We had just finished Brit’s photo shoot for her new brand, Marketing in Yoga Pants at Chippy White’s studio in Tunkhannock and were chatting. Out of the blue, she says “We should go to visit Waco, Texas and Magnolia Market” and of course I said “yes!” but didn’t really think it would happen. A week later we were texting back and forth, looking at flights, and asking if any of the other business ladies in our local chapter of the Rising Tide Society were interested in coming with us! Before we even knew what was happening, 2 others had jumped on board and we had flights booked to Texas for the middle of May!
We barely knew each other, other than being friends on Facebook and meeting a few times at the Rising Tide Meetings, Ashley didn’t know any of us. Bright and early on Monday morning we all met and drove down to Philly together. We admitted the further we got on the road that we had all tried to come up with an excuse of why we couldn’t make it the night before because we were nervous!
We spent 4 days together and by the end, we were best friends and didn’t want to say goodbye! All of us had at least one thing in common…we were business owners. We bonded over that fact and understood when we had to take a few minutes at night to respond to emails. Our topic of conversation always seemed to gravitate back to marketing or sales or client relations. On a typical vacation, that would be frowned upon. Your family or friends would give you that look of “ok enough already, no more talking about work” but we understood each other and how we couldn’t help but talk about our work because that was our life. We hear “work life balance” thrown around so much in this industry and this trip showed me that it’s a continual work in progress and that’s ok. This trip also taught me how precious it is to be vulnerable and share your struggles. We let our guards down and talked about the hard stuff, both in work and life in general. It’s easy to put the masks on with social media and we have preconceived notions of how other’s lives are but when you start talking, you realize that everyone has their own battles that you know nothing about. When I let Brit, Ashley, and Bridgett into my struggles, they offered encouragement and advice. I didn’t feel so alone.
Overall, the trip left me feeling refreshed and encouraged to come back to Northeast PA and get to work. My heart had been filled back up and I wasn’t trying to pour from an empty glass. I think I’d be speaking for all the girls, we are already looking forward to the next trip. We realized how important it was to invest in ourselves and our businesses.
