This past weekend I attended Megaphone Summit in Arkansas. Allison drove me in her swanky as hell minivan, and together, I like to think we really conquered Fayetteville.
(Please note that here I’m using the word “conquered” to mean “ate too much damn cheese and then fell asleep real early in.”)
Wanna see what I brought with me to Megaphone Summit?
On Friday, we ate too many cheese fries at Farrell’s. Then, on Saturday Allison won a brewery tour with Hogshead Tours, and she brought me along to Columbus House Brewery.
The fine folks with Hogshead dropped us off at Hammontree’s for a dinner of fancy grilled cheeses, where we got in some much needed girl talk and more beer.
The weekend was so jam-packed with information and experiences, that I was pretty much dead on my feet by Sunday. I wish that there had been a 2-hour break on Saturday afternoon where we could all just sit down and sip coffee while talking quietly so I could’ve gotten to know more of the attendees there. (Two-hour coffee breaks are why they don’t let introverts organize blog conferences. Though, I guess I did that once.)
The weekend was full of inspirational and informative talks from a lot of different bloggers and blog-adjacent professionals. Thanks to those sessions, I now feel fairly comfortable with FTC regulations, XML sitemaps, and the Adobe Light Room app. (Seriously, if you aren’t using it, it’s a freakin’ game changer.)
I finally met Rachel in person, I got to see Cassie again, and Stephanie gave me a big ol’ hug. I was super excited to hear Jackie talk again, and I have to say that she basically hit me on the back of the head and reminded me to be Marisa, which was exactly what I needed to hear.
I wish I could give you a complete rundown of all the sessions, but I feel like my head is way too full of the information I learned. Couple that with the fact that I waited a whole week to write this post, and, well, you see why I’m not being super specific. But that’s the beauty here. See, the big blogging secret I learned isn’t a specific thing that anyone said.
The Big Blogging Secret
The big blogging secret was implied by every last damn person who spoke, if not stated outright. You have to just do what you want to do.
You have to just do what you want to do. Click To TweetYou have to stop asking for permission.
You have to go for the thing you decided you wanted.
You have to harass the gatekeepers until you get where you want to be.
You have to be relentless.
Basically, the big blogging secret is something we should all be doing in our everyday lives.
On Asking for Permission
I realized a couple of years ago that I’ve spent a lot of time asking for permission, at least in the metaphorical sense of the world. I kept buying books on writing, hoping that every time I cracked the spine on one of them that I’d finally be where I wanted to be as a writer. I spent a lot of time enrolling in adult education classes that I wanted to make me interesting so I’d somehow be worthwhile. I let ideas simmer in my head until they completely fizzled out, simply because I didn’t think I was qualified to do anything with them.
And all the time I was surrounded by people who had the confidence to go and do exactly what they wanted. In some cases, I was in awe. In others, I was pissed that someone who wasn’t as good as me would even try to go after something. (I’m quite petty and jealous. It’s something I’m working on. So is Jackie, if you haven’t read this post already. It’s good stuff.) But even so, I never went after the things I wanted.
Megaphone Summit was a reminder that I have to just do shit. Full stop.
#RealGoodGutPunch
Lately my life has been full of what I’m going to call “real good gut punches.” Those are the moments that make you realize something, the pieces of art that hollow you out a little so you can hold more, the people who metaphorically hold you like a baby before you can even realize that you needed them to do that. Lately I’ve felt like I’ve had a couple of real good gut punches, and Megaphone Summit was definitely one of them.
#Megaphone16 was a #realgoodgutpunch. Click To Tweet(If you make a connection between gut punches and me mentioning that Allison and I ate too much cheese, I will light your hair on fire.)
And maybe that’s just the thing. The big blogging secret was a real good gut punch. But maybe the even bigger blogging secret is that you need a real good gut punch every once in a while.
On point.
I think I need to re-read this weekly.
I would be lying if I said I didn’t have “Stop asking for permission” written on my forearm as a reminder.
I love this, and this is a common theme of the Arkansas conferences—you do you because that’s what you do best.
Right? Though, if I’m being honest, I have a tendency to overthink being me, and wind up having daily meltdowns.
Yay! I need this as a bumper sticker. And across my bathroom mirror.
Do it! I know I need the reminder too.
This is a great recap and makes me sad all over again that I missed it. I also agree that there should be more sitting around drinking coffee.