We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Miesha Burks a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Miesha , thanks for joining us today. What do you think it takes to be successful?

The definition of success is tailored to the individual and how they value it. The strongest and main frame of success in my life is inner success. Inner success is the discovery of peace within one’s self. I believe being privately successful could lead to other extensive levels of success. Be it in business, money, relationships, education, etc., as they are all built on the shoulders of inner success.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I am the epitome of #Dealing H.O.P.E. African American woman, single mother of two, well- educated and presently welcoming the challenges obtaining my Master’s in Curriculum and Instruction for Early Childhood Education. I am a native Houstonian who values the importance of education, family and the blessing of God’s hand.

#Dealing H.O.P.E started from my personal experience. An African American woman that I hold in high regard led an open discussion to an audience of women, myself included. I left with the understanding to “Live your life as a believer with God’s promises as foundation.” The discussion ended with an assignment to put pen to paper to express what we felt our purpose was. I struggled expressing my thoughts and emotions through my writing. How could I transfer the overwhelming amount of information I had stored inside? Constantly rewriting, trying to connect my life’s experiences with the true expectations of my life. I needed someone to tell me that no matter what life threw my way there is always hope. Hope can be the foundation that provides the momentum needed to be successful in any area of your life. #Dealing H.O.P.E-Helping Other People Elevate derived from the hope I needed and the hope I would like to share with others.

I’m most proud of being a valued resource of empowering others who may need inspiration as I continue to formulate the necessary components of hope for my own life. The experience of hope is not always attractive and in fact, it does have its scars. However, the pain of an experience could ultimately become your success with the understanding that with any level of accomplishment, there is work to be done.

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

Ultimately, I had to unlearn life’s introduction of who I was versus who I am. As a child you have limited to no control of where you live, how you live, food intake, language exposure, or cultural impact. You become the product of your overall environment. You have no clear understanding of who you are in such limited structure. I unlearned the habits that were not designed for me to obtain the level of success I sought. As I grew, I gained more control of the direction I wanted my life to go. It is difficult to recognize what is harmful in your life when it has always been apart of your life. For me, I was fortunate to have the grace of God’s blessings and a variation of life perspectives from others. This strengthened me to become not only the person I am today, but closer to the person I sought to become.

Any thoughts, advice, or strategies you can share for fostering brand loyalty?

I maintain a connection with my followers with the traditional formats of social media. This instant accessibility provides a platform that gives encouragement, motivation, different levels of advice, as well as promoting and marketing businesses in hopes of bridging effective connections. I utilize social media platforms, particularly Instagram, weekly to share expressive thoughts about life. I also embrace opportunities of interpersonal connections to strengthen the needs of others.

I foster my brand with consistency in up to date postings with thought provoking and relatable information. I believe you can create a stronger connection maintaining high level transparency and an emotionally balanced approach. #Dealing H.O.P.E strives to promote growth while advocating to support an individual’s unique and diverse identity. With or without acknowledgement, my purest intent is to provide support without accolades in return.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://dealinghope.bigcartel.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dealing_h.o.p.e/
• Other: Email: dealinghope@outlook.com

Image Credits
Andrenai T.