I’ve been around long enough as a business owner to know this truth: trading money for expertise is a smart move. I hired Donna Cash last week to tell me all the secrets of the pillow industry, and did she deliver! We met by zoom, of course, as she is in Georgia, I’m in NYC, and there’s still a pandemic raging.

A reader of one of my recent blog posts pointed me to Donna. From that link I went to Donna’s impressive website and found that she offers a plethora of ways to learn about her highly successful and celebrated corner of the home dec industry. You can tell what a pro she is simply by the background of her well-curated zoom portrait here.

I can measure how valuable our session was by the degree of enthusiasm it generated in me. I am chomping at the bit to meet The Trim Queen, Barry Dixon – an internationally renowned designer she referenced, and the Zipper Lady. I know these men and women will become my new best friends as I swim out further into the sea of pillow-making.

There is much to consider – the size and loft of my pillow inserts, the weight of the invisible zipper, the thread count of the insert cover, whether to use poly-clusters, pure wool or a combination of down and feathers and, if the last option, what percentages of each. Little did I know when I sewed my first design that a new world was opening to me.

Translate this to your latest endeavor. How excited are you to meet the stars of your chosen field? What is your appetite for learning? Are you willing to go to any lengths to discover the best way to share your talent or ideas?