Healthier, Happier, You!!!!: #Blogher13 #Chicago LAWD it was a get-down-dirty-goodtime!

August 7, 2013

#Blogher13 #Chicago LAWD it was a get-down-dirty-goodtime!

So Blogher is like the Mothership.

I jumped onboard in 2009. A relatively new blogger who was simply seeking betterment, lifestyle change and a return to writing.

I began this very blog in 2007.

It was important to me, after so many years in criminal justice, that I see life through rose-colored glasses again! Shaklee had become an integral part of my new "green" world. There was a HUGE push on my part, to stop my stress eczema, lose weight, stop my pressure headaches - I knew that somehow blogging would clear my path of all the dysfunction and debris and set me on a righteous road. I simply had no idea HOW!

By 2009, I was part of a circle of social 'media-ites', so-to-speak! We commented on each other's blogs, we networked on Womenforhire , which, at the time, was an all female 'Facebook-like' tool. It appears to be something else now.

SO, enter BLOGHER! 2009's conference that was HERE in CHICAGO at the Sheraton! TA DA!!!!

IT CHANGED MY LIFE!!!

During the conference, I was walking around with my Social Media pal Liz, aka LOSANGELISTA ... OMG, I don't have a picture of myself with LIZ!

Everyone we met at the conference kept saying 'OH WOW, Losangelista HAS to meet CHICAGONISTA'. We heard it so much, it became an on-going joke until the last event we attended together at the John Hancock's 95th for a Nintendo Party! WHO should we sit next to but CHICAGONISTA, aka MJ Tam!

She is now my Social Media mentor, guru, bestie, and Noodle Partner.

BLOGHER 2013 #MULTICULTI Party

We even Bloghered to NYC last year and had SO much fun at the Halal Truck, and riding the subways at 3 in the morning it was ridiculous!

Here we are waiting to meet Michelle Obama in Chicago!

So, BLOGHER 2013 was a celebration of coming full-circle. This year I co-hosted The Multiculti party with these two AMAZING women ~ Ananda Leeke and Pauline Campos.

They are the antithesis of my wacky introversion, so together we were able to shine and encourage all of our fellow networking sistas to celebrate themselves!!

You see, I owe my social media persona to the ingenuity of Lisa Stone, Elisa Camahort Page and Jory Des Jardins.

Their vision of creating a homing front for women and brands has blossomed into an incredible network where woman have been able to meet, greet, vent, voice, and grow.

I certainly have been a grateful recipient! The friendships and learning that have come to me via Blogher, have propelled me in ways I have never even fathomed!

SO, as I sit and reflect on this past Blogher 2013 here in CHICAGO, I am filled with warmth, happiness, more goals and courage - all thanks to my sister-hood!