The Letter No. 9 — back to start

Hi Fragrant Friend 👋

I've got a few things for you this week, and they don't all point the same way.

If you're new here, a proper welcome. A lot of you are coming over from my old Scently Speaking letters. I've been moving everyone across in small batches, not all in one go, so inbox providers don't panic at a list that suddenly doubles. If the earlier issues never reached you, nothing's wrong, you just hadn't been moved yet. Either way, glad you're here.

First the hard part. I've ended my collaboration with Mansour, the perfumer on scents two and three. The work itself is beautiful, I mean that, some of the best things I've had the privilege to smell, and it hurts that they won't come out under New Niche. That was my own call, and I'll leave the details where they are.

What I took from it

The first scent, the one with Chester, worked because there was a real human connection in the room from the very first day. Same with the community meetups. Whenever that was there, things fell into place. And whenever I reached for a shortcut, and from a business angle a shortcut is always tempting, a better position with a partner, a retail door I hadn't really earned yet, that's where it went sideways. It took me a month of actually sitting with this to see it that plainly.

I tell anyone who'll listen to follow the process. Turns out I needed to hear it myself.

It hit me harder than I'd like to admit. Less like losing a project, more like something closer in. I probably want this one too much, which is a conversation for another letter.

Someone new

Here's the part that was easy to write. About nine minutes before I started typing this, a signed contract came in.

She's a perfumer, and she actually reads this letter. She reached out on her own a while back, introduced herself, at a point when I wasn't looking for anyone. The way she did it stayed with me. She's early in her own path as a creator and right in the middle of a transition of her own, so the timing is a strange one for both of us, in a good way I think.

So scent two goes back to the start. All the way back. No shortcuts this time, just the process, which is the thing I should probably have trusted the whole way.

Now in Tuscany

One good thing to end on. We have our first country with two doors now. Since last week you can find us in Tuscany, at Enrico Paldini's shop Odorem. He told me the scent reached him somewhere deep, and that he only takes on fragrances after sitting with them alongside friends and family, all of them over the same little sample I'd sent. That makes five places across Europe.

To the partners waiting on scent two, it's going to be a little longer than I first said. Thank you for your patience, and thank you for getting behind number one.

There's a line I keep coming back to, that falling over is no shame, only staying down is. So we're getting up and doing it the way we probably should have all along. No shortcuts. Just love in the process.

Next week you'll get a first hello from the person I'll be making scent two with. Stay tuned.

As always, if any of this sparks something, just hit reply. I read everything.