BES Blog

I recently attended a masterful talk by Robert Tercek, author of Vaporized, on the subject of disruption in business. It was startling to hear example after example of industries being displaced by a new dematerialised world. Robert believes that every aspect of our economy and society is set to be reconfigured by technological forces that only a small number of companies have yet mastered.

It often seems obvious in hindsight when companies disrupt markets and yet we seldom see it coming. The most recent examples in the greeting card business have been Card Factory and Moonpig. The former disrupting the wholesale space through a vertically integrated model that offers consumers rock bottom prices in well presented retail environments. The latter disrupting through the digital substitution of bricks and mortar retail space by offering extensive choice and customisation that cannot be matched by traditional retail. Both have been rewarded with incredible growth and financial success by offering value to consumers.

Yet these companies haven't really revolutionised the greeting card market. They’ve brought business models from other industries into the card business and forever changed aspects of it. They haven't vaporized our industry. In fact, I believe that they’ve kept the wolf from the door. By offering low cost cards, Card Factory has helped people to continue sending cards when they might otherwise have abandoned them in order to save money during the recession. Similarly, Moonpig has allowed men and people who are short on time to use a more efficient process to stay connected with their loved ones through cards. The card industry has yet to be vaporized.

Or will it?

In sci-fi movies there are plenty of representations of futures where greeting cards don’t exist. It’s not hard to imagine a future without greeting cards. Having said that, there is one vision of the future that does incorporate the handwritten letter. It’s the delightful movie ‘Her’ by Spike Jonze. In it the protagonist works for a company called BeautifulHandWrittenLetters.com The sentiment is still created by humans and the letters are printed out in fonts that look handwritten.

‘Her’ is a clever re-imagining of the future that recognises our innate human need for nostalgia. Nostalgia is an idealised past. It relates to an emotional state that we place into a specific time frame. As long as we keep sending cards there will always be an element of this nostalgic element in our lives.

That’s what my YouTube channel, The Greeting Card Project, is all about: Acknowledging the special importance of hand writing cards. Remembering to think of others and reminding them that they are in your thoughts. Although, I’m halfway through my project and I can tell you first hand that card sending is incredibly inefficient. As such, it is a target for being vaporized. I know because I’ve sent around 100 different cards to people in the last six months.

This is because, to send a card...

You have to remember the birthday or occasion required for card sending. This takes time and organisation. You often need to track down the recipient’s current address, then record it correctly for accurate delivery. You need to have postage stamps or be prepared to weigh and send at the post office, especially if the card is to go abroad. Stamps aren’t cheap either. Even if you are delivering it by hand you need to remember it and deliver on time.

You then have to choose a card that’s suitable for the recipient. This can take time and you might not always be able to find the right card in the first shop you visit. Recently I went to one store to buy a fiftieth birthday card for a customer of mine. Despite six options, none were suitable. I had to compromise with a decent generic birthday card rather than a poor occasion specific design. Not ideal.

Once you have the card, you have to think about what to write in it. For some people this can feel like hard work. Given how seldom we need to write these days, you might even have to remember how to write by hand! You need to write the card carefully so as to avoid mistakes. If you mess it up you might have to buy another card and start again in order to avoid looking like a child that can’t spell… or write.

After this you have to get it to a post box that collects on time. A lot of post boxes are now emptied at 9am, so you can’t leave it too late. Frustratingly, Royal Mail don’t share post box information online so you have to visit the post box for up to date info. Royal Mail also don’t offer many later collections. In Brighton & Hove the whole town has to travel up to 3 miles into the centre to reach the single post box that collects at 7pm!

Finally, you have to rely on Royal Mail to deliver the card on time. Out of the 100 cards I’ve sent this year so far, there are at least two, that I know of, that never arrived. Admittedly the postal service in the UK is superior to some other countries I’ve visited. Of the three cards I sent from Italy in my Milan episode, the first took a week to arrive within Italy, the next took 3-4 weeks to reach Wales and the last took 6 weeks to reach Los Angeles.

And yet…

It is the very inefficiency of the process that makes receiving a card so special. That and the fact that all we tend to receive through the letter box these days is junk mail, bills and bank statements. It is deeply personal receiving a handwritten letter. It’s a wonderful gift from a close friend and a delightful surprise from anyone else. For anyone that recognises the importance and value of close personal relationships for business or pleasure, it is still a powerful tool to send a card a or handwritten note.

Stephen Kelly, the CEO of software company Sage, agreed with this when explaining to me why he uses Blue Eyed Sun cards to send to friends, family and colleagues:

“It’s so powerful if one of our colleagues opens a card and I’ve personally written that card. It takes time, it shows love, it shows dedication. We love social media, but sometimes it’s really important to show that touch that is very personal and you can only get through a card.” - Stephen Kelly, CEO Sage

Whether or not the card industry will be vaporized is still up for question. Time will tell. Let's not wait for it to happen and keep fighting to maintain and support this wonderful tradition that offers such a powerful way of connecting despite of, and perhaps because of, its inefficiency.

So what can we do? Two things:

1. Send more cards

So many of us in our industry don’t do this enough. Send cards every week. Tweet about it, Instagram it. Most of us in the industry have access to excess stock in our warehouses and shops. Make these available to your staff and encourage them to send cards too. Share your card sending stories on social media. Most importantly, send cards to young people and kids. In years to come they will have that wonderful feeling of nostalgia for greeting cards and want to share it.

2. Support card sending

A great example of a retailer initiative is Feel Good Friday from the Postmark stores in London. They offer a free card from a special box of clearance stock on special Fridays. As long as you write it in the store there and then, they’ll even post it for you.

Other great initiatives include:

#JustACard campaign each week on social media

#NatStatWeek in April

#ThinkingOfYouWeek in September

#FestiveFriday early December each year

Involve your team by giving them an hour to write as many cards as they like and pay for the postage. Involve your card loving friends by giving them small gift packs of cards to send. Get others sending more cards. We are all helping to spread more love in the world by doing this and supporting our beloved card industry.

Last, but not least, be sure to watch, like and share The Greeting Card Project videos - www.youtube.com/thegreetingcardproject

Read more:

Five ways to improve your retail business

Ecommerce Tips for Retailers

Seven habits of highly effective retailers

Watch Robert's talk below:

THE RISE OF DIGITAL SERVICES: Robert Tercek's keynote speech at Sage Summit 2017 from Robert Tercek on Vimeo.

The Greeting Card Project is my year of sending more greeting cards and recording a video diary of my experiences, the shops I visit, the cards I send and my own personal journey.

Amazingly I have reached the halfway point of this year long project! A big part of my New Year's resolution to send more greeting cards is sticking to it and making a video per week. So far so good. I've also started posting the videos natively on a new Facebook page. Having taken over five months to gain 100 subscribers on YouTube, I managed to reach 100 followers on Facebook within five days. Here are this month's videos to catch up on if you missed them:

This week I visit beautiful lifestyle store, Dulwich Trader, to buy New Job cards for friends of mine at Sage Plc. I also talk to their CEO, Stephen Kelly, about why he uses greeting cards and why he finds them so powerful.

Clintons had a huge selection of Father's Day cards, so I visited their branch at Lakeside in Essex to see what I could find for my son's Grandpa and Grandad. I also talk about the importance of fathers and Father's Day cards.

I found some lovely wedding cards on my recent trip to America where I was speaking at Sage Summit. This week I buy cards from Posman Books and Archer Paper Goods in Ponce City Market, Atlanta and head to three weddings.

This week I visited South Downs Garden Centre. It's my local and I love shopping there. They have recently had a refit and have an excellent new cafe and deli. The Garden Centre Buyer Magazine loved the video and featured us here.

The sixth month of the channel had 792 views with viewers watching over 27 hours of The Greeting Card Project for an average of 2:01 per video. The channel gained 18 more subscribers,  36 shares and accumulated 49 likes and 1 dislike. The total lifetime channel views is now 5,970. The first two Facebook videos racked up 190 views totalling 74 minutes view time.

If you do watch and enjoy the videos please pop over to YouTube and subscribe. I'd also love it if you followed the project on the new Facebook Page. Keep up to date on other platforms via my personal Twitter account @JeremyCorner and my personal Instagram @JeremyCorner.

Where possible there are hyperlinks to all of the featured companies beneath each YouTube video.

May Review of #TGCP

April Review of #TGCP

March Review of #TGCP

February Review of #TGCP

January review of #TGCP

Learn why I started #TGCP

Blue Eyed Sun will soon be exhibiting at the Home and Gift 2017 trade show in the Greetings & Stationery Marquee in front of the Majestic Hotel. Officially launching at this well loved show are lovely new additions to our best selling everyday ranges Vintage, Jangles and Charming. We also have sneak previews of our wonderful Spring 2018 selection and an exciting new range, so be sure to stop by and see us.

Quote Voucher code HG17 when ordering during the show (online or offline) for FREE CARRIAGE.

About Home and Gift 2017

This annual trade show is a highlight on buyers' calendars for it's relaxed Summery atmosphere and great range of products on offer in the run up to Christmas. It runs for four days from Sunday 16th July to Wednesday 19th July from 09:00 - 18:00 at the Harrogate International Centre. It really is a pleasure doing business at this show, so don't miss it!

To register for Home and Gift please click here.

Where to Stay at Home and Gift 2017

The closest hotels to the show are the Holiday Inn, Travel Lodge, Premier Inn and The Old Swan a short walk away with prices from £65-£150. You can search a List of Hotels in Harrogate by clicking here. A good tip if you can't find a room is to stay in York, a short train ride away.

Where to Eat at Home and Gift 2017

Harrogate has many wonderful restaurants and cafes including the world famous Betty's Tea Rooms. We've sampled lots of them over the years and have short listed some of our favourites for you to try below:

4 Great Restaurants near the Harrogate International Centre

How to get to Home and Gift 2017

The roads into Harrogate can get very congested so allow plenty of time if you are coming by car. The Harrogate International Centre post code is HG1 5LA and there are 400 car spaces on site with a daily cost of £13. These spaces get pretty full so you may like to use the park and ride scheme running from the Great Yorkshire Showground on the A61 (Post code HG2 8NZ).  All parking will be available on a concrete surface, which will be safe for use for any visitors.

Trains run every half hour from Leeds and every hour from York. There is a free shuttle bus from Harrogate train station to the show. You can fly to Leeds Bradford airport (20 minute drive from the show). Buses go every 90 minutes and take half an hour.

For more information on travel for the show click here.

How to find the Greetings & Stationery Marquee at Home and Gift

When you get to Harrogate do remember to come and see us in the new card marquee by the Majestic Greetings & Stationery - Stand 58.

Can't make the show? Click here to request access all of our designs online.

Blue Eyed Sun are proud to present their colourful new range of 42 handmade CHARMING cards.

All CHARMING cards are based on original watercolour artworks by artist, Jo Corner. These beautiful cards are litho printed then hand finished with jewels and decoupage elements in the UK.

CHARMING cards are all blank inside and all come cello wrapped with an envelope that is 170mm x 120mm. Sold in sixes the designs are available for trade customers to order through our agents, by brochure, at shows or on our website. All board used for Charming is responsibly sourced from sustained and managed forests by FSC accredited suppliers.

You can see these wonderful Charming cards first in person at:

PG Live 2017 at the Business Design Centre in London 6-7 June 2017 - Stand 524

Home and Gift at the Harrogate International Centre 16-19 July 2017 -  Stand GS-58

To stock these cards in your shop click here. If you'd like to see them in your local shop please tell them and point them in the direction of www.blueeyedsun.co.uk or recommend a shop to us by clicking here. You can also visit our stockists page to find a store near you that may be selling them. To see what else is new from Blue Eyed Sun click here.

See our new everyday range of Jangles cards

See Blue Eyed Sun's Christmas cards 2017

This year I’ve been rediscovering my creative self via my YouTube channel: The Greeting Card Project. It’s got me thinking a lot about creativity.

I recently devoured a fantastic book on the subject. I found it refreshing, life affirming and incredibly inspiring. In fact, I loved Big Magic, by Elizabeth Gilbert, so much that I thought I’d share my key learnings from it with you

Fear

There are many ways we can be afraid to live a creative life. You can be afraid that you have no talent. Afraid that there’s no market for your creativity. Afraid that other people are already better. Afraid that the greeting cards you create are not original. Afraid that you’ll embarrass yourself. Afraid that nobody will be interested in what you make. Afraid you’ll waste your time. The list is endless. It’s terrifying. Fear is boring. It stops you from living. You must be brave.

Courage

Being brave is not the same as being fearless. Being creative requires courage. The courage to bring forth the treasures within yourself. Acknowledge your fear and allow it to join creativity and you on your road trips. Just don’t allow it to make any decisions - and definitely don’t let it drive!

Magic

Creativity is a force of enchantment, like magic. Gilbert believes that the planet is inhabited by ideas that are disembodied, energetic life-forms looking for places to manifest by collaborating with a human partner. If you don’t pursue an idea it’ll leave and resurface somewhere else with someone else (I’ve seen this happen with card range ideas we never pursued).

Ownership

Ideas don’t belong to any one person. They are born out of collaboration with the creativity of people. Ideas can collaborate with more than one human and arrive in similar forms. This is an artistic form of multiple discovery - a term used in the scientific community whenever two scientists from different parts of the world come up with an idea at the same time. A common occurrence throughout history. In the end, it’s all just flowers seeking light.

Torment

You don’t have to be a tormented artist that brings forth ideas at a cost to your relationships and yourself. In the end it’s all about the work, not the suffering. A different way is to cooperate fully, humbly and joyfully with inspiration. You can support other’s creativity. Measure your worth by your dedication to your path of creating beautiful cards, not by successes or failures, wealth or fortune.

Genius

Unlike us, the Romans didn’t believe that a gifted person was a genius. They believe they had a genius. Like a sort of spirit guide. This psychological construct is useful to keep the artist’s ego in check by distancing them from taking the glory or blame for the work. That way they are not burdened by the reaction to anything they create. It’s useful to think of your creative talent as separate from you, so you don’t beat yourself up when your latest card range flops in the marketplace.

Making Space

You have to make space for the work. Setting aside time each day or week. Creative work is labour; like farming. It’s not a never ending series of enlightened moments. It’s hard. Forces of inspiration cannot be seen, proven, commanded nor understood. Yet they are relied upon in our industry as a way of generating income for tens of thousands of people. Be disciplined with regular design time.

Permission

You don’t need anyone’s permission to live a creative life. You don’t need to do a course or get a certificate. We are inherently creative beings. The earliest example of human art is 40,000 years ago, thirty thousand years before the earliest evidence of human agriculture. Which means we were more interested in creating than regularly feeding ourselves! Give yourself permission to create.

Originality

I remember my high school art teacher telling me that nothing is original. Try not to get hung up on this. Most things have already been done - but they have not been done yet by you. Say what you want to say with all your heart. If it’s authentic it will probably feel original.

Stop Complaining

The world is busy. Nobody wants to hear you complaining about being an artist or that it’s difficult. Get on with it. Stop getting in your own way. The commercial results of your work don’t have a lot to do with you as creator. Your job is to produce the work itself. That job is tough enough. This is where it helps to have a business partner who focuses on selling and marketing your greeting cards as a separate job. It’s tough doing both.

Child’s Play

Children make up things all the time. They aren’t burdened by being artists or by the work. They create and toss their creations out like paper airplanes. Relax. Enjoy creating your card designs. Be light. Have fun with it.

Criticism

What people see in your work has nothing to do with you and everything to do with them. People make all sorts of connections and assumptions driven by their own emotional stories all the time. Don’t get caught up in this. Your focus is on the work.

The Paradox

Art is absolutely meaningless. It’s also incredibly meaningful. Sending someone a card is the same. It can be completely meaningless. It can be incredibly meaningful. It needs the freedom to be both. We need to be able to throw away what’s not working and start afresh when creating.

Suckage

Everything sucks, some of the time. What are you passionate enough about that you can endure the most disagreeable aspects of the work? Similarly, you will never find all the hours you need for your creativity. You have to find ways to fit it in.

Perfection

Don’t worry about what other people think either. Other people are mostly thinking about themselves and not you. Remember that done is better than good. I’ve found this with The Greeting Card Project, some videos are better than others. Twenty two videos done is better than trying to make one good video.

A Chore

Creativity is a chore. If it’s too painful, you may want to quit. Life is short and should be enjoyed. Take up a new hobby, travel, spend time with friends. After a while, if you find yourself drawn back towards creating because nothing in life brings you the same pleasure, then you will have no choice.

Playfulness

Be a trickster with your work , not a martyr. Have fun with it. Make it work for you. Be playful. Your work is not your baby. Let it go. If you have to cut it or adjust your new card range to make it happen in the world then do so.

Curiosity

Forget about your passion, follow your curiosity instead. Rather than waiting for passion to strike or deciding which passion to pursue, be inquisitive about things. It may lead you somewhere, it may not. Following it opens up things. The Greeting Card Project has definitely done this for me. I’ve learnt more about greeting cards this year than all my pervious years in the card industry.

Failure

You will fail. It sucks, but it’s true. Creative risks won’t always pan out. Sometimes your work fails on your own terms, sometimes it fails to connect with anyone when you put it out there. That’s the nature of creativity. Nobody simply designs a best selling range of greeting cards. It happens outside of them. Successes are rooted in the manure of failures. When you fail, let it go. Forgive yourself.

Top Dog

How do you top a best selling range of cards? This assumes that reaching the top and staying there is the only reason to create. If anything it’s a hindrance. The mysteries of inspiration do not operate on the limited human scale of commerce and reputation, of units sold and markets won. If you only have one designer in your business, it’s important to acknowledge the commercial limitations of this and not put pressure on your creativity.

Summary

Be sure to live a life driven more strongly by curiosity than by fear. A creative life is an amplified life, where Big Magic is to be found. Time marches on. Look within to unearth your creative treasures. We don't have the time anymore to think small.

Eight Ways to Deal with Failure

Freedom from Standard Thinking

How to create best selling greeting cards

Watch Liz Gilbert's TED talk on creativity by clicking on the image below:

The Greeting Card Project is my year of sending more greeting cards and recording a video diary of my experiences, the shops I visit, the cards I send and my own personal journey.

Hooray! Thanks to everyone's support, this month I finally reached 100 subscribers and claimed my custom URL, find it at https://www.youtube.com/TheGreetingCardProject. I'd love your feedback on the project so far. Please tell me what else you'd like to see in the comments beneath the videos on YouTube. Click on the images below to watch each of May's videos.

I'm late, I'm late. This week I send some belated cards, which I purchased from a small independent shop called Box of Delights in Flitwick. In keeping with the theme this is the first video I've loaded up late too!

This week I visit Waterstone's flagship store in London's Piccadilly Circus and buy congratulations and well done cards from some lovely American greeting card publishers.

This week I visit the Tring branch of a small independent chain called House of Cards and shop for birthday milestone cards. Some lovely reactions to the cards from recipients at the end of this video.

This week I visited the branch of a small chain of independent shops in Berkhamstead called Temptation Gifts and bought some funny birthday cards for old university friends.

The fifth month of the channel had 750 views with viewers watching over 25 hours of The Greeting Card Project for an average of 2:02 per video. The channel gained 11 more subscribers,  13 shares and accumulated 51 likes and 1 dislikes. The total lifetime channel views is now 5,000.

If you do watch and enjoy the videos please pop over to YouTube and subscribe. I'd also love it if you followed the project on my personal Twitter account @JeremyCorner and my new personal Instagram @JeremyCorner.

Where possible there are hyperlinks to all of the featured companies beneath each YouTube video.

April Review of #TGCP

March Review of #TGCP

February Review of #TGCP

January review of #TGCP

Learn why I started #TGCP

Blue Eyed Sun will soon be exhibiting at the PG Live 2017 trade show . Officially launching at PG Live 2017 are our beautiful new Christmas cards 2017 along with our gorgeous new everyday ranges Charming and Jangles, so be sure to stop by and see us.

Quote Voucher code PGL17 when ordering during the show (online or offline) for FREE CARRIAGE.

About PG Live 2017

The International Greeting Card Show is a highlight on card buyers' calendars as the UK's only trade exhibition dedicated to the greeting card industry. It runs for two days from Tuesday 6th June to Wednesday 7th June from 09:30 - 18:00 at the Business Design Centre in Islington, London.

To register for PG Live please click here.

Where to Stay at PG Live 2017

The closest hotels to the show are the Hilton, Premier Inn and Double Tree by Hilton a short walk away with prices from £75-£150. However as the show opens next week they seem to be fully booked now. You can search AirBnB for apartments and rooms nearby.

Where to Eat at PG Live 2017

Islington has many wonderful restaurants and cafes. We've sampled lots of them over the years and have short listed some of our favourites for you to try below:

5 Great Restaurants near the Business Design Centre

How to get to PG Live 2017

The Business Design Centre is easily accessible from Angel Tube station on the Northern Line and is close to Kings Cross and Euston rail stations. The Business Design Centre's post code is N1 0QH. It's outside the Congestion Charge Zone  and there are 250 car spaces on site with a daily cost of £3.10 per hour.

You can plan your journey with the TFL journey planner or you might like to download the mobile app CityMapper which we love using for journey planning in London.

For more information on travel for the show click here.

Can't make the show? Click here to request access all of our designs online.

Blue Eyed Sun are proud to present their colourful new range of 32 hand finished JANGLES cards.

All Jangles cards are based on original artworks by artist, Jo Corner. These lovely cards are litho printed and hand finished with jewels in the UK.

Jangles cards are all blank inside and all come cello wrapped with an envelope that is 170mm x 120mm. Sold in sixes the designs are available for trade customers to order through our agents, by brochure, at shows or on our website. All board used for Jangles is responsibly sourced from sustained and managed forests by FSC accredited suppliers.

You can see these wonderful Jangles greeting cards first in person at:

PG Live 2017 at the Business Design Centre in London 6-7 June 2017 - Stand 524

Home and Gift at the Harrogate International Centre 16-19 July 2017 -  Stand GS-58

To stock these cards in your shop click here. If you'd like to see them in your local shop please tell them and point them in the direction of www.blueeyedsun.co.uk or recommend a shop to us by clicking here. You can also visit our stockists page to find a store near you that may be selling them. To see what else is new from Blue Eyed Sun click here.

See our new everyday range of Charming cards

See Blue Eyed Sun's Christmas cards 2017

Despite my best efforts to focus on the journey rather than the outcome of my YouTube channel (The Greeting Card Project) I have found myself distracted by the numbers of late.

Whether you set up a Facebook page, Twitter Account, YouTube channel or add Google Analytics to your Website, those cunning geeks from silicon valley provide you with a raft of information on how your particular digital poison of choice is performing. In the case of YouTube, you get to see the number of views, minutes watched, average view duration, likes, dislikes, shares and subscribers. The list goes on.

I guess the idea of this is to have some KPI’s (key performance indicators) that will help you measure the success or failure of your channel. Which is fine, so long as you define the success or failure of your particular project in those terms. Last month, my dashboard was full of red downward pointing arrows (with the exception of my dislikes which has a perky little green arrow pointing upwards). As a result, I have been doing some real soul searching with regards to my project.

Here are things I’ve learned personally whilst producing The Greeting Card Project so far this year:

1. My fears have indeed been realised: A weekly video visiting different card shops is time consuming to make, load up to YouTube and share on social media (4-8hrs per video on average - even if all done on your phone). Don’t do it. Seriously. You have to be nuts to add this to your workload. Especially when the jury is still out on adoption rates of new tech by our industry (I still cannot get over how many business don’t have a simple web page).

2. Your friends will only watch so many of your videos to support you. I have been paying it forward in our industry for a number of years now and have helped a lot of people. I’ve been speaking at the Ladder Club since 2004 and serve on committees for the GCA and the Giftware Association. Even with an army of support you cannot expect people to stay and engage without quality content that’s relevant to them or their friends and followers.

3. Going into shops and choosing cards and talking about who you are sending them to might not be interesting enough to get more than 200 views per video on average. I need to accept this or evolve. It’s enough that I personally find it interesting visiting different retailers, selecting and buying different greeting cards, and working on my relationships. Numbers are not the only thing that matters to me.

4. Weekly watching is as much of an ask for people as weekly video making. Peoples’ time is more precious than ever. The videos must be really good as they compete with so many other things vying for attention (content that’s funny, cute, weird or emotional). Note to self: I must get more kittens into my videos.

5. I need to truly understand my 'why' on this project and project it even more clearly than I do. I believe card sending can help us to feel closer to one another. I do feel that the message I am broadcasting is important.

6. Let’s face it, card sending is a pain in the backside compared with the ease of social media and texting. Honestly. If you don’t believe me, join me and send more greeting cards every week. You’ll see. Don’t be cheating with franking machines either. Buy stamps every time. Card sending is time consuming, expensive and laborious and you often don't even know if your card arrived safely through the post.

7. When the card does arrive, it can feel really wonderful for the recipient, perhaps because we all know it's not easy to choose, buy, write and post a card (the feeling the recipient has is what keeps me going).

8. Expecting positive reactions to a card, gift or video makes it all about me. The true purpose of a gift is that it is about the recipient, not the sender. You need to let yourself go and focus purely on the other to truly give. True love is a love of giving.

9. I'm stubbornly sticking to my New Year's Resolution to do one video a week for the project this year. This is despite my better judgement at this stage. I feel that quitting this goal is a bigger personal failure for me. Discipline is key to success.

10. It is unhelpful to me to measure the success of The Greeting Card Project in terms of views. If views plummet to next to nothing then it can seem like failure. Having said that, failure can be an important part of what builds our experience. Experience helps us make better judgements in the future.

11. I'm seriously doubting the concept of being Open, Random and Supportive (ORS) at this stage. This is a driving principle for me in doing my project and something I am testing. The project is not about my business. Every week I promote my competitors cards by choosing them in the shops I visit. I’m also giving my competitors a free sales lead by promoting retailers to them each week. It might seem a little crazy, but it also feels incredibly liberating not worrying about this. Control is fear based. I refuse to live in fear. I have to let it go.

12. Interestingly, people that I promote in my videos won't necessarily share the videos online. I don't understand why this is... yet. So far I’ve been assuming it's because they are just too busy or haven’t seen them (despite my emails and tagging on social media). It may be that they don’t trust my intentions, they don’t understand what I’m doing or they don't see the bigger picture. i.e. We are all in this together.

13. Up to half of the shops I visit have zero web presence. Not even a simple website, never mind social media profiles (i.e. free websites). This is making each video harder to share to the niche greeting card audience that might be most interested. Websites and digital marketing are a must for small businesses.

14. I'm becoming obsessed with post boxes. I love them. I love their bright red colour and the variety of types of them. What’s that all about? I'm working on a special post box episode for later in the year. A love of something so mundane is a source of genuine surprise and amusement to me. It’ll be postage stamps next!

This month, the numbers on my YouTube analytics have really been challenging my reasons for doing this project. Yet the numbers are arbitrary in many respects. They don’t really matter. For some strange reason The Greeting Card Project is all I want to do right now. Making these little videos about cards. I feel it in every part of me, compelling me forward. Like it’s bigger than my company, bigger than myself.

I’m so grateful to you for reading my blog. If you’ve watched even one of my videos or taken the time to offer feedback - thank you so much. I love what I’m doing. It really is the journey and the interaction with people along the way that makes all the difference to me. Do watch the videos though. Seriously. I’d be lying if I said the number of views didn’t matter at all.

Watch all the videos on Jeremy’s blog at www.blueeyedsun.co.uk/blog/tgcp

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The Greeting Card Project is my year of sending more greeting cards and recording a video diary of my experiences, the shops I visit, the cards I send and my own personal journey.

This month I experimented with shorter videos and have trying to group the occasions that I'm exploring and buying cards for. Click on the images to watch April's videos.

I have quite a few friends with birthdays at this time of year, so I visited the Southampton Row branch of Cards Galore in London to see if I could find some nice birthday cards.

As part of National Stationery Week I shopped at First Stop Stationers in Reigate for New Home cards this week. There was a good selection of great publishers in this shop.

Thanks to The Greeting Card Project I visited the gift shop at RHS Wisley and bought and sent my first ever Easter Cards. They had an egg-cellent greeting card selection!

Sadly, I had three separate friends suffer the loss of a loved one this week and I found myself making a video about sympathy cards, the most difficult and yet the most important cards to send.

This week I visited an independent shop in Greenwich called Postmark. I love it when shops have space for customers to write cards and this shop even has a little letter box for posting them.

The fourth month of the channel had 896 views with viewers watching over 24 hours of The Greeting Card Project for an average of 1:37 per video. The channel gained 13 more subscribers,  34 shares and accumulated 47 likes and 3 dislikes. The total lifetime channel views is now 4,391.

If you do watch and enjoy the videos please pop over to YouTube and subscribe, as I need 11 more subscribers to get to 100 and get a specific URL for the project (at the moment it's just a random string of numbers). I'd also love it if you followed the project on my personal Twitter account @JeremyCorner and my new personal Instagram @JeremyCorner.

Where possible there are hyperlinks to all of the featured companies beneath each YouTube video.

March Review of #TGCP

February Review of #TGCP

January review of #TGCP

Learn why I started #TGCP