Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Shanteria Griglen. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Shanteria, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Who is your hero and why? What lessons have you learned from them and how have they influenced your journey?

I have been asked this question several times during the course of my life and I usually say God, but today my answer is different. The older I get the more humble and aware I become.

My hero doesn’t wear a physical cape, she wears a smile that is infectious and has a personality that warms the heart no matter how challenging her own life may be in the moment. This gentle giant is my daughter.

The greatest lesson my daughter has taught me is to embrace and accept myself authentically. During my early twenty’s I began to realize that I was more comfortable dressing tomboyish, but I would continuously do the back and forth because dressing girly was more acceptable. One day while having an honest conversation, she reminded me that I needed to just be and do what makes me happy and that what people thought didn’t matter because God loves me and she loves me as well Those words literally started to altered the fabric of my being and would stay with me on my life’s journey.

I now know that it wasn’t just about clothes, God knew that my daughter was my first true love and that I would trust what she spoke into my life even though she was a teenager. This lesson wasn’t just about self acceptance but about me embracing vulnerability which was very uncomfortable for me at the time.

My life is a daily experience that I am constantly learning and evolving through and my daughters belief and love for me is what keeps me striving to be a better mom and human being.

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 am a woman constantly evolving, trying to embrace peace and not pieces and yielding myself to the will God has created for my life and not just the dream I’ve built for myself.

My art is creating, writing, directing and producing content that reflects authentic vision and inspires people.

For me, being a creative is a gift and powerful tool that I don’t take lightly. It is a responsibility that allows my circle to impact lives.

I’m excited about evolving and partnering with like-minded creatives that want to boldly change the world one project at a time.

I am most proud of my faith. Honestly, faith can be annoying, it’s not easy to constantly believe in what you don’t see yet you can see if you get my drift. I have learned that sometimes it’s all we need to make one more step into the right direction towards destiny.

I need the world to know that my ambition is to always inspire and encourage an audience to live a life filled with wholeness.

Alright – let’s talk about marketing or sales – do you have any fun stories about a risk you’ve taken or something else exciting on the sales and marketing side?

I remember when I was doing my first stage production “My Soul is Bleeding” and I didn’t really have money or sponsorship for marketing. All I knew is that I had a vision and a story to tell and that I had to get the word out visually.

I would research stage play flyers online and I picked out the concepts that I liked and I tried to recreate it on Microsoft publisher for my own show. I took the pictures and used apps to get it has crisp as I could. I worked on this flyer day and night for about a month until I was satisfied.

I will admit that there were moments that I got discouraged and I was insecure about having to do it on my own and not really having the funds to do it professionally. There were also times I doubted my gift because it didn’t look like others, I felt unworthy and incompetent but I DID IT!

I used every free social media platform possible, needless to say, my first show had a packed house!

#Keepgoing

Is there mission driving your creative journey?

For the last decade I’ve been blessed to encounter a diverse group of youth that has taught me so much about myself and the little girl on the inside of me. Broken children become toxic adults, this cycle should not be normalized.

This reality is what drives my passion to create projects that are intentionally authentic. I believe our journeys are never really just about us, but processes we go through to help others.

That’s my goal in a nutshell!

Contact Info:

• Website: www.poetizerproductions.com
• Instagram: Instagram.com/poetizerproductions
• Facebook: Facebook.com/poetizerproductions
• Linkedin: LinkedIn.com/in/poetizerproductions
• Twitter: Twitter.com/poetizer
• Youtube: YouTube.com/c/poetizerproductions

Image Credits
Dee Collins