MY (VERY MINI) ALT RECAP

I'm not gonna lie kids - I'm still quite tuckered out from last week's antics at Alt Summit. It was inspiring, exhausting, a bit overwhelming, and quite worth it... but maybe not for the reasons you'd expect.

As someone who has been blogging for nearly five (eeek!) years, it's hard for many ideas you hear at conferences like these to feel new. Especially if you're the type who makes an effort to reach out and have continuous conversations with others about blogging, business, strategy, technology, social media, marketing and branding. (Which will be my first tip to those of you who didn't attend - if you're not having these conversations - do it.)

But if there was one thing I needed to hear, it went something like this: 

As my life has been more and more consumed with to-do lists and travels and always feeling like I've got to be ahead of the game, the less I actually feel like I'm getting anything done. I put off big ideas because so many small ones need to happen first. I stop myself from moving forward on things because I feel like they have to be perfect.

So as I sat there listening to Jordan, Kelly, Nicole and Maggie  - a group of women I have great respect for - speak about their own blogs and experiences on their panel, the one thing that stuck with me was this: Don't put off good ideas. Don't be afraid to try new things and fail. Don't wait until they're perfect. JUST. DO. IT.

Whaaaaat? That it? Yes. That's it. I mean, hiring an intern or two might be extremely helpful, but seriously, I need to just DO things. To avoid measuring myself against others, to remember that my own voice is what got me here, and to stop letting my never-ending inbox overwhelm my brain.

Moral of the story: Nobody else is going to do it all for you, but the nice thing is we all have hundreds (maybe even thousands?) of people that are going to be there to support and push us to get there. While the design blog community has definitely changed and grown in the past five years, one thing I realized this past weekend is that it's still a community of people who wants to see each other succeed.

Of course, there were lots of other little tidbits I got out of the conference, and I'll be sharing some resources and ideas from my own panel later this week, but for now, I'm motivated! Which means... I'm outta here. I've got some things to get done today!

*images via art department, and then she saved, musings in femininity, and pinterest