It's a funny thing...

So a funny thing happened to me the other day. Funny (odd experience) Strange, not Funny Haha. I had logged onto +Dead With Tequila's Instagram account on my laptop just to see what had been going on, and like some posts (trying to maintain some form of a presence), and saw that a fairly big, well established design company that follows us (and us them :P) had liked some of our posts. Now you're probably thinking "Where you going with this Liv?"  and sure, people like our posts all the time so it shouldn't be so important that it deserves to have me write an entire blog post about it, right?

See this is the thing; for me and Carrie (for those that don't know, we make up the entirety of Dead With Tequila....yes, just the two of us [ear worm anyone...not sorry :P]) this really was a big deal. This was a people* who do this kinda thing, like selling art and designing PROFESSIONALLY  and they LIKE our stuff!!! It was really a moment of finally feeling like we are doing something right here, like this crazy little idea is more than just wishful thinking. Now, I'm not big on self doubt. Anyone that knows me, knows how stubborn and committed I can be. (I'm one of these people that gets tunnel vision. I get an idea in mind, and the rest of the world revolves around that idea until I feel as though I have achieved it to my own, astronomically high, satisfactory level.) I don't think I had realised, until then, that somewhere down in the deep, dark swirling abyss of my mind, that that irritating little voice had been whispering "What if your wasting your time?", "Maybe this isn't going to work out after all?", "What kind of idiot tries to build a brand with no money behind it?"  Well that Idiot would be me. Because, you know, I'm stubborn and lacking any ability to walk away from the challenge and give up.

This was a very weird feeling for me. I've never been someone that needs other people's opinions and approval to feel validated; I'm perfectly happy being a freak. May be it's because Carrie's in this with me? It's always easier to walk away from something when you're not letting anyone else down. I remember Carrie and I talking in her kitchen late one December night, when Dead With Tequila was still in it's developmental stages, and saying that this [Dead With Tequila] failing isn't an option. This is taken slightly out of context here. There was a rather long list of reasons for saying that; but the point is still the same. It's funny how you think about situations differently when you're not the only one involved, when you feel that you have some form of responsibility to take the brunt of bad situations so that it has a minimal effect on their day to day life.

We tend to find ourselves having discussions about 'business' at the oddest times and in the weirdest of places; like on the tube or on the way to Zumba or just a random one word text at half ten at night! We're really not serious people so for us to do the whole sit-down-serious-business-talk is still an alien experience for us. We much prefer our version: take up all the floor space with beads and equipment making stuff awhile having a semi serious discussion. Because multi-tasking is important when there's 2 of you with three hands between you to get things done. I think for us, it kind of feels like there's having the idea and going through the motions of having a business; technically falling into the category of a business, and then there's ticking the previous two boxes and feeling like you have a business. I think we definitely tick those first two boxes. Hopefully one day the whole concept will sink in. I tend to 95% of my time thinking about marketing, new designs, what materials we need to stock up on etc, 4% of my time doing marketing and 1% of my time creating and getting on with things like eating and sleeping. You would have hoped that by now with DWT taking up most my cognitive storage space that my brain would have got the message of "business". Yeah.....It hasn't.

I really love what we get to do with Dead With Tequila. I can honestly say that being able to run this little 'business' and being to do things that represent us as people and to be able to do it with my best friend in the world is probably my biggest achievement to date. But the one thing that really makes this so worth while for us is the support that all of you give us. It means so much to us when any of you like, share or even just follow us! It gives all of the hard work and energy that we put into this a purpose. We love each and every one of you, and we can't thank you enough for your support! We always want to know your opinions, even the bad ones! If we don't know what wrong we can't change or fix it! If anyone has any suggestions, we'd love to hear them too! There is so much going on in the Tomb right now that we are so excited to be able to share with you soon, so stay tuned!

Don't forget to check out the Dead With Tequila Store! (Had to get some marketing here some where!)

*Bad grammar intended :P

You know the drill!!! comments below....Twitter...come bug me :D

Change is Coming.....

So over the last couple of weeks we've been having some serious talks in the +Dead With Tequila Tomb.

The end of July will mark 1 year of Dead With Tequila, and we have decided that some big decisions need to be made about how we do things, both on Storenvy and in the Tomb.

Change is coming.

We have got so many new ideas, and feel that the way we currently operate just isn't gonna cut it for all the craziness that's in the pipeline. These new ideas and plans show more of who we are, both as individuals and as a brand; not that the items currently available don't do that, but the awesomeness that we have in store for you does so even more! We really want to develop our style and personality in this next year, and hopefully in doing so can grow our brand that is Dead With Tequila. We want to flaunt our dark and twisted, weird and wonderful, creative and quirky sides. So far we don't feel as though we've been able to do that. We want to make a statement. We want to be able to be like " 'Boom!' This is us. Yes, we're young and arguably inexperienced, but we've worked our asses off and created something pretty amazing with absolutely nothing at all, and we're proud of what's been achieved!"

That's really the truth of ALL of this...If you told me two years ago that I'd be here, running and creating a small business, I would have thought you were crazy. Believe it or not, this isn't a life long dream of mine. I haven't spent years of my life imagining what it would be like to run my own business with my best friend, and considering all the potential names for it. Dead With Tequila is really the result of me throwing away three years worth of work because I got sick, and to continue on studying was no longer going to be a viable option for me. Dead With Tequila only exists because, I happened to have the most incredible best friend, who was willing to take a chance with me, with this crazy idea, stand by me and help add to the craziness of it all. This was one of those times where neither of us had any idea about what we were doing, but being to stubborn to back down from the challenge, went ahead and did it anyway; and if we got stuck, well hey, that's why the world invented Google.

This first year of Dead With Tequila has really been about us finding our feet. Learning. We didn't have any aims or targets for the last year; the way we saw it, just opening the store was an achievement! Then the fact that we had more than 1 page view was a shock....Then actually making a sale....We refreshed the page about three time to make sure it wasn't a mistake! We couldn't believe it. Now that we feel we know what we're doing, understand how the relevant platforms work, we can now start putting all our plans into place. 

Some of these ideas that we have aren't new; they've been with us right from the start, unfortunately we had to learn to walk before we could run. This was probably the only time my mum got involved with the business side of things, (she runs about 3 for various people) other than educating me and Carrie on how tax works (still don't think I understand it!). Her advice was to pace ourselves, and in the process let our ideas develop. So, we've held back. We are now ready to start unleashing the crazy on you! 

The way that we group our items is going to be big change. Our products will no longer be grouped by type e.g. Wire Bracelet or Elasticated Bracelets etc. We have decided to create themed collections, any new products will be produced as part of a theme, meaning that we can really spread our creative wings. Some of the names that have been tossed around for these collections are just wicked! But you're just gonna have to wait to see what they are. We haven't quite worked out the finer details of how we are going to go about implementing this overhaul yet. At the moment it seems like the best choice is to close the store for a day or so. It's been discussed that we may release one of these new collections at a time, say one a month or something. The problem with this would be that some items may have to temporarily disappear. 

Some of the current collections will stay. Most likely the Accessories, Posters and Original Art mainly because the items currently in these collections won't fit with the new themes. Hopefully more of these collections will be raising money for other charities.     

So lots to be doing, sea things, evil bunnies, weird and wacky stuff!! I hope you're just as excited as I am about all this! 

As usual leave your thoughts, comments, suggestions, magical unicorns, flying monkeys etc. below or come and bug me on twitter ;D