What’s Important!

It’s 2020 and we’ve been thinking A LOT about the state of everything, including how FRAU FOWLER is making future decisions.  Now is the time to manifest it, for everyone!

This year has really forced us to really think about what we want Frau Fowler to look like in the future.  We’ve decided to work on ourselves also, so that we don’t get affected as much by the free slinging of emotions that have run amuck. 2020 has been felt like ONE LONG ASSAULT.  

Instead of getting upset at this or that, we’ve just focused inward.  It’s as good as any time, to direct energies into places where you know you can control outcomes and you can take care of yourself and others properly.

To be more PERSONAL seems like what’s needed more than ever.

I have a lot of friends who own large brands and they seem to get consumed with being just a PRODUCT on shelf, not really divulging all of the interesting things behind it.  It gets really impersonal, but it also seems like everyone judges others too much these days.  I’m not liking the direction, I find it sickening.  And you cannot sum up what a business represents by reading their mission statement.

This newsletter is about what’s important to FRAU FOWLER, the future decisions we’re making and where we see it all going.  Buckle Up!

“Press 2, to pay your bill” 

With AI coming (and already entrenched), I believe that systems will get more automated and far less personal.  The saddest part is that companies who can afford to staff their phones 24-7, when they get the option not to, just won’t. They will hope we all grow accustomed to it and perhaps some will.

Do you go nuts, like I do, when you’re dealing with automation?
Did you text back obscenities to pollsters that got your number?
Did Clemson University sell my information to Chase bank, to offer me a tiger credit card? Really.

It’s probably going to get a lot worse, very soon.  Let’s talk about antitrust…

The collapse of retail

Watching large retailers collapse, it provides both opportunity and fear of major tech businesses (like Amazon) to take over- everything really. 

This past month we’ve been reading updates in the Wall Street Journal about the antitrust hearings on big tech, particularly that of Amazon’s. When we asked our followers on social platforms, 73% said they had no idea what it was about.   If you vote with your dollars, like we do, it’s something everyone needs to know.

Amazon built it’s platform and advertised it as a way to accommodate sellers of all sorts. These sellers (like ourselves) then paid money to Amazon and spent time building their sales channel (for years).  Now Amazon has used data on these sellers, ruining their business by supplying the same thing THEMSELVES (with the same suppliers often), pushing down in their rankings popular products that compete.

You can say “it’s just business,” but it’s really more than that. It affects manufacturers here in the US (who get the smallest margin on the products they produce).  It also KILLS other retailers.  Those enjoyable little trips you might take to your local market, maybe getting a few deli dishes, picking up a few items, may not be there in the future. They STRUGGLE.

We’ve been affected also, but we’re making some decisions.

It’s our choice

We are making VERY LARGE decisions right now and will announce them soon.  We may lose one-third of our yearly revenue, but we are accepting of that, because we are building the difference we want to see.

I always laugh thinking that I’ve gotten further by saying NO, then by saying YES.   I’m a YES person, but it took me a while to mature into this.

We were cash positive, for the first time, this year. So our move is a leap of faith.

The decisions we are making are about PERSONAL CHOICE and PERSONAL FREEDOMS.  We do not have to be stuck in a system that is disrespectful.  We just have to be brave and WE ARE!  

6 points good points:

1) Nothing is more important than our customers, educating those who want to listen and having that point of contact.  You ARE important.

2) FRAU FOWLER was never a get rich scheme, we are building it to be around long after we’re dead; not to be cheapened or destroyed by “the game” that distributors and selling platforms play.  Did you know that 3% of all CPG brands make it to year 4 or 5?  I can tell you a 1000 reasons why. 

3) We are looking to expand our product line into all kinds of personal care products and getting MORE PERSONAL in the near future.

4) We’ve operated in an ethical sense and we aren’t going to stop now.  We work hard to vet suppliers, to make sure they are reducing waste, that we are reducing waste where possible, that people get paid fairly,  the ingredients support agriculture that’s regenerative (organic), money goes back into our community in the form of taxes.

5) We are figuring out how others can make a profit. If you’re at home homeschooling and wondering when it’s going to end…it might not.  Some sort of strange new future is brewing up.  We are looking to pass it forward, for those at home.  We should have something solid next year.

6) AND WE’RE MOVING!

Here’s the big announcement. We’re actually moving our entire operations to North Carolina.  Colorado has been a very fun state to live in.  We are mountain people who love the solitude of the cold and enjoy the outdoors. I had originally moved here in 2010 because of the Olympic Training Center ( I’m a former Nike athlete, 800m).  I had a robust health-related business (a knack for getting people well from autoimmune-related illness) until I decided to go into manufacturing. I won Naturally Boulder’s best new product/business in 2016 (which is a big deal in the natural products world).  The natural foods community is strong in Colorado, but manufacturing isn’t.  Many brands have cush offices and have their product made elsewhere.

We have often struggled with the higher cost of living here and know that to grow, we must go somewhere it’s still affordable to LIVE well.  We want our employees to live well.  Unfortunately, it’s not here, where the median home price is 130k higher than the national average and if you thought housing was expensive, you should check out commercial- it’s not even in the reality vortex for us.

There have been other reasons for the decision. We are ready to live somewhere that has more of a community feel, where people say HEY to you, even if they don’t know you!  It is important to us, to actually really know other people.

This past month I went to Clemson, South Carolina to visit my mother and my father (who is in a nursing home).  With COVID being an issue, I can’t get on a flight and see my parents…I have to drive.  While everyone is waiting for a vaccine as their answer, my answer is to make decisions based on not relying on anyone or anything.

My parents are getting older and my mother is going to live with us. She deserves to be taken care of.

We are moving to Hendersonville, North Carolina. We are building, so the next year is going to be interesting.  If you live in Hendersonville, reach out, as there will be potential job openings and we would love MEETING you.