My Weekend Recount: Blogalicious Conference In Baltimore + 5 Lessons I Took Away

Sooo, it was the Blogalicious blog conference this past weekend, and the theme was, Build Your Own Empire. Although I had heard about Blogalicious before, this was the first time I attended their conference. In fact, I had no intention of doing any more travelling for the year, but when I saw that it was in Baltimore, I could not resist. We barely ever have events here. Usually, I type a Vera Goes post when I’m travelling, but there was no travelling involved. Igwe tried to encourage me to stay in the hotel to avoid driving back and forth, but I refused.

Conference started on Thursday with the VIP Master classes, which by themselves cost $300 (not including the cost of the remaining conference). I paid happily because I have a vision. Gone are the days that I just blogged for fun. Verastic is now a registered business, and I have to make this work.

Unlike BlogHer which is bigger and more diverse, Blogalicious is multicultural, so there were mostly black people and then Hispanic/Latino. And just to be clear, this is not at all a bad thing. I even met about 5 or 6 Nigerians, which is huge for me. It was so nice and inspiring to see so many people who were my color and doing the damn thing. *insert two snaps* The sessions were nice, and the speakers and coaches were great, but of course, there were some that spoke to my soul. But I won’t lie to you: I walked away from the conference being inspired all over again. But inspiration means nothing if I don’t follow up. So I’m working.

One thing no one will say about Blogalicious is that there was not enough food. If anything, there was too much! There was a constant supply of food; at some point, I was even vexing that they were not letting my food digest before bringing out more food. Also, ironically, I was more tired after this conference than I was when I traveled out of State. Reason is that when I travel, I have a room in the hotel, so when I’m tired, can go and rest for a few minutes. Here in Baltimore, I did not have a room, so I attended all the sessions. During my 2:30 session on the last day, I literally just walked out. It was not due to the session not being good, but because my brain was tired.

It was past 3:00 PM when I decided to go home. The closeout party was scheduled to start at 8:00 PM, and there was no way I was going to sit there for 5 hours, so I decided to go home, close my eyes for a couple hours, and come back for the party. Igwe left for a wedding and I fell asleep on the couch. I was still on the couch when he came back. Nope. I didn’t make it for the party. I. Was. So. Tired.

5 Lessons I Learned (in no particular order):

1. I need to know my reasons for wanting to be successful (and in my case, I already know what they are. I have always known)
2. Social media followers do not automatically equal success or wealth. Think about it, how many people do you know personally who have tons of social media followers and zero success in real life?
3. Perfection is the enemy. Striving for perfection will cause delay (and I am living proof of that; don’t be like me)
4. The life I dream of isn’t impossible to achieve. It is absolutely possible, and some people are living it already. Why not me?
5. I don’t have to have it all figured out. I just need to start where I am, use what I have, and do what I can.

I know I usually post more pictures, but I was so busy at this conference that pictures were the last thing on my mind. Plus, I’m bored of taking pictures with my phone. I’m getting a new phone on Friday *batting eye lashes*

So, would I attend Blogalicious again? Heck yeah! Can’t wait for the next one, and although it’ll cost me more, I actually prefer for it to not be in Baltimore. Travelling and packing and unpacking is part of the excitement of the blog conference. Stacey Ferguson, the founder of Blogalicious is an angel, and she doesn’t even know it. It’s her vision that put all this together, and gave the rest of us a place to come to and learn. The Blogalicious Team deserves all the applaud and praise too, they were wonderful.

P.S. Stacey Ferguson and I are getting married.