Our Power as Women- Alt Summit Highlight Reel
I hope everyone had an inspiring International Women's Day! This last week, I had the awesome opportunity to attend Altitude Summit in Palm Springs, California! Alt. Summit is a conference and community designed to educate and empower women in creative spaces. While it was awesome, it was overwhelming. The people who convinced me to take the leap mentioned that it's like drinking from a fire hose, and they weren't wrong! I knew it was going to be good, but a lot for me. Imposter syndrome hit hard a few weeks before the event. In talking through it with Sam, I realized that the only reason I wouldn't show up was because I was scared not because there wasn't going to be valuable things to learn.
I'm so glad I didn't give in to that fear! The environment at Alt. Summit was SO supportive, and I talked to more strangers in five days than I have in literally years without feeling drained in unhealthy ways. I loved getting to chat more informally with people I adore and follow on social media. I loved that, while these women are serious business people, no one took themselves too seriously. I walked away feeling stronger, more capable and wiser than I sometimes give myself credit for. I'm thrilled to share the highlights with the Created by Elsie B family and bring what I've learned back to this business. While these were some of my favorite sessions, there were many more that I loved just as much. I set my camera down more than I picked it up so that I could be in the moment and absorb it all without distraction.
Tara Nearents from Rad & Happy
Tara is one of THE GREATEST Instagram follows ever, and I will long sing her praises. She taught on how to sell without being salesy, and the class was so good I literally told every single person where the convo turned to ‘how to sell’ that they needed to sign up to get her slides from the class. It was so good!
If you’re not already listening to The Going Scared Podcast, you need to! When I saw that Jessica would be speaking it immediately was on my ‘I don’t care what else I’m doing, I NEED to be there for this’ list. It was SO freaking good. I also got to tell Jess how much the work she’s done on the podcast has made a difference in my life. Yes, I completely cried while doing so, but she’s just THE BEST.
Clarrisa Nash, Nicole Moreno-Deinzer, Amy Webb
These amazing women gave a series of talks on inclusivity. While I came for Amy (I follow her on IG and knew I’d love what she had to say,) I was 100% so grateful I didn’t miss getting to know the other two. They gave such good insight and perspective from walks of life different than my own. I now follow all three of them on IG and am excited to see where the time takes them.
This gal did the dang thing and spoke to a room full of mostly white or white-presenting people about ‘why white people don’t want to talk about race and why they should.’ IT WAS SO GOOD. I wish I had better words to express how much I loved everything about the way she showed up and taught us, but long story short, I am planning to spend my own money on a course she teaches here in a minute.
I’m one of Alison’s Brand School Boss Babes. I signed up for it basically not knowing anything about her and not being totally sure if she was the right teacher – I just knew I needed help in my business, and a few gals I followed on IG had gone and talked about how helpful it was for them. Flash forward to 1.5 years later, and I seriously adore her! I was half tempted to skip the last half of the day on Thursday to see if I could get home late that night instead of Friday afternoon, but when I saw her name as the closing keynote I was like, ‘well- there goes that plan!’ And yes, I 100% cried during her talk.
On a fun note, the gifting party was super cool! Basically this is the alternative to ‘swag bags’ where they just fill the thing, and you get whatever random things they give you. There are a variety of vendors all around a giant room, and you get to pick a set number of items from any/all of them which means you walk away with a bag more suited to your tastes and what you’ll actually use. This was my haul!
No matter where you are in your creative journey, I cannot recommend this conference enough! If you’ve been looking at all the recent posts and aren’t sure if you’re a good fit, chances are you are. We had people who were 18-55+, lots of women, a few men (Men are never unwelcome, but Alt. focuses on women,) people from 30 minutes away, people from across the world, people who had been in business for years, people who were transitioning from one biz to another, people who work in corporate jobs with a side hustle, people who have an idea but haven’t gotten started on it yet, crafty people, business people, bright color lovers, neutral color lovers, lack of color lovers, all of it. Just go - you won't regret it!
I'd love to hear your experience with Alt. Summit if you've attended in the past. Also, I’m 100% planning to apply to teach a class on learning to spin yarn next year!
