Helping women rediscover their passions

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Helping women rediscover their passions

By Glenn Burkins – February 16, 2009

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Passion. Spend time talking with Wialillian Howard and you’ll hear that word a lot.

It’s what more people need these days, says Howard, president and owner of Wialillian & Co., a Charlotte events, training and consulting company.

Passion for the work they do. Passion for the dreams they hold. Passion for the lives they live.

She’s especially concerned about women.

Too many women, she says, are in a “state of unfulfillment.” They devote their lives to being what others think they should be. Often lost, she says, are the women’s own latent desires.

That’s the theory behind Howard’s latest venture, the “Women’s Living Well Series,” which will hold its inaugural event -- the "I Can Do Anything” retreat -- April 24-26 at the Charlotte Marriott SouthPark.

Howard says the purpose of the retreat is simple: She wants women to “identify some of the things they are passionate about and why desire has not led to action.”

The three-day event is scheduled to include guest speakers, discussion groups, entertainment, coaching and networking. Howard says she hopes to draw a diverse group of women age 35 and over.

“I don’t think women are breathing,” she recently told Qcitymetro.com. “We’re just going and going and going, and we take very little time to breathe. My hope is that at the end of the weekend we have pulled them out and we have put them in a working plan.”

How Howard arrived at this stage in her life is a story all its own.

She spent most of her career with the city of Charlotte, training other city workers in leadership, coaching and organizational skills. She launched the city’s first minority leadership program. She also had a fledgling business as a wedding planner.

Her big break came in 1994 when she was picked to plan the wedding of former Charlotte Hornets star Larry Johnson, at the time basketball’s highest-paid player.

The Johnson wedding led to other opportunities. She launched the Heartstrings Wedding University, which she ran for three years, graduating 75 other wedding planners. She also began planning social and corporate events.

Howard retired from the city in 2005. She still does the occasional wedding, she says, “but it has to be a big one.” Her business is now focused mainly on corporate events. She also does workplace training for local and state governments. She recently landed a contract to train South Carolina state workers, the only North Carolina company to be awarded such a contract, she said.

Leadership training, she says, has given her a special glimpse into the issues women face.

“When you get them in a room, a locked room that represents a safe place for them to tell their dangerous truths, you realize how much women are hurting,” she says. “They are making some money -- not the money they deserve -- but they are making some money. They have a retirement package, health benefits and a paid vacation. And they are paying so little attention to themselves, because a lot of them are trying to be what their mothers have been, that superwoman.”

Howard said she got the idea for the “Women’s Living Well Series” about four years ago after talking with a friend. She calls it “divine intervention.”

During the retreat, five women will be given the “Life Well Lived” award. Those selected will “exemplify a life of exploration, transformation and action that has led them to realize their life’s passion.”

Event organizers will accept nominations through March 20.

Although currently focused on women, Howard said her long-term goal is to develop a similar program for men.

IF YOU WANT TO GO:
What: The “I Can Do Anything” retreat
When: April 24-26
Where: Marriott, SouthPark, 2200 Rexford Road
Cost: $300*
For more information, including a schedule of events: www.livingwellseries.com.
*Part of the proceeds will benefit Girl Talk Foundation Inc., a Charlotte nonprofit that works with girls ages 11-16 to build academic, leadership and life skills.