Dr. Sheila Robinson has grown her company, Diversity Woman Media, over two decades to become a nationally recognized, multifaceted resource that helps customers drive and deliver business results through diversity, inclusion and talent development initiatives. Sheila says that she has two customers: the internal customers – corporations and organizations that she helps drive and deliver business results, and the external customers – the women who are leaders and future leaders of our world. Her hallmark initiatives for the external customers are “Diversity Woman Magazine,” which provides ideas, solutions and resources to help women advance their careers, and the annual Diversity Women’s Business Leadership Conference.
Dr. Nancy credits the Diversity Women’s conference for changing her life and helping her understand the true meaning of inclusion. After that first conference several years ago, she became a sponsor and an advocate for the Diversity Woman brand. She says that if you want to really understand what coming together over differences and belonging feels like, and how that fresh perspective can propel us all to greater success, you must attend the Diversity Women’s Business Leadership Conference.
Register Now! October 8 & 9, 2020. It’s Virtual!
For the first time the Diversity Women’s conference is going virtual, so it’s easier than ever to attend. Sheila and the conference team are making it as compelling as possible in the virtual mode and have a slate of impressive speakers. Dr. Nancy and Trudy Bourgeois are scheduled to deliver their presentation about how we’re better together, “Together We Can – Supporting One Another Across Differences.”
Sheila says Power Forward describes where we are today as women—all women—all races, cultures and backgrounds. She says that we can’t afford to take one step back and let the crisis caused by COVID and outrage over racial injustice distract us. She says, “We’ve got to continue to move forward. And Power Forward is about escalating that.” While acknowledging that we are facing a number of challenges, the speakers are geared to help us power forward, with the mindset to keep us resilient, courageous, and adaptable, to reimagine and work with what we have, and to seize the opportunity to move it faster and further than ever before. Sheila adds that it took white women 100 years to get the right to vote and women of color even longer. We absolutely cannot go backwards or allow our progress toward equality to stall out.
Free Stuff—Win-Win-Win and More!
Listen to this conversation to hear more of Sheila’s story, how she feels about her purposeful work, and Nancy’s views about how the Diversity Women’s Business Leadership Conference is a win-win-win for everybody who attends. Check out Sheila’s free webinar series, “Moving Forward–from Fear to Focus.” Instead of making masks in her living room, Sheila responded to the pandemic by revising her work to help women trying to remain visible at work while working remotely in their living rooms, how to handle the additional stresses of quarantine and possible loss of income, and other issues with expert guests like Dr. Nancy O’Reilly. Available here.
Own Your Own Power and Influence
Sheila’s parting words of wisdom are for women to realize that we influence the conversation at our dinner tables. That’s why she likes working with women so much. She says that no one person or race can cure systemic racism and biases built into our various cultures. But women have a power that we only have to recognize and use at our dinner tables, “We do influence how our children—even our adult children—go out into their play places, their workplaces, school places. We influence how our spouses go out into their workplaces and play places.” She urges women to take advantage of this influence and know that by influencing our families, we also reshape our community, our society, our country, and our world. Read more on diversitywoman.com.