Sometimes I wish I hadn’t made these silly shirts. But they’ve now raised over $132,000 for Central Texas flood victims.

Being in the spotlight is a double-edged sword, and people can be downright competitive, greedy and dishonest when they see others succeed, even if that success is raising money for a charity.

I’ve been dealing with copycats galore trying to profit off of my original design, as well as other flood relief shirt designers who seem to be jealous of our shirts’ popularity.

The power of community

But people can also be loving, supportive and encouraging.

These amazing people are my community. They made this crazy fundraiser happen. They spread the word. They rooted me on. They fought for me.

A true community celebrates together and grieves together.

When the Memorial Day floods ravaged Central Texas, we did both. We mourned the loss of life and property in our beloved Texas Hill Country, and then we gave thanks for the generosity and volunteerism displayed by our fellow Texans before the floodwaters had even subsided.

Designing Texas Strong

I simply saw a need and tried to fill it. People were eager for a way to help their fellow Texans in the wake of massive flooding, and I made helping out fun, easy and stylish.

And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near. – Hebrews 10:24-25 ESV

No, I wasn’t asking people to roll up their sleeves and clean out flood-damaged houses. I just asked them to buy a cute shirt online.

I designed a shirt that I would want to wear. I had previously used Teespring to create a shirt commemorating what would have been my mom’s 60th birthday, a few months after she died in 2013. Team Dixie sold 24 shirts and made a whopping $150 for the Alzheimer’s Association in that year’s Walk to End Alzheimer’s. But that was a valuable experience because, from then on, I knew how easy it was to design and sell shirts using Teespring’s platform.

KEYE‘s cameraman asked me how long it took me to make the #texasstrong shirts. Honestly, it probably took less than 20 minutes. I found (and was inspired by) Teespring’s Bella flowy tanks, grabbed a solid Texas shape from their artwork gallery and made it aqua, played around with fonts until I found the script, sizing and placement I liked for “strong”, then launched the campaign. It was really that simple.

Sure, there were existing shirts for flood relief but they were very location-specific and unisex (and mainly sold locally), and I wanted a more feminine design that could unify women throughout the state for flood relief. As I told People.com, I designed a shirt for Texas women that was both strong AND pretty because, as I’m trying to teach my young daughters, strong is beautiful.

Honoring my mother’s legacy

At the last second, just before launching the campaign, I added “loveofdixie” to the back of the shirt, and I am now so glad I did.

A few months ago, a grief counselor asked me if I was doing anything to honor my mother’s memory. Naturally, I told her about this blog dedicated to my mom, my involvement with the Alzheimer’s Association Capital of Texas Chapter and how I had recently started Daughters of Dementia with a friend who lost her mom to Lewy Body dementia.

Little did I know, this “viral” #texasstrong fundraiser would soon honor my mother’s memory in an even bigger way.

My mom’s Texas heritage, her creative, servant spirit and her knack for public relations are important pieces of her legacy, and now I get to share those things with a much wider audience. With this in mind, I added a special edition purple #texasstrong shirt to raise funds for the Alzheimer’s Association on behalf of Team Dixie in this year’s Hays County Walk to End Alzheimer’s.

Believing in myself and my community

This project pulled together all of my passions–my mom’s legacy, Texas, serving others in need, building community with other women, social media, even fashion.

I keep my birthday gift from artist Heather Stillufsen, her artwork depicting a blonde woman holding purple flowers in one hand and a pencil in the other, adorned with the words, “You must ALWAYS believe in yourself,” framed on my desk next to my computer. It is a daily reminder to stay true to myself, trust my instincts and pursue my passions. I credit Heather, as well as that grief counselor, with building my confidence and preparing me for this undertaking.

And I credit both of my parents with instilling in me a love of community. My dad is also passionate about connecting people for mutual benefit and taught me the power of networking early on.

I suppose building community is just part of who I am, as I took the 16Personalities test online yesterday and got this result:

ESTJs are representatives of tradition and order, utilizing their understanding of what is right, wrong and socially acceptable to bring families and communities together. Embracing the values of honesty, dedication and dignity, people with the ESTJ personality type are valued for their clear advice and guidance, and they happily lead the way on difficult paths. Taking pride in bringing people together, ESTJs often take on roles as community organizers, working hard to bring everyone together in celebration of cherished local events, or in defense of the traditional values that hold families and communities together.

I believe community is vital to human survival. We are not meant to walk hard roads alone. And we’re not meant to celebrate blessings alone either.

Marketing Texas Strong

People have asked how much I paid to advertise my #texasstrong fundraiser for Hays County Flood Relief.

You know how much I paid? Nothing, unless you count a fraction of my web hosting for this blog.

My community of friends and family did the advertising for me. They shared my Facebook posts, and their friends shared their posts and, before too long, Central Texas and beyond had #texasstrong fever.

Hashtags are obnoxious, I know, but if you want something to go “viral” on social media, you need a few key hashtags for consistency on your posts. These tags make it easier to find and interact with others who have shared your links on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.

When sales started taking off, I shared the fundraiser in several mom groups I’m in, as well as in the Wimberley flood group and, with special permission from the admins, in a native Texans group where I’m very active on Facebook. After that, our growth on social media was exponential.

And, of course, when People.com and Austin’s CBS affiliate, KEYE TV, picked up the story, my community got a little bigger, and sales skyrocketed.

My Teespring team

I cannot say enough nice things about the staff at Teespring. (P.S. If you use my invite link to start a new campaign, we’ll both earn $.50 per shirt sold.) They quickly became as excited about our “viral” fundraiser as I did and began offering to help in any way they could.

Their graphic designers increased my profit margins by improving my design to be a true cutout. My account manager added hats and phone cases to our campaigns and worked with IT staff to create my custom store at shop.laurenflake.com. And their public relations staff contacted various media outlets, including People.com, and advertised the shirts on Teespring’s social media accounts.

They also encouraged me to continue our momentum with additional fundraisers, including creating an American version of my #texasstrong campaign for July 4th to benefit the charity of my choice.

I now consider the folks at Teespring to be part of my incredible community.

All things work together for good

As this “viral” fundraiser grew, I quickly found myself in over my head with media attention, as well as merchandising and legal questions.

At a time when I was feeling especially lost and discouraged, I expressed my need for legal help on my personal Facebook timeline. I was immediately contacted by one intellectual property attorney who is a family friend and was put in contact with another IP attorney who is a fellow alumni of a student organization I participated in at Texas A&M, within minutes of one another. Turns out they actually work together at the same firm and graciously agreed to help me pro bono.

I truly believe that God had a hand in all of this. My success is really His success.