Blissdom 2010
As I write this, I’m sitting on a plane at 6am headed home. Even with a groggy mind due to 12 hours of sleep divided over the last 3 nights, a wake up call at 3:45am, and a shuttle ride at 4:30am to the airport, my memories of Blissdom are still fresh in my mind. Throughout the week, I’ll be reliving Blissdom right here on my blog in a “live-vicariously-through-me” fashion. So what phrase sums up Blissdom in a nutshell?
Pursuing your passion!
I arrived in Nashville on Thursday just in time for the cocktail party and met Bay from Queen Mother Blog on the shuttle. Now, if you’ve never been to the Gaylord Opryland before, website pictures don’t do it justice. The 3 words I’d use to discribe it are beautiful, biodome, and GIGANTIC! I’m pretty sure it has it’s own zip code (and my feet bear the blisters to prove it). The 1st cocktail party was held at restaurant inside of the hotel atrium and was filled to the brim with bloggers, chatting about anything and everything. I was instantly amazed by how comfortable I felt; how we all spoke a common language. No matter what you blog about, you belonged instantly.This is where I met another new friend, Rachael from Pineapple Babble, whom I chatted with all night long.
What other conference has their own TweetGrid projected?
After staying up and talking with my roommate Janna from The Adventure of Motherhood until 2am (yet again!), I started my Friday as excited and giddy as a kid at Christmas. A room filled with 500 bloggers, a chance to learn new skills and meet new people, and time to focus on myself…it was already a dream come true! That day, I attended 2 sessions: Personal Branding (panelists Shelly Kramer, Liz Strauss, and Blissdom co-creator Alli Worthington), and Striking a Balance (panelists Christine Koh, Deb Rox, Megan Jordan, Arianne Segermann, and Carmen Stacier). The takeaway messages from these sessions were:
- Be who you are and see who stays around your blog; being who you are doesn’t mean saying everything on your mind
- Respond to comments with another question right in your comment section
- Do a regular inventory about what your brand is, what you like to write about, and who you like to work with
- What are our goals and do we need them? (The answer is YES!)
- Turn off Twitter and Facebook for a bit and your productivity will jump up!
- How do we make it fun, easy, and meaningful to be part of what we’re doing?
I also attending the FTC Guidelines session and took these messages away:
- Record EVERYTHING! If you are making money, the government needs to know.
- Make sure all of the things you say on your review are true/facts
- Disclose any relationship that might pose a conflict of interest
- Make sure to include your FTC disclosure at the top as well as at the bottom. A MUST since many don’t read the whole post.
As incredibly valuable as those sessions were, the keynote session at the beginning of the day was what everyone was buzzing about. Kevin Carroll , an author, speaker, and agent for social change, gave a heartfelt, thought-provoking, fun, and interactive speech. His message? That even as adults, we need to value the simple opportunities in life: the chance to play; the ability to laugh; the opportunity to feel passion and integrate it into everything we do. He reminded us that hard work never goes unrecognized, to expect the unexpected, and to work our creative muscle. The timing of his message was impeccable. I had been feeling very frustrated lately and not appreciating life. Kevin’s words reminded me of the aspects missing in my life currently and I’m now more focused than ever!
Other highlights that day included celebrity chef George Duran, preparing a fabulous recipe as a demonstration (which we got to eat at lunch) and of course, the one and only Harry Connick, Jr. This was the night I also met Erica from Erica in the Mix, who rounded out our fun little Blissdom group.
But just as sitcoms do, I am going to leave you hanging until tomorrow. Just wait…you won’t want to miss my other Blissdom posts!
Were you at Blissdom? What did you enjoy the most? If you missed it, what do you want to know about it?
And if you wrote a Blissdom 2010 Recap post, feel free to link up!
{ 13 comments… read them below or add one }
Yes, I was at Blissdom. And what I enjoyed about it was chatting with you!
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Tamara Reply:
February 8th, 2010 at 1:48 pm
You’re so sweet….and that’s what I remember about you, neighbor. Looking forward to your posts. Feel free to link up any of your co-bloggers’ Bachelor posts on Weds. Have a great day!
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Love it. Can’t wait to read more. Oh, you said “…being who you are doesn’t mean saying everything that’s on your mind.” Can you give some specifics? I think I am on my blog who I am in person, but would love to know what their take on “being real” is all about.
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Tamara Reply:
February 8th, 2010 at 1:56 pm
Sure thing Shannon. I think the statement “Being who you are doesn’t mean saying everything that’s on your mind” means a couple of things. First, it means that if you SAY everything in your post or if your post is “perfectly complete” it leaves less room for discussion/open-ended comments from readers, both which can limit the interaction with your audience. Secondly, while it’s important to be yourself and say what’s on your mind, sometimes people can be a bit “overly” with their words, not being careful about offending others or saying things too harshly/honestly. If you are a person who doesn’t mind what others think at all, then it’s okay. But if you’re someone who wants to be true to yourself but also appeal to a wide audience, sometimes a filter is good. And about being real…don’t let your readers define you was a message that was repeated!
Hope that helped clarify!
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Shelly Kramer is my friend in real life!!! We met because we both have twin girls who are the same age. Before she became a Twitter/PR rock star, we used to have many play dates together and squeeze in some movies, drinks, etc….
So glad you learned so much! I wanna go!
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Tamara Reply:
February 8th, 2010 at 6:13 pm
How cool that is your IRL friend. You’re one lucky gal – she’s fabulous (and smart!).
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I didn’t get to meet you at Blissdom and I wanted to! I missed all the festivities on Thursday night due to my flight delay, so I couldn’t meet at the bar for the newbies picture.
Love your recap, though, and thanks for the link up so we can read about everyone else’s experience.
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Tamara Reply:
February 8th, 2010 at 2:16 pm
I am so bummed I didn’t get to meet you too. And the #BlissdomNewbies meetup never materialized since it got pushed back to Friday night and then Harry happened!
Hope to meet up with you next time for sure! Thanks for linking up…can’t wait to read all of the posts while watching the Bachelor tonight! 
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Very good information!! Thank you for sharing!
Stopping by from SITS..hope you have a lovely day!!
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Tamara Reply:
February 8th, 2010 at 3:29 pm
Thanks so much for stopping by! Glad you enjoyed the Blissdom tips. More to come!
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Hi Tamara,
What a fantastic post and thanks for sharing – and for leading me to your blog! I’m glad to hear that you learned a lot AND had a great time at Blissdom. What an amazing event
And to clarify, being “real” means being true to yourself and your personal brand – and being honest with yourself as to what that is. No one should ever feel as if they, or their blog, should or can be all things to all people. And so, figuring out who you are, what your purpose is, what you can deliver and why you matter should be something you think about on a regular basis.
So glad to hear you enjoyed the event, I did, too. And man, was that hotel ever B.I.G.!!!
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Tamara Reply:
February 8th, 2010 at 3:28 pm
Thanks for stopping by and reading (and sharing the link on Twitter!). And thanks for clarifying what “being real” means. Your insight and tips, as well as those from the other panelists, have helped me re-focus my goals (amazing what you can think about/do on a 1 hour plane ride!).
So glad to have been at your session and “tweeted” with you at Blissdom! Tweet you later….
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There was so much to take away from Blissdom! I have a lot to do to implement all the great advice. It was great to finally meet you!
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Tamara Reply:
February 8th, 2010 at 4:52 pm
Was so great to meet you, too. Thanks for keeping me company in the Smoky Eyes line for like an hour.
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I wasn’t there but do enjoy reading about it and learning from you all learned
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Yeah I was the first person you met! ;o) Looking fwd to the rest of your blissdom posts. <3 Bay
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Tamara Reply:
February 8th, 2010 at 4:51 pm
Did you get home with your luggage and all? When do you leave for Disney you lucky gal! Yep, you were the first.
Miss you girls!
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Well Hello There!!!!
I know you’re most memorable moment was my commentary after the keynote and at the PJ Party. I loved my little crowd I gathered.
Great meeting you…now I must go hit that little orange button on your sidebar.
Oh, and my post was very lovey-dovey, not so angry…
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Tamara Reply:
February 9th, 2010 at 7:26 am
Since I am in a similar field to you, I know why you call yourself Angry Julie! Some days, I would call myself Angry Tamara.
Thanks for stopping by and I will be returning the favor and following once my boys give me a large enough time to blog hop today. Kids, huh? Occupational hazard. And we too had a good time talking to you at the PJ party. 
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Hey there Tamara!
It was such fun meeting you if only for a moment!
GREAT post BTW:)
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Tamara Reply:
February 9th, 2010 at 9:45 am
Agreed! So hard to meet everyone and have a long conversation with each person since there were so many of us! Glad to meet another girl from the area though.
Have a good one….
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HI! I think you were with us talking to Calvin and Nobu in the halls at Blissdom, but I’m only guessing because I never got your card! Anyway, hope it was you because otherwise I sound like a nut right now.
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Tamara Reply:
February 9th, 2010 at 10:40 pm
Yep! That was me.
Weren’t they such great conversationalists? Had a blast talking to them. So glad you told me Nobu’s name. Couldn’t remember it! Thanks so much for stopping by & saying hi!
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Gah, thought I left a comment yesterday. I’m so glad to have met you IRL and now that I know you are close by, we will hopefully cross paths more in 2010. Thanks for the great round-up and link collection!
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Tamara Reply:
February 10th, 2010 at 10:23 am
So glad to have finally met you, too. While there aren’t many of us in this area, the ones who are here are great! Definitely need to cross paths again. Thanks for stopping by. You’re on my list – just going to take me about a week to get to all the recaps!
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