Susan teamed up with longtime friend Lindsay Pierce, who was willing to provide the financial backing to bring the idea to fruition. Together, they contacted Patti McMahan, a graphic artist who Susan had known for nearly 20 years, and Mixed Role Productions was born.

From the beginning, Mixed Role has challenged the conventional channels of distribution. Unfamiliar with the more traditional protocol, Susan loaded up her VW van in the spring of 1987 and headed down the West Coast. She convinced retailers along the way to take a chance on the product and, thanks to a handful of stores who were willing to do just that, the August-to-August Calendar/Organizer reached the market.

Housed in Lindsay's garage, Mixed Role Productions sold 1387 calendars in its first year. Susan's daughter Margaret joined the effort in the company's second year working as the first "roving" table at a Pacific Northwest tradeshow. Handing out calendars and order forms to prospective retailers, she got a taste for the life of a sales rep, but before she was put to work in that position, she had to prove her mettle shrink-wrapping calendars in the mornings before class. Margaret remains Mixed Role's only sales rep, and together with her Mom they handle more than 850 accounts coast-to-coast and as far away as Guam and Iceland.

Mixed Role has grown a lot over the years, but in truth very little has changed. We are still committed to providing our customers with a high quality product and good customer service. We make it our objective never to lose track of our purpose whether we are working with an individual customer or a retailer with multiple stores.

We thank you for your interest and support.