You guys.

I waited to get this post up until today because I wanted to make sure that I had enough time to sit and write up everything that went down this weekend. As you know, I spent last Thursday through Sunday at the Everything Food Conference in Salt Lake City, Utah. I had never been, but let me tell you the weather was perfect and so were the mountains.

I shared a room with these lovely ladies: Chrissa, Kelsey, and Ashley (who you may remember from GIRLS WEEKEND a few weeks ago).

Before getting into the conference (this is going to be a long post), I wanted to highlight some of the food from the trip.

The Food

There were some delicious food options in SLC and I only wish that I had had more meals in which to try them all out. The food at the conference was decent, but if given the option, I tried to sneak away for meals at these places.

Pulp Lifestyle Kitchen — if you’re a fan of every cold pressed juice imaginable and basically anything healthy and delicious, this is your place. We grabbed breakfast here on Friday, but since we were pressed for time I didn’t get any shots and we inhaled in on the walk and in the auditorium.

I went back on Saturday for lunch and got this epic turkey burger. They also have acai bowls, salads, and desserts that I didn’t get a chance to try. If you go, have some for me.

The Big O Doughnuts — you know I’m always on the hunt for delicious desserts and lately I have been on a real donut kick. The Big O came up up in my search as my best option and I’m glad I snuck out during a session to grab some.

First of all, their location is so. cute. If you’re Instagram obsessed like I am, this is definitely a place to go. Secondly, their donuts are all vegan which I didn’t realize when I went. I got six different kinds and enjoyed most of them. I’m not a big connoisseur of vegan donuts, but these were good to me!

Three Pines Coffee — this was on the same block as our conference, so many stops were made (or at least attempted). My only gripe is that they don’t have decaf, but because everyone raved about their housemade almond milk, I bit the bullet and got a mini sized latte. My heart only felt like it was going to explode for about 15 minutes, then I was ok. 🙂

Eva’s Bakery — only a couple stops up from Three Pines is Eva’s Bakery, a super cute French bakery where I helped myself to a DECAF latte, a macaron (my client’s are better), and a chocolate croissant which couldn’t be beat. I also snuck out of a session for that. Priorities.

Zest — Kelsey found this place on our last night and I’m so glad she did. It’s a vegan restaurant which I have no problem with, especially after I fed my body donuts and chocolate croissants. The best part is that they have kombucha on tap and it was amazing. They also advertise as a bar (we needed to show ID when we went in) and have a variety of interesting “healthy” cocktails if that’s your jam.

The Conference

This conference was amazing you guys. Since I’ve been blogging for about 3.5 years now, many of the conferences I go to have become more about the people and less about the sessions. This time it was both.

Kelsey // Chrissa // Lee // Davida // Ashley // moi

I was finally able to meet up with people who have been on my list to meet for some time, but the opportunity has never come up. (Hey Lindsay!)

What I really enjoyed about the conference is that there were sessions for both advanced and beginning bloggers. What I have felt is missing from conferences I’ve been to as of late is that I don’t need to know how to make a pin for Pinterest or how to reach out to brands. I need to know things from bloggers who have millions of pageviews and make an actual living off their sites.

I left this conference feeling inspired, which hasn’t happened since my very first blogging conference in 2014. I was able to have serious discussions with others about business and accounting and algorithms and everything that people who aren’t in this sphere don’t care or know nothing about.

Making a living in this market is hard. It’s a lot of work. It’s uncharted territory. It’s a new career path. That’s why these events and making friends who are in it with you is so important. We learn and we fail together and it’s only by sharing that information that we grow and legitimize what we do to others.

The absolute highlight of the conference was meeting Andie Mitchell. If you’re unfamiliar with Andie, she wrote the book It Was Me All Along, which inspired this post and made me want to write my own book (update on that to come this week!). Not only was I able to meet her, but as I simply uttered the word “hello,” she responded with an enthusiastic “OMG ERIN!” which caught me completely off guard and almost made me cry. To be on the radar of someone who has been so influential in my life was indescribable.

Andie is one of the most genuine and humble people you will ever meet. It’s also not a fake humility; she is someone who literally doesn’t understand the positive impact she has on other people’s lives. If you haven’t read her book, please do. We are now best friends forever. 🙂

I left Utah feeling refreshed and energized, not exhausted after three weekends of travel. I felt like I did when I started blogging. If you’re a blogger and you have a chance to go to any blogging conference, try to make it work. I’ve always gotten something out of them, even if it’s just meeting up with friends I don’t normally see because we are all over the country.

I have a post coming up this week about some changes I’m planning for the blog which will also hopefully be a solution to last week’s post on living in cope mode. I’m excited for the future and I can’t wait to bring you guys along!