Disclosure: I traveled to We All Grow Summit on an all expenses paid trip sponsored by Dove Dry Spray Antiperspirant, as a storyteller bestie. All opinions are my own.

Years ago, I hit a very low point in my life. The emptiness I felt permeated everything. I always felt as one does the morning “after the party,” when you’ve slept little, indulged much, and are empty and alone. I lived with a constant feeling of loneliness and loss and that expression, “after the party,” perfectly described it. That was long, long ago and since then I’ve grown, not only older, but hopefully, wiser.

Well, recently I was at We All Grow Summit in L.A. and I again feel like one does after the party.” Except that now that expression has a completely different meaning for me. After three days of sisterhood, support, information, fun times and a lot of pampering, once I got home I missed it all. This time, “after the party” meant; full, content and extremely accompanied after attending this empowering conference. This event was a shared experience with many women who had an important story to share.

Dove sponsored my sister as a Storyteller and had me accompany her as her bestie. After this event, I can honestly say that Dove is on the mission of empowering women with not only its products but with the mission to engage, empower and create a community of women to help each other grow. I would have never thought that a brand could do these two things at once.

Every single person I met at We All Grow Summit made a difference. All these women taught me in some way or another a lesson. And these women were only the ones I met mingling during or after the different keynotes and workshops. All willing to meet me and share their expertise even outside the rooms.

I was also happily surprised to meet women in person I knew only from Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest or Instagram! And they are as genuine as in these social media platforms or dare I say even better in real life!

What I took from We All Grow Summit:

My heart GREW. That’s the essence exactly, just like the title of the event. When the closing event happened, where storytellers were to share their personal empowering stories on stage in front of over 250 people, we all already had met and were pumped up for the closing of the summit. The stories came one after another and with each one the personal stories my heart grew a bit more. Some stories were harder to listen to than others but they all helped us walk in someone else’s shoes and feel what these women who were sharing their stories had gone through. And these were my takeaways from each storyteller:

From Lorraine C. Ladish, that with determination you can overcome life’s difficulties.

From Astrid Rivera, that love comes in all forms.

From Claudya Martinez that we can overcome all our fears.

From Jeannette Kaplun that you have to believe in yourself even if others don’t.

From Ana Cruz that you can break family patterns that hurt you.

From Kathy Cano Murillo that there is a way to deal with problems without anger.

From Carol Cain that you can always save relationships.

All these women made us cry, laugh and hold our breaths, because they are not only storytellers, but examples of strong women who are givers of life and hope.

And I truly have to thank not only We All Grow Summit for organizing the event but Dove who by the launching of Dove Dry Spray Antiperspirant brought us all together and had all of us smelling clean and protected us from all the sweating we endured running from one fun event to another! New Dove Dry Spray Antiperspirant is dry from the moment it touches the skin with no visible residue, providing 48-hour odor and wetness protection.

And here are the powerful stories!

¡Let’s keep growing together!