Latest / All Figured Out with Andrea Barr: Figuring Out Work, Life and Parenting / 133. The working mom's guide to networking events (from someone who's built hundreds) — Heather Odendaal

Transcript

133. The working mom's guide to networking events (from someone who's built hundreds) — Heather Odendaal · All Figured Out with Andrea Barr: Figuring Out Work, Life and Parenting

• 0:00
  Welcome back to the All figured out podcast.
• 0:02
  My name is Andrea Barr. Thank you for joining me again
• 0:04
  this week. I am so excited for you to hear
• 0:07
  this episode with Heather Odendaal.
• 0:10
  She is the founder of WN. She's hosting the WN conference
• 0:14
  May 6th to 8th, 2026. It is going to be incredible.
• 0:18
  So she shares a little bit about the conference, but in this
• 0:20
  episode, it is just all about her journey as someone who was a
• 0:25
  working professional, now entrepreneur.
• 0:27
  We talk about events. Why are events just like
• 0:30
  absolutely popping off right now?
• 0:32
  What she kind of sees in that space, her journey as a mother,
• 0:36
  growing 2 businesses, 2 babies and just juggling all of it, how
• 0:41
  she's doing that. And it's just a really fun,
• 0:44
  lovely conversation between two women who are not
• 0:48
  self-proclaimed experts at parenting or figuring all this
• 0:51
  stuff out. But we share some, you know,
• 0:53
  tidbits of what we've learned along the way.
• 0:55
  So I hope you enjoy. This is all figured out.
• 1:02
  I'm Andrea Barr. I'm a career coach for parents,
• 1:05
  a mom of two, and I absolutely believe that you can continue to
• 1:09
  grow personally and professionally while protecting
• 1:12
  family time. We're about to figure out this
• 1:16
  work, life and parenting stuff out together.
• 1:26
  Heather Odendaal, thanks for coming on the All Figured Out
• 1:30
  podcast. It's great to be here you,
• 1:31
  Andrea. Ah, it's so good we finally had
• 1:34
  this happen. I think we spoke in October.
• 1:37
  It is now March, the end of March, great things.
• 1:42
  You know what, I think this is the perfect time people need
• 1:44
  like we're going to talk about WN, the conference coming to
• 1:47
  Whistler, May 6 to 8th, 2026, beautiful Four Seasons.
• 1:52
  We're going to talk about that. I think people need that push.
• 1:54
  People like a bit of spice. They like to know tickets are
• 1:58
  closing. Yeah, they're selling out.
• 2:01
  We are. We are rocking and rolling.
• 2:03
  We. Are rocking and rolling, but but
• 2:05
  we're going to we're going to have a big old chat about all
• 2:08
  sorts of things about motherhood, but events, event
• 2:11
  planning, the fact that you get flown to Abu Dhabi the week
• 2:16
  before shit hits the fan, just like absolute madness.
• 2:20
  General Assembly, the United Nations in New York like this.
• 2:24
  Like you have an absolutely wild, unbelievable life and
• 2:27
  story. But first I want to start off
• 2:29
  with what the hell is going on with events right now?
• 2:31
  Like why are events like this thing?
• 2:34
  So events are having a moment. And as an event planner, I am
• 2:38
  here for it because I'll tell you that when when I met
• 2:42
  somebody randomly in 2020 or 2021, you know, with masks on
• 2:48
  and everything, and they say, what do you do for a living?
• 2:50
  And you said event planner. You weren't.
• 2:53
  Yeah. Everyone looks at you with these
• 2:55
  puppy dog eyes like you poor thing.
• 2:57
  And it was, it was, you know, not a cool profession.
• 3:00
  But now it's pretty cool. So I'm happy and I actually just
• 3:04
  started, uh, couple, I told you a couple weeks ago I was in
• 3:08
  South by Southwest and I started introducing myself as a
• 3:11
  conference entrepreneur as my new, my new jam because I was so
• 3:18
  play proud that, you know, not only do I produce a conference,
• 3:22
  but I founded the conference and it's still going after 11 years.
• 3:26
  So I think events and in-person gatherings are having a moment
• 3:33
  and will continue to have a moment.
• 3:35
  I think they, the statistic is that right now the industry is
• 3:39
  worth about $700 million and it's going to go to $3 billion
• 3:45
  in the next 15 years. So it is, you know, things
• 3:49
  aren't going anywhere for the events industry.
• 3:51
  Unbelievable. What do you think is the secret
• 3:54
  sauce for an event that kills it?
• 3:58
  And I ask this because I have been attending a ton of events
• 4:01
  recently. Like I've seen you at different
• 4:03
  events. I've come to a WN summit, which
• 4:06
  is one of your kind of one-off, like almost pop up.
• 4:08
  Anybody can come and, and like, it was just, it was awesome.
• 4:13
  It was so well curated. And then I've got some events
• 4:15
  that are like, is this just for the photo?
• 4:18
  Like there was no substance. Like what is the substance that
• 4:22
  you think really makes like a badass event?
• 4:25
  So I I had actually had this conversation recently with
• 4:30
  somebody about my disc dislike for flower walls.
• 4:37
  I'm going to start there because one of the things.
• 4:44
  You're like, let me get wrapped up for this.
• 4:46
  I I feel passionate. About this, I'm going to get I'm
• 4:49
  going to go off on a tear. No, my and I'm going to use a
• 4:53
  flower wall as an, you know, as an example or an analogy.
• 4:58
  And you finish some. Thank you.
• 5:00
  So a lot of the times if we get too wrapped U and what an event
• 5:05
  looks like, we don't spend enough time curating the
• 5:09
  experience of what they're actually going to feel going
• 5:12
  into the room, who's going to be there, how they're going to
• 5:15
  interact. So you can have both.
• 5:19
  You can have the flower wall and the total connection, but I
• 5:24
  think that it is, you know, if you go to into a WN event,
• 5:29
  you'll see clean lines. You'll see nice beautiful luxury
• 5:32
  greens, but you won't see a whole lot of fluff.
• 5:35
  And I think the reason that we do that is because we are so
• 5:40
  focused on the people in the room.
• 5:42
  And I'll explain I'll sort of back when backwards engineer
• 5:46
  this a little bit for you. One of the things that I think
• 5:49
  has really developed our sense of belonging at WN is our
• 5:54
  membership community. And so this consistent, you
• 5:57
  know, face that you see, maybe you are new to the group, but we
• 6:03
  always, we talk about horseshoes, not circles at W
• 6:07
  North. And so this idea that there's
• 6:09
  always room for one more in the conversation.
• 6:13
  And our membership, you know, is that consistent voice that even
• 6:17
  if I'm not in the room, they think about, you know, including
• 6:21
  those new faces and including those new people.
• 6:24
  And so I think, you know, what really sets an event apart is
• 6:30
  creating a sense of belonging. And um, you mentioned it, but
• 6:34
  I'll bring it. That's why I got flown to Abu
• 6:37
  Dhabi a couple weeks ago to do a, a conference talk to a room
• 6:42
  of global event planners about creating a sense of belonging at
• 6:46
  your conference or event. And I think that is the true
• 6:50
  secret sauces is making sure and also measuring belonging.
• 6:54
  So we have a survey question in our conference survey, which is,
• 6:58
  you know, a couple of questions that point to how they did they
• 7:02
  have a sense of belonging, did the conference make them feel
• 7:05
  included? And I think measuring that after
• 7:08
  the fact is just as important as planning for it beforehand.
• 7:12
  That's such a, that's such an interesting, um, like way of
• 7:16
  just looking at all of it. Like not just the fluff, really
• 7:19
  thinking about the belonging and measuring it too.
• 7:22
  Like not just being like, how did you feel like, hey, how did
• 7:25
  it go? Like anecdotally getting that
• 7:27
  information? I think that is, oh, that's,
• 7:29
  that's hard. That's hard to get feedback
• 7:31
  though, too. It's hard to process that.
• 7:32
  How do you and then we are going to go back.
• 7:34
  We're going to go way back. I want to hear the inception of
• 7:36
  West, North and everything. However, how do you cater to so
• 7:42
  many different types of people that would walk into an event?
• 7:46
  And I'm asking this also as somebody, someone might be
• 7:48
  listening who like is hosting a birthday party.
• 7:51
  And it's like there's some people who want to do the
• 7:53
  karaoke. There's other people who would
• 7:54
  rather poke their eye out. You know, you have people come
• 7:57
  to a conference who are like, they have got their business
• 8:02
  cards like in their hand and they are just like firing them
• 8:06
  out. And then there's other people
• 8:08
  who would does not want to turn to the person next to them and
• 8:10
  introduce yourself and do that little game.
• 8:12
  So how are you curating these events to to create belonging
• 8:16
  with so many different types of? People So I think at the, at the
• 8:20
  foundation of every event, there is still the why, like why are
• 8:23
  we doing this? Why are we gathering from the,
• 8:27
  from the outside, it may seem that, you know, WN is for
• 8:33
  everyone. There's, you know, multiple,
• 8:35
  there's entrepreneurs, there's corporate leaders, but there is
• 8:38
  a baseline of leadership. There's a baseline of leadership
• 8:40
  and leadership development and ambitious driven women that want
• 8:45
  to get to that next level of leadership, whether that is an
• 8:48
  entrepreneur growing their business from being a solo
• 8:51
  printer to a scaling business, whether it is a mid management
• 8:55
  professional who wants to get to that director level.
• 8:57
  So there is that underlying leadership sort of baseline,
• 9:04
  what whenever you are planning an event, whether it's a
• 9:06
  birthday, whether what is the purpose?
• 9:09
  Whose birthday is it? Invite the people that are
• 9:12
  important to that person. I mean, we all go through with
• 9:15
  weddings, but I won't even go there because I'm a retired
• 9:18
  wedding planner and I don't talk about it anymore.
• 9:20
  But, you know, think about the objectives and then work to
• 9:25
  serve it, you know, with the people who you know, you bring
• 9:28
  into the room. So that's that for, for W
• 9:31
  Norris, that's leadership and just getting, um, really clear
• 9:36
  on the education. And you will find, you know,
• 9:39
  there are lots of communities that are very entrepreneurial
• 9:42
  focused that are just about running your business and like
• 9:46
  how to gain social media followers for your business.
• 9:49
  We don't tend to have a lot of that content because there are
• 9:53
  existing communities that hyper focus in on those types of
• 9:58
  things. So for us, it's about the
• 10:00
  leadership, It's about managing up, managing down, hiring
• 10:04
  employees, getting to that next level.
• 10:07
  It's sometimes it's the unsexy part of growing a business,
• 10:10
  right? It's like, yeah, you get thrown
• 10:13
  into running a company with 25 employees and you're like,
• 10:16
  suddenly I'm the CEO of this company and I don't know how I
• 10:20
  got here. And so we that's what we see a
• 10:22
  lot of at W North. That's so good.
• 10:25
  It's part of what I've started creating.
• 10:28
  You know, you've found a white space and you're not afraid to
• 10:31
  be like, this is for the ambitious women.
• 10:34
  And we're, we're, I don't know, we're in this like phase of
• 10:38
  wanting to please everybody in the sense that like, oh, but
• 10:42
  like, if you're not ambitious, that's OK too.
• 10:45
  I have a feeling that's not in your marketing.
• 10:47
  You know, it's like, you're not saying like, oh, but if you're
• 10:51
  not ambitious, like that's OK. No, like it's OK to not be for
• 10:54
  everybody. And I know that's like so cliche
• 10:56
  and everybody's saying that and that's what all the books are
• 10:58
  about right now. But but truly it's like, I
• 11:01
  talked to who? I talked to parents and I talk a
• 11:04
  lot specifically about mothers and that's great.
• 11:08
  Like, you know, it's great to have really have a niche.
• 11:11
  Yeah. And it helps people understand
• 11:12
  should I be in that room or not? You know, like, OK, I'm a woman,
• 11:16
  check. Great.
• 11:17
  I'm a professional check. I do strive for that next level
• 11:20
  of leadership check. And so then other people around
• 11:23
  you as the guest, that's a better experience because you're
• 11:25
  like, great, I'm sitting next to somebody who's also self
• 11:28
  selecting to be in this room. And so we have this like
• 11:31
  undercurrent of like the birthday party.
• 11:34
  We both know Heather, we're at the birthday party.
• 11:36
  Our common ground is Heather, right?
• 11:38
  It's like, OK, our common ground is we're ambitious women in
• 11:40
  business. Yeah.
• 11:41
  Whatever that might be. This episode is proudly
• 11:44
  sponsored by WNI. Am so honored to be interviewing
• 11:48
  Heather. I hope you've been enjoying the
• 11:49
  episode so far. I am just so excited myself to
• 11:53
  be going to Whistler for May 6th to 8th 2026 to elevate my
• 11:59
  leadership as a human being, as a mother, as a leader.
• 12:03
  And I hope you will join me. It is taking place at the
• 12:06
  beautiful Four Seasons in Whistler.
• 12:09
  It is going to be luxurious. If you know Heather, if you know
• 12:13
  WN, if you've seen anything that she's done in her photography
• 12:17
  and her videos online, you know it is going to be spectacular.
• 12:21
  It is an investment. I'm going to say that it is an
• 12:23
  investment, but it is 3 days of really, really high level, high
• 12:28
  impact speakers networking opportunities.
• 12:31
  And it just honestly looks like fun.
• 12:33
  So join me at WN, the conference happening this spring, May 6th
• 12:38
  to 8th, 2026 in Whistler, BC. Fly out from wherever you are.
• 12:44
  I hope to see you there. And one thing I will also notice
• 12:47
  that we've kind of in addition to having those ambitions in the
• 12:52
  room, we've also really crafted some of our programming to
• 12:57
  understand the seasons that go through like the women sit in
• 13:01
  within their lives or their careers and even the year.
• 13:04
  So I'll give you an example. So I used to work for an
• 13:08
  organization called YPO Young Presidents Organization, and
• 13:12
  it's an executive network that does forum groups.
• 13:16
  Well, we have been doing forum groups since we incepted in 2018
• 13:20
  our membership. But we do things a little
• 13:23
  differently because we are women and we have seasons of life and
• 13:27
  we have seasons of the, you know, the year where, you know,
• 13:31
  soccer is season is in the fall and there's all of these other
• 13:36
  commitments. And then we go on holidays and
• 13:39
  just fall is our no go zone. And so we run our forums program
• 13:45
  3 * a year, fall, winter and spring.
• 13:48
  And you can sign up for all of them or you can just sign up for
• 13:51
  the season of which you can handle it.
• 13:54
  And that is what I sort of take away as rebuilding, like taking,
• 14:01
  taking a system, breaking it and the rebuilding it in a way that
• 14:06
  actually works for women. And you know what?
• 14:09
  If you miss one, you don't get kicked out.
• 14:12
  Are there are there not naming these organizations, but there's
• 14:16
  ones where you do. Yeah.
• 14:17
  Like, it's as if you're like a board member.
• 14:19
  Yes. Oh, come on.
• 14:21
  Yes, it's in the executive level tier network.
• 14:26
  It is very common for this to happen, but it comes from a very
• 14:30
  male dominated perspective because you know there are going
• 14:35
  to be reasons that you miss a meeting.
• 14:38
  And the other thing is many of these meetings are in person.
• 14:41
  We do ours virtually. And, you know, I still broadcast
• 14:46
  the WN conference as a hybrid conference.
• 14:49
  We have a virtual experience that is second to none.
• 14:52
  And we do that because we've got women in our community who are
• 14:56
  on maternity leave. We've got women in our community
• 14:58
  who can't travel for health reasons.
• 15:01
  We've got all sorts of reasons and talk about, you know, the
• 15:05
  sense of belonging as a member. If you just can't make it this
• 15:09
  year for whatever reason, you can hop on, watch it as a member
• 15:13
  for free, and still feel like you're part of.
• 15:16
  The community that is so exceptional and that like the
• 15:19
  accessibility, the belonging, the sense of like, really, I
• 15:22
  love that. Like you're taking this existing
• 15:24
  very patriarchal structure and you're like, let's break this
• 15:28
  down and actually make this work.
• 15:30
  It's like, who's going to be doing that?
• 15:32
  I hope it's me. Who's going to be doing that for
• 15:34
  the working mother. Like that whole structure
• 15:36
  totally needs to be cut off from the legs and rebuilt because it
• 15:41
  is, it is not working. And it's what, you know, it's
• 15:44
  I'm, it's making me smile because as is like baby and
• 15:46
  events, this, this baby event woman.
• 15:49
  Um, that's what I'm doing on Thursday.
• 15:50
  Like I'm hosting my first breakfast club and I'm like, OK,
• 15:53
  I come from learning and development in the corporate
• 15:55
  sense. I did that at, at Aritzia was
• 15:57
  good at it. Yeah.
• 15:58
  And I did that, you know, it was really good for what it was for
• 16:02
  internal professional development.
• 16:04
  It was great. And then I've been in the mommy
• 16:07
  clubs and I speak at mommy events all the time and I'm like
• 16:10
  doing the mommy thing. I have a podcast for moms.
• 16:12
  But then it's like, how are these two things coming together
• 16:15
  in a way where we can breakdown the white tablecloth church
• 16:19
  basement like boring ass professional development event
• 16:23
  for whatever, which is not WN but you know what I'm talking.
• 16:26
  About I totally. Do and then how do we target it
• 16:28
  so that it's for moms like and that's what Thursday is for me
• 16:32
  and I'm pumped because I'm like, yes, break the thing down and
• 16:35
  rebuild it if you're seeing a gap in the whatever.
• 16:38
  And there is an insatiable appetite for events right now,
• 16:41
  like it really, truly is. And I'm here for it.
• 16:45
  And I think that we, um, we continue to, we'll continue to
• 16:52
  see new events pop up and I think it's really exciting.
• 16:56
  And so I'm so excited for you, for you.
• 16:58
  Thank you. And I'd love that everyone's
• 17:00
  just willing to like we could kind of we have overlapping
• 17:02
  audiences, which we're not cannibalizing one another.
• 17:04
  But yeah, there's people. It's like where are people
• 17:06
  spending their money? But I just love that in this
• 17:08
  space in like in person gatherings, like I can come to
• 17:11
  your event and support and also get something from it.
• 17:14
  Like you can come to mind. Like it's just so it's a very,
• 17:17
  what's the word like collaborative collaborative,
• 17:19
  super collaborative space. OK, we got to go back to the
• 17:24
  time of your life when you were losing 6 figures a month in your
• 17:28
  business. Heather.
• 17:31
  Yes. Tell us the story.
• 17:33
  So this was about year five of the WN conference.
• 17:39
  And as I like to tell people, it's like a startup.
• 17:41
  Every year it's like starting a startup.
• 17:45
  Every year. Almost, yeah.
• 17:46
  I mean it's a couple 100. It's, you know, half $1,000,000
• 17:49
  in investment in committing to doing something and then you
• 17:55
  just have to sell tickets. So people don't know this.
• 17:57
  People don't realize they see a price tag of over $1000 for a
• 18:01
  conference and they're like, whoa, that's expensive.
• 18:04
  Yeah, it's like, yeah, it's expensive to host.
• 18:05
  Yes, well, I can also tell the well, so we'll go back a little
• 18:09
  bit. I can get, I can go in many
• 18:12
  different directions, but um, yeah, we were, we were about 5
• 18:17
  weeks away from hosting our fifth conference and I was
• 18:21
  actually over in London for International Women's Day.
• 18:23
  We do an event at the Canadian Embassy every year.
• 18:26
  And I was, I remember recording an Instagram story on the like
• 18:33
  just right beside the Thames in the pouring rain.
• 18:36
  And I was like, so hell bent that this conference was going
• 18:40
  ahead, the one in April. And I was like, don't worry,
• 18:45
  we're, it's happening. Like, I know you're hearing, oh,
• 18:48
  like a week later, a week later, I was like flying back to Canada
• 18:54
  because Prime Minister Trudeau was like shutting the doors to
• 18:59
  the country. And, and that began the sort of
• 19:04
  the slow, not even slow, the very quick, um, you know, cash
• 19:10
  flow issue and the, and the challenge of the fact that we
• 19:14
  were, yeah, we were losing $250,000 a month on our various
• 19:17
  businesses because between my husband and I, we had couple
• 19:21
  businesses in events, tourism, hospitality, and so all very
• 19:28
  affected by this pandemic. And So what, you know what I
• 19:35
  always take from that? Well, first of all, it took
• 19:39
  about 2 1/2 years, but we built by 2023, we built back to pre
• 19:47
  pre pandemic revenue, which was not easy, but also, and now
• 19:52
  we've long surpassed pre pandemic event, which is great.
• 19:55
  So, but that was a moment for me was like, we're finally back,
• 19:59
  You know, we finally got back to a place where we.
• 20:04
  Power in 2019. So yeah, it was a it was a
• 20:08
  journey and it was something that, I mean, I don't even think
• 20:12
  I really understood the word resilience until I lived through
• 20:16
  that experience. What kept you going in those
• 20:19
  years when you could have shot the doors and said, OK, let's
• 20:21
  just sunk costs, let's just loans, you know, I'm saying.
• 20:28
  Yeah, I don't. I mean, I, I think that there
• 20:34
  was just so there was so much going on.
• 20:37
  I had a one 1 1/2 year old, an 18 month old and a four year old
• 20:42
  at home for those like first four months.
• 20:46
  And I had to pivot because I literally had to produce a
• 20:51
  virtual experience that I didn't have the money to give back to
• 20:55
  people. But I also paid all the vendors.
• 20:59
  And so I had to create an experience that made people OK
• 21:05
  with the fact that I didn't give them their money back.
• 21:07
  And we did. By October, we had created an
• 21:11
  incredible 6 week course with six different executive
• 21:16
  leadership coaches. We had curated a WN gift box
• 21:22
  that was worth over $500 that we shipped to everybody.
• 21:25
  And then we did an incredible virtual experience with some of
• 21:29
  the biggest speakers that I've ever had because I was able to
• 21:33
  go into my Rolodex globally and be like, hey, who's free
• 21:39
  virtually and everyone. So it was really cool.
• 21:43
  And, you know, we ended up having a, a woman named Esther
• 21:46
  Whiskey as one of our keynotes. She's known as the godmother of
• 21:50
  Silicon Valley. Google was founded in her
• 21:52
  garage. Oh, come.
• 21:54
  On and her her her late daughter is Susan Majeski, who was an
• 21:58
  executive at YouTube and Anne would Dusky and she has another
• 22:03
  daughter as well named Casey. But they all three of them are
• 22:08
  incredibly successful women. Um, which led her to write a
• 22:11
  book, How to Raise Successful People, which you have to read.
• 22:15
  As a mom, my God, can I get them on the podcast?
• 22:18
  Yeah. For sure, let's I'll make an.
• 22:21
  Introduction. Thank you.
• 22:22
  That is, that's OK. How to raise successful?
• 22:25
  How to raise successful? People, people, people.
• 22:27
  OK, not just women. Oh my.
• 22:29
  Gosh. Yeah, absolutely incredible.
• 22:31
  So you go from losing 6 figures a month like that is like that
• 22:36
  is astronomical to delivering an unbelievable experience to then
• 22:39
  surpassing revenue three years later or meeting at least and
• 22:43
  then surpassing revenue all those years later.
• 22:47
  Let's talk about the fact that you're raising children, very
• 22:49
  small children in that. How did you?
• 22:54
  And we don't need to belabor like the COVID thing.
• 22:56
  And like, you know, what was happening, everyone was just
• 22:58
  trying to survive. But like, you know, what's COVID
• 23:00
  is like say like 2022 and you're like really rebuilding and like
• 23:04
  really growing this business. How have you done it?
• 23:08
  You know, like four years later now you've got older kids, but
• 23:11
  through that period those were little, little babies.
• 23:13
  You're travelling, you're growing a business.
• 23:15
  Like tell us. I couldn't do without my
• 23:18
  husband. I really, I have a very
• 23:21
  supportive husband who has being, who has put his own
• 23:25
  career on, you know, the back burner to do more per time work
• 23:30
  that he loves. But it's, you know, it's more
• 23:32
  part time and more flexible because you're right, I travel a
• 23:35
  lot and I, our kids have high needs even now at 7:00 and
• 23:42
  10:00. And so that was a, you know,
• 23:45
  that was a, a huge reason that I could continue on because it is,
• 23:50
  it's a lot of work. Um, I would also say I had a
• 23:53
  really great team at that. Well, I still have a really
• 23:56
  great team, but at that time they they knew where they needed
• 24:01
  to pick up when I just couldn't get to the e-news or I couldn't
• 24:06
  get to the website edits or the social media content or whatever
• 24:10
  it is so. Tell me more.
• 24:13
  You're the perfect person. I didn't even plan to ask you
• 24:15
  and go down this vein, but I don't know why I didn't think to
• 24:18
  ask you about delegation leadership.
• 24:21
  Yes. Both at home and at work.
• 24:25
  I will say my personal anecdote is that I feel like I'm always
• 24:29
  kind of skirting that line of like, I'm already so behind.
• 24:33
  I know that you hear this all the time.
• 24:34
  This is the number one complaint of women, mothers everywhere.
• 24:37
  It's like I'm already so behind that it just needs to get done.
• 24:41
  So I just have to do it. How do you My specific question
• 24:44
  around this is how do you get ahead enough in the delegation
• 24:49
  process so that you can actually help your future self instead of
• 24:54
  doing it in the moment with being the crap?
• 24:55
  Like I really need help but now I'm just going to have to do it
• 24:57
  because I've left it to the last minute.
• 24:59
  That I do, I'm not going to like deny.
• 25:03
  I do that myself for 100%. OK, that makes me.
• 25:06
  Feel bad. And if you sent me an e-mail
• 25:08
  between March 2020 and March 2022 and I didn't get back to
• 25:15
  you, please forgive me because I literally got to a place where I
• 25:21
  just didn't respond to anything because I was overwhelmed.
• 25:25
  I still have too many unread emails in my inbox, but I
• 25:30
  literally I got to a point where I couldn't catch up.
• 25:33
  And so I had to just start over. I just had to be like, I may see
• 25:38
  that person in the party in the future and they may get you
• 25:41
  never e-mail me back. But this is my official apology.
• 25:44
  And the reality is we just can't, we can't get to it all.
• 25:48
  And especially in that season, like I'm now I'm kind of out of
• 25:53
  the fog with this 7 and 10 year old and I'm finally realizing
• 25:57
  just how overwhelming that part, that stage of life is.
• 26:02
  And so if you're in that stage of life, give yourself some
• 26:07
  grace, give yourself some flexibility or give yourself
• 26:10
  some understanding because it's just a very, it's, it's that
• 26:15
  season that we go through that we kind of forget a little bit
• 26:20
  later in life, but it is intense.
• 26:22
  And I would say for me as a business owner, the best thing I
• 26:27
  did was I got a like a part-time virtual assistant.
• 26:31
  And so that has really helped me with exactly what you're
• 26:36
  describing, some of the things that you're like left to the
• 26:39
  last minute and you, you kind of with your personal, like with
• 26:43
  your team, you don't really want to admit that you haven't
• 26:47
  finished this presentation or whatever it is, but it's kind of
• 26:51
  a secret oath that you have between your VA and you to like
• 26:55
  just get it done. And so I think you can get
• 26:59
  fractional Vas. That's what I have.
• 27:01
  And you would be surprised. I think.
• 27:04
  So she works like 20 hours a month but she feels like she
• 27:07
  works for me all the time because she's there when I need
• 27:09
  her. So that's so helpful.
• 27:12
  I also love the idea and just like the visual, such a visual
• 27:15
  person of like at some point, sometimes you just have to cut
• 27:19
  it off and be like, the past is the past and I can't dwell on
• 27:22
  it. I mean, that's also a
• 27:23
  conversation with your therapist.
• 27:24
  I've had many of those, but you know, it's just like, and give
• 27:28
  yourself some grace. But what?
• 27:29
  OK, the next question I want to ask you is how do how do you
• 27:36
  just be like in, you know, how are you enjoying the moment?
• 27:40
  You know, everyone sees you at a coffee shop and there it's an
• 27:43
  older couple and they come over and they go enjoy every moment.
• 27:46
  With the kids. With the kids and I feel
• 27:49
  personally this punch in the gut sometimes being like, am I not
• 27:52
  enjoying it enough? Am I working too much?
• 27:55
  Am I like so audacious and my goal of like creating this like,
• 27:59
  you know, unbelievable podcast and this coaching business and
• 28:03
  whatever, you know, do I have too many big ambitions and am I
• 28:06
  not enjoying this moment someone who has a 10 year old and an 8
• 28:10
  year old, like what do you say to that version of yourself?
• 28:13
  How old are your kids get? 3:00 and 5:00.
• 28:15
  OK, OK. Yeah, who's?
• 28:17
  Asking for a friend. So it's funny because we have, I
• 28:25
  had this moment like a couple weeks ago when we took her kids,
• 28:28
  kids up skiing and. Because you live in.
• 28:31
  Whistler. We live in Whistler, but we
• 28:33
  don't get up there as much as you would think because it's
• 28:36
  still, it's still a slog to get up there with children, right?
• 28:39
  So we went up with another family.
• 28:41
  So they're skiing, 4 kids under 10.
• 28:45
  We get up, you know, we get up and the first thing we do is hit
• 28:49
  the washrooms because, you know, we've already spent two hours
• 28:51
  getting up the mountain. Why not?
• 28:53
  So. So a woman turned to me, um, you
• 28:58
  know, in the lodge and was like, said that exactly.
• 29:01
  And she was just like, enjoy the moment.
• 29:03
  And I'm thinking, lady, you have no idea how this or like this
• 29:09
  morning went. Like I was like fuming inside
• 29:12
  because I was like, it took so much effort to get up there, but
• 29:17
  I just took a moment, took a breath, and then I looked
• 29:20
  outside because it was a sunny day.
• 29:21
  And I was like, you know what, She's right.
• 29:22
  Like I'm just going to try and forget about the last 2 1/2
• 29:27
  hours that it took to get U here.
• 29:29
  And I'm just going to take it in and it's going to be OK that I
• 29:33
  ski green runs all day for the next five years or I'm actually
• 29:37
  getting to bigger runs. But you will be skiing.
• 29:41
  On the magic carpet, right? Now magic carpet screen runs and
• 29:45
  just enjoy every minute. But it is hard when you're in
• 29:48
  the moment. When people say that to you,
• 29:50
  you're like, you have no idea, yes, and you're personally
• 29:54
  screaming inside. But what is your process for
• 29:56
  navigating the mom guilt? I use quotes.
• 29:59
  I don't know how I feel about that phrase, but we know what it
• 30:01
  means. It's a universal kind of
• 30:02
  whatever. So yeah, we'll move past that,
• 30:05
  whether we like that phrase or not.
• 30:06
  But mom guilt, how do you work with it as a business owner, as
• 30:09
  somebody who travels, as someone who loves her work?
• 30:12
  OI really feel like it can speak to this a little bit more
• 30:16
  because my kids are getting a little bit older and I did
• 30:19
  travel a lot when they were four and six, four and seven.
• 30:24
  And I would say what's really cool about now is that they know
• 30:32
  they make jokes about how much I travel now.
• 30:35
  It's like, oh what moms gone? You know, where are you gone to
• 30:40
  Singapore for a week. Like I haven't been to Singapore
• 30:43
  in like 3 years, but they just remember these things.
• 30:46
  And so now it's a little bit of a inside joke, but at the same
• 30:51
  time, they've seen me pursue my dreams, they've seen me pursue
• 30:55
  these things. And I think I share as much
• 30:59
  about my travel and my experiences with them.
• 31:03
  And so I think that they understand that it's very, it's
• 31:08
  almost aspirational for them too.
• 31:09
  They want to, you know, they want to come on the trip or they
• 31:13
  want, they want to see me succeed and maybe we'll get to
• 31:16
  go that location or whatnot. So I've seen at least the travel
• 31:20
  side turn into a real positive because I can see that my kids
• 31:25
  are actually really proud of me and really proud of what I'm
• 31:28
  doing. And then once in a while able to
• 31:31
  show them like a video like this.
• 31:33
  I'm on a podcast my my son. Shout out to my son Luke who
• 31:37
  watches YouTube. We're on YouTube.
• 31:40
  Luke, What's? Up.
• 31:42
  The little we don't have like the cars and like the I don't
• 31:45
  know what you're watching. Luke.
• 31:46
  But Mr. Beast, we're not. We're not nearly as cool, but
• 31:50
  yes, it is cool. So, you know, I think that that
• 31:56
  I I will admit I didn't have a lot of mom go like when they
• 32:00
  were little little like when they were like 18 months and I'd
• 32:03
  have to leave them at daycare. My daughter went to daycare at
• 32:05
  seven months because it was an entrepreneur and I had to work.
• 32:10
  So I didn't have that same mom guilt, but it was definitely
• 32:15
  when I started traveling. It was definitely when I when my
• 32:18
  daughter was four and five and was like crying at night when I
• 32:22
  wasn't there. And so I think it depends on you
• 32:26
  as a mom. It also depends on the life
• 32:28
  stage and it depends on what you're feeling guilty about.
• 32:31
  But I would say the best thing you can do for your children is
• 32:36
  to continue to live out the dreams that you want because
• 32:40
  they will see that in you and they will want that for
• 32:43
  themselves. And they can feel the resentment
• 32:45
  if you don't. I'm not speaking about that from
• 32:48
  experience, But I never like sometimes if I'm, you know,
• 32:51
  meditating or thinking about my future, I'm like, I never want
• 32:54
  to have regrets. I never want to feel resentment.
• 32:56
  Like, how can we evade, like, just avoid that?
• 32:59
  And what does that mean for today?
• 33:01
  OK, It means doing the thing, going out tonight to have a
• 33:04
  dinner with a girlfriend. Like, yes, they're going to be
• 33:06
  upset. Is this going to ruin them?
• 33:07
  Probably not. You know, and I think you you
• 33:10
  mentioned having such a supportive husband too.
• 33:12
  I think that's like, it's a beautiful privilege and a part
• 33:16
  of the context. Like in the work that I do, you
• 33:18
  know, coaching parents who are working and like you never just
• 33:22
  look at like the thing, the job, the work.
• 33:24
  You have to look at the whole context.
• 33:26
  OK Heather, I am so excited to attend the WN conference May 6
• 33:31
  to 8th 2026. I think I've said that like 5
• 33:34
  times as if I'm some sort of like.
• 33:36
  You're real. Motor like the clubs downtown
• 33:41
  and like Granville St. UM wrestler, Four Seasons
• 33:45
  leadership conference for women. I'm so excited to be an
• 33:50
  attendee. Tell us what people can expect,
• 33:54
  what you want them to walk away with, Like what's the vibe?
• 33:57
  OK, Yeah. So when I founded WN Conference,
• 34:01
  I knew that I wanted it to be a destination.
• 34:04
  Destination conference, get women out of there every day out
• 34:08
  of the, you know, the school pickups and the soccer practices
• 34:12
  and the things that they have to skirt away from the conference
• 34:15
  and justice really immerse themselves.
• 34:17
  And in fact, that's a part of our speaker program as well as
• 34:21
  they have the speakers have to attend at least 70% of the
• 34:25
  conference. Love that because I just don't
• 34:28
  like this like fly and fly out mentality of the speakers not
• 34:31
  being immersed in the program. And So what I want women to take
• 34:35
  away from it is obviously new connections, deeper connections,
• 34:39
  personal experiences that maybe they haven't had a chance or a
• 34:43
  time to have, whether that's a sound bath or Pilates class or
• 34:48
  whatever, that's all integrated into the program.
• 34:51
  And then, but there's also the speakers and the leadership
• 34:54
  content, which is some, there's something really powerful about
• 34:58
  hearing from women who have done it, you know, before you or in
• 35:02
  it. You know, we have a session
• 35:04
  called W Talks, which is our members get to apply and anyone
• 35:08
  could apply to be a speaker for this Pechakucha style talk.
• 35:13
  And so we've talked like, you know, about divorce and we have
• 35:18
  talks about, you know, helping children with disability.
• 35:23
  And like there are so many deep stories that come out in that
• 35:27
  side of things. And, and, and then in general,
• 35:32
  this is an opportunity for these women to sort of get away, build
• 35:37
  new relationships. And then if they become members,
• 35:39
  you continue those relationships year round.
• 35:42
  Which is so awesome that you have that membership side of it
• 35:45
  as well, because we all know we've been to the events we've
• 35:48
  written. I talked about this all the time
• 35:49
  here too. Anytime I've gone to a
• 35:50
  conference, like I am like such a keener.
• 35:52
  I'm front row, I'm making all the notes.
• 35:55
  And you know, it's a really great experience when there is
• 35:58
  some sort of follow up, some sort of action, some sort of
• 36:01
  call to action to keep it going because you get so excited,
• 36:04
  you're in the moment, you're immersed, and then you go back
• 36:06
  to real life and what happened to that notebook gets shoved
• 36:09
  away. And.
• 36:10
  Yeah, the business cards are collecting dust.
• 36:12
  You don't remember who that person was.
• 36:14
  There is like real follow up that's required.
• 36:17
  If you're like, if you're really in it, what would you say to the
• 36:19
  person who's going to that wants to come to WN who maybe feels
• 36:22
  more introverted? I personally don't know what
• 36:25
  that's like, but no, but there are.
• 36:27
  But there are times like I really don't love a hardcore
• 36:30
  networking event. That's not my not my jam, which
• 36:32
  I know is not what WN is. But what do you tell that
• 36:35
  person? Like how can they get a lot out
• 36:36
  of the experience, meet new people if they're not the one
• 36:39
  who wants to run and gun shoot, you know, shoot guns and be
• 36:42
  like, hey, what's up, Here's my business card.
• 36:44
  Like how do they experience something like?
• 36:46
  This so I I love that because there's a couple of programs
• 36:51
  that we have in integrated, which are very kind of curated.
• 36:54
  And I'll give you an example. We have these speaker hosted
• 36:56
  connect dinners. So they are groups like tables
• 37:00
  of 10 and sometimes private dining rooms 2:10 and all of our
• 37:04
  attendees get to sign up for the speaker that they want to sit
• 37:08
  with essentially. And what's really cool about
• 37:12
  that is they are small groups. You know, there are small,
• 37:14
  smaller settings with an opportunity to speak with that
• 37:18
  particular speaker. And what inherently happens is
• 37:21
  you also curate the audience around that speaker that it just
• 37:24
  naturally happens because you have, you know, an executive
• 37:29
  from a, you know, media company. And it just naturally means that
• 37:33
  a lot of the people who will come to that dinner will be
• 37:36
  interested in that, you know, industry or that type of thing.
• 37:40
  So that would be, in my opinion, you know, that's the like safe
• 37:45
  level of networking that these people might want to engage in.
• 37:49
  And if they don't want to, if breakfast is kind of crazy and
• 37:53
  they don't want to like talk to anybody, that doesn't mean that
• 37:57
  the connections will stop there. Because there are a number of
• 37:59
  touch points that we do, including our forums breakfast,
• 38:04
  which is on the last day where you get to pick a table based on
• 38:07
  a conversation. So you get to pick based on a
• 38:10
  topic like what what I eat for breakfast as an example, you
• 38:14
  know, and everyone just goes to talks about what they eat for
• 38:17
  breakfast or they go and they, you know, they're runs the gamut
• 38:20
  and they're hosted by different leaders in our community who've
• 38:24
  just put their hand up and said, I want to host a table.
• 38:26
  And that way there's like this natural thread that are going to
• 38:31
  pull certain types of people together.
• 38:33
  That is so cool. What a what a well designed way
• 38:37
  of making it so people can kind of self select in.
• 38:39
  I love when you go to something like that, where you're being
• 38:42
  treated like an adult, like, you know, you're not being forced to
• 38:45
  do something. It's like, hey, you were
• 38:47
  choosing your own experience. You choose your own adventure.
• 38:50
  I went, did my coaching certificate, my graduate
• 38:53
  certificate of royal roads. They did an exceptional job at
• 38:55
  that. They're like read the textbook.
• 38:57
  Don't we're going to test you while you're coaching skills in
• 39:00
  the end, so you better be fucking good.
• 39:02
  But it's like, I love that. Like you're just like, hey,
• 39:04
  you're an adult. Like you can choose your table,
• 39:06
  you can choose to mingle or not, but then you're kind of giving
• 39:09
  people the opportunity to self select into something that
• 39:12
  interests them with people of common interests.
• 39:14
  I think that's our theme today is like that, like finding the
• 39:18
  commonalities and like understanding the why.
• 39:22
  Finding people guarantee you that have a common interest.
• 39:25
  Even one thread, like there's something, there's something to
• 39:27
  that. Where can everybody sign up?
• 39:33
  You have a very, very generous, very special code for the
• 39:36
  audience. This is a fast action bonus
• 39:39
  here, people. We are coming close to May, and
• 39:43
  so you got to act quickly, especially if you want to have a
• 39:45
  hotel stay, which you should. So tell us all the things.
• 39:49
  How can people get tickets? What's the code all that?
• 39:52
  WN connect.com is our website. Great website and you can toggle
• 39:59
  over to the conference and you can use code.
• 40:03
  AP. AFO.
• 40:05
  Oh so AFO. I'll figure it out AFO.
• 40:09
  Wasn't even spelling right. AFO to get $150.00 off your pass
• 40:15
  and bonus is because if you can get it in before March 30th
• 40:20
  which is Monday, you are still getting the early bird.
• 40:23
  So getting $150.00 off the early bird which I believe is 1450.
• 40:32
  Yes, 1450 um, but the price goes up on Monday 200 bucks, so you
• 40:38
  have to act fast. Your code still works, but it
• 40:42
  works better. Yeah, yeah.
• 40:44
  OK. So that and then there's The
• 40:46
  Four Seasons room block is closing soon as well.
• 40:48
  So rates are 375 a night, which is really good for the real 1 of
• 40:53
  arguably the best hotels in Canada, I think in my opinion.
• 40:58
  So those are closing next Monday as well.
• 41:01
  Unbelievable. And like, who doesn't want to
• 41:04
  Health Day? Yes, I mean there's lots of
• 41:06
  great properties in Whistler too.
• 41:07
  Yes, if you can't get in, yes, we would love to have.
• 41:10
  You thank you that is so generous thank you for coming
• 41:13
  out thank you for being so open, sharing your whole story we went
• 41:16
  all over the place. I loved this conversation.
• 41:19
  This was such a treat. I I feel so inspired by you in
• 41:22
  your journey and there's so much more we could talk about.
• 41:25
  You have to come back on. We didn't even touch on Abu
• 41:27
  Dhabi, but you did in fact get to go to Abu Dhabi and.
• 41:31
  Came back just in time. Oh my gosh, you have just been
• 41:34
  all over the world. Congratulations on all your
• 41:36
  success and I'm so excited for the conference in May.
• 41:40
  Andrea. Can't wait to see you.
• 41:41
  There. Thanks, Heather.