Yesterday you saw the photos and today I'm talking shop. But before all that jazz, I just wanted to give a HUUUGGGEEE thanks to Tan at Squirrelly Minds for letting me know all about Alt Summit and encouraging me to get my butt there. Honestly, I wouldn't have even considered it if she didn't tell me about it. She's also been an amazing blog mentor and she's just so real too. Courtney and I had a great time hanging and travelling from SLC to VIC with her (yay local Victoria bloggers!) So do yourself a favour friends and go check out her awesome blog! THANKS FOR EVERYTHING TAN!

Ok, so I learned ALOOOOOOOTTTTTT. I took a ton of notes and a ton of pictures of notes and a lot of mental notes. Let's just say there was ALOT of information. Awesome information. But a lot of it.

Here are a few things I learned-

There are a lot of young momma bloggers out there. Practically everyone I met had at least two kids and were under 30!! I guess we live life a lot slower out here on the West Coast.
Alt feeds you very well. I wasn't hungry once. They fed you almost every hour and that was AWESOME.
Martha Stewart doesn't age. And she usually just puts really, really, good butter into her pie crusts (sometimes she adds vinegar and sometimes she uses lard but mainly butter).

There were two main sessions (Oh Joy & Martha) and then a bunch of breakout sessions and parties at night. I went to as much as I could. I got something out of every session I attended (free leggings was the highlight of one lols) and I made a to-do list for things that came to my mind during the session (activator brain at work boys and girls). I could go on and on about everything I learned but instead I'll give you three things I'm taking away from Alt Summit.

1. CREATE BEAUTIFUL CONTENT

I have to admit, I haven't always had the greatest content. It's been hard to manage blogging. I don't blog full time. I have a full time job. I have a family (Coco counts as our child right?). I do school on the side. I like to run. I also like to see my friends. So sometimes, I've felt pressure to just get out a blog post for the sake of getting out a blog post. The more I post, the more readers I get but you know what? I've sacrificed the content on my site for the sake of getting more hits. I'm not ok with that.

I want to create beautiful content. I want to write meaningful words. But those things require time, something which I don't have a ton of. But I do have some of (time that is…oh gosh this sounds confusing, you're still following me right?) So I'm making a pledge dear friends, I'm pledging to create beautiful content and write meaningful words. This may mean that some weeks I'll only post a couple times. I'm not a full time blogger and I can't afford to try to be one. Something has got to give, and it won't be the content. But it's an exciting thing!! I'm excited to actually plan out beautiful content. I'm excited to write, write, write. It just won't be every single day.

I hope you'll still come back every single day though... and tell all of your friends to as well ;)

2. KEEP STEPPING OUT OF YOUR COMFORT ZONE

As you know, going to Alt alone was stepping out of my comfort zone. I was a bit frightened, but I did it anyways and met some really rad people. Blogging requires me to step out of my comfort zone. Staying in the comfort zone limits me. If I want to influence more people and grow this blog (and cover the finances of it), I need to step out of my comfort zone!

Here are a few ways I'm stepping out of my comfort zone:

Reach out to brands I want to work with. (Sent my first pitch yesterday, and I'm planning on sending more!)
Talking to strangers about my blog. I talked to a TON of strangers at ALT and told them all about what I'm passionate about so why can't I tell strangers about it in town?
Continue to be a vulnerable and real voice. I don't want to get stuck in the "perfect pinterest" life. I will write through tough seasons. I will write through good seasons. I will be real and vulnerable.

3. REMEMBER THAT I'M NOT ALONE

One of my favourite things about Alt was meeting so many fabulous people who share one thing in common...BLOGGING! In Utah it seems like everyone and their dog has a blog while in Victoria it seems like the bloggers are few and far between. I so appreciate Tan and how she wrangles up the local bloggers for a Create/Curate (aka blogger meet up) every couple months. So want to know something so crazy? The first event at Alt is a sponsored dinner. I picked one that was a quick walk away from my hotel. I went there knowing no one. At some point in the dinner, we all go around and introduce ourselves and say where we're from and what we blog about. I say I'm from Victoria, BC, Canada and I hear someone chuckle...well a few people later and I find out another girl there was from Victoria, BC AND we went to the same elementary school and high school!!! INSANE! Her name is Adrienne and I'd let you know all about her blog but it's in the works so I'll let you know when she launches it (it's going to be AMAZING) We were also staying in the same hotel so it was super rad to have someone to go to the events with!

I also was so happy to meet two lovely ladies from the USA... Kristan from The Broken Bread and Annie from Annie Reeves. We connected so well and I'm looking forward to future collaborations with them! (In the meantime check out their blogs and tell them I sent you!)

So what I want to do is remind you that you're not alone! If you are even thinking of starting up a blog, let's connect!!! I want to do anything I can to encourage you and see you get started!

I learned A LOT of other things as well and I have a lot of little goals set up. I'm going to get a lot better at planning my posts and I now have an assistant aka friend who loves me to help me meet my goals! (THANK YOU COURTNEY!!!)

Thank you ALT SUMMIT for such a fantastic time. I learned so much and am so excited for ssheart's future!!

over n out,

s.s.♥︎.