Hello From Jersey

Hello! Vince asked me to pop in and post for him because he's in New Jersey this weekend and I have the laptop. He's up there to pick up his mom and nephew who are coming down for a visit.

So Vince went to see the owner of a Music Merchants record store in Westwood and gave him some information about Try Change. He may be interested in letting us put some of our shirts in his store.

I worked on a couple of new designs today. Here's one I put up on Cafepress earlier:

Well, I guess we'll have to wait and see what comes of Vince's sales pitch to the record store guy. I'm keeping my fingers crossed. It would be so awesome to have shirts in store in Westwood.

Vince will be back tomorrow with more updates but stayed tuned to the website for new t shirts designs!! I'll be working on some new color combos tonight and I should have them on Cafepress by tomorrow.

I hope everyone has a fabulous weekend!

Chrissie

Yes!

Fantastic Friday!

A store owner in the mall has decided to let me sell Try Change t-shirts out of his shop! Now I just need to secure one or two more article's in the local paper, enhance my designs and send out an email blast in August. In the week and a half since we started Try Change we have:

Went live with our website
Sold several Try Change items

Attended a BNI group

Distributed our Press Release

Signed up several people to our email list

Developed our Blog

Appeared on the front page of the Springfield Times

Secured a store in the mall for the sale of our shirts

Not too Shabby :-)

Thanks to all our Try Change friends for being a part of our launch and for still believing that we all can make a difference.

Vince

Press Release

We had a few problems lastnight trying to publish the blog and I don't think that the link to the Press Release made it in so here it is:

Press Release

I'm going to call it a early night tonight, but hopefully I'll have news to share tomorrow evening!

Vince

Keep Pushing

Well the Press Release went out today and of coarse I expected the local news, and CNN to be knocking down my door :-) I've learned not to take myself too seriously at this point in time. Actually the Press Release did increase the amount of hits on my web site and I can't expect too much since I've only been on the Internet for six days. I guess it's the salesperson in me because I did not let it get me down. Somewhere I read it's the extra thing that you do before you call it a day that makes you successful so I decided to do something crazy. After work I decided to walk into the local clothing store armed with my front page article from the Springfield Times and a sample of my t-shirts and try to make a sale. Now as I said before I do not know the In's and Outs of the t-shirt business but I do know people and people buy on emotion and I'm not selling a t-shirt I'm promoting a message. So that's what I did, I walked in and promoted a message. Well low and behold the owner did not laugh at me but agreed with my message of inspirational t-shirts and took the time to read my article and look over my samples. He gave me some suggestions and said he will look at the rest of my line of t-shirts on my website and set an appointment with me this Friday evening to discuss about possibly having my shirts in his shops. That's what I love about sales if you keep pushing something good will happen. I don't know where this sales call will lead maybe he'll sell my shirts in his shop or maybe he gave me just enough to keep pushing.

Keep pushing!

Vince

Two Down One To Go

Today was a good day I finally approved the final draft of my Press Release and approved the new Try Diversity logo. The Press Release will be distributed tomorrow and the Try Diversity Logo will be on our web page on Thursday. Thanks to Patricia Leith at Patricia Leith graphic design & illustration. On top of that I met some interesting people at the 7am BNI group in Springfield. Tomorrow I should have the email list of the individual market that I'm targeting for my email campaign. This last step is the one that has taken the most time to complete.

Talk to you soon,

Vince

Moving Forward

Another day , another task completed. Tonight I was able to email several businesses that may be interested in providing success stories for the Try Change website. I also completed the introduction of Try Change to be posted along with our logo onto the Volunteers of America Chesapeake's website. I also decide to switch providers of email list after carefully investigating what each company had to offer. I'm finding out it's not that easy to decipher between the different vendors on the web. If I can offer any advice at all it would be to take your time and find the best providers possible no matter what service you are looking for. Well it's 10pm and I promised myself to get to bed early tonight I have a 7am meeting tomorrow morning.

Talk to you soon,

Vince

Life is Good

I had a nice relaxing day today. Stayed in bed until 9am, went to the gym, had a steak for lunch, weed whacked the backyard , hamburgers for dinner and watched Law and Order. That may seem somewhat boring to some but it's a great day for me :-) As far as the web site is concerned; I joined the t-shirt forum, started the process of designing my email campaign template and sent out emails to several friends. This week the Press Release then the email campaign.

Life is Good!

Vince

Back To The Gym!

Since starting Try Change my biggest passion, working out, had to take a back seat for a moment. For those of you who work out religiously like I do you understand how difficult cutting back can be. Typically I like to work out at least four if not five day's a week but due to the launch of Try Change I've only been able to hit the gym two to three days a week. Thankfully I went Friday and today so even though it's nearly two O'clock in the morning I'm pretty excited about going tomorrow to make it three days in a row. Today was a good day. I sent information to several members of the chamber along with several people I met at the car wash and gym. I have a friend from the chamber that has a Blogcast that will help me get the word out on Try Change and another that is in the hospitality field that would like to share his story. I'm realizing now that this is definitely going to be a grassroots campaign that will benefit from one on one contact with people in the community.

Well it's getting kind of late and the gym awaits!

Vince

Try Change Makes The Front Page!

Well we did it! Try Change made it onto the Front Page of the Springfield Times! After only officially being open for just 4 days Try Change has already made a splash in the Springfield Media. Please take a look at Friday's edition of the Springfield Times to learn more about Try Change and my motivation to create this unique web site. I have provided a link to the story if you would like to take a look. The title of the article says it all " Changing the World" Vince Stubbs launching line of T-shirts with positive messages. I am truly thankful to James Cullen of the Springfield Times for taking the time to write this great article and to the photographer for taking such a good photo.

What's next?

I'm currently working on a Press Release that should be distributed by the end of next week and a email marketing campaign that should run during the first week in July. As always please feel free to submit stories of inspiration or just drop a line to say hello. We would love to hear from you!

Here is the link to the article:

Springfield Times Community News Article

Keep wishing me luck and I'll keep you posted!

Friday Eve

Well its Friday Eve and I'm looking forward to this weekend. The Springfield Times actually will be delivered tomorrow and I cant wait to read the Try Change article. Today was a pretty good day mostly spent in a day long training class at work. I went to the Greater Springfield Chamber of Commerce Mixer this evening. Once again it was well attended and I had the pleasure of representing my hotel and briefly discussing Try Change will several interested members. One in particular gave me great information on email list and marketing. I was able to send out my Press Release today so perhaps I will have some good news to share this coming Monday on possible responses from any media sources.

Wish me luck!

Vince

Anticipating the Springfield Times Article

With each passing day I seem to come up with more ideas to promote trychange.org. One of my ideas that actually was implemented will be out in the print media tomorrow. The Springfield Times will have an article about my efforts to bring my vision of TryChange to life. Hopefully many area residents will be inspired to go to my website to learn more about TryChange and Volunteers of America Chesapeake. If you would like to be part of the TryChange movement simply email us your story or purchase a shirt to spread the word. I will give an update on the article tomorrow.

Campaigns, Ceremonies, and Graffiti

As president of the chamber of commerce here in Springfield, my days are filled with many exciting functions and gatherings. Over the last forty-eight hours, I have attended a fund raiser for McKay for Supervisor, Soldier of the Quarter Ceremony on Ft. Belvoir, and discussed forming a graffiti task force for the Springfield area. I always find it very interesting to discuss policy with the local politicans and get to see first hand the different view points shared by people in the community. It seems that no matter what walk of life people come from they all share the common goal of improving the quality of life in their communities.

Try Change is certainly adding to the excitement of my day. This past Friday I was interviewed by the Springfield Times regarding my new business Try Change. The article will be in this Thursday's edition of the paper so please give it a look if you have an opportunity. Or contact me and I would love to forward you a copy. I will also be posting a link to the article once its available online.

I will have more to share as things progress...Thank you everyone for your support!

My Story

Apathy- A state of indifference

My Story is a simple one that I'm sure many people encounter during the course of everyday life. As the line goes "It all started simply enough". One Sunday afternoon I decided to go over to a local supermarket to pick up some items for that evenings dinner. The particular supermarket is one of the newest upscale stores that you find populating the suburban landscape these days, clean and well stocked with the a wide range of selections. I was making my way through the dairy section when I noticed this young lady dressed in somewhat Goth attire but not to the extreme fashion that you might see on an episode of Jerry Springer. She was not a rebellious teenager but instead a young adult who no doubt knew something about fashion but not decency. While walking toward her I could not help but notice the slogan on her T-shirt.

The slogan on her T-shirt read- Yes I would Sleep with You! I use the word "sleep". The all too well known four letter word sometimes used to describe the act was actually on the shirt. Part of me was in shock part of me was in disbelief but like many people I just shook my head and went home and shared my encounter with friends and family. But it did leave me with a feeling that I should have said something to the young lady or at least to the manager of the store. It also left me with the thought of designing inspirational T-shirts for those of us who may not desire to walk around with such offensive shirts as the one I observed that Sunday.

To be honest with you the thought of designing the shirts started to diminish until one interesting encounter one afternoon in the local mall several days later....... It was a beautiful Friday afternoon so I decided to go to the mall for lunch to eat at one of my favorite restaurants. While walking through the mall a small family of three (1 mom, 1 girl and 1 boy) passed me by. On the back of the boy's T-shirt it read "Just Hanging Out With My Bud" with a picture of a marijuana leaf imposed on it. The boy could not have been older than seven years of age. Once again I shook my head in disbelief but I knew I had to try to do something. I had to change, I had to go from a state of apathy to a state of action. I had to TryChange. Maybe you know of someone who is in need of change, hope, peace and diversity in their life. Show them you care by sending them a TryChange T-shirt or the link to our website. So you may ask: What's up with the photo of the ocean? Well, I came up with logo and idea of TryChange.org several days later during my morning walk on my favorite path while on vacation in San Diego, CA. Out of the trips to the supermarket and the mall came my inspiration to try something different. I invite you to try one my TryChange T-shirts (TryHope, TryDiversity, and TryPeace) found under the Product Line icon. Five percent of all proceeds go to Volunteers of America. Together we can make a difference. I encourage you to develop your dreams and share them with others on our forum.

Thank you for reading my story and letting me share it with you!

Vince