I’m having one of those Monday’s where there’s so much I want to do that I don’t even know where to start.
The fact of the matter is…I have a Blog Hangover!
This weekend, I attended and spoke at the 2nd Annual BlogJam Atlantic Conference in Halifax and it was so filled with fabulous information and amazing people, that at one point during the day…I may have gotten the spins.
For starters, Erica Ehm kicked things off with a fabulous keynote. Since I began blogging, Erica’s Yummy Mummy Club has been a huge inspiration to me. The folks that run YMC are an amazing support for social influencers and have been a big part of who I am as a blogger…they were there when I started out…and have continued to be there to support me along the way. I’ve had the great opportunity of working with them on many campaigns and while I’ve not met many of the team behind YMC in real life…I feel like we’re truly friends.
Erica chatted about ASKING for what you want. She, like me, believes that there’s no such thing as “luck.” So many times people tell me how lucky I am for the brands I work with and the opportunities that have come my way over the last few years…but it’s not “luck” that’s bringing those opportunities my way…it’s hard work. It’s asking for what I want. It’s expecting to hear “no” a few time and being overwhelmingly grateful for the times I hear “yes.”
A HUGE thanks to Erica for coming to Halifax this weekend to share her story with us. I’m always happy to be in her company as I always walk away feeling like there’s so much more out there for me.
Following Erica’s keynote…myself, Laura from My Life in the Sun and Gillian from The Local Traveller, sat on a couple of stools in a packed room to chat about how to make money off your blog. We chose, rather than “present,” to have an open discussion opening up a number of topics and leaving it to the floor to ask questions…and ask they did!!!
Our forty minutes FLEW by and at the end of our chat, we had covered page 1 of our 4 page document!
Thank you to everyone who popped into our session, asked questions, came up to us during the day to chat and share a story, smiled from their seats to encourage us on, told us we inspired them or asked for more information afterwards…etc… I truly and 100% believe that we need to continue to support and encourage one another and that there is a place for all of us to find our voices on social media.
At any time, if you need a little help…just ask!
As the day went on I attended sessions, chatted with folks and truly enjoyed my day. It was super busy and jam-packed with information. I gained great insight listening to Ross Simmonds on “How to Take Your Content from 0 to 100″…a truly intelligent and fabulous entrepreneur I could learn a great deal from. I whole-heartedly enjoyed a presentation by Heather Clarke of Laptops to Lullabies on Balancing Your Blog…she’s one smart lady and really and truly lives her authentic life! Mike Tanner had me in stitches in his presentation “What the Hell Am I Going to Write About”…an entertaining speaker and writer with a great amount of energy who has inspired me to write more of what I see around me. And to round things out, I attended two different sessions on bringing video to my blog, one by Steve Foran and the other by Dan Murray…both very similar and the bottom line with adding video to my blogging is this…I just have to forget about the 10 pounds the camera adds and GO FOR IT!
The worst part of the day…I couldn’t see every presentation and I’m left feeling like I wanted more and yet…by 3:00, I was so drunk on information that the “Candy Bar” National Atlantic put together was exactly what I needed to give me a bit of a sugar rush to get me through the rest of the day.
Here’s the biggest thing I learned from BlogJam Atlantic…ATLANTIC CANADIAN BLOGGERS ROCK! We have an amazingly talented wonderful group of writers and social influencers around us that are willing to share, support, encourage and boost one another up!
I walked, stumbled, crawled away from the entire day absolutely inspired.
I’m ready to write more, pitch more, see more, do more, ask more, record more, help more, support more…I just feel like THERE IS MORE I can be doing for myself, and for others.
Thank you to the organizers, volunteers and sponsors of BlogJam Atlantic for putting together a day that has me absolutely thrilled and thankful for the career I’ve chosen. A career I absolutely love…where the only “lucky” part is being surrounded by fascinating people.
It’s Monday morning…it’s time to lay down some goals while I’m feeling super-inspired, turn those goals into a plan and put my plan in action!
Just as soon as I get over this hangover.
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Thanks for this post. I’m enjoying reading your blog posts. I’m just starting out in the blogging world and have so much to read and find out about to make my blog worthwhile. It’s often hard to approach another blogger to ask questions, but it is the only way to learn. I’m looking forward to taking a look at the other bloggers you mentioned here in your post. Sounds like you had a great time at BlogJam.
Oh please ask if you have questions!!! There’s a lot of information out there to sort through.
Thank you so much for the shout-out, Colleen! I loved your panel and appreciate the helpful handout. I feel like you ladies should have been scheduled for a double session because it was SO interesting and helpful!
I’m sure eventually everyone would have tired of our voices!!! It was a great interactive room!
I had no idea it was going on this past weekend until I read about it on Laureen’s wall.
Oh goodness…we’ve all been promoting it for months! Please follow them on Twitter so you don’t miss next years event.
I shared the bajoopees out of it every chance I got! Come to next year’s! 😀
Wow! I’m so impressed you were able to write up a debrief just one day later! You’re so on top of things. Thanks for the feedback and thanks again for the scavenger hunt!
I was just inspired is all! Great weekend. Thanks again.
This was my first BlogJam event. I loved it! Learned tons…and still processing 🙂 Thank you for doing this!
BlogJam 2016 was great!
I love that you managed to strike while to iron was hot and get all of this out so quickly. That’s impressive!
I am *still* overwhelmed by the events of the weekend, but I am vowing to share my thoughts, too.
I always feel so blessed to be in the presence of such excellent bloggers and writers and business people. I wish I could have had a cloning machine, so I could attend all the sessions. 🙂