That's so cool!

That reminds me, I did a little word-of-mouth marketing for you to a couple of my friends. I'll send them your info. Not sure they're in the market quite yet, but they'll keep you in mind for sure.

And also--WOO HOO!!!! Good on ya! Three cheers!

I can't remember who said it, but I've heard this: "It ain't bragging if you can prove you did it" or something like that. That sounds really neat. I wish you could come to Chicago and give me a new kitchen. Hope the article is good and that it brings you lots of new bizness.

I think that's pretty interesting, especially because it's nichey and a look into a job/world that a lot of us don't know much about. I think it's bragging if you're just being crass about something that is more trying to one-up other people but this is not that, and it's just so nifty!

This is celebrate chewie stuff! Sharing in excitement!

Thanks you guys. You always help me navigate those unwritten rules that confound me so on a daily basis. :)

I meant to say that the article was in association with the IKEA store story, not the store itself. Me no worky for IKEA. I just design with their stuff. & thanks Stew!

pics?

I didn't take any - I was so rushed to clean off all the dust (the rest of the house is still a work in progress - a really dusty one) I barely was ready for the photog guy. He's send me copies though, will post in a day or so.

I won't say this thread is useless without pics, but-well, post some when you can, I wanna see!

Congrats on your story-that is ossum!

That's wonderful - please link to the story if there's an online version! Super exciting. I hope you get a ton of business from it.

In your honor: Tiger Woods, by Dan Bern. In which:

It ain't bragging if it's true,
Yes sir. Yes sir.
It ain't bragging if it's true.
Muhammad Ali said that.

Chewie - w000t!! Way to go, and what a smart bidness plan. Please post pics of your kitchen, and link to the article if it's online.

Killer job, Chewie! Way to get known!

We only hate you because you're doing better than everyone else -- don't take it personally!

IKEAd. IKEAd.

Cool, Chewie!

It's very weird: my strategy from a year or so ago was to learn IKEA's systems & try to ride the coattails of the new store opening, and now it's actually happening.

That's a very smart strategy. And it's paying off, too!

Good job, chewie!

I SO want to see this. Good job, chewie!

Thanks everyone! *blush*

So, y'all don't see this as being vain? i'm trying to get better at being confident/fact based since I'm my own marketer right now. In the past either I wouldn't mention it at all, or I'd be so excited I couldn't really explain it & it would come out like, LOOKIT WHAT I DID!!

I suck at social crap. the one thing I miss since all the press started is being under my rock. But I know I need the press to survive, so I gotta find a way to be ok out from under my rock.

Who here has to market themselves? Jessamyn? What about you, BP & Stew, like when you have reviews with your bosses? Is there any way to just freaking relax & focus?

It's not bragging - it's sucsessful marketing. You came up with a killer strategy and followed through. Now, you're getting some great results.

Think about the fact that you've now given a bunch of folks the opportunity to know you exist and use your considerable skills to benefit their future kitchen project. If they didn't know about you, they'd use someone else and possibly not end up with as good a result.

Oh, and BIG WOOT! CONGRATS! That's kewl!

Nice work, chewie!

Well done, chewie! I see nothing wrong with describing something you're proud of.

I have to market myself too, as a freelance translator, but most of my marketing is passive - I make sure information about me is out there and that people who need my services can/are forced to find me easily. Seems to work. I am glad I don't perform a service that might be needed by people I meet casually - I don't think I could cope with having to market myself all the time. As it is, I switch on my marketing side at conferences etc., but that's it. The alternative would be pretty draining for me.

I want to see the pics when you have them!

As for self-promoting, awkward, etc?... aargh. Double aargh. I'm the worst. Maybe I'll tell one story later that still kind of crushes me. I started to tell it now, but then it got me feeling twitchy again, which is stupid, but sort of par for the course, I guess.

So, y'all don't see this as being vain?

Heck, no!

I like this:

We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous,
talented and fabulous?

Actually, who are you not to be?

You are a child of God.

Your playing small does not serve the world.

and this:

13Ye are the salt of the earth: but if the salt have lost his savour, wherewith shall it be salted? it is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men.

14Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid.

15Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick; and it giveth light unto all that are in the house.

16Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.

Sorry if those are extra-religious-y choices but I have found some truth in them both - no matter how you conceive the spiritual realm, you're here on earth to do something only you can do and be something only you can be. There's absolutely nothing shameful in showing what you do - in fact, there's more shame and hurt in hiding it, 'playing small.'

Thanks, Miko - the playing small one especially made sense. Cool.

If it makes you feel more comfortable with the promotion angle, how about thinking of your business as something more separate from you, the person? When you are being yourself, you can hide under a rock where it's warm and comfortable but, when you are in work mode, you are no longer that person and you are not self-promoting at all, you are marketing a business. It's no different than if you were marketing someone else's business, really - you just happen to be on both sides of the boss/lackey equation.

It's a tough job to run a small business and one of the things that lots of people struggle with is identifying themselves separately from the business - you are not your business and your business does not define you as a person. Promote the hell out of your business during the week and then be yourself on weekends, but don't let the business become your entire purpose in life. By keeping the two separate in your mind, you are also more open to constructive criticism of the business without having to take it as criticism of you as a person.

Chew, well done. Very exciting to get in the press, isn't it? Keep up the good work.

Miko, thanks for getting the origins of the first quote correct. Seems like a couple times a year I have to point out to somebody that Mandela didn't write that. Yes, he used it in a speach but they aren't his words.