Gail and I have attended a Women of Faith Conference every year for the last ten years. That may sound strange since I am a man but stay with me!

Women of Faith is owned by Thomas Nelson. Most of the speakers at the conference are Thomas Nelson authors. So as the former CEO of Thomas Nelson, I had a business reason to attend. (That’s my story, and I’m sticking to it.)

I’m a husband to one woman, father of five more, and grandfather to three more (little) women. We also have a number of women in strategic positions at Thomas Nelson, with whom I work on a regular basis. Suffice it to say, I spend a lot of time in the company of women.

Here’s something I’ve learned from all that experience: women are different. Earth-shattering, I know. But when it comes to motivating the women in your organization, it’s important to be mindful of that difference. What works for a man doesn’t always work for a woman.

Women of Faith is a conference designed specifically for women. It is owned by Thomas Nelson. We do about 30 of these events a year in cities all across America.

When I tell people about these conferences for the first time, they usually envision small church meetings with maybe a couple of thousand women. The reality is that these conferences are held in large sports arenas in major metropolitan areas. The average attendance is 13,000-plus. They are as polished and professional as any large performance event you have ever attended.

It takes years to build a brand. Unfortunately, there aren’t many shortcuts. You build a brand—like a reputation—one impression at a time. Every encounter with a customer results in either a “deposit” or a “withdrawal” in your “brand account.”

In many of his books, Andy Andrews talks about the butterfly effect, a theory put forward in a doctoral thesis by Edward Lorenz, a mathematician and meteorologist.