GREENBRIER, Ark. – This weekend, Arkansas women learned how to level up and balance out not just their female-owned small business but their personal life as well.

The Level Up Conference aimed to bring women together to talk about various business-related topics, including taxes, marketing and leadership.

“The idea is that women are pouring out all day every day, and they need a place to get poured back into, so we fill a Friday night and a full Saturday with leadership sessions, sessions on marketing and company culture, and all kinds of other things to help them feel more equipped to go out and grow their business,” Founder of Level Up Jessica Crum said.

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Businesswoman and Level Up speaker Jo Johnson said that women are free to pursue whatever their passion is and make it a business.

“I hope that I make women realize that they have every opportunity in the world to pursue whatever their passion is and make it a business and make it an income that they can use to sustain their life,” Johnson said.

In conjunction with Friday being International Women’s Day, the event began on Friday and continued Saturday night with special guest speakers and much more.

“There’s something about today that makes you feel like you know that women everywhere are being celebrated, it’s okay for me to do something for myself this weekend,” Crum said.

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As a mom and business owner, Crum says it can be overwhelming. People ask her how she handles everything, and she says there is no “secret sauce.”

“You get to a place where you’re overwhelmed, and you have to make it a rhythm that you recalibrate that you find a way to get your balance back. Whenever things get crazy, you get overwhelmed you have to stop and recalibrate,” Crum said.

The first year of Level Up began as an office event with a little over 15 people. Now, the event attracts around 130 women.

Crum says this shows how much of a need something like this is for Arkansas.

“Every session block has three session options, so if you need to learn about hiring and hiring, you could go to one session, or if you’re a solo entrepreneur and you need to learn about time management, you can go to another, so they really get to experience what they need at this conference,” Crum said. “Of course, we had speakers come in from Los Angeles and Las Vegas, and they got to hear from some really expert, really big experts.”

Johnson says her favorite part of speaking at events like this is getting to speak one on one with the women during breaks or before and after the event begins.

“See how much they light up when they realize that somebody believes in what they’re doing,” Johnson said.

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Johnson also shares that often women question themselves, and when they find the confidence at events like this, it is life changing.

“Because I think so often women, we question ourselves do we belong in the space and there’s so much self-doubt and getting to for confidence into them and see them light up and get excited about the thing they’re passionate about I that’s what makes all of this so wonderful,” Johnson said.

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