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Sippin’ Sunday: Sometimes You’re Making More Than a Product

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Grab your coffee—although this morning, mine happens to be in Guadalajara. ☕️🇲🇽 I’m heading home later today after a wonderful few days here for a family wedding, and somewhere between the celebrations, food, laughter and probably a little too much wine, I had a small-business moment that made me smile. Before our trip, I decided to make custom tote bags for the ladies traveling together. Nothing complicated. Just something fun that said Guadalajara Gals — October 2026 , with each one made in a different color. At the time, it was simply a cute idea for our trip. But then I saw everyone carrying them here. We took pictures with them. We used them while we were out. People chose their colors. We laughed. And suddenly those little canvas bags weren’t just something I made with my heat press before vacation. They became part of the trip. And it reminded me of something I sometimes forget when I’m busy thinking about inventory, markets, pricing, packaging and sales. Sometimes W...
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Sippin’ Sunday: Not Every Win Is in the Sales Total

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Grab your coffee, because yesterday’s market gave me a little reminder I probably needed. ☕️ It wasn’t my biggest sales day. And if you’ve ever done markets, you know how easy it is to pack everything back into the car at the end of the day and immediately start doing the math. Was it worth it? We look at the booth fee. The sales. The hours we spent there. The time it took to pack, load, unload, set up, break down and load everything again. And listen— sales matter. We’re running businesses. I’m not going to pretend they don’t. 😂 But yesterday reminded me that sales aren’t always the only way to measure whether a market was successful. Sometimes the Win Is the Conversation Yesterday I spent quite a bit of time actually talking with customers. Not just:  Hi! Let me know if you have any questions! I mean real conversations. We talked about people they were shopping for. I shared some of the custom gifts I can create. We talked about different ideas, price points and ways...
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Sippin’ Sunday: When Something Looks Eerily Like Your Product…

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You know that moment when you’re scrolling through social media or walking through a market and suddenly you stop. Wait a minute. That looks…familiar. 👀😂 Well, I had that moment recently. Twice. At another market, I saw someone selling Blind Dates with a Book. No big deal—lots of people sell them. But the card they were using to describe the book looked very similar to the cards I created for mine. Then I came across another shop online with merchandise curated and presented in a way that also felt awfully familiar. And I’m not going to pretend my first reaction was: What a wonderful compliment! 😂 There was a little frustration. Because when you run a creative business, you know how much time goes into the things customers never see. You experiment. You change packaging. You move things around. You create something, decide you hate it, and start over. You listen to customers. You figure out what works at markets. You tweak the little details until something finally feel...
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Sippin’ Sunday: You Don’t Have to Bring Everything

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Grab your coffee, because Mother Nature decided she wanted to be part of my market planning this week. 😂☕ Yesterday I returned to a market that was one of my best last year, so I was really looking forward to it. Then came the weather. We’d had a lot of rain in Texas, including flooding in some areas, and San Antonio had gotten enough that the organizers moved our market from the park to the parking lot because the ground was too wet. Immediately, I started thinking: What if it rains? What should I take? What could get ruined? And, if I’m being completely transparent, there was also a little part of me thinking: But if I don’t bring everything, what if I don’t do as well? There it was. 😂 That small-business-owner voice that convinces you the ONE THING you leave at home will absolutely be the thing everyone wants. But I couldn’t control the weather. I could control how I prepared for it. So I edited. I left my carpet at home. I focused on products that were already protec...
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