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Let’s dive in…

Sorry for the delay today. But I think today’s edition will be worth the wait.

This week, we’re switching things up a bit. Resoundingly, all of you who completed the welcome registration form, let us know that “opportunities to build my network and connect with professionals with similar interests,” are most important to you.

We heard you!

Today, we’re going into The Green Room with Isis Breanna before she hits the stage at CultureCon NY this weekend. 

If you plan to be there (shout out to Kemi A., Ja’Toria H., and Merry N., who won our raffle tickets and will be there), we encourage you to pull up to her session and say hello!

For those of us who can’t make it, don’t worry, we got you! Keep reading to get the goods from the talk before the talk!

💚 Amy & Bryan

P.S. Who else from The Green Room community will be at CultureCon this weekend?

Zoom out: CultureCon NY

Our first newsletter covered CultureCon LA. Catch up here.

This weekend creatives are pulling up to New York for the second go-round of the “Biggest Creative Homecoming.”

The conference is growing even bigger. This year will be its first time hosting over the course of 2 days. They have added a Creative Careers Job Fair, a host of workshops, and what sounds like an epic block party sponsored by AmEx.

From its genesis, it’s always been a star-studded event with Spike Lee attending first. This weekend, everyone from Ziwe and Marsai Martin, to my best friend (she doesn’t know it yet) Issa Rae will be there.

Sponsored by Walmart, Google, TikTok, and so many more, sessions include topics like “Supercharging Creativity”, “Unlocking Creative Freedom Through Community”, and “Profit From Your Passion.”

Not gonna lie, I’m starting to get a little FOMO.

Zoom in: Meet Isis Breanna

Isis Breanna, an author, creative, and marketer (and I’m going to add jet setter because homegirl gets around and I’m not mad at it at all) will be gracing the stage at CultureCon to talk all things business and productivity. She began her entrepreneurial journey with a side hustle she launched while working as a burned-out kindergarten teacher. Over the years, her work has evolved to serve her clients in ways they need it most. Now, with her marketing expertise, she turns “Brains into Brands.” Isis has ADHD, so she focuses her work and instruction through that lens to help others experiencing the disorder as well.

As she prepares to speak at her second conference in 2 weeks, out of 4 in the span of a month, and navigate an out-of-country move with her husband, Isis graciously took the time to answer some of our questions. Through our limited email and voice note interactions, it’s very evident that Isis is a kind person who you’d definitely want to know. She’s a fan of DM’s, so if you simply want to connect with her, or turn your “Brain into a brand” then give her a shout. Let her know you heard about her in The Green Room.

She answered five questions for us and her responses (edited for clarity and brevity) will help you…

1. Consider when you should pivot

2. Navigate networking at a conference

3. Think about productivity as a creative or business owner with ADHD

Pivots and Passion

1. We are excited to have you in The Green Room before your talk at CultureCon NY, can you give us a sneak preview of some of the gems you might drop to whet the appetite of people looking forward to your session?

I am teaching business and productivity through the lens of how to take your big goals created at the beginning of each year and turn them into an actionable plan. I’ll break down how to go from having a strategy to creating a monthly plan, a day-to-day plan, and even hourly hacks that you and your team can use to stay productive and get things done.

I teach from my perspective of having a business strategy background and having ADHD. So it's really geared towards those people who always have these huge ideas or plans and feel like they can never really accomplish things in their business. They want to skyrocket their business but need some tangible tips and not just a big overview strategy.

2. We counted a total of 4 conferences that you are speaking at within a span of 30 days. Whew! Take us into what preparation for these appearances looks like. From content preparation to being in the green room on the day of, what steps do you take to ensure you show up for the audience and for yourself?

It has been a very busy season. But one thing that I love to do is plan things out as far in advance as possible. Of course, you don't always have that luxury with conferences, but this time, I was able to get everything I needed at least three months in advance. This allowed me to plan my life schedule. So I purposely slowed down this month. I cut back on my day-to-day work. I outsourced a lot of things to my team. I have a VA, I have a publicist, and I have someone who helps me with social content. The hardest thing and most time-consuming thing is actually researching audiences.

I probably am annoying to the talent coordinator for conferences, because I ask a lot of questions. I want to know…

• who's going to be in the room?

• have they polled their audience?

• what has the audience said in the comments section or DMS that I should mention in my presentation?

I do this for a couple of reasons:

• Although I've been teaching these things for quite a while, it's always important to gear it towards the audience. For example, for CultureCon, I'm giving an example of how a painter, can create a business strategy to take their idea of wanting to be an artist, share that online, and then create a day-to-day strategy by building a checklist of how to make this happen.

• I don't ever want the content I share for a conference to be solely for my ideal client (e.g., coaches and strategists). I want to make sure that every message I teach hits the heart of the person that is in the audience where they feel like “Oh my gosh, she taught this for me.” So, I do a lot of preparation leveraging audience research.

The fun parts of preparing for a conference are the outfits. I feel like it's a part of expressing myself as a creative. I style myself and do my own makeup. I pick outfits that coincide with the vibe and the culture of the company and the event that I'm speaking at. For example, for CultureCon, I went for a dress that feels very much like the CultureCon brand– deep teals, orange, and greens. You just have to see it, I think it is a very beautiful dress.

Lastly, I love to run through my presentation quite a few times, and any example questions that the audience may have. I'll write those up from my previous speaking engagements. And then I hit the ground running.

3. On your social channel, you discussed the many pivots you’ve experienced as an entrepreneur. Can you talk to us about these pivots– what were the indicators that a pivot was necessary, how did you validate your next direction, and what emotions did you experience during the transition?

I've pivoted quite a lot in my career. I feel like it's actually been more of a journey of evolution versus completely changing the things that I'm doing. I think this most recent pivot feels like the biggest shift.

When I started my business, I was selling Lightroom presets, which are basically photo filters. Then people started asking for help on how they could create their own to sell, so I started selling courses. Then, I went from selling courses on how to create your own Lightroom presets to selling courses on how to create courses. I always was led by my audience and the things that I enjoyed. As long as I loved it and my audience needed it, I was okay and ready to make that pivot.

Because I believe in serving people in the season that they are in, I ended up going back to school for marketing and got a few marketing degrees and certifications, just to have that backbone. For the past four years, marketing strategy has been my groove.

I usually feel when it’s time to pivot when I get a sort of nudge. I'm a huge believer that God gives me a signal and a sign in my gut. Something just starts to feel different. For instance, I'll get on a call with a client, and it's just not as exciting as it was before. Or people will ask me to speak on a certain topic, and I'm like, “Wow, I've been thinking about that in my head, but I didn't consider, actually doing it on a stage.” So there are these little shifts. But my biggest sign that it is time for me to pivot is if I am no longer completely and utterly in love with the thing that I'm doing. If I feel like there's something else that I should be helping people with, those are the signs for me to pivot. Of course, you have other pivot signs like, how long has this not been working for you? If you’ve been working on a business for three years, and it's still not profitable, that, for me, is a huge sign to pivot and do something different.

Most recently, I have had the feeling in my gut to pivot towards something a little bit more heart-specific– talking about purpose, anti-comparison, and creativity. I'm getting a master's at Harvard Extension School, and I have actually switched my major from management with a concentration in marketing to industrial organizational psychology. I want to find out what makes people happy in their organizations, their lives, and their businesses, so I can leverage my gifts to help them achieve that happiness. I love helping people love their life because I love people so much. I want to transfer that over to my business and support them to work on their purpose and express themselves creatively in a way that's going to put money in their pockets.

4. CultureCon is regarded as “the biggest creative homecoming,” what panels are you most excited about hearing, who are you looking forward to meeting, and what value are you hoping to get out of the conference?

I love learning from my peers. I love being around people.

The person I'm most excited to see and hopefully meet is Issa Rae. I think that she is a genius. I have always had a heart for writing and always wanted to be a writer growing up, but I scared myself out of that. Growing up, people would say: “Oh, there's no money in that.” But every time I was in English class, from elementary school up through college and graduation, my professors kept telling me, “You should be a writer, your writing is beautiful.” So, now I'm pursuing that behind the scenes, which is why I'm really excited to see Issa Rae. I feel like her talk is going to bless a lot of people to better understand themselves and get out of their heads so they can produce something beautiful.

I'm hoping to get a few things out of the conference,

• As a speaker, I want to understand what people are really going through this season, what they need, and what are they really excited about. This will help me shape what I create in the future to support them.

• As a viewer, I'm really excited to get out of the fire pit phase. The fire phase is what I call when you're super excited to do stuff, and you still don't know how to do it. I'm excited to figure out how I can do a lot of the things that are in my heart and my mind.

5. Content, including industry insights and inspiration, is one reason people go to conferences. The other reason is to meet new people and build connections and community. When you attend conferences, what’s your approach to meeting speakers and connecting with attendees?

When I'm attending any networking event or conference, I actually make a very short list of 3-5 people who I want to engage and connect with. I will research them, not in a weirdish, stalkerish way, but, in a smart networking way.

If I’m going to approach someone and say, “Hey, I love you, let's get together,” there has to be something there where they know that I've done my due diligence to understand who they are, I've engaged with their work, and that I’m not just trying to use them for their name. I really want to foster a connection with someone.

I have an Excel sheet of things that I admire about the person, their work, etc. I use this for talking points so I can go up to them and say, “Hey, I really loved how in chapter seven of your book, you said this… can you explain to me, maybe over a cup of coffee, how you came up with this idea because…” and then I connect it with my life and why it's important to me. I do this to show how we may be similar. This is my favorite thing to do when networking and connecting with others.

Don’t want to leave us just yet? Here are some ways we can work together. 👋

1. 📈 Looking for design sprints around sales, revenue, and community growth? Well, our agency Marble Design Studio is a leader in the space. We help design programs and systems for leading companies and startups. Learn more here and book a call to get going.

2. 💰 Looking for $500K or more of sponsor dollars for an upcoming conference? We have a proprietary database of over 10,000 brand sponsors looking to partner with high-aligned community builders and conference organizers. Get in touch if we can help connect the dots.

3. 💚 Work with the Green Room. Do you love learning, traveling, going to conferences, and building community? Us too! Reach out if you’re interested in working with us as a community ambassador or writer!