If you are not following Dayna Bolden, I don’t know what rock you have been living under but you need to go follow her ASAP. Dayna is one of the influencers that inspires me through being her authentic and true self. She inspires women everyday to do things with love, passion and style while being authentic. 

When I saw that she was hosting her first event, I knew I had to be in the building. I heard Dayna speak for the first time at BlogHer a few months ago and was truly inspired by all the gems she dropped and how welcoming she was to talk and take pictures with everyone after her panel was over. I was so excited when I secured my ticket for The Bold Experience because they went pretty fast. I couldn’t wait to network with other women and catch up with a few blogger friends. Overall, I couldn’t wait for this event!

The first thing I noticed once I walked into the venue was the decor! The attention to detail and how the space was filled was on point. It was such a fresh, bright and clean design. 

I loved that notebooks and pens were provided. I packed my notebook and had a pen handy just in case. Sometimes you don’t know if those things will be provided at some events, you want to be able to take notes and remember what was said for future reference. 

We started the day networking with each other, grabbing something to eat and taking pictures.You could also take headshots and grab some exclusive merchandise that Dayna collaborated with Mess In A Bottle (a black owned business) just for the event. 

Before Dayna hit the stage, we heard from keynote speaker Michelle McKinney who was just everything. She is the founder of Dreams Unleashed that helps women to discover their God given dreams and helps bring them to life. I was just taking in everything that she was saying to us and I could look around the room and tell her words sinking in with everyone. Michelle gave us 5 questions to ask ourselves to really level up for 2019. 

The question that stood out to me the most was “Do I introduce myself like I’m the shit or do I downplay my achievements”? When she went deeper into it, it really made me think about how I really show up for myself. Do I present myself confidently or still act a bit stand off-ish or shy? How I present myself and talk about myself is important to my brand.

After Michelle, it was time for Dayna to hit the stage and drop some gems. She went over how she got into blogging, how it went from her side hustle to full time job, her work/life balance and so on. 

She encouraged all of us in the room to figure out our why, figure out why we want our certain goals and why we want to do it. After we determined our why, figure out our who and what. This information was extremely helpful for me as I’ve been struggling with the direction of Naturalle Drea and how to take it to the next level. 

I love how Dayna encourages us to be authentic in the world filled with social media frauds and people who front for the gram. You can be true to yourself and transparent self and still have that success. At the end of the event we had a candle lighting ceremony which symbolized that lighting another woman’s candle will never dim your own. 

When I got back to my room after the event, I opened a hand written thank you note from Dayna and I shed a few tears reading it. I just couldn’t get over that she actually wrote thank you notes to everyone but it was personalized to us. What stood out to me the most was “Living Boldly comes with intention, first it takes believing that you can then acting on it. Be Great, Be Bold and go after everything you deserve”.  I was just blown away and also the swag bag was everything lol!

I walked away from The Bold Experience feeling so much better about myself than when I walked in the door. I feel so inspired to be a better version of myself and level up. I took away so much from this event and it was just amazing. I highly recommend getting on the email list for The Bold Experience 2019. 

Let me know how you plan on leveling up for 2019. See you guys tomorrow.