Are you ready to Lead with Influence?
Lead with Influence is an in-person event series for established business owners who want to become stronger, more confident leaders in their business, market and industry.
Each event explores a different skill that helps you build influence — from understanding your customer and strengthening your sales approach to communicating with an authentic voice, public speaking, building self-trust, and confidently sharing your expertise.
These are not passive workshops. They are interactive, thought-provoking experiences designed to challenge your thinking, strengthen your skills, and help you use the knowledge and experience you already have more intentionally.
And because influence is built through relationships, every Lead with Influence event happens in person — creating space to connect, have real conversations, and build a stronger community and support system around your business.
Own what you know. Trust what you know. Learn how to lead with it.
OCTOBER EVENT
Lead with Influence: The Business Reset
Stop guessing. Reconnect with your customer. Rebuild your sales foundation. Start leading again.
You’ve worked too hard to build your business to keep guessing what to do next.
Sales have slowed.
What used to work isn’t working the same way anymore.
You’re posting more. Creating more. Offering more. Trying new ideas. Asking AI what you should do next.
And somehow, instead of feeling clearer, you feel more overwhelmed.
Maybe you’ve started watching your bank balance a little more closely.
Maybe debt is creeping up.
Maybe you’re questioning your pricing.
Maybe you’re wondering if people still want what you sell.
Maybe, quietly, you’ve even started asking yourself:
How long can I keep doing this?
Before you create another offer, rewrite your website again, lower your prices, spend more money on marketing, or ask AI to solve another problem for you ...
Pause.
Your business may not need more.
It may need you to understand it again.
A two-day, in-person business refresher for owners who know something needs to change — but don’t want to keep making decisions from fear.
October 17 & 18, 2026
10:00 a.m. – 2:00 p.m. each day
In-person intentionally
10 spaces for 10 business owners who are know something needs to change
$197 + HST
This is your opportunity to step away from the noise, the algorithms, the opinions, the endless content, and the pressure to constantly DO something.
For two days, we are going back to the foundation of your business.
Your customer.
Your value.
Your pricing.
Your positioning.
Your sales process.
Your relationships.
And most importantly:
Your ability to trust yourself to lead your business again.
Are you willing to risk running your business the same way for another six months?
Think about that seriously.
If sales are already slower than you want them to be ...
If your marketing feels inconsistent ...
If you’re attracting the wrong inquiries — or not enough inquiries ...
If you keep changing what you offer ...
If you’re spending more time creating content than talking to customers ...
If you’re exhausted from trying one more thing ...
What happens if nothing changes?
What does your business look like three months from now?
Six months from now?
How will you feel if you’re still trying to solve the same problems with the same decisions?
We love to repeat the line:
“Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”
But business owners do it every day.
Sometimes we call it consistency.
Sometimes we call it perseverance.
Sometimes we convince ourselves we just need to work harder.
But there is a difference between persistence and complacency.
This is not the season to be complacent.
The market has changed.
Technology has changed.
Buying behaviour has changed.
Your customers have changed.
And you have probably changed too.
Your business has to be allowed to change with you.
The first question isn’t “What should I sell?”
It’s:
WHO are you actually selling to now?
Not who bought from you in 2018.
Not the customer avatar you created five years ago.
Not “women between 35 and 55.”
Not “small business owners.”
And definitely not:
“Everyone.”
If you don’t truly understand WHO your customer is today, you’re missing some of the most important information in your business.
Because without WHO, how do you know:
Why they need or want what you sell?
What problem they believe they are solving?
What they can afford?
What they are willing to pay?
What they value?
Where they look for solutions?
Who they trust?
How they make purchasing decisions?
What makes them hesitate?
What gets their attention?
What makes them come back?
You cannot build strong pricing, positioning, messaging, engagement, or follow-up strategies around a customer you no longer understand.
And yet many business owners are doing exactly that.
DAY ONE: RECONNECT WITH YOUR BUSINESS
WHO. PRICING. POSITIONING.
We begin by getting very clear about the person your business needs to reach today.
Not theoretically.
Not based on generic demographics.
We are going to dig into what you already know from conversations, customers, sales, missed sales, experience, patterns and behaviour.
You’ll examine:
WHO your customer really is in 2026
What has changed about them.
What they need and want from you now.
What matters when they make a purchasing decision.
What they value enough to pay for.
What they expect your product or service to cost.
Whether your current pricing aligns with the customer you are trying to reach.
Why they should choose your business.
What they need to hear from you to understand your value.
And how your business should be positioned in today’s market.
This is not a marketing workshop.
I am not going to give you a list of social media tactics.
I am not going to tell you to post seven Reels a week.
And I am definitely not going to tell you to create five new offers because sales are slow.
Because doing more is not automatically the answer.
Sometimes doing more simply gives you more things to maintain, more things to sell, more things to worry about, and more opportunities to feel disappointed when they don’t work.
Before we add anything, we need to understand what is already happening.
Clarity before activity.
“A strong brand is the key to success.”
But a strong brand is not simply a logo, colour palette or social media presence.
A strong brand knows:
Who it serves.
Why it matters.
What it stands for.
What value it provides.
How it communicates.
And why people should trust it.
That clarity creates confidence.
And your customers can feel the difference.
DAY TWO: TURN THAT CLARITY INTO CONNECTION
ENGAGEMENT. FOLLOW-UP. SALES.
Once you know WHO you are trying to reach, everything about your sales process gets easier to examine.
Now we can ask:
Where are they?
How are they shopping?
What are they searching for?
What are they worried about?
Who are they asking for recommendations?
What makes them stop scrolling, walking or searching long enough to notice you?
What information do they need before they buy?
How long does their decision take?
What happens after they show interest?
And then we get to one of the most neglected parts of small-business sales:
Follow-up.
“I don’t want to bother them.”
“I already emailed once.”
“I don’t want to sound desperate.”
“I don’t want to be too salesy.”
“They know where to find me.”
Maybe.
But your customer is also busy.
Distracted.
Overloaded.
Managing work, family, finances, notifications, appointments, emails and hundreds of pieces of information every day.
Sometimes people do not need another sales pitch.
They need a reminder.
A thoughtful follow-up.
A gentle nudge.
Another opportunity to say yes.
During Day Two, you’ll build a personalized engagement and follow-up approach based on two things:
What your customer needs from you.
And:
What you realistically have the capacity to maintain.
No complicated funnel you’ll abandon in three weeks.
No one-size-fits-all script.
No pretending you want to spend your entire life sending DMs.
We will build something that fits your customer and fits you.
I’m going to make you uncomfortable.
Because some of the questions we need to ask are uncomfortable.
Is your customer still who you think they are?
Does your pricing make sense?
Do people understand what you sell?
Are you communicating your value clearly?
Are you following up consistently?
Are you avoiding sales activities because they make you uncomfortable?
Are you hiding behind social media?
Are you adding products because the existing ones aren’t selling?
Are you actually listening to your customers?
And one of the biggest questions:
Are you trusting yourself to run your business?
Or have you slowly started outsourcing your confidence to algorithms, AI, online experts, competitors, and customer opinions?
AI can help you research.
It can organize your thinking.
It can help you work faster.
But it has not spent the last five, ten or fifteen years inside your business.
It hasn’t had your customer conversations.
It hasn’t watched people hesitate before buying.
It hasn’t noticed the questions customers repeatedly ask.
It hasn’t seen the patterns you’ve seen.
You have.
Your experience matters.
Your knowledge matters.
Your instincts matter.
Your relationships matter.
Your expertise matters.
It’s time to start using them again.
If you want to get rid of imposter syndrome, stop acting like an imposter.
Stop assuming everyone else knows more about your business than you do.
Stop waiting for another expert to give you permission.
Stop changing direction every time someone gives you an opinion.
Stop assuming an AI-generated answer automatically understands your customers better than you do.
You built this business.
You learned by doing.
You made mistakes.
You solved problems.
You served customers.
You figured things out.
You know more than you think you do.
For two days, I’m going to ask you to bring that knowledge back into the room.
Inspire confidence through confident behaviour.
Ask better questions.
Make intentional decisions.
Follow up.
Communicate clearly.
Price thoughtfully.
Know who you serve.
Know why you matter.
And lead your business accordingly.
This event is intentionally small.
There will only be approximately 10 business owners in the room.
That is deliberate.
I don't want you sitting anonymously in the back of a conference room listening to someone talk at you for eight hours.
This is immersive.
Interactive.
Conversational.
You’ll have space to think.
Space to write.
Space to question assumptions.
Space to hear how other business owners are thinking.
Space to brainstorm.
Space to work directly on your own business.
And space for me to challenge you when I think you’re avoiding something important.
There is also one important rule:
No tech.
No hiding behind another Google search.
No immediately asking AI for the answer.
No scrolling when a question becomes uncomfortable.
For these few hours, you get to use your own mind.
Your experience.
Your knowledge.
Your conversations.
Your intuition.
Your expertise.
Bring a notebook.
Bring a pen.
Bring your curiosity.
Bring an open mind.
And bring the business you want to fight for.
I know, you’re already feeling uncomfortable. But instead of resisting, ask yourself: what if it works?
What I want you to leave knowing
By Sunday afternoon, my goal is for you to be able to clearly explain:
WHO your customer is today.
Why they need or want what you offer.
What they value.
What they are willing and able to pay for.
How your pricing aligns with that customer.
Why your business matters to them.
How to position what you offer.
Where and how to engage with them.
What they need to hear from you.
How they make purchasing decisions.
How you will follow up.
And what you need to focus on next.
Not 47 new ideas.
Clarity.
A direction.
A stronger sales foundation.
And a plan you can actually follow.
This is for you if…
Your sales have slowed and you’re not entirely sure why.
You are working harder without seeing the return you expected.
You’ve started questioning your offers or pricing.
You keep changing your marketing because nothing seems to stick.
You’re worried about cash flow or increasing debt.
You’re creating more because you don’t know what else to do.
You feel disconnected from your customers.
You know your follow-up could be stronger.
You’re tired of relying on social media to generate every sale.
You’ve begun questioning yourself as a business owner.
You know your business still has potential — but something needs to change.
And you are willing to look closely at what that something might be.
This probably isn’t for you if…
You’re looking for a passive seminar where you can sit in the back and take a few notes.
You want a list of quick marketing hacks.
You want someone else to make every decision for you.
You’re unwilling to question assumptions you’ve been carrying for years.
Or you have no intention of changing anything after the weekend.
Because I’m not interested in giving you more information to save in a folder.
I want you to use what you learn.
Risk vs. reward.
The investment for both days is:
$197 + HST
You can look at that as another business expense.
Or you can compare it to the cost of continuing to guess.
Another month of ineffective marketing.
Another offer nobody asked for.
Another pricing decision based on fear.
Another lead you never followed up with.
Another three months wondering what you should do next.
The bigger question isn’t:
“Can I afford to spend $197?”
The question is:
“What is it costing me to keep running my business without these answers?”
You have already invested money, time, energy, emotion, and probably more than a few sleepless nights into building this business.
Give yourself two days to work on it properly.
October 17 & 18, 2026
10:00 a.m. – 2:00 p.m. each day
In-person intentionally
10 spaces for 10 business owners who are know something needs to change
$197 + HST
Two days.
Eight focused hours.
One business.
Yours.
Why am I hosting this?
I’m Jodi Laking, founder of Work Smart Canada.
I’ve spent more than 12 years as a business coach and consultant supporting business owners, alongside 25+ years of personal entrepreneurship.
And lately, I’ve been having too many conversations with capable business owners who are exhausted, worried, and questioning businesses they have worked incredibly hard to build.
I don’t want to help another business owner close a business that still has something worth fighting for simply because they became overwhelmed by noise, fear and uncertainty.
I believe business owners need more opportunities to have real conversations again.
To think deeply.
To question assumptions.
To learn from one another.
To reconnect with their customers.
And to remember how much knowledge they already carry.
I’m not promising that two days will magically fix every challenge in your business.
I am offering you something I believe many business owners desperately need right now:
Space to stop.
Space to think.
Space to get honest.
Space to make decisions.
Space to rebuild your own self-trust.
And people around you who understand what it means to run a business when things feel uncertain.
You have two choices.
You can keep doing what you’ve been doing and hope the next three or six months look different.
Or you can pause long enough to understand what needs to change.
You’ve worked too hard to build your business to simply watch it struggle.
This weekend is your opportunity to reconnect with your customer, rebuild your sales foundation, and remind yourself that you are still the person capable of leading this business forward.
This is not the season to be complacent.
This is the season to find answers.
Make plans.
Rebuild confidence.
And level up for the business you are running today — and the one you want to take into 2027.