Never Say Never

The woman sitting across from Kara stretches her arms wide, as to create emphasis. "Kara," she says, "Do you realize that, on one hand, you are completely spontaneous, facing what many people fear with excitement and enjoyment, relishing the unplanned adventures, and on the polar opposite end, cling to a suffocating control and structure that has wanted to choke out any and all of the beauty in life that you so desperately are searching?"

That would be a quite accurate observation.

Kara is an anomaly, not following the normal post-college life that many of her friends have chosen with marriages, homes, kids, and office jobs. "I thought I wanted all of that right out of college, but really, I had no idea. In God's wisdom, I didn't get what I hoped for, and how I thought my life would be is very, very different from my current reality. I am very blessed and thankful that God knows best and that my plans didn't happen," she says.

If you told Kara four years ago that she would be a flight attendant, living in Los Angeles, in a quaint beach apartment, having traveled to Haiti, Costa Rica, Honduras, Belize, Hawaii, British Columbia, Germany, Czech Republic, Amsterdam, Belgium, Guatemala, all in the span of one year, as well as developing a strategy to take a little tortilla company mainstream, she would have looked at you and asked if you were feeling ok...or if you were smoking crack.

She never wanted to be a flight attendant, had no desire to live in LA, and traveling that much seemed too unbelievably awesome. "I remember flying out of LAX as a passenger years ago, taking a red-eye out, noticing the flight attendants, and thinking, 'I'd hate to do that job.' It's crazy for me to think of how I actually love my job, how I like LA, and how lucky I am to have made a great community of friends."

To Kara, flying is still "just a job," and her passion, and what she knows to be her future, is Created Whole. Her creativity, enthusiasm, and natural interest in people, combined with a degree in Marketing, have created a natural fit as Lead of Marketing and Promotions. "I believe in our company. I can't imagine my life without tortillas, and honestly, I don't know how other people live without them either. They shouldn't have to. My personal mission is that people no longer be without an awesome tasting whole wheat tortilla," she says with a laugh.

In Kara's "fun time", she enjoys riding her Cannondale road-bike, spending time with friends, and dreaming up the next adventure. The "Must-See List" includes Italy, Chile, Israel, and Thailand, and the chart toppers for the "Must-Do List" are learning Spanish, sky-diving, and biking from Canada to Mexico.

Didn't Realize Tweets Could Be That Sweet?

Social media has given marketers and businesses a whole new way to quickly and quite effectively reach an audience that, frankly, doesn't have the time or interest to be reached. When we started Created Whole, we put up the website, made a Facebook page, began this blog, and shortly after, began Tweeting on Twitter. The website definitely needs help, but it does what we need it to do for now, which is directing customers to a place where they can place orders and contact us. Facebook has been an instrumental way for people to find us if they search for Created Whole Tortillas in the Google search engine. The blog is a way for us to give you more of an inside look at what is going on, as well as being one more platform of introducing people to "the best tasting tortilla."

But, what I am raving about right now is Twitter. Twitter is such an interesting and unique social media platform. It's a way to tell the world what is happening right now. Twitter lets you know what your favorite celebrity, gourmet food truck, or friend is doing at that moment. It's a way to have quick conversations with complete strangers. I started a tweeting for Created Whole Tortillas (follow us @BestTortilla). Without fully understanding how twitter could be used as a marketing tool, I purchased a book to help. Right now, I pretty much think twitter is the best thing ever! It's not only effective, quick, and easy, but also fun. Because of twitter, we have been able to connect with people on a much shorter timetable and in more of direct way. Instead of phone calls and leaving messages, or writing letters and never receiving a response, we've had success with an 140 character tweet. Recently, twitter has helped us get noticed. In our society where people can't live without their blackberrys and they don't have time to read billboards, let alone blogs, twitter is a very effective way to communicate.

So, start tweeting by going to twitter!!!

Follow us at @BestTortilla

This Frustration Can Be a Good Thing

"Dad, these tortillas...they are SO salty. Why are they so salty?" I question mid-chew, as I sit in the backseat of the car. He asks for a piece to try, and then he is quiet for a moment. He begins to shake his head back and forth, in a sense of confusion and mutters how this salty tortilla could be. Mom and I begin to question, "Did you forget that you put in the salt and then added extra unknowingly? Did you measure too much? Did the recipe mix unequally and it only is this dozen that is unreasonably salty? He shakes his head more vigorously, and replies, "No. No. I measured everything right. I made the recipe exactly right." He's just as stumped as we are. We go about the day, but every hour or so, we return to the topic of the salty tortilla. We are all very bothered by this occurance.

Come to find out, the whole batch is ruined, all 56 dozen. And, come to find out, it has nothing to do with a mistake that we made or anything that we really had control over. It was the bakery owners that made the error, and even though they admitted to adding more salt without our consent, they were unwilling to refund us or make another batch "on the house." In all points of business, the people involved must be honest and willing to make amends for mistakes made, however costly they may be. There are different ways to learn in life, and one is by seeing how NOT to do things. Created Whole will always be committed to honesty, quality, and integrity, unlike some in the business arena.

The frustration with the current bakery we are working under has risen significantly over the last year. The owners have increased the price per dozen that we pay to make our tortillas at their facility, a price that is unreasonably high. The going rate gives us little added benefit. We are only able to make tortillas on their schedule, and at their convenience. The relationship seems fragile, breakable. We are caught in a tight-rope, scared to make a misstep that could send our baby business plummeting to sudden death.

The three of us (Tim, Brenda, and Kara), share equal responsibility (for the most part), for the decisions made within our business, but as the daughter (Kara), I look up to my father as the leader. He is intelligent and extremely capable, and it's really because of him that this business began. I have been at the point of breaking for quite awhile, not wanting our business to continue like it has. We are stuck in limbo, because without production, we cannot grow. Without growth, in all honesty, it's time to ask the question, "What the hell are we doing?"

I hate it when something happens with our tortillas, because I am so emotionally attached to the success and the quality of Created Whole. I think one makes better decisions when there is not the emotional attachment, but the attachment is an indicator of how much I care. We all care. I think, somewhat ignorantly, and it's easy for me to say, "Let's grow." I don't know the feeling of debt. I don't really know what it's like to fail. To jump completely in, with nothing and no one to fall back on and not look back. To me, the concept of just diving head-first into waters that are murky and with depth unknown, seems much more rewarding than hanging out in the kiddie-pool with rubber duckie arm bands. Sometimes, I think that Dad is just fine with the kiddie pool. I become angry that he's not doing anything (which is a completely unfair and a wrongful accusation. People are not the most rational when angry.) But, I see that he does care, maybe even more than I do.

With the latest bakery frustration, I feel thankful. Maybe this will be the last straw for Dad. Our goal was for him to be the full-timer in our company by the end of the summer. It's almost the end of the summer, and I think that we are all at the end of our patience with our current situation. So, this time, the frustration that we are experiencing may just be the catalyst to take us into the big markets that we keep dreaming of. So, maybe this time, this frustration can be a good thing.

That Great Wilderness

Have you ever had the feeling of being completely overwhelmed? Uncertain and unsure? All the thoughts of, "How is this even possible?" Then, the hopeless statement follows: "There's just no way." In one word your mind says, "insurmountable."

Mine has. Mine does. It did this week.

Not knowing what to do next brings my stress level up to medium high and compounded with minimal sleep, that shoots me over the moon. Welcome to the first week of April.

Happy April Fool's?

The "insurmountable" this week brought something beautiful along with it. I had an intensely precious moment with God. Just me, God, and my tears.

This is what He said to me:

And you shall remember that the Lord your God led you all the way these forty years in the wilderness, to humble you and test you, to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep His commandments or not. So He humbled you, allowed you to hunger, and fed you with manna which you did not know nor did your fathers know, that He might make you know that man shall not live by bread alone; but man lives by every word that proceeds from the mouth of the Lord. Your garments did not wear out on you, nor did your foot swell these forty years. You should know in your heart that as a man chastens his son, so the Lord your God chastens you. For the Lord your God is bringing you into a good land, a land of brooks of water, of fountains and springs, that flow out of valleys and hills; a land of wheat and barley, of vines and fig trees and pomegranates, a land of olive oil and honey; a land in which you will eat bread without scarcity, in which you will lack nothing; a land whose stones are iron and out of whose hills you can dig copper. When you have eaten and are full, then you shall bless the Lord your God for the good land which he has given you...[He] who led you through that great and terrible wilderness, in which were fiery serpents and scorpions and thirsty land where there was no water; who brought water for you out of the flinty rock; who fed you in the wilderness with manna, which your fathers did not know, that He might humble you and test you, to do you good in the end. You shall remember the Lord your God, for it is He who gives you power to get wealth, that He may establish His covenant which He swore to your fathers, as it is this day. Deuteronomy 8