A Signature She Builds Fire Experience
Behindthe Smile™
Sometimes the brightest smile hides the deepest pain.
There is a smile we wear for family, a smile we wear at work, and a smile we wear in leadership. Sometimes answering “I’m fine” feels easier than explaining everything we are carrying. Behind the Smile™ explores emotional wellness, invisible struggles, compassion, resilience, and the courage to let authenticity replace performance.
Every Smile Tells a Different Story
What We See Is Rarely the Whole Story.
We live in a culture that rewards performance. We celebrate productivity. We admire people who appear to have everything together. Yet behind many smiles are stories no one ever hears.
The Employee
Quietly grieving while continuing to meet every deadline.
The Student
Battling anxiety while trying to prove they belong.
The Executive
Questioning their worth despite professional success.
The Caregiver
Caring for everyone else while slowly losing themselves.
The First Responder
Carrying yesterday’s emergency into today’s shift.
The Mother
Smiling because the people she loves still need hope.
The Experience
Helping Audiences Move Beyond Performance.
Behind the Smile™ is designed to create honest reflection while offering practical tools people can use in everyday life.
Build Emotional Awareness
Recognize the invisible struggles people often hide behind confidence, achievement, and success.
Lead With Greater Empathy
Develop healthier relationships by understanding what others may never say out loud.
Strengthen Emotional Resilience
Learn practical strategies for navigating stress, burnout, uncertainty, and emotional exhaustion.
Create Safer Conversations
Encourage environments where people feel valued, respected, and supported instead of judged.
Designed for Real People
One Message. Many Audiences.
Behind the Smile™ can be thoughtfully customized to reflect the goals, experiences, and needs of the people in your room.
Why This Message Matters
We Have Become Experts at Looking Okay.
We smile through burnout. We laugh through heartbreak. We keep showing up because people are depending on us. Eventually, pretending becomes exhausting.
Behind the Smile™ creates permission to stop pretending. Not so people remain in pain, but so they finally have room to heal. Resilience is not built by hiding what hurts. It is built by acknowledging it, learning from it, and moving forward with hope.
Behind every smile is a story. The question is whether we are willing to see beyond it.
Audience Outcomes
What Your Audience Will Carry Forward.
Meet LaVeda Jones
Lived Experience. Practical Wisdom.
LaVeda Jones is an award winning author, Board Certified Master Mental Health Coach, keynote speaker, Executive Leadership Strategic Partner, and founder of She Builds Fire.
With more than three decades of professional experience and a deeply personal story of resilience, she creates meaningful conversations that strengthen emotional wellness, encourage authentic leadership, and leave audiences equipped with practical tools they can immediately apply.
Bring the Experience to Your Audience
Let’s Create a Moment Your Audience Will Remember.
Behind the Smile™ can be customized for conferences, leadership summits, campus programs, employee wellness events, women’s gatherings, nonprofit events, and faith based experiences.