A Rocket Ship, Fire Extinguisher and Covid-19

My story is not a normal one. Two years ago I posted on Facebook and that post set me on a WILD journey of entrepreneurship, building a six figure business all while breastfeeding, toddler-rearing and balancing life as a stay-at-home mom. I didn’t cut corners, but worked INSANELY hard to get to where I’m at. I can’t stay silent about how I got here, where I’m going and how you truly can discover what God created you for and live a crazy-fulfilled life. My hope is that my customers can hear my story and be inspired in some way to take a step toward pursuing a dream.

With that said, let me tell you about March. One of my business mentors once described seasons of business as having one arm wrapped around a shooting rocket ship and another hand on an extinguisher, putting out fires. That is the best way to describe how March felt for me. For our country (and entire world), March 2020 will be remembered for the historic events that took place around the pandemic of Covid-19. Our economy essentially closed its doors and we all stayed home in our best effort to "flatten the curve" and prevent our health care system from getting overwhelmed. The middle of the month was especially chaotic where it felt like every minute we were getting news updates on big events cancelling and stay-at-home orders happening in different states. 

As for our business, we made the decision to close our storefront in southern Indiana. We felt that this was the safest move we could make, and as primarily an online business, we knew we could still offer our products to our community even with our doors physically closed. We were FLOODED with online orders the entire month. About 4x what we were used to. In one week, we made over 1,000 gallons of elderberry syrup! My emotions in March were all over the place: 

"How am I supposed to keep up with all of this?"

"We need more help! We need more space!"

"Are we making mistakes?"

"Is our team having fun and feeling valued?"

"This is CRAZY."

"This is fun!"

"I'm exhausted."

"I don't know if I can do this anymore."

I could go on. I had several 3am and 5am mornings that left me with a few emotional breakdowns. This is a photo of one of those mornings (I'll leave the breakdown photo to myself)...

By the end of March, I had some serious doubts about the business I had built and my ability to run it. Yes it was (and still is) incredibly successful but that kind of accelerated growth is not easy to handle. And going through a pandemic is not easy to handle.

I've come out of March with a new appreciation for entrepreneurs and business owners. I've seen the ways that I handle adversity well and other ways I handle it not-so-well. I'm incredibly grateful for a successful business and a product that brings so much health and healing to our community. And I'm especially grateful for our customers who continue to support us and share our product with their friends and family. Our future is looking CRAZY and BRIGHT, and we plan to continue to take you along for the journey!

Have you tried our syrup? Use code ROCKETSHIP to get 15% off your order now through May 1st. Code cannot be combined with bundles or subscriptions. Enjoy!

To healthy and happy families,

 Jenny

Photo Credit: Photo Lulu