My Influence Conference Recap

I've been struggling with deciding how to document my Influence Conference weekend. I wanted to give you all a day by day rundown, but also tell you everything I learned. I decided to blog about my schedule, the sessions I attended, and the things that stuck out to me in one post. I'll probably break down specific lessons at a later date, but for now, here's an overview. This post is pretty wordy but I promise it's full of goodness.

If you have any questions or want more details about people/speakers/lessons that I mention, please email me and I'll get those things to you.

THURSDAY:
My plane ride for Influence left early Thursday morning at 8 am. Kara-Kae and Brittany were already waiting for me and soon after we met up with Ginny. We chatted, took a picture, and boarded our plane. We arrived in Indy, were picked up by Mary (my new blogging BFF), grabbed lunch, and spent time helping set up and decorate for the conference. 

The rest of the day was pretty uneventful but ended with the Stripes party that was hosted by Adproval (I am currently in the process of switching over to Adproval and I am loving it so far. Email or tweet me if you'd like to know more!). The party was fun...popcorn, ice cream, music, and a photo booth. After a few pictures, I bowed out of the party a little early and went to bed. 

FRIDAY:
Friday morning began with breakfast at 8 am and sessions started shortly after. The first session I attended was titled "Entrepreneurship & You: The Business of Blogging", and was given by John Saddington, an incredible businessman and blogger. John gave us tips on taking our blog to the next level.

My next session was "Doing It Right The First Time", and was given by Hayley Morgan. We spent a lot of time in Q&A and I really enjoyed hearing Hayley's point of view on things. Hayley delivered one of my favorite quotes of the weekend..."If you're an actual famous blogger, don't forget you're JUST an actual famous BLOGGER."

The last session of the day was by far one of my favorites. Nish Weiseth spoke on "Blogging Dangerously" and we learned how to push ourselves out of the safe, generic blogging box and write about things that make others think and feel. Nish gave me the strength to consider blogging more about my story...and not just my current story, my past story...the story that has made me who I am today. 

The day ended with workshops (I attended one on adoption that was hosted by Emily Anderson) and Mom's Night Out...think chocolate and PJs. 

SATURDAY:
The first session I attended on Saturday was given by Allie Lehman and was all about communicating through design. We worked through a 6-step process that helped us determine our brand and what we want it to say. Allie was so full of knowledge in branding.

The second session was given by Casey Wiegand, where she talked about building a brand without losing yourself. Casey was so refreshingly real. She is just like she reads on her blog...sweet, emotional, genuine, sincere. Her entire presentation was like having a conversation with a good friend. Something Casey said that really resonated with me was this..."Not everyone's gonna like you, and that's okay." Simple, I know; but sometimes I need that reminder.

My last session was given by Jessica Turner and was all about affiliate marketing. Seriously y'all, my mind was blown. It's so amazing how blogger's can now provide income for their families in so many different ways. I will definitely be taking advantage of all I learned during this session. 

Our night ended with a beautiful worship time. It was so amazing to see all of these different women with different goals and ideas, unite to worship our Creator. In that moment the size of our internet spaces and followers didn't matter, because the size of our God was (and is) so much bigger. After worship, we had a coffee party hosted by Adproval and spent the rest of our night soaking up our last minutes together. 

SUNDAY:

I left Indy bright and early on Sunday morning, flew back home with two of my favorite blogging ladies, and proceeded to shower my boys with kisses when I returned home. I fell asleep for several hours once I was home and spent the rest of the day realizing how incredibly blessed I am. 

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It's now Wednesday, and I'm still processing. I have so many thoughts and dreams and I'm doing my very best to implement them. I don't want to let this weekend fall by the wayside, I don't want to let my lessons go to waste.

I am so excited to change the course of this blog in the business sense and when it comes to what I write about and how I write. I hope you'll stay along for the ride.

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