I attended my first BlogOn conference in May this year. To say I was nervous was a huge understatement. I’m actually not entirely sure why I booked a ticket. It’s so unlike me to step out of my comfort zone like that and book a ticket to something by myself, when I don’t know ANYBODY. It was during that downtime between Christmas and New Year when I was getting serious about launching my blog come January first. The combination of knowing I needed support as well as too much Pinot resulted in my purchasing a ticket immediately. Back in December I was obviously confident, I mean it was months before I would actually have to attend!!
I joined the BlogOn Facebook group which got me excited at first and then it completely dawned on me that the date was looming and my anxiety soared! I had great intentions that I would get chatting to people before the conference but I hadn’t actually bitten the bullet and said anything. I realised I had just lurked in the Facebook group reading other people’s post making myself feel more and more nervous.
It’s incredibly daunting to ‘put yourself out there’ as an adult. There is this unspoken fear of rejection. I contemplated cancelling my ticket but the actual content of the conference sounded so appealing I was torn. I didn’t want to spend the conference alone so I put my big girl pants on and I posted a message in the Facebook group!
Within minutes I was flooded with reassuring messages, friend requests and just genuine words of kindness that just put me at ease. I’ve been to conferences before where it’s filled with cliques of people and you end up sitting awkwardly in the corner vowing never to put yourself through such a thing again. Blogon is not like that! I have genuinely never met such wonderful, welcoming and friendly people before. I was worried that because my blog wasn’t as established as some I would be at some kind of disadvantage like I was a fraud who snuck in the back door! It’s not about page views or follower numbers – it’s simply a group of people who all share the same interest hanging out, bouncing ideas and having a good old giggle!
Tips for Heading to BlogOn:
- Introduce yourself in the Facebook group!
- Book a ticket to the launch party!
- Make sure you have a suitcase for the day – seriously you WILL need it!
- Get ready to learn new things and meet a whole bunch of wonderful people!
- Stop worrying!!
I am so excited for Blogon Xmas and I realise now that my anxieties and worries were so ridiculous!!