The Welsh Wire: Rockstar Woman Movement featuring Shannon Cohen

An interest in invigorating and energizing business conferences and networking events helped to inspire west Michigan business leader Shannon Cohen to launch the rapidly expanding Rockstar Woman Movement.

Cohen, who is also an author, podcaster, and entrepreneur, talked about her mission when she was interviewed by Sheri Welsh for the Welsh Wire podcast, sponsored by the Family Business Alliance.

“I was going to women’s networking events as a business owner and found myself frustrated,” she says. “I would look around the room, but yet all of the vendors and especially the supply-chain ones would all be men, or they would only be white women-owned businesses.”

“With the Rockstar Woman Movement, we want to build friendships; we want to build them across disciplines, across industries, across lived and intersectional identities. That starts with design. How do you design a space that is a reflection of my expertise around emotional intelligence, psychological safety, and equity? How do we design for belonging from the onset and make it fun? And so, we’ve brought all those elements together.”

Cohen says that in five years, her Rockstar Woman events have grown from several hundred attendees to 850 expected for the Sept. 24 brunch.

“Always, my goal is that women will get in this room and be able to build relationships. And we don’t do stuffy, we do unforgettable. So, there’s not that social awkwardness that’s typically there, and they can cross pollinate ideas with other difference makers that act to help them to activate aspirations, ambition, and wellness goals that they have.”

Learn more from Cohen as she talks with Sheri Welsh on this week’s The Welsh Wire podcast. Subscribe to The Welsh Wire on iTunes for additional informative, entertaining interviews with west Michigan business leaders.