18. Being Brave and Hosting a Conference - Transcript

Hi, I'm back McFarland from popular business and popular career. In this podcast, I'll be speaking to entrepreneurs who have overcome adversity, made difficult decisions, challenged the status quo and achieved amazing things in their businesses. Welcome to brave in business. Hello, Hello, It's back, McFarlane tear helping you do better and be better in your careers and businesses. Today is a podcast episode that has been on my list for a little while. So as I'm recording this, it is just over a month since I hosted the inaugural Popular Business Conference, and I've been wanting to do a little bit of a download to talk to you about what it was like. But I just felt like I needed to sit with it for a little while. You know, there was this part of me that kind of felt like I wanted to jump in and talk to you straight away afterwards, like, you know, while I was still in the energy and while I was still in the vibe. But then I was also exhausted. It really took it out of me, and it's taken me a little bit of time to kind of get back into I don't know, like being human being myself and feeling like I was in the space to kind of sit down and unpack a lot of the lessons and the learnings and the things that I loved and the things that I didn't love about hosting a conference and more specifically, hosting the first annual popular business conference here in Canberra. So today I'm here. I'm ready. I've got a few dot points. I've got a few ideas of things that I want to talk to you about. But overall, I guess I just want to share with you a little bit about the experience. And I know that if you were there at the conference, then this will be a good reminder to you to think back to some of the great things that we learned during the conference, but also the amazing fun that we had. And if you weren't there, then hopefully this will give you a little bit of an idea about what the experience was like, and I am going to be sharing with you. Some little sneak peeks into next year's pop your business conference. So the first thing that I want to tell you is. Overall, the conference was amazing. I'm sure that you can imagine that since the conference, the question on everybody's lips has been How was it? How did it go? Did it go to plan? And honestly, I can tell you that it was perfect. It was just simply perfect, and I could not have wished for it to go any better. Now those of you who know me and who know like the ins and outs of everything will know that putting on this conference was not an easy feat. I made the decision to hold the popular business conference a couple of years ago. And then, of course, we had the whole covid situation. I had some team issues. There were some issues with the data, like with the finances and overall, it created a hell of a lot of stress. So I've said to you guys before that there was a lot of blood, sweat and tears that went into this thing, and I can confirm that there was, in fact, blood, sweat and tears. And, uh, yeah, I didn't love the whole process. There were a lot of moments where I really felt like I just couldn't do it or that it wasn't working out to plan in the closer lead up to the event. I did find that things started to get easier and I think that part of that was that I started using my team more effectively and really, I guess being a little bit more transparent with them about the help that I needed and the way that I needed them to help me. And I can tell you, like 110% even though that's not a thing. I couldn't have done this without my team. Every single member of my team contributed to this event in a way that I'm so ever so grateful for and I don't know whether they've realised it. But I really think that actually running this conference has brought us all a little bit closer together. It has helped us to get to know each other a little better and to understand each other's little quirks and the things that make us tick. And that in itself has been a really powerful team building exercise. But also it's really reiterated to me that my team are all highly capable individuals and that I really need to trust them more and I'm going to talk about that a little bit more in this episode in terms of my own energy. I found that like, I'd probably anticipated that I was going to be a lot more stressed in the lead up. So because of the fact that I'd had a lot of stress in the earlier stages of the planning and the postponements and all of that, I think I kind of thought that in the weeks before the conference that I was going to be pulling my hair out and like being super duper stressed about all of the things that are going on and there was like an element of being aware that I had a lot on my to do list. But one of the things that I really noticed was that for the most part I was really quite chill and I think that surprised me because I tend to be quite an anxious and high strong person. But I think it also really surprised the people around me and one of the things that you know, I really a tribute to the success that I experienced in terms of my energy was that I sought the help from the experts that I needed in the lead up and also at the time. So I'm really open about the fact that I am in Thera. I've been in therapy for years and I am a huge advocate for therapy. I pretty much think that everyone should just get themselves a therapist. It is so valuable, you know, not just for the times when things are going wrong, but also for the times when things are going right, it's, you know, it can really, really help. And I found that in the lead up, you know, having sessions with my therapist Steph, that was really helpful because we were able to talk through some of those things that I was anticipating and even to some of the stuff around the emotions that I was feeling, because at times, you know, my emotions were a little bit up and down. I think that in one way I kind of underestimated how much actually, like in emotional situation, this was for me, working on what is the biggest project that I've ever worked on in my career and working on it for such a long period of time, like seriously two years having a be postponed multiple times. You know, having the issues that I had. There was so much emotion that was actually tied up in this conference. And I think I really probably underestimated until those last few weeks how that was actually going to feel for me and what kind of experience I was going to have in, You know, what somebody said to me was like birthing a baby had been growing for two years, so I think that was really, really important. I also get physical tune ups. So I have a physiotherapist that I see religiously every fortnight rail from entire physio in Queen Bee in really made sure that I kept up with those appointments to make sure that everything in my body was where it needed to be. In order to support me, I also get a fortunately remedial massage with Sarah Badger from entire physio and really leaned on that. I think that sometimes in the lead up to the conference, I kept telling myself these stories of like I don't have time. I don't have time to go to physio. I don't have time to go for a massage, and I found myself really like on those days when those appointments were booked in. I was thinking like I wish I didn't have to go like I've got other things that I need to be doing. But I kind of recognised that. And I knew that even though I did have a lot of tasks on my to do list that in the long run, I wasn't going to be effective if I didn't make sure that I took care of my physical body and also my mental state as well. And that is a really big thing for me. I think I've mentioned on this podcast before about the fact that I'm not particularly great at prioritising my health and well being and that, you know, I'm so used to like living in my head that sometimes it feels like my body is like, just this thing that I'm dragging around behind me. It can be quite inconvenient. I definitely want to dive into that concept a little bit more with you in another episode, and I will definitely make a note to do that. But for now, I'm going to bring it back to what we're here for, which is to talk about the conference. So finally, I'd also say that one of our speakers, the beautiful Sarah Jensen, who I have been friends with for years now, is also my energetic healer and kinesiology Gist. And I made sure that I was having regular sessions with her not only in the lead up to the conference, but because she was also at the conference. She was there to support me throughout the event. Now I know that there may be some listeners who don't believe in this kind of thing, and they think it's all a little bit coo coo ca choo. And if that is you, that is totally fine. But what I can say is that working with Sarah really, really works for me and that working with her specifically on some of my blocks and some of my emotional stuff around the conference actually led me to a place where I was able to choose. I was able to effectively make a choice about my energetic state, and the choice that I made was to not be stressed. And that was really interesting because again like in the lead up to the conference. So many people get saying to me like, How are you feeling? You super stressed. I know my mom was, like, on the phone to me every day, saying, like, Are you OK? Are you stressed? Like, what's going on? And my response was always like, No, I'm actually okay. You know, like, I'm doing pretty well. What I can tell you is that that feeling of doing pretty well didn't last. It did last right up until basically the moment that I checked into the hotel the night before the conference began. So it was the night before the V I P event. I'm hoping that I can share with you a little bit of a snippet of audio here. Just sharing with you what I was going through in that moment, sir? Yeah, trying to keep in good spirits. But there is also a part of me that is like, What the fuck did you do? Mm. Yeah, yeah. Anyway, really looking forward to seeing all of you tomorrow. Feel like so far, everything has just been wonderful. Feel really happy with, Like, how calm I've been and how good I'm feeling how good I was feeling until I got to this hotel and just said goodbye to map. And really, if I think that I wake up and I better made tomorrow even just listening to that piece of audio now, you know, like it takes me back to that moment. Where? I don't know, it was like everything just was not cool. I had arrived at the hotel and I just felt so out of sorts. I was on the 14th floor, so, you know, like, I'm afraid of heights and I think that kind of got to me a little. I think maybe that was the thing that got to me was that I've been surrounded by my team and by my husband and my dog. And, you know, like all of the people in my life who are generally around to support me. And when I got to the hotel and I checked in and I went to the room all of a sudden I was very alone and I think that probably contributed, because in that moment where I was alone all of a sudden, all of myself doubt started rolling in, and I just remember this feeling of, like, what the fund have I done? And I don't want to do this, you know, like, how do I get out? The conference is going to work, but how do I get out of it? And, you know, that wasn't a very nice place to be. Thankfully, that didn't last. So about an hour, hour and a half after I sent my team that message Sarah arrived. So Sarah and I don't get to see each other in the flesh very often. She lives in Adelaide. I obviously live in Canberra. So when we do get to see each other, we want to make the most of it. So when I asked Sarah if she would come and speak at the popular business conference, I also asked her if she would do the V I P. Day and if she would mind coming for three nights and if she would mind sharing an apartment with me. And I knew that firstly, it was going to be a way that I could get as much Sarah energy as I could, But also I know her, and I know that she is very similar to me and the fact that she's incredibly introverted and that I knew that I was never going to offend her by kind of going, uh, I'm going to go to bed like I can't I can't do this anymore. I can't do the people thing. And that was really, really valuable throughout those three days being able to check in with her and download about what was going on and talk about our feelings and everything that was coming up around the conference. But then to also say, Okay, honey, like, I've had enough of you and I'm going to my room now and I'll see you to work. Uh, that dynamic worked really, really well for me. As soon as Sarah arrived, she started doing her magic. The pendulum started swinging, the sprays came out, and so quickly I was able to regain my sense of control. And my sense of come Now, of course, we did stay up until 1. 30 in the morning because we were chit chatting and catching up on all the things. And we did have quite an early morning the next day. But it was really the thing that I needed in that moment. So after the V I. P Day, which was basically a conversation between myself and Sarah and also an opportunity for our VIP attendees to spend time with Jade warn from hipster mum and also Small Business Growth Club. They were doing gift creation with her. It was loads and loads of fun. And if you know Jade, then you'll know that she just brings it. And if you don't know Jade, you definitely should go and follow her. She's just amazing. So during that VIP day, I got to spend time with the VIPs who were all people who used to be in bex business besties. So it was really great to kind of have that extra day to spend time with those people, especially given the fact that I closed that membership earlier in the year and that we haven't really had a chance to catch up as a group. It was such a beautiful day, and I really, really enjoyed it. And that night I actually recorded a little piece of audio as well, just to, I guess, show the juxtaposition between where I had been the evening before and where I was in that particular moment. This time last night, I was freaking out and pretty much decided that I didn't want to hold a conference tonight. I am going to better Happy lady. We have the I P. Day today, and I think we can all agree that it was a huge success. And now everything has changed and I'm ready. I'm ready for tomorrow. So in that piece of audio, I was whispering. It was pretty late at night, and I did have this moment of thinking, Oh, my God. Like if Sarah here's me, she's going to think I'm the biggest. We're talking to myself in the next door. So I was huddled up in bed when I recorded that. So, um, even though I was very quiet, I can still really sense my energy when I listened back to that recording and it was this feeling of calm, a feeling of elation and most of all, relief, you know, especially after the experience that I had the night before, I was so worried that that was going to be my experience of the conference, and I think that you can hear from the sound of my voice there that that definitely wasn't the case I came through, and by this point it was like, Oh, my God, like we're one third of the way through. It's amazing. And, you know, I was having the time of my life. So I want to talk to you now about what I loved and what I didn't love about our first popular business conference. I have to say the biggest thing that I loved was the atmosphere. It was a total vibe. I just loved the incredible energy that was in the room. You know, Everyone was there to just have the time of their life. Everyone was like, committed to this being the event of the year and oh my God, it was just so cool. It was so cool. Everybody that came to the conference brought the pop. They were all there to have fun and to learn and to connect. And it was just so great, because even throughout the conference, you know, the feedback was amazing. Everyone kept coming up to me and telling me what a great time that they were having. And I was hearing there are hard moments and I was watching them connect with the speakers and connect with each other, and it was just like, uh, magical, absolutely magical. I also loved surprising everyone with gifts. Now you may or may not know, but my love language is gift giving. I love giving gifts. Christmas time is like my favourite time of the year, because basically, I've got got Blanche to go and spend money on other people and to be able to surprise them with gifts that are really thoughtful and things that are going to make them happy. And so that was one of the things that I really loved about. This event was being able to go ahead and hand out the surprises and the the delight on everybody's faces. When that happened, the excitement that was in the room was 100% worth it. I have, of course, had a couple of people who have questioned me since then and who have kind of said, you know, like what was with that, like that must have cost a lot of money. That must have been a significant portion of the budget, like, you know, and people who have said like, do you think that you really needed to do that like, do you think it was a little bit over the top. And yes, it was fucking over the time. That's the way I roll, baby, that's part of the brand. It's part of our values. We love the surprise and delight, and it's not going to change. So if you're thinking about coming to one of our future conferences, just know you will be surprised and you will be delighted. Whether you like it or not, That's a promise. Other things that I loved with the photography. So we invested in having to photographers at the event we had Jade one who I've already mentioned. She was our first photographer to effectively photographed the whole event, and then we also had Hannah Wardrobe, who is a member of my team. She's a glorious individual. She is the one who is editing this podcast. She is just a delight. The fact that she's also a photographer for me is just such a wonderful and incredible bonus, and I can tell you that both Jade and Hannah really brought it when it came to capturing the moments of the event. We have thousands of photographs and I 100% believe that it was worth the investment, and I will definitely do it again next year. In fact, I've already asked both of those amazing photographers to come back next year, and both of them have told me that they are looking forward to it. The photography was just I mean, it was great. And it continues to be great for me, you know, from a marketing perspective and from a perspective of me being able to use this to sell future conferences and future events and things like that that, like, you know, money can't buy that, but well, I mean, money can buy that and did by that, but you know what I mean? The value in itself is really priceless. But one of the things that I really loved that those ladies did with they created a gallery, and we've been able to make those galleries available to all of the conference attendees. So, unlike other events where maybe you don't get to see what has been captured, we've been really transparent about it, and people are able to jump in and download the images of themselves and use them on social media and just continue to reminisce about the experience And that is something that I'm really grateful for. And finally, I guess, you know, out of the highlights, The things that I really loved were the speakers. I think, you know, we selected amazing speakers. The speakers all did such a phenomenal job, and by the amazing Suzanne Chadwick she was just brilliant. And I know that a number of people have gone on to join Susan's programme, just totally blown away by all of the learnings and the lessons that were available from our speakers. Just want to pay special thanks to all of the speakers that joined us for the event, particularly those speakers who travelled. So Suze came from Melbourne. We, of course, as I mentioned, had surgeons and coming from Adelaide, Uh, Emma Norris came to us from Sydney and it was so great to me. Emma, I've known her for years online, but this is the first time that we met in person. Also a lease and toques. James both travelled from Sydney, and they brought their gorgeous daughter, Willow, who participated in the event as well. Um, am I forgetting anybody? I think that was all of our speakers that travelled, But what I can say is that absolutely all of the speakers did such a phenomenal job, and we've already received really, really positive feedback about them. Would you like to join us at the next popular business conference held in Canberra? The popular business conference is the perfect opportunity for you to take a couple of days to work on your business instead of in your business. We have incredible speakers from around the country sharing their expertise and unique process actives workshops designed to allow you to implement in real time and more surprises than you can poke a stick at. Grow your business with integrity and intention with the popular Business Conference head to popular business dot com forward slash conference for more information and to snap up your ticket payment Plans are available. So what I didn't love I want to move through this fairly quickly because I don't really want to dwell on it. I think that there were some choices that were made that, you know in hindsight, may not have necessarily been the greatest choices. Um, whatever. It's all a lesson for next time. So what I didn't love one of the things was the last minute workload. So what I found is that there were a number of things that either I deliberately left to the last minute that I probably shouldn't have. There were also some things that were left to the last minute because of the fact that I decided on them at the last minute, and I think that that's probably something that's really unavoidable. I'm always going to be that person that gets a random idea and then wants to implement it. But I think that in future, what I could potentially do is limit the rest of the last minute stuff. Get that out of the way as early as possible so that that last week or two is purely available to implement any last minute ideas and, you know, just like, handle any the final things. I think this time I probably left a little bit too much to handle in those last couple of weeks, and I know that that was, you know, the experience for me, but also the experience for my team members as well. And you know that has to do with planning and this was our first large scale events, so I expected to be teething issues. There are other things that I didn't really love were really around the venue and around the food. So we held the event at the Avala Ohnishi here in Canberra. And I have to tell you like they were amazing. I was really, really pleased. Team there were ultra supportive. They were really, really great in helping us to manage some of the things that we hadn't necessarily thought about. They helped us pull it all together. They put on a beautiful event in the grand scheme of things, though I don't think that the venue was really probably ideal for what it was that we were doing. And one of the reasons for that is that it is such a beautiful and like eclectic kind of environment that you know, like the tables are all different shapes and sizes and things aren't necessarily uniform, which makes it difficult when you're organising an event like this in terms of floor plan and stuff. Also, there was no like stage area for the speakers and we received some feedback that some of the people that were actually in our VIP section didn't feel that they necessarily had the VIP spot in the room because of the way that the room was shaped, and I can completely understand that completely up appreciate it. And I think this is one of our lessons. We went with this venue because of the fact that we wanted something different. We didn't necessarily want to be in a room that just had four white walls, and everything was going to be uniform and plain and boring. But what I'm learning and what we will know for future is that it's okay for things like that to be plain and boring because we bring the pop, we bring the atmosphere ourselves, and no one is caring about stuff like that anyway. Same deal with the food. I mean, look, the food itself was extremely high quality, lovely options and all of that kind of thing. It was probably a little fancy for me and for my audience. I know that there were multiple people who sort of said to me that yeah, like it was probably a little bit too much on the gourmet side and possibly could have been a little bit more basic to appeal to more different tastes and things like that. Overall, though, you know, I definitely don't want anyone to think that this is any sort of shade towards the people at the Oval Ohnishi. They Absolutely, as I say, we're glorious. And I think especially for us, with this being our first venue, I felt really supported. And every member of the team really went above and beyond in order to make sure that we had a really great experience there. So next up, I want to talk about what I learned, and the first thing is that I learned trust. I actually did my presentation on this topic, and so I'm not going to talk about it a lot right now because I think it's actually going to be a future podcast episode. But I really did learn that I had to trust, to trust the process, to trust my team and, most of all, to trust myself. That in itself was really powerful, and that's why I think that it deserves a whole podcast episode of its own. Another thing that I learned was that I don't need to do everything and that I don't need to know everything. So usually you know, I want to know everything that's going on. I want to make sure that I'm across everything. I'm a little bit of a meddler, and what I've really learned is that, as I said before, my team are highly capable individuals. They don't need me to micromanage them. They don't need me looking over their shoulder. They can make decisions. They know what I would do or how they understand the values of the business and what outcomes that I'm looking for. So I really don't need to stick my nose in where it doesn't belong. And I'm looking forward to working more with my team in that way, moving forward and kind of getting a little bit clearer about what are the things that I need to know and what are the things that my team can handle without me knowing And part of this is because when I do know everything, it tends to stress me out. You know, like if someone's having an issue with something, if someone is not having the best experience with something, if someone's got a question like all of those things tend to kind of put me on edge and make me start to go. You know, like now I've got a lot on my plate or, you know, like, why can't I make that person happy? And I think that part of me being able to be calm in the lead up to the event was around the fact that my team were really protecting me. They were preventing me from moving from that calm state into an anxious state. So the other big lesson for me was that I can choose my energetic state. And as we've talked about, you know, I got the support that I needed and I just decided, and it felt bloody good to be able to say to people, No, I'm actually not stressed. I'm actually feeling really good, you know, like we're on the home stretch and to kind of acknowledge as well that even if something on the day didn't go perfectly or the way that I planned, the only people that will know myself and the members of my team who knew what I had planned for that particular thing. You know, people in the audience are never going to know if we missed something or we did something differently because of the fact that they're not privy to the detailed plans. Everything is really a surprise. So that helped to kind of take a little bit of the pressure off in just being able to say no, it is okay for me to actually feel really grounded and just really safe right now and again if I didn't have my team and that being my business team, but also the team of people that I rely on to support me and keeping my physical and mental and energetic states where they need to be, that would have potentially been a hell of a lot different. So in terms of things that I would do differently next time, I definitely think that we could have done better with the communications and this was just one of those things where, like, it fell by the wayside because we were busy doing other things. I think that we could have definitely done more promotion our social media stuff throughout the year. You know, people at times we're actually saying to me, Hey, is the popular business conference still happening because I haven't seen anything about it on social and part of that was that there was a lot of time that was going into other things that were potentially things that were behind the scenes that people weren't necessarily like, immediately aware of. But also like energetically. It was very difficult in that way to be able to be everything to everybody and to kind of like feel as though I was showing up in all of the ways that I should show up. I think that next time we will do more planning around that and make sure that we have more stuff scheduled in terms of like the social media stuff, but also in terms of emails and things to attend these communication with our speakers. Uh, you know, just making sure that all of the all of those little details are handled to give you an example of this. You know, as I said, I'm recording this A month after conference, we've only just now sent the post conference email with the link to the photography galleries and with the link to our post conference survey. We definitely could have done that a lot sooner and still kind of gotten people while they were still in the vibe of the conference. But again, These are all lessons and learnings, with it being our first event again, I knew that they were going to be things that we didn't do perfectly. And I see that as being a really positive thing. You know, like if that's kind of like one of my biggest things that I had like that I took issue with no. Then I think we're doing pretty good. I think we're going to be good. Another thing is that I would like to put more effort into affiliates. So this time we did quite well with our affiliates straight out of the gate. So when tickets first went on sale, we got quite a bit of affiliate interest, and that was really great. And it was really exciting for us to be able to pay out some of those affiliate bonuses. I think then, like, things just kind of died down and we weren't really putting a lot of effort into it. Part of that was that the affiliate software that we were using was pretty shitty. Um, it made it very difficult for our affiliates. It made it very difficult for us, and so I think that there was this part of me that was like loath to even want to promote the affiliate programme because it was like, Oh, can all of the tech is just like a bit Jiang Qi and that it's not great We have proceeded to purchase some new software for affiliates. I think we will probably have a whole episode on affiliates in future because it is definitely something that I'm interested in doing more of on both sides. So in terms of having my own affiliate programme and also in terms of participating in other people's affiliate programmes again like it's one of those things right, like in an ideal world, everything would be perfect. We don't live in an ideal world. We got pretty close. But I am excited to be using new software for affiliates and we're going to be rolling out our affiliate programme very, very soon and that will allow our advocates to start to again receive bonuses for referring us to their friends and telling other people about the popular business conference and all of the fun that they could have when we're there. The other thing that we all do differently next time, so at the beginning of me organising this conference. I did a higher an event manager and they were an external contractor. Now, for a number of reasons that did not work out and moving forward, I have absolutely changed the way that I want to handle this. So we have decided to bring all events management in house this year. Bree Butcher, who is my business manager. She managed a lot of the event stuff and event coordination and things like that. A lot of the time when attendees were receiving emails, they were actually coming from Bree. So she was organising a lot of different things and kind of wearing a lot of different hats. What we have actually done. Now we have hired a new team member. Her name is Casey and and I'm so excited that she's coming on board. So Casey is actually studying business and events at university. She has got some really great event management experience under her belt, and she is joining us on a part time basis, so she'll be working two days a week in the office with us and will be heavily responsible for event management as well as community management. So I those two areas that she's going to be focused on will be really, really relevant to this, still very much working quite closely with Bree in her business manager capacity. But it does mean that some of those tasks that are event coordination and emailing and booking things and stuff like that Casey is going to have all of that under control. So I anticipate that with us having an extra team member, you know, working with us for 15 hours a week. She is starting in January 2023 so we're going to have her for a considerable period before the next conference. That is going to be absolutely revolutionary for us, and it does mean that we will kind of have that single port of call. If people have questions or issues or anything like that, you know, case is going to be the one that's going to kind of be at the forefront. So before I finish up this episode today, I did just want to give you a little bit of a sneak peek into next year's conference. So I am super excited to do it all again. Some people might think I'm a little crazy, But we had such a blast. It was just, you know, as I've said better than I could have imagined. And I am just so pleased There will definitely be more of these types of events and more other different kinds of events for us in our future. And, you know, we always planned for the popular business conference to be an annual thing, and now we're at a point where tickets are available and it's all coming into fruition. So our 2023 popular business conference is being held on the 27th and 28th of October 2023. Here in Canberra, we are going to have different workshops, style portions to the event. We did find that the feedback that we got was that people really enjoyed the workshops. They enjoyed that opportunity to be able to learn and implement at the same time. So we're really conscious of incorporating more of that into next year, definitely offering a little bit more variety. We will have some different topics, lots of surprises. Of course, that is definitely right at the top of my list. I've already started, like shopping for the surprises for next year. It's like the number one thing on my list. We are looking at videography. I'm not sure whether we're going to be able to pull it off. It's definitely very, very expensive, and I'm not sure that, you know at this stage of our conference journey will be able to fit it into the budget. But it's some thing that I'm definitely considering because I know that having those video recordings offers so much more opportunity for people to rewatch things, to really allow it to sink in, to be able to watch things that maybe they weren't able to see because they were in other breakout sessions and also, you know, potentially in the future for us to be able to sell virtual tickets to the conference for people who are in different places around Australia and you can't make it to Canberra, something that we're thinking about and that we're looking into the options. I can't make any promises about it now, but I just wanted to flag it as you know, something that's on our radar. In terms of speakers. We have got a whole bunch of incredible speakers lined up and we are in the process of doing speaker offers and contracts and all of that goodness. So we will definitely be making more announcements about our speakers over the coming months. But I am pleased to be able to announce some of our speakers already. I am sure that after the big love that I gave to Sarah Johnson earlier in this epic, so you will not be surprised to find out that I have indeed asked her to come back and join us at the 2023 Conference. The feedback about Sarah's presentation and about just her in general was incredibly positive, and it seems that everybody really enjoyed being in her presence and just being able to chat with her. So it was my pleasure to invite her to come back and do the conference thing with me again. I'm just super super pumped. The more time that I get to spend with Sarah, the better. Another. One of our speakers is Bree Boettcher. So I've already mentioned that Bree is my business manager. She has got a absolute shitload of skills. She's an incredibly talented woman, especially when it comes to things like launching analytics business strategy. There is basically nothing that Bree can't do. She is such a great human and really, really introverted. Which is why she particularly loves to share her knowledge with introverts and talk about how business owner can succeed despite being introverted. And that is one of the things that Bree is going to be sharing with us in one of our breakout sessions at the 2023 Conference. We also have Catherine Bowyer, who is the owner of the Happiness hive. If you have not heard of Katherine, please go across and check her out. She has got the most gorgeous website and membership, the Happiness Lounge. She also has a fabulous podcast where she interviews amazing women about how to lead a happier life. We are inviting Katherine to come to the conference and talk about exactly that, how to have a happy life and how to balance the life and the business and everything else in between. And of course, I will be speaking at a You can't get enough of me that is super, super exciting. I am already thinking about the topic of my presentation that I'm going to be sharing at next year's conference, and I believe At this stage, it's going to be actually about disc behavioural profiling. It is one of the things that I'm most passionate about and sharing with my clients through both popular business and popular career. And so I'm really excited to actually talk a little bit more about that and how you can use your knowledge of disc behavioural profiling to get better outcomes when it comes to work with team members or working with clients or even just managing your personal relationships. So that's really cool. And finally, I can also share with you that we will have Liam Caswell joining us. So Liam is the host of the high performance nursing podcast. He is a career coach for nurses for high performance nurses. Liam is one of my previous clients who started his coaching business about two years ago and is already earning multiple six figures. He has recently become certified by someone who I look up to who is Brooke Castillo from the Life Coach School, and I am so excited that Liam has agreed to come along and talk with us a little bit about Brooks coaching model and to maybe even do some live coaching from the stage, so there's a lot to look forward to. And, as I said, there will be more and more announcements that we're going to be making in the face you show over the next few weeks and months in the lead up to that, you can head across to pop your business dot com forward slash conference. You'll find all of the details that we already have about next year's conference. You can purchase your ticket. We do have payment plans available, and the sooner that you purchase your ticket and lock in one of those payment plans, the longer that you will actually have to pay off your ticket as well and fit it into your monthly budget. I hope that this has been insightful for you. I hope that you enjoyed some of my kind of behind the scenes thinking about the popular business conference. What I loved, what I didn't love, what I learned, what I'll do differently next time. And also, of course, that sneak peek into next year's conference have a beautiful week. Thank you so much for joining me, and I'm looking forward to chatting with you again very, very soon. See you later. Thanks so much for listening to this episode of the Brave in business podcast. Don't forget to hit that subscribe button. Leave me a rating. Although five starts, preferably please, and a review. You can also join me over on socials at popular beers. If you've got a topic you'd love me to address here on the pod, be sure to send me a DM and I'll see you in the next episode.