Entrepreneurship, Community & Half Marathons: Haley Westfall!

From Corporate Healthcare to Entrepreneurship: A Conversation with Haley Westfall

On this episode of the Samantha Parker Show, Samantha is joined by Haley Westfall, a dynamic entrepreneur and community builder. Haley shares her journey from spending 20 years in corporate healthcare administration to becoming an entrepreneur after being laid off twice. She now runs two companies: The Table, which focuses on community-based brands and scaling small teams, and Collab Culture, a membership-based community for female founders. They also discuss the logistics and intricacies of planning successful events, the importance of intentional networking, and even dive into their personal experiences training for half marathons. This episode is packed with insights into entrepreneurship, personal growth, and the power of community.

00:00 Welcome to the Samantha Parker Show

00:24 Meet Haley: Entrepreneur and Community Builder

01:45 Haley's Journey from Corporate to Entrepreneurship

02:36 The Table and Collab Culture: Building Communities

05:10 The Challenges and Joys of Hosting Events

11:00 Training for a Half Marathon: Personal Stories and Tips

21:21 Fueling Up for Runs: Snacks and Tips

21:50 Starting Running Later in Life

23:02 Upcoming Event: The Table Experience

23:58 Event Planning and Lessons Learned

25:58 Creating Meaningful Event Experiences

28:52 The Importance of Good Food at Events

32:37 Dressing for Success at Events

38:31 Connecting and Networking at Events

Haley WestFall Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thehaleywestfall?igsh=d3gyZXpqajNiMjl6

Step into Your Sober Era! Are you ready to embrace a life of clarity and empowerment? ✨ Check out Sam’s Sober Club on Substack for journals, tips, community and more [Subscribe Now ➔] Sam's Sober CLUB | Samantha Parker | Substack

Want to Work with The Samantha Parker for Content Management CLICK HERE

Follow me on TikTok https://www.tiktok.com/@samanthaparkershow

YouTube https://www.youtube.com/@thesamanthaparker

Instagram https://www.instagram.com/thesamanthaparker/

Transcript

Welcome back to the Samantha Parker Show. Hey, I'm your host, Samantha. Let's dive on in. Hey guys. Welcome back to the Samantha Parker show. This is a fun virtual episode. I go back and forth and we were just talking about this, so we record virtual in person, virtual in person. But we're gonna record virtual as our warmup, and then we will meet in person and we'll record again.

Yes. Can't wait. Yes, but, okay. Girl. Welcome to the show. I've got Halle Haley. Oh my gosh. I've got Hailey on. And I think you're such a badass. I know. I was like, blah, blah. I've already messed up the whole podcast, but I'll, we'll just leave it in. You're great. I love it. I know. I've had a podcast for years.

I've been in business for myself for over 10 years, and I just have had I had a different variation of the podcast and one of my biggest things was as I would like mess up people's names. This is eight years ago, and I still like, to this day, I'll be like, no, I, I know you in per I've met you in person.

I've been events, and I'm like, let me fudge this right out of the gate. Fine. We're all human around here, so it'll be just fine. Yes. Okay. But welcome to the podcast. I just saw you in Arizona. Yeah. And I want you to do a little intro of yourself because I love what you do. I have one written out here, but I just feel like people explain it so much better.

Yeah. Because really, like you're an entrepreneur, a community builder, and the creative force behind the table. And I've wanted to go to a table event forever, and I finally got to go to one. So that was so fun. So welcome to the show. Thank you so much for having me. I know it's such a full circle moment.

I feel like I've lived 11 lives, which sometimes when I talk about different seasons in my life, I forget that there's people that are in my life now that never knew me then, and so they're like, wait, I'm so confused. I'm like, yes. There was a whole nother era previously. I, I actually spent about 20 years in corporate healthcare administration before becoming an entrepreneur.

That is a whole story in itself, but long story, long, I was laid off from my job. Sounds very dramatic because people lose their jobs every day, but my world was literally rocked like. Firstborn daughter, self-proclaimed, high achieving woman. Like I had never been written up, let alone laid off from a job, and I didn't know what to do with myself.

So as all ambitious females did, I said, they're not gonna knock me down. And I got a new job a couple weeks later and about six months after the same thing happened again. And it was a very pivotal moment in my life where I was like, what is the lesson here? What, what is, what is the world trying to tell me?

And that is when my entrepreneurship journey started. My business is now I own two different companies. One is the table. So the ethos of the table brand is that we can grow faster and, and more sustainably when we're in the energy and environment of the right people. And so through that brand, I have a podcast.

I do consulting with scaling CEOs with small teams. We looked at effective leadership strategies high performing teams and community based brands. I host a bunch of events, which it was so great to have you at just a week ago or so here in Arizona. And then I'm also the co-founder of a membership based community for female founders called Collab Culture.

So we founded that one about four years ago with a business partner, one of my very best friends. So essentially. I tell people that now I'm in the business of people because everything I do is around people, leadership events, bringing cool people together in cool ways. So it's super fun. Yes. See, I knew you'd explain it so well.

'cause I'm like, I follow you. And I'm like, she just says these really cool things. So many cool things. I'm honestly, I look back, I'm like, oh, this is my life now. It's so weird. It's so different from the navy blue suits and this corporate executive era in my, in my former healthcare life.

So it's definitely a full 180 for sure. Absolutely. But I know you're doing these really cool things. So a lot of times I'm just seeing like the social media highlight reel and then like I showed up to the event, which by the way, I thought I was gonna combust and burn up at that event. I could not believe how warm it was.

Was so warm. I know. Yeah. It was, it felt like a gift though, because it's, we're going into winter and it was like nice and sunny. But it was. It was so funny. So I've been excited to go to your event and then we were going to Min World Live the next day. And I didn't really I signed up and I didn't realize like we would be working out until the night before when you sent out that email and I was like.

I don't, it's, we're in the car and I'm like, oh my God. I'm like, to my husband, I'm like, this is like a full workout tomorrow. And he is you weren't mentally prepared for that Oreo. And I was like, no, I don't. I don't know what I'm gonna wear. And then I was like, it's fine. I got a cute set.

That's perfect. That's all you need. Yeah. But then we had the black yoga mats and I, I couldn't lay on it. I just ended up having to move it to the side because I was like, this is wildly hot. Yeah, it was freakishly hot. It's not normally that hot this time of year here in Arizona. By November.

Usually it's cooled off like all this week it's like rainy and yeah, I think is like 63. So I don't know what freakish so rainy here. Yeah. Yeah, that's what I'm saying. Like it was kind of like the last little bit of summer, even though it's fall, I was like soaking it in. But when you live in the desert, you get like an extended summer.

Yeah, a hundred percent. But those events though, while I'm saying it looks so cool and she does a super cool shit online. They're a lot of work. So much. There's so much work. You get the people there to get the vendors on board like you're putting in the work. Yeah, it's, it's been a learning process for sure.

We host a lot of events through the membership as well, but that's more of a rinse and repeat model. So through that, they have a weekly offering. Half two weeks are in person, two weeks are online, but like it's the same format, if you will, every single month. Versus the table is co-ed. And one thing I really wanted to showcase people is you can grow your business and you can make meaningful connections.

Literally doing anything. You could be laying on a yoga mat in the sunshine. You can be diving into a full content day. You can be o having it over cocktails and appetizers, like there's literally. No limits on what that can look like. And I think that's very freeing when people realize that it doesn't have to feel stiff or overwhelming or gross, that you can truly choose your own adventure and figure out what that is.

So with that being said, the table formats. There's a couple that stay every year, like the wellness one. There's a couple of them that are like kind of cornerstone formats, but a lot of them change and that brings a whole different dynamic of market research and sourcing and programming and making sure I'm vetting, facilitators or anybody who's coming in to really pour into my people because.

My entire brand is built in trust and anybody that I put on my stage or pseudo stage to be able to pour into my people, I'm very protective of ensuring that there's somebody that I would put my name behind. So yes, it is a lot of work, but there's something like so special about person like it. It is just truly unmatched in my opinion.

No, I agree. Social media's great, obviously. That's how I make my living. We eat, breathe, sleep content, literally. And I still have to go show up places, yeah. And when people come to me and they're like, Hey, this post. And I'm like what else are you doing? I assume you've got like a whole marketing, and I, we talk about it too 'cause I'm a business owner and I'm like, hey, I wanna make sure this is aligned with everything. But when they put all their BA eggs in one post basket, I'm like, that's wild. That's wild thinking. Yeah. I think it's very much like a both and because a lot of times when I get people who come to my events like you from out of town who maybe I've never met in real life, but we've started to cultivate that friendship and relationship through the internet.

One of the biggest compliments I feel like I get from people when they meet me for the first time is oh, you're like exactly the same. Like exactly how you show up online is exactly who you are in person. So I feel like the internet is such a gift that gives us a way to collapse time. If we use it the right way, right?

Yeah. To be able to connect with people through those channels and for free, arguably, right? Like we can show up on the internet whenever we want and share whatever we want if we're willing to put in the work to do that. Yes. And if we had just met in person one time, I probably wouldn't remember you.

If I wasn't seeing snippets of you here and there. Online it's an extension. I'm like, oh, I, I was super pumped when you cut a bob. I was like. Yeah, the haircut journey was, was such a commitment. I was laughing to my husband because I originally, so for context, if you're listening, I just chopped 10 inches off of my hair like three weeks ago.

And over the summer I posted on socials, these like inspo cuts off of Pinterest that I had found. And I just posted in stories and I was like, what do we think? And one of my girlfriends from my book club transposed my face. From for, from other brand photos onto the haircuts, and I put them on stories and was like, I need you guys to vote.

I have never had so much engagement in the last, at least year as I did on those stories. I had on the polls alone, 350 people vote on these polls, and I don't have a massive account. And so that was like a huge, a huge following. And then people were asking for the months to come. And I was like, quite frankly, I'm just scared.

Like I, I can't follow through with it. And then I just like out of nowhere a couple weeks ago, show up like with stories in the hair chair did she do it, did she not do it? And people were very invested. So you never know. You never know what's gonna pop off over there. It's just fun. It was just fun to see.

I, I love my bob, so I was like, oh, she did it, yeah. I just got super excited. I don't know if I'll be able to go back. I've had this for two years and it's me. I get my hair cut every six weeks and I'm like, Bob's on point. Yeah. It's definitely a, it's definitely been a shift in an adjustment, but I have to say I am like so grateful because it's been so fun so far.

Yeah. Did was all of the hair that you cut off, was it yours? Did you have extensions? No, it was all mine. I've literally never had short hair in my life. Like I've had, I've always had long hair. So it's interesting 'cause even on the poles, I wanna say. It was probably like 85% of people were pro chop, but the people who were no chop were so passionate.

Like they, oh yeah. They're like, don't do it. They had prepared a full legal argument as to why I should not chop all my hair off. But I think it's because it's familiar and it's what we know and it was beautiful, right? And long and thick and all of these things. But sometimes disrupting the norm is a good thing and just.

Making some change? Yes. Okay. So before we hit record, 'cause I was like, hold on, hold this for the podcast. You're prepping to run a rock and roll half marathon? Yes. I am Are you excited? So this was another thing that, it's so funny 'cause I'm like, oh, these are all my, my social media randoms. So over this summer, I, again, it was like in July, around the time of this haircut debacle one of my girlfriends last year, she had given birth to twins and then she had unexpected open heart surgery.

About three months later, she's 30. Oh my gosh. 37 years old. So the very short version is she had this underlying heart issue. She had a hole in her heart that she apparently has had like her entire life, never knew about it. And being pregnant with the twins because of the increased blood flow, exposed this issue that could have underlined been like a silent killer, to be perfectly honest.

So the twins literally saved her life. So anyways, she has open heart surgery last December, this past December of 2024. And over the summer she posts something about contemplating doing this rock and roll marathon in January. And I replied to the story and I'm like, clap emoji. Like you got this girl being supportive and she's oh my gosh, you should do it with me.

I was like, audibly laughed out loud because I, I mean I am an active person. I love fitness, I love working out. I used to be a CrossFit instructor, but I was like, I don't even wanna run into the mailbox to be perfectly honest. So I created a reel for social while I was out for a walk with my weighted vest.

'cause that's what, we all got into this year. Uhhuh. Yeah. And I was out for a walk in July in Arizona and I was like, am I crazy because this is the story and I tell it and I was like, so I laughed and thought she was crazy, and simultaneously within the next 30 minutes was on Chad GPT asking it if it could build me a training plan to see if this was actually possible or not.

Yes, to answer your question, I am training. I am feeling a little under prepared, but it's gonna be fine. Just like the bob, right? It's like sometimes we just take the chances. So yes, January 18th here in Tempe is our rock and roll marathon. And then you said yours is in February? Yes, I'm doing it in Vegas.

And I did it last year, but I only did the 10 K last year. Okay, so it was like the very Yeah, yeah. And you're upgrading. Two a half. Yeah, because it's, it's peer pressure. I know people are like, you keep running these 10 Ks, and I'm like, okay. But six, six and a half or 6.2, whatever it is, it's far.

Yeah, yeah. No, I know. I, I even when I went to build my training plan in Runa I was like, oh, half marathon training plan. And I went through the prompts and it was like, can you run a 5K? And I was like, no. Like when, when I started this and it was like, please go back and revise your goals. To not do a half marathon plan first and do a 5K plan first.

And I was like, oh, I'm humbled instantly. But it was actually really great for me because the interval training I feel was helpful to like, just help me with like my breath control. Yeah, no. I use Runa. It's great. And if you have to do some treadmill runs to get that really, 'cause you can speed it up, slow it down, and put the things up and down the treadmill, the incline am all, the things.

I knew what you meant. Yeah. Runa is great. I think it's a great training, training plan. And I'm using it again for the half. Yeah. Yeah. I'm enjoying it. I'm not gonna say I'm trying to win any medals over here in January, but, but you'll, you, everyone gets a medal. No, but no, a finish would be great.

Yeah. That's my goal. So what's the furthest you've ever run? Literally I think I ran a 5K, like a Turkey trot 5K. WI don't even know how long. Probably before I had kids and my oldest daughter is 12 and a half, so Oh, okay. Before then. I think really what helps is just to get your cardio endurance up.

And then get your body used to like hitting the pavement, yeah, I started training in July in Phoenix, which if you're unfamiliar, it is literally the surface of the sun here at that time. And I was running outside. Yeah, now I was running at night like eight or 9:00 PM but everybody thought I was crazy, but my mindset was like, we can only go up from here.

This is like baptism by fire. I'm just gonna be in the worst conditions to start. And then as the weather cools down and my endurance gets better, like I'm gonna be literally running on clouds, living my best life. So it's been, yeah, it's been a journey, but I think as long as I can control my breath. I feel like I'll be fine.

I think when I start to get tired and I get like panicky, then my breath control starts to wane, and then that is where it starts to get a little sketchy. But. It's gonna be great. Last night while I was folding laundry, I was looking up like videos about mindset for running. I haven't found anything helpful because that's part of it.

I'm like, oh, I called my little walkie walk, so I'm like, it's time for a walkie walk. But I'm like, I gotta stop doing that, because I can, I can go pretty far. But yeah, the furthest I've ever run is seven and a half miles, and that was sometime last year when I was training pretty hard.

I don't know. I don't know if I can do it. I know I can do it, but, yeah. I ran a, in this training program, I've ran like simultaneously, if you will. Like just shy of five has been my longest run like now. So I'm like, okay, great. You're not even halfway there. It's fine. You don't need to run.

It's not like you, you're gonna go out and run in a half marathon. You just have to do those longer training runs. And I haven't been running as much. And when I ran the 10 K last Saturday, I could tell my endurance wasn't as high as it has been in the past. And you know what's so funny is we're right.

If you come down snow Canyon, it's beautiful here and I don't know if you went there when you came here, but it's, I like it more than Zion. So you run Snow Canyon, you come down, you're coming down the parkway, and then you just have to run into Snow Canyon High School. I started crying in front of the high school and I had 0.1 left and I don't know, I was like, it's too far, I can't do it.

And I run with my friend Cody and he turns, 'cause he is he is noticing, he's like pulling ahead of me. He turns back and he's like. What the fuck are you doing? You just gotta, you're crying. He's you just gotta run through the shoot. That's so funny. The, the finish here at the Tempe one is like over the bridge at Tempe Town Lake, so it's like a very like picturesque.

Like I was telling my friend, I'm like, I'm probably gonna be like in my full blown luteal face. I'm gonna be an emotional wreck and I'm gonna be running over this bridge and it's gonna feel like it's out of a movie because it's like the home stretch. I'm just gonna be sobbing like Kim Kardashian hideous cry face on this like last stretch with all the photographers.

Oh my gosh, I should just for fun right now, I'm gonna text you. 'cause I just pulled up the race photos today and I sent it to one of my friends and I was like, what the fuck is wrong with these people? I'm just gonna text it to you right now. I'm like, what? And you know what's so funny is I crossed the finish line of the 10 K at the same time the first woman did for the half marathon.

And I was like fine. At least I made it. And at least you were crossing the finish line with somebody else. You weren't by yourself. This is true. This is true. Yeah. I think a did man. I honestly have been seeing some friends who ran like the New York City half Marathon, or I'm sorry, the New York City Marathon and their times were like literally my half marathon gold times.

Yeah, for sure. Rock and roll. I think it has a cutoff of three and a half hours, right? Yeah. Yeah. My, that's my goal time. Yeah, it's gonna be great. When I filled out the paperwork, I think I put three hours and 15 minutes. 3 29. Yeah, for sure. Just in case. The rock and roll races are so fun, though.

I ran the 10 K last year and it was for my 40th birthday, so that was super fun. I love that. Which is great because this is how I guilt people into running this race with me is I'm like, it's my birthday trip. Like we'll all go down for my birthday. I'm doing it again this year and I've got my friends guilted into it.

So fun. I love that. It's gonna be great. It was so fun. And Vegas was really cool too because, it's weird to be on the strip and it was like quiet, yeah. Because there's traffic. And I remember coming back through and I was like, oh my God, it's quiet, but people are yelling. But for the strip it was just, it was eerie, but it was really cool.

That's so funny. Feels like you're in another dimension. Yeah. Okay, I'm gonna be excited for you. Are you running with water or no water? These are the things I think about. I literally have to have water. I ran the other day, I did a three mile run and I was like, oh, it'll be nice. It was like four o'clock in the afternoon, but it was like maybe 80, 78 degrees, which for here is like cool, like right, like nice, so warm.

And I was like, oh, I'll be fine. I'm just not gonna bring water. And I, I was like, not even a mile in. And I, my sister and I live in the same neighborhood, so she was pulling out to take her kids to Jiujitsu and they saw me running and I like stopped for a second and my niece and nephew were like, auntie, your face is so red.

I know my son, he's 14 so he likes to humble me. He's you look like a tomato. I was like, shut up. Yeah. Yeah. So I, I need to get, I think maybe one of the vest kind situations. Like I have the belts, which I thought about trying to, like my phone and stuff can go in and I thought about trying to get the little ones that come just like latch onto the belts.

But I don't know if I'm gonna if that's gonna feel too bouncy. So I probably need to try that sooner. Maybe Black Friday I'll keep an eye out. Yeah. To see if friend who runs with me got the belt and he's ditched it. And I have the backpack for long runs. Like I'll, I definitely run with my backpack for long runs around here.

'cause we're super dry. I'm in the desert too. It's dry as hell here, but he switched to a hand one, and I think I, I might either do that or I'm gonna do the vest with just like the water, right? Yeah. That's what my friends have. They have the vest and it has the two like front lapel little guys that fit in there.

Plus, I like to have my items so you know all the things I might need. She accessories. You never know. Okay. This is one thing that I fell in love with those. I carry those throat coats. Yeah. Yeah. I pop like a berry one, and it helps a ton when your throat gets really sore. Okay. That's good to know. Yeah. I need all the tips because I have literally no idea what I'm doing.

Yeah. I was likes fruit snacks are good. Rice Krispies are really good too. Yeah. Nerd clusters have been my little a handful before I go out for what, for me is a longer run and that seems to be just enough of a zinger to pick me up. Yeah. I just had this last one, I just had a couple fruit snacks and I was like, that was lovely.

Nice little treat. It's the little things in life. Yeah. Okay. But back to you and what you do and all the amazing stuff. I was like, look another runner friend. We can be shitty runners together. Be shitty runners. Yeah. We're just like, decent. I'm just trying to be decent. I picked up running at 39.

What was I thinking? That's mean I, I literally turned 40 in April and then this happened in June or July. Yeah. So I'm like that now. Now is when I chose, no time like the present, why not? I think it's cool for our kids to see us doing crazy things too, that is true.

Yeah. Yeah. My girls are like, they're impressed but also alarmed at the same time when I come home and they're like. Are you okay? I am like, I will be. Just give me a minute. Yeah. My son was impressed at first and now he like it. I, I think it's really hard for the families because they have to go wait for hours.

Yeah. Especially in Vegas. I know my whole family came, it was really cute. Like my mom, my sister, and everyone. But they're like, we were just there forever. And then we had to cross the strip and then we had to come back over the strip, and like they put in the work too. Yeah, that is true. The real MVPs, but not really.

Yeah, exactly. Exactly. Okay, so you have a big event coming up in February. It's the same weekend as Vegas or else? I would totally be there because I was gonna go. But are you, are you excited? I'm so excited. It's my only like multi-day event that I do in the course of the year. So the table experience is what it's called.

We also do like a pop-up series, which is like what you came to Healthy and Wealthy. We do pop-up events. They're about monthly, like a monthly cadence and they, like I said before, they kind of change in format. So I have one I had one the month before. That was our Legacy Builders dinner. Which is like a more intimate dinner party experience for like growth-minded couples.

Every iteration of the popup series is different. And then the table experience is a two day live event. So I hosted it for the first time in 2025. 2026 will be our next year. I learned many, many lessons the first time. It is you think hosting events like small events is a lot of work.

Hosting a multi-day event with full programming and there's so many layers that come into the mix. I think I. Gave myself more credit than I should have on what I was capable of doing on my own. So I was humbled in many ways this year but not so much that I neglected to choose to do it again. Of course we, we learned our lessons and we are back.

But yeah, I'm super excited. I am not a big rah rah events person. I don't mind it, but events that are exclusively more in like the mindset, the motivation space for extended periods of time are really hard for me to stay engaged with. Maybe it's my undiagnosed a DH adhd. Maybe it's, who knows. No, I know what you're talking about.

You're like, I'm, I've moved past this. You've already made up your, you're doing the damn thing, yeah. And listen, I need to be, I need to be cheered on in some points in time. Yeah. I need to be motivated sometimes too, but when I'm going to events, I'm really looking for what is my. Return on investment as far as, is it education?

Is it connections? Is it just like having meaningful conversations, learning something new? What does that look like? So the way this event was built was basically like mad scientist taking all of the things that I like and mashing it into one. So it is co-ed, although still majority female. We're like on the slow roll with the men at events because.

I feel like I am very, very consistent, in particular with my messaging on who this stuff is for which calls in a certain type of man, which I am perfectly fine with that being a slow role, rather than J just being like, Hey, anybody who fits this demographic come hang out. And so yeah, this past year was our first year.

It was so great. It's a mix of really tactical, strategic kind of workshop style sessions panels. We have these intimate round table experiences that our mutual friend, Jess was one of our facilitators this year. So she did a round table on podcasting. And it's really cool because if you're an attendee.

You get this menu, so the events in February, you get this menu in January and it's Hey, here's a list of topics. Rank them most applicable to least applicable to you right now? Like in this season of life? In business? Yeah. Like what, what, where are you at? And then we take it and we basically book you into seats at these expert round tables.

And you actually get to ask the questions on topics that you need instead of trying to make something relevant. Like square peg, round hole theory. Instead, it's Hey, I really wanna launch a podcast, or I'm really having a hard time getting traction on my podcast, or I wanna start leveraging podcast guesting as a visibility tool in my business.

Whatever. If that's you, then you're like, hell yeah, I want put it at the top. Or if you're like, maybe there's something that's on there that's around, finance or data tracking and analytics or legal or whatever. So you rank them. So that's like a big key component of our programming is that attendees get to book into four of these round tables.

So over the course of the full event, they have four different topics that they'll learn on. And it's like me, you and four other people. At this table with this expert, and we have 45 minutes in this small group to literally just ask them whatever we want. There's no teaching, there's no slide deck, there's no whatever.

It's like you know the topics that you're getting access to. Ask the questions that are gonna move the needle and get what you need. And it's like a no no gate, no gatekeeping. People are very like open and giving with information and it's so great. So yeah, that's like. The framework of how the event goes.

We have a VIP night after day one, which is super fun and just a more intimate experience. But between that and then really carving out intentional time for people to connect in a meaningful way, rather than being like, Hey, we're gonna take a one hour break. We're like, Hey, for the next hour or 45 minutes, or whatever.

This is a guided activity on how to make meaningful connections and conversations. In this room, we're gonna explain why and how and then we're gonna get your out of your seat and you're gonna do it right now, like everybody's gonna get up. And that helps too with just like keeping the energy in the room because people have those breaks throughout the day where they know they're gonna be getting up and moving around and talking, and so that helps keep people engaged for the full event.

I love that. That's awesome. Do you guys also do you feed people at your events and Yes. There is nothing worse than being hangry at an event. No. I was like, I don't know why I even brought that up, but I just we just did content. We do content onsite for a lot of our clients and events and things.

So we were just at a four day women's conference. And they had the best food. Yeah. Because I did go to an event recently in Phoenix this summer, and I the food was awful. Yeah, yeah, a hundred percent. And I think the, the hard thing is. Depending on where you're having it, right? If you're at a hotel or at a resort or whatever, you're, a lot of times you're at the mercy of the venue, right?

Yeah, sure. You have to use their catering and it's usually not great. Or if it is great, it's a bajillion dollars to pay for these meals. And so I think that's challenging the venue that we're doing ours at this year and was the same venue for 2020 or for next year and this year I can bring in all my own stuff, which is great.

And so that's helpful. And we are a strong believer in open access to snacks. I am not a toddler. I don't need you to tell me I have to wait till 3:00 PM to have a snack. I just need to eat it when I need to have a snack. And so that was one thing we did that people were so appreciative of is we had a table out and we had good quality, snacks, drinks. I'm a big, I'm a big bevy girly. We're all about the fun drinks, so we just had it out and it was like, you're a grownup if you need a snack, just get up and get a snack. That's so fun. Yeah. I thought they did a really great job with the food as well. It minted wildlife. Oh yeah.

Yeah. But and I'm sure Barb would say that if she was here it, the food and beverage minimum was probably astronomical. Oh, I can't even imagine. Especially when they brought out like the. Was it the dessert? Yeah. Like they did that dessert round and it was like maroons and all that. I was like, oh.

Yeah, so it's like it's easy to spend that, I shouldn't say easy, but like when you have to hit a minimum that's so high for a 220 person event at Global Ambassador, which if you're not familiar, is like a very bougie, Michelin rated hotel here in Phoenix that it's easy to have bougie food because you don't have a choice.

Yeah, because you have to hit like those minimums are so high versus a lot of times what you find in these resorts for conferences is you get that standard. Box lunch, the dry ass sandwich, that's the box lunch I'm mentioning that. I was like, this is trash. I didn't even have like protein in it. You're like, I would prefer to actually DoorDash myself something to eat.

But yeah, I think that tho those are the little things and it, it's not silly that you brought it up because this is literally something as an avid event attendee and like event researcher. I literally keep notes. I have a database. That I keep like notes on so that I can make executive decisions from a place that is from facts and not like vibes because I think it's easy to say yes at a fomo where I can go back and go into my little thing and I'm like, you are tax coach minted both live right minted 12 5, 20 25.

And I can drill into that level and I have. So many notes and food is on there because I, I bet you do. I do think it's important to know just so you can plan, because if you went to an event and you're like, the event was great, but the food was shit, maybe you wanna go back, but next time you're gonna preplan a schedule a DoorDash pickup or make plans to go to lunch instead, because you already know that going in instead of being disappointed.

Yeah. Expecting something else. The other thing I love about going to events too. Obviously, this is all outside of the stuff you learn, the people you meet. This is just like the random shs. Yeah. I love that you can bring out like your extra business outfits, like the ones Oh yeah.

Like fun and stupid and bougie. Like the ones that I, I'm in my office today. I could wear them here, you just you bring out that like extra fun. It's super fun and I was telling someone the other day I started working with this stylist team. Their, their company's name is called Shine Image Consulting, and I started working with them about a year and a half ago.

Originally just for a retreat that we were doing for our collab culture community. We had a package that we did with them. And so it was like a color and shape analysis and then more of a, like very finite. It was for branding videos. So they basically gave us like, look books for these videos.

Once I started working with them, I'm like, okay, this is really fascinating and it makes me not feel the stress of having to be like so overwhelmed by figuring out what to wear. So a really cool thing I started doing with them is this like quarterly conference. Planning, so fermented and for a couple other events, I did a keynote in Vegas.

I went to an event in Dallas and I went to Canada. Oh, your keynote in Vegas. You had that really cool. I tried to get it. It was sold out. What was that suit? Laurel Soup from Nordstrom. Yeah, it was a, and it was, yeah, they didn't have any more. When you sent me the link, I was like, send the outfit link.

Yes. Maybe it'll come back in stock. But that was from them. And the cool thing is what I do, because I do go to so many events and I host so many, I sent them an email and I was like, okay, here is all of my either speaking engagements, attendee, stuff, whatever. Here's where I'm going, here's when.

So they know like for weather and stuff, and then I'm like, here's a sales page, or here's their socials so they can like peep the vibe. And then obviously they know my color palette, things I like, things I don't like. And yes, it's a financial investment, but I'm sorry, my time and mental wellbeing are worth far more.

And I show up. They source everything. I show up. I try stuff on for a couple of hours and then we pick our favorites and I keep them and they send everything else back and I take my bags and I go home and I have a quarter's worth of event or of event attire. So I actually am meeting with them.

I think like the first or second week of January. And we'll do my, I'm traveling for some stuff for January for conferences and then obviously mine in February. So we'll do that Q1 block. But it's so nice and it does get me outside of the box 'cause they'll that floral suit, if I would've seen it just like online, I probably would've never been like.

That's it. You know what I mean? Yeah. But then it So good on you. And I don't think, you didn't wear a shirt under it, did you? No, just straight. Straight. Yeah. It looked free. The nips? No, but it looked like phenomenal. I know it sounds funny. I was like, I remember. I was like, that looks good. I was like, I need that.

Such a vibe. Such a vibe. Yeah. I'll have to see if it's back in stock. 'cause I got so much positive feedback about it. But again, not something that I would've like. Necessarily immediately chosen Could probably, because it was, it's loud. It's like a literal white suit that is fully floral. But it was perfect.

Like it was so perfect for, I feel like you could wear like the pants with a chiller shirt, or you could wear just the jacket, like to a meeting. It's a great We did that. Yes. When I tried it on, we did that. We tried on like jeans. With a body suit and just the jacket.

And then we tried on like the pants with I don't remember, like a pink or orange top for something more spring, maybe. Like. Bridal shower brunch or something like that, that's like a fun pop of color, but not necessarily wanting like a full suit vibe. So that has been a game changer for sure.

But yeah, I couldn't agree more. The outfits is like just always something fun, whether it's a dress up or dress down, just like trying something new that maybe you wouldn't otherwise do. Yeah, so definitely outfits, food. The one thing, so I don't drink and when they just do like full open bar. And it was funny at Milton real life too. Barbara's we have mocktails. And I was like, I'm not gonna go up to the bar and get a mocktail. It's just, it's out of my like wheelhouse of comfort, yeah. So I did go inside and I got like a diet Coke. So sometimes that's my only thing is when the whole event focus is like the alcohol.

I'm like, oh, it's time to go. But that's a me problem, yeah, yeah, for sure. We did. So this last year at the conference, we did no alcohol during the day, the VIP night that we do on Friday night. We did have, like a bar, like we had like wine, but then we specifically had signature mocktails and it was only like 50 people at the VIP night.

So definitely smaller, more intimate. But like that was built into the menu was like very, very intentionally. But that only came from me serving people and finding out. Especially now, like I feel like now in 2025, so many people are not drinking anymore, that it's like I'm also not trying to pay up front for a bunch of alcohol that people aren't gonna drink.

Yeah. And to be perfectly honest, I don't wanna be responsible for somebody coming and getting hammered and then me trying to figure out how to get them home, you know correctly. Even though we did have day two of the event the next day, so it was really cool to like, just find out from people, peep the vibe.

What do people like, are people drinking? They're not drinking, whatever. Yeah. And have a really intentionally designed offer where it's we see you and we wanna serve, and so this is what's available. And people we're very, very appreciative of that. I love that. It's just where I'm at. It's it's hard to be like, if the event is focused on like alcohol, I'm like, oh, gotta bounce, yeah, yeah. For sure. I feel that. Yeah. Okay I hope I get to come to one of your next events. Where can people find you online? I feel like we could just chat forever. I'm like, I didn't even get to my list of questions. I'm like looking at it off to the set. Yeah. Yeah. So the best way to probably connect with me is through Instagram.

So over on Instagram, my handle is v. Hayley, just the simplest way. You can spell Hayley, H-A-L-E-Y and then Westfall West, like the direction fall, fall down. Just try to make it easy for everybody. All of my links are there in my bio for my website. All of my events are there. There is a separate account for the table.

It's the table do a Z but that's linked in my bio as well. But yeah, I think my big thing is. Just empowering people to have a different perspective on events. Looking at them as a tool. I think a lot of times people either look at them as an obligation or they're like, honestly, it's just like fun, but they're not actually doing anything with it.

And so I talk about that through my socials and through the podcast. I actually created a resource, which I'll send you a link and I'll give you guys a discount code for your listeners, but I created a resource called Ready for the Room. So it's a digital masterclass. It's a five step framework for maximizing in-person events.

It's very tactical. You can do the whole thing in less than an hour, and I can assure you 97% of people that are attending live events do not have a dialed strategy. To be present, but also be intentional about how you're spending your time, money, and energy. So we go through everything from vetting and figuring out if the room is even right for you in the first place, to once you say yes, what do you do between then and when the event takes place?

What do you do while you're there? What do you do immediately after? What do you do in the weeks to months to come? Very strategic. And just like very realistic to be able to implement into your. Event strategy. And so I'll give you guys a link for that as well as a discount code if you wanna check it out.

But it's called Ready for the room. It's so great and we can do better. We can do better as business owners. Just because it's a write off doesn't mean we should be lighting money on fire. So if you're gonna be going to these places, do it intentionally. Okay. Real quick. I love that. Thank you for that.

Yeah. What is your best tip for going to events and walking away? Just like one quick hit. Yeah. The so the biggest mistake I see people make is the room not being right for them in the first place. So the biggest mistake people make is not doing enough research on the front end, and then they wind up disappointed because.

Their expectations and experience don't align, or it was just like never the right fit for them. The biggest implementable tool as far as while you are in the room is less, is more. So being really intentional, being present where your feet are. Stay off your freaking phone. For the love of all, stay off your phone, be present, be engaged with people.

Give yourself permission if the conversation does not. Feel aligned to step away. That's okay. You can do it in a kind and gracious way, but really focusing on if I only make three solid connections while I'm here, how can I challenge myself to do that? And what do those look and feel like so that you can acknowledge when that is happening.

And you can also acknowledge when it isn't. So being present, less is more, but also make sure it's the right room for you in the first place. That's a good one. I also put in the work, so I take screenshots of everyone I meet. It depends on the event. Some events are more like, I would say you're, we're all on Instagram.

They're like, what's your handle? It's like more like the girls Girls, yeah. Of events. And those ones like, I'll screenshot and I'll put 'em in a note and then I go back. I message everyone I was, yeah. Yeah. I do that too. I do. I have a, a whole. System and notion that I do it in, but I do screenshots and put 'em in an album for titled the event so that they're all there and I can go back to them.

Another similar tool that you can do that. My friend ti talked to attendees, she did a workshop at my conference this past February and she said, what she does is she goes to their Instagram and she just saves their last post into an album because it's, oh, you know what? I met her Was she. Did she go to powerhouse women?

But she went to that event that was right before it wasn't yours. 'cause a lot of people were leaving it to go to yours. Yeah, yeah, yeah. She was at both. She was gonna your event and she was showing me that. Yeah. Yeah. So she saves their post because she's if I'm gonna screenshot their Instagram, I may as well just save the Instagram and then I'm already in the app.

Yeah. So she does that and just saves a post and then works it that way. But yes, follow up is key. Just make sure that like they're conversations that are worth following up on. Oh, for sure. Yeah. Okay. I love that. Thank you. And we'll have you linked up in our show notes and thank you so much for your time and all the fun.

I love talking about running too. It was fun. Yeah, thanks for having me. Yeah, and hopefully you'll make it over to Utah or, there's already like a lineup of events I plan on going to next year in Arizona. So I'll see you there. Okay. See you soon.