Blogger XPO 2019

Hello Honeybees,

August was a crazy busy month. It started with a focus on family and ended with a focus on me. I spent a weekend in Nashville at the 2nd annual Blogger Xchange XPO.

The Blogger Xchange was founded by Leigh Love & Kay Elle. Both are Nashville natives that grew up together. They saw a need to bring the growing Nashville blogger community together and thus their first event was created. Leigh is a music, travel & events blogger. Kay Elle is a beauty, fashion and lifestyle blogger. The two together make a very dynamic team.

Fortunately for our local blogger community, they do come to Memphis to host classes which have been very helpful. So when I got the chance to attend this years XPO I jumped at it. My blogger boo Mocha_Divas and I hit the highway headed east ready to learn and grow.

Thursday night was VIP night. Once there we checked in to our hotel and got ready for a walking photo tour with Photo Walk Tour the Gulch. So many Instagramable spaces. Christy & Abbey did an great job especially working with all of us bloggers. We finished the tour at Winky Lux by making flower crowns. We didn’t make the kick off party that night because after the drive up and the photo walk we were tired but I heard that the guys from Slim & Husky’s shared some great advice.

Saturday was the big day. After a healthy breakfast from Rush Bowls and Box Water we headed into hear Memphis’ own Paris Chanel give the keynote speech. My takeaway from Paris was to pursue your passion. Blogging is a passion project for me so this was confirmation that I was in the right place. The rest of the day was filled with very informative sessions. My notebook is full of gems and action plans.

One of the speakers in my first session “Writing with Soul” was Brittney Oliver. When Brittney started to share her story I thought to myself, this sounds so familiar. Turns out I heard Brittney on one of my favorite podcast Switch,Pivot or Quit. A few of my other sessions included Perfecting the Feed and The Business of Blogging. The Business of Blogging helped us to understand some of the legal aspects of blogging. You know all those FTC rules and regulations.

Sunday Brunch fed my soul. The food provided by Chef Batts was delicious and the adult beverages were plentiful. But our brunch speaker Kenya Raymer of @Halfietruth was REAL. She talked about setting boundaries in these internet streets and if you follow Kenya then you know that she doesn’t play about this and I so admire that. She also talked about being authentic, something that she does so well. It’s always interesting to me to meet people that I follow in person. I’m not always sure how to approach them but Kenya put me at ease.

I have my blog to do list and I have already tackled the first item. Yea me!!!! I also won a $150 gift card to Macy’s. I feel a haute fall wardrobe in my future.

I can not express the impact from the Blogger XPO weekend. Not just for the blog but for my life. I am already looking forward to next years XPO but in the meantime I’ll be ready for the next blogger class in Memphis.