When I started this business, I had 5 maternity tees. That’s it. I had a couple of color options but we were still only looking at five shirts. Now? I don’t even know. If I had to guess, I would go with around one hundred. And the more things change, the more they stay the same.

I had a woman walk by my booth at a craft show. She paused. “Mommy needs a cocktail,” she said. “That’s funny. I’d buy one but the words are too small.”

The thing is, that’s the point. That’s the crux of the whole thing. That’s the kick.
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I got a killer piece of advice from Jaime when I was at Blogher. She said that her biggest mistake was getting all caught up in designing her display for the big trade show and she didn’t take the time to reach out to potential customers BEFORE going.

Brilliant.

Not that I was stressing about my display yet. Because it isn’t even September yet. Why think about something until you have to leave tomorrow?
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Well, it appears I got ahead of myself again. You see, I have this little problem. When I make changes in my business, I tend to do several things at once. The result? Does anyone have any idea which thing worked?

This is what happened. I took the most adorable cocktail shakers to Blogher several weeks ago to give away as my swag. Cute, right? Then when I came back, I decided to give them away for a limited time as a promotion with purchase. Then I went one further and gave a substantial discount for purchase as well since I had offered a substantial discount on purchases
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This past weekend I went to the Blogher conference in San Francisco. This year was a little different for me than past years. For the first time, I wasn’t going to just hang out and meet new people. I was going to speak on a panel about my business and how I have built my business as a direct result of my blog.

I was on the panel with three other extremely successful woman who discussed affiliate networks and then there was me. I talked about how I had this little business and I had this separate little blog. I started to talk about business things on my blog and blog readers became interested.
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As I prepare to attend this trade show in September, the phone calls have begun. I have been inundated with calls about advertising in trade magazines, on websites, in commercials and as a featured advertiser. Everyone wants to sell me ad space. Who knew there was so much ad space out there?

I think it’s clear to anyone reading this blog that I am fairly new to this game. I started my business in 2006 on the internet. While my tees are now available in coffee shops and boutiques beyond Baby Brewing.com, mine has been a journey solely on the Internet Super Highway. I’ve advertised on blogs written by writers that shared my sense of humor and had a faithful readership. I’ve held contests
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My friend Susie Sunshine has been riding me to update my Linked In profile. I have no idea why. To me it just seemed like another Facebook or MySpace. Which means, another place to check up on that really annoying girl from high school. Or your ex-boyfriend who ended up marrying that mousy girl with the same last name. Which I guess it made it easy for her to explain to her new mother-in-law that she was “keeping her name.”

That being said, Linked In is the new Twitter. Everyone is doing it.
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Copyright/trademark law is a funny thing. Something I read just today said they are basically the same thing. Oh, Internet. You are such a jokester.

There was quite a bit of a broohaa on the internet this week when one person got feisty over another person using the derivative of ANOTHER, very famous blogger’s name who started blogging around the time Al Gore invented the internet. The derivation? Way back when I first read the person with the similar name, I thought that I personally wouldn’t have gone there. I mean, who wants to ever have to say, “No, I’m the OTHER Katherine Heigl.”
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So I’m getting ready to go to the grand pappy of all trade shows for baby and kid items. Apparently no one has gotten the memo that my real seller is the Mommy Needs a Cocktail. Maybe I haven’t gotten that memo. Hmm. Either way, I’m going.

Trade shows are kinda like craft shows, only you don’t go home with any money. Unless your trade show is in Vegas and you think you can fit at least one leg into that crazy lucky lycra craps dress you wore back in the ’90s, when you were beautiful and very, very
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