Failure is Future Success
“The fastest way to succeed is to double your failure rate.”
~ Thomas Watson Sr.
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I shared a booth at KeyCon, and to sum it up, things did not go as well as I’d hoped. I didn’t go home empty-handed, but I would preferred more in my pocket and less by way of life experience. However, you’ll never succeed if you don’t try.
::deep breath:: It’s difficult to remain optimistic when your total sales are two finished pieces over three days. I suspect part of the issue was our display; I had pendants laid out individually last year that sold last year, but not this time. What was the difference? They were lumped together on a rack. Whoops!
The most obvious problem was that my items simply did not appeal to people. I had several other items on display that I rotated throughout the convention and only the silver dragon clutching a stone drew multiple onlookers (which sold by the second day).
Also, the most successful items at our booth were the steampunk and wire wrapped creations, of which I had brought none. In short, unless I change tactics (aka pander to what sold), KeyCon is not for me. We’ll see closer to next year.
I had also been hit with an art bug about the week before; I drew several dragons and had ten of them painted up for the table, but people were confused that the artwork had adhesive backing (I thought 2″ painted wooden stickers would be… novel). That too was a bit of a crush, since KeyCon is all about SciFi, and dragons are quite popular. Maybe if I’d placed them in the art auction that was running concurrently? Possibly. It was a last-minute idea. I’d seen si
That said, I did sell two prior to KeyCon, and I’m quite confident Etsy is somewhere they can be appreciated.
Challenges to overcome: the weather has been rainy or overcast much of the week, and the camera lens on my phone is broken. I have a ::coughs:: old Fujifilm FinePix that may be up to the challenge if I can locate it. (It doesn’t handle dim lighting well.)
My biggest hurdle is just to get back to creating art. I’ve been in a funk for reasons beyond what I’ve elaborated here, and it has negatively impacted my drive and creativity. Yesterday I scoured the main floor (where part of my workspace is), and felt relaxed enough for my troubles I was able to focus on making pendants. (Dragons, what else?) I now have a mock-up; not as good as I’d have liked but good enough to focus on perfecting a finished product.
Not sure what else to write about? Just… stuff. Yeah, stuff.
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