When Customers Fall Out of the Sky

This is a tale of good things happening when I wasn’t ready. I don’t want to say timing was bad, because is there ever a bad time for good things to happen?

If you keep up with the adventures of my daughter, Ella, and myself as her chaperone through life as a child actress, you may have heard or seen her commercial alongside Major League Baseball legend Derek Jeter for American Family Insurance. It’s not a typical commercial. 

She didn’t audition for it, they called us — a connection made through Ella’s participation in the Brevard Children’s Business Fair. Her being cast had nothing to do with her acting career. There were no scripts, it was organic conversation between a child and the surefit Baseball Hall of Fame future inductee.

It’s also not typical because while the company being advertised is an insurance company, it’s also advertising Ella’s Ella Bella Beads. So, how much do companies pay for advertising? In kid terms, let’s say LOTS and leave it at that. An unfathomable amount to a lemonade stand-style activity started by a then 4-year-old who felt her dolls needed to accessorize.

And what happens when you get invited to share the story of how your little biz gives money back locally to The Children’s Hunger Project and it’s seen on TV and heard on the radio all over the U.S. and Canada?

People are moved and reach out wanting to order Ella Bella Beads and support the mission. So many. Private messages on Facebook and Instagram. Emails, comments on YouTube. Comments on posts and individual photos.

I’m not complaining. After all, we created social media pages and a website and shared photos of our creations. UNTIL we had to leave our supplies behind and head to California for a few months for Ella to shoot her sitcom, United We Fall (coming to ABC in the spring). That just so happens to be when the commercial ramped up. We were in Los Angeles. Beads were in Florida.

We returned from LA with customers backed up beyond what Ella and I could handle. So we hired our first help. Our friend Sophie has been a godsend helping us work through client communication.

I thought I removed a link to an order form from our old website. But I left a few hyperlinked words behind. People Googled and found the old website with the linked order form. (Love resourceful people!) We discovered a beautifully large number of orders waiting in a spreadsheet we thought was dormant.

I saw inquiries coming in while we were away, but I was paralyzed. After the hiatus, I’m glad I was smart enough to bring in help. As a creative person facing a growing business, it was time for reinforcements.

Grateful for the support. It feels good to make something from nothing and see it grow.

Learn More:

Instagram: @ellabellabeads

Facebook: /IWantMyEllaBellaBeads

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