We recently connected with Dr. Shavona Whitehead and have shared our conversation below.
Dr. Shavona, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today How did you come up with the idea for your business?
The MORE Experience evolved on its own. For over 15 years I served women within my community and church simply because I had a passion to help. The passion and zeal to see women healed and whole has always been what drove me to create safe spaces of transformation. In 2020 I had a conversation with a friend to provide structure and consistency to the women’s ministry I had been doing then COVID hit and caused a complete shut-down. I was discouraged and sought God as to how to I build it now. It all started with me doing some pre-recorded videos and posting it to Facebook for a segment entitled, “Lunchtime Empowerment Talks with Dr. Von”. This was a time for me to provide empowerment and encourage to give women that push to keep going. Why pre-recorded you may ask? Although, I had been preaching at that time 13 years, speaking and teaching, I had a feat of being in the spotlight. The criticism of people can be so harsh that it will cause you to shrink back from who you know that you are. God had to heal and deliver me so I could make the impact I was created to make.
Lunchtime Empowerment Talks with Dr. Von grew. Women began to reach out to me individually for coaching and mentoring. These women out here suffering in silence. They were bound by the boxes of abandonment, failures, insecurities, disappointments and so much more. They needed help to break those boxes so they could tap into their destiny and purpose. These women needed help rebuilding their self love, self worth, self confidence and self respect.
I decided to become a certified life and empowerment coach, take on my training and develop myself to make a greater impact. We started with a cohort entitled “Break The Box”. Vulnerability is scary and uncomfortable, but, oftentimes necessary. I had to become okay with sharing my brokenness and my personal journey of healing. I had to become one with my mantra, “My Journey Is Someone’s Freedom”! As we launched Break The Box, I released my first published work entitled, “I Am MORE Now Empowerment Journal”. This journal is a companion to help you to endure seasons of stretching, trial, growth, turmoil, and even tragedy yet overcome it all with power and restoration. This journal became a teaching tool and a great resource for the cohort. It takes them step by step and they embrace their own personal journey at their own pace.
Little did I know, that this was actually the seed of something greater. The ultimate vision now called The MORE Experience. MORE stands for Motivated Overcomers being Restored and Empowered. God revealed to me that it was more than breaking the box, it was about tapping into their authenticity, walking in wholeness and fulfilling purpose. This required taking the women on their journey of MORE.
The MORE Experience includes The Break The Box 8-week Cohort, The Restore Your ROAR Experience Retreat, Manifesting MORE with Dr. Von, The THRIVE Chamber Encounter and The MORE Institute. We help women to unpack their total selves and heal in every area of their lives. I am fully committed to the holistic and spiritual healing of women who struggle with discovering their identities and help them embrace their MORE.
I operate from a unique Butterfly Model using the journey of the butterfly to guide my teachings as well as my structure. The metamorphosis of a butterfly has to go thru many stages that are uncomfortable and not pretty yet its ultimate goal is always the masterpiece that you see emerge as the exquisite butterfly. Teaching women to embrace each part of their journey, extracting the teachable moments that develop them, and not despising the time that must be spent in isolation/incubation, provides them strength to understand that the stage they are on is not the final stage. Helping them to see that so of the best development happens in the dark helps them to see that the isolation is not punishment its actually power.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
I am Dr. Shavona Whitehead, known as “The MORE Pusher”, a trailblazer in ministry and coaching. I am an International Preacher of The Word of God and a Global Empowerment and Transformation Speaker, A Certified Life and Confidence Coach. I am a 3x International Best Selling Author with 3 additional published works. I am also featured in magazine and news articles, on billboards in NYC time square and other locations. I am an Executive Producer and Host of Lunchtime Empowerment Talks with Dr. Von, aired on the Women Win Network and is accessible to over 100 million homes via Roku and Amazon Fire TV.
The MORE Brand is the housing of my empowerment coaching, ministry mentorship, confidence mentorship, community initiatives, and entrepreneurial pursuits. The MORE Brand includes platforms where women find a safe place to heal, transform and be empowered while learning the importance of community. While traveling the world teaching others about Christ, my mission and purpose is to teach and help women to turn their ashes into beauty, increasing their self-esteem, thus cultivating spiritual growth and becoming great women of wisdom and integrity. My passion and hearts desire is to help women to break the box of traumatic chaos and rediscovery their authentic selves and tap into their MORE.
This evolution and emerging is expressed in what we call The Butterfly Experience. This experience allows women to learn and appreciate each level of they journey, understanding that your perception determines your outcome. The creation, The cocoon, The development and The Emerging are all necessary for the Evolution of our authentic selves. This journey is personal.
Taking my place in Christ and in the world, I have been diligent in gaining my education. I hold a Bachelor of Science degree in Management Science and my Master of Divinity. I hold a Doctor of Ministry Degree in Social & Environmental Justice. I am trained in Spiritual Chaplaincy and I am a certified life and Empowerment coach.
I am the published author of “I Am More Now Empowerment Journal”, and my most recent book “The Cutting that Made Me Whole”, as well as being a contributing author on many best-seller-acclaimed bodies of work. God has granted me the privilege to continuously soar above my pain and circumstances to continue to be more. In all of this I am grateful to have the support of my husband, four children, and many of those who have flourished under my leadership.
We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.
Resilience is a necessary to success and growth, but it doesn’t always feel good. Your “why” has to be the thing that pushed you beyond that spaces where you would give up. Within the first year of building the business side of what God gave me, I experienced on of the most painful acts of betrayal that shattered my trust and belief in what I knew I was created to do. When it took place, I immediately went into shut down mold because what do you do when those that say they love you, support you and will always protect you become they very ones to betray and wound you. For months I questioned if I was really built for this and then I had to be reminded of my “why”. I was created to help women to break their boxes of traumatic chaos and show up as their authentic selves daily and unapologetically, how could I not break my own box, conquer my own wound and show up strong in who I knew I was. Pushing through this meant that I had to learn to trust again because the work that God had given me was going to require a team to help me build well. The MORE Brand was going to require me to let people into a space that had been violated. My “why” and the ladies I serve meant more to me than to give up and throw it all away. So as I began to build an official team I prayed and God began to send me those that I needed to stretch and grow.
Resilience is something that you are going to need throughout the duration of your business existence. Ask me how I know? Well, 3 years after that hit, I now find myself facing another wound to my trust and trying to navigate this space with integrity. One of the things I had to face was, in business you must learn to lead with your head and not with your heart. This time I found myself navigating this space of broken trust because of letting someone into a space according to my heart not because God instructed me to.
I must be honest, it was in this space that I learned the strength of my team to empower me, those that saw what I had experience encouraged me in ways that I could see the fruit of what I planted. Leading is not just about guiding your team, setting order and plowing the way, sometimes its about receiving what those assigned to you must empower you. I learned and I am learning the value of a strong integral team and how to appreciate those truly committed to building the vision God me and most of all not allowing me to quit.
There will continue to be lessons along the way, the goal it to understand that they are not moments of failure that are final, but they are teachable moments that redirect you to destiny. Don’t allow one moment, one bad connection, one toxic team member, one bad investment nor on unsuccessful event cause you to lose you momentum. Let you passion, zeal and commitment to your “why” fuel you to keep building!
The hard moments you will find in birthing and growing a business are refining moments that are preparing you for greater. They help you to release that which is not necessary while you naturally birth purpose and destiny. You cannot get stuck in the failures. Instead, allow each one to catapult you into your next move. That next move may be the move that shifts the trajectory of your business. It could be the move that changes your entire life. If you don’t align and shift your focus, you will miss your moment. And the last thing you should ever do is miss YOUR moment. Evolve, thrive, grow, and most importantly, LIVE!
We often find ourselves restrained to “embracing” the new when the reality is what we should be doing is simply “becoming” it. Success has long been tracked by accomplishment, but how much greater would our success be if we measured it by what went through in order to achieve it? I had to look at how much God brought me through to birth what He assigned to my hands. The MORE Brand is more than a brand, it’s a transformational experience birthed from a healing and transformational journey.
What’s been the most effective strategy for growing your clientele?
BE Authentically YOU! Your clients do not want something made up, they want someone who they can connect to and one they can relate to. They want something that is proven, something that works. My mantra is, “ My Journey Is Someone’s Freedom”. What I teach is what I’ve experienced as well as tools that have been tried and true.
When considering my ideal client, I had to give myself permission to be all that God created me to be. When you hinder the flow of your authenticity, you limit your ability to reach your full potential. I had to break the stronghold in the struggle of an identity gap which caused you to lose the value in you. I had to become comfortable with the place between where I was and where I knew I was going no matter how challenging, lonely, and uncomfortable. The more I learned me , the more I was able to embrace me and my voice. Through complicated circumstances, I came to love my truest and most treasured gift – me.
The more I was vulnerable and true with my clients, the stronger they became in their journey of healing and wholeness. The more they could see how I overcame, the more they were fueled to keep pushing because it could happen for them. No matter how much I accomplish, credentialing obtain, exposure I receive, I will remain humble and in a place of humility knowing the journey God has brought me thru.
The authentic YOU was created to soar.
The authentic YOU is confident and powerful.
The authentic YOU is meant to be a trailblazer.
The authentic YOU walks in self-love, confidence, worth and power.
I would encourage you, as you seek to build your clientele, stop looking for the answers, you are it. God has given you everything you need. Now, what are you going to do with it? Release what He did not give you. It is time to go all in! You have allowed circumstances and situations to hold you hostage for far too long. For more years than can be counted, we have patterned ourselves after others. You can glean and learn but never covet. When you do not walk in your authenticity, you tell God that what He created was not good enough. You must know this – you are more than enough.
Your authenticity is your power!
Contact Info:
- Website: www.shavonawhitehead.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/iamdrvon
- Facebook: https://www.Facebook.com/themoreexperience
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/drshavonawhitehead
- Youtube: Dr. Shavona Whitehead
- Other: https://www.facebook.com/shavonawhitehead
Image Credits
Aisha Butler Photography, Prodigal Designs and Michael Vega