If you follow me on Instagram, you may have noticed I was at the first ever Create & Cultivate Vision Summit this past Saturday.
If you’re not familiar with Create & Cultivate, it was founded by Jaclyn Johnson and it is ‘an online platform and offline conference for women looking to create and cultivate the career of their dreams.’ (Create & Cultivate)
I can’t remember how I first heard of Create & Cultivate to be honest. It was probably through Instagram and I immediately researched upcoming events in the hopes I could attend.
Luckily for me, they had just announced the first-ever Create & Cultivate Vision Summit hosted in Miami.
By then, I already knew Kris and I were moving to Miami. I immediately jumped on the opportunity and purchased the tickets to attend.
Flying solo
When I bought the tickets, I knew I’d be going alone. Luckily, Create & Cultivate had created a Facebook group for other women like me, who were attending the event on their own.
That’s how I ended up in a WhatsApp group chat created by another girl from Colombia and we soon realized we had friends in common.
The group chat kept growing and growing and suddenly I felt like I had a ton of girlfriends to attend the event with.
At first I was really nervous about going alone, but I quickly realized I was going to be in a room with like-minded women and there was nothing to fear.
Create & Cultivate Vision Summit Day
The day of the event finally came up and it started off crazy!
The event was the same week as Art Basel, meaning traffic was insane so I was rushing from the start.
The lines were long but were moving fairly quickly.
I ran into Sofia, the Colombian girl who had started the WhatsApp chat and we hit it off immediately.
We enjoyed breakfast provided by Health-Ade Kombucha and Purely Elizabeth and got started with our day.
Girls just wanna have fun
The booths at Create & Cultivate all had different purposes, but they all made you feel like a total boss babe.
Brooklinen had a super fun bed where you laid down and took multiple pictures that turned into a video.
Living Proof did our hair and then had us do an awesome photo shoot.
That was totally out of my element. Believe it or not I hate getting my pictures taken and I’m super awkward about it.
However, the photographer made it super fun and relaxing and I totally forgot I was getting pictures taken.
Other highlights included the LumiSpa face massage and It Cosmetics skin match.
Speaker Highlights
The conversations were all very informative and eye-opening.
I got to learn a lot about other blogger’s experiences and what they’ve learned along the way.
I loved that Stephanie Hill from The Style Bungalow talked about being unique and bringing that to the table.
Jenny Lopez mentioned taking risks and going for something new.
Allegra Shaw (total new girl crush!) talked about staying true to your story and not changing simply because it’s social media and other people are doing things differently.
Venus Williams was so inspiring talking about her fight for equal pay. She also mentioned how much she hates losing so she works extra hard to avoid that. Same girl same.
Jamie Chung is simply drop-dead gorgeous and shared an amazing message: create spaces that are inclusive.
She mentioned how important it is for women to work together and collaborate instead of competing (preach girl!).
And she also shared something that really resonated with me: be very specific.
Like her, sometimes I want to do everything, but I should instead focus on one (or a few) things and develop those skills and content.
Finally, I loved how Diane Guerrero, Wen Zhou, and Jamie Kern Lima all talked about their struggles getting to where they are now.
Diane Guerrero shared her own life story and the struggle that was when her parents got deported to Colombia. Wen Zhou shared about her childhood coming here as an immigrant and working really hard to make a name for herself. She is now a part of 3.1 Philip Lim but the road was not easy.
It took a lot of work, dedication, hustle, and taking a leap of faith alongside Philip Lim.
Jamie Kern Lima shared how her and her husband struggled as they both quit their jobs to create It Cosmetics and all they ever heard for a while was “no.”
They fought back every time until they finally got a yes, because they believed what they had was truly unique and would benefit women around the world.
They never gave up, and that is the major takeaway from Create and Cultivate.
All those women fought back, got up every time they were down, and never ever gave up.
They made it where they are now because of their strength and perseverance. It was so empowering to hear first-hand their struggles and how they overcame them.
So don’t give up. Whatever dream you have, know that it’s worth the fight!
