Banishing Bad Hair Days since 1997!™

Surviving Another Day In The Crazy Hair Net World

Some of my friends and family don't understand why I go "MIA" for days on end. I was recently trying to explain what its like to be CEO of an Internet hair & beauty company to a good friend but her eyes glazed over. Hmmmm maybe if I write it down it will make more sense? Or maybe someone will show up and haul me away to a celeb crowded rehab ward "to rest".

My day actually started on Wednesday (March 13, 2008) at 2:00 am when I received a phone call from an employee who was having "some problems". I resolved those issues and then I crashed right out due to the fact I had worked close to 20 hours straight the day before (Tuesday) and was completely exhausted.

After stopping for my non-fat Chai Tea latte at Starbucks (yes, I am addicted yet again) I barely made it into the HairBoutique.com front door when I was detoured by an employee telling me about a "great potential employee" that he had found.

I listened politely and after asking some questions decided the applicant might work. They weren't a Millenium, they actually had the required experience and didn't show signs of being an axe murderer. Schedule a meet and greet I said...as long as I don't have to be there....for the first elimination round.

A few feet further down the hallway I stopped to chat with my HB CFO to discuss sales figures and to ask about her latest projects. We agreed to grab lunch to delve into a new business project she was in charge of.

I made it to my office, sat down at my computer and was instantly bombarded with bursts of emails from the HB IT guys, (who have been exiled to a different building where they have escaped the daily corporate chaos) vendors and a variety of requests for meetings, chats and follow-ups. Plus lots of other hair and business related "stuff". You have no idea. I have no idea. Every day is crazy around here.

A long term editor/partner for a magazine I have been working with for over six years nudged me gently via email about an interview I was finishing up on celeb hairdresser great - Campbell McAuley.

Have you ever tried writing with constant interruptions? I have been struggling to finish the piece for what seems like an eternity while I try to fit it in between 20 hour work days and some periods of random sleep.

Almost done...I sincerely promise her...and then I worry. I need to finish that &*@# piece which has grown to over 4,000 words. I can't ever write short pieces. I am short article challenged. I have an unfinished article monkey on my back.

My HB marketing guru arrives in my office. She wants to know if I can whip up 3 new articles for the latest newsletter and should we send it out today or Friday? UGH. I can't even finish Campbell....three new articles? Three? Really?

I tell her I will try and write one of the three article today....but can't seem to get past the first two paragraphs even with my door shut against more interruptions. My staff has learned if my door is closed to try and get my attention by a variety of trickery. They try text messaging, sending emails or calling me on my cell phone. I try to ignore them, even when the pound on my door....but I can only avoid them so long since they know I am in the office.

They need to open the door and hold a cup of Chai tea...that would do the trick. I hope they don't read my blogs.

A product rep keeps calling to tell me about great package deals and do I want to reorder the existing SKUs? UGH. Yes, I need to hear about the deal and reorder but it is wayyyyyyyyyyy down on my priority list. The rep is a good guy but even though I keep referring him to the person in charge of the line he insists on calling me personally. I postpone calling him back.

The HB graphic artist wants my feedback on a new logo for yet another new project. I designed the logo and he drew it for me. But I have to stop and give feedback. Move this word up a tad and draw the frame line in black instead of blue I tell him.

Then he wants me to look at photos for a new banner ad.

Everyone loves it but one of the IT guys who pops in from the other building long enough to say the model in the middle is "ugly". I roll my eyes and dig out a CD with more images and tell the graphic artist to try and find a different model who is more appropriate.

Time for lunch and I have not even made it through more than 25 of the hundreds of emails from today.

My CFO and I talk non-stop business from the time we leave the office until we hit the restaurant. I am so busy writing notes, I forget to eat my sandwich and take a to-go box which means it will disappear into the bowels of the HB refrigerator forever.

And speaking of the refrigerator when I go to stick my leftover sandwich in there I see a sandwich (not mine) that must be 100 years old and is pretty scary looking. I toss it while catching a glimpse of furry stuff. YUCK. I make a mental note to have my PA post a "please remove leftovers at the end of each week" note.

Back to my office. I have only been gone for 1 hour but there are literally 100 more emails in my Inbox. Thank god none are spam. That helps a little bit.

I dive back into the unread emails...................

A health and beauty editor wants my thoughts on haircolor trends for Spring 2008 and can I call her to chat about my thoughts this afternoon? I promise to call her tomorrow....first thing...after my tea.

The corporate real estate guy working on the deal for our new HB building calls to give me a progress report on the floor plans and build out estimates. I get a sharp pain in my stomach imagining packing up 10,000 feet of HairBoutique.com to move. It will take me years to ever find anything again. I try not to think about it.

A PR rep calls to let me know that four celebrity hairdressers want to be interviewed by me for HairBoutique.com. Can I do it today or tomorrow? Four interviews? Yikes. They are the hardest type of writing to do...witness my struggles with finishing the Campbell McAuley narrative.....I don't answer. I need to think this through. I want to do the interviews...it's always good to do...but when, when, when???? They require advance research, time on the phone pulling out answers to questions and then lots of back end writing.

A new banner is finished by the graphic artist replacing the "ugly model" and everyone has to stop and convene to sign off. At this point I don't really care anymore. I just want to be done with it so I can move on to something else.

Everyone likes the new model except the marketing person who thinks the new model has "crazy eyes". Yeah, OK, whatever. As long as she has good hair, at this point I don't dare. And she has a gorgeous updo. Good hair wins for me. I think of the movie - Mr. Deeds - and the guy with crazy eyes. Maybe our model should meet...nahhhhh.

One of the IT guys gets a little snarky about me not "blogging" enough. Yes, I have rampant blog guilt but do I finish the article for my editor, provide hair color trends, write the three articles for the newsletter or approve the latest logo? Or do I drop everything and blog? Or maybe do the four celebrity hair interviews?

All of the above..none of the above....OK. Drink more Starbucks.

I cop out and send my PA to Starbucks for another Chai tea latte (no fat of course), lock my door and call a long lost CEO/business associate that went MIA three years ago when his company was bought out. He recently resurfaced and I had tracked him down through LinkedIn.

I discover he has had several liquidity events since we last talked and is now a venture capitalist. I tease him about being a Vulture Capitalist and we have a great chat about Internet biz trends since some of his current companies he is funding are Internet properties. We agree to have lunch after he returns from his vacation home in Colorado.

I remember that I am supposed to attend a networking/happy hour with my marketing guru but I can't remember the exact time. I call to confirm and discover it is next Wednesday, not today. I am relieved and annoyed at the same time. Relieved because I can work later but annoyed because I will have to get dressed up again next week.

No flip flops for business meetings and I always blow dry my hair when I have meet/greets. The rest of the time I go "natural" with curls and waves. All that hair work this morning for what? A trip to Starbucks?

I get an email from one of the HB advertisers. We work out some issues and I pass off the related IT info to one of the IT guys. He promises to follow up and handle the matter. I make it through several more emails.

Do I want to do a call-in radio show to discuss hair trends for women of color? The radio show is at the crack of dawn in LA. OK.....sure...why not. I agree to follow up with the DJ.

Another editor emails that she wants samples of the HairTopia oil. She asks why we don't advertise it since it has such a great buzz. Because, I tell her, it has a great buzz. No need to advertise. We have four new HairTopia products about to launch but they are still in R&D. I decide NOT to tell her about those since I don't want to release samples yet.

A long time friend/fashion magazine editor calls me and asks for samples of the Karen Marie lambskin, hand made, headbands. She wants them in chocolate. She asks who picked out the gorgeous lambskin? I did, I tell her. It's from Italy but handmade in the USA.

She wants to know if they come in black as well. Yes indeed. Will we have them in other colors and styles? Who knows....at this point my mind is fogging over. I tell her I will let her know if we do. Did she have a color she wanted? Yes...she rattles off several. I jot them down and put them on a sticky on my daytimer.

We already have a fabulous new line of candles in the Marketplace I tell a vendor calling to sell me a different line of candles. I want to buy some but keep forgetting. I handpicked the yummy candles at the latest show I attended.

Speaking of shows, I get an email invitation to a fashion market in Mexico. Can't go, still haven't updated my passport because I like how my hair looks in my expired one. Plus I hate the thought of dealing with getting a new passport. Maybe I won't go to Mexico afterall.

As fast as I handle and delete emails...more roll in. Can I come to a special hair extension demo in Dallas with a master hair extensionist and would I please write a review of the event and publish it on HB.com? The TDLR sends me info about my hair license. I need to take continuing education hours.

Do I want to join a networking group in Dallas. Nay...no time and nothing to talk about...but seriously...no time.

Do I want to do an interview about....you name it.....a brand new beauty soap, new heated caps for hot oil treatments, make-up that glows in the dark...brushes that never get stuck in the hair. No...no...no.

While I would love to do it....there is just no time and until a new beauty soap spits out quarters....I am so over beauty soap. Besides...I love, love, love the Paul Mitchell Tea Tree soap. I have it all over my house and at the HB.com restrooms.

By 7:00 pm I decide to retreat and accept a ride home with my marketing guru who drives a Toyota MR2 that is white with a black top.

She drives so fast we look like a white streak zipping down the tollways. I suspect she has rockets embedded somewhere in the car. She denies this although I learn her car is named LuLu and her cat who is also white...is named Elvis. Good names.

I convince her to let me work on her hair now that I have my license. She agrees as long as I let her do something for me in return. OK...maybe more Starbucks. There is never enough Starbucks. When I do work on her hair it will probably have to be at midnight some night the way the schedule is going.

I get home, fire up my notebook and settle in for one last attempt at finishing my interview with Campbell and jot down notes on hair color trends for 2008. At least one good thing happened today.....I got some blogging done....and my hair still looks great from my AM blowout.

My how time flies...it's 3:18 am on Thursday and here I am...still trying to finish that article. Such is life in the crazy hair world I live in.

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