortable with sharing it all but I’ll spare you that journey and instead refer you to the other blogso you can follow my weightless transformation over there. If you have been struggling with it yourself please contact me I’d love to discuss with no obligations what I am doing and how excited I am. I’ve hated clothes shopping for a really long time however I’m really excited about buying exercise clothing go figure! I’m really excited about the changes and I hope we can all still work together.

This also means I am more than ever open to wholesale. I’d honestly rather spend those 2 making days a month making a really big order and put it to bed and have that much less responsibility.

Thank you for all of your support over the years and I hope in the future! Lets bring it!


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