Speak Sell Shine 2025 Motivational Speaker Showcase

Welcome everyone to the 2025 Speak, Sell, Shine Speaker Showcase. I'm Ryan Dohrn along with Pam Perry, and we are super excited, Pam, to debut. How many motivational speakers do we have to showcase tonight?

We have 15. They are phenomenal. 15 phenomenal speakers.

Excellent.

We had them all in Washington, DC, everybody, at the Howard Theater, and, um, they had an opportunity to take the stage and give us their 15-minute summary or kind of overview of their main talk that they give to meetings planners and event conference planners just like all of you. So the first of the 15 to kick things off is going to be Leslie Andrews. So if you don't mind, Pam, share a little bit about who Leslie is. I know she's a nonprofit strategist, but what else is she doing and has she done?

She is an author of a book called Grown Woman Talk, and it's about advice that she's given to grown women. She is also a transformational speaker, and she has been speaking on a lot of different stages. Right now she's Vice President Strategic Initiative for the National Urban League. So she's been in this for a very long time. giving out money and raising money for nonprofits.

That's awesome. All right, first to go here on our speaker showcase for Speak, Sell, Shine, here comes Leslie Andrews.

90,000 hours. I'll say that again. 90,000 hours. You invited me here today to talk to you about how I made my transition from corporate America to an entrepreneur and all of the pivots that that I took in between and to encourage and inspire you to do the same thing. So in my research, I wondered how long had I been working? The Department of Labor told me that the average adult works 90,000 hours in their career.

Whew.

That is a long time to be working a job. Fortunately for me, I worked my passion. Now, in order to share with you today exactly how I got to this point, I have to begin at the beginning. So as a child, I was always running around and I was always swift. I was fast. I was number one in the gym to get selected for the relay team. I was playground fast. But oh boy, oh boy, did I learn when I decided to try out for a track team with my mother's loving encouragement. That I wasn't fast at all. What I learned really fast is I was only playground swift. The true athletes were dusting me every single day. But yes, my mother would stay there and she would say, don't give up, keep at it. So I quickly learned that my suspect speed had a place on the track, and it was on the 4x100 team. I learned from the 4x100, however, that if you're on the team, the most important thing was not to be swift. The most important thing was to pass the baton. I definitely work with startups and those individuals that want to pivot in their career. They've done the corporate journey and they want to be of benefit to society, so they want to start their own nonprofits, all the way to those who are actually already in the nonprofit industry and they want to go higher or they want to go deeper. I mean, they want to specialize in certain areas So I am a business strategist in the nonprofit area. I help them take the vision and actually put it into action items, and then we get moving. It also has evolved into all kinds of opportunities as far as how do you make money in the nonprofit industry to continue to serve the programs. So a lot of times it's monetizing the strategies. It's really understanding what grantmaking is, understanding what funding is. Being fundable, understanding what you need to be a partner as opposed to just one— someone who's looking to be a recipient, making them stronger in that position, and also helping them understand as they raise, they lift, and they become grantors themselves of other startups. So incubators, all those kind of business options in the nonprofit space. I took that lesson and those losses and I transformed them into my professional mantra. My 90,000 hours have all been built on knowing how to pass the baton. When it comes to seeing the newest hire who's looking lost, who doesn't know where to park, who hasn't found their footing, and who needs that encouragement, I pass the baton of encouragement to that new person. When it comes to that family member who has fallen short of their goals, who has not figured out what their life's mission is, and who is just admiring me from afar and doesn't even begin to understand what I have been through. I passed that baton of inspiration. I say to you today, if you do nothing else in this world with those 90,000 hours, never forget, it is your opportunity to pass your baton.

What a great talk and overview from Leslie Andrews. So, all right, Pam, who do we have next here on Speak So Shine?

Oh, I'm so excited. Dr. Reginald Cunningham. He is a doctor of education. He's a licensed professional counselor with over 20 years experience in the mental health field. He has an upcoming book called If You Could Read My Mind, primarily geared towards men, particularly men in the African-American community, but really talking about depression, anxiety, trauma, substance abuse, All these type of things in the mental health field. So come and hear Dr. Reginald Cunningham.

If you could read my mind, you'd see a story I once tried to hide. You see the scars of a boy who grew up without a clear roadmap to what it actually means to be a man. You see a man who wrestled with substances, who battled depression and who even questioned his own worth. But you'd also see resilience, evidence that anything in my past, any trauma that I've experienced, does not write the final chapter in my book of life, but just the next chapters of limitless possibilities yet to come. I'd like to For a moment, invite you into the world of Black men. The stories we carry silently, the battles we fight invisibly, and a resilience that just doesn't seem to die. You've heard the stories about Black men, how they're perceived as being strong, unshakable, and even toxic. But if you could really read the minds of Black men, you'd see the hidden stories, the hidden weights, the hidden weight of generational trauma, segregation, slavery, systemic inequities, all layered on top of Black men trying to be best fathers, good husbands, good sons, and community leaders in a world that often doubts us even before They even get to know us.

Tell me a little bit about your journey and what enabled you to be here today.

I always wanted to do something that is going to benefit people who look like me. I always wanted my son and my son's kids to have a better life. And a lot of times what you see in the streets and what they experience has a direct negative impact on them becoming fully, you know, themselves. Mainly, they need a new way of looking at themselves, and I think that the more we garner that ability to see ourselves for not what people perceive us to be, but for us to be who we are and what we're capable of being and to exercise that power. If you start listening, if you start really paying attention to our voices, listening to what we say, feeling what we say, giving us the opportunity to just be human, Maybe, just maybe, the next generation of Black boys won't have to hide what's in their minds because they'll know that their voices are powerful. They'll know that they can actually go around feeling okay. If you could read my mind, you know this, that our healing is just not possible It's inevitable if we simply decide to embrace it.

Up next, we've got Dr. Maxine Bryant, a retired professor, author, and expert in criminal justice reform and Africana studies. As of 2025, she's the founder of Griot Speaks, an initiative dedicated to educating the public on accurate Black He stood up a little taller than before.

He walked to the front of the classroom with a little bit more confidence than before. That young man in my Intro to African American Studies class had sat quiet All semester long. But that day, he spoke with a newfound boldness. He stood up, introduced himself. He said, hi, my name is— and then he gave us his African name.

Who knew?

Until that moment, no one knew it. He told us that he had hidden his African heritage and had taken on an American-sounding name and had abandoned his African roots. But somewhere during that semester, something switched, something shifted, and he discovered the greatness of Africa and of his people's past. Habari Gani. And Habari Gani means, what's the news? And as I think about that story, I think about the greatness and the vitality and the need for the griots of West Africa. You see, it was their responsibility to tell the news about the greatness of African culture, the heritage of the village. They were The drumbeat of the memory of the village and the wisdom of the ancestors. So the griots served a major purpose. Once I found out I had the capability, I had the wherewithal, I had the capacity to do more, that was my inspiration. It's not like I had role I didn't have role models at that point in my life. I did later, but not initially. It was that inner fortitude, if you will, to push beyond the barriers that had been defined for me and knowing that I could do more than that.

Knowing I could do more than that, very powerful.

And then I retired a year ago, and again I had to reinvent myself. What am I good at? Okay, speaking, writing. I'm a poet, I'm an author. How can I move into that arena full-time? And that's when I started my brand, Griot Speaks, which focuses on the true and accurate story of African American greatness that everybody, no matter what their ethnicity is, can benefit from it. So today I come to you as a griot, not from Africa and not just for one people, but a griot rather for all people, because you know the story of humanity is a shared story. It is our story, the good and the bad, the awful and the pleasant, bound together. As a matter of fact, it's not the totality of Black history, and it's not even where Blacks History begins. Slavery is actually Black history and white history. It is about the enslaved and the enslaver. It is about the resilience and the responsibility. It is your story and your story and my story combined together. It is the story of a shared people. And if we dare to Face it together, then together we can heal it. Your story can live on and on and on. It does not die because remember, now you are the griot too.

Up next is Chris Howell Sr. He's a prominent broadcast Personality, award-winning journalist, and community leader. He has been known as the Golden Voice in the Dallas area. He's worked as a news anchor and also as a reporter. He is the host of the podcast Principles for Success with Chris Howell.

At 16, I found myself standing in front of a judge with the possibility of years in prison. Because I shot a good friend of mine. And if you are of the belief that what goes around comes around, I will tell you, you're absolutely right. Because by the time I was 19, well, I was shot 3 times by a family member. So those wounds that I inflicted upon Johnny and the wounds that were inflicted upon me, they are real and they are close. So when you had the fear of not making it, when you had the fear of failure, those things almost became very real in my life at a very young age. But once again, I was determined that the way it started was not going to be the way that it ended. And that's the same thing for you. Where you are or what has happened in your life does not have to define you. At some point, you make a decision that you're going to move on beyond that and you're going to overcome that. So you can get to the next stage of your life and make an impact in someone else's life. I saw how lives can be transformed from sharing my own story and even more importantly, helping others to share their story. I thought, you know what, this is really something I really need to do more of and help others to do the same.

How do you make people comfortable with kind of not the so glamorous parts of our lives?

Well, you know, I think it's really when they let their guard down when they actually hear my story, because I think, you know, many times what I've learned is that folks don't connect well with polish. But they do connect with purpose. And when you can let your guard down and be vulnerable enough to share your story, then people can do the same. But if you're guarding yourself and holding on to things and they can tell that you're hiding things, then generally they don't feel very comfortable. But once you let that guard down and begin to open up and share, then they can actually see themselves in you. And when they can see themselves in you, then they become more comfortable sharing with you.

Right.

Because there's a lot of noise right now. And so for you to be able to dial in and get your message points across to really reach and engage your audience Yes, it's extremely important. You sharing your story again can help someone breathe just a little bit easier. It can be someone's oxygen, someone who you may never meet. But you take opening up and sharing that thing that you've been hiding, that thing that again I thought was a weakness for me. I thought being a high school dropout and all the things that happened in my life, those were weaknesses, only to find out later they were really my strengths. It gave my life meaning. It gave my life purpose, something to move away from and to gravitate to something even greater. So I will challenge you with this: that thing that you've been holding on to, that thing that you think defines you, that thing that you think sets you back— make up in your mind today that it will no longer define you. It will no longer set you back. But you're going to To move from one place to the other. So you can muster up the courage to be able to share that thing that you've been hiding. Because someone out there needs to hear it. Someone needs to benefit from it. Because you see, when you talk about from setback to stage, it's not about perfection, but it does take courage. And that begins the moment you tell your story.

Up next, we're fortunate to hear from Sunita M. Hill. She's an award-winning federal executive, healthcare leader, nonprofit founder, public speaker, and CEO of SMH Consulting. She's a systems strategist with over 20 years of experience in government and healthcare operations.

I would like to talk to you all about leadership from a different perspective. Leadership for me is impact. I am a project manager by trade for over 20 years, so I lead from the bottom up. I do not lead from the top, I lead from the bottom. What is the end goal? I want to talk also about the process. How do we make an impact? That's That's one that I'm going to talk with you about. 2, what is the process for making an impact? And 3, I'm going to tell you about a real-life story that happened that I used to get to the impact. You are now— you're a business owner in a whole different way. You've established a nonprofit. That is a whole process. And the process that came out of that was through a method called Reclaim, where I had to really look at self. And determine what Reclaim was, what was the process, and that took me down a journey of saying, okay, it was based on research, it was based on engagement, engagement, communication, listening, applying, and then integration and mentorship. Those, all of those together throughout my journey as an adult woman came up, they brought me To reclaim and to say, you can do this, and now you have impact. So that is what Peace On— that is what Sunita M Consulting is. It's about aligning people, policies, and processes together so that you can create an impact. And the impact for me was Peace On Pituxent. And Peace On Pituxent, we term it as POPPI. It is an A respite home for women diagnosed with cancer, life-leveling cancers. That required research. It required engagement. It required communication. It required listening, application. All of those things came into to make Peace on Patuxent what it is today. It is an impact. It is making an impact in the women's lives that we know. Not only is it making an impact in D.C., Maryland, and Virginia, it's making an impact in California. That's why I believe in mentorship so hard. I believe in it, and it is the source. I ask you, what is your impact? What impact do you want to make? I implore you to seek out an impact.

So next we have Dr. Teresa Jeter. She is an urban planner, professor, consultant known for her expertise in the nonprofit sustainability, affordable housing, and community development. She's an author of many books, and she's also a professor at Ball State University. Hear from her how she really talks about community development from the heart.

I will never forget the moment that shaped everything that I believe about my work. I was standing in a room full of pastors, not because I was seeking them out, but because they sought me. Faith leaders may not know zoning codes or complex financing structures, but they carry courage, trust, and vision. And when that vision is aligned with urban planning, we don't just build housing, we build hope. My name is Dr. Theresa Jeter. I am an urban planner, a professor, and an author. I entered this field with a conviction: urban planning should not just shape skylines, it should transform lives. I lived in a community, a neighborhood where industry dumped into the river. Our house was maybe less than half a block from the river. It smelled, it was brown, and my neighbors were fishing in that water.

Wow.

So I said that even as a kid, how can I help address this issue? Because the river wasn't flowing through anyone else's neighborhood. And so that has brought me to this path in terms of being able to help communities create a better life for themselves. And so that's the track I've been on for about 25 years. I teach students, and about 250 a year.

Wow.

Just in one course, right? Freshmen who do not look like us. And what I mean by us, those who've had similar experiences like the one I just mentioned with the river and other environmental kinds of challenges. To teach them to be future urban planners, to understand the communities that they would be working in, and to provide them with the skill set to make the greatest impact for everyone that lives in those communities and beyond. So that's what keeps me going. The board president, who was a Black pastor in his mid-80s, shook my hand And said, keep us out of jail. I said, oh. I smiled, looked him in the eye, and answered, yes, sir. That 2-word exchange was more than a joke. It became a mission because some of the most powerful developers are not sitting at City Hall or in corporate boardrooms. They are Black pastors in pulpits in Black churches in impoverished neighborhoods. That assignment deepened my conviction that urban planning is not just about It's not about shaping skylines. It's about transforming lives.

Up next, we've got Wavitra Jordan, and she's a prominent real estate broker, entrepreneur, and public speaker based in Washington, D.C., but serving Maryland, Virginia, as they call it there, the locals, the DMV area. She's the broker and owner of The Home Team Realty Group, where she spent over 30 years in marketing, financial negotiation, and executive leadership.

What if you just walked to the door and opened it?

That That is the choice that we have every single day. We can stay the same or we can walk to that door and open it. Today I'm going to talk to you about 4 things: resilience, legacy, leadership, and wrapping that thing up all in a nice little bow. So let me take you to 2013. I was in the height of my government career. I was an SES at 40. I raised my kids on that salary. I put them through college. And one day, it came crashing down. I was discarded from what I thought was my cushy government job.

Right?

My stable life, that place that I wanted to stay. And I didn't open those doors that presented themselves to me. And then it came crashing down, discarded like trash, dumped into file 13 while everybody else was talking about market conditions and interest rates. I was using that 27 years of project management, strategic planning, and team building to build my generational wealth for my family. The blueprint, the legacy blueprint. You see, legacy isn't just what you leave behind. It's what you live in now. It's what you live in now and what you model for future generations and the lives you transform while you're doing it. The real joy is in helping them build a legacy after. So it's not just about buying your first home or even your second home. It's about how you leave that legacy and where that goes and living in that legacy while you're there. And so I help them to not only just buy their home, create more wealth through real estate, but also to tie that up in a nice little bow and make sure that they have their legacy plan, their estate plans, and all of that. And that's where the biggest joy comes from. I have people who never thought that they could even own one house who now own 6 homes. And you're going to be able to live in that abundance, and they're going to be able to see you live in that abundance, and you're going to be able to taste and feel and eat from your own garden. Legacy is the thing that generations to come, your grandchildren's grandchildren, can unwrap over and over and over and over again. That generational wealth piece, That when you get the opportunity, it can drip, drip, drip, drip, drip, drip, drip for generations to come.

So next we have Dr. Colette James. She is often known as the Lioness. She's a leadership strategist, ministry leader, and entrepreneur. Before her focus on full-time ministry though, she held significant marketplace roles including Director of Operations of the Don King Productions and Senior VP roles there as well, managing multi-million dollar annual budgets. So hear from Dr. Colette James as she talks about how she blends biblical principles with business.

Leaders that aren't whole within don't properly lead others because they are seeing through clouded glasses. They are leading from a place of hurt, and that's not good. As a leader, you first have to face who you are, the leader within you. When you face it, Then you go to the root. You can trace it on why you are the way you are. Once you trace it, then you can erase it if it's not who you were supposed to be, and then you can replace it, and you can replace it with the leader that you would want to be leading you. I have now kind of segued into teaching at this season of my life. I want to, to give back and to leave legacy. And so now I'm more focused on leadership development and helping others establish their business. So to, to watch that transformation that you can literally build your business— I'm working with entrepreneurs and corporations to say you can build your business with your faith centered You know, you work with your clients and you talk about wanting to build and leave legacy.

What are some of the legacy that they're hoping to achieve?

I'm hoping that there's a transition in their legacy mindset, that legacy is not about how much money is in the bank, how many cars you have, how big your home is, but legacy is what you pour into people. That's what you leave behind. The houses The houses, the cars, the land, they're gonna fade. But what you pour into people becomes generational. You're here on purpose. I'm a woman of faith, so I believe in the strategic purpose of God over your life. Therefore, when he crafted you and breathed you first forth into this atmosphere, in this earth realm, he had specific purpose for you. And that purpose was not just about you. It was about others. It was about how can you answer a question in somebody else's life. So legacy is what you build into other people. It's not about houses and cars and land. It is about how did I raise somebody else up so that I'm not leading by myself. I want to leave you with this: make sure that you lead You leave this world better than you found it. And everybody that has been called to your sphere for you to lead, you leave the same way.

Up next, we've got Marcia Evans. She's a wellness expert and speaker who also coaches those in the helping field, like social workers and those in the medical field, through personal transformations. She's trained in breathwork, sound therapy, and she's known for blending psychology with practical mindset and healing tools in all of her talks and programs. Please enjoy Marcia Evans.

Research has shown that women, particularly women of color, are the highest risk of burnout. I would juggle phone calls, I would juggle a busy calendar, and when I was sitting around, my mind was still wandering when I was sitting in quiet. Something that I do is I work with women that are trying to find balance. They're trying to find balance as they're carrying their families, their communities, and generations on their backs. I would hear in their voices how exhausted they were. I would see the heaviness in their eyes, and I would see their shoulders sunken in. I created a 3-shift cheat code. Number 1, trimming the fat. You gotta make space for yourself. Trimming the fat. Trim it to live it. Number 2 is The pause. Pause is power. Just sit and be in silence with yourself so you can start dating yourself and eventually remarry yourself, because a lot of times we are divorcing ourselves and not even realizing it. Number 3 is creating a wellness team. A wellness team sitting at the table and giving yourself the opportunity to have Other people rooting you on and holding you accountable. And I sat with myself. I learned why I was burnt out, what was my identity, and I started writing the manuscript of my life. And I came to the realization that wellness was not a destination, that every day I get to rewrite my script. And so that is what I did. I just realized that we all need wellness. And that we don't need to do the hustle and bustle of life like we think we need to. I work with women, and women, we have a tendency to carry it all, right? And they come in with heavy hearts, and their shoulders are just burdened with life because they want to show up for everybody, but they don't show up for themselves. And so when I work with women, we really sit down and we start unpacking the things that they think they have to do. And you unpack it and say, hey, where did that come from? What does that look like? And so a lot of women will— they'll stand up from jobs that don't serve them anymore. They'll leave relationships that are not nurturing them, and they find their true selves. What wellness can do— wellness can bring you about wealth. Wellness All this is wealth. What also it can do is it can allow you to breathe again, to take up space. That's what we all need. Remember, you don't have to check these boxes that society tells you to check. You got to get back in tune with yourself so you can know yourself, so you're not running this rat race, this hustle game that will allow you to collapse. And what you also need to do is just breathe again.

So up next we have Melody Augustine Roberts. She is an entrepreneur, motivational speaker, and also a business coach. In 2025, she featured on the COVID of Speakers Magazine and also appeared on the billboard in New York City's Times Square. Here we have Mellie Augustine Roberts.

Are you tired? And I'm not talking about physically tired, but are you tired deep down in your soul? Now, this type of fatigue, it comes from Putting your blood, sweat, and tears into a vision, into a business, only to find out that you're barely making afloat. Now, I know, I know that the world tells us that the grind will set you free. And I know that everybody is saying that hustling is the way, but let's be for real. How long are you gonna hustle? How long are you going to struggle? I understand that you carry wounds and scars that nobody knows about, that no one can see. And the betrayal, those betrayals, they cut down deep. I started off in the fire. I was forged in the fire. I started off in a shelter. I was a single mother and I was homeless. I was over 400 pounds and I was just completely bankrupt financially, emotionally, all of the above. I want them to know that they have the ability to overcome. Like, where you are today, you might be in the pit, you might be at your lowest point in your life, but there is always an opportunity to rise from that. And it's not just about rising— that's pretty cliché in today's world, right? What I really focus on is legacy and generational worth, wealth. And I want to make sure whoever comes into my consulting agency that they are aware that this is not for the side hustler. This isn't for the person that just dibbles and dabbles with business. This is for the champion. This is the person that has— that's that confident I'm coming for the person that needs to draw the line in the sand regarding their generational curses of poverty and struggle. Like, one day we all have to graduate from this, the struggle. We stop surviving and we start building. Folks, it is time to build. Your arc. You're thinking, arc? What arc? What is she talking about? That arc is your business that succeeds. That arc is your business that is built well. That arc Is your sanctuary that scales. That arc is the vessel that not only carries you, but the clients that you were meant to serve.

Wow, that was great. Up next, we've got Charisse Nance, and she is a licensed clinical social worker Speaker and calls herself a burnout expert who helps leaders and helping professionals prevent compassion fatigue and build resilience. She's the founder of Vitamin C Healing and brings more than 20 years of experience in trauma-informed mental health and leadership wellness to the stage.

Too many of us. Helping professionals and leaders are serving from empty wells. And the problem is nearly 70% of helping professionals are struggling with compassion fatigue. And compassion fatigue is not a character flaw. It is the cost of caring for too long without a system to sustain yourself. Compassion fatigue is the mental, emotional, and physical exhaustion that causes a pronounced change in our ability to have empathy with the people we serve, our colleagues, our loved ones. I often refer to it Yes. The common cold of helping professionals, because when you do this heart work, you are prone to catching that cold. But it's about building an immunity so that you can protect yourself from that cold. And while compassion fatigue may be a reality of this work, it doesn't have to be your reality. And it's not just a personal or an individual issue, it's also an organizational issue. It contributes to disengagement, quiet quitting, absenteeism, staff turnover. But organizations can provide their staff with the tools to stay grounded in their values, protect their boundaries, and recover. And when we do that, we're not just protecting our people, we're also protecting our mission, our culture, and our bottom line. And I tell people it's important for us to build this foundation of self-awareness and self-compassion. We want to start by having this awareness of how it's impacting us, how it's impacting us mentally, emotionally, physiologically, and then giving ourselves grace, understanding that many of us have been conditioned and wired to just go, go, go. I'll sleep when I die.

Right.

Hard work pays off. I come from a family with a very strong work ethic. No excuses, just get it done. So we need to give ourselves grace and have that self-compassion, understanding that we didn't get here overnight, so we're not going to undo this overnight. And to my helping professionals, the goal isn't to stop giving it away, it's to stop giving it all away with no for your own recovery. And to organizations, if we want lasting impact, we need sustainable people. Because when we sustain the healer, we sustain the healing, and that's how we sustain the mission.

So next, we have Jennifer Ponder. She is a prominent technology leader, AI consultant, public speaker, and she is a founder and CEO of Nexora Strategy Consulting, where she helps small to mid-sized businesses implement AI automation and digital transformation strategies to improve productivity. Jennifer Ponder.

This all started one Christmas morning in my family's living room. I was 8 years old. My parents, by way of Santa, gifted me a magic dream box that was my first computer. But you know what happens When you're 8 and you're curious. The computer games got boring, but I transformed my boredom into curiosity. It's that same curiosity that led me to my true love, learning how technology truly works. And that's the same curiosity that led me to learn artificial intelligence. Now I want to get into my AIM framework. The A is the first step for assess. Assessing keeps you from guessing. The second step in the AIM framework is the I for integrate. Before we can put together your AI agent, we need to integrate the correct technology for you. Integrating allows you to find out how AI can work with your current systems effectively and efficiently, which leads me into the 3rd step: how to multiply your business. I am a national program director at STEM Atlanta Women, where I do help middle school and high school students who are interested in science, technology, engineering, and math. And so one of the things I always stated, just on my career path in tech, what can I do to give back to the youth? And so this is what really drives my heart, just creating programs around AI, cloud development, and engineering for these young ladies. And so that is what inspired me to also go to the next level in my life of, you know, creating my own consultancy so I can help to create the talent pipeline for young ladies interested in tech. With my current AI company, first I started it as a cloud transformation company where I wanted to digitally help clients to modernize their legacy applications with the use of the cloud, but I have scaled that to integrate AI to help these clients. So I've helped over 200 clients to integrate AI strategies and AI agents into their companies effectively. Have you ever wanted to work across geographic lines with other clients? AI agents will allow you to work with companies who English may not be their first language. Time freedom. We get to prioritize the special things and the special people in our lives, and this is so near and dear to my heart because I'm a sole caregiver for my grandmother, and AI agents have allowed me to help take care of her and also work in my business. Income, influence, and impact. AI agents will allow you to never miss a lead or never miss a sale.

Up next, we have Dr. Stephanie Wall, and she's a transformation coach and speaker who helps individuals overcome self-doubt and step into purpose. She's the founder of 1 Million Lives Transformed and is known for empowering women and leaders through mindset and personal growth work.

What if I told you that the brain lies, but that the belief tells the truth every time? It's true. The brain has one job, and that is to keep us safe. It runs the same story on loop over and over again. Don't say it. Don't speak up. Don't risk it. And neuroscientists tell us that we self-sabotage, or we can self-sabotage every day based on our beliefs. That's why we have to unmute and find our volume. We don't have a skill set problem, we have a mindset problem. So she goes into a room, she wanted to be promoted, she did all the things, and it was her turn whenever she was on the agenda. Right there, there's her name. Boom! It's her turn. What happens? Her palms start sweating. Her mouth gets dry. Her hands start shaking. And then she lets that time go by, and she lets somebody else have that opportunity. And her supervisors noticed this. They didn't notice her brilliance. They noticed her passing up opportunities. They noticed that she would step back. They noticed that she wasn't standing 10 toes down in who she was. They noticed that she was not leading. Too many times when I was in spaces, I had all the credentials, I had everything, but what I lacked was the ability to unmute myself. I didn't believe that I belonged there sometimes, and I also found out I wasn't the only person, and it all stemmed from my belief And things I've learned, I trained myself. I learned later that my brain had— I trained my brain that I wasn't enough sometimes even when I was plenty. Well, the first, the first thing I start with is the mindset because often, myself included, I've promoted individuals. We promote them into positions, but we don't, we don't prepare them with the right mindset. So I help them first to first find about self-awareness. Who are they? Why do they want to do all the things? And what is the end goal? And I'll definitely talk about family and their faith, because when we have those things in line, then it gives us the power and the courage to move forward. It's all brains, all about mindset. And when I say mindset, I'm talking about neuroscience. I'm talking about the psychology on why we believe and do what we do. If you've ever heard it before, that if you've been hearing the same story in your life, you're not enough, you're not enough, you're not enough, until you change the story, the story will keep replaying itself. I know everyone here, everyone in this place has heard this story. If you tell a little boy, you're a bad little boy, you're a bad little boy, he will grow up to be what? A bad little boy. But if you tell him, you are brilliant, you are magnificent, you're the best, you are amazing, he will grow up to be amazing. I will tell you that I now tell myself, I look in the mirror every day, Don't trust me? Come to my house, and I tell myself, "Ooh, you are so amazing!" I tell you, and I tell everyone, I am not just Stephanie Wall. They used to tell me I was too tall. My voice is too heavy. I talk too fast. But I say, "I'm not too tall. I am statuesque." I do not talk too fast. I talk with exuberance. My voice is not too heavy. It is sultry. I am not just somebody's daughter. I am the tower of power. And I encourage you to use your voices to transform your life first and then the lives of others by unmuting your voice and finding your volume.

Next, we have Natalie Southwell. She is the owner and CEO of Essence of a Woman LLC, which really— she provides professional coaching and consulting focusing on empowerment, helping women overcome the dangers of saying yes, leadership development, and also delivering keynotes on boundary setting and burnout recovery. Let's welcome Natalie Southwell.

Have you ever felt imprisoned? By the expectations, the opinions, and judgments of others? What if I could give you the 4 ways to combat the fear of saying no without retaliation or feeling guilty? Fear causes bondage, and when you are in bondage or in a cage, that's entrapment. So the fear of entrapment or the fear of expectations The world sometimes makes you want to stand back, dim your light. Your light is too big to dim. The inspiration came behind me really finding my way back home, and so what I like to do is really help women who suffer in silence to find their way back home. Yeah, that's powerful, using your own testimony as a testament to the journey that you're helping other women to go on. I just help them through strategies and tools to live a life that that creates the self-advocacy that they need, being able to show up in a way that's authentic, removing all of the fear that sometimes women kind of— they don't realize that fear is the undertone of what's causing their apprehension. And once we identify those fears and then we really kind of help them to face them, then they march forward and they're transformed.

That's great.

Marching forward.

Right, what we all want to do to build a better future.

Well, the book really talks about being able to say no in a very strategic way without overwhelming and feeling that people's expectations of you prevent you from being able to say no to them. I created something called the PAIN FREE method in terms of decision-making, and the P stands for pause, to pause and to think about what's What is it going to cost you? The A stands for analyze. Let me look at all of my alternatives. And then I is the impact.

Who will win? Who will lose?

Who will this hurt if I say yes? N is what's the necessity behind this answer?

Is it—

Is it a necessity? Need it now? What's the urgency? Again, when you understand the reason behind the fear, when you face it square in the face, and when you understand that it is not intended to destroy you, it's for you to understand it, then you can lead from a more authentic life. Love has no boundaries, but fear does. Fear has bondage. It entraps. So when you use the pain-free method for decision-making, when you're being asked to say yes or no, let your yes be yes, but also let your no be no. No is not a negative word. Sometimes we think that saying no will cost us relationships, but no is your Wow, that was really, really great.

Next on the stage is going to be Natalie A. Solomon. She's a wellness strategist, author, and TEDx speaker who empowers high-achieving women to lead with confidence and purpose. Natalie has been in the public health systems for over 20 years. She's the founder of the Meraki Empowerment Collective, where she helps women build wellness, Resilience, and wholehearted leadership.

I was blessed, if you will, with numerous healthcare conditions, chronic illness, chronic pain, stage 4 endometriosis, infertility, fibroids, adenomyosis, and just for good measure, A brain tumor. 14 surgeries later. How do you recover from something that you're always living with, that never goes away? Where can I create a sanctuary for myself as I am healing? So I had a room in my basement that I said, you know what, I think I'm about to make this my little zen den, my sacred space. It started out It started out as just a blanket. I had a pillow. But as time evolved, I turned that room into my sacred space, my zen den, my sanctuary. It is so important to understand that your environment has such impact on how you take care of yourself, how you connect with yourself, and how you stand up and be the woman or person that you really intend to be. And you When you have your sacred space, you don't need a whole Pinterest room. I mean, don't get me wrong, I love me some Pinterest. Now, I probably be on there way too much. That and HGTV. I pretty much took it and made my whole room a vision board. One wall was my sorority paraphernalia, which was my sign of sisterhood and strength that brought me joy. The other wall was my back wall named Marakeh, which is the name of my company, which is basically a Greek word for putting the essence of yourself into your work through your love, soul, and creativity. And then my other wall was all my pictures from my travels, and then a drafting table where I would paint through year— through my time of pain and nights where I just couldn't sleep, because me and insomnia were best friends for sure. And then my forward wall was my prayer altar. It's something that I have past loved ones on, something that I could just light a candle and ritualize that space for me. Oftendays I would lay on the floor wrapped up in a blanket with my incense burning, remembering what it was like to not have to go through a whole week of pain. If you do not take care of yourself, And not in a selfish, too selfish for anyone else way, there's no way you're going to be able to stand up for anybody else or be there for anyone else. So I advise you, when you have those times that you can take for some sanctuary time, find a corner, find a chair, find a tray that you put items on that speak to you. And then take that other time to make sure that you are giving yourself that time to give yourself quiet. Breathe. And remember that you are your own sacred space. You are the one who creates your sanctuary. And make sure you take care of yourself.

Wow, Pam, that was quite the lineup of speakers. And as you know, I have business events that, um, that I put on, and I've hired one of the speakers, um, several speakers from Speak So Shine as well. So if you're a meeting planner or something like that looking to get in touch with these speakers, what's the best way for them to reach out?

They can reach out to us directly, Pam or Brian, Pam Perry or Ryan Dohrn, or you can actually, at the end of each reel is their contact information. And they would love to hear from you directly. Speak, Sell, Shine. We do it every year. This is the third cohort that we've worked with for an entire year, and they are ready, set to go and to speak and to really grace your stages and be the asset for your audience.

Absolutely. And we've done— folks that are watching this video, we've done a lot of work with all of these speakers. As Pam said, they're ready with their media kits. They're ready to help you promote your event. They're ready to go. These are folks that Pam and I have hand-chosen and hand-coached personally one-on-one all throughout the year. So you can really be assured on both of our reputations that these are really, really great folks. So Pam, if people want to reach out to you about Speak, Sell, Shine, maybe they're interested in being a speaker in our next cohort, how would they do that?

Very simply, go to speaksellshine.com. speaksellshine.com. You can fill out an application and we will have a conversation.

Sounds great. Well, good luck everybody this year.