As some of you know I have "retired" from my 8-5 job at a conference center. I started there when I was a wee bebe of 18 years old. I never thought I would stay there as long as I had, but through the years they worked with my schedule to allow me to train and travel for judo, attend and graduate college and now build a business. After 16 years of working split shifts, 12 hours days, and for someone else, I am happy to report that I get to make my own schedule now! WOW it feels good to be my own #BOSS.
It has been a few weeks of this new transition and I am still adjusting to the realization that I am able to be home with my kids in the morning and afternoons, go on field trips with them, make them breakfast and dinner, all the while, building Sarah Viera Event Planning & Design! (SVE) It really is a dream come true!
With my new found glory of an extra 40 hours a week it feels great to know that I can actually meet vendors, venues and clients during the normal work week! So I took my first step at networking and signed up for Stacie Francombe's #ISSEDenver seminar. The event took place at the beautiful Spruce Mountain Ranch in Larkspur.
We started off the day finding out how we can Be Brave in our business in the coming year(s). For me, I realized in order to be MORE brave I needed to set some goals for the business and stick to achieving them. Every year I set large goals and those are often times easy to accomplish, but its the small, growing your business, nitty gritty goals that need constant attention. Being so inspired from Stacie's talk that day, I went home that night and made a monthly routine schedule of how I would like the weeks to follow. I included days where I work on things solely for the business. (The inside, behind the scene business needs). I also included days where I work on just my clients, as well as days of going out and meeting and networking. The key to my success with this goal....is to stick to the routine!
One of the best sessions was learning how to balance both life at home and life in the "office". Working from home has and can be a challenge if one does not learn to differentiate the two. The key message I learned was to treat my family as if they were a client. We would not pull out our cell phones and post on Facebook or answer the phone in the middle of our client talking if we were with an actual client. So I make this promise to myself, my kids and husband to treat them with the same respect I treat my clients!
It was such a fun, inspiring and educational day. I met tons of amazing vendors in the industry, had a delicious lunch provided by Occasions Catering and lots of yummy snacks and treats from so many participating vendors.
One of my favorite items in the swag bag was the portable cell phone charger! Yay!!!!! I totally needed this! And the shawl from Splendor For Your Guest, which I am currently wearing now!
Thank you so much Stacie for the amazing and fun experience. I am so thankful for meeting you and learning so much.
I highly recomend attending any one of Stacie Francombe's ISS Experience . In November she will be in Riviera Cancun with the likes of Amy Atlas (who I would LOVE to meet!!!!), Sarah Haywood and so many more! (Now just to convinence my husband we need to go!!!)
