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

Why don't you sample with Salsa?

We have had some customers ask or wonder why we do not sample our Create Whole Tortillas with some great tasting filling like salsa, humus, scrambled eggs or tofu.

Well... During our testing we found that even a horribly bad tasting tortilla is acceptable if you cover the flavor with a good enough filling. Sure our tortillas are fantastic with scrambled tofu, salsa or humus, but when we go head to head with nothing but the tortilla taste as the standard of comparison it is a more accurate test of quality.

There is one other issue about sampling. What filling will we use? Some might not like the sample because of the ingredients we have chosen. By sampling just the tortilla we have a better chance of gaining the customers confidence of our quality product.

Created Whole Tortillas... the original "eat it straight" tortilla.

Full-Time Tim

Tortillas eventually, or more like, initially enter most social conversations. It's so hard not to talk about Created Whole for us, because this company is something that we are so passionate about.

Tortillas travel everywhere with us. A couple of weeks ago, the flight attendants of the family (Brenda and Kara), were grabbing lunch at Baja Fresh at LAX, and the young woman in line just happened to ask, "Do you ladies know if they have whole wheat tortillas?" Smiling, Kara says, "No they don't, but I do," while rapidly explaining about the tortilla business, and frantically trying to find a business card. Not having any business cards and only two tortillas left, she handed over the tortillas with the website written on a napkin. This business has comical moments to say the least.

Tim received a phone call last week from a woman who says she's praying for us to get into Trader Joe's and praying that we will be successful. She loves the tortillas. Stories like this have been happening for us everyday. From the random people we encounter, to our regular customers at farmer's market, we need these affirmations.

This past week, Brenda was in Santa Barbara for work, and Tim was in Utah or somewhere, and Kara was enjoying the wonderful island of Oahu. Our lives are a little nutso. It's a challenge to build a business when there isn't someone dedicating all of their time to just tortillas. Three months ago, we set a goal that Tim would be our full-time employee by the end of the summer. We've needed him full-time for awhile, but he hasn't wanted to let go of the security of his job. So, it's the end of the summer.

Every time the three of us (Tim, Brenda, Kara) get together to talk about the future of tortillas, each one of us has a, "You'll-never-guess-what-just-happened-to-me-story." There some pretty exciting opportunities "in-the-works" right now that can't be shared at this time on such a public forum, but the one thing I can say, is that things look good. There's a lot to be done. So much so, that we had an intervention with Tim, and he's done working for anyone but Created Whole.

Congratulate Tim on his new position as full-time Director of Operations/Production!

Eat Pray Love

I went to see the film Eat Pray Love last night starring Julia Roberts. Based on the bestselling book it tells the story of Liz, a middle aged writer, who reaches a crossroads in her life, realizing that she does not like the life that she is living. Realizing she is unhappy in her marriage, she divorces her husband, and embarks on a year long journey of travel and new experiences in an attempt to feel alive again. Beginning in Italy, she lives, eats, learns Italian, and finds snippets of happiness, but still she is incomplete. Liz travels to India to learn meditation from the great Guru, and is frustrated cause she cannot still her soul. Ending her year in Bali, she faces her fears of opening her heart again to love.

Liz's experience is like so many people. We want to be happy. We want to experience life to the fullest. We want to feel complete. We want to be loved. And, we want to find rest. So often, we think that when our lives are not how we expect or what we want, we must change something outside of ourselves. We need to get away. So we plan a trip, change jobs, move, break-up with a significant other, and for awhile, we are ok again. But, that feeling of not enough, of something missing, returns. Because the problem is not outside of us, it's in us. There is a saying that goes, "Where ever you go, there you are." You can never leave yourself.

I'd like to suggest that we look in all the wrong places for the peace and stillness and completeness that we all desire. It won't be found in success, wealth, beauty, thinness. In the book, Desire of Ages, it says, "Living faith in the Redeemer will smooth the sea of life, and will deliver us from danger in the way that He knows best (White, 336). Jesus tells us "Be still and know that I am God." Ps. 46:10. Here alone, can true rest be found.

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.