Our amazing speakers!
Darren Rowse | @problogger
Focus: Earning a Living with Blogging
In 2002 Darren started his first ever blog – not knowing that what would start as a personal hobby site would grow into a full time profession and multi-million dollar business.
Since that time Darren has been involved in publishing over 30 blogs but now is active on two as founder and editor:
- Digital-Photography-School.com
- photography tips, camera reviews and photoshop tutorials - ProBlogger.net - a blog teaching others how to build successful blogs
His two main blogs are read by around 5 million unique visitors a month. Together they have over 200,000 forum members and 900,000 subscribers.
Darren has published 14 eBooks across his blogs including the popular 31 Days to Build a Better Blog, co-authored ProBlogger the Book (Wiley 2008 and 2010), has co-founded numerous companies including b5media and The Third Tribe and runs the ProBlogger Training Days in Australia. Darren also worked for 10 years as a minister – particularly in planning a little emerging church called ‘LivingRoom’.
Sally Clarkson | @Sally_Clarkson
Focus: Living a life of integrity
Sally Clarkson is the mother of four wholehearted children, a conference speaker, and author of numerous books, including The Mission of Motherhood, The Ministry of Motherhood, and Seasons of a Mother’s Heart. After college, Sally served with Campus Crusade in Communist Poland, and continued in ministry after her marriage to Clay in 1981. In 1994, they started Whole Heart Ministries to encourage and equip Christian parents through books, workshops and seminars, and a ministry website. Since 1998, Sally has ministered to thousands of mothers through her WholeHearted Mother Conferences and online ministries. The Clarksons have homeschooled all of their children.
She blogs at itakejoy.com.
Ann Voskamp | @annvoskamp
Focus: Blogging to (un)broken
Ann Voskamp’s a New York Time’s Bestselling author — who is really just a bit of a mess.
It’s okay though.
Grace is the most amazing of all.
She had a scholarship to university — but didn’t finish and came home to marry a farmer instead. Her laundry basket is never empty. She loses library books. She homeschools their 6 exuberant kids. Most days feel a tad overwhelmed and just a bit crazy.
God put her book One Thousand Gifts: A Dare to Live Fully Right Where You Are on the New York Times Bestseller’s list for 22 weeks. Which is proof that God really does use broken, messed up and fallible lives anyways. Ann’s writing’s been featured in the Huffington Post,WORLD Magazine, Christianity Today, and she’s made guest appearances on The 700 Club, Moody Radio and 100 Huntley Street. She’s a writer for DaySpring’s (in)Courage, is a contributing editor for The High Calling, and travels and speaks on behalf of Compassion Internationaland the needy.
But the only words that matter? Are the ones she lives. This convicts her.
Ann has a background in education and psychology from York University and the University of Waterloo and clings to Cross-grace. Named one of the Top 100 Mom Blogs of 2011, this farmer’s wife blogs about the beauty and messy grace @ A Holy Experience.
Claire Diaz Ortiz | @ClaireD
Focus: Becoming a Twitter Ninja
Claire Diaz-Ortiz leads social innovation at Twitter, where she has worked since 2009. She wrote Twitter for Good: Change the World one Tweet at a Time and is a frequent international speaker on social media, leadership, and social change.
Claire began using Twitter in 2006 while living in a Christian orphanage in Kenya – where she met and fell in love with the now 18-year-old Sammy Ikua Gachagua (@sammyikua), an up-and-coming motivational speaker. Sammy has changed Claire (and her husband’s!) life for the better, and has made her (at least) “half” a mom.
Some bloggers may also know Claire as the founder of the Saving Money Media blog network. Since 2008, when she launched her flagship Saving Money Media blog, Saving Money Plan, she has been helping families live better on less.
Claire holds an MBA and other degrees from Stanford and Oxford, and in her (abundant!) free time she still serves as the co-founder of Hope Runs, a non-profit organization operating in AIDS orphanages in Kenya, and owner of Interwebs Publishing.
Read more about her and her journey of mistaken grace at ClaireDiazOrtiz.com.
The Nester | @thenester
Focus: Following your passion with purpose
The Nester, who writes anonymously, is a home stager, redesigner and design school drop-out. She and her husband and their three hockey playing boys have moved 14 times in 16 years of marriage and they are currently content to be renting. Nester’s favorite place to be is home and you can usually catch her there moving furniture. She’s one of the lucky few who has stumbled into her dream job working from home {writing a blog of all things?!} and encouraging women to create their own meaningful home at Nesting Place where the motto is “It Doesn’t Have to be Perfect to be Beautiful”. Nesting Place has been recognized by HGTV, Better Homes and Gardens, and Apartment Therapy and The Nester is a monthly contributor at (in)courage.
Tsh Oxenreider | @simplemom
Focus: Blending blog business into everyday home life
Tsh Oxenreider is a wife to Kyle and a mama to Tate, Reed, and Finn, and is the author of Organized Simplicity (F+W Media, 2010) and One Bite at a Time: 52 Projects for Making Life Simpler. She and her nomadic family are currently in Bend, Oregon, having recently moved back from the Middle East (her 6-year-old has been on 57 airplanes and counting). She loves to sew, go camping, and watch 30 Rock, but hardly has time for any of those things.
Tsh writes about living simply and intentionally at Simple Mom. She was number 2 in the top 50 Twitter Moms of 2011, was named one of the Top 100 Mom Blogs of 2011, her blog was nominated for Best New Blog of 2008, and has been mentioned on Apartment Therapy, HGTV, Better Homes and Gardens, Food Network, CNBC, CNN, NPR, and more. In early 2010 she founded the network Simple Living Media, home to five blogs about simple living. She speaks frequently about blogging, writing, living intentionally, and motherhood in between changing diapers and hitting the ‘publish’ button. She is also an advocate for Compassion International, serving as one of their bloggers, and is a regular contributor at (in)courage.
Her passion is to help people see that the grass is greener where you water it, and to live simply so that others may simply live. She also loves coffee, and she hates wearing socks.
Ruth Schwenk | @thebettermom
Focus: Building a community blog
Like you, Ruth wears many hats! She loves being the wife of a Pastor, who is her best friend and love of her life. She is a grateful
homeschooling mom of four beautiful children, and also a hopeful mom who looks forward to seeing her five miscarried children in heaven. Ruth is a graduate of The Moody Bible Institute in Chicago, IL. On August 1st, 2011, Ruth launched The Better Mom. It is a site dedicated to moms who want to be better moms by sharing life and learning together, to the glory of God. Ruth’s passions include, loving God, leading worship, and inspiring others to have a God honoring family. Her desire is to
minister to moms and families through the use of media, technology, social networking, and blogging.
Mary DeMuth | @marydemuth
Focus: Writing
Mary DeMuth is the author of 12 traditionally published books and several POD and ebooks. She’s spoken around the US and the world, helping listeners live uncaged lives. She’s been blogging since 2004 when her family church planted in France. Now she blogs at marydemuth.com where she encourages readers to live in freedom and purpose. She also blogs at writeuncaged.com where she mentors upcoming writers toward publication. Her most recent release is Beautiful Battle, a spiritual warfare book for women. She lives in Texas with her husband and three teens (though one flies the coop for college during the school year). Find out more at marydemuth.com.
Bonnie Gray | @thebonniegray
Focus: Writing
Bonnie Gray is an inspiring Christian writer and blogger, recognized for her unique take on spiritual encouragement. She serves up shots of faith for everyday life and is fascinated with keeping faith hot and fresh in the daily grind.
Bonnie is the founder of FaithBarista.com, featured writer for DaySpring (in)courage, and contributing writer on Crosswalk.com. Her writing is nationally syndicated, spotlighted on Christianity Today and McClatchy-Tribune News Services. Bonnie is currently working on her debut book, due to release in 2013 by Revell, a division of Baker Publishing.
She is a pastoral ministry graduate of Peninsula Bible Church in California, past missionary, and ministry entrepreneur launching a 30′s singles ministry and workshops on Bible Study, Prayer, and Leadership.
Prior to becoming a writer, Bonnie led a successful career in high tech as an engineering and marketing manager, leading teams to deliver innovative products for Fortune 100 companies for over 13 years.
Bonnie is a passionate speaker inspiring audiences to find God in everyday life. She lives in the heart of Silicon Valley, California with her techie husband Eric, wrangling two boys on their homestead.
Sarah Markley | @sarahmarkley
Focus: Writing
Sarah Markley is a full time mother, speaker and writer. She lives in Southern California with her two daughters, Hope (10) and Naomi (6) and her husband, Chad.
Four years into Chad and Sarah’s marriage, life began to fall apart. She spent nearly three years in a hopeless fight with her husband, herself and God and acted out in an extramarital affair. She nearly walked away from everything during these dark years. But God had other plans for her family. She gave up the struggle and spent the next year in counseling, healing, and brokenness while allowing God to put the pieces of her family and her marriage back together.
Sarah and her husband now lead a fully redeemed life with a brand new marriage. Grateful for her new life, her two bright little girls, a husband who loves her, and new stewardship in ministry, Sarah lives a restored life in Christ. She and her husband Chad just celebrated 15 years of marriage.
She blogs at sarahmarkley.com and speaks regularly for conferences, MOPs meetings and church groups. She is a staff writer for (in)courage and a monthly columnist for the sometimes controversial A Deeper Story. She believes wholeheartedly in second chances, radical grace and the belief that everyone has a story to tell.
Elizabeth Esther | @elizabethesther
Focus: Blogging to (un)broken
Elizabeth Esther mothers her five children and writes to expunge pain and reconstruct her broken, wounded faith. She writes at elizabethesther.com. She believes in the unconditional love of God—no matter what. She’s also a certified goofball who likes pygmy goats, Mint Milanos and experimenting with red hair dye. Be ye not afraid. “No heart is as whole as a broken heart, and I would say no faith is as solid as a wounded faith”–Elie Wiesel
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Crystal Paine | @moneysavingmom
Focus: Blogging as a business
Crystal Paine is a wife and homeschooling mom to three young children who has been writing on topics related to frugality for the last five years — and living a frugal, simple and debt-free life since she was born. Her blog, MoneySavingMom.com, is one of the top personal finance blogs on the web averaging over four million pageviews per month. Crystal has contributed to articles in Woman’s Day magazine and All You magazine, as well as being mentioned on National Public Radio and CNN.com, in USA Weekend, and Real Simple magazine and numerous other local newspapers and radio and television stations.
She’s also written The Money Saving Mom Budget, published by Simon & Schuster.
Kat | @inspired2action
Focus: A balanced life
Kat blogs at InspiredToAction.com and is passionate about helping overwhelmed moms become focused, organized and purposeful as they pursue their calling of raising children capable of changing the world.
In May of 2011, Kat traveled to the Philippines with Compassion International as a Compassion Blogger. She loves running, justice, music, Jesus, and Tex-Mex food. Not necessarily in that order.
Kat humbly resides in the great state of Texas with her handsome, brilliant husband and three outrageously adorable children.
Tricia Goyer | @triciagoyer
Focus: A balanced life
Tricia Goyer is an award winning and acclaimed author of over thirty books including Remembering You, Beside Still Waters, and the mommy memoir, Blue Like Play Dough. She won Historical Novel of the Year in 2005 and 2006 from ACFW, and was honored with the Writer of the Year award from Mt. Hermon Writer’s Conference in 2003. Tricia’s book Life Interrupted was a finalist for the Gold Medallion in 2005. In addition to her novels and non-fiction books, Tricia also writes magazine articles for publications like MomSense and Thriving Family. Tricia hosts Living Inspired, a weekly internet radio show, where she interviews inspiring guests each week. A regular speaker at conventions and conferences, Tricia has been a workshop presenter at the MOPS (Mothers of Preschoolers) International Conventions and Hearts at Home. She and her family make their home in Little Rock, Arkansas where they are part of the ministry of FamilyLife.
You can find Tricia blogging at It’s Real Life.
Carisa | @1plus1plus1
Focus: Blogging through homeschooling
Carisa is a homeschooling mom of 3; ages 9, 5 and 2. She is also a full time inner city missionary living in one of America’s toughest neighborhoods along with her husband. They have lived and served in this area for over 7 years with no plans to leave! She writes at 1+1+1=1where she gives readers a behind the scenes look at her family and how homeschooling works for them. She also oversees a group blog for Christian moms-Totally Tots, along with her friend Jolanthe from Homeschool Creations. Blogging has become a ministry she never expected and something her family embraces together.
Maggie Whitley A.K.A Gussy | @gussysews
Focus: Building your brand
Maggie Whitley is the owner & designer of Gussy Sews, a lifestyle blog and a ruffled accessories boutique. On her blog you’ll find tips on how she quit her day job 18 months ago to focus solely on her business, different prompts & projects that help build a handmade community, and shop updates on her designs. Maggie’s had her work featured in magazines such as Pregnancy & Newborn, Simply Handmade, and OK!, and is constantly inspired by the relationships she’s formed since starting her blog in the summer of 2008. Maggie often goes by ‘Gussy’ and lives in Minneapolis with her husband Zack and puppy, Bauer.
Stephanie Bryant | @inspiredbryant
Focus: Brand strategy and creative marketing
Stephanie Bryant is the Creative Mastermind at S. Bryant Social Marketing. With years of Marketing, Business Development & Publishing experience in the corporate and non-profit world, Stephanie co-founded incourage.me.
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Erin Ulrich | @designbyinsight
Focus: Design and eBook formatting
Erin’s heart for helping others achieve their goals is the foundation of her successful business, Design by Insight. From creating blogs that capture the heart of the writer to developing eBook covers that draw in the reader, Erin and her husband Phil have established a reputation for excellent design, personal customer service, and quality eBook formatting. Design by Insight is quickly becoming the go-to place for all things eBook related and Erin’s passion for understanding the ever-changing world of self-publishing offers her clients the knowledge and insight to achieve their writing goals.
As a work-at-home mom, Erin is able to homeschool her two daughters and work side-by-side with her husband. Erin’s personal blog, Closing Time,, is her place to share reflections and words of encouragement, written in the quiet moments when her children’s eyes are closed for the night.
Annie Downs | @annieblogs
Focus: Writing honestly right where you are
Annie Downs is an author and speaker who loves living in Nashville, Tennessee. Flawed but funny, she uses her writing to highlight the everyday goodness of a real and present God. Author of From Head To Foot, a spiritual growth book for high school and college girls, Annie is passionate about seeing young women find true value in God and His love for them. By weaving together personal stories, humor, and Scripture, she invites the gals to experience a fulfilled life with a living God who loves deeply.
When she’s not working on books, Annie spends her days writing all over the internet- blogging at AnnieBlogs and (in)courage- sharing truths about her life in Nashville as a single Christian woman and the stories that are woven into each day. Annie is a huge fan of singer/songwriters, burritos, her community of friends, and sports of all kinds.
Jessica Heights | @mutheringheight
Focus: Blending blog business into everyday home life
Jessica is a Renaissance woman with many facets and a convoluted story. She is the author and founder of Muthering Heights and Other Senseless Sensibility, where she wanders her heart chambers and revels in the Glorious Minutiae of life as a woman, a wife, a mother, and an opponent of Fibromyalgia. In addition to being a co-host of Relevant, she is a contributing writer to Raising Homemakers, The MOB Society, and Christmas Change.
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Sarah Mae | @sarahmae
Focus: Giving wings to your ideas
According to Strengths Finder, ”Ideation” is one of Sarah Mae’s top strengths, which makes sense seeing as she lies awake in bed at night with her brain jumping from one idea to another while sleep eludes her. She thrives on developing ideas and figuring out ways to create “game-changers” in her sphere of influence and beyond.
She is also a connector of people, which is why Allume is tucked in so close to her heart. Allume is the quintessential kindred spirit gathering, a warm and welcoming place that brings people together from all over the world and says, “sit down, have some coffee, and put your feet up while we bounce ideas, encourage one another, and grow together.” It’s one of her happiest of places.
Sarah Mae is an author with Thomas Nelson and Tyndale. Her first book, Desperate, will be released January 2013 by Thomas Nelson.
And of course, Sarah Mae is a blogger. She blogs at SarahMae.com.
She lives with her husband Jesse and their three babes in the beautiful Amish countryside of Pennsylvania.
Find her being social on Twitter here and Facebook here.
