Bakersfield marketer Rubi Zetino wasn't trying to encapsulate the energy that drove Tuesday's Bakersfield Women's Business Conference. The owner of Charizma Co. was simply explaining the substantial business value of social media.

She managed to do both in two short sentences.

"Everybody says it's selfish to put yourself out there," Zetino told her audience inside the Bakersfield Marriott at the Convention Center. "I say it's selfish not to."

Officially, the theme of this year's sold-out, 34th annual event was "Making the impossible possible," which summarized the event, too. But the conference was almost bigger than that — more communal — because much of the message that got out was about sisterly encouragement and taking initiative as a woman despite others' expectations.

Keynote speaker Marlee Matlin, an Academy Award-winning actor who used American Sign Language and an interpreter to tell her story inside the Mechanics Bank Theater downtown, shared personal stories of perseverance and triumph that involved assistance at critical stages by people for whom she remains grateful.

In line with her theme that success can and will come when you surround yourself with the right people, Matlin, who is deaf, told the more than 1,200 in attendance that her parents taught her by example "no obstacle was too big to handle."

When even that wasn't enough, Matlin said she received crucial support from actors Henry Winkler and Whoopi Goldberg. Winkler, in particular, stepped in at a time when Matlin said her mother was trying to discourage a life in the movie business.

"He said, 'Marlee, sweetheart, you can be whatever you want to be. Just follow your heart and let your dreams come true. Don't let anyone ever tell you otherwise,'" Matlin recalled.

The rest of the day proceeded much along those lines.

At a business lending workshop led by Shontay Smith, director of Valley Strong Credit Union's community development financial institution, the message was not to encourage entrepreneurs to pursue every financing opportunity that comes their way, but to plan a path to success that benefits from others' support.

Smith went over the differences between various kinds of business loans, from credit cards and revolving lines of credit to U.S. Small Business Administration lending programs and tenant improvement allowance loans.

She said it helps to have experience and work with a team of professionals before signing for a loan.

"Make sure that you always have someone who can look over paperwork," she said. "Don't just say yes because something looks good."