Going from ‘ideas’ to ‘action’

Hello there, it’s Donald, and a Happy (much-belated) New Year to you. I was reflecting on the why so many emails and posts start by commenting on the weather and reasoned it to be a nervous writer’s way to break the ice with something we all well understand. This nervous writer, on the other hand, will jump right into it—I trust you know the weather.

I titled this ‘Going from ideas to action’ because I think it hits at something I have been working on overcoming. I tend to be a font of ideas and observations, which as an entrepreneur can be incredibly valuable, until it isn’t. At some point, you have to act, you have to follow through, and you have to deliver. As my father always put it to me: the world likes finishers. Being an “ideas guy” while being a solo-founder presents a different set of challenges and after much reflecting (overthinking) on all of this, I am poised and ready to take action. More than that, I am set on becoming more reliable.

There are a smattering of things to share—and that hopefully demonstrate this renewed tendency towards action—so without further ado.

Working more closely with local business

Having created a gourmet s’mores kit, I am continuing to work with my friend Bria at Disheveled Diva and Mark over at Cato Corner to put together a grilled cheese box. By working more closely with them, I am better aligned with their schedules, product availability, and our collective abilities to promote our products. It is one thing to order 520 marshmallows from a factory that churns them out, but it’s another commitment entirely to offer made-to-order boxes that include handcrafted marshmallows using select quality ingredients on a deadline. Being especially attuned to their perspectives will allow me to plan, prepare, and properly set or understand expectations as we push forward in 2023.

While I want to work with all businesses in Connecticut, the nature of curating products can, inherently, be limiting. To help with our own discovery, to be able to support all businesses equally, and to showcase the businesses and people we already partner with I am piloting a new Live Local Network for Vendors to offer a way for businesses to create profiles, features, and promotions on our quest to live local and feel good.

Here is a little sample of the kinds of profiles, news, and opportunities we will work to host and promote:

New content within Curated Insiders will focus on all of these makers, growers, and artisans in our communities, not simply the ones with featured products on CuratedCT.com. Many of our past customers have enjoyed or asked about more information about the folks we work with and buy from, and this will all contribute to richer and more available information.

Fine, since I mentioned the grilled cheese, I may as well let you know we put a few ingredients and recipes to the test and the final details will be revealed later next week. Chris Penta, a friend and owner of A Saucey Chef, noted “swiss gruyere is ‘one of the’ best base cheeses for a classic grilled cheese. This Dairyere [from Cato Corner] acts similarly.” There is a waitlist now forming, add your email if want to be notified as soon as more info is available.

Building more reliability into our service

I have a kind of equation I have been building since the first day I pitched Curated CT. It began as a way to understand or unpack what we all mean when we say that something is /convenient/ and what it takes to make ‘Local’ more convenient. It initially consisted of both time and timing. But after some poor personal experiences ordering from and dealing with Amazon, which I think we would unanimously agree is one of the most convenient ways to shop, I realized that convenience is more than just in how we are able to easily access something, but it requires a degree of reliability. If a person has to call me and ask where their order is or I find out I ordered too much or too little of a product from a vendor, that’s a problem and one I plan to resolve by looking at how I can design our operations to be more reliable (e.g., working more closely with vendors).

To begin addressing this, I have enlisted the aid of a small group of senior Management Information Systems (MIS) students at UConn who are working with me and Curated CT as part of their senior design project course. At the heart of this is a series of automations and fancy spreadsheets to pull together new and pending orders and help me by taking out some of the guess work and administrative tasks necessary to prepare and assemble each order we receive. It will be a huge asset to planning and being able to take on more custom order work and expand what and how we are able to sell and deliver local products. I am happy to be able to give this team of students a real-world case to work on and to support them as they build and test a new business operating system for Curated CT. We will be rolling this out in April.

Putting myself out there more

Working out of the co-working space at reSET in Hartford has its advantages. One such benefit are the random encounters with other entrepreneurs and the staff at reSET. A couple weeks ago, I shared this idea of the ‘Live Local Network’ with Katrice Claudio, who manages a Food Incubator program here. She not only instantly saw the potential for it, but she challenged me to really lay out the value—why someone, a small business owner, would want to do this—and emphasized how much of a role I play in making this happen. I am still digesting her feedback and advise, but it is clear from Katrice and many others whom I have spoken with that I need to be the face and active voice of all of this in order to bring it to life. More content and communications—more presence—is a need I keep hearing.

This idea of being more present is another objective I have for the coming year. It dovetails beautifully into the other topics already mentioned, like working more closely with vendors, communicating more, developing more content (i.e., having something worth communicating), not to mention listening and learning. (There is a saying in the lean startup methodology that says “get out of the building”. It stems from the realization that your customer is out there and speaks to the importance of talking to them in order to test the assumptions you have about their needs or problems and your solution.)

I continue to see the truest expression of resilience is the simple act of showing up. Every day. Every week. Every month. It is not about who is the most charismatic, the most sophisticated, the most educated, it is about showing up. Being present. And doing it consistently.

Funny how this all circles back to reliability.

‘It takes a village’

A special thanks to Sami Jo, her husband Dave, and my other friends Nan and Eric for their help putting together some enlivening photography as part of our Holiday Gift Guide. Sami is also a talent behind Florapothecarie, whom we feature in our Winter Wellness box. No person is an island and I am fortunate enough to surround myself by these individuals and many others who help lift my spirits and remind me of the important work I am doing with Curated CT.

On a more personal note, I encourage you all to enjoy the outdoors this winter. I have continued my commitments with “Get Outside Sundays”, more recently walking along the Air Line Trail from Colchester into East Hampton, hiking to the top of Mohawk Mountain, and next up is a favorite 13-mile trek along the Appalachian Trail starting in Salisbury.

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Originally posted on March 1, 2023. Last updated on March 3, 2023.
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