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

Sherry , looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. What did your parents do right and how has that impacted you in your life and career?

My parents provided me with a foundation of love, faith, understanding what it means to be present, and the value of a strong work ethic (among many other things).

My mom was a nurse and my dad was a custodian for a local county high school. My moms career choice absolutely encouraged my interest in healthcare and human services. From personal stories of family members to her telling us about the hospitals, schools, and clinics she worked in I learned how inequitable quality healthcare and supportive services were for people of color and wanted to be an agent for change. These stories have always been such a major part of my “why”. I remember my mom coming home and sharing little antidotes about her day you could see the love, joy and passion she got from being of service to others.
I believe my dad’s profession taught me the importance of taking pride in what you do and doing your very best. This position that he held was not his first choice for careers but he was a provider and wanted to make sure his family was cared for and so each day he would work the night shift, he had a very strong worth ethic. I am not sure he ever called off from work and rarely complained about his task.

Sherry , 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?

I am Sherry Smalls founder and CEO of Reinvented Destiny, LLC. I first had the dream of forming this company after being a job coach for children with visual impairments but at the time I wasnt sure how to get started and lacked confidence that it would provide a profitable living for me. The desire came back again about 5 years later after I had additional experience in the mental health, for profit and workforce development sector. However, I will be honest I sat on really investing my time and energy into to the business because at the time I was a young mom of 2 sons with 1 on the way, finishing my second Masters degree in Business Administration. So I filed for my LLC and EIN and worked doing random career coaching and speaking occasionally. I continued to advance professionally in upper management but always dreamt of entrepreneurship. After years of being in male dominated companies and feeling like I constantly hit the proverbial “glass ceiling” I decided to leave it all and pursue my dream.

My entire career has been spent in human services. As a child, I learned the value of service and giving back to the community with my mom who would bring me to soup kitchens. I learned the struggles many in my family faces with addictions/substance use disorder and mental health challenges often being mistreated in psychiatric institutions or discarded without proper treatment and care. These images and stories shaped my determination to provide better care and services to my community and to ensure the clients that I came across always felt seen.

After obtaining my undergraduate degree in Psychology with concentrations in Human Services and Developmental Psychology I began my career with in a locked children’s psychiatric facility followed by working with those with developmental, and intellectual disabilities in workforce development and service coordination. After receiving dual masters degrees I pursued upper management positions working with clients with traumatic brain injuries, followed by psychiatric and dual diagnosis and substance use disorder. I bring all of these professional and personal experiences to Reinvented Destiny LLC, which allows me to provide career and business development with a holistic lens. Its never been just about finding a job or creating partnerships to scale a business but understanding, seeing, acknowledging the customer I serve and assisting them to push and pursue their goals on their terms….not societies. I believe as long as there is life in the body there is an opportunity to start fresh and create an “enviable” life based on ones own aspirations regardless of past experiences or barriers.

I specialize in working with marginalized communities and small minority businesses because it is important to me that they also get to seize the American dream and create the life they were destined for.
I am most proud that I get to look my sons in the eye and tell them they can do whatever it is they want to do and they are free to chase their dreams, not because its a good thing to tell them but because I get and choose to be an example of that for them.

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

I had to unlearn needing praise and affirmation. It is still something I am constantly working on. From the time many of us were born we are acknowledged for being good and doing the right things….following the rules. So many of these narratives are created about who you are as a person before you get to think, consider or understand who you are for yourself. As a result there is a constant need for approval, but this can also leave you stuck. There were very few who understood what Reinvented Destiny, LLC was to become and trying to share my vision and ideas with the hopes of being validated often left me depleted and discouraged. But I am so thankful for having faith.. faith that continues to be with me when I feel alone. However the times when when I felt most alone I realize in hindsight were times I didnt realize were needed so that I could listen to my own voice and get clear on what direction I wanted to take for my career. I needed to hear the sound of me affirming myself and remembering all of my accomplishments. I learned in order to pursue this journey my voice had to be the loudest, I had to learn to be my biggest cheerleader. I had to choose to remind myself of my talents, goals, and who God created me to be. I saw a quote a few years ago that says “you didnt wake up to be basic” and I remind myself of this often.

Do you have any insights you can share related to maintaining high team morale?

This is such an important topic for me because in order to be an effective leader and manage a team you have to really be introspective recognizing your own strengths and weaknesses, having that internal level of vulnerability gives space to be more aware and empathetic to your team. I pride myself on my management style and my willingness to teach as well as learn from my staff. I think women especially women of color often get a bad reputation as being harsh when put in leadership roles and deemed “angry or aggressive” instead of “passionate and competent”. I believe this is a societal story created to reduce the number of women in great roles of leadership and to continue to cause dissention. In my journey in healthcare and human services there were often times I knew I was being underpaid even with all of my education and experience and its a bit hard not to be bitter under those circumstances but I had to decide to change the narrative and not give into it or reduce how I showed up for fear of being mislabeled. I can recall on several occasions the moment people knew they were being given a female boss there was a such a negative reception. However, I believe its so important to get to always know my team individually; their strengths, pain points, goals, ambitions and family life as well as allow them to get to know me authentically not as just their boss but as a person. I sincerely take an active interest in my team not only to help motivate them but to encourage them in whatever dreams they wish to pursue. Whether the position they had was entry level or they werent sure what their next steps were I always want them to know I have high expectations but also believed in them and will provide lots of guidance along with a consistent “open door” for questions, comments, concerns, and a willing shoulder for tears and celebrations. I am a firm supporter of recognizing small wins and rewarding my staff with small and grand gestures. I want them to know I am invested in them as well as the work they do.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.reinventeddestiny.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/reinventeddestiny/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/reinvented.destiny/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/reinvented-destiny-llc/?viewAsMember=true

Image Credits

Photos: Tevin Washington