WOMEN’ S EMPOWERMENT DAY at Keller Williams

by Dominique Verrecchio

he idea of Women’s Empowerment Day at Keller Williams Philadelphia began with a text from Tori Harkins, the Director of Operations. A handful of women met in a conference room to brainstorm for vendors, speakers, and sponsors. It blossomed into a beautiful event of 56 women, two panels, seven panelists, and a fabulous keynote speaker.

Keller Williams Philadelphia is a full-service real estate brokerage, very education driven and focused on the comradery of its agents. This was the first time they hosted an event planned by women, sponsored by women, and women. “It’s obviously the most important event we’ll ever have,” Harkins said. The room was buzzing with eager, like-minded women, excited to learn from each other.

The first panel, moderated by Juliana Gainsburg of The Juliana Gainsburg Group, Kate Danese and Alyssa Chapnik of Guaranteed Rate Mortgage, discussed real estate investing strategies and things you hear about when you’re trying to break into the industry. When the question arose on how to navigate the male dominated industry, Chapnik advised participants to have the mindset that “you belong here.” should be the news,” Chapnik advised. “The news makes it sound like the world is ending and that’s not the case. Educate yourself. Know everything possible about this topic. You’re not going to know everything, but you have to learn as you go.” When asked what financial advice the panel would give their 20-year-old selves, Chapnik said it would be “to start sooner.” Danese explained that she got distracted and wishes that she didn’t. “I was flipping houses when I was 24 and that’s all I wanted to do. I got this coach that told me I could sell more, and

I somehow ended up building a retail team.” The second panel highlighted secrets to success. The idea came from Tess Adams, the pro-coach at Keller Williams Philadelphia and head of the Tess Adams Team. When discussing what this panel would look like, Adams said there should be no secrets. People talked about where they came from and how they reached their level of success, with no fluff. The panelists included Jeanne Whipple of Philly Home Girls, Rachel Klein of Miss Rachel’s Pantry, Lynette Medley of No More Secrets, health and wellness instructor Natalie Guss, and Katherine Koob, lawyer and COO of The Junior League. How do you define success? Guss says it’s “waking up in the morning and looking forward to today, going to sleep and knowing that I did my best and continuing to do my best.” Koob said it’s all about “doing better than I did before. Doing better than I did yesterday.” The subject of work-life balance was often discussed. It’s difficult to be focused on your career and the people who depend on you, many agreed. Danese spoke personally about the difficulties with balancing an intense day job and helping to run a non-profit. “It makes you feel terrible when people talk about work-life balance and talk about their labeled pantries and how they’re never late. That is not helpful. Be honest. Your family is really important to you, but so are these causes. On certain days, I’m focused on work. On other days, I’m focused on my kids and my household. It depends on what my week looks like. Look at it on a larger scale.”

Lynette Medley discussed the importance of her non-profit, No More Secrets, supporting Period Poverty. Their mission is to decrease menstrual health disparities in underserved communities through the eradication of societal stigmas and propagation of resources and scientifically based information.

Once again, the question regarding advice to your 20-year-old self circled the room. Koob said she would give herself a lot of advice. “She needed a lot of help,” she said of her younger self. “You’re tougher than you think you are” for starters. “I was one of those people who did all of the right things. Then I got into my first job and had a horrible round of discrimination about being a woman and being pregnant. People would hide my breast milk, take clients away from me, take pictures of my rear end. There was a long list of things that happened to me that I normalized as a part of being the deal. It wasn’t acceptable.” Koob said she knew she had to stop thinking situations like that were normal. She realized she had to become tougher when confronted with these situations for both herself and the people to follow.

The event’s keynote speaker, Jen Groover, is a one-woman brand, innovation guru, motivational speaker of the year, UN Delegate and author of The More Method and What If & Why Not She led participants through a journey of selfactualization. Her ideology includes naming three things that you want more of in life. “The beginning of self-awareness is self-reflecting,” she explained. Her burning question to her audiences is “what do you want more of?”

The event, which ended with a happy hour and vendor fair, left the group feeling empowered, attendees agreed, as they went their separate ways. The words of Jen Groover lingered in the air. “If someone is going to do it, why not me?” PRH

EVENT HOSTS: Keller Williams Philadelphia

PANELISTS AND MODERATORS:

Alyssa Chapnik, Kate Danese, Juliana Gainsburg, Tess Adams, Lynette Medley, Jeanne Whipple, Katherine Koob, Natalie Guss, and Rachel Klein.

KEYNOTE SPEAKER: Jen Groover

SPONSORS:

Guaranteed Rate, Orange Theory, Cutco, ShopElla Boutique, She Moves Philly, Philly IV Lounge, Myrtle & Magnolia, Philadelphia

RowHome Magazine, Miss

Rachel’s Pantry, Twinkle Photo Booth, Good Buy Supply, Beauty Counter, The Color Room, and Bird Watch.