Actually, quite the opposite. I am not a comfortable shoe person.  I like wearing nice shoes, and I want to look and feel my best at trade shows. I like to have a little bit of height and good shoes make the outfit.

So my answer to surviving a trade show with nice shoes..drum roll please…DRUGS! And regularly, every 4 hours in my case. What a difference! I was first given this tip by Kim Lavine (aka Mommy Millionaire) who handed me her jumbo size bottle of Advil (not Tylenol, you want the anti-inflammatory effect of ibuprofen) after I complained to her about my swollen feet and aching back. She was like “oh honey… have I taught you nothing?”

So this morning, when I reached into my bag to take my Advil, I realized with horror that I’d left the bottle in my hotel room. OMG! . How was I going to make it? Seriously –  it was only 9:30 and my feet were killing me  - but I looked good

So the other tip for surviving a trade show (especially slow ones) is…make friends! I have some great neighbours in my booth here at the NY Gift Show. Some of my favourite people are Trudy and her buddy Scott, who have a fabulous line of baby burp cloths, bibs, smocks, backpacks, sleeping mats etc called Infantissima, based out of Houston. They are serious theatre buffs, and I would even venture to say that the real reason Trudy does this show is because she can go to the theatre every single night – and I mean, every single night.

So I called over to Scott and Trudy “Hey, do you guys have any Ibuprofen?”

And look at what she pulled out of her bag.

Trudy’s been doing this for way longer than I have – can you tell?

If I didn’t have 3 kids at home, it might not be so bad.  I’d give myself an extra day to fly and get settled and have a good night’s sleep before spending the next full day setting up. But, as most moms can relate, leaving the kids for an extra day is a luxury that doesn’t come easily. And then of course there’s all the prep that needs to be done before leaving for the show (that’s solely about arrangements for meals, pickups, drop offs,  etc while you’re gone). So usually it’s an early morning flight that’s preceded by a very late night getting everything arranged and packed for your absence.

No one ever told me that having my own business would involve so much schlepping. You schlepp your stuff to stores to show it, you schlepp if to the post office, and you schlepp heavy suitcases and, in my case, a demo stroller to hang your diaper bags off of, to and from the trade show. Schlepping and sweating.

Usually by the time I arrive at my booth to start setting up, I feel completely ready to pack it in for the day, but I’m just getting started. The last thing I feel like doing is unpacking boxes and making precise measurements of exactly where I need to hang my lunch boxes or read Ikea assembly instructions.

Yesterday when I first arrived at my booth at the Javits Centre, I dug my heels in a bit and had a silent inner tantrum when faced with the work ahead. If I was a 2 year old, I would have been rolling on the ground, screaming and crying. My mind searched frantically for ways to figure out how to get this done in 10 minutes so I could get out of there and came up empty.

And then, finally, I calmed down and got to work.

Here’s the end result.

Showtime!

It is my belief that everything I experienced in my life leading up to the point I decided to start my business was about becoming inspired to tap into my creativity. This required first peeling away the layers of self doubt, lack of self-confidence, and the notion that some things were just meant for other people – such as entrepreneurship, leadership, creativity and success. You kind of had to be born with it.

I no longer believe this to be true.

The notion that “we are all creative” was just a cliche to me, until I experienced it. I truly believed that I didn’t have a creative bone in my body. But really, all I needed to do was allow it to bubble up to the surface and then give it credence.

I started SoYoung because I was inspired by an idea one day of how to make the perfect diaper bag. But SoYoung is not about diaper bags, or lunch boxes, or any product, for that matter. It is about self-empowerment and growth. About having an idea, and then, taking little leaps of faith, every day, to see where this idea can take you.