Remember one of MCREY's first blog posts called The Emotional Roller Coaster of Starting a Business? For those of you that need a refresher, you can read it here.
I'm here to report that it is still an emotional roller coaster... the roller coaster may have upgraded from It's A Small World to Goliath.
For all our Southern California/Magic Mountain followers—you know the part in Goliath where you're just spinning down a spiral really fast and you can feel your eyes rolling into the back of your head? Like you can physically feel yourself blacking out and your arms going limp, but you don't quite pass out? That's what this business feels like right now.
It actually feels like the cart may have fallen off the tracks and now we're just hoping our faith and dreams are strong enough to keep us strapped in—and enough to somehow magically put us back on the tracks.
They are. I know they are, but some days I need to repeat that to myself a helluva lot more than others.
Lately it feels like nothing has worked in our favor. We've experienced one roadblock after the next to get our jerseys into production, including accidentally ordering twice as many, missing pieces after production started, missing pieces after production finished, running out of materials, the printer we were using suddenly closing shop... to name a few. Our manufacturer told us they can't actually produce our pants and we need to find another sewer. Then after going through the process of sourcing other manufacturers, they told us they actually can make them. We're disputing the USPTO over trademarks. We're struggling to get our company into special events and races because no one knows who we are. Sales are inconsistent and we're running out of money (quite honestly we ran out of money before we even started LOL).
Why are we doing this again? *face palm*
No, but seriously—how do you convince yourself that one day it will all be worth the stress, tears, and exhaustion?
It's the little things. It's when someone tells us that they love what we're doing. It's when someone in the industry tells us that the industry needs us. It's when a little girl gets excited after seeing our butterfly logo and sees that we are two women who ride dirt bikes. It's when someone tells us that our shirt/sweatshirt is the comfiest thing they've worn.
It's when mine and Kelly's eyes light up when we talk about MCREY and our mission to help women transform into the best version of themselves. It's when we start dreaming about the potential of our company, not just in the off-road industry, but across all action sports. It's when we brainstorm future summer camps for underprivileged youth, starting an animal sanctuary, and creating a revolutionary company culture.
The more I think about it, the more excited I get. People joke about manifestation, but I can literally SEE our office space. I can close my eyes and see where our company will be, what we'll be doing, and what our office space will look like in 10 years. I envision an office space that's almost like a mini town. (Fun fact: there was this ride at Legoland yeeeaaarsssss ago and the concept was that everyone got their own car and drove around this mini town getting gas, going to the bank, and getting groceries. Sounds silly but no joke it was one of my favorite rides of all time.) Now envision an office space with a similar concept. Everyone's "houses" aka cubicles are in one corner of the office, and there's a community area in the middle with a coffee bar, snacks, books, puzzles, games, couches, etc. Employees are encouraged to ride those battery-operated scooters and tricycles on the "streets" aka hallways. How fun would that be?!?!?!
See how excited I get?! Let a girl dream!!
I need to dream to help keep "thee dream" alive. Without dreaming about what's possible, then it's hard for me to push through the obstacles.
Every time I get an email or a phone call telling us "no" or explaining that something else went wrong, I can't help but think to myself: "Why am I doing this? Why am I putting myself through this? I can literally just stop all this right now. I can stop spending this money and relieve myself of this stress."
But then I think of how far we've come; how much we've accomplished in less than a year; and the possibilities of what we can—will—achieve if we keep going.
I think about the potential impact MCREY will have in 5, 10, 20 years on the extreme sports industry, specifically for women—and when I think of it that way, I know I can never go back. There is no other option than MCREY succeeding. There is no other option than to keep going. I also can't stand the thought of going back to a "normal" 9-5 corporate job where I am grinding for someone else's dream. So we're going to keep riding the emotional roller coaster.
Cheers to more of the ups and downs!