Event Details
HCC Local Group Gathering: Phoenix East Valley (AZ)
May 14, 2026
05:30 PM
May 14, 2026
07:00 PM
Mountain
Business-Building Clubs/Organizations Community Holistic Chamber of Commerce Meeting Professional Development
Event Description
The Story Is YOU: Your Wounds Don't Disqualify You, They Credential You
 
Speaker: Andrea Merrill

Vulnerability isn’t a liability. Turn your mess into your mic drop and your pain into your most powerful credential.

Most experts hide their hardest chapters because they think vulnerability is a liability on stage. I prove it's the opposite. Using my own story of nearly dying during my fifth pregnancy and building my business from an iPhone 8 in a hospital bed, I show why the moments you're most ashamed of are the exact moments that make audiences trust, believe, and buy from you. You'll learn why sanitizing your story kills your connection, how to wield your scars strategically without re-living your trauma, and the difference between sharing to heal yourself and sharing to transform your audience. This isn't a therapy session. It's a strategic reframe that turns your mess into your mic drop and your pain into your most powerful credential.

Andrea Merrill, M.S., is a bestselling author, Keynote Writer, and TEDx Strategist with a Master’s in Applied Behavioral Analysis. A former behavior and trauma therapist featured on CNN, FOX, and NBC, she’s wired to see the potential in people they can’t see in themselves—and she turns that into talks that don’t just get standing ovations, they get clients. She built her business from an iPhone 8 in a hospital bed during a life-threatening pregnancy with her fifth baby, and her clients have collectively generated over $80 million in revenue.
Location
Industrious Chandler
25 South Arizona Place, Floor 5
Chandler, AZ 85225
United States of America
Date/Time Information
5:30 - 7:00 PM MST
Contact Information
Andi Hess
phoenixev@holisticchamberofcommerce.com
Fee/Admission