Monday, March 26, 2012

Motivation: the first craft fair


two weeks ago, i attended my first craft fair as a vendor,

and it was terrible.

let me just list a few of the things that went wrong: we woke up to find the keys to the truck locked inside, showed up late to set up in the park, and then had to run to the store for an extra table and table cloth. i had not a single sale all day, and the canopy that i borrowed decided to call it quits in the middle of the afternoon.

it was just worse that i could ever have imagined, and in the few hours that i was alone at my booth, while the husband took the toddler home to sleep, i threw a small, sad pity party in the middle of a crowded park. it started like this: {i can't believe i paid money to sit by myself in a 10x10 square in the park on a bright Saturday afternoon.}

there were lots of bad things to dwell on, but i wanted to feel better, so it wasn't too long before i decided to start a list of things that i was learning from the experience.

there was a last  moment of pessimism before i really changed my perspective, so in the black humor that gripped me, my list started out like this:

1. don't do craft fairs.

i gave myself a wry smirk, took a deep breath, and continued writing.

i knew i didn't have enough products, or any diversity {i only had two prints ready for sale that day}, so obviously those things made the list. i also determined that conversation starters and freebies couldn't hurt to bring traffic to my booth the next go around. one thing i decided to do for the next show was find someone {ANYONE} to stay with me for the whole show. it might be difficult, but i think the company would have made it much more bearable, besides giving me the opportunity to see the rest of the vendors and visit the restroom.

all in all, i learned several things that day, and my little list probably kept me from collapsing into tears as we pulled out of the park later that afternoon. {besides the fact that i knew it would make a good blog post.}

i'm not giving up, as much as a part of me would like to, and honestly, how much worse could it get?
the only thing i can think of is RAIN, and that was on my learning list, too.

if this is as bad as it gets, i can do this.

and that's your motivation for today. even when you are in the middle of a train-wreck day, where it is worse than you had ever imagined, give yourself a moment of despair, and then turn yourself around. if it takes making a list of things to learn, or listening to an annoying good-mood playlist, find something to adjust your perspective and keep going.

tell yourself:

if this is as bad as it gets, i can do this.
and if it gets worse, i will throw a pity party.

just kidding. you'll get through it. :)
-karey

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