How @BlissDomCanada helped me find my inner bliss #BlissdomCA

I have had the pleasure of attending BlissDom Canada for the past three years. It has been a transformative experience on both a personal and professional level.

Personally speaking, I have met so many incredible professionals who have come together in a powerful meeting of Canada’s social media elite. Many of the online relationships that sparked through BlissDom Canada have blossomed into some of my closest friends both online and off. 

BlissDom Canada embodies a wholesome experience of the mind, body and soul. The experience is unique and is somewhat difficult to articulate. I initially attended to learn more about social media, blogging and building my own business but I vividly remember the post BlissDom trance of positivity, possibilities and passion, it has happened every year. The unique relationships with many of the brands that I have had the honour of working with initially blossomed either at or through BlissDom Canada and for that I could not be more grateful.

You cannot place a price tag on the networking that takes place at BlissDom Canada. When you have great minds, passionate storytellers and diverse backgrounds coming together for three days once a year, magic is bound to happen. With BlissDom Canada, it does. It is not just a conference, but an experience. It is not about sitting in a chair taking notes and coming home. It is about meeting the right people in the right place at the right time and using that experience to catapult your success for the following year, then returning to do it again the following year. It’s a sort of lather, rinse, repeat formula for success when done right.

Many of the brands that have supported BlissDom Canada are some of la crème de la crème in the business world. You know as a blogger in attendance that these are the businesses that GET social. They understand how to manoeuvre social influence in order to get their message to the right audience in the right way. They appreciate the value of a well crafted story and thankfully for the attendees, they also understand the value of investing in an experience like BlissDom Canada.

I am a firm believer that everything happens for a reason. Call it destiny or fate but in the weeks leading up to BlissDom 2013, after an open letter I wrote to the then premiere of Quebec, Pauline Marois became the catalyst for defining my tribe. That letter happened to go viral and as a result I participated in a slew of interviews; locally, nationally and internationally, on radio, in print, online and on international television. Though I did not realize it at the time, my blogging career had turned a sharp corner. 

It was from there that I took many of the lessons learnt at BlissDom Canada and applied them to my business. Lessons of authenticity, passion and genuine story telling. I took a step back and realized that the audience I had set out to attract through my blog was not necessarily the one that had been attracted to my writing, my passion and my unique voice of diversity. I learnt to harness that uniqueness and champion my cause.

This past year had been a rough one for me health wise. I blogged about it briefly but for the most part I quietly disappeared into the offline world of healing and better health. While I was away from the blogosphere last summer my heart simply burst from the love, compassion and sincerity I received from the blogging world; primarily through BlissDom Canada. From a loving, heartfelt tweet of positivity and good health the morning I went in for a major surgery to receiving generous, kind and heartfelt cards and gifts in the mail from incredible online friends I had made. That selfless, positive, compassionate attitude is what I feel truly exemplifies the BlissDom Canada tribe. 

What began mostly as strangers at the start of the three days, ended up as comrades, associates and many times, friends.

This past year, BlissDom Canada held a Pitch & Play session which I can pretty confidently say was the single most popular session of the entire conference (apart from the keynotes of course). It was as the name suggests a two part session that began with a discussion on what goes into a pitch, how to pitch a potential client and how to have your pitch stand out from a sea of others. The second part of the Pitch & Play session was putting into practice the first part. Namely having brands present on stage share what they were looking for and having the opportunity to pitch them right there and then. As stated above, this was arguably the most popular session as it was a completely full house with standing room only. Everyone wanted to pitch, everyone wanted to listen to everyone else pitch and if it wasn’t the end of the conference I could easily have seen that session run all afternoon.

Of the several brands present, the one many if not most were eyeing was Chevrolet Canada. Not only is Chevrolet one of our country’s most well reputed car makers, but they are an incredible forward thinking brand that has made amazing leaps and bounds in both the automotive industry (with their latest technology of 4G LTE wifi in many of their vehicles) and the social world. I took what was taught in the first half of that session and combined it with my professional experience and what my intuition had taught me. I wrote down my pitch and waited fervently to present it to the group. Unfortunately time ran out. The brands present graciously agreed to allow those who were unable to present, or in some cases, unable to attend the Pitch & Play, to have an opportunity to send in their pitches via email. I took my pitch and my confidence and sent it off via email to Chevrolet Canada. 

A few weeks passed and before I knew it, I received a phone call notifying me that I had been selected as the official 2015 Ambassador for Chevrolet Canada. It is an honour that I cannot properly articulate. 

Over the past six months since being selected, I have had the privilege to travel to Detroit for the 2015 International Auto Show and review a slew of gorgeous, well made Chevrolet vehicles. What’s more is that my love and passion for a company that takes pride in its diversity has spilled into my offline world. Not a week passes that I do not find myself speaking about Chevrolet, their technology and their vehicles to people that I meet.

This Ambassadorship has been a unique opportunity for me to take my skills and talents and share them with my audience in a unique way. Being the first Chevrolet Canada Ambassador has afforded me the ability to craft what this position entails with the brand. Their support and encouragement has been nothing less than inspirational.

I have been able to take my Ambassadorship with Chevrolet and use it as a catalyst to build relationships with some of my other clients which has allowed me to continue to steadily grow my business.

Finding like minded individuals with a passion for their business, powerful storytellers and social media masters and mavens all in one setting is a value proposition you cannot simply pass on. BlissDom Canada has helped me define the best version of myself personally, professionally and passionately. I am living my dream and doing what I love and ultimately loving my bliss.