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At Mastering the Woman Within, the conversation moved beyond careers and accomplishments to the more complicated work of identity, faith, relationships and becoming.
What happens when you take away the title, the career, the accolades and everyone else’s idea of success? Who is the woman left underneath it all?
That question sat at the center of Becoming Her: Mastering the Woman Within, an intimate gathering held this past weekend at Chicago’s Row 24. Curated by Amber Staples and Michelle McElroy, the experience brought women together for brunch, cocktails and a candid conversation about the parts of becoming that don’t always make it into the highlight reel.
McElroy, founder of AIM: Activating Intentional Marriages, is a trained counselor and marriage coach whose work has long centered relationships and intentional partnership. She was joined by moderator Staples and panelists Suheir “Susu” Barakat, Dana Fountain and Brooke Mackie, women whose careers span hospitality, entrepreneurship, beauty, marketing and events.
On paper, it was a room filled with accomplished women. The conversation, however, was less interested in the résumé.
Instead, the women spoke openly about the distance that can exist between the success people see and the reality a person may be navigating privately. The discussion touched on divorce and changing relationships, moments when it simply wasn’t okay to be okay, and the process of rediscovering an identity that isn’t solely attached to work, marriage, motherhood or achievement.
Faith was beautifully woven throughout the conversation, not as a neat answer to difficult seasons, but as something that has helped the women move through them.
That honesty carried particular weight coming from women accustomed to being seen through the lens of what they have built.
Fountain, for example, has spent more than two decades in Chicago’s beauty industry and today operates and partners across multiple beauty businesses, including Pin Me Up Chicago, while also serving as a principal owner of Row 24. Barakat has built a career in hospitality and entrepreneurship, including S2 Express Grill, after years working in the consumer hospitality industry. Mackie is the founder of The Mackie Firm, with a career spanning experiential marketing, brand strategy, partnerships and events.
Staples knows that world as well. In addition to leading Stapled Events, she serves as president of the National Football Wives Association, where McElroy and Mackie also hold leadership roles.
But Becoming Her made space for a different conversation: one where achievement and struggle can exist at the same time.
There was no expectation that becoming the woman you are meant to be requires having every part of life figured out. If anything, the afternoon made room for the opposite. Growth can mean acknowledging when something isn’t working, separating who you are from what you do, giving yourself permission to navigate difficult seasons honestly and understanding that the woman you’re becoming may look different from the one you once imagined.
It was less about presenting a finished version of “her” and more about being honest about what it takes to become her.
And the conversation isn’t ending at Row 24. Becoming Her is planned as an ongoing series, with another experience TBA.