Today we’d like to introduce you to LaShawn Mico.
Hi LaShawn, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
My story doesn’t start with a business plan. It starts with survival.
I grew up learning that love had to be earned. That if you performed well enough, worked hard enough, showed up perfectly enough — maybe then you’d be worthy. I carried that lie into adulthood, into relationships, into ministry, and into every room I walked into. I called it dedication. God called it Performance Love Syndrome.
In 2018, I founded W.H.E.W. — Women Helping Empower Women — not because I had arrived, but because I was finally healing from Performance Love Syndrome and I knew too many women carrying the same weight I had carried, building businesses and ministries from a place of exhaustion instead of overflow. W.H.E.W. was my answer to that. A community where women could be real, be seen, and be equipped — without performing for a seat at the table.
For years I poured into women through coaching, speaking, ministry, and the W.H.E.W. Talk Show — over 200 episodes celebrating everyday Detroiters I call God’s Celebrities. I wrote books. I led prayer. I showed up. But something shifted when I discovered AI.
I wasn’t looking for a tech career. I was looking for capacity. I was drowning in the administrative weight of running multiple ventures — Crawford & Associates where I serve as Executive Administrator, ACN where I’m a Regional Director, and W.H.E.W. — and AI gave me back time I didn’t know I could reclaim.
But the real turning point came when I used AI to draft correspondence for the attorney I support. He was so impressed he hired me on the spot. That moment cracked something open. I thought — if AI could open that door for me, a minister and life coach with no tech background, what could it do for every woman in my community who had been told technology wasn’t for her?
I built the W.H.E.W. AI Mastery Certification Program from scratch. No investors. No tech degree. Just a framework I created — Wonder, Heart, Empathy, Wealth — and a conviction that identity comes before tools. I ran my first masterclass, then another, then a six-week live intensive. Thirty-three graduates later, one of my first students was recruited for a two-thousand dollar per week opportunity by Week 2 of the program.
Today W.H.E.W. is building toward CPD accreditation — the same international professional development credential carried by programs featured in Entrepreneur Magazine. I am also launching BTG Network, a nonprofit arm of W.H.E.W. that will bring free and subsidized AI education to underserved women in Detroit.
I am a licensed minister. A published author. A trained auctioneer. A grandmother. A wife. And a woman who finally stopped performing for love — and started building from it.
This is not a success story about arriving. It is a story about pressing. About bending without breaking. About saying yes to a calling that was bigger than my fear.
W.H.E.W. started as my healing. Now it is someone else’s door.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Smooth? No. Necessary? Every bit of it.
The first obstacle was internal. I spent years building from the wrong foundation — performing for approval instead of operating from purpose. I was showing up for everyone else while quietly running on empty. Building a business while battling Performance Love Syndrome is like trying to pour from a cup you’re simultaneously drinking from. Something always suffers. Usually it was me.
The second obstacle was visibility without infrastructure. I had a community before I had a curriculum. I had a calling before I had a system. W.H.E.W. grew organically because the message resonated — but organic growth without structure creates chaos. I was the brand, the admin, the coach, the content creator, the customer service department, and the janitor. Learning to build systems while running the business they were supposed to support is one of the hardest things an entrepreneur can do alone.
The third obstacle was launching into silence. My first AI Mastery Intensive launched in January 2026 with three students — not the room I had envisioned. I had to make a choice in that moment. Do I let the number define the value of what I built? Or do I show up for the three women in front of me like they were three hundred? I chose to show up. One of those women was recruited for a two-thousand dollar per week opportunity by Week 2. The size of the room never determines the size of the impact.
The fourth obstacle was financial. Building a mission-driven business without outside funding means every investment comes from your own pocket and your own faith. There were seasons where I pressed forward on prayer more than profit. Seasons where I questioned the timeline. Seasons where I wondered if the vision was too big for the resources I had access to.
And the fifth obstacle is one I share openly because I know I am not alone in it — grief and reinvention happening simultaneously. I have navigated personal loss while launching programs, serving clients, and showing up for a community that needed me present. There is no guidebook for building while grieving. You just decide every day that the assignment is bigger than the pain.
None of these obstacles broke me. Some of them bent me. But bending taught me things that smooth roads never could — about resilience, about identity, about what it means to build something that lasts beyond a season.
I may bend. But I will never break.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your business?
W.H.E.W. — Women Helping Empower Women — is a faith-powered AI education and women’s empowerment organization founded in Detroit, Michigan in 2018. We exist at the intersection of faith, identity, and technology, serving women entrepreneurs, coaches, and ministry leaders who are ready to build businesses that last without burning out in the process.
What we do is simple to say and profound to experience: we teach women to use AI without losing their authentic voice.
Most AI education teaches tools. We teach identity first. Through our proprietary W.H.E.W. Translation Framework — Wonder, Heart, Empathy, Wealth — women learn to use artificial intelligence as an amplifier of who they already are, not a replacement for it. Before we ever open ChatGPT, we ask: who are you? What is your calling? Who are you serving? That foundation changes everything about the output.
We specialize in Purpose-Driven AI Education for women who have been told technology is not for them. Our flagship program, the W.H.E.W. AI Mastery Certification Program, is a six-week live cohort intensive currently on track for CPD accreditation — the same internationally recognized professional development credential carried by programs featured in major business publications. Graduates earn the W.H.E.W. Certified AI Practitioner designation and leave with completed income-generating assets, not just course certificates.
What sets us apart is the combination of three things no one else is offering in this space together: a faith-integrated framework, a proprietary curriculum built from real community results, and a founder who is the testimony. I am not a tech expert who learned to teach. I am a minister, a life coach, and a grandmother who learned AI one step at a time — and built a certification program from that journey. My students trust me because I am them.
We are also building BTG Network, a nonprofit arm of W.H.E.W. that will provide free and subsidized AI education to underserved women in the Detroit metro area — because access to emerging technology should not be determined by zip code or income.
What I am most proud of brandwise is the community. Over 1,200 women in our Facebook group. A Talk Show with 200+ episodes celebrating everyday Detroiters. Three Cohort 1 graduates — Apostle Connie Foster, Apostle Dr. Gwendolyn Marie Hudson, and Monica Monae Binion — who completed our inaugural intensive and are now building with confidence and credibility. A 90% completion rate and 60% of graduates launching revenue-generating offers within 90 days.
What I want Voyage Magazine readers to know is this: W.H.E.W. is not a course. It is not a membership. It is not another online program promising overnight results.
W.H.E.W. is a movement of women who refused to let technology intimidate them. Women who use AI strategically to scale their impact, serve their people with excellence, and build wealth without burnout. Women who knew their identity before they ever picked up a tool.
If you are a woman entrepreneur who is overwhelmed by AI, afraid of losing your voice, or simply ready to stop watching others get ahead while you stay stuck — W.H.E.W. was built for you.
The world needs what you have. We just help you deliver it.
How do you define success?
I used to define success by the room. The size of it. Whether I was in it. Whether they clapped.
That was Performance Love Syndrome at work — measuring worth by output, impact by applause, success by who noticed.
I had to unlearn all of it.
Today I define success by transformation. Not mine — theirs.
Success is Monica Monae Binion being recruited for a two-thousand dollar per week opportunity by Week 2 of my program. Success is Apostle Connie Foster launching her offer in seven days. Success is Apostle Dr. Gwendolyn Marie Hudson — a woman who has been in ministry for decades — building a ten-year legacy blueprint and creating an AI avatar of herself so her message outlives the moment.
Success is the woman who came into a masterclass terrified of technology and left saying “AI is the twin inside of me.”
Success is a student paying off her balance early because what she learned was already working.
That is success. Measurable. Documented. Real.
But I will also say this — success for me is sustainability. Building something that does not require me to sacrifice my health, my family, or my faith to maintain it. A business that runs when I rest. Systems that serve when I sleep. A legacy that outlasts the season I am in.
I am a grandmother. I think about what I am leaving behind. Not just financially — though that matters — but in terms of what I modeled. Did I show the women watching me that you can build with excellence and still have peace? Did I prove that burnout is not the price of impact?
That is the metric I return to when the numbers feel slow or the room feels small.
Success is not a destination I am trying to reach. It is a standard I am determined to live — every day, in every decision, with every woman I serve.
Purpose over profit. But profit with purpose. That is Kingdom success. And that is what W.H.E.W. is built on.
Pricing:
- Free AI Diagnostic + Free Pre-Masterclass — no cost, no obligation, available at wearewhew.co
- W.H.E.W. AI Sessions (4 evergreen self-paced sessions) — $197 per session
- W.H.E.W. AI Mastery Certification Program (6-week live cohort intensive) — $1,497 — payment plan available
- Truth Over Lies Freedom Circle (8-week healing intensive) — $197 to $697 depending on tier — payment plans available
- BTG Network scholarship funding available for qualifying women — contact BridgeTheGapBTG@mail.com
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.wearewhew.com
- Instagram: @WHEWEmpowers
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/share/17v2oJsdYV/ and https://www.facebook.com/share/g/17WKB47way/
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lashawn-mico-wearewhew
- Youtube: https://youtube.com/@wearewhew
