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Thank You to Our Presenting Sponsors!
Email drmartin@talkstorywithme.com to reserve your sponsorship or exhibitor table
About Marshawn
Speaker at all 3 conferences
Marshawn is a woman on a mission, who happens to live in Hawai’i, who loves people, and loves to serve the community. Pursuing her education launched her into a calling to help elevate the trajectory of others. Although she has decades of leadership experience, it took a while to zero in on her purpose and passion. Dr. Martin is driven to share strategies for activating the highest levels of leadership mastery with her company, Talk Story With Me LLC.
Marshawn has spent the last 7 years researching women’s leadership competencies and accomplishments. Her doctorate is in educational leadership. Her passion is in empowering leaders and fueling them with the knowledge and confirmation of their competence - to rid the feeling of being overwhelmed or faux imposter syndrome.
Marshawn's signature talk “The Irrefutable Competence of Our Leadership” does not just teach outdated theories on leadership and empowerment. She shares a powerful message of empowering statistics highlighting the leadership skills women possess and utilize in achieving exceptional results and our impact in business.
It equips audiences with an entirely new paradigm of inspirational leadership that allows them to effortlessly support their skillset with proven data to advance themselves. Dr. Martin delves into the unique strengths women bring to leadership roles. Through compelling stories, insightful data, and actionable takeaways, she inspires women to step into their leadership potential and empower businesses to leverage the power of a diverse leadership team.
Marshawn takes audiences on game-changing journey and puts them on an elevated trajectory toward realized human potential, visionary impact, and an iconic professional legacy.
Originally from San Diego CA, aside from public speaking, Dr. Martin is faculty at the University of Hawaii Hilo Campus. She enjoys living in the Island of Hawaii, aka Big Island, with her husband, 2 sons, and puppy, Kylie.
About Julie
Speaker at the Dallas Conference
Dr. Julie Ducharme is one of the most multi-talented individuals you could meet. Her resume would span ten pages if everything she has accomplished were listed. It’s as if she has lived three lifetimes in less than fifty years.
Dr. Ducharme’s first love was sports, and she pursued college athletics despite being told she wasn’t smart enough for higher education. She persevered, earning three degrees: a BA in Communication with a specialization in public speaking, an MBA with a specialization in Marketing, and a Doctorate of Business Administration (DBA) with a specialization in Leadership.
After playing volleyball and basketball overseas, Dr. Ducharme returned to become a head volleyball coach at a local college, which led to her becoming a professor at the young age of 23. As an overachiever, within seven years, she became the chair of three programs, then a dean overseeing 20 business colleges, before retiring to start her own technical vocational college, where she has served as president for the last decade at Synergy Learning Institute.
Dr. Ducharme has authored several bestsellers, including “Authentically You: Empower Your Way to Success.” While advancing her academic career, she also built multiple businesses. Her first venture, Julie’s Party People, an event company, has successfully served San Diego for 23 years and continues to thrive.
Not stopping there, Dr. Ducharme founded JD Consulting, a company that has evolved over the past 20 years into a digital design agency, course design firm, commercial production company, . She once said, “Once I started building businesses, I was hooked. I am an entrepreneur through and through.”
She then established a sports Equipment company Taylor Elite sports and co-founded Your Authentic Genius, a PR company focused on branding women, with Shelby Jo-Long. Additionally, Dr. Ducharme has been developing Lead and Empower Her She Talks for the past seven years. This initiative has grown from a conference into a magazine, a membership organization, and a movement. She is passionate about this work and dedicated to changing the paradigm for women, expressing her commitment to this cause for the rest of her life.
About VR
Speaker at the Dallas conference
VR Small knows how to turn vision into reality. As the founder and chief executive officer, for the Veteran Women’s Enterprise Center (VWEC), a national initiative to empower entrepreneur women associated with the military to scale successfully.
VR is driving social, and economic change across our nation.She testified for the original House Bill to make June 12, Women Veterans Day in Texas and participated in the Texas “I Am Not Invisible” Campaign. In 2020, she launched the first annual, statewide “Women Veterans: The Pitch” in celebration of Women Veterans Day, highlighting the innovations, and economic impact of current/potential women veteran entrepreneurs across the state of Texas. Transformed into VWEC’s International Trade Cohort celebrating Veteran Women Entrepreneurs across our nation.
The VWEC Founder/CEO VR Small is a fellow of SMU’s Hunt Institute for Engineering and Humanity—Inclusive Economy, Dallas Public Voices, the Bush Institute Stand-to-Veteran Leadership Program, and appointed as a Women Veterans 2030 Commissioner. Featured in Dallas Innovates 2020: The Future 50 North Texans to watched that same year VR was selected as, SBA’s DFW District 2020 Veteran Small Business Advocate of the Year, a Department of Veteran Affairs (VA), Center for Women Veterans (CWV), 2021 Trailblazer “Women Veterans Leading the Way” a Dallas Business Journal 2021 Women in Business Honoree, nominated 2022 Entrepreneur Evangelist of the Year, a finalists for D CEO’s 2022 Nonprofit and Corporate Citizenship Awards for Leadership Excellence (Micro), 2022 Dallas Award for Business Development Services, and a Rolling Out Magazine, Sisters with Superpowers Honoree.
VR Small and the VWEC has been featured on NBC 5 Texas Today, FOX 4, Shaun Rabb: Here & Now, Spectrum News: In Focus, FOX 4, Good Day Dallas, River City Live, WJXT – Jacksonville, Fl. Rance Adams; Daytime Diva, Lynne Haze, CW33 MORNING, WFAA Weekend Daybreak, Axios, and Best of Guide TV to name a few.VR’s inspiring journey and work is featured in the Dallas Morning News, Veterans Day 2021 Special Veteran Edition, on the cover of the 2022 Winter Issue of AVOW, 2022 Marquis Who’s Who in America, and Texas CEO Magazine-Q3.VR is a Navy Veteran, proud stepdaughter, and sister to U.S. Army Retired Vietnam & Iraq Veterans, respectively.
Living her personal slogan “Changing the way we see the world and do business,” as a motivational speaker, moderator, educator, and resolute advocate for long lasting impactful change.In 2023, VWEC hosted the grand opening of its new headquarters in the Comerica BusinessHQ, a five-million-dollar renovation creating a community small business center in southern Dallas. This year, VWEC celebrates its 7th Anniversary with the theme Empowering Her Path Forward: Celebrating Her Steps to Success!
About Danisha
Speaker at the San Diego conference
Thank You to Our Exhibitors!
Dr. Danisha Keating's research was on best practices for foster youth support programs at community college.
After she completed her degree, she wrote her story, "From Foster to PhD: Letters from a suitcase" and has sold over 2,500. Her hope by sharing her story is to encourage other foster youth that they can still do amazing things in life, regardless of how they were raised or what they endured. She believes that every foster youth is here for a purpose and have the ability to accomplish their own Foster to ___ stories.
Danisha is a global advocate for foster youth, guardianship, and foster parents. She shares her story because she firmly believes that it can help change the system for those who come after her. She believes that there is power behind people finding healing and highlighting people's voices and showing others how to craft their own success.
Danisha firmly believes you have a story to tell. She will share with you the five pillars that she uses to self-publish your story and to navigate how to market your book, podcast, or speaking events.
Batters Up Bakery
Dallas Exhibitor
Abilene Christian University
Dallas Exhibitor
About Ilona
Speaker at the Hilo conference
Ilona Irvine, often referred to as the Princess of Island Music, has been a mainstay in the island music scene for decades. Known for her powerhouse vocals, Ilona's musical journey began in her early years, singing in the church choir and learning from local legends like Melveen Leed, Loyal Garner, and John Rowles. She made her debut alongside renowned artists such as Leahi and Fiji. These formative experiences laid the foundation for her future success in the music industry.
Throughout her career, Ilona has collaborated with both international and local artists, including the legendary Stevie Wonder and local talents like Ryan Hiraoka, Nesian N.I.N.E., and Walt G of Kawao. These collaborations have further solidified her reputation as a versatile and accomplished artist.