so i just went to my 10 year high school reunion last night. while it went much better than i expected, there is one thing that just drove me crazy.
the number one question people ask you at your high school reunion is "so, what are you doing now?"....as in work. while i'm very proud of what i have accomplished in my 10 years since high school, it just never seems to come off the way i want it to. when asked the question of what i do, i respond with "i own my own business". they then proceed to ask what my business is. to that i answer "it's a stationery company....we make greeting cards, announcements, invitations, etc". 9 times out of 10, the response to that is "oh! i make greeting cards too! i go to tons of stamping parties". while i respect that people have hobbies and they enjoy stamping at their parties, you just can't convey to someone the difference between their hobby and my business. as soon as they hear greeting cards, they automatically assume i do it in my free time and that i sell maybe 10 cards a year. therefore, they don't ask any more questions. they have no idea that i actually have employees, that i have reps that sell my products all over the country and that i sell thousands of cards every year. it's such a frustrating thing.
i was brought up in a family who believed in modesty. bragging was not highly thought of. so because of that, i'm not really the type of person to just start laying it all out there for them without being asked. i guess, in the end, it's my fault for not elaborating with them and explaining the successes i have accomplished.
it probably wouldn't make much of a difference anyway. i grew up in a very small town (72 kids in my graduating class), so my cards aren't sold anywhere near where many of these people still live because there are no cute gift shops or anything of the sort. i told one person the name of the nearest shop that they could buy my cards in (which is an hour from where they live) and her response was "i've never heard of it...all i really know is hallmark".
great. :(
Sunday, August 14, 2005
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7 comments:
Oh, do I know how you feel. First, I get the paperbiz comments, too.
Second, I made my daughter's baby book (it's a big sketchbook covered in plain shantung silk with her name embroidered on it)--all hand-done, lots of artwork, etc., nothing "scrapbook" about it.
My mother-in-law flipped through it and said, oh, you scrapbook, how interesting.
It's NOT a scrapbook, thank you very much!
That is so funny - reminds me of a girl who shadowed me one day at the ad agency. She was a senior in college - weeks from graduation - had never heard of Quark or Photoshop and wanted to be an art director because she was really good at scrapbooking!
Even though you're not the bragging type, you should send a press release to your hometown newspaper and see if they'd do a write-up!
i'm glad i'm not the only one!
gilley - i want to know what kind of school she was attending? what were they teaching her? i can't even imagine....
She went to a state school down here that obviously lacks a good advertising program. Oh- something else funny on the same note - while at the agency, a girl was hired who graduated from Creative Circus in Atlanta and they don't teach Quark there either (nor InDesign). Taught them to build their ads in Illustrator. OK, great, but when she went to design her first brochure she was clueless.
Off the subject, we're the same age - I graduated high school in '95 too!
that's the most rediculous thing i've ever heard! i design school that doesn't teach their students quark (or indesign)? she should get her money back!
can you even believe it's been 10 years since graduating? man it makes me feel old. especially when i go and some of my friends have kids who are 9 and 10 years old! i can't even imagine! i'm just starting! :)
NO QUARK?????!!!!!
How does one survive in the graphic design industry without QUARK!
I hear ya! I've learned to bring some samples with me on various trips so that I can pull stuff out when they spring that on me. Nice thing is that most of the time they are flabber-gasted when they compare my stuff to theirs, so they understand the difference between our crafts - not that there is anything wrong with how they do theirs!
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