Haven Conference 2015

Hello my friends!  I’m back!

If you’ve been following along, you know that I was in Atlanta for a few days for the Haven Bloggers Conference.

This is my third year attending, and I look forward to it all year.

Blogging is kind of a strange thing. Unless you are one, most people have no idea what they are. You have no idea how many times I have had this conversation:

“What is it that you do?”

“I’m a blogger.”

“What is that exactly?”

“I run a DIY website.”

“…….So that’s what you do for a living?”

“Yes.”

“What is a blogger? And do you make any money doing that?”

That is the conversation I have anytime I go somewhere other than my normal Lowe’s and Michael’s.

The great thing about being at this conference is that all of the people there do the same thing as me. We talk about the newest products, take some amazing classes, and are wined and dined by some big brands.

We swap stories about which companies to work with and which ones not to work with, what products are great and which ones suck, about how hard it is to remove paint from your hair, and to be wearing the only nice clothes you own when all of the other ones you own crunch from having so much paint crusted onto them. We discuss why it’s hard to work so hard on a project, and once it’s posted you get crickets, or have projects you put very little effort into be the ones that take off on Pinterest. We discuss how blogging has changed over the last few years and posts that used to get 30-40 comments now only get 2 because most people don’t even read the posts you poured yourself into, and there seems to be a trend where they only skim for pretty pictures.

We understand the hours that go into every project and every post. How we have all had to learn a new languages of “coding”, “photography”, “writing”, and every different form of social media under the sun. We empathize with working more hours now than we did when we worked full time, and how our family often eats cereal for dinner because we are still working on projects that are due at midnight.

At Haven we also congratulate each other for having our projects published for the first time, or making a deal with the company of our dreams. We are there to learn more, so we can recharge our batteries and bring back better content for our readers.

We are there to inspire and encourage each other.

At Haven is where I met my “tribe” — the women that I not only look to to vent, lean on, and support, but these four women are now some of my closest friends. Haven brought us all together. And for that I am grateful.

I’ll be back for more on Haven details tomorrow!