GladRags Gab

We've got some new faces at GladRags these days. One of the great benefits of owning the GladRags business is meeting great customers and getting to work with amazing women.  Elizabeth and Tanya continue the tradition of GladRags employees being forward thinking, trail blazing, interesting women.

Elizabeth grew up in California's Bay Area. She moved to Portland, Oregon to attend Reed College in 2002. Since graduating with a BA in Anthropology, in addition to working for GladRags, Elizabeth has led groups for teenage survivors of domestic violence and organized books at the public library. Her interests include: learning, music, art where animals wearing clothing is featured prominently, gender studies, road trips, and Anthropological theory. This summer Elizabeth is joining other activists as part of a bicycle caravan for reproductive justice called Wanderlust where she’ll ride from New Orleans to New York. Elizabeth loves working for GladRags because she gets to help create more positivity around our cycles.

Tanya moved to Portland late summer 2007 from Boulder, Colorado where she had worked for Pharmaca Integrative Pharmacy (a great place to purchase GladRags products!) for the past two and some odd years.  A graduate of The Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington in 2005, she has wanted to move back to the Pacific Northwest since leaving the area.  Her interests include but are not limited to making and appreciating all art, especially visual art, biking around Portland, friends, bars, concerts, gardens, fish tanks, traveling and languages. She has always been a passionate bleeder and has been dealing with her menstruation alternatively as well as sharing her knowledge with her peers since late high school.  She can’t really remember what inspired her to do so, but she thinks it might have had something to do with common sense and the book Cunt by Inga Muscio. She is really excited for the opportunity to work for a small, local, proud-to-be-bleeding company such as GladRags and it ready to give it her all.

Amy over at Crunchy Domestic Goddess recently answered some interview questions on her blog sent to her by another blogger.  She asked if anyone else would like to be interviewed and I said, "Yes!"  So, here are her questions.  And, my answers.  Enjoy!

Oh, and if any of you, my fellow bloggers, are interested in my sending you your own individualized set of interview questions for your blog, drop me a line.

1) Would you mind telling me (and any other newbies) a bit about yourself and your background?

Sure thing!  Well, first off, my name is Diana.  Hello.  I began this life in the state of Massachusetts, dreaming of leaving home to travel and do my own "thing".  I did and now I am very happy.  After Spanish speaking in Latin America, attempted Japanese in Kyoto and various other jaunts around this fascinating planet, I moved west.  I currently reside in the extremely livable and generally happy Portland, Oregon.

Various other tidbits - I am the youngest of 7 children (can we say Irish Catholic?!).  I like exploring a variety of cultures (including, for example, woodworkers) and finding out what makes them tick - more or less.  I started eating vegan some months ago and enjoy delving into whole foods cooking and reaping its delicious benefits.  I like my friends, but who doesn't?  Children are amazing.  I don't think it's ok for a person to say that they don't like people.  I really enjoy my alone time.  Oh, and tennis and snowboarding and walking and laughing.

2) How did you first get involved with GladRags? 

I have to say that I was primed for the 'Rags before I started working here.  It all began in Costa Rica.  I was at a birthday party and my friend whipped out this interesting little device - looked like a shot glass.  So, we used it as a shot glass.  We were doing what we knew.  Anyway, turned out to be her new (a.k.a. unused) menstrual cup.  The seed was planted and I bought myself a cup and a cloth menstrual pad.

(more…)

As the founder and owner of GladRags, I want to thank you for being part of the GladRags community, a community dedicated to empowering women and fostering healthy and sustainable lifestyles.  You might have been using GladRags products for years, or you might have started using them last week. Whatever your level of involvement with GladRags products, I'd like to learn about your recent experience.     

I hope you will  invest 10 minutes to share some information with me. I'm interested in learning about the type of people who purchase GladRags and how GladRags products are used.  Your feedback is critical to the company's success and will help me and my team better anticipate and respond to your needs.

Everyone who completes our online survey will receive a coupon toward their next GladRags purchase.

To take our survey, please go to: www.surveymonkey.com/gladrags

I really appreciate your participation in this project. Thank you so much.

Brenda Mallory

Founder and Owner, GladRags

I'm sorry to all who don't live in this city (for reasons beyond the following, but we can discuss that at another time - I heart Portland) but this tip is for all locals.

A warm, sunny Friday afternoon is a perfect setting for walk to Mississippi Ave armed with the singular mission of sipping at a revitalizing concoction from Moxie RX. Ah, stepping off the sidewalk and up to the counter of this old Airstream trailer is bliss - an escape from a rapidly bustling street (they did film Feast of Love with Morgan Freeman at the coffee shop, The Fresh Pot, next door - this avenue is famous!).  Moxie's smoothies and elixers are dizzingly delectable.  My favorite is the RX - almond butter, banana and dates.  Decadent.

Alls I gotta say is, make your way to Moxie.  It'll rejuvinate you for those painfully slow final hours of your Friday workday (just kidding, Brenda!).

What is YOUR favorite smoothie combo?

Peace out!

Diana 

P.S. Jodi was an extra in Feast of Love.  If you want to see her - something about being on Shaver when a girl looks through the coffee shop window and Greg Kinnear passes.  Whatever, she's famous ok?!

Bitch Magazine moved its offices to Portland recently. They are located about a mile down the street from the GladRags office so we took them out to lunch to say welcome. They are a great bunch of women doing important work. I encourage you to take a look at the magazine and to check out the writings on thier blog. I especially love their mission page.

-Brenda 

The GladRags Crew is ready to really start bloggin' (I mean we've been posting here and there, but now we're gettin' serious!).  Here's the lowdown on who is writing on what days.  Get to know us.  We can't wait to hear what you are all about!

Monday –  I (Diana) have been a GladRags worker bee for almost two years now.  You’ve probably emailed me or spoken with me on the phone (I hope I answered your question).  A woman last Wednesday said to me that it must be nice to work for such a great company and, let me tell you, it sure is.  Exciting women, sustainable products, healthy living and morning stretch sessions by our computers – perfect!  I’ll be contributing on Mondays in all manner of subject matter from environmental living tips to my new favorite band or book.  I hope you’ll let me know what you think by leaving a comment

Wednesday – Brenda, our fearless leader, will be taking the reins on Wednesdays.  She’s the reason we are lucky enough to have GladRags to turn to every month, having started the company back in 1993.  A woman of many talents and interests, Brenda might touch on a current social conflict, an art installation she caught that weekend or maybe we’ll all be lucky enough to hear one of her great stories (this woman’s got a whole stockpile of ‘em! – I particularly like the ones about her daughter’s antics as a child.  Sorry Emma!).  Give her feedback – she’s very receptive!

Friday – I can’t tell you how entertaining it is to have a true Jersey girl on staff.  Oh, the boldness and the bluntness – it’s irreplaceable.  Jodi’s our new General Manager and she’ll be sharing a piece of her mind on Fridays.  Another multi-dimensional gal, Jodi might be writing about anything from boxing to drag king shows to how much her head hurts.  Share your own opinions with Jodi every Friday.

  Tuesday and Thursday – We’re leaving Tuesdays and Thursdays open for guest bloggers.  We have some great contributors in mind, but we’d love YOU to speak your mind also.  If you are interested in writing a Tuesday or Thursday blog entry, drop a line to bimallory@gladrags.com

I recently read Bill McKibben’s book, Deep Economy . It is a complicated call to reexamine the “growth” model by which we measure economic health. He suggests a move away from the dominating global economy to one where communities generate more on a local level to meet their needs, and that this kind of economic model is more satisfying and leads to a deeper, more equitable prosperity.

He posits that the concepts “more” and “better” used to be nearly the same thing. If you had more rooms in your house it was better, if you have more products to choose from it’s better. But in our current world, “more” is often resource depleting and polluting and therefore not “better”. I think GladRags fit firmly in the “better” category because they save money for women, and save resources.  So in some ways our products embody the idea of deep economy.

But here’s the irony that we struggle with at GladRags . When your business and your mission is to a make sustainable product that lasts for years, it turns out that your greatest benefit is also your greatest obstacle. We note in our sales literature that our pads last for five years but we know for a fact many women use them for 10.  So as you can imagine we don’t really have many repeat sales. We have satisfied customers but they are not repeat customers.

 The first lesson In Marketing 101 is “make repeat sales to your current customers, because it’s expensive to get new customers”.  Hmmm, that sounds good in theory but once our customer has her GladRags or cup she doesn’t need to buy again.  So our solution has to be always finding the new customer.  And while this might seem like the same old “growth” model of economics, we know that if more women are using our products it really means less pollution and a healthier environment. It seems to refute McKibben’s theory because here “more” is “better”, but only because in this case “more” is “less”.  Wow, too many quotes - I’m dizzy!

Anyway, the gist of this is more women need to know about GladRags. And we’re working on a plan where, you, our satisfied-but-not-repeating-customers, help us get new customers. We welcome your thoughts and ideas as we address our challenge. -Brenda

My last few weeks have been full of getting together with powerful and successful women. 

Over a Mediterranean food lunch, I got to catch up with my friend Sharon MacFarland who is the President of Emerita a company that makes great products for women. Even though we both live here in Portland, we mostly seem to see each other in other cities while we're at the same tradeshows. She gave me samples of their new skin care line for women over 40 - I love them but I'm having trouble keeping my teenager's hands off them so I guess they are great for all ages! Sharon is a true entrepreneur in the sense that she runs a great business and just as effectively takes care of herself physically and spiritually because she believes in balance.

Tuesday I met Julia Stoops of BlueMouseMonkey for a quick dinner. Julia was one of my favorite instructors when I was in art school. She wanted to change career paths a while back from teaching to working fulltime as a web developer and was a bit nervous about making the leap. Well, she leapt and now she's busy all the time and she's making some amazingly creative sites. And writing a novel, and preparing for a new exhibit of her paintings… wow, she must have a clone!

Friday I had a lunch at a great little Mexican restaurant, ¿Por Qué No? in our neighborhood with my friend Rebecca Pearcy who owns Queen Bee Creations , makers of the hippest handbags around.  Over great big margaritas (hey it was Friday!) we discussed the challenges and rewards of being artists and business owners at the same time. Rebecca is a musician as well as the creative force at Queen Bee. She's inspiring and fun and generously open to sharing her business experience.

Tomorrow night my friend and artist extraordinaire, Marie Watt, has asked me to go a dinner/lecture to hear Wilma Mankiller , first woman chief of the Cherokee Nation.  I'll report more about that next week but I'm excited to hear her.

And this was back in March, but I'm still remembering the great experience of sharing time with Madeleine Shaw of LunaPads at our tradeshow in California. She is a quickthinking bundle of energy who is full of passion and good ideas. We got together with the DivaCup team and had some great fun - I'll bet you can guess the topic of conversation!

So it sounds like all I do is socialize, but I think all these experiences are valuable. I work here in the office everyday with inspiring women and I just think it's part of my job now to be with great women.

Brenda 

It has been a busy time here at GladRags. Besides our day-to-day efforts of sending out great products to smart women, we've recently moved from our too-big warehouse to a smaller just-right-sized commercially-zoned house. That means we have to be very neat and clean to keep things functional here. Too much mess or a few of days not picking up after ourselves and the place becomes disfunctional. But it feels good to be operating in a more efficient, compact space. We're in a thriving zone of North Portland and it's fun to watch all the activitiy out the window. There's a bus stop out front and we're right on a bikelane that is full of bikers come rain or sun so it always feels very alive here.  And the garden holds surprise after fragrant surprise.   

Spring has brought a lot of new things to GladRags besides the garden surprises. This blog has been on our "to do" list for months, we've introduced the new Moon Cup , and Sara is just working on in-store packaging for the new Pantyliner . It's already meeting with great success on the website and will be our May special on the site.

- Brenda