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They say that the first step to recovery is admitting that you have a problem. I have a problem. As you would at any meeting for addicts, I feel I should introduce myself & share a little bit of my history.
My name is Heather. I am the founder & formulator of Rinse Bath & Body which was founded in 2003 after a need for a creative outlet turned into something huge. Before Rinse, I worked for a small business & a big corporation which created & fed my addiction. For the small business I toured the country for Nintendo promoting the Pokemon Gameboy game (yes, I got paid to play video games.) In the corporate world I toured the country working with national sponsors for Supercross (yes, I got to hang out with dirt bikes & fun sponsors like Anheuser Busch, EA Sports, THQ...)
My addiction is not traveling (although I LOVE to get away whenever I can.) It is the event part of my past that I can't get enough of. There is nothing like hearing the roar of a crowd, meeting your fans, launching new products...
Although the scale of my events have now changed (craft shows & markets rather than professional football & baseball stadiums with 40,000+ screaming fans) I still get that feeling. The butterflies in the stomach. The anxiety building as we approach the venue. The high from meeting my fans (and the people who have never seen me or Rinse.)
 Because of everything mentioned above and more, I just can't get enough! Let's see, to date I have 15 markets/shows confirmed between now & December 18. For those keeping score at home, that's 12 weeks with a holiday & a week off thrown in there. And note, I said confirmed. I have a few other shows that I'm waiting to hear back from, so that number still can, and probably will go up.
You're probably asking yourself, why should you care about my addiction?.?. Because through the Bee Blog I'm going to share what I know about what to do, what not to do, where not to go, how to find where to go, what to bring & what to do if you forget what you're supposed to bring at home. In the mean time, here's a little meat for you to chew on until my next installment.
Why Events?
No one can sell my products as well as I can. I'm not a salesperson. No means no to me. I can't pressure anyone. I couldn't sell ice cubes to eskimos.
What I can do is talk to visitors about my products. Not just what they are & what's in them but tell them the story behind them (like it took me 1 1/2 years to formulate my lip balm or that the smell of the Pumpkin Patch soap is the same smell that I used in my 1st ever batch of soap.) I find that consumers, especially these days, like to have value added to their purchase, even if it's just intellectual value.
I can also show my customers that I still LOVE what I do and have enthusiasm for whatever is around the corner for Rinse. Chatting & smiling go a long way a confirm that I genuinely do love what I do. Being enthusiastic & a bit chatty tend to be a good combo for me. It results in sales, contacts (you never know who you're talking to or who they know,) referrals & wholesale accounts almost everywhere I go.
So far, events have been the key to Rinse's growth. I've done less than a handful of cold calls for wholesale accounts. All the others (30+) are either a direct result or a 2nd degree result of a show. Same thing goes for PR.
I may not be an official expert, but my addiction has taught me many things, which I'm ecstatic that I'll be able to share. Now I'm off to find an Events Anonymous meeting. No, actually I'm going to Orlando to walk a spa show to see if I want to do it next year. Curses. I'm never going to kick this habit.
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