Creating Value: What a $1200+ Conference Taught Me

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Dose of Prose

Ambition starts here.

Let’s talk about value creation. In school, I was taught that the foundation and/or purpose of business is to create value. This is a fundamental, yet commonly misunderstood concept because many people assume that the goal of a business is to make profit. Of course businesses want to make money, but how do they do it? What makes the business successful? It all starts with value creation. The purpose of business is to create and deliver value in an efficient and effective way that generates profit. As a result, it is imperative to define, manage and measure value for yourself, your customers and your business.

Today’s post is inspired by one of you (Thanks for the suggestion – keep ’em coming!), who suggested I talk about knowing your value when job searching and in the workplace. This is difficult to do, especially if you’re struggling to find yourself or have issues with self-worth. Let’s dig deeper into the meaning of value to give you some perspective….

Value can be exchanged (ie. selling/purchasing a product), perceived (ie. customer’s perception of usefulness of the product), or produced (ie. doing an act for another person, such as opening the door for someone). Essentially, value can be anything and is subjective. However, the real challenge here is determining your value and being able to translate that value in a way where it is received by others. How do you do it?

I recently had the opportunity (thank you Heartbeat Team for the ticket!) to attend Girlboss Rally – a two day women’s conference, curated by the company Girlboss, a professional network for ambitious women. From hands-on workshops to eye-opening panels, tons of networking opportunities and more, this conference was an experience that anyone could benefit from. The underlying theme of the conference centered around value, and I was able to learn about value from various perspectives. Since this post is all about value creation, I thought it would be appropriate to share the insights and key takeaways I gained from the conference, in the hopes that it will help you further understand your value, both personally and professionally.

What I Learned

The first panel discussion I attended was called Money Matters: Yes, It’s (Deeply) Personal. The discussion was focused on personal financing as well as the emotions and hushed conversations surrounding money.

This panel enabled me to truly dive deep into my relationship with money and reflect on my personal financial goals that I want to achieve. When I first decided to major in Finance, I felt overwhelmed and fell into imposter syndrome (I still do sometimes tbh). It took me a long time to understand financial jargon and I was definitely intimidated by my peers who seemed to just ‘get it’ or had previous exposure to finance already because of their parents/family members (a luxury that I did not have). However, with a lot of hard work, practice, research and curiosity, I was able to learn and get a better understanding of how the world of finance works.

There is still a huge learning curve for me, especially when it comes to personal financing, but after listening to this panel, I learned to not be afraid of money. I felt encouraged about building wealth, which begins internally. In order to grow your net worth you have to look inside yourself. When you close the door to your house, only you knows what goes on at home. Therefore, if you want to start making money (I don’t mean enough money to survive, I’m talking about wealth and disposable income), you have to come from a place of aspiration, not deprivation. Appreciate what you have, focus on the lifestyle you want to achieve and take the necessary steps to reach that destination.

Money is a language, we just don’t have a Rosetta Stone for it.

Nicole Lapin

This is the key to financial success my friends – all you have to do is learn the language of money. Crack the code. Although this panel was more motivational than insightful, each of the speakers had incredible stories that we could all learn from. If you’re serious about wanting to change your finances, then I would definitely reach out to them. I have listed their names and Instagram handles below so you can learn more about what they do and how they can help you.

Speakers: Arlan Hamilton, Gaby Dunn, Ramona Ortega, Nicole Lapin, Yunah Lee (no public IG, CFO at GOAT)

Growth Hacking 101: How to Jumpstart Your Digital Biz

This session was lead by photographer and business strategist, Jasmine Star, who discussed digital growth tactics you can implement into your marketing strategy in order to reinvigorate a stagnant audience (think email lists and Instagram followers). For those of you who have a digital business and use IG with intention, keep reading, but if you are just on IG without purpose, you might want to skip ahead to a different part of this blog post.

The main takeaway I gained from this workshop was that in order to use IG for purpose and profit, the secret formula is to focus on the one. This means to create content and provide services that attract and retain one follower/customer. You cannot please everyone, but all it takes is just one person for your business to take off. How? Through word of mouth. That one person you touched will tell another person who will tell another and before you know it, you will have a growing, engaging audience.

Another key ingredient to killing it in the social media space is to look closely at how you are presenting your content. You want to have an bio that includes: 1) your title – aka what you do/who you are, 2) benefits for your followers (what your IG account can do for those who follow you and 3) your location, contact info and link to your digital business or wherever you want to drive your traffic towards.

The type of captions you have under your content can also greatly impact the engagement of your audience. You want captions with a hook, insight and call to action. In other words, you want to say something that will draw your followers in, give them valuable information and entice them to engage with you.

Get Paid: Negotiation The Salary You Deserve

The final speaker series I attended for the day was all about salary negotiation. In grad school, I took a negotiation and deal-making course so I was interested to see how this workshop would compare to what I learned in the classroom. The discussion was lead by Alexandra Dickinson, Membership Strategy Lead at SoFi, a financial company that assists you with borrowing, investing, spending and protecting your money.

FYI, equal pay is still not equal. Women ‘ask for more’ just as often as men do – they just don’t get it. If you don’t know, now you know: negotiation is an art and a science. As an African American female in finance, there are so many cards stacked against me from the start – so I have to work twice as hard to receive half as much as my Caucasian male counterparts. This is why it is essential for me to show up prepared and advocate for myself in a way that is impossible for others to ignore.

Why does Wonder Woman fly? Because she’s a superhero. Superheroes have superpowers, nobody questions that because it’s a fact. From this session, I was challenged to think about my superpower. What value do I create and save that makes me worthy of a raise?

Speech is silver. Silence is golden.

How much would you pay to have an awkward conversation? Negotiating a salary or even discussing your salary with a co-worker can be uncomfortable, but truly, what is the worst that can happen, besides an awkward conversation? When it comes to actually negotiating your salary, it is essential to do your due diligence beforehand so you have a idea of the appropriate range of salary you wish to negotiate. You don’t want to give a number that is too high nor too low, so it is essential to research a pay scale that is reasonable for the position you hold or the role you want. If you are applying to a job online and are asked for an ideal salary, be sure to put the range you find as your answer. You always want to give a broad range online so that when you make it to the interview process, you can start negotiating.

In addition to researching online (payscale.com and salary.com are some helpful tools to get you started), you could also have that awkward conversation I mentioned earlier with one of your co-workers and just ask them what they make. That question could be phrased something like this:

Hey! I believe you have some information that could help me. I’m doing research because I plan to negotiate my salary. Would you mind sharing your ballpark salary with me?

Okay, so you’ve defined your value and completed your due diligence, now it’s time to negotiate. In the workshop, we were taught a 7 word sentence that in my opinion is clear, concise and consistent. It gets the job done. Here it is:

I would like a salary of X.

That’s all you have to say. Nothing more, nothing less. Oh and that X value? Feel free to round up while you’re at it. 😉

What I Wore

The Girlboss team actually sent out a helpful dress code guide for the conference, which gave me inspo on what to wear. Most attendees opted for business casual with a personal flair, otherwise known as ‘snappy casual.’ I wore a snakeskin printed silk blouse (not my finest decision since it was incredibly hot outside) tucked into high-waisted chambray capri pants with espadrilles to match. I kept my accessories minimal and simple, with gold accents. I brought a beige blazer in case I was cold inside or needed to look more professional for the networking aspect of the conference. Overall, my look was versatile and comfortable, which was much needed since I did a ton of walking.

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What it’s Worth

I’m sure you looked at the title of this post and immediately wondered if this conference is worth the price. Obviously I attended the conference for free, but in the spirit of talking about value, I want to give you my authentic opinion on how I felt about Girlboss Rally. The ticket pricing ranges from $300-700/per day, depending on how early you grab your tickets (pricing is based on a tiered system), the type of tickets you get and where the conference is held (Girlboss Rally was in NYC and this year it was in LA). They also have scholarships and discounted pricing available for certain groups of people. However, putting all of that aside, the fact of the matter is that, the cost to attend Girlboss Rally is not cheap by any means. So, the million dollar (or 1200 dollar to be exact) question is: is it worth it? My answer, not really.

I thought the conference was very well put together and organized. They also had free food and gave us a goodie bag with lots of deals from their sponsors and vendors (ie. free samples, discounted merchandise, etc.) The speakers were top notch and the overall set up of the conference was great. Their attention to detail was on point – you didn’t even feel like you were on a college campus, because they completely transformed the classrooms (where the workshops were held) into a setup that felt inviting and professional. However, I didn’t have a lot of interest in most of the workshops/panel discussions that were held. Most of them were either branding or self-help related. The ones that were focused on the topics I was interested in (finance/business) were good, but not great. some of the information I already learned in school or just already knew from outside research.

In my opinion, the theme of the conference was very ‘pep-talk ish,’ which is nice, but I don’t want to just be motivated or encouraged to do something, I want to know exactly HOW to accomplish it. Other perks that were included in the conference, like resume building and free Linkedin headshots, were cool, but not necessarily helpful for me personally. There were some reputable companies there (ie. Goldman Sachs, Bird, WeWork, Soulcycle, etc.) during the employer networking portion of the conference; however, the conversations with the representatives felt pointless, because it wasn’t clear to me exactly why they were there. Some were just promoting their product, while others were hiring, but for very limited and specific roles. Most of the time I was just referred to their website, when I really wanted to exchange contact info and resumes. It wasn’t completely a waste though, because I was able to get some valuable contacts. After the conference was over, I was invited to join the Girlboss Community, which is basically like a Linkedin meets Facebook for millennial businesswomen, which I thought was a value-add.

Ultimately what I’m trying to say is, the conference was good, not great. Most importantly, it was HOT. Most of the events were outside and on the grass, I’m not sure if this set up was different in the past, but the heat certainly did not improve my experience. Overall it was okay. I think it’s one of those things where you get out what you put in. I tried to make the most of my time and I’m glad I had the opportunity to go. However, if I had to pay for the conference, I would be willing to pay, but definitely not the current price point.

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I hope this blog post not only gave you insight into Girlboss and the Girlboss Rally, but also, I hope you were able too take a step back and take a look at your personal and professional value. Do you know your value? On you on track to reaching the goals and lifestyle you want for yourself? I’m still learning and discovering the answers to those questions for myself every day. It’s a journey, friends.

Let’s chat! If you have anything you want to share about value creation and/or any of the topics discussed at the Girlboss Rally, let’s have a conversation. Leave a comment below, I’d love to hear your thoughts!

-Kaamilah