May 23, 2024 Update #5:

Overcoming Challenges, Embracing the Future

Dear #PashFam,

The past few months have been a rollercoaster ride. Our trusted fulfillment partner filed for bankruptcy during our busiest season, Q4. This was a major blow, as Q4 is when we recoup losses from the rest of the year. We explored many options, including loaning a large amount of money to our previous fulfillment partner. After many breaches of trust and broken promises, we decided to find a new partner.

Transitioning our inventory took longer than anticipated due to complex logistics and unforeseen issues. Nevertheless, we persevered and are thrilled to announce that 100% of our inventory is now with Baja Fulfillment, an extremely reputable company with a proven track record! What a RELIEF! 

This means:

• Faster and Extremely Reliable Shipping: Orders are typically processed within 1 business day and reach you in under 5 business days.
• Improved Canada Shipping: Packages now arrive in as little as 5 days (previously 10 days).

Looking Ahead:

• Seamless Fulfillment: We're committed to providing a smooth shipping experience with Baja Fulfillment. They are known to deliver *buh dum tss* 
• Exciting NEW Products: Our team has been working on one of our BIGGEST launch years in Passion Planner history. Stay tuned for upcoming innovative new product launches this year, including the beautiful "Never Ending Now Poetry Journal," which just launched May 21, 2024, in collaboration with IN-Q. 
• IN-Q is a National Poetry Slam champion and Emmy-nominated poet. As a songwriter, he has collaborated with artists like Miley Cyrus and Selena Gomez, while also being recognized by Oprah's SuperSoul 100 list of the world's most influential thought leaders. Beyond all of these achievements, he has dedicated decades of his life to helping people heal through writing and sharing poetry. Grab your copy here! 

• We are offering our continued support toward initiatives that help people thrive.
• Our Community Empowerment Initiative has donated 674,951 planners to organizations and schools and $762,519 to nonprofit organizations worldwide.
• This year we’ve already been able to donate over 11,000 planners to our PashFam community. Apply here to receive free 2024 planners for your non-profit or school!
• When you shop with us, you’re also giving back. ~1% of your purchase will be donated at no extra cost to you. All you have to do is select a nonprofit at checkout.
• We are proud to announce a new nonprofit option, the Palestine Children's Relief Fund (PCRF), an organization that is tirelessly working on the ground in Gaza, urgently delivering essential supplies directly to children and families devastated by the ongoing conflict. Your support helps provide critical aid and hope to those in need during these challenging times.

Thank you for your patience and unwavering support! We appreciate your understanding during this challenging time. We're excited to move forward with a renewed sense of purpose and dedication to serving the #PashFam community. Rainbows ahead!! :) 

With utmost gratitude,

Angel and The Passion Planner Team 

February 23, 2024 Update #4:

Hey #PashFam, 

🌈 The Rainbow 🌈 
We have good news! Our website is up and running again with some of our inventory now available!!! 

• 2024 Passion Planners
• Some Undated Planners
• Rainbow Prisma 
• Calm Green 
• Some Monthly Tabs
• Gold
• Rose Gold
• Rainbow 
• Erasable Pens Starter Packs
• Soft Black 
• Electric Blue 
• Adulting, Work and Everyday Life Sticker Book 

Our first round of inventory has arrived safe and sound at our new fulfillment company. There was a lot of red tape to work through in many emails, calls, texts, meetings, but we did it! We have safely transitioned about 25% of our inventory and are working on the remaining 75%.

The Storm
The bankruptcy of our old fulfillment company has left us picking up the slack, both physically and financially. We have paid thousands of dollars to untangle the web that they left us in. We have not only had to coordinate and arrange all steps of the transition, but manually count, organize, and re-palletize all of the inventory ourselves. It has been a beast of a project and I wish things could go faster, but there are so many things outside of our control. As a team, we have reminded each other that this is a marathon and not a sprint. We are doing our best to keep our foot on the gas pedal and not burn ourselves out.

Things have been difficult financially. January and February are usually impactful months for us. With no income due to the website closure, we have had to tap into our reserves to keep the company afloat. Not only did we not make any money for the past 3 weeks, we lost more than $30,000 issuing refunds. 

In all honesty, I think I burned myself out a bit and have personally had to take a step back. Being on call and checking my phone constantly just to have parties not show up for meetings or block my phone number has been taxing. Getting trucks lined up to pick up our inventory just to have them turned away because our past fulfillment company “owed more money” was extremely frustrating. Heck, I was having nightmares about it all, but thank goodness I could still sleep! 

But alas, WE ARE HERE! We are doing it! And we are doing it together!!!! 

Q: What can I do to help? 
Here are some ways you can help!

• Purchase something big or small from our website
• Share Passion Planner or our free planner downloads with someone who you think would benefit
• Write an honest review for any of our products
• Visit our website (it helps with Google ranking!) 
• Host a planning party with Passion Planner and friends!

Thank YOU for your KINDNESS! 
We have been overwhelmed by the kindness, concern, and support from everyone. 

I have had friends reach out to me to volunteer their time and energy to help count and sort through the mess. 

I have had members of the #PashFam send me kind voice memos, videos, and DM’s to remind us that the work we do is important and that using Passion Planner or the community they have found through us has changed their lives. 

I have had other business owners share their empathy and words of encouragement. 

I have had people message me to tell me that they have bought a digital product that they didn’t even need to support our business during this difficult time. 

This has been an incredible challenge, but also an incredible reminder of the amazing community that’s been created over the last ten years.

We are filled with gratitude and relief that things are slowly getting back to normal! The clouds are parting and sunnier days are ahead.

With love and gratitude, 
Angel and the Passion Planner Team

February 13, 2024 Update #3:

Hey #PashFam, 

Our team is still working hard transitioning all of our inventory to our new warehouse! Unfortunately, we’ve hit a few more roadblocks along the way due to the recent rain in Southern California and subsequent technical difficulties from the weather damage. 

Due to the delays, we will need to extend our pause on physical orders until further notice. We are just as excited as you all to resume orders for physical products and we want to ensure that when we do resume operations, it's with a solid plan in place. We understand the frustration of continually shifting timelines, which is why we've decided to only share a relaunch date when we are confident in our ability to meet it.

In the meantime, there are still ways you can support us during this transition period. Our Free Downloads are available again and our Digital Products are still available for purchase. Your continued engagement and support mean the world to us as we navigate these challenges. Thank you for being a part of our community and for your understanding during this time, PashFam.

With love and gratitude,

Angel & The Passion Planner Team

February 2, 2024 Update #2:

Hey #PashFam, 

Angel here with a quick update on what's been happening behind the scenes (and spoiler alert, it's been a wild ride!).

Remember how we mentioned moving our inventory? Well, let's just say we didn't expect to be packing and moving all the boxes ourselves! We walked into a warehouse filled with planners, stickers, and everything in between, all piled high. Because of our fulfillment company's bankruptcy, we’ve had to handle it ourselves. 

We're not ones to back down from a challenge (or a mountain of dusty boxes). We rolled up our sleeves, teamed up with the amazing crew at our new fulfillment company, and spent a week digging through, organizing, and building over 100 organized and labeled pallets. Imagine packing up a house and multiplying that by 50... that was the amount of work we knocked out in a week!

Right when we thought we were in the clear, life gave us a storm… literally. Just as we were ready to ship everything out, Southern California weather decided to join the party with some intense storms. ️That meant our shipment got delayed, and the first trucks available won't roll until Tuesday (fingers crossed!).

Once they arrive, our new fulfillment wizards will work their magic, counting, sorting, and prepping everything for their future journey to your door. This will take about 3-5 business days, and then BAM! You'll see 2024 Passion Planners and a few other products back on our website! All that being said, we will need to extend our pause for physical product orders, with our tentative relaunch date now Tuesday, 2/13.

To add onto the storm, our free pdf downloads and printables are also currently unavailable. We just so happen to be facing technical issues with the web functionality right now along with everything else going on. Our team is working to resolve this ASAP, and we hope to have our free downloads back up and running by next week!

Look, I won't sugarcoat it. This has been tough, tough on the mind, wallet, heart, body, and spirit. Seeing us have a negative week of sales, because of all of the refunds has been scary. Juggling this situation with everything else life has thrown our way outside of work has been hard, but there's one thing that keeps us going no matter what: you all. The #PashFam.

The outpour of support and kind messages has been incredible. While I can't let you join the dust-bunny brigade for liability reasons, the thought alone has been a huge boost. And let me tell you, our team have been rockstars! They’ve been waking up early, battling paper cuts, and pushing through stress with upbeat and positive attitudes to get this mission done. They're the real heroes of this story, and I can’t wait until we all can take a break.

We're not giving up. We'll weather this storm together, and who knows, maybe we'll even see a rainbow on the other side! 

Thanks for your patience and understanding, and stay tuned for more updates!

With love and gratitude,

Angel & The Passion Planner Team 

TLDR:

• We've spent a week sorting through, organizing, and building over 100 organized and labeled pallets for our entire inventory.
• Storms happening in Southern California have pushed our transition trucks from today to Tuesday, 2/6,
• 2024 Planners and a few other products should be available on the website by Tuesday, 2/13. 
• Thank you for your support, patience, and understanding!

January 26, 2024 Update #1:

Dear #PashFam, 

First and foremost, thank you for your continued support. 

We know many of you have been waiting patiently for your orders, and we want to sincerely apologize for the delays or order issues. We value transparency and have an update for you all on our fulfillment and shipping situation. Our current fulfillment company has officially declared bankruptcy, and unfortunately leading up to this, they’ve been dishonest with us, other clients, and their business partners. We’re currently sorting through the aftermath of their lies and working through discrepancies.

This has been a tough situation to handle and our team is doing everything we can to get our operations running smoothly again. We've been working non-stop to find a new and reliable fulfillment company with a strong track record, and guess what? We found one! We have officially signed a contract with a company that values reliability and speed just as much as we do. 

To move all of our inventory over as accurately and efficiently as possible, we will be pausing new orders for the next week.
What a Temporary Order Pause Means:

• Effective January 26, 2024 at 3:00 PM PST checkout will not be available on our website for any physical products. Digital products will still be available for purchase and free PDFs and printables will still be available.

• We hope to restart orders again on February 2, 2024 at 12:00 PM PST. Please note that this is a tentative restart date and is subject to change or be extended depending on the progress of our inventory transfer.

• For orders placed in the last two weeks, our team is onsite to personally ensure these packages ship out within the next week.

• For orders with extended delays, we ask for your patience as our team works through the support tickets we’ve received. We will be reaching out with solutions for people experiencing extensive delays. If you do not receive an email from us today or tomorrow and think your order has been impacted, contact our support team here. 

It sure has been a wild ride being a small business. Thank you for your patience, support, and for believing in us. We are a small team of 22 passionate people, learning to navigate this challenge as we go, and appreciate you for seeing us as human beings doing the best we can. We truly appreciate your patience as we start this exciting new chapter. 

Thank you again for being part of the journey! We couldn't do it without you. 

With Gratitude,
Angel and the Passion Planner Team