How to Unlock Your Power in Times of Transition: 2024 WCA Get Smart Conference Preview

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Dima Ghawi’s first lesson in womanhood was thrust upon her as a young girl in her grandmother’s kitchen in Jordan.

“She picked a vase,” Ghawi recalls. “‘Do you see this perfect glass vase?’ my grandmother asked me. ‘If it gets cracked, you can never fix it. That’s the one we would throw in the trash.’”

What Ghawi initially thought was a lesson on flower arranging would ultimately alchemize into a life-long mission to question all she knew about that early programming and instead choose courage, bravery and the willingness to learn from mistakes rather than fear them.

“I was compared to a glass vase,” Ghawi remembers vividly. “I was told to be perfect. If I make a mistake then I won’t be accepted.”

That lesson sunk deeply into Ghawi’s soul, as it has for so many women. Rather than succumbing to the insurmountable pressure set before her, she decided to fight back with grace, influence and power.

Ghawi, now a world-renowned speaker, leadership coach and author of Breaking Vases, will deliver the keynote address at the Women Communicators of Austin’s upcoming Get Smart Conference on October 25th. Focused on Transitions, this year’s conference aims to explore how to sit with the discomfort of any transition period in life and how to build community, be vulnerable and unlock the tremendous power that exists in those moments of uncertainty. It’s quite the opposite of the lesson Ghawi learned from her grandmother that day.

“The keynote and the journey are about shattering the vase – dealing with consequences, feeling small, irrelevant and rejected, but then rising.”

The theme of shattering glass is a common refrain for women around the world, referring to the invisible barriers that society puts in place to keep women from the upper echelons of success and achievement. These barriers are that much greater for women of color and other marginalized communities. Get Smart lead organizer and WCA VP of Professional Development, Sarah Parker, has put together a line-up of speakers whose inspiring experiences show how to break free from those limitations and instead summon positivity and gratitude, especially during times of transition. The theme, she says, was inspired by the many women in her own life who have experienced so much abrupt change, particularly since the COVID-19 pandemic.

“We’re going through all of these transitions – like career transitions and personal transitions  – and our society really doesn’t allow for any of that,” Parker says. “You’re supposed to show up and keep working no matter what happens. So [the conference is about] having a space to really talk about how to deal with all of those transitions and building that kind of support network…to know that you don’t have to figure it out completely on your own.”

Following Dima Ghawi’s keynote address, Natalie Poindexter, founder of Net-Do and NPI Consulting House, will lead a fireside panel with Dana Such, Audience Development Consultant & Founder of Squeezed Consulting, Brittany Sharkey, Executive Director at Texas Board of Veterinary Medical Examiners and Emily Gupton, Chief Technology Officer at SKG Texas, Inc.

Each speaker believes in the importance of mindset and strength of community, which has been reflected in the success of their own personal transitions. They are looking forward to sharing the lessons they have learned. All coming from deeply different backgrounds and having gone through multiple transitions, each has relied on their strength both individually and within their communities.

The key to making it through a turbulent time when you don’t know what’s ahead?

“Being able to run confidently and authentically in that direction is the piece I would say is the most powerful when you’re transitioning,” Natalie Poindexter says.

Emily Gupton agrees.

“What’s going through my head in the middle of that transition is, ‘I’m a human. I’m capable of doing amazing things. Let’s go figure it out and crush it and surround myself with the people, the resources, the tools, the education, whatever I need to do that because we’re all capable of really incredible things.”

Vulnerability is another key theme that each woman has found to be essential during times of transition. When reflecting upon what she would have told herself while making a leap into a brand new career, Brittany Sharkey explains she wished she would have told herself to embrace the vulnerability and ask for help.

“And so when I started really talking about that – opening up to my community, kind of letting everyone know, that’s really when the magic started to happen,” Sharkey remembers. “And that was really, really hard. But I wish I’d done that sooner and that knowing that your community is here for you and they want you to succeed and they want to be there and you just have to open yourself up for that.”

And of course – the power of womanhood.

“Women talking to each other and supporting each other is how you take all of those steps along the path to being way more comfortable with the uncomfortable and the unknown,” Dana Such adds.

In closing, Carrie Vanston, CEO of Leadership Mindset Success will offer tips on how to energize your transitions by supercharging your mindset and impact.

Her key message: mindset matters most.

“Whatever we feed from the intellectual mind to the emotional mind is what we pick up and what continues on,” she says. “It’s really important to celebrate the wins. Really be thinking about what positive came out of it. So it might not have been the way that you were wanting, but maybe you learned from it. Or maybe you met some interesting people. Or maybe one door shut but another door opened. But finding something positive about it that you can feel good about can really be important in shifting it so the next thing is more likely to work out better.”

And that’s a lesson so powerfully demonstrated by Dima Ghawi’s cautionary tale on the broken vase.

“It’s part of life to feel uncertain, lost and unable to understand what is the best way moving forward,” Ghawi says. “I tell myself this is so normal and this is not going to be the last time I’m going to feel this. So I’m going to try my best and appreciate that I tried my best. Try again.”

Register today for Get Smart 2024! All are welcome.

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Blog Author:
Katiana Krawchenko specializes in nationwide TV and radio outreach, client management and strategic broadcast media plan development in her position as senior director of broadcast media at the DC-based public affairs agency, Avoq. Prior to joining the team, Katiana served as a CBS News White House producer, traveling around the U.S. and to several countries covering President Trump. She previously worked with CBS affiliate services, CBS This Morning and the CBS political unit, covering the 2016 election. Katiana hails from Winnipeg, Canada, and found her way to Austin in 2023 after working in Washington, D.C., at Avoq for three years. She spends her spare time cuddling her rescue dogs, Binkie and Linguini, and hanging the esoteric art she regularly finds on the street and at flea markets.