The main lobby at the College of the Canyons University Center was packed with over 100 women on Saturday for the annual Women’s Conference, with this year’s theme being “Flourish,” to inspire attendees on the importance of self-care and fostering resilience.
The entire audience was made up of women learning ways to elevate their personal and professional lives through informational sessions by experts in different fields including wellness, communication, personal development, personal branding, and more.
COC Chancellor Dianne Van Hook opened the event with a thank-you speech while guests enjoyed their breakfast during the rainy morning. Throughout her speech, she shared the importance of self-care and discussed how, as women, they all must take the time to give themselves that kind of care they naturally give to everyone else.
“It helps redefine on how you’re going to flourish and what you want to pursue in your life,” said Van Hook to all the women present. “When you plan your journey to flourish, you need to first of all define what it is that you need to succeed … What you tell yourself matters.”
Morning keynote speaker Karen Laos, a communication expert and confidence cultivator, came in with a confident positive energy that got the women present excited about what she was going to share.
Laos’ “is on a mission to eradicate self-doubt in 10 million women by giving them simple strategies to ask for what they want in the boardroom and beyond,” stated the conference program.
“Let me ask you, do any of these sound familiar? Self-doubt, perfectionism, people pleasing, imposter syndrome?”
Laos recalled a certain memory where her mother kept trying to get the bed sheets as even as possible. When she couldn’t, Laos as a young girl told her it was OK to leave the beds as is. Her mother responded, “If I don’t strive for perfection, it’ll just be mediocre.”
The simple action of failing to make the bed showed the women at the conference how easily their subconscious automatically begins to think of negative thoughts when they have failed at aiming for perfection. Laos emphasized how that can be a vicious cycle that all women need to break out of.
“We’ve all learned these things, and we’ve got to overcome them,” she said.
She also mentioned that many women are taught to apologize for simply existing. It manifests itself in responses such as “I’m sorry to bother you,” and “I’m sorry can I ask you a question.”
“Basically, what we’re saying is, ‘I’m sorry, I hate to take up space,” said Laos. “You all deserve to take up space … all these things that we say minimize our confidence and we need to be our best advocates.”
Throughout Laos’ segment she gave “confidence” keys, or advice surrounding communication habits and how changing small phrases or keeping longer eye contact during a conversation will boost an individual’s confidence and people will perceive them as being more self-assured.
Laos also said the process takes time, therefore it can be difficult to break from those habits but she encouraged women to “fake it ’til you make it,” she said.
Katina Powe was attending the annual conference for the second time. Last year she learned a lot about herself, and how she can further take care of herself and her development to feel empowered and confident, she said.
Her biggest takeaway during the morning segment was learning that all women ultimately have similar struggles. “You have that camaraderie and that unity. [I have] to pour into myself more in to give to my family, my friends and my job,” she said.
During the second segment of the daylong women’s conference, guests could select what informational session they’d like to attend to learn about complex topics essential for their evolution.
