My Burn Both Ends Experience

May 6

May 6 My Burn Both Ends Experience

I was introduced to the lovely young ladies of Campfire & Co. by Ashley Hawkins, Studio Two Three's Executive Director and the other half of my "Twin Engine Jet." Ashley was scheduling an event rental for Studio Two Three's new space in Scott's Addition that lends itself to many types of uses. In this instance, the renters were looking to throw a one-day conference focused on helping small businesses in Richmond, VA keep growing. When asked if Ashley knew any marketing folks in town who might be a good fit for a speaker, Ashley tossed my name out and said they should meet with me.

What a treat! I was familiar with Campfire & Co's work, as they'd helped create the space for Studio Two Three and many other new popular RVA businesses, but meeting them sealed the deal. Christie and Christina were precious, out to do good in the world and clearly ready to have fun while doing it. Sign me up.

We spent some time talking about the previous versions of this conference, co hosted by The Content Chop Shop, and what they were looking to do with this new one-day format. Spending some time helping them think through hurdles, next steps, and ideas that might help connect the day's flow and active format, we landed on my topic of Marketing to help summarize the day's learnings along with bubbling up some marketing tips that people could begin using immediately.

I had so much fun writing my speech. In my previous speaking engagements over my career, I'd always started with bullet points and high level ideas, not writing. But this time using the "Life in Ten Minutes" technique from the nonfiction writing classes I've been taking this year, I wrote out my speech in 10-minute sessions and found the content to be so much more me.

The speech ended up being broken into 5 key sections.

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These are totally typical marketing topics, but instead of just focusing on hard-to-incorporate "best practices," I focused on what makes the real difference: knowing, at the core, what their companys' brands are about. The WHY they were each in business. And to help them each get to that hard-hitting point, I gave them very specific exercises which I supported with research. Holy fun - this stuff gets me so pumped. Like these slides:

Why Do You Matter | Burb Both Ends | Leah Muhlenfeld.png

Connect your Why| Burb Both Ends | Leah Muhlenfeld.png

multi-sensory | Burb Both Ends | Leah Muhlenfeld.png

writers are 42% more likely to reach goals | Burb Both Ends | Leah Muhlenfeld.png

Click here if you are interested in reading it...

What I found is that through writing (and not just starting with bullet points), I began connecting my career marketing knowledge with my current personal practices, curiosities and beliefs. Finding research that supported what I wanted to share was even more exciting. This wasn't a presentation about programs I'd run and how specific goals had been achieved; it was a chance to help these small businesses—who were investing in themselves by being there at the conference all day—continue growing their businesses through deeper connection between themselves and their brand.

In a way, speaking at this conference felt a little like my coming of age career moment. Where I'd gathered enough tactical experience in the industry over the last 20 years to then step away from it and pull my own personal learnings as a small business owner and evolving human and share it all with other humans who could learn from it. And honestly "conference" is the WRONG word. It was really more like the tribal gathering of kick-ass humans who believe in ourselves and in the importance of investing in our community, and who want to cheer on one another through continued learning.

I sent the below DM to the BBE ladies the morning after and they asked if they could use my quote. It feels even more true now as I steep on the energy and how gorgeous the whole day was.

DM between Leah Muhlenfeld + Burn Both Ends | Leah Love Notes.PNG

Thank you Christina, Christie and Rachel for including me in your vision and for being leaders in the community. By working your BUTTS off to create this curated experience, you've just built a mental space for small business owners to think of themselves differently, take pride in their hard work and cheer one another on. Hats off to you, ladies!

Lotsa Love,

Leah