I’ve been sifting through my thoughts over the last month and a half, having a really hard time coming up with what to write about Mighty Summit.
Aside from my posse of social media mavens in Utah, I can’t tell you the last time I went to an event and came home this relaxed, inspired, confident, boosted, ready to take on the world. I really wasn’t sure what to expect of Mighty Summit. A gathering of supremely smart, uber successful, brilliant, entrepreneurial women in one small hotel for the weekend? I had no idea what would happen.
I’m not being overly sentimental when I say I came home feeling more empowered than I’ve ever felt in my life.
Here’s the thing. I spent my youth attending church camps in the summer, hanging out with smart, awesome girls and women. I’m surrounded by smart selfless women in my neighborhood, at church, in my family. I’m no stranger to the strength and power women can have in creating and sustaining a community, whether it’s in a neighborhood or on the internet, but even I was surprised at the cohesiveness that took place in Napa.
It’s a pretty cool concept to start with, a gathering of women for a weekend of pampering and discussion, and life listing. It took a lot of work for the hostesses to create, and I can’t tell you how much I appreciated it.
But that’s neither here nor there.
What I really want to talk about is the community that came together at Mighty Summit, the community that can happen anytime, anywhere, if you make it happen.
I attend a lot of conferences for women. Conferences for smart, entrepreneurial, ambitious women who are ready to leave their stamp on the world. But something’s happened in the name of ambition that isn’t always pretty: competition. Competition isn’t inherently bad, in fact I think it’s pretty healthy in small doses, but it’s when the competition gets ugly and self-important and all encompassing that I start to have a problem. Competition that feels like it has reached an all-time peak in social media, something I try so hard to avoid at all costs.
I maybe expected a little bit of peacocking at Mighty Summit. You know what I mean? This astonishingly accomplished group of women, sitting around talking about the cool stuff we’ve all done and what we can take on next.
You know what happened instead?
Bonds formed, relationships cemented, goals were reinforced and supported. It was overwhelming. No backstabbing, jockeying for position to sit next to the person who could offer a rung in the ladder of success. We hung out, joked, cried, shared, became vulnerable and open and asked for a little bit of help in reaching our dreams.
We sat at a table in a winery and told each other the 5 things we’d cross off our life list within the year while women all down the table shouted out things like:
“I work in publishing, I can help you start a book proposal”
and
“I work with HGTV, we can totally get you to fashion week this Fall”.
How often does that happen? A pooling of resources to help each other accomplish your dreams? Never, that’s when.
We all walked away with 25 more friends than we started with, and with our arms linked we’ll conquer at least some of our dreams.
Imagine that.
Allison
Hello there! I'm Allison Czarnecki, founder + editor of Petit Elefant, a blog all about style on a budget for every part of your life: style / home / travel / family. I do a lot of how-to beauty + style tutorials, travel posts, easy recipes, home remodel projects, and cool DIY crafts you totally want to try. I'm super happily married (to a hot Polish immigrant) and am the mother of two kids, a daughter and son, all of whom are featured here on the regular. We live in the country but we're a little bit rock + roll. Welcome!
I am a firm believer in finding community and long-lasting friendship in the unexpected places we land ourselves. Oh, what I would give, to be a part of at least one Mighty Summit! It’s the basis for my existence in this massive internet world. Finding connections in the most obscure of places. Not allowing the forces that be in this online social scene to dictate who or what you’re typecast as being good at or niched as.
Simply, having a place in all places.
Thank goodness for cyber space.
I agree 100% Jess, cyberspace rocks the house.
And it doesn’t have to happen just at mighty summit, it can happen with your own posse of friends.
One of my favorite parts of the weekend was getting to know YOU.
And I LOVE that pic of Danielle. All the pictures are great, but I love that photo of her.
I feel 100% the same Cecily, I adored every minute I got with you. Every second.
You are lovely, and you are right – it’s lovely to be with other lovelys.
Aimee, I love you.
What an inspiring piece and how right you are about competition getting in our way. I would love to see the women of Mighty Summit mentor other women and create a larger more inclusive community. Selfishly, I’d love to be involved. This is exactly the kind of community that would light my fire and help me find more passion in my life. Let me know if you need an intern :)
The thing is, there’s room for all of us, truly there is.
I might need an intern, and I’m not even joking. I’ll keep you posted.
Thanks for posting this. Just today, I was thinking how competitive this world can be. How sometimes it feels like clicks and peacocking never go away. Glad to hear that in a room full of some of the most influential women online that this isn’t the case. Now if we can all follow your lead.
We can create pockets of this anywhere in the social media world, and set the tone for the industry in general. It doesn’t have to be ugly.
Oh that is wonderful. All of it, esp. that there was no back talk or peacocking. Is that the right word?
Who in Utah can plan something like this?
Any takers?
It would be wonderful.
Peacocking, yep. Showing your feathers, etc.
I think YOU could plan something like this! Seriously.
This post made me a little teary. It was pretty great to have you, lady.
And Veronica, we’re already figuring out how to make a bigger tent.
Maggie, the whole weekend left me feeling a little teary. Thanks for having me, it was amazing.
So very well written – it’s so important to surround ourselves by people that challenge and inspire us and not let the naysayers get too close (though I think it’s easy to forget that at times!). :)
Thanks Jan! I appreciate that.
I agree, I think it’s who we surround ourselves with, and what we put out there!
That sounds like an awesome, inspiring experience.
Your photos are GORGEOUS, btw.
It was pretty rad, I won’t lie.
Thanks, about the photos! I really really appreciate you saying that.
Women should run the world, it would be s happier place ;)
I couldn’t agree with you more.
What an amazing weekend! You all look lovely!
The only thing that would have made it any better is having YOU there!
I’ve been “away” from many bloggy-things, so I’m just reading this. That’s pretty special. I loved reading this.
I hope your time away was relaxing. For real.