We Made It

I guess I didn't realize how much work goes into this kind of thing. I knew it would be difficult. I knew we would have to dig deep to overcome some things. Some fears. Some insecurities. But I never understood the kind of months and hours it takes to form a message together. To understand each other in new and critical ways. To stay up another hour to go over it one more time. To dream about your slides for an entire week beforehand...

I guess I didn't realize the pure effort that lies beneath the surface of the speakers that give of themselves at PartnerCon and every other conference out there time and time again. But I also don't think I realized just how rewarding it truly is. I can't explain the kind of gratitude we feel towards everyone that came to listen to our talk yesterday morning. We were a nervous wreck beforehand! As soon as our alarm went off at 6am, we went through our talk one more time in our pajamas just to work out some nerves! And then when I saw that we had to stand on top of a stage so people could actually see us (I had this vain fantasy that maybe the lights would go out and we could just talk to dark faceless people), I think I just about fainted - which considering the heels I decided to wear during my anxiety induced vertigo sweats, fainting off of a three foot stage at the beginning of a three day conference may have been slightly excruciatingly embarrassing.

But we did it! AND we came out alive! Thank you, thank you, thank you to everyone that has supported us through this process and thanks to our friend Jared Bauman for snapping some photos of us while we spoke. Apparently though, when you're speaking your face makes all kinds of contorted expressions, so this is one of the few that doesn't make us all Picasso-faced. Thanks Jared!

We have tons of photos coming to the blog from our hands-on shoot workshop this morning where we took a group of 25 photographers on a shoot around the French Quarter. Our lovely models, Zach and Jody Gray, were so fun to photograph so a huge thanks goes out to them!