Vol. 3 Issue No. 7
She Talks
She Talks
MAGAZINE
July 2026
WOMEN TO WATCH IN 2026
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FROM THE EDITOR
Founder, Lead and Empower Her She Talks
Welcome to our July issue!
This month marks a historic milestone as we celebrate America's 250th
anniversary. Congratulations, America! Two and a half centuries of resilience
and innovation remind us that our greatest strength lies in the people who
continue to dream and build a brighter future for us all.
To our incredible women around the world, we are so excited to move into July
with you. Your courage and leadership across every continent continue to
inspire us daily. In this spirit of excellence, we are thrilled to highlight our Top 10
Women to Watch in this issue. These trailblazers are redefining their industries
and making a global impact, proving that one woman's vision can truly change
the world.
At SHE Talks Magazine, our mission is to amplify your voices and celebrate the
stories that move us forward. We hope these pages inspire you to pursue your
own goals with passion and confidence, knowing that your leadership is both
needed and valued
Thank you for being part of our global community. Whether you are celebrating
a national milestone or a personal victory, may this July be filled with hope and
new opportunities.
As we move through the second half of the year, we encourage you to take a
moment to celebrate your own accomplishments as well. Whether you've
reached a major milestone or taken a small step toward a bigger dream, every
achievement deserves recognition. Keep believing in your vision, continue
investing in yourself, and never underestimate the difference your voice and
your leadership can make.
Thank you for being a valued part of the SHE Talks Magazine community. Your
support, encouragement, and engagement continue to make this publication a
place where stories of excellence and empowerment can thrive. Together, we
are celebrating women who are shaping the future, inspiring change, and
proving every day that leadership knows no boundaries.
With gratitude and belief in every one of you,
CONTRIBUTORS
Editor-in-Chief
DR. JULIE DUCHARME
Cover Layout and
Magazine Design
DR. JOSHUA DUCHARME
Contributing Writers
FRANCES PRATT
KAREN GRAY
DEBBIE HARRIS
DR. JULIE DUCHARME
LAURIE SHERIDAN
ELLE NAGY
PATRICIA GAGIC
JENNIE EDWARDS
LAUREN CLEMETT
Table of Contents
Top 10
Top 10
The Freedom of
Discovering You Were
Never Broken
Debbie Harris
52
When Freedom Feels
Unfamiliar
Laurie Sheridan
57
250 Years of Freedom:
And Baby We are Just
Getting Started
Karen Gray
62
The Fire I Could Not
Name
Patricia Gagic
67
You Were Not Born To
Perform
Elle Nagy
72
Unmasking the Sales
Confidence Gap
Frances Pratt
79
Pillars of Power
Jennie Edwards
84
The Real Cost of
Recognition
Lauren Clemett
90
Elle Nagy
Dr. Connie Bell
Laura Muirhead
Dr. Dawn Ella
Jacqui Bryant
Dr. Karen Weaver
Shelby Jo Long
Abigail Ducharme
Emily Letran
Pauline Victoria
In order of magazine placement
Women to Watch
in 2026
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Every year, SHE Talks Magazine recognizes a select group of extraordinary women whose
leadership, vision, and dedication are making a lasting impact in their industries and communities.
Our Top 10 Women to Watch are more than successful professionals they are innovators,
trailblazers, mentors, and changemakers whose stories inspire others to dream bigger and lead
with purpose.
Each woman featured in this year's Top 10 was carefully selected for her exceptional
accomplishments, unwavering commitment to excellence, and the influence she continues to
have on those around her. While their careers span diverse fields including business, healthcare,
education, nonprofit leadership, entrepreneurship, media, and community service they all share a
common purpose: creating meaningful change and empowering others along the way.
What sets these women apart is not simply their success, but the way they use their platforms to
uplift others. They have overcome challenges, embraced opportunities, and remained committed
to making a difference. Whether leading organizations, launching innovative businesses,
advocating for important causes, or mentoring the next generation of leaders, they exemplify
what it means to lead with integrity, courage, and compassion.
Our Top 10 Women to Watch represent the future of leadership. They remind us that true
TOP 10
TOP 10
TOP 10
TOP 10
WOMEN TO WATCH IN 2026
success is measured not only by personal achievements but by the lives we touch and the legacy
we leave behind. Their journeys demonstrate that perseverance, resilience, and purpose can
open doors and inspire lasting change.
At SHE Talks Magazine, we believe that recognizing remarkable women helps amplify
their voices and encourages others to pursue their own aspirations with confidence. We
are honored to celebrate this exceptional group of leaders and share their stories with
readers around the world.
Congratulations to our 2026 Top 10 Women to Watch. We are proud to
recognize your achievements, celebrate your impact, and look forward to
watching your continued success as you inspire the next generation of
women leaders.
SHE TALKS | 7
ELLE NAGY
It’s not often that you experience
those rare moments where you meet
someone and instantly feel a true
synergy, a shared energy and
connection that feels deep and
immediate. That is exactly how it was
for me when I met Elle.
Even though our meetings have only ever been via Zoom, I
felt a powerful bond with a fellow athlete who truly
understands the journey of struggle, the resilience
required for overcoming, and the beauty of
transformation. Some leaders teach success. Others
redefine it. That is exactly why Elle has been selected as
one of our Top 10 Women to Watch in 2026.
Reimagining Success by Helping Women
Remember Who They Are
“I believed I was born to be an
Ironman before I ever became one.”
A Rich Life Advisor, international coach, four-time author, and two-time Ironman finisher, Elle has spent nearly
two decades helping accomplished women shift from living lives built on achievement alone to lives filled with
purpose, presence, joy, and fulfillment. While many coaches focus on productivity and performance, Elle
challenges women to ask a far more important question: "What does success actually feel like?" That question is
changing lives around the world.
A Story That Began at
Rock Bottom
From the outside, Elle appeared to have everything society
tells women they should want. Growing up in South Africa,
she pursued psychology, married, built a family, and
checked every box of the traditional "white picket fence"
dream. Yet behind the picture-perfect life was a woman
quietly battling suicidal depression. Instead of finding
healing through traditional therapy alone, Elle experienced
a pivotal turning point after discovering kickboxing almost
by accident. That moment became the catalyst for an
entirely different understanding of human transformation.
"I realized there was a powerful connection between my
physical state, my emotional state, and my mental state."
That discovery led her into coaching nearly twenty years
ago, a profession that would ultimately become her life's
calling.
The Ironman That
Changed Everything
Few stories capture Elle's philosophy better than her
decision to become an Ironman. She couldn't swim after
nearly drowning as a child. She wasn't a runner. Doctors
recommended hip surgery. Everyone told her it couldn't be
done. She entered the race anyway. Months later, she
crossed the finish line. "I have a tortoise tattoo because it
doesn't matter how fast you go. As long as you keep moving,
you'll reach the finish line. "For Elle, completing an Ironman
wasn't about athletic achievement. It became proof that
identity shapes possibility.
Today, that same principle forms the foundation of the
transformational work she shares with women across the globe.
SHE TALKS | 9
WHY ELLE IS ONE TO WATCH
In a coaching industry crowded with conversations
about mindset and performance, Elle is leading an
entirely different dialogue. She believes women don't
need to become someone new. They need to
remember who they already are. Rather than
encouraging women to "build confidence," she
teaches them to reclaim authorship of their identity.
"We are the artist and the art. We are the creator and
the creation." That philosophy has resonated deeply
with women navigating career transitions,
entrepreneurship, divorce, midlife reinvention, and
leadership. Instead of asking women to fit into
another version of success, Elle invites them to
define success for themselves. It is a message that
feels especially timely in 2026, as more women are
questioning long-held expectations around
achievement, fulfillment, and identity.
One of Elle's most powerful ideas is that wealth and
richness are not the same thing. "Just because you're
rich doesn't mean you're having a rich life
experience." Her work explores what she calls the
Rich Life Experience, helping women move beyond
pressure, perfectionism, and constant striving toward
lives that feel alive, joyful, and meaningful. She
challenges leaders to stop measuring success solely
by accomplishments and instead evaluate the quality
of the experience they're creating every day. "You can
build a business from fear and still be successful. Or
you can build it from joy, creativity, and pleasure.
From the outside, they may look identical, but on the
inside, they're completely different." That
perspective is resonating with high-achieving women
who have built impressive careers yet still feel
disconnected from themselves.
SHE TALKS | 10
One of the reasons Elle stands apart is her willingness
to challenge long-standing beliefs. She believes many
women are experiencing what she calls "the
suppression of self." "Depression is often the
suppression of self. "Rather than viewing identity
through societal roles, mother, executive, wife,
entrepreneur, Elle encourages women to ask a
different question: ‘Who am I choosing to become?"
Her signature Women Reimagined program guides
women through a process of remembrance,
reclaiming, and reimagining, helping them move
beyond conditioning and consciously create lives
aligned with who they truly are. As conversations
around women's leadership continue to evolve, Elle's
approach offers something both practical and deeply
transformational.
Perhaps the most memorable moment of our
conversation came when Elle challenged one of
today's most common leadership conversations.
While many leaders speak about leaving a legacy, Elle
believes in something different. "I don't believe in
leaving a legacy. I believe in living a legacy." It is a
philosophy reflected in every aspect of her work,
from her coaching and writing to the women she
empowers every day.
A New Conversation
Around Women's Identity
Four Books. One Mission.
Elle has authored four books, including Mastering Self
Leadership and The Artist State. Mastering Self
Leadership was written during the uncertainty of
COVID-19 and focuses on helping readers move
beyond fear-based thinking toward self-led decision-
making. The Artist State expands on her philosophy
that every person is both the artist and the
masterpiece of their own life. Together, these works
provide a roadmap for women seeking more than
professional success; they offer a blueprint for living
intentionally.
Living the Legacy
Why We Chose Elle
Each year, selecting our Top 10 Women to Watch
means identifying leaders who are not simply
succeeding but shaping the future. Elle is doing
exactly that. She is redefining leadership by placing
humanity before hustle. She is helping women move
beyond achievement into authentic fulfillment. She is
changing the conversation from proving your worth
to remembering your worth. And perhaps most
importantly, she reminds every woman that her life
isn't something to survive or simply accomplish. It is
something to intentionally create.
As 2026 unfolds, Elle is undoubtedly one of the
voices transforming how women think about
leadership, identity, and what it truly means to live a
rich life. That is why she is one of our Top 10 Women
to Watch in 2026. We are excited to see you
transform and change the lives of women around the
world, Elle.
SHE TALKS | 11
From the Closet to
the Boardroom
here is a photograph that doesn't exist in
the Castlemont High School yearbook. It
should show the Senior Queen a dark-
skinned girl with burn scars on her face
and a quiet intensity that belied her seventeen
years. Connie Bell helped create that yearbook, yet
her own crowning moment went unrecorded in its
pages. The paradox is almost poetic: celebrated in
the moment, erased in the record. It is also, in many
ways, the story of her life a woman whose
contributions have always outpaced the recognition
she receives, and who has spent decades proving
that the quietest voice in the room can be the most
powerful one in it.
When I met Dr. Connie years ago it was first as
her Doctoral Mentor, now as we connect again
I get to see her as a colleague, an incredibly
accomplished woman who is changing the
world and definitely a woman to watch.
Dr. Connie Y. Bell is the Senior Vice
President of Security Risk, Global Incident
Response, and Fraud Detection &
Analytics at Teleperformance, where
she leads strategic governance across
cybersecurity, ethics, and operational
resilience on a global scale. She is a
doctoral professor and dissertation
chair at the University of Phoenix.
A breast cancer survivor. A published
author. A board member for
organizations serving vulnerable
children and families. And she built
every inch of this life from a
foundation that most people would
consider rubble.
A girl once bullied for her dark skin and scars became a corporate powerhouse, a cancer
survivor, and a voice for women who learned to survive quietly. Here's why Dr. Connie Y.
Bell is a Top 10 She Talks Woman to watch!
Dr. Connie Bell
Dr. Connie Bell
The Girl in
the Closet
Connie Bell was born on the Fourth of
July, 1964, in Oakland, California, the
daughter of parents who had migrated
from Arkansas seeking a brighter
future. Tragedy found the family early
her older brother Tyrone died as a
toddler after accidentally ingesting
their father's painkillers. Then, as a
toddler herself, Connie fell against a
floor heater, burning the left side of
her face and arm. The scars would
follow her into school, where
classmates christened her with a
nickname that cut as deeply as the
burns themselves: Railroad.
In a community where colorism the
legacy of slavery's hierarchy that
prized lighter skin still shaped social
currency, Connie carried a triple
burden: she was the darkest-skinned
among her siblings, visibly scarred,
and painfully shy. "I felt as ugly as I
believed a child could be," she writes
in her memoir Shades of Strength.
"Dark-skinned, burned, with nappy
hair and buck teeth from sucking my
fingers for comfort."
Her sanctuary was a family closet.
Armed with a flashlight and a book,
the little girl who dreamed of
invisibility disappeared into worlds
where her scars and skin color were
irrelevant, where her intellect could
thrive unchallenged. A family elder
nicknamed "Mama Scrap" told her
mother the girl would grow up to be
like Perry Mason, brilliant,
determined, a champion of justice.
The seed was planted in the dark of
that closet, and it never stopped
growing.
SHE TALKS | 13
By sixteen, Connie was working as a clerk at Wells
Fargo Bank through a summer youth program. By
seventeen, she held a permanent full-time
position, earning $724 a month a fortune for a
young Black girl from Oakland just beginning to
imagine what independence looked like. She had
the grades and the acceptance letters UC Berkeley
and Cal State Hayward both wanted her. But when
a fire destroyed the family home just before her
senior graduation, Connie made a choice that
would define the architecture of her ambition: she
chose her family.
"Choosing not to attend college wasn't framed as a
sacrifice at the time," she recalls. "It was framed as
a necessity." She worked full-time and attended
night school, supporting her mother and younger
sister while her peers explored dorm life and
lecture halls. The dream wasn't abandoned it was
deferred. And deferred dreams, as Connie would
learn, don't disappear. They wait.
At nineteen, she became a single mother to her
son Reno. Motherhood didn't slow her down; it
sharpened every ambition she had. "Success was
no longer abstract," she writes. "It had a face, a
future, and a responsibility attached to it." She
navigated two-and-a-half-hour daily commutes,
sleepless nights of breastfeeding, and the
emotional weight of raising a child largely alone all
while building a reputation as one of the most
capable young professionals in her office.
reduced transformation to tidying and leadership
to housekeeping. The nicknames stung, but the
results were undeniable: trust rebuilt, culture
reset, teams empowered, performance restored.
She was often the only Black woman in the room.
Sometimes the only woman, period. She navigated
sexual harassment from senior vice presidents a
hand on her leg at a corporate dinner, suggestive
comments about her heels and carried the silence
of those encounters as both a wound and a
warning. "What haunts me most is not just what
happened," she writes. "It's what might have
happened to others because I didn't speak up."
That reckoning transformed her leadership. She
became fiercely protective of the women on her
teams, mentoring them to speak up, trust their
instincts, and understand their worth. She shared
her own story openly not for sympathy, but as a
warning and a lesson.
She was mentored by pioneering Black women like
Cynt Marshall (now CEO of the Dallas Mavericks)
and Deborah Peoples, who showed her what bold,
integrous, visionary leadership looked like. And she
paid it forward relentlessly speaking names in
rooms the next generation hadn't yet entered,
making space for the quiet ones, the overlooked
ones, the women whose brilliance showed up in
preparation rather than performance.
Rising Through
Corporate America
Connie continued to excel as she moved to the
corporate level at AT&T spanning twenty-seven
years, is a masterclass in quiet power. She joined
Pacific Bell (later AT&T) and immediately identified
her calling: leadership. Her first mentor, Jan
Furtado, didn't tell her to wait her turn. She rolled
up her sleeves and said, "Okay, let's make that
happen."
Connie became a training manager, then a sales
coach, then climbed into director-level roles where
she was routinely handed the organization's most
troubled call centers to transform. Her teams
earned a reputation some called them "the clean-
up crew" or even "Merry Maids," labels that
Fighting the Invisible
Enemy
Then came cancer. Breast cancer an invisible
enemy that didn't care about her title, her track
record, or her carefully constructed armor. For a
woman who had spent a lifetime managing crises
through competence and control, the diagnosis
demanded something she had rarely allowed
herself: vulnerability.
She approached it first like a project manager,
researching, scheduling, and studying treatment
plans. But beneath the logistics was a quieter
truth: she was afraid. She sat with God and asked,
"Why me?" The answer didn't come as an
explanation, but as peace. "I realized that faith isn't
bargaining with God for a miracle," she writes. "It's
trusting His will, whatever it may be."
www.reallygreatsite.com
During chemotherapy, she sat outside on a reclining lawn chair on the hill where she lived, wrapped in a
blanket, watching deer move through her yard while spiritual songs played on her iPod. She prayed, read
scripture, and let the quiet do its work. The peace she found there carried her through treatment, through
recovery, and into renewal.
Her memoir, Shades of Strength, was born from
conversations with her daughter Jillian, who
encouraged her to stop protecting everyone else with
silence and tell her story fully. Jillian's own cancer
journey and her passing before the book was
completed transformed the project from a memoir
into a sacred act. "Finishing this became an act of
love," Connie writes, "my way of honoring your voice,
your legacy, and the truth you asked me to tell."
What makes Dr. Bell a woman to watch isn't just what
she has survived though the list is staggering. It's
what she has built from the wreckage. She has turned
colorism into cultural insight, abuse into advocacy,
cancer into compassion, and decades of corporate
politics into a leadership philosophy rooted in one
radical idea: that people are not resources to be
managed, but lives entrusted to your care.
She leads not from ego but from empathy. She speaks
not the loudest, but the clearest. She mentors not by
rescuing, but by steadying others long enough to
stand again. And she has proven, across thirty years
of boardrooms and hospital rooms and courtrooms
and classrooms, that introversion is not a flaw it is a
superpower that reshapes culture one conversation,
one decision, one opened door at a time.
The girl who once hid in a closet with a flashlight now
illuminates entire organizations. The woman who
dreamed of invisibility has become impossible to
ignore. And the story she finally chose to tell fully,
fearlessly, in full color is just beginning.
Dr. Connie Y. Bell is the author of Shades of Strength
and can be found on LinkedIn at
linkedin.com/in/connie-bell.
The Woman to Watch
Today, Dr. Connie Bell stands at the intersection of every force that tried to diminish her and radiates. She
leads global security and risk strategy at Teleperformance while shaping the next generation of scholars as
a doctoral professor. She serves on the boards of the Gift of Adoption Fund and Family Support Services of
the Bay Area, channeling her lived experience into systemic change for women, children, and vulnerable
families.
SHE TALKS | 15
Laura
Muirhead
Leading Women Into
Sovereignty, Not Fear
SHE TALKS | 16
aura Muirhead’s life reads like the
beginning of a bestselling novel or
perhaps, as she jokes, the outline
for a Netflix series. She has
survived a house fire, won the
She became what she calls a “serial entrepreneur,”
launching and running multiple businesses over
the years, including a bread store, a horse stable,
and a pottery and art studio.
lottery, discovered that the man she believed
was her biological father was not, built and led
multiple businesses, authored award-winning
books, and become a powerful voice for women
learning to reclaim their authority. But what
makes Laura one of our Top 10 Women to
Watch is not simply the extraordinary list of
things she has lived through. It is what she has
done with those experiences.
Laura is a bestselling author, Forbes Business
Council member, international keynote speaker,
CFO and co-owner of a multi-million-dollar
family business, and the creator of Queen Code
Mastery™, a framework designed to help
women lead from sovereignty rather than fear.
Her work is rooted in one clear belief: women
do not need to wait for permission to rule their
own lives. “Peace isn’t something you find,”
Laura teaches. “It’s a policy you write.” That
sentence captures the heart of her mission.
Laura’s journey began in the Midwest before
she moved to California at 18 with her best
friend’s family. From there, life unfolded in
ways she never could have predicted.
“
I don’t know why,” she says with humor.
“Sometimes my friends who’ve known me
for a long time probably look at me and
go, ‘Couldn’t you just have a hobby? Does
everything have to be a business?’ But
somehow it does.”
That entrepreneurial spirit has become one of the
defining threads of Laura’s life. Yet her story is not
one of effortless success. Like many women who
build, lead, and reinvent themselves, Laura has
faced setbacks, failures, fear, and unexpected turns.
Her book, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to
My Life, was born from exactly that realization: life
rarely follows the plan we imagine for ourselves.
“Here you are thinking that your life is going to go a
certain way, and it doesn’t,” she says. “Things
happen, and sometimes they’re awesome and
sometimes they’re more challenging. But what I
found through all of it is that gratitude can be found
in every situation.”
For Laura, personal policies are not rigid walls. They
are living, evolving declarations of self-leadership.
They allow women to decide what they will accept,
what they will no longer carry, and how they will rule
their own “queendom.” “Our personal policies are
changeable,” she says. “They evolve with us. You
could have a certain policy last year that you don’t
have anymore now because it doesn’t suit you.”
This is where Laura’s work becomes especially
powerful. She is not simply encouraging women to
be more confident. She is inviting them to recognize
themselves as the authors and rulers of their own
lives. “We can tell any story we want, and we will
believe it,” she says. “You can tell a victim story. You
can tell a poor-me story. You can tell a story of, ‘I’m
always working and nobody ever helps me.’ But a lot
of times they’re just not true. But we believe them.”
Queen Code Mastery™ challenges those narratives
and offers women a new way to lead themselves
with clarity, presence, peace, and power. Laura is
also deeply honest about fear. After surviving a
house fire, her relationship with fear changed.
When someone once asked her what she was afraid
of, her answer was simple: “My house burned
down. I’m not really afraid of much anymore.” That
does not mean fear disappears. It means Laura has
learned not to let it write the final chapter.
In business, she has experienced failure and the
difficulty of beginning again. But she also learned
that failure is not an ending. It is information. It is
growth. It is often the bridge to the next right thing.
“I had a failed business, and it was really hard to
move on to the next one,” she says. “But I had such
a drive and such a desire to do the next thing.”
That ability to find gratitude, even in the hard chapters, has shaped the way Laura leads and teaches today.
Through her Queen Code Mastery™ work, Laura helps women examine the stories they are telling themselves
stories of fear, victimhood, exhaustion, invisibility, or limitation and rewrite them from a place of personal
authority. Rather than using the word “boundaries,” Laura often uses the phrase personal policies.
Businesses have policies, she explains. They have rules for returns, exchanges, hours, expectations, and
procedures. So why shouldn’t women have policies for their own lives? “We should have policies,” Laura says.
“People, women and we do. A lot of people call them boundaries. I call them personal policies.”
SHE TALKS | 18
She describes the process as arguing with herself
questioning whether to try again, wondering what
would happen if the next thing failed too. But
ultimately, Laura chose the possibility of experience
over the regret of never knowing. “Would you rather
live your life and look back and say, ‘Well, I’ll never
know?’” she asks. “Or would you rather go forward
and say, ‘Well, I did it, and maybe it didn’t work out,
but I did it’?”
That willingness to keep going is part of what makes
Laura such a compelling woman to watch. She
embodies resilience without pretending the hard
parts are easy. She speaks to women not from
theory, but from lived experience.
Laura’s writing has also become a major part of her
impact. In addition to A Funny Thing Happened on
the Way to My Life, she is the author of Queen Code:
The Book, as well as her first book, a children’s book
titled Once Upon a Tile: Suzi's Shower & Her
Superpower. All three of her books have received
awards, a success Laura describes as both humbling
and surprising. “Nobody’s more surprised than me at
the success of my books,” she says.
Laura has also contributed to all eight books in the
Hear us Roar series led by Dr. Karen Weaver,
beginning with what she thought would be a one-
time chapter contribution. That experience helped
open the door to her own solo author journey. “I had
wanted to write that book for years and years,” Laura
says of A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to My
Life.
Now, Laura is stepping into another literary
leadership role with a new anthology titled
Undeniable Presence. The project will feature stories
of women standing fully in their presence, women
who have faced challenges, endured, grown, and
now have a message that can inspire others. “We’re
all still here,” Laura says. “We have a story, and we
have a message that is potentially inspiring for
someone else.”
Laura’s influence also extends beyond books and
business. She is part of the film Moms Rising, a
project centered on the spirit of motherhood. For
Laura, the film is not only about biological
motherhood, but about the many forms of
mothering that shape lives.
“It’s not just about you and your mom or you and
your children,” she explains. “There are other people
in your life who potentially helped you experience
the spirit of motherhood. It might have been an
aunt, might have been a grandma, might have been a
good friend.”
The film highlights women whose stories reflect
forgiveness, support, endurance, leadership, and
love. Laura encourages viewers to give themselves
the time to watch it and be inspired by the women
featured.
Whether she is speaking on stage, writing books,
contributing to films, leading women through Queen
Code Mastery™, or managing the financial
leadership of her family business, Laura’s message
remains consistent: women can choose the story
they live by. And they can keep going, even when life
looks nothing like the plan.
When asked what advice she would give her younger
self, Laura’s answer is gentle, direct, and full of the
wisdom that comes from having lived through the
unexpected. “You’re going to be surprised,” she says.
“But it’s all going to work out. It’s all going to be
good. So just keep going and enjoy everything.” That
is Laura Muirhead: a woman who has taken life’s plot
twists and turned them into principles, policies,
books, businesses, and a movement of
empowerment for other women. She is not only a
woman to watch. She is a woman teaching others
how to watch themselves rise.
Connect with Laura
https://www.linkedin.com/in/laura-muirhead
SHE TALKS | 19
THE WOMAN WHO CAME BACK FROM THE
OTHER SIDE AND BROUGHT HEALING WITH HER
Dr. Dawn Ella
here is a moment in every
extraordinary life when the ordinary
cracks open and something
luminous spills through. For Dr.
She went down a tunnel. She saw
a bright light. Her eyes were open,
a detail she still finds remarkable.
And then, in a space of complete
bliss and impossibly high
frequency, she received a
message delivered not in words
but in knowing: It's not your time
yet. You need to go back.
Dawn Ella, visionary entrepreneur, inventor,
neuroscience-informed wellness pioneer,
music producer, and film producer that
moment arrived twenty years ago at
the bottom of a catastrophic accident,
inside a coma that lasted three days,
on what she calmly describes as "the
other side."
What followed was not a gentle
return to normal life. It was the
beginning of a two-decade odyssey
through disability, amnesia, divine
inspiration, and scientific invention
that would eventually produce a
patented, multi-sensory wellness
technology now poised to reach
millions of people across forty-eight
countries. Dr. Dawn Ella didn't just
survive her near-death experience.
She built an empire of healing from
the wreckage, starting with herself.
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