It is not talked about enough that the concept of work travel is entirely too glamourized. There is a level of self-importance that comes with being able to say “yeah… I’m going to *insert tier 1 metropolitan city* for a XYZ company’s event”, but after the ego trip wears off, you realize you are out of your routine, out of your inbox and having to work overtime to not get sick. After going on three work trips in the last month, and as someone who considers herself to be circumstantially type A, I tip my hat to the regular professional road warriors out there.
Going into this stretch of travel, I was extremely excited because all this travel was for fabulous opportunities, so my initial priority was to plan for these trips to the best of my ability to maximize my time professionally. My secondary initiative was to document this experience and to have an abundance of content while I was in transit. It was the perfect opportunity to capture my outfits, how I pack, the general trials and tribulations that come with travel, but instead of wearing my content creator hat, I found myself in survival mode. Although filming, editing and posting videos is something that brings me so much joy in my day-to-day, it fell on the back burner when trying to be present at a happy hour event after spending the day in nine back-to-back meetings… and has been tricky to get back into since getting home and playing a massive game of catch up
I don’t say this to complain, because I was able to extract an abundance of value from every interaction I had, but more so to bring perspective that what you need to be most when traveling for work is flexible. It may not go exactly as you plan, but it is also a not typical 9-5 work day. It is getting up before your event to make sure you have a healthy breakfast and put out fires while you are three hours behind your typical time zone and you are not sure when you will be able to get in front of your computer or consume a good meal next. It is having to run unforeseen errands for your client because you provide white glove service and that is needed for them to look good in front of their team. It is going to dinner in a stinky outfit you wore running around all day because you met someone that could lead to a future partnership.
Despite ensuring your accommodations are top notch and the restaurants are bougie, work travel is not glamorous, it is whatever needs to be done to ensure you are getting the most out of your time while in front of people you typically are not in front of.
Tasteful Truth: Don’t put your all into everything
There comes a time in every GIRLYs career where she has girl bossed a little too close to the sun, shown that she is not only fabulous, but extremely capable and then suddenly many doors start opening at once. It is the moment she has waited for, prayed for, and ultimately worked extremely hard for, but now she realizes that she is spread extremely thin. When you can attribute your success to saying, “yes”, showing up as your full self in every event, every project, and every interaction it is easy at first because there is much less demand for your energy. But an abundance of worthwhile opportunities keep piling up (because we only say “yes” to opportunities that are worth our while), it is a GIRLY’s duty to start to understand that she no longer is able to put her all into every situation she is in. This is where she must weigh each opportunity in front of her, determine what requires her full being, but then learn to identify what efforts are going to move the needle the most for lesser opportunities. For some it may be showing up in glam to the photoshoot to make a visual impression, which constitutes the extra time to strategically plan your outfits, where another situation may be the networking event you are attending that will require a lot of small talk and research upfront, so you have an abundance of talking points that will dazzle the crowd. It varies from scenario to scenario, but rather than putting your all into everything, you need to learn to analyze the weight of the opportunity and strategically plan where you are going to allocate your energy for the highest ROI (return on iconic-ness).
Merch Moments
Starbucks Bearista Cup. After seeing the viral Starbucks Bear all over the internet, my first thought was, “Why exactly are people going bananas over these cups AND how does one even effectively clean it after a single use???”. Being that I am in the space, I was initially nerding out for the basic specs, as it is a 20 ounce, glass cup shaped like that of the classic honey bears but decked out with on-brand Starbucks winter merch.
Now, this is not the first time Starbucks merch has gone viral and won’t be the last, but up until this point, their most viral drops have been collabs. Some of the most popular collabs being with Stanley, Wicked, and most recently Hello Kitty. Collaborations tend to be more popular because there is a bit of scarcity mentality around them, as well as fanfare around brand worlds colliding. However, this Bearista cup was the Starbucks brand being able to create virality standing on its own. With smaller coffee shops being more “in” these days and even using these bear cups as a cutesy content opportunity, Starbucks wanted to get in on the fun, so they could feel less like big corporate coffee and more on the pulse of what is culturally relevant, nostalgic, while remaining on brand.
Totes are the most competitive product at a tradeshow. You should warn your clients every time they want to produce a tote bag for their tradeshow that there are few spaces as competitive as the branded tote bag arena at a tradeshow. Consider it to be a version of the marketing Olympics. It is the most cut throat because it is the most obvious item for any event. Initially it seems brilliant to think “all the attendees will need something to put their free stuff in”, and to brand a bag that serves as the container of the free stuff, becomes a walking billboard for your brand around the show floor. There is significant upside to throwing your hat in this race, but for this reason it is the most risky product to produce because at each event there is one chosen tote bag that is the clear fan favorite – a bag that gives a podium performance.
Recently I went to an event with a client, where we produced “THE Tote of the Summit”, which is the equivalent to a gold medal in our profession. At any given point you could look around the convention center and the majority of the room was sporting the tote we produced and there was a line wrapped around the Disney booth next door to get our tote bag. Even to the point that I saw the tote on my return flight home. The success of this tote is not because the brand is the most exciting, aesthetic brand, but it was quality, there was an opportunity for it to be personalized, and it had minimal branding. The other tote bag contenders were playing in the minor leagues in comparison to the experience and feel that was associated with our tote.
Merch for Rot Culture. The most obvious setting for enterprise brands to produce merch for is the workplace. However, the real sign of a winning product is when it gets use outside in the real world not out of obligation, but out of pure desire. To achieve this level of organic use, you need to consider what people may be doing in their spare time, which can be difficult when buying for a wide group of diverse people with different lifestyles, hobbies, and general interests. There is opportunity for speculation, but there is a universal past time that everyone partakes in. The older generations will call it “R&R” (rest and relaxation), the younger generations will call it “Rotting” – a verb that refers to the act of doing nothing to reset and avoid burnout. There has been a recent emphasis on wellness and restoration in corporate America but in a superficial way, sound machines, diffusers, and face rollers, that require more education to anyone who is not on a health and wellness algorithm. So, by creating merch that is giving less “spa” and more “whole day on the couch”, your branded sweat set can be seen as a source of comfort and care. A pair of slippers, or “house shoes”, as I like to call them, can be something to get excited about while your dogs are barking after you wore heels to a networking happy hour the day before. By creating more rot-friendly merch, brands can meet their target audience where they are at and are comfortable giving them more opportunities to not only Netflix and chill, but to create an overall more favorable impression of their brand.
Mantra of the Month: I will rise to any occasion
When you are constantly stepping your game up, it can feel like you are in a never-ending cycle of “fake it til you make it”, which is where especially us GIRLYs can find ourselves starting to experience some level of imposter syndrome. Self-doubt at any level is a momentum killer because it is typically rooted somewhere within your deepest insecurities, so no matter how big or small, it takes a lot of energy to hype yourself up.
So in this moment, I’m holding your hand, GIRLY to GIRLY, and am speaking directly to you. In your pursuit of the next level that you are more than worthy of not only pursuing, but claiming, you have not made it this far to only make it this far. You are continuing to level up because you are deserving of anything you set your mind to, and you will do the work necessary to achieve your wildest dreams. You will fail, but your failure will turn into lessons and ultimately more growth. Instead of being defeated while learning the lessons, please start to recognize the ebbs and flows of your confidence as a growth pattern and remind yourself each and every day until you start believing that you will rise to any occasion.
Xx,
MERCH GIRLY