For The Love Of Learning | Alt Summit 2014

Last week Katie and I flew to Salt Lake City to attend the Altitude Summit – a blogging business/inspiration conference.

This was my first time attending Alt. I’ve been following along each year from the sidelines, reading about other people’s experiences after the event online and wondering if it would be a good fit for me.

As usual it was quite an adventure and today I’m going to share some of my personal observations and things I loved most about the event.

Our first order of business was to attend a dinner on Tuesday night. We selected the Bing dinner hosted by Alison Faulkner Robertson of The Alison Show.

I recently started following Alison (first via Instagram I think) and loved her crazy dance moves and her blog series: How To Be Awesome. As you might have heard me mention before, I’m working on not taking things so darn seriously on a regular basis and I think she’s an awesome example of someone who’s really great at being silly and fun.

I like people who are bringing that vibe to the world.

It was awesome to meet her in person and the dinner itself was spot on with music and decor and desserts. Yes, those are glitter macarons.

Another reason we were excited to attend this event was to connect with some of the people we work with already – many of which have become friends over the years. We shared a room with Elise which meant late night conversations about life and business. We connected with April and Sam from Studio Calico and loved seeing Celine Navarro from France. I also loved running into Candace Stringham and her sister Stephanie Ford. And I know I will forget to mention someone here.

Elise has a great review post here – she captured many of the same feelings I had about the event. She’s wonderfully articulate about her brand and her business. We both have blogs that support our brands vs. blogs that are our sole income generators which led to lots of healthy discussions about why we do the things we do and where we want to be moving forward.

This event came along at the right time for me both personally and professionally. For the last year I’ve been working through some major business changes behind the scenes and sometimes I feel lost in the middle of it all even though I’m super excited about what’s to come. It’s been a crisis of confidence on many levels – the cans, the shoulds, the maybes, the fears, the comparisons, the uncertainties. I think this confidence crisis inevitably also has to do with the major life change of divorce and how there’s simply no way around that but to move through it one day at a time.

What I loved about the opportunity to go to Alt is that it made me continue to hone in on who I am and what I do and what I’m really good at and what I want to be doing with my life.

I loved being a student. Doing what I do can be pretty isolating at times and I really value the chance to go to something like this and connect with other creative business people. Alt gave me the opportunity to learn from creative people like designer and illustrator Emily McDowell and videographers Jesse & Kimberly Moore from Modern Atelier.

It was also a reminder to me that I like the lane I’m in. I love memory keeping and photos and words and living authentically – it is the heart of what I do whether I’m writing or designing products or taking photos or developing classes.

I loved getting to meet Gabrielle Blair of Design Mom who I’ve admired for many years.

I also loved the chance to have a sit-down conversation about business and empowerment and confidence with Rachel Faucett of Handmade Charlotte. To say she is motivating is an understatement.

I loved listening to Gabrielle interview Martha Stewart. She’s a cultural icon and a woman that has persevered through all kinds of things in her life and her work. I know not everyone loves Martha and of course that’s okay but for me this was a meaningful part of the event and I’m so glad I had an opportunity to hear her speak.

The other inspiring main-stage presenter was Joy Cho from Oh Joy. She’s another person I’ve followed for many years and it was so cool to hear her tell her own story of how she’s gotten to where she is today.

I loved the invitation to dress up a bit more than usual. I also loved that the only new thing I bought to wear were a couple Classic Cardigan sweaters from Forever 21 that are around $8 each. I now want them in every color.

The bottom line for me, and my biggest take-away, is that I still love memory keeping and I want to keep delving deeper into the heart of it and I want to bring you content that is in alignment with what is most meaningful.

I’m all about figuring out ways to tell my own story and helping you figure out ways to tell yours.

We’re in this thing together. Onward!

PHOTO CREDIT | Any photos I didn’t take with my phone were taken by either Justin Hackworth or Brooke Dennis.