What Is The Yellow Conference?

This year was my first attending The Yellow Conference – an annual gathering place for creative, entrepreneurial women who want to use their gifts, skills and talents to serve the greater good. It was an honor to be among like minded women and creatives who are pursuing careers of purpose with passion and living outside the box (literally for speaker Kirsten Dickerson, the founder of Raven & Lily who lives in this tiny home – and for speaker Jedidiah Jenkins, a travel writer who bicycled all the way from Oregon to Patagonia).

As you might imagine, gathering hundreds of creative women in one room made for an incredibly upbeat and energetic couple of days. The entire vibe was inclusive and collaborate and the themes of the conference spanned from the balancing act of slow living as entrepreneurs, to maintaining individuality and advancing your career while making the transition into motherhood. Each of the speakers emphasized in their own way, the invaluable need for collaborative relationships with other women and creatives.

Behind The Scenes With Joanna Waterfall 

Joanna Waterfall founded the Yellow Conference in 2014 as a space for women like herself who wanted to use their various skills for the greater good. Joanna herself was in a creatively stunted place and was burnt out on competing with and comparing herself to women around her. She needed a change. I had a chance to ask her a few questions about her inspiration for Yellow and what it’s meant to her personally to create a space where women could come together not for competition but collaboration. 

What was your initial inspiration the Yellow Conference and community?

The Yellow Conference was created because I wanted to attend it. I wanted a space where I could be around entrepreneurial women who were creative, inspiring, and not working to elevate themselves, but working to make the world around them a better place. Women who wanted to use their gifts, skills and talents to serve the greater good. I wanted to hear from women who were running these social enterprises I admired. I wanted to hear their stories, why they do what they do, how they got to where they are, and what their advice for other women was. I wanted to sit in the audience and soak it all in. This is why I created the conference!


Why create a conference for women?

Women have a unique strength. They are oftentimes wanting to find more purpose in their work. They like to work for more than just money. Money is great, but women have a deep sense within them that knows that life is about more than that. Women also have the tendency to compete with one another, get intimidated and compare themselves to other women. I wanted to create a space where no matter where you were at in your career, how successful you were or how much money you made, where women could come together in collaboration over competition, and share a sisterhood.

Who is Yellow Conference a perfect fit for?

Any woman who wants to use what she has to serve the greater good. Women who are entrepreneurial minded- the ones who are running their own businesses, or want to be the entrepreneur of their own life. Women who are willing to work hard, and come together with other women to make change happen. Women who see possibility, who are hungry, who are ready to take some risks. Women who know they were made for more than average.


What do YOU most look forward to about each gathering?

Gosh SO much. I get butterflies just thinking about it! I think what I most get excited about though, is the ripple effect after the conference. About what the women do after they are inspired and feeling empowered and wanting to change the world. I get excited when they actually go out and DO it. It makes all the work of the conference worth it. Knowing that it brought tangible change to the world.


What’s your one piece of advice for creative female entrepreneurs?

You learn by doing. You can get all the information and read all the books and go to all of the conferences that you want- but you were learn from your experience. So get out there and start doing. Write down a list of things you need to do and go down that list. Keep your head down, don’t focus on the big picture everyday. Focus on the small steps and the big picture will complete itself.

How You Can Be Involved (All Year Long!)

There are so many women I know who would have loved to join Yellow Conference but couldn’t make it this year for various reasons. For all who couldn’t join, and for those who did but are looking for an ongoing way to connect with the Yellow community, The Yellow Collective has recently launched a quarterly membership platform for female entrepreneurs and creatives. Yellow is bringing the community, connection and empowerment that comes from the once a year Yellow Conference  to our day to day lives.

Over the span of a year, members to The Yellow Collective receive empowerment and community in three ways:

  1. Digitally (online resources & access to the digital community)

  2. Tangibly (a quarterly box with do-good products, inspirational prints and a book)

  3. In person (in person quarterly events)

For more information, head to yellowcollective.com and sign up to be a member. The next begins starts October 1, but the deadline to sign up is SEPTEMBER 1! So grab your spot and get ready for some goodness.