Mena Trott closed Big Omaha 2012 with a personal, emotion-filled talk on Friday.
Mena Trott, co-founder of Six Apart (now SAY Media) and blogger behind The Sew Weekly, joined the cast of Big Omaha speakers at KANEKO on Friday and closed the conference with a presentation that was extremely personal and raw.
Admitting for the first time publicly about her separation from husband and partner, Ben, Trott gave the audience an inside look at the struggles that can happen between partnerships and relationships, specifically when they end. Her advice, centered around learning to move on, was a lesson for all attendees on entrepreneurship in a way that hadn’t been presented before.
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Get out of bed
Trott claimed that this was her goal for 2012. Whether ending or starting a company or project, it is important to get out of bed each day with your mission in mind.
Everything is a lesson
“Every lesson we have will tell us who we are, what we want and where we want to go,” Trott said. Through failure and struggles come the biggest opportunities for growth, and even the tough times come with guidance for your next venture or partnership.
Be passionate
“My passion is sewing,” Trott said, “but my bigger passion is preserving history.” She said the site is a main motivator for her continued work, in which she focusing on using vintage designs and antique fabrics.
Empower thought creation
Trott told the story of Judy from Mississippi, a reader of The Sew Weekly who had spent her life sewing for those around her but never herself. Once she found the blog, she finally was able to focus on herself, beginning to make dresses and clothing to fit her style and body. Her mood changed; she was happier and began doing more things for herself, leading to an empowerment that had been missing up to that point. Stories like this are motivation for Trott to continue what she is doing. “It’s her story that I always come back to,” Trott said. “I would have never met her without the site. To be able to say that one thing I do in my bedroom has an impact, that’s a big deal.”
Entrepreneurship is a lot like dating
The similarities are clear, as Trott has found out in the past five months. In both pursuits, people pitch themselves, they tell their story, they get rejected and they make mistakes. But most importantly, they do it all over again.
Credits: Photo by Malone & Company / Big Omaha
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