In Celebration of New Experiences

I have been to a lot of business events over the years running the gamut from INC 500 Fastest Growing Companies in America, regional and national soap conferences, meetings for micro and small businesses, Amway meetings, cruises, aromatherapy events and even a bison conference, but I have never been to anything quite like BlogPaws.

Coco the Couture Cat

First let me point out the obvious . . . I have never attended a conference with attendees who brought their cats, dogs, pigs, ferrets and rats to the event. I have also never attended a conference that celebrated and encouraged working with your pets.

I honestly was delighted at every turn. I worked the Cat Writers Association booth for a few hours, visited with all the sponsors, attended as many teaching session as I could squeeze in and met some amazing people. I came home with a bounty of samples for Gogo Naughty Paws to try out from the generous sponsors.

The Chestnut Mutts, Prissy_Pig and a ferret

I attended the conference on my own and absolutely never spent a moment feeling alone. Above all the content was some of the best training for bloggers I have ever encountered. What I learned from BlogPaws will make me a better speaker, writer, pet parent, blogger and more.

What delights me the most about what I have learned as I entered the pet marketplace is the realization that there are so many more communities out there to support small business owners than I ever imagined. I found BlogPaws and the Cat Writers Association as I searched Google for ways to promote my latest book Puffy & Blue: The Chronicles of Nine Lives. I found these two treasures in my search.

For me the discoveries are a great reminder that we should never repeat the seven deadliest words in business, “We never did it like that before.” I never even imagined I would listen to keynote speaker Peter Shankman (founder of HARO) sitting between two seatmates that literally had dog breathe. Thank God for new experiences and new routes of education and training.

I highly suggest checking out the BlogPaws Community if you blog about animals, photograph them, work in the pet industry or ever dream about it. If you are a cat writer or photographer check out the Cat Writers Association. Who knows . . . you just might find your people there.