Mantra Pencil Set Giveaway October 8, 2015 08:00 10 Comments

So, today we are going to change the conversation from what goes into developing a planner for a bit. I'm sure after our five part series you are ready for a little break. (But if you aren't and want to reread all of them because you are really excited about the big release here are the links: I, II, III, IV, V)

Other than blog posts we have gone on a little bit of a promotional hiatus while we have been working on our planner. We feel like our website and store just aren't really complete yet without our big product. Once our planner is released and ready to purchase we will be in full "promotional" swing. That being said we have been working on our promotional plan for some time now. Part of our plan is applying to be part of local fairs and festivals. We've submitted a few applications. Once we are accepted and have the dates on our calendar you will be the first to know so that you can come out and support us (or just meet us in person, a friendly face is always nice).

Most applications for fairs and festivals want to see how you would put a booth together. Since we don't have any festivals under our belt yet, we had to create a booth from scratch. Once we started thinking of ideas we quickly realized that we didn't have enough stuff to fill a booth composed of a 6' table. So logically the next step was brainstorming some new products to help us out. We wanted items that complemented the products we already had and stayed true to our brand. 

The first product we decided on was a set of pencils with phrases that we identify with, mantras. First we had to determine if we could create the pencils ourselves or if we needed to find someone to make them for us. After researching foil presses and how much it costs to purchase one (pretty expensive risk) we decided finding a source to order from was the route to go. Once our source was secured the next obstacle was agreeing on just four phrases. We each created a list of ideas and combined them together. I kid you not, we had 72 phrases on that list. It was tough stuff dwindling the list down. We finally did, and landed on these four:

Rise and Grind
Working for the Weekend
Extra Sprinkles
I Double Dog Dare You

(Behind the scenes commentary: The daily grind is brutal but we all must face it in the morning. Who isn't working for the weekend, really? Sprinkles are by far the best ice cream topping, and they can't have those disgusting chocolate black ones combined in the mix. (Ok ok, so maybe we don't have to agree on everything.) Who doesn't think of A Christmas Story when you are thinking about a dare, we didn't go all in and call it a "triple", sorry.)

Choosing pencil colors was a whole different story, we decided on those in about 2 minutes. Check out the final products:

We plan to sell the pencils in our online shop as a set of 4 as our "Mantra Pencil Set". At the fairs and festivals we will sell them as a set, but will potentially have the option to purchase them individually. What do you think?

We have more products that we created for our booth and store still up our sleeve (as you can see from the picture above). We'll be sharing them shortly, just hold your horses. We can't share all the good news at once!

Here is a sneak peak at our booth we put together:

**GIVEAWAY**

If you'd like to win a "Mantra Pencil Set" before you can buy them enter the giveaway below by using the Rafflecopter giveaway icon. If it doesn't load properly click here to enter. Giveaway ends at 11:59 pm on October 14th. The winner will be notified and announced in next Thursday's blog post. (Unfortunately, this giveaway is only valid for US residents.  We hope to be able to expand our capabilities in the near future!)