Rekindling wonderful friendships in person, meeting new friends, being inspired by design legends, learning new tips to help our businesses and blogs grow, forming new collaborations…these were just a few of our favorite things from attending the recent Design Bloggers Conference 2015 in Atlanta, presented by Adam Japko’s company, Esteem Media.
We loved our time there, Hadley Court readers, and today, we’d like to share with you, from the 3 of us that were in attendance, our top takeaways and some fun pictures that we hope might help your businesses and inspire you!
With 3 of the 4 of us in attendance, we each took away slightly different things, but I think it’s fair to say that we took away one thing in common from the fantastic opening day talk by keynote speaker, Nate Berkus. We were inspired with a capital I!
Thank you, Nate!
So what did he say that inspired us so?
#GiveYourselfPermission – give yourself permission to be fully and truly yourself: as a person, as a designer, as a blogger, as a collaborator, as a friend. Has there ever been a better message?
He also said:
Give yourself permission to believe YOU are inspiring!
How wonderful is that?
In addition, Nate gave us a line that we will all never forget: #What’sTheFeather. He said he and his design team always ask each other, “What’s The Feather?” in any design project they begin which means: “What is the one thing that we can find that is the essence of who this homeowner is, and that we can make a focal point of our design for them so they will feel truly at home once we’re finished with our work for them?” Don’t you just love that?
After Nate’s inspiring opening talk, speaker Marcus Sheridan had a hard act to follow, but I took away a wonderful nuggest from his talk on content marketing, which I hope will help you, if you’re a business person, too:
He said:
“You don’t have to tell people exactly how much your services cost, but write a blog post that addresses this question, honestly, on your website and title it something like, “How Much Does It Cost To Work With An Interior Designer?” or “How Much Does It Cost To Install A New Kitchen?” or, “How Much Does It Cost To Work With ____ [ insert your name here }.
He said these posts get the most traffic because, in general, when people search on Google they already know they want to purchase something …but what they really want to find out is “What Does It Cost? and they are going to Google to find and read various independent articles about it so they have some sense of pricing before they call you.
As some of you may remember, I wrote this post for Hadley Court not too long ago, “How Much Does It REALLY Cost To Remodel A Kitchen in 2015?” and by far, this post has received the most traffic and comments of any post ever posted on Hadley Court, so what he was saying resonated strongly.
Leslie Hendrix Wood was sick, unfortunately, on the 1st day of the conference so she was not able to attend the opening day session, but she was able to attend the session the day before, at ADAC, given by her fellow volunteer Bienenstock Furniture Library board member, Jason Oliver Nixon of Madcap Cottage, and his husband, John Loecke. Leslie loved { as Lynda and I did, too } their fun, bold, playful and inspiring brand manifesto. There’s no doubt what you will find from the Madcap Cottage gents!
If you’re attending High Point Market, make sure to make time to go see their wonderful brick and mortar store there, at 128 Church Avenue, where this brand promise is on beautiful display. To get a sense of their entire brand at a glance, click on over to their HOUZZ portfolio here.
Thank you, Jason and John, for sharing your story and inspiring us!
In addition to the above, Lynda was particularly inspired by the talks of Brian Patrick Flynn, Bunny Williams and Texas’ Denise McGaha. Three common threads running through why she was inspired by them were:
1. They were all willing to humble themselves enough, during their careers, to realize they needed to learn from others.
2. Over time, they each discovered what their strengths were, and now they tightly focus their time and talents on those areas of strength to create successful businesses for themselves.
Brian Patrick Flynn focuses on DIY design tips.
Bunny Williams focuses on high end luxury design, antiques and gardening.
Denise McGaha focuses on designing with a deadline and working with clients who need a project done fast.
3. They each had varied backgrounds, which makes them, today, relatable and well rounded.
Below, is one of our favorite projects done by Denise McGaha. Isn’t it beautiful?
In addition, I was inspired by the talk of Charlotte, NC Studio 202 shop owners and designers, Lisa Herring Mende and Traci Zeller and Design Camp founders, Lori Dennis and Kelli Ellis on the power of collaboration, which is something we’ve long championed here on Hadley Court, a multi-author blog. Lori and Kelli coined the hasthtag, #CollaborationNation, at this conference, and we all loved it.
As you will see from this picture below of all 4 of these inspiring women, I first met Leslie Hendrix Wood when I was invited by Kelli and Lori to speak at their very first Design Camp event in Austin, Texas 3 years ago.
I share this because it is one simple example of how collaborating with others; in my case, agreeing to speak gratis for Lori and Kelli’s Design Camp event, because it was their first one, led to a wonderful professional collaboration with Leslie, that is now in its 3rd year.
Here’s Adam Japko, with Kelli on the left and Lori on the right.
And, speaking of collaboration, there has been no greater gift made to the design and furniture community than Leslie Hendrix Wood’s gift of The Hadley Court Center For Design Collaboration to the Bienenstock Furniture Library, which was named by American Craft Magazine as their #1 Small Craft Library to visit in the United States and which we invite you to read more about, here, and visit at the upcoming #HPMKT.
This center contains state of the art AV equipment and can be rented by anyone for use, at any time, for livestreaming or video-taping your events, seminars, workshops, etc. It was designed, free of charge, by fellow volunteer BFL board member, Christy Spangle of High Point’s Barbour Spangle Design. If you’d like to use it, please contact the library’s executive director, Karla Teague Webb at [email protected].
And Leslie Hendrix Wood was very touched and inspired, as we all were, by Mark Cutler of Nous Decors’ statements,
“A house should build on the future, while honoring the past.” and, “Believe in yourself and your future.”
Mark not only talked the talk, but he walked the talk, by announcing at the conference that his company, Nous Decor, would provide $2500.00 in matching funds to Dwell With Dignity‘s micro giving campaign, launched at the conference. For long time readers, you know that Dwell with Dignity is a charity we’ve written about extensively here on Hadley Court and which Team Hadley Court personally supports.
It is not too late to contribute your own micro-gift to Dwell with Dignity, either, and be part of this. Here are the simple instructions:
1. Type in a text to 41444.
2. Type in the message: DWD
3. Follow the easy prompts that will be texted back to you to make a donation.
That’s it! Easy peasy.
This is the last screenshot I took of how much money had been raised so far by just the people in the room. Later, Adam announced that his company, Esteem Media, would donate another $2500.00 on top of this and that the Design Bloggers Conference, itself, would donate another $1000.00.
Combined with Mark’s matching 2500.00 donation, that means that just with this one small micro-giving campaign, over $13,000.00 has been raised so far to help Dwell with Dignity serve even more families!!!
THAT is inspiring. THAT is the real meaning of #messagesofhope.
If you missed Kim Darden Shaver’s last post about Dwell with Dignity on DwD Kitchen Before and Afters for formerly homeless moms and their children, make sure to see it by clicking on the link below. It is beautiful.
https://hadleycourt.com/dwell-with-dignity-before-and-after-kitchens-offer-hope-to-moms-and-their-children/
Dwell with Dignity’s major fundraiser, their THRIFT STORE launch party event in Dallas will be held, by the way, at PIRCH, this Thursday, March 5th! Don’t miss it if you’re in Dallas!
And stay tuned for another post all about PIRCH, another inspiring example of #CollaborationNation.
Here’s one picture I took from the breathtakingly fabulous kitchen and bath showroom, PIRCH -Atlanta, opened just 10 weeks ago, to whet your appetite {no pun intended!} to attend Dwell with Dignity’s fundraiser at PIRCH – Dallas this Thursday night, if you’re a Dallas reader of ours.
Seriously, how amazing is this Le Cornue range in this color??
And, of course, we can never forget that it’s REALLY all about the shoes 🙂 ….like these worn by 2015 #HPMKT Stylespotter, Arianne Bellizaire, who Leslie Hendrix Wood +Patti Johnson Interiors – also both 2015 HPMKT Stylespotters who were in attendance at the conference, got to meet for the first time.
And it was great that Mona Delia, VP of Communications for High Point Market Authority, and in charge of the StyleSpotter program, was also in attendance and that #HPMKT was also a sponsor. Another great example of #CollaborationNation.
and about the wine…
And about always, always keeping your sense of humor in good working order… as Jonathan Alsop did in his talk, while we were enjoying the wines you see above. Thank you, Jonathan!
Mostly, we thank YOU, Hadley Court readers, for allowing us to share here, every week, what inspires us, what delights us, what we hope helps you…and on that note…
Here’s a picture Leslie Hendrix Wood took of top phone apps & tools to help you take better pictures at your next event, maybe the AD Show or #HPMKT?
And, we wouldn’t be true to our love for glamour and timeless design if we didn’t share this pic….from the Holland and Sherry showroom at ADAC – because who doesn’t get inspired by something this beautiful?
And readers: see Lynda Quintero -David’s post on her own blog, here, about her visit, with 22 other design bloggers, to Vern Yip’s home, to celebrate his partnership with sponsor, Fabricut! What a nice thing for he and his partner to do, right?
Thank you to everyone at Esteem Media and all of our friends who helped make this conference a very special event for all of us from Team Hadley Court who were in attendance. And, especially, thank you to each and every sponsor who helped make this event possible, but especially Hansgrohe USA, that Kim Darden Shaver wrote about here. They provided the scholarships that helped make it possible for 5 people to attend, who might not otherwise have been able to.
PS: Nate…this is for you. We found it on the floor, as we were leaving PIRCH.
for
Leslie Hendrix Wood
Interior Designer
Chancellor Interiors
Midland, Texas
Founder, Editor In Chief
Hadley Court
~~~
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