UGLY TALK: UNMASKING THE FEMALE POWERHOUSE
Doors open in
High-achieving women can build successful businesses while simultaneously managing everyone else’s needs, second-guessing their instincts, and emotionally contracting after major wins. A heavy toll.
This Ugly Talk explores what happens when leaders stop outsourcing their authority, trust their intuition, and stay grounded through the uncomfortable moments of growth.
The pitch
Why you should be in this room.
- Learn how to expand your capacity for visibility and manage the post-success recoil after a big win.
- Recognize how emotional mapping pulls you away from your authenticity and erodes conviction.
- Understand how to balance logic, data, and intuition in high-stakes decisions.
- Build greater self-trust during periods of growth and expansion.
- Connect with women founders, investors, and leaders navigating similar challenges.
Audience
Who's getting in.
- Women founders and high-achieving leaders scaling businesses.
- Investors and operators supporting women-led companies.
- Leaders navigating visibility, growth, and high-stakes decision making.
- Allies and ecosystem builders supporting women in leadership.
Speakers
Featured speakers.
Doron Petersan
Baked By Sticky Doron Petersan, author, founder, and veteran reality TV survivor, spent 24 years running food businesses in Washington, DC, including Sticky Fingers Sweets & Eats and the National CPG brand Baked by Sticky, which she grew from 200 to 3,000 retail shelves in 18 months. She now runs Freccia & Fayer (Arrow & Flame), helping small business owners fix the friction and keep their flame, by creating systems to fill the resource gaps that take them down.
Kayla Bolyai
BELONG NYC Kayla Bolyai is the CEO & Founder of BELONG NYC, an urban sanctuary located in the heart of SoHo designed to make life in New York City easier, more comfortable, and more connected. Drawing on nearly two decades of experience building brands at the intersection of hospitality, lifestyle, and culture, Kayla created BELONG to reimagine what a modern third space can be for people living, working, and moving through the city.
In addition to leading BELONG, Kayla serves as Chief Marketing Officer of Altamarea Group, where she oversees marketing, brand strategy, communications, and experiential initiatives across the global hospitality group’s portfolio. Her career includes leadership roles as Director of Digital Marketing at STARR Restaurants and Director of PR at 160over90, a William Morris Endeavor company, as well as earlier experience with W Hotels. Across each chapter of her career, Kayla has focused on the intersection of brand, hospitality, and human experience… an approach that ultimately inspired her to build BELONG.
Hosts
Who's hosting it.
Viktoria teaches ambitious women to become their own mentors, unlocking massive income and impact.
Topics
What's on the table.
- The tax of being seen How leaders stay visible without shrinking back.
- The room-mapping trap When managing everyone else's emotions comes at the expense of your own.
- Logic vs. intuition Knowing when data helps and when it keeps you from making the right leap.
- Post-win contraction Why major breakthroughs can trigger exhaustion and self-protection.
- The isolation of sovereignty What changes when you stop outsourcing your decisions and trust your own authority.
Partners
Who's backing this.
Belong NYC
Located in the heart of SoHo, BELONG is a hospitality-driven space built for people who don’t stop. With on-demand access to private workspaces, meeting rooms, and high-function amenities—including showers, changing rooms, lockers, luggage storage, and recharge areas—it’s designed for the in-between moments: to reset, refresh, and keep moving. Between meetings, workouts, flights, and dinners, BELONG keeps up with you.
Venue