Learning How to Support Ourselves and Our Sisters

I was pleased to be invited to attend the Influencers of Midlife Summit months ago for an early bird discount, but at the time I didn’t have the funds available.  Then, a week before the event, I came across some new information on the event.  I suddenly realized I could now afford it but had to pay full price since it was the last minute.  I found a great flight package that included The Hotel at Avalon where the conference was being held.

I spent the money, cancelled all my plans for the weekend, and flew out to Alpharetta, Georgia, just north of Atlanta.  My goal was to learn more about blogging and to contact sister bloggers to collaborate with.

I learned so much that it scared me once I was back home in Detroit.  What made me nervous was the immense time commitment to social media that I heard was necessary.  Can I really spend two hours a day on social media when I do not yet have money to hire help?  That’ll be the big question for my technical assistant @fuzzytek at our next meeting.

The best thing about the Influencer of Midlife event was being surrounded by women in their 40’s, 50’s, 60’s and beyond who were full of youthful vitality putting their unbounded energy into big goals.  They prove that later in life we are wiser and more capable than ever before to do things in a bigger and bigger way.  Age truly doesn’t matter!  

And the host of the conference, Robin LaMonte of the blog “Hello I’m 50ish” is now into her 60’s and a fireball of energy and business savvy.  Partnering with Robin to set up the conference was Nina Bandoni of the blog “Sharing A Journey.”  Nina says it all started with a telephone conversation they were having last year about Wellness Wednesdays, the series they have been doing since April of 2018.

Initially, Wellness Wednesday was planned as a short-term challenge series of blog posts by several bloggers designed to encourage their readers to take an action toward doing something new toward living their best lives.  As the bloggers talked, they began to see greater potential for a deeper conversation, one that women didn’t seem to be having in person or in other groups…  As Robin and Nina discussed this, they thought it would be nice to have a larger gathering…maybe at a restaurant, Nina said.

The dialog grew, bloggers and readers asked Robin and Nina to host a get together to further and deepen the discussion on wellness and dive into social media and blogging as well.  And the idea of creating a summit was born.

As planning progressed, Robin’s ideas became bigger and bigger until it ended up being a full-blown weekend conference.  This event turned out well and Robin has new ideas for even more improvements and enhancements for next year’s event!

Once I arrived at Atlanta International Airport, I wasn’t the only conference attendee that encountered a difficult experience with getting a ride through Uber.  I got pointed in so many different directions as I was looking for the Uber Carpool, that I traversed the parking structure with my luggage at least four times!  Meanwhile, while trying to find my drivers, they cancelled my ride twice.  I wasn’t getting any reception on my phone under the parking structure roof so I couldn’t communicate with the drivers.  Finally, I happened upon the pickup location and some of the bystanders helped me to contact and find my third promised driver.  Luckily for me, my driver was an angel in disguise who stopped picking up other riders so that he could get me straight to the entrance of the hotel.  In the end, the trip from the airport to the hotel took two hours.  Other attendees at the event also endured a two-hour trip to the hotel but were not as lucky to have a good driver.  They had all sorts of horror stories and described their drivers as devils!

When I arrived at the brand-new Hotel at Avalon which sits within the upscale Avalon Shopping Center, I entered my deluxe room with a king size bed.  The luxury accommodations feature boutique décor and plush bedding.  It was roomy, beautiful, and a joy to live in for a couple days.

The restaurant and lounge on the hotel’s main floor was packed every evening after the stores closed in the surrounding shopping center.

Because of the delays, I didn’t arrive in time for the welcoming cocktail party at Kendra Scott.  But I was able to attend the scrumptious dinner and meet the first group of bloggers to arrive for the weekend.  Every single meal at the conference was awesome.  Kudos to their chefs!

As an offshoot of Wellness Wednesdays, the conference included talks on health, wellness and self-care:

• “Oh the places you will go,” with Molly Mathis of Mojo Active Adventures
• The Power of She, featuring Athleta‘s brand ambassadors on Mojo Adventures, Lift Yoga and Juice 3:8
• New Year for a New You all about HGH, with Elizabeth Lynn Frye
• Managing changes in your hair, and the beauty of body contouring, with Courtney Pantelis of Anderson Center for Hair & Aesthetics
• Hydra facials with Paige Conner of Luxury Lash Lounge
• How to combat aging skin after 40, with Vianka Garza of Aesthetic Body Sculpture and Center for Anti-Aging
• Set the table with love, with Lisa Washington, CEO of B’Tyli Wellness and Beauty Co.
• Top surgical and non-surgical options for facial rejuvenation, with Dr. Burke Robinson of Robinson Facial Plastic Surgery

The focus of the Summit was to help each other grow as women and business owners, by learning and sharing with one another.  There were presentations across the spectrum of the blogging business:

• How to create better photographs with Jessica Jane Photography
• Keynote speaker Brenda Coffee of 1010 Park Place, a blog for women over 50 where no topic is off limits
• You Want to Blog? with Nina Bandoni of Sharing a Journey
• Grow your social media platforms with Robin LaMonte of Hello I’m 50ish
• Interested in writing a book or an eBook? with New York journalist Deborah Chase of the No Nonsense Beauty Blog
• Working with brands with Jessica Conick of Soft Surroundings and Nina Bandoni

Hello I’m 50ish is based on the theme “Live Your Best Life Now.”  In keeping with that theme, Robin LaMonte welcomed Best Self Magazine of Atlanta to join the event.  Owner and publisher Sherri Adair helped Robin and Nina to welcome us at the opening of the conference on Saturday morning.  The magazine focuses on fitness, beauty, health, fun and nutrition in later life.

There was a delightful fashion show given by J.Jill, modeled by some of their customers and employees.

On the Influencers of Midlife website, Robin states:

“While the Influencers of Midlife is mainly an online community, we do plan small get together/give together events throughout the year, and through the Facebook Group.  We are focused on taking action in life, not just talk about it. And while we love a good get together, we like there to be a takeaway, something learned, something shared, something is given, something gained.”