I am a busy woman. No women is as busy as I am, and, “no!” I don’t care to hear about why you are so much busier. It takes a lot of energy to run my life, business, and my family. So I was not thrilled to find my all-wise husband had, “accidentally, opened my social media emails, and was reading news from Miss Donna Marie.
He is like, “Pam, you really need to take this Blog Challenge. You need the practice, and admit it, your business blog is lost somewhere in Bloggy Bottom Swamp. Besides, Miss Pamela don’t you pay for all of these extra Miss Donna Marie perks?

Now I am thinking, “Yes, Sweetness, and mind your own business.” However, being the precious and dutiful wife I am, I added this blog challenge to my growing list of things to do for the month.

But Gee! As days went into a blur, I could not find a good starting topic for my blog submission. Today is the deadline and at 7:00 P.M., I was still without a topic, and time was running out, when just like the proverbial teacher, appearing when the student is finally ready to learn, my topic presented itself. As I sat down to the computer, I could hear in the background a national newscaster discussing something very interesting about the Mighty Amazon. No, not the river in South America, rather the modern online super-store, and a distributor of my own many wonderful products. I listened with great interest to the subject, and I might add, what fortuitous timing.
It seems Amazon is not happy with merchants who are paying for subcontracted individuals to post untrue reviews, and positive claims for pay. They are so distressed at this practice that they are employing an army of legal-beagles to file monetary claims against all one thousand, and one hundred, and fourteen individuals who falsely claimed they have used a particular product, when they have not. They are also looking for those who have written, for pay, negative claims about competitors products.

Well, you ask, “What has this got to do with (1.) me being so busy, and (2.) Miss Donna Marie’s Blog Challenge? ”

“Everything!” I answer.

You see, we are too busy. This busy-business can cause a girl to lose sight of her values. Ethics can get in the way of a good production schedule. We start cutting corners. You need a good review, so you hire a professional lair. No one is really looking, so pad your resume. Need more sales, so you make unfounded claims about your products. Finally you falsify a formula when creativity escapes you.
It is so easy today for all of us cut corners. It is so appealing to take the shortcut, the easy route, and just phone it in, so to speak. Not because we are innately evil-doers, but because we are tired, over-worked and we succumb to the need for success at all cost.
An additional reason this is happening is because we lack the business ethic normally taught somewhere after business marketing 101, and business accounting. We no longer send our young professionals into the marketplace with a basic ethical grounding once necessary for true success.
Seriously, it actually crossed my mind, about a week ago, to hire a, “Fiver,” gal or guy to write a snappy post for me to submit to Miss Donna Marie’s challenge. I mean the Fivers need the money, I need the time, and Miss Donna Marie wants her blog challenge filled to the edges with all of us submitting our postings. It is a win, win, win.
However, this idea was only a momentary and fleeting thought with me, besides I am much to cheap to pay anyone five dollars for something I can write in 5 hours.
The dead-line is still mid-night, Right?
I know that there are going to be a lot of small businesses caught up in this legal issue with Amazon with their false review submissions. I really do not want anyone hurt. I don’t like seeing people hurt; even those who sometimes hurt me. I must lack the killer-business gene.
I just know nobody needs a law suit. Also, I understand why they did this. They were simply trying to find a way to shorten the course, fill in the blanks, and take the path of less resistance. However, taking shortcuts will always cut the person taking them. They cut them out of the opportunity to learn, grow, and develop.
I applaud Amazon for this move. This is an attempt to bring ethics into their relationship with customers and vendors. We need a return to ethics in all of our business relationships. Three cheers for Amazon, and a return to black and white. I’m not being foolish, I know gray is lurking in the next review; however, Amazon light a candle today.
Mostly, I applaud all of us hard-working, super-busy-overworked-under-appreciated indie-makers, who have never paid for a review, and especially those who would close a business before taking such an unethical short-cut, including yours truly

Pamela Mitchell, EOE (Exhausted Owner Extraordinary)
Karen’s Botanicals LLC