March 14, 2023
Motivating the Masses: CEO Lisa Nichols Activated an Emotional Women of Power Summit Through Love and Sisterhood
Motivating the Masses CEO Lisa Nichols took a ballroom full of Women of Power attendees on an exhilarating wave of emotions, ultimately activating an urgency to love, to stand in our light, and to trust in ourselves and sisterhood.
During BLACK ENTERPRISE‘s 2023 Women of Power summit, one of the world’s most-requested speakers and transformational coaches tapped into a morning motivation session through storytelling. She not only honed in on her mastery of teaching, she ignited her power of bringing the room to tears and laughter.
“We are perfect for just a time like this,” Nichols said.
In just an hour, Nichols leveraged her power of motivation to speak affirmation into the hearts and souls in the room. She gave us permission to be unafraid. She encouraged us to lean on our sister friends by revealing our unfathomable goals and pouring support and positivity into each other.
“Don’t be afraid to be brilliant,” she said.
From a whirlwind love affair to lessons learned by her grandmother, Nichols’ message at the luxurious Bellagio Hotel & Casino was well-received. But her presence was a full-circle extravaganza.
After sharing the love story between she and her husband, Marcellus Hall, Nichols surprised the room with an announcement that we were all celebrating her wedding anniversary. The couple, who met in the lobby of a Jamaican hotel in April 2010, fell in love fast before they were married on March 11, 2022 in Nassau, the Bahamas.
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“Your light is not for you to hold, it’s for you to keep giving,” Nichols said, during her speech.
With beaming pride, Nichols invited her dapper husband onstage with her, further solidifying their matrimony to the world with a heartwarming kiss and embrace. “I’ve been a waiting a long time to say this,” she said before presenting Hall to the crowd in standing ovation.
The moment took heed to Nichols’ mission at the Women of Power summit.
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‘Your blessings are waiting to see them,” she exclaimed.
Nichols’ love story became the headliner to the activations she performed one-on-one. She walked around the ballroom, inviting women both emotional or inspired to stand fully in their truths.
For a woman who desired love, and didn’t settle, Nichols wants her fellow women to serve ourselves, first by prioritizing our health and then giving love a chance. Her love story wouldn’t have had a page in her book if she hadn’t done the work.
Rise up
At one point, Nichols cued the music, and Audra Day‘s soulful cry filled the room. Indubitably, Day’s 2015 “Rise Up” set the tone and mantra for the last day of the summit.
And I’ll rise up / I’ll rise like the day /I’ll rise up / I’ll rise unafraid /I’ll rise up /And I’ll do it a thousand times again
“If you don’t do you, you will never be done,” Nichols said to an emotional room.
Nichols also invited the audience members to their feet, hands interlocked with one another, and raised in the air for solidarity, love, and sisterhood.
A lesson learned
Nichols shared a story about the one time her grandmother revealed the lesson in tipping a hotel housekeeping lady. This wouldn’t be the first time she expressed her gratitude for the relationship she shared with her grandmother. Nichols has long credited her grandmother as a source of inexpressible joy and her greatest mentor and teacher.
“You’re walking on the shoulders of your ancestors,” Nichols recounted what her grandmother once told her. For the principal of tipping a housekeeping lady, Nichols learned that not only did her great great grandmother clean hotels but relied on tips to feed her family.
“We got to eat meat that day,” her grandmother recalled at the time. “You didn’t get here by yourself.”
“‘She said, ‘Every time you walk out that door, you’re going to do right by us because you’re not by yourself.'”