Let’s Get Personal: My Weekend at the Washington, DC Blogcademy

Image: A Muse Photography

A few weeks ago I attended The Blogcademy in Washington, DC – a 2-day long workshop focused on blogging, branding, and monetizing your business. I’ve been smitten with the workshop (and it’s amazing tagline, “No boredom. No bathering. No bullshit”) since I first saw it pop-up on Rock & Roll Bride’s social media accounts and blog a few years ago. I dreamed of attending, and lived vicariously through the instagram pictures of the workshops occurring across the world, never thinking that I would ACTUALLY get to attend.

Image: Val & Sarah

And then one day on Twitter I saw Kat tweet that they were launching a class in Washington, DC. I almost fell out of my chair in excitement. I couldn’t believe it – I never really thought they’d come to my city! I signed up immediately (Kat confirmed this at class) and was literally the first person to sign up. I then waited in anticipation for 6 months for the first day of The Blogcademy to arrive.

Pics from my Instagram!

I was SUPER pumped when Sarah of Val & Sarah and Maggie of Pop Wed Co! decided to attend too. While I am a totally type A person, I am not always that out-going/great at meeting people, so it was nice to have some friends that I knew AND also pretty rad to get to share the incredible weekend with 2 of my favorite friends in the DC wedding scene.

Click inside for the rest of my recap of The DC Blogcademy!

So let’s get into the nitty gritty of the workshop. I really didn’t know what to expect. I had read the reviews, and seen the results of attendance through other bloggers that I’ve come to know that have attended, but I can honestly say that the 2 days were worth every penny I spent. I left with 12 pages of notes, a to-do list the size of Canada, and a head FULL of crazy ideas of how to take Capitol Romance to the next level in 2015. Kat, Shauna, & Gala don’t mess around. Their tagline is true and their shared experiences are valuable – these are 3 strong, hard-working, and incredibly talented women that know what it takes to make their brand and business work for them.

Image: Val & Sarah

I’d say that I left with 3 main take aways from the 2-day workshop.

1. Content is king

No matter what your brand/blog/business looks like, in the world of blogging, content really reigns supreme. The Headmistresses couldn’t stress enough that the things you type on your blog, the content, is really the most important part. If you content is helpful and interesting – it is more likely to be read AND shared. I made it my mission to find ways to bring BETTER content to my readers for the rest of this year and next year.

2. Teamwork is important

Most people don’t get to the top by doing it alone. Teamwork and collaborating is a crucial and REAL part of being a successful business. One of our workshop exercises was to come up with 3 potential collaborations that could help your business. I was SUPER excited about this one (I LOVE collaborating) and am pretty jazzed to share that I’ve already started working on executing a HUGE collaboration for 2015 with one of my FAVORITE small businesses in Washington, DC. That’s it for now … but I promise there will be more on this soon. Also, if you want to collaborate with yours truly in 2015, please email me!

3. Hard work is everything

It really comes down to how hard you are willing to work to make your business a success. No amount of branding, content, or collaborations can turn into success without the hard work behind it. Being successful is hard work. Period. And if you aren’t willing to put in some crazy hours, take meetings (when you really want to be watching TV), hustle, and work it out – then maybe being a small business owner just isn’t for you!

Image: Val & Sarah

So where do I go from here? Well… I get to work. Work on better posts for you guys, work on collaborations for 2015, and work in general to not only make Capitol Romance better, but start to turn it into a REAL business. I want to work to keep my motivation up and my dreams crazy because though my swag bag was SWEET, it was the head full of IDEAS that I left with that I think were the real value.

Image: my Instagram!

[Side note. I pretty much FANGIRLED out when I met Kat of Rock and Roll Bride fame. Kat joked during our weekend that she once had 10 readers and I joked back that I am pretty sure I was one of those first 10. I found her blog back in 2008 before I was even engaged (!) and just started to think about the type of wedding I wanted to have with Andy. I read her blog religiously as a bride to be, nearly fainted when she featured a post of mine on her Thursday Treats, and continued to stay a fan as I ventured into the world of wedding blogging myself. I’ve admired Kat and what she’s done with her blog/brand for a LONG time and it was really REALLY lovely to get to meet her in person.]

And just as fast as it came, it was over. But Maggie, Sarah, & I did get to have a pretty epic bike ride to my house after Day 1 (the pictures are too funny not to share):

Image: Val & Sarah

I don’t think I’ll ever forget my weekend at the DC Blogcademy and I am really just so insanely excited to take what I learned and make it happen in 2015 for you guys. Be on the lookout (if you haven’t noticed already) for a few changes here – the look of the blog, the things we post about, and some really exciting collaborations in 2015. And as always I just have to thank YOU all, my readers, for making this blog possible. It’d truly be nothing without you :)

<3 Bree

Image: Val & Sarah