I just spent 3 days working as a “news anchor” with an amazing editorial team at a conference in Montreal called C2-MTL.

The line-up of speakers included: Francis Ford Coppola, Robert Wong (Google Creative Lab), Jonah Lehrer (Wired), Michael Eisner (Disney), Robert Safian (Fast Company), and the list goes on and on and on.

As for entertainment, on our last night (last night), Moby took to the stage. Needless to say, my brain is spinning from such an inspiring collection of conversations about creativity (and a good healthy lack of sleep).

I was lucky enough to host a sit-down Q&A with the very awesome Jennifer Yuh Nelson from Dreamworks to talk about her inspiration for Kung Fu Panda 2 (which made her the highest-grossing female director of all time).

She shared stories about her love of video games from an early age as one of the ways she unplugs and wastes time in order to come up with fantastic ideas (so there ya go, kids, keep playing).

For more highlights, here is a post from my (new) friend Dave Jaffer and a pic of Jen and me on stage (yes, we’re on a first-name basis now – go girls!).

“I think tech is lacking sexiness,” says Shark Tank personality and FUBU founder Daymond John. “I want to bring my understanding of lifestyle and culture to Silicon Valley.” He’s getting started by pairing socially savvy entertainer Pitbull with club-booking startup EzVIP.

In William Shatner’s 14-year reign at Priceline, he became one of the best-known celebrity spokespeople of all time. Not only did the 81-year-old join a select group of Hollywood elite with long-term endorsement deals, he was also one of the first famous personalities to do so on behalf of an Internet service.

This past January, in a fiery bus crash, the Priceline Negotiator plunged to his “death” in a national television spot. While the Negotiator, AKA Shatner, burns up in advertising glory, a fellow passenger simultaneously picks up her smartphone to discover the perfect vacation deal.

But that’s not the beginning of the end for celebrity endorsements–far from it. If Shark Tank‘s Daymond John has his way, each startup will have its very own celebrity pitchman someday.

“I think tech is lacking sexiness,” says John. “I want to bring my understanding of lifestyle and culture to Silicon Valley.”

John started his career in the fashion industry as a 20-something entrepreneur, eventually growing his iconic brand FUBU into an international business with more than $350 million in annual sales. Today, he’s turning his attention to the web, with ongoing relationships with Shopify, TicketLeap, Resultly, and a new startup serving the club crowd.

On a recent deal on ABC’s hit show Shark Tank, John invests in EzVip –think OpenTable, the restaurant reservation startup, catering to nightclubs and bottle service. John sweetens the deal to the company’s founder, offering him access to an A-list artist Pitbull (pictured above with John, rapper Fat Joe, and BET host Rocsi Diaz), the international entertainer whose brand extends firmly into the social media space. With more than 4.8M Twitter followers and closing in on 20 million Facebook fans, John says Pitbull is a perfect fit based on his solid work ethic and his understanding of the most important principles of celebrity endorsements. “They (the endorsers) have to believe and be dedicated and understand how important this is to the company that is risking their livelihood on them,” John says.

John explains that his interest in the tech space is that, unlike a product such as fashion or beauty, a celebrity e-endorser is able to help to complete the sales cycle within minutes. There is no waiting for the customer to go to a physical store; just a few clicks and an online transaction is complete. Moreover, this makes measuring the success of the partnership easy to access, with real-time analytics.

According to some research findings, celebrity followers online and brands are a match made in digital heaven. Last year Nielsen released a report about the value of celebrities to advertisers and the social media audiences who follow them. In the study, they found that a “celebrity follower is four times more likely to follow a brand than the average U.S. adult online.”

While it might seem like big-name celebrities have the winning advantage not just in traditional media but also in the digital realm, there is a new group encroaching on their opportunities–the influencers.  Last year shopping site Fab.com reported that in a sales promotion on their site, Digg founder Kevin Rose‘s 1.3 million Twitter followers brought in more sales than Hollywood celeb Ashton Kutcher‘s 7.3 million (incidentally, both are investors in the service). Just a couple of months ago, YouTube beauty blogger Julie Gutierrez partnered with Jesse’s Girl Cosmetics to launch a new line of nail polish for Rite Aid stores.

John explains that whether you’re hiring an Internet celebrity or a mainstream celebrity, endorsements are all about believability. In other words, be warned when shopping around for an endorser–an online influencer can be a celebrity in the Internet world, but a big-name celebrity doesn’t always have digital influence.

In tonight’s season finale of Shark Tank, viewers get an update about Pitbull and his EzVip role, and a brief look into how the artist is helping the brand.

As for Shatner, he may be stepping away from his Negotiator role for a while, but don’t discount his understanding of the importance of influence in the digital age. Just this week he thanked his 1.4M Google+ fans for circling him, perhaps building up an army of followers that could come in handy when he’s ready to renew his reign as the Internet’s favorite pitchman.

Just recently, I finished the New York Times best seller, Think: Straight Talk for Women to Stay Smart in a Dumbed-Down World by Lisa Bloom, an insightful read about how women are leading the charge in many areas, such as outperforming men for the first time ever in employment in urban areas, but still spend an inordinate amount of time focusing on the “wrong” things. While the book centers on our obsession with pop culture and beauty, what I took away from it was the need for women to start saying “no” more and to stop apologizing for doing so.

“Women need to stop apologizing for routine workplace events,” Bloom shared with me in an email. “Ladies, every time the word ‘sorry’ is about to fly out of your mouth, think: Have I actually done something wrong? Or has this just become a verbal tic?”

Here are three things that women often apologize for and what we can do to stop, today.

1.  Our financial expectations. Ever since women entered the workforce en masse, there have been reports revealing that we make less on average than our male counterparts. Although this gap is lessening, there is still much progress to be made. Yes, talking about money can be an uncomfortable endeavor. However, if you’re armed with good ammunition to back up your demand, you’ll feel more confident and ready to engage in that dialogue. In other words, be clear what you want, and don’t leave until you get it (well, within reason). Moreover, when in contract negotiations for any job or project, engage an advisor so that you have a second set of eyes on the details and can work out what’s acceptable and what’s not with someone well-versed in the small print.

2.  Our physical appearance. Earlier this week I did a little tally of how long it took me to prepare for one of my other jobs, working as a national TV host on a business news network. The night before our shoot, I spent two hours with my clothing sponsor picking out my wardrobe for upcoming shoots. The next morning I spent two hours getting my hair done, two hours getting my nails done, and 30 minutes in makeup just before the show. Almost a full day, and I haven’t even started my job, compared with my co-host, who literally grabbed a clean shirt and was ready to go (yes, he’s male).

While I understand that the demands of the broadcast business insofar as appearance are significant, that same pressure does exist in the average workplace and requires added time for women (time most of us don’t have). I have heard women apologize countless times if they’re not looking runway-ready at work, due to everything from pulling all-nighters to get a job done or battling sleep deprivation due to taking care of a sick child. Sure, it’s important to look professional in the workplace, but it’s time to lessen the pressure we put on ourselves to look perfect. Oh, and while I’m on this subject, let’s try to band together a little more to support our female colleagues who might not always be in season with the latest fashion or who are not the perfect size 6 (or is it 4 now?). Instead, let’s focus on what’s important–what we achieve.

3.  Our professional accomplishments. ”Women are trained to be sensitive to everyone’s feelings, not to be selfish, and not to brag,” Bloom explains to me when I ask about this culture of saying sorry. “These are good traits to have. Be we also need to understand that sometimes it’s not appropriate to apologize–like when we haven’t done anything wrong.”

When I was starting my career as a television journalist in my 20s, I’ll never forget an experience I had with my male boss. I rushed into his office to share with him that I just got asked to be a national technology expert on a popular news program. He looked up at me and said, “Fantastic, it’s just a matter of time before you’ll be on the cover of Playboy!” I kid you not. Instead of standing up for myself, I shrunk into myself and tried to battle his sarcasm with a muted apology about how this was a big deal because I’m from a small town, worked really hard, and such an offer meant a lot to me. Ugh, if only I could turn back time and take Bloom’s advice, “In the workplace we need to take responsibility for our mistakes, sure, but also for our successes,” she says. “Many women can do the former but not the latter.”

Read more Work Flow advice from Amber Mac.