The Adventures of Elizabeth

Phone call from the future....You know those rare moments that "just happen at the right time" that are so reaffirming? Well that moment happened yesterday for me. I was having a particularly tiring week (with expansion to Chicago) and several things just didn't go right or even close to as planned. Then I get a phone call from the future.

Yes, the future - literally. I got a call from Australia, and it was 5:30 AM the next day over there - so I was literally talking from someone who was already living in my tomorrow. Kind of reassuring - to know that there will be a tomorrow and a chance to start again.

My new friend, Cathy, initially contacted me via email to let me know she read about me in Romantic Homes, been to my website, and even read my blog. She wrote just about the sweetest email anyone could ever get. Plus, she is first Australian to email me. Cathy has a wonderful website that I encourage you to visit ...www.cathypentondesigns.com. She sells wonderful, artful charms and she is just starting out.

She sent me some wonderful custom Elizabeth House pieces as a gift and shortly after receiving them, St. Louis had a terrible storm that caused a huge power outage, and then immediately after that, I was out of town in Chicago. So, Cathy calls me yesterday to make sure I received her "parcel" as the Australians so charmingly say. What a nice surprise to get her call.

I instantly felt kindred spirits. To hear her happy voice, her excitement with her new business that is so "tiny and new" as she puts it...and what an "honor" it was to talk with me. Believe me, the honor was all mine. I am still very tiny and still very new as well. But to hear her passionate voice over the phone was just the medicine I needed to remember, and hold on to, those same feelings that I once had, but can get easily overtaken with worries, power outages, broken down car, not enough time to meet some deadlines....Cathy's call meant more to me than she even knows.

After I hung up, I sat and thought for a moment about how absolutely fabulous it is to have a total stranger call me all the way from Australia because she saw something in the article, my website, or this blog that inspired her to contact me. I would have never, ever thought that something so wonderful as that could really happen to me when I first opened my doors almost four years ago.

And that is what I want you boutique-owner-wanna-be's to realize. That when you are finally ready to open your doors for business - know that there are many, many doors you will be opening and you won't even realize that not only did you open a new door, but you walked right through it. And while all those doors are new and exciting and even necessary for growth...don't ever lose that feeling of pure excitement and sense of accomplishment you felt when you opened that very first door - your new business.

There will always be power outages, virus-filled computers, shortage of time and resources. But there will be only one time that you will experience the joy, thrill, pride, and pure excitement as a brand new business owner. Enjoy it. And never forget that feeling. And when that feeling escapes you - it is the calls from those "Cathy's" in your life that will jolt you right back where you need to be - back in business.

Thank you Cathy for the call from "down under." You lifted my spirits and that is a cherished gift that is "parceled" through time - a lifetime.

From my house to your house,

Elizabeth
www.elizabethhouse.us