Page 26 - BusinessWest August 18, 2025

Summit >>Continued from page 24
never keep it,’ well, that’s a mindset shift that maybe
you have to make. So I’m excited about that.
“Then we have an entrepreneurship track,” she
added, “because half of our audience are solopre-
neurs or small business owners, and the other half
work for someone else in nonprofit, corporate, or
other industries.”
Women to the Front
This year’s keynote speaker is Endia DeCordova,
vice president for Institutional Advancement at Mor-
gan State University and executive director of the
Morgan State University Foundation. “She was at the
very first Women in Business Summit, and I’ve kind
of watched her career soar,” Zullo said.
Other presenters include María Elena Gavilán
Alfonso, technology leader and technical program
manager with MathWorks; author and activist
Choc’late Allen; Jennifer Bouquot, vice president of
Talent Development for Liberty Bank; Lisa Carrol,
founder and CEO of LIVLY; Orlena Cowan-Bailey,
chief elevation officer of HR Zoom Consulting and
HR Swag Shop; Sara Diaz, founder of the First Gen
Madrina; Iquo Essien, founder of Crowdfund Your
Dream; Veronica Garcia, CEO of Latino Marketing
Agency; Patsy Mundy, assistant vice president at Trav-
elers; Tessa Murphy-Romboletti, executive director of
EforAll Holyoke and Holyoke city councilor; Latonia
Tabb, CEO of Cooke Consulting Management; thera-
pist Whitney Wilfred; and Michelle Wirth, co-owner
of Mercedes-Benz of Springfield and founder of Feel
Labonte >>Continued from page 24
“It’s attainable for some people, but not for every-
body. And it’s less affordable to buy a house than it
has been,” she went on. “So we’ve always incorpo-
rated an element of education into everything we do. I
always tell people, it’s never too soon to contact us to
just start making a plan.”
For many clients, especially first-time homebuyers,
that’s crucial, LaBonte added.
“There’s not really financial 101 kind of stuff in
schools. Sometimes, when we’re talking to people, it’s
their first time ever seeing their credit score or really
sitting down and making a budget. So we have those
conversations that are just a base plan, all the way up
to people who own five, six, seven investment proper-
ties, and they’re trying to figure out how to structure
things to make their next move. So it can be basic or
intricate.
“We consider ourselves their debt advisors,”
she went on. “Financial advisors are managing the
assets, and we’re trying to figure out how do you best
structure this debt? Because a mortgage is usually
attached to somebody’s biggest asset, but it’s probably
their biggest debt, and they’ve got to be able to pay it,
and it’s got to make sense and be comfortable.”
That’s another quality she said she absorbed from
the way her father conducted business.
“I learned from my dad originally to give people
the time of day, to sit down with them, meet them
where they are, and just help them. And I think,
through that mindset, we get repeat customers. Peo-
ple who worked with my dad before send their kids,
even their grandkids now. And it’s really wonderful.
“It’s a great community,” she added. “We’re really
fortunate to have a community that values supporting
local folks. And we just stick to that mission of just
doing good. Good business begets good business. And
26 AUGUST 18, 2025
Good Shop Local. Tiffany Joy Murchison, owner of
TJM & Co. Media Boutique, will serve as emcee.
Meanwhile, panel and workshop topics will touch
on managing burnout, technology and AI trends, the
future of work, leading with purpose, thinking outside
the box, entrepreneurship, the power of conversation,
and much more.
“It’s really attendee-led,” Zullo said when asked
how the roster comes together. “We get a lot of speak-
er inquiries, but it’s the attendees who tell us what
they want to see.”
Take Carrol, who has turned LIVLY into a well-
known high-end clothing brand. “I want her to talk
about her story of how she brought LIVLY to life and
was able to fundraise $10 million,” Zullo said. “That
is of interest to an entrepreneur who’s just starting
out or in the middle of their career.”
She added, “one the things that I’ve said to the
presenters is, ‘please, when you’re in your session, it’s
about have the experience ... make your presentations
interactive so you’re not just sitting there as a talk-
ing head in a workshop. And over the past 20 years,
I have been really fortunate to have a really great
group of people. Some speakers are returning from
last year because their workshops were incredibly
popular.”
From the Ground Up
Zullo’s event-planning business, Events of Joy,
launched in 2005, and the Women in Business Sum-
mit — actually, the Women in Business Passing the
“We’re really fortunate to have a
community that values supporting local
folks. And we just stick to that mission
of just doing good. Good business
begets good business. And it just grows
from there.”
it just grows from there.”
Like her father, LaBonte is gratified when she
comes home having helped someone secure a home
in a region she’s clearly passionate about.
“I always ask homeowners, because I am curi-
ous, ‘why now? Why are you moving here? What’s the
draw?’ And mostly what I hear is we kind of have the
perfect area,” she told BusinessWest. “We have the
Five Colleges system. We have great public schools.
We have great hospitals. We have all these little down-
town areas with great retail, great restaurants. People
value that. Plus we have a good environment for hik-
ing, biking, whatever outdoor activities that people
like.
“So I do think it’s really a perfect landing place for
a lot of folks,” she went on. “And that makes it trickier
with our low supply and high demand of housing
inventory. But that’s a whole other conversation.”
Success Stories
LaBonte has been a Banker & Tradesman top loan
originator across the four Western Mass. counties
for eight consecutive years, has been named among
Scotsman Guide’s top 1% women originators nation-
<< WOMEN IN BUSINESS >>
Baton: Today, Tomorrow & Beyond Summit — was
her first event.
“I didn’t know I wanted to be an entrepreneur. I
remember, when I was working in D.C., I worked for
this really cool property that did so many different
events. I saw different types of weddings, cultural
weddings, nonprofit events, corporate events, this
really amazing mix,” she recalled, adding that she
began to wonder about the woman she saw working
behind the scenes, and what that job might be like.
“I thought, one day I want to plan parties. So
I tucked it away, and when I moved to this area, I
thought I would love to start my own business. And
then it was like, how do I get it started? And what is
going to be the name?”
In fact, Events of Joy has a double meaning,
named after both Zullo’s mother and how she feels
bringing events to life.
“I started out doing weddings — I don’t plan wed-
dings anymore, but there’s someone on my team who
does. I focus primarily on nonprofit signature events,
fundraisers, and corporate events. And of course,
planning events for the Women in Business Summit.”
Twenty years later, Zullo is gratified by the impact
the event continues to have.
“As women leave, they say, ‘oh, I’m so inspired
because I heard this,’ or ‘this is a new thought that
I can implement the next day at work,’ or ‘I’m going
to use this to resolve this issue in my life.’ That just
makes my heart soar, to hear those kinds of testimo-
nials.” BW
ally, and was featured in Mortgage Banking’s Powerful
Women in Mortgage Banking in 2022.
“I think, when it comes down to it, those are just
accolades, right? she said. “It’s the actual people that
we’re helping who motivate me — making sure that
we’re actually serving people’s best interests.”
When LaBonte was named to BusinessWest’s 40
Under Forty class of 2018, she was asked what three
words best describe her, and she replied, “goal-orient-
ed, efficient, planner” — and judging from the recogni-
tion from the publications noted above, those traits
have certainly served her well.
But she’s also personally evolved quite a bit since
2018.
“What’s that, seven years ago? That was before I
was married, before kids, before I was actually man-
aging my own group. My mindset was so much more
individual — and you can see that in the words that I
picked.
“So yes, I think that foundation definitely got me
here, but I think I’ve also learned a lot more empathy
and sympathy and leadership skills and everything
else since then,” she went on. “And I have such an
awesome team now. I’m thankful for that. So I think
now it would be a lot more team-oriented.”
She’s also more grateful for each individual client
success.
“It’s harder now, and it’s not just helping people get
to the finish line of owning the home —that’s really the
starting line. It’s everything we do after that to sup-
port people and the conversations we have and mak-
ing sure that they’re continuously able to stay in their
home. It’s got to be one of the coolest jobs.” BW
Business W est