She Speaks 2014

As a speaker, I love going to conferences to hear other speakers. I love to watch how they deliver, listen to their story telling, watch the audience's reactions and then their interaction with the speaker. I also love getting together with other speakers and picking their brains. Things like this only make you better. But there is one place where Christian speakers, writers, and bloggers can go to learn and be inspired; She Speaks. She Speaks was developed from the Proverbs 31 ministry. (www.proverbs31.com).

She speaks is a weekend conference in Concord, NC. You can choose to attend the two day conference (Friday and Saturday) or you can even start a day early with pre-conference classes. Totally not knowing what I was getting myself into, I decided to go to the two days to see what this was all about. I had had many speakers over the years tell me that I just had to go to She Speaks. This year after much prayer and feeling like it was where God told me He wanted me, I had no choice, I signed up! Luckily, Summer Saldana (www.summersaldana.com/blog) and Ruth Schwenk (www.thebettermom.com) two friends whom I virtually met during the Roo Magazine days (an online magazine that we were contributors for) but I had never met in person were going too and asked me to room with them! We were so excited about our weekend with lots of learning and laughs!

When I arrived at the hotel on Thursday Ruth was already there (she came a day earlier for pre conference classes). A couple of hours later after I had a little nap and Ruth had finished her classes, Summer finally arrived. Which meant "Let the slumber party begin"!! The night was filled with pizza, hair extentions and lots of laughs!

Friday morning started bright and early (especially for poor Summer since she lives on California time). We coasted our way downstairs, signed in, and headed to our first main session with Lysa Terkhurst! Lysa is an amazing speaker/Bible teacher. Our lesson that morning was on her new bible study "The Best Yes" it's about unrushing your life. We get caught up in our busy lives, we agree to do everything everyone asks us to do or we get caught up in the social media realm instead of focusing on what is actually happening in our lives right now. I believe this will be the next selection for my bible study group! The only problem is, it doesn't come out until Sept! After our morning teaching from Lysa we split up and went our seperate ways to our next class. My first class selection was "The art of the book proposal" taught by AJ Gregory. The class was great and filled with so much great info but if I'm being completely honest I think I was a little over whelmed. Next came lunch and then off to our second classes. My second class was "Finding something in to talk about" with Karen Ehman (whom I adore by the way). Right now when I speak I give my testimony, but I would love to be able to go back and speak at churches or places I've already been so I'm going to need more subjects and this class helped me figure out where to get more stories from. Then we had a nice little break before meeting back together and our last main session for the day which was lead by Christine Caine, teaching us how to be a God Chick! This woman is amazing! I wasn't aware of this Austrilian Jesus power house! She was awesome! If you ever have a chance to witness her teach I tell you GO!!

Saturday morning started bright and early with a main session with Renee Swope. Her teaching was so encouraging. I think she already knew that the devil was starting to attack a lot of us by telling us that we weren't good enough. Basically doing exactly what he does best, by attacking you every which way he can; especially when you're doing work for Jesus! She was so uplifting reminding us why we were there and that we already have what it takes to be what God wants us to be! My first class for Saturday was "Backstage pass to agenting" with Esther Fedorkevich. And by the way I love Esther too; she's a fun time! This class was great and very informative of what an agent does and doesn't do. Basically I need to get one! My second class was "Blogging basics" with Blythe Daniel. It was about how to turn your blogs into a book. This class wasn't really what I thought it was going to be but I'm pretty sure I took the most notes in this class than any other! Next came lunch where I got to meet up with my roomies! Then back to the grind with "I'm okay, but you're a little peculiar" by Lisa Allen; again this class isn't what I thought it was going to be about. I thought it was about speaking to different age groups but it was actually about when working with different personalities and making it work! Even thought it wasn't what I thought it was I really do feel like I learned a lot. From there I went to an advanced speakers class where we learned about building our websites around our personalities (which I will be working on) and learning about our wardrobe selections when speaking (which was very interesting). Next we all joined back together for a yummy dinner and our last main session which was taught by Lysa. She was so excited to share her heart with us this night and God's word. After another awesome teaching from Lysa we closed the conference with a dessert mix and mingle where all the session teachers were out to meet, greet, sign autographs and pray with you!

The entire She Speaks weekend was so awesome! First of all just getting to meet my Roo friends (including Summer and Ruth) in person not just over the computer. I am so blessed to have all of these ladies as a part of my life. Secondly the classes were so informative. I left feeling like I knew what I needed to do and I just have to get the ball rolling! But I also felt like my brain needed a break because there was so much information! I'll be going back to my notes for months to come! The girls and I are already planning on going back next year! I'm already excited to see where I'll be next year just from what I learned this year!

Have you ever been to She Speaks? What was your experience? Do you plan to go in the future? I'm excited to hear your thoughts!