When you hear the phrase “weekend retreat,” you probably imagine yoga, meditation, and some uninterrupted me time. While we’re all for that interpretation, we decided to flip the classic retreat idea on its head and deliver a thrilling weekend of taking bold strides straight into your fears.
On October 4, we kicked off our first ever Girlboss Retreat themed “Rise & Enterprise” with Cadillac. Sophia Amoruso and the smartest experts we know took to Las Vegas to host an intimate weekend of networking, boundary-pushing, and learning the essentials of entrepreneurship. Did we mention attendees also got to suit-up for an adrenaline-filled afternoon of driving fast cars on a performance racetrack in the desert? Suffice to say, it was pretty epic.
Want an inside peek at the entrepreneurial skill-building seminars that went on during the retreat? Take a look at some of the quotable moments, ahead.
Money Moves: Fundraising, Building Revenue and Placing Smart Bets with Erin Shipley
“We are living in the Golden Age of entrepreneurship. But the entire narrative around entrepreneurship is, ‘You have to go raise VC money.’ If you’re 99.5 percent of every company that has been created in this country, venture capital is absolutely the wrong kind of money to raise.”
“The kind of investment you want depends entirely on the kind of business you want to build. It starts with understanding funding options like friends and family round, grants, crowdfunding, angel investment, and even revenue.”
“Pitching is just storytelling. This is the most important thing for entrepreneurs to know. It’s literally telling the story of your business and painting a picture of your unique perspective on the industry that you’re trying to patch or transform with your business.”
“I often see businesses that fall into three primary categories: 1) You see a problem in the world, and your business is gonna be able to fix it. 2) You have a unique consumer insight. You see something that consumers want, and you are uniquely positioned to give it to them. 3) Or, you have some intuition about the future, the way the world is going to be in the next five years, in the next three years. And you’ve anticipated this, and you want to capitalize on this opportunity before anybody else does. I think these are three of the most powerful ways that you can position any idea that you have to raise money.”
“No matter what kind of funding you’re looking to raise, learn the language. Arm yourself with the actual vocabulary that will make you feel powerful in conversation with anyone who’s a prospective investor.”
“Learn to take rejection, because it’s inevitable. It’ll happen more times than you want. One of my favorite founders was rejected 150 times. She did 150 pitch meetings before she ended up with her first investor, and she is very successful and happy right now.”
“Rejection is data. Getting rejected early on [gives you] some of the most powerful information to help make your story stronger.”
Squashing Fear, Facing Doubt with Arian Simone
“I learned very quickly that what you visualize, materializes.”
“Have a gratitude chest. When things get hectic, I pull out my journal and start writing down all the things that I’m grateful for. I’m very big on energy and if I need to shift my energy, I make a moment of gratitude. I focus on all the things that I’m grateful for because what we focus on expands.”
“Your circle is very contagious as far as your energy is concerned. You want to make sure that you surround yourself with cheerleaders, people who encourage you, people who speak life into you, people who give you positive vibes and great energy. You want to make sure you’re around that at all times.”
“Make sure that you cancel out the negative thoughts that pop up. So, when negative things come into your head, say, OK, I need two positive thoughts. When I get a negative thought, I’m like, ‘Oh no mind. I control you, you don’t control me,’ and I tell myself two positive things to counteract that.”
“So much of what we fear is actually the fear of the unknown — things that have not taken place at all.”
The Practice: A Confidence Ceremony with Dr. Lauren Hazzouri
“Self-esteem is confidence in your own value. You have a place here. Your place here matters.”
“Shedding the impact of social norms takes much less effort and much more challenging old-school, misogynistic core beliefs that we’ve unknowingly internalized.”
“In order to increase esteem, we must identify the problem (social norms) and hop into the solution (ourselves!) You heard me. We are not the problem. We are, instead, the solution. It’s time for us to stop taking over where society leaves off with our negative self-talk, focus on fitting-in, and desire to be liked.”
