We have an amazing new Director of Sales and her name’s Bonny Baldwin.  Every Wednesday, I’m turning the blog over to her so she can talk about all things and bags eco-friendly.  So heeeeeeeeere’s Bonny!

We’ve had a little fire problem in Southern California recently – maybe you’ve heard about it.

Anytime I hear about a fire in the Angeles National Forest my first thought is of the big cats housed at Shambala and at The Wildlife Waystation. These two sanctuaries, in different areas of the forest, have the stupendous responsibility and expense of caring for scores of lions, tigers, and other wild animals that aren’t easy to house, let alone to load into a truck when there’s a fire threat. And this time, both sanctuaries were threatened by the Station Fire. As of today, the evacuation orders in their respective areas have been lifted, yet regardless, this was a costly and stressful disaster for everyone.

The Waystation is the bigger of the two sanctuaries, though I haven’t seen it. I’d love to, it’s just that sanctuaries are very different from zoos, and you can’t really drop in on them. I have had the repeated pleasure of visiting Shambala, in Acton, during their scheduled tour dates, and it’s a fantastic and eye-opening experience! Shambala and the Roar Foundation are Tippi Hedren’s grand calling. For those not well-versed in Alfred Hitchcock films, Tippi is most famous for having starred in The Birds and Marnie. Though before you start thinking this is some kind of fancy celebrity scene, know that Tippi is likely to greet you in full makeup, yes, but also in jungle boots and with a shovel in hand to clean up tiger poop! (She’s our kind of woman.)

A few things I didn’t know or think about until I visited Shambala:

· A full side of beef doesn’t go very far when you’re feeding big cats – you’ve got to have a lot of freezers!

· Housing and moving big cats is complicated, partly because their politics are. If you think about how hard it can be to get domestic cats to get along, you can see where I’m headed with this. When they introduce a new cat at Shambala, it’s a big undertaking to keep all of the cats and people safe from potential territory disputes. And you just don’t always know if cats of any size are going to get along until you try….

· Tigers love to play in the water. And they especially love to play with balls in the water. What kind of ball will hold up to tigers’ play? A bowling ball! Seriously – sometime in life you’ve got to see tigers bowling in the water.

This week, then, I’d like to draw attention to the big cats at our local sanctuaries by drawing attention to our selection of big cat bags. Our striking Limited Edition Tiger Messenger Bag is now $64.50, which is 25% off, through September 15^th. If you’re more of a lion person, our entire lion rice sack collection is 25% off, too! And if you’re moved to do so, please support the animals of the Roar Foundation, and/or The Wildlife Waystation in recovering from this very stressful time.

All the best to you – Bonny

Yep – I’ll be speaking in Sherman Oaks, CA on Monday, September 21 at 7pm! I’d love to meet you in person and answer any questions you may have. I belong to an amazing organization for women entrepreneurs called Smarty, and I’m one of their “Peer 2 Peer” experts.  The official topic is  “Taking the ‘Man’ Out of Manufacturing: How to Turn Your Product Idea Into a Profitable Reality” and I’ll be talking about how I’ve accomplished all I have with Rebagz Eco-Chic Handbags in just two years – and how you can do it too.  It’s free for Smarty menbers, and just $25 otherwise.

I’m launching a consulting division of my company called Manufacturing the Right Way.  There are so many women starting new businesses – yet so few of you are making products.  There’s lots and lots of service-oriented businesses and boutiques being started, but there seems to be a real fear around product creation.

No more!!!

I’m tired of having brilliant women come up to me and tell me about their brilliant product ideas – and then say, “But I don’t have a clue how to make it,” and completely give in to the fear.  So that’s why I started Manufacturing the Right Way.  My goal is to show you how to take that great product idea from concept to ready-to-sell reality and save you thousands of dollars and oodles of time in the process – ’cause it’s a “do as I say, not as I did” kind of system.

I already made all the mistakes.  There’s absolutely no reason why anyone else should have to make them again.

If you visit the website, you can sign up for my free ezine which contains articles and all sorts of free information that’ll help you along your way.  I also have a new audio program and eBook, and I’ll have a teleseminar coming up in January.

But if you live in Southern California, come play with me on September 21st!  I’d love to meet you in person and to answer the specific questions you may have.  That’s what I’m here for!

Hope to see you in 2 weeks – XOXO Marty

How I adore the Wild Web Women at Web Marketing Therapy!  They’ve helped us optimize our web presence, so I was crazy mad for them even before they blogged about…um…me.  If you’re so inclined, you can check their blog out here.  They’re also offering a FREE 30-minute tutorial called “The Power of Web Analytics.”  Yes, I said FREE!  Just sign up here.

No matter what you do, though, you really should sign up for their almost-daily e-newsletter.  I learn something new every time I read it.  We all need to know how to work the web, and these women have all the knowledge about it anyone could ever possibly need – and then some.  Plus they have fantastic senses of humor and are lead by the fabulous Lorrie Thomas, who models one of our Rebagz Jasmine Cinchy Totes here:

We’ve been working with them for the past few months and I can’t rave about them enough.  I actually enjoy blogging now and am getting into the whole social media thing, and it’s all thanks to their inspiration.  They’ve really simplified and clarified things for me, and I’m so grateful.

Whether it’s blogging, tweeting, managing LinkedIn, Facebook (I call it f’booking) or any other way to socialize and market online, they are the experts.  I bow down and kiss their pedicured cyberfeet!

XOXO Marty

Rorey (our fantastic operations manager) and I are having a great time at the New York International Gift Fair.  Everyone’s in a great mood, buyers are responding really well to our two new Rebagz shapes – our new Sling Back Bags and Mini-Messenger Bags.

But what I’m most jazzed about is how people are going crazy about our upcoming “Statement Makers!”  They’ll launch at the end of September and will be the third branch of our Rebagz line.  Here are our QVC liaisons Diana Urbine and Pat Wagoner modeling two of them in our booth:

You’ll be hearing a LOT more about this new line in the coming weeks.  And just to give you another peek, here’s one of our new customers Bohumila with another “Statement Maker”:

We’ll be packing up our booth tomorrow – and I’ll actually be squeezing in 3 days of vacation!  But I’ll be back in the office next week and will start filling you in on the story behind “Statement Makers.”


XOXO Marty

This is going to be one of those news-y blog posts where I fill you in on where we’re going and who’s been saying really, really nice things about us.

Thank you thank you thank you!

LA Splash included our eco-chic handbags in their “Handbags Collection 2009 – Hot New Handbags for You to View” (scroll to the bottom of the page) and they also included my friend Sarah Shaw’s Handy Hold-All’s, which are fantastic handbag organizers. You need to scroll down a ways to find us, but given that the bags ahead of us have names like Badgley Mischka, Iman, Ariat and Guess, we’re just amazed we made the list.

Also, my friend Ana Caban featured one of Rebagz Small Cinchy Totes as a giveaway a week ago on her wonderful website La Buena Life. Yes, my bad for not alerting all of you – so sorry! However, check out her site because she does great giveaways every Thursday – they’re called “Tentacion Thursdays” – and it’s really, really easy to enter.

Over on Eco-Artware, long-time Rebagz customer Reena Kazmann gave my book “Altered Shoes: A Step-By-Step Guide to Making Your Footwear Fabulous” a lovely review. Thanks, Reena! If you’re into art, craft and design, you may want to head over to my official Altered Shoes website to sign up for my monthly Eco-Art Ezine.

We’re on Our Way To NY!

The New York International Gift Fair starts August 15th, and we’ll be in the juried Handmade Division (booth #122, if you’d like to drop by for a visit). Our operations manager Rorey got the components of our booth all packed up and ready to ship out. She then walked into my office with a large role of palette wrap – the thick plastic sheeting used to hold all those enormous boxes together on the palette – and basically announced it was my turn. So…

…around and around I went, while Rorey snapped photos, thank you very much. (Like the caption says, at least she didn’t shoot me from behind.) I actually hate the palette wrap because it’s a huge amount of plastic to use, but for now it’s a necessary evil if we want our booth to arrive in New York intact. Plus we do reuse it, since we have to stuff our Rebagz to make them look pleasingly plump for our buyers.

I’ll be sure to keep you apprised of all the comings and goings in New York. In the meantime, we’re grateful to Stu Stockelberg and the folks at Service By Air for taking such good care of our booth as it makes its way cross-country.

XOXO Marty

I admit it may seem a stretch to see designing and selling handbags as a means of bringing peace and justice anywhere, much less around the world. But I always feel that even small gestures can add up and make a difference. And that’s something you’re helping us do because whenever you place an order for our Rebagz Eco-Chic Handbags, $1 from that order goes to Global Exchange.

I worked with Global Exchange when I did humanitarian work in Chiapas, Mexico and I really like what they’re focused on – “Building People-to-People Ties.”
I first went to Chiapas on one of their “reality tours,” where “travelers are linked with activists and organizations from around the globe who are working toward positive change.”

They go to all sorts of different countries, and I know my journey with them was a life-changer. That’s a big term to toss around, but in my case it’s no exaggeration. It’s one of the big reasons I do business the way I do and make sure the people who make our eco-fashion handbags are treated and paid decently.

The reason I bring all this up is because Global Exchange’s membership coordinator Natalie Mottley recently sent us a very kind letter after getting our most recent check, courtesy of our generous customers:

Thanks so much for yet another generous donation to Global Exchange! We really appreciate your support and your partnership in our work for peace and justice around the world.

Really, she’s thanking you, and I thought you should know that. Every bit helps – even handbags.

Thank you for enabling me to give back to an organization that was so important in my life.

XOXO Marty

I admit – it’s a reach. But I had to find some common theme for this blog so I could gush about our appearance in the July issue of InStyle magazine and talk about the post-election situation in Iran, because it’s vital that we pay attention to it. In addition to the polls that enter into both stories, there’s also the female element, as you’ll see.

InStyle

First, a shameless plug. On page 20 of InStyle’s next issue you’ll discover that Rebagz Large Tie Tote won their poll about which eco-tote their readers would rather wear. We got 57% of the vote (thanks to many of you!), which was 30% ahead of our nearest competitor. So, for very selfish reasons, that poll really mattered to us. It also shows how much the mainstream media has caught onto the eco-trend, as have their readers, because more than 2000 of InStyle’s readers – who are female, by and large, took the time to log on to their website and vote. One of the reasons I think women respond to our handbags and our company so much is that Half the Sky Designs LLC is woman-owned and run, plus our work benefits so many women over in the Philippines. Given that all our bags are made under fair trade conditions, those women earn a decent wage and go to work in places that are pleasant instead of dungeon-like. This is important to us, and we think it’s important to our customers too. If you’d like to see me explain how our eco-chic Rebagz are made, check out our video on YouTube.

Iran

Watching the news about those powerful protests in Iran reminds me of my days doing human rights work in Mexico in the mid-90′s, following the Zapatista rebellion. It was all about creating a stronger democracy in Mexico and in many ways it succeeded because, though they’re imperfect, the elections in Mexico are cleaner than they were and the indigenous communities have a substantially stronger voice. But it took time, and there was a great deal of frustration we all had to endure. What was so extraordinary then in Mexico and now in Iran is the power and involvement of women in the movements. The pre-election polls showed the challenger Moussavi lead by a substantial margin in Iran, and much of his support came from women. He’s the first Iranian politician to campaign openly with his wife at his side and to discuss the rights of women in their closed Muslim society. When you look at footage of the protests, you’ll see many women there in the streets, demanding a recount. If you go on Twitter and check out the subject #iran, the posts just keep streaming by. People are just aching to make a difference. Check out these photos of a recent Iran protest to see what I mean. This can go one of two ways: transformation comes about, or the protests go the way of Tiananmen Square – this month marks the 20th anniversary of that massacre, by the way. Let’s hope it doesn’t happen again.

XOXO Marty

It’s kind of amazing how things just fall out of the sky sometimes. We’ve had a lot good things happen that way for us during our company’s short history. This morning was another case of that. I got a call at about 11am this morning from Diana Urbine, our amazing QVC liaison, informing me that we got a second airing! Our Small Cinchy Totes will once again be on QVC’s airwaves this Thursday, June 11th on QVC’s Morning Show starting at 7am Eastern time.

Even I, with my limited math skills, realized that was less than 48 hours notice. And it means we’re airing sometime between 4am and 6am Pacific time. Oh my.

When I informed our amazing operations manager Rorey and pondered how I’d ever get up at 4am to watch it, she said, “Just stay up!” Rorey knows what a night-owl I am, but even I have my limits. I’ll have to split my sleep time tonight so I can be sure to see Janine Graff’s beautiful face on QVC’s Morning Show, showing off our bags in her amazing way.

I only work with amazing people, in case you hadn’t noticed. I’m very picky that way. Granted, I’m being a bit facetious. But I really believe that when you try to do business in a good and decent way, you find people who think likewise and who will go that extra mile on your behalf. Rorey, Diana and Janine are all those kinds of people, and I’m fortunate to be surrounded by others who are just like them.

It’s not that I don’t encounter incredible business difficulties at times. There’s not a person on the planet who doesn’t, especially during this past year. But I compare it to finding good doctors. When I first moved to Los Angeles many years ago, I got the name of an amazing GP (Dr. Sheldon Reiss) from a friend. I asked him for referrals, because I figured amazing doctors would know other amazing doctors. I was right! It’s the same in business. If you care about the people who you do business – in whatever capacity – as best as you can, then they’ll provide you with extraordinary work and you’ll find other amazing people through them.

My marketing people will be upset with me that I kind of went off on an “amazing” tangent instead of promoting promoting promoting our upcoming QVC appearance – tomorrow @ 7am Eastern time on QVC’s Morning Show. Don’t forget!

But I think it was a fun diversion. I hope you do too.

XOXO Marty