Step Up, Speak Out, and Shine: Wf1’s First-Ever Truthteller Tour

We have the power to transform our lives and communities, one story at a time.

It’s time for women to become clear about who we are, discover our voices, and live our truth. We can do this in a powerful way by sharing our stories, listening to one another’s, and offering each other support in a safe space.

That’s why Women For One launched our Truthteller Tour, a live event where powerful changemakers and local women join together to share and support one another’s stories: stories of triumph, devastating loss, and everything in between. Because it’s through sharing that we all find common ground, hope, meaning, and ultimately, inspiration toward action. 

Our inaugural Truthteller Tour took place in Boulder in late March, and it was a stunning success! We laughed, we cried, we shared our most intimate stories, and we inspired one another to claim our vulnerability as a strength. If you weren’t there, not to worry—we rounded up some of the most memorable moments from our Featured Truthtellers, so be sure to check them out below!

Our Truthtellers:

As a triathlete champion, Nicole DeBoom’s career culminated in a win at the 2004 Ironman Wisconsin, wearing a prototype of the first-ever running skirt that would launch a revolution in women’s fitness clothing just a few months later. She is the founder of Skirt Sports, a company that helps women find inspiration, confidence, and courage through the transformative power of running and fitness. In this talk at Wf1’s Truthteller Tour in Boulder, Nicole shares the secret she hid from the rest of the world for many years: her fatal relationship with alcohol, which became her coping mechanism among the pressures of her full life. Nicole bravely shares her journey through overcoming her addiction and making the decision to show up in her life and her marriage in a brand-new way.

Anahita Joon is a modern-day priestess, healer, and medicine woman who is the embodiment of the feminine. Over the last 25 years, she has worked with healers all over the world and conducted her own research on what sacred leadership among women truly means. “Freedom is the ultimate privilege and yet it is the hardest to learn how to use,” she says. In her talk during Wf1’s Truthteller Tour in Boulder, she remembers being a 14-year-old who moved from the external oppression of her home country, Iran, and struggling with how it felt to not fit into American culture. Anahita discusses her own journey toward claiming her sensuality and her connection to the sacred, as well as moving out of both internal and external oppression by integrating the pieces of herself she’d rejected.

Sara Avant Stover is a world-renowned teacher of feminine spirituality and empowerment, and bestselling author of The Way of the Happy Woman. In this talk at Wf1’s Truthteller Tour in Boulder, Sara talks about having had the rug pulled out from underneath her during a time that should have been full of celebration. She discusses what it means to be in “the space in between the pain and the rising,” when one has not fully made the transition from their mess to their brilliance. In maintaining patience and faith on the best days, and grappling with doubt and despair on the worst days, Sara has discovered the profound and sometimes-challenging truth of what it means to simply stay in the in-between. “The rebirth is not guaranteed,” she explains. “You have to be willing to stay in the questions without having the answers.”

Watch Sara’s talk here. 

Erin Weed is a speaker, author, and social entrepreneur, as well as the founder of Evoso and creator of The Dig, a process that helps people seek and find a sense of purpose. The founder of Girls Fight Back, an organization that has taught over a million women self-defense skills, she now speaks, writes, and consults on authenticity and communication. In this talk during Wf1’s Truthteller Tour in Boulder, Erin discusses her own journey toward helping women claim their lives from a place of power and courage rather than choosing to cower and hold back from their dreams. “It’s so important to gather to tell our stories when something traumatic happens in a community of women,” she says. And as Erin discovered, the light always comes in during the messiest of moments.

Watch Erin’s talk here. 

As a mother, a spokesperson for a global education movement, and an ultrarunner, Truthteller Susie Rinehart woke up one day unable to mother, speak, or run. “The opposite of joy is not sadness, it’s perfectionism,” she says. Her brave story of finding the permission to claim her voice while facing the prognosis of a massive brainstem tumor is all about choosing joy over fear and courage over perfection. “The sound of your truth is a beacon that guides our way home,” she says.

Truthteller Jamie Soucie is a professional counselor in Northeastern Colorado who discovered the beauty in brokenness in her own journey through overcoming rigid beauty standards. Although Jamie helped young girls and women who were working through their struggles with pursuing and obtaining beauty, she discovered that she herself was struggling with her own feelings of inadequacy with respect to her body and self-image. When Jamie entered treatment for an eating disorder, she discovered that it was possible to move beyond the standards that society set for her—and to return to her family and her life stronger and more connected to her unique beauty.

Truthteller Maria Thomas is a hyperhidrosis trailblazer and founder of the blog My Life as a Puddle, where she creates hope and awareness one drop at a time for those who struggle with hyperhidrosis (uncontrollable excessive sweating). A highly sensitive soul, she finds joy in nature and handwritten letters. “You may have heard about the link between gut health and brain health. That’s a real thing,” she says. “My body wasn’t manufacturing enough serotonin to feed my brain the happy chemicals it needed in order to function.” In her story, she shares what it meant for her to come back from the threshold of hell with courage and tenacity.

Watch Maria’s talk here. 

Hear what people are saying about the Truthteller Tour:

“The Truthteller Tour is one of those surprise events that you attend for one reason and you leave realizing that you needed it for so many other reasons! I was lucky to be one of the inaugural Truthteller speakers, and I took it to heart. I shared my truth about my long history with alcohol and the grip it held on me for decades. It was difficult and emotional to go public with something so private. But I can tell you this; once you release a truth that has held you back for a long time, the result is nothing short of liberating.” Nicole DeBoom, Founder & CEO of Skirt Sports, Inc.

“I was honored to be a panelist in Kelly’s inaugural Truthteller Tour in my hometown of Boulder, CO. The entire evening was professional, intimate, edgy, and real—thanks to the authenticity and enthusiasm of everyone involved, especially Kelly. I know that these gatherings will continue to heal and inspire so many!” Sara Avant Stover, bestselling author and founder of The Way of the Happy Woman 

“It was the opportunity of a lifetime to share my story live. People still come up to me on the street to say my words made a difference to them. Kelly McNelis and Women For One held a safe, beautiful space and hosted a kickass evening with inspirational women. I firmly believe that storytelling is the way forward to create a powerful new story for women everywhere.” Susie Rinehart, braveoverperfect.com

To stay notified about future events (maybe even one in your own hometown), join our Truthteller Tour mailing list.