Folks, there will be no Cass in the Kitchen segment this week as I continue the brain dump I began on Tuesday. It was Tuesday, right? Yes. Tuesday. Okay, first things first, for those of you who think this blog is still about [tag]knitting[/tag]. When I went to last year’s conference, I was working on [tag]Sonnet[/tag]. This year, I wore it. WOOHOO, for the successful debut of personal [tag]hand knits[/tag]. Cha-cha-cha.

We just love it, don’t we? And now on to the conference!

The keynote speaker for Friday was Jeremy Shoemaker aka Shoemoney. Now, if you know me, it will come as no surprise to find out that being in e same general area as “famous people” is a bit intimidating. I always expect them to be …haughty somehow. [tag]Shoemoney[/tag] is so not like that. He shared pretty openly with us where he started from, and it was a very inspiring story. His main points were to get a good work ethic, and to make some progress everyday toward your goals. No fear and no excuses, do what others are not willing to do—find a needed service and then provide it. He also said “screw google” a lot, and I really liked that part.

Next up was [tag]Susan Gardener[/tag], talking about content. She inspired us to think in terms of content goals, and what we want to produce as far as post topics and frequency. She talked a bit about concept blogs as well.

Then there were panels on [tag]Big Money Bloggers[/tag], [tag]Driving Traffic[/tag] (and oh yeah, there is a controversy brewing there. Go ahead and pop “Lena West mommy blogger” into your search engine of choice), and what advertisers are interested in.

And then there was a party. You knew there would be a party, right? K. Click to embiggen, and don’t mind the weird face, I got caught with my mouth full. As usual. That’s a pimpin’ hat, isn’t it? Ted walked in wearing it, and put it on my head. I think I like it, how about you?

Oh yeah, one more thing. Over the course of the weekend, I heard several different people say ‘Oh, so you’re CassKnits!?! That is so gratifying! Truly, to meet people who know me because of my blog is just … amazing to me. Really amazing. And next year, I’ll be wearing t-shirts with my logo emblazoned across the chest![tags]IZEAfest[/tags]