Wrap it up. I'll take it.

Great news... for the most part. I have received word that a woman I had been wanting to work with has agreed to consult with me for my tour. Wahoo!!! The only bummer is that I will have to keep her involvement "under wraps" which puts a damper on the plan I had to access her readership for word-of-mouth advertising and tour sales. I had also wanted to access one of the publications she works for to get some exposure.

Oh well. I'll do it on my own with her on-the-ground help in Paris.

Man! The more I think about it, this secrecy thing really stinks. I was hoping to use her involvement as "leverage" for getting advertising money and as a sales point for potemtial clients.

This is just more fuel for me to do this on my own. I am happy to have her help, but I don't need "outside" support to make my dream come true. This has always been my tangle with getting this tour off the ground in the first place.

Time to shift it into high gear and boost myself up as perfectly capable of pulling this off.

Yay me. ;-)

Baby steps. Must keep going.

It's hard to get a lot done when your 9-month old is learning to crawl and doesn't sleep a lot. It's 8:41 right now and I've been ready to go to bed for a half an hour.

That being said, I'm getting a lot done. My budget is coming together. My neighbor very generously has designed the look of my soon-to-be launched web site for free and she's going to do my business cards. How wonderful is that? (It looks great too! I'm thrilled)

Let's see, what else have I gotten done?

_________

I actually just leaned my head back to think about how to answer that question and fell asleep.

This is going to be hard. I will be an excited and excitable stress ball until I get home from the tour in March.

See, not only do I have to worry about getting everything up and running for the sale of the tour (and then of course the actual tour), I need to worry about how in the hell I am going to do it with my baby girl in tow. I already have my dear friend coming as my nanny and assistant, but I'm just really worried about the time I will be away from her when we are there. We spend so much time together now that I'm afraid it'll be scary for her. I know it will be for me. I trust my friend absolutely, but I will miss my girl so much when we are there. I just wish she could be with me the whole time and experience everything we will be doing. I'm not sure my guests will be down for that, huh?

Oh well, she'll become accustomed to all of this over the years. IT could be worse; spending time in Paris with your mom and dear family friend a few weeks out of the year, every year when you're growing up.

Oy! It's 8:50pm. Off to bed.

Holy Crap!!

So I followed the advice of the guy at Kinkos and fished on Craigslist for logo designers...

OVER 100 RESPONSES!!! I am overwhelmed.

I have found a woman in Finland, of all places, who does some nice stuff, with the brother of a friend and former coworker, and a guy will do work in trade for bacon.

This is very encouraging. There are people out there that want to do business with me. Yeah, they're in the receiving end of money that I don't have yet, but they liked what ideas I had.


Nice.

__________

On another note, It's been days since I e-mailed the gal in Paris that I want to work with. I'm getting nervous that she has changed her mind. Bummer.

C'mon baby! C'mahhhn!

Getting 'er done!!

E-mailed Hélène re: des recettes
Posted Craigslist call for logo designers and responded to one person already.
E-mailed Wordpress about buying F-MT URL

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Weird. It doesn't look like that much when I list it like this. But I'll tell ya, it took a lot to get all that done!



I'm proud of myself.

Speaking of failing

If I am unable to secure Meg, I need to remember all of the other great places I found the have so many resources and lists of places to go, things to eat, etc. I can also contact them for suggestions and/or solicit their services. Who knows, maybe DL will be willing to help me. As I've learned in the past... it never hurts to ask.

I e-mailed Wordpress today asking about buying the F-MT URL.

Next, brochures... Get them designed and ready to print. BEFORE PRINTING finalize budget!!!

Working, working, working

Things are coming together, namely my attitude about this tour. I am not letting myself get overwhelmed with how grand my tour company will be, I'm just focusing on getting my rear end and a few paying guests to Paris the week of March 22 - 26, 2010. I'm not even worried if it doesn't work our with Meg. I would rather work with her and I think my tour would be greatly enriched by her input, but I know my way well enough, I know what's what wnough to make it fun, educational and most importantly memorable and worth the money that people will be spending.

So there.

I found the dream apartment!!

I LOVE the apartment I just found for my tour. I just sent a request for information hoping that they will allow children and that they can arrange the rental of a crib for the babes. The kitchen ROCKS!!!! The location ROCKS!!!!!!! The price is AWESOME!!!!!!!!! (even with the exchange rate!!!!)

I am so jazzed! I was going to wait to move forward with anything until I heard from my Paris contact, but I realized today that I don't need someone there to be my contact. It would be awesome, but it's not necessary. Anyway, if it doesn't work out with her, there are plenty of people living in Paris looking to get paid for exactly what I'm looking for in an on-the-ground person. I just really want this gal. I like her style, I like her writing, I thing she's got a good heart and will lead us in the direction that I'm hoping to take this tour.

I'm building an empire here, people. One baby-nap at a time. Come hell or high water, I'm doing this tour Marsh 22-26, 2010. It's about God damned time!!!!!!

YAY YAY YAY YAY!!!!!

Baby steps feel like giant strides: and Cockamay Inc.

After making my list yesterday, I confirmed that I now have a nanny/assistant for the tour, e-mailed my Paris contact to confirm that the dates I have selected work for her and started an FMT "Official" web page. I put that entre guillemet because I will be creating an actual web site, for which I already own the domain, in the near future. I hope to be able to afford some (very) basic help from a PR firm with logo creation and web design. Until then, I will be compiling information and content, and posting tour information on that blog. This is that site's sole purpose.

The site is: thefoodmindedtraveler.wordpress.com

I decided to go to wordpress because they have web hosting and you can get it in the cheap. It also seems like it may be easier and more stylish than what I am currently getting with GoDaddy. At least if I have to resort to creating my own site and managing everything on it, I will have something that's good looking, albeit not my ideal site. That will come after this first tour is under my belt and I have something to go to bank with.

How about this for a company name; Cockamamy Inc. This will be the parent company of all my little businesses that I will eventually have running... my tours, my book, my TV production company for my TV show, my jewelry, truffles, you name it. I look at the company name as a thumb to the nose to all of the people that ever made me second guess myself and my myriad of business ideas over the years (including me).

OK, time to pick up the house a bit. My mom is on her way to pick up the baby so I can go off to my day job and serve the people. I feel like quoting Bill Cosby right now;

"Grab a Coke and a smile and SHUT UP!"

Feeling good. Feeling proud

That Winning Gimmick

I'm not exactly sure what I'm looking for. Something outside of me. I have my own ideas. Good ideas. But for some reason, I have this deep sense of needing to find inspiration outside of myself. Why can't I trust in what I already possess? Why do I undercut myself? I know I have a fear of failing, but I'm not afraid of the risk. I guess more specifically I am afraid of making an ass of myself, but even Bambi slipped on the ice at first. You just have to try, then you'll skate like Thumper.

I take such joy in poring over these Paris blog sites I came across this week. I feel like I am peeking around every corner while on a walk in the Marais. I see so many parallels between the writing styles and interests of the bloggers and my own. I talk about being encouraged by these things, and yet I still feel like I need inspiration from somewhere else. It's like I'm looking for a winning gimmick. That one-liner that'll make 'em roll in the isles time and time again.

I guess a good analogy for how I'm feeling is when the DVD signal gets stuck and you see the characters in your favorite movie quivering in a pose just waiting for the disk to keep playing and get over itself. (The 21st century version of the record skipping I suppose)

Maybe it's guidance and support I need more than inspiration. I'm inspired enough for three people, I just need help turning my ideas into realities.

Encouragement

So I am really loving Meg Zimbeck's style. She is a freelance travel and food writer based in Paris whose style and plays on words are very encouraging to me. She's quippy, fun, and holds her tongue squarely in her cheek while giving great advice in her column Affordable Paris on Arthur Frommer’s Budget Travel online. Her website megzimbeck.com is a wanna-be Parisian's dream with daily pictures of and notes from the city of lights.

I guess I just need to keep writing, follow my heart, and know that I too can make something out of this.

Onward!