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Designers Collective Goes to Alt Summit

Alt Summit is a blogger’s social media conference held in Salt Lake City, Utah, each year. Tina thought it would be good for us to attend. I…reluctantly agreed. I say this because I knew I would be meeting a lot of new people and that means putting one’s self “out there”. This is hard for me. I’d much prefer to be in the background, not in the forefront sticking out my hand to shake a new person’s hand and be in an unknown environment for 3 and a half days!

Don’t get me wrong, I am perfectly friendly and can hold my own but these people were all seasoned bloggers and business women and most importantly, creative entrepreneurs. They already knew all this stuff, didn’t they? I’d feel just so out of it, wouldn’t I? Well, the answer is no.

Alt Summit is just the best thing going for people who want to progress their brand or get tips on blogging and social media. It started with a key note speaker, Lisa Congdon, who is an illustrator/artist. She is 47 years old and it looks like she has been an overnight success. She gave us a different story. She struggled along as an artist for many years and then started blogging and describing her journey. Slowly, people started to take notice. She did a couple of year long challenges for herself one of which was posting a photo of part of her collections EVERYDAY for a whole YEAR. And then she started to get followers. Five years ago she was noticed by Martha Stewart Living and MOMA among many others.

It was a revelation to her that people wanted her work. She just kept doing what she’d always done but it was starting to pay off. Fast-forward five years and she is in demand. This spoke to so many people in the audience. She said buckle down and do the work and “leave some room in your heart for the unimaginable.” She says she still struggles with her insecurities but you need to “trust the space outside of comfortable”.

Well, I think she was speaking directly to me!! “Trust the space outside of comfortable”. Wow. I have had this message repeated to me over and over again the last few years and I swear I work on it constantly. Living outside of the comfort zone will ultimately reap the rewards. But taking that leap into the unknown and into the discomfort can feel pretty scary.

So to have Alt Summit start with such a powerful speaker who was coming from a place of authenticity and candour was just…awesome! I took this advice to heart and spent 3 and half days living outside of my comfort zone. I did find it hard, I won’t lie, but I did it and it felt good! I learned so much and met so many wonderful people.

The whole premise of the conference was to face your fears and do it anyway. The first evening we met some remarkable women who were also first timers to Alt and also a few vets. It helped to chat with them and share a glass of wine and learn about their journey. It seemed they also still had a lot to learn about blogging, business and social media! Huh, not what I expected. Maybe this would be good.

And it was. The speakers continued to be excellent. And the thread of the conference was consistent with each speaker. “Face your challenges. Show up for yourself. Don’t wait. Give it everything. Be patient. Believe it’s possible”. These are just a few of the lines we heard throughout the conference. Quite inspiring words. Each day resulted in more of the same messages

We did learn a lot of practical, applicable lessons but for me, the biggest and the best lesson started with Lisa Congdon and her heart felt speech.

Thanks Alt and thanks Tina for pushing me out of my comfort zone!