Shelmina Abji - Empowerment Speaker

Empowerment Speaker

Advancing Girls and Women
Mother · Mentor

Shelmina Abji - Empowerment Speaker

Empowerment Speaker

Advancing Girls and Women · Mother · Mentor

Shelmina Babai Abji is a global empowerment speaker, a former IBM Vice President, distinguished alumni, board member, an angel investor and an advisor to C-suite executives. Shelmina’s passion is gender equality in leadership.

Shelmina has been focused on sharing her insights to accelerate the success of girls and women. Her insights and life’s journey have enabled women to recognize their power from inside out and changed their life’s trajectory.

Shelmina was born in Tanzania into a family with very strong values and limited material wealth. She had to leave home at 15 to obtain higher education and was the first person in her family to obtain a college degree. Her education was her passport out of poverty.

Recognizing her power of thought and choices, she turned every challenge into an opportunity for growth, she rose to become one of the highest ranking woman of color at IBM while raising her children as a single mother since they were 2 and 4.

Shelmina has degrees in Computer Science and Mathematics. She started her career as a software developer and then moved into sales and sales leadership. She has successfully led multiple teams to grow profitable revenue in various sectors. As part of IBM’s top talent, she has received extensive leadership training at IBM, Harvard University and UCLA.

She has spoken at many corporations and conferences including Google, Edward Jones, WITHOrg, AAHOA, GirlUp leadership summit, Young Women Empowered career day, NCWIT awards gala, Women In Computer Science at University of Oregon in Eugene and Young Women in Business leadership conference at Harvard University.

Shelmina serves on the advisory board of Girl Up founded by United Nations foundation which engages girls to stand up for girls globally, empowering each other and changing our world.

Shelmina serves on the board of TiE-Seattle: world’s largest non profit global organization that fosters entrepreneurship.

Based on the tremendous transformation, she has witnessed in many women, she is now extending her sphere of influence by writing a book.

Shelmina Abji's Journey

Additional Videos

UN's Girl-Up Conference Interview

Distinguished Alumni Acceptance Speech

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Testimonials - Shelmina Abji

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Testimonials - Shelmina Abji

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Leadership & Experience

Former Vice President Global Microsoft Alliance

Advisory Council United Nations Foundation - Girl Up

Advisory Board Young Women Empowered

Former Co-Chair Asian Executive Diversity Council

Testimonials

“Whenever a woman I have spoken to tells me I have influenced her positively, it energizes me to do more. It is my desire to empower young women everywhere.” - Shelmina

Topics of Empowerment

Own your power!

The power with which you show up impacts all your interactions and outcomes. Shelmina talks about her journey of self discovery and how she learned to own and amplify her personal power through self awareness, conscious choices, self confidence and self belief.

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Shape your life's story
Regardless of what your current state is, Shelmina talks about how you can own the power to shape your life's story and consciously awaken our greatness. You are the author, you own the narrative- learn how to flip the script by rewiring your thoughts to change the way your life unfolds.

2

Transcend Fear
Choice is a fundamental power of the human experience. We own the choice to use fear as a platform to propel us forward or to limit us. Shelmina talks about how she gained strength, courage and confidence by each experience in which she faced fear and used gratitude to overcome it.

3

Consciously Build Your Personal Brand
What people say about you when you are not in the room impacts your career and relationships at many levels. You own the power to choose how people see and interpret you. Shelmina provides tools and guidance on how to consciously build your current as well as your aspirational brand.

4

Intentional Attention
Energy flows where attention goes. Shelmina talks about how every decision is an opportunity to move closer to or away from your success. She shares tools to become conscious of your choices so you are constantly moving towards your success and not get distracted by “noise”.

5

Make your mental chatter work for you
Your thoughts and words have tremendous power. Your self talk can build or belittle you. Think good of yourself as the world takes you at your own estimate. Shelmina gives you tools to become conscious of your self talk and use it to empower yourself.

6

Consciously Adding Value
Our value is determined by our contributions. At our hectic pace, we tend to run on autopilot and we often don’t see what’s really needed of us, we may not appreciate the impact we have, and we may not be aware of the unique ways we can create or add value. Shelmina talks how to model possibility and consciously add value.

7

Success through clarity, competence and confidence
Shelmina talks about building a step ladder of clarity, competence and confidence to remain relevant and rise to your personal best. Express your talents, elevate yourself and create an upward spiral for continued success.

8

Shine your brightest
Shelmina talks about how to show up shining courageously regardless of the circumstances. Your brightness will inspire everyone you interact with to also shine - creating a magnetic force which is unstoppable. Amplify the positive and boost greatness in each other to consistently deliver outstanding results. Don’t let anything dim your brightness.

9

Increase your self belief
One can never rise above one's self belief. Shelmina discusses her life’s journey and the tools she uses to increase her self confidence and self belief. Self belief will ensure you never trade your uniqueness and authentic self for momentary validation from outside. If you don’t believe in yourself, no one else will.

10

Turn adversity into a gift for growth
Shelmina discusses her life stories where every challenge or adversity was a gift from which she learned to grow. She encourages everyone to proactively step outside of their comfort zone to realize their maximum potential. Build the mindset of a victor and not a victim.

11

Work/Life integration
Shelmina learned to balance, prioritize and be present to successfully raise two children since they were 2 and 4 while excelling at work. She will share how she learned to set boundaries and say “no” to great but irrelevant opportunities that did not take her closer to her definition of success.

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