Shirts… Shirts… Who wants b5media Shirts and other Schwag?

One of the highlights of my NYC trip was the Problogger Meet-up. I met a lot of interesting people and had a great time meeting fellow b5ers for the very first time. I’m not going to get in to the details of the meet-up right now (maybe in another post?), as I’m still trying to catch up on so many things and process the whole NYC experience.

But, there is one story from the meet-up that I’d like to share. That is, I found myself with the task of handing out b5 schwag. Sounds simple enough, right? Well, honestly, I suck at approaching total strangers. Yes, even if I was giving away stuff, I still feel totally ridiculous about tapping someone’s shoulder to say howdydo.

So. when Darren came up to me and asked if I can distribute the shirts and pens for him because he was just too busy trying to entertain folks who came there to see him, my stomach did a double flip. I said yes, of course. But, inside, I was cringing. In fact, before Darren came to me, I was almost determined to stay glued to my seat the whole night. Heh. Rachel Clarke knew how I was feeling and was dear enough to offer some help. But, she got held up in conversations too.

Anyway, I got up and approached a group of guys and asked if they wanted some shirts. I just didn’t have the heart to shove our schwag in to their hands whether they liked it or not. So, I tried to be polite and asked first. They all shook their heads, said no, and turned away from me. Imagine my horror!

But, I shook it off and went to the next person. It was only after a few shirts handed out and one guy saying, “No I don’t want a shirt.” — then later asking reluctantly, “Uh, how much is it?” — did I realise that perhaps some people thought that I was selling them something instead of giving them something. They are, after all, interested in making money, right? So maybe, they thought I was b5’s sales rep for schwags? Agh. Well, I’d like to think that that was what they thought anyway and that they weren’t just being rude to me.

In any case, I’m glad that our very own Director for Tech, Aaron Brazell (Technosailor), was only way too happy to get a shirt — and wear it proudly right there and then. No hesitations in modelling it for us either —

(A big thanks to Aaron too for helping me to hand out the remaining shirts when I couldn’t get myself to approach another person, for fear of being rejected again.)

Anyway, if YOU happen to have one of these cool b5media shirts (or any b5media schwag), feel free to:

a) Send me a copy of your photo modelling the b5 schwag and I can post it in my blog with a link to your blog (hey, this is a PR5 blog, so, that’s gotta be cool enough eh? :-))… ; or

b) Blog about it and send me a link to your blog post (or Flickr page, etc) - and I’ll link to it.

I look forward to seeing you in our b5 gear! And no, sorry, I really don’t sell these for a living. I think I get paid by b5 enough as co-founder/VP. Heh.