We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Shalecia Callaway a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Shalecia, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. We believe kindness is contagious and so we’d love for you to share with us and our audience about the kindest thing anyone has ever done for you?
Picture it! Dallas, TX 1988. I was an awkward 11 year old middle schooler entering 7th grade. Already 6 feet tall and not 100 pounds wet, I was a misfit; taller than the boys and ridiculed for being so tall and lanky, didn’t have many friends, a nerd, had low self-esteem, came from a single parent home with a mother who struggled to make ends meet. I didn’t know who I was and had very little faith in who I could become. That is until I met my 5th grade science teacher, Marjorie Stovall. I still to this day don’t know why I caught her eye, but I did and she saw something in me that I could never see in myself. She began to give me extra projects and tasks to help prove to me that I was smarter than the average person. She pushed me to think outside of the box and not worry about fitting in to others’ standards. I loved to go to her classroom between classes and after school to just “shoot the breeze,” not realizing all the while that she was building me, pushing me to do something that I hadn’t done before….believe in myself and my abilities. She encouraged me to be my own person; know my value and appreciate my worth. She even joked about figuring out a way for her son and I to meet down the road so that I could one day be her daughter in-law. That’s how much she thought of me.….ME! My beauty, my intellect, she thought that much of me; she saw that much in me to want me to be a part of her family. She had THAT much confidence in who I would become, and spoke it into existence. She told me I could be anything I could imagine and then made sure I knew how to dream and pursue those dreams! The kindest thing anyone has ever done for me is believe in me and taught me how to believe in myself!
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.
I was what most would call a “project kid,” brought home from the county hospital to the North Dallas Housing Projects and moved from there to one of the roughest neighborhoods in Dallas, Texas called Highland Hills. I was sure to be another statistic; a teenage mother, high school drop out, juvenile delinquent based on my circumstances and surroundings. But there was another plan and path for my life. I was surrounded by strong, independent women who had a determination that remains unparalleled to this very day. I wanted to make them proud, set an example for my siblings and do something different than the things I saw around me. I was smart, a straight A student but wasn’t sure that academics would be enough to get me to a milestone that no one in my family had ever crossed. I picked up playing basketball in middle school and saw that as a key into a new world full of opportunity. I was valedictorian of my high school class and received a full athletic scholarship to Texas Christian University. After a year at TCU, things fell apart when the coach was fired and I lost my scholarship. I found myself back at my mom’s apartment, working as a manager at Walgreen’s with no clue of what my life would look like. My dad took me to another school in Louisiana to get back in school playing basketball, but turns out they had no scholarship money. So, I was back home again! Then a school that I’d never heard of in Arkansas called and had money to pay for my schooling if I played for them! So, my dad dropped me off in that small town, where I knew no one and told me to make the best of it. I played basketball for the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff and graduated summa cum laude with a bachelor’s degree in finance 3 years later. One of my business professors was contacted by a former student about an opening at their company, which ended up being my introduction into the financial and mortgage industry with a national company. I then took another job at a financial software company as I worked on my MBA. Starting as a customer service rep, I worked my way up to Sr. Vice President of the company, Me, the “project kid!”
Savvy Queendom evolved from my passion and drive to help others. I want other women with a desire to become business professionals, entrepreneurs, CEOs that have faced obstacles and struggle with limiting beliefs to know that if I can make it, they can as well! Savvy Queendom is designed to equip them with the tools, knowledge and mindshifts necessary to go to the next level and be comfortable in doing so. So many feel that they don’t belong, don’t deserve, could never become….when the truth is that it’s all there at their fingertips if they just believe in themselves and acquire the skills to succeed. I often say that everything begins with a thought; so get your mind right! If our minds are not in the right position, and we lack confidence and vision, we become stuck and discontent. Our lives will move in the direction of those thoughts.
Oftentimes, our mindset has to be rewired to help us believe that anything can be accomplished and dreams can become reality. Savvy Queendom provides the framework for mindshift mastery and align our clients belief system with the opportunities they want to pursue/achieve. We help our clients overcome the mental hurdles and blockers that keep them stagnant, while also equipping them with relevant and relatable professional expertise necessary to flourish. We also teach other skills such as financial management, leadership, and self-love, all things that an aspiring leader, CEO, entrepreneur needs to excel.
We are most proud when mindshifts take place with our clients and they begin to believe in themselves and their abilities. They are then able to take this belief further and put it into tangible action steps to accomplish their ultimate goals. When you see that lightbulb turn on and that glimmer in their eyes, it’s priceless! When they transition from “I thought I never could…” to “I did it,” it’s an absolutely amazing journey to be a part of. At Savvy Queendom, our clients are not a number but are agents of change who get to reframe mindsets and belief systems for generations to come!
Have you ever had to pivot?
My college sweetheart and I got engaged a few months following my graduation. I had the opportunity to do something my parents never did! I was going to have a life and experience that I didn’t get to have and experience growing up, which was to have a “family.” I had planned to resign from my job in Dallas and move to Detroit to be with him and begin my new life. We set a date and moved forward with all the plans. My parents didn’t have any extra money. So, all of the wedding expenses were on my fiance and I. We worked, saved and bought everything we needed for a modest, but nice sized wedding and venue. Had everything mapped out to the last detail.
Then a little over a month from our wedding day, I received a phone call from my fiance while I was at work. He called to let me know that he was not able to go through with the wedding. He said that he wasn’t ready and I don’t recall much that he said after that. All I know is that at that moment, my world shattered and my life fell into pieces. The days, weeks, and months that I cried, feeling worthless, ashamed and not good enough. The embarrassment, the hurt, the confusion. the feelings of rejection that followed, no one could prepare me for. I became depressed and the negative thoughts about things that had been spoken over me and my life resurfaced; the thoughts and feelings of worthlessness almost consumed me. I still get a knot in my throat just thinking about that really dark time in my life that I thought I could/would never get over and be able to move past.
But my faith in God said otherwise. I had always been a fighter, with a chip on my shoulder and a point to prove. One day, that fighter in me decided that enough was enough of the crying, hiding and feeling ashamed. I started to think that maybe it was a blessing in disguise and that although my life was not going to be the vision that I once had, it didn’t mean that my life would be meaningless. So, I picked myself up, emersed myself in work, school, shaping the lives of my godchildren and other youth that I had an opportunity to pour into. I bought a home and picked up the pieces of my life! At some point, I figured out that it was his loss and moved on.
Ten years later, he reappeared in my life and long story short, we picked up where we left off. Now married for twelve years, with three daughters, here we are today, living the vision that was once shattered and never thought to be.
As my grandmother would say, “Life will throw you some detours, but you just keep living and you will get to your destination sooner or later!”
How do you keep your team’s morale high?
Although a team is a group of people with a common goal, we must always remember that it’s still made up of individuals. Individuals have their own perspectives, way of doing things, motivation factors, personalities and so on, and therefore, everyone cannot be treated the same. There is no one size fits all. Get to know your team members as individuals. Learn the things that drive them; things they are passionate about; things that drive them crazy. What value do they bring to the table and add to the big picture? When you figure out the pieces that contribute to the puzzle and big picture, it makes it easier for those individual pieces to become fitly joined together, in sync, and working as one.
Allow them space to be creative and honor their individual gifts and talents. When people are respected, heard and appreciated, they respond better and will apply the time and effort needed to get the job done. Learn to reward and recognize them individually, based on their language, and collectively as a team. When each member feels like an essential contributor, the morale goes up and so does productivity and the success rate.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.SavvyQueendom.com
- Instagram: savvy_queendom
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/SavvyQueendom
- Youtube: Savvy Queendom
Image Credits
Cara Pharms-Stewart of The LesserKollective Photography