Out of my comfort zone

I had a heck of a weekend and now I feel all upside down.

I went to a two day seminar that was all about the business of crafts.But really to me it was about the business of art, or of fine crafts, and not the kind of work that I do at all. It was even kind of belittled a few times during the weekend, both by the presenter and by other people attending the seminar. I am very used to that belittling, unfortunately. Until I can sit down with someone and have a conversation about what I do and how it relates to what they do, I am just a lowly soapmaker, and it is so easy to sell a consumable product, I must not be able to fathom what they go through trying to sell their art.

Oh, but I do understand. So much about selling anything is about the story of the product. I have understood for years that people purchase me and my story as much as they purchase my product. Sales is also about gaining trust, you can't be slick or cheap anymore when it comes to your sales technique. But what I sell is one of the most personal items that someone can buy. You use soap in the most discrete and intimate areas of your body, places that some people don't even discuss with their doctor. So when I gain trust, I have to gain an intimate trust with my customers. When a customer spends the "typical" 15 seconds in my booth, I not only have to get them interested in the products thorough sight and smell, but I have to project an air of trustworthiness from the second they see me. It is often easier to sell a consumable product than fine art, but it is harder to get people to keep coming back time and time again.

The seminar itself is very much a blur. It was almost 8 hours a day of constant information being bombarded at me. I have so many new inspirations for things now. I have so many new things I want to do with my booth design, and with product names, and even things like new product pictures, that no customer may ever see. I have a list of new places to research, and suppliers to check out, and things to do now. But I probably won't get to many of these things for months and months. I need to process my information overload and see how it pertains to me.

But what I think for me was the most important lesson of the weekend was that I have to remember to think outside my comfort zone for knowledge and inspiration. Yes, many things covered in the topics didn't pertain to me, but the things that did, or the things I could bend a little to help me, really did get me thinking in ways that I haven't thought before.

Let them think of what you do as below them and then take all the knowledge you can get and use it to your advantage. In the end you will be the one with a sustainable business that you find satisfying and fulfilling. Never let anyone get in your way.