As of Thursday evening, we had completely sold out of our allotment of shoes for our collaboration with Benjamins Shoes. That means that we were able to sell completely out of a $480 product in 9 days. That's amazing. It was a great opportunity for us to get a collaboration under our belt, go through the marketing process, and see how a high-end custom collaborative item would sell. 

We started this process in January or February, so it took nearly a full year from my initial conversation with Benjamin to our official sell out last week. It was really a labor of love and I want to take a second to acknowledge everyone who helped turn my daydream idea (from almost 2 years ago) into a reality.

Brig, Michelle, and Rick had the crucial initial sign off on the collaboration and gave Nery and me the okay to move forward with the project. Michelle and Rick continued to be integral throughout the process, helping every step of the way and signing off on big decisions like leather and buckle choices, shoe silhouettes, creative, etc. 

Speaking of creative, the Creative Team hit everything with this project completely out of the park. From the video that Alex shot and edited to the gift card that Andrew designed and the emails and social media posts that Olivia and Jess perfected - everything turned out so, SO well. A product is only as good as how it's presented to customers, so the C Team is a huge reason why we sold out so quickly.

Saranya and Trevor did a lot of behind the scenes work on the product pages and the website, ensuring that the back end was functioning smoothly and efficiently. Of course, the Ops team will also have a big role in the packaging and shipment of the product as well - so an early 'thank you' shoutout to you guys too!

Last but not least, a HUGE thanks to Nery and Bryan for seeing this project through to the end while I was out on vacation. I was really bummed when we had to move the release date up a week at the last minute and I missed the launch day, but they really did an awesome job making sure all the last minute stuff happened as needed. Nery was there helping with the project from its inception and was crucial through all the calls, the trips to Benjamins studio, the decision making, etc. Bryan jumped into a new role at the most hectic time of the year and as this project was coming down to the finish line, and he took everything in stride, handling it all like a champ. 

This is definitely the coolest project I've ever been part of and I'm super grateful to have gotten the opportunity to do it here. Thanks again to everyone involved for helping make this one real! Here's to more successful collaborations in the future! 

(P.S. Here's the video if you haven't seen it yet: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nX_ILsXcjhw)

Recently while watching a random television show, one of the characters said that she made a goal for herself to do one thing a day that scares her. At first, I thought to myself “why in the world would I want to do one thing a day that scares me?” Then she gave examples to her friend of things she had done like performing a stand-up comedy routine at an open mic night, speaking to the guy she was crushing on and other small things like that. She said it didn’t have to be anything huge like jumping out of plane, or diving off a cliff, just as long as it was something that pushed her out of her comfort zone at least once a day. Then I thought “that can be a pretty good goal, maybe not so fun at first, but it could become fun”.

We get so comfortable in our routines or our comfort zone that we may be missing out on exciting opportunities because the initial idea scares us. I am super guilty of this and while I may not do one thing every day that scares me, it made me realize that it is good to push ourselves to do things that may seem a bit scary at first, because they may become the most rewarding. Have a great weekend Crusaders!