Smithfield, NC – Former Governor RoyDunn, NC – In a powerful demonstration of community and collaboration, the Dunn Area Chamber of Commerce hosted its inaugural EmpowHer event last Monday morning at the Dunn Shrine Center. Brought to life by powerhouse presenting sponsor KS Bank, the morning gathering was explicitly designed as an intentional space to encourage, equip, and empower local women making an impact in business, at home, and behind the scenes. Featuring a panel of local leaders and an energetic keynote address, the event challenged attendees to step away from their endless to-do lists and actively invest in their own self-preservation.
The morning’s keynote address was delivered by Melissa Overton, local leadership consultant, nurse, and author of the upcoming book Focused and Fearless Leadership. Overton centered her remarks on a critical bottleneck that destroys organizational culture: the breakdown of clear communication. “Clarity is going to reduce the risk of conflict,” Overton told the audience. “We have to stop hoping people will just ‘read the room’ and figure it out. We need to step up and be clear about our expectations.” Overton noted that maintaining clear communication requires intentional trust and selective transparency, warning that a lack of clarity forces people into harmful cognitive traps. “When we get burnt out, we experience an increase in assumptions,” Overton explained. “Instead of stopping to think and process, we’re too tired. We just take things at face value and assume that’s what they meant. And you know what they say about assumptions—it makes an absolute mess out of a situation.”
Drawing from her own recent experience at a silent women’s retreat, Overton touched on a highly relatable modern affliction she dubbed the “busyness sickness.
“Busyness kills compassion and creativity,” Overton stated plainly. “The busyness sickness is when we keep expecting to do more and more with less and less, and somehow, that becomes normalized. But when you are completely burnt out, your ‘giving-on’ button is busted. The people you used to have immense compassion for become just a checklist item, a chest pain, and not a person.” Overton explicitly challenged the common narrative that prioritizes constant grinding over personal well-being, especially for women trying to balance multiple cultural roles. “Self-care is not selfish; self-care is self-preservation,” Overton said to murmurs of agreement from the crowd. “We are naturally expected to be the nurturers and the caregivers. That’s fine, but at some point, we also decided to be these fierce, badass businesswomen. We didn’t get to shift our energy, we just had to be fully present for both.”…