Hmmmm.....

I've got to figure out how to make this Michael's thing work. Yesterday wasn't what I'd hoped it would be.

First we had a meeting of all the instructors. Then we dragged some tables and chairs out to the sales floor and set up for the demos. We were all scrunched in, two or three to a table, in this dead area of the store. Everyone set to work making their stuff. And yapping. Now, everyone was very nice but if I were a customer I would feel uncomfortable checking out the demos while everyone was having a conversation around me. People just weren't coming over to look at what we were doing. I think I handed out three flyer cards yesterday.

These women were kind of overbearing and loud. Really, I'd rather sit at a table by myself and chat quietly with customers on my own. I don't need someone else hawking my wares. But how do I say I want to sit away from them without offending everyone? There was one woman there, who was a new instructor, who had brought her own table and was sitting off to one side. At first I felt bad that she wasn't included with the rest of us but I quickly changed my mind. Lots of people stopped and talked to her.

The best part of my day was when I got up to get some supplies and saw some customers looking kind of lost. I asked them if they needed help finding something and they said YES like they were grateful for the help. I helped them find what they needed and sent them happily on their way. Then I saw another lost-looking person and helped her. I'm not really supposed to do that but damn, I can't ignore someone who obviously needs help. Almost all of my past jobs were in retail and I really did enjoy helping customers. So, I've got to find a way to blend teaching classes, promoting my classes and interacting with customers.

I can really see how having my Michaels blog will help promote my classes. My flyer cards will be very useful as mailers. Tracie said she makes up 500 calendar sheets a month and people take them but don't sign up for classes. We need to figure out how to fix that. There are big display boards that advertise the classes but I think they look kind of shabby. I'm going to be thinking about how to make that whole thing look better. There's a big tv that they have in the classroom. Maybe we can move it out into the store and run a slideshow on it.

Ooh! How about a locking display case that showcases student's work? At the paint-it-yourself ceramics place in Santa Rosa they had a shelf in the front window where they displayed the best stuff that their customers made. It was always kinda fun to check and see if any of our stuff made it to the shelf (it always did).

Ok, that's it. I need to take a tour around gallery stores and such to see how they display their stuff. I think that's the attitude we need to take about this stuff. Present the pieces as something you might want to buy instead of having them look like dowdy crafty items. I'll drag Tracie along. I think the whole thing needs a fundamental shift.

Blogging is good. It helps me think.