You Aren't Just Winging It

It's been a crazy few weeks around the T+T facility, aka, our home. We had our first wholesale show in Biloxi, MS last week and spent weeks preparing. As we head into our first Atlanta Apparel Mart next week, I have to say I am glad we are mostly ready for it due to our shows being so close together.  Our little brand has surely grown tremendously in the the last three years, and mostly in the last eighteen months. I'm so grateful! Some people think we are crazy for going to market as an exhibitor so "early" in our business and I have had those exact thoughts, as well. However, I have to say that I feel it in my gut that it is something we have to do. Intuition is an important sense to have and I can just feel that this is what God is telling us to do. In business, I would say almost all of it is left up to faith, along with crazy efforts, of course, because we never know how things will turn out in business [or life, in general]. I claim that we wing a lot of things, but in actuality, I suppose we don't. We are putting in the efforts, the brainstorming, the planning, and the actions to leave the rest in God's hands. So maybe I should stop saying that we're winging it, when I know God's got this. Isn't this just a crazy revelation on a Saturday night?! But this feeling of contentment and calmness is something I've been praying for and needing. I got extremely nervous last week prior to our show and of course, I am nervous about Atlanta, but not as much as I thought I would be a few weeks ago when we signed up for this event. I suppose I am saying this to just let you know that sometimes in life, you do just have to wing it, but don't sell yourself short when all that really is, is you doing all you can do and letting go and letting God. If we put in the work behind the scenes, late at night, during nap-times, and maybe even in our sleep, it will all work out the way it's supposed to. And the results we see may not be what we expect. For example, our Biloxi event did not go as well as we had hoped as far as orders written while at the event. But I have finally learned through our journey that it all works out the way it should. We could be bitter leaving a show with only a few orders, but why?! We decided, we CHOSE, to be grateful for the experience, the time away as a husband and wife, the fellow vendors, the chance to prepare our booth and work out kinks for the next event, for the contacts made and the possibility of those business owners placing orders at any given time, and just crossing paths with some good hard-working people. Having one week in between two huge events, if we had too many orders, we would have felt overwhelmed this week, not enjoyed our children as much, and maybe even made some people mad if we couldn't ship our orders in time. I'm just so glad we have been in business long enough for me to learn these lessons. I surely do not have all of this figured out and never will, but I do love sharing my thoughts with you as it may help someone else. It's okay to be scared, nervous, excited, confident, proud or any other emotion when you know your gut is telling you to head in a certain direction. We would love to give and receive any tips for wholesale events! We can't wait for Atlanta and will be posting about our time there on social media so we would love for you to follow along!