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Have you ever wondered how I work with my best friend and still manage to stay friends with her?
Ever wonder what it is that I actually do at Willow Crowns

Ever wonder how/why Megan actually puts up with me??

I thought it might be fun to document my crazy thoughts, wild feelings and riveting activities during the launch of our Summer Collection totally unfiltered, minute by minute. What came out of that stream of consciousness has been dumped into this post, straight from the Note I kept open on my phone throughout the day.

 Brace yourselves.

Launch Day Live Stream

6:52am G wakes up. I am wiped from staying up late trying to get the wording on the listings just right before the launch. 



6:54 Justin gets up to make a bottle and I get the baby




6:55 Everyone back in our bed, baby eats, we doze

7:00 Justin begins the process of snoozing his alarm until the last possible second

7:05 Gray begins morning routine of climbing us, smashing pillows and attempting to fall off the bed

7:10 Check my phone to find good luck texts from friends….and an “I’m nervous” text from Meg. Pretty standard launch morning.

7:15 Justin officially gets up

7:17 I turn on Doc McStuffins and snuggle/wrestle with my baby who is most definitely all boy

7:35 Justin leaves for work, I thank God for Doc McStuffins on On Demand and check Instagram to see if there are any WC questions that need answering. Luckily, Meg is an insomniac the night before a launch so she got them all. Check emails for the blog, WC and personal. Facebook last night’s blog post.

7:50 My parents Face Time the baby

8:15 G goes down for a morning nap

8:17 Guzzle Diet Dr Pepper Cherry bc I won’t get my hands on a Starbucks until 10am or so.

8:18 Go back through social media, respond to emails, consider changing a listing photo or two, load an Instagram loop post on Latergramme so I don’t miss it

8:20 Attempt to calm Meg’s pre-launch nerves. Do a bad job. Say something like “well, it’s too late now”

8:50 The baby is up and super happy so I let him play in his crib while I attempt to make a bottle

8:51 Realize that we’re almost out of formula and that I really, really need to do dishes so the bottle is out and the Baby Brekkie pouch is in.

8:52 Go get the smiling babe, let him crawl around the nursery while I pick out his outfit for the day, wrangle him into said outfit, curse the person who put snaps and buttons on baby clothes

9am Put baby in his bouncy chair, hand him the Brekkie pouch and make the music go crazy on the bouncy seat.

9:02 Grab a pair of jeans out of the hamper on my way to my bathroom, a shirt off the floor and get dressed while eyeing yesterday’s eyeliner that is now on my cheek

9:05 Check phone for texts from Meg. Radio silence. Remember she’s doing MDO drop off.

9:06 Realize that I’m out of dry shampoo despite having two cans on hand. Ugh. That is bad news bears.

9:07 Abandon hair, throw foundation, blush and mascara on.

9:09 Back to hair….it’s a lost cause. Throw it in a top knot, toss on an Isla Headband, consider my lack of clean hair to be supporting the brand because at least I’m rocking one of our pieces. 

9:10 Check on the baby, give him some dried peas, piss him off royally when I eat one in front of him. Turn on Doc bc she fixes everything

9:15 Take a rogue iPhone selfie of my top knot/Isla Lace combo, filter the shit out of it, post as reminder that we go live in an hour and 15 mins (Crap, that soon?!)

9:25 Start packing a giant tote bag of stuff I’ll need to live at Starbucks for the day – computer, all of the cords and chargers, WC notes and plenty of cash loaded onto my Starbucks card

9:40 General faux tidying of the apartment to kill time

9:45 Snuggle the baby because he’s giving me his new crinkly nose smile and I can’t resist it

10:06 Check top knot Insta, see funny comments from my friends, feel grateful

10:07 see text from Meg but fussy baby wins out so she gets ignored.

10:08 Less than an hour to go. Starting to get antsy. Wondering when Justin will get here to take the baby so I can head to my office for the day

10:11 Get update from Meg on stock, update website while attempting to keep baby from launching off the couch

10:14 Get a really, really terrible funny selfie of Meg’s nervous face and want to post it here so badly but know she’ll fly to SC and slap me if I do

10:15 Text discussion about our last “housekeeping” Instagram that will go live in 15 mins. Double check our Instagram schedule for the day to make sure we haven’t missed anything. Most of our customers come over to our site from our Insta so we always announce our drops there and all of our important announcements hit Insta first.

10:19 Happily wonder to Meg why we’re getting orders just an hour pre-launch…she thinks customers are worried our signature laces will sell out so they are hedging their bets. I’m impressed with that level of planning.

10:20 Justin walks in the door. I’m super grateful that he’s able to work from home for part of the day today so that I can work baby free. I’m honestly so thankful for how supportive he is.

10:21 Out the door, giant tote loaded and nerves kinda spiking

10:22 Call Megan. She threatens to close the business after all of the pre-launch stress. I laugh at her. (why she is still friends with me/wants to work together, I’ll never know)

10:29 Get off the phone, head into Starbucks for a giant coffee and to set up my home base for the day

10:35 Wait way too long for a coffee, see my regular drive through Barista, we greet each other by name (I’m here a lot)

10:36 Check the traffic and comments on Meg’s Insta, last one before the launch image

10:37 Log in to our site, see traffic is doing really well, get butterflies like whoa

10:40 Meg’s Insta previews our newest lace, named Charlotte after the royal baby and bc she looks like a crown – response is super positive so I’m excited – we love our laces so hard, we want everyone else to love them too

10:41 I’m super nervous but don’t tell Meg. My job is really critical today and I’m typically the chill one on launch days so I don’t want to fuel her nerves. Putting so much of ourselves out there creatively is really tough. It makes us feel super vulnerable and we each love our collection so much. It’s scary to think something that we worked so hard to create will be a total flop or hated across the Internet.

10:43 Stare at our behind the scenes listings, wonder if I strong armed Meg into the wrong listing images for the home page. I love them but I’m second guessing their impact.

10:44 Check all social media, see our fave photog/friend has blogged the mama mini session of Meg and Liv in their floral crowns to announce our launch. The support of our friends is unreal and so touching to me. Check the post and the photos are gorgeous. I remember that I was there, wrangling my fave girl and then went into labor 6 hours later.

10:49 My nerves are manifesting into emotion – I’m missing Meg and Olivia and sad that Meg hasn’t seen G in so long. I’m also feeling lucky to have my husband’s support of my venture with Willow Crowns.

10:50 I start to read through the listings again but decide not to. It’s done, I’m ready, now I wait.

10:55 Realize my phone battery is already down to 37%. #bloggerprobs

10:58 Get a call from Meg and we talk to kill time until 11 am when everything goes live

11:00 Summer is live

11:00 I love the way the site looks

11:00 Instagram announcement is live

11:03 15 orders in! Holy shit. Time to work.

11:10 So many orders, so many sold out listings. Trying to stay on top of the site traffic and amazed that the first sell out happened in less than 3 minutes.
11:11 Call Megan – she is kind of hyperventilating with excitement – I tell her no time for that, I need her to do work with me on the phone and to get it together. I’m only half joking. 
11:15 Feel pretty good that the site is mistake free and I haven’t made any huge errors – if I had, I would know by now. Big sigh of relief. 

11:31 Coming up for air. As usual I was completely shocked about what sold out first. I never, ever guess right! At this point everything we have is available on the .com so I stop monitoring products and move on to emails and Instagram.
11:37 Going through the orders and am shocked that the first ones were processed at 11:02 am my time, meaning customers had our site open and ready to shop the second the listings went live. 

11:45 Finally going through the live site listing by listing to search for typos admire my handiwork

11:45 Meg texts “that was an insane 45 minutes”

11:47 Guy next to me is told by a stranger that he is “the hottest person ever seen in this Starbucks”. I feel a little offended.
11:49 Meg sends me the stats on how many sales and pieces sold in the first 45 minutes. She is stunned, I am super proud. 

12:00 My phone officially has 10% battery and I have to pee like whoa

12:01 Respond to custom order requests, create custom order listings, debate changing a listing photo or two, respond to texts from friends who placed orders

12:13 Get another giant coffee
12:13 Burn tongue on said giant coffee 

12:15 Feel pretty proud of the changes we made in how we launched this collection after the craziness that was Spring. Things are calmer, our customers have less questions and Meg feels super prepared to ship product. 

12:26 More follow up on customer comments on both Instagram accounts, emails and a few corrections to orders – and a text from the husband about how hard it is to get things accomplished with the baby (insert monkey covering eyes emoji here)

12:36 Call Meg to tell her how weird it feels that we have everything so under control. She’s already shipping orders – pat selves on back.

1pm: The website is holding strong with 0 technical issues, orders are headed to the post office, Meg has cried tears of joy/relief, I’ve had 40 oz of coffee and 12oz of Diet Dr. Pepper and am just so proud of this launch. I call it a wrap on the Starbucks portion of the day and head home to send the husband back to the office.
1:07 Post another Instagram (def over-gramming today) to thank our friends and customers for all of their support and enthusiasm over the collection. 
1:15 The baby is napping so I immediately set up my laptop to check orders, emails and Pin our new pieces to Pinterest. 
1:20 Add another Diet Dr. Pepper Cherry to the caffeine total and think that I probably should eat something at some point but the caffeine and nervous energy have my tummy in knots.
1:45 Send Megan an update text about what listings have sold out and where we stand on product availability 
2pm My husband wraps up a phone conference and offers to take the baby and I out to a late lunch to celebrate another successful launch when the baby wakes.
2:06 Feeling super pleased with my kid for taking a legit afternoon nap and cutting his mama some slack on a busy day. Make mental note to reward him with Veggie Straws later today.
2:07 Check the site after new orders come in to find another listing sold out! Feel pretty relieved that we still have quite a bit of stock thanks to all of Meg’s man hours and our lessons learned from the Spring Launch.
2:09 Hear the babe waking and am just so proud of how today has gone. I think I’m at a place where I can take a break from the laptop, call it a wrap on the Live Stream and work from my phone while dining with my people al fresco in honor of Cinco de Mayo. 
So, was it as glam as you thought it would be??