The Mom 2.0 Summit is just finishing up. I’m just kicking back enjoying the beautiful view at the Phonecian Resort in Scottsdale, AZ and contemplating all the many positive experiences I’ve had here.
It’s been a fun and challenging adventure attending my first blogging conference, mainly because I came by myself. I originally came to the conference to market my web design and development business and my brand new free newsletter. But I realized that I have many things I want to blog about personally and that I have things to share that can help many people. I’ve learned that it’s worth the risk to put your real self out there. I don’t need to hide what I have and am experiencing because of the fear of mean people. When people are mean, which they very likely will be, it’s really about their pain and not about me. I don’t even need to read those comments if I don’t want to.
I’ve realized that there are many nice people in the world that are sharing their content just like I’ve thought about and they, like me, just want to be heard and hopefully help someone along the way. Even though we may blog on different subjects we have a connection. We can all learn from one another by sharing what we know and encouraging each other on our individual journeys. I’ve loved the conference for those things alone, but the beautiful venue has been amazing.
It was challenging coming to a convention by myself. I feel I really accomplished something that helped me feel powerful. I proved to myself again that I can do hard things like flying alone, renting a car, driving from location to location by myself in a city I’ve never been to, not panicking when I got lost because my phone died so I didn’t have my GPS to help me, remembering my Father in Heaven is always watching over me and will help me when I pray for guidance, missing my family, eating alone some of the time, reaching out to many, many blogging moms and women sponsors and being willing to share my marketing info even though my site isn’t perfect yet.
I’ve appreciated the neat things the sponsors gave us. Dove gave us a pretty summer tote with free products and a book, Lindt gave us lots of free chocolate, Vanity Fair gave each of us a free bra fitting and a free $40 bra, Lego gave us free blocks and a fun Lego name tag we could assemble. I made this cute sign at the Best Buy sponsor booth, and there were so many more neat things they provided.
I got to watch a fun birds of prey show out here on the patio at the Thirsty Camel Lounge. The presenters were dressed in steam punk costumes and put on a fun show about the Phoenix.
It’s been a great experience coming to the conference and I’m glad I decided to take the risk. I’ve learned, enjoyed and grown while I’ve been here.