We got some local press this week from a Boston Newspaper and received great placement on the front page.  Many thanks to reporter Dan Murphy for helping us spread the word about our new company!

Here is the article as it appeared in the paper:

High Voltage recharges greeting card industry

by Dan Murphy (November 24, 2009 - Beacon Hill Times)

Following the launch of High Voltage Cards in September, husband-and-wife team Walter and Bridget High are now offering more than just the generic greeting cards commonly found in stores, opting instead for designs that best capture even the most unusual moments.

Walter and Bridget High, founders of High Voltage Cards

“When Bridget and I went into the store desperately trying to find a card to fit the occasion, we could never find anything decent and ending up sending the same few cards to all of our friends,” Walter said.

This dissatisfaction eventually prompted Walter to begin spray-mounting over the captions of store-bought cards and adding his own personalized notes. Then about 10 years ago, he started designing his own cards for friends, using photos that he had shot as the central images.

High Voltage Cards, which promises to “recharge relationships” and plays on the surname of its founders, is a mail-order business that sells high-quality cards that actually improve on those that Walter has made for friends for the past decade. The cards are printed on high quality stock in small quantities and sold exclusively via the company’s Web site, with new offerings being added each day. The inventory now includes nearly 300 different designs, including blank cards and cards that range from ones for birthdays and traditional holidays to others that address more irreverent subject matter, such as facelifts, breast augmentation, vasectomies, divorce and psycho boyfriends.

“People tend to send cards on commercially endorsed holidays… but it’s the card that arrives on the random Tuesday that makes a lasting impression on someone,” Walter said. “We’re trying to put the greeting back in greeting cards.”

The images for the cards span more than three decades and date back to soon after Walter received a camera as a high-school graduation present, sparking off a fascination with photography that has endured throughout his adulthood.

“He has a unique way of looking at the world that takes everyday things and shows them in a new way,” Bridget said of her husband.

More than 50 of the approximately 250 card images feature Boston locales, including several striking wintertime shots of Beacon Hill.

“I’d been living in LA for 15 years before I moved to Beacon Hill in 1995, so I hadn’t seen winter in a long time,” Walter said. “It was really exciting for me, and I spent a lot of time photographing the neighborhood.”  To promote this local angle, Walter and Bridget, who are both members of the Beacon Hill Civic Association (BHCA), have donated gift boxes featuring 10 different cards with images from in and around the neighborhood to the non-profit group for fundraising purposes.

Meanwhile, the company has already received some high-profile exposure, thanks to a write-up on that the company featured on Daily Candy, an online guide to Boston and around a dozen other cities. The High Voltage Cards Web site, which was previously visited by no more than four parties at any given time, soon received upwards of 17,000 page views over the course of about a week.

Despite the positive response, the Highs realize that the success of High Voltage Cards ultimately hinges on word-of-mouth praise, as well as overcoming consumers’ reluctance to buy greeting cards online.

“Every card comes with a 100-percent guarantee, and we’re not prohibitive of last-minute shopping, since cards usually arrive a day or two after orders are placed online,” Walter said.

For more information on High Voltage Cards, visit www.highvoltagecards.com.

Looking to be a little more creative this Christmas when it comes to sending cards?  Then here are a few suggestions from High Voltage Cards that break out of the traditional mold in one way or another.

For a nostalgic take on the season, this card evokes the unforgettable emotions of childhood sledding:

For a hip and nostalgic take on the season especially created for vintage car buffs, this card plays off the strong graphic design of the 1950’s Oldsmobile Holiday and some fun, fifties-type phrasing inside:

For that special someone this Holiday, this is a card that’ll turn up the heat on even the coldest Christmas Eve:

For a more sobering take on the Holidays, during this time when our country is at war, this card, taken at Arlington Cemetery, focuses on the fallen we won’t ever forget.

For those die hard barbecue fans whose Christmas wish is for an endless summer, this card says it all.

And finally, for anyone who knows an honest days work, here’s a card that sums up what it is to make the most of the Holidays.

To purchase these and or other cards, please visit our store.

Yeah, yeah, I know, true spontaneity is both unplanned and unrehearsed, what’s your point? ;)  And yeah, I know I just wrote a post endorsing the idea of being spontaneous in sending greeting cards.  But I’m telling you, when it comes to sending greeting cards, true spontaneity takes preparation and practice!

You see, while the spontaneous act of grabbing a card, jotting down your thoughts, and throwing it in the mail, should be an impulsive one that is acted upon the moment a feeling strikes you, it’s really hard to do without the card you need to send it.  So the first thing you need to do to prepare for being spontaneous is to buy a bunch of cards.

To do so, simply spend some time browsing through some great cards (may we suggest: highvoltagecards.com?) and stock up on cards that you like.  Find an easily accessible drawer, a box, or a cubby hole, and give them a home.  For me, the number of cards I usually had on hand (before we started our company) ranged between 30 and 40.  (Now, it’s ranges between 8 and 10 thousand, but that’s a little extreme!)  And every time I got the urge to send one, I’d open the card drawer, flip through the stack until I found the one that struck me at the moment, and then immediately write down my thoughts.  Having cards on hand allowed me to be spontaneous.  (Stamps help too, btw, so keep a book of those on hand as well.)

Next, practice following your impulses!  Being spontaneous takes work.  Sure, it’s easy when you’re a kid, but the older you get, the more you get punished for impulsive behavior, until one day you forget what it is to immediately act on a feeling.  So practice acting on the impulse to send a card.  When you think of someone you’d like to connect with, stop whatever you’re doing, grab a card, and jot her or him a quick note.  Then, seal it up, stamp it, and drop it in the mail that day.

It’ll only take a minute and both you and the lucky person who receives your card will feel better for the effort.

We’re all too familiar with the official, “commercially-endorsed,” card-sending days and seasons.  They’ve been bred into our consciousness since we were kids.   And, as the owners of a greeting card company, we, ahem, wholeheartedly endorse sending cards on those days!  (Big surprise there, huh?)

But if you want real bang for your buck — if you want to really make an impression — send a card on a random Tuesday.  Send a card all on your own and for no other reason than to tell someone you’re thinking about them. Just send a card to someone in your life that you’ve been thinking about, or miss, or are grateful for.  Tell them how you’re feeling, maybe not in traditional greeting card speak, but in your own style: a style the person you’re sending the card to will understand as genuinely you.

Don’t put it off.  Don’t make a mental note to tell that person you were thinking about them the next time you see them.  And don’t wait until yours is one of a dozen cards that person will receive in the mail in a week by sending only on commercially-endorsed holidays.  Be spontaneous.  Send a card when the mood strikes you and when your feelings are real and easy to convey.  That’s what makes an impression.  That’s what recharges relationships.

For the quintessential example of a spontaneous card that made a lifelong impression, read my previous post:   A Lifetime of Friendship in Three Simple Words…

And for tips on what it takes to be spontaneous, read my next post: How to be spontaneous through preparation!

You know that feeling you get when you’re standing in front of a display rack of hundreds of greeting cards and you can’t find a single card you’d feel comfortable signing your name to, without 1) adding a disclaimer releasing you from any and all association with its lame message or 2) making an excuse about how you’re intentionally sending the dumbest card you could find just to be funny?

That feeling is why my wife and I started our company.  We had both spent years searching out the few cool, smart, artsy, funny, clever, or quirky cards we could find in the retail world and had sent them to everyone we knew ten times over.  So when the task of finding a good card became harder than making our own, we started High Voltage Cards.

The thing is that if you’re going to send a card to tell someone that you’re thinking about them, you should really make sure you put some thought into the card you send.

A great card says: “I’m thinking about YOU!” in big, bold, unspoken words.  It doesn’t have to shout it, because its image or message shows that you made an effort to send a card that its recipient would really appreciate and enjoy.

A not-so-great card, on the other hand, says something completely different.  It says: “I’m thinking about you– sort of. Not enough to get a card that exactly reflects that, mind you, but certainly enough to grab this one on my way to the cash register to pay for the prescription ointment I needed for my personal hygiene purposes.”

The question is which one do you want to send?

Getting rich is all about amassing assets.  So the first step in getting rich is to take stock of your assets.  If you happen to be muttering “what assets?” right about now, then you’ve found the first and most important key to changing your status from poor to rich:  Understanding that all of us have more assets than we often allow ourselves to realize.

You see, whatever your financial state, your strongest assets are not the kind that appear on a balance sheet– they’re the relationships you’ve made that have, in turn, made your life richer.

Consider for a moment those relationships: the friends and family members who supported you, encouraged you, influenced you and believed in you.  The people who shared experiences with you, taught you, made you laugh, comforted you when you cried, and even managed to get you into trouble.   A few moments of reminiscing, reviewing, and reliving will allow you to see just how many assets you have in your life already.

Now, all you need to do is find a way to fortify those assets.  High Voltage Cards offers 250 different cards that are ideal for recharging the relationships that really determine your wealth in this lifetime.

A few kind words, a funny card, a quick reminder of your appreciation, and you will be rich, no matter what the economic climate.

eCards. They’re so easy, so fun, and they can be sent so last minute! They’re also so incredibly cheap to send that there’s really no debate about which is better when it comes to choosing between sending an eCard versus a traditional greeting card, right?

Wrong!

In case you hadn’t heard, and many people and businesses apparently haven’t, eCards have become notorious for unleashing nasty viruses and virus-carrying Trojan horses on unsuspecting victims. In fact, I just got an email this morning warning of the mother of all viruses to be unleashed from an eCard labeled as a “Postcard from Hallmark.”

Ironically, that email is a hoax that’s been circulating the internet for years, but other, very real viruses have been unleashed via supposed eCards from friends or businesses since as far back as 2002.

So if you’re considering sending an eCard to a friend or, perhaps, sending thousands of eCards to your customers this holiday season, consider this:

No one in their right mind is ever going to open it!

Here are just a few links referencing this topic from as far back as 2004. So if you think the perception isn’t out there, think again: Snopes.com, PC World, EWeek.

I found the card while going through my father’s belongings, shortly after his death. He’d probably received it back in the 1960’s, and he’d kept it for the next 35 years or so until he died. It was yellowed and curled from exposure. Dad hadn’t archivally preserved it, he’d just held onto it as a keepsake of his friendship with my Uncle Phil.

Phil wasn’t really my uncle, just a great friend of my father’s. He had been my father’s friend since long before I was born and probably as far back as the days before World War II when my mother and father first met in Cape May, New Jersey.

Phil, or “Fisher,” as they called him, and his wife Shoelace (Aunt Shoe to us) were a part of a circle of my parents’ friends who stayed close throughout the entirety of their lives.

Like all of my parents’ friends, Phil and my father joked a lot with one another. That was their way of telling each other they cared. And they cared a lot. Through decades of good times and bad, they stayed close, never losing touch.

I remember watching them interact in their later years at my father’s 75th birthday party. Phil was getting ready to leave. My Uncle Brent, another great family friend who was also not really my uncle, was helping Phil with his coat. As Brent guided Phil’s arm into one sleeve, my father deftly tied the other in a knot.

They were three men in their seventies, still acting like kids, still in love with life.

The card Phil sent my father so many years ago sits on my desk now. It was a simple one that spoke volumes about the culture of the time. On the cover, it read: “Always Remember, if you ever need a friend…” And on the inside, it finished the thought with the line: “…pick up a fifth on the way home.”

Far from a touching message, it could have been construed as sarcastic and insensitive. But to my father, and later to me, it became an invaluable keepsake, because below the inside copy of “…pick up a fifth on the way home,” Uncle Phil had added the words, “and call Fisher.”

Three simple words, without even as much as a signature. That was all he wrote. But in those words, Phil epitomized a lifetime of friendship and, in doing so, created a keepsake my father held onto for the rest of his life.

Greeting cards are but an instrument for expression. Yet, if played well, they can become the glue that binds us to those we hold dear.