It’s been a few days since my Blogalicious Weekend adventure and I’m still basking in inspiration. It was certainly unforgettable and I had so many breakthroughs that I am going to be making some changes in my business model.

A popular session was the #SpeakBeautiful breakfast keynote and panel discussion, sponsored by Dove®, and led by award winning writer and New York Times Bestselling author, Luvvie Ajayi.

Dove® is one of my favorite brands because Dove® believes in making beauty a source of confidence, not anxiety.

The Friday morning opening session featured Dre Brown, Makeup Artist + Creator of belleIEVE Beauty, Marie Denee “The Curvy Fashionista,” and Claudia Krusch creator of TrendyLatina.com. They focused on using self-acceptance and the power of influence to help women understand how personal online and offline behaviors can impact and inspire the next generation of girls, and to continue bringing awareness to their message of confidence, empowerment, and beauty for women of all ages and backgrounds, both online and off.

There were so many messages that resonated with me and with my daughters, because my mission is to empower moms and my daughters help other kids, tweens and teens to increase their self-esteem.

Luvvie’s keynote was full of gems, very entertaining, and real. I loved when she encouraged the audience: “take the time to build your sense of self!“

Social media bombards women and girls with messages that can be hurtful and destructive to their self-esteem and confidence. Research shows 82% of women feel the beauty standards set by social media are unrealistic and 8 out of 10 women encounter negativity on social media that critique women’s looks. In communities of color, not only do those unrealistic beauty ideals come from social media, but are also filtered through the lens of mainstream society.

When you have a strong identity, a strong sense of self, you are going to react to this negativity in a different way. So how do we do that?

Luvvie asked these three questions that are key to getting started: Who are you? What are your core values? What drives you?

Who are you?

4 out of every 5 negative tweets about beauty and body image are women talking about themselves. We do not see ourselves as beautiful and our society and the media are constantly telling us we aren’t enough. We must stop quantifying who we are as women because that is harmful!

Marie Denee said “You are enough when you wake up in the morning, without any qualifiers!” and how many women tie their self worth to their clothes size.

We must understand that it does not matter how we look, what our race, age, or size are, we are beautiful and we must speak love, light, and beauty to ourselves as daughters of God. When we focus on our divine worth and identity, we learn to be gentle with ourselves and with each other.

Claudia told us: “Beauty is ageless and color blind. Be free to define your own beauty!” and encouraged us to be a walking spokesperson for ourselves.

Who you are and how you feel about yourself starts with YOU. You can be your own best friend and biggest fan! It also has to do with accepting who you are and where you are in your journey.

Dre advised: “You don’t have to subtract from someone to add to yourself.” In fact, as you sprinkle the magic of giving honest compliments to others, it will come back to you and you will be more accepting of yourself!

As get to know yourself for the amazing woman you are, you start to love yourself… like Kanye loves Kanye… Well, maybe not THAT much.

What are your core values?

Values are beliefs that guide your choices in life, whether you acknowledge it or not. However, we sometimes adopt someone else’s values because you think you should.

Sticking to your values will increase your sense of self, and in turn, your sense of worth and your self-esteem.

Knowing your core values will help you on social media to keep perspective. If you don’t establish what your values are, you will be drifting to and fro, driven by other people’s values.

What drives you?