Here’s what business planning doesn’t tell you: Sometimes the most important work reveals itself through conversations, not strategy sessions.
Six months ago, I was deep in planning mode. Learning management systems. Course modules. Community forums. All the infrastructure for delivering Voice & Evidence as a digital learning platform designed to help Black girls and women recognize themselves as natural researchers.
I had “Track A” for Black girls and women. “Track B” for researchers and academics. Quarterly webinars. Monthly workshops. The whole educational ecosystem mapped out and ready to launch.
Then conversations started revealing what women actually need.
The Problem That Changed Everything
In the vast amount of conversations I’ve had with women from all types of backgrounds, I’ve learned that far too often, women feel hesitant to “trust their gut” or “listen to their intuition”. They are aware that something is amiss. But, they often miss opportunities to challenge misinformation because they doubt their fact-checking process. They make inefficient decisions because they keep seeking external validation for conclusions they’ve already reached.
Through these exchanges, I also realized the barriers to trusting our curiosity and thinking affect women more broadly than I initially understood. While my work will always center Black girls and women, expanding to support all women and girls in developing their research confidence creates opportunities for broader impact while maintaining my core focus.
What Platforms Can’t Solve
You can’t create modules for the complex work of shifting to a curious mindset. You can’t design one-size-fits-all frameworks for building confidence when institutions have specifically undermined that confidence.
Learning to trust your inquiry abilities requires individual attention to specific contexts, particular experiences with institutional dismissal, and the unique ways curiosity has been discouraged.
This is work that happens in relationship, not in modules because the most impactful research methodologies are collaborative, not extractive.
Knowledge creation works best when there’s authentic relationship between researcher and community, when power dynamics are acknowledged and addressed, when the process serves the people most affected by the questions.
The same principles apply to building research confidence.
Individual consultation allows for collaborative development that group programs can’t provide. It creates space for:
- Examining how specific barriers have undermined confidence in inquiry abilities
- Identifying existing thinking processes that are already sophisticated
- Developing frameworks for evidence-based decision making
- Building confidence to challenge and question
The Voice & Evidence Strategic Consultation
This isn’t coaching. It isn’t therapy. It isn’t leadership development.
Voice & Evidence strategic consultation is evidence-informed strategic development that helps women overcome barriers that undermine confidence in their natural curiosity and thinking.
Here’s what we work on together:
- Recognizing sophisticated research processes you’re already using
- Building confidence to trust your inquiry and fact-checking abilities
- Developing frameworks for more efficient decision-making
- Creating strategies to challenge misinformation and question assumptions with authority
- Learning to apply systematic thinking more effectively in your work
The practical results:
- Stop wasting time seeking validation for solid conclusions you’ve already reached
- Make better decisions because you trust your inquiry process
- Work more efficiently because you recognize the legitimacy of your thought-process
- Challenge with confidence because your fact-checking abilities are on point
- Question to encourage dialogue, not invite confrontation
Let’s face it…
The costs of not recognizing or trusting your beautifully sophisticated mind can be extensive:
Professional costs: Missed opportunities, inefficient problem-solving, hesitation to challenge bad information
Personal costs: Self-doubt about solid conclusions, over-reliance on external validation, inability to trust systematic thinking processes
Voice & Evidence strategic consultation addresses these costs directly by helping women recognize they already possess sophisticated research capabilities and develop frameworks to apply them with confidence.
Now What?
I still believe in community education. I still plan to write the book, offer workshops, create resources that make research literacy accessible.
But I’ve learned that building research confidence requires individual attention because institutional barriers affect everyone differently.
When you work with someone individually? Well, that creates sustainable change.
Because confident researchers create better outcomes everywhere they work.
Voice & Evidence strategic consultation is designed for women who want to:
- Stop second-guessing
- Challenge with authority
- Make more efficient decisions
- Trust their inquiry processes
- Apply their research capabilities more effectively in their work
Ready to explore what building that confidence might look like? Reach out today!