First of all, “Blow Doors” has absolutely nothing to do with anything. One of the booths at the Miami Expo had the slogan “Blow Doors” and we chuckled all weekend over their vague exclamation. It kept us laughing even in the most frustrating moments.
Our trip started off hectic with a near missed connection in Atlanta. Why Orbitz schedules flights with less than 45 minutes between, I’ll never understand. At least we now know to pay better attention when we’re booking our flights. Nevertheless we made it on our plane and saw our other proprietor on the plane with us, which meant all 3 were accounted for. We landed in Miami, collected our luggage, and learned how impossible it is to carry cups of coffee while attempting to wheel 2 luggage bags and other bulky items. We picked up our rental car and headed straight to the Miami Beach Convention Center (MBCC), as we had limited time to set up that night.
We drive with the windows down on the way to MBCC, lavishing the 70+ degree air. Florida does not disappoint in January. It could be 70 and pouring rain, and I’d be fine with it. The moment of truth arrives as we find our way to our booth. We see the sign “Oasis Recovery Systems”, which hangs over a ridiculous amount of cardboard boxes. The number is 20, we find out, as we repeatedly move the boxes of Endurasoak around to set up our 10’x10’ space. The 3 of us put our creative minds to work, and we come up what we think is a good display. I had previously bought random articles from Target before we headed to the airport, and I crossed my fingers that it would all work out. We changed our minds at least 3 times, and finally had a set up we could all agree on. We realized we were short a few supplies, so we made our shopping list that we would have to knock out immediately. We were kicked out of the MBCC as it was closing for the night, and we clearly had a long ways to go before we were ready to do business. We shot over to our hotel, checked in, then headed to a Target nearby (sort of). Our stomachs had been growling ever since we landed in Miami, but there wasn’t time for food. My mom-purse filled to the brink with granola bars came in handy.
After Target we set out to find a restaurant like weary travelers who hadn’t eaten in quite a few hours. Oh wait, that’s us. We sit down in a cute restaurant near our hotel, but after a cursory look at the menu (and all 4 items on it), we change our minds and move on. We cross the street and start heading towards the water, and I notice 2 incredibly tall women with incredibly high heels and incredibly thick calves. Ohhhh…I get it. Not women at all. Huh. We find a restaurant, eyeball the menu, and sit down. We sit outside enjoying the warm Miami air and consuming a much needed cocktail as we pour over the menu options. The rest of the evening got interesting at this point… The waiter comes back to take our order and mentions the specials for the day. The guys decide that the specials sound great, and order them. We enjoy our meal, up until we get the bill. $309. Really? $300??? Apparently the specials were nearly triple the standard dish. Nice. Thanks for that one, Mr. Waiter. I do not like Miami very much right now. It has a “shady” feel to it. Everyone’s out to take advantage of you. I feel it in the eyes of the people we pass on the way back to our hotel (or perhaps that’s just my gigantic cocktail doing all of the thinking).
We are still a little riled up from the dinner, and no one wants to retire to bed just yet. We have plenty to talk about for tomorrow, and the nerves are on high-alert. We sit in the hotel bar, and allow a somewhat heavily intoxicated individual to convince us to buy a pitcher of mojitos. I do love a good mojito, so why not. We spend a good amount of time in the bar, and finally head up to bed after the bartender informs us it is past our bedtimes.
Friday morning.
We wake up at 7, immediately pound water and Tylenol, grab some coffee, and walk to the expo. We get there a little after 8, and start making our booth look a little more like a booth. Things are finally starting to look right, and we find ourselves ready for breakfast at 10. We take care of our appetites, and meet up with my mom and brother who drove over from Sarasota to help us out. We get back to the expo 15 minutes before the doors are set to open, and it all begins…
There are 5 of us in the booth. We stand around in nervous anticipation as the first runners are let in to the convention center. We’re placed directly across a very nice woman who has a company that sells triathlon gear, and next to 2 basically empty booths. I’m not entirely certain if this is good or bad at this point. People begin to trickle down our aisle, and we fidget as we try to hold back from waving fliers in their face and throwing product up in the air shouting “Endurasoak! Run Fast. Recover Faster!”. Ok, maybe that was just me. We finally get a few loners over, and we talk to them one at a time. I don’t remember at what point the first sale happened, but there were high-fives all around.
As the day progressed, we found ourselves getting much more comfortable with our surroundings and with talking to people. We had a general understanding of what questions people would ask, and how best to answer their questions without them having to ask. Sales were very slow, and our candy bowl was being raped by the most unlikely “runners”. It turns out that there were actually a lot of people at the expo on Friday who were simply there to take free stuff from booths. They could care less what it was, they just wanted new shiny free stuff. I marveled at the woman who came over and grabbed a giant handful out of our modest candy bowl and staggered away. I noticed her feet as she left, and realized it was the homeless woman that we passed on the side of the street on the way to the expo. I’m just baffled at this point. What are we supposed to do? There was even a woman who came over, dressed in her running clothes (garmin and all), and seemed totally interested and amazed by Endurasoak. She walked away (without any Endurasoak, mind you, ) and I watched her as she made the rounds to every single table and struck up the exact same conversation with everyone. My mom noticed my bafflement and observed that on a Friday, most of the professionals were still at work, so our demographics were a little rough. It also turns out that my mom is quite good at closing deals. Every time someone stopped and talked to her, they walked away with the product. Hmm.
Shortly after inhaling my Publix Cuban sandwich (my favorite sandwich in existence), I heard Ryan Hall’s name being announced over the loud speaker. I headed over to the area he was due to give his speech, and realized he got there early, because he was finishing up. He stepped away from the podium and was immediately swarmed by fans. After a few pictures, his manager (or whoever it was) pulled him away for an interview. I caught his eye, held up a bag of Endurasoak, and he motioned me over. I asked him if there was anyone there I could give it to so he wouldn’t have to carry it around, and he said he’d be happy to carry it. So for the next 15 or so minutes, Ryan Hall stood in the middle of the expo with 4 bags of Endurasoak in his arms giving interviews. I felt pretty encouraged by this J I hope I don’t get sued for that.
The day goes on, and we’re continually baffled by what we later titled the trade-show junkies. I stopped at a booth to chat with the women working at the Women’s Running magazine booth, and they shared similar stories. As we were standing there, one of the junkies came up and asked if the magazine was free. She said yes, and he took a couple. HE took a couple of the WOMEN’S running magazine. It’s just weird. She confirmed that today was not a normal day for them, and that this expo was going very weird for them.
I go back to our booth, and we all take turns sitting down and rotating shifts around the booth. Our feet hurt, it’s probably the single worst part about the expo. I make a mental note to buy rugs or mats of some sort to lay behind the booth for us to stand on in the future. Finally the loudspeaker comes to life, and they announce 30 minutes to closing time. It’s not that I wanted for it to be over, but our feet were really hurting. I was regretting my decision to wear my retired running shoes with over 1200 miles on them. Noted.
We’re exhausted, hungry, and tired of talking at this point. The expo closes and we head to our hotel for a much deserved dinner. As soon as we finish ordering, I receive a call on my cell phone asking me to come to the hotel’s front desk to handle an “emergency”. The general manager (GM) is standing there, and he informs me that someone broke in to our rental car, presumably to steal our GPS. I confirm that there was indeed a GPS unit in the front, and prove my suspicions correct that Miami is just a shady place to be. He apologizes, and says it wasn’t a good idea to leave my GPS in the car. I said on hindsight, you’re correct, however…If I’m paying $28 a night for valet parking, the car should be in a safe place. He realizes at this point it’s actually his fault that the car was not in the valet garage. They never parked our car. They left it in the middle of the road all night, so it was completely vulnerable. He apologizes again, and says he needs to take care of something and will get back with me. He disappears, and I stand in the hotel lobby for another hour as I fill out a police report and deal with the rental car company. I’m going to cut this short now, because it’s an emotionally charged situation and my anger with the GM could go on forever. Basically, he does nothing for me other than empty promises and avoids me all weekend. I was exhausted, hungry, and quite aggravated at this point. I head back to the dinner table and do not eat my cold plate of fish. There are some things that I just can’t stomach cold, and fish is one of them. Hooray. After this drawn-out dilemna, we all retire for the night and hope to wake up with somewhat less painful feet. The irony of having no Endurasoak at the hotel is almost comical, save for the fact that I really needed it.
Saturday morning we wake up, happy to start the day for once with no trace of mojitos in our system. We hit the expo again just 15 minutes before the start. We’re loose, relaxed, and confident with out pitch at this point. We decide to reduce our price by %20, and we have an immediate improvement in sales. People want discounts at expos, we’re happy to give them. The crowd is much better today, though we all agree that the candy bowl has to go. I may have hidden the remaining morsels of chocolate in my purse for an emergency sugar situation later on in the day.
The Miami Marathon is really a half marathon, with a few folks running the full. I felt that we’d have a better time at a marathon that was either all or with the majority populated by full marathon runners. They seemed the most ready to buy something to help with post-race recovery. I connected well with a number of runners who are running Boston this year, and they seemed to perk up when I talked about getting back in to Boston training after finishing the race on Sunday.
I was most pleased with how well our banners seemed to work to catch people’s attention. I saw a few runners who reminded me of me at an expo (chin down, eyes forward, moving with a sense of urgency). They caught the banner out of the corner of their eye, and stopped to see what Endurasoak was all about. It was very satisfying to see that we’re attractive enough to arouse curiosity, even amongst the Amy’s of the community.
The day goes well for us in sales, and we’re happy that Saturday is nothing like Friday when it came to the trade-show junkies. The day is steady with runners, though it’s nowhere nearly as crowded as a lot of the races I’ve been to. The Arizona RnR expo was a madhouse 2 weeks ago, and I can’t help but wonder if we would do well at such a race.
Saturday comes to a close and we have successfully completed our first expo. I say it’s a success for the lessons learned and the values it brought to our company, though we did not break even. The cost logistically was too great for us at this race. I know we’ll be working for a while to cover the plane tickets, booth cost, shipping, and all of the other costs associated with the event. We all agree that it was 100% worth our efforts, and with that satisfaction we pack up our booth and begin to decompress.
We have our final company dinner and head to our hotel, where yet another pitcher of mojitos awaits us. We spend a couple of hours going over the event and what we learned from everything that happened. We concluded the night with a clear vision (with a bit of mint and muddled lime) of where our company would like to head, and our first steps of how to get there. It’s going to be a long journey, but there is simply no stopping us. We each bring something unique to the table, and I know we will keep each other strong and be our own support system.
Sunday morning I woke up unclear of the time and place, but my body quickly reminded me of our journey. We checked out of the hotel and met up with my mom and brother for a quick lunch before they got back on the road. Nic left at an ungodly hour earlier in the morning (I believe the shuttle picked him up at 3:55). After lunch, Bryan and I were on our own. We lazily sauntered around the outdoor shopping area and just enjoyed the quiet of the day without the noise of the expo craze.
We found ourselves in yet another interesting situation once we spotted a long line of people standing around suspiciously outside of a building. After scoping out the situation, we learn that Geroge St. Pierre (GSP), the UFC welterweight champion, is inside signing autographs. Since this is Bryan’s territory, I let him take the lead as we finally step inside to shake hands with such an amazing mixed martial arts (MMA) fighter. After a couple of pictures, Bryan slips GSP a business card and explains that we’d like to send him some of our product to try out. We’ll see if anything comes of it, though I’m keeping my fingers crossed.
We enjoyed the rest of the afternoon until it was time to depart, and left the Miami warmth after a very stressful and satisfying weekend.
Thanks for reading! Though I'll doubt anyone who claims to have read the whole thing ;)
Run Fast. Recover Faster.
