Summit 21 at Blavity Fest brought the heat to Atlanta. Between the weather outside and the conversation and energy inside, the vibes couldn’t have been more perfect for attendees on Day 1 of the festival.

A partnership between 21Ninety and AT&T’s Dream In Black, Summit 21 was intentionally curated as an empowering space for visionary women to have transformative conversations that would lead to transformative ideas.

The crowd came ready to receive and the speakers did not disappoint.

Each of the day’s panelists were selected for not only their ability to inspire others or their unique approach to their particular area of expertise, but also because each of these women has an empowering story. They all came ready to share it as a living testimony to the power of choosing to transform your life. More importantly, they delivered practical tools and information to help the attendees along their own journeys.

One of the standout aspects of Summit 21, was the way in which each talk and presentation combined with the others to create the ultimate toolkit. Dr. Raquel Martin, for example, gave a breakdown of what it takes to create “High Value Habits,” which she began by helping the audience understand exactly where habits come from.

“A lot of our routines were passed down to us, they were not built by choice,” she explained. “So, it’s not enough to think about the routines that we have, we also have to think about whether they’re still serving us.” Dr. Martin then proceeded to lead the audience through a number of exercises to begin taking steps towards understanding, unlearning and rewriting our definitions of success.

Author Mattie James pulled up with a presentation on what it looks like to thrive at home, at work, and in life in general through what she calls “Everyday Magic.” Spoiler alert: it comes from realizing that you get to decide the kind of life you want. And once you’ve done that, you’ve got to lean on the resources at your disposal to create and manage that life. Yes, that sounds easier said than done, but the beauty in all the Summit 21 speakers is that they pulled up with receipts supporting the information and tools they were sharing.

Tying up the skills development portion of the conversation was Tiffany Aliche, better known to the social media girlies as The Budgetnista. Understanding how to “Master Your Money,” Aliche explained, is the true key to financial freedom. As a 101-level introduction to that concept, she offered a three-step approach that can be implemented at any financial level:

Earn by seeking additional sources of income that don’t leave you drained.
Manage by planning and automating where your money goes, even before you’ve gotten it.
Protect by using tools such as insurance and estate planning to make sure you’re able to keep your money working for you and your family for as long as possible.

Balancing out the three very hands-on, practical presentations at Summit 21, were three equally inspiring fireside chats with women who opened up about what transformation has looked like in their own lives. For Ami Colé founder and CEO Diarrah N’Diaye-Mbaye, it was through the very intentional ideation and creation of her beauty brand, which she developed with women like herself in mind. Karen Civil came through with a word about the power and importance of pivoting, whether you’re doing so to adapt to a changing industry; to expand your professional horizons; or to make space for a new vision of who you’d like to be. And Dr. Karri Bryant shared what she has learned about using self-knowledge as a powerful leadership tool during times of complexity and change– taking the audience to church in the process.

The exchange of information and energy that took place during this year’s powerful Summit 21 set the tone for attendees to carry this year’s Blavity Fest theme–“Cultivating Black Wealth and Ideas”–with them long after leaving the building. And each person in the room left empowered to not only apply the tools they received in their own lives, but to share the knowledge with their own smaller circles.

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