I recently posted on my personal Facebook page that I am so excited to be speaking at a conference with the likes of Disney, IBM, Blackberry, Intel and Hallmark. When you look at the conference website you can see the speaker pictures scroll by with the names and businesses of speakers. And my name and business is listed right along side the guy from Disney or the gal from Hallmark!
When I spoke to the conference organizer about being involved in the Integrated Marketing Summit I never thought to ask who the other speakers were. I just knew that I was happy to share my expertise with branding, marketing and business with others. I love speaking at conferences and meeting interesting people. This is the part of my job that I thoroughly enjoy so I’m always happy to speak at conferences that are topic appropriate for me. Then just the other day I decided to check out the lineup of speaker and I must admit I had a moment where I thought how cool it was to be attending a conference to learn from those amazing businesses – then I realized I am one of those amazing businesses that people are going to go learn from! I wonder if the first time George Clooney met Clint Eastwood if he got a little excited about meeting such a great actor?
When I shared my excitement with my friends on Facebook one of my fellow entrepreneur friends, Karyn Climans who owns Tail Wags Helmet Covers, posted an interested comment. She said, “Your message is an important one!” And I couldn’t agree with her more. I have SO many friends who are entrepreneurs and small business owners and we all need to realize that we can be the next Disney or IBM! Why not?! Every company started from humble beginnings – from an idea – and they made that idea happen.
So I am now looking at this lineup with different eyes: