Where do I even begin? Even though only lasting about 72 hours, I had the most incredible, fun experience in Las Vegas last weekend at the Olympia Expo, getting to work with Quest Nutrition and meeting some of the most awesome people.
The beginning of the trip was actually quite interesting, as I had to drive to the Orlando airport to catch my flight at 3am, even though I had just gotten home from a sorority event at 2am (aka, I got a 30 minute nap that night). And only to get stuck on the 4 hour plane flight in between 2 of the biggest men on the plane, who to my amazement, downed 4 rum and cokes and 16 beers between the 2 of them between the hours of 8am and noon. Let’s just say I was the person they decided to annoy the whole trip instead of getting the 4 hours of sleep I had hoped for.
BUT, it only got better from there (:
When arriving at the hotel in Vegas after finding my way around the Vegas airport and catching a cab, I finally got a little nap before my instagramming friend who I had never met in person but had been talking to over text arrived, Josie, aka @vmfitness. To be honest, I didn’t know what to expect when meeting her, but within the 72 hour trip, we became the best of friends. When she got to the hotel a little after me, we decided to meet up for the first time and just explore a little bit of Vegas as we walked the mile to the strip with all the stores. Once we got back, it was time for the team meeting, where I got to meet SO many people that I had been “friends” with over blogging or instagramming, but had never met before, and also just some new people who were on the Quest team, that were equally just as great. We also got our cool Quest backpacks filled with tons of other things. A team dinner followed the meeting in which the food was anything but Fresh Fit or Healthy haha, made up of tons of fried foods and such..but that didn’t stop this hungry girl from eating. By the end of the dinner it was already about 11 (2am my time), and even though many people were continuing their nights, I had to crash after getting no sleep the night before. Plus it was an early start of being at the convention center at 7:30am the next morning..
Day 1 of the expo soon came, and I couldn’t have asked for a better team to spend over 10 hours working with. Every single person of the 60 member Quest team was so fun to be around, and I met some great friends throughout the 2 days. It was awesome to be representing such a big company, where every single person at the expo already knew who you were basically. As I would walk around handing out fliers, I would rarely have someone ask who Quest Nutrition was. The response I usually got was, “AH I love Quest bars!! Where is your booth so I can come right now?!”Even the little ones loved the quest products..
But I have to say the most inspiring part of the day was right when it began, as the owners (photo on left below) came into our meeting room before the expo actually started. To be able to hear their story an heart behind the company, made me even that much more proud to be representing Quest. Hearing that their first year at this Olympia expo years ago, they could barely get people to try their bar, and now they were coming as one of the biggest companies?! AND being ranked #2 on the Inc 500 Top Fastest Growing Companies, AND being announced the number one protein company by BodyBuilding.com day 2 of the event! Also, knowing that they weren’t only in it for the money and for success, but to better the world around them by supporting specific causes, was just incredibly motivational. It is experiences like that which inspire me to continue doing what I’m doing and follow my passion, no matter how much time and hard work I’m having to put into it among the other million things I have to be doing as a college student. Also just getting to see Bruce Cardenas again, one of the main leaders behind Quest, and finally meeting Clark (photo on right below), the man behind the hundreds of emails I’ve gone back and forth with over the last year as we worked together from afar, was just so fun. I felt within the 72 hours we all had already started treating each other like family.
Other people on the team that I loved getting to meet? All my blogger friends! Like Nicolette (@njstramfam), Crystal (@spoonfuloffit), Kim (@pbeechie), BiteSizedFitness and Tony (@TheFitBaldman) just to name a few! onhealthy avodart Also one of the coolest people I got to meet, was Kevin, aka @fitmencook! Even before having a food instagram, I followed him on my personal one. Just to get to meet him in person and work alongside of him as a friend made me see just how far I’ve been blessed to come since the beginning of Fresh Fit N Healthy, and it’s all thanks to you all!
Anyways, the day was so much fun, and after a long day on our feet, Josie and I got ready at her hotel room real quick after about an hour of down time, and then went to some of the other Quest team members’s room, for a fun night out. Which brings me to the fun group of YOUTUBERS that were a part of our team that I loved getting to know that weekend. I was never much into YouTube before the weekend, except for friend’s show me funny videos on it, but after meeting them and seeing what they’ve achieved through it, I realized it is the thing to do (which is something I’ll explain more further below). But really, shoutout to all my cool new youtuber friends.. Nikki Blackketter, Christian Guzman, Tony Do, Maxx Chewning, Brittany Donnell, Michael Steven Kory, Chelsea (aka Chelsea Lifts), and Matty Fusaro. They’re awesome, if you haven’t seen their channels yet, go subscribe! (photo below: Josie and I with the youtube gang)
Josie and I had a great night out with them all and then back to the hotel for an early 7:30 am start again..yet going strong as ever
(photo: Kevin, aka @FitMenCook)
The second and LAST day (yes, it went way too quickly), was the best. So fun. At one point, we were wanting to give away so many of our bars, that we were literally throwing them into the crowd, making hoards of people come around the Quest booth. But it got a tad bit rowdy so we decided to stop. I had so much fun the entire time, especially with the photobooth Quest had that I visited at least a few times each day. (photo below).
This was the longest day, especially as a few of us stayed after close to help pack up the booth and package all the leftovers as well. Josie and I hung strong all the way till the end at around 8:30pm except for an hour break where I hung out at the VIPlounge that had so many delicious Quest created baked goods like red velvet cake balls, cinnamon roll cupcakes, white chocolate raspberry and chocolate chip cookies, crackers made with the chips, and pretzel sticks also made of the crushed chips which were my fav (oh and yes, real sized quest-chip-beanbags..)
Only to know we had plans to meet friends at 9:30, aka, rush home after being on our feet for over 12 hours, jump in the shower and get ready, and head on out for our last fun night in Vegas with all our new friends. It was the most fun night, and we went to an awesome place where David Guetta came on stage for the night. It may have been a pretty late night, getting only about 2 hours of sleep before catching my 8am flight out, but it was so totally worth it. Spending a night with people I had just met, yet felt like were great friends, ended the trip in the best way possible.
Flying back to real life all the way across the country was not exactly what I was wanting at the time, especially having to feel like I had to say bye to the girl I had become best friends with, Josie, and every other single person I had become friends with (as most live across the country from me, or at least in another state); but it made me look forward to the next time I hopefully get to work with Quest again. And it made me only come back once again (like my trip to Cali this summer for the IDEA WORLD health convention, here) full of passion and desire to continue what I’ve been working at with Fresh Fit N Healthy and all that it involves to my fullest potential.And coming back to soon decide where to apply for my next two years as I complete my dietetic internship and masters in nutrition..ahh, who knows where I’ll end up deciding! I’ve realized I just need to live each day to the fullest and see where life takes me (:
AND, guess what y’all?! This girl was also inspired to make a YouTube channel! So get ready for some great cooking/baking/fitness videos! Can’t wait until I have some free time to get it underway (: (coming back from the trip to 3 exams and 3 different events for my sorority did not give me that time yet haha). But I plan on making my first video this week! So stay tuned.