Dr. Shekina Farr shared their story and experiences with us recently and you can find our conversation below.
Shekina, we’re thrilled to have you with us today. Before we jump into your intro and the heart of the interview, let’s start with a bit of an ice breaker: What battle are you avoiding?
I’m avoiding the battle of shrinking myself again. Every time I level up, there’s a quiet pull to slip back into the version of me that kept the peace, dimmed the brilliance, and didn’t make waves. I know that woman well because she helped me survive systems that didn’t know what to do with my shine. But she can’t lead where I’m going.
So the real battle is telling the truth: it’s not other people I’m fighting, it’s the temptation to play small so they stay comfortable. And at this stage of my life, that’s a price I’m no longer willing to pay.
Can you briefly introduce yourself and share what makes you or your brand unique?
I’m Dr. Shekina Farr, the founder of the Formidable Woman® ecosystem, a leadership, confidence, and personal power platform built for women who’ve spent years being underestimated while quietly outperforming everyone in the room. I help high-achieving women reclaim their voice, their visibility, and their value through a mix of leadership development, coaching certifications, print publications, and transformational frameworks.
My work sits at the intersection of lived experience and strategy. I’ve been the overlooked leader, the silenced expert, the woman whose brilliance was treated like a threat. Instead of letting that break me, I built an entire brand dedicated to helping others rise through the same fire with clarity, confidence, and real transformation.
Right now, I’m expanding several verticals—Formidable Woman Magazine, Formidable Woman University, and a suite of leadership tools and certifications, alongside my upcoming book, Blackballed While Brilliant. It’s all designed to help women move from being merely “seen” to being unmistakably recognized.
In short, I build confidence at scale. And I do it with truth, strategy, and a little fire.
Appreciate your sharing that. Let’s talk about your life, growing up and some of topics and learnings around that. What was your earliest memory of feeling powerful?
My earliest memory of feeling powerful wasn’t loud or public. I was a painfully shy little girl. Teachers thought I couldn’t read, but my mother had already taught me by four. So my power showed up in a different way: I knew things they didn’t know about me. I had a whole world inside that they couldn’t see, but it was mine, and it was real.
I remember sitting in class, quietly acing work they assumed I couldn’t do, realizing, “Oh… I’m not the problem. Their vision is.” That was the first spark. Not confidence yet, but awareness. The sense that my brilliance was bigger than the box they were trying to fit me in.
My voice came later, in high school, when confidence finally caught up with ability. But the earliest power? It was the moment I realized I didn’t need permission to be exceptional. I just needed time to grow into what I already knew.
When did you stop hiding your pain and start using it as power?
It happened the day I realized silence wasn’t protecting me, it was protecting the people who caused the harm. For years, I carried my experiences quietly: the sabotage, the underestimation, the rooms where I was good enough to do the work but never “allowed” to own the credit. I thought staying quiet made me strong. It didn’t. It just made me invisible.
The shift came when I was blackballed early in my career. That moment forced a decision: shrink to survive… or speak to rise. I chose to rise. And once I started telling the truth…not with bitterness, but with clarity. That pain turned into a blueprint. It became frameworks, books, programs, and a voice that other women recognized because it echoed their own.
I stopped hiding when I understood that my story wasn’t just mine, it was a tool. A mirror. A map. And using it didn’t just heal me; it opened doors for women who’d been silenced, too.
Next, maybe we can discuss some of your foundational philosophies and views? What are the biggest lies your industry tells itself?
The biggest lie is that confidence is a “mindset issue.” It’s not. It’s a systems issue. Women aren’t walking around unsure because we lack affirmations. The truth is we’re navigating environments that profit from our silence, our overwork, and our willingness to carry everything without visibility or credit.
Another lie isthat “empowerment” can be packaged as a hashtag or a feel-good slogan. Real empowerment requires structure, strategy, and accountability. It demands that organizations examine who they promote, who they overlook, and who they quietly expect to do the emotional labor for free.
And here’s the one nobody wants to admit: the industry loves elevating women’s stories, but not women’s power. They’ll celebrate your struggle all day… as long as you don’t ask for influence, equity, or authority.
My work exists because I refuse those lies. I build tools that don’t just make women feel better, they make women “unmissable”.
Okay, we’ve made it essentially to the end. One last question before you go. What is the story you hope people tell about you when you’re gone?
I hope people say I was the woman who refused to shrink and made it safer for others to stand tall, too. That I didn’t just talk about confidence, I built structures, language, and pathways that helped people reclaim it for themselves.
I want the story to be that I took the hits, told the truth, and turned my experiences into tools that outlived me. That I made visibility a practice, not a performance. And that I left behind a blueprint women could actually use, not just admire from afar.
If people say, “She helped me see myself clearly, and I rose because of it,” then I’ve done my job on this planet.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.formidablewomanuniversity.com
- Instagram: @ElevatedByShekina
- Linkedin: /DrShekinaFarr
- Facebook: /ShekinaFarr
Image Credits
Kimazing Photography
ArielViews Photography
Hampton Media
Drea Nicole Photography
so if you or someone you know deserves recognition please let us know here.
