You ever sit in a place and realize you’re about to build something bigger than yourself? That’s what happened to K. LaFleur Anders. She told me on Rock Solid that the idea for the Impact Alliance started in the Round Rock High School gym. She and a few other women showed up without a clear plan. They just knew they needed to help other women move forward.
Fast forward a few months, and there she was, hosting an event that brought together over a hundred women leaders. Not in the gym, but the spark lit there turned into something real. This wasn’t some inspirational talk where you leave feeling good and do nothing. This was real people, real tools, and real next steps. My wife was in the audience. So was Lisa, who’s been on this show before. And Kim Flores, another friend of mine, was there too.
I asked K. what moment she’ll never forget. She told me about a woman, older than her, who’s shown up for everything she’s done. After K. finished her panel, this woman found her and said, through tears, “I’m proud of you.” That’s the kind of feedback you never forget.
And it wasn’t smooth sailing. The event was supposed to happen in January, but they paused. Most people would’ve called it a failure. K. and her team said, “No, this isn’t our best yet.” They pushed it to April so they could do it right. They added more sponsors, more resources, and gave the women in the room something they could take home and use.
But that was just the beginning. Now K. is leading the first TEDx Round Rock Women. She applied three years in a row. First time, TED told her she needed more diversity. Second time, they said the topics needed to be broader. The third time, they gave her the license. Now she’s working to make sure this isn’t just another event, but something the city can be proud of.
We talked about how she got here. K. didn’t start as an entrepreneur. She was in marketing at Dell. When a workforce reduction happened, she was already running Chestnut Publishing House on the side. Suddenly, that side hustle became the main thing. Then came CoffeeMilk Media and Reset with K.
She shared what a lot of business owners feel but don’t say. At first, she tried to do it all herself. She ran around busy, but not effective. The best advice she got was simple. Slow down. Delegate. She listened. And now her businesses are healthier.
K. is also hosting a screening of the film “Show Her the Money,” about how women founders get less than 2 percent of venture capital funding. But it’s not just a film screening. She’s bringing in people who can help fix the problem. Education, action, and connection. That’s how change happens.
At the heart of it all, K. is a storyteller. Not just telling stories to entertain. Stories that move people to act. Whether it’s through CoffeeMilk Media, TEDx, or her events, she’s asking one question. What positive impact will this story make?
If you want to learn how to build something meaningful, start watching what K. is doing. She’s not just talking about change. She’s doing it.
Follow her on LinkedIn. Check out CoffeeMilk Media on Instagram and LinkedIn. Or better yet, come to one of her events and see the impact for yourself.
Transcript
Hi, I’m Bryan Eisenberg and welcome to Rock Solid. And today we have someone special, K. LaFleur-Anders. Welcome.
K. LaFleur-Anders:
Thank you, Bryan.
Bryan:
You, um, you fascinate me because, um, you have several different projects and businesses that you work on, um, with a very central theme around all of them. And we definitely want to dive into that central theme, but I kind of want to just quick dive. You just came back from an event with a hundred powerful women.
K.:
Yes.
Bryan:
And I know my wife was in the audience and, um, our friend Lisa who’s been on the podcast before, you know, was there. Uh, my friend Kim Flores was there. Tell me what that was like and what it was about.
K.:
It was amazing. So Impact Alliance, I’m one of the co-founders along with Maryanne Reed, Margaret Ross, Lisa Neves, and Michelle Long. And we just, we got together as a, a beautiful story of how we got together in the Round Rock High School gym. Didn’t know what we were meeting for. Maryanne just said everybody needs to come.
And one thing that we were, as different as we are and our experiences are different, we were just like we want to help women really not just empower them because that’s also another buzz word, right? Just empower but actually give them the tools and the resources and bring those tools and resources in house to help them advance personally and professionally.
And so we’ve been working on it for months and to see it all come together yesterday just ignited a fire under us even more because the feedback that we received while at the event was like we need more of this. Not just talking about empowering each other, but like actually doing it.
And so it felt great. I’m, I’m kind of ready to do it again.
Bryan:
Yeah, I was, I was going to ask about that. Do, do you see one coming up, uh, in the near future?
K.:
Well, that’s what we’re talking about next week. We’re like, hey, we need to ride this momentum, but not only just for the momentum for the business piece of it, but also like people actually got something out of it.
We feel like we made a positive impact yesterday, which was very important to us, which is why it’s called Impact Alliance, right? Just getting together to make an impact. And one is it’s specifically a positive impact because you can make an impact negative, right? But a positive impact.
So yeah, we did that and we’re ready for the next thing.
Bryan:
Um, is there one moment during the day that really stood out to you that you’re like, that’s the one moment I’m never going to forget?
K.:
Yes. So one of the women who are there, she is always supporting me in everything that I do. She shows up. If she can be there, she shows up. And when I got off of stage after the panel that I was on, um, I’m walking around her side of the room and she came up to me and she was crying and just said, “Thank you for inviting me, for coming here. I’m so proud of you.”
And she’s older than me, which being a grandfather’s girl, grandmother and grandfather’s girl, um, that means a lot to me that my elders are proud of me. And so that I was just like, “Please don’t make me cry cause I have like makeup on and all the things.” And she was like, “I’m so sorry.”
But it just it made everything that we did leading up to yesterday so worth it. Which I knew it was going to be worth it anyway, but me personally to hear someone tell me how much of an, of an impact it made in her life in the moment was just special and I will never forget that.
Bryan:
I kind of want to like play back the clock because when we have Lisa here, I know the event was scheduled for another day and of course if you’re an entrepreneur, if you’re in business, you know, things happen sometimes they don’t happen on schedule the way you would hope. Um what’s the takeaway from that?
Like yeah, it didn’t happen the first date that you planned, but you were able to pull it off, you know, just recently, you know, here in the beginning of of April. What’s the big takeaway?
K.:
What I love about the fact that we pushed it back because it was supposed to be in January. Yep. And we looked at it and went, “No, this is not our best and we didn’t want to give these women not our best.”
And so I love that we did that. Like we could have easily gone, “Oh my god, that’s a failure.” Like, “Oh, and we’re embarrassed. We can’t.” But we got together and said, “No, we want these women to walk into the room and feel empowered when they come in.”
And right now where we sit right now before January, that’s not happening. And so the biggest takeaway is to adjust, to be flexible, right? And it sometimes things as you plan them won’t happen that way. And that’s just life period. Yes, entrepreneurship, but life all together.
And so to to take an assessment and an inventory on what’s happening in the moment and make a decision. Okay. So if we’re talking about making a positive impact, is this as it stands going to make a positive impact? No. Okay. So let’s readjust and make sure that it does.
So, it was wonderful. It gave us more time to get more resources into the room. Um, they left with wonderful gifts. We had amazing sponsors. It just gave us a a moment to some time to make even more of an impact together.
