39% Business
Today Jeanne and I worked really hard on figuring out something to do for our 5th anniversary that isn’t lame, overdone, or trite. And let me tell you, once you get rid of every idea that falls into one of those categories, then there isn’t much left to work with. I’m telling you now, it may be just a normal day next Wednesday with a large gold foil “5” balloon on our front counter. But if I know us - and I do - the balloon will go by the wayside by the time Wednesday morning arrives and it will just be a normal day, minus me waxing poetic.
In the interim, here are a few things worth noting:
Jeanne has been nominated for Best Pastry Chef and PJP has been nominated for Best Bakeshop in the annual Feast 50 awards. I’m super proud of both Jeanne and PJP, as it is well deserved. You might have seen our new Carrot Cake pie circulating around on social media today…that is all Jeanne’s creativity. I’m a solid nah, dawg on eating carrot cake or having the patience to figure out how to bake it deliciously in a pie crust.
Speaking of women in business, I watched an interesting TED talk this week that looked at female entrepreneurship. Women own 39% of all businesses in America, but receive only 2% of available venture capital funding. TWO PERCENT. My spicy take: men are almost always the venture capitalists with the cash to make the investments. If you had a sector of women with access to billions to invest, this world would look a lot different.
I’m headed to Birmingham this weekend to see The Popcast Live and in preparation, I’ve noticed a serious dearth of cute spring sandals. After the recommendation of some of my favorite people on the Internet, I drank the Kool-aid and ordered the BedStu Soto Leather Flat Sandal. They arrived earlier this week and they are 100% worth every bit of money I paid for someone to hand stitch all that 100% leather together. I ordered them in black, because of course I did.
And I’m undecided on whether or not to take the hosts of The Popcast - Knox and Jamie - any tarts or Jelly Jars. It could be charming, or it could be creepy. As a rule, I lose all intelligent thought around famous people as evidenced by my meet-and-greet with Jason Isbell several years ago. Oh, and a chance meeting with John Stamos in 1988 which still makes me cringe to this day.
And finally, in the category of what to read - I just started reading The Next Right Thing by Emily P. Freeman. It is billed as a book for people who struggle to made decisions because they overthink OR they have decision making fatigue because they made so many decisions. Or both, in my case. I’m a third of the way in and YES, PLEASE. I’m even taking notes in the margins, so you know I mean business. Like 39% business, not 2% business.