Women entrepreneurs in Arkansas gain skills to advance both their personal and professional lives

Greenbrier, Arkansas – This past weekend, women from Arkansas gained knowledge on how to advance and maintain balance in both their personal and female-owned small businesses.
The goal of the Level Up Conference was to bring women together to discuss a range of business-related subjects, such as leadership, marketing, and taxes.

“The idea is that women are pouring out all day every day, and they need a place to get poured back into, so we fill a Friday night and a full Saturday with leadership sessions, sessions on marketing and company culture, and all kinds of other things to help them feel more equipped to go out and grow their business,” Founder of Level Up Jessica Crum said.
Entrepreneur and Level Up speaker Jo Johnson asserted that women are allowed to follow their passions and turn them into profitable ventures.

“I hope that I make women realize that they have every opportunity in the world to pursue whatever their passion is and make it a business and make it an income that they can use to sustain their life,” Johnson said.
The celebration started on Friday in honor of International Women’s Day, and it went until Saturday night with special guest speakers and a lot more.

“There’s something about today that makes you feel like you know that women everywhere are being celebrated, it’s okay for me to do something for myself this weekend,” Crum said.
It can be daunting, according to Crum, a mother and business owner. When people inquire about how she manages everything, she responds that there is no “secret sauce.”
“You get to a place where you’re overwhelmed, and you have to make it a rhythm that you recalibrate that you find a way to get your balance back. Whenever things get crazy, you get overwhelmed you have to stop and recalibrate,” Crum said.
A little over fifteen individuals attended the inaugural Level Up event, which took place at an office. Currently, over 130 women attend the event.
According to Crum, this demonstrates how badly Arkansas needs something similar.

“Every session block has three session options, so if you need to learn about hiring and hiring, you could go to one session, or if you’re a solo entrepreneur and you need to learn about time management, you can go to another, so they really get to experience what they need at this conference,” Crum said. “Of course, we had speakers come in from Los Angeles and Las Vegas, and they got to hear from some really expert, really big experts.”
Johnson believes that having one-on-one conversations with the women during breaks or both before and after the event starts is her favorite aspect of presenting at events such as this.

“See how much they light up when they realize that somebody believes in what they’re doing,” Johnson said.

Johnson adds that women frequently doubt who they are, therefore it can change their lives when they discover their confidence on occasions like this.

“Because I think so often women, we question ourselves do we belong in the space and there’s so much self-doubt and getting to for confidence into them and see them light up and get excited about the thing they’re passionate about I that’s what makes all of this so wonderful,” Johnson said.