Bloggy Boot Camp Kicked Booty

My head is still reeling from my whirlwind experience at Bloggy Boot Camp.  Wow.  You SITS Ladies really know how to throw an informative, entertaining, knock-your-socks-off party.

I have been writing my blog for 33 days. This is my 22nd post.  I told myself that I was fortunate to be offered a ticket to this event, (thank you Angie Ballard), so it was meant to be.
I knew I would most certainly be in over my head.


I connected with Gabriela, on Twitter.  We talked via text and ended up on the same bus over to the Bahia Hotel for the big day.  It was so nice to have an anchor friend to start, and ultimately end, the day with...right away I loved Gabriela's sarcasm, and found out that her husband, like my Mike, often refers to her as a smart-ass.  Nice.  And familiar.


So we checked in and found our way to our first table assignments which would not be together again until lunch.  Okay,  So now it was time for me to meet Eva Smith.  Eva was bubbly and energetic, and immediately wanted to make sure I had the right apps for my phone.  She was taking pictures and giving tutorials and just generally making things a lot of fun.




When things got started, we were told to please take pictures and video.  Ladies, please feel free to tweet to your hearts' content. Wow. Awesome!  Thank you, Tiffany, and thank God I brought my phone charger, because I was gonna need it.  Eva was tweeting furiously.  I was tweeting Mary Burt-Godwin and Tricia and Siana messages like "Where are you? I'm at table one." 

I was trying to grasp some of what darling Ashley Stock was telling us, because I knew it was important.  The main take-away I got from Ashley was get a dot com.  Priceless.

Denae Handy added to that, get help transitioning from Blogger to Wordpress.  This lady is amazing.  Denae, I wanted to tell you "Stop talking about things that make you sad and you'll stop crying," but it isn't that simple.  I really, really like Denae. 

Mary Burt-Godwin of The Mama Mary Show did a great talk on vlogging.  My lighting and make-up techniques are lacking, and I only have the videocam in my phone, but what the heck, I'll give it a try.  She says it will spice up my blog.  Yummy 

Speaking of yummy, there was cheesecake.
And I ate every bite.  Did I mention that I decided to set aside the diet for the weekend? 
Well I did.  And looking at that dessert, wouldn't you?







Meanwhile, I was meeting so many women, and getting great tips.  Kat and Denae did a great section on writing, for the beginners.  I fell into this category.  I knew that the business discussion would just intimidate me, but I did come away with a great Contract Law attorney hook-up, Danielle Liss.  Other than the fact that she is super smart, you would never guess she is a lawyer.  I'm betting she likes that about herself.  I sure did.

The truth is, that Bloggy Boot Camp delivered exactly what I expected it to, and that hardly ever happens.  My expectations were to meet dozens of amazing women and to gather a ton of invaluable information.  I anticipated that the bulk of my newly acquired knowledge would be over my head, but I would take it home and review it later.  And that's precisely what I intend to do.

The one thing I didn't expect was the swag.  Thank you so much to Smart & Final, Good Cook Brand, Mirassou, Hop, Collective Bias, Invisalign, and of course The SITS Girls.  It was a great investment and I had  a wonderful time.

One more thing - A very special thank you goes out to Margo Porras for listening, answering so many questions, and for kindly giving me a ride back to my hotel.  You are a jewel.