Dress: Hunter Bell [c/o] | Jacket: BlankNYC | Booties: Marc Fischer, Similar | Bag: Carrie Dunham [c/o] | Sunglasses: Burberry | Pearls: Love These! | Lipstick: Spice Liner
Photography by: Angie Garcia
I’m back and all unpacked from a busy weekend in Dallas the past few days. The Reward Style conference is always a treat as I enjoy learning from my peers. Anytime you work for yourself, that can be extremely isolating and you don’t get to experience the energy that coworkers can sometimes feed you!
In terms of inspiration, this year’s conference didn’t disappoint. Truthfully, I think hearing Kendra Scott speak was my favorite aspect of the entire weekend. I’d met her in person before and she is so dynamic, but hearing her speak to a crowd of bloggers was even more exciting. She said two things that really stuck with me:
“The word ‘no’ is merely a suggestion.“
The first time she brought her jewelry designs to a store she held them in a small box and had her 3-month old son in his car seat on her other arm. The first store told her, “No” and she said she viewed that as a suggestion. She joked that no spelled backward is ‘on‘ so it means the conversation is just getting started.
The second phrase that hit me was when she said, “I wanted to build a company that allowed me to be the best mom I could possibly be.“
There’s always so much talk about mom guilt- I discussed it in yesterday’s post- and there’s very little talk about how your career can allow you to be a wonderful mother. For some moms, their career is staying at home and for others, they need to be in a corporate setting.
Aimee Song was another incredible speaker. She’s a Forbes 30 under 30 and as down to earth as it gets. If you haven’t tried her sweet potato recipe, you must!
This is the dress I wore for the third day when I had the opportunity to teach some classes on time management and accomplishing goals in this industry. I look forward to sharing a rundown on our class, but in a way that hopefully can apply to people outside of the blogging industry.
I’m headed to shoot for a really fun giveaway that will be live on Instagram in the next few weeks- can’t wait for you all to see!
Looking SO good, Katey! ❤️ Love the dress and the leather jacket combination – very casual and cute! 🙂
Charmaine Ng | Architecture & Lifestyle Blog
http://charmainenyw.com
Your classes sound amazing! Man, I get where Kendra is going with that but am incredibly surprised she wasn’t advised to find another way to get the message across. I just taught my middle schoolers about sexual exploitation (required curriculum) and the power of saying no. We’ve made such a big push in recent years that “no” really does mean “no”. I can’t imagine someone thinking “no” could mean “on”.
Hi Mallory! Ahh, totally see your point on that and definitely wouldn’t want anyone to think I am encouraging it outside of what the context of the conference was. Thank you for commenting on that! I think this was just because she knew her audience was a group of bloggers in which she was talking about being told, “No” by brands that want to steal your content and not pay you, when they, in turn, earn money off your content. [That’s what the conference was discussing before she came on stage.] I think it was definitely just the specific scenario of owning your own business, not outside of that context. But 100% agree on how no means no in any other scenario as you said! Thank you for reading, girl! xo
Thanks for your thoughtful, response! You are the sweetest!
You look too cool gal! Crushing hard on this look.
xo Laura Leigh
http://www.louellareese.com
Love love LOVE this look. You look so cool!
That outfit is perfect. You are perfect!!! <3
XO, Katie | http://www.meshkomoments.com