Sarah Dixon: Bringing to Light the Leader from Within

Young Women in Business has recently announced that their highly anticipated event, The Beyond Leadership Conference, is returning for its second consecutive year! Due to an outpour of positive feedback from last year’s conference, the executives of the Vancouver chapter began planning the conference earlier this year. The conference will be taking place at the Pinnacle Harbourfront Hotel on November 18th. We are to expect at least two invigorating workshops, and an incredible number of speakers and panellists. As they continue to prepare, we have taken the time to speak to one of the conference’s Co-Chairs, Sarah Dixon. Sarah is a Divisional Accountant for Replay Resorts and has been volunteering for YWiB for the past 2 and a half years. An excellent leader, Sarah sat down with us and spoke about what motivates her to be apart of YWiB, and what she’s looking forward in this year’s conference.

Do you know why you do what you do?

I really enjoy the forensic accounting - actually looking into why something doesn’t make sense - reconciling and really delving deeper into the numbers, and then seeing how that contributes to the bigger picture. With YWiB I do more strategy, it’s more long-term development, and building a team. I just enjoy doing it it all. It’s something that, I wake up and go, “I’m happy to do this today!” With YWiB, [it’s] being able to see what comes back, being able to see how you impact people’s lives or their development. That is an amazing feeling, to see and watch someone grow, and build those connections. That is what is so great about YWiB.

How do you handle life’s obstacles - what are your coping mechanisms?

One of my biggest challenges was actually getting my black belt for taekwondo. I’m not the most athletic person, and it was very challenging with some of the aspects. You had to learn patterns, and you had to learn sequences of movements, for me that was very difficult. It required a lot of practice, a lot of perseverance just to get it done. It took me around 5 years, to get it. Through the process I learned so much about myself, just always having that obstacle that you have to push through to get to the next stage.

Do you think you’ve applied a lot of your resilience from that experience into business?

Totally! There are so many things that cross over, and I think there are so many things in your personal life that will always cross over into your professional life. When you have to work hard at something you will appreciate when something is good. When things are harder or more difficult - when you succeed at them - it’s an amazing feeling. It just pushes you forward.

How do you think the Beyond Conference will benefit those attending?

The biggest thing is community. It’s inspiring to hear people’s stories, people’s challenges, people’s results, and to just hear how people ban together and support each other. It’s an amazing experience. Attending that conference gets you that all jammed packed into one day. You learn so much from everybody, and we’re surrounded by an amazing group of people - all our volunteers, all of the members and everyone who attends our events are such an amazing group of people and we can learn so much from each other. That’s what we encourage, and we want to facilitate [that] in the conference.