Sarah Jakes Roberts speaks with a rare kind of honesty. The daughter of Bishop T.D. Jakes, she became a mother at just 14—an experience she has written and spoken about openly. Rather than hide from that chapter, she made it part of her message: that no mistake or setback disqualifies you from a meaningful future.
Leading with faith and transparency
Today she co-pastors One Church with her husband, Touré Roberts, and founded Woman Evolve, a movement and annual conference that encourages women to grow through their struggles. She shares that message in books including Lost and Found and Woman Evolve, and through talks that blend faith, humor and hard-won wisdom.
What speakers can learn from her
- Honesty builds trust. By sharing her own story plainly, she earns the right to speak into other people’s lives.
- Connect heart to heart. Her conversational style makes large audiences feel like a small circle of friends.
- Growth is a process. Her message—that we are always evolving—applies to every speaker working toward the next level.
Sarah Jakes Roberts shows that your past can become the very platform that lifts others up.
Photo: Engineer Your Life Podcast, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons (cropped)