Is the name of the Offbeat Bride Tribe “problematic and frankly racist”?

Since monthly readership of the Offbeat Empire sites is over 300,000 people, it’s to be expected that we’d receive a fair number of reader complaints. Sometimes, these complaints are truly educational (I had no idea that the Society of Professional Journalists had voted to replace the phrase “illegal immigrant” with “undocumented immigrant” until a reader emailed me about it) and other times they’re ludicrous (Offbeat Bride’s hilarious “motherfuckergate” comes to mind here). I’ve written about this before, but this last week I had a especially challenging reader complaint.

I’m the asshole without contact info on my business cards

I recently ordered a fresh batch of business cards, and when I handed one to a friend/colleague, he quipped, “Oh, you’re one of THOSE assholes — you don’t have any contact information on your card!”

He’s right, of course. My card has my name, title, and publication names … and that’s it. No email. No phone. Not even the URLs of the websites I run. Here’s why:

Some hats are fun, some hats are not

As a small business owner, I’m used to wearing a lot of hats — publisher, editor, client management, community management, web developer, tech support, etc. These last couple weeks, however? I’ve stepping way WAY outside of my comfort zone and tried on these hats: event coordinator, event hostess, master of ceremonies, photoshoot art director, Russian model handler, photo shoot producer, shoot location manager, NYC meet-up host, and just for good measure, Neo-Victorian model. Whew, that’s a lot of hats.

Vendor tips: how to get blacklisted from Offbeat Bride’s comments

I interact with dozens and dozens of amazing wedding vendors every day, and for the most part, it’s an amazing industry filled with inspired, independent, creative, and whip-smart people. Unfortunately, however, there are always a few small business owners who are still playing catch-up when it comes to blog commenting etiquette.