My Career Story Part 2

Alyssa Osegard on July 30, 2018

This is a 4-part series on my story of going into teaching to leaving teaching for a new, non-traditional job. Read Part 1 here.

After college, Cody and I got married and moved into our first place in St Paul. I took a job as a teacher’s aide in a Pre-K classroom, and really fell in love with teaching early elementary kiddos! The next year, a position opened up and I was able to move over into a role teaching music, library, and computer to all 3 levels of preschool. It was an ideal job for me, and I was PUMPED!

I loved jumping back into teaching music and having to really work to do a good job. It was so rewarding!! I pulled out resources from my college years, planned like crazy, and really poured my heart and soul into everything we did in the classroom.

The good

There is SO much I loved about teaching. The kids, my coworkers, having my own classroom, creating content that helped every child learn to love music and learn to love books, flexible summer schedules and a long Christmas break. . . in a way, it was everything I had ever wanted out of a career.

The Bad

There were things that were super hard though. I’m an introvert, and so as much as I loved my students and my coworkers, a full day of teaching was incredibly draining. I didn’t have the energy to do anything beyond finish my lesson plans and crash on the couch. From August to May, I had basically no social life. It was fine for a while, but after four years, it gets a little lonely.

Every school year I would reach a little breaking point where I would look for another job. Not many people know this, but I even actually applied for another job my second year of teaching.

And the other (ha, you thought I was going to say ugly, didn’t you?)

Another aspect of teaching that was hard for me is that it only used one area of my skill set. All the other areas that were missing in my life needed some kind of outlet. It couldn’t happen in my (missing) social life, but it needed an outlet. This is where LuLaRoe came in. It gave me some interaction with grownups, and outlet for my social media skills, and an opportunity for friendship and leadership. I was able to interact with people on an introvert’s schedule – I could take time to unwind and recharge when I needed to, but still had a great way to connect with others. It was SO MUCH FUN. It also allowed us to have extra income to get out of debt faster, and a way that we could serve others.

I really started to think that a combination of teaching and LuLaRoe was going to fix all the problems. Both were a good fit for me and for our family, but it didn’t truly fix the issues.

LuLaRoe brought so many amazing people into my life (shoutout to my amazing community!). I will NEVER regret those new relationships and experiences that I got! I actually met one of my now-dear friends mostly through LuLaRoe. But that’s where the story starts to take yet another major turn…

Check out part 3!

Debt Free to Baby Step 3: Now what?

Alyssa Osegard on July 25, 2018

We just recently paid off $110,000 in debt. We are 100% debt free! It is an amazing feeling, but it left us with a “now what?” feeling, because from the moment we decided to take control of our finances, our goal has been to become debt free. Learning to go from debt free to baby step 3 is a big shift!

As you may know, we follow the Financial Peace University principles from Dave Ramsey, so we turned back to our materials to see what was next. The premise of the class is obviously financial peace, but the journey to get there comes in seven baby steps.

Before we started the class we had unintentionally done baby step one – save $1000 in an emergency fund. Becoming debt free was baby step 2!

Debt Free to Baby Step 3

Our next step is to save 3-6 months of expenses in an emergency fund. It may seem like a LOT of money to save – and it is. However, this will give us peace of mind. If one of us were to lose our jobs, or if we were to get in accident, or something else unexpected were to come up, we would be okay.

To figure out how much to save, we looked at what our minimum expenses are each month. First we added up our TOTAL expenses for a month. Next, we only factored in our main living expenses. This time around, we opted not to add in things like clothing, fun money, etc. We decided only the necessities in case of an emergency.. We are aiming for an emergency fund that is about 3 months of FULL expenses, which happens to be about 6 months of bare minimum necessities in our case .

A New Challenge

This baby step is a new challenge for us. Being in debt was sometimes easier, because we had a sense of responsibility. We owed someone ELSE money. I don’t like owing anyone anything, so I wanted that feeling to be DONE. Now that we’ve paid off the debt, all our money is freed up for our own uses! While we KNOW that this emergency fund is super important (and will become crucial as we get older and gain responsibilities like a house and kids), it feels different now that the money is ours. We can do with it what we wish, and it’s so tempting to use the money for a trip or things like that! But as Dave always says, “Children do what feels good, adults devise a plan and follow it”. We are doing the hard work now so that later we can more fun and more freedom!

As we work towards completing the journey from debt free to baby step 3, we are working on keeping the focus beyond that. We are saving now so that we can buy a house, have a family, travel, and GIVE in the future. If we lose focus of that, we are much more likely to waste our money on the little things now. We are determined to keep the same gazelle intensity that we found paying off debt and only keep moving forward!

My Career Story Part 1

Alyssa Osegard on July 20, 2018

I’ve been asked more and more about how I ended up teaching. My go to answer has always been that it was totally God’s plan for me. I know, that sounds a little mysterious and like a canned Christian-ese answer.

So let me tell the story – the WHOLE story, starting from the very beginning. You might want to grab a coffee, it’s gonna be a bit of a ride!

My Dream Career

I literally can NOT remember a single day that I didn’t want to teach. I always loved school, would go home and play school, and my favorite day in the summer would be when my 1st grade-teacher grandma would take us to the school she taught at.

Here’s the part that feels weird for share. I was always good at school. I don’t say that to brag, it’s just that school came easy to me. It was nice sometimes because I got to help my peers learn and, in a way, learn to teach. But it also got really boring, and I hated the attention it brought. I was never celebrated for doing well (even when I had to really work for it) because it was just expected that I would do well “naturally”. I was tired of having my accomplishments written off just because some things came easy to me. Pair that with a hefty dose of perfectionism, and that was my perspective on school. A’s where just expected, and anything less was a disappointment and was criticized.

But Why Music?

Enter music. Music was something I always had an interest in, but never really got to pursue as a kid. So when I had an opening in my schedule Sophomore year, a friend and I decided to join choir and fell in love with it! I had a little natural talent in music, but mostly I had to work at it. I had to learn and push myself and I definitely wasn’t the best. It was refreshing! That’s when I decided I wanted to major in music education instead of education.

I respect the crap out of teachers, and I KNOW how hard they work not just in college but every single day of their careers. But I knew that if I went to school and majored in (and boy oh boy does it make me cringe to even type this) “just” education, that I would be told that I wasn’t living up to my potential. That I was taking the easy way out, and that my major wasn’t challenging me.

Pressure to choose something else

The outside pressures were something I knew would get to me. I knew that I wouldn’t push MYSELF with people telling me that. But if I picked music, I knew things would be different because it wasn’t something I had much experience with, and it wasn’t one of the things I was naturally good at. I would want to push despite the crap people might say to me.

Looking back, picking a major based mostly on the “screw you, I can work hard and be good at stuff too” mentality was probably not the best choice. But I LOVED having to push myself to be noticed among my peers. I loved having to work towards something. I loved achieving based on my effort (and even the feeling of failing forward). There wasn’t the same expectation that I would be the best and anything less was failure. I finally was feeling accomplished, even when I was not at the top of the class!

Graduation and Beyond

I graduated college ready to take on the world, still with my passion for teaching music, and also for working with young children! I started applying for jobs, and planning for my future career. Have you ever felt like this though – just when you think you have the PERFECT plan in place, it starts to break apart at the seams? Well now I had the plan, and it was time for life to step in a give me a bit of a reality check…

Part 2 is up now! Check it out!

Let’s Talk About Our Love Sac…

Cody Osegard on July 18, 2018

One of our winter hobbies is walking around the Mall of America. Yeah, it’s touristy, yeah, we don’t always love to be there, but we also hate winter and hate cold, so a place we can walk three indoor miles is super nice! Our winter boredom turned into an awesome experience with Love Sac Furniture!

With all the time spent walking the mall, we also spent time harshly judging checking out all the stores. One we passed a lot was the Love Sac store. Sure, the couches looked comfy, and it was pretty cool that they were practically legos – you could build them to your specifications . . .but considering we had never purchased ANY furniture brand new, we balked at the price and figured we would never actually get to test them.

Stellar Love Sac Marketing

When we moved into our new house, we got a flier in the mail that said something about getting a free seat and side if we brought the flier in. It was like a $500 (check this?) value. We knew there had to be a big catch, but on our next mall-walking adventure, we brought it in to check.

Turns out it really was for free! We needed to buy covers, which were a little pricey, so we hesitated. Heck, the most expensive furniture we owned at this point was the table we bought at a second-hand store for $60! But we had been looking for a little reading chair in our bedroom, and the seat/side was the perfect size and was comfortable, so we went for it!

We LOVED that chair, and figured we would keep an eye out for a good deal to get more pieces to build our lego-couch with. The plan was to buy another seat and side when we got out of debt to make a little Loveseat.

Love Sac Adventures – Part 2

Fast forward about 5 months – Cody received an email that Love Sac was having a celebration event and doing awesome giveaways! Basically, everyone who walked in the store (which had been remodeled) would be handed an envelope. Inside the envelope, there would be some kind of discount or a freebie. We figured we might as well see, and if we got a decent discount we could look at getting something to add to our chair!

We walked in, sat down on a couch, and each of us were handed an envelope from the sales rep (shoutout to Alysha!). Cody opened his first. It was about what we expected – 20% off any purchase bla bla bla… Not a bad deal. It would be fine for the smaller accessories we were hopping to get. Alyssa went next and just stared at it for a hot second. She turned to the sales rep and said “This says we won a free sectional?” with a BIG ‘ol question mark at the end.

Yes. It took three of us reading this over and over to confirm. This wasn’t clear enough. . . 😉

Alysha looked just as shocked as Alyssa handed her the card. After all 3 of us have spent what was probably a solid 30 seconds reading and confirming, we finally accepted that it was for real! We won a sectional, with 2 seats, 4 sides, and ALL the covers included! For FREE!

A few months Later. . .how we feel about Love Sac

We absolutely LOVE our Sactional! Right now, it’s arranged in a way so that the seats are extra deep. It’s perfect for curling up in while working or eating dinner, and both of us can stretch out and relax while watching Big Bang Theory. Also, for us the cupholders we purchased are a definite must! They are nice and hefty, look amazing, and are perfect for throwing a drink in. The bonus is not having to worry about knocking it over, or having to get a coaster out!

THANK YOU, LOVE SAC!

Cody setting up our Sactional! So simple!

If you happen to have a Lovesac showroom near you, we would for sure recommend stopping by and trying out their furniture. We have been very impressed by the comfort and the look! Also, the build quality and durability seems to be well above most other furniture companies. Plus, shouldn’t ALL furniture be required to have removable, machine-washable covers? We sure think so.

If you have any LoveSac furniture, let us know! We’d love your advice on what to get next!

How to do Disneyland in only two days!

Alyssa Osegard on July 11, 2018

While Cody and I may look and act like grown-ups, deep down we are still kids at heart. So when an opportunity to go to Disneyland comes up, we were NOT about to pass it up! Here are our top tips for how to do Disneyland in only two days (and without kids)!

1 Make the most of your time

Get there before the gates open! Being towards the front of the line makes it easy to get to whatever ride you want! Plus, it’s really crowded to leave at park close. We did it one day, and it was worth it to see the fireworks show once. But it was definitely way nicer to be there at the open than at the close (plus it gave us the option to do both and make the most of our time there).

2 Get the MaxPass app!

We had heard of fast passes, but always assumed that they cost extra, so we weren’t sure they were worth it. At Disneyland, you can get a fast pass for free, but you have to physically go to the ride you want one for. To save time, Disney has a MaxPass app that is only $10 a day! It’s

One of our favorite FastPass rides was Toy Story Midway Mania!

definitely the only reason we were able to hit all the super popular rides – most of them multiple times too! Waits for Radiator Springs Racer, one of Disney’s newest rides, were upwards of 1.5 hours, but we were able to go three times while we were there thanks to that app! The goal here is to schedule a fast-pass in the app, then hit as many rides as you can fit in before your time comes up. Then, you head through the fast pass line and hop on without the ridiculous wait time! If you have a park hopper pass, you even get to schedule fast pass rides in both parks, no matter which one you are in!

3 Hit the popular rides first

Each morning we made a beeline for a popular ride that we would otherwise need a fast pass for. As awesome as a fast pass is, you can only have one at a time, so you still have to be strategic. Hitting a popular ride like Indiana Jones Adventure saved us from having to get another fast pass, and allowed us to still hop right on a popular ride!

4 Pack light

One little backpack was all we needed to store the necessities!

We brought one small backpack with some sunscreen, a couple granola bars, and a glasses case for me. It was nice to have a small bag to put wallets/glasses/ etc in on rides, but also not be weighed down by too much that we were uncomfortable on rides or stuck dealing with sore shoulders!

5 Invest in the park hopper

A park hopper pass at Disneyland gets you into both Disneyland Park and Disney California Adventure Park. Being able to bounce back and forth between parks was THE BEST. Since we could schedule fast passes in either park, a park hopper pass was the best way to maximize our time and money on our Disney trip! In our two days, we hopped back and forth around 10-12 times, since the parks are right next to each other!

6 Eat at weird times

You could EASILY waste hours and hours waiting in food lines. Our recommendation is to eat at

Everyone told us about these churros!

weird times. Obviously, our bodies weren’t adjusted to eating at non-meal times, so we just ate more frequently. At 9:30 or 10 we would split a corn dog, then over the lunch rush we could hop on some rides, then at 1:30 or 2 we would get churros or split a meal somewhere. We’d save our granola bars for later in the afternoon to keep us full enough over dinner, and then after the dinner rush we’d grab our own food!

7 Wear good shoes you can move in!

This may seem like a given, but I’m a midwest girl. I wanted to soak up the sun, enjoy the California warmth, and break out my flip flops. Thank goodness I had the sense to throw on my tennis shoes again. Since we were childless at Disneyland and only had two days to soak it all in, being able to move fast to dart past strollers and get to your fastpass reservation was AMAZING!

8 Be smart with your money (plan souvenirs ahead of time, split food)

You could EASILY spend hours (and dollars) shopping at Disney. If you have more than two days, it might be fun to have a shopping day. For us, we wanted to maximize our time on rides! We made a plan ahead of time for what we were going to get – Cody collects shot glasses, and we both collect coffee mugs so we knew those were the two things we were going to get! And if at all possible, wait until you are ready to leave the park to buy them. Why carry the extra junk all over the park when you don’t have to?

BONUS TIP: If a ride breaks down, be patient!

One of the biggest advantages of traveling kid free was having a little more flexibility. Rides break down a LOT. If you’re in line, we encourage you to stick around. Disney does a stellar job of closing, fixing, and re-opening rides very efficiently. Almost every ride was fixed in 10 minutes or less, but for people with kids, that’s too long to wait. With uncertainty if it WILL be up and running soon, the lines cleared out super fast. We would often end up on the ride faster than if it hadn’t broken down!

GIVING out of Business with LuLaRoe

Alyssa Osegard on July 9, 2018

LuLaRoe is a clothing company that really helped us out. We were actively a part of the business for over a year. During that time, it met all of our goals. We wanted an outlet outside of our professions, an outlet to be creative, a discount on cute clothes, a new community, and another job to help us get out of debt. It did all of those things and more!

But then we reached a new stage in life

After time, LuLaRoe stopped fitting our needs and was no longer serving our mission as a family. Our only hope at that point was that we could move on to things that would further our mission AND that would help us break even enough to get our LuLaRoe business out of our house! So, a few months ago, we realized we needed to work the business enough to say goodbye.

Some of you saw that happen -Remember a few months ago when we made a “comeback” and then disappeared? It wasn’t that we changed our minds about leaving LuLaRoe, but you guys, it just didn’t feel right to us. Even though we just wanted to get all these awesome clothes out to you (AND say goodbye to our clothing business), it felt like since OUR heart wasn’t in it, it would feel like we just wanted your money, and that isn’t the case at all.

So we re-evaluated and found a plan that works to get you AMAZING clothing, part ways with LuLaRoe, and serves our mission. And you guys – we are SO PUMPED.

LULAROE “GOOB”

You’ve heard of “Going out of business” right? Of course you have, it seems like LuLaRoe retailers left and right are “Going out of Business” (It’s the natural rise and fall after a big boom in a new company). Well we are going to be “Giving out of business”.

ALL of our profits (that’s right- 100% of our profits, and even some of our overhead cost) will be going to various charities and causes and we want your help! Do you have a friend in need or a case near to your heart? Let’s host a fundraiser together! We have so many great places in the works to help other people, and we can’t wait to partner with you to bless others!

To sum it all up:

You get cute, comfortable clothes.

We part ways with our business as our family goals have shifted.

Together, we get to help other people.

Fun fact – this was what we posted when we were announcing we were starting with LuLaRoe. Service has ALWAYS been our truest mission.

We LOVE LuLaRoe and are sad that it doesn’t fit into our lives any more. But, we are THRILLED to be able to say goodbye in a way that will brighten other’s lives! PLEASE shoot us a message or comment below if you have someone in mind that you would like to help! If you weren’t a part of our LuLaRoe group, join us for cute clothes and serving others!

5 Things Your Budget is Missing

Alyssa Osegard on July 4, 2018

Budgets are the absolute worst to create. No joke. We’ve had a pretty amazing budget for years now, but I will never forget the first few months of making a budget. It was hard making sure that we remembered everything and had money in the right places to set us up for not only travel and enjoyment now, but comfort and success in the future as well.

After making a budget for ourselves and leading multiple Financial Peace University classes, we’ve seen some common themes in what people tend to forget when creating a budget. Here’s our top five (in no particular order) commonly missed budget items and why they are important!

Repairs (car, roof, other sinking funds)

How stressful is it to have the car break down and not be able to fix it? Or to have the water heater stop working without warning? Obviously, you never want these things to happen, but they DO happen, and you can be prepared. This one might take a little research. Figure out what big ticket items YOU are responsible for replacing when they break or need to be replaced. Think things like the roof, your appliances, carpets, tires, and mattresses. Then figure out how much it costs to replace things, divide over the amount of time each is expect to last, and BOOM – you know how much you should be setting aside each month for repairs. That way, when the roof starts leaking after 20 years as expected, you aren’t scrambling for cash!

2) Giving fund/Holiday fund

Did you know that Christmas is December 25th AGAIN this year? And that your sister’s birthday happens the same time every year as well? It sounds silly, but how often do you find yourself scrambling to pull together enough cash for holidays and other gift-giving opportunities? Set a budget for how much you want to spend on gifts. Divide by 12, and that’s how much you need to be saving each month. Cody and I got REALLY detailed with this list when our budget was especially tight, but we’ve been able to loosen up and give more now that we are debt free!

3) Car Replacement

Unpopular opinion: I think car loans are the dumbest idea in the world right behind buying a new car (new cars lose 10% of their value the moment you drive them off the lot). And contrary to popular believe, it is completely reasonable to live your life without a car loan! We set aside money each month for a car fund. When our junker (a 2006 Chevy HHR that sounds like it might just die at any second) finally goes out, we will use the money we have set aside to buy a slightly less junky junker while we save some more. The logic here is that every time we buy a car, it will be a little nicer, last a little longer, and eventually we’ll be able to drive a really nice car! Not only that, but we are great at looking for a good deal, like our 2012 Toyota Sienna that we got for $5000 with only 50,000 miles! I would MUCH rather drive used cars for a while and spend my money on other things than throw my money at another loan every month!

4) Travel fund!

Everyone wants to take a vacation – time away, stress-free. . .but so many of us also put that same vacation on credit cards and have to pay it off until the next vacation! I want my travel to be stress-free, so for us that means it also needs to be debt free. We plan ahead and know what we will spend on a trip, then use our travel fund to pay for it upfront. Saving money each month specifically for travel allows us to be budget-friendly when we travel too. A bonus is that it often leads us to making healthier choices when we travel as well!

5) Fun money!

A common money objection we hear is that budgets are restricting, but we’ve seen the opposite be true! Owing money to someone else is restricting. Being in debt and having more payments is restricting. Knowing what you have and where it is going is FREEING. That’s why we tell people to include a little “wiggle room” or “fun money” in your budget. Let yourself buy that pink drink at Starbucks, or a cute top at Target, or have a date with your spouse! Budgets don’t have to stop you from having fun and living your life! In fact, we’ve seen that when you have money earmarked for entertainment, eating out, or date night – it’s more likely to become a priority!

Do you budget? What’s your best budgeting advice? Share it with us by contacting us here or on Facebook!

Top 5 Favorite Travel Snacks

Alyssa Osegard on June 27, 2018

Do you LOVE travel snacks? We always have. Road trips have always been an excuse for giant fountain pops, fast food, and lots of candy! However, since Cody and I have been working on having a healthier lifestyle, those travel snacks weren’t fitting the bill anymore! Here are some of our alternatives that are simple, healthy, AND delicious

1) Snackable fruits and veggies

We love to grab a bag of carrots! Since our car snacks have always been super munchable, baby carrots, apples, pears, baby bell peppers, and more are perfect travel snack!

2) Green Pea Snack Crisps.

We got the White Cheddar ones from Harvest Snacks on our Grand Canyon trip and THEY TASTE LIKE WHITE CHEDDAR CHEETOS. I don’t know that I will ever be able to pass them up. We’ve linked them below with our affiliate link because we love these things (and we want more money to buy even more of them. So buy a lot so we can get a great kickback, mmmkay? Ha!) <br>

3) Air popped popcorn!

We both LOVE popcorn. You know the buckets at theatres that are the size of a small child and offer free refills? That’s one of the reasons we shouldn’t be allowed in movie theatres. Air popped is the way to go. WAY lower in calories, fat, etc, it is the perfect “munchy” snack in the car!

4) Snack boxes

These things are basically homemade lunchables. We do this when we have a long drive and don’t want to stop, when we have coolers to make the food stay fresh longer, or even when we have to leave right at a meal time.

We include nuts, raisins, apples, cheese cubes, deli meat, peppers, and sometimes a little piece of chocolate just because.

5) Shakeology!

We never travel without our shake now. I can’t even begin to tell you how many times this shake has saved us from the drive-through (and when we chatted too long to have a lunch break at Sassy Con). It keeps us full, gives us energy to stay awake for the drive, and has the nutrients of a TON of vegetables (I’ve heard as much as the equivalent of six salads!). It also has a lot of protein which helps keeps us full as we stay at the pump when refueling, passing on all our favorite junk foods and unhealthy travel snacks!

For us, these snacks help to kick off a road trip on the right foot. We make sure to eat quality nutrients and avoid our typical sugar-filled vices when possible. What are some of your staple travel snacks, nutritious or otherwise?

Sassy Con 2018 – Cody’s Takeaways

Cody Osegard on June 22, 2018

Sassy Con 2018 – a social media marketing conference attended by approximately 300 women – and Cody. Yes, I was the only male in attendance. Does that mean the conference only had beneficial information for women? Definitely not! So, here are some of my key takeaways from our trip to Gilbert, AZ and our time at Sassy Con!

Cody For Socialite Prom King!

Background

Going into the conference, I knew that I would be in a very small minority of “husbands” in attendance. Turns out, I was the ONLY husband who attended. Sidenote here – husbands: I encourage you to show up for your wife! Whatever that means in your relationship is great; for me, this often means showing that I not only support my wife but that I am willing to INVEST in her as well. It was worth my time and energy to show up for Sassy Con because Alyssa has a passion and I want to do whatever I can to support and aid in that. And what better way to do that than to learn the same practices as she is working to implement in her business and life, and be a part of it!

We got to know Windy from Sassy Suite some and she is so fun!

The Socialite Suite is definitely geared towards equipping women for success in online business, and I knew that it had already helped my wife and our LuLaRoe business. I knew who Brenda and Windy were, and had gone through a number of the courses offered by the Suite. So I knew that the content would be good, and I was hopeful that the people would be fun as well! So let’s get to it!

For me, there were a few different areas of the conference that really resonated with me, that I think are valuable things for anybody, regardless of having an online business!

Nugget #1: Branding

This is an area that The Osegards are very purposeful in! Branding is around us all the time, whether we notice it or not. Especially for people with a business, this goes far beyond just picking a color scheme or a logo. Being intentional with the fonts you use in graphics, the textures, and your personal voice and style is super important. If people are scrolling through

Branding should always be YOU!

their social feed, does everything you post “look like you”? Can someone glance past it and know that YOU posted that because it looks like, feels like, sounds like, and SMELLS like you? If so, that is some stellar branding! I’ve got a few people in particular that I enjoy keeping up with on Instagram because their posts are ALWAYS great. They look good, they show lots of personality, and they make me feel like I actually KNOW that person more than just on social media!

Nugget #2: Consistency

At events, I *get* to be an Instagram husband and take a million pictures like this!

Unlike my lovely wife, I’m not much of a social media user. I check in occasionally, mainly for a notification or two, but haven’t posted on a regular basis. One of my takeaways here is that there is a lot of value in consistency, beyond the “algorithm” reason. Yes, I know that the more frequently you post meaningful content, the more your content will appear in people’s newsfeeds and in a higher position. But on a more simple base – if I don’t share stories, pictures, ideas, from my mind, I am not giving others a chance to learn who I am and what I am about! This is an area that I will be working on, especially on Instagram, my social media of choice right now!

Nugget #3: Purpose

This is a big thing in online marketing right now, but this really hit home at Sassy Con. People always talk about your WHY – what drives you and what are you working for? The beef that I have with this idea is when people choose a Why because it “looks good” or feels like what they should be working for. As and ENFP, people who are not genuine and authentic stick out to me like a sore thumb, and it just rubs me the wrong way! The people that I met and interacted with at Sassy Con were some of the most authentic and real people I’ve met, and were doing what they were doing for the right reasons. When your WHY is right and real for you, it can truly guide the decisions you make. If it’s not working towards your goals, it’s probably not worth your time!

Final Thoughts

Overall, I was VERY impressed by everything that Sassy Con had to offer. The speakers that presented were knowledgeable, relatable, and so genuine. The Socialite Suite staff put the conference together incredibly well. The thoughtful attention to details and little “bonuses” (afternoon hummus bar and fruit trays, I’m looking at you!) was spectacular. I truly enjoyed my time in the sessions and time in between and at the different events. I’m so excited to keep working with the information I gained, and to stay connected to the people I met. Alyssa and I have some big goals that can feel so distant at times, but I KNOW that these are not simply dreams or wishes. Using the tangible and applicable knowledge I gained, we WILL accomplish these goals, and move on to even bigger goals!

Sassy Con 2018 – Alyssa’s takeaways

Alyssa Osegard on June 20, 2018

June started off in the best way possible. Cody and I flew to Phoenix (and drove to the Grand Canyon and then back to Gilbert, AZ) for a social media marketing conference – Sassy Con 2018.

Sassy Con was a truly amazing conference. The company hosting the conference, Sassy Suite, has a mission to #EmpowerSocial – which basically means they aim to help small business owners (including those in direct sales, bloggers, and a myriad of other businesses) build relationship-based businesses with a focus on how to manage social media! The various speakers and sessions helped us evaluate where our businesses are at, formulate an action plan, and network with people who quickly became friends.

MY TOP SASSY CON TAKEAWAYS

1 – The WHY and the WHO will always outweigh the WHAT

My whys? Jesus. This guy. And helping other people learn and grow to be their best selves and help others!

What you do will never matter the most. Your circumstances will change. Companies may come and go. Even WHY you do things may change (for example, our first WHY was to get out of debt, now that we’ve done that, we have a new reason for why we do what we do). This means when you are working to gain customers, you want to draw them to YOURSELF through what is called attraction marketing instead of drawing them to WHAT YOU SELL. Being yourself is always the best way to go when building a business (and it’s not spammy either, which is one of the basic principles of Sassy Con and the Sassy Suite.)

(Side note, there is an amazing training on attraction marketing that is offered through the Sassy Suite! I do get a small commission if you purchase through this link, but I would recommend it even if I didn’t! )

2 – Consistency is one of the biggest factors to success

The Queen B (B is for Brenda) of Social Media Marketing!

Consistency is key. I understand how to do a lot of things in direct sales and MLM, but nothing works as well as it could when you’re not consistent. This includes posting to social media, blogging, building relationships, follow up, and more. It’s not only true in business, but in life! I can workout and eat well, I can take good care of my skin, I can learn a new skill – but unless I am doing these things consistently, they aren’t going to produce long term results.

3 – Find your people.

We kicked off the event with yoga with strangers – that quickly became yoga with friends!

I am an introvert and meeting new people freaks me out. Not only that, but women can be SO STINKING catty and mean (no offense). So I was really nervous going into this weekend. These people were SO amazing. They were sassy (I mean, this was an event put on by Sassy Suite), which is my love language. Not only that but women of all shapes, sizes, beliefs, business, and more were gathered together in one place and there was nothing but friendship, acceptance, and encouragement. There was an understanding that everyone is in a different place in their journey, so there was no judging or snide comments. It was amazing.

Join the Sassy Con tribe before Sassy Con 2019!

If you want to take a step into Sassy Suitelandia, join the Socialite Suite here and like their business page! There are many more groups too that you can join later on for people teaching their kids about the social media world, people who want more frequent mentoring, people who blog, people who love planners and more! I don’t get any kickback for recommending these free groups, by the way. I just truly believe in them and their mission to #EmpowerSocial and I want you to be a part of it too!