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

Sasha, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Can you tell us the backstory behind how you came up with the idea?

I would definitely say that it wasn’t a quick arrival. It took several years to understand my unique position in the marketplace and I’m still learning. I’m processing what it means to be an Encouragist. The encouraging side of me wants to help my clients and readers to master the ebbs and flows of life, while the strategist side demands action, tenacity, and endurance. Both are necessary, but there is a fine line and I’m learning how to navigate that to give people what they need when they need it. From an origin story point of view, it really took courage. You don’t need courage when you can see the whole staircase. If so, you would already know where you’re going, but you need the courage to take the next steps even when the rest of the path is dark. It’s courage that propels you to act in the direction of your purpose without any promises. I used that courage to really write and empower, and that is what started me on this remarkable journey.

Sasha, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I am the Encouragist. To make it even plainer, I am an Encourager and Business Strategist. I operate in the space between faith and entrepreneurship with literary works alongside a faith-based community for Christian creatives called Build It Brave. I am still adapting, but my purpose is sure. I am called to the creative. I am called to assist the person who knows but doesn’t at the same time. The one who is sure of one thing, but nothing else. I call that vision. I call that purpose and I help those who are just tiptoeing into their unique skill set to find their footing and put language to what they feel called to bring into the world.

I have always been business savvy. If you were to observe me in Kindergarten, you would’ve seen me selling and marketing my homemade art pieces to the one who displayed the most fervor to win. I was good at conveying emotion even then and that passion stayed with me. By 2016, I received my Master’s in Business Administration and I have every intention of getting a Ph.D.

While these feats are remarkable, I would say that it’s my drive to remain teachable that sets me apart. I don’t write from a place of knowledge, but investigation. I like to process and experiment with data while keeping an open mind. I never really feel like I have made it. I’m looking forward to the next adventure and it has helped me to serve my clients in a multi-faceted way.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

Faith is not faith until it is tested and I got tested in the worse way. I lost someone special to me. A beacon of light in my life. Suddenly and without any answers, goodbyes, or understanding. I lost my favorite person in the world, my dad, in 2014. I can still remember the day it happened. Getting the phone call and rushing to the hospital under the guise that he was in the emergency room receiving care, to arriving and finding out that he was already gone and had been for a while. It broke my heart. Where was God then? Why did He let this happen to me? I longed for my life to end. It was a nightmare and I just wanted to wake up.

I wish I could say that my resilience was cute and cookie-cutter, but it wasn’t. It was raw and ugly. I lost the will to live and it took years for me to collect the pieces of myself that were shattered and scattered on the ground. It took 4 years for me to even remember that I had a favorite color. (It’s yellow by the way) It was like I was frozen in time from the shock and each year a little piece of me would unthaw.

I can’t say that I wanted to be resilient, but after everything was said and done, I was. I don’t feel resilient. I AM resilient. It has become a part of me like a battle scar that I bare with honor. I made it out of the darkness and I want everyone who is still in that place to know that there is hope, even when it hurts.

Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?

I decided to write. I honestly can’t even tell you why I started doing it. It felt like a natural course of action like a little kid sitting at a piano and tapping the keys. I felt naive. Childish. Ignorant. I felt like, in the grand scheme of things, my little black words engineered in Cardo font wouldn’t have any impact but I couldn’t stop laying them out for all to see. I stopped caring about what others wanted and I thought more intensely about what I felt they needed. The words would flow out and I was faithful enough to catch them without judging them. I gave it space and every single day, I kept showing up.

That’s my advice for those just starting out. Keep showing up. Don’t pay attention to the views, likes, etc, pay attention to yourself. Notice how you feel when you give the world what you think it needs. Observe the response of your soul when it’s activated. The rest will come.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.sashaledawn.com
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/sashaledawn