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

Colleen , thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. We’d love to hear the backstory behind a risk you’ve taken – whether big or small, walk us through what it was like and how it ultimately turned out.

At 21 years old with a suitcase and a plan I boarded a plane from Wichita, Kansas to Baltimore, MD (suburbs) to be a nanny. At the time everything in my life felt like it was falling apart and I was running from my broken family/childhood that was pouring over into decisions that I was making as an adult. My literal plan was to stay here for one year, live out a year long nanny contract and then move back home. But that’s not at all what happened I actually ended up staying in Maryland, falling in love with Jesus and the ‘hood and never went home to Kansas. The risk in all of this is that I decided at some point that I was going to abandon my life long dream of becoming a sports writer and I was going to live my life helping others change their life, through starting inner city programs (Metro Kidz, GEM, Pretty in Pink, The Restoration Experience) take myself on an incredible healing journey, begin to tell my story on stages, through podcasting and writing and eventually hosting story telling retreats, starting a life coaching business and most recently establishing a non-profit called The Restoration House.

I live my life with reckless abandon but full of risk, hope and faith.

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

Everything that I do and have done is birthed out of my own story, what you don’t see when you look at me is someone who was sexually, physically, emotionally and mentally abused as a child by her father, who has over come sexual trauma from adulthood because of her childhood, someone who has lost over 200lbs, overcome multiple addictions and taken herself on an incredible healing journey that is still going.

Several years ago I had a dream planted in my heart after publicly sharing my story for the very first time that I wanted other people specifically women to experience the freedom that I had in shedding my shame from the past and walking boldly into my hope filled victorious future. So I created The Restoration Experience which was supposed to literally be a women’s story-telling conference that has now turned into my entire platform and brand. It’s Restoration Coaching, The Restoration Experience and most recently The Restoration House.

The most important thing I want people to know about me is that I left behind a life of trauma and shame. I am firm in the belief that my life is a representation of building beauty from ashes and because of my past I can relate to others and remind them they aren’t alone in their journey to healing. You’ll notice that my brand is full of pinwheels, I picked a pinwheel to represent my brand and who I am because a pinwheel never stops spinning even when the wind stops it’s still moving and I truly believe that we are constantly finding freedom, grace, redemption and victory in our stories, like a pinwheel our restoration stories don’t stop.

I believe in the power of healing and sharing our stories because I truly stand firm in the belief that our stories are not our own they are to share with others.

What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?

I believe the ultimate goal and mission of my creative journey (speaking, writing, podcasting, creating) is to allow others to see the hard work I have done to heal. I want nothing more than to encourage others (specifically women) who are struggling with the shame the world pins on them to walk freely out of that.

The Restoration House which is my baby is going to be a therapeutic working farm for women, but it’s not just going to be a recovery home, it’s going to be a place for healing but more importantly a place where they can learn how to share their story in creative ways to honor where they’ve come from and where they are going.

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

This is a hard one, however something that I have had to unlearn is that not everyone is going to understand your journey, they aren’t going to understand your healing journey or your why or your niche. Also not everyone is going to like you, you’re not going to be the perfect speaker for every event or the perfect coach for everyone who reaches out to you. You’re going to get your writing rejected, bad podcast reviews and a million negative comments when you put yourself on the internet. But guess what at the end of the day the most important thing is did I serve the people who are my perfect people well? Did I honor God in the things I did today? Did I honor my story and my journey? I’ve learned I don’t need 1.5 million followers to make a difference, I need my story, my faith and my hope along with a willingness to put myself out there and take risks, that’s what matters at the end of the day.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.restoration-experience.com/
• Instagram: @colleensamantha
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/colleensamantha/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/colleensamantha/

Image Credits

Pinwheel photo: Mollye Miller
First two uploaded photos Mollye Miller