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As you probably know by now, I taught seventh and eighth graders in Baltimore City for six years before I moved on to running my business full time. Every now and then I remember some good times that were had in those six years and some of the rewarding aspects of teaching, and I think I could almost miss it... just a teeny tiny bit.

Truthfully, I loved being a teacher. I was passionate about what I taught in the classroom, I loved my kids, and I had an amazing group of teachers and admin that I worked with daily. I'm just one of those types of people that is constantly looking for a new challenge, and when the burn out and boredom began, it was time for me to move on to something else. On the other hand, there are plenty of things that I don't miss about teaching, so I thought I'd share a few of those with you.

1 // Not being able to use the restroom whenever I damn well please. Do you know how awful it is going three hours without being able to leave the room and go to take a pee? Add in a school-wide staff fitness challenge where drinking a shit ton of water is involved, and it's pure torture. I'm pretty sure I was that awkward teacher that yelled many times, "Ok, you guys need to hurry up and get in line and get quiet so that we can dismiss because I NEED TO PEE!" Hey, it worked, and you've gotta do what you've gotta do in desperate times.

2 // Speaking of bodily functions, I don't miss stories that some of my boys would tell me. A few of them spent more time around me over the course of three years by default since I also coached basketball. As a result, they became a little too comfortable with the oversharing. I am scarred for life by a story involving a Burger King wrapper being used as toilet paper in a pinch. You guys, you can't unhear these horrifying things.

3 // The evils of online grading systems that magically delete all of your final grades. I'm pretty sure our district wide grading software had it in for me. I'd stay late in my classroom entering final grades when they were due at the end of the quarter. The next morning, I'd log into the grading system and they'd all magically be gone and all the curse words would come out of my mouth.

4 // Two words. Body odor. Never have you ever smelled something as foul as 35 pubescent teenagers crammed into a classroom. And they wondered why I always cranked the A/C. Why would I turn up the heat if it only resulted in more sweat and stench?

5 // 5 minute lunches. Yes, this was a real thing. Actually, technically, my lunch period was 25 minutes long, but by the time I took my students to the cafeteria, used the restroom, checked my email, and prepped for my afternoon classes, I usually had 5 minutes left. I hate cramming food down my throat like a manic barbarian, so most days I didn't eat lunch and opted for 5 minutes of peace and quiet instead.

6 // Grading homework that no one really cared about. And by nobody, I mean the students AND the teacher. Who makes these rules about having to give homework every. Single. Night? Basically, homework makes everyone miserable.

7 // Feeling like you've been hit by a truck every night. If I had a dollar for every time I stated, "My body hurts," after climbing into bed at the end of the day during my teaching days, I'd be plenty rich. I'm not really sure I ever knew that so many body parts could hurt all at once until I became a teacher.

8 // Being given vacation and sick days that you can't use. Every school year we'd get a small number of vacation and sick days. However, if you used more than a couple, you could get reprimanded by the district. It was basically like dangling a piece of candy in front of a kid and then telling them they couldn't eat it. It was sort of like, Oh hey, here are your days off that you can use, but you can't *actually* use them unless you've died. Oh, you're coughing up a lung with bronchitis? Have fun with that! What the fresh fuck is that all about?

9 // Spending my life savings on school supplies. I was somewhat lucky. Our principal helped us out as much as he could so we weren't as bad off as some schools, but when budget cuts came around, we were given our paper ream rations, and then we were on our own. It was like The Great Depression had hit and teachers were hoarding paper and accusing others of stealing their stash. And the insult to injury? The measly $250 teachers are able to claim for supplies on their taxes. I had hit that $250 mark on my first day of back to school shopping, so whoever made that rule up is clearly an alien. No normal person could make up such a dumb rule.

10 // Being accosted by kids in the morning before my coffee had kicked in. There were the kids that knew not to do it, and then there were the kids that just never seemed to pick up on the fact that lasers were beaming out of my eyes and tearing their brains to shreds because they'd approached me before that magical caffeinated hour.

While I'm sure I could list many other reasons why I don't miss teaching, these were just a few of the things that scratched the surface. Many of these things are indicative of larger issues within our public school systems throughout the country, but that's for another day and a more serious post.

Anyone else a former teacher? What don't you miss about a previous job?

Last week, while doing a deep cleaning in my studio at 9 o'clock at night, after an especially rough day, I stumbled across a notebook. I was feeling down about a lot of things from a business standpoint because it felt as though a lot of the the things I want to accomplish are taking much longer than I had hoped. However, when I opened that notebook, my mindset changed.

There on the very first page, a list of business goals for 2012 stared back at me. As I read the list, I began laughing. They seemed so incredibly small and silly. I hoped to complete my first craft show, something I've done so many times at this point that I could almost do it with my eyes closed. I set a goal for 400 sales for the year. Now, I'm hovering at just above 17,000 sales in my Etsy shop in the time I've been in business. I wanted to design my own website, and here I am, writing a blog post that will be published on my own website.

While these goals made me laugh at first due to the fact that they seemed so simple, they suddenly made me stop and really think. These goals were set four years ago. And in four years, my business has changed and grown in ways that I couldn't have even imagined then as I jotted that list of goals down in the notebook. This thought made me realize that change and growth take time. I might have a vision of where I would like to be right now, but maybe it's ok that where I am doesn't align with that vision. Maybe it's meant to happen a year or two from now.

I've never been one to have a lot of patience. Even as a child, my parents were constantly reminding me to have patience, to slow down, to just let things play out. And here I am, at age 32, needing those kinds of reminders yet again. Four years is a lot of time, and things happen in ways that we don't always expect. That list of goals from four years ago was just the reminder I needed to realize that despite feeling as if I'm going nowhere at times, I am actually making huge leaps and bounds of progress. I just need to have a little more patience.

Where were you four years ago? Have you reflected upon goals from many years ago? How did that change your perspective on your progress in life or in business?

Recently, I've had an influx of random individuals contacting me with questions about my business. The questions range from very general to rather specific. They want to know how I make cards, where I get my card stock, how I print my cards, what printer I use, what tools I use, where I source my envelopes. And I don't oblige.

In most cases, I don't respond to these types of individuals because I honestly don't feel comfortable providing this sort of information about my business. However, in some cases, the person in question is persistent, reaching out to me several times before giving up, and so in order to at least appease their questioning, I give them a friendly "no" with my reasoning.

Inevitably, in return, I am met with a nasty or rude response because the person didn't ultimately get what they wanted-- free information without having to do the hard work. Often times, I must remind myself that this is not a reflection of myself, but rather the person who is asking the questions. This situation occurred once more for me this past week. And a couple days ago, this same scenario happened yet again to another card seller that I often talk shop with. Much as the story usually ends, she too was met with a rude response after sticking up for her own hard work and her business. Chatting with her about this really made me question why it is that so many individuals feel they are entitled to information that is not theirs to have.

While many of you may wonder what the problem is with sharing this information, I'm providing a bigger picture for readers as to why artist entrepreneurs have absolutely no obligation to provide information about how they make their products or run their business.

1 // I have spent hours upon hours researching and testing materials. It took me almost three years to find card stock that I was 100% happy with for my cards. In that time, I tested and researched various types of card stock from all sorts of paper mills. The same goes for envelopes, the printer that I use, and the packaging materials that I use. Time is money. If I spend four hours of my day doing research for one small aspect of my business, why should anyone but myself feel entitled to that information? The same goes for outsourcing. As I move toward soon doing less of the digital printing myself, I have gone through endless amounts of paper samples, have visited several local printing facilities, prepared proofs for printing samples, and spent hours corresponding with print shops. That's time I've invested, and I shouldn't have to give that away for free.

2 // I have invested and lost money while trying to figure out what works best. Similarly to number one, while researching various aspects of how I run my business, I have invested thousands of dollars in products, materials, and equipment in order to test these things. Many of them I didn't even end up using. If I put the money down for this sort of thing, why should I feel obligated in any way to give the same information away for free?

3 // I have been burned in the past. Several years ago, I was more free in terms of giving up this information. I remember one particular instance when a woman contacted me posing as a customer. She wanted to know what kind of card stock and printer I used. She told me that she wanted to know this information because she was interested in purchasing a large volume of my cards and she wanted to be sure that she liked the end product. I obliged, and she never purchased a single card. A week later, I noticed that she had opened her own greeting card shop on Etsy. In her shop, there were cards that had used some of my design concepts and my wording from my own cards. I could also tell from her listings that she was using the same card stock as me. She had lied to me in order to get the information she needed, and then she also used my work for her own profit. Even to this day, she continues to do so. While I know that not everyone that asks me these questions plans on stealing my own designs, this experience has left me very wary of giving out any information about my business.

4 // I know my products are top notch quality and that is part of what makes my business stand out. It's a competition thing. Providing information about an aspect of my business that makes it better than other products devalues that aspect of my business. Maybe this makes me sound arrogant, and I certainly don't mean for it to, but I know that my card stock is much better than the average card seller on Etsy. I've done the research. I hear it in the feedback I get from my customers-- they love the great quality of my cards. If everyone uses the same quality of materials, that aspect of my business will no longer set me apart from the others.

5 // I don't know you. I have no problem sharing information with other stationers with whom I've built relationships. As mentioned at the beginning of this post, I do talk shop with several other card makers both in person here in Baltimore and online. The thing is that after you've been in business for a while, you find a group of people that understand what you're doing on a daily basis. You're able to connect and share based on that aspect. We've all been through the ringer of figuring out what works best for our businesses, and at some point there is a level of trust that develops much like any other relationship or friendship. If you ask about the nitty gritty details of my business and I don't even know you or have never talked to you before, I equate that to a stranger asking me personal questions about my life. It's just uncomfortable and really weird.

Ultimately, the points I've made could certainly apply to all entrepreneurs, both small and large scale. Think of it this way-- if you were to contact Coca-Cola and ask them what recipe they use for their beverages, they wouldn't tell you. Much is the same for any small business. As entrepreneurs, we have a right to decline without getting a rude response in return.

As a small business owner, have you encountered the same experiences as I have in regards to business details? Have you ever asked another business owner about proprietary information? What was their response? I'm curious to know what experiences others have dealt with on this topic.

I can't believe it's already February! Time flies, especially when things are busy. I thought I'd use the first of the month to check in on my goals that I set at the beginning of the year. When I'd been blogging regularly a few year ago, this was something that I did to help keep myself accountable. I feel as though things have been progressing well, but it doesn't help to check in with myself.

1 // Continue learning new things. In January, I spent an afternoon with my aunt in a bookbinding class. I learned how to make and bind my own book. Making something and learning a new skill was refreshing for me. It was something different than the cards I'm making every day, which really helped in terms of filling up the tank in the creative department. I think I'll seek out something similar in February, whether I teach myself something new or I go to a class.

2 // Become stronger and healthier. I'm on track for this. Up until the blizzard a week ago, I was active in some way six days out of the week. Then the blizzard came along, and I got a little off track. We couldn't get off of our block due to the snow, so that put a damper on our gym routine. However, I still did yoga a couple days at home and we got back on the gym train on Saturday morning. So far, I'm feeling stronger, but feel as though my cardiovascular health could get better. I'll have to share more about some of the things I've noticed in terms of my strength in a different post. In addition, I've done a lot of research to figure out a better weightlifting program that I'm going to start this week.

3 // Streamline my wholesale program. Baby steps. One of the first things I'm doing is creating a more cohesive line. This takes time because it means redesigning some of my cards and retiring others. It's hard not to get attached to designs even if they don't sell well. In addition, part of making a better wholesale program has included outsourcing some of my cards. I'm working toward building an inventory rather than printing stock when I need it, and so far, I'm on the right track with this. In February, I'd like to focus on taking new photographs as needed and putting together a catalog.

4 // Identify when I'm sabotaging myself and take active steps to change that. Slowly, but surely I'm getting better at this. I still know when I'm sabotaging myself, but I still need work in changing that. I started the month off really well, but again, sort of let the blizzard blues win last week. This week I'm focusing on sticking to my routines and just starting tasks that I don't especially like just for five minutes. I've found that if I can get myself to do something for five minutes, then I usually forget that it was as awful as it seemed to begin with and the task gets completed. I've also tried a few new productivity apps that I learned about during a recent networking event, and those have helped me from entering the rabbit hole of the interwebs when I should be getting work done instead.

5 // Start blogging regularly again. So far, this has been a success. I went big on this goal, and committed to blogging every week day this year. And I have. I've really enjoyed the conversations that have been sparked by some of my posts, and in general, I feel as though I finally have an outlet again for some of the tougher subjects and issues I deal with on a daily basis.

6 // Take more photos. I'm not on track here at all. Aside from snapping a few photos for my blog posts and for product shots, the camera has been in the camera bag. I'm thinking about doing a personal photo challenge this month to get myself back in the mindset of doing more photography.

7 // Make time for myself and the people in my life. I'm doing ok with the, but could do better. One thing that seems to help me is doing yoga almost daily. It gives me 45 minutes to myself to get some exercise and clear my mind. I think that I need to be a bit more intentional with my time in the evenings. It can be really easy to waste 30 minutes scrolling on my phone right before bed instead of doing something else more productive and sane for my health. It's time to break that habit.

8 // Spend more time traveling. We're already taking steps toward this goal. I've gathered everything necessary to renew my passport, but just need to have Andrew snap my photo so that I can crop and size it and send it in. We've also been looking at options for some sort of beach vacation in the coming months. We're torn in terms of pricing though. It seems like all-inclusive trips to places in the Caribbean are some of the most cost effective even in comparison to renting an AirBnB and cooking for ourselves. However, they don't offer quite the off the beaten path vibe that Andrew and I tend to prefer. So in that frame of mind, we've been trying to decide just what to do.

9 // Continue to minimize and organize our house. This is happening. During the blizzard, I spent an entire night in my studio clearing out things that I no longer use. It felt damn good. There are still a lot of things that I need to get rid of, but unfortunately I'll need to wait to do that. A lot of what I got rid of were old cards and other paper materials that I no longer use or keep in stock. They went straight into our recycling bin. Right now, recycling in Baltimore is on hold because of the blizzard, so until they start that up again next week or so, I can't continue with the purge. There are a lot of paper goods that I still need to get rid of, but I refuse to throw out something that can be recycled. We also have two bags of clothes that need to go to Goodwill, and I plan on doing another closet purge this month. I purchased a few more items for my wardrobe that can act as staples, so I need to get rid of the items I no longer wear.

And that's my quick update on my goals. How are your goals coming along? Any progress?

I stumbled upon this soundbite from Ira Glass a few days ago, and I could completely relate. During the past couple of years, I've worked really hard to hone my craft and to get to the point of making cards that I really, truly loved. Some of the cards that I designed when I first started my business were ones that I really didn't love, but it was the best I was able to do at the time. It has taken me five years to get there, but I feel happy with where I've found myself now. And because I've found my voice after all of that time, I feel even more creative energy through my work.

If you're struggling creatively, I hope you'll give this a quick listen. It's reassuring and encouraging for anyone who needs that little boost.