The Fifth Annual Get Money Get Paid conference is tomorrow, and we can’t help but feel a little emotional about it.

It’s been quite a year so far, and no matter who you are or what you do, it’s been incredibly hard on everyone. 

All of the things that are most important to us at Ladies Get Paid — advancing gender equality, helping women succeed professionally, putting more money in their pockets — those goals all feel like they’re in peril right now. A new report from Lean In released this morning shows many sad statistics, including the fact that one in four women are considering leaving the workforce or downshifting their careers because of the COVID-19, and that companies are at risk of losing over 2 million women from the workforce.

Over the past few months, we’ve heard from so many of you about the hardships you’re facing. Women have been disproportionally laid off. We have more debt. We’re more likely to be frontline workers, and more likely to absorb the responsibility of caring for children and family. There are so many of you who are in college, or just starting your careers, who feel lost and afraid. We’re bearing the brunt of the pandemic.

Ladies Get Paid has of course faced its own hardships. We’ll be honest, there have been many, many times when we didn’t know if we could stay open. In most ways, we’ve had completely reimagine what our business looks like. It feels like we’ve had to start over.

We’ve tried our best to listen to what you need, and respond in whatever ways we can (launching Support Your Ladies in partnership with the Female Founder Collective, and our video library, The Institute for Higher Earning, among them). We hope we’ve been doing right by you these past few months, and we know we are so fortunate that you’ve all stuck with us, cheered us on, and supported our business.

And now here we are on the eve of our fifth conference, another part of our business we weren’t sure would continue. Every year it’s such a special day, where we all get to come together to talk about our goals and our challenges, and have fun learning together. While we’ve never produced a big online event before, we couldn’t let the pandy keep us down, and we’re so proud of the program we put together this year. 

So here’s where we’re at: while we don’t typically quote men in our emails, we feel that Jake Tapper astutely summed up what this year feels like, “A hot mess inside a dumpster fire inside a train wreck.”

Quite frankly, we don’t know what these next weeks and months look like, other than it’s going to be hard. But here’s what we do know: tomorrow we have the opportunity to come together and learn about things that will make our lives, and the lives of women around us better. We feel fortunate that we have an opportunity to do something that matters for a day.

We’re looking forward to our best Get Money Get Paid yet, and we really hope to see you there. If you haven’t purchased your ticket already, there’s still time! If you’re interested in joining us but are having a hard time making the cost work, send us an email at community@ladiesgetpaid.com and we’ll help you out.

Ladies Get Paid forever.

Now let’s go get paid.

x Team LGP