Creativity and new friends at the Blognix Retreat

As I drove home this afternoon my eyes were drooping with information fatigue, but my brain was buzzing with inspiration overload. Having just got home I felt the need to write all this inspiration down.

I was a last minute addition to the Blognix line up and with a busy couple of weeks ahead I was worried I was adding too much to my plate by putting together a last minute presentation and attending the retreat. Though this might be true (still tired!) I am so pleased I joined you all and got involved for the first time with Blognix.

 

As a seasoned travel blogger I have been to many travel blogging events and conferences and always feel leaving inspired and excited about the future. However Blognix is different because you are all from such different niches. Mummy bloggers, law bloggers, lifestyle blogger, fashion bloggers, health bloggers and the rest. Being surrounded by such a diverse mix of ladies and gents has left me with a whole new range of ideas that just don’t come about when you are with only travel bloggers. You have all been so friendly, caring and welcoming and I thank you ALL for a fabulous weekend.

A special shout out to Gavin, Lizzie and Karen who I loved talking to over lunch on Saturday and have left me feeling invigorated to pick up the dating side of my blog I have let fall by the way side in recent years. 😉 Huge amounts of love to my friend Monica from The Travel Hack for constant inspiration and friendship, and it was lovely to catch up with Rebecca from Lawyer in the Making, you’re going places lady!

I can’t write a blog about Blognix without giving a massive thanks to Elizabeth and Raj for being so lovely and friendly, and of course working so hard on pulling this all together. Average Chap… don’t forget your wedding blog for men!

There are loads more brilliant people I have met over the weekend so thank you to all of you. As a thank you from me, here are a few key takeaways from some of the sessions I attended.

Launching an e-product by Ximena de la Serna

Ximena told us her 5 step formula to launching an e-course or e-product.

1. Email list campaign  – once a week before your campaign send at least one email with useful information to your email list. It doesn’t have to be a big list, a smaller engaged list can do better than a larger less engaged list.
2. Facebook ads – create four Facebook ads to help promote your course and email list and see which works best. The Facebook ads are best for building your email list to add more people to the sales funnel.
3. Weekly YouTube video and blog content – Ximena did a weekly Youtube video giving away some of her tips and a blog post to give away a few snippets of valuable information.
4. Live and recorded webinar – This is the biggy for getting people engaged. Use Webinar Alley or Google Hangouts to get people listening to you live as you give away some of your super valuable information, followed by questions.
5. Instagram and Periscope – A live Periscope every day the week or two before your session is a great way to get more interested in your course and easy for live talks.

The main takeaway from Ximena’s talk was to give lots of valuable advice and knowledge away for FREE. If you really are an expert in your area then there will be plenty more information you can give away in your paid e-course.

YouTube

Amy’s talk on YouTube offered loads of great advice for setting up and starting a YouTube channel. Here are a few of the points I got down on paper:

• Sound quality is more important than image quality – research has proven this we’re told.
• The start of your video title is more weighted than the second half, so get the important stuff out first.
• Don’t forget to add your social links to your description under your YouTube channel.
• Tags aren’t shown on YouTube but they do work for search, so get tagging on every video!
• You can make clickable links to other YouTube videos at the end of your videos, though it is better to use the new ‘cards’ function on YouTube as this also works on mobile.

Time Management

I’m a lover of all things #GTD (Getting things Done) so headed to Holly’s talk to see what else I could learn. Holly gave us some great handouts to help with getting all that ‘stuff’ out of our brains and onto paper so we can start organising the important from the less important. Remember to focus on your goals is the main aim of the game! Not everything else matter … but some stuff does like feeding the kids 😉

• Schedule your time strictly
• Create routines that stick! – I love the finding something in the forest analogy, I’m not sure it will make sense to write down on here, but ask Holly if you missed the session.
• Multi task… well! What can you do when you’re on the tube, in the bath, waiting in line. Find tasks that can be done in smaller chunks at otherwise potentially wasted time points.

Creativity

I’m so thankful to you all for getting so involved in my creativity workshop and for all the lovely feedback I received afterwards. 🙂 Just as a little reminder here are a few of the key things I covered.

REJECT the Ordinary

Seek the UNKNOWN

NEVER be embarrassed

Be a child, Be curious, Be Playful

Remove negative people from your life 

BE HAPPY

De Clutter your mind 

Don’t be afraid of failure

Meet NEW people 

SLAY those Dragons – from limited to LIMITLESS beliefs!

And most importantly REMEMBER…

YOU ARE CREATIVE!

I’ve put together a Pinterest board you are welcome to join so we can share our creativity tips and quotes together 🙂 Let me know if you would like me to add you to the shared board.

On that note it is over and out from me, I think my bed is calling, I can barely keep my eyes open. If anyone is interested in getting involved with the Refugee Week campaign please do get in touch. I’m always on the look out for bloggers to review hotels for us at Room Auction too, so if that sounds up your street then give me a shout!

Hopefully see you guys again soon or somewhere in the Blogosphere x

Psst. If you’re interested here are a couple of posts that you might like too…

• How to Read more this year
• Make a decision
• Find your element