🌻How I learned to stop worrying and embrace the PINK
Or: My upcoming Elle Woods moment
Hi friends!
I thought I wasn’t going to write you this week but I couldn’t stay away any longer.
So next week, as part of my big unveiling for the new business, I’m going to a conference I have always wanted to attend — as an exhibitor! I will have my very own table and can use it however I want in attempt to drum up some business. Wish me luck.
The conference is the 2024 Natural Areas Conference, and it just so happens to be in Manhattan, Kansas, this year, just two hours drive from home. When I was an ecologist, I always wanted to go to this one (their tagline is “where science meets stewardship” — LOVE) but limited time and funding meant I had to prioritize, and the Ecological Society of America annual meeting always won out. (Love me my ESA meetings.)
Anyway, when I heard it was coming to Kansas, I thought: I’m a big girl, I can just GO. But apparently I forgot how much conferences can cost, because I balked at the price tag ($599 for early bird registration). The good news is, I provide services that a professional association of ecologists and land stewards can use, and I’ve bartered some writing assignments in exchange for my entry.
As I thought about how I might actually use my time at the conference, rather than just spectating and fan-girling the whole time, I looked into their sponsorship and exhibitor opportunities. Should I hold a workshop? Should I sponsor a refreshment break? “This coffee brought to you by Ampliflora” sounds amazing but also expensive and doesn’t tell anyone what I do.
I bought an exhibitor booth.
I’ve spent the last few weeks building my booth from scratch. I’ve been to enough conferences to know the general setup. I’ll need a big sign, maybe a tablecloth with my name on it, some swag for the table, maybe a handout or two. Candy? I believe I literally Googled “big sign like an exhibitor booth at a conference” not knowing that these are called “roll-up banners” (or even that they roll up).
Now, if you read my Ampliflora post, you saw my new branding, which is a Rudbeckia (a black-eyed Susan relative) for the logo and reddish text on a peachy background.
I just love it so much.
So of course, as I started designing and ordering my roll-up banner, and tablecloth, and flyers to hand out, and heck I threw in some mugs … I followed my new color scheme. Fun, right? So fun.
These goodies have been arriving piecemeal over the last few weeks, and on Monday I set up a table in the living room so I could see it all together and start arranging the booth.
Fam.
This is a LOT of pink.
I did not think this through.
So problem number one is I didn’t really envision how this color scheme would look blown up to giant proportions. Individually, in my opinion, the website looks great, the flyer looks great, the sign looks great… but all together, it’s a lot.
Problem number two is that although some items I ordered are my true peachy color (the sign, the flyers), other items are just a “close match” based on available stock colors (the tablecloth, the mugs) — which means they’re actual bubblegum pink. This sounded fine when I was ordering but, again, blown up to six feet by six feet is a LOT.
Problem number three is I’m genuinely not a pink gal. Elle Woods is not my aesthetic, not even a little bit. That I landed on these colors in my branding in the first place is a bit of a fluke… or maybe it’s some subconscious representation for my pushing out of my comfort zone??
Regardless. My booth is pink.
So after I got my living room booth set up, and stepped back to admire it, my first thought was: Well this isn’t going to work at all.
I thought about scrapping the pink branded tablecloth (the worst offender) entirely, or adding a runner of some sort over the top. I grabbed a white, and then a black, tablecloth from the linen closet to see if I could tactfully layer them to cover up any pink — nope.
I just sat on my couch staring at the bubble gum explosion for a while, pondering my life choices.
Then I started to consider: Why do I care that it’s so pink? It doesn’t look bad. It just looks pink. What’s so bad about pink?
Well, let me tell you what’s so bad about pink. It’s girly. People won’t take me seriously if I’m in a pink booth. People won’t take my business seriously if it’s girly.
Is that so?
Elle Woods would like to have a word.
After realizing my problem with the pink booth was maybe sexism I decided to just roll with it. If anyone doesn’t want to hire me because they think I’m too girly and that girly is bad—I didn’t want to work with them anyway! I am, in fact, a girl.
So I’m leaning in to the pink. Come Monday morning I’ll be in Manhattan (Kansas) setting up my BIG PINK GIRLY EXHIBITOR BOOTH and I hope everyone likes it except for the Warner Huntington III of the Natural Areas Association, who can go suck an egg.
Field work
Check out my latest project!
https://www.stanslaughter.com/
I met Compost Man Stan at a “Conservation and Cocktails” event that my friend Patti, founder of Botanical Belonging, was invited to (and then sent me in her place). Stan’s been an educator in the environmental scene for decades, singing songs at school assemblies and teaching the masses how to compost (among many other endeavors). His website was terribly outdated and didn’t properly showcase all his music and resources he’s made over the years.
I don’t bill myself as a “web developer,” but that’s very intentional and a good thing for my clients. Turns out, if someone codes you a fancy custom website, you can’t edit it yourself. That’s a service for people who want to have their web developers on retainer for the rest of their lives. I want to build an easy WordPress site and then teach you how to keep it updated yourself.
Anyway, Stan is great, and I’ve had a great time working with him and his wife and business partner, Linda, to build this new site. And you can now listen to Stan’s bluesy, folksy environmental rock on YouTube—it’s very kid friendly and fun! I recommend.
Goodie bin
This might be cheating since it’s another thing that I did, but you’ve gotta read this story. I interviewed rising Marquette University senior, Elise Raschke, and was just about ready to write her in for president when we got off the call. I hope this article does justice to how inspired I was just from talking to her for a few minutes!
How senior engineering student Elise Raschke leads: intentionally with a heart for service
Funk files
We have gone country dancing twice now in the past month or so, so apparently this is our new hobby. First we went to a local establishment, Guitars and Cadillacs, for line dancing and some country swing (which is not two-stepping, so the YouTube videos we watched to prepare were useless). It was surprisingly fun and surprisingly HARD.
You’ve gotta watch this video of the crowd line dancing to AC/DC Thunderstruck, it seriously blew my mind: Video. I’ve watched this a thousand times and can’t figure out the pattern 😂
Then just a few weeks later we ended up at another local spot, The Ship, on a Tuesday which happens to be “Honky Tonk” night — more dancing! This was a much more lowkey event, far fewer people and a much lower bar to (dance floor) entry, plus dancing lessons in between the band’s sets. This time I think we really got the hang of it.
See you on the dance floor!
I'd visit that booth!