The WELCA Vendor Blender

This was my table set up this weekend at church, for the WELCA Vendor Blender.  

To be honest, the idea of doing a vendor event terrified me, and the first time I was asked, I said No.  But when a friend of mine personally contacted me, and said, we don't have anyone doing Oils, maybe you'd like to?  I thought, OK.  It's for church.  Our event this past weekend was for the Women of the ELCA (WELCA) weekend.  On this weekend, the women of the church run the service.  And to kick it up a notch, this event was added for all of us women in small business to present at the event.  To raise money for WELCA, all of us that showed, will be donating our proceeds from the event.  

I went into this with low expectations, Young Living Essential Oils is not the kind of thing that one can explain in 30 seconds as someone cruises by a table.   But I thought, this will be a good opportunity to show my friends and church family what I've been doing.   It ended up being a lot more fun than I thought.   I didn't sign anyone up, but I really did Share my Oils!  This was an opportunity to bring the Oils to folks that may not be familiar with them.  

So maybe you are thinking to yourself, what do I do, to try this too?  Well, I brought my new Premium Starter Kit, I call it my Demo kit.  I bought it last month when they were on sale.  I brought my Aroma diffuser, and put 5 drops of Thieves in it.  There's lots of debate what to diffuse at events.  For Intro classes, I usually diffuse Lemon.  For additional education, I like to diffuser something a bit stronger.  I figured everyone loves the smell of Christmas, and Thieves was a great choice on Saturday, because the weather was so crummy.  Sunday, I got a few more odd looks, but people stopped by to learn what smelled so good.  Though Thieves was a good choice, I think if the church does this again, I would diffuse Frankincense.   That was one of the most popular oils that folks at church wanted to smell, and that makes sense, most of them have probably only ever smelled it burning as an incense at a funeral or something.  Ours smells so much nicer!  I need to work on a faster presentation, I couldn't even get into the Seed to Seal discussion most of the time.  I tried to be FDA compliant, but it's a learning process, and I'm making the effort, but I'm sure I blurped a couple times. Any time someone came around my table, I would break the ice with the question, Are you familiar with Essential Oils?  That gets me responses from yes, I use YL, or yes, I use that other brand.  There were a good few Nos, but mostly people had heard of them, but not known how to use them.  

When I first arrived, I whipped out a baby jar and put some coconut oil in it, and added a few drops of Lavender.  This way anyone that wanted to try something, a. could see how easy it was to make it, and b. try a little bit of an easy moisturizer, also good for this ever changing Indiana weather.  I gave away my bottle Saturday evening to a friend who had stayed a while to discuss.  She was asking me to make something for her, and sell it.  Frankly, I'd rather get people into doing their own oils, and give free samples away of the stuff I make, to get them comfortable using.  I had a few extra 4-5 drop samples, like that come in the Starter Kit.  I was able to give out a few of those.  I brought out my stash of unopened bottles to sell.  Unfortunately, I only sold one, my Deep Relief.  Good thing my Essential Rewards order goes out tonight!  But folks stopped to look at what I had.  I think staying with the Starter Kit oils was a good choice.  Too many oils can get overwhelming for folks.  Next time, I would want to have a couple bottles of Thieves on hand.  I had a couple bottles of Thieves Spray, not taken.  Good, more for me!     I thought Thieves would be a big hit this time of year.  And it was, but not enough to make people buy.   So I kicked it up by having a signup page offering a free 15 mL bottle of Thieves to anyone that wanted to learn more and host a class.  No one took advantage of that though.  

I did make business cards.  A couple years ago, Eric got me 'mom cards', so that I could have my contact information on a card with the boys' names on it.  So this weekend, we printed off a couple pages of address labels with my name, YL member number, and website, to go with the front of the card contact info.   I put the stickers on the back, and I can use my Mom cards, and kick it up to a business card without having to invest in something new.  Val had given me a couple dozen PSK info sheets too, to share with my team.  I had extra contact labels and put them on a dozen of flyers, for those that were really interested.  I gave about 10 of those away.   I should also have brought a tablecloth, to kick it up a notch.  

Unfortunately, I only made about 7$ for the church, but I was able to do some networking.  I wrote down the names of friends who stopped to chat, who seemed interested, and I am planning on doing some follow up in an email or set up meetings.  I may offer to do an Intro Class, and ask them to help with scheduling.  Even if nothing comes of it, I enjoyed the opportunity to get out and share my info.  It was a good learning experience.  Not bad for my first event!  

I hope my experience can give you some insight.  Don't be afraid to step outside your comfort zone, especially at church, where people tend to love you anyway.  What's the worst thing they're going to say?  No.  And that's ok.  Those of us in the know probably feel that everyone has need of these wonderful oils, and we're going to do our darndest to share these Gifts, but it's God's Timing as to whether or not they are ready to receive.  And I am content to know that they are working on His Time.  If I had enrolled the first time I heard of Young Living, I wouldn't be where I am, and I have been so Blessed by these oils. I spent my weekend planting seeds.  And it was Good.