The Ladies of The LadyGang (@theladygang, @keltie, @becca, and @jacvanek) were the first keynote at Her Conference 2018. Not only did they share their life mantras with conference attendees, they also gave insight into their podcast, inspiring other women, and girl power.
On Being Themselves
Keltie Knight, not only 1/3 of The LadyGang but also an Emmy winning host, believes that no matter how often you get rejected, you should never give up.
“My advice to you is to keep going through the rejections and until you get a no, keep asking.” Becca then quips in, “But be polite.”
Becca Tobin, podcast host and actor, believes that women “have a lot more to offer than how we look” because life is long, and it isn’t just about “how we look, who we marry, and how amazing our weddings are.”
On Empowering Women
The topic of empowering women was woven throughout the entire conversation. However, Jac Vanek, podcast host and entrepreneur, believes that even though the podcast is fun, in the end, “we wanted to start this [podcast] to empower ourselves, and by empowering ourselves, we are able to empower other women to do [what they want to do]. It doesn’t have to be podcasting, it can be to get your doctorate, or whatever, it doesn’t matter. We just want to empower women in whatever way that we could.”
On Life Mantras to Repeat When Faced with Rejection
The women were not afraid to share that they have had their fair share of rejection letters since entering the workforce. But how do they choose to deal with rejection and getting no responses, and what mantra do they repeat to themselves?
Becca deals with rejections and getting knocked down by taking a day and letting her emotions out. “But then the next day, it’s like, nothing changed.”
Jac more than understands that when you’ve had a bad day and are feeling negative, it’s “hard to think about feeling any other way,” which is why she constantly reminds herself that everything will pass.
“This too shall pass.”
However, Keltie had a slightly different take on it. Because, she adds, she works in the television hosting industry, she is constantly being reprimanded for her mistakes. So her mantra is to “Make better mistakes tomorrow”.
“I’m going to continue making mistakes, because I’m not a perfect human, but I’m going to try and make better mistakes every day. And learn from the things that haven’t worked.”
What the Lady Gang Would Say to Their College Selves
Jac, initially not knowing how to answer, said to not worry about boys, and “maybe don’t drink too much.” The audience laughed.
Becca added that she wished she could’ve told her college self that she was “going to be evolving and be expanding as much as she could” and that she didn’t have to define herself as soon as she entered college.
She added that “in your 20’s you have this tunnel vision. You have a goal, and you have got to get there. But don’t forget to open up yourself to evolve.”
Jac add to “travel as much as you can while you can”. She concluded with “what’s the point of working your ass off if you can’t experience all the joys of life and all the awesome things life can bring you.”
Keltie shared that in her 20s and for most of her life, she was very mean to herself. She advised the conference attendees to “just look in the mirror, and enjoy this version of yourself because you truly will never be younger and you most likely won’t be cuter. And there never will be that whole endless possibilities [of being in your 20s].”
On Girl Power and Supporting Other Women
This question was twofold: what is your definition of girl power and when it comes to women supporting other women what is the message you want our attendees to leave with?
Keltie started it off. She shared that for her, girl power means being able to write your own checks. She loves the power of being the source of her own success.
When it comes to women supporting other women, this is what Keltie had to say:
“You can do it all, and you can also love women, support women, be friends with other women, and still hate Nicole Kidman’s peacock dress on the red carpet. Let’s all give each other a break.”
Jac said, that for The LadyGang and their podcast, it’s important for them to be walking the walk. She believes that “you can yell and scream for equality for as long as you want, but we are really trying to take it into our own hands to pave the way for us, and in turn, paving the way for other women.” She later adds that “[women] are way stronger in numbers.”
Becca continued Jac’s last thought by leaving the audience with this last comment:
“We are so much stronger together than dividing and conquering.”
To see the full talk, you can find it here.