Processing… processing… processing...

Processing… processing… processing…processing…processing…

⚠️ Warning: information overload ⚠️

I’m a few days out from the end of Craft + Commerce, and this is what my brain feels like.

For the uninitiated: Craft + Commerce is Kit’s annual conference for creators. Conveniently located right here in Boise, meaning I got to do things like hike my favorite trails with fellow attendees. Prove to people that Idaho has more than potatoes. And perhaps more importantly, walk bike & sleep in my own bed every single night.

(Gosh, I wish all conferences were like this.)

Anyway, here’s what my still-stuck-in-processing-mode brain is taking away so far. (Part 1 of 2, though TBD on when part 2 is done buffering in my head. Only time will tell!)

1) Get yourself in the room.

I love a good business crush. (Don’t we all?)

You know, those people whose work you’ve followed for years, whose emails you always open, and who you occasionally find yourself social media stalking just because.

At C+C, I got to meet some of mine in person.

Like Liz Wilcox, the self-proclaimed Fresh Princess of Email (and who I also happen to have a little collab coming up with, stay tuned 👀).

Tarzan Kay, one of the first copywriters I ever followed and looked up to.

And Courtney Spritzer, one half of the Entreprenista founding duo – and, as it happens, a previous client of mine!

(Plus like a gazillion others, including this spectacular group of women I had the privilege of masterminding with the Saturday after the conference.)

2) Respect the introvert (and know thy limits).

There was a group dinner one night that I skipped.

And it might just have triggered the mother of all FOMO moments for me.

But there really was no way around it. I consulted the social battery spreadsheet in my head, and I knew, with complete and utter certainty, that if I didn’t go home, decompress, and give my brain a full reset… I would not have survived the following day.

Despite the guilt I felt about it initially, I was totally right.

The next day, I was able to show up functional, caffeinated, and fully capable of human interaction. (Which served me well, given I was at the event from 7:30 AM - 11 PM!)

Much better than the alternative timeline where I went to dinner and emerged the next day incapable of forming a coherent thought, let alone an “I am a professional adult human who runs a professional adult business” one.

3) The “wait, am I behind?” club has more members than you think.

I’ll be honest: for a minute there, I thought I was doing this whole conference thing wrong.

Everyone around me seemed to be walking away from C+C with clarity and neat little action plans. While I seemed to be walking away with more questions than I arrived with and, if I’m honest, a handful of “wait, am I behind?” doubts.

That is, until I ended up in a LinkedIn DM conversation with a delightful brand voice and messaging expert (and former high school English teacher) who I’d bonded with at the conference over a shared, passionate hatred of Moby Dick.

Turns out, even several days post-conference, she was also still feeling "completely overwhelmed" and like her "brain was wrung out."

So chronic overthinkers who sometimes walk away from events feeling more confused than clarified (at least temporarily): you’re in good company.

~~~

Slightly more polished C+C thoughts to come soon, including something about AI that’s been rattling around in my head ever since.

~Nicole

P.S. One more thing: on June 29th, I’m co-hosting a free workshop with the lovely Christi Cooper, a website designer and branding strategist, called The 3 Cs of a Website That Converts.

The idea: design gets visitors to stop scrolling, copy gets them to act.

We’re coming in to cover both – including the mistakes that confuse visitors before they’ve even finished reading your headline. And how to make it crystal clear to visitors who you help, what you do, and what to do next. (Because confused visitors don’t buy!)

Grab your spot here.

P.P.S. Is it weird that I kiiiinda just want to share all my cool conference pics with you?

Well, there’s no stopping me now: