Organizing and Attending Conferences & Retreats with Kristy Oustalet

Emily Thompson 0:00
hello and welcome to being boss episode number 85 this episode is brought to you by fresh books cloud accounting

being boss and work and life is being in it

Kathleen Shannon 0:16
it's being who we are doing the work breaking some rules and even though we each have to do it on our own

Emily Thompson 0:24
being boss is knowing we're in it together

Kathleen Shannon 0:28
alright today we want to talk all about conferences retreats and the importance of offline connections emily and i have made so many friends creative colleagues and even clients from meeting with people irl in real life so we want to talk to you all about that we also want to talk about what it takes to put on your own conference or retreat and we thought we'd invite our friend christy isolette on to chat with us about this we first met christie when she attended our very first being bas vacation in new orleans and she runs her own conference in new orleans called venture pop she's offered us so much generous guidance to us newbies and we want to share it with you all christy is the co founder of venture pop a conference in new orleans for creative entrepreneurs and she's also the director of operations for the nationally recognized events venue race and religious in addition to the annual two day conference christie plays a part in planning and logistics for over 125 events per year above all she is a project manager for those who see their big ideas in full color that need the right tools to make them happen hey you guys i want to take a second to talk about getting paid so our friends at fresh books cloud accounting are not just about tracking your income and your expenses and generating invoice but they're really about creative entrepreneurs getting paid faster so i was digging through the freshbooks blog and i found a post all about what happens whenever a client doesn't pay and they outlined some really great details and i'll be sure to include those in the show notes things like don't jump the gun and assume that you're not getting paid or simply recent invoices and follow up but they have some really great advice about moving forward and making it a requirement for a prepayment or retainer for work especially bigger projects and the cool thing about fresh books cloud accounting is you can bust up your project invoices into payment plans increase the frequency of payment based on milestones rather than dates this way you're able to complete a comfortable amount of work and ensure that you're paid before you proceed have legal contracts and contracts in place so that in the event a client disappears it is so much easier to deal with it because you already have it on paper alright you guys you can try fresh books for free by going to freshbooks comm slash being boss and enter being boss in the how did you hear about us section you don't even need to have a credit card to get started you can just get started alright back to our episode and christy we're so excited to have you on being boss

Kristy Oustalet 3:11
thank you for having me that's so fun i'm excited

Kathleen Shannon 3:15
so we're super excited to talk to you all about conferences so let's start with our very first question wait you know what before we jump in i want to let everyone know that emily and i will be speaking at christie's conference and venture pop yep

Emily Thompson 3:33
yes so excited so excited i was thinking about what i'm going to be wearing just the other day and whose gumbo i'm going to eat first

Kathleen Shannon 3:45
it could have been busca vis a clothing budget

Emily Thompson 3:47
we'll talk today what about that i would love that getting a pair of overalls

Kathleen Shannon 3:53
i've got some we could be matchy matchy do you want to be twinkies

Emily Thompson 3:59
i don't think the world is ready for that

Kathleen Shannon 4:02
100% i wouldn't be

Emily Thompson 4:04
not only that let's make this an announcement for this as well so we're speaking at venture pop in september and by the way we'll get to you in a minute christy so we're speaking up in your pot but we're also going to be having a being vos meetup after hours on saturday night so if you guys want to come join us in new orleans if you guys have been following us for a while you know that new orleans is one of mine and kathleen's very favorite places and we did a bean vos vacation there that was utter magic with what was it 75 ish other bosses and kathleen and i did a really rad photo shoot there earlier this year so we'll be in new orleans again this is your chance to join us we're going to be having a meetup hugging everyone and having cocktails it's going to be super fab

Kathleen Shannon 4:49
and that will be on september 17 and 18th just go to venture pop conference comm slash beam boss to learn more and to buy your ticket okay christy back to you Let's first talk about why why is it important to connect offline? with other creatives? What have you found in your own experience?

Kristy Oustalet 5:10
Oh, you know, I've met together I've met with like other creatives and people like that in a bunch of different ways. So I'm about two years ago, Sierra, who's a co founder. So just to kind of get a little bit of background venture pop is co founded by me, Sierra and Justin. So two years ago, Sierra and I used to host a local meetup here in New Orleans, called made in mind. And what we did was we kind of hosted about six meetups a year, so kind of every other month, we would get people together. And we would either do some sort of like activity that usually promoted a local business, we tried to do that a lot promoted a business that was opening, you know, it's just kind of getting off, you know, kind of launching, and, or just really just a bar, sometimes, you know, sometimes just a quick and easy cocktail would work.

Emily Thompson 6:05
I love promoting bars, and supporting them in any way.

Kristy Oustalet 6:11
I think we're all pros at that, for sure. So, um, and, you know, what you learn is that everybody, most people either work alone, in their house, or in a coffee shop, or on a small team, where you only see a couple people in real life very infrequently, and you kind of create your business in like this little vacuum and like you forget that all these other things are going on that people actually do this and make a living doing it. And just the support and knowledge you kind of get just by loosely talking to people over cocktails that are doing same thing. So um, you know, meetups have definitely been in our past and have kind of been a part of forming. You know, crescendoing into venture, Bob, I guess you would say, and then, you know, I've been a part of masterminds. And I guess the whole bit, I just really love interacting with other creative entrepreneurs, and just knowing that, you know, there's others out there and kind of sharing information and keeping up with like, the latest things that are coming out and kind of talking about it and hashing things out. even talking about like customer service problems, and things like that, where you just need a little sounding board. You know, I just feel like there's just so much benefit to it in so many different ways.

Emily Thompson 7:33
I agree. That's exactly one of the reasons that Kathleen and I started doing these in real life events. That's the way that we got together and started forming a relationship. It was this idea that you build a business in a bubble, and you think you're the only one facing these problems, and you're the only one who's experiencing these things good and bad, and you need people to celebrate with and you need people to be the sounding board for whatever sticky things come up. I think you can have some of that in like, I don't know, like email chains, and things like that, and even Skype sessions, but there's so much awesomeness that comes from face to face, from hugging someone and having a cocktail with them, and really being able to connect in that way. So completely agree, I think that I think the giving creatives the opportunity or making those opportunities for creatives to get together and talk things out, be real humans and not screen names on a year can be seriously monumental.

Kristy Oustalet 8:31
Yeah, and then I think, um, I think it's kind of good to do a variety of those things. So for instance, like a mastermind, if you put together a group of 234, you know, small group of people. I mean, I've been in a mastermind, where our businesses were actually pretty different. But I feel like the benefit there is you kind of get these little like pep talks, like, you know, you can, it sounds a little cheesy, but you get these like real life. Like, this is what you do you know what you're doing, you have everything you need to do it, just go do it. You're like, okay, okay, I can do it, I can do it. Like sometimes you just need that little, that little in person. Kick with somebody who you meet with regularly and kind of knows you and you know, you, you know that they know you so it kind of gives you that extra confidence. And then for like a meetup situation where it's more casual. I mean, I think it's just more fun. You can make light hearted connections, when you see them, you know, the people that would come to our meetups repeatedly, you know, they really started forming like friendships, and it's just like a different tone of, you know, solving problems that way, just kind of feeling like you're supported, and that people are out there. And I mean, you usually have a lot of fun with people that you have a lot in common with, besides the fact and then for things like you know, like bigger things like a conference or in person workshop or the vacations that you guys do. You know, it's like a Bigger investment. But like all of that is, it's kind of all combined into one I guess you'd say. So you kind of have, you can meet people one on one, you can go with friends and kind of mastermind in the evenings or things like that, which I highly suggest you have that fun component like the cocktails and then meeting other creatives. And even just like the lunch breaks, kind of making small talk conversation and picking up little pieces from here and there and kind of starting to meet new people. But then you have that next layer of what I think is the real value of, you know, kind of going for that investment is like the workshop component, the what the presenters bring to the stage, I know with your vacations, because I want to your one here in New Orleans, you know, you guys hosted a really nice workshop. And so that's where I think people find the true value in investing in themselves and really learning and that's kind of where, you know, that's the baseline of nuts and bolts of business growth, and the rest can actually grow your business kind of in a social way. But it actually does really kind of strengthen, you know, your next step, or maybe your next three steps or something like that.

Kathleen Shannon 11:14
And if anything, I think that it strengthens your connection to your own business vision and your own enthusiasm for taking it to the next level. So whenever I first started really participating in conferences, I actually hadn't done very many meetups, and maybe that's because of my location. But I remember the first time I dropped, you know, probably a well over $1,000 to attend a conference, I'm pretty sure it was alt summit, which is a blogging conference. And the first year that I went, it was maybe 300 people, so still pretty small. And I had no idea that there would be so much energy and so many lifelong friendships formed. And I think that that's where I found the real value, and that it's hard to quantify except that now, you know, eight years after attending my first alt summit, the fact that many of those people I met in that very first year have become either creative collaborators like Emily and I starting being boss, we met in real life at the first time at all summit. And people have become clients, or, or other kinds of creative projects have come up, like people have written books, and have invited me to participate in their book. And so I think that those are the things that are kind of hard to quantify and measure, but really mean so much. And so, I wanted to share this story, just this last winter, I was feeling totally in a work rut, I was just I've been in business for five years, I was over myself, like whenever you create a business around your personal brand, it's easy to just be like, oh, done dog eat about myself. But um, I was I was feeling definitely in a work, right. And I went down to Mexico with a few other ladies. And we went to the beach once for five minutes, it was so windy and sunny, we're like, let's go back to the condo and talk shop some more. We had so much fun for three days in a row talking shop, I really that's what sparked my interest and really getting serious about my email marketing game and content upgrades, and it reenergized my entire business. So that was really valuable and exciting for me. And I have found that every time I invest in traveling, I get something out of it. So I want to talk a little bit about I just want to hear from all of you like what are some of your favorite conferences or retreats to attend?

Kristy Oustalet 13:43
Yeah, well, I mean, just a second that really quickly. I mean, that's really what how what you just mentioned is so just such a big part of our planning with venture pop. So, you know, last year was our first year, we were just like trying to, like really get it together and make it great. And this year, you know, it's just like, we're trying to up our game, and we are upping our game and what you know what how we're thinking about it is exactly what you just said. I mean, I feel like people you know, from a conference planning perspective, people will pay, go ahead and pay the money, like they see the value when they're thinking about it, planning about it, thinking about investing in the people that are presenting in the workshops, you know, I'm calling them workshops, like maybe they're interactive, or presentations, the nuggets that they know that they'll take away from the stage. But what I feel like is the true value that's like not even quantify viable are all the things you just mentioned. And those are all things that you just hear. We've heard for the past year since venture pop since the first you know, venture pop conference. So stuff that I've had experience with, you know, I've heard, everybody else has had experiences with that adventure pop and I'm actually leaving tomorrow to go on a flight to Portland to World Domination summit, which is actually like my annual retreat to recharge and figure out what this year looks like. I know a lot of people can't do that in the new year, but I'm just like to, like, over the holidays and everything. And I think everybody talking about it, it just gets on my nerves. So like, that's what I do every summer. So I kind of girl go to World Domination summit kind of feel that really, really big energy in the room filled with people doing really big things, um, and just recharge, and it just resets, you know, your whole mindset, like you were talking about about your business and where you want it to go, and where you are, and like subtle little changes that make the biggest difference ever. And those are things that are really hard to talk about as part of like, let's just say a conference sales page or something. That doesn't sound like a bunch of fluff. But I mean, I really think that that is the core value of going somewhere in person.

Emily Thompson 16:03
I agree with that. I think I've done as the I've done ultimate twice. And I think I think it's good, but so big that I felt like I wasn't quite getting out of it what I wanted to maybe, and salt lake city is not one of my favorite places in the planet.

Kathleen Shannon 16:23
I like Lake City,

Unknown Speaker 16:25
do you?

Kathleen Shannon 16:25
I think it is so beautiful. I was like if I was Brigham Young, I would have been like God called me here. I would have chosen that as the chosen land. I mean, it's just really beautiful.

Emily Thompson 16:39
Well, good. I for some reason, it's never it's never been one of my favorite places, and for me, like travel in place are super important. So it has to be somewhere like the place has to feed myself. So for me that was, I don't know, ultimate was never one of my favorites. I enjoyed it. And I met some really cool people there. But I think my favorite interactions are usually much smaller sort of impromptu gatherings. So like really small meetups, whenever we were living in Florence, especially, we would get together with a small crowd of creatives there and just sort of have cocktails in the studio and chat about whatever came up. I like those smaller interactions. Whenever I think about the balls vacation, some of my favorite things that I get to do at those are the impromptu like dinners that happened sort of off to the side that aren't even like part of the main event, but are the things that come come in addition to the main event, I think that being able to share a meal or a drink with someone and talk about talk about anything, because God knows anything will come up in this conversation.

Kristy Oustalet 17:46
So like, what do you think, um, like, was missing with alt summit? Like do you think that they intended for people to like take it upon themselves to do meetups and things like that, but like it didn't happen? Or

Emily Thompson 18:00
I think I think I went I didn't go to their first year. That was when you went,

Kathleen Shannon 18:06
did you I think I went I went to their second year. So it was still really, really small.

Emily Thompson 18:12
And then I went to the third and fourth year. And I think that whenever I was there, they were transitioning, like they were transitioning from being a really small like designer conference to a very large blogger conference. And I felt that I felt that what they were presenting wasn't quite as cohesive as I felt like I thought I was going to a design conference like altitude design summit, and I get there and just a bunch of bloggers, which I think are really great. But I wasn't so much a blogger, I was wanting to be a really great designer. And so that was that was kind of I think the underlying thing with me. But then in the third second year that I went, it got so big that I don't know, it's just bigger than I anticipated. And I am an introvert who likes my small groups of people. And it was all a little overwhelming. And alt summit like Salt Lake City, I get altitude sickness, apparently, like a beast. And so as a two time I went, I spent most of my time in bed wanting to hurl,

Kathleen Shannon 19:16
oh, I'm an altitude junkie. I'm like, like 20,000 feet. I'm good. So I, I experienced that. Also, I think that ultimate what happened there and this isn't to you know, bash alt summit at all. And probably half the people listening to this podcast may not even be familiar, but it was a for design bloggers. And so that might be a positioning thing. Like there's a disconnect between what you think you're going to get, which is for us with our boss vacations, really trying to figure out how to position it in a way that people know what to expect. And I think that's a really hard thing to do. But what happened with ultimate is I just think it got to Big too fast. And so even whenever we're planning the boss vacations, we get really intentional about capping it out and not letting it get out from under us. And I never want it to be the kind of thing. And I really never want to attend the kind of conference unless I know I'm attending it Oh, one of my favorite conferences I ever attended was the house design conference. And that's a huge conference. And I did not make the same kinds of personal connections that I would typically expect at a smaller kind of get together, or smaller conference like venture pop or a boss vacation. Um, but the speakers were incredible. I learned so much from those speakers. And it has shaped so much of my own point of view in my own business, that I, I mean, it was just, it was amazing. It was so so good. But whenever you're going to something and expecting to make personal relationships, and it's just a bunch of people trading business cards, right? Not just business cards, we're talking, fully decked out packages, like people are basically bringing each other gifts in the form of business cards. And I just felt like I couldn't keep up. So that's some, that was my thing with ultimate anyway, I feel like we've been talking a lot about

Emily Thompson 21:26
a lot well, so let's talk about the good things of awesome, because that is a conference we've both gone through. And I've actually heard our crowd talk about them a lot. And I think no matter what I go to, I always come back from those sorts of events, with a notebook full of notes, and this like whole new drive to put all the things in place. And yes, I keep like my stack of Oh, my god, these are business card business cards. But then I also always have like a really good couple that I can I can keep and like will and I can keep in terms of like I can keep these people as part of my tribe. Because I do always meet some really, really great folks or get to meet up with people that I have. I have interacted with online, I think that's one of those things that I love I do love about the larger conferences, is that so many of the people that you are interacting with online are going to be there that you can have lots of face time with people from all over the country, who you've interacted with on Twitter, or Instagram or whatever. And you can meet up with them. And it's so fun, like running into people like that in like a hotel lobby, or like planning to have drinks after one of the events or whatever it may be. I think that that's one of my favorite things about about an event as large as alt summit, is that the opportunity to meet people is just explosive, because

Kathleen Shannon 22:51
there's so many people there. One thing about attending conferences is what you put into it is what you get out of it. And so I think it's really important before you attend a conference to say, Okay, what is one thing I want to learn, even if it has nothing to do with specifically what one speaker might be talking about, whenever you have a goal or an objective in mind, you're going to be narrowed in on achieving that goal, right? So ask yourself, What is one thing that I really want to learn? What is one person that I really want to connect with, whether that's an actual person that you know is going to be attending the conference and someone that you can maybe even email in advance and say, Hey, I know we're both going to be here, I would love to grab a drink with you, or at least say hello, if I see you heads up. Or maybe it's the kind of person you want to meet. So maybe it's like, Okay, I know that I really want to meet someone who is at the top of their game and email marketing. And I want to learn one thing about email marketing from them. Or maybe it's that you want to meet a podcaster. And think about the kind of person that you want to meet the kind of information you want to learn. And really, we're all adults. And we're responsible for our own learnings and our own interactions, and I don't care how introverted you are. I feel like that's an excuse that comes up a lot like introversion and anxiety. And I know that those are very real things. I certainly have some anxiety. Emily is certainly an introvert but we can still go to a conference and know what we want to get out of it. But also know when we need to recharge. So that's a huge part of conferences is having time to go back to your hotel room, or to sneak away with just a couple of people for lunch and recharge your batteries.

Emily Thompson 24:34
Yeah, there is nothing shameful about blowing off a session. I feel like that's like one of the big anxiety issues with conferences is people go and they get that little schedule and they're like, Oh my god, all the things and so they try to hit every single one of them and halfway through it. They're like totally wiped out. I did that the first time I went to a conference and was totally wiped out. In the second one. I went into a lot less serious. especially with this idea that obviously i'm going to be hitting all the big social events but otherwise i'm going to be a little more selective about what sessions i go to so that i do have time to recharge and make those connections like there are plenty of people who are ditching ditching sessions to hang out in the bar and see who shows up

Kristy Oustalet 25:21
that's the inside scoop yeah like as a recovering introvert right i like can't be an introvert for everything i do but um i've kind of like i feel like i've learned how to be an extrovert and now it comes a lot more naturally and i feel like even people that consider themselves extroverts have a hard time just like going up to people and going up to people and going up to people and introducing themselves and all that stuff like that something like a conference but i think what's good to keep you know in the back of your mind is that everybody's there to meet other people like you're not weird or saying hello

Emily Thompson 25:58
but everyone else is too

Kristy Oustalet 26:01
they're just like thank god she was the one that said it you know like i try and you know in all the meetups and like whatever we put on i try and make sure i mentioned that like just say hi i mean you have something in common you're here where you know the event and you're here for a reason and so like we're we all have the same you know base concept in mind like just go ahead and don't be shy haven't knock one down and say hello eat

Emily Thompson 26:26
have a drink and then go compliment someone shoes like that one of the easiest way to start a conversation with someone is just talk about their shoes or some other accessory and the ice is broken and you're good to go

Kristy Oustalet 26:40
i like that actually i'm pretty sure last year one of the first impromptu things that happened was a shoe competition on stage adventure pop

Emily Thompson 26:51
oh god do i need to make a budget we need a shoe budget and d

Kristy Oustalet 26:57
i don't think i don't think this is a recurring thing although if you need an excuse to buy shoes go right ahead but um yeah that i like that idea like just just comment on a necklace or shoes or something fun

Kathleen Shannon 27:11
but i think also another great way to introduce yourself to someone and without being creepy or pushy or weird is to maybe offer up a gift of knowledge or help in some way so for example christy whenever you came up and introduced yourself to emily and i had being bossed nola you came up and said hey like this is so great you were so nice you knew that we were having problems with our hotel like that there were some logistical customer service situations happening there and you said hey i host a conference here in new orleans if you ever want to do this again i will hook you up with my contacts i have a great hotel recommendation so you were really generous with wanting to help us have a better experience next time

Emily Thompson 27:57
right so so you can eavesdrop i think

Kathleen Shannon 28:02
use drag and

Emily Thompson 28:04
drop as you are roaming the room and and you know just sort of keep her ears ears perked for any is it pricked here that search per day you can just keep your ears perked for any any relevant subjects and jump in if it's a roomful of people especially no one's going to mind they might even appreciate it

Kathleen Shannon 28:28
and that's a tactic that works online too if you're wanting to make online friends it's really just about showing up and saying hello and offering what you have to offer

Kristy Oustalet 28:37
mm hmm i love the idea of like taking those online contacts and like kind of solidifying them by trying to find some people that you like either follow or have connected with online and see if they're going to the conference that that is like a true friend for life at that point

Kathleen Shannon 28:53
yeah we were talking about i want to talk a little bit about starting your own conference or you know maybe it's even starting with a meetup and a lot of creatives really crave that kind of thing and are naturally great at putting on events and so christy you are an event planner right like you do that how would you describe are you

Unknown Speaker 29:20
um

Kristy Oustalet 29:21
yeah so okay so i'm not and only people like in the industry would kind of like feel that there's a difference but um so what i do is i am an operations manager at a really busy wedding and events venue here in new orleans so we put on like over 125 events per year and so i kind of think of myself as like a project manager probably for highly emotional people basically i mean you know if you want to think of it like this like or this is how i think of it is that you know any sort of Launch or new product line or anything, an event, a meet up conference, I mean, these are all just like a big project that you just need to kind of sit and organize is like just play project manager, um, you just have to sit there and kind of organize your thoughts kind of get a big picture plan and then kind of come up with little, like phases to follow through and not worry about phase two and phase three, when you're in phase one, you can't, you'll drive yourself crazy. Um, but as far as like, you know, just kind of starting with a meetup or something more small, I think it is just to keep it small, like, don't get overwhelmed with, I don't know how many people are gonna show up, or I don't know, you know, like, make it in I like once here and I kind of started these meetups, what we did was we put it in a setting where it didn't matter, like we didn't rent a room or have an empty room or a private room, we had it at a bar where people can come and buy their own drinks, and like, maybe just join a happy hour that already exists. So you can kind of promote a $5 cocktail or something like that. And if you have five people that show up, it doesn't matter, the whole bar is full, those five people will enjoy. You know, what's going on, and we'll kind of enjoy being smaller. And now, you know, what's funny is that we always want it to be bigger, and then when it's bigger, everybody remembers the good times when it was smaller. So just keep that in mind. Um, but yeah, I mean, the point is just to start small, um, you know, what, if you have just a few people that show up, take a few cute pictures, pop them in a blog post, and just let people know where you're going to be, maybe even, like, be consistent with it the first Thursday of every month, and then slowly it will build and people will be like, I don't know how I didn't hear about this, you know, all that kind of stuff. So, um, that would be definitely a tip, I think people just kind of make it this huge monster of a planning situation. And really, the things you just have to keep in mind is like, make it so that it can work no matter what size it is, how many people show up. And don't apologize, like, Oh, I'm so sorry. People aren't, you know, just be like, I'm so excited that you are here. Here's somebody I think you should meet. I mean, I'm just a very, very, very natural connector. And so I think that trying to connect people to other people that I know would either hit it off right away or be a good resource for someone else. I think that's a really big value. And we'll keep people like coming and enjoying it.

Emily Thompson 32:39
I think that starting with a meat off me off, I quit. I think that starting with something small, like a meetup is certainly how you should do it. And I agree, like whenever we did the being Boston, New Orleans, like there were 75 people there. And then Miami was 50. And we so much more enjoyed the 50 people like just sort of the intimacy of that group. That I think that well, like all of our future vacations will be capped at a smaller number instead of a larger number. And I think I don't Kathleen, do you see it being boss conference in our future?

Kathleen Shannon 33:15
You know, I've thought about it. I mean, after New Orleans, I thought maybe we could grow this into a conference. But I really dig that 50 person vibe. And if anything, I could see us getting even smaller and hosting really super small retreats with eight people and like let's rent a beach house, get a chef and have eight people in a beach house for a week talking shop, having fun eating good food hanging out. And so

Kristy Oustalet 33:45
those of my friends right now.

Kathleen Shannon 33:49
I love it. And I've done a lot of those with my friends Emily and I are about to go to a really small mastermind retreat. We've been masterminding with Tara Gentilly for the past six months. And so we're about to go do that. And I just, you know, I keep thinking about as we scale being boss, and I certainly do want to scale it bigger and bigger. I want it to be like a household name. Whenever you think about creative entrepreneurs, you think about being boss, but at the same time, I'm starting to feel this shift in my own heart and soul, which is to really continue to connect with individuals. And what is it you only have room for 150 people in your brain at any given time? If we had a conference of 400 people, I just don't know that I'm ready yet. To hold a conference where I haven't been able to personally meet every single person there. It's hard enough with 50 people, much less 450 people. So and but I also think that there will be a growth mindset to that where at some point I will feel like okay, I don't have to know everyone in this room. Oh, but it just depends on your own goals. It just depends on your goals.

Emily Thompson 34:59
Right now. I agree with that. I absolutely agree with that. I think that where we are at the moment, like I want to make those connections, like I want to be in it just as much as they are, I don't want to be like, the bird hovering over everyone watching all the little connections happen. And so so I agree with all of that. I think that I think that doing some smaller things is definitely where I'm at as well. Well,

Kristy Oustalet 35:22
it's really interesting to add small things to the big things, which is probably like a year three venture pop. You know, like, something that we're gonna focus on a lot. We really wanted to do that this year, but there's only so much growth you can do in one year. Um, but definitely, I mean, really, all we hear, all we hear is that people want not only to connect more, but they don't want to do the work to connect more.

Unknown Speaker 35:50
So

Kathleen Shannon 35:51
we hear that too, is being boss. Yeah, like, what? Just go just go have a drink.

We need it structured,

Emily Thompson 35:58
we are gonna work. I don't mind doing guys like in the grand scheme of things. No, I agree. And I think that i think that that really is kind of, well, I think this is where it comes into what you were saying a minute ago, Kathleen, about like, knowing what your purpose is, for whatever event it is that you're wanting to have, if it's something where you want to be the ones making the connections, and you want these to be really deep connections that are really long term, like keep it really small and focused. But if it's something where you want to give people the opportunity to make lots and lots of connections, but also attract like big name speakers, and things like that to come along, and then you're going to have to do something larger. I think it is just knowing what your purpose is. But also being really mindful of no matter what that purpose is growing it from something small, and then scaling it up as big as you want to make it and not the idea of starting it with something that's huge. and hoping it goes off without a hitch. I think that i think that i think that making offline Connections is huge. You just have to go about it in the way that you really want to go about it and be really intentional about it.

Kathleen Shannon 37:07
And that's the thing that like I don't really know how to explain is the magic that happens after you've been working for yourself all year long holed up in front of your laptop with your resting bitchface on just grinding out the work to finally be able to meet up with your tribe or your your friends that you haven't met yet. Because that's kind of the way that I think of it is truly magical. It's almost like the prom of the year for me these events and getting to go to these things feels like I can get dressed, I can buy some clothes, I can put on some makeup, all these other creatives. And we can just have a really good time. So I want to talk about whether you are a whether you're wanting to put on your own retreat or conference, or meetup or you're just attending one of these things. What is something that you all would avoid doing? Or what is like a failure that you have learned from either as an attendee, or as someone putting these on?

Kristy Oustalet 38:16
Well, I have probably a handful of things. Let's hear Oh, okay, well, um, so without going into too much depth, so so when we started venture pop our first year, what we did is that we we threw a Kickstarter campaign. And so we didn't want to put on the conference unless we sold X amount of tickets to the Kickstarter campaign, so that there was interest here locally, because we knew that, although our ultimate goal was to have, like people travel nationally, you know, from around, you know, from everywhere, to come in for the conference to New Orleans that we didn't know that, like, you know, our first year would be local supporters and people who knew us and who had kind of like, been in our circles for a while. So we started with the Kickstarter campaign. And about, I think, maybe it was like 10 to 12 days before the Kickstarter, we had reached our goal, which was exciting. And about 10 to 12 days before the campaign closes, which is when you know, you get the money when it closes and you follow through. I'm someone with our original name came at us with extremely threatening emails, threatening to shoot down to shut down our campaign to shut down everything. And so that was like a really big upset that the three of us had to really kind of come together and figure out and hash out and move on from So wait, so

Kathleen Shannon 39:56
was it just kind of like a trademark incident of having the same name and you didn't know that they already had that name kind of situation

Kristy Oustalet 40:03
it was that kind of situation um it was very skeezy on the other end and i'll probably just leave it at that because i think it's gonna be pretty obvious if i talk a little bit more about who it is and i don't really want to go that route but um anyway the point is is that we clearly we had kind of done our research before and we look to make sure that the name was available and all of these things and suddenly after the threats they were no longer available because they were all applied for and then modeled after that to replicate ours which was yes anyway point being is um you know one thing is that just to make sure that the names and websites and all of those things are available of course make sure you have all your ducks in a row so that's kind of going into it thinking of it as a business right so it's not just an event but this whole thing to turn into a business so you need to go through the same kinds of branding processes for your event

Kathleen Shannon 41:03
as you would for your own small business yeah

Kristy Oustalet 41:05
yeah and i mean like i feel like that's a double edged sword because like some people get really stuck in like what do i apply for you know what business do i apply for what what do i have to do before i get started and i and i hate that people get stuck in that spot and maybe like if you're a solo entrepreneur and you're kind of doing one on one services that can maybe wait a little bit depending on like what the situation is but when something is pretty public um yeah i mean things with your name have to be settled partnership agreements have to be signed you know conferences aren't cheap and although a lot of you know a lot of money seems to come in but it's all spoken for and all like a lot of it goes out and needs to be spent in certain ways so you know getting all those ducks in a row and things like that is something that luckily we did most of that we kind of got blindsided by the trademark issue but um you know i mean definitely something learned from that was that the three of us came together and you know we squashed it immediately and moved on from it but we're really sucked is that like all of the social media stuff we had you know all of our social media campaigns we had grown audiences through our old name and we were no longer able to use them because of laws by the social media campaigns and she had attacked all of those so so that was tough but um yeah get get your shit straight

Emily Thompson 42:37
quickly well and along that same line i want to touch on budget for a minute because that's been that's been a big thing for like our boss vacations is like really having a handle on the money like it can be really easy to think okay i'm gonna have a have a conference can be 500 bucks a ticket that's gonna be so much money but venues are expensive and speakers are expensive and so all of that money is absolutely spoken for immediately and so just making sure you know your numbers or else you're not going to have an event and that's what all of this is for

Kristy Oustalet 43:15
yeah how we just like the really basic way that we approached it was that you know each year before we start playing we come up with a basic budget based off of like last year or you know basically this year we did it based off of last year and so so that's just kind of a starting point though i mean that budget evolves clearly depending on a lot of different things but i think in order to keep things like that straight when you're talking on like such a big scale like a conference is it's really important to continually update update your budget that you expect to spend everything on like your overarching budget and then think of like where you are in that so it's really easy i'm trying to think of like how to describe it really simply but it's really easy to double allocate money to something and i think that people do this in their personal life all the time like if you have a pot of $5,000 you're like oh well we can spend $500 on facebook marketing and like oh we can spend you know like you can double allocate that so like the working budget has to be kind of detailed as well and that's probably even more important like because in some areas we were able to lower the amount that we had budgeted for which was great but you can't double spend the money you save for other than otherwise you're kind of stuck again so budgeting is the name of the game for sure

Emily Thompson 44:48
right and then and then i think the other big thing and i think this is for like small meetups or like let's say medium sized meetups because small meetups can get away with all kinds of things to like large events Really good venues, yeah, that will help you out. Because like a medium sized meetup, like having a bar, that's going to be okay with you bringing in 50 people to like, you know, a possibly already busy bar. Being on good terms with those sorts of people is a good is a good idea up to like large events and our New Orleans event was one of those where the venue was very difficult. And it was a complete, like one ad from Miami where the venue was amazing. Like it completely changed. So much of at least my experience is like the person who was coordinating, but also the experience of our attendees as well. So finding a good venue and making nice with everyone and, and little gifts go a long way. Keeping out mugs will will make you friends. But having really solid venues and making friends with the people who are running those venues can can certainly make anything from medium sized meetups to large events go much more smoothly.

Kathleen Shannon 46:04
I also want to mention whenever it comes to conferences, whether you're attending or but especially if you're hosting a retreat or conference is feeling too terribly responsible for everyone having a good time, it's so easy as a host, even if you're having a party at your house, you know, you can kind of think of it in that way as a microcosm for what it's like to hold a retreat or conference, it's so easy to get caught up in really worrying that everyone is having a good time that you're not having a good time. And there will be some people attending your retreat or conference that are a little disappointed. And you can't put that all on yourself. Like that's what I want to tell people to avoid is to avoid putting that responsibility entirely on yourself. Because there's so much that goes into whether or not someone has a good time. I mean, someone could be sick, someone could have had a family emergency before they attend. Someone could just Okay, so this is one piece of feedback that we got after New Orleans, someone emailed us and I was crushed for a solid two days about it. They were like this was not what I expected. It felt like a big slumber party. And after a few days, I was like, Wait a second, that's the vibe that we were going for was. So the fact that they didn't have a good time really just meant, okay, how can how can we readjust our positioning and expectations. So people know that a boss vacation feels more like a big somber party than it does. And it feels more like a vacation than it does a conference. And so that was the kind of how we adjusted and refined for the second time around for Miami. So

Kristy Oustalet 47:47
I think you guys need to do a big photo shoot, like with a pillow fight in a hotel room? Yes. Wait, has

Emily Thompson 47:54
anyone actually Okay, I need all boss vacation people do email, like if you had a pillow fight, let me know. And next time invite me.

Kathleen Shannon 48:06
Maybe we can organize a pillow fight.

Kristy Oustalet 48:09
Actually, what's kind of cool to think about is that, like, I'm, I'm excited to go to work. You know, like throughout the conversation we've been talking about like traveling and investing. And, you know, it does cost much more money to travel on top of the ticket that you purchased and things like that, which I totally understand. But I went to the vacation here in New Orleans, which is where I live. And I'm excited to go to a being boss vacation where I don't live, I'm excited to go ahead and, like, go somewhere else so that you can have those you know, because when you live in the same place that you go to the conference in, um, you know, you can appeal out and you do your everyday life stuff. And I feel like, you know, a lot what we've been talking about is, it's literally like a vacation for your business. Like when you take a vacation in the summer and you go to the beach with your family, you're able to unplug and refresh in that way. But like when you have a business vacation or travel for a conference, then you're able to, you know, not through the emails, not through the daily grind task. You don't have any projects to work on, you've kind of cleared your schedule, but you're able to have that open mind to think about your business and connect and like really commit to that full experience in the weekend. So

Emily Thompson 49:26
you get to take a break from your family. I know of a couple of the bosses that came on our vacations who came to sleep before we had like small children and just wanted a couple of days to like get away from family and like focus on their business. And I think that's I think that's really huge too. I think being able to take yourself out of that like daily grind of life and work. And like for family vacations is getting out of work to focus on life and for business things like this. It's about getting out of life and thinking about work. and then for our vacations it's also about like roaming a city and having fun and like apparently pillow fights that i don't get invited to can we

Kathleen Shannon 50:08
sneak peak our next boss vacation

Emily Thompson 50:13
i guess so we

Kathleen Shannon 50:14
just share like generally yes happening

Emily Thompson 50:17
absolutely so okay here we are planning our next vacation it's probably going to be spring or summer of 2017 and we are currently looking at portland pretty hardcore

Unknown Speaker 50:31
yay i'm

Unknown Speaker 50:32
excited i was on the edge of my seat wondering when i'm gonna

Emily Thompson 50:35
go ahead and write it down go ahead and write it down

Kathleen Shannon 50:37
if you're not on our mailing list be sure to join our mailing list at being boss club to know all about that

Emily Thompson 50:44
right keishon and can we also talk about the other one

Kathleen Shannon 50:47
yeah

Emily Thompson 50:48
okay so and and we're also doing a being boss retreat that one has a little less details it will be planned around the vacations or finalizing the vacation before playing the retreat we're thinking anywhere between eight to 15 people super small group very mastermind the and lots of pillow fights

Kathleen Shannon 51:11
where are we going to do that i don't know we need i'm feeling like a santa fe

Emily Thompson 51:18
thinking like arizona desert have

Unknown Speaker 51:20
crazy spots out there

Emily Thompson 51:23
i love crazy spas sue

Unknown Speaker 51:25
oh y'all i'm excited

Kathleen Shannon 51:27
yeah i feel like we should do two retreats next year so i can get away from my family and sleep

Emily Thompson 51:34
we can arrange that if we need to so yeah we are planning on doing more and so funny i want to talk because after we did after we did new orleans we were super like gung ho about doing another one and we launched miami super soon after that and as we were gearing up for miami because these events are so big like and even our small events like i can't imagine doing a conference like that kind of makes my brain want to explode like all kinds of high fives to you but whenever i think and whenever we were gearing up for miami we were all about like we're never doing this again like why are we doing this like planning meetings and logistics and all of this stuff is this really what we want to be doing with our lives and then once we did miami and once we got there and the people like this real life you know experiences and to chatting with these people we knew that all of that pre chalk was nonsense and then of course we were doing this again like it's

Unknown Speaker 52:31
masochistic

Emily Thompson 52:33
it's it's unkind to yourself in the most ridiculous ways but it really is like some sort of amazing magic that happens whenever you get together and with with kathleen and i like we before we were even done with that vacation to like last breakfast that we had kathleen and i were talking about where we're where we were going to do the next one like of course we're doing this like it's our responsibility

Kristy Oustalet 53:00
this happened yes i don't that's not uncommon i mean it's just it's you know how i think of it um you know like everybody you guys have like experienced like art and web like when you're designing a website you have a little bit of that moment every time you're like fuck am i still doing this this is so annoying this is so hard i'm not gonna be able to figure it out this time i don't want to do this anymore what do i want to do net like i feel like no matter what like big things that make a big impact that have like you know like go way further than things that you like when you push yourself to the limit you hit that book i never want to do this again moment every time

Kathleen Shannon 53:45
i mean i have it every day every day i'm like too hard i'm not just hard but like i'm so emotionally invested in my work and the vacations that we have and everything that we do i feel like i really give it my all and it's just sometimes feels so hard but then the payoff is that you do the thing and it's amazing and fun and this is the stuff that i'm gonna remember on my deathbed

Kristy Oustalet 54:14
yeah so um okay so after the conference so what i've been working on behind the scenes is i'm going to do like project management and like vacation and retreat coordination so that's what i've been working with your own business

Kathleen Shannon 54:29
yes for facilitating retreats like we could hire you for a boss vacation because it's so crazy

Kristy Oustalet 54:35
and like this is literally what i do every day

Emily Thompson 54:39
i love that so good good good because whenever you do things like this whenever you're creating things that you believe in like venture pop is something that you guys just kind of started hustling out and then he made it a thing you needed a kickstarter now it's your number two and like whenever you put your energy into things like that and you see the payoff and you get so much joy from that like that's the whole live what you love thing where you find a thing that you love and you decide to figure out a way to make a living doing it

Kathleen Shannon 55:07
i want to talk about money i want to talk about money for a second though if you don't mind and so our approach for boss vacations is we just want them to be able to pay for themselves like we don't want to lose money doing it so whenever you're putting on a conference or retreat how much do you expect to make a profit and how much do you expect to like kind of cut even and what is the growth plan as far as that goes i do believe we all need to be compensated for our time and obviously emily and i the more we do retreats and vacations the more we the more that becomes our full time job the more we need to be compensated for that like a full time job so that's my question for you christy is kind of what is the growth trajectory and how much money should one expect to make in profit whenever it comes to putting on a retreat or conference yeah

Kristy Oustalet 55:54
i mean this is definitely something that we are still working on i mean year one was basically what we did was we we ended up you know after everything was said and done at the end of the year we ended up with a little pot of money that was basically the the deposit for next year's venue so i mean it's not this isn't like necessarily a money making venture but i do think ultimately it is so i know that that's a little confusing sounding but i think that it's something that has to grow over time it's something that takes a ton of time to do so it's hard to even equate how much you should make for doing that um but what i've been doing lately is and i think that that's why a lot of conferences get really big is because you have to do all that work anyway you may as well make it bigger and make money off of it because that is the only way to make money um what our team has been doing lately is researching other conferences big small really outside of our industry as well i mean there are some people who put on huge huge conferences that then create intimate settings and connect people in between throughout so you do get a little bit of both and we're actually discussing how we can change up the whole sponsorship model i don't know what that means what yet or looks like yet but that's something that keeps coming up because the sponsorship model doesn't even make sense to me

Kathleen Shannon 57:34
like getting sponsors to sponsor your conference

Kristy Oustalet 57:37
like true traditional sponsors like if you do this we'll put your name on this sign doesn't match up like i know you guys have long lasting relationships with your sponsors and then they get i mean you know there's there's a way that that all works out which makes a lot of sponsors

Kathleen Shannon 57:53
awesome yeah freshbooks bought our boss's a yacht in miami like so we really try and integrate them into your experience and we did have a sponsor which i will say it was basecamp sponsor being boss in miami as well and that felt more like they bought our boss's a drink and it worked but i think because we didn't have an ongoing relationship with them through the podcast it felt more like we're putting their name on a thing and i just felt funny about are they really getting value out of spray this right whenever you question that i just want everyone to be getting their money's worth yeah including our spa no

Kristy Oustalet 58:33
i agree i mean because like when you look at i mean like other sponsorship packages are readily available to look at online i mean of course we did our research when we looked at ours and you know like let's just say an average package is $5,000 i mean if you start to think of it this day and age like what you could get for $5,000 in facebook ads in anything like that i mean it doesn't add up and i think it's dead like i think that model is just dead and i haven't seen anyone establish a new one or talk about it and again i don't really know what that means just yet but it is something that my brain is spinning about because i do think in theory and i've heard this a few times from bigger fundraisers people like american cancer society and stuff like that who throw these big galahs they their sponsorships cover the cost of the event which like isn't even in the realm of like what it doesn't even sound like that's what you know like the being about vacations it sounds like they're buying a drink which makes total sense at you know venture pop that's not where we are at all but you know ticket sales cover a lot of those costs so i just find it really an interesting topic and something i'm like obsessively researching about and our team is always talking about so i'm hoping to come up with like different model on that because it just doesn't make sense

Kathleen Shannon 1:00:03
and i think that just creative entrepreneurship in general there are so many opportunities to build your own model and to think outside the box from your business to how you put on a meetup to how you put on a conference really not having conference experience like emily and i we did not have conference experiences at all before we had put on being boss new orleans and i think that the kind of the the night i always have a hard time with this word neva t naive we were naive enough we were naive enough to build it our own way and in many ways there was that kind of out of the box thinking like hey let's buy our boss's a yacht let's buy our boss's a drink and really kind of integrating the experience into that sponsorship model but certainly we've thought this to where if we didn't have sponsors that we literally could not afford to put on the vacations that we put on so we're constantly thinking of different ways to and even with the podcast if we didn't have freshbooks consistently sponsoring our podcast would we still even be able to operate it at the scale that we do right so we're constantly thinking about our own security and our own ability to do business that's not tied up in someone else's hands

Kristy Oustalet 1:01:16
yeah i mean like the end kind seems to work a lot for people to like we have a great partnership with old number 77 which is i mean speaking of collaboration i mean this one is so intertwined in my personal life and in my professional life i'm really become really good friends with the president and marketing director of the hotel through the events venue that i run because we send them a lot of business and just they are super supportive supportive of creatives and they helped us out a lot with speaker hotels and you know just a magnitude of ways last year the president of the hotel delivered a speech that just really touched a lot of people and a bunch of different ways last year on the stage and so you know i do think that that is definitely where we get a lot of our support is through inkind stuff that we would have to pay for anyway um but are able not you know are able to cut costs because of the in kind sponsorships i think that's that's a strong thing that you can't rely on that entirely so i'm still kind of framing up with that other piece looks like

Kathleen Shannon 1:02:29
we should do a pillow fight photoshoot with sara becker lillard who did our photo shoot in new orleans at raising religious thanks to christie we should do a photo shoot at old hotel number 77 whenever we're staying there and do a pillow fight photoshoot that's what we should do emily one

Unknown Speaker 1:02:47
with like feathers that explode

Kathleen Shannon 1:02:49
yes feathers and just like crazy

Unknown Speaker 1:02:54
in our underwear

Kristy Oustalet 1:02:55
get really few pajamas that david budget and cute pajamas that

Kathleen Shannon 1:03:00
right lingerie lingerie i'm working on my six pack right now

Emily Thompson 1:03:07
oh i love that idea yes

Unknown Speaker 1:03:10
yes

Emily Thompson 1:03:11
perfect

Kathleen Shannon 1:03:13
follow up with sarah and see if she'll do it we'll do which i do want to give you guys a shout out because christy you all of our photoshoot that you see on being boss club like the witchy shoot was at race and religious things to you so thank you so it is

Emily Thompson 1:03:28
the coolest venue like i will live there someday somehow and maybe it's just like i accidentally fall asleep on the sidewalk or something that's that may be how

Kristy Oustalet 1:03:39
you guys all have this left you know it we cut we close every august for repairs so because the house needs so much work it gets such a beating throughout the year and last week we had a vendor party so all of the vendors like all of the caterers and the photographers in the florist that work there throughout the year we had them over of course it's a bunch of party animals so we had a blast and we hired a tarot card reader and a palm reader to be in the downstairs slave printer where a lot of you guys photos are that was fun

Emily Thompson 1:04:12
that's exactly what i wanted to do in that space magic

Kristy Oustalet 1:04:17
we have a resident base we have a resident palm reader do you that's cool speed dial um you know you guys that was my first time i've ever done that i know i hear you guys talk about it a lot and like this whole world of palm reading tarot card like that's all over my head i don't you live in new orleans that is like yeah you guys really highlighted that for new orleans i don't even realize that was like

Emily Thompson 1:04:44
look you need to come hang how maybe this is all just offer how free are you going to be that weekend like can i snag you away for like a dinner or something

Unknown Speaker 1:04:53
yeah let me do it

Emily Thompson 1:04:55
or like i like breakfast

Kathleen Shannon 1:04:58
okay i have to mention last time though had dinner with christie

Unknown Speaker 1:05:02
yes

Kathleen Shannon 1:05:03
after me after two tables moved away from us because we were all athletes

Unknown Speaker 1:05:10
we cleared the room

Emily Thompson 1:05:13
we did clear the room

Unknown Speaker 1:05:14
where was that what was that restaurants

Emily Thompson 1:05:16
bars on bourbon street and like is it the oldest restaurant in the city are like one of the oldest restaurants it's one of them order

Unknown Speaker 1:05:24
it's one of you guys mental defeats blacksmith shop yet

Emily Thompson 1:05:27
yeah

Unknown Speaker 1:05:27
okay

Emily Thompson 1:05:28
yeah it's the oldest bar there yeah we went there during our our go store oh right so we were at gallic wars though it was the three of us hasn't been sara becker lillard and we we did we cleared the room we had plenty of people giving us dirty looks and leaving the room because we were having so much fun

Kristy Oustalet 1:05:47
and we didn't even notice it until the waiter was like it's okay you guys can be loud we're like wait what

Emily Thompson 1:05:53
we weren't even like we had two drinks while we were there we weren't even shit face

Kristy Oustalet 1:05:58
well i mean old fashions kind of count for two you know

Emily Thompson 1:06:03
oh man anyway that was a really good time and that's like i'm so glad to have the opportunity to go back to new orleans because i feel like i feel like the cool kid now like i have friends down there like you want to come to new orleans with me we're gonna call people and have dinner

Kathleen Shannon 1:06:18
blood oops the clown do our tarot reading yes

Emily Thompson 1:06:20
all kinds i'm gonna go see violet again lots of our nola bosses will remember violet lots of us got got our cards read and i've been craving going back to that that the rock store that we found and like the northern part of the quarter last time we were there i've been craving some jim

Kathleen Shannon 1:06:39
i mean we get real witchy whenever we're in new orleans oh

Emily Thompson 1:06:42
yeah i need i need some i finished my candle recently if you'd like to come come with shopping with us you're more than welcome

Unknown Speaker 1:06:53
it's gonna be fun

Kathleen Shannon 1:06:55
okay christy thank you so much for joining us on this episode where can people find out more about seeing us adventure pop

Kristy Oustalet 1:07:03
well venture pop conference comm slash being boss is you guys's landing page which gives you gives you guys some credit which is great for all the being boss listeners to go through or the main page is being a venture pop conference.com that has all the info on who else is speaking i know you guys mentioned on being in a mastermind with tara gentilly so she will be on stage i am super excited about that one taking her which shopping with me oh

Kathleen Shannon 1:07:28
she is one of the smartest business people i know i especially for small creative entrepreneurs i have learned so much working with her and she gives it all away for free i mean if you just read her blog post and watch her talks you're gonna get everything you need to know about rocking out your business from her

Emily Thompson 1:07:51
yeah i'm excited too i'm excited she's gonna be there and um who else is anybody else speak

Kathleen Shannon 1:07:58
shinae howard oh

Kristy Oustalet 1:07:59
that's may love shinae um yeah i actually um i'm really excited about sinead so i don't know if you guys have heard her 100 people project but it's like her a reinvention of the target market the dreaded target market exercise which is brilliant so yeah so i mean like i think that that and terrigen tilly i mean those two like are worth the price of the ticket alone um you know it's me and kathleen well yeah understood that's understood

Emily Thompson 1:08:35
and then you will also be able to be in new orleans with us and then the meetup the being balls meetup so all of our listeners come to old hotel 77 their bar was that compare that pong compare like

Kathleen Shannon 1:08:48
oh i will never be able to say that right

Emily Thompson 1:08:50
don't ask kathleen the name of the bar it won't be cute wait actually you guys not finalized yet

Kristy Oustalet 1:08:56
do i will be it will be okay this weekend so do you guys know that um you know who who runs the restaurant and compare the pet chef nina from um what's the oh titian

Unknown Speaker 1:09:11
master sheet

Kristy Oustalet 1:09:12
other one really big one iron chef

Kathleen Shannon 1:09:16
no not iron chef the one with tom colicchio

Kristy Oustalet 1:09:21
anyway she was a fan favorite she is the head chef at capella pet

Unknown Speaker 1:09:24
nice yeah i wonder if we do a podcast and ride with her

Emily Thompson 1:09:28
i also want to bash guys let's like what if i run into john bash again

Unknown Speaker 1:09:35
again you did

Emily Thompson 1:09:37
have i told you the story

Kristy Oustalet 1:09:38
i thought i thought it was like a like a manifestation kind of thing

Emily Thompson 1:09:42
not like twice in my life yeah i well right in a way yeah so when i was in chicago two years ago dave and i were walking down the street and we're like at a stop like crossroads or whatever who and i look over and he's sitting at A restaurant and like, looks at me and I flipped my shit. Like I had a moment of Oh my god, he saw it happen. Um, David had no idea who I was talking about. And so we stopped there and had had lunch I had the best french fries of my life, which if you know me, french fries are a total thing. And then, last year about this time, I was in Florence, like my hometown, Florence, Alabama. And a friend of mine wanted me to go to Billy Reed, which is like a fashion. He's a fashion designer, his headquarters are in Florence, and wanted me to go to Billy Reed because some chef was there signing cookbooks. And I was like, okay, like, Whoa, because he was like, they'll have Gumbo and I'm like in, so I go, I didn't get any gumbo, but it was john Besh. I had him like because the trade off Fuck, right.

Kathleen Shannon 1:10:44
I hope to run into Norman Rita's from The Walking Dead. He hangs out in New Orleans and I hope that my tongue runs into his mouth that's my goal. My conference goal for venture pop 20

Kristy Oustalet 1:10:58
There we go. do my best to deliver I can't make any promises.

Kathleen Shannon 1:11:02
Right celebrity sightings, some strings knit celebrity makeout celebrity

Emily Thompson 1:11:06
makeup These aren't sightings in strikeouts. Alright, perfect. I'm excited about venture pop. Thank you for coming to chat with us. Sure hope lots of bosses come to venture pop because they want to hang out with you guys.

Kristy Oustalet 1:11:19
Yeah, and all the rest of this anyway, didn't get into all the speakers. But there's a lot more speakers there on the website. So many great topics that are gonna totally, you know, resonate with your audience too, I'm sure.

Kathleen Shannon 1:11:30
And if you can't attend, just be sure to budget it into your next year at least to attend at least one conference or retreat or boss vacation or venture pop 2017 because it is so good for your business. It's so good for your soul to go meet some other bosses IRL, a man dang it.

Emily Thompson 1:11:53
Hey there web design bosses, Emily here and in case you're unaware my main hustle for the past six years has been as a web designer for creatives who want to start an online business. It's been a fun ride. And I've grown my web design business in Detroit Bob Murphy from scratch from a one woman show trying to make ends meet to a small online agency with a small team making a big impact for our dream clients. I know what you struggle with managing clients making deadlines scope creep. I've worked hard to build a business that is easy to run and that lets me focus on what I'm best at. So if you dream of having systems in place to help you better manage your projects, your clients and your time. I am here to help check out my free training videos for web designers at being boss club slash indie for some insights to help you better manage your web design business so you can get back to doing the work you love. That's being boss club slash Andy. I in the IE, I hope to see you there.

Kathleen Shannon 1:12:52
Thank you for listening to being boss. Please be sure to visit our website at being boss club where you can find Show Notes for this episode. Listen to past episodes and discover more of our content that will help you be boss in work and life. If you liked this episode, please share it with a friend and show some love by leaving a rating and review on iTunes.

Emily Thompson 1:13:12
Do the work be boss and we'll see you next week.

Unknown Speaker 1:13:31
Without a knowledge bomb.

Unknown Speaker 1:13:36
Amen.

Unknown Speaker 1:13:39
That the worst advice?

Kathleen Shannon 1:13:41
No, that was the

Emily Thompson 1:13:43
perfect that was the mo were Kathleen and I looked at each other try to figure out who's going to talk about

Kathleen Shannon 1:13:48
Emily

Emily Thompson 1:13:53
or what I was going to say what were we talking about um