The Creative Connection

“There are women who come together at this event who are willing to help you along, to answer your questions, to mentor you, or for you to mentor depending where you’re at in your business. You are NOT alone in your journey and you will certainly discover this when you attend

The Creative Connection Event”  -Tara Rex

Hello everyone! I’m Tara from taradara, a WAHM of 2 little handsome boys with a handmade sewing business.

I would like to share my experience at last year’s The Creative Connection Event with you. There are so many WONDERFULLY AMAZING things I could say about The Creative Connection that it might get a bit much, but here we go … I decided to attend the event about 2 weeks prior to it happening. I had visited the Where Women Create blog for months and secretly wanted to go so bad. However, I was on the fence about if I could afford it as I have a young family and my business was just starting out so I wasn’t sure if I could ‘afford’ to go. One night, we were both in the office and I was looking at The Creative Connection Event details. I got the nerve to propose the idea of me going to my husband and his response was, “How can you NOT afford to go?” I totally agreed with him, but needed to hear it from him so I didn’t feel completely selfish for going {how many of you can relate?} We looked the line up of speakers and teachers and thought it would be a great fit for my business. When I got there, I had NO idea of how many phenomenal women were there!

Never in a million years had I thought of ever being in the same room with Amy Butler, but there she was! Ree Drummond, the Pioneer Woman, one of the sweetest humble women I know was there.

Just the caliber of these female entreprenuers was through the roof! I met and talked with Gussy, who I’ve followed for a long time and am even more in love with her now since we’ve met. The connections and relationships that were made at this conference was off the chart! I met a gal from Montana who is now one of my closest friends.

The networking was overwhelming {for me} because I wanted to talk and connect with EVERY women there. However, the women I did connect with were very genuine connections and we are still in pretty close contact today. I went there not knowing exactly what to expect and came home with a considerably long list of ‘to dos’. The classes offered last year were just what I needed starting out. I went there with a business card that had my name and my etsy store address. After listening to everyone, I knew how important it was for me to start blogging and getting on twitter. I, like so many others, had no idea how much these two social media outlets were going to extend my reach for my business. I exchanged business cards with almost everyone I spoke with. I visited their blogs after returning home to see what they were blogging about as I had no idea how or what to say when I first started. With my own ideas, I mustered the courage to begin my adventure in to the blogosphere. In fact, my very FIRST blog post was about my experience at The Creative Connection! And my very FIRST photo post is of myself and Amy Butler at The Creative Connection. With that said, I now have a business card with my name, my store, my blog, facebook page, and my twitter handle … LOL! The Creative Connection really covered a lot of bases when it came to having an online handmade business. They had experts in social media offering their knowledge to those starting out {like myself} and to the seasoned veterans. They had Etsy representation who helped by having sessions on selling on Etsy. They offered critiques of your store which was worth so much to me. They had well established handmade business women who shared their personal stories of when they started out which was so nice to hear as it was exactly where I was a year ago. There were book and magazine editors giving talks on being published! Wow! Now, that was something I really wasn’t expecting, but it got my imagination and dreams heightened. Having ALL of these knowledgeable resources in ONE conference was truly beneficial for a new handmade business owner like myself. Being at this conference completely opened my mind to the OPPORTUNITIES that could be in my future and how I could go about attaining them. I took notes as fast as my hand could write. I wanted to attend every session as I wanted to absorb ALL that was there to take in. Taking notes is not something I usually do because I ‘think’ I will remember it all or the important parts. Well, if there’s one piece of advice I have to someone attending The Creative Connection for the first time, it’s to take an empty notebook and be prepared to fill it up. My conference notes are invaluable to me as I revisit them frequently and I recall different parts that I didn’t necessarily recognize a time before. It’s funny because while I was taking notes, I was thinking “I probably don’t need to know this right now”, but I’m glad I had them to refer to as my business has grown in the last year and I’m using those notes at different stages of my business growth. Every person starts somewhere with their business. We all have been there where we’re trying to get ‘out there’. I was so novice last year but I feel that I have grown as a handmade business women and as a blogger. I have started a series called “What I Wished I Knew When I Started Blogging” that features various established bloggers sharing their insight, tips, and advice to blogging newbies. There are handmade business women, DIY bloggers, TV personalities, and lifestyle bloggers who have contributed. I am so grateful to The Creative Connection Event as it connected me with so many women {of whom are contributors to this series} and it provided me with the confidence to reach out to others. There are women who come together at this event who are willing to help you along, to answer your questions, to mentor you, or for you to mentor depending where you’re at in your business. You are NOT alone in your journey and you will certainly discover this when you attend The Creative Connection Event {they didn’t pay me to say that!}. What I learned and the connections made at The Creative Connection was just what I needed to kickstart my business.

Words cannot express how grateful I am and how much I love my husband for giving me the extra little push to attend this event.