Last weekend, I went to Create & Cultivate Dallas. It was my first ever blogger conference, and I’m not going to lie, I was pretty nervous. I sit down with my blog reader every morning, so there’s something of a celebrity status reverence in my mind. I also anticipated a great deal of fashion bloggers, given that it’s a popular category in general and in the Dallas area.

A twinge of impostor syndrome had me feeling the need to up my style game and buy a bunch of new outfits. Some confidence-boosting FT business cards and soul-searching later, I realized a) my closet is already too full and b) I like my every day style, so it just wouldn’t be me to dress like my idea of a “real blogger”. Some outfit planning later with my style consultant (as in, if my husband hears “these shoes or these shoes?” one more time…) I ended up 100% comfortable as just me in things I already owned. Figures.

Once I actually got there, I realized I had nothing to worry about anyway. Everyone was truly friendly and nice. There was also way more of a range of blogger levels and career fields present than I expected, which kept things interesting and way more approachable. It also helped a ton that one of my favorite people was there.

Overall, it was fun, fancy, and I’d definitely go again! Here are my big takeaways from Track #2:

Let’s get technical:

• Know your audience – where else should you be for them to discover you, what do they actually want or need from you.
• Engage with people who’ve just liked / commented / followed – they are most likely to still be on their phone or in the app.
• Hashtags – check before you use! Luckily, this lesson was already cemented while researching before a client’s major sports event…In case you were wondering, “#score” on Instagram is not so much sports-related. That’s all I’m going to say on the matter.
• Specify rounds of edits in partnership contracts in advance, as well as fair fees for extra / extensive ones.

Make your own opportunities:

• Bag Snob turned a negative review for a designer’s bag –> a product conversation –> into a bag pitch –> into her own line.
• House of Harper was looking to personally embark on a home remodel. She decided to explore expanding her blog content accordingly and pitched Lowe’s with her design ideas to see if they would maybe, like to, potentially sponsor. They did.

Quotes, thoughts and things:

creativity is a practice

 

know your strengths, tap your network for the rest

 

sell the idea over the skills

 

respond to “no” with “why”

 

you’re only as good as your last _____

 

authentic > innovative …and is often innovative in and of itself

 

inspire creativity by understanding how people work best – and then letting them

Hope to see ya’ll at the next one!