stiffwillichili

Stiff Willi in Hawaii

Here's a great photo of my friend Suzanne, who took Stiff Willi to the beach with her a couple weeks ago.

 

This Made My Day

Anyone who's ever started a small business knows how difficult it is to find success, whether that means being taken seriously, finding a niche in the marketplace, gaining and keeping loyal customers, or whatever. Things like taxes and regulatory burdens only add to many of the natural frustrations that are inevitable when you try to build a company from the ground up, and some days the roadblocks can simply be overwhelming.

T-Rev's Stiff Willi Chili is in its very nascent stages -- I've been in business just over a year -- but I'd be lying if I said there haven't been days when I've thrown my hands in the air and said it would be easier to pack it all in. Well, it's always easier to give up, and if running a successful business were easy, there would be a lot more people who did it. That's why I'm always thrilled to get letters or emails from happy customers. It's quite literally the single most important source of energy required to slog ahead because it provides reassurance that I'm doing all of this for a reason, that there are actually people out there who appreciate the culmination of my work.

In reality, a good salesman can generally get someone to buy his product once. But if you want to remain in business, that customer has to be convinced to come back again and again and again. So imagine my excitement today when I opened my email to find this note from Wendy in Rochester, NY:

T-Rev-

Up here in NY it has been pretty cold.  What makes a cold day better?.... Chili, obviously.  I took out your Stiff Willi Chili mix that I won from the Seneca Park Zoo’s Zoobilation auction and made a double batch of chili thinking I would have enough to freeze some for one of our next cold days.  Well, it never made it to the freezer.  Everyone loved the chili so much that there was triple helpings being had and none left over.  That stuff was awesome!! 

Thank you for donating the chili mix and I look forward to winning the next auction item ;)

And Thanks to Eric for knowing you, getting the package and insisting that it was awesome stuff because it certainly is.

As I wrote in my reply to Wendy, I almost don't know what to say when someone not only takes time out of her day to write me but also raves about my products. Aside from my family and a few select friends, there's really nothing that means more to me. So thank you, Wendy. I hope you know I appreciate your kind words every bit as much as you appreciate my chili!

And for the record, the Eric who is mentioned in the email is my good buddy Rico, who, along with his wife Melissa, have been mentioned on this blog elsewhere as two of my most invaluable friends, to whom I will owe much gratitude should I ever have the good fortune to look back one day and think, "I made it."

Rockin' Stiff Willi in the Bahamas

Congratulations to two of my best friends, Eric and Melissa Schillinger, who were married last Friday in Nassau and let my wife and me share in this very special occasion. And that would be Dave in the background.

TLC - Ultimate Chili Challenge Airs Tonight!

Tune in to TLC (The Learning Channel) tonight (5/3) at 10:00 PM to watch the Ultimate Chili Challenge, a broadcast of the ICS World's Championship Chili Cookoff last October in Charleston, WV. T-Rev's Stiff Willi Chili won People's Choice (Red Chili), so there's a good chance you'll catch us on tape.

We were easily the most popular team at the event so I'll be looking forward to seeing just how much footage we got. Ironically, I have this nagging feeling that we won't even get any airtime at all, even though about 25 of my friends and family showed up to cheer me on. If you were there, you know it would've been impossible to miss us, so I'm interested in watching the broadcast on this front alone. But I figure you guys might be interested in checking it out too.

Check TLC's website tto see the schedule. It will re-air Tuesday afternoon 5/4/2010, at 1:00 PM Eastern Time.

Check out more photos from the world championship if you haven't seen them yet.

Letter from a Fan

Funny how something as simple as a note can make your day. A couple weeks ago I was having a "downer" type of day -- I can't even remember why -- and I decided to go to my company PO box. Instead of finding a check from a client, I actually found something even better: a letter from a fan. And a hand-written one at that.

Let me tell you something you already know. People are quick to complain, and rightly so, when they receive an inferior product or subpar customer service. Even in our most satisfied states we rarely take the time to sit down and tell someone how happy we are with someone or her products. So imagine the smile on my face when I opened a letter from Ryder Ansell, a college-age dude I met at the pool bar at our hotel in Key West after my promo back in February.

I sent Ryder a free sample of my spice mix after I returned home, and I was thrilled to find that he not only experimented with it but that it also lived up to his highest expectations. As you read this letter, you'll notice he can find his way around a kitchen rather easily.

Anyhow, because young Mr. Ansell failed to include an email address with his correspondence, I will be forced to craft a response using the penmanship skills that have all too readily dissipated since high school. But perhaps it's only fitting that I reply in true snail mail fashion, for anyone who takes the time to pull out a pen and paper, lick an envelope, and drive to the nearest mailbox deserves nothing less in return.

You'll certainly have to click on the picture of the letter to enlarge it in order to read it, and when I say enjoy reaidng it, you'll know pretty quickly that's exactly what I mean. (Click here to download a PDF version if you have trouble reading the enlarged JPG.)