I Dare to Do

Jun 8, 2009 by mandeewidrick

The weekend is over and I must say, though I’m still lacking a lot of sleep, I thoroughly enjoyed myself. I made the 2.5 hour trip to Rochester, New York that began on Thursday. Upon my arrival, I was directed to a downstairs room in the Riverside Convention Center where my Bit & Bridle booth was waiting for me. It didn’t take long for me to set up, only to realize my booth along with 4 others were displayed on the side of the isolated room just out of the public’s focal point. My marketing instincts kicked in, and by later that night, the five vendors (including myself) had convinced the LEAH folks to allow us to move our booths in front of the door where we could be seen. Whew. It was really only the beginning though, as traffic was minimal even then, so I went wild with my newly printed brochures and went out in the heavy traffic areas to tell the crowd to come visit our table. 

Let me say that in the past, I never really cared to be the gal passing out flyers or brochures. It freaked me out to stop people in their travels and tell them to come see what I had to offer. However, desperate times called for desperate measures, so I just went for it and didn’t think twice. Magazine subscriptions weren’t going to sell themselves in the isolated room, and like I said many times over the three day span: “This isn’t a yard sale and I can’t wait for people to just happen across my booth.”

I shared the room with four other Young Entrepreneurs: Eagle’s Wings Films, author Cati Gerwitz, Works of Thine Hands art, and of course the Gwaith booth (which I forget what Gwaith means but it had something to do with swords and such). We quickly teamed up and thought of ways to get people to visit our tables, which resulted in working the outside crowd as much as possible. More brochures, raffle tickets, balloons, and LOTS of signs (thanks to Nathaniel for printing those up!). My creativity had no limits, and I even stuck signs on the restroom doors. (C’mon, everyone had to use the bathroom at SOME point!) Now, I didn’t go ALL out like Pak family since I didn’t have a costume, but it certainly made for an interesting idea for next year. (I went for the “business woman” look yet I did miss my cowboy hat. No worries, I wore it on Sunday for a horse show, so it wasn’t off my head for long!)

Friday afternoon brought more than just marketing and friendly chatter among new friends. Mid-afternoon, I was delighted to have the opportunity to speak – something I’ve been wanting to do more of for quite some time. My workshop focused on small business ownership and marketing strategies, more specifically, guerilla marketing. There was a large turnout and the room was nearly full as I addressed the young people with hopes to inspire them to do what they love. I received so much positive feedback on the presentation and met some wonderful people afterwards. I talked with a girl named Jenna for quite some time that same night, and ended up getting her contact info so I could help her learn how to work her current home businesses successfully. My ultimate goal is always to help  people find God’s calling on their lives, so I felt blessed to have the chance to do that.  

Now I’m home, back on my lovely farm.. Can’t say I miss the big city though it was nice for a few days. The hotel we stayed in was fairly noisy and the walls were thin, but we did have a nice view of fireworks from our window one night. Now it’s time to catch up on business, finish unpacking the couple bags I still have sitting around, and then continue on pursuing my own calling. If I could leave you with a final thought it would be this: God opens doors for me because I dare to do. He takes me places because I say I will go. It’s a never-ending cycle of life that I intend to live for the rest of my days.