Eleshia V. Cash has developed a reputation as a no-nonsense businesswoman with a passion for helping others succeed. As a businesswoman and an ordained minster, Cash has utilized her skills to help women who are struggling with navigating in C-suite leadership positions. Her passion to help led to creating and founding the National Women’s Empowerment Ministry.
Annually, the ministry hosts The Red Dress Experience. This year’s theme is Conversations From The Heart, in honor of Heart Health Awareness Month. The Red Dress Experience has hosted professional development workshops, and coaching sessions for empowering women leaders and having heart-to-heart conversations addressing the unique challenges specific to Black women in business, corporate, nonprofit, education, government, and faith-based entities.
Rolling out spoke with Cash about this year’s conference.
What was the reason for starting your business, especially The Red Dress Experience?
Because of my background in human resources, I wanted to help sisters navigate through the workplace. And so then, of course, the National Women’s Empowerment Ministry was created and from there I began to host a networking event.
What is networking and why is it so important?
We found that men were very, very great at networking, but women we were more sociable, and we were beginning to confuse socializing with networking, and they were two totally different things. So when I sit down and I talk to the sisters, if you compliment someone in the store and ask them where [they] got their handbag from and you guys start talking, that’s not networking. You guys just have something in common, and you like the same handbag. When I break down what networking is it looks quite different. And so, that’s why I started hosting The Red Dress Experience. I wanted to get powerhouse women in [a] room and teach them how to network, leverage their knowledge, skills and abilities, to see if they could collaborate and work together in different spaces.
Give us an overview of the upcoming conference
The name of the conference is called The Red Dress Experience. We wear red because it represents power and resilience. The conference starts on Feb. 16, and it concludes on Feb. 18. We are the number one conference for Black women in leadership, and at this conference we will be addressing things that are dear to [the] heart of Black women, such as communication, business, devotionals, [and] overcoming workplace trauma.
Be sure to watch the complete interview with Eleshia Cash below.
Learn more about the Red Dress Experience and the upcoming conference.
