I've finally had the chance to decompress from last weekend. What an experience. I knew going into this year's Hello Sunshine's Shine Away 2024 I was going to have a great time, but I did not expect everything that happened to play out the way it did.
Let's start from the beginning.
Shine Away is the now annual conference that Reese Witherspoon's company, Hello Sunshine, puts on as a day (two days this year!) for women to come together, connect, and hear from amazing community warriors on topics such as women's health, women in sports, Reese's Book Club authors, and being your authentic self. It is truly a weekend of connection and inspiration.
I flew into LA on Friday the 4th excited to connect with fellow women (and some men) at the second annual Shine Away Conference. This year I chose to do the VIP ticket - more on that later. I got in too late to really do anything, so I settled in and tried to sleep, but I felt like that kid in the Disney commercial from years ago - I'm too excited to sleep!
Day 1 -
If you ever want to be inspired listen to Reese talk. The day started with check-in. The line was wrapped around the block, with everyone so excited to get in. The attendance doubled from the previous year. I was very grateful that my hotel was across the street, because when I walked out, holy hell, there were so many people already in line! Thanks to my VIP status, I got to go into a separate line after waiting about 30 minutes. Check in was smooth, but by the time I got in, I had missed the author meet and greet I really wanted to participate in for the weekend. But that's ok, I would soon realize that the rest of the weekend would only go up from there.
Everyone gathered into the main room and we were treated to a comedy set from Heather McMahan. And if you're from Atlanta then you know how funny she is! It really set the mood for the day. I was cackling at 10 am! Reese came out next and talked about the sunflower phenomenon - how they track the sun all day, and at night the flowers know to move back facing the East so that when the sun comes up they can face the sun again. It was such a great metaphor for life and how even in our darkest times, we can find the sun. After her incredibly inspiring welcome, she brought out Laura Dern and Octavia Spencer to talk about their experiences in the entertainment industry and paving their own way against adversity. They also addressed the importance of connection and building your network of trusted people for success. I'm lucky I have mine!
Next Sarah Blakely came out to do a fire-side chat with Reese. She is such an inspiration and again if you are from Atlanta, you probably know her story, as she's a staple around town. The sheer fact that she started Spanx with only $500 in her apartment is incredible. It makes me want to keep pushing forward. She talked about her new shoe line as well, and addressing gaps she saw in the market.
We broke for lunch and once I grabbed my food there wasn't a place to sit out front so I went to the back area of the event space and found a table. I asked the girl standing there if I could plop my stuff down and eat. Two more girls joined us and we got to chatting. It turns out meeting Alison would legitimately change the whole direction of the event in the best way possible! We exchanged contact numbers and then returned to the main hall for a panel on women in sports, which, as a former sports industry person, was cool to hear. Candace Parker and Alex Morgan were on the panel along with the QB of the Women's Flag Football Team in Mexico, Diana Flores. She is paving the way for amazing things in the sport.
The day wrapped with a choose your own adventure portion where you could decide which panels you wanted to see. I chose to listen to the entrepreneurial panel with the founder of Kitsch, Sprinkles, and a clothing company I had never heard of, Cuyana. It was inspiring to hear their stories and how they started their own businesses and support they received along the way. I wrapped my day with a panel on the Power of The Pivot, which was all about dealing with the unexpected in your life. Brooke Baldwin, Amanda Kloots, and Danielle Ponder were on this panel. Danielle was a public defender turned soul singer! She even sang a snippet and I was blown away. She's definitely going on my Spotify now!
Day 1 ended with a performance by the Castellows - from Georgia, there was a lot of Georgia love in the house! - they are a sister trio and the tone of their voices is so soothing. We had a happy hour and then I headed back to the hotel for dinner and at the time I didn't know what.
I dropped my things off in my room and headed down to the bar to get food. While there, I met some amazing women from Thrift Books and started chatting with them about my book and being and indie author. I'm going to reach out to them, but they said they would help promote on their site!!! Then Alison from earlier called and wanted to chat. I told her to come to the hotel and hang, so she did. We talked all night and the connections we have are insane! Get this:
She grew up in the town my dad lived, 20 minutes north of where I grew up
She went to the church my Papa played organ at!
She went to BC where my mom went
She vacationed on Cape Cod a couple towns over from where I vacationed
and I'm sure I'm missing something. But seriously our lives seem to be running parallel. She's a little younger than I am so we probably never crossed paths while we were both living in Connecticut, but who would have thought that we'd have so much in common living so far away from each other now. She's lives in Manhattan now.
So we get to talking and I'm telling her about my self publishing and by the end of the night there is only us and another group, who I know is from Hello Sunshine. Alison convinces me to go say hi, and as nervous as I was, we did. They were super nice and we chatted with them and told them how we connected at lunch and they took our information down so that we could film a testimonial!!!!
I'm still so over the moon. Stay tuned for Day 2 recap and everything that came after!
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