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I'm Alicia, your effervescent Peter Pan, helping you add a sense of color to your home or shop.
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Alt Summit’s over, so now what?
You’re probably home now feeling like you’re in a weird mental gray-area, alternating from feeling utterly exhausted to completely overwhelmed and jazzed about everything you just learned. I KNOW, ME TOO.
Keep cool and read on because I’ve got a few tips for your post-Alt recovery.
I’m a big believer in giving your body what it wants. It just so happened that on Sunday mine wanted a four hour nap just an hour after I woke up for the day. I hadn’t even finished my cup of coffee yet. But my body was like “Why have you deprived me of the sleep that I require? Must. Sleep. More.” and I know better than to argue with my inner sleep fairy. She gets real testy when she doesn’t get her way.
This week I also plan to give in to my introvert ways and hermit. I socialized a lot at Alt Summit. It took every ounce of social energy to make sure I could be on all day and now I’m draaaaaained. This means not making plans, and saying no to friends because I know I need this week to recharge my social batteries. If you relate, don’t feel guilty for giving yourself time to step away from communication and events this week.
Did you hastily take a ton of notes during every session? Are they kind of scraggly and hard to decipher? Yeah, you’re going to want to rewrite those stat before they lose all sense of meaning. Grab a notebook (or a Google doc) and get to transcribing. You don’t need to write full paragraphs – just write your notes in a way that’ll be easy to understand when you are ready to make use of them. I’m a big fan of bullet points, but you might prefer full sentences or even doodles.
Do yourself a favor and gather up all of the business cards, postcards, and swag you received. Take an hour to look up anyone you want to make a further connection with, whether it’s bookmarking their online shop for a rainy day, following them on Instagram, or actually reaching out for a personal contact. If you have more time, I also suggest going through the Alt app to find all the classes you took (or wanted to take) and connect with the instructors. Some will send out their slides upon request, others may be able to answer questions you’ve since come up with, and some could even offer a program, product, or service that you never knew you needed.
It’s going to take some time to actually process everything you took away from Alt. Spend the next few weeks riding the post-Alt high by working on a plan to implement new techniques, skills, or inspiration that you picked up. Jot down new ideas that come to mind and reach out to your Alt sisters in the Facebook group for advice – you may even find someone to collaborate with or reach the perfect client.
Did you nab a pre-sale ticket to Alt 2021?! It’s still a year away, but it’s not too early to start planning. No, I don’t mean booking hotel rooms and rental cars – instead, make a few notes about what you’d like to do differently next year. Did you overwhelm yourself with business classes and want to remember to spend more time crafting? Did you spend all day inside and want to make time for a daily swim next year? Write it down. After a year away, you’re going to lose sight of all of those things that are fresh in your mind now. Even silly little things like “don’t forget Aquaphor for when the dry desert air sucks every drop of moisture from your lips and turns them into miserable dry toasts” – you’ll thank yourself next March.
Keep reading more about Alt Summit:
(Psst! I’m still offering up $50 off product photography and $100 off subscriptions for Alt attendees – learn more here!)
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I make whimsical art for color-lovers and California dreamers. I'm based in Virginia, outside of Washington, D.C. where there are most decidedly no palm trees in sight.