The reason I found it so difficult to sell my products is because I’m not a salesman.  This doesn’t mean I didn’t make sales, it means I was uncomfortable with selling just to sell.  Eventually, after I started hearing your experiences with other products, both good and bad, it sparked my passion and belief in my line.  I no longer sold products, I shared ideas to foster a healthful lifestyle.  Now you are talking my game!  That came naturally to me.  It became easier and easier with every show.

I expose myself to a minimal amount of media in any form.  (Thus my resistance to Facebook and other forms of social media which is a necessary aspect of this biz.)  Pretty much all I listen to is NPR on the radio when I’m cooking and an occasional episode of 60 Minutes On Demand because out of thousands of movies and shows there is not much else that holds my interest or keeps me awake.  (I have 2 speeds, fast and off!)  Most of what is on TV is stupid, in my opinion.  I’d rather read a good book, a real paper book.  Once in a while when I do see and hear what the average American is exposed to ALL DAY EVERY DAY I truly am shocked…and appalled.  We are slowly becoming dumbed down by insidious marketing which is changing us at the cellular level.  It’s no wonder we are a sick and depressed society.  A book on my reading list is “The Hacking of the American Mind: The Science Behind the Corporate Takeover of Our Bodies and Brains” by Robert Lustig.  I heard part of an interview with him on NPR.  Quite disturbing.

The more I learn about ingredients and what they cost, or don’t cost, the more it fuels my fire and drives me to expose the truth.  I am amazed at how many otherwise intelligent, educated people are duped into believing the smaller the amount and higher the price it must be an amazing product.  WAKE UP PEOPLE!!!  Marketers take advantage of vulnerable folks who don’t like themselves the way they are by fully convincing them they’re right and creating a need for some wonder product that is going to fix everything.  Have you lived happily ever after as a result?  How many partially used “Dream Creams” do you have in your cupboard?  Did the “Lipo in a Jar” get rid of your cellulite and turn you into pin-up material?  I didn’t think so.

The only thing that can fix us is us.  Minimalism and a healthful lifestyle is far easier, less time consuming and way less expensive than the alternative.  Through it we can be happier, feel better and enjoy more of the niceties life has to offer.  I know because I too have experienced the alternative.  It’s no fun.  Eat simple whole food, move your body and stretch every day, reduce the amount of all commercial products in your home, talk to more people face to face and take a minute or more to get quiet and focus on all the blessings in your life.  And for goodness sake, learn to read labels!!!

You, my faithful followers, are the reason I am here sitting at my desk typing this right now.  (My ONLY typing class was 1 semester in 7th grade, so this is painfully slow.)  After developing and perfecting enough of a line that I was ready to go public, each year I had a different marketing strategy to introduce my products to diverse groups of people.  After a year of “practice” shows, small, quiet, free gigs that gave me experience setting up and representing my line instead of the hairdressing I knew so well, I was ready to take the plunge.  (I couldn’t believe how hard it was for me to “sell” my own products!!!  I eventually learned why.  More on that later.)

Then universe lined up and I got the very last teeny tiny spot tucked in the corner in a separate little room from the main room at the brand new indoor farmer’s market at Cornell Cooperative Extension of Broome County.  I thought I died and went to heaven!  Well, I did nearly die, working my booth every Saturday for 9 months in addition to working in the salon and manufacturing all these products.  AND I did go to heaven too,  the real theme of this post.  That exposure to that demographic of people was the foundation of my budding business.  Next came indoor craft shows at schools and churches followed by all the biggest outdoor shows like the Spiedie Fest, etc.  I pretty much tested the waters anywhere they would have me.

Again, I tear up at the thought of all of you whom I have met along the way and my forever hair clients who have listened to the endless monologues about it all (as well as let me test everything on them!).  It is your stories and your friends’ and families’  stories who you share with me, how something as simple as a proper cream or deodorant can solve a chronic skin issue.  (I am far from a doctor or chemist, but I do know that often coming back to basics, pure and simple ingredients is often all we need.)  I have learned at least as much from all of you as you have from me.  And one by one you are coming in to the salon for your purchases and sharing the launch of this website with people you care about.  This will allow me more time at home to develop new products and perfect the ones I have.  And by the way, this is the first summer in years that I have had the opportunity to enjoy much of what it has to offer, since I am doing far fewer shows.  For that, I am grateful.

Gracias, Spasiba , Mahalo, Merci, Gracias!!!

P.S. The irony of this, is it is torture to get me to sit still to do any kind of administrative desk work.  I’d much rather be making something or be behind my table.  I’m just not a sit still kinda gal 😉

Who knew that when my brother Rob finally convinced me to put a basket of my homemade soap in my salon to sell, it would be the beginning of this amazing journey I have been on for the past 10 years?  That, coupled with a class my friend Donna signed us up for which I mistakenly thought was advanced soaping.  It turned out to be a goat milk lotion class in which I really had no interest.  I went anyway.  The same instructor announced she taught a liquid soap making class as well. That caught my interest.  Hair salon…shampoo…BINGO!  Although that is how my line was born, it took me 2 more years to figure out that the castile soap I learned to make was not suitable for shampoo.  Since I finish everything I start, I had to learn why!  (More on that in a future post.)

Ten years later, here I am, writing my very first blog post.  Welcome.  I’m honored and humbled that you are reading this. (My gosh, I’m starting to cry.)  I never had any intention of “going public” with my line, as there are a lot of crazies out there and I didn’t want to become vulnerable.  But as time went on and more and more people were touched by my products, they urged me to spread the good word, that it was too good a product to keep a secret.  Anyone who knows me, knows I don’t do anything halfheartedly…it’s all or nothing, baby!  So they convinced me to go “all in”.  (I swore I would NEVER be on Facebook!!!  Never say never. LOL.)  That’s how Robilotti Products for Bath, Body and Home was born.  And the rest, as they say is history!