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Writer's pictureAnne Bolduc-Jang

Be Brave… Ask for Help!

As much as I like to think that I can do it all, sometimes I have to be brave and ask for help. With season 2 under way, craft shows have become fairly low maintenance; and, I have just about everything from setting up, to creating an ecommerce check out system down to a science. However, I will be the first to admit that big two day shows, sometimes scare the crap out of me!

I can do them, but it is much easier when my “people” and my family are their to help.


At the beginning of the year, I applied to be a craft/artisian vendor at Wine in the Woods. Having been a Howard County resident for almost 50 years, I was well aware of how busy and big this event was going to be, and I knew that I couldn’t do this one alone. So, I asked my two best friends (who also happen to be my college roommates) to come for a girls weekend. It would be a win/win for them, because they love wine, shopping, and most of all, they love helping me! (LOL!) Renee, took time off from work, and flew in mid week week three days before Wine in the Woods. She was super helpful, running last minute errands, cleaning up/reorganizing my sewing studio and helping to set up the day before the event. Glenna, who was suppose to drive into town the following day, moved heaven and earth to make it for girls weekend. The odds were stacked against her for sure, but she was bound and determined to come to Maryland, even if it was for 24 hours. (I think in our almost 40 years of being besties this was the shortest time we have spent together). Leaving at 4am Saturday morning, she got her here minutes before Renee and I were about to leave the house!


So what did I learn this weekend while it was 98’ and 10,000 people roaming around Merriweather Post Pavilion? Asking for help, is not a sign of weakness, and it is not a bad thing. In fact, it is a sign of strength and a sign of a strong leader.


According to David Stuart and Todd Nordstrom of Forbes Magazine: “Asking for help can be difficult. It can chip away at our pride, make us question our own abilities, sometimes create paralyzing anxiety, and yes, sometimes, to some people, make us appear weak. But it doesn’t have to. Because asking for help can also do something else — it can help us create better results”https://www.forbes.com/sites/davidsturt/2017/11/01/4-reasons-why-asking-for-help-makes-you-a-stronge


For me, asking for help makes me very uncomfortable, One thing graduate school taught me is that you have to become comfortable being uncomfortable. Why? Because it produces great results in the end. Renee and Glenna, are great at retail sales, and because of that I had a spectacular weekend at Wine in the Woods. Most of the time I had more than one customer in my booth. Had I been alone I would not have been able to manage and attend to all the foot traffic and customers in my tent. With my besties there, they were able to help, answer questions and check people out while I was busy. Not one person who came to my tent went unattended. And for that I will be forever grateful to them!


And more importantly, the people you ask to help (this time, my husband Jay) can very often get you through a “crisis”, and new situations. He is always there to help with setting up and breaking down the tent. But this time it was different…storms were rolling in at the end of the festival and we quickly had to come up with a new plan of attack. With his muscles, and creative thinking we did it it! He might have gotten drenched in the process, but it got done!


So, don’t be afraid to ask for help. It’s difficult, and it can eat away at your ego, but the results could be spectacular! (Ask me how I know!)



XOXO


Krafty Girl








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