Recently I had the opportunity to attend the eWomen Network Conference in Dallas, Texas. There were some incredible speakers with great content and there were some not so great speakers who still had valuable messages if you could get past their delivery.
There was however, one speaker that stood out and left me with a very powerful message I hope to carry with me for a long time.
Sekou Andrews was billed as a “surprise” speaker. Now I don’t usually like surprises, but I am so grateful I didn’t miss this one. Sekou is a poet, a wordsmith, an entertainer. It was inspiring to watch how he so eloquently took the English language and left 600+ women holding an imaginary mirror in our hands saying “I AM AWESOME!” for the remainder of the conference.
There were many things he said that I loved and made me feel like I could do anything because I’m me and I AM AWESOME! To see how he captivated these women with his showmanship, humor and charm and even at one point coming into the audience and giving one woman the ‘double cheek pinch’ was a clinic on speaking with passion no matter who your audience is.
I always get so much when I attend conferences especially those centered around women, that give us the opportunity to embrace who we are; flaws and strengths celebrated equally. I enjoy the networking and catching up with others from around the globe that come together to learn, work together and enjoy simply being a woman of business.
Sandra Yancey, the founder of eWomen Network spoke to us about listening; she gave a talk around using the word LISTEN as an acronym (Look inside, Inspiration, Self Care, Trust, Express yourself, NOW! – as in do it NOW!) . She left us with something that I’m sure many of us had already heard prior to her talk – myself included – but it just didn’t stick before now.
Mix up the letters in LISTEN and they spell SILENT.
If I can leave you with one thing that is to GO, whenever and to whatever event or conference you can and be in a state of constant learning as often as possible. There are so many smart, inspirational, motivating, creative individuals out there that we can’t possibly hear them all in a lifetime, but my plan is to hear as many of them as I can in my lifetime.
What’s the next event your on the fence about attending? Just GO.
Check out Sekou’s website to hear some of his featured talks http://sekouandrews.com/portfolio/
