She Overcomes: Haute Revolution Masquerade
She Overcomes was founded in 2020 to empower female founders in our community, and well, sometimes it takes hosting a masquerade to shatter the glass ceiling. In one night of celebration, local artistry, performances, and storytelling, we danced to our own beat and invited everyone to unmask in support of women’s personal and professional progression. Fueled by raw and heartfelt stories of triumph and transformation, this event was all about helping local women from all backgrounds build and grow their businesses. She Overcomes is giving area women the tools to overcome the barriers that stand in the way of our biggest, boldest breakthroughs.
BY Melanie Iverson Rudd
PHOTOS BY Olivia Alnes
THE MASQUERADE BALL: HAUTE REVOLUTION + WOMEN’S HISTORY MONTH
We all wear masks, probably far more than we’d like to. I wanted to create a space where it was safe to remove those masks and build an authentic community that supports each other, instead of competing for fear of lack of resources, connections, and business.
Growing in courage and confidence is about doing something out of our comfort zone, noticing how it feels and celebrating the win.
After growing my own business, as founder of Mosaic District, Fargo’s first female-focused co-working space, I celebrated by completing a 6,000-square-foot renovation to give other women a supportive space to succeed. Now, I’m getting back to my “why” behind the original launch of She Overcomes, to see women’s lives transformed.
STYLED FOR CHANGED
This year, our event was MET Gala-themed to inspire our community to expect the unexpected – with their wardrobe, their masks, and our night in downtown Fargo. It only made sense to celebrate Women’s History Month and our relaunch together. It allowed us to acknowledge how far women’s rights have come while also casting a vision for the future.
Each artist was given loose photo inspiration, the vision for the night, and a blank mask to style for the live runway fashion show. This year, we partnered with Josef’s School of Hair, Skin, and Body to style the female models alongside Halberstadt’s on Broadway to style the men. Each artist had three models designated for each look, but only the artist’s mask was bid on by the audience. Proceeds from the event are invested right back into our community for our scholarship fund that serves local women.
Unmasking She Overcomes
Melanie Iverson Rudd
She Overcomes Founder
Mosaic District Owner
CONNECTING THE DOTS
This journey to unmask didn’t start on a whim. I have struggled my entire life with overcoming the fear of failure or paralysis by perfectionism that keeps ideas in iterations instead of executing with confidence. As a child who was raised by a teen mom, I know the complex struggles women face. I speak from experience when I say there are so many barriers to our success.
Ten years ago, a man broke into my apartment and assaulted me, breaking my nose and shattering the last shred of self-confidence that I had left. At 32-years-old, I felt like I deserved it. I’d made so many stupid mistakes and continued patterns that were damaging to my confidence and self-worth. I thought I put myself in that position to be hurt.
GIVING MYSELF GRACE
After a year of wearing a mask and pretending to be ok, I made a decision to overcome generational trauma so my children could see what a strong woman looked like. Without a formal program or formula to follow, I embarked on a journey to become the woman I wanted to be, personally and professionally.
I took a deep breath and a break from my consulting company to work for an organization whose goal was to help women and children who’d been recovered from human trafficking. My personal journey to overcome my fears and change history began in the heart of Fargo but brought me to the Middle East twice in one year to work with refugee women who’d suffered far more than I had. While practicing gratitude, I began growing in confidence and celebrating small wins.
LAUNCHING SHE OVERCOMES
This season of my life gave me a new perspective and freedom to try new things, fail, and try again until I found my voice again. If I was to make a difference, I needed to practice overcoming my paralyzing fear of public speaking. So, I put my name in the hat for Mrs. North Dakota International 2020 and won – forcing myself to overcome my fears, take the stage, and start She Overcomes with the help of my friend Jennifer Schillinger.
We launched our cohort-based program to help local women build and grow their businesses and leadership capabilities. After a successful pilot program anchored with community support and enthusiasm, I paused our programming after our first Masquerade Gala in 2021. I spent that year raising funds to scholarship all eight women through the program and awarded our top three winners with grants to grow and scale their companies. Additionally, for each dollar raised for those local women, She Overcomes invested in helping four women who had been recovered from human trafficking with micro-grants to launch their businesses.
THE BREAKTHROUGH
With She Overcomes, I allow my story of overcoming to be a catalyst for other women’s lives. Today, I’ve taken a decade’s worth of life lessons and research and put it into an eight-module program to help other women overcome the mindsets that keep them small. Most women who take this course aren’t stuck the way I was; the majority are simply a mindset away from their next breakthrough. They simply want to be a part of something much bigger than themselves.
This program and years of research explain why women must grow in confidence, increase calculated risk-taking, and build authentic communities. Forbes reports on a broken system that impacts 75% of female executives in the name of the Imposter Syndrome. While women can only work so much on themselves, we must be the catalyst for changing the institutions and biases that keep many of us silent, unseen, and unheard in and outside the boardroom. We need both men and women to close the gap on these systematic behaviors, not only during Women’s History Month.
As disappointing as it is to look back and see the ways I should have advocated for myself or negotiated better for myself and other women, I’m still learning ways to speak up. I’ve seen myself in many of those statistics, but I’m not a statistic. I’m a mom. A daughter. A founder. A Fargo-proud business owner. I love that these statistics fuel my motivation to keep passionately pursuing the mission of She Overcomes; to see women’s lives transformed.
Learn More About She Overcomes: sheovercomes.co
Find Your Shine: To join the summer and fall cohorts, head to the website and apply. We will be hosting sessions in two separate formats – one that is eight weeks and one that is a weekend retreat experience for an intense deep dive into shining the way you are meant to. All women are encouraged to apply!