Featured Interview With Isha Williams
Tell us a little about yourself. Where were you raised? Where do you live now?
I was raised in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and now live in Central New Jersey with my family. Growing up with modest means, I had big dreams and a strong curiosity about the world beyond what I could see around me. I feel fortunate that my career eventually allowed me to live in Brazil and Ecuador and work across many countries and cultures.
Professionally, I spent much of my career as a global marketing executive, helping to grow well-known healthcare brands that people use every day. Today, my work in social impact focuses on advancing health equity around the world.
We also have a cat named Catty. She was abandoned in Brazil, where we adopted her. She moved with us to Ecuador and then to the United States, so she has her own international story—and perhaps the most interesting biography in our family.
At what age did you realize your fascination with books? When did you start writing?
I became fascinated with books as a young child. I was especially drawn to stories about different cultures, places, and ways of life. Books allowed me to travel well before I could afford to go anywhere, and they helped me imagine possibilities beyond my immediate circumstances.
I fell in love with writing at about age 10, when I began keeping a diary. Throughout middle and high school, I wrote daily about my thoughts, fears, dreams, and goals. Those pages became a private place where I could be completely honest and imagine the life I hoped to build. Many years later, writing a book felt like a natural extension of something I had been doing since childhood: making sense of life by putting it into words.
Who are your favorite authors to read? What is your favorite genre to read. Who Inspires you in your writings?
Barbara Kingsolver is one of my favorite authors, and The Poisonwood Bible is a book I can return to again and again. I love the way it brings together family, culture, love, tension, and unintended consequences. It draws you completely into another world while challenging you to examine your own assumptions.
I am most drawn to literary and historical fiction that helps me understand cultures and experiences different from my own. I also enjoy nonfiction about leadership, courage, human behavior, and personal growth.
My writing is inspired by people I have encountered throughout my career—especially talented, dependable people who contribute far more than others realize. I want to give language and practical guidance to those who know they have more to offer but have not always known how to make that value seen.
Tell us a little about your latest book?
My latest book is The Performer’s Trap: 10 Shifts to Move from Quiet Excellence to Intentional Power. The actual writing took about a year, but the journey toward the book began several years earlier.
Mentoring has always been important to me. During COVID, when many of the places and opportunities for mentoring disappeared, a friend and I created a YouTube series called GirlExec. It allowed us to continue having honest conversations about leadership, career growth, and the lessons we wished someone had shared with us earlier. Those conversations planted some of the earliest seeds for the book.
I then looked more broadly at a pattern I had witnessed throughout my global career: talented people doing excellent work but remaining overlooked because they assumed their results would speak for themselves. The book offers 10 concrete shifts—from communicating your contribution more clearly and building relationships before you need them to asking for opportunities instead of waiting to be noticed.
I want readers to recognize themselves in the book, but more importantly, I want them to finish it knowing what they can do differently tomorrow. Becoming more visible should not require becoming someone you are not.
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