We were lucky to catch up with Shanté Ward recently and have shared our conversation below.

Shanté, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Let’s kick things off with your mission – what is it and what’s the story behind why it’s your mission?

My mission is to normalize working mothers dedicated to their careers AND their children and to normalize not being victims to our past traumas and fighting against the waves and words that seem to keeping pushing us back.

This mission is so meaningful to me because…

As a child who lost her father to senseless gun violence at the age of 14, I overheard adults telling my mother that without my father at this age, they worry about me becoming promiscuous, finding love in the wrong places and losing focus. Hearing those words made me feel as though I was losing a race that I haven’t even begun… that the support I needed already bet on my loss rather than my win. BUT I am thankful for those people and those words because without hearing them, I would not have had the willingness and motivation to prove them wrong.

I was once told that I could not move up in my career because I had a child; that “they” chose to not have children and to focus on their career. And the sad part about this is, I was told this by another woman. I interpreted this as IF a woman chooses to have children, her children will become setbacks and she will not be able to move up in her career… because she wouldn’t have the time or same dedication to her work. These words were hurtful, discouraging, damaging and illegal. BUT they pushed me to fight and fight hard for everything I wanted to accomplish. No one was going to tell me that I could not achieve everything I set my mind to because I chose to start my family.

Shanté, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

My name is Shante Roberts Ward! I shout it from the rooftop because I am so proud of her. I am currently a Sports & Talent Manager and Creative Director.

The journey to where I am today was destined. My father played professional basketball until I was the age of two. Back then, basketball was not as glamorous to our family as you see in NBA players nowadays. There were no million dollar contracts and mansions. It was just my father, mother and my older brother. We were on top of the world one day and struggling to pay bills the next. It was a roller coaster world but it was all we knew and we were happy.

Throughout life, I was a performer! I loved to dance, cheer and be a part of a team. My love for the creative arts really pushed me in the direction to become a collegiate dancer. This developed my love for creating, producing and learning how the industry worked. Had I known then, that you could make a career out of that, I would have hit the ground running but that wasn’t the case. My major was Journalism… so that’s what I focused on.

With the recommendation of a dear friend to my collegiate family, I was able to land an internship with EBONY Magazine in Chicago, IL. It was the first time I would ever get to experience life in a big city alone. From there, I was hired a year later and moved to the windy city where I worked as the Executive Assistant to the National Marketing Director. What a crazy and amazing first job! But something was still missing… After a few months in Chicago, I auditioned for a nearby NBA Dance Team and became an NBA dancer while still working for the magazine. Through the years, I went from dancing to working in the front office, managing over 100+ entertainment performers and staff. During this time, I also met and worked with a few NBA players as well. So, after I decided to leave my front office job, I started working with individual clients and athletes.

I am most proud of not giving up, standing strong in what I believe in and not wavering. Now I can say that I have met some of the most amazing people, worked with brands like Essentia Water, Google Pixel, Hulu, Sony, Alo, Sports Illustrated, etc.

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

Through the early stages in my career, I was taught to focus on my work; be the best I can at my craft and to put all my energy in creating the best work. But as I quickly learned… it’s not about that at all. I would go to work, put my head down, create some amazing shows, events, etc. and when it came time to move up in the company, I was told that I needed to be not always focus on work, to make time to converse with my peers, get to know them, let them get to know me. I was a very private person so I kept a lot to myself. I saw people around me that did less work, socialized more and made a few more mistakes than I did, move up in the company. They received significant salary increases and perks. So, quickly, I had to “unlearn” what I had been taught my entire life and find a happy medium between the two worlds.

How do you keep your team’s morale high?

Have you ever tried to put a square peg into a round hole? Yea, well that’s how I feel about managers who aren’t quite ready to manage a team. The best advice I could give would be to place your team members where they shine, where they will thrive and not just survive. I feel a lot of people get removed from roles, let go and reassigned to other companies due to lack of knowledge and training at the current position but if you like the person, I would challenge managers to move people around, see what they are great at, get to know them and then place them in the correct role.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/srobertsward/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/shante.monique.52
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shante-roberts-ward/