This past weekend I travelled to Toronto, Canada to attend Archangel Summit. In their own words, “Archangel Summit is the annual gathering of mission-driven entrepreneurs, leaders, and professionals who want to do well by doing good.” This year’s theme was ‘Imagine.’

I initially heard about Archangel through a colleague who knows me well enough to tell me about events like Archangel Summit. The event sounded right up my alley and I bought the tickets nearly a year in advance, ensuring that I would be in attendance.

Like many of the conferences that I attend, the event had many insightful speakers. The MC was JP Sears who was very entertaining. Sally Hogshead did a fantastic job telling us about fascination and how different is better than better. And her dress was amazing! The final speaker of the day was Brendan Burchard. He encouraged us all to ask ourselves every day “Who needs me on my A game? Why is it necessary that I serve with excellence today?” Another group of speakers went in a slightly different direction than I have previously experienced and spoke about feeding our brains. Their talk focused on how our diets impact our brains. They spoke on the benefits of eating organic when possible and avoiding processed foods. As someone who keeps a keen eye on their diet and health, this talk was quite enjoyable and instructive. They spoke briefly on the Ketogenic or ‘keto’ diet and its benefits as well as what healthy fats to include in our diets, the pluses of grass-fed beef and more. One of the other speakers from the event was Dave Asprey the inventor of bulletproof coffee. If you are unfamiliar with bulletproof coffee,  check out this page to learn more.

In addition to listening to great speakers, one of my other favorite things from attending events like Archangel is making new connections. Sometimes I make a connection with someone from another part of the US or the world, but this time I travelled to Toronto to meet someone from where I currently reside, Tampa.

Last year at the Ignite Your Business conference I was seated next to a man who under his ‘future life goals’ section had written that he wants to give $10 million; not make $10 million, but to give $10 million. I can share with you that I am not in a position to give an amount as large as $10 million, but knowing that I was in the company of those who aspire to donate that amount made me feel good and made me want to seek out more events where I could network with other likeminded entrepreneurs, like Archangel Summit. After my time at Archangel, it only further confirmed that I was in the right place. I networked with other likeminded entrepreneurs who want their businesses to do well so that they can give more.

I didn’t have much time to explore Toronto as I was mostly occupied with work, but I did get to try a local delicacy, the beaver tail. A beaver tail is a fried dough pastry that is hand-stretched and elongated to resemble the tail of a beaver. Poutine is also a popular Canadian dish consisting of French fries topped with cheese curds and brown gravy, maybe next trip I’ll try poutine. Although I didn’t get to the top of CN Tower, I did get the picture included below.

The next conference that I will be attending is the FINCON Expo, which will be held over September 26 to 29 in Orlando, Florida. Stay tuned for my next blog post where I’ll discuss my experiences from FINCON 18’.