M is for….Making up your Mind!

Good Morning faithful readers!  While it is chilly here once again in North Florida, there are some signs of spring on the way.  Most notably the birds are becoming more active.  As I look out onto my patio, not much is blooming and the leaves have finally dropped off of the plumeria.  However the Camellia is coming through with beautiful deep red flowers and they stand out nicely against all the green.

As I noted at the end of my last post, M does indeed stand for Mattresses. While it is a P word, I am going to throw in Pillows here also since they really go with mattresses.  Now, more than ever, I believe good mattresses and pillows are crucial for an inn.  Guests are tending to “cocoon” more and take breaks to relax and recharge. And that isn’t going to happen if they don’t get a good nights sleep and luxurious afternoon naps.  So I appeal to you once again readers.  What type/brand of mattress gives you a good nights sleep and no aching back.  Same for pillows.  I use a buckwheat pillow because it is great for my neck.  Along with it I have a very squishy down pillow, since I love to sleep on my stomach.

M also stands for another biggie-Marketing.  I’m reading my very first Social Network Marketing book by Dan Zarella.  It is an excellent place to start.  So much has changed since my earlier innkeeping years. I spend about an hour a day just looking at inn websites and reading hospitality articles.  This is a growing edge for me, but it is exciting to learn interesting and new ways to get guests to my future inn.

Like the title of this post, M does stand for making up your mind. While I can say that I do have those butterflies in my stomach at times when I think of the new inn I am going to have, I am devoted and determined to making it happen and that makes everything else easier to some extent.  Sometimes I just can’t explain to people what is driving me.  While I have loved living in Florida-being close to the beach, the warmer weather, living in a home that is a tropical oasis-there is a part of me that isn’t satisfied.  It doesn’t feel like home to me.  I feel like I am on a mission and can’t explain it all.  While excited about  innkeeping and finding a community we love, I feel like there is something else that is going to come from all of this and I don’t know what that is yet!  I believe our lives are somewhat like a jigsaw puzzle and we keep finding pieces as we go along; sometimes we find several in a row, or a crucial corner or frame piece, and then we go for a while finding nothing that fits.  I guess maybe that has been a little of what Florida has been like for me.  While it has given me a few pieces-I surely want to own a vacation spot here in the future, and I know I need to live near water, it is time to move on and find some more pieces of the puzzle.

Thanks again for reading!  Let me know what mattresses and pillows you love and I’ll be back soon with N. Networking, Newsletters, and Niche marketing.