‘Shared energy’

CEDAR RAPIDS — If there’s a women’s empowerment discussion happening, Jen Hatmaker wants to be part of it.

“It's no surprise, but I think women are basically the answer to everything that society faces,” Hatmaker said by phone from her home in Texas. “You get a bunch of smart, interesting, powerful women in one room, and the alchemy just cannot be duplicated. That much brilliance and creativity and hustle and hunger is palpable in the air.”

So when Hatmaker was invited to be a keynote speaker at the upcoming Women Lead Change Conference in Cedar Rapids, she jumped at the opportunity.

“I was like don’t ask me twice,” she said. “There’s nothing like a room full of women with that shared energy. I can't get there fast enough.”

Hatmaker, a New York Times bestselling author and podcaster, will be delivering one of the seven keynote addresses at the April 4 to 5 conference, expected to draw hundreds of participants in Cedar Rapids.

Dealing with change

Hatmaker is among a host of national and local presenters pulled together for the event that invites women — and their male allies — at all stages of their career to join in two days dedicated to educating, inspiring and empowering women in the workforce.

“I'm personally so inspired by women in business, innovators and entrepreneurs and managers and founders,” Hatmaker said, adding she’s excited to share some of her own story, personally and professionally, and talk with the conference attendees about facing change.

“As humans, we are going to experience change, and some of it we create, we're the one with our hands on the steering wheel,” she said.

“We're evolving, we're growing, and we’re developing. I mean I know I don’t want to be the same leader that I was a decade ago. So there’s nothing to fear about that evolution.”

Change also can be imposed.

“It's not necessarily change that we wanted or that we asked for or that we invited in any way,” Hatmaker said. “Sometimes we're on the other end of somebody else's choices. In a roomful of business women, we all know how COVID created immense change for our businesses, our revenue streams, our staffs, and our mode of working.

“So I’ll talk about how sometimes we choose change and sometimes it chooses us, but one way or another, we're going to experience it.”

One of the key ideas Hatmaker said she’ll bring to Iowa is that people are “capable of change, we are capable of recovery, we are resilient, we have it in us to pivot, to innovate, to re-imagine, even sometimes start over.”

“I have watched so many women, just absolutely, grow and recover and develop in ways that even surprised them. And it's so incredibly inspiring,” she said. “That'll be my primary message to every person in there that they can do more than just handle what comes, they can thrive.”

Everyone invited

Conference organizers knew what they were doing when they invited Hatmaker to be a part of the event. Before getting off the call, Hatmaker made a point to make sure everyone feels invited to the WLC Conference.

“I want to extend a personal invitation to the women in the area because this is for any women in any business,” Hatmaker said.

“If you're brand new, if you got out of college one month ago, if you're ground level, if you're entry level, if you are dreaming about business, if you're an entrepreneur, if you're self-owned, if you are a CEO, and literally everything in between, this day is for you.

“Don’t imagine that this looks like a certain type of woman in a certain type of business. Literally, every single dreamer and innovator and leader and worker, this is worth your time and you should just come.

“You will learn so much, you will meet so many other like-minded creative and smart and interesting women, and you will hear so many things that inspire you no matter where you are on the on the business spectrum.

“Don't stay home because you're intimidated or you think you don't belong. You do.”

For more information about speakers and the conference schedule and to purchase tickets, visit wlcglobal.org/events/2023-cedar-rapids-conference.