When You’ve Outgrown the Room, Find a New One

Meghann Conter never fit the corporate mold. She never planned to climb up that ladder, and she was too creative to belong there. Raised by two lawyers to question everything, she struggled early on with taking orders. So, she built her own path into entrepreneurship.

Then, years later, she hit that same feeling again. She was part of networking groups, but no one around her was where she was. Maybe you’re there too.

On Captivate the Mic with Elaine Williams, Meghann shares what she did next, and why the right room changed everything.

Where, Oh Where, Have All the Successful Women Gone?

The successful women in Denver stopped showing up because when they did, everyone came to pick their brains. They were always the smartest one in the room, with nothing to gain.

As Elaine put it, the ego loves being the big fish, even when there’s no cheese down that tunnel.

Being a mentor feels good and it matters, but if you’re always the one pouring into others, who’s pouring into you? You need women ahead of you to stretch and help you on your own path.

So it comes down to a choice. Stay comfortable on the pedestal, or get vulnerable and surround yourself with women who make you grow.

Meghann made that choice early. At around $150k herself, she started interviewing women millionaires in front of an audience, feeling nowhere near ready. Through that, she found that these women were just as human as she was. They didn’t have six limbs and an extra brain. She saw them as beings of love and light, and as equals, even when their revenue didn’t match. 

Bringing Improv to Business

Most business events look the same. A fire hose of information, no time to absorb it, a sea full of serious faces… you know the scene. You’re sitting there, fighting to keep your eyes open, wishing you could grab another coffee without making it obvious how bored you are. For creative and ADHD brains especially, it’s nearly impossible to take anything in.

Then the talks end and the mingling starts. Everyone’s in their tailored suits, postures like peacocks, and perfectly rehearsed conversations. You trade soulless elevator pitches with no connection whatsoever to the people standing with you shoulder to shoulder. They're all just waiting for their turn to talk so they can hand you a neatly pressed business card and check one more off the list.  

Meghann had sat through enough of those. With her background in improv, she built The Dames around laughter, connection, and pattern interrupts, mixed right in with the business education. When a lesson comes with a wig, a weird costume, or a sketch nobody saw coming, it sticks. Same lesson, packaged in a way your brain actually remembers.

That’s the thinking behind FunFerence, The Dames’ annual gathering, first created in 2022 to bring members from around the world together to learn, laugh, and connect. Life is too short to spend another day nodding off at a boring conference.

Impolite, Inferior, Even Inappropriate? Says Who?

The right room is only half of it. Once you’re in it, you have to be willing to ask, which for most of us is easier said than done.

This part is especially hard since women were taught that asking is impolite, inferior, even inappropriate.

So we get caught in a never-ending loop, so afraid of looking like we don’t have it all together that we keep our needs to ourselves. That hiding is exactly what keeps us from ever getting it together.

Breaking that loop takes the opposite action. Inside The Dames, members fill out the Dames Ask worksheet and practice with their Power Partners and business besties, women they trust enough to get messy with.  

Over time, you learn to keep a few asks ready, since one woman can’t help with everything, but she can usually help with something. (When someone says no, remember there’s no need to toss the whole idea. It just wasn’t the right ask for her, at least not right now.)

Meghann knows this firsthand. On Captivate the Mic, she shares the most recent ask that stretched her past her own comfort zone, and what she did when it didn’t all go to plan.

Listen to the full episode, “How Women Entrepreneurs Scale to 7 Figures,” and hear how to stop shrinking and grow past what’s been holding you back.

If you’re a six-, seven-, or eight-figure woman ready for women who challenge you for the better, explore The Dames’ membership options.