This past weekend was an awesome purple haze! I delivered the keynote address at the 2nd Annual Come Celebrate Lavender Conference, a national gathering of novice and experienced lavender growers and artisans who not only grow lavender plants but also make products with all parts and extracts (lavender essential oil, lavender hydrosol, lavender buds, lavender stems, etc.) of the lavender plants they grow. The theme of the conference was From Novice to Expert: Never Stop Learning. The conference was hosted by Ellen Reynolds of Beagle Ridge Herb Farm, located near the beautiful Blue Ridge Mountains.
The primary event sponsor was Essential Depot, supplier of ingredients to soap and cosmetics makers and host of the Greener Life Club. A Come Celebrate Lavender Conference is planned for next year, so stay tuned. For now, I want to share some of the fun we all had at this year's amazing event.
Thursday and Friday
I arrived on Friday evening and checked in to beautiful accommodations at the lovely Trinkle Mansion Bed & Breakfast where owner Patti Pizinger attended to every imaginable detail. I highly recommend this venue for any special occasion or just if you want to get away and treat yourself to some peace and quiet near the mountains.
Thursday and Friday at the event were exciting pre-conference activity days, including hands-on workshops and product making demonstrations. Classes included how to make everything from cold and hot process soap, taught by our member Debrena Gordon of Blue Run Spring Farm, to how to make lotion bars, bath bombs and lavender wreaths.
Ellen hosted a mini version of her popular Lavender Academy where she taught how to grow and manage a thriving lavender farm. Beagle Ridge supplies lavender and lavender by-products to hundreds of companies that make things like herbal tea and other food products, bath and body products, skincare products and more. Ellen really knows her stuff, so if you want to start a lavender (or any type of herb) farm, you can't go wrong by learning from Ellen.
Friday was topped off with an evening of bowling at the Crossroads Social House. It was fun to connect with conference attendees in a casual environment before we got down to business on Saturday morning.
Saturday and Sunday
This year, I had the privilege of delivering the keynote address. My topic was how to achieve what I call The Ultimate Trifecta™: a Joyful Life, a Profitable Business and a Meaningful Legacy.
My talk was front and center early Saturday morning. The Ultimate Trifecta™ is my proprietary framework developed over the course of 25 years of entrepreneurship, to help you create a life you love by integrating what brings you joy with what generates income so you can live your unique life legacy. It was all about how to precisely design a joy-filled life, how to build a very specific business around that life, and then how to integrate the them to create a meaningful legacy that is unique to you.
Among other things, I detailed IBN's signature Indie Business Sales Cycle™, which is depicted here.
Saturday evening was topped off with a fun evening event at the Wolfhardt Haus Dinner Theatre that was hosted and sponsored by Essential Depot. We enjoyed lavender spiked drinks, dinner and dancing.
Additional weekend sessions were divided into the Business Track, the Growing Track and the Product Track. Attendees selected tracks and sessions based on what their specific life and business priorities.
Sessions included things like how to apply for a federal government grant, how to assess and obtain liability insurance, how to use Artificial Intelligence in your business, how to become certified naturally grown, an overview of FDA regulations taught by our member Allison Vought of AliMar Private Label and the art of tea blending. There was so much more, and it was great fun for everyone!
A Wonderful Time with Wonderful People!
Below are a few shots of the amazing people and the wonderful time I had at the 2024 Come Celebrate Lavender Conference.
Top Row: with products from Blue Run Spring Farm; with conference host Ellen Reynolds; Asheville Tea Company
Middle Row: speaking on The Ultimate Trifecta; with speaker Zakia Ringgold; with Allison Kontur of AliMar Labs
Bottom Row: with my new Lavender-opoly board game; with Trinkle Mansion owner, Patti Pizinger; with Essential Depot owner, Derek Hodges
One-Minute Takeaway
Here are three takeaways from my experience at the Come Celebrate Lavender Conference:
- Always be learning. No matter how much you know, you can always learn more. After nearly 25 years in business, I am still learning from other business owners. Keep asking questions and always be in rooms with people who are smarter than you.
- Always be networking. The day you stop meeting and interacting with people is the day your life and your future begins to shrink. Always be going in the exact opposite direction — always.
- Big things happen in small towns. Wytheville is a small town, but there is lots of heart and personality there. There is much to learn no matter where you go, so never dismiss a venue just because of its size.
Come Celebrate Lavender in 2025!
If the 2025 Come Celebrate Lavender Conference is not on your calendar, I suggest adding it. Learn more about the conference here, and follow Ellen at Beagle Ridge Herb Farm on Instagram to receive the announcements as Ellen releases them!
