Startup Lessons from a V-Day Workshop for Girls

Missed our previous article on Girls to the Moon? Access it here.

This Saturday, I joined several amazing girls and their caregivers for the Girls to the Moon Galentine’s Day celebration in Nashville, Tennessee. The event, titled “The Love Within,” featured crafts, snacks, pink mocktails and three keynote speakers, who taught the girls how to be happy and confident in themselves while providing them with a few basic tools for self-care.

While listening to the keynote speakers, I found that although their presentations were catered to young girls, their content could easily be applied to the startup community as a whole. Here are three lessons I took away from the afternoon:

1. Your mental and physical health are important factors in your success. Sarah Hays Coomer, author and self-proclaimed diet abolitionist, delivered her talk “Loving Yourself on Ugh Days.” Coomer explained that caring for your mental and physical well-being builds confidence and increases happiness, which can impact overall success. Here are her four steps for tackling difficult days:

1. Notice it. Acknowledge that you don’t feel your best.
2. Do something you love. Read a book or take a walk. Just do something that makes you feel happy.
3. Explore, be free, and keep and open mind. Remember to be open to new possibilities and new solutions.
4. Rest, regroup and start again. Navigating a difficult day can take its toll. Allow your mind and body to recuperate before starting again.

Taking care of your mental and physical health allows you to focus more of your energy where you really need it—toward the success of your venture.

2. Put your best face forward. Tabatha Tipton Hall, the second speaker of the afternoon, is a certified aesthetician and owner of Pinup Skin Spa & Boutique in Franklin, Tennessee. Hall taught the girls basic skincare and makeup tips, emphasizing the idea that putting your best face forward can give you a confidence boost that motivates you throughout the entire day.

In other words, feeling confident in yourself—whether that confidence comes from your appearance or otherwise—is the first step in feeling confident in what you do.

3. Your differences make you great. Our final speaker was Dr. Sharon Y. Moore-Caldwell, a pediatrician with Tristar Centennial, who spoke on how our differences are what makes us significant. Because each person operates as a single part of a larger whole—the human race—our differences are valuable. To help the girls remember this lesson, she taught them this catchy mnemonic.

Entrepreneurs cannot innovate unless they bring something new to the market. In this sense, honor your differences, because they are what make you valuable.