Permission to... Conference!

Thank you very much.

They say fortune favors the bold. So what are you waiting for? The right time? The right sign? The right guide? The thing is, Movement Maker, you were never meant to follow anyone else. You were destined for something bolder and braver and truer. And you know it. It's time for you to write your own damn permission slip. You have permission to dream big. Not that you need it from us. Fortune favors the bold. So what are you waiting for? Wait, hold on, we're not on. This is our fault.

Here we go! I really gotta—

I gotta get some more zoom.

A lot happens on the lower half.

Oh my goodness, it's been a few weeks since we've been here, and so Everything. And Mercury is in the refrigerator. Can we just talk about how Mercury right now— that's not really what it's called, that's just what I call it. Mercury's in retrograde and everything is weird.

So weird.

Everything is weird.

But you know what's not weird? We made a big announcement a couple of hours ago.

Look at this banner. Look at the banner usage. I love it.

Love it.

Oh, I'm pretty excited.

The question we got asked from the moment it was over through yesterday was, are you gonna do it again?

Are you doing it again? Is it happening again?

Is it happening? And we can say today The answer is yes, we're doing it again.

Yay! Welcome everyone, we are so excited to be here, so excited to be here, and we've got a few people watching. We are live right now. This is always the fun report. Where did it work? Uh, Facebook and permissions, like Facebook and OTT, LinkedIn And Erica's LinkedIn. Hello everybody. Sally's YouTube. There's maybe one person on YouTube.

It's fine, people can watch this after. Sally, tell the people what are we doing. We announced we're doing it again, but what are we doing?

We are Permission Slip Conferencing again, November 15th. In Knoxville, Tennessee. Back to Knoxville, baby. Yeah, Knoxville, Tennessee. Uh, why Knoxville, Erica? Why are we going back to Knoxville?

Um, here's the thing. Knoxville is a really special hidden gem that everybody always says, oh, Nashville, and then we say, no, it's, it's Knoxville. It's Knoxville. We are an entrepreneurial haven. Both shop 100%. We are a great community for female entrepreneurs specifically. You're hearing it here. We may be— we are opening a women's business center in Knoxville that'll be open before the conference happens officially.

Amazing. Amazing. I know.

And the community, the businesses that are located here, all of it was so supportive. And it's not— you don't get lost in the big city coming in for the program, right? You can stay downtown, you can walk to the venue or have relatively quick, relatively quick drive. We're between the mountains. So if you want to add a mountain add-on at the end of the day, you can do that again. And aside from the like, yay Knoxville stuff, from a logistical standpoint, it is, it makes it possible for Sally and I to do this in addition to running our own businesses because I'm both on the ground here in Knoxville and we, we're real good at kind of dividing and conquering with our strength. Logistics falls on, falls in my silo. So doing it here in my backyard really helps us with that.

So I can't imagine after last year, you know, there was a lot of like, I don't— Knoxville, it's, it's central in the country and drivable to much of the country, like 75% of the country or something.

It's a ridiculous number.

Yeah, less than 7 hours or within 7 hours, or is that what people consider drivable or something?

Yeah.

And, um, but we, we talked about, should we go to someplace that's a little easier to fly into that has more direct flight? And we're like, well, we thought about it. And after last year, I thought, no way. There's no way we can run a conference without one of us being local. Well, maybe at some point in Minneapolis.

We're not going to like say that's not— we won't move it eventually. But also the cost benefit for our women to come into Knoxville, we're able to do the conference ticket cheaper because the cost of putting a conference on is lower here and the cost of hotel rooms. Is significantly cheaper for women.

Significantly cheaper for all of you amazing people. Yes, who will come join us. And I have to tell you, one of the wonderful delights last year, along with people saying really incredible things about the insights, the impact— they heard a speaker, it really ignited something for them. I mean, We've heard some incredible stories of permission, how permission has lived out in people's lives in the last 4 or 5 months. Yeah, hasn't been that long, really hasn't. We just got together. Oh my gosh, amazing. But one of the favorite things that I heard was how in love people were with Knoxville.

Yeah.

And how much they loved, um, how sweet it is, how walkable it is, how like fun, really amazing restaurants. And it's so— it's really— it feels kind of storybook-ish downtown.

Yeah, I mean, I live— I live here, so then— so that, you know. But I will say, I'm hopeful women who joined us last year, um, will take some extra time to stay in the city a little bit longer. Um, not saying we are, but we are gonna have some additional programming outside of Friday available, um, so that women have some time to spend here in the city. And those that maybe haven't been here before, um, that they hear the excitement from the women who were and book themselves an extra day, um, to stick around too. So, yeah.

Oh my gosh. Okay, speakers, we're doing it, we're doing it, it's happening. That's the first thing, it's happening. It's a Friday In November, we're still— I, I like last year, people really liked it happening in that last part of the year because it, it almost felt like a, I did it, I made it, um, and just take a pause before next year.

I feel like we're still in that space, but we're not as close to the holidays, we're not as good against quite as many school musical programs, end of year, all the things. Yeah. So we're doing it before Thanksgiving and you can leave going into the Thanksgiving holiday, which will be 2 weeks later.

Yeah.

And then use that time, that between holiday time, Thanksgiving through, you know, everything that happens in December and January to really put into play what you take away from the conference.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yes, yes, yes. Okay, so, uh, time, space, it's happening, it's on a Friday. We've got extra programming coming, but we're, we're not saying much about that quite yet, but just know there's some more fun stuff coming. Let's talk about the amazing programming that we are pulling together for our day together.

We just keep— y'all, we're really this excited.

It's—

we're really excited.

We are very excited. Thank you. Other people are excited with us. Some thumbs up, some loves. Oh, we're— we, we are delighted. And we are introducing you this year to some people you may already know, some people who might be new to you, but we love that combination of a name, a mover and a shaker, an influencer who is bringing with her, uh, some recognition, because we want you to know we're bringing you the very best of the best. And we are bringing you people who you may not have met or heard of yet, but who you will walk away with a deep appreciation and admiration for. And now they are on the way to becoming known to more people because you got to be in the room with them. And that was one of the things we heard a ton last year was how they loved the variety of people that we brought up on stage. And so that was a really important thing for us to do again. So Erica, why don't you tell us about our—

so we have Natalie Frank coming in. She is the chief marketing officer for Flowdesk, and we know we love Flowdesk. Natalie is one of the reasons we love them, honestly. They are such an accessible team, and their leadership is so in communication with their users, and Natalie is a big driver of that. She's a New York Times bestselling author. She is— she calls herself Mama Bear for entrepreneurs, y'all. I mean, this woman cheerleads entrepreneurs like like it's her job. It is her job, but even if it's not her job, she still does it that way. She's got 2 books out. She's one of those women everyone is like, yeah, she's my best friend now.

Totally.

She exudes that and she has lived it. She has walked it and she knows what entrepreneurship is. And she's got a message that she's really pumped to share with you all. If you were at last year, she did a video that we showed. To you all that had several of us in tears just about entrepreneurship in general. So having had a chance to see her speak live, I just am goosebumps that she's going to be on our stage.

Yeah.

And then so many goosebumps. Yes. And then we're bringing in Gayla Jackson. She is a speaker. She is a career coach. She's got over 1.5 million views on her TED Talk. Which is amazing. I know, um, and she and I go back to our baby times. Um, we actually started an entrepreneurship group together, um, over 16 or 17 years ago when we lived in the same city. And so I've gotten to watch her grow through her, um, her own career experience. She's been in-house at Ellevest, um, which is amazing. Uh, she— and she's been on the entrepreneur side, she's been on the inside, she's back on the entrepreneur side, and I just— she's a powerhouse. I'm excited for her, um, her to be coming, coming in. And then I will toss it to you for the other, the other 3 that we've got.

Yes! Oh my gosh, so excited to have a few people who I have gotten to know really well over the last few years and have watched them come into their own in terms of their voice and their own power and their, their service of the people around them and how brilliantly they bring their ideas to life. So Lauren Reedy is one of our speakers this year, and last year Lauren provided— she and her company, Forever Ready Productions, provided all the video support So you've spent the last 5 months watching this incredible footage that she and her team were gathering the entire day, like backstage and like, you know, from the side and in the audience and just did such a beautiful job. And that's Lauren's gift. She is an Emmy Award-winning videographer.

Multi, multi Emmy Award-winning.

5.

Yeah, like a lot.

5 Emmys. Yes, 5 Emmys. She is really, truly gifted at what she does, and she's an incredible speaker. I know that because I've gotten to work with her over the last several years, and she's just a beautiful storyteller and is going to— this is going to be a really tactical part of the program. She's going to talk to us about how we can leverage video more as entrepreneurs. In simple, effective ways because most of us are overthinking it and underdoing it. And that's one of Lauren's things is just how do we get people to action a little bit faster and get it done, take the complexity out of it and just ready, go, do. So that's going to be amazing. Jessica Horton is joining us and oh my gosh, I can't wait for you to meet Jessica. She is a hoot. She is so funny. She is an entrepreneur, a coach. She works with other entrepreneurs like us who are managing all the things and struggling with managing all the things. So she really helps, especially moms, manage burnout and balance and help find a little bit more balance. And she does it with just tongue-in-cheek hilarity. I want everybody to go watch her reels. Go find Jessica Horton on Instagram.

It's Jessica Horton Coaching is her handle.

Yes. Thank you. We're more prepared. I put everything up in—

We're going to give the real view. We're going to talk about how launch day has gone. We're going to give you the real story.

Mercury is in the refrigerator.

Yeah, yeah, clearly. Okay, and then one more speaker we can say today. One more we've got. You go for it. I'm gonna let you do that one.

Um, okay, okay, hold on. We know, we know this speaker. She is back by popular demand. Diana Wei Fung. Yay! Diana, our favorite Diana, favorite systems architect. Our favorite systems architect. She has been pivotal to the development of this program in lots of ways, um, because she's a good friend of ours. But she's back because her session was so appreciated last year and it's so needed and so important. Diana is a HoneyBook pro. That's not all she does, but HoneyBook is one of her expertise that she brings to the table. But really she thinks in systems and she is such a powerful, fierce advocate for all of us so that we are, we can, we can succeed, we can survive and not just survive, but thrive. And her passion is really, inspiring. And as someone who is not a systems person, I'm just so grateful for her brain. And we just want to bring— we want to bring her systems brain into the room with us again. So Diana will be back.

And so we've got a good— Sally's already said it, but we've got a really— we tried really hard last year, and it is important to us. This is part of the DNA of Permission Slip. Is that yes, there's the inspiration that you expect when you go to a conference like this, but we also want to give you the opportunity to learn super tactical information, how information that you can put into place from your seat and also as you move forward. So to that point, we are doing things a lot. We're bringing back a lot of what we did last year, similar vibe, similar schedule, etc. But we have, because you all asked for it, built in additional networking time, and we're also going to do some activities that will allow you to one-on-one in smaller groups chat with our speakers and get, get information that maybe you don't want to ask in the big group, or maybe that's a little bit more specific. Specific to you, and we'll give you more details on that a little bit later. But we're really excited to give you all what you asked for, for networking and for just more detailed time on the how. And then the other big change that I'm really excited about is we are going to have a vendor area this year where you can purchase the goods from maybe some of our sponsors, from locally made artists and makers, from female-owned companies, and we're opening that vendor area specifically to folks who are female-led small businesses. Like, we've actually put a cap on who can be there selling. So we're really excited for you all to have the opportunity to support those, um, those women directly. I think we got—

okay, Karina has a question. How many days is the conference, Erica?

Okay, I'm gonna— okay, we don't have a whole bunch. Here's, here's what we can say today. There is a VIP reception on Thursday, so again, that will be with our speakers. It'll be a couple hours of networking time, getting to meet some of the other women who are at the event. The event will then run all day on Friday, so we'll start again in the morning. I want to say 8 AM doors open, 9 AM program starts. Double-check me on that, um, we'll run through early evening again. And then just keep your ears and emails open for what could potentially be happening on Saturday, which would be ancillary. So the conference itself is Friday, but you have the opportunity to pick up the VIP reception on Thursday evening. And then we'll be giving you some information on some additional things you may be able to pick up on Saturday.

Yeah, so I would say hold off on confirming your travel plans. I mean, most people are probably gonna hold off on making their flight arrangements if you're flying in, I would guess, for a few months, which is good. I would say, like, let, let us get clear on what's— what else is happening, because we're pulling it together. We're just being really intentional about who we bring in for this additional programming that we're talking about doing. So don't buy your flights yet. I promise you're— it's— they'll probably be cheaper in a few months.

Or if you need to make plans, just plan to leave Saturday evening. Yeah, Saturday evening.

Yeah, because you want to spend— even if you don't join us for the extra programming, you want to chill and hang out and enjoy, uh, what's happening in Knoxville. Last year, Erica and I We got— we went and got our feet— we soaked our feet at Wake—

Wake Foot—

Wake—

Wake Foot—

I don't even know. We should reach out to them.

Yeah, um, that place is amazing, y'all. Listen, I could do an entire podcast on things to do in Knoxville, but for today I will limit myself to saying if you can book yourself a foot soak at Wake at some point while you're here, um, just go ahead and do that. Just go ahead and do that. We sat and we cheers with some champagne the day after. We cried. We got massage. It was a lovely situation. I have never not felt wonderful when I have left Wake.

I think there is video of you and I dancing in the lobby of Wake with Joy. Yes, there is. We couldn't help it. We couldn't help it.

Okay, let's just— let's be real, real about, um, about launching something like this today. We sent emails out this morning, um, one of our links was wrong. We sent another— we sent another email out about it. It's what you do, right? Um, so that was awesome to send out the email and wake up and it was in our inboxes and feedback and all that stuff. But you know, entrepreneurship You gotta send that again sometimes. And then we found one kind of directive error on our website. We got that fixed too. So that's where systems come in play. That's where your tech stack is super important and where your support team is amazing because we found the issues, we didn't know how to fix them. So we were like, hey, Anna, support team, can you take care of that? So Yeah, thank you. So if you got your first email in the LinkedIn, look for the second one. Um, and we've got early bird tickets open. Um, there's a limited number of early bird tickets, so if you know you're coming, get on that. Um, and then we've got our VIP ticket add-on available as well, and that number is also, is also limited. So I think there's a reason the early bird gets the worm.

Yeah, it's true. We have limited number of early bird tickets and limited number of VIP tickets. So we really— last year, the, the handful of, you know, like the, the early bird people bought the VIP tickets. Yeah, at a really high percentage rate. Like, the two of them went together a lot. So we just want to encourage you, if you're thinking about it to don't wait on it. Because we have last year's under our belt and there's a loyal group of you—

yay—

who are excited to come back, we just want to encourage you to jump and look at your calendars, block it off, and grab your tickets.

And just so you know, when every time a registration comes through, Sally and I text each other your name with exclamation points in capital letters. We are Yes, we, we know you all that were here last year. Um, if you're new, we're gonna know you, we're gonna know you this year. And so this is— we are as in it to win it for you as anything. Yeah, really, that's true.

It's, it's true. We obsess over your names. We do. We, we— every name that comes in, we go, oh my gosh, because we know it's a leap, and it's part of the reason why we care so very much about what happens and the experience that you have in the room. We can't wait. Yeah. Yay. Yay.

Woo-hoo-hoo. All right. I need music.

Erica. Oh, yeah. Come on, Sally. Get with it.

No, I can dance without music. All right, y'all.

Oh, you can dance without music, but why would you?

Why would you?

Why would you? How about this?

All right, we'll see y'all on the socials. We'll see you back here next week. Bye-bye, guys!