You know that the Emerging Women community is all about sharing our true selves so that we can shine as the uniquely impactful leaders we are meant to be.
That’s why we’re so excited to announce Anne Lamott as a Keynote Speaker at this year’s national event in San Francisco, CA.
Anne Lamott, author and activist, is a model of compassionate faith, unwavering humor and a voice that tells it like it is, on good days and bad.
As a memoirist and as a non-fiction writer, Anne has a gift for being irreverent and profound at the same time. She is equal parts raw honesty and real hope, with an uncanny ability to glide from heart-wrenching to hilarious without irony or detachment from the core of the matter.
She’s prolific about it, too. She’s written seven novels, several books of non-fiction, and three collections of autobiographical essays. She’s a New York Times bestseller, a prestigious Guggenheim Fellow, a nationwide teacher of her craft, and an inductee of the California Hall of Fame to boot. Rock star!
As Cheryl Strayed mentions in the video below, her work transcends itself. Bird by Bird is as much of a guide to life as it is to writing. Traveling Mercies: Some Thoughts on Faith resonates with religious and non-religious people alike. We can’t wait to see what she brings to the intimate stage at EWLive16 to inspire and ignite the audience.
To get a glimpse of Anne Lamott’s style, watch as she talks with Cheryl Strayed about shitty first drafts, doubt, vulnerability and the universal impact of sharing your personal story:
We are so excited to announce that we just added some serious ooh la la to the lineup for Emerging Women Live 2015.
The provocative Esther Perel will be joining us to talk about the tantalizing dance between modern love and desire, and how we can reclaim our feminine sexuality as a power source for life and business. Yes, please!
Just watch the first minute of this Esther’s TedTalk. We dare you to not hear a question that resonates with you:
Intrigued? Check out her badass bio:
Esther Perel is recognized as one of the most original and insightful voices on personal and professional relationships and the complex science behind human interaction. She is a best-selling author, practicing psychotherapist in New York, organizational consultant for Fortune 500 companies, and regular speaker on the topics of erotic intelligence, trauma, conflict resolution and infidelity. Fluent in nine languages, the Belgian native is a cross-cultural relationship philosopher, shifting the paradigm of our modern approach to relationships.
Esther points out that in our modern world, we want to experience sexuality not simply for survival or duty. She says, “This is the first time that we want sex over time about pleasure and connection that is rooted in desire.”
She invites us to wonder, “When you love, how does it feel? And when you desire, how is it different?” The push/pull between wanting grounded security and our need for imagination and adventure exists both in our intimate relationships and in the way we relate to our entrepreneurial endeavors.
Masterfully, Esther elucidates how we can reconcile this dichotomy with playfulness and curiosity to activate a truly fulfilling journey. “Sex isn’t something you do, eh? It’s a place you go. It’s a language. It isn’t just a behavior,” she says. That is feminine power in action.
Getting clarity around our loves and desires (and learning to merge the two) is just as crucial to our authentic success in life as a solid business plan.
Emerging Women Live is on a mission to bring both concepts into the forefront to help revolutionary women like you take full advantage of all arenas of consciousness, so you can have the greatest impact as you work to make meaningful change in your life, your community and the world.
Ready to own your wanting and align it with your plans for success?
We hope you’ll join Esther Perel, Brené Brown, Dr. Neha Sangwan, Dr. Jane Goodall and more at Emerging Women Live 2015. Don’t miss out on your ticket to personal and professional transformation!
On the 4th of July, we couldn’t help but remember the story Sahar Paz told at Emerging Women’s Power Night Boulder.
Not just because Sahar is a firework of a woman. Which she is. “Smokin’ is the word that comes to mind,” said Emerging Women founder Chantal Pierrat.
When Sahar walked out on the stage, she was absolutely owning it. Don’t believe us? Just take a look at her amazing shoes:
But she didn’t start off owning it.
Sahar was born in war-torn Iran, where she never knew from one day to the next if all of her classmates would show up at school, or if the sidewalk in front of her apartment would still be there. She got the feeling that if she just stayed very quiet and very still, everything might be okay. Despite the bombs.
When she moved to America as a young girl, she was stunned by 4th of July fireworks displays. How could these sounds mean celebration and Independence when to her the soundtrack of explosions had always said live in fear and know your place?
In that environment of fear, her personal inner voice was shamed and shushed out of existence before she was 10 years old.
Instead, she aimed for perfection and quiet in an attempt to mitigate “the burden of her existence.” As she got older, the voice of perfection turned into wanting to please not just parents, teachers and friends, but also men. She habitually turned to others to define her value.
Looking around, the direct line to that value seemed to be MONEY.
Her tireless work ethic eventually took her to a corner office in NYC, complete with a view of Manhattan and the Queensboro bridge – the whole bit. From the outside, she appeared to be living a “Sex and the City” life. She was check, check, checking all the boxes, but she was not happy.
What was once a hopeful sadness turned into a hopeless depression.
But Sahar turned things around. How did she do it? She found her voice.
“We all have a war of words within. I learned how to get out of my war way faster because I was dealt a lot of shit way earlier. But that’s probably the only difference between you and me.” Now, Sahar has stepped into a state of permission.
“Turns out Maya Angelou was my guardian angel,” Sahar said.
She bought a ticket to Emerging Women Live 2014 specifically to see the incomparable poet. And though Maya Angelou passed before the event, Sahar knew she needed something and decided to go anyway.
And she didn’t just go casually. She showed up. “I needed to be in the spit zone,” she said. She sat in the front row as woman after woman reflected versions of her own experience back to her, albeit in different contexts and with different words. She found strength in those women. And strength in herself.
She especially connected with the theme of permission.
“Chantal gave herself permission in front of all of us. She was vulnerable, right at the start, and gave herself permission to eff up during the weekend.” Sahar was moved and gave herself permission to do the same – to show up as her true self, to let her inner voice speak, and to trust that if she eff-ed up, it wouldn’t be the end of the world.
“I was not holding on to that voice of failure,” she realized. “That’s only one voice within me. That is not all of me.” She knew her inner voice had more to say than just censorship, criticism and judgement.
Sahar’s journey has led her from a quiet perfectionist to a fierce woman, embracing her inner voice and encouraging others to do the same. We are thrilled to share her voice with you as an Emerging Short speaker at Emerging Women Live 2015.
“We exist in a world of abundance. All scarcity is here,” Sahar said as she pointed to her heart.
“There is an abundance of pain in this world,” she echoed, “so that means there is also an abundance of opportunity.” Are you ready to take it?
Sahar Paz is going to change the world, but she knows she cannot do it alone.
In one of our favorite moments, she said, “Do not take the voice of comparison – we gotta hold each other’s hands. I’m standing on your shoulders. And I’m reaching for the UN.”
Then she gave herself permission to deliver a badass rap, full of her voice and straight from the heart. And it was smokin’.
What are you reaching for? And whose shoulders are there for you while you do it? We would love to know – please share with us in the comments.
If you’re like me, you get a warm feeling when you read Elizabeth Gilbert’s Facebook posts. She is a true role-model – not simply because she is a successful New York Times best-selling author, but because her she is constantly examining what success really means for her.
Whether she’s sharing her rituals, her favorite moments, her missteps, her lessons learned (and relearned) on the path to authentic success, she does it with an endlessly endearing sense of humor about herself that is so totally relatable it feels like it’s coming from a best-loved big sister.
As the clean slate of the New Year approaches, and New Year’s resolutions lists loom large on our social media feeds, I find tremendous comfort in the Grace&Fire podcast conversation we had before the first Emerging Women Live. Here are some of the things Liz said that stand out as I begin to gently shape my intentions for 2015:
“Curiosity is given to you, but your response is your job, and whether you take responsibility for that curiosity is your job.”
“I think that destiny is a kind of contract between human beings and the Mystery. Things are put before you, situations occur, and then you decide what’s going to be made of it.”
“Instead of forging forward into the vast forest with no idea where you’re going, go back a mile…
When was the last time something felt inspiring to you? When was the last time something was exciting to you? Return to that and then be gentle with it. Don’t take it by the neck and try to interrogate answers from it about what you’re supposed to do. Go back to that spot and sniff around. Put your hand on the ground, feel where it was warm, and see if there’s a little small overlooked clue near there that you somehow missed.”
“I think everyone is trying to play the grand, final scene of the big opera, but really, it’s the scavenger hunt that’s the most interesting…
Eyes on the ground, looking for that four-leaf clover, looking for that little scrap of paper hidden under the next rock, trying to find the clue. Because it is just a series of very small, almost invisible clues. And there’s a level of trust that develops where you just believe.”
Happy New Year, everyone! We wish you joy and an inner knowing on your path to authentic success!
OR Download the EW App to listen to all of our Grace&Fire podcasts on the go: For iPhone click HERE. For Android click HERE.
Want even more Elizabeth Gilbert? Join us for EWLive15 where she’ll share not only a keynote speech, but an intimate onstage conversation with Brené Brown. We can’t wait! Reserve your space in the inner circle now.
We are thrilled to tell you that Zainab Salbi has just been added to the stellar Emerging Women Live 2014 line-up of women living, working, and changing the world from a place of truth and alignment with themselves and with their powerful feminine values.
Zainab Salbi is an Iraqi-American humanitarian, entrepreneur, author, and media commentator who has dedicated herself to women’s rights and freedom. At the age of 23, she founded Women for Women International—a grassroots humanitarian and development organization dedicated to serving women survivors of war.
Her story is of how those women taught her to open up and live her truth, to live in alignment with herself, instead of bent to conform to others. She has done tremendous work for women worldwide, and we cannot wait to hear her share with us at Emerging Women Live.
“Allow yourself the space to become who you are. Allow yourself to express your creativity, to be true to yourself, and not do things out of societal pressure — do it all in pursuit of your truth.”
Under her leadership (1993-2011), Women for Women International grew from helping 30 women upon its inception to more than 370,000 in 8 conflict areas, leading to a distribution of more than 114 million dollars in aid and loans. Her perspective on the role of women in war and peace times is progressive and profound, and we look forward to hearing more during her EWlive14 keynote, “Women, War and Peace.”
Salbi is also the author of three books: the national bestseller “Between Two Worlds: Escape from Tyranny: Growing Up in the Shadow of Saddam” (with Laurie Becklund); “The Other Side of War: Women’s Stories of Survival and Hope”; and “If You Knew Me, You Would Care.” Her books received support from iconic women writers such as Alice Walker and from several celebrities including Angelina Jolie, Meryl Streep, and Annie Lennox.
“As women, we must speak out, speak up, say no to our inheritance of loss and yes to a future of women-led dialogue about women’s rights and value.”
In 2010, President Clinton nominated Salbi as one of the 21st century heroes as featured in Harper’s Bazaar. Newsweek and The Guardian named her in the Top 100 list of Most Influential Women (2011) and The Economist Intelligence Unit identified her as one of most inspirational women (2011). Most recently, Fast Company included Salbi on the list of 100 Most Influential Women (2012), and PBS’ Makers series highlighted Salbi as one of the Women Who Make America.
Salbi has received extensive coverage in US, UK, and global media from CNN to The New York Times, Financial Times, and The Independent. Most notably, Salbi appeared on The Oprah Winfrey Show 10 times. Salbi was also named a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum in 2007 and the Clinton Global Initiative Lead by President Clinton in 2010. Salbi is currently co-producing a documentary with Abigail Disney and Gini Reticker on the role of women in the Arab Revolutions.
Check out Half the Sky’s video of Zainab, where she names the single most effective place we can invest our money to insure a better future for the world:
There is one question I have been asking myself over and over as we get closer to Emerging Women Live: What is my true desire for this event?
Sometimes chaos and changing circumstances can force me into the “doing” and the details at a time when I really need to be thinking about the meta principles of why I started Emerging Women in the first place: the desire to connect deeply with others, to share moments and milestones in relationship and alongside others who are also committed to living a full and meaningful life. YES.
But here’s the thing: we cannot truly connect with others if we are hiding parts of ourselves or we are making decisions in our lives that don’t align with our inner truths. Naming and committing to our inner truths takes immense courage – and I don’t believe it can be achieved alone. It requires risk, vulnerability, and the desire for alignment over fantasy, and we need the witnessing and reflection from others to fully step into this bravery.
I have fought against being vulnerable my whole life, and as a result my capacity for intimacy was stunted, hampering all of my relationships – business, personal and otherwise. When I practiced vulnerability – over and over again – I realized how defended I was, how much I was holding back, how much I was keeping from myself and the world. It was hard – it is still hard – and yet with people around me also committed to this path, I have found the courage to make this the only place from which I move forward into the world.
This is why I love Brené Brown and why I am beyond honored to have her as our opening keynote for Emerging Women Live 2014. Join me and find out first hand how the daring work of vulnerability and authenticity is creating a new breed of impactful and conscious leaders, and together we can blaze trails for future generations of wholehearted visionaries.
If you were at Power Party Denver, Emerging Women Live 2013, or watched either via Livestream, then you know why we are absolutely, completely and totally thrilled to have the magnificent Dominique Christina – poet, artist, activist, educator, author – joining us again for Emerging Women Live 2014 in NYC.
Watch this quick clip to see what we’re talking about. Even her intro banter flows like a polished poem, gaining momentum and sweeping up the crowd before she reads a single word from her book:
Dominique Christina is a self-described “colored girl with stars for eyes.” She is also the ONLY person to hold two national titles for slam poetry at one time and is the ONLY poet in history to win the Women of the World Poetry Championship twice.
“I’m interested in telling the truth — my truth,” she says. “I’m interested in women recognizing the value of their voices and the urgency of their voices. I want to challenge old ideas.”
“When they ask who you are… tell them you are many mountains moving. Tell them you are wind song. Tell them they should not have to ask. Tell them you do not have to answer.”
She raises her voice to challenge the old ideas of her mother and the ‘legs-crossed/always-appropriate’ women she had as templates for womanhood in this reading from Power Party Denver. Do you relate to her juxtaposition between mother and daughter’s versions of the feminine?
“I thought I was doing woman-ness wrong. That there was something flawed about how I showed up in the world,” Dominique says. But she goes on describe how she discovered later in life that “the business of womanhood – what’s so cool about it – is that it’s in your handwriting. It should not be prescribed.”
“The business of womanhood… it’s in your handwriting. It should not be prescribed.”
A former 1996 Olympic Volleyball player, Dominique has over 10 years experience as a licensed teacher, holding double Masters degrees in Education and English Literature.
She conducts performances/workshops for all over the country for colleges, universities, nonprofit organizations, and conferences like the LOHAS forum in Boulder, Colorado. She does branding and marketing language for companies like Lotus Wei and Gaia. She is presently across the nation with Denice Frohman as Sister Outsider.
She’s also a mother. An awesome mother. What does a mother like Dominique Christina do when a boy on Twitter attempts to shame girls for menstruating, you might wonder? Then you must watch (or read the transcript below) “The Period Poem.” Period.
Dominique Christina: I have one more poem, in order to stay in time. Let me just say this: it is profane. Now, I have a daughter. She’s 13 years old. She’s taller than I am. She is absolutely persistent in her acts of rebellion against me. Which does not mean she’s a cut-up. It means that she loves pink, loves ruffles, love skirts, is not interested in athletics—all the shit that I’m not! So, for me, that’s rebellious.
All right. When she started her period, we all knew it because she walked out of the bathroom and she looked stricken. I have four children; she’s my only daughter. Three boys, my god. So she walks out of the bathroom, she’s looking stricken, her brothers are confused. And I’m like, “Nashia, what’s up?” She told me she started her period, she was devastated, lip tremble, whole thing.
So her brothers are immediately like, “Oh.” And she had this—she was grieving! And I needed to undermine what to me looked like shame right away. And it was familiar shame, because I remember being in middle school, having started my period and the boys found out, and then, you know, there was some shit.
So I threw her a period party. It was cool. And all my friends came and everyone was dressed in red and all the food was red and all the drinks were red. And we raised the roof to her shedding uterus. It’s true. It’s really true. It’s a good template. Feel free to use it.
And so it was working. It was working. She was operating in the absence of shame. When I was in Austin, Texas, for the Women of the World Poetry Slam this year, I got a screen shot from her. It was a guy on Twitter, and in 140 characters, he almost undermined all that work. So this is my message to him.
So dude on Twitter says, “I was having sex with my girlfriend when she started her period. I dumped that bitch immediately.”
Dear nameless dummy on Twitter: You’re the reason my daughter cried funeral tears when she started her period—the sudden induction into a reality that she would have to negotiate people like you and your disdain for what a woman’s body can do.
Herein begins an anatomy lesson infused with feminist politics because I hate you.
There is a thing called the uterus. It sheds itself every 28 days or so. Or in my case, every 23 days. I’ve always been a rule breaker. But that’s the anatomy part. I digress.
The feminist politic part is that women know how to let things go, know how to let a dying thing leave the body, how to regenerate, how to become new, how to wax and wane, not unlike the moon and tides, both of which influence how you behave. I digress.
Women have vaginas that speak to each other. It’s true. By this I mean, when we’re with our mothers, our sisters, our friends, our partners, our menstrual cycles will actually sync up. My own menstrual cycle is mad influential. Everybody I love knows how to bleed with me. Hold on to that. There’s a metaphor in it.
But when your mother carried you, the ocean in her belly is what made you buoyant, made you possible. You had it under your tongue when you burst through her skin, wet and panting from the heat of her body—the body whose machinery you now mock on social media. That body wrapped you in everything that was miraculous about it and sung you lullabies laced in platelets without which you wouldn’t have no Twitter account at all, stupid. I digress.
See, women know the world better because of the blood that visits some of us. It interrupts our favorite white skirts and shows up at dinner parties unannounced. Blood will do that. Period. And if you are as unprepared as we sometimes are, it can get all over you and leave a forever stain.
So to my daughter: Should anybody be fool enough to mishandle the wild geography of your body, how it rides a red, running current like any good wolf or witch, well then, just bleed. Bleed, girl. Give that blood a biblical name, something of stone and mortar. Name it after Eve’s first rebellion in that garden. Name it after the last little girl to have her genitals mutilated in Kinshasa—that was this morning. Give it as many syllables as there are unreported rape cases. Name the blood something holy, something mighty, something written in hieroglyphs, something that sounds like the end of the world, something with crooked teeth and two fat fists.
Just bleed. Name it. Name it for the raw between legs and for the women who will not be nameless here. Bleed anyhow. Spill your impossible scripture all over the good furniture and then bleed on everything he loves. Period.
And really, what’s left to say after that?! We are so excited to have this fabulous woman join us in NYC for EWlive14. Will you be there getting goosebumps with us?
>>Ready to dive deeper with Dominique and the Emerging Women tribe? Join us at Emerging Women Live 2014 in NYC. Register now!
Chelsea Brookshire
Executive Assistant and Relationships Manager
Chelsea has over 15 years of experience in administrative and executive support. After her years of working in the legal and oil and gas industry, Chelsea has made it her passion to fill her life with creativity and incorporates that into everything she does. Her position at Emerging Women allows her to expand on that creativity and assist with empowering women around the world. She is a native of Colorado and enjoys spending time with her husband, her son, bonus son, family, and friends. In her free time she loves camping, painting, and all things creative.
Michelle Caggiano
Online Business Manager
Michelle studied Marketing and received her degree from Metropolitan State University of Denver. Her passion for marketing, combined with great attention to detail, and over 7 years of experience in the tech-world makes her a valuable asset to the team! In addition to Emerging Women, she is also a solopreneur and works with a number of different clients in the online business realm. She is an experienced Online Business Manager and Virtual Assistant who specializes in marketing operations, project management and online course launch management. She is a Colorado native, mother of two dogs, a cat, and a turtle, and step-mother to an amazing little girl. In her spare time she enjoys live music, good food, traveling, and spending time with her friends and family.
Jen Jefferson
Power Circle Administrator
Jen comes to Emerging Women with over 25 years of experience in event operations and volunteer management. She has worked various types of events as a Volunteer Manager for Integral Life conferences and as an Event Coordinator for various large arts and sports festivals throughout Colorado. Alongside her passion for creating and producing events, she worked as a hospital administrator for over a decade in one of Denver’s largest hospitals helping make care affordable to hundreds of patients. Jen was born in Lima, Peru but has spent most of her life in Colorado. In 2016, a year sabbatical morphed into a life living abroad. Jen has been living in Cusco, Peru for the past four years and cherishes her life in the Andes mountains. In her spare time she enjoys exploring the world, playing capoeira, and deepening her yoga and meditation practices.
Nicole Fegley
Director of Power Circles
For over 13 years, Nicole has been a producer and connector in the field of personal and professional growth and transformation, creating diverse content, life-changing curriculum, and exquisite live and online experiences. She loves to unite and facilitate people in their work to live more good, true, and beautiful lives. She’s honored to bring this diverse expertise to Emerging Women. For the past two years she has been the lead producer for Emerging Women Live, and now is bringing her extensive production, coaching and facilitation skills to EW’s Power Circles. Nicole works in private practice as a Certified Integral Master Coach™, through her company, Unabashedly You, and has worked with hundreds of women (and men) individually and as a group facilitator. She also creates programs and interviews fascinating teachers and wellness experts in her role as U.S. Content Producer for Conscious Life. She is the co-founder of Core Integral, an educational company offering a comprehensive and accessible approach to learning integral theory. Prior to this work, she owned a large and lively restaurant and brewery in Pennsylvania. She has studied extensively and worked alongside Ken Wilber (Integral Theory), Daniel Brown, PhD (Tibetan Buddhism, Self-Development, Attachment, and Positive Psychology), and Sofia Diaz (Hatha Yoga and Feminine Embodiment). She holds a Masters Degree from Lehigh University. She regularly delights in the sunshine and mountains of Colorado with her two dogs and her partner Clint, and is a new mama to her daughter Truly Golden.
Chantal Pierrat
Founder & CEO
Chantal’s mission is to increase women’s leadership across the globe. After earning an MBA from the University of Colorado, Chantal left a career in medical device manufacturing in search of work that would align her dedication to transformative leadership with her passion for living an inspired, impactful life. In September 2012, she founded Emerging Women, a global leadership and media platform that serves over 70,000 women worldwide and has advanced women’s leadership within Fortune 500 companies such as HP, Oracle and more. Chantal’s ultimate vision is to weave feminine leadership and authenticity into businesses, and to create a world where women have a strong voice in the shaping of our future. Prior to Emerging Women, for over a decade, Chantal served on the executive team as the VP of Sales and Marketing for Sounds True, a multimedia publishing company focused on spirituality, personal growth, and holistic living. Chantal is a sought after speaker delivering keynotes at The Grace Hopper Celebration, Wisdom 2.0, and many other stages where women’s leadership is critical to the conversation. When she is not dancing or working to empower women around the world, Chantal enjoys family time with her husband and two sons in Boulder, CO.
More tremendous news on the Emerging Women Live 2016 front!
