I was lucky enough to be selected to attend the Better Homes and Gardens Stylemaker event in New York. This has been a bucket list dream of mine for the past 6 years!! It was truly an honor to be surrounded by such smart and creative individuals!
I met the editors of Better Homes and Gardens at a conference I went to last year. After pitching them a few story ideas, I straight out asked about this event, since it was a dream of mine. I thought, worst thing that could happen would be hearing a no. So why not ask and see what happens. Well, what happened was an email saying “save the date”.
I was beyond blown away that I was selected to be a part of these incredible creatives attending this event. So I got myself ready and headed to New York…but I do have to remind you that I am truly an introvert at heart and hadn’t met anyone in real life, other than one friend of a friend one time at the conference and another local blogger!! I was rather anxious about the entire thing. See, I like being at home in my pj’s than out socializing. But, since this was truly a dream, I wanted needed to attend without fear! I put on my big-girl pants and headed out to the big apple to show those editors what I got!
Throughout the day, I had a ton of incredible take-aways. There was so much learning going on from other creatives and the presenters and the editors!! Now, this post could easily be a novella, I will keep it to my 5 biggest take aways from the event!
My Five Take-Aways From The Better Homes and Gardens Stylemaker Event
All pictures are from David Keith Photo.
You Life KPI’s Matter
The very first presenter for the Stylemaker event was going to be Marie Kondo herself! But she won an award and had to be in California, so her head trainer, Patti Morrissey take the stage. Her talk was about your life KPI’s. KPI’s are key performance indicators. These are what drive businesses. So she made everyone in the room really think about their life KPI’s. Not so much the numbers, but the intangible things. For Patti, one of her life KPI’s is to always have a place to eat fresh berries in the morning. It is so specific but so important to her.
It really made me think about how I can flip what my focus is on, especially when I was surrounded with huge bloggers and YouTubers, who have hundreds of thousands of followers. I got so intimidated before I sat at the table with other bloggers. But as Patti was sharing, I quickly realized that my focus shouldn’t be about the numbers, but rather it should be about my life goals.
She had everyone sit and think about your life goals and write them down on a notecard she provided. I truly appreciated her chat!
You can read more about her life KPI’s here.
Creativity Can Come At Any Age
After a short break, Marian McEvoy got up to discuss her career with Better Homes and Gardens editor Stephen Orr. Their discussion shared a journey that Marian took through the years of her career. She was fashion editor for Women’s Wear Daily then French Vogue, which led her to start Elle Decor. From there she was the editor of House Beautiful. Now she is creating incredible prints using flowers on anything from canvas to lampshades to tables.
Her journey through it all was very inspirational to hear. She shared that she said yes to everything, even if she didn’t really know what she was doing. I appreciated that honesty because it is easy to feel that everyone else knows that they are doing, when, in fact, they don’t!
By saying yes to new adventures, she was able to transform her life and career into something she said she could only dream of. Which was so great to hear that at any age you can transform your life with your creativity.
To see Marian’s home tour on Better Home’s and Gardens, read more here.
A Lot Of Work Goes Into Podcasts
After lunch with some friends, we got back to learning all about podcasts at the Better Homes and Gardens Stylemaker event. To be totally honest, I wasn’t super excited about this chat since I don’t have much interest in creating one. But as the panel was sharing their thoughts, I learned a ton for starting, maintaining, and sharing podcasts. There is so much that goes into them that you sometimes forget!
Now, whenever I am listening to any of my favorite podcasts, I am truly grateful for them taking the time to produce great content.
Enjoy Your Journey
Finally Bobby Berk (from Queer Eye on Netflix) was up chatting with Jennifer Stagg (a Better Homes and Gardens Stylemaker and incredible interviewer). Bobby shared his journey to finding his calling for design. He also said yes to any opportunity that came around, leading him to apply to Queer Eye. This just reiterated the point that saying yes when you aren’t ready or unsure could lead to life-changing events. So you just have to take that leap and figure it out as you go. It will totally be scary, but it will most likely be worth it in the end!
Celebrate Your Accomplishments
After an incredible day of chatting, we got to celebrate with a rooftop party! As I stood there, looking out over New York with the sun falling, I really was able to take a step back and appreciate all I have accomplished to get myself to this event. This blogging thing is hard work. There are hours that go into creating the blog post, editing, and all the tech stuff as well. The fact that I figured that out is a huge feat. So to be able to stand on the rooftop with other incredible bloggers doing exactly what I was doing made me feel at home. Like, they get it too. They understand the algorithm changes and how that affects our revenue. The other stylemakers understand the tech pieces that are confusing to figure out. They get how long it takes to create content. It’s like an unwritten code that everyone who truly does what we do gets it. The amount of work it takes. But that it is totally worth it when rewarded with events like the Better Homes and Gardens Stylemakers.
I will be forever grateful for the opportunity to be included on the list of Better Homes and Gardens Stylemakers. I hope to do good things this coming year with all the knowledge that I was awarded at this event. It was truly amazing!
