I linked up with The Elementary Entourage for this special post about my trip to Vegas.
I am feeling a bit crazy or LOCO! I am telling my story today about how much I have to learn about branding and marketing. I think that is part of why I love blogging and TpTing (yes that's a real word) so much. It is a huge learning opportunity for me. Along with the constant learning that being a kinder teacher provides, this little side venture of mine is always humbling and keeps showing me what I still need to learn.
OK, I will get to the point. So, I went to Vegas for the Teachers Pay Teachers conference. A couple months before the conference I started feeling worried, inferior, ashamed... insert self-defeating adjective here. I was mostly feeling all those things about my blog design. The blog was something I put together myself on the cheap and I had promised myself that when I could afford to have a professional blog designer do it for me that I would. Well, I kinda forgot about that promise. So, I looked into getting someone to do it, but there is a several month waiting list. Oopsy! Guess a new blog design wasn't in the cards for my July timeline.
So what do I do? Well, one Sunday afternoon I thought it would be a good idea to at least change my logo. That will help, yea... The logo was another thing that I thought looked amateurish. I did it myself a couple years ago because I didn't want my real photo out there, so I made this:
Yes, that is supposed to be me.
It became my logo just because it is the one image that links all my social media and other presence on the web. I thought I needed something more cute and so I made this to replace my avatar. I put it up on all my important web sites and had buttons and stickers made. Thought I was going to make a splash in Vegas... NOT!
Well, I didn't realize how stupid that was until I got to Vegas. Thankfully Teachers Pay Teachers made my conference badge well in advance of the event. It still had the old avatar logo on it.
Guess what image everyone who did know me recognized? Yup, the silly little avatar. So, today I went back to all my websites and changed everything back to that old image. I had already started some "brand" recognition and I didn't even know it!
I learned so much at the conference and met so many inspiring teachers! I had a lot of big aha moments. I also had a lot of validation that I am doing a few things right. But, mostly I still have a lot to learn. Ha ha!
But here is my biggest shift and it is a personal one: I think the reason I put the little avatar up in the first place is because I didn't really want to put myself out there. I was hiding a bit. I was sharing my work from my classroom but I was afraid to share myself.
So this post is my first of hopefully many where I am putting it all out there and sharing my true colors. And... I am on Instagram! I am really putting myself out there. Now that I am not hiding, I am finding it fun to share my adventures both as a teacher and as a person.
Because I was willing to put myself out there a bit more, I met some really great people. I felt so lucky to meet the ladies from The Primary Pack! They put on a great bloggers meet up on the last night of the conference with fun swag and give aways. I thought they did a fantastic job. They are so darn sweet! You can check out their blog by clicking on the link above or on the photo below.
In the vein of putting it all out there, I just wanted to show you one last thing. It's a picture of my hubby and me on the first day in Las Vegas. It didn't make it on to Instagram, but it is kinda cute. I love that man! He's my BFF.
Thanks for stopping by Mrs. Byrd's Learning Tree.
Hope you are having a great summer!
Happy Learning!
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