When I was invited to give a keynote presentation at Shelby Sapp's Women in Wealth Conference in Florida last week, I was humbled and excited…but not for reasons you might expect.

Shelby was a guest on my podcast, so her invitation came as a delight because she simply stated that she wanted to do something she had never seen before.

Her plan: To get 3,000 women in one room to talk about building pathways to wealth.

Money? Women? Connection? SIGN ME UP.

I’ll be sharing a full look behind the scenes of the event soon (I hired a videographer to document everything for a future podcast episode), but—for now—I simply wanted to share my three biggest takeaways.

This isn’t a review on the event itself, but observations watching Shelby create an all-female event, how she moved through her event, and who she was at the event.

To be clear: These are simply my observations of an 8-figure entrepreneur balancing the pull of a 3,000 person event, as well as the push of her larger-than-life ambition.

OBSERVATION ONE: You Create Your Version of Reality.

Want to know something truly crazy? Shelby and her two business partners have never attended a business or wealth conference. Ever. They simply decided to host this massive event and trust they would be able to figure it out.

They did.

Every woman I talked to or overheard in conversation was so impressed with the event, and their biggest highlight was simply being able to be 100% of themselves, dream big, and make connections that will change their lives and businesses.

OBSERVATION TWO: Clear Boundaries are Clear Kindness

I attended her “Old Money” one-day VIP mastermind before the Conference started. The event was four hours, and I assumed she would be hosting it all.

Instead, she did something brilliant…she invited her team members to speak about the structure of her business, and she only spoke about what she is world-class at: creating content and marketing her business.

Within her schedule throughout the entirety of the event, she prioritized her boundaries to ensure that she had enough focus and energy to execute on an event at this level.

She surrounded herself with her team and stayed completely on track to serve people in the audience without the apparent need to meet every woman in the room.

It was extraordinarily refreshing to see that she was choosing the good for the greatest amount of people and not falling into a story I've seen a thousand times from other event hosts, myself included.

There's a temptation to believe that people value one-on-one time with the host, and if they don't get it, it wasn't worth their investment.

But everything I have experienced, both as an event host and as an attendee, is that the value of the event is not from the host herself but from the connections and conversations from other people in the room.

Shelby understood this and gave herself space to stay focused and recharged, while putting the onus of value on the guests themselves.

It was a beautiful thing to see.

OBSERVATION THREE: You Don’t Need to Play by the Rules to Break Them

I've had the very fortunate honor of being a keynote speaker for business events around the world.

More often than not, I am the only female speaker and one of two people of color on the stage.

It's common for the largest events to attract the best speakers to talk about their entrepreneurial experience, but what I found particularly fascinating was that Shelby highlighted a lot of new voices in the space.

Shelby is in her mid-20s, and half of the speakers were in that range as well.

It was refreshing to hear new perspectives and get different insights, but the highlight, of course, was that every speaker was female.

That was the first time I've ever experienced it, and it was nothing short of incredible.

Most conferences look and feel the same, but Shelby didn't play by anybody else's rules, mostly because she didn't know them.

Put a pink Rolls Royce and a pink Porsche in the middle of a gala event adjacent to a brightly illuminated dance floor while being served champagne? Of course.

Get a massage or a blowout on your downtime? Don’t mind if I do.

Dress up in Great Gatsby attire to network with other women? It's the new norm.

Sometimes not knowing the rules of the conference game is the best way to break them.

Like always, I create these notes to put you in the room right next to me.

As the business world changes for females, my goal is to share everything I know, give you an insider's look, and invite you to break the rules in your own way.

Here’s To Your Wealth,
j*