Last week I had the opportunity to go to Alt Summit, a design and blogging conference for creatives in Salt Lake City. The conference was a wonderful way to meet new people in my field, and most of all, to glean inspiration from those who are doing great things. I took copious notes during each workshop and wanted to share some of my favorites with you. Whether you’ve been to Alt Summit or not, these tips will help you propel your business and blog in a positive direction.

1. I am not talented. Back in the day, it used to be the inherently talented people who stuck out — the prodigies. Now, with the internet and massive spread of information, most of us have the opportunity to build our skills and lead the lives we desire. It’s not about talent, it’s about developing our skill. It’s important to realize that people who are “more skilled than us” worked hard to get to that point and we have the potential to be just as good, if not better, than the people we admire. If we try.
2. On working with brands and sponsored posts: Create collaborations that build your brand as much as they builds their’s.
3. Got an authentic collaboration brewing? Pitch it to a brand. I don’t know why this thought never really occurred to me, or perhaps I was just too scared to do anything about it before. But now I realize that a lot of the cool things you see big bloggers doing with big brands are a result of them simply asking. It’s also a great way to turn your blog into a business.
4. Be persistent. Many people quit before they get traction.
5. On Instagram: Leave comments that encourage people to post more photos, rather than bland comments like, “Cute!” Doing this will help you create relationships and community. Also, start a hashtag for your blog to build community.
6. On finding people to collaborate with: Constant agreement is not the kind of collaboration that will get you anywhere. You have to continually build on each other’s ideas. There should be agreement laced with a tinge of disagreement in order to really propel your ideas forward.
7. Any successful product makes people feel something. Usually these are subconscious feelings we don’t even realize, such as, “my best self would buy this, so I should probably have it.”
8. According to Joy Cho, most of her success if due to her going after people and asking for things. 
9. Finding mentors and people to bounce ideas off of is crucial. There’s even research proving that multiple heads are better than one. Find a few creative people you trust and check in with each other on a weekly or monthly basis to share and hone ideas and support each other’s work.

Did you attend Alt Summit? What was your favorite lesson learned? If not, were there any points I listed that stuck out to you? What are you going to do to make ’em happen?!

*Photo via Justin Hackworth