Meet Shereese Floyd of Charlotte

Today we’d like to introduce you to Shereese Floyd.

Hi Shereese, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for sharing your story with us – to start, maybe you can share some of your backstories with our readers.
In 2008, I watched the U.S. Women’s Olympic team’s 4×4 relay. It was a qualifying round and the team favored to win gold dropped the baton on the last leg. Despite the public embarrassment, the runner picked up the baton and kept going, running at the pace of the agony of defeat. The dream of winning a gold medal — gone, but the moment — golden.

I started crying. At the time of the race, I was five years into my life as a prisoner’s wife, full of shame, living mainly in the margins of my days. I wondered, “Why don’t I have the thing that made the runner keep going? For so much of my life, I felt like a baton, dropped, left behind, at the mercy of others, feeling as if I didn’t matter, like people didn’t really see me.

I wanted to be the runner. I wanted to be the person who picked up the baton and carried on. I wanted to be a leader, despite being a statistic. I lived as a supporting character in someone else’s story, relinquishing my own relevancy. I needed to find my way and my voice.

Months later, I started an organization for women in relationships separated by incarceration, giving them the platform to tell their stories. This was the start of the story you’re experiencing today.

Some women were afraid to come out into the open and some jumped at the opportunity if only someone went first. I want to always give women a chance to go first, whether the first in their family, their business, or the first time they’ve said to themselves: No more. Something unexpected happened when I started sharing authentically; people gathered and I no longer felt invisible. Telling my story built my self-esteem, confidence, community, clarity, and cash as I could translate all of the things once thought of as negatives, such as being dramatic or emotional, into positives, but more importantly, purpose.

Today, I have evolved into the owner of Witness My Life, a people and culture firm, partnering with companies, universities, nonprofits and small businesses to license our women’s thought-leadership programs. But what I really do is help women tell their stories and raise their voices so they are impossible to ignore. I see invisible people.

Recently, we launched a social initiative called Witness My Life Project, a platform for women to share their stories through our t-shirt line, MemoirWear™. It’s a creative and fun way for women to own their narratives and to show up as a leader. It turns out I did have the “thing” the runner had, I had to develop it, and this is what I teach women to do. I want to ensure every woman I encounter knows she has it too. I challenge women to be a runner, not a baton, to make their own decisions, not question them, to never ask permission to do the right thing, and to always go for the gold.

We all face challenges, but looking back, would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
I’ve always loved crime stories, cold cases, mysteries, and a good whodunit. When my husband was cast as the unsuspecting bad guy, I was forced to play a supporting role in my crime drama when he was sentenced to prison for 12 ½ to 25 years. I was a married-single woman, legally separated by the Department of Corrections. I interned through my life, mastering the arts of storytelling, marketing, branding, public relations, and entrepreneurship. I learned to tell my story, make myself relatable and keep my brand affable enough to break down barriers so I could S.E.E. (Support. Educate, Encourage.) others and they could see me.

It was not a smooth road.

The biggest challenge was mental. We are the stories we tell ourselves, and for years, I told myself I was not good enough for what I truly desired and the life I had was the only life I deserved.

My reality and desires didn’t match because my daily actions conformed to the lies I believed and adopted as truth. I closed the book on my previous life and now operate from a true position of sovereignty.

I am the only person with the power to shame me, and shame is not a posture I will ever take on again.

Please tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others.
As an executive coach, I am known for being a storyteller of all things women. I am fortunate my career has spanned decades with several talents I bring all together as the owner of Witness My Life. I’m so proud of the work I’ve done on myself to be able to be in a position to support and affirm women who are ready to see themselves as they have only dared dream. I don’t want to live in a world where anyone feels invisible, so I created a line of storytelling products and services to meet women wherever they are on their journey to becoming the greatest story ever told.

Each product and services serve a different purpose based on what women need:

·       For women who are introspective, want to write their memoir or simply want to know themselves better, I created the Become the Greatest Story Ever Told: Making a Memoir Journal. It’s over 200 questions to reflect on one’s life experiences and how to use those experiences to make a living (if desired).

·       For women who are a bit bold or just tired of hiding in their lives, I created the Witness My Life Project and t-shirt line MemoirWear™ for women to express themselves through a shirt that functions as a story prompt.

With MemoirWear™, we believe memoirs are embodied. We live in a world where so many things seek to divide us; our focus is two-fold with telling stories through t-shirts. We start at the same level of humanity by having everyone in a shirt, illustrating our sameness. The declarations of MemoirWear™ allow us to layer on our differences but still stay grounded and connected as human beings. I believe sharing our stories is the only natural way to bring the world together.

And for women who are ready to challenge everything they thought they knew about themselves, I created Break the Glass: Redefining Women’s Leadership – a 12 week thought-leadership program. It’s for women who don’t want to show up any other way than in charge of their person, ideas and actions.

Women have been managed. Historically. Consistently. Oppressively. The effects of which are lower wages, fewer seats at the table, and an overall feeling of not being good enough. It’s not about breaking glass ceilings, but rather breaking the glass confinements of the expectations of the labels and titles we all wear. It’s not what’s above us that challenges us, it’s what’s around us.

Every woman can be a leader. Leadership is not a set of characteristics. Leadership is a relationship with self and how you translate that relationship to others. When you don’t know who you are, you live life like a mannequin behind glass with a memo, “In case of emergency, break the glass.” Our stories are the fastest way to break the glass. You can’t lead if you don’t know who you are – doing so is an illusion. I want women to lead authentically and unapologetically from where they are so we can end this unfortunate era where women are more seen than heard. No one teaches leadership and storytelling the way I do. No one can. I own that.

Can you share something surprising about yourself?
As a teen, I was a competitive cheerleader. We were champions. I was tall and thus often the base of the pyramid. People depended on me. If I faltered, the whole thing came down. I can still hear my coach commanding me to watch my form and stick the moves. That experience lives with me. I still watch how I show up in the world and work hard not to waver.

Contact Info:

• Website: http://workwithshereese.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/shereesefloyd/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/witnessmylifecompany

Image Credits
Art by Zaire Shannon Arney