I wasn’t supposed to be at the Mom 2.0 Summit this weekend in Atlanta. I was supposed to be studying veterans disability law with my bride in Normandy, France for the 60-year anniversary of the Americans’ storming the beach there during WWII.
However, continuing legal education (CLE) courses in France are expensive (especially when the costs are multiplied by two), and since Google’s “hummingbird” algorithm change last fall, my new intakes have plummeted, and so has revenue. I stopped paying myself in November. I’ve spent the past 8+ months trying to rebuild my SEO strategy, as every strategy I employed for over 4 years was not only failing to keep me on the first page for my desired search terms, but they were being penalized; I was on page 7 or worse. I lost some sleep and had some chest pain at times, and tried to do the best I could with the cases I had.
When I was in New Orleans for the Dad 2.0 Summit a couple months ago (thanks to conference sponsor Microsoft and my mad live blogging skills, my conference and lodging were comped), some of my friends mentioned their coming to Atlanta for the Mom 2.0 Summit, and I told them the conference was going to be a mile from my office, so I’d see them at night. When I got back, I learned a friend needed to sell her ticket, so I got it at a reduced rate and went.
It was outstanding.
Not only was seeing some of the faces I haven’t seen since my last BlogHer (2012) enjoyable, but I got to build closer friendships initiated at Dad 2.0, even introducing some of the NYC Dads Group bloggers (and a Washington DC dad) to the magic that is Fox Brothers BBQ. And karaoke! With folks I haven’t karaoked with since BlogHer ’12 in NYC (or ever)!
photo via Heather Armstrong’s instagram account
photo via Kristen Howerton’s instagram account
But the best aspect of the conference, for me, was a session I felt guilty for attending, because it coincided with two panels that included friends of mine. It was titled “Entrepreneur Tank: What I Learned on the Path to Shark Tank (and what I’ve learned since).” I’ve never watched the “Shark Tank” TV show, but I figured if I could glean a morsel of professional encouragement from the success stories represented, the 1.5hrs would be time well spent. It was awesome. Especially inspiring was Shelley Ehler’s story of success, failure, and then tremendous success after letting go of her stresses over a failing business and having faith in a new opportunity that took her to new places and levels of success she could have never anticipated. I might have wept. I wanted to thank her afterward but got tied up in a long conversation with a new acquaintance and had to rush home to change into this for the Iris Awards:
photo courtesy of Mom 2.0 Instagram feed
So, thanks for the encouragement, inspiration, and enjoyment, Mom 2.0 Summit 2014! Sincerely.
And if you’re the praying type (you, the reader, not you, the Mom 2.0 conference), tomorrow at noon eastern time, I’m going to pitch a large local law firm with a huge advertising budget to use me as its lone referral resource for workplace injury claims (as he only handles personal injury claims), because I learned from a friend in the medical field that the firm is unhappy with its current such resource. Succeeding will turn around the poo year 2014 (and the end of 2013) has so far been financially, so here’s hoping for the best. This weekend may very well have been exactly what I needed leading into tomorrow’s opportunity.