When the wonderful writer and family-life expert KJ Dell’Antonia invited me to speak at the Mom 2.0 Summit on the topic: How to Become a Paid Speaker, I paused. Since my September 2018 book launch, I’d been speaking at many conferences and company events, and I’d even landed a wonderful speaking agent, so my paid speaking gigs were steadily increasing. While I was loving every minute of it, I had become much more protective of my time.
And ironically, this was an unpaid speaking gig. Kind of hilarious given the topic.
But I was honored to be asked to speak at such an important, popular conference and to join over 1,000 women from my tribe of working moms. So after going through the schedule of what my three teenagers were up to that week, and realizing that I wouldn’t miss a single sports game or STEM festival, I decided I’d be happy to bring my human to Mom 2.0. Boy, am I ever glad I did.
I mean, wow. Moms get it!
Not only do we give birth and nurture and support life as our everyday, ordinary business, but when it comes to all the skills and talents so necessary in the world today, we’re on it. Creating social strategies that work, developing influence, cultivating a network—this is the bread and butter of moms at work.
Here are three things that made this gathering so special.
Moms show up.
I met women with four kids under the age of ten, founders with side hustles and broods, and leaders and CEOS who all made a serious investment in being at this conference. Unlike so many other conferences I’ve attended over the years, the women here were ready to be truly present. Since none of the talks were taped, there wasn’t that thing where people kind of tune out because they can watch later. Rather than the real connections happening in the coffee line, at Mom 2.0 everyone introduced themselves as soon as we sat down to listen, and we shared the experience with perfect strangers.
A little shout out to some of the moms I met:
First of all, I was thrilled get to know my fellow panelists. I had followed KJ’s work in the New York Times for many years, and with three teenagers, I am a huge fan of Jess Lahey’s New York Times bestselling work about the importance of letting kids fail. An added bonus was connecting with Lauren Brandt of the Returnity Project and Facebook. As a Gen Xer, I was psyched to get her take on my social channels, especially since, among my current business goals, I’m determined to have more followers than my twin 16-year-old girls! (Help a mom out, and follow me on Instagram here!)
I was also excited to meet women like Julie Cole, Founder and CEO of Mabel’s Labels, a smart, funny mom of six who sold her company to Avery and has continued to work there for three years, doing what she loves. I confess that I’m a little obsessed with her label-making enterprise and can’t wait to get my hands on her labels for my kids’ summer-camp stuff. (PS: Early bird pricing alert!)
In the back of the room at one session, I struck up a conversation with Moms-Running (as in—running for office, not to be confused with Running Moms, which is all about jogging) co-founders, Rielly Karsh and Danielle Davies. Rielly and Danielle met while running for local office. They both lost their races, but won something much bigger. They found each other and started their company to share their knowledge about running for public office and to train women to win.
Like many moms who are conflicted over their work and kid responsibilities, Danielle opened up and shared that while she loved the conference, she was feeling some guilt about missing her 13-year-old son’s first formal dance. One of the cool things about Mom 2.0 is that we can all relate to that feeling. I assured her that this was the first of many dances!
- Moms give back.
Giving back is big theme in my book and in my life. It doesn’t matter how big your company is, you can figure out a way to give back. Moms understand this well (and it goes without say that moms give so much of themselves to their kids, expecting nothing in return). We were there to feel connected, meet people, and to share our wisdom and knowledge.
I was excited to share what I’ve learned over these past years as an emerging professional speaker. KJ had mentioned in our call that she thought there would be a lot of interest in our session, and she was right. While some of the attendees were Gen Xers, most were millennials and Gen Zers. I was happy to help them figure out how to build their platforms, say goodbye to imposter syndrome and find their voice.
Not only did I love connecting with all the women who followed up with me after the panel (after all, studies show that givers have just as much or more to gain from receivers!), but my fellow panelists and I also went deep into the law of reciprocity. We shared sample contracts, PowerPoints, and best practices.
And please, if you’re reading this and missed the session or the chance to follow up, please don’t hesitate to reach out.
- Moms take professional development personally.
I believe that in order to have a truly human workplace, we must take professional development personally (Check out my latest Human Headlines on the topic…and subscribe if you haven’t already!).
What does that mean? It means that we take our careers, our work, our path and our growth to heart. When we don’t separate our personal and our professional aspirations, we feel more human, more like ourselves. Plus we’re more successful.
Leaders who get it recognize this and look for ways to help their employees (and their customers) find their path and attain their personal/professional goals.
As individuals, we find our groove when we discover the sweet spot of where our personal and professional interests overlap. Even though we women tend to put ourselves last on the list in terms of self-care and growth, the moms I met were rock stars at riding their own wave.
They really get it.
And lo and behold…I was also able to do some of my own professional development, especially around building my human networks, which I’m great at the old-fashioned way, but I need some work on the digital side.
I was blown away by with the powerhouse Jessica Turner, writer of The Mom Creative blog, bestselling author, and influencer extraordinaire.
She burst onto the stage telling us she had 65 slides to get through in an hour, so buckle in, and hang on for the ride! She gave real-life examples, was totally transparent and even vulnerable. She gave us a sneak peek behind the curtain and shared real numbers from specific campaigns. I’m a big believer in sharing numbers—especially with other women. How else do we know what to ask for? Especially since we women so often undervalue ourselves and end up asking for less than we’re worth, it’s very helpful to know the market.
In other words, we have to take our professional lives personally. Mom 2.0 founders Laura Mayes and Carrie Pacini sure did. Look what they’ve grown—from a small gathering of 175 women in 2008, talking about the growing space of marketing to moms, to nearly 1,000 moms showing up in 2019 to the premiere event for “leading influencers, content creators, bloggers, women entrepreneurs, and marketers representing parenting, entertainment, food, politics, technology, social change, business, travel, design, and more.”
Over the 11 years of this conference, while the world has changed, the goals for the conference and messages to attendees have remained the same:
What you’re doing matters.
And
The world needs who you were made to be.
That’s why when we moms bring our human to Austin, it’s so, so good for people, great for business, and just might change the world.
PS: Special callout to Dove’s #realmoms, Amazon’s #momtruths, Google’s #BeInternetAwesome, and Best Buy’s #BestMoms for their support. And to Romper’s #RomperXMom2 and HLN’s #OnTheStoryHLN for getting the word out.
