Small Biz Marketing: 10 Things I Learned at Renegade Craft Fair Austin

I was excited to go to Renegade while I was in Austin, partly to shop and also to do some research for my booth at West Coast Craft on June 13th & 14th.  The fair took place over two days at the Fair Market location in East Austin.  I went on Sunday around noon and it was pretty packed with shoppers when I arrived.  The vendors were also packed in tight; according to Renegade's website, there were over 140 vendors.  With such tight spaces, it was hard to shop in some of the booths, especially the shared booths.

Here are a few things I learned from walking through the fair:

1 ★  Make sure my booth is uncluttered and easy to enter.  If a booth or shared space was too cluttered or if I couldn't tell what they were selling at-a-glance, I just didn't go inside it.

2 ★  Provide a clear sign with my brand name/logo.  As I skimmed by a few booths, I couldn't figure out who they were.

3 ★  Always say hello to people who stop by the booth, but don't pounce on them.  I'm a shy person and am not the best salesperson.  But as a shopper, I can feel the weird vibes of bored, annoyed or scared vendors and it makes me not want to shop.  If a vendor was immersed in their smartphone, or tried to give me the hard sell, I split.  When makers said hello, it made me feel welcome and at ease.

The Good Hippie:  Great packaging, friendly maker, beautiful booth, quality products.  I bought this.

4 ★  Provide a mailing list signup.  I only saw two mailing lists and I signed up on both of them.

5 ★  Make business cards easy to see and grab.  This is helpful for when things are crowded or shoppers are short on time.

6 ★  Bring my originality, it'll help me stand out.  I saw a lot of the same things over and over - there were definite trends that Renegade supported.  I really value originality, so when I saw something original or unusual it really stood out.  

7 ★  It's OK to have several types of products, as long as they're grouped and displayed nicely.  Some booths were easy to scan and understand, others were totally confusing.  It didn't matter how many different types of products they had as long as they were in clear groups and the displays weren't too cluttered.  Extra display tchotchkes just confused me.

8 ★  Price all your items.  I've gone back and forth on wanting to tag and price all my items, and I understand why some people don't want to do it.  But when you're dealing with crowds and can't talk to every customer, your tags can speak for you.

9 ★  Try to offer products in a range of prices. There were a few makers I really loved, but I was on a budget and couldn't afford expensive purchases.  It would have been nice to be able to support them by buying a lower priced item. One maker had the most gorgeous necklaces that were priced fairly but out of my budget, and I wished she'd had some affordable rings or stud earrings so that I could have still purchased from her.

10 ★  Enjoy yourself and have a conversation.  I purchased from three makers, all of whom were really open, relaxed and friendly.  Because I love their products and personalities, I'm going to tell some boutique owner friends about a few of them which might lead to wholesale orders.

Lots of food for thought in preparation for West Coast Craft!  

My Current Breakfast Obsession

I'm not an aspiring chef, and I'm not certainly not a foodie because there are a lot of foods I'm unwilling to try.  I'm a vegetarian so that rules out a lot of things.  

But I love food and I think a lot about it and I've read a lot about it. I really like eating seasonally from the farmers market and growing food when I can. 

I also kind of hate the thought that I have to make food for myself three times a day.

So when I find a delicious meal that is easy to make, tasty enough that I want to eat it every day for awhile, and pretty healthy - well that's just about the best thing ever.

I've found an amazingly simple, tasty and healthy breakfast, but it actually requires some advanced preparation.  But it's simple!  Here's how you do it:

HOW TO MAKE SOAKED BUCKWHEAT

Don't be fooled by its name, buckwheat is a seed and is gluten-free.

• Buy buckwheat from the bulk aisle of your hippie natural foods store.  Don't get roasted or toasted buckwheat, raw is what you want.
• Put about a cup of buckwheat in a bowl and cover it with plenty of water, because the buckwheat groats will expand as they soak.  Let it soak for at least 30 minutes but not more than a day.  I leave it overnight.
• Now you rinse. Get a sieve and rinse off your buckwheat, rinse a few times.  You'll get a lot of starchy, viscous stuff during initial rinses, but when the water's looking clear, they're ready.
• You can store your soaked buckwheat for several days in the fridge.

Coconut yogurt, chia seeds, goji berries, pumpkin seeds, soaked buckwheat, cacao nibs, hemp seeds

BUCKWHEAT BREAKFAST BOWL

• Take out a medium sized bowl.
• Spoon in some yogurt.  I like plain coconut yogurt.
• Add a few spoonfuls of soaked buckwheat.
• Dice up a half or a whole fruit.  Banana, pear, apple or mango work well.  If fruit isn't in season, then sprinkle in some goji berries, raisins or frozen berries.
• The rest of these are optional, but I like to throw in a bunch of them:
  • Hemp seeds
  • Cacao nibs
  • Chia seeds
  • Nuts or seeds - I like walnuts or pumpkin seeds
  • You can also drizzle on secret potions, powders or oils.  Or maple syrup if you have a sweet tooth.
• Mix it all up and breakfast is served.

MUSIC MONDAY: Phoebe Bridgers

I just found out about Phoebe Bridgers from my friend Donnie on Instagram.

I'm struck by her voice and her songwriting.  She doesn't sound like anyone else, which is an amazing feat.  She is trew.  Hearing Phoebe Bridgers reminds me a little of how excited I was when I first discovered Patty Griffin's "Living With Ghosts".  That's not a musical comparison, it's just a similar feeling that I had, and "Living With Ghosts" has been in my top 10 records since 1997.

Here's a live version of her original song "Georgia":

Here's a cover of Harrison Whitford's "Part Time Heart":

• Buy the 7-inch she released via Ryan Adams' Pax Am label
• Follow Phoebe on Instagram

My Favorite Quick Lunch When I'm Working

I love food.  I eat really slowly, comically slowly.  Even when I think I'm wolfing something down, I'm still always the last one to finish.  

I work for myself, and when I'm in the middle of a workday I want to throw together lunch very quickly. Fast usually means pre-packaged and bad for you, which I'm not inherently opposed to.  But I don't want to eat something that's going to leave me feeling hungry, or, worse, make me crash an hour or two later.

Here's my favorite fast lunch for when I'm working.  It's quick and easy to make, really flavorful, and it satisfies me until dinner.  Bonus points for it being vegan and healthy!

ARUGULA + AVOCADO SALAD

Makes one big salad you can eat while you're working on building your empire.

• Tear up a bunch of arugula leaves into a big bowl. Like two big handfuls.  I love arugula.  You can substitute any hearty leaf, just skip iceberg or kale.

• Dice up a small avocado.  I'm not afraid to eat an entire avocado. You can do half if you want.
• Mix up the dressing:
  • Take out a small bowl and pour in a tablespoon or two of olive oil or grapeseed oil.
  • Pour in about an equal amount of balsamic vinegar.
  • Add about a spoonful of stoneground mustard.  It needs to be fancy mustard, not the yellow hot dog mustard.  
  • Stir up the dressing.  Stir it pretty fast.  The tartness of the mustard offsets the sweetness of the balsamic vinegar and binds it with the oil.
• Pour the dressing over the arugula and avocado.  Yum.
• Optional, but recommended:
  • Sprinkle a handful of walnuts into the salad. I just bust them up into smaller pieces with my fingers.
  • Shake some dulse flakes in.  Dulse is a sea vegetable, and the flakes give a slightly salty and tangy taste though it's not very strong. It's rich in vitamins, minerals, trace elements and iodine, which all sound like things I don't eat often enough.  Shake a whole bunch on there.
  • Add a bunch of nutritional yeast. The yellow flakes are popular with vegans because they taste slightly like cheese or nuts, but not really because they're flakes.  I personally really like the way nutritional yeast tastes.  It's full of B-complex vitamins and all 18 amino acids, which sound like things I don't eat often enough.
  • You can grind some fresh black pepper over the top.
  • Today I added in some chopped up chives from my garden.
  • If your taste buds are super fancy, drip a few drops of truffle oil over the top.
• Mix it up and eat it while writing a blog post about your lunch.  Hopefully it will drive traffic to your website.  The blog post, not the salad.

I'm growing arugula in my garden so I was able to pick all the fresh arugula I needed for my salad today.  I'm feeling very smug about this.

Does this salad sound good to you?  If you try making this salad, let me know!