Creative at Heart is one of the BEST experiences I’ve ever been a part of. Going into it, I knew it was going to be incredible… but I didn’t know just how life changing it was going to be. It’s given me the tools I needed to have good mindsets in my business (and life) and being surrounded with community there was so refreshing.

I road tripped down to the conference with Monica, another wedding photographer! She used to be from Ohio, but recently moved to Indianapolis. I absolutely LOVED getting to know her as we made the trip down there! Not only was she so fun to hang out with, but ya’ll, I LUCKED OUT on amazing roomies. Abby and Justine were seriously the best as well. We all clicked so well and I know we created friendships that are going to last a long time! Abby is a shop owner and Justine is also a photographer + videographer!

I learned so much from this conference from a mindset standpoint. For example, Nancy Ray’s talk on not living in a mindset of scarcity was life changing to listen to… she shared all about how we, far too often, have this mindset of not having enough. Waking up and immediately feeling like we didn’t get enough sleep… looking at our to-do list and feeling like we don’t have enough time to accomplish everything. But wow, when you flip that around and think, “I’m grateful I even got 8 hours of sleep with a roof over my head,” or, “How amazing is it that I have a business that keeps me this busy?” THAT is such a mindset change that I’m so grateful to be aware of now.

I also loved Laura Foote’s keynote + breakout on Strengths. This woman is amazing!! Since I was attending her breakout, I actually took the Strengths Quest test to see what my strengths are. All of them were no surprise to me, except one… individualization. The other four were Activator, Achiever, Belief, and Responsibility, all of which totally made sense to me… but individualization was a bit of a shock! However, when I thought about it more and noticed things about the way I am, it totally makes sense now. Essentially, individualization is being really good at noticing traits about other people and also instinctively knowing how people can work well together. I’m excited to see how I can use this in my business in ways I never would have thought about before!

Laura also had us do a really interesting exercise… she asked us to write our signature with our dominant hand. Then, she told us to write the same signature with our non-dominant hand. It was REALLY hard and we all agreed it’d be a total waste of time to sit there all day and try to learn to write with our non-dominant hands. But we do this in LIFE… we focus on the things we are weak out and spend so much time trying to “fix” them that we forget to focus on our strengths and EXCEL at those! Far too often I have focused on my weaknesses and I’m really excited to start focusing more on my strengths and how to use those to scale my business even more!

I could go on and on about how amazing all the talks were… Kat Schmoyer (the amazing mind behind the conference), Shanna Skidmore, Katelyn James… Katelyn gave her talk at the end and left us all tearful but inspired. I love how she points everything to the Lord and keeps Him at the focus of everything, even when speaking! It’s so refreshing and incredible to see women of God (as did many of the speakers at the conference) mention Him and point things back to Him. It’s so evident that He was working throughout the whole conference and I’m so grateful for everyone who helped it come to life, especially Kat!

There are SO many more things I could say, but I’ll wrap it up by mentioning that regardless of everything I learned… from the nuggets of information I learned from the more practical talks, to the breakout on watercolor brush lettering that was SO fun and relaxing…

However, one of the best things about this conference is how much you were being poured IN to. I came feeing a little burnt out from how busy I’ve been this whole year so far… It’s been a crazy year with my last semester of college, then jumping right into busy season with lots of weddings and sessions! But I left Creative at Heart feeling so energized and filled up. The community there is unlike ANYTHING I’ve ever experienced before. From day one, you’re welcomed with open arms and everyone became fast friends… even if you hadn’t formally met someone yet, you felt as if you already knew them as you walked around and hung out throughout the day! You were surround by dozens of people who were pursuing their passion, just like you were… and that is something I will never forget. Not only were the attendees just like you, but the educators were SO present and available and hanging out with everyone too during the entire conference.

Thank you SO MUCH Kat and the Creative at Heart team for putting something together I will never forget, and that truly is impacting my business for the better. Thank you from the bottom of my heart, I am so grateful!!

Creative at Heart was held at WinMock in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, where a lot of events and weddings are held. It’s an amazing space! I managed to squeeze in some photos here and there so here are some from the conference! Truly a week I wish I could experience over and over again: