Our Board
of Directors
These glorious powerhouses dedicate an obscene
amount of free time to fantastic feats of failure —
all in the name of suicide prevention.
THIS EVENT IS FOUNDED & HOSTED BY:
✹ Jess Manuszak ✹
As the shouty mastermind behind this fancy-ass hootenanny, Jess is hellbent on supporting folks through these impossibly bizarre things known as Life & Business. (Like, WTF.)
When she’s not running her copywriting agency by day and planning the Ball by night, you can find her being loud about mental health on the internet.
Think: Actionable toolkits, safe community, & a hefty scoop of humor about what it means to be a wild woman (and entrepreneur) in the world.
Because whole humans can run successful companies, and taking care of business starts with caring for our brains.
✹ Kellee Tarum ✹
Systems & Strategy Director
As entrepreneurs, we often start our businesses with a wing and a prayer. And, if we’re lucky (read: smart and hard-working), we may even be successful. But growth comes with new challenges and, for a small business, that often means building systems bit by bit — which can keep them from being as efficient as they could be.
That's why you need Kellee Tarum. She takes a strategic look at your business — then implements the systems that will make everything run as smooth as the Jamaican bobsled team. (Are y’all too young to get that reference?) Because you deserve more hours in the day to play.
Not only has Kellee been a member of the Failure Ball board of directors since Day 1, but she makes sure you’re the one running your business — and not the other way around.
✹ Hillary Weiss-Presswood ✹
Creative Director &
Resident Extrovert
As a speaking alum (turned Board Member), Hillary is the skilled force that turns small businesses around the world into huge obsessions.
Since 2011, she’s helped thousands of personality-fueled brands define their Statement Piece — a.k.a. the big idea that makes them unmissable in their market, and radically relevant to their perfect people.
As the co-host of the popular #HAMYAW podcast, Weiss shines a light onto the (occasionally) seedy underbelly of business ownership, and shows that the trying is the winning. The winning is also the winning. Weiss is proof.
This year, she’s creative directing the space, and facilitating crucial convos around failure during the live event.
To say it’s an honor to get her prowess on this is the understatement of the decade.
✹ Mike Ganino✹
Storytelling Director
“Mike Ganino" is often the name whispered backstage at some of the biggest events, conferences, and meetings after someone asks the keynote speaker who just delivered magic "what's your secret weapon?"
And while secret weapon is cute — it doesn't help with SEO. So you might call him a public speaking coach but he mostly thinks of himself as The Keynote Director.
He helps great speakers become the hottest headliners by working with them on their stage presence, performance, and storytelling. He works with professional speakers, bestselling authors, and the titans of industry; and he has been found around the hallways of organizations like Adobe, Netflix, Disney, American Century Investments, Caesars Entertainment, and the American Heart Association directing their teams in delivering transformational presentations.
Mike has donated tens of thousands of dollars of coaching to us, and is personally mentoring every speaker in their failure story.
(We love Mike. Like, we ruh-heeeeeeally love Mike.)
✹ Dusti Arab ✹
Marketing Director
Dusti Arab is a fractional CMO and the founder of the reinvention co, a marketing consultancy specializing in working with personality-driven companies with small teams.
Intense, fun, and relentlessly practical, Dusti understands the lives of small business owners are deeply intertwined with their businesses, and if their marketing is going to be sustainable, it can’t get in the way of why they do what they do. (And honestly? It should be fun so they actually want to do it.)
She’s also the unparalleled host of Referral Worthy, a podcast for small business owners ready to go from “best kept secret” to the go-to name in their niche.
Wanna hang out
with us all IRL?
September, 2026 ✹ Denver, Colorado