Empowering women to impact their family, business, and community

When Pablo Villatoro saw how hard his recently divorced mother had to work to rebuild and re-invent herself, it sparked a passion to create an environment where women can empower one another and push each other forward in business, with their families and in the community. After one meeting with Vyky Rifai, they decided to align each other’s course to pursue the same goal. Together they formed the I AM BRAVE Women’s Success Conference which has a simple mission to empower women to impact their family, business, and community.

Since their launch in 2015, the annual one day conference has steadily grown and on September 30th, hundreds of woman poured into the Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts to celebrate women entrepreneurs, social media influencers, and community leaders. Panelists and guest speakers spent an afternoon giving attendees the latest information on business, leadership, branding, marketing, and strategic influence designed to leave them empowered to impact their family, business and community.

“This year, we really tried to focus on some applicable topics such as how to leverage your platform, how to monetize off of your platform, how to monetize off of your story, and how to kind just stay up to date in this social media frenzy season that we’re in. We’re really excited about unpacking a lot of those topics and just giving the women a lot to take home to then be able to apply at home at their workplace and in their community.” -Pablo Villatoro

“This year we held more panel discussions and what that does is it creates an ongoing conversation. With an ongoing conversation we feel like we can guide the conversation to get the most out of it for our attendees.” -Vyky Rifai

Prior to the start of the event, guests even had an opportunity to visit a number of exciting vendors including Orlando Health, Smiles Forever, Millennia 3 Media Group,  Bajalia, Tamara Knight Photography, Live Trends, Coalition for the homeless of Central Florida, Pain Free Chiropractic, Goodwill and more! From taking candid photos at the Snap! Studio Booth to tempting sweet tooths with treats by So Fruitty and Sweet By Holly, it was a truly impressive start to what ended up being a unforgettable event!

In addition to an Audi tote swag bag and a novel by key-note speaker Sally Hogshead, VIP guest were also treated to a complimentary copy of Orlando Style Magazine’s September issue upon entrance into the stunning room. The seminar kicked off with a unique relaxation exercise sponsored by Quiet Riot Concepts and then guests dived right into the fun with numerous presentationS from inspiring speakers such as Jessica Kendrick of Kendrick Law Group and Full Sail University’s Mary Beth Plank.

“All the women on the panel this year are just women and shakers in their own right. We not only have them as panelist, we can also call them friends and that’s what makes it even more fun. It’s a bunch of friends getting together for a greater cause.” -Pablo Villatoro

As the afternoon wore on, there wasn’t a dry eye in the room as Kay Rawlins, of Orlando City Soccer, was surprised and honored with the inaugural 2017 I AM BRAVE Woman of the Year award. The afternoon of education and inspiration left attendees feeling pumped and ready for next year’s highly anticipated I AM BRAVE event.


“I am so excited for the woman to walk away with the relationships that come from I AM BRAVE. These women are all like-minded and have the same vision. They want to work with each other want to build with each other. The real value out of this conference comes after the event and that’s what I’m really, really excited about the most.” -Pablo Villatoro


For more information visit www.iambraveonline.com