Stressed about writing a perfectly crafted first sentence to tantalize an audience and showcase how clever I am? Not me. Not ever again. If you take nothing else away from this post, take away this. Blog fearlessly.
Press Publish Phoenix was more. Simply more. More excellent information. More personal support. More wildalicious encouragement than I had bargained for.
Friday night rooftop terrace meet and greet. Dashing Dave escorted me then off he went with the boys to enjoy a night on the town.
Let me get this off of my chest. I went to Press Publish to learn how to use this tool called WordPress so in retrospect was unprepared. For example, prior to the event I didn’t read the speakers’ bios nor did I follow their blogs. So there I was, clueless. Translated into baseball terms, it would be like my non-fan friend, meeting my favorite MLB baseball player, Arizona Diamondback Paul Goldschmidt, at an event, listening to his presentation, shaking his hand, and sitting next to him while Adrien Gonzalez, Lorenzo Cain, and Nelson Cruz spoke. My cluelessness had the benefit of helping me to stay relaxed because I didn’t realize that I should have been impressed. Very impressed.
Wildly impressed is what I am now. In order of appearance, Katherine Fritz presented Also: My Blog Made Me Happy. Russ Crandall presented How I Found My Voice. Emily Austin presented Slow & Steady Wins the Race. Kathy Cano-Murillo presented A DIY Success. I purposely didn’t tell you the name of their blogs because I want you to look past the content of their blog for a minute to consider their presentations as principles for excellent blogging. I also want you to see their names. These are extraordinary people who happen to blog about topics ranging from twenty-something angst, to paleo-friendly recipes inspired by traditional cuisines, to family life as it changes and grows, to crafts, creativity, and business beyond the pale. Please click-through to their blogs and be inspired.
MacBook ready, I took notes with the help of Trello. Conversation the night before got me back to Twitter #presspublish. That’s Russ Crandall speaking.
Inspiration flowed freely not just from the speakers but also from those in attendance. Friday evening I attended a mixer and was immediately impressed by the organization of the event, the comfort of the facility, and the generous connection to other eager bloggers. On Saturday, there were upwards of 200 people enjoying each other’s company, brainstorming, and having fun. Attendees were upbeat, engaging, helpful, and encouraging to one another. I’ve attended conferences where the attendees dragged my personal experience down. Not here. These folks were extraordinary and I walked away with wonderful contacts to carry into my blogging future.
Into the future I will also bring a new connection and trust for the folks at Automattic who help make WordPress.com. These teachers, helpers, and happiness engineers are talented and interesting individuals who worked very well together. As mentioned earlier, I had come to Press Publish to learn how to use WordPress better. I received one-to-one help on several occasions regarding several matters related to my blog that are too tedious to mention without making my head spin! Again, these extraordinary people make me want to ask for their help in the future.
What are my favorite take-aways? The principles that will both support and guide me to be a better blogger? Heck, a better person? I’ll attempt to channel my intensity into something compact that has the punch of an espresso or a chocolate truffle.
Emily Austin touched my mama soul.
Believe in your blog and in yourself. This is no glib utopian positivity cliché. This is a fact. If you don’t believe in your blog and think it has value, then who will? This isn’t about perfection as a blog or as a person, this is about an honest effort to strive toward a beautiful perfection of messy humanness.
Work hard on your blog and on yourself. Hard work has nothing to do with thinking about working or dreaming about working or pondering about working, it has to do with…working. Put in the hours trusting that the process and the learning curve, will add up to something to be proud of. Press and publish.
Blog your way. WordPress offers endless opportunities to create and share amazing content via gorgeous and responsive templates. WordPress also offers ways to build a community through reading, following, liking, commenting, support forums, and events like Press Publish. Only I see life from my perspective and can tell my story. Only I can engage with others with my voice. Only I can contribute to this thing called life in my way. And that goes for you, and you, and you, too.
Did you attend Press Publish Portland or Phoenix? Please tell me about your experience if you did. If not, please ask me questions about it. I want to keep it alive for as long as possible, in the same way I want to talk about a Friday night party all day Saturday 😀 Would you like to attend one in the future? You can suggest a future location here.
Enthusiastically ~~~~~~~~ Angie Mc
Family Love Does More 
Oh, you lucky duck, Angie McFly! I’m glad the had a Press Publish conference in your hometown for you to learn, learn, learn. I would indeed go if there was a similar get-together near Syracuse. I work hard on my blog and my life, and my blog is about my life. So, yes, indeed, what you wrote here today has struck a chord with me. I look forward to you sharing lessons you learned that will help me be a better blogger, my friend. (By the way, I sent a cover letter and resume to Automattic when they advertised for Happy Engineers, but I did not get a reply. Darn it. I said I’d love to work with fellow bloggers and help pick out great writers and writing. I think I’m quite good at that.)
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Mark, suggest a city! Syracuse in it’s peak time of beauty perhaps? I would travel to get to this event, and that’s saying something.
I told my daughter that I would work for Automattic in a heart beat. Keep at, Mark. I can vouch for the fact that you are happy and that you care deeply for blogging, bloggers, writing, and life!
I know that the event was recorded but I’m not sure how those will be shared. I’m really hoping that they are made accessible. I want to relive it, like re-watching a movie to pick up all the details that I missed.
As for me and sharing what I’ve learned, where shall I begin? Anything in particular that you want me to expand on? I know this post was brief. Since we’ve followed each other for some time now, I hope you’ll notice a difference in how I approach blogging. So I hope you’ll *see* what I’m learning. For example, I’m pretty sure that this is my longest post to date 😀
Thanks so much for joining with me in my enthusiasm and ask away!
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I noticed this was a longer post for you than usual. I also noticed your enthusiasm was high end, but that is not unsual, Angie McFly. I will ask you questions periodically. Today: What is the most important thing you want to change right now to make your blog better, and most important thing you want to change gradually to make your blog better? Thanks, Angie McFly. I will keep your advice above in mind, too. Maybe a follow-up cover letter and resume are in order.
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The most important things that I want to change right now are mainly small tech things (ex: create a custom banner) as well as posting daily with the help of writing in advance. I’ll also change the way I interact with other bloggers. I highly value reciprocity so will spend less time with folks who don’t.
As for the long term, I want to increase my connection to other social media, such as Twitter, using my blog as my hub. I want to go social in a bigger and seamless way. I’ll be mastering Hootesuite.
Also, I’ve committed to this blog being my personal blog, something to have fun with, explore and be creative with. I really want to be available to others to help and be encouraging. I may even cobble together some classes, of sorts, to tap into the teacher part of me.
Dave and I will be starting a business soon (more on that later) which I’ll be running the social media and doing other consulting. Soooo, my work persona will be there and luckily for me, my personal blog will be complimentary. At one point I wasn’t sure if I would morph my personal blog into my consulting blog. These are exciting times for the McIntyres 😀
Yes, yes, keep at Automattic! I think that you and they are worth it ❤
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Very good, all of this, Angie McFly. I like your short-term and long-term plans. The educational role and business link-up are so you, and so valuable. Congratulations to you and Dave for the business start-up. Way to go. And, by the way, my motive with my question today was to get you to put these two to paper. You passed my little quiz with flying colors. Good job! 😉
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Ha! I already had it on paper (Trello to be exact) and that’s why I could answer so quickly, and succinctly (at least for me haha.) Thanks for having my back, Mark. I really do appreciate you and all that you do for others. I have *quite a bit of work ahead of me* so I’ll take all the help I can get!
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Well, there’s others, and there’s you, Angie McFly. I’m super happy for you to be revved up this way about your blog. My feeling is, when one of “us” — you know the small handful of which I speak — crack the WP code, it’ll help all of us get even better and maybe a little rise in numbers, too.
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Exactly, Mark! If it was you who attended, I know that you would share and pump me up! Heck, you have me planning a DC trip 😀 Here’s to the positive momentum moving us all forward and and up to great heights!
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Cheers, my friend. For one and for all. 🙂 ❤
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Sounds like such a wonderful educational and networking experience! Hopefully one will happen my way!
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It was, Vic! Go ahead and request a city near you. Since this is a pilot program, the more feedback WordPress gets that bloggers want such events, the better!
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I’ve seen tweets about this conference, so it was nice to read about someone’s experience there. Sounds like a great idea. Thanks for sharing about it!
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Oh Carrie, if you have a chance, to consider going. Let them know you’re interested by recommending a city to hold it at next. I would love to go again!
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Wow Miss Angie! Love it. You really hit the nail on the head with every point you made about Automatic and Word Press, top notch event, impressive speakers, engineers and staff in general. I enjoyed every minute and this is so fun seeing the conference from each other’s point of view. Looking forward to more, much more!!!
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Why thank you, Marlene! I’m looking forward to more events, too. Have you recommended Vegas?!!!
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That would be nice although I kind of of like getting out of town. I found a WordPress group here thru MeetUp. Signed up we will see how it goes.
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But I want to come to Vegas 😀 Keep me posted on the MeetUp. I haven’t gotten that far yet. Good for you!
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Nice recap, Angie! I do remember you asking Katherine about being preachy…something I worry about on my blog, too– I was nodding along with you from the front of the room! I’m so glad you felt uplifted and encouraged. Your blog looks wonderfully professional. I’m impressed!
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Oh, Meg, your feedback means so much to me! I’ve changed up my template recently and still have some tinkering to do. Since I don’t identify as a writer, more of a communicator, my blog is a place where I want to play around with the tool (WordPress) itself and learn new skills, like I really want to learn how to take better iPhone pictures. Thanks for stopping by and one of the Tags I’m going to start using is “Midlife” so I hope you’ll come back again.
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It seems you are often reinventing yourself, so refreshing. Will we be seeing Angie 2.0 ??? Van ☺
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Van! I take your observation as a high compliment 😀 The great thing about being at this season of my life is that I can keep what I know is good and right for me, then tinker with the stuff that can use improvement…yes, there is quite a lot of it, haha…in a good way. Reinvention keeps life interesting…keep me alive 😀 Although, you are being very generous with Angie 2.0, I fear the number is much higher than that 😉
Do you see yourself as “reinventing”?
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All my life, Angie, all my life. Never satisfied with the status quo ! ☺
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That’s right, sista! 😀
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Thanks for sharing….sounded like an incredible experience and here in Phoenix….sorry I missed it!
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Oh, Kirt, me too! Next time for sure. It’s nice to be the recipient of “under-promised, over-delivered.” I really underestimated what it would be. BTW, to you meet up with area bloggers? Is that something that would interest you? I learned that there are meet ups all over the place.
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No I really haven’t looked into that…time constraints. Interesting thought though.Thanks!
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Kirt, the event was so energizing and time efficient that I’m considering tracking down a meet up as a way to be more efficient and effective with my time. God knows I don’t need one more thing to do but if find a group that energizes, supports, and encourages, I just may need to find the time. I’ll keep you posted!
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Please do….thanks Angie!!
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