We had a blast this last Thursday in San Jose, at the Gordon Biersch Brewery event Taylor Street Night + Market. This event is hosted by @nightmkt and @sjmade to make an all around awesome culture of bands, beer and craft goods.

There was a live jazz/rap band playing in the background as we met with local shoppers and vendors at our booth. The fun thing is this is an open event to the public without a cover, and it takes place after work from 5-9pm. We talked with local vendors, such as handmade jewelry artists, canvas painters, candle makers and even fresh farm-to-table produce suppliers. Oh, did we mention there was food??? Seven food trucks to be exact! All sorts of grub to get down on, whatever your style was, they had it.

Check out some shots from the event, as we scrambled after work to through together our booth. We seem to get better at these shows every time, but still have a lot to learn. We were able to hand out our free misprinted hoodie to a lucky lady, and sip on some of the tasty IPA’s that Gordon Biersch has to offer:

A couple things we learned from this event:

  1. You must pay attention to your customers. The fact that we are in the grooming business, people often come to us for advice. Whether that’s on daily grooming techniques, which products are beneficial for certain uses, or where to buy products or services that we don’t offer. We find, that we take pride in honesty. We always start our conversations by paying attention to the needs of the customers. If they don’t shave, why would we try and sell them a shave gel? They don’t want to hear the sales pitch, and we don’t want to give it. This technique has greatly benefited us, and hopefully our customers, as we build an honest relationship with each one. We are simply here to present our craft to you, provide quality answers to your questions (to the best of our knowledge), and at the end of the day be your friend.
  2. These shows take a lot of energy and time, but they’re worth every second of it. Being in the ecommerce business, we don’t get those face-to-face interactions daily. So when we attend shows like this, it gives us a chance to share what we love doing, with people that love what we’re doing. We also enjoy educating people on techniques for personal cleanliness and maintenance that they may not be aware of in their daily routines.
  3. Your story matters. With each show we do, we have gotten a chance to talk with other vendors and hear their stories. Why they do what they do, what their products are and how they make them. The idea of building, making or growing something on your own is powerful in itself. When you place that with a clever business name, and a personal story of what your craft is, it draws quality customers towards you and your brand.

Those are a few things that we have noticed over time, and continue to grow on after every show! We want to thank the people that came out to see us and chat at our booth last Thursday. We had an awesome time and will most likely be doing this event very soon (It’s seasonal and first annual, but considered a success by SJ Made).

Thanks for tuning in! Cheers