We recently connected with Vannice McCoy and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Vannice thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. So let’s jump to your mission – what’s the backstory behind how you developed the mission that drives your brand?

I have a master’s degree and am a life and career coach and speaker. My mission is that by working with me and hearing my story listeners will refine success on their own terms, via the alignment with their true selves. I wish that the degrees and certifications were the reason for my success, but there’s so much more. In spite of all of the degrees I’d obtained and acquiring the title of wife, I was living a life of misery. I was simultaneously working as an administrative assistant in a toxic work environment and married to an abusive man with unhealed trauma. I’d go to work, do my job and the job of other workers, witnessing sexual harassment, blocking fraudulent transactions, get denied promotions and receive racial slurs. Even though I was the administrative assistant and not paid what I was worth, I was still somehow the breadwinner for my family. My then husband would often throw our income situation in my face, “does it bother you that you make more money than me?” or “do you think I want to live off of you?” So then when he lost his job for nearly 2 years, things started getting really ugly. Although I finally switched into a position more fitting, I worked at the company for 7 long years. Black Friday 2020, my ex-husband and I got into a heated argument about the finances again. He had started back working again, for at least a year, but was not picking up any of the bills and did something fishy with our federal taxes and of course, he didn’t let me know. We got to yelling and he did this same hand gesture that he did right after he had nearly choked me to death. He stormed out of the apartment and this time I did not beg him to stay and pray, I locked the door behind him. I laid in the bed with my hands shaking, in spite of the heat being on. I was exhausted, but I couldn’t go to sleep. I was in total shock and having a panic attack. As that bed was the very bed where he nearly choked me to death and for the life of me I couldn’t figure out why I was still there, praying for change, and healing for a man that refused to acknowledge that he had an issue and needed help. I knew that if I stayed this time I would be the new real cast member of “Orange is the New Black”. Most churches that I attended said get married and stay and pray no matter what and school said get a degree and you’ll be set. All my life I had been following all of the rules of what society said was successful and it left me feeling rather unfulfilled. So I phoned a friend for emotional support, packed my bags and put on my own shoes and got out of dodge!

S-Significance: Choose your values
H-Handiness: Honor your gifts
O-Objectives: Make your goals
E-Enthusiasm: Fuel your passion
E-Expertise: Employ your skills
S-Style: Honor your personality

I said no more living my life in other people’s shoes, but instead in my SHOES and this is what I apply to my life for professional and personal success. Once I left, because I decided my safety is what I value (SIGNIFICANCE), that is when I got a promotion to another job in another company that had greater alignment with who I am as a whole. I’m treated with respect and care at my new company. I’ve been successfully divorced for a year, moved from that state, my credit score is back in the low 800’s, I’ve paid off so much debt that I acquired as a result of the submission I did in that marriage and by June 2022, my finances will be restored to pre-marriage circumstances. All because I now live my life in my own SHOES, professionally and personally.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers?

Currently I have a group career coaching program called, Career Alignment Blueprint. It is unique because success isn’t about acquiring a certain title or pay status, especially if it’s not in ALIGNMENT with who you are as a whole. So I teach my clients how to learn their SHOES, while offering an objective assessment of their aptitudes (natural abilities) called Highlands Ability Battery. After I coach my clients how to define their own SHOES, then I teach them how to write a winning resume, interview skills, negotiation tactics, and develop an exit strategy from their current position for their career alignment journey.

I’m creating another program called Identity to Alignment in which I help the lost in their personal life learn who they are and attract alignment. I honestly believe this program will be for the “Sarai’s” from the Bible. The overly obedient and submissive. I’m granting empowerment and liberty to women to choose LIFE and their own SHOES.

I still believe in the definition of success, an accomplishment or achievement. However, I believe the root of success is embedded in the achievement of alignment with self, one’s identity. Therefore I’m Refining Success by stripping the negative and unnecessary weight and pressure to contend to what titles society states is successful. Success is personal and obtainable for all.

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

Obedience is sometimes disobedience and disobedience is sometimes obedience.

I learned this in my divorce. I never found a scripture in the Bible to support my leaving my abusive ex-husband. However, it is because of my disobedience that I now have life. God can’t use me if I’m dead.

We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?

Honesty. Just be yourself. When I started sharing more of my stories, though humiliating, I somehow became more relatable. More people started following me or sending me direct messages telling me how my story has helped them leave, remain gone, etc. People can feel when you’re hiding something.

Contact Info:

• Website: vannicemccoy.com
• Instagram: https://instagram.com/VanniceMcCoy
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/VanniceMcCoy
• Linkedin: http://www.linkedin.com/in/vannicemccoy

Image Credits
Yahya Piere and Catherine (Catt) Hamlin