Hammersmith Support’s founder, Heather Locke, was a speaker at the 2023 BrainTrustLIVE event this past week in Nashville, Tennessee! The annual conference is “designed to bring women business owners, and those who champion them, together to build new relationships, inspire personal and professional growth, and learn from successful women in business.”
This year’s event theme was Reframe Your Failures, which featured 13 speakers who all brought their own stories of failure that led them to their success today.
About BrainTrust
Founded in 2019 by Sherry Deutschmann, BrainTrust describes itself as “a collective of diverse women business owners intent on using our businesses to build financial independence, wealth, and influence. We use our BrainTrust—our aggregated experience, expertise, access to networks, markets, and capital—to help one another scale. By committing to dedicated monthly meetings, members exercise discipline and learn to quickly process issues and opportunities, identify blind spots and pitfalls, develop strategies, and celebrate successes.”
“Courage allows a successful woman to fail and learn powerful lessons from the failure so that in the end, she didn’t fail at all.” –Sherry Deutschmann
The Speakers
BrainTrustLive was emceed by Dew Tinnin, founder of Skillway, a sales education company that coaches and trains sales professionals. The opening remarks were given by BrainTrust founder Sherry Deutschmann, and the additional speakers included:
Michelle Tunno Buelow, founder of Bella Tunno, speaking about being a “Student of the Storm.”
Minette Norman, founder of Minette Norman Consulting, whose speech was entitled “When One Door Slams Loudly in Your Face….”
Jenny Zhu, founder of Lush Décor Home, spoke of “Turning Obstacles into Opportunities: Jenny’s Entrepreneurial Journey to Innovation, Resilience, and Success.”
Erin Baler, co-founder of 4Patriots, speech “Fail Forward: Using the Power Challenges to Ignite Change.”
Heather’s TESS Talk
Heather was one of four TESS Talk speakers at the event. TESS Talks are the female version of a TED Talk. The name is based on the Urban Dictionary of the name Tess, describing a spunky, smart, fun woman that everyone wants to be around.
Hammersmith’s CEO’s talk titled “Take the Risk or Lose the Chance” was where Heather told her true story of how the biggest risk she took was not starting her business but growing her business and turning it into a successful company beyond just a stressful job for herself.
Additional TESS Speakers
The other three TESS Talk speakers included Deanna Meador of Couture Technologies, Nicole Delger of Studio Delger, and Domonique Townsend of We Optimize Work. Their stories ranged from how they successfully funded their start-ups to really understanding your vision.
The keynote speakers, twin sisters Chanda Bell and Christa Pitts, founders of the Lumistella Company, discussed how their family tradition of their parents moving a tiny Christmas Elf around the house created the household name of the Elf on the Shelf. Their road to success was paved with rejection from publishers, but their tenacity to bring the magic they experienced as children to the world won out!
Thank You BrainTrust
It was an honor to be part of this event. We were so inspired by these women, and we hope to inspire the next generation to push limits and follow their dreams! To learn more about BrainTrust, visit their website at https://ourbraintrust.org