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Huntsville BUSINESS JOURNAL
SMALL BUSINESS
The Catalyst: Leading Ladies Boosting the Entrepreneurial Trajectory of North Alabama It takes a village when it comes to traveling the entrepreneurial journey. Leave it to the Catalyst’s team of Leading Ladies to have all the bases covered. Hosted at the Huntsville Botanical Garden, the 7th Annual Women’s Conference was merged with the highly successful “Mompreneur” event. The event’s theme was inspired by the “leading ladies” of the motion picture industry. This was the first Catalyst inperson event since the pandemic hit last March. Due to the uptick in the delta variant, the event was adjusted to be presented as a hybrid. Participants either attended in person or via online. The conference featured a wide assortment of guest speakers and relevant workshops, geared towards the ins and outs of government
contracting, reframing one’s brand, effective networking, balancing the work-life balance, empowerment, and finding one’s tribe. The Botanical Garden served as an ideal location for an all-day conference that emphasized growth and successfully blooming into one’s best self. “This is a day to build everyone up,” said Lisa Davis Mays, the Catalyst’s CEO. “This is what it looks like to be a dreamer, to see all the beauty that has
grown and taken root.” As the successor to Joanne Randolph, the Catalyst’s former CEO, Mays had her “baptism by fire” in the spring of 2020 and it’s been quite a busy fifteen months, filled with pivoting, shifting gears, and zooming. Throughout it all, Mays has been a champion; maintaining her enthusiasm, as well as her sense of humor. Harvalee Harbarger, featured guest speaker, talked about her early beginnings, being a “mompreneur,”
By Lori J. Connors Photo by Lori J. Connors
long before there was a term for it. Most importantly, Harbarger spoke of the Botanical Garden’s beginnings and the importance of being persistent. Harbarger, along with a dozen other Huntsvillians had a vision and steadfastly continued in their efforts to bring the dream of the Botanical Garden to life. The Garden began as a seed in the determined minds of those who emphatically refused to “Dream no small dream.” The midday Roundtable featured four winners of the Catalyst’s 2021 Entrepreneur Awards. Marvinia Adams, owner of Martinizing Dry Cleaning; Alice Lessman, CEO of Signalink, Inc; Megan Nivens-Tannett, Founder and CEO of Flourish; and Amy Roark, CEO of Give256. The women talked about their entrepreneurial paths, as well as successfully navigating the
