Tastefully Simple Conference Day 3

Today our conference is going to be our last "message giving" day of sessions. Later, we will be dressing up for the awards ceremony which will be in the evening with a big fancy meal. But for the rest of the day, it's business as usual.

We arrived at the convention center for our continental breakfast at 7:30AM. After that we headed to Hall B, where the general session would continue once again. We could hear the band Urban Myth and their mix of 70's, 80's, pop and country music selections, playing as we walked in the door.

Each day, 3 times throughout our general session, there were drawings for prizes. They refer to these drawings as "Hot Seat" drawings. We have to be in our seats on time in order to win if our name is drawn. Only the people in attendance for the convention are entered to win anything. The prizes were: Visa gift cards (some for $100 and $200), Barnes and Noble gift cards, fancy purses, certificates to use at the Merrill store, Kay jewelers gift cards, and the list goes on. Roughly 5-6 gifts were drawn for at each drawing. And guess what? I won a $50 certificate to our Merrill store! Figures, I had already shopped and spent money! But I knew of some other items that I had really liked and wanted to get but figured I'd wait to get them. Well not any more! I'm shopping today during lunch time!

Some announcements were made and then the new Team Managers names' were recognized. Hopefully, I'll be a Team Manager before the year is over! It's the next level up for me!

If you recall, yesterday the new products were revealed for our new catalog for the fall/winter. However, that was only half of the total new line. Today we found out the last of the individual items and all the gifts and collections. Wow! Book your party with me everyone! It's going to be a great line up of products! We were given a new catalog to keep and during today's disclosure of products, we even sampled some new items right at our table during the general session! Huge platters of goodies were delivered to each of our tables by a wait staff waiting in the wings. Keep in mind that there were over 1700 of us in attendance so they had lots of food to prepare just for our sampling pleasure!

Then it was on to other unveiling's. The new leadership incentive trips were revealed. Anyone can earn these trips simply by their sales, recruiting and leadership development; that means coaching anyone on my team to help them advance in their business and their own leadership. These trips are sometimes quite exotic! Jamaica, for example is one of the big trips that leaders can earn.

Next, the top 10 achievers in sales, recruiting and leader development were announced. I'm amazed at how some of these consultants can be as busy as they must be to achieve some of the levels they have reached!

Soon it was time for our lunch in which we were given a meal consisting of some of the new items in the fall/winter catalog. Again, at the risk of repeating myself, it was delicious as usual. I'm very excited to sample the rest of the new products at home! When we were waiting for the food to be delivered to our table, I used this time to get in one more shopping spree with my new certificate.

Once we were back in Hall B for the continuation of general session, the names of the new Senior Team Managers were announced. And there were many that had advanced in their leadership levels!

The next item on the agenda was to hear from an invited guest to our conference. She is an awesome speaker named Sue Rusch. A motivational speaker, she inspires participants to reach higher, delivering insights from two decades of working on both field and on corporate sides, equipping participants with actionable strategies. I have never heard such an invigorating speaker in my life. Her ability to captivate and yet train while she's speaking is unbelievable. She's funny, serious, experienced and just simply down to earth with her concepts. I loved her! As she said, sometimes people spend so much time getting ready for success that they run out of time to get the results they're looking for! You have to make your dreams real and make time for them too! And she makes it sound so easy. Unbelievable.....

Breakout sessions continued that afternoon until roughly 4:45. We then left the convention center to go to the hotel and get changed for our formal dinner and victory celebration awards ceremony.

Once back in Hall B, we saw that our tables had been converted into beautiful formal dining tables. There were cash bars set up throughout the hall and the lights were slightly dimmed to give it the proper ambiance like that of an actual fancy restaurant. Everyone was dressed up and ready for a great meal and camaraderie on this, our final night all together. Cameras were flashing and everyone was enjoying piano music by a young man playing a grand piano right in the center of the floor amongst our tables. The stage was set and ready for all the final awards for the higher leadership recipients.

I never heard what his name was but he had a voice similar to that of Sir Elton John. Very pleasant to listen to.

At each setting was a menu program that listed our meal for the evening as well as the agenda for the awards ceremony. Here is what we were served: Grape and Marcona salad, made with the following: Hearts of Romaine tossed with Baby Greens, Fresh Red Grapes, Celery, Marcona Almonds and Poppy seed Dressing. The dinner plate consisted of these items: fresh seasonal vegetables-Julienne zucchini, Pea pods, Red pepper and Carrots, Boneless Chicken Breast served with Cilantro Lime Cream Sauce, Filet Mignon with Portabella Balsamico Reduction, Sour Cream and Green Onion Mashed Potatoes, and assorted fresh rustic breads. This was all delicious beyond delicious! Our dessert was a layered lemon cake with raspberry sauce, fresh whipped cream (from a can I'm pretty sure!), and marble-white chocolate garnish. Wow....heaven on a plate!

Our dessert.....Mmmm....words cannot really describe how tasty this was!

The welcome was given by our own Jill Blashak-Strahan, founder and CEO. She had her husband, son, Mother and in-laws in attendance with her. She then introduced her partner and co-founder, Joni. Joni had family with her as well.

This year marks the 15TH birthday of Tastefully Simple. So extra measures were made to have an extra special celebration. After rolling out a huge birthday cake, fireworks on the cake and on the stage began going off. Yes...inside the hall! The room was echoing with cheering and applause once we were able to slow our heart rates down! I was able to get a picture of the cake after the celebration was over.

Then began the lengthy parade of each of the upper levels of leadership. They lined up and did what was called the "Walk of Fame." Each of them got to walk across the stage, had their name and home state announced and shook hands with Jill and other HQ employees. They definitely give people their time in the spot light. This all took quite a bit of time.

Jill and Joni on the big screen with the birthday cake on the floor, just sticking up over the crowd.

Here are the fireworks going off, Jill and Joni on stage. You can see the cake on the big screen above Jill and Joni.

The closeup on the screen of Jill and Joni celebrating.


My sponsor Teri and I at the hotel ready to go to the dinner.


Another shot of the stage area with the 3 big screens and all the special lighting. The band Urban Myth was again set up behind the screens in the center of the stage. We couldn't see them clearly as the screens were painted. The piano player is shown on the big screen in the center.

The final 5 awards were given out and then it was over for the night. We went out and waited for our shuttle van to pick us up and headed back to the hotel. Sunday morning was going to be our last day here.