Voices of 2013 Masterclass

On Saturday, I had the pleasure of being in a room filled with inspiring women (and a couple of wonderfully confident men!) for the Melbourne Kidspot, Voices of 2013 Masterclass. I'm not one of the nominated blogs but feel totally inspired and motivated to work towards this in the future. 

How amazing are these chairs!
And the goodie bags - yipee!

First, we heard from keynote speaker Aleisha McCormack - comedian, writer and television presenter. That just seems to be too short a summary of what this incredible woman does and achieves. So funny! She spoke a lot about our brand and challenged us to write one page about ourselves and then distill it down to just two words. I can't imagine describing my 'brand' in just two words but I will give it a go. How would you describe me? 

Aleisha also spoke a lot about networking which is something I've been doing a lot of lately and I've already seen wonderful rewards - personally in terms of friendships formed and professionally in terms of opportunities for Lil Pip that I wouldn't have had if I didn't put myself out there. More on that in the coming months! 

How effective do these look?

After a short break (and more yummy food!), we heard from the first panel of speakers on 'How to refine your voice' lead by Herald Sun blogger Wendy Tuohy and including Karen Andrews of Miscellaneous Mum, Kate Forster, writer, author and blogger and Lou Pardi, Creative Director at Agency Marou. So many valuable tips and lots of discussion about voice. When asked about their tips and tricks for finding your authentic voice, they answered with:

Lou: "Write like you're talking to your best friend"

Karen: "Learning to self edit is a very valuable tool"

Karen: "Taking the time to craft a post is a good thing"

Kate: "Be yourself don't be anyone else"

Kate: "Read your blog posts aloud as you will see your double ups"

Kate: "Write every day. Write a thousand words. If you want it, write your thousand words!"

Another brief break and into our final panel discussion for the day - 'How to set yourself us for success' led by Nicole Avery from Planning with Kids and including Pip Lincolne, Meet Me at Mikes, Kate Ulman, Foxs Lane and Dave Jenyns from Melbourne SEO Services. 

Nicole opened with asking us to think about what success means to you. For some success could be securing a book deal, for others it might be measured in terms of followers or perhaps earning money from blogging. 

I 'may' have started the day with a blueberry
brioche from Chez Dre... just saying...

Kate spoke a lot about her journey, one that was not any overnight success but took two years until she had success with followers and a new book coming out this August. Dave spoke a lot about SEO which is something I deal with in my day job too. All very interesting points about how to ensure that your posts come up in google searches. He spoke a little about Google + which is something I need to research more! Finally, Pip spoke about her success and how she generated traffic in the early days - not going to share too much here as you might just see examples in the coming weeks! 

Thank you Ros from Sew Delicious for being my blog buddy for the day. It was great to go with another sewing blogger (those fashion and fitness bloggers are intimidating!). 

And I need to share a photo of the goodie bag - a bloggers equivalent of an Oscars goodie bag. Yay! I'll get one in good light rather than all these excited iPhone photos!

Enjoy
Jane

PS I may have squealed a little when Pip used my chair photo when she blogged on the Kidspot website.