Agenda
8:00am Check-in | breakfast | Networking
9:00AM FIRE YOURSELF: DELEGATE YOUR WAY TO FREEDOM AND SUCCESS
Amber Gray
9:45AM BEING INTENTIONAL ABOUT YOUR TIME
Susan Fennema
10:30AM Break | Networking
10:45AM EMPOWERING SMALL BUSINESSES: ATTRACTING, RETAINING, AND ENGAGING TOP TALENT
Jennifer Scott
11:30AM FROM COMPLEXITY TO CLARITY: A MARKETING FRAMEWORK
Heather Steele & Randi Skinner
12:15PM Lunch | Networking
Agenda
8:00am
Check-in | breakfast | Networking
9:00AM
FIRE YOURSELF: DELEGATE YOUR WAY TO FREEDOM AND SUCCESS
Amber Gray
9:45AM
BEING INTENTIONAL ABOUT YOUR TIME
Susan Fennema
10:30AM
Break | Networking
10:45AM
EMPOWERING SMALL BUSINESSES: ATTRACTING, RETAINING, AND ENGAGING TOP TALENT
Jennifer Scott
11:30AM
FROM COMPLEXITY TO CLARITY: A MARKETING FRAMEWORK
Heather Steele & Randi Skinner
12:15PM
Lunch | Networking
Speakers & Sessions
Amber L. Gray
Fire Yourself: Delegate Your Way to Freedom and Success
Delegation is essential to scalability and sustainable success in any endeavor. But delegation is also extremely hard and especially difficult for highly gifted leaders and entrepreneurs. There are specific reasons (both logistical and psychological) why delegation does not come naturally. Most often, the resistance to delegation is rooted in a lack of trust. It’s hard to hand off one’s vision to others. It takes a lot of trust to let go.
This inspirational presentation is geared toward those who have been pulled into the weeds of the day-to-day and desperately want to get back to the zone of true impact. It’s about creating appropriate separations so a person can expend the maximum amount of energy where it matters most. It’s about working more in the right areas, not necessarily working less.
Key Takeaways for Attendees
- Avoid Burnout: Learn why delegation is a critical form of self-care to avoid burnout, save time, and grow your business
- Fire Yourself: Learn how to systematically remove yourself from responsibilities you’ve held on to for too long
- Improve Delegation Outcomes: Learn how to communicate expectations clearly and extend smart trust
Attendees will also receive access to free downloadable digital worksheets.
Amber L. Gray is the Founder & CEO of Trusty Oak, the only US-based freelance virtual assistant agency where leaders get 5+ hours per week back while learning to delegate effectively. Trusty Oak offers VAs vetted for you and a supportive onboarding process for a quick start, helping hundreds of leaders scale their businesses without hiring more employees. Amber’s digital course "Fire Yourself: Delegate Your Way to Freedom and Success" guides entrepreneurs seeking to achieve work-life balance while scaling their businesses.
Her dedication to operational excellence and a commitment to creating healthy team cultures have earned Amber numerous accolades, including the Austin Business Woman of the Year in 2021 and Trusty Oak's recognition as Freelancer Platform of the Year in 2021 and 2022. In her previous role as Vice President of Operations for a boutique PR and marketing firm, she helped lead the company’s growth to #15 on Austin Business Journal’s Fast50 List in 2014.
As a woman entrepreneur and a proud member of the LGBTQ community, Amber brings a diverse and relatable perspective to the business world, making her a powerful advocate for inclusivity and equal opportunity.
Jennifer Scott
Empowering Small Businesses: Attracting, Retaining, and Engaging Top Talent
In an era of fierce competition for top talent, small business owners face unique challenges in attracting, retaining, and engaging employees. This session, led by industry expert Jennifer Scott, delves into practical strategies that small businesses can employ to build a robust workforce.
Participants will explore the critical elements of creating a magnetic company culture that attracts the right candidates, nurtures their growth, and fosters long-term commitment. The session will cover innovative approaches to recruitment, the importance of Conscious Leadership in employee retention, and effective methods to boost workforce engagement.
Key takeaways include understanding the dynamics of the current job market, leveraging technology for efficient HR processes, and insights into developing a compelling Employee Value Proposition (EVP). Attendees will be equipped with actionable tips and a deeper understanding of how to cultivate a workplace environment that inspires excellence and loyalty, whether virtual or onsite.
Jennifer Scott is the CEO of HireEffect™, a national firm founded in 2007, providing outsourced bookkeeping, payroll, human resources, and recruiting to founder-led businesses.
With a career spanning over three decades in supporting entrepreneurial leaders, Jennifer's "People First – Technology Forward" approach underpins her business ethos. She is dedicated to fostering Conscious Leadership, enhancing candidate attraction, boosting employee engagement and retention, and guiding companies toward sustaining a culture of excellence.
Following her passion for engaging audiences, Jennifer is known for contributing her expertise at multiple national, regional, and local events including QuickBooks Connect, Gusto Next, Ensuring Success, The Society of Human Resource Management (SHRM), many Chamber of Commerce events, local not-for-profit organizations, and a standout moment to over 200 job seekers at 'The Ladders' event in Grand Central Station in New York City.
In addition to her professional endeavors, Jennifer is deeply involved in community and business organizations. She serves as the Chair of the Board of Directors for the Dallas Chapter of Conscious Capitalism, Vice President of the Board for AlumCorps, and has previously held roles as Director and Treasurer for the DFW Chapter of the National Association of Women Business Owners (NAWBO.) She is also an alumnus of the Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses Program and an active community volunteer.
Susan Fennema
Being Intentional About Your Time
You can't buy time, but you can use what you have more wisely and effectively. Ever feel like your day is gone and you didn’t accomplish what you intended? Or worse, you don’t even know what you did? This session shows how to structure your day so that you get the most important things done first - plus, it helps you identify what the most important things actually are. We’ll talk about calendar blocking, email, and interruption management, and creating space to handle real emergencies so that you can be more productive while creating professional boundaries in our virtual/hybrid worlds.
Susan Fennema is the Chaos Eradicating Officer (CEO) of Beyond the Chaos, a consultancy helping small business owners extricate themselves from their day-to-day business operations so they can grow their businesses and get their lives back. She and her team have served over 200 small businesses. With 30+ years of operations/project management experience in professional service industries, Susan is on a mission to improve American society exponentially. When not making multi-course dinners, she enjoys Texas A&M football games and Blackhawks hockey. She lives and works from her home in McKinney, Texas, with her husband and their dog, Shelby.
Heather Steele & Randi Skinner
From Complexity to Clarity: a Marketing Framework
In this session attendees will learn the Vision Value Model; a framework that business owners can use to completely revolutionize their marketing and their business as a whole.
The framework helps owners:
- Create a Vision for their business and their life
- Define the Values that matter the most to them
- Set the Goals that will make their Vision a reality
- Discover Clarity around their marketing and their business processes
Business owners who apply the Vision Value Model to their businesses see results immediately. During Randi and Heather’s presentation, they’ll outline the Vision Value Model in detail, covering topics like:
- What your Vision should look like
- How to define what matters most to you in terms of PiPP (People, impact, Process, Profit)
- How you can protect what you Value most
- How you can use marketing as a change agent to alter your business processes and meet your goals
Bridging the Gap Between Business Goals & Business Reality
Heather started Blue Steele Solutions in 2010 with a mission to help small businesses grow, be more efficient, and perform like the big guys.
Heather saw small businesses, run by good people with amazing ideas, fail, and fail because they didn’t have the help they needed to market or grow their business successfully.
Value Building Marketing is the resource businesses need to succeed.
Master of Marketing, Architect of Sales, Passionate Rotarian, and the lady you need to talk to when you need to Get Things Done!
In her 15+ years of experience as a marketing and business development professional, Randi has learned the importance of developing a recognizable brand, creating relatable content, and cultivating authentic relationships throughout the community.