By Katie Mcquaid
The New Hampshire Union Leader, Manchester.
CNN commentator Mel Robbins is just a regular gal. Sure she’s building a media empire with regular appearances on national television, a book, popular Ted Talk, and a couple of websites. But she’s also a wife and mother who can get stressed out by all the demands put on her each day, and she still has hopes and dreams for a different career path.
She loves her job at CNN, but she dreams of her own talk show to help people rather than freak them out talking about Ebola all day.
Robbins seemed well on her way as she captivated an audience of about 400 women Friday with an engaging and funny talk about understanding your brain at the New Hampshire Conference for Women.
Leslie Sturgeon’s Women Inspiring Women organization has been putting on personal development and networking events for women since 2007. Friday was the fifth anniversary of her New Hampshire Conference for Women, with its largest crowd yet packed into the Radisson to be both inspired and challenged by a lineup of speakers headlined by Robbins.
Women of all ages and from all walks of life were in attendance. I bumped into many familiar faces, including Judi Window with Massage Envy, Sarah Laliberte of Mainspire Marketing, and Ward One Board of School Committee member and attorney Sarah Ambrogi.
I liked many of the day’s inspirational and informative speakers, including one really cool guy named Randy Pierce. Although the University of New Hampshire graduate lost his sight, he has earned a karate black belt, hiked 4,000-foot mountains, and run marathons.
Other messages weren’t exactly my cup of tea, including one that asked us to stand up and call the woman sitting next to us a “goddess” and some other weird stuff. That one was a little too new-agey for me, but others seemed to like its message.
Robbins, a graduate of Dartmouth College, shared some insight into what she has learned about how our brains work against us because they would rather have us live on autopilot instead of trying new things.
“Feelings are a trick your brain uses to stop doing something new,” she said.
She also shared some helpful tricks to break the habits of procrastination and self-doubt and put a couple women in the audience on the spot, challenging them to share what they wanted to change about their own lives.
Robbins shared genuine concern for the women she spoke with, forced them to be honest with themselves about their personal situations, and caused more than a couple tears. This gal has talk show written all over her.
To learn more about Women Inspiring Women, visit www.womeninspiring.com.
