How you look and the success of your business are related – who knew?! As an entrepreneur, YOU are your brand but, as an entrepreneur, one of the most difficult tasks is differentiating between your personal and professional brands because oftentimes they are inextricably intertwined. One of the beauties of entrepreneurship is its flexibility however, one of the curses of entrepreneurship can be its flexibility. Your objective must be to get clear on your personal and professional brands, understand how they intersect and support each other, and go about building a closet that aligns the two while simultaneously balancing their differences. In the end, potential clients and businesses buy your brand but they are really buying YOU so you must sell yourself and your brand. To do better business, you must share that part of your personal brand that overlaps to create a professional brand that is accessible, likeable, and meets the needs of the potential client. This presentation will retrace the building of those brands, how your closet factors into the immediate and long-term aspects of your success, and give examples of how brilliant brand alignment leads to better and more business.

WHAT YOU WILL LEARN

1- Nuances and similarities between your personal and professional brand as an entrepreneur

2- How building a brand-aligned closet is key to business success
3- Relating brand building and closet creation
4- The high-level steps of how to build a brand-aligned closet

ABOUT OUR SPEAKER

Monica Barnett has over 13 years of styling and branding experience and has been featured on many stages around the world but the focus is always on the importance and power of the first impression. Across Ms. Barnett’s distinguished career as a wardrobe stylist, she has had the privilege to partner with major corporations to fine tune their employees’ style and brand; and the opportunity to work with corporate executives, politicos, and world class athletes. The goal is always to develop a more intentional approach of curating one’s outward appearance to align with one’s lifestyle and aspirations.

To date, Monica has authored two books focused on the building blocks of style and how to use it to win more business. She is currently working with three Fortune 500 companies conducting professional development training to ensure professionals understand how to put their best foot forward regardless of being in-person or virtual.

Success is defined a the accomplishment of an aim or a purpose. We all have a different purpose. So what’s yours?? If we don’t define what success is for us, the world WILL. And we’ll be lost in a constant hustle to chase the vanity metrics that will leave us un-fulfilled and burnt out. This session will help you to reveal your purpose, define success, and create a roadmap to achieve it.

WHAT WILL YOU LEARN

• Determining your core values
• Defining what success looks like to you (your purpose)
• Creating a 10 year vision statement
• Drafting 7, 5, 3, and 1 year goals to achieve the desired level of success
• Avoiding burnout and overwhelm by aligning business success with personal fulfillment.

ABOUT OUR SPEAKER

Brandee Gaar is a luxury Event Planner, Thought Leader, Educational Speaker and Host of the “”She Who Dares”” Podcast. As a lifelong lover of all things events, Brandee spent 7 years as a corporate event planner with the prestigious Gaylord Hotels brand before opening her own event consulting firm. Blush by Brandee Gaar and Eleven Events by Blush have quickly become known for their over the top events and high touch standard of customer service.

Brandee is passionate about teaching creative entrepreneurs how to define what success is to them and creating a roadmap to achieve it! In the fast paced world we live in, it’s easy to get lost in vanity metrics and forget who we are along the way.

Her goal is to help creative business owners beat the statistics by aligning their success with the things that bring them joy!

In a market where competitors are a dime a dozen, originality is just as important as one’s expertise. The truth is that every person and company has a unique story; yet, the challenge is in presenting that story in a way that builds your Know, Like, Trust factor with potential clients. In this session, Aleya will reveal her tried-and-true brand messaging framework and walk attendees through the steps to crafting a story that will win over ideal clients, increase revenue, and solidify the longevity of their businesses.

WHAT YOU WILL LEARN

• The five elements that turn an average story into a powerful marketing tool
• A guide to developing your own profit-making brand messaging
• Key strategies for differentiating your brand from competitors through storytelling, particularly in an oversaturated market
• How and where to infuse a customer-centric brand story into marketing efforts, including social media, website content, and print media
• When it is time to rethink your branding story.

ABOUT OUR SPEAKER

Aleya Harris is the founder and owner of Flourish Marketing, an agency dedicated to helping wedding, catering, and event professionals reach their full potential through fresh, cutting-edge marketing strategies that get and keep a consistent stream of clients. She is a firm believer that business owners should make good money doing what they love and she spreads this message through her role as a thought leader in the industry.

Aleya has made it her personal mission to support catering and event businesses in their growth and help them to reach their definition of success. Her decade-plus long career as a chef and catering company owner, paired with her wealth of expertise in marketing, are matched with a remarkable work ethic, providing her clients with an engaging and interactive experience that inspires them to take action. As a professional speaker, she fosters valuable discussion about actionable marketing strategies and profit-driven storytelling in an effort to inspire her audience to take charge of their businesses’ financial futures.

Her in-depth knowledge about social media marketing, branding, sales conversions, and effective marketing tools have earned her spots and top rankings on stages across the nation, including The Special Event and Catersource. She also serves as the marketing committee chair for NACE National and is a StoryBrand Certified Guide.
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Discerning couples, as well as creative partners, are keen to align themselves with industry leaders. With that, there is no better way to make an impact on your community, as well as your reputation, than serving on an industry Board. If you’re ready to increase brand awareness nationally about what you do and position yourself as an expert in your local market, as well as attract an ideal audience, then this is the right session for you.

WHAT WILL YOU LEARN

• Selecting the right organization with the most impactful, when you find yourself in a sea of options
• The not-so-obvious ROI that results from volunteering your time on industry boards
• Local versus national leadership- what’s right for you?
• Finding the right position for you and how to carve time out.
• How this will allow you to impact the industry and community and how taking a proactive role will elevate the industry as well.

ABOUT THE SPEAKER

Wedding planning wasn’t always in the cards for Renée. Instead, what started out as a seemingly one-time favor for a friend evolved into a thriving side-hustle to her acting career. When it was her turn to walk down the aisle, she flipped the script and discovered that the wedding industry was truly where she belonged. Shortly after her “I do’s,” she started Moxie Bright Events, a boutique wedding planning company, and never looked back.

It wasn’t long before fellow industry pros were looking to her for advice. With over 12 years of experience under her belt, Renée turned her knowledge towards the advancement of the industry as a whole and launched her top-notch educational resources for event pros. In addition to her self-guided Wedding Management e-course, she is also the founder and host of the popular B2B podcast, Talk With Renée Dalo.

Renée is a fan favorite on the speaker circuit, taking the stage at national and international conferences across the country, including Alt Summit, Wedding MBA, and Creative at Heart, among others. She is recognized across the industry, having earned a coveted spot on Honeybook’s 20 On The Rise list, and she contributes frequently to industry publications. She currently serves as the President of WIPA Southern California and has also held leadership roles in The Association of Bridal Consultants and The Rising Tide Society.

VIRTUAL EVENT. ELEVATE IN THE BOARDROOM SERIES.

The Purpose-Driven P&L will walk leaders through our signature framework to establish and maintain the key elements to managing their numbers every single month. This framework will help them grow their bottom line and their impact. First is building your foundation – ensuring your business is set up properly and your routines are established from day one and why this is important. Second is looking back – understanding your financial reports (e.g. your Profit & Loss Statement and Balance Sheet) and learning a few metrics to calculate every month to ensure you’re on track to achieving your goals. Third is forecasting your future – creating a vision and a plan for your revenue, expenses, and cash flow. We also share easy-to-use templates to implement in your business and make financials interesting, even if you hate numbers (I promise, no boring accounting lingo!).

WHAT YOU WILL LEARN:

• How to ensure their business and systems are set up properly.
• How to get into a good monthly routine to complete their bookkeeping.
• Which financial reports should they look at each month and a few metrics to uncover what the reports actually mean.
• How to create a forecast to map out revenue, expenses, and cash flow.
• How to make smart decisions with all this new info!

ABOUT THE SPEAKER:

Stephanie Skryzowski is a visionary Chief Financial Officer that helps purpose-driven leaders better understand and use their numbers to make smart decisions to grow their bottom line and their impact. She is the Founder and CEO of 100 Degrees Consulting which provides financial strategy and bookkeeping services to businesses and nonprofits around the globe. Stephanie is passionate about educating leaders to understand, use, and communicate their numbers to create financial sustainability and increase their impact on the world. She runs The Entrepreneur’s CFO Corner, a membership to empower entrepreneurs to master their own finances, and is the creator of Master Your Nonprofit Numbers, an online course in financial management for nonprofit leaders. Stephanie also coaches other women business owners to help them scale their business and prioritize their family. Stephanie has her Master’s Degree in Public Administration and Financial Management from New York University and a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science and International Studies from the State University of New York at Brockport. When she is not crunching numbers, Stephanie is traveling the world with her husband and two young daughters.

VIRTUAL EVENT. ELEVATE IN THE BOARDROOM SERIES.

For most creative entrepreneurs, SEO is a topic that scares and eludes them.  Social Media is something that almost all business owners are doing in some capacity, but so many fall short because they are trying to do “all the things.”  During our time together, Greg will demystify the basics of SEO(Search Engine Optimization) and show you practical action steps to implement to improve your searchability.  He will also show you how your social media presence should work in tandem with your SEO to ensure that you are reaching the most ideal clients possible.

ABOUT THE SPEAKER

Greg, owner of GT Marketing & Consulting, brings a vast knowledge and a proven record of success. His varied background in marketing, sales, and leadership allow him to relate and understand the pressures of small business owners, wedding creatives, and marketing teams. Ultimately, Greg sees his role as a partner with each client. He works diligently to ensure that customers reach their personal goals by offering content marketing, brand development, and social media integration and optimization. He is also a passionate coach that helps entrepreneurs streamline their business practices. He is an avid proponent of creating systems to allow you to work on your business rather than always working in it. Greg is a devoted husband, father of four, and lover of Presidential history. You can find him helping his beautiful wife on weekends with their wedding and event design business. On a rare day off, look for him on a golf course!

VIRTUAL EVENT. ELEVATE IN THE BOARDROOM SERIES.

As Creative Entrepreneurs, we wear many hats in our business, but the one that most don’t love is “IT Specialist”. In the session, “Setting Up Your Tech for Success”, creatives will learn the benefits to creating a “Tech Duty Day”, how to utilize online systems to keep your devices in sync, and most importantly, making sure your data is safely backed up. In the first part of this session, we will discuss the basics of computer and device maintenance. This includes tips on decluttering files and suggested routine maintenance to keep computers and devices running smoothly and quickly. This part of the session will also include a breakdown of how to create a “Tech Duty Day”, and what tasks are included in that (clean up, purge junk, update software, restart).

In the next part of the session, we be discussing ways that creatives can keep their devices in sync to support their busy lifestyle. As creatives, we often find ourselves out in the field, traveling, or working from a coffee shop, so having a system that allow us to access what we need from wherever we are is key. The goal for this section is to talk about the concept and how to set it up. While it will mention certain tools (Dropbox, Google Drive, iCloud, etc), it will not be focused on one particular tool so the creative can choose the tool that works best for them! In the last part of their session, we will be discussing back-ups. This will be a deep dive discussion covering the different types of backups, why they are important, and how to set them up to function automatically. Unfortunately, this is a common issue that I see in the creative industry.

My goal is to help creatives become proactive when it comes to their technology, not reactive after something does happen to them! This topic is far from sexy, but it’s one that everyone from beginners to seasoned entrepreneurs need to attend. Our businesses are dependent on our tech, and it’s more important than ever to get things organized, secured and functioning well so we can focus on what we love to do and thrive.

WHAT YOU WILL LEARN:

• The basics of computer and device maintenance, and why this is important
• How to establish and execute a “Tech Duty Day”
• How to utilize cloud based systems to seamlessly work between their devices, regardless of where they are or what device they are on
• The difference between a local back up and cloud backup and when each should be used
• How to set up your backup system to run automatically

ABOUT THE SPEAKER…DAWN RICHARDSON:

I’m Dawn, and I’m a Texas-based software engineer turned wedding photographer who has a passion for empowering creatives to take control of their technology. My technical background laid a unique and successful foundation for my wedding photography business. In the last 12 years, I’ve worked in technical support, technical training, software development and systems engineering. During my last corporate IT position, I fell in love with photography from a technical side.

While I might not be developing web apps anymore, I’ve found that my technical experience has been a huge advantage in building my six-figure photography business. I also learned along the way that the majority of creatives are downright terrified of the “tech” in their business. Important things like backups, automations, using tools and software effectively, computer and device maintenance and so much more are simply pushed to the back burner.

My career came full circle when I launched Tech Savvy Creative in 2020. At Tech Savvy Creative, my mission is to take those not-so-sexy topics and give creatives an easy to understand, step-by-step resource that allows them to confidently tackle their tech. My educational content has been featured throughout the creative community, including Rising Tide Society, Creative at Heart, So Here’s the Thing Podcast, Brands that Book Podcast, and more.

Aside from running Tech Savvy Creative and shooting 25 weddings a year, I am a Mama to 2 year old Kendall Grace and a Wife to Andrew. I LOVE building my businesses (strong Enneagram 3 here!), but when I’m not working you can find me on my Peloton, searching for the best Margarita in San Antonio, or watching some terrible reality TV!