Have you ever walked into a room and felt like it was never built with you in mind?
The conversations were happening, but you were not included. The opportunities were moving, but they were not reaching you. The networks were forming, the resources were circulating, the doors were opening, but somehow, none of it seemed designed for women like you.
And at some point, you have to ask yourself:
Am I going to keep waiting for someone to make space for me?
Or am I going to build a table big enough for every woman who has been left standing outside?
That is the heart of this episode of You Are You, Unapologetically.
In “She Built a Global Table , And Made Sure Every Woman Had a Seat,” Dr. Kim R. Grimes sits down with Maica Gil for a powerful conversation about visibility, access, women’s entrepreneurship, global community, and the courage it takes to build what the old systems refused to provide.
This is not just a conversation about success.
It is a conversation about responsibility.
Because when a woman builds a table, she does more than create space for herself. She creates possibilities for the women coming behind her.
Episode Overview
Today’s episode centers on a bold and necessary truth: the world needs what women are building. Maica Gil’s work spans entrepreneurship, government, nonprofits, international chambers of commerce, global forums, summits, and funding-support systems for women-led projects. Through platforms like Heroikka and the Woman Impact Summit, she has helped create spaces where women from underrepresented communities can be seen, supported, connected, and taken seriously. The Woman Impact Summit describes itself as a fast-growing global conference for women in business from underrepresented communities, and its agenda identifies Maica Gil as Founder at Heroikka.
This episode is about the kind of leadership that refuses to wait for permission.
It is about seeing a gap and recognizing it as an assignment.
It is about understanding that visibility is not vanity. It is access. It is a strategy. It is survival. It is a legacy.
For every woman who has ever felt unseen in her industry, community, workplace, business, or calling, this conversation is a reminder that you do not have to wait for a seat.
You can build the whole table.
Meet Our Host
Dr. Kim R. Grimes is an emotional literacy coach, life-changing speaker, author, and ordained minister, and the host of You Are You, Unapologetically. Her mission is to help people stop shrinking under pressure, reclaim their identity, and show up fully, without apology.
Through honest conversations, practical tools, and mindset-shifting guidance, Dr. Kim empowers listeners to uncover their greatness, live abundantly, and pursue purpose with confidence. Her message is shaped by lived resilience, including a transformative season of loss and rebuilding that deepened her passion to serve others, especially young people, through faith, emotional growth, and personal development.
At the center of her message is this powerful reminder:
No one is better at being you than you.
And in this episode, that truth expands into something even bigger: when you fully become who you are, you are also equipped to make room for someone else to rise.
Why This Matters
This conversation matters because women, especially women from underrepresented communities, are still fighting for visibility in spaces that were never designed with them in mind.
Access to funding is still unequal.
Access to networks is still unequal.
Access to mentorship is still unequal.
Access to rooms where decisions are made is still unequal.
And when visibility is missing, opportunity becomes harder to reach.
That is why Maica’s work matters. She is not just talking about the problem. She is building new systems, new forums, new summits, new platforms, and new pathways for women whose gifts deserve to be seen on a global stage. Heroikka’s own platform describes its work around women entrepreneurs, women-led projects, and connecting impact work across communities.
This is for the woman who keeps saying, “Maybe one day they will notice me.”
This is for the woman who is waiting to be invited.
This is for the woman who has been told, directly or indirectly, that her voice is too much, her dream is too big, her background is too different, or her seat has not been prepared.
This episode reminds her:
You do not need to shrink to be chosen.
You do not need to wait to be validated.
You do not need permission to take up space.
Build the Room You Needed
There is something deeply personal about walking into a room and realizing the room was never built for you.
It does something to your confidence if you are not careful. It can make you question your voice. It can make you second-guess your calling. It can make you feel like you should adjust who you are just to fit into places that were never willing to expand.
But sometimes rejection is not a stop sign.
Sometimes it is a blueprint.
Sometimes the room that would not receive you becomes the reason you build a better one.
That is what I hear in Maica’s story. I hear a woman who looked at the systems around her and refused to accept that exclusion had to be normal. I hear a woman who understood that the gap she saw was not just someone else’s problem. It was connected to her purpose.
And I believe that is where many women are right now.
You have seen the gap.
You have noticed what is missing.
You know there are women who need support, visibility, funding, mentorship, encouragement, and access.
And maybe you have been waiting for someone else to build it.
But what if you are the one?
What if the frustration you feel is not just frustration?
What if it is an assignment?
What if the table you keep searching for is the one you were created to build?
Meet the Guest: Maica Gil
Maica Gil is the founder of Heroikka and a global advocate for women entrepreneurs, underrepresented founders, community impact, and international collaboration. Her work is connected to platforms such as the Woman Impact Summit, which brings together women entrepreneurs, institutions, investors, and community leaders to increase visibility, connection, and opportunity for women-led initiatives.
Her work is grounded in a simple but powerful idea: women should not have to fight alone for visibility, funding, or access.
Through Heroikka and the Woman Impact Summit, Maica helps create global spaces where women can be seen, where their projects can be heard, and where support systems can begin forming around the work they are building. The summit’s public agenda includes pitch sessions for women entrepreneurs and highlights Heroikka’s role in presenting opportunities for women-led projects.
Maica’s story matters because she represents the woman who did not wait for the old table to change.
She built another one.
What We Unpack in This Episode
1) The defining moment that reveals purpose
Every great movement begins with a moment.
Sometimes it is a room you were not welcomed into. Sometimes it is a conversation where you realize your voice is missing. Sometimes it is a pattern you can no longer ignore.
In this episode, Dr. Kim invites Maica to reflect on the defining moment when she realized her purpose was connected to creating visibility and access for women.
That kind of clarity does not always come from a five-year plan.
Sometimes it comes from lived experience.
And when purpose finds you that way, there is no going back.
2) Building what did not exist
Maica’s work through the San Francisco International Women Entrepreneurs Forum, Heroikka, and the Woman Impact Summit reflects the kind of leadership that sees a missing structure and decides to build it.
Institutions do not appear by accident.
They are built by people who are willing to say:
This does not exist yet, but it needs to.
This part of the conversation speaks directly to the woman who sees a gap but keeps assuming someone else will fill it.
Sometimes the person who notices the gap is the person assigned to build the solution.
3) The funding gap women still face
Funding is not just about money.
Funding is about belief. Visibility. Networks. Credibility. Access.
When women-led projects cannot connect to the resources they need, entire communities lose the benefit of ideas, innovations, services, and solutions that could have made a difference.
As Dr. Kim reflects in the script, this is not only a funding problem. It is a visibility problem.
Because you cannot fund what you cannot see.
The work of platforms like Heroikka and the Woman Impact Summit is important because they help make women-led projects harder to overlook.
4) Stepping into visibility unapologetically
Visibility can feel uncomfortable when you have been taught to stay small.
It can feel risky to speak up, promote your work, share your ideas, or put your name in rooms where you have not been formally invited.
But visibility is not vanity when it is connected to purpose.
Visibility becomes responsibility when your work has the power to help, build, protect, fund, teach, or open doors for others.
The woman listening right now does not need to have everything figured out before she becomes visible.
She needs to take one visible step with what she already has.
5) Showing up across cultures, industries, and borders
Maica’s work crosses cultures, sectors, countries, institutions, and communities.
That kind of leadership requires more than skill. It requires identity.
When you are moving through many different rooms, each one may have its own expectation of how you should sound, lead, dress, speak, negotiate, or show up.
Being unapologetically yourself in those spaces does not mean you ignore wisdom or cultural awareness.
It means you do not abandon yourself to be accepted.
There is a cost to that kind of authenticity.
But there is also freedom in it.
6) Giving yourself permission
One of the strongest messages in this episode is that the permission many women are waiting for will never come from the outside.
Not in the way they hope.
Not consistently.
Not early enough.
At some point, you have to stop waiting to be noticed and start moving like you already know what you carry matters.
Because it does.
Key Takeaways
- You do not need to wait for an invitation to the table. Sometimes your assignment is to build your own.
- The gap you see in the world may not be random. It may be connected to your purpose.
- Visibility is not vanity. It is a responsibility when your work can create access for others.
- Women cannot access what they cannot see, which is why platforms, networks, and funding pathways matter.
- Showing up unapologetically across cultures, industries, and borders may cost you comfort, but it can also create legacy.
- The permission you are waiting for was never meant to come from the outside. It was always yours to give yourself.
- The table you build may become the doorway another woman needed.
Action Steps for This Week
1. Identify one space where you have been invisible
Name the room, industry, platform, community, meeting, or conversation where you have been hiding, shrinking, or waiting to be invited.
2. Take one visible step
That step may be sending an email, making a post, attending an event, sharing your work, updating your profile, asking for the meeting, or introducing yourself with confidence.
Do not wait until you feel fearless.
Move with purpose.
3. Find one woman who is building something important
Tell her you see her.
Not casually. Not vaguely. Be specific.
Encourage her. Share her work. Make a connection. Open a door if you can.
4. Stop outsourcing permission
Say this out loud: “I do not need permission to take up space. I was created for this.”
5. Build the table you needed
Ask yourself: What room did I need that did not exist? Then take one step toward building it for someone else.
Host Quote
“Sometimes the room that would not receive you becomes the reason you build a better one.”
Guest Quote
“Do not wait for the system to make room for you. Build the table, invite the women who were left out, and make visibility impossible to ignore.”
Host Takeaway
“The table you keep searching for may be the one you were created to build. Stop waiting for permission and start making room for what God placed in you.”
Closing
For too long, too many women have stood outside rooms they were fully qualified to enter.
Waiting.
Hoping.
Shrinking.
Wondering if someone would finally notice their brilliance and hand them an invitation.
But this episode reminds us of something powerful:
You were never created to wait outside.
You were created to build.
To set the table.
To make the room bigger than the one you were denied.
To make sure every woman who comes after you find it a little easier than you did.
You are You, Unapologetically.
And that means the visibility you carry, the access you create, and the table you build are not just for you.
They are your gift to every woman still finding her way in.
Keep rising.
Keep trusting.
Keep being you, unapologetically.