Category Archives: Marketing Minute

Why Am I Here? 

I read once that whenever you feel completely out of place somewhere, you should look for the reason why you’re there.  Everything happens for a reason and sometimes we’re put into strange or uncomfortable situations because there’s someone there we’re meant to connect with.  I try to do that wherever I go.  It usually ends up with me making awkward conversation with a few people before connecting with someone else who is feeling just as awkward.

It seems to be birthday party season here in San Antonio so lately I’ve been the lucky parent who has to escort the kids to these mighty-mite masochisms.  I find myself arriving at these events and searching my purse for a magical flask of tequila.

I have no flask. 

I SHOULD have a flask.

Last weekend, it was the indoor bouncy house hell.  Bigger kids push the smaller kids around and say it was all in the name of fun and the best advice you can give your child is “sit it out” or “soldier on”.  Either way sucks because you can never catch the bully bastards in the act.  So I had one child crying on my shoulder for most of the event and I felt completely powerless against the whole bouncy house party system.

This weekend was the public park party.  Only a few of the kids from school were there with parents and the rest of the adults and kids there were family.  So I surveyed the situation as my kids ran off to play with the others.  A bunch of military guys at one table, mom & aunts bustling around and needing no help around boxes of pizza and refreshments, and one lone mom sitting at a table, typing into her phone.

BINGO!

She’s my kind of people.

Either we’ll find something in common or we’ll both type into our phones and be quite happy with ourselves.

We had two sons in common.  Awesome.  Nobody understands what it’s like to have two boys unless they do.  You can’t make this shit up.  Then I noticed her nails.  She had these great striped and polka-dotted nails that looked absolutely impossible.  I had to ask where she got them done.

That’s when I realized why I was there.

Jen is an independent representative with Jamberry Nails.  She loves the product but she’s not a high pressure salesperson.  (I can respect that.  Neither am I.)  She told me that the home party season was good last fall but everything fizzled with the holidays.

Being in marketing, I could tell her with every confidence that everybody’s business seemed to dwindle around the holidays and into mid February.

She seemed relieved and I was happy I could give her some reassuring news.

Then, I thought, what can I do here?  I took a pic of her fab nails and shared it with several thousand of my closest friends.

She and I became Facebook friends and now I’m going to introduce her to the Wonderfully Wise Women group and suggest she hook up with my amiga, April Monterrosa, for the Wonderfully Wise Women Spring Business Expo.

Jen explained that she had plenty of inventory for such a thing and the $20 fee seemed reasonable.  Hopefully it’s a good match for her and will give her a chance to at least network with a few more independent businesswomen.

And that is how I ended up having a great time at a kids’ birthday party without having to share embarrassing pregnancy stories or talk about the weather!  It turned out to be a good afternoon after all!