BrainTrustLIVE 2024
Fail Forward
October 17, 2024
You’re Invited!
BrainTrustLIVE is our annual conference 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.
The best part – you don’t have to be a member of BrainTrust to join in on the fun! If you’re looking to develop your business – or your career – this conference is designed for you.
You’re Invited!
BrainTrustLIVE is our annual conference 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.
The best part – you don’t have to be a member of BrainTrust to join in on the fun! If you’re looking to develop your business – or your career – this conference is designed for you.
Failure isn’t a dirty word
Failures are inevitable in business and in life, but how you view those failures is what differentiates a successful business owner from an average one. BrainTrustLIVE 2024 is about seeing our failures as opportunities to learn and grow, embracing them instead of allowing them to discourage and dishearten us.
Our speakers will share their misfires, imperfections, and even defeat, yet these women, despite – and because of – their missteps, are among the most successful entrepreneurs in their industries. Let their stories inspire you to triumph over your own mistakes, growing even stronger and more resilient.
Connect
We believe in strength in numbers. BrainTrustLIVE gives you the opportunity to aggregate experiences, expertise, access to networks, markets, and capital – to help you scale.
Learn
BrainTrustLIVE speakers are nationally recognized entrepreneurs who’ve built extraordinary companies. Their stories, and those of the women you’ll meet there will give you insights for your career and yourself.
Grow
Reframe your perceptions of failure through stories of struggles and mistakes from our speakers. Use their losses and ultimate triumphs to tackle your fears and embrace failure as an opportunity to grow.
Line-up
Keynote Speakers
Chanda Bell & Christa Pitts
Founders and Co-ceos
The Lumistella Company
Imagine being applauded for “revolutionizing Christmas.” This is precisely what the twin sisters and trailblazing entrepreneurs Christa Pitts and Chanda Bell have been celebrated for.
The sisters are founders and co-CEOs of The Lumistella Company, home to the author-published phenomenon, The Elf on the Shelf: A Christmas Tradition, and its whimsical world of additional stories.
In 2005, with deeply rooted family values, they united with their mother to bring their cherished family tradition to the world. Refusing to accept rejection from established publishers, they risked it all and formed their own publishing company. Their tenacity paid off, and today their assortment of books and products are consistent bestsellers recognized by The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, and Publishers Weekly.
Keynote Speaker
Amy Buckner Chowdhry
CEO & CO-Founder
AnswerLab
Amy founded AnswerLab twenty years ago to help the world’s leading brands create digital experiences people love. As CEO, she focuses on the company’s vision for placing humans at the center of innovation, while also building a thriving and inclusive work culture. AnswerLab has become the trusted insights partner for Fortune 500 companies like Google, Meta, Amazon, and American Express.
Amy’s personal mission is to create a more inclusive, safe, and just world, leading AnswerLab to commit $1 million to this work during the pandemic. As part of this commitment, AnswerLab launched the Human-Centered Work Project, a collection of research-based insights, resources, and tools to create work experiences that work for everyone.
Led by Amy, AnswerLab has become known as an innovative workplace and has been honored with numerous awards for its growth and company culture. For three consecutive years, the company earned a spot on Fortune’s List of Top 25 Companies to Work For. And for seven successive years, AnswerLab was listed on the Inc. 500/5000 and the San Francisco Business Times Top 100 fastest-growing companies.
Amy has been recognized as an Inc 200 Top Female Founder, one of Fortune’s 10 Most Promising Women Entrepreneurs, an EY Entrepreneurial Winning Woman, and a San Francisco Business Times’ Forever Influential Women Business Leader. In 2022, Amy guided AnswerLab through a transaction process, bringing on Shamrock Capital as a Private Equity partner.
Outside of AnswerLab, Amy launched and leads her family foundation which focuses on women’s rights, food insecurity, climate education, and social justice.
BrainTrustLIVE Speakers
EMCEE
Dew Tinnin
Head Coach & CEO
Skillway
Dew Tinnin a.k.a “Sales Coach Dew,” is the Head Coach and CEO behind Skillway. Dew’s mission to help sales professionals crush their goals—and love their work—is the basis of Skillway’s approach.
In 2017, Dew founded Skillway with her husband to develop tailor-made coaching and consulting solutions for sales professionals and organizations seeking to build relationship-based businesses.
Dew honed her skills in the finance and mortgage industry as a top producer and branch manager. As a national sales trainer for Wells Fargo, she educated and motivated thousands of salespeople.
Dew has been a full-time sales coach and consultant since 2011, delivering game-changing results for hundreds of clients from companies ncluding Facebook, Bridgestone, Salesforce, and Raymond James. She has spent over 5,000 hours in one-on-one coaching sessions and now primarily works with CEOs, multi-million dollar producers, and the Skillway team of coaches. Dew also shares her expertise and positivity as a guest speaker at seminars and keynotes nationwide.
Dew is one of the original members of BrainTrust, having joined when it first started in 2019. Her journey is a testament to the effectiveness of the BrainTrust process. She dedicated the time and effort required for the Vault™ process to work, and she’s enjoyed the advantages of significantly expanding her business.
Moderator
Lisa Schiffman
Retired Director
EY (Ernst & Young LLP)
Lisa retired from EY in March 2024 after more than three decades of strategic leadership, including holding senior management roles and leading high-performing teams globally, nationally, and regionally.
As a member of practice leadership since 2007, Lisa helmed the brand, marketing, and communications team responsible for Americas EY Private. This multibillion-dollar, multidisciplinary practice accounts for a third of EY global revenue and serves some of the world’s most acclaimed enterprises — high-growth entrepreneurs and mid-market businesses including venture capital and private equity portfolio companies, pre-IPO companies, and family enterprises. This team also produces EY’s renowned CEO programs: EY Entrepreneur Of The Year®, EY Entrepreneurial Winning Women™, and Strategic Growth Forum®.
A natural intrapreneur and change agent, Lisa devised and globally led EY Entrepreneurial Winning Women™, a pioneering program that grew from a pilot in 2008 to today supporting the growth ambitions of nearly 1,000 women founders, generating employment, creating personal wealth, and strengthening communities in 60+ countries. More recently, Winning Women became the blueprint for Entrepreneurs Access Network, an EY program advancing the interests of founders of color in the US and Canada.
A passionate advocate for gender parity, in 2014, Lisa formulated and led EY Women. Fast Forward, the firm’s global accelerator to advance gender parity, by connecting all EY’s women’s initiatives in one holistic worldwide platform that is still going strong today.
Giulia Fantacci
CEO & Founder
GF Immigration Law
Julia is a passionate human rights advocate and the visionary CEO and Founder of GF Immigration Law (GFI). Julia has merged her business acumen with her mission to fight for the undocumented community, focusing on humanitarian immigration, particularly helping those who have been exploited in a job or by smugglers, as well as victims of domestic violence and other crimes.
Julia’s entrepreneurial spirit and client-centered approach have driven GFI’s rapid growth, quickly establishing it as one of the largest humanitarian immigration law firms in the country within just a few years. Under her leadership, with her incredible team at GFI, hard work, and impeccable track record, GFI has changed thousands of lives throughout the nation, paving a path to legal residency for their clients.
Julia is also deeply committed to providing pro bono support to immigrant communities across the country, not only through her work but also by supporting numerous non-profit organizations.
Jill Van Gyn-Carr
Former Founder
Fatso Peanut Butter
Jill Van Gyn-Carr is the recently exited founder of Fatso Peanut Butter. Jill is an award-winning entrepreneur and philanthropist who was BC’s Businesswoman of the Year, in 2020, landed her company on Canada’s Fastest Growing Start-Ups in 2020, and joined the EY Entrepreneurial Winning Women program in 2021. Jill sold her company in 2023 and spent time raising her young family before joining Rifflandia Entertainment Company as the Director of Brand and Business Development. She is an active advocate for a range of social justice issues and has been a board director for Peers Victoria, a sex work rights organization in Victoria BC, for the past 5 years. Jill is an entrepreneur at heart and is currently plotting her next business venture off the side of her desk.
Milan Harris
Founder & Owner
Milano Di Rouge
Milan Harris, also known as Milan Rouge, is the founder and owner of the 8-figure luxury
streetwear brand Milano Di Rouge. She is a serial entrepreneur, a real estate investor, an author, and a philanthropist.
Milan launched Milano Di Rouge, which stands for “Making Dreams Reality,” to honor her love for fashion with two shirts and a dream. In the early days, she would drive her 2009 Altima coupe around the Tri-state area to sell her shirts.
Today, Milano Di Rouge is an all-size-inclusive multi-million-dollar one of a kind fashion
brand. Milan is the Founder of The Womanaire Club and The Mamanaire Club, two outlets she
created to provide resources to boss women and boss moms like herself to help them continue to elevate.
Milan is the recipient of a Community and Civic Engagement Award from the NAACP
Philadelphia Chapter for the outstanding work she has done to uplift the community
throughout the years.
She is also the co-owner of College Boy Cheesesteaks, the only authentic Philadelphia
cheesesteak truck you can find in Los Angeles.
Shalini Bahl, Ph.D
Founder of Know Your Mind LLC, Mindfulness Researcher, Consultant, and Author of “Return to Mindfulness”
Shalini Bahl, Ph.D., is an award-winning author, researcher, certified mindfulness teacher, and consultant. Named one of the Powerful Women of the Mindfulness Movement by Mindful.org, Shalini has dedicated over 15 years to developing evidence-based mindfulness solutions for businesses, educators, and political clients.
As the Founder of Know Your Mind LLC, Shalini is committed to making mindfulness skills widely accessible. Her teachings blend timeless wisdom with insights from neuroscience, psychology, and a human-centered approach. Having lived and worked in India, Kuwait, and the USA, Shalini deeply understands each client’s unique journey.
A former entrepreneur, business professor, and elected municipal leader, Shalini brings real-world experience to her work as a mindfulness teacher. Her pioneering research has won awards from The American Marketing Association, and her guided meditations have over 80,000 plays on Insight Timer and Simple Habit app.
Shalini is also a TEDx speaker, sharing her insights on mindfulness with diverse audiences. Her bestselling book, Return to Mindfulness, offers a playful yet systematic path to foster eight key mindfulness skills for personal fulfillment, effective leadership, and positive global impact. It recently won the International Impact Book Award.
With infectious energy and enthusiasm, Shalini empowers individuals to disrupt default thinking and live with greater choice, purpose, and impact. Her love for life and mindfulness shines through in every aspect of her work.
Knowing Where To Focus As The Founder Panel
How well you recognize and manage your company’s growth drivers from one stage to the next is one of the most important jobs of a founder. This conversation will detail how two founders of very different kinds of companies identify where to prioritize their time as their businesses evolve, how they adjust if they get off course and how this process aligns with their development as leaders.
Amy Green
Founder & CEO
Nashville Collaborative Counseling Center & Mamaya Health
Amy Lynn Green is a distinguished clinical social worker and entrepreneur, holding multiple certifications and renowned for her contributions to the field of maternal mental health. With over a decade of experience, Amy is the Founder and CEO of both Nashville Collaborative Counseling Center (NCCC) and Mamaya Health.
Amy’s educational foundation includes an MSW from the University at Buffalo, focusing on trauma-informed care and human rights, and certificates in Integrated Care Management and Maternal Mental Health.
Residing in Nashville, Tennessee, Amy shares her life with her partner Isaac and their daughters, Kinley and Quinn. Her personal experiences with pregnancy loss have profoundly influenced her professional path, fueling her passion for accessible mental healthcare.
Deeannah Seymour
CEO & Co-Founder
pH-D Feminine Health
Deeannah Seymour is CEO and Co-Founder of pH-D Feminine Health, one of the top-selling feminine care brands that pioneered a whole new category in the retail industry. pH-D is an independently held, female-owned and female-run company and operates with a mission to reduce the stigmas surrounding vaginal health and equip women with greater options to take control of their vaginal wellness. Their holistic products are sold at every major US and Canadian retailer, in over 50,000 stores. One bottle of their #1 Doctor Recommended Boric Acid Vaginal Suppositories is sold every 15 seconds. She is a winner of EY Entrepreneur of the Year, a member of the EY Entrepreneurial Winning Women™ 2023 Class, Drug Store News Top Women in Retail, her company was selected by WPO and JP Morgan Chase as one of the 50 Fastest Growing Women-Owned Companies, and pH-D has been on the INC. 5000 list for the last four years.
TESS Talk™ Speakers
Think of a TESS Talk™ like a TED Talk, but with a bit more sass and a lot more heart. According to Urban Dictionary, a Tess is “The perfect girl – spunky, sassy, and never lets anyone push her around.” In true Tess fashion, our TESS Talks feature incredibly successful BrainTrust members sharing messages that MUST be heard. Each Tess will have 10 minutes to inspire, dazzle, and move us with their stories. Let’s meet this year’s TESS Talk™ Speakers!
Kait Feriante
Founder & CEO
Redwood Literacy
Kait Feriante is the Founder and CEO of Redwood Literacy, Board President and Co-Founder of Redwood Schools, and the founding instructor for the Redwood at Lawndale Program. Growing up in Europe from age 5 to 15, she experienced the richness that comes from experiencing everyday life in various cultures across her foundational years. Returning to the States as a teenager, she dropped out of high school after her sophomore year and started community college at 16. She graduated from Illinois State University in 2011 with her Learning Behavior Specialist Bachelor’s degree. Between 2012 and 2018, she worked as a teacher at Chicago Public School and Noble Charter School, teaching on Chicago’s south and west sides. In 2018, Kait founded Redwood Literacy with a deep desire to see the evidence-based reading intervention she had seen change the course of many of her student’s lives and become more widely available to any student who needed it. She and her partner have three children themselves. As educators and parents, they know how transformative a positive, inspiring, and effective educational experience can be for kids and how frustrating it is to watch your child or student consistently be misunderstood and denied the support they need to succeed. They wanted to create a place specifically for folks with dyslexia, where they felt like they belonged, were understood, and were given the tools to be successful. Kait is on the Everyone Reading Illinois Board of Directors and a member of the International Association of Dyslexia. She has also appeared in several publications, including Chalkbeat and Britannica, and is a finalist for the NEXT Growth Entrepreneur of the Year Award from the Nashville Entrepreneur Center.
Deborah Vahle
Realtor/Partner
The CityLiving Group
Deborah Vahle is a seasoned Realtor with The CityLiving Group in Nashville, specializing in short-term rentals and luxury residential real estate. Her mission is to empower women to build wealth through strategic real estate investments, using her deep knowledge of the Nashville market and a holistic, client-focused approach. With a background in Global Sourcing and expertise in negotiating high-value contracts, Deborah helps clients maximize their investments while ensuring their unique needs and goals are always at the forefront. She is also passionate about mentoring female entrepreneurs and fostering financial independence through real estate.
Sarah Olin
Founder/CEO
LUMO
Sarah Olin is the leading voice in professional coaching and organizational transformation for working parents. A true “leader of leaders,” Sarah has an innate ability to see powerful potential in people and a laser-like ability to cut through the messiness of life to get to the heart of a problem — and deliver mind-blowing, life-changing solutions.
With years of hands-on experience and a soul-level understanding of what parents need to thrive professionally, Sarah co-founded LUMO as the first and only of its kind: a partner to help progressive organizations support their employees in the transition to working parenthood, designed and led by true experts in leadership, professional development, and employee retention.
Trained by world-renowned leaders including Dr. Brené Brown and Mark Hunter, MCC, Sarah has over 10,000 hours of coaching and facilitation experience, is credentialed by the International Coach Federation (ICF), and is certified by Accomplishment Coaching. Her professional competence, proven leadership, and dedication to her craft have led her to serve as a senior advisor to top executives and an expert consultant in the professional services sector. She has coached leaders with the United Nations, Verizon, the NBA, Google, Duke Energy, Calvin Klein, and Bloomberg, among others. She’s been featured as a keynote speaker at Amazon’s first-ever International Working Moms’ Day, the NAPABA Convention, and the Care at Work Summit in NYC.
Regardless of the stage or space, Sarah pours love and humor into her work, helping individuals live their lives on purpose and teaching organizations how to show up for their people. Sarah is more than a leader — she’s a connector, a champion, and the mother of all motivators.
Agenda
October 17 – 10 am to 6:30 pm
9:00 am
Registration & Coffee
Sponsored by: Fieldcrest Ventures
10:00 am
Introduction and Opening Remarks
10:10 am
Mistakes to Mastery: Harnessing the Power of Failure
Speaker:
Giulia Fantacci
10:35 am
TESS Talk™: You’ve Got Everyone’s Back – Who’s Got Yours? Creating A New Support Paradigm
Speaker:
Sarah Olin
10:45 am
TESS Talk™: Money Matters – How I Learned the True Value of Money
Speaker:
Deborah Vahle
10:55 am
TESS Talk™: Don’t Waste a Good Crisis: Lessons Learned From the SOS
Speaker:
Kait Feriante
11:10 am
In Discomfort, A Gift: A Mindful Approach to Transform Challenges into Breakthroughs
Speaker:
Shalini Bahl
11:30 am
Lunch
12:15 pm
From the Bottom Up
Speaker:
Milan Harris
Moderator:
Lisa Schiffman
12:50 pm
Mock Vault™: A Look Inside BrainTrust
Laura Click
Dawn Cornelius
Nicole Delger
Nancy Everitt
Mika Moser
Diana Sanchez-Vega
1:40 pm
Break
2:00 pm
Panel: Knowing Where to Focus As the Founder
Speakers:
Amy Green
Deeannah Seymour
Moderator:
Lisa Shiffman
2:50 pm
Failure: I Built This House
Speaker:
Jill Van Gyn-Carr
3:35 pm
Break
4:00 pm
Control: It’s Not Only When You Start, It’s Also How You Finish
Speaker:
Amy Buckner Chowdhry
Moderator:
Lisa Schiffman
4:55 pm
Closing Remarks
5:00 pm
BrainTrust Reception!
Join us to close out the day with networking over cocktails and heavy hors d’oeuvres
Don’t just take our word for it…
Hear from last year’s attendees!
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BrainTrustLIVE 2024 is back at the beautiful Saint Elle this year!
