The Park Wife is a tribe builder. She is the founder of Arkansas Women Bloggers
(ARWB), an online community designed to gather,grow, and connect bloggers in our state. Stephanie recently launched her company The Women Bloggers
and expanded her state-focused blog communities into Oklahoma, Kansas, Mississippi, Alabama, and Texas. Through ARWB, she holds the popular, smaller niche blog conference Arkansas Women Bloggers Unplugged, submerging
bloggers in an environment that fosters relationships, communication and some
pretty fierce dedication and camaraderie. Considered an old-timer in the blog
world, since 2005 she has written what she hopes is a love letter to her children
on her lifestyle blog, The Park Wife. Raised in the debutante world of Mississippi,
she married her hunky park ranger and moved to Arkansas 15 years ago and has
fallen in love with the state. She loves gardening, porch swings, a beautifully
set table, a delicious meal surrounded by great conversations, their cabin in the
woods and monograming everything that is not nailed down. She is a devoted
wife and fun-loving, homeschool mom to two extraordinarily cool little gentlemen
and is fortunate enough to live on one of Arkansas’s premier state parks.
1936 Petit Jean State Park map courtesy of National Park Service
Stephanie Buckley, aka The Park Wife, is the founder of Arkansas Women Bloggers (ARWB), a community of over 700 women designed to gather, grow, and connect bloggers in our state (and seven other states are building the amazing in their backyards).
She loves gardening, porch swings, a beautifully set table, a delicious meal surrounded by great conversations, their cabin in the woods and monogramming everything that is not nailed down. She is a devoted wife and fun-loving, homeschool mom to two extraordinarily cool little gentlemen and is fortunate enough to live on one of Arkansas’s premier state parks.
A June wedding out of state, 48 hours at our disposal, and three children: this is what we I had to work with. Sometimes, these kinds of experiences make for fun family memories. Sometimes family peace (and survival) means splitting everyone up.
Turns out, there’s a bit of an art to leaving for a weekend with one child when you have three. Before the road trip journey began, I had to get past the days leading up to the trip.
1. Put the road trip on the calendar. Write your name and your oldest child’s name along with it, establishing the authority of the family calendar above all else. If there are any gripes about everyone not getting to go, simply point to the wedding date, and remind the complainers that what is on the calendar remains on the calendar. Never mind that there are multiple previous events crossed out on the calendar.
2. Make sure someone stays with the children. With such limited time available, my husband and I decided he would remain at home with the younger two. No matter how much you might want to embrace Free Range parenting, you can’t leave a six-year old and a four-year old at home without supervision.
Road trip drama: I regret to inform you that two of you boys will be staying behind.
3. Inform the children who are being left behind. Despite the fact that “no” is a complete sentence, it might be helpful to explain to the littles that older brother is going and they are getting to stay at home. This should probably be done a few days ahead of time, and not right before you dash out the door—leaving tantrums in your wake.
4. Remember who you are. You are a mom of multiple children. You banished guilt a long time ago. The word “guilt” shouldn’t even be part of your vocabulary. Make the decision and don’t look back. Do not entertain any guilty thoughts. Stop thinking about how guilty you might be feeling. Remember, you’re the mom of multiple children. You banished guilt a long time ago…
5. Be careful about what you say. It’s not like you can appease the younger kids by convincing them that weddings are totally boring—informing them they would have to: sit for a really long time without talking or wiggling or moving in any way or making faces or swinging their feet or clapping their hands or crossing their eyes or looking behind them or laughing or hanging upside in their chair like monkeys or making any noise whatsoever…because then the oldest child will overhear you (or surely be told by his siblings) and will have second thoughts about going.
6. Play up the whole “getting to stay with Daddy” experience for the younger ones. Daddy is the one they love best, anyway. When the oldest child isn’t around, remind them that Daddy doles out Lucky Charms for breakfast, licorice for snack, and other fun things they never get to do when Mommy is around.
7. Play up the whole “you’re getting to come with Mommy!” experience for the oldest. When his younger brothers are not around, remind him that he will get to see his Mama and Papa, have undivided attention from family, and get to eat wedding food. Wedding food!
8. Relax. You’ve done your job. The younger children know what’s going on and are fine with it. The oldest child is excited about the trip. All is good. #success
9. Do not mess up the success of your plan. Make a mental note that next time, putting the one mobile device shared by all the children in the car while the younger two are watching is a terrible mistake.
10. Drive away. Do not look back at the tantrums in your wake. #parentingfail
Five years ago, we decided to gather women from every walk of life in a unique place that would be warm and welcoming, a place to grow and stretch bloggers as they
explored or even discovered their voices, and we knew we wanted to cultivate deep connections and create an atmosphere that felt like sneaking off for an amazing weekend with your best girlfriends.
We did just that.
We would like to invite you to our FIFTH Annual Conference, #AWBU 2015, to be held at The Arlington Hotel in Hot Springs, August 28-30. This years conference will focus on elevating your main brand component…YOU!
The conference will continue to feature great sessions, opportunities to network
with bloggers and sponsors, and some of the brightest speakers in social media and business. Our opening keynote on Saturday will be Rhea Lana Riner, founder and CEO of Rhea Lana, Inc. and Rhea Lana’s Franchise Systems, Inc. She started her children’s consignment event business 17 years ago in her living room while she was a stay-at-home mom raising three young children.
Franchising six years ago, the company now has 80 locations in 24 states. Rhea Lana’s has been awarded a place on Inc. Magazine’s 500/5000 list of the fastest growing privately held companies as well as first place recognition with The Franchise Business Review which reflects franchisee satisfaction. Rhea Lana was recognized by Enterprising Women, a national publication and foundation that honors entrepreneurial women with rapidly growing companies who seek to mentor other women in business.
Saturday Afternoon Speaker:
Lela Davidson is the award-winning author of Blacklisted from the PTA and Who Peed on My Yoga Mat? Her latest book, Faking Balance: Adventures in Work and Life, explores the middle ground between leaning and maxing out. From fast track to mommy track to yoga-panted freelancer and back again, Lela has been all kinds of working mother. Described as an astute observer of modern life, she has a talent for uncovering the humor in everyday family life.
Lela’s work has appeared in on NBC News/TODAY Moms, iVillage, The Huffington Post, and NPR. She is currently the Vice President of Media & Entertainment for leading country lifestyle brand, Country Outfitter. She speaks nationally about motherhood, marriage, and faking work-life balance.
The Foodie Friday add-on event, sponsored by Arkansas Farm Bureau’s Taste Arkansas, will knock your foodie socks off. Renowned Chef, Author, Outdoor Adventure Expert and TV Personality Georgia Pellegrini will be our Foodie Friday Keynote. Due to space, we will only have 70 Foodie Friday tickets available.
Early-bird Registration: $199 per person (must register no later than May 31, 2015)
Early Bird Registration plus Foodie Friday: $239 (must register no later than May 31, 2015
Regular Registration: $250 per person (by August 15, 2015)
Regular Registration plus Foodie Friday (by August 15, 2015)
Make your plans now to attend #AWBU 2015 and experience our warm and welcoming atmosphere where we gather bloggers from all walks of life for some fun and camaraderie, and help you to grow your blog and connect.
A special room rate of $92/night has been arranged with The Arlington Hotel. Please call the hotel (1.800.643.1502) or go online to make your registration. You must use the group code BLOGGERS to get that rate. We HIGHLY recommend booking early as we only have a certain number of rooms booked and you will not want to miss out!
Early Bird Registration ends May 31! Do not put it off, you will not want to miss out on another AMAZING #AWBU conference.
Words have power. I tell my boys that all the time. They have the power to lift you up, bring you down, criticize, enlighten, encourage, demean.
Jacqueline Wolven introduced many of us to choosing a word for the year several years ago. Hop over and read about Looking for her Word for 2015. By choosing a word for the year, I have been able to be more intentional, more focused on my life plans and work.
Last year, I chose the word INSPIRE. As I look back and evaluate with a kind, loving eye (yes, we ladies like to be way too hard on ourselves), I feel good with my choice, with living up to what I set out to do.
As we begin the new year, I urge you to sit and contemplate what your word will be for 2015. What do you want your year to look like?
You need a positive affirmation for the year and there is no better time than right now to SPEAK IT sistahs! The word you choose can go past being a simple goal and become part of your outlook and actions, becoming a guiding light for your relationships, work, and well, who you are and what you are putting out into the world.
Write a post, create a graphic, scribble in a notebook, however you feel like getting it out there. And, guess what, it is alright if people do not get it, it is your word, it should mean something to you. We, YOUR community, want to be there to help encourage, celebrate, explore, praise, you know, all that KUMBAYA stuff I go on and on about all the time. So, link it up below.
The stage we chose was not random, however – in fact, it was a strategic investment in what we believe is the future of marketing: the ability and willingness of the most cutting-edge agencies and multinational brands to work hand in hand with their target audience: consumers.
Here’s what we know about bloggers: you are knowledgeable, connected and current. We believe you’re far more in tune with what’s happening on the retail landscape on a minute-by-minute basis than those of us in the trenches of the marketing profession! Although, we did get a kick out of a recent ADWEEK infographic on what motivates and agitates mom bloggers – can you relate?
It boils down to this: we work with more than one hundred companies in the retail and CPG (consumer packaged goods) space. The simple laws of supply and demand mean that the retail industry exists to put products which are desired by consumers into their hands. For us to do our job as a retail and shopper marketing agency, we darn well better be talking to – and working hand in glove with – consumers like you… right?
So besides our enthusiasm for bloggers, what does that mean for you, a member of one of The Women Blogger’s state-focused blog communities?
For the past 27 years, the DNA of KKG has been integrity and reliability mixed with the ability to solve complex problems and a passion for innovation on behalf of our clients. With KKG Velocity, we’ve built a new breed of agency riding the fence between manufacturing and marketing – meaning we can conceptualize and build an incredible in-store display to promote the latest How To Train Your Dragon movie, or we can launch a digital marketing campaign for a new product targeting a niche audience. We’re nimble like that!
As our company continues to actively blow into new territory, we encounter more and more opportunities to craft savvy, social, strategic solutions to our clients’ pain points. When we put together a proposal for marketing services, we want to work with the best talent available to execute projects for our customers, whether that’s a member of our talented team or a stay-at-home mom in Missouri. So whether we need to build and manage an email marketing campaign, execute a digital media strategy, conduct a consumer focus group or write top-notch content for a corporate blog or website, we know that bloggers are the new freelancers.
If a brand wants to post content on their corporate blog to reach – and impact – mothers of preschoolers in Texas, who better to craft the content than the mother of a preschooler in Texas?
This is precisely why KKG Velocity is partnering with The Women Bloggers as one of our preferred execution partners. We know and trust Stephanie Buckley – owner and founder of The Women Bloggers and eight statewide blogging communities. Her expertise is cultivating an amazing community of talented women, gathering you together and growing opportunities for you.
As you may have heard at the AWBU conference (or through the grapevine), Stephanie is creating a special kind of talent book. We will rely on her to serve our needs for client projects, so you need to make sure you’re listed in her book!
Keep in mind you’ll need to jump through a couple of hoops – it’s not just a matter of throwing your hat in the ring. Just like any professional job interview, you’ll need to prepare a resume (in this case, a bio for Stephanie’s talent book) and show up prepared (in this case, by putting together a portfolio of your work). We’ve given you all the tools you’ll need, and we can’t wait to work with you!
In the meantime, we’d love to have you learn more about go, Kendal King Group and our clients as well as KKG Velocity, a retail agency focused on marketing and brand strategy with an immense range of services including cause marketing, content and copywriting, design and creative services, digital media, marketing strategy and consultation, public relations, research and insights. You can keep up with our dedicated Velocity accounts on Instagram, Pinterest and Twitter (as well as the company overall on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Pinterest and Twitter). Our new Velocity blog is going live soon with updates on the marketing industry and overall trends – stay tuned!
We hiked out of the woods, got all fancied up and went to a hotel for #AWBU 2014.
Foodie Friday was nothing short of amazing(thanks to Debbie Arnold), there were information packed sessions, tons of laughs, much-needed direction from @alli, and so many Pinterest-worthy photos documenting it all (make sure you post them to the #AWBU 2014 board).
When I tell people about ARWB and the #AWBU conference, they do not truly understand the impact until they walk in the door. It’s the kind of amazing, can’t-possibly-be-true stories and experiences that literally happen all the time because of the deep and lasting impact of the relationships of our bloggers. These true relationships developed all because we built a community with a focused mission (Gather, Grow, Connect) and a commitment to doing the right thing. Then, that community grew into a passionate group of bloggers who “get it” and want to not only be a part of the gift, but to pass it on to others.
I am not ready for #AWBU 2014 to end quite yet, so please link-up your follow-up posts from your blogs so we can all read your take on the conference and re-live all the fun, your take-aways, and gratitude for our sponsors and your fellow bloggers. Thank you all for being part of our community and for always being the ones who lift others up.
Stephanie @The Park Wife
When I started ARWB years ago, I never could have imagined the close-knit community of women that would gather here. Over the past year, we have grown tremendously and in response to some of that growth, it is necessary to add some new areas to the ARWB site.
First up, CORPORATE BLOGS. With businesses starting to “get” the importance of having a blog on their site and of course, ARWB/The Women Bloggers is very involved in this as we are the content providers for Taste Arkansas, provide around 14 posts per month on OnlyinArk.com, and also contribute a post a month to Visit Rogers blog. All paid gigs! So, if you have a blog on a business site, this is where you will need to be. You can sign up under the Join Us tab and make sure to choose Corporate.
Note: This is a place to help grow your blog and connect with people who can help you navigate the social media world, and will probably become real life friends. We ask that you do not post any advertising, promotional materials, referrals, press releases, junk mail, spam, chain letters, pyramid schemes, or any other form of solicitation on our site or on our Facebook group page.
THE DUDES. “I have broken the glass ceiling,” said James Busvlogger when I told him that I was adding an ARWB Dudes category to the site. Yes, we are Arkansas WOMEN Bloggers, but we also are here to help elevate the blog world, and we can not leave the dudes out completely. Tell the blogger dudes in your life to go sign up on the Join Us page.
I am sure we will tweak and change as we continue to grow, again, I never imagined this when I put up a site six years ago with a thrown together header that said Arkansas Women Bloggers.
Thankful and blessed to have you all in my life,
Stephanie, The Park Wife
Kendal King Group is delighted to serve as the presenting sponsor for the 2014 Arkansas Women Bloggers conference on September 5 – 7. We can’t wait to see you in Rogers!
The Women Bloggers asks, “That’s great and all, but what on earth does KKG do?”
Kendal King Group is a marketing, design and production agency serving the retail and consumer packaged goods (or “CPG”) industry – in other words, we work with hundreds of the Fortune 500 supplier (aka vendor) companies with a home base in northwest Arkansas. Our clients include the NBA, DreamWorks Animation, Walmart, Garmin, Clorox and Goodyear. The company was founded in 1987 and our corporate headquarters is in Kansas City, but we have a team in Bentonville as well as a company presence in Guangzhou, China. We deliver creative marketing solutions through design, point of purchase displays, packaging, retail consulting, promotional licensing and all sorts of other retail-centric programs for our clients.
The Women Bloggers wonders, “So, why would you care about a blogger conference?”
Members of our team as well as a handful of our clients will join you throughout the weekend, and while we know you’ll be there to reconnect with friends old and new and to learn the latest and greatest about the world of blogging and social media, we know that we will learn just as much from interacting with all of you. In fact, that’s exactly why we’re so excited to participate! Many of our clients turn to us for communication tactics and innovative ideas, and we know that the #AWBU conference is a hotbed of creativity and opinions.
In fact, we have some incredibly exciting news to share that will be particularly exciting to bloggers and social media mavens, and we wanted all of you to hear it first! And, as it so happens, one of your longtime members happens to be one of our newest team members, and she assures us that the Arkansas Women Bloggers community – along with your seven (!) sister states – is the go-to source for savvy content crafters.
We’d love to connect with you in the coming weeks on our social media channels. We know that our work may still not be entirely clear, so we’ll share a little more with you at the conference. We’ll actually be launching a whole new look and feel for our company during your gathering, and we are really looking forward to hearing your feedback!
If you have questions or want to know a little bit more about KKG, you can reach our new director of strategic marketing – Beth Stephens – on Twitter, LinkedIn or email (beth@kendalking.com) if you’re not already connected with her through the Arkansas Women Bloggers community. We can’t wait to meet all of you!
Road trip drama: I regret to inform you that two of you boys will be staying behind.
