2013 Breakout Sessions

Our conference attracts women from across the country – and beyond – and each person is looking for answers to their own situations.

Our breakout sessions provide the perfect opportunity for you to choose the topics most relevant to your own life. Led by experts in their field, each session will be packed with techniques and how-tos that you can implement into your life, business or career – now.

You can chooses sessions in the Personal Development or the Entrepreneur Track.

Personal Development Breakout Sessions

Mia Redrick

Session Topic: Get Radical About You: The Essential Strategies for Practicing Self-Care

Self-care is more than a visit to a day spa, getting your nails done, or getting your hair curled. It is your oxygen, your fuel, and your nutrition. Taking care of yourself puts you in the best position to make important choices for yourself and those you love, lead, and or need to LEAVE.

Systematic and daily self-care is a powerful tool that can be learned to improve clarity and prosperity.  When you spend time with yourself you won’t need to compete with others because you will understand that YOU are enough, You will no longer make decisions for you, your business, and life by looking to social media or others to determine what is hot because you will understand what hot feels like for you.  You will build community with people who co-sign success alongside you. You will become fearless as woman because you’ll be dreaming big, personally growing , being healthy, and living fully.  Self-care is the best gift you can give your family.

Mia Redrick, The Mom Strategist will empower you to:

* Learn the secret about boundaries and how they serve you
* Make your self-care non-negotiable
* Give from a full cup and take two sips before pouring
* Identify what fuels you and purge what drains you
* Balance self-care and authenticity by creating opportunities to renew your mind, body, and spirit

Join Mia and learn how to make your self-care non-negotiable in your life.

About Mia:

Mia is the CEO of Finding Definitions, LLC, a company that provides coaching and consulting on life systems that empower mothers to design the lives they want, and create the support they need to live and love fully.   Redrick is a strategy coach for moms, and a best-selling author of Time for Mom-Me:5 Essential Strategies for A Mother’s Self-Care and Time for Mom-Me: 365 Daily Strategies for a Mother’s Self-Care. Affectionately known as The Mom Strategist™, Redrick has reached thousands, both nationally and internationally, with her empowering message for moms that “self-care is non-negotiable but necessary to be the best parent possible.”   Mia Redrick appeared on The Ricki Lake Show, making a house visit with an overwhelmed mom and sharing her best strategies for parents struggling to balance it all. She is a parenting expert for ABC 2 News-WMAR, and her advice plays on Skyradio on both American and Delta airlines. She has been featured in Essence Magazine and  Women’s World, and her articles and advice are featured monthly on the The Huffington Post, Yahoo-Shine, Dr.Laura, Dr. Oz’s Sharecare, CNN and more.

Over 14 years ago, Mia began her journey of making self-care a priority in motherhood which resulted in her dating herself no less than once a week for 14 years. During this “Me Time” she learned how to build a system for her life based on what was most important–a life that allowed her to identify her priorities and boundaries, build a career that she loves, and be the best mom and partner because of the clarity gained from self-care.   As a result, she began teaching moms around the country how to do the same in their own lives in Time for Mom-Me book clubs using her first book Time for Mom-Me:5 Essential Strategies for A Mother’s Self-Care. These groups support moms with a guided formula for creating self-care rituals. Mia has hosted hundreds of groups in the U.S., and two groups in Australia. Several of these groups have been in partnership with Panera Bread Corporation and Great Harvest Bread Company.  Mia is the founder of The Iron Moms triathlon team.  This team supports moms to commit to a healthy lifestyle by committing to fitness events.  Over the last two years, over 20 mothers have become triathletes and 52 members have joined the team in 2013.

Cledra McCullers

Session Topic: Why Women Need to F.A.R.T.

The “secret” to dropping ALL excess weight? To simply FART more!

Cledra will outline how the emotional weights of unforgiveness, a lack of acceptance, repeating the same behavior, and thinking about yesterday and tomorrow all show up as excess physical weight and why F.A.R.T.ing more will help women reach their goals. F meaning to forgive, A meaning learning to accept, R meaning to re-engineer behaviors and habits in order to live your highest values, and T…thinking and BEING completely present every single day. Cledra will provide the strategies and the tactics to F.A.R.T. more so that women will leave this workshop armed with the necessary tools to approach weight loss in a RADICAL way.

About Cledra:

Founder of PlanBE Coaching, Cledra’s mission is to set EVERY WOMAN carrying EXTRA WEIGHT  – physical, mental, spiritual -  FREE, so she can run the race she was CREATED to RUN!

Having been on a journey to shed over 70 pounds, Cledra is clear on what it takes to take charge of every area of your life and make the necessary changes to have true success.

Named BestSelf Atlanta top 10 Over 40 & Fabulous and featured in several other publications, the tools and strategies Cledra shares are far from traditional. Cledra teaches you how to  manage your emotions to create lasting change – both physically and mentally.

Cynthia de Lorenzi

Session Topic: The Secrets of Business Success and Leadership – Perspective, Passion, Persuasion and one more Secret Weapon that Will Lead You To Incredible Success.

You have always been told that you need to mind your P’s and Q’s! That’s all well and good for Miss Manners, but we’re talking about the Ps and Qs of business and leadership success and it has nothing to do with etiquette or being polite. Join our session to discover what P and Q success are all about. You will leave with one of Cynthia’s most coveted secret to success.

About Cynthia

Cynthia de Lorenzi likes to call herself a serial entrepreneur and social commentator on the status of women in our world today.  She also encourages the label “open networker” and, just for fun, “Diva Extraordinaire.”  

Washington Business Journal selected her as one of the top 25 “Women Who Mean Business” in 2006, SmartCEO magazine awarded her the BRAVA award in 2009 and was awarded SmartCEO’s Circle of Excellence by her peers as well as recognized by Enterprising Women in 2010.  Her organization, Success in the City has been featured in the Business Section of the Washington Post, NPR, DC Modern Luxury Magazine and Washington’s Finest.

As founder and chief executive officer of Success in the City, Cynthia leads an unconventional business networking organization for senior level executive businesswomen in the DC Metropolitan area. She is passionate about empowering others and the principle of paying-it-forward. In addition to leading Success in the City, Cynthia serves as a Board member of The Telework Coalition, Mingle360, The Women’s Center and Community Business Partnership including The Women’s Business Center, which provides training, assistance and support to businesswomen in Northern Virginia.

Entrepreneur Breakout Sessions

Judy Hoberman

Session Description: Everyone is in sales, whether you are providing a product or service, recruiting or being recruited, or selling yourself.  Asking questions is one of the most important pieces to the sales process.  In order for you to become that trusted advisor, you need to ask questions and involve your client in the solution.  But what are the right questions, and what does asking questions have to do with gender differences?

During this session, you will learn how asking the right questions can change the entire conversation.  Judy will give you tips, tricks and strategies that will make a huge impact on your bottom line.

What You Will Learn:

• The basic communication differences between men and women.
• The importance of recognizing these differences and how to embrace and use those differences as assets.
• The value of asking the right questions.
• What are the right questions.
• The importance of building relationships in cross gender selling

About Judy:

Judy knows sales. And if you’re in business, you have to know sales, too. Founder of Selling in a Skirt and the author of the book by the same name.

Judy pulls on her almost 30 years of sales experience to give entrepreneurs proven techniques, strategies and a collection of tools that has been perfected over the years – designed by sales women, for sales women.

Jennifer Kem

Session Topic: “Building A Brand That Gets Seen, Gets Heard and Gets Paid”

Branding is more than just a business buzzword. It has become the foundation of selling in the new economy.

However, with so much online stimulus for people to consume, it can be more challenging to establish a brand that stands out. 

Not only that, because of the tools available to online and offline marketers, there is almost nothing that competitors can’t duplicate.  If you have a great idea, you can be certain it will be copied before long. 

There’s only one way to establish an edge over these issues:  Your Brand.

Your brand is not just a logo, a tagline and/or the colors you use on your web site or marketing material.  In fact, it represents many more intangible aspects of a business and their products/service: a collection of feelings and perceptions about quality, image, lifestyle and status. Brands that know how to create experiences and manage those perceptions with consumers are winners.

Jennifer Kem, Marketing Strategist and Brand Expert will teach you:

• How to create a strong brand identity that will establish you as a thought leader in a noisy marketplace
• How to show up in a way that potential customers will think of your business first when they need a particular product or service
• The 8 secrets that global brands (like Apple, Google, and Coca-Cola) use to gain their visibility and success – that can be used by small business owners to carve out their own advantage

Join Jennifer and learn how to build a brand that gets seen, gets heard, and gets paid.

About Jen:

Marketing and Brand Expert, Jen, known as a ‘Strategic Narrator’ for modern businesses.  What that really means is she turns your ideas – epic, brilliant, world-changing ideas – into MONEY.  She has a unique superpower – she can smell the money in your business – and loves to show you how to sniff out every greenback available to you while you do your great work in the world.

Her heart and passion lies with female entrepreneurs who are making big strides in the world – and using strategic marketing tools and industry-tested programs she helps you create, launch and expand your love and genius into the stratosphere.  Her motto:  Make Your Life Your Business. Now.™

Cameka Smith

Session Topic: “How To Build And Leverage A Powerful Network”

“Your network determines your net-worth.” How many times have you heard that saying?

Well, it’s true, and in these economic times, professionals can’t afford to lack access to a growing network. A strong professional network is vital to the growth of businesses or career advancement. For some, the art of networking is easy. For others, the mere thought brings on anxiety.  Here’s a challenge: Step outside of your comfort zone and realize that your attitude really does determine your altitude.

I will offer seven steps to assist you in taking advantage of networking opportunities while attending a professional conference, getting new clients for your business or building relationships at your place of work. Whether you’re an introvert or extrovert — you will attract the right people and start building long-lasting and mutually beneficial relationships. Building a community of people who support you does takes time, but there are strategic ways you can get started expanding your professional network today!

About Cameka:

Connector, leader, educator and believer.  These are just a few words that describe Cameka Smith, Founder of The BOSS Network.  BOSS stands for “Bringing Out Successful Sisters,” and its mission is to promote and encourage the small business spirit and career development of women.

Jennifer Abernethy