My sister’s dog Ziggy is such a character! Hurley is unfazed.

In early October I had the unique opportunity of speaking at the very first social media conference I ever attended: IZEAFest at Sea World in Orlando, FL. It was quite nerve-racking considering I was the new kid in the room and initially felt very out of my element. Would this community even care about what I had to say? Was I gonna get owned on the live-streaming Twitter feed? It certainly didn’t help that I was sandwiched between two people whom I have looked up to and admired since I first got really involved in social media and Web 2.0: Aaron Brazell (@technosailor) and Liz Strauss (@lizstrauss) – OK, honestly I was crapping my pants when Aaron finally wrapped up his keynote and it was time for me to come onstage.

Nonetheless, I have found that you grow the most in life by going outside and beyond your comfort zone. The first step is the biggest and most important. And this was a biiig first step for me. I was able to tell my story (a very quick version), explain how I, as an athlete, am using social media, and announce the launch of my new clothing brand, EdTrendy (@EdTrendy). I am incredibly grateful to Ted Murphy (@tedmurphy) and Ashley Edwards (@Social_Citizen) from IZEA for including me in such a wonferful event! Overall, IZEAFest was a tremendous learning and networking experience! I will follow up with another post about my highlights of the week.

Thanks to my friend Andrew Bennett from BenSpark.com for recording the video below!

I’d love to hear your feedback in the comments!

Related article: Act as if