social media – Water Water Everywhere

Maria Bailey kickin’ things off.

In the world of professional blogging, many people consider being invited to work with Disney to be the brass ring. There are various avenues and campaigns that many of my blogger pals have partnered with Disney on, but one event that everyone seems to want to attend is their annual Disney Social Media Moms Celebration in Orlando.

But only a small number of women get invited and there are applications and the wait list is a mile long. So when an email landed in my inbox inviting me to an event in Houston called Disney on the Road, hosted by Maria Bailey, I was super intrigued. It seems she decided to do a mini Disney Social Media Moms Celebration in a few different cities and Houston was at the top of the list.

Now I’ve worked with Maria’s BSM Media and MomTV for a long time. I know she is one smart lady and I figured any event she hosted would be worth attending even though I am not one of those gunning for a spot on the Disney Moms Panel.

So I sat in bumper to bumper traffic for an hour and a half to get to the Galleria on time. Then I ran through the mall to the Westin Galleria, not realizing the event was at the Westin Oaks. I loathe being late for anything, so me running around an empty mall in sparkly heels was a sight to be seen.

Lucky for me they started much later than the agenda had indicated! And they had a full breakfast with the most delicious tomato quiche, fresh fruit and bread and an abundance of coffee.

I saw a few friends from Dallas and even a few Houston PR types I know there. But of course I sat with my Houston Blogging Chicks friends because I love them. We were the noisy, chatty table.

Shannon Miller is super tiny.

First up to speak was Olympic gold medal gymnast, Shannon Miller. I had forgotten that she was only fifteen when she won a ton of medals in 1996, and now she is a mother and successful entrepreneur as well. She talked about women owning businesses and shared the familiar story of Sara Blakely who created Spanx and is now a self-made billionaire.

Shannon was very inspirational and motivational. She talked about how building your own business is kind of like training for the Olympics, in that the world will be there to celebrate your big glorious moment but you are mostly alone during the training and struggles. She talked about the need for building a team to help you and not trying to do everything yourself.

It turns out that Shannon didn’t like having her agent be in control of her endorsement career. So she ended up going to business school at the University of Houston and then on to law school. Smart cookie.

Shannon talked a lot about using social media to help you find exactly the right audience. She shared how she did some ambassador training for the recent Olympics and taught them about the dangers of social media as well and the importance of “counting to ten before you hit send.”

Laura Spencer loves pink.

Then she shared her recent discovery of germ cell tumor, a rare ovarian cancer. Because of her work with doctors and health advocates she went to the doctor early and they found it early. Chemo really hit her hard but she said it was just like falling off the balance beam…”you keep getting back up.”

Like I said, her talk was super motivational.

The next speaker was Laura Spencer, a social media manager for Disney Destinations. She was absolutely hilarious. She talked about female empowerment and urged women to take the time to support each other. I found her talk to be entertaining.

Maria Bailey, on the other hand, was like an overflowing fountain of useful, practical business advice. She didn’t even talk that much, but when she did it was worth hearing. She inspired me to dream up some big new ideas for my own business, but I can’t share what specifically she said or what my plan is just yet. *wink*

At the Disney event at Type A Parent.

They also had a panel of four women who had successfully launched businesses with a product. It was interesting, but since the room was mostly full of bloggers whose business is writing or media, I don’t think it applied well to our audience. It may have inspired some ideas though.

The conference closed with Houston local celeb, Dayna Steele, who used to be a well known rock and roll DJ. I had actually met Dayna before when we both appeared on the same (social media focused) episode of Great Day Houston. She has a big personality and is fun to listen to. She definitely closed out our time on a high note with some really excellent advice.

So thank you, Maria Bailey, for bringing Disney on the Road to Houston and inviting me to attend! If you hear that this event is coming to your city, definitely plan to attend.

JoAnne and Laurie in passionate conversation.

Social media has created a wonderful outlet for people to connect with each other and voice their opinions. Unfortunately those opinions can also serve to divide us and cause big rifts in good friendships. Before things like Facebook and Twitter we tended to have small circles of friends in similar stations of life to us. People whose paths we crossed on a regular basis were generally the only folks with whom we had meaningful conversations. Whether or not we want to admit it, we tend to surround ourselves with people with whom we have a lot in common. Mothers of young children in a middle class suburb usually end up friends with other mothers of young children in a similar income bracket. More often than not that means the world that shapes our opinions is similar and it can serve to reinforce our own perspectives.

It’s really easy to form a very strong opinion and have it backed up continuously by those around us. Politics and religion especially tend to be polarizing subjects, but even parenting styles and entertainment can be dividing. Once we have chosen which side of an issue we are on we have a tendency to go “all in” and start to believe that anyone with the opposite view is either stupidly ignorant or willfully evil.

That’s just no way to live. How boring life is when everyone is just like you. How bitter and angry people get when they insist that everyone unlike them is somehow trying to do them or the world they live in harm.

It’s really hard to reach out and “friend” people that hold passionately opposite views from me. I might think someone is really cool and smart and then suddenly they post a link and go on a rant and my opinion of them plummets. There was a time that I stupidly believed that if you called yourself a Christian you simply must have a particular political ideology because the opposite is unbiblical. That was ignorant. No one holds all the right answers and if you truly believe you do, this blog post isn’t for you. It really is worth the trouble to open your eyes and mind to other points of view on a regular basis. At the very least it helps form a more educated and easier to defend position.

Hopefully you see the benefit of making friends with “different”. The opportunity for learning when you form a solid relationship with someone unlike you is huge. So how do you maintain that friendship during election season? How to you keep from “unfriending” or “unfollowing” them or saying something that gets you permanently ignored?

Focus on your similarities as much as possible. Remember, for example, that she’s a mom looking out for her kids just like you are.
Find common ground on issues you disagree on.
Believe the best about them. Assume good intentions. Assume they might just have a different means to the same end.
Discuss in good faith. Be honest and not insulting.
Be willing to listen. That means hearing and considering what they are saying, not just thinking about how you’re going to respond back.
Be willing to read and do you research before you engage in a topic. Try hard to refrain from repeating verbatim the talking points of one-sided media sources.
Be willing to admit when you don’t know something.
Be willing to admit when you may have been wrong.
Know when NOT to engage. Some people and their opinions are too blinded to try this with.

As you can see, maintaining these kinds of relationships and engaging well with people requires a huge dose of humility and some hard work. But I believe it’s worth it.

If it doesn’t work? There’s always “judicious use of the hide button on Facebook” as my lovely and different friend, Sarah Bessey, says.