Why Sober People Are Still Hiding at Work with Laura Nelson

If a quarter of the people at your conference don’t drink, greeting everyone with champagne is less “festive” than it is “we have made absolutely no effort to know our audience.” Laura Nelson discovered this when she asked a room of 125 professional women how many were sober or sober-curious. About a quarter raised their hands—hesitantly, while looking around to see who might be watching. Laura, who had kept her own sobriety separate from her professional life, realized this was ridiculous. So she did what every reasonable person does after identifying a problem: started a company, wrote a book and put on a conference. Lisa spoke at the first Amplify conference, where a sober crowd took over a hotel bar, had an apparently suspicious amount of fun and woke up feeling fine. Now Laura is bringing Amplify back for two days—and trying to convince event planners that one syrupy mocktail served in a child’s glass does not count as inclusivity. In this episode: ·      How Laura reacted when she was recognized from her sober TikTok ·      What happened when 25% of a room admitted they didn’t want the champagne being handed to them·      Why your mocktail may actually be more insulting than having no mocktail·      How Sober Life Rocks built the largest sobriety community on LinkedIn·      Why Laura swore she’d never put on another conference—and is now planning one twice as long Laura is the co-founder of Sober Life Rocks and the author of The Inclusive Event Planner: A Quick Start Guide to Sober-Friendly Conferences That Boost Attendance.  Find Laura on IG @sober_life_rocks.