My Experience at She Speaks

When I attended SheSpeaks, I felt very prepared to enter that space and meet with publishers to pitch my book.  However, I need to be totally transparent.  I didn’t walk in there with a winner takes all attitude, knowing that I would walk out with a deal.  I did feel confident in my preparedness.  I did feel like this was the year the book would publish.  I just didn’t put all my eggs into this basket.

Most people who know me will tell you that I come at things with an optimistic attitude.  At best, I knew I could walk out with an offer.  But, even if not… I was still walking into a wealth of information via the workshops.  I was also going to make connections and meet people journeying along my same path.  My experience at She Speaks was altogether everything I expected and so much more.

Before I even checked in to the conference, I found myself having breakfast at the same table as author Karen Ehman (I have quite a few of her books).  I walked away with some great tips that I’m already putting into practice.   I met several great ladies who had attended She Speaks before and they were incredibly helpful by sharing tips and their experiences with publisher meetings.

The workshops were packed full of useful information, I grabbed some books from the event bookstore that I’m excited about (including some studies).  I was able to have a few great conversations with other authors and leaders who were apart of the speaker line up, even met a family member on my husband’s side of the family.  The women were praying for each other, helping one another.  Not a spirit of competition in sight, and so much support.

It has been several months since the conference and I’m still in regular contact with women I met.  We are celebrating with each other, praying for each other through deadlines, journeying through the publishing process together, and it is a beautiful thing.

While I am grateful to have received interested and a contract for my book, that was just a highlight of the over all conference.  It gave me perspective, as a leader, of how I want women to feel when they come to events at our church or through my ministry work.