Coke: My choice drug

Just so you know, I'm not a druggie. But recently a friend and I were contemplating how we can find time to do it all... Work, be a mom, take care of our husbands and our home. She (jokingly) said she'd have to take up cocaine to find a balance and time for it all. Lucky for me, a different kind of coke helped me discover the answer to my conundrum.

First and foremost let me say that I was invited to attend the Conversations with Coca-Cola Conference to learn about their Live Positively program. Coke hooked me up with a flight, hotel, and food. I'm not gonna lie, when I first got there, saw my hotel room, and the agenda, I had to ask myself what they wanted in exchange for all this wining and dining.

The journalist side of me thinks "UH OH!" Especially with the recent Huffington Post article snuffing at bloggers vacationing with McDonald's. But here's the thing. Bloggers aren't journalists. Bloggers openly share their opinions in their articles and journalists do not (or should not). Some bloggers' opinions can be swayed by swag and only write positive reviews, others choose to write how they REALLY feel regardless if they love it or hate it.

I, as a moonlight blogger, definitely have a fun time sharing my real opinions on random topics that I couldn't on air at my day job. So I enjoyed the trip as a blogger, with slight skepticism as a journalist, wondering when they were going to drop the bomb about what they wanted in return. But the bomb never fell.

We enjoyed a free tour of the world of Coke, where we got to taste Coke products from around the world... Some tastier than others. Among them was a European drink called Beverly which as you can tell, everyone loved.
There were also lessons on fitness and nutrition. Subway trainer Monica Vazquez game us some tips, and showed us some workouts we can do easily in our home. We had a plank-off and I won. ... NOT. But I wasn't the first one out.
Some of the most interesting lessons to me were about building our brands, and learning how Coke is making a difference in the world. Thankfully, they didn't tell me I had to blog about my experience, or tell me what to tell my friends, but I did walk away inspired after some "AH HA!" moments that I need to write down and remember.

Before going to Atlanta, my career goals were all over the map. Part of me wanted to be a stay at home mom, running some kind of business from home, another part of me was terrified at the thought of not working full-time and giving up everything I've worked towards.

When I opened my agenda the first item that caught my eye was "vision boards." I LOVE vision boards. It's kinda my thing. They can help you remain focused on a goal when you keep it visible in your home.

Funny enough, I forgot to snap a picture of mine and they're mailing it to me, so I can't share a photo right now. But it did have a couple pictures of Oprah, words like "balance" "quality time with family" and a quote about letting my daughter know she can be whatever she wants to be, and I'll do whatever it takes to help her.

Shortly thereafter we listened to a Women in the Workplace panel that was the single most motivational part of the conference for me.

In front of us sat seven successful women executives who all work for Coca-Cola, and have some sort of family of their own. From single moms, to soon-to-be-married, to being caregivers for their relatives, they each have an important personal life that comes first.

I asked each of them how they find a balance between wanting to be successful at work but also wanting to be just as successful at home and here's essentially what they said: Balance is a false goal. You can't balance everything perfectly everyday all the time. Sometimes you've gotta sacrifice a little of one for the other, but the most important thing to remember is to give your all and focus on the task at hand. When at work focus on the job, not wondering what your kid is up to, and when you're at home, leave the blackberry in your purse.

I grabbed Wendy Clark, Senior VP of Marketing Communications for Coke and, one of the panelists after the session and talked to her about one of the things she mentioned "I'm a better mom because I work, and I am better at work because I'm a mom." This resonated with me, and when I thanked her for that comment and told her about my battle with guilt she told me our kids don't know any different. Her children have never known her as a stay at home mom, or life outside of nannies and/or daycare. It's just a part of their lives. She said it's important she doesn't ever say things around her kids like "I wish I was at home" because that can make things confusing for them, and make them wonder why she does work if she doesn't have to.

A few other words that stuck with me during the Women in Leadership panel:
-Give your mentors permission to be completely honest with you.
-Stop trying to be perfect at everything and worry about what REALLY matters to your family.
-It's not a race. There are not finish lines where we're going.
-Take risks, and always feel a little uncomfortable in your job (it'll push you to get better).
-Define your own success and don't let anyone elses vision dictate your own.

So much food for thought! And so inspiring to see so many successful business women within this organization. Their "Live Positively" initiative not only does a million different things for local communities, schools, and quite frankly the planet at large (with recycling and such), it also gives employees a way to keep their families first when necessary as a part of their balanced living goals.

Right now there are about 29% of women in leadership roles in their company but they want to continue bring that number up. And they have a goal to create 5 million women entreprenurs around the world by 2020.

Between the conference and watching my favorite local news anchors in Atlanta, I came home completely pumped about my career goals.

Once again I witnessed it is possible to have a successful career and a thriving family life. It just won't be a perfect balance like I may have hoped. No need to become a coke addict. At least not the white stuff. But a trip for the Coke Conference was just the right dose of what I needed.
A big thank you for the invite, the lessons, and the chance to drink all of the coke products my heart desired. I was peeing like a race horse the whole trip... Yet I still with I had taken 10 more bottles of that Minute Maid Strawberry Passion stuff home cause it was like a slice of Heaven.

Atlanta bound

From one thing to the next I tell ya.

I'm originally from Atlanta and oh how I love it. I always wanted to go back there and work someday. My family still lives there as does my best friend. So imagine my surprise when my inbox lit up with a message from Coca-Cola inviting me to their Conversations with Coca-Cola blogging conference.

They hand-selected about 22 of us to bring out to their headquarters, meet each other, show us around the World of Coke, learn more about their live positively philosophy and how to better build my own brand.

Naturally, I accepted, then told my mom I was coming for a visit and bringing her grand baby. 

One of our flights in 2010

My mom actually used to work for Coca-Cola (on a totally different, technology side of things) so we've been fans a long time (we never really liked the other stuff).

Since I'm off on Mondays and Tuesdays, I asked if I could shift my flight a bit and arrive a couple days before the conference to spend time with my family and they obliged! We're flying in tonight, just in time for Mother's Day!

My younger sister Heather will be driving up from Alabama to visit too. She just found out she's having a little girl, so I'm excited to rub her belly and get Lil' J to talk to her cookin' cousin. My other two sisters may or may not get to skip school for an educational trip to the Georgia Aquarium or Zoo Atlanta Monday. My youngest sister, Kimmie is SO excited to see her niece. Last time they were together they did a lot of this.

Then Tuesday my best friend and I want to get our kids together before I head downtown for the conference starting Wednesday Morning.

The conference should be packed with information and great networking opportunities, I can't wait. Friday it'll be back to work, but at least I'll be refreshed and invigorated with the go-getter attitude. At least that's my hope. This opportunity worked out great because I hadn't decided on a blogging conference to attend, and I like to go to one a year. Last year EVO was amazing, and the two years prior BlogHer was fun too. It should be interesting to see how this one is since it's much smaller and more personal than the others.

Getting there should be another story all together. I'm pretty sure I've gone on more trips in the last two years than I did the rest of my life combined and I've brought Lil' J on all but one. Luckily this time I have my iPad, packed with games she normally has limited play time for, and I'm going to buy a couple episodes of Sesame Street and Yo Gabba Gabba. That will surely get us through the trip there and back right? (I pray).

So if I'm not around the next couple of days it's cause I'm taking a hometown hiatus. Having fun with family and making an attempt at building my brand. Then when I get back it'll be about time to start cookin' the next Spawnie. So much excitement packed in a week. I may implode from the thrill.


Big thanks to Coca-Cola for making my flight, hotel and conference experience possible!

"All eyes on me in the center of the ring just like a circus!"

I couldn't get that song out of my head up until we went. That, and songs from the Yo Gabba Gabba Circus episode. I guess I thought the more I exposed her to songs relating to the event she'd get what was going on when we got there. I'm weird.

It's a whole new world, looking through the eyes of my daughter. When I noticed a free ticket to the Piccadilly Circus stapled to her daily sheet at school I couldn't resist. It was as if SHE was asking me to take her there.

So I did.

I read some reviews about the circus before heading out and got worried I wouldn't like it so much. I had been to Barnum and Bailey before; years ago with my husband. But we had such bad seats it was hard to see. This one stuck out to me because it was open seating, so if we got there early enough we could get front row seats. They were coming on a Monday and Tuesday which coincided with my days off.

My husband had to work (and I knew he probably wouldn't want to come) so I got tickets for the earlier show time and invited a good friend of ours and her little girl to come with us. After she said yes, I felt guilty and asked my husband if he wanted to come. I pretended to beg to make sure he didn't want to go before letting him know he couldn't anyway. I'm evil.

When we arrived we went straight to the petting zoo. I bought some food for the animals and let Lil' J at it. She tried to feed me, instead of the llamas but after watching me feed them she seemed to realize how it was done. Boy did they love her! And she loved them. I have a fearless child. I'm not sure if that's good or bad.

We sat down on the front row and watched the elephant go back and forth in front of us as people took their elephant rides. I debated taking her on it but we ended up missing our chance.

I kept telling her "Elephant! Look at the elephant!" And she'd look in the direction of it. She caught on pretty quick.

Then one time, all of a sudden we look over and the elephant's trunk is coming over the side bar to say hi! It was the craziest thing. Her trainer brought her over to say hi. I helped Lil' J pet it but she wasn't too sure what to think. I assume she preferred watching Dumbo's mom from afar. The look on her face seeing that, in itself made the trip worth it.
During the show there were motorcycles in a ball, clown shows, juggling and balancing acts, and two more elephants doing some tricks. It was cute.

You can tell from the pictures she had a blast, and slept well that night. So did I. Just another fun experience for the memory books, and to cross of my list before baby #2. We're on a roll.