IAM205- Domestic Violence Survivor & Speaker Encourages Dreamers to Doers of the World

Domestic Violence Survivor & Speaker. Thriving to share my message in the world through 3 self-published books. Now she encourages dreamers to doers of the world. With faith, courage and humility. Her message has been shared on Huffington Post, Good Housekeeping, and several tv/radio outlets.

• CEO Hack: See a problem and help inspire the people
• CEO Nugget: Don't let the rejection to prevent you from going forward
• CEO Defined: Being in charge of decisions and serving people

Blog: GloUpGirl.com

Periscope: Periscope.tv/MsWordsmith
Instagram: Instagram.com/TamiekaSmith 
Anchor: Anchor.fm/tamiekasmith 
Facebook: Facebook.com/tamiekamswordsmith 
Books: bit.ly/mswordsmithwrites

Full Interview

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Transcription:

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Intro 0:02

Do you want to learn effective ways to build relationships, generate sales and grow your business from successful entrepreneurs, startups, and CEOs without listening to a long, long, long interview? If so, you've come to the right place. Gresham Harkless values your time and is ready to share with you precisely the information you're in search of. This is the I AM CEO Podcast.

Gresham Harkless 0:27

Hello, hello, hello, this is Gresham from the I AM CEO Podcast and I have a very special guest on the show today. I have Temieka Smith from GloUpGirl.com. Temieka, it's awesome to have you on the show.

Temieka Smith 0:36

Thanks. It's a pleasure being with you today.

Gresham Harkless 0:39

Yeah, definitely super excited to have you on. And what I wanted to do was just read a little bit more about Temieka so you can hear about all the awesome things that she's doing. And a domestic violence survivor and speaker thriving to share her message in the world through three self-published books. Now she encourages dreamers to doers of the world with faith, courage, and humility, her message has been shared on Huffington Post, Good Housekeeping, and several tv/radio outlets. Check out her blog at GloUpGirl.com. Temieka, are you ready to speak to the I AM CEO community?

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Temieka Smith 1:09

I am ready.

Gresham Harkless 1:11

Awesome. Let's do it. So the first question I had was to hear a little bit more about what I call your CEO story. What led you to start your business?

Temieka Smith 1:18

Oh, it was actually when I was having one of those painful moments that we all have in life. And it was when I was, you know, in a rocky relationship and got order protection. It was just then at that point, I was like I had one of those aha moments where I was like, man, when I was listening to other stories, and then when I told my own story, and it just moved me to like, write my book. And then one book turned into meaning and to just share my story because it was so important to inspire other people when I had that call to action to just do more than just go on with my life after that rocky relationship because it was a pivotal point in my life to just do more.

Gresham Harkless 1:57

Yeah, absolutely. And obviously, sorry to hear that you had to go through that. But did you find that in writing the storytelling of your story you've been able to, I guess, find some type of peace, maybe but also being able to help empower others at the same time? Is that accurate to say?

Temieka Smith 2:13

Yeah, it is accurate to say that it was therapeutic in a way as I was going through my own processes. And you know, knowing that I had a book in me, but allowing myself to get healed before I actually wrote the book. So I wasn't coming from a place of bitterness, in a place of peace. And when I was able to share my story without worrying about what people are going to think or what my family is going to say, not allowing shame to hold me back and being afraid to go out and confidence on platforms as yourself to speak about, you know how I did this and where I'm at now to inspire the people that you know, we're going to have pitfall moments, but we can make the best out of life from those painful moments.

Gresham Harkless 2:57

Yeah, absolutely. And I was just gonna say, it definitely takes a lot of courage to be able to, you know, tell your story, to put yourself out there and to be kind of naked, so to speak, to tell exactly what has happened to you, and how you've been able to overcome that. And then I kind of feel like when you start to tell a story, you start to show that courage, it also brings about the courage and other people it sounds like

Temieka Smith 3:16

Yes, absolutely. Countless people that come up to me for several speaking engagements, like Thank you for sharing your story. And it was this one woman that was actually a family friend. And when I did share my book with her, she was like, Wow, thank you for writing that book and sharing your story. It encouraged me to get out of an abusive relationship of 40 years. I'm like, man, that's, you know, that's older than I am. And to imagine, you know, I was in it for four years, but 40. That just blew my mind.

Gresham Harkless 3:48

Yeah, and a lot of people don't think that there's sometimes a better way or an alternative. So sometimes you can find yourself, whether it be a difficult situation, or like we're talking about, you know, domestic violence. That's something where sometimes people feel like, that's the only way but you've been able to tell that story of how you've been able to get out of it, empower somebody whether it was four years or 40.

Temieka Smith 4:07

Yes, yes. And so, you know, even with not even necessarily abusive relationships, just being able to inspire other people, for them to get out of, you know, you know, like I say dreamers to doors, we get into social media, where we're scrolling, scrolling and scrolling our lives away. It'd be offered intentionally for five minutes, and then it gets turned into one hour. And you know, we just imagine what we can do in one hour. We can write an outline for a book are so many other things that we can do with just stellar, just going through the emotions of life.

Gresham Harkless 4:41

Exactly, exactly. And I know we touched on it a little bit. I touched on a little bit when I read your bio, and you touched on a little bit, but could you tell us I guess a little bit more about like what you're doing to kind of support the clients you're working with?

Temieka Smith 4:52

So right now, just as of January 1, I launched a podcast called meaningful messages to spray it the messages that I have that you know because it is based on my own faith, and by that the dreamers to doers also launch a class to help others. Because you know, also with the testimonies I get, how do I write a book? How do I get discipline? How do I do this? So I want to teach others how I did it. So that's what's next for me to launch dreamers to doers.

Gresham Harkless 5:23

Awesome, awesome. Dreamers to doers is going to be it's going to be the podcast itself, or it's an offshoot of the podcast.

Temieka Smith 5:29

So it's like an offshoot of the class is going to be just a website where you can have like, e-learning courses, and it's going to be interactive and doing some consultations as well.

Gresham Harkless 5:39

Nice, nice, nice. Yeah, that's definitely you know, powerful and awesome, because a lot of people like I just mentioned that don't realize that you can do something like that you can write your own book, you can tell your own story. And that way you can self-publish, as you've been able to do a lot of times. So again, you know, that's awesome that you're able to kind of get back and be looking to get back to people that want to do something like that.

Temieka Smith 5:57

Absolutely. I think we all have a story to share. So you know, that's part of the digital legacy. When we log on to have what do you want to be known by you have a story, why not share it? It doesn't say call that we get caught up in these thoughts, thinking thoughts that we can write a book, but it's not as hard as you say.

Gresham Harkless 6:15

Exactly, exactly. We get caught up in making sure everything's perfect. So we're like, Ready, aim, aim, aim, aim, aim, aim. And we never actually take action. So it's important to kind of do that.

Temieka Smith 6:23

Absolutely. So I'm just here to do that. To be the bulldozer be that pusher for a lot of people.

Gresham Harkless 6:29

Awesome, awesome, awesome. And now I wanted to ask you for what I call your secret sauce. And this could be what you feel kind of distinguishes you or your organization, what kind of sets you or even your podcasts apart.

Temieka Smith 6:40

Just recognizing that I am a change agent, a lot of people just don't recognize the power anywhere within and we all have it charged to ignite someone else. And just realized with, being a change agent for someone else to help impact others and to be there. Also that word of encouragement and bringing the humanity part of it not just sail, sail, sail, sail sail. But you know, having to know when the light factor is before you sell because it's more than a transaction, I want to help change your life or catapult you to do something else. Because I just have a strong base where I'm thinking, okay, somebody planted in me, as it says, there's a saying that goes one man plants to another word, and you know, God gives the increase. So as we're increasing our faith as we keep creasing, other people, it can just be a change that we can actually see in the world.

Gresham Harkless 7:35

Absolutely. And I love that, you know, because a lot of times, sometimes when we think when you have to when you want to make changes to somebody's life, you have to, you know, build a tree, you have to create a whole entire forest. But in reality, it sometimes can start with just a seed, as you mentioned, and it can grow and manifest itself into something that's really life-changing for a lot of people.

Temieka Smith 7:52

Absolutely. And it's just the impact of our words, it can be so much for somebody else, it's just that one person, you can create a whole world and we're focused on the amount, but it's actually the quality. And that's how you have a strong base and your business, your podcast, and the books are just that camera effect of the exchange, and we lose the humanity because we're focused on the transactional part of it.

Gresham Harkless 8:20

Right, right. You kind of sometimes forget, I always say sometimes if you peel back the onions of businesses or transactions, you forget that it's made up of people. And you know, people have that human aspect that people aspect, the feelings, the emotions, all those things that you kind of forget about, because you're just thinking, you know, buy and sell and, you know, increase revenue and numbers along that lines. But it kind of sounds like you have that strong foundation, it kind of sounds like maybe correct me if I'm wrong because you're mission-driven as well, and that has helped out a lot.

Temieka Smith 8:47

Oh, yeah, it has definitely helped out a lot. Just that mission, just that drive to push other people to be inspired. Because when I'm not selling, I'm also a consumer. So I know how it is. If I want to do a webinar by a webinar, what is it that I've benefited from it, not just the transactional part of it?

Gresham Harkless 9:06

Exactly. Exactly. That makes perfect sense. And that's definitely, you know, a great reminder. And I wanted to switch gears a little bit and ask you for what I call a CEO hack. And this might be an app or book or habit that you have, but it's something that makes you more effective and efficient.

Temieka Smith 9:19

So when I thought of the CEO, I was like, well, what the heck for me to know, again, I'm the change agent. I'm a change evaluator official, as an entrepreneur. So I know that I can see your problem, just like I saw my own problem. And I had to wait to create books to tell my story to help inspire other people.

Gresham Harkless 9:41

Awesome, awesome, awesome. So it makes perfect sense. Because sometimes we forget like we were talking about what's kind of been the theme of what we've been talking about that you have a lot more power within you to kind of make that change to make that impact. And if you just kind of flip that switch so to speak, you can start to make a lot of things happen.

Temieka Smith 9:55

Oh, yeah, it's just a powerful decision.

Gresham Harkless 9:58

Yep, absolutely. And now I wanted to ask you for what I call a CEO nugget. And this is a word of wisdom or piece of advice. Or if you can happen to be a time machine, what would you tell your younger business self?

Temieka Smith 10:09

I would tell my younger business self to not allow the rejection to get the best of me, you're going to have nos. And they're going to say yes, but the yeses are much more meaningful, even the nos, they're much more meaningful, and give you the drive to keep going.

Gresham Harkless 10:24

Absolutely, absolutely. And do you find that you have to kind of just take a step back and understand like when a no actually happens that you know, it's not final, it could be either redirecting you towards something else, or it could be helping you to improve something else? Do you find those things kind of happen and go through your brain?

Temieka Smith 10:40

Yeah, because it first was like dealing with rejection, which a lot of people just don't understand that part of entrepreneurs, they think once I launch this business baby, that everybody's gonna get into it. When I realized they were Okay, I got to know, it could be for other reasons and not to take it so personally.

Gresham Harkless 10:56

Yeah, I think that's, that's what I tried to do as well, too. There's a lot of times when I'm, you know, talking with somebody, and it ends up being a no, whether it be a proposal or whatever, I also try to take it as a learning experience and ask questions, like, you know, why was it and sometimes, and a lot of times, it has really nothing to do with you. A lot of times, they might just be for, you know, it's just not the right time. But you have to kind of probe and ask those questions, so that you kind of get that data and that information.

Temieka Smith 11:20

Yeah, because we could just be missing out on something that we could help be more effective later on. And that's the key component for getting better, we have to mistake our way to success. And even if you know I don't even really think is a mistake, because it's a lesson along the way. So even if you get that no, how can you be better for that yes? So you're ready for that big door once it opens? Because a lot of us asked for, you know, doors to be open, but are we really prepared for them?

Gresham Harkless 11:48

Right, right. And like we you know, like even you even saying is that it's a process It takes to get there. So it's not just like you I'm you know, you put out your shingle and then you're in business. And the next thing you know, when you wake up the next day, you're gonna be a millionaire. It takes a process and time in order to get there. And sometimes you have to go through a lot of nos and a lot of quote-unquote rejection and get rerouted towards where exactly that can lead you down that path.

Temieka Smith 12:10

Yeah, in the society that we live in now where everything is microwave. You know, it's like having a crock pot meal, like the seasons, nothing like it. So just allow yourself to be processed.

Gresham Harkless 12:23

Absolutely. As somebody who eats out of the crock pot a lot. I love that analogy. And yeah, definitely, you know, there's no such thing as overnight success as a process that it takes to get there. And that's definitely a great reminder. And now I wanted to ask you my absolute favorite question, which is a definition of what it means to be a CEO. And we're hoping to have different, quote-unquote, CEOs on the show. But to me, I want to ask you, what does being a CEO mean to you?

Temieka Smith 12:45
Well, being a CEO means that I'm in charge of decisions and not being afraid to make decisions, and being a risk taker. And being a risk taker. Sometimes, as we said, about rejection, you're going to get those nos and you're going to get that yeses and having an impact in what I like to call Medtronic people that I'm assigned to, to help inspire them and to have that open door of communication. So I can listen to my customers about what they want, what they need from me, so I can give it to them for the best and to overdo it to over be I guess we'd call it a survey because we're all surveys as a CEO not to get stuck in a title. But serving people. That's what it's about for me.

Gresham Harkless 13:28

Absolutely. Yeah, I love that definition from that perspective. Because a lot of times when you look at, you know what it is to be a CEO, whatever that title might be CEO, CMO, owner, whatever, business owner, entrepreneur, you're a leader. And a lot of times when you're a leader, you have to be able to understand that you're a servant, that you're serving your clients, you're serving the people that you're working with, you're serving your teammates. So that's a great perspective to kind of keep in mind.

Temieka Smith 13:49

Yeah, because a lot of people want the title, the recognition, but the word behind it, that's where the people stand out beyond 15 minutes of success. How do you have that staying power? So that's where it boils down to as far as a quote-unquote CEO is for me having it stay in power?

Gresham Harkless 14:05

Absolutely, absolutely. I love that definition. And Temieka I truly appreciate you for taking some time out what I wanted to do was pass you the mic, just to see if there's anything additional, you want to let our readers and our listeners know and of course how best they can get ahold of you.

Temieka Smith 14:17

Well, thank you again, so much for being on here. And anyone that wants more information wants to listen to meaningful messages. I'm on at least three times a week, you can go to meaningful messages. I'm on Spotify, I am on Google, I am on Apple, Stitcher, and Anchor FM, and you can also just reach me on GlowUpGirl. I'm on Periscope. I'm on Twitter, Ms. Wordsmith, so you can find me. I'm definitely on social media.

Gresham Harkless 14:42

Absolutely, absolutely. And we'll put those links in the show notes too, just so that anybody can follow up with you. But Tamieka I truly appreciate you for all you're doing for being transparent and being able to tell your story and empower others. And I hope you have a phenomenal rest of the day.

Temieka Smith 14:56

Oh, thanks and you do the same.

Outro 14:58

Thank you for listening to the I AM CEO Podcast powered by Blue 16 Media. Tune in next time and visit us at iamceo.co

I AM CEO is not just a phrase, it's a community. Be sure to follow us on social media and subscribe to our podcast on iTunes Google Play and everywhere you listen to podcasts, SUBSCRIBE, and leave us a five-star rating grab CEO gear at www.ceogear.co. This has been the I AM CEO Podcast with Gresham Harkless. Thank you for listening.

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