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Hi there.

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It's Sue.

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And thanks for joining me for tips and talk day.

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These are bite-sized topics that I pull from community questions and

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things that I'm observing in the world of handmade small business.

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If you'd like to submit a topic,

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DME, over on Instagram at gift biz unwrapped,

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I struggled with whether I should talk about this or not,

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but I'm surrounded by it daily.

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And it keeps popping up in my mind to share this

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with you.

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So I'm following my instincts and going with it as I'm

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sure you've heard.

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There was another mass shooting last week in Highland park,

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Illinois. You know,

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you hear about these events on the news,

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see the horror and sympathize with those involved.

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You may even know someone affected by a violent event and

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reach out to help or offer financial support.

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There's anger,

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frustration, and lots of conversation asking how can we allow these

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things to continue to happen?

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Because this is not the American way and it needs to

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stop. It may leave you stunned,

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heartbroken, and unsettled for some time,

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but be honest,

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deep down,

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even though you say it could happen anywhere and to anyone,

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you never really think it will happen to you.

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Me too,

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until last week,

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you see Highland park is my hometown where we've lived for

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almost 40 years where we've raised our children and a town.

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I love dearly.

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It's a beautiful community set right beside lake Michigan and shaded

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by trees,

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hundreds of years old,

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it has walking paths,

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hidden cul-de-sacs small bridges and homes of all styles and sizes.

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Making random walks a discovery every time every town is quaint

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in its own way.

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And I'm sure you can highlight favorite things about where you

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live. Highland park is special unto itself yet the same as

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so many others throughout our country.

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My offices are located in an old two-story building in the

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historic portion of our central downtown.

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I truly manifested this location about 10 years ago on a

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walk with my husband.

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I wanted to relocate my business from a commercial area because

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my size requirements had changed.

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So I described to Michael,

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what I envisioned as my ideal space.

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I wanted a downtown spot where I could go to street

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level and grab some coffee,

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maybe even slip away and have lunch with friends and get

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out for breaks and go for a walk.

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During the day.

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I also wanted to be able to walk to work.

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If I so chose that image is exactly where we are

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today and I don't ever take it for granted.

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The annual July 4th parade kicks off right outside my office

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window. It starts with the chamber sponsored child pet bicycle parade,

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followed by the city,

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organized, floats,

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walking organizations,

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dancers to your leaders.

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And of course my favorite,

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the band's a parade just like many towns have to celebrate

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our independence.

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One year I even got to officially start the parade that

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was really exciting this year,

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after a two year delay,

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the parade and all other city celebrations were back on and

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everyone was really excited to get back to normal.

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It was finally feeling like we were there back to the

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life. We all loved in 2019 without restrictions,

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masks, homeschooling.

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I was a little disappointed to be missing at all,

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but I certainly couldn't complain on July 4th.

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We were in Provence taking in the lavender fields,

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culinary delight,

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and more than our fair share of French wine.

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Then late in the afternoon,

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Provence time,

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my cell phone started going off calls and texts.

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One on top of another over and over.

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That's how I found out within those very first confusing minutes.

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What was happening a world away from where I was physically.

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But right next to me,

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inside my heart,

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10 minutes into the parade,

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a shooter fired 70 rounds from the roof of a building

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into a large crowd of parade spectators,

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killing seven and injuring dozens.

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More suffice it to say,

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I know many who heard the shots saw the violence got

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hurt, ran for safety,

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aided the victims and are now left to deal with the

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sense of all this and work on healing,

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whatever that means.

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Now that I'm home the stories.

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So many individual experience stories.

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I'm not getting into any further details because that's not the

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point of my message for you today,

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but I can't discount the horror.

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So many who I care about witnessed after I got those

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initial calls telling me what was going on.

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My phone continued to be a hive of activity for hours

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and hours and hours.

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Seriously, between trying to understand what was actually going on the

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updates about catching the shooter,

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checking on people to make sure they were safe and receiving

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calls of those checking on me because many didn't know I

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was out of town.

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It was an unorganized on going chaos.

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My fingers couldn't tap replies fast enough.

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And one conversation led to three other things to uncover yet

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amongst all this horror and feeling guilty about not being able

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to do more.

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In that moment,

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I recognized something wonderful happening.

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Two people reached out to me from all over the world

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and from all stages of my life,

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some who I haven't been in touch with for years,

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this reinforced two things for me that are the main takeaways

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I'm hoping to leave you with today.

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First, the power of community receiving all the check-in messages.

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Did my heart,

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a whole lot of good friends and family,

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of course,

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and also many,

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many people who I've connected with through business,

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from local networking groups,

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to the ribbon print company.

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Customers, if you don't know that's my other business and lots

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of gift,

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biz connections like you,

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podcast listeners,

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gift biz breeze members,

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which is the Facebook group,

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coaching clients and other social media contacts.

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I'm still today in off how many people reached out and

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if you're one of them,

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thank you from the bottom of my heart,

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it really means the world to me,

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even before I appreciated all the awesome people I've been able

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to meet because I have these businesses,

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wonderful, caring,

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supportive people.

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I wouldn't have known otherwise.

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Have you ever thought about that?

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The richness of your business through the connections it's allowed you

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to make customers,

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vendors, employees,

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and more you work with them,

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learn about their life and come to care about them.

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And to me,

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and I'm guessing to you as well,

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many have become dear friends.

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This is a benefit.

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We don't often recognize a much less talk about these connections.

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We build enrich our lives and they wouldn't exist without our

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businesses, but there's definitely no need to have a tragic event

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happen in your life to be able to appreciate this,

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which leads to my second takeaway,

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the impact you have on someone's day by connecting with them

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can be so powerful in times of tragedy.

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We may not know what to say.

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So we hesitate.

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You know,

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you think to yourself,

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will my words reflect really how I feel?

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What if I'm saying the same thing as others?

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Shouldn't I have special words or a deeply insightful message for

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situations like this.

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There can be many reasons why you think of reaching out

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to someone and stop yourself.

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It's been my experience through this event that the actual words

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used is way less important than the fact that you make

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contact. I've heard from people I haven't connected with for quite

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a while,

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and even got a call from a dear college friend.

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I haven't talked to in,

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I'm going to say over a decade,

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hearing Kim's voice was so comforting.

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I can hardly put it into words.

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We all can make contact and send more messages to others

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important in our life.

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And it doesn't need to take a tragedy.

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As I said before,

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even a quick,

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hi, I was thinking about you today and your beautiful smile,

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or just had a scoop of bubblegum ice cream.

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Remember when we tried it for the first time,

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how about just saw that your little girl turned three already?

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How time flies these outreaches don't need to lead to getting

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together or adding to our already overbooked lives,

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but they hold such power to positively affect someone's day.

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And it will leave you both with a wonderful feeling.

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Plus it's free,

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no words or hugs will ever make everything all right,

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again, in every situation,

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but receiving support.

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Sure helps clearly here in my hometown,

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we have a lot of healing to do and a homegrown

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psycho to wrap our heads around and prosecute things will never

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be the same as they once were.

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And I know there are communities,

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unfortunately, just like mine.

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We'll get through it though.

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I have no doubt by giving you a little of the

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behind the scenes of what we're dealing with here.

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I hope I've reemphasized for you.

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The strengths,

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your actions can have both giving and receiving messages between people.

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It really is that simple.

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In fact,

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I encourage you to reach out to a few people you

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haven't talked to for a while today,

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nothing big.

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Just say hi,

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this exchange is what we all need right now,

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and is evidence of the beauty that exists in our world.

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And we have an opportunity to pass it on.

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That's a wrap.

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I'm a get to the point kind of girl.

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And this is what you can expect from these quick midweek

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sessions. Now it's your turn go out and fulfill that dream

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of yours.

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Share your handmade products with us.

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We want them and they bring us both so much happiness.