Matt Seeley, Senior Vice President, Performance Marketing, at Native Digital leads Nobody's Thinking About You (Yet): The Uncomfortable Science of How Small Brands Grow. His presentation is one of 19 sessions listed below focused on marketing and thriving as a solopreneur, startup, or small business.
Knowing how to market your personal brand and startup brand makes a difference. Brands need to break through the clutter, disrupt the feed and snatch peoples’ attention in a few seconds. These sessions at GEWKC by expert presenters cover what you need to know with practical techniques and tips about personal brand frameworks, working with creators as partners, the science behind how small brands grow (it’s not what you might think), how to make your brand more recognizable, boosting your Instagram game and much more.
Other sessions explore how to grow through a “thive” mindset. Learn how to cultivate and practice a thriving mindset as a pathway to build community, create opportunity, and energize your approach for sustainable growth without burning out.
Let’s go! Register for GEWKC (Nov. 16-20) at Union Station and make plans to attend sessions that provide insight on marketing a personal or small business brand as well as developing a thriving mindset that prepares you for entrepreneurial growth.
Tuesday, November 17
People Powered Marketing: The Creator Revenue Series
9:00 – 10:00 AM, Arthur Stilwell Room
Businesses grow faster when they treat content creators as strategic partners, not influencers. This session shows them how creators drive visibility, trust, and revenue through authentic, people led marketing.
Rita Strickland is the owner of Elevated Experiences with Rita, a multidisciplinary business consulting and experiential marketing firm dedicated to helping businesses launch, grow, strengthen their brands, and build meaningful community connections.
Beyond the Unicorn: Building a Business that Lasts
10:15 - 11:15 AM, Planetarium
Most founders will not build a unicorn, and that is not a failure. This session focuses on building a business that thrives.
Julie Leonhardt, Missouri Center for Employee Ownership , Executive Director, challenges the “exit at all costs” narrative and explores a practical path to building durable, innovative companies that can thrive beyond their founders. Drawing on research and real-world examples from employee-owned businesses, participants will learn how employee voice, financial transparency, shared upside, and thoughtful succession planning can strengthen productivity, resilience, and long-term value. Attendees will leave with practical steps for developing an ownership mindset now, whether they are ready to change their company’s ownership structure.
Nobody's Thinking About You (Yet): The Uncomfortable Science of How Small Brands Grow
12:45 - 1:45 PM, Planetarium
Matt Seeley, Native Digital, SVP Performance Marketing, leads this must-attend session for startups and small businesses.
Big brands can (and have) waste money on performance marketing for years before anyone notices because they're coasting on decades of awareness & activations. Your startup can't. Drawing on the largest evidence base in marketing (data from the Ehrenberg-Bass Institute), this session unpacks why small, challenger brands grow through penetration, not loyalty. We'll discuss why 95% of your market isn't shopping today and what to do about it and how to build brand affinity on a budget that can't afford "brand marketing." You'll leave with a diagnostic for the most expensive mistake entrepreneurs make: a brand demand problem masquerading as a performance problem.
Fun is a Business Strategy
2:00 - 3:00 PM, Innovation Room
Lesly Romo, Golazo / Keller Williams Realty Partners Inc/ Whimsky Homes, Founder, introduces a refreshing approach to thinking about work.
Some of the best ideas start with one simple question: "How can we make this more fun?" This session is about looking at work a little differently. We'll explore how creativity and human-centered design can turn everyday ideas into experiences people actually remember while also making the process more fun for the people creating them.
The Business You Already Have Is Worth More Than You Think
3:15 - 4:15 PM, Arthur Stilwell Room
Most entrepreneurs think growth means finding more customers or starting a new business. But what if the biggest opportunity is already sitting inside the business you've built?
Bakery Owner Jaresha Rhone, Cake-A-Boo LLC, speaks from experience as an entrepreneur who ransformed Cake-A-Boo from a custom cake business into multiple revenue streams including a storefront, dessert trailer, Cake Bar Experience, corporate events, classes, speaking engagements, media opportunities, and more - without abandoning her core business.
Wednesday, November 18
Why Great Brands Start By Saying No
10:15 - 11:15 AM, Innovation Room
The strongest brands aren't built by trying to appeal to everyone. They're built by making intentional decisions about what they stand for and just as importantly, what they don't.
Maliha Khan, Chief Executive Officer of Khanect the Dots, introduces her 3E Framework: Exclude. Establish. Evolve. You'll learn why the first step in building a recognizable brand isn't choosing colors or writing a tagline it's having the confidence to eliminate distractions, clarify your position, and focus on the people you're best equipped to serve.
Through real-world examples and practical marketing insights, you'll discover how strong brands become memorable, stay consistent, and continue to evolve without losing the trust they've worked hard to earn. Whether you're building a new business or refining an existing one, you'll leave with a clearer understanding of how to make your brand more recognizable in an increasingly noisy marketplace.
You Are Part of Someone's Startup Story: The Hidden Social Economics of Entrepreneurial Ecosystems
2:00 - 3:00 PM, Planetarium
No founder builds a company alone. Someone becomes the first customer. Someone tests the early product, shares honest feedback, makes an introduction, celebrates a milestone, or gives the founder another chance after a setback. Participation in the entrepreneurial community uplifts all.
Cory Keller, Kansas Commerce, Ecosystem Development & Strategic Partnerships, explores the entrepreneurial ecosystem as a cycle of participation. Drawing from Techstars Give First philosophy and related ideas about trust, generosity, and networks, he will show how everyday actions can circulate knowledge, credibility, customers, and opportunity through a community. Attendees will be challenged to see themselves as active participants in someone elses startup story. You do not need to be a founder or investor to strengthen an entrepreneurial ecosystem.
Stop Pitching, Start Asking: How Better Questions Win More Business
2:00 - 3:00 PM, Arthur Stilwell Room
Discovery, knowing how to ask the right questions at the right time, is one of the most overlooked skills in sales. It is also one of the most teachable.
Level 3 Sales Coaching owner Jenna Deyle invites attendees to work through a practical framework for having a real discovery conversation. You will learn what questions actually uncover buying motivation, how to recognize the signals that tell you a prospect is ready to move forward, and why slowing down early in a conversation almost always shortens the time to close.
This session is designed for business owners and independent professionals who are doing their own selling. You do not need a sales background. You just need to sell, and you want to get better at it.
From Technician to CEO: How to Stop Owning a Job and Start Building a Business
3:15 - 4:15 PM, Arthur Stilwell Room
You’re great at what you do. You built your business on that skill, knowledge, and experience. However, as your business grows, so do your responsibilities, decisions, and opportunities. My Massage Studios owner Celeste Duron shares her journey from skilled professional to independent business owner and eventually to building a business designed to support the growth of others.
Through real-world experiences, practical lessons, and open conversation, attendees will explore how to recognize the Technician Trap, begin developing systems, understand when and how to delegate, and shift their mindset from producing to leading. Because owning a business and building a business aren't always the same thing.
Thursday, November 19
Networking: Cómo Maximizar Tus Conexiones Sociales
8:30 - 9:30 AM, Arthur Stilwell Room
Led by Veronica Alvidrez, Seedfolk Partners, Educator and Program Facilitator. Todos compartimos nuestras tarjetas de negocios con nuevas personas, pero muchas veces no pasa nada después. En esta sesión te equipamos con herramientas y estrategias diseñadas para maximizar tus oportunidades de networking para hacer conexiones auténticas y favorables. Ven y aprende cómo crear estas conexiones para crecer y elevar tu negocio.
Up Your Instagram Game: Photos That Stop the Scroll
9:00 - 10:00 AM, Innovation Room
KC Moonlight Productions owner Angie Weston leads a fun, hands-on workshop is designed for casual photographers, small business owners, and social media users who want to create scroll-stopping images using the camera they already have.
You'll learn:
Lighting: The secret to great photos and how to find it anywhere.
Selfies: Simple techniques for flattering, natural-looking selfies.
Posing: Easy poses that help anyone look confident and comfortable.
The Gold Outside Your Door: Discover how everyday locations can become beautiful backdrops.
We'll finish with a guided photo walk where you'll immediately put these techniques into practice by finding great light, creating stronger compositions, and taking photos you'll be excited to share. You'll leave with practical skills you can use the very same day for Instagram, Facebook, family photos, and more.
Hustle Like A Woman
10:15 - 11:15 AM, Innovation Room
Izsie Robinson, CEO/Founder of Pink Blazer, flips the hustle and grind script.
After personally interviewing over 100 women about their bodies and cycles, she found the same pattern again and again: women pushing through symptoms that were dismissed, silenced, or simply never explained to them in the first place. Attendees will learn the archetypal cycle, the four inner seasons of the menstrual cycle, and the strengths and limitations of each one, so they can start recognizing the pattern in their own lived experience instead of fighting it. Rather than one big takeaway, attendees will leave with a "1% shift": one small, doable change they can make in how they run their business or their week, plus a tracker to take with them and actually use. Founders will walk away knowing how to plan their launches, their sales calls, and their rest around the rhythm they already have, instead of against it.
No Fue Suerte, Fuiste Tú: Superando el Síndrome del Impostor al Emprender
11:20 AM - 12:10 PM, Arthur Stilwell Room
Elva Medina, ViVe Therapy Wellness & Consulting By Elva, LLC, Founder/Trauma Therapist & Wellness Educator.
No fue suerte, fuiste tú: Superando el síndrome del impostor al emprender. En esta sesión interactiva, las personas emprendedoras aprenderán a reconocer cómo el síndrome del impostor, la comparación y la autocrítica pueden hacerles dudar de sus capacidades, minimizar sus logros y limitar su crecimiento. Desde un enfoque práctico e informado por el trauma, exploraremos de dónde provienen estas dudas y cómo regular la respuesta del sistema nervioso ante el miedo, la inseguridad y la exposición. Las personas participantes se llevarán herramientas concretas para cuestionar a su crítica interior, reconocer sus fortalezas y reemplazar la perfección por una confianza más auténtica. El objetivo es que salgan reconociendo que su experiencia, talento y éxito no son producto de la suerte: son el resultado de todo lo que han aprendido, superado y construido.
The Power of Your Story: Building a Brand That Opens Doors
12:45 - 1:45 PM, Chamber Board Room
Komalpreet Kaur, Eye of An Immigrant Founder & Executive Director, leads an interactive panel explores how authentic storytelling can help individuals build credibility, create meaningful connections, and unlock new opportunities.
Panelists will share how they intentionally built their personal and professional brands through community involvement, content creation, public speaking, networking, and mission-driven leadership. Attendees will learn practical strategies for identifying their unique story, communicating their value with confidence, and building a reputation rooted in authenticity rather than self-promotion. The session is designed for entrepreneurs, creators, students, nonprofit professionals, and anyone looking to intentionally build a brand that creates lasting impact.
Stuck on Paper: How to Get Your Business Ideas Off the Page and Out into the World
12:45 - 1:45 PM, Innovation Room
Cognitive Traffic Jam Disruptor Pam Aks of What's Within U, leads a session that unpacks why the idea stage feels energizing and why “doing the thing” can trigger something she calls “cognitive traffic jams." Things like stress responses, second‑guessing, perfection pressure, imposter syndrome, and shutdown. Learn how to turn that insight into movement, where you'll take one “stuck on paper” idea and run it through a simple, evidence-based process so you walk out of this workshop with doable experiments that create momentum.
Be the CEO of Your Wellness
2:00 - 3:00 PM, Chamber Board Room
Estelle Brooks, Founder and CEO of FitUis4u Health & Fitness, guides an interactive session, where articipants will complete a brief CEO Wellness Assessment, engage in guided reflection and small group discussions, and develop a personalized CEO Wellness Action Plan using the Commit, Energize, Own It framework.
Attendees will leave with practical, actionable tools they can implement immediately, including strategies to reduce stress, increase energy, improve work-life balance, build sustainable wellness habits, and prevent burnout. The goal is for every participant to leave with a clear plan that supports both their personal well-being and long-term business success.
The Un-Presentation Mixer: Speed Networking for Smart Connections
2:00 - 3:00 PM, Innovation Room
This Mixer is all about effortless, friction-free community-wide connection for a completely universal audience. Walk away from this session with meaningful local ties, led by Shauna Clark, Ess Factor Solutions, Marketing Expert.
This interactive experience is built for absolutely anyone in the Kansas City business ecosystem whether they are an established business owner, a solo creator, a non-profit leader, or just starting out. Using a uniquely structured intake process, the pressure of traditional networking is eliminated so attendees can focus on building authentic, high-value relationships. No boring slides, no rigid lectures just a smart, low-pressure environment designed to expand your local network.
Creative Sustainability: Building a Business Around Art, Community, and Care
3:15 - 4:15 PM, Innovation Room 2
Rainey Bailey-King of The Curated Group leads a hands-on workshop for artists, creatives, freelancers, and early-stage entrepreneurs who are trying to build businesses that are not only profitable, but also personally sustainable, community-centered, and rooted in purpose. As a creative entrepreneur, learn how to turn lived experience, skills, values, and community relationships into a clear business model. Rainey guides participants through practical tools for identifying their core offerings, naming their audience, designing meaningful experiences, and building systems that support growth without burnout.
The session will combine storytelling, guided reflection, group discussion, and a simple business-mapping activity that participants can continue using after the conference.
As Seen on TV: Your Media Playbook
3:15 - 4:15 PM, Innovation Room 1
National media veterans Stacey Johnson-Cosby and Tracey Hawkins pull back the curtain on how entrepreneurs get quoted, booked, and remembered. You'll learn how to pitch story ideas reporters actually want, position yourself as the go-to expert in your niche, and turn a single interview into lasting credibility and new business. Walk away with a practical playbook for building your voice, controlling your narrative, and showing up like a pro on camera and off.