I went to Alt Summit a few weeks ago in Palm Springs. It was my first time attending, but it won’t be my last. While it’s primarily a conference for creatives, and I am not a creative, I got so many good ideas for my business, met so many awesome people, and learned so much from the conference, that I plan to attend again in the future.
Below I’m sharing some of my top highlights from the main conference days, which were Saturday and Sunday.
🌴 Saturday Highlights
Lisa Congdon was the keynote speaker who opened up Saturday’s session, and she was so inspiring. One of my favorite things she said during her keynote was that whenever she wanted to do something, instead of thinking she was too old or too late or too – whatever – she would ask herself:
“Why not me?”
This made it easier for her to say yes to things she wanted to do/try/be!
Another favorite session from Saturday for me was Amelia McCall’s session, “The Reel Deal: Unlocking Instagram Growth with Short-Form Content”. It was a really funny and engaging session, and I was excited to learn more about how to grow on Instagram without ads.
One thing that really stood out to me that Amelia shared in her session, was about how we should take something boring and making it interesting. This statement has my wheels spinning about how to take my 12 Months of Affiliate Newsletter Template Pack and rename it to A Year’s Worth of Affiliate Newsletters in 1 Hour… because that’s truly all it will take to get your newsletters done when using the templates. {Name change coming soon!}
Another favorite session was Alyssa Zander’s session, “Becoming A Substack Bestseller: Growing Your Audience And Building Community.” I took so many notes about creating a Substack in this session. I ultimately decided it’s probably not the best course of action for me at the moment, because I don’t think my audience of product sellers are on the platform, but it definitely got my wheels spinning about how to work some of the tips she shared into my regular email marketing.
🌴 Sunday Highlights
Keenya Kelly’s session “How To Use TikTok and Instagram Reels To Generate Leads” was not only really funny, but also really insightful! I really liked her advice to act like an influencer for your business, and to take one afternoon a month and film all of your b-roll content! And also, she says not to say “link in bio” in your content because the IG algorithm won’t push it out because you are encouraging people to leave the platform. So, I definitely am stopping that right now.
Another favorite session was “A Marketer, Graphic Designer & Publicist Walk Into A Room: A Pick Your Brain Session” which was hosted by three sisters, Quiana Agbai, Ariane Lovell, and Lauren Tillar. So many good insights were shared, especially around PR and graphic design.
Another highlight on Sunday for me was meeting Chelly of We Can Make That. She hosts the Crafter’s Summit and the Creativepreneur Biz Summit, and she gave me so much good advice about my upcoming The Product Sellers Summit. She was so encouraging and helpful, and I’m so glad we connected!
🌴 A few other miscellaneous details about my trip to Alt Summit in Palm Springs that you might be interested in:
🛏️ Where I stayed
I checked in Thursday to The Skylark Palm Springs, which was such a cute little boutique hotel. It was within walking distance of all the shops and restaurants downtown, it had an awesome pool and hot tub, and a great view. I would definitely stay there again!
👗 What I wore
Fashion is a big thing at Alt, but honestly, you can show up in anything that you are comfortable in and no one will bat at eye. My best advice is show up in outfits you are comfortable in! I didn’t want to spend a ton of extra money on clothes just for this conference, so I rented quite a few of my outfits from Nuuly. I’ve only been a subscriber for a few months, but I really like them and will continue to rent from them for future conferences I attend. I also wore jeans and sweaters around Palm Springs when I wasn’t at the conference – it was pretty chilly my first few days in Palm Springs.
🍽️ What I ate
A lot of Mexican food (which is my favorite so I don’t mind at all LOL). My favorite was Blue Coyote Grill. I also LOVED Cafe La Jefa for a coffee shop and place to get a little work done. It was super cute, the coffee was tasty, and their lunch options were really delicious. I also really enjoyed Cheeky’s for breakfast one morning, but go early here because they were packed!