Why We Went

The Mom 2.0 Summit, a conference for Moms, Media and Marketers, took place in Scottsdale, AZ in May 2023 and it did not disappoint.  Emily A. Hay and Ali Spitzer of Team Hay There Social Media attended with a primary goal to gain new insight, knowledge and opportunities for our community of work life integrators.  That’s right – when our leadership team goes networking, its certainly to extend our own networks but when we go IRL, we are there on behalf of and to represent the community of independent Hay There Social Media managers across the country.

Ongoing professional development is core to our company’s offering and we are proud to consider ourselves as partners and collaborators with a wide range of thought leaders – both individuals and organizations.  This certainly includes Mom 2.0 (the entity), summit speakers and attendees alike.  For us, going to the Mom 2.0 Summit in Scottsdale was a “must do.”

The Theme

Did you know in May 2023 the New U.S. Surgeon General Advisory raised alarm about the devastating impact of the epidemic of loneliness and isolation in the United States?  In Mom 2.0’s words, the theme of the Mom 2.0 Summit in Scottsdale was Elevate. The conference was positioned to be a conversation between moms, marketers and media to raise up each other and ourselves with solutions and collaborative mindsets.  In other words – the antidote to loneliness.

Our mission at Hay There to empower women revolves around equipping them with increased professional options, giving them support of a community, and raising awareness of factors that can either facilitate or hinder our progress.  In other words, we are aligned with Mom 2.0 to “elevate” and combat isolation as freelance professionals everyday.

The Programming

Being first-time attendees, Emily and Ali relied on the conference app that shared all of the programming goodness from valuable rapid-fire roundtable topics such as “Learn how to sell yourself in less than 1 minute” by Kim Rittberg, Host of Mom’s Exit Interview Podcast and “How to Understand Brand/Influencer Contract Terms and FTC Rules” by LaToya T. Wright of The Fat Girl of Fashion to longer deep-dive sessions on more holistic business-focused topics such as “How to Shift, Sell, Adjust, Expand or Transform Your Business,” featuring Jill Smokler, founder of Scary Mommy and Julie Cole of Mabel’s Labels.

Sessions delivered tactical tips, best practices and new ideas for adding income streams and how to double down on methods you may are already leveraging.  Mom 2.0 programming covered how to earn money with affiliate links, SEO methods using AI, as well as social network specific information such as strategies for sponsored pins Pinterest to suggestions to optimize your images for Google images as a way to rank higher in search.

The programming was plentiful as sessions were happening simultaneously making it a bit overwhelming because it was hard to choose where to put your focus.  Emily and Ali decided to divide and conquer at times.  Luckily, the app made it easy for speakers and attendees alike to connect to be able to get information from sessions missed.

The Networking

“There was palpable collaborative energy in every room,” Emily A. Hay shared.  “After shaking hands, saying your name and where you are from, it was perfectly appropriate to jump in and say so how can we work together,” which is both an effective and heartwarming approach to reconnect with one another after a rough couple of years.”

Ali Spitzer added, “The focus on leading with authenticity- not just as professionals representing products or services, but as humans with real, and sometimes similar challenges back home naturally set an approachable tone that unlocked open, productive connections.”

The Applications and Lessons

Takeaways are much like beauty – they are in the eye of the beholder. There were raw emotional moments shared from speakers like Jen Hatmaker and TV journalist, Stacey Skrysak, as well as hilarious and relatable stories from people like Nicki Marie.  In addition to the roundtables and keynotes, conversations among attendees spoke to not only what each of us have LIVED through these last few years, but what we have LEARNED.

One subtle but strong understanding at the conference that struck a personal chord at Hay There was that we women are simply DONE doing it all.  There were discussions about burnout featuring speakers like Tara Clark of @modernmomproblems and Future Cain, an expert focused on healing our future.  Stress is a real and virtually unavoidable thing but sustained stress that doesn’t go away is burnout and that can manifest as creative burnout, mom burnout or even personal burnout leaving one feeling numb and disconnected.   Tara shared that in order to combat burnout, she recommends turning to the “3 Cs” to catch one’s feeling, check it and then change it.

Furthermore, sisters Tembe Locke and Attica Locke, who are screenwriters, authors, producers and novelists, spoke about their experience turning Tembe’s memoir and Reese’s Hello Sunshine book club pick, “From Scratch: A Memoir of Love, Sicily, and Finding Home” into a Netflix program.  They shared valuable lessons about the need to “contract” first in order to expand and how it’s ok to take a pause or a break from something.

Reese’s Hello Sunshine also recently produced the FAIR PLAY Documentary written and directed by Jennifer Siebel Newsom based off Eve Rodsky’s NY Times best selling book that featured Hay There Founder, Emily A. Hay and her husband’s journey to find fairness in the domestic labor in their home.   The lesson Tembe and Attica shared about the only way to get passed the fear of something is to actually do it; something Emily A. Hay shares regularly about her experience in the FAIR PLAY Documentary filming process.

How We’re Keeping Mom 2.0 Summit Alive at Hay There Social Media

Hay There Social Media looks forward to dedicating an entire monthly professional development session of ours to debriefing and sharing specific session takeaways with our community of independent social media managers.

Emily and Ali were certainly energized from networking with progressive, forward-thinking business owners, content creators and thought leader women that are a part of the Mom 2.0 Community.  We look forward to continued camaraderie with Mom 2.0 as we work tirelessly to normalize discussion around work life integration, and empower women looking for flexible work from home opportunities in the in-demand field of social media everywhere.

If you are interested in learning how Hay There Social Media is empowering women to be independent social media managers everyday, schedule a call with us and see what it could look like for you.

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