Last year I shared sketchnotes from the 25th Anniversary of the Professional Business Womens Conference. It was my first time to attend and it was fantastic. I had the opportunity to go this year along with 5,499 other women:).  Here are 6 Key Takeaways and sketchnotes from this year.

1. Sallie Krawcheck, Chair of the Elevate Network, among her list of 5 things, memorably quipped, “Ask for the friggin’ money!” She also pointed out that if women use their money as a vote to invest our values, that’s a powerful voice.

2. Leyma Gbowee, Nobel Peace Laureate and Liberian Women’s Rights Activist, was my favorite speaker. She had such gravitas and lived-in humor! She told the story of how Liberian women are supposed to walk in such a way that their footsteps are not heard and leave no footprints. She reminded us of how often we silence ourselves. She told her journey of deciding to walk loudly and to leave deep footprints. She encouraged us to live so wild that when we walked into a room, people trembled to see us coming and to refuse to live on the sideline. While in retrospect, this seems a bit hyperbolic, it’s exactly the kind of contrast we need to show how much louder we can walk. Walk Loudly!

3. Leeza Gibbons, Emmy Award-Winning Journalist, Radio Host and Apprentice winner, was new to me. She showed us that nice women can finish first if you know what you want. Her mantra was “Work hard, care more, be nice and stand your ground.” I especially loved her saying “Balance is bogus.”  Ain’t that the truth!

4. Leeza didn’t stop there. She had more rich life experiences to offer. She advised us to focus on the value that will get you over the fear. For example, if someone paid you $1M you would probably say yes to a speaking engagement. What would it take to get you to climb over that fear?

5. From the panel discussion, I gleaned the following kernel: “Always talk about my contributions in terms of what impact I drove for the organization.” This is easy to do in a resume. In conversation it seems like braggadocio but it’s really just sharing information about what you did for the organization.

6. Lastly, the value of an education. We heard a lot of metrics that show how important it is for a woman to get as much education as possible to improve her prospects. PBWC gave out 4 scholarships to some amazing young women. The amount of investment was small at $20K total. This experience gave me a passion to find ways to fund education for women.

In all, I loved going to the PBWC conference. I discovered some amazing and inspirational women like Leeza and Leyma and a passion for a cause, education for women