In May of 2019 I was watching Sandi, from The Spoiled Home talk about how she was needing to paint her cabinets because over time they had yellowed. Sandi and Shalia were the first people I started following on Instagram and I felt like they were my "friends". So of course I had to make sure my "friend" didnt mess up her cabinets. I thought Sandi was going to be painting them herself. I wrote a long message which included every product to use and advised her as to why her cabinets had yellowed. Within minutes of sending, she responded with, "I'm not wanting to paint them myself, but go ahead and give me a quote for you to paint them for me."
Both ladies live in Oklahoma and we were currently living in Oregon. We had traveled many times back down to Southern California to paint cabinets so traveling to Oklahoma was something we felt comfortable doing. Two weeks before heading to Oklahoma, David fell 18' from a ladder, breaking 5 ribs and puncturing his left lung. I will share that story in another post.
We had contimplated not doing Sandi's kitchen, but honestly once David was home there was nothing I could do to help him during the healing time. So Xavier, Davis and I flew to Los Angeles, picked up a car for Xavier and made our way to Oklahoma. We made a few stops along the way. Davis kept telling us he didnt like that there weren't mountains with trees like in Oregon. If you have ever taken that drive, you know it is a long one. We arrived safely and on the day scheduled.
I didnt fully anticipate what doing a kitchen for someone who has over 400K can do for one's small business. When I arrived at Sandi's house my Instagram account had only 750 followers. I had no expectation of being shared. Well, Sandi had other plans, as soon as we introduced ourselves she said, "How do you feel about me sharing you in stories?" I had only done one story up to this point and they freaked me out. I shared my fear with her and she quickly said, "You'll do great, I'll walk you through it!'" Xavier knew how nervous I was but encouraged me to just go with it. After being shared the first time, I began gaining followers and hundred's of people were DMing me asking questions about their own cabinets. Each night, after spending the day painting, I would stay up responding to all of the messages. Xavier would constantly say, "Mom, you are at.. such and such number of followers!" as he was so sweetly watching from his own Instagram.
A year prior, David and I had discussed selling everything, buying an RV and traveling around the United States, painting cabinets. We had no idea how we would gain enough business to actually do this. I started advertising on other major cities Facebook marketplaces. Facebook at this time was where I was getting a lot of our business, and of course word of mouth. I breifly told Sandi about our plans and the next time she shared she stated that we were getting an RV and going to be traveling all over so we could come to them. We did not own our trailer yet and although David and I had discussed our plans of eventually doing something like this, he still wasn't fully on board. It always takes him a while to process things. I am the total opposite, once I make up my mind I WILL do it!
When we arrived back to Oregon, Reclaimed Cottage had enough business scheduled to hit the road and make this dream a reality. We sold everything, bought a travel trailer, and began our life on the road a month later. We have since painted Sandi's laundry room cabinets and Shalia's sweet, momma's kitchen, as a surprise! Go to their Instagram and check out their highlight about it. We will always be grateful for Sandi and Shalia and The Spoiled Home. How crazy is it now, they really are my friends! God works in amazing ways!
XOXO~ Bethany
Yorumlar