Wednesday, October 16, 2013

Wait...there's more....

Hi! How are ya? I haven't chatted with you for a few weeks so I wanted to check in with ya and bring you up to date with all things NMW. As you know, we returned from NY Fashion Week on 9/8/2013, completely energized and excited about our next step. We had met so many amazing people and spread our brand far and wide. We were ready to keep moving!

Before we had left for NY, on 8/31, at midnight, voting began on QVC.com for their Sprouts program and we were one of the products for which the public could vote. This program gives up and coming companies the chance to compete with other such companies and the world gets to vote on which product they'd like to see featured on QVC. The voting was to run until 9/13 and we had been encouraging everyone we knew to vote, vote, vote because, if we won, we'd secure a purchase order from QVC and who doesn't want THAT? :)

So, it's 9/13 and I am participating in a fundraising event at my 9 to 5 but I check my phone and there is an e-mail informing us that we came in as runners-up in the competition. We were a bit bummed but, hey, Jennifer Hudson didn't win Idol and look at her! So, we pulled ourselves together and kept moving. A little later on the same day, the best friend/business partner calls me and says these words, "Nikki, we won!" Huh? She begins to inform me that there was a correction e-mail sent and we did indeed win the competition. OMG!!!!!!! We were OVER the moon! After having just returned from a successful trip to NY, we won the QVC contest and would now be able to sell on QVC. Wow wow wow.

After having a packing party (thank you to my packing team) I shipped off 250 units of NMW 3 packs and they began selling on QVC. As of this writing, we are not only almost 1/2 way sold through, but we also have ALL 5 star reviews on QVC.com. We remain 5 star chicks! :) (We have all 5stars on Amazon.com). :)

In addition to all of that excitement, the newspaper articles, reviews and blog posts that have been coming out since early September have been absolutely amazing! I have been invited to speak at a few events (which I LOVE). I was invited to be a guest on "Our Region's Business" with Bill Flanigan, on WPXI and just this past Monday, I was honored to be featured on Ola Jackson's blog radio show, to discuss being an inventor and entrepreneur. Check it out...www.blogtalkradio.com/onyxwoman/2013/10/14/making-it-in-the-beauty-biz.

Wait, there's more! :) While in the gifting suite in NY, we met a woman named Margot Black who happens to be a Publicist and we decided to hire her to get our brand out there even more. Fingers crossed she can secure some glossy magazines and tv spots. She says we'd make THE PERFECT feature for last minute stocking stuffer items. Let me tell you, if I see Nikki's Magic Wand on a table, being featured on the Today show, I'm going to fall right over!

I can't mention all of this without also mentioning how absolutely stunned and thankful I am for all of it. I don't take any of it for granted. The fact that an idea I had....me, Nikki from West Oak Lane in Philadelphia, PA is now a product which people far and wide are not only using but enjoying....I'm just amazed, proud and oh so thankful.

As always, thank you for coming along for the ride.
Nikki

Wednesday, October 2, 2013

Nikki's Magic Wand TAKES OVER NY Fashion Week- The Final Day...

Saturday, September 7, 2013

Hi!!!! I promised to tell you about the final day of our time at NY Fashion Week and boy was it amazing! So, we headed back to the suite to start our day of celeb schmoozing, networking and new friendship forging. The energy was still very high and all of the vendors were anxious to see who would come visit us that day. The day before, we worked our strategy of engaging each person who came by our booth and we were amazed at the HUGE stack of business cards we had collected. We planned to follow up, via e-mail, during the week after NY Fashion Week concluded. We were excited about the possibilities of making new connections and being featured in publications and blogs.

So, there we stood, on the last day, determined to make it the best day ever. The celebs started to come through. We had been given a list of those that were due to come through and I was hoping to see the Hilton sisters and Robert Hergevac from Shark Tank. They did not come but there were some other amazing folks who DID come. The infamous Ms. J from America's Next Top Model came to visit and spent time with us and took lots of pictures. One of my faves, who I didn't even really know much about before NY Fashion Week, was Big Ang. She was SO kind and genuinely interested in our presentation. She said that the Wand was her favorite thing in the entire suite and said, in her smoky voice, "You should see me digging in my lip gloss like a LOSER!" :) She spent lots of time with us too, posing for pictures and hanging out. All in all we found the celebs to be warm and easy to chat with.

The day moved along and we met some other lovely people. They were representing different press outlets from all over and they were all very kind and receptive to the Wand. We were chatting with a group of young women when someone mentioned being from Philly and the one woman and I realized we'd both gone to the same beloved high school, The Philadelphia High School for Girls. We grabbed each other up, like Girls' High Girls do and shared a great moment. Shout out to the 243rd class from a proud member of 233!

The day was winding down and a woman named Africa came to visit. She told us she LOVED the Wand, thought it was genius and hung out with us for a bit. She asked what we were doing later that evening and we said that we weren't doing anything so she asked if we'd like to go to a fashion show. Ummmm, YES!!! She texted us the address and off she went.

Well, the time had come to break down the booth and start to pack up. We hugged our new friends good bye and everyone shared their left over products. We scored some MAJOR goodies from our fellow vendors. It was a Win Win all around!

We want to send love to Jeff Duckwall, Felix at Kefir, Yumi, Alice and Irene from Hard Candy, Candee and her co-worker from Oasis Hommus, The Pilot Pen Girls, Margot Black from Black InkPR and my newest partner in crime, Robin from IlluminationsPR. We made connections that will last a long time.

We headed back to the hotel, rested just a bit and started to get ready for the Samantha Black fashion show. We cabbed it over there and Africa greeted us warmly and gave us the opportunity to give Wands to tv and movie star, Elise Neal and reality diva Tami Roman. We were elated! After the show, we headed to Nobu for a late dinner. We marveled at the last three days and felt blessed, overwhelmed (in a good way) and joyful.

NY Fashion Week was exactly what we needed it to be and much, much more.

As always, thanks for reading. Next up, Nikki's Magic Wand TAKES OVER QVC!!!!!