3 Lessons Embraced en Route to Americas Mart Trade Show
The journey starts from December 2020 where I can recall vividly the daily mornings where I'd wake up immediately thinking about the possibility of attending a trade show. I had the very first official conversation on Christmas day with my family of how serious I was in wanting to take a very very grand leap of faith for our small business and present at the AmericasMart® Atlanta trade show. This conversation, yes, had everyone feeling super excited, yet, at the same time a wave of nervous emotions started taking up space. As the super stubborn optimist that I am, I wanted to make it happen and get everything ready for the first tradeshow of 2021, which was in late winter/early spring. Thankfully, the family helped my mind to calm a bit down and pace myself.
Below, I'm sharing the top 3 lessons embraced as my small business is en route to presenting at the AmericasMart® Atlanta tradeshow this summer!! Keep reading along for all the fun!
3 lessons embraced as we head to AmericasMart® Trade Show!
1. Don't sweat the small stuff: This literally dawned upon me the other week (and as I write this post, I'm 4 weeks away until trade show dates begin!). With a google doc of 4+ pages of notes of preparation, tons and tons of reminders set from my phone, and extra raw materials saved, I kept pushing myself to prepare in a way that would ensure my booth presentation would have more than ample quantity to present. However, you know what, the impactful phrase of "working with what you have" really sunk in my heart the other week when I felt fearful of not having enough. As a small business bootstrapping 100% of my business, it can be scary and intimidating to think that what's here and now is not enough. Yet, it's completely the contrary, the bottom line is, and for all areas of life, working with what you have and working from a perspective of abundance, is just beautifully enough to take you and me and us all from point a to point b.
2. Get ready by enjoying the journey: Naturally, I'm the kind of person who puts on an extra ounce of pressure onto any task and, hence, make myself stressed out. Just as shared from above, one of the tasks that's been on my mind daily is wondering how I can make the most of our booth presentation and with enough inventory. I could be spinning myself round and round and breaking out in acne, but the decision to choose my health over such stress that I can control was evident with which way to go. This switch didn't happen over night and I still get my stressful moments, I just rather embrace the joy and the incredible fact that my small business and mission has this wonderful opportunity to present at our very first trade show. The mindset of excitement and gratitude is what I choose to follow leading towards the show dates and beyond in all areas of life.
3. Focus on the big picture: From the tiniest of details like making sure I have the correct booth number on my business card to the major ones as ensuring our catalogs are the best they can be, there's many, many moments where I feel as if I'm getting swamped by waves of reminders. It's having your support team from friends, family, mentors...etc that can truly help you get back on your feet and be in your zone of genius! All thanks to my familia, our rockstars for being so excited for our small business, and my mindset coach, Nikita from Crafted to Thrive, for helping re-shift the main focus of this journey, which is to live and share from our story, mission, vision, and love.
There's plenty more that I'll be sharing along as we get closer to tradeshow dates, so be sure you're following along over on Instagram here!
P.S. I'll also be following-up this blog article with a second piece sharing with you on the tradeshow experience both during the show dates and after! Stay tuned!
Xoxo,
Jessica
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