Why I Manage *Everything*

I’ve mostly talked about the big projects that were completed without any hiccups.

But today I pulled open a drawer in search of my new Pantone book and came across these babies. I’ve done two firearm patch projects with Brownells, Inc. - including this BRN-180.

If you look closely you’ll notice something funny. The reflection post-delivery of this project reinforced several things.

• under zero circumstances will I ever drop ship from my manufacturers.
• no matter the pressure on me, I simply cannot forward that pressure past a certain extent to my manufacturers.
• mistakes happen, being forward about it to the client is always the best course of action no matter how upset they may get.

Imagine opening a box of 500 patches only to find that the pressure you passed along to meet a deadline meant some form of miscommunication down the line? 500 cellophane packed BRN-180 patches without ANY sewn on velcro. They rushed and left behind a pile of laser cut velcro.

I’d be lying if I said anxiety didn’t overtake my entire body. Simon had always been patient and is one of my dear friends — but the same can almost never be said about the ladies at the helm of ensuring invoices are delivered upon. They’re ruthless and rightfully so when dealing with the number of invoices flying in and out of a place like Brownells on an hourly basis.

Time out- email sent. Now to wait.
I ended up boxing all but a fist full (I needed this physical memory) and sending them back to my manufacturer for them to CNC sew the velcro on to, re-celophane, and send back to me so I could appropriately quality control what was re-delivered.

If you onboard with me, there’s a good chance you’ve heard my yapping about my quality control process. You’re hiring ME because of the confidence you have that my end product will exceed your brand standards - because I don’t let anything out of my studio that doesn’t match or exceed my own expectations of my work. Period.

Sometimes deadlines get missed for reasons completely out of our control - our responses, however, make a world of difference.