The week before last I had the good fortune to attend Altitude Design Summit in Salt Lake City. If you follow all the wonderful design blogs I do, I’m sure you have read all of the gushing, unrestrained loving, and endless Alt praising by now. Some of you may be thinking, “Really? Was it really that amazing? Maybe if you’re a blogging rock star it was. What about everyone else?” To those that wonder, my answer is an emphatic YES! Yes, it really was that incredible. So I thought (finally) I would share my own Alt story:

First, I would like to thank twitter. Without twitter, I may not have heard of this wonderful event before it was too late. So thank you twitter. You are SO not a waste of time. As soon as my curiosity was peaked by all the Alt tweets, I clicked over to the Alt site, read the homepage, checked out the list of speakers and was sold. Three days in gorgeous Salt Lake City with my blogging heros? Where do I sign?! The next best thing that happened was receiving an IM from my good friend Ben Silbermann which read,”i was thinking about going to that conference you twittered about.” From there, we bought our plane tickets, booked a hotel and headed over (grateful that I had a travel buddy to keep me company and calm… I think I may have social anxiety disorder and a definite flying phobia).

It didn’t take long for my fears and anxiety to start melting away. Right off the bat I got to listen to Nicole Balch of Making it Lovely, Allison Czarnecki of Petit Elefant, Jaime Derringer of Design Milk and Karey Mackin of Mackin Ink speak about their favorite design sites. Something about the way they spoke about their own love and admiration for other blogs and bloggers (some they knew personally, others they did not) made me realize some important things. These women are just like me! They admire the work of others and sometimes wish they had so and so’s great eye or writing style or photoshop abilities. They don’t have superhuman powers or large teams of people working for them. They do what they do because they love it and they do it at the highest level possible for them.

Lesson 1: You don’t have to have superhuman powers to excel at what you do. Passion will get you far.

That night began with some speed networking and ended with a glamourous opening party that included delicious food (I should say delicious looking, I was too nervous to eat), live music, and an open bar (dangerous!) I arrived to the speed networking session at the same time as Jean Aw from NotCot. In fact, we chatted a bit about how we were both very unsure of what we were supposed to do there. I decided to play it cool (like I didn’t know that it was Jean Aw from NotCot) even though I was thinking, “omg! I’m talking to Jean Aw from NotCot!” I know, I’m such a dork. The opening party was tons of fun! I got to meet the people that would  become my “Alt clique” for the remainder of the time: Mackenzi Farquer (Site Design NYC), Sara Jensen (Lost Bird Found), Aaron De Simone (I Heart Media Inc.), Mat “with one T” Thorne (who was there to speak on behalf of Blurb but is also a very talented artist), and of course my travel buddy Ben (Pinterest). With them, I was able to courageously approach Joy from Oh! Joy (Aaron was so red) and eventually make my way over to Maxwell of Apartment Therapy (who, btw, I had a a big Alt crush on). It’s comforting to know that he probably doesn’t remember the slightly tipsy little Latina girl that was stumbling over her words and staring way too wide-eyed at him. Maxwell, if you ever read this, will you consider my apartment for your next Apartment Therapy book? It’s worth a shot, right?

Lesson 2: Everyone has someone that makes them nervous. Generally, most people are actually quite approachable. Trust in your friends to get you through the uncomfortable times.

The remainder of the time was a huge blur of excitement and inspiration. Keynote breakfast with Grace (Design Sponge), Heather (Dooce), Jean (NotCot), and Maxwell (Apartment Therapy)… inspiring! Panel after panel listening to my blogging heros talk about how they do it… inspiring! Lunch with DJ Earworm… inspiring! Wait, this is starting to sound like that Priceless Mastercard campaign. Maybe because I actually got to hang out in the Alt Lounge having casual conversation about the time I lived in Berlin with Jeroen Bours, genius marketer and creator of the “Priceless” campaign! And yes, chatting about Europe in a beautiful room with Jeroen Bours… PRICELESS!! Did I mention I stopped in the doorway on my way out to chat (again) with Jean Aw and she actually remembered a post I had contributed to NotCot? Priceless! (geeking out again)

Lesson 3: Opening yourself up to inspiration can help you do things you never imagined you would and sometimes, you can even inspire yourself.

I have to say, some of the best experiences I had at Alt took place during the downtime. The little moments in between chatting with some of the most interesting people I have ever met, the dinner I had with my Alt clique, the evening I spent sitting in the lobby with my new friends listening to an awesome string quartet playing Kids by MGMT, and the conversations in the hotel’s Gibson Girl Lounge. I got to share a cab to the airport with Joy from Oh! Joy and laugh THE ENTIRE way home with Victoria of sfgirlbybay (I think we were high on Alt) and my amazing friend Ben whose energy and brilliance inspires me everyday. Ben, btw, won the ultimate grand prize of the weekend… drumroll… a trip back to Salt Lake City! Awesome.

Lesson 4: Always enjoy the little moments in between. They’re the BEST!

Thank you to all the hard-working, kind and generous people that made Altitude Design Summit possible. This experience was exactly what I needed to finally make some big decisions and commitments to my own business, LAMA. My newfound motivation has enabled me to make some enormous progress since I have been back to work. I have finally made the decision to take LAMA in a new and amazing direction (details to come at another time).

I can’t wait to go back to Alt next year!

Lesson 5: If you think it might be worth doing, DO IT.

** all photos taken from the Altitude Design Summit flickr page Next year I’ll bring a camera! **

As much as I hate to admit it (because I sort of pride myself on being a workaholic), I have had a heck of a time getting back to business as usual. As much as I just want to be present again, my mind is still on vacation and it’s sort of stressing me out. Okay, it’s really stressing me out. This morning I resolved to stop fighting my mind’s desire to wander and decided to just go with it. How happy am I that I let my mind take me over to one of my favorite blogs and go to source of inspiration, SFgirlbybay. The photo and story below, by photographer Liz Steketee, were featured on Victoria’s weekly “Talking Pictures” post. I couldn’t resist sharing it here as I found it both incredibly charming and inspiring. In short, it made me want to get back to work. I hope it inspires you as well.

“this image is of my daughter emma, who has long dreamed of becoming an astronaut. when she was just 3 years old she announced to her father and me that she would soon be going to the moon. she shortly there after requested an astronaut costume and proceeded to wear it for the next year. this image to me is about the thrill of big dreams when you are a child, the belief that you can be anything without restrictions, without parameters. it also serves as a reminder to me to keep my dreams close. to pursue them as diligently as i did when i was a child. it is too easy to let dreams go when life pushes back on us. holding tight is harder than we imagine. i expect that in a few years down the road, i will be a passenger on my daughter’s rocket to the moon.”

The past couple of weeks have been a bit rough to say the least. The news has become so frightening these days and everyone has been feeling the effects of our crashing economy. Being a new business owner, I have been especially frightened about what all of this bad news means for me and LAMA, which has left me feeling a bit blue. No, not pretty LAMA blue, just down in the dumps blue. A VERY unflattering shade of blue. I’m a little embarrassed to admit it, but all the fear has caused me to crawl inside my shell and rethink all the choices I have made in the past few years of my life. Was I crazy to leave the work force and create my own business? Should I have stayed in the interior design world longer and waited a few more years to open LAMA? Was I too young and naive to think I could actually do all of this?!

And so my own great depression set in quickly followed by a brief (but strong) personal recession in which I actually believed (and again, I hate to admit it) that LAMA was a huge mistake and at twenty six, I had already made the biggest mistake of my life. Dramatic? Yes. Very. 

I decided to let myself cry… a lot … until I felt my fears pass. I started to talk to friends and family about how I was feeling, I went hiking in the beautiful Berkeley hills, I knitted a scarf, I watched The Daily Show (John Stewart always makes me laugh), I listened to my favorite Zero 7 album which always reminds me of the long bus rides I took through Ecuador back when LAMA was just a little dream in my mind and I read “What Should I Do With My Life” by Po Bronson. 

I found this book to be both comforting and inspiring. It’s “the true story of people who answered the ultimate question.” Reading about others who followed their hearts and pursued their passions made me feel a lot less alone and a lot more positive about leaving my old job to create my new one. Not every story ended happily as not everyone who chases their dreams catches them in the end. What I found to be so reassuring though was that not a single one of these people regretted the choices they made and, for all of them, it has led them to a deeper understanding of themselves and their capabilities. 

Maybe LAMA won’t weather the storm, though, deep down I know it will. What I do know for a fact is that creating this business WAS NOT the biggest mistake of my life. There are now three things I know for a fact: 1. I still love my high school sweet heart 2. Miles is the best dog ever 3. LAMA never was and never will be a mistake. I love what I do. I love the people I have been lucky enough to meet. I love the feeling I get when a someone sends me an email telling me how much they love LAMA and I love that there are so many possibilities in front of me. Who knows what LAMA will be in the next few years! An actual brick and mortar? I hope so!! 

That leaves me where I am today. Today I feel really optimistic about my future. I just got off the phone with my mommy. She couldn’t stop raving about the Tina Turner concert my dad took her to last night for their thirty third wedding anniversary. They also recently returned home from a trip all over Europe. She said the best thing to me. “I keep crossing things off my list. I’m doing all the things I always dreamed of doing.” It made me stop and think about my own “to do” list and all the things I’ve been able to cross off in the past few years and that was the most encouraging feeling ever. 

So, to conclude, my major crisis of Fall ‘08 has been averted. I pulled through and have decided to reemerge with more blog posts. This is pretty fun actually! I would like to get in the habit of blogging more often. It’s my early New Years resolution. (Wow, look how retail has already gotten to me. It’s not even Halloween and I’m already thinking about the holiday season!)

I hope everyone is doing well in these troubling times. If the state of the nation is getting you down, I highly recommend one of these Keep Calm posters that you can purchase here from the lovely Victoria Smith of sfgirlbybay. Buy it. Frame it. Hang it. And repeat it to yourself a hundred times a day. Trust me, it actually helps.