From first-generation college graduate, to the first African American executive for the global, luxury automotive manufacturer — Porsche — Crystal Khalil is a true inspiration.
Khalil, who also an author, coach and trainer, knows the importance of sharing her success with others. As the co-founder, for Sister Diamonds, LLC, she is dedicated to uplifting women and helping them chart their own career paths.
We spoke with Khalil about her most recent women’s empowerment event, the International Slumber Party.
Tell us about your International Slumber Party event.
We just completed the world’s largest slumber party. We had representatives from over 40 countries attend, the International Slumber Party is for young women of color all over the world where we celebrate their uniqueness in their brilliance. We provide them with resources to increase their leadership and their personal and professional development. We are just super excited because we had over 10,000 young women of color.
How did you make this event a reality and grow it so organically?
It’s a miracle story. My partner and I, Nicole LaBeach Ph.D., started out wanting to plan a party for women our age. We wanted to bring together women to have some fun and celebrate each other. But then, COVID happened. As a professor, she started to notice the experience for the students at Spelman. They had to go home and it really changed their lives. We invited them in as a focus group and asked them, “If we planned a party for you, what would you like to experience? What would make it special for you? What would you like to learn? Who would you like to hear from?”
They helped us plan this party and in less than 90 days, we had over 100 mentor-mentee volunteer pairs. We brought in our friends from companies like Porsche, Mercedes, and Disney from all over the world to mentor these young students and help put this party together. We grew our website from zero to over 22,000 hits in 30 days. We touched over 2 million people worldwide on social media and had 100 million impressions. It was a miracle and it was all done by people who just believed in the mission.
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