Playing With My Toes

I bet that headline got your attention.

Today, like most Saturdays, are spent with me perfecting my soccer mom tan while cheering on my kids. Sitting in my lawn chair with my flip flops on, one of my friends preschoolers came over and started “decorating” my toes with various sticks and leaves.

I turned to my friend and said, ” I really don’t play with my toes enough.”

At which point she laughed and asked me how Smashing was going.

I explained Kickstarter and how, quite frankly, it wasn’t going as well as I hoped, and that we were only at 10% of our goal. That ultimately means we would have to make some hard decisions regarding Smashing. Do we want to stay a small brand? Do we look for an outside investor? Or do we just close our doors?

At this point she is shocked that I’ve turned from the eternal optimist into some realist.

She says, “We believe in you. We believe in Smashing. You gals have been such an inspiration to watch. It takes a village to raise a child and a community to help a small business. Let me know what we need to do and we will get this community involved.”

At this point my toes are so fancy I’m sure this is what Iggy Azalea is singing about.

I turn to her and say, “So basically you are telling me to stop worrying and start playing with my toes more?”

“EXACTLY,” she yells.

While not your traditional Vince Lombardi pep talk, it was the inspiration I needed. While we were starting to have some doubt, it was inspiring to see that our fans don’t. Because we do have a community of friends, family and fans that are behind us and cheering us on to the finish line.

So this weekend as you are out at sporting events and parties tell your friends about what we are doing at Smashing. When you are back to work next week, let them know it is more than just buying local it is about producing local. And when you are looking for a status update this week, please share our link to Kickstarter.

Thank you all for being our cheerleaders and let’s make sure that finish line is far into the future so we can run a few more laps.

And let’s all remember to play with our toes more.