Back in 2010, fictional character Leslie Knope (played by Amy Poehler) of Parks and Recreation introduced the world to Galentine’s Day. “A day where ladies celebrate ladies,” Poehler quips as she explains the concept at the beginning of the episode.
Since then, February 13th (the day before Valentine’s Day) has become widely known as an opportunity for female friends — single or not — to get together in celebration of one another and share the love.
With that in mind, we wanted to throw our own little twist on the day and suggest a few ideas for ways that you and your entrepreneurial besties might gather together in support of each other this year!
Plus, with each of our ideas, we’re including ways to celebrate in-person or over your favorite virtual platform to ensure that there’s something for you no matter your preference or circumstances. (If there’s anything that we’ve learned through the last few years, it’s that it always pays to be adaptable — and sometimes even our best-laid plans need a small pivot!)
Ok — let’s dive into our ideas for an entrepreneurial Galentine’s Day:
1. Lady Boss Brunch
- In-Person: Host a brunch at your favorite cafe or at home. If celebrating at home, perhaps suggest every attendee bring a brunch dish, beverage, and a favorite badass boss movie or book to do a gift exchange. Then, why not stream or watch one of your blockbuster selections to round out your time together? A few of our favorite movie options you can steal are: Joy, The Intern, and of course Working Girl! Another option that caught our eye, but we haven’t seen just yet, is called The Book Shop. If you need a little brunch inspo, check out our pinboard here.
- Virtual: Find a cozy spot to hop online from as you gather together. Bring your favorite beverage as you catch up with one another for a virtual coffee or cocktail hour. If you go the coffee route, we can’t recommend Clevr coffee enough — it’s female-owned and they’ve done a lot to make sure that it’s sourced through sustainable efforts. You could even stream a movie together using Netflix Party. Here’s a step-by-step guide on how to set up the extension. You could also suggest doing a virtual gift exchange by drawing names ahead of time and either ship your gift or virtually send your picks to one another via email when you’re together (think gift cards, audio credits, etc.). You can either wait to send the links or open the packages when everyone is together.
2. Playful Powerpoint Jamboree
You may have seen a few TikToks floating around where friends have been gathering together to do casual PowerPoint presentation nights (if this sounds new, check this out). Use this as an opportunity to create a presentation that isn’t centered around the nuts and bolts of the biz you’re running, and is just for fun!
- In-Person: We recommend picking a shared space where you can share tons of laughter and creative memories as you unveil your own PowerPoint prowess. If you’re gathering with close gals who know one another well, you could share presentations about what you admire about the other women in the group, the long-term visions and dreams you have for your legacy and life, or sprinkle in some laughs around who would do what in a new world order you’re organizing together.
- Virtual: Not too much would have to be different for this option, but to add a collaborative experience, you could split the group into pairs and utilize breakout rooms to create joint presentations that you share with one another!
3. Pop-Up Book Club
Pick a powerful book to commit to reading and host a mini-book club experience. We love You Can Heal Your Life, Eat Pray Love, and The Big Leap. To see more of our favorite biblio-picks, you can take a peek here.
- In-Person: This could be a fun time to dine out somewhere to discuss what your favorite take-aways were! Each person could think of one question that they want to ask the group related to the material at hand, and who knows, you may just want to create a regular book club meetup for the rest of the year?!
- Virtual: As there’s a little more free flow in virtual settings, it may be best to have one person create a series of questions to have on hand to ground the conversation throughout the discussion. Some great framework questions to consider: What was your favorite takeaway? What was your least favorite part? What will you be implementing going forward? What did you learn about yourself? Was there a quote that stood out? Here’s a great write-up with a few more questions to get you going.
4. A Future-Self Party
As entrepreneurs, we’re often dreaming and creating visions to move toward. Why not plan a party where you each get to show up as the YOU that you’re working to create in the years to come?
- In-Person: Tailor a wardrobe and/or bring something symbolic that represents who you’re working to become. It might be fun to go around the room and tell one another what you think their outfit and objects mean or represent before everyone shares.
- Virtual: Implement the ideas above, but include an image as your background to really take your vision to a whole new level. For example, if you’re going to be living in the Italian Hills in a Villa (a real Tuscan Sun vibe!), find an image of what your view will look like, or the master bedroom, or whatever you’re most excited about.
No matter what you decide, remember, this is a chance to have fun!
We want to see how you choose to celebrate — tag us in your pictures on IG (@iheartmylife) and send us a few snaps to our inbox (info@iheartmylife.com) so we can feature you with the other gals in our community!
Speaking of our community, if you’re not already on our mailing list, we need to fix that! Sign up here so that we can keep sending you weekly motivation, inspiration, success stories, and more!
Happy Galentine’s Day, Ladies!
Xoxo-
Team I Heart My Life
Evelyn is a Mindset and Life Coach.
