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FierceCon 2018–A True Connection

Quote of the day: “Though no one can go back and make a brand new start, anyone can start from now and make a brand new ending.” Carl Bard

Warning: I have lots to share and lots of links. It may be a ton to read and listen to all in one sitting, so feel free to Pin it (if that doesn’t work, you can go to my Pinterest board and pin it from there).

This quote is what this weekend meant to me. Inspiration, encouragement, along with meeting new friends who make our life so much more meaningful. Maybe I don’t talk about it much, but I’m one of the administrators of the Forever Fierce Revolution Facebook Group. And after last years get together, we knew we wanted to put together another event. Catherine is the founder of this group, yet she is humble and won’t take much credit. She always says it takes a village to keep it going.

I’m know some of you have joined the FB group. Even though I’m not great at expressing anything with words, this group has changed my life. It’s because we all need to find a tribe of like minded women. Is this group for you? It depends. We always say there are no mean girls allowed. We aren’t here to put other women down or be negative. It’s only for those who want to lift each other up and be supportive EVEN if you don’t agree. About what? Anything that is happening to you in midlife. Questions, concerns, or even sharing a great quote.

If you request to join, make sure to tell them that Jodie sent you. Being part of the group is like any FB group. You can check in as much or as little as you like. I know one of my friends thought it was only for bloggers. But that’s NOT the case. You may see many blog posts in the group, but that’s only because we are sharing our “world” with the group. If you join, I would suggest you share a “hello, this is me” post (photos not needed).

So onto our FierceCon 2018 Event that we touted as Rewire and Inspire. Some of these photos are taken from others in the group, others are from my phone and then there are some that Rob took. Of course Rob joined me at the event. Sure, it was mainly for women, but the entire weekend was inspirational for any human being.

Thursday Night

Let me start by saying I don’t have photos of everyone at the event. Well, I probably do, but it’d be impossible to share them all. If you do join the Forever Fierce Revolution FB group, you can certainly scroll through the feed and see so many other wonderful memories from the weekend.

Rob and I got into LA early to help with all of the details. We met up with Rosie and Lesley and worked on stuffing the swag bags for the event.

For those of us that were there a day early, we dined at the restaurant that had catered our event last year. Here’s the live from the evening if you want to pretend you were there with us.

I want you to know that Sophie (the woman in blue) had JUST gotten in from the UK that day. And there was a woman, Cat Coluccio from New Zealand who was part of the group…I have no idea where she disappeared to for this photo. Cat has her own FB group called Rocking Midlife! that would be an other great group for you to join.

Friday Prep

The entire event was held at the Crowne Plaza in Redondo Beach. We had the afternoon before the Friday night party to set up the room and make it look special. Let’s just say we worked our butts off…..

Lana and I were on balloon duty which was harder than you think. I have to admit that I’ve never had a big wedding or event, so I had NO idea all of the work and organization that went into such an event. The woman who really kept everything organized was Loretta. We called her boss throughout the weekend, and if you read her blog, you will get some insight into her experience of this amazing event.

Friday Gala

I’d also like to introduce you to Linda (on the left) and Daria (on the right) who are friends from New York. Linda is a huge force behind the scenes in our Forever Fierce admin group. In fact, she’s the one I call boss most days.

The thing that is so amazing?? Linda shared with us her feelings after the event. You should read them here. I think it’s how most of us feel and yet it’s those feelings that give us hope we can Rewire and Inspire. In fact, Linda’s words  along with a couple of other women’s messages have inspired a hashtag we are starting to use called #shieldsdown.

There was also a live taping with about 10 of us at the event. I was paired up with my lovely friend, Anita. Anita has touched our hearts over this past year while she lost her husband due to brain cancer. Rob and I met the couple at last year’s event, and her struggles have affected us deeply. It was seriously one of the reasons that my husband retired last fall, because life is too short to waste.

The two of us had a love fest on camera, which is never a bad thing.

Saturday in New York

At the same time as we were celebrating in LA, Eugenia, hosted a meet up for those women in New York.

You can read about her NYC mini FierceCon event as she is a original Forever Fierce member who is super about sharing even though she’s on the East Coast.

Saturday Beach Side Chats

The best part is you can see these chats yourself even now. They were taped live, and it was truly my favorite part of the weekend, besides meeting so many wonderful women.

The first part of the morning, we had an hour of meditation with DavidJi. I’ve never tried meditation before, so it was a different experience to me. DavidJi is world renowned as Deepak’s lead educator and the creator of the 21-day meditation process that Oprah uses.

Then at the beach side chats, Davidji talked with Catherine about his ideas and the thinking behind the practice. Feel free to join the talk on the live tape.

The first group of women are shown above. From left to right is Catherine who mediated, and then  Janet (who joined us in our Chicy Blinders video earlier this year), Cathy, Jacqueline, Jan and Wendy. All of their stories spoke to me about the lessons they have learned and struggles they have faced.

Here is the live taping if you’d like to hear it too.

The afternoon group of women and their incredible stories and words consisted of Loretta, the mediator, and then Linda, Rosie, Patty, Tamara, and Cat.

Here is the live taping for these amazing women. 

Saturday Photo Shoot

Then just like last year, we traveled down to the Hermosa Beach Pier to take a group photo.  If you think it’s easy to herd a huge group of women together at once, then you’re living in Lala land. Even my husband can tell you that taking mom, Nancy and my photos together is difficult. Then times that by 1000 for these photos. But Mike, who is Catherine’s business partner in this revolution, is quite the professional.

Here is most of the admin group above. If you’d like to pick up any of the fun t-shirts, there is an online shop to get your own.

The evening was absolutely perfect. It’s so fun how we go from woman to woman, to get photos to remember everyone with. Pictured above is Helen, who is on the admin team with me and who I met last year. And beside her is Wendy, who was one of the speakers. Wendy has her own FB group, and even has classes and events for runway training, personalize makeup tutorials, personalized styling sessions and more. Not that you may think you need to learn runway walking, but it’s more of a confidence builder than anything.

You can see in my sentence a day post how the sunset gave us such a magnificent view.

Sunday Brunch with Saranghae

I have worked with Saranghae before on my blog. And don’t get me wrong,  I LOVE their products. But can I tell you how much I love them even more after getting to know the people that are behind the products.

These are the wonderful people from Saranghae that joined us for the weekend and were the main sponsor of our event. On the left of me is Chantelle, and on the right is Andrea. Both of these women even helped us set up on Friday by organizing the swag bags. We seriously couldn’t have done it without them.

And then Peter Lee is the CEO of the company. He gave us a most inspiring motivational talk about rags to riches.

And let me just address the gorgeous flower backdrop that you see above. It was in attendance at all of our events. It was made by hand by one of our Fierce Sisters, Julie. She is a creative force working for Paramont, and is also such a gem of a woman.

The Facts

There were many women who’s ideas were different than what they expected after the event. I’d love for you to hear what Cathy wrote. I have met Cathy through blogging as we have worked together before. And it’s so touching when other women are inspired also.

I also love how Rebecca commented on the shoes…you have to read her take on the weekend.

There are also a huge amount of sponsors that helped us make this event happen. Some of them I’ve already discussed, but I want to include the others that were so generous with their time and products.

Keeping in Touch

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