Phyllis Williams-Strawder delivered Getting Lost on the Way to the Entrepreneur’s House at Bend Design 2022, challenging entrepreneurs to examine how fear and borrowed expectations keep them traveling paths that were never built for them.

During the keynote, Williams-Strawder gives fear a name: Stephanie. She asks the audience to draw Stephanie’s mouth in the palm of their hand, close their fist, and choke that bitch silent. The exercise turns fear from an invisible authority into something entrepreneurs can recognize, confront, and stop allowing to direct them.

The keynote argues that getting lost is often the consequence of following somebody else’s directions. Creating your own shortcuts, leaving the familiar route, and trusting what you know can feel dangerous—but divergence is frequently where entrepreneurial ownership begins.