Shelley Willingham
REVENUE. RELATIONSHIPS. RESULTS.
FOUNDER, CROWNPass
On air
- CNBC, 2020 and 2022
- MSNBC's The Choice, 2022
Named partner with FORTUNE on The Diversity Factor, a special advertising section in the October 29, 2007 issue.
Has spoken at
A selection of where Shelley Willingham has spoken, and the boards she serves on.
Corporate and enterprise. Credit Karma, Merrill Lynch, Allstate, Prudential, Capgemini, Ellucian, Chiesi Pharmaceuticals, Mitsubishi Pharma, FUJIFILM Diosynth Biotechnologies, Monumental Sports, home of the Washington Wizards, Capitals and Mystics.
Universities and business schools. Emory University, Duke University Fuqua School of Business, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Kenan-Flagler Business School, Wake Forest University Center for Private Business.
Chambers of commerce. North Carolina, Omaha, Hampton Roads.
Associations. American Marketing Association, AABHE, the American Association of Blacks in Higher Education, National Black MBA Association, Carolina Women's Collective.
Boards
Board of Visitors, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 2022 to 2026; Advisory Board, Alexander YMCA, 2016 to 2024.
Different rooms, same argument
Inclusion is a business driver.
Not a value statement, a revenue statement. The talks below open different doors, for marketing, for sales, for leadership, but they all lead into the same room. A CMO booking a marketing session is buying the same argument as a founder booking a growth session.
Talks
Hold the Floor, Raise the Standard sets down the standard a hotel has to meet before a woman can trust it. It shows hotel brands how to earn women's trust as guests, and employers how to meet their duty of care to the women they send on the road. Shelley Willingham has built growth inside startups and large organizations, was named partner with FORTUNE on The Diversity Factor, and founded CROWNPass.
Shelley Willingham's talks, grouped by the part of the business that books them.
- Marketing and brandInclusion Is a Business Driver
- Marketing and brandThe Customer You Are Not Reaching
- Marketing and brandWhat You Promise and What People Experience
- Marketing and brandMarketing That Survives a Budget Cut
- Sales and revenueSelling Without Games
- Sales and revenueThe Referral Is the Strategy
- Sales and revenueWhat Your Best Customers Know About You
- Leadership and the business caseThe Real Cost of the Wrong Room
- Leadership and the business caseInclusion Under Pressure
- Leadership and the business caseWho You Keep
- EntrepreneurshipYour First Ten Hires Are Your Strategy
- EntrepreneurshipGrowth Without a Playbook
- AuthorityBeing Known for One Thing
- KeynoteI Lost the Company. It Was Not the End.
- Travel, hospitality and loyaltyHold the Floor, Raise the Standardtrust, loyalty and the money women spend on travel.
The Book
Hold the Floor, Raise the Standard
Hold the Floor, Raise the Standard sets down the standard a hotel has to meet before a woman can trust it. It shows hotel brands how to earn women's trust as guests, and employers how to meet their duty of care to the women they send on the road.
If it's good for women, it will be great for everyone.
Safety is the floor.Celebration is the standard.Only proof counts.
Early 2027.
Tell me when it is outAdvisory
Advisory work with Shelley Willingham, delivered through Douglas Alexandra.
Douglas is my son's middle name. Alexandra is my daughter's. The firm carries both, and it started with the people I coach: I teach owners how to grow their own businesses, and plenty of them would rather stay in their zone of genius and hand the work over. That is what this is, strategic revenue advisory for small businesses.
We help you make and keep more money.
In their words
Clients and colleagues on working with Shelley Willingham.
“Shelley quickly went to work and created an aggressive and creative marketing plan that doubled my followers, tripled my revenue. and increased my online store conversion rate to over 3%.”
“I needed to take a moment to shoutout someone who’s been instrumental in this newfound professional journey! Hiring Shelley Willingham as my personal business strategist and coach was one of the best investments of money I’ve ever spent!”
“Taking the big step to hire a business coach was one of the best decisions I’ve made on the journey to successful entrepreneurship. But hiring and working with Shelley Willingham was an even better decision! Shelley was God-sent!”
“When I saw the advertisement for Shelley’s Free masterclass, I knew that this was something that i needed to jump on quickly. I’ve been an entrepreneur for several years but marketing is not my strong point. I knew this was the help i needed to catapult my business forward and it has proven to be just that! Shelley is very personable,responsive knowledgeable and results driven.”
“Your patience, coupled with your professionalism, knowledge, and follow up were exactly what we needed to accomplish our goals. We look forward to a continued relationship with your company for future endeavors!”
Read the other six
“I have had the distinct pleasure of working with Shelley Willingham and there is nothing I respect more than someone who is authentic, honest and confident. In business, it can be hard to tell who's real and who's fake. People will say they know how to teach you skills, like selling, but use tricks and games that feel sleazy when you try them on their own. Shelley isn't that type of mentor. She focuses on teaching how to deeply connect with people in a way where you are a trusted adviser that helps them make critical decisions for their best interest. No hidden agendas. No games. No tricks. If you are going to learn how to sell, especially your own services, Shelley is exactly who you want to learn from.”
“Shelley is very personable. She’s so easy to talk to it feels like you’ve known her for years. She is genuinely interested in you as a person and business owner. Having her on your team guarantees you will be able to get clear about your business objectives, understand your business challenges better and what to do about them. She’s extremely creative. She has a plan. And you will learn many new skills that you will be able to rinse and repeat. I highly recommend her services to any small business owner.”
“It is with great pleasure that I offer my sincere personal and professional recommendation for Shelley Willingham as a coach, a mentor and a skilled teacher of the science and art of professional sales mastery and marketing. I have known Shelley for over 23 years and have had the honor of working with her in two separate roles as a professional sales executive. From day one Shelley delivered exceptional results while excelling in a complex and consultative sales environment. The skills she developed and mastered have served her well in increasing roles of responsibility and I have seen her at the top of her craft deliver unparalleled results. Whether you are a seasoned sales professional, an experienced sales rep looking to get to the next level, or a rookie looking to learn sales mastery, Shelley will guide and coach you to surpass your goals and exceed your expectations.”
“Professionalism at its best! That’s my experience with Shelley Willingham. I’ve had the wonderful opportunity of working with Shelley in 2004, when she helped me to establish my continuing education company. To say the least… we grew like crazy! At the beginning of 2019 I found that Shelley had an opening for another client and it was right at the beginning of my stepping into another phase of my career. And I without hesitation jumped on the opportunity! I am now clear… I am now empowered… And I know exactly what I’m doing…”
“Shelley Willingham is a sales professional! I had the opportunity to work with Shelley early in her career. From the start, Shelley understood the importance of truly listening to her customers and finding solutions that fit their needs. Regardless if her client’s company was small or large, she treated them like their business was important. She understood that building trust and showing she cared about their business were critical to customers wanting to do business with her. If you are someone who wants to learn from one of the best, Shelley is someone you should get to know.”
“Hey Shelley. I just wanted to take a moment and give you a quick shout out. Our VIP day last year has catapulted our brand to the next level. The guidance you gave helped me to turn concepts into actionable plans that once implemented, resulted in tremendous impact. I did what you said (even the stuff I griped about) and saw almost immediate results. Not only are we having consistent sales with our digital course but our workshops are booked until late summer. And all of this is an addition to revenues from our farm. I will be ready for another session in a few months to help plan for the next level as we plan to continue leveling up. Thank you! And we have to get you out to the farm for our harvest party this year.”
About
Shelley Willingham, founder of CROWNPass, in her own words.
I've founded businesses, led growth inside established organizations, and spent enough time doing both to know that ideas are only useful if they lead to something real.
Most of my work, more than twenty years of it, has been about growth in one form or another: building relationships, opening doors, creating demand, and helping turn strategy into revenue. I've worked in startups, founder-led businesses, and larger organizations, so I'm comfortable in the messy middle where things aren't fully figured out yet and somebody still has to move the work forward. I do that work through Douglas Alexandra, the firm I founded.
In 2003 I founded the organization that four years later produced The Diversity Factor with FORTUNE, a special advertising section on diversity in American business. Then, in 2008, a client's acquisition took the contract and then the company, and I lost everything I owned. I rebuilt from there. I have never called that year a failure. It is where I learned the difference between a business that looks successful and one that survives a bad year.
My experience in diversity is where I learned that inclusion is a business driver, not a value statement. That is the lens I bring to growth.
I have also led communications and marketing inside higher education, which taught me how much institutional trust is earned in the sentences nobody reads closely.
I pay attention to the stuff that gets overlooked until it starts affecting results: trust, risk, adoption, leadership credibility, workforce pressure, and the gap between what a company says and what people actually experience. Those things may not show up right away, but they always show up somewhere.
I write Unmanaged Risk, a monthly newsletter about the risks hiding in plain sight. I have written a book, Hold the Floor, Raise the Standard, which sets down the standard a hotel has to meet before a woman can trust it. It publishes in early 2027. I still take on consulting work when the problem is interesting.
I'm pretty direct. I like strategy, but I'm not interested in strategy for its own sake. I care about whether it works, whether it helps people make better decisions, and whether it actually moves the business. People usually bring me in when growth matters, the environment is shifting, and the business needs both perspective and momentum.
Work with Shelley
Speaking or advisory, tell her what you have in mind.