Bellingham business event explores secrets of success and managing your mindset
How do you know when to pivot a business strategy or when to stay the course? What’s slowing you down? Can you automate or improve? How should you manage imposter syndrome? At what point do you start to hire a team?
Local and regional entrepreneurs gathered for a two-hour breakfast and panel discussion March 12 in downtown Bellingham to explore the challenges of launching and developing a business and to share foundational advice for success.
The 2026 Women in Business Panel drew about 75 people, including several longtime Bellingham business owners, to the ballroom at Chuckanut Bay Distillery. The annual gathering is a premier event organized by the staff at Her Connection Hub, a coworking facility at 1323 Commercial St. with community work spaces, leased offices and event rooms.
“We honor women’s incredible accomplishments and bring together this panel each March to celebrate Women’s History Month,” Her Connection Hub founder Heather Simpson said.
The event featured a panel of four speakers who work in a wide range of industries. Simpson served as emcee, with assistance from Her Connection Hub Member Experience Manager Mikaela Rickards. Simpson presented a series of unique questions to each panelist. The final question for each was to highlight some advice they collected along their journeys that stuck with them.
The panelists
Biery is a Bellingham-based real estate broker, investor, writer and life coach. She also created The Opportunity Switch™, “a five-step mindset-to-action framework that helps high-achieving women turn any challenge, change, or chance into their next chapter,” according to her LinkedIn Profile.
Biery discussed her role in helping eXp Realty scale from 200 agents to more than 85,000 across 24 countries, and the importance of maintaining self-confidence when you tackle monumental challenges.
“People won’t believe in you. People will say no, and they will reject you. The sooner you get used to that and say, ‘You know what? That’s OK. It’s OK that they rejected me again, and it’s OK that they said no because I’m planting seeds in alignment with my self belief, and I’m going to make this happen.’”
Shannon’s career in graphic design led her to launch Bellingham-based Ground Keeper Custom, which specializes in the design and manufacture of custom bike parts in an effort “to rid the world of boring bikes and provide riders the tools to do so,” according to the company’s website.
Shannon discussed how her business emerged when she realized no one could produce a product she was seeking. She realized a need and set about building her company around it. She also stressed the importance of analyzing sales data and correcting course as you go.
For example, Shannon developed software that allows customers to customize parts for all sorts of niche brands. Along the way she realized her site wasn’t efficient at serving all of those brands, so instead she reached a deal with manufacturers to allow them to license and host her software on their websites. That move simultaneously reduced the stress on her company and made it much easier to reach fans of specific brands.
Shannon also addressed the challenges of working in a male-dominated industry and how that can amplify feelings of the dreaded imposter syndrome — the feeling that you aren’t good enough or don’t belong.
Query grew up in Western Washington and attended Seattle University prior to a 10-year career in investment banking on Wall Street that made her realize she wanted something different. She and her husband were “called back to the Salish Sea,” she said, and she suddenly felt compelled to interact with her surroundings, to get her hands dirty.
The couple purchased 5 acres on Orcas Island sight unseen. Query started a garden on the island, where fruit trees were planted more than 100 years ago. A neighbor gave her a bunch of plums, and she decided to make some jam. It was among the first steps in her creation of her award-winning specialty food company and sustainable orchard fruit winery called Girl Meets Dirt in 2013. The business has since earned 11 Good Food Awards.
Query stressed the importance of maintaining a connection to your physical well-being as you navigate life. “Listen to your body,” she advised the audience, as you navigate the decisions that will define the rest of your life. She also cited curiosity and an ability to learn as you go as vital aspects of her company’s success.
Casperson, a Minnesota native, is a Bellingham-based urologist, author and host of the popular sexual health-related podcast “You Are Not Broken,” which has produced more than 360 episodes and garnered more than 4 million downloads.
Dr. Casperson invited the audience to remember the 8-year-old version of themselves and who that child aspired to be. In her case, Casperson told her parents early on that she wanted to have her own radio show. Life has a way of taking us on unexpected paths, she said, but it’s important to remember your aspirations of childhood as a guide, and possibly as something you can return to later.
Casperson temporarily gave up her radio dreams to pursue a career in medicine. Years later, however, that dream came full circle with the launch of her internationally acclaimed podcast.
Don’t limit yourself, Casperson advised, stressing the importance of remaining curious and open to new opportunities.
Simpson said she was thrilled with this year’s panel and encouraged by the turnout, which forced her to seek a larger venue than past years.
“While we host many events for women all year long, this event is incredibly special,” Simpson said. “What I love most is how we tell guest panelists’ stories of the ‘messy middle’ — not the beginning stages and jumping to the success at the end. They tell stories of what experiences made them, shaped them and grew them. It’s not just the highlights and tidy stories we see on social media. It’s real, it’s raw, it’s gritty. That’s where we come together to normalize the process and can support one another through each other’s journey.
“Raw-raw events can be inspiring, but don’t fill our cups over time,” Simson added. “These events bring forth lasting moments and quotes that echo in the attendees’ minds long after the event is over. That is the transformation that truly matters.”
Her Connection Hub also hosts similar monthly events called Breakfast Club. The popular gatherings feature rotating keynote speakers and require registration. The next Breakfast Club, featuring entrepreneur and parent coach Patti Hoelzle, is scheduled for 8:30 to 10 a.m. Thursday, April 2.
This story was originally published March 21, 2026 at 5:15 AM.