Unique Leaders: Kearn Cherry

Kearn Cherry was born in Mississippi and lives there to this day. Her husband was in the military and they lived in many different countries and states. One of the countries they stayed for 5 years was in Germany. Kearn was wanting to finish nursing school but never finished. After a decade both Kearn and her husband made the commitment to go back to school for nursing in Arizona. They drove an hour and half, back and forth, everyday for a year. When their plans did not work in the nursing field, they went to classes for occupational therapy.They had 3 kids, all under the age of 10, and they both worked so hard to get to where they wanted to go. This was a very tough time for both of them and they had to make many sacrifices. Even though thiswas a tough time for them and their children, it also helped them all to build an attitude of resilience and helped to bring their children closer together. At the end of the day, their children are all very successful and have a work-hard drive that theylearned from Kearn and her husband.They never thought about asking for help from their family. They did everything by themselves. Even though this was a hard thing for them to do, it strengthened their marriage and their personal growth. It made them realize that they are dependent on each other. Kearn’s mother later offered to have their kids live with her for a while until Kearn and her husband were finished with their schooling. This really did help them during that time.When they were done they decided to move to Florida, but when they went to pick up the kids in their home town in Mississippi and ended up staying there. This is where they started their home care business. They have been running this business for 24 years now. Recently Kearn started to plan conferences and events years ago and saw there was a need for this. She really enjoys planning these, especially women’s conferences. She has been on many boards for different conferences and events. She helped other companies run their own conferences and events, but she also ran her own conferences for different reasons...one was for her care business for the elderly.Her and her partner were talking one day and came up with an idea to start a woman’s conference. The Success Women’s Conference was born. They have been doing this for years. They have really grown and now have anywhere from 11k-17k attendees.In 2020, Kearn was told by God that she needed to continue to run her own events and to write anthologies. This is where her two biggest events came to be -“Level Up” and “Power Up”. With the pandemic, it was hard to have them live but this didn’t hinder the conferences. They were a major success even virtually. They were both very new for her. Kearn learned so much from both of them. She was very intimated by it in the beginning. She just wasn’t getting anything from other conferences. She was also called to write anthology books, which was tough for her because writing is not a strong suit for Kearn. However, she stepped out on faith and did what she was called to do.In 2019 she wrote her first book, “Trailblazers Who Lead.” This was not something that came easily for Kearn but she pushed and did it. For her second book, she had other authors and other women write their stories, which became the second anthology, “Make it Happen."