133. The working mom's guide to networking events (from someone who's built hundreds) — Heather Odendaal
All Figured Out with Andrea Barr: Figuring Out Work, Life and ParentingShow Notes
🎉 USE CODE AFO TO GET $150 OFF YOUR WNORTH CONFERENCE PASS! — conference runs May 6–8, 2026 at the Four Seasons Whistler. Heather Odendaal, entrepreneur, event producer and founder of WNORTH, an Award-winning membership network of women in leadership that she has been running for the past 11 years in Whistler, BC. WNORTH’s mission is to develop more women to leading positions so they can elevate their teams, families and communities, all through boutique in-person and virtual events, summits, programs and annual Conference. She knows what it takes to build a community of working women who want to be part of. In this episode, Heather shares what the events industry taught her about belonging, why traditional networking events fail ambitious women, and how she rebuilt her business — and herself — after losing $250K a month during the pandemic. You might have a love-hate relationship with networking, but you’re desperately wanting to find your people, so tune in In this episode, we cover: (00:00) Intro
(01:26) Who is Heather Odendaal?
(03:26) The best networking events are not about the aesthetic, flower walls don’t build community
(05:47) Horseshoes, not circles: the WNORTH philosophy that makes every woman feel like there's a seat for her
(07:56) How WNORTH measures belonging
(10:24) How to find your people at a networking event, even if you hate small talk
(11:11) Why being in the right room beats being in every room — the case for niche community
(11:42) WNORTH Ad
(15:01) How Heather redesigned a male-dominated forum structure to actually work for working mothers
(18:05) Losing $250K/month, and pivoting to virtual events, while parenting her children
(22:30) How deeper community ties helped Heather rebuild past pre-pandemic revenue by 2023
(26:06) Quality over quantity at home too: the fractional VA secret and what it means for working moms
(29:55) Mom guilt, working full time, and traveling as an ambitious mom
(30:29) Why your kids will be proud of you for pursuing your dreams (36:18) What to expect at WNORTH Conference, May 6–8, 2026 — speaker dinners, sound baths, W Talks, and more
KEY TAKEAWAY Real community is built through belonging. Which is why it is better to find the right room, instead of trying to work every single one of them. The goal for working moms should be to make deeper connections. Quality over quantity. About Heather Odendaal Heather Odendaal is a conference entrepreneur and the founder of W North, an 11-year women's leadership conference and membership community that brings together ambitious women in business and corporate leadership. She is also the founder of Events by Bluebird, a full-service event production company. Based in Whistler, BC, Heather has produced events globally — from the Canadian Embassy in London to Abu Dhabi — and is a sought-after speaker on belonging, community, and women's leadership. She is a mom of two and a passionate advocate for building spaces that actually work for women. Connect with Heather Odendaal Website | https://wnorthconnect.com/ | https://www.eventsbybluebird.com/ Instagram | https://www.instagram.com/heatherodendaal/ | https://www.instagram.com/wnorthconnect/ | https://www.instagram.com/eventsbybluebird/ Linkedin | https://ca.linkedin.com/in/heatherodendaal | https://www.linkedin.com/company/wnorth/ | https://www.linkedin.com/company/bluebirddmc About Andrea Barr, host of All Figured Out: Andrea is a certified career and life coach for parents. Through her coaching, she supports parents in finding better work-life rhythms so they can continue to grow personally and professionally without sacrificing family time. Connect with Andrea Website | https://www.andreabarr.com/ Instagram | https://www.instagram.com/allfiguredoutandrea | https://www.instagram.com/allfiguredout.podcast Listen to All Figured Out 💚 Spotify | https://tinyurl.com/afo-spotify 💜 Apple Podcasts | https://tinyurl.com/afo-apple 🖤YouTube | https://www.youtube.com/@allfigured
More from All Figured Out with Andrea Barr: Figuring Out Work, Life and Parenting
Steph Wharton is a leadership and visibility coach, a public speaker and the founder of the Speaker Movement, and she'll be the first to tell you she was painfully shy growing up. Andrea sat down with her in person to talk about what visibility looks like for working moms, whether that's on a stage, on LinkedIn or at the playground. They get into the many hats we wear and the question of whether we're "enough" in any of them, how to decide what you actually want to be visible for, why you don't need a rags-to-riches story to have something worth sharing, and beginner-friendly public speaking tips for easing your nerves the next time you have to speak in front of people. And, we leave you with a little visibility challenge.
📣 EXCLUSIVE for AFO listeners: Get 20% off your annual Fraîche Table subscription with code ALLFIGUREDOUT20 → https://fraichetable.com/ Tori Wesszer is a registered dietitian, a bestselling cookbook author, a mom of two boys and, somewhat by accident, the founder of a software company. Andrea sat down with her in Kelowna right at the end of the tour for her new cookbook, Fraiche and Simple, to talk about the question every busy parent hears around 5:30 PM: what's for dinner? They get into why that question feels so heavy, what a dietitian really thinks about packaged snacks and takeout pizza night, whether AI belongs in your kitchen, and how Tori went from 16 years in a "really good job" to building something of her own. ** In this episode, we cover: (00:00) Intro (04:23) From dietitian to "what am I doing with my life?" (06:03) A business that folded, and the start of the blog (10:10) Cookbooks and legacy (13:59) How 100+ recipes get developed and tested (16:01) AI recipes and what we shouldn't outsource (19:05) Taking the friction out of "what's for dinner?" (28:49) The 15-minute weekly habit, and feeding yourself too (30:55) Food ruts, variety and "the poison is in the dose" (32:23) Mom guilt, packaged snacks and pattern over plate (34:53) Fed is best (35:52) Extra kids at the table and no short-order cooking (38:19) Hosting when your house isn't perfect (41:11) A digital kitchen assistant for holiday hosting (42:40) Accidentally owning a software company (45:31) What's next (49:37) Letting go of all-or-nothing thinking KEY TAKEAWAY Simplify everything that comes before the cooking: decide what's for dinner once a week, get the grocery list sorted, and share it. And go easy on yourself, because no single meal makes or breaks your family's nutrition. Pattern over plate. About Tori Wesszer Tori Wesszer is a registered dietitian, entrepreneur and the founder of Fraîche, which includes the Fraîche Living lifestyle platform and the Fraîche Table meal-planning service. She co-authored the #1 bestselling cookbooks Fraiche Food, Full Hearts and Fraiche Food, Fuller Hearts with her cousin Jillian Harris, and her new cookbook, Fraiche and Simple: Easy Prep and Make-Ahead Recipes for Real Life, includes over 100 recipes and eight weeks of dietitian-designed meal plans. She is passionate about helping women bring more joy and ease into their kitchens, and lives in Kelowna, BC, with her husband and their two sons. Connect with Tori Website | https://fraicheliving.com/ Fraiche and Simple Cookbook | https://link.amazon/B0dzLlLoy Fraîche Table Subscription | https://fraichetable.com/ | Get 20% OFF Annual Subscription with code: ALLFIGUREDOUT20 Instagram | https://www.instagram.com/fraicheliving/ Facebook | https://www.facebook.com/fraicheliving/ TikTok | https://www.tiktok.com/@fraicheliving YouTube | https://www.youtube.com/@fraicheliving9780 Pinterest | https://www.pinterest.com/fraichefood/ About Andrea Barr, host of All Figured Out: Andrea is a certified career and life coach for parents. Through her coaching, she supports parents in finding better work-life rhythms so they can continue to grow personally and professionally without sacrificing family time. Connect with Andrea Website | https://www.andreabarr.com/ Instagram | https://www.instagram.com/allfiguredoutandrea | https://www.instagram.com/allfiguredout.podcast Listen to All Figured Out 💚 Spotify | https://tinyurl.com/afo-spotify 💜 Apple Podcasts | https://tinyurl.com/afo-apple 🖤YouTube | https://www.youtube.com/@allfiguredoutandrea
Free for AFO listeners: grab Laura's Playlist Planner to find your own unique play activities and plan them into a busy schedule → https://laurahaver.com/playlist/ Reclaiming fun has been coming up everywhere lately, at Andrea's breakfast club, in her strategy sessions with working parents and over dinner with friends, so she's bringing back one of the most joyful conversations in the All Figured Out archive. Laura Haver is a play advocate, author, life coach, mom and former pro beach tennis player, and she makes the case that play belongs to grown-ups too. Andrea and Laura get into what play actually is (spoiler, your colour-coded spreadsheet might count), why it slowly disappears as we get older, what happened when Laura said yes to competing again with two little kids at home, and simple ways to bring fun back into busy days, for you and with your kids. Originally aired as Episode 64. In this episode, we cover: (00:00) Intro (03:06) Podcasts in the shower and making the mundane fun (06:30) Seasons of taking in and pouring out (09:07) How Laura became an expert in play (12:04) When play turns into pressure (15:24) Kids can tell when you're really playing (17:43) What the research says about play (19:10) So what is play, anyway? (20:47) Colouring books, spreadsheets and giving yourself permission (22:25) The Playlist Planner and more energy with two little kids (26:42) Quality playtime when you're short on time (28:38) Time blocking play (and the guilt it takes away) (31:35) Saying yes more and letting kids lead (33:51) The mud kitchen (35:31) Bringing play into your own day (37:02) Social media as a playground (42:20) Play and your next career move (44:54) Fun at work and the power of connection (47:16) Daily delight and Gratitude Detectives (50:03) How Laura found her through line (54:49) Try it on, one small step at a time (56:11) What Laura's still figuring out (57:05) Where to find Laura
Three years ago, Scotty Barr (Andrea's husband) came on the show to share the story of eight heart surgeries in eighteen months, more than 100 days in the hospital, and becoming a dad in the middle of it all. And at one point, it became one of our most-listened-to episodes ever, and now Scotty is back to take back the first place! In this episode, Andrea and Scotty get into how he's rebuilt a rhythm across work, health and family, what it's really like being married to your total opposite, why a cardiac patient on blood thinners ended up in a boxing gym, and what each of them is still trying to figure out. In this episode, we cover: (00:00) Intro (02:15) Catching up: eight surgeries in eighteen months (05:36) Where he is now, five years later (07:49) Building a rhythm, and the 95/5 rule from Unreasonable Hospitality (10:44) Married to your opposite: routine vs. chaos (12:49) Work: the 3-month contract that turned into almost 5 years (16:05) No work email on his phone, and the 4-day week he kept (18:21) Ego, ambition, and "does this meeting really make sense?" (22:27) Where a "hired gun" fits in the job market (23:47) Health: life after the hospital, and getting into strength training (28:15) A Beautiful Constraint: how limits lead to creativity (30:46) Parenthood as a constraint, and why we love a recalibration (33:08) Finding the right coach, and why a cardiac patient took up boxing (39:53) Sharing boxing with our daughter (47:37) Martial arts, and the mind-body connection (49:20) Why it's good to have your own thing (51:46) Building a care team that actually talks to each other (55:54) What Andrea's figuring out (59:09) What Scotty's figuring out KEY TAKEAWAY Put a few solid rhythms in place for the things that matter most, let everything else stay flexible, and when something stops working, say so and recalibrate together. The limits you're living with (time, energy, little kids) can make the next choice a whole lot clearer. RELATED EPISODES Ep. 21: Scotty Barr on figuring out how to navigate medical challenges, work and a baby on the way – Spotify or Apple About Scott Barr Scotty is a marketer with over 20 years experience working at Canada’s top ranked creative agencies. His health journey, which included 11 cardiac related surgeries, was the subject of All Figured Out’s previous number 1 most listened to episode. He’s a father of two, husband to a top 3% global podcaster, and an aspiring fitness influencer, with the emphasis on aspiring. About Andrea Barr, host of All Figured Out: Andrea is a certified career and life coach for parents. Through her coaching, she supports parents in finding better work-life rhythms so they can continue to grow personally and professionally without sacrificing family time. Connect with Andrea Website | https://www.andreabarr.com/ Instagram | https://www.instagram.com/allfiguredoutandrea | https://www.instagram.com/allfiguredout.podcast Listen to All Figured Out 💚 Spotify | https://tinyurl.com/afo-spotify 💜 Apple Podcasts | https://tinyurl.com/afo-apple 🖤YouTube | https://www.youtube.com/@allfiguredoutandrea
For the last ten years, Sonia Sunger has been waking up at 3 a.m. to bring BC its morning news, and she's built her whole life around that schedule. She's a veteran journalist, a mom of two, a certified Reiki practitioner and the host of Sacred Space with Sonia. In this episode, Andrea and Sonia get into how she protects her energy in a world built for the 9-to-5, the season that led her to asking "who am I really?", and what came after she decided to stop hiding her spiritual side. They also talk about whether you actually have to blow up your whole life to live more like yourself. In this episode, we cover: (00:00) Intro (00:22) Life on a 3 a.m. morning show schedule (02:37) Surviving in a world built for the 9-to-5, and the power of "no" (05:47) When friendships fizzle, and why a smaller circle is okay (07:59) Why the modern model was never made for women (10:17) From journalism dreams to starting a family (13:51) Pregnancy loss, grief, and learning you can't rush through things (17:55) Gratitude, and getting out of "chasing" mode (21:06) A spiritual awakening vs. going back to the same job (23:36) The spiritual kid who became a reporter (25:52) Reiki, intention, and beaming love through the camera (28:43) Interviewing people you don't agree with (30:46) Why moms' voices matter in local elections (33:53) Your attention is currency (38:19) Following your curiosity: tarot, Reiki, and Wellness Wednesdays (42:44) You don't have to blow up your whole life (44:28) Coming out of the spiritual closet, and Sacred Space with Sonia (47:04) The inner narrator, ghost DNA, and staying curious