Disney Social Media Mom’s Celebration – Long Island
Every year Disney invites bloggers down to Florida to partake in their Social Media Mom’s Celebration at Disney World. This conference is an invite-only event that I’d say most bloggers’ dreams would come true seeing that trail of pixie dust roll into their inbox. Well, Disney did something a little different the past few weeks and brought highlights from the multi-day conference in Florida to Long Island, NY, Charlotte, NC & Houston, TX for a 1/2 day event. I was lucky enough to get an invite to this celebration and re-arranged my life to drive from Boston to New York so I could partake in this unique experience.
As a blogger, whether it be here on ToyQueen.com or with my work as the Toys Guide at About.com, I cover a lot of Disney toys and movies. Though we haven’t planned to take our son yet to Disney World, now that he is 3 and starting to identify with the Mickey Mouse logo and various characters from his favorite shows on Disney Junior like Doc McStuffins and Jake and the Neverland Pirates, I know it won’t be long. It’s amazing how watching a television show, app or movie can simply cause a child to have a magical transformation.
Aside from networking with other fabulous writers and bloggers, we heard about Disney’s commitment to mom-owned businesses and heard from speakers like Susie Coelho, Debi Silber (The Mojo Coach), and Britt Menzies, CPA turned author/illustrator of StinkyKids. The bigger theme was that each professional shared their unique story, and how their passion led to the development of their personal brand and individual successes.
As a mother, wife, full-time employee, and blogger, it was amazing to be in the same room with so many entrepreneurial women. Being a blogger in itself is a profession that most people don’t identify with. They think it’s great that you might get some free experiences or products to share, but what other’s don’t understand are the hours of work that go into testing a product, crafting a post and highlighting an experience that pleases your readers, but helps to develop your brand. With the daily distractions in my home, at my work and in my email inbox, it can be hard to keep your sights on the long term goal and while now I have a close network of blogging professionals here in Boston, I often feel like I’m on my own island, as many of my friends and family members don’t understand why I enjoy burning the candle at both ends to be a professional blogger for most times, with minimal financial compensation.
I think the Disney Social Media Moms Celebration was great for me to take a minute to reflect on the success of my influence and how the passion for educating others turned into a business.
15 years ago I first contacted Fisher-Price and asked if they might send me a few of their toys that I could take on home visits to work with children and their families. Each week I brought toys into families homes, and often times, the following week I returned, with their living room full of the same toys in my therapy bag. Fisher-Price said they only provided items to people who lived in upstate New York at the time and though I thought this was something I’d like to do with other companies, I let it go, spending thousands of dollars in the toy aisles in my first year of work, trying to find tools kids would be motivated to learn from.
12 years later, with a visionary husband who recognized my passion long before I did, coupled with his knowledge of brand development, a creativity to reach out with complete strangers at Tweet ups and through social media channels, by blogging and starting conversations with strangers on Twitter, we were able to make personal connections with large companies that were otherwise unreachable and unapproachable. Through these connections and ability to write good content, I proved my worth to About.com (formerly a New York Times Company now owned by Ask.com) when I was hired as their Toys Guide. Though it hasn’t been easy, while I continue to work full-time to provide health insurance for our family, and getting to many of these events have been financially costly many times with an unknown outcome upfront, I have been recently hired by companies to provide consultation in the product development stages and been asked to spout my opinions on various television and webshows including Better TV and the Huffington Post.
Sometimes it’s so hard to see how far you’ve come until someone gives you a reason to stop for a moment, encourages you to value your self-worth and praises you for the difficult work you’ve set out to do, despite many people providing their negative opinions along the way.
So here’s a huge Thank You shout-out to Disney Social Media Mom’s Celebration team and panel members for taking the time to help individuals like myself keep the creativity flowing as we re-invent ourselves and our talents so that others can take our unique perspectives seriously.