We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Morgan Tyler a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Morgan Tyler , so great to have you with us and we want to jump right into a really important question. In recent years, it’s become so clear that we’re living through a time where so many folks are lacking self-confidence and self-esteem. So, we’d love to hear about your journey and how you developed your self-confidence and self-esteem.
Growing up, I was a really vibrant, triple threat with big dreams. I’ve always had a fun, over the top personality. However, life comes at you fast and at some point you start to believe that you have to dim your light in order to survive. I got pregnant at 19 & had my oldest daughter at 20, had two more children with my now husband, became a pastor’s wife, worked my way up the corporate ladder as the only black woman in my company…all things that weren’t quite a part of my plan. Eventually, I found myself in all of these boxes with voices that tried to tell me who and what I should be in order to fit in, be a good example and do well. I needed to be a certain way to be a good mom, to be a good pastor’s wife & to fit into a predominantly white corporate structure. After awhile, I started believing those voices who didn’t know the real me and adopted lies about myself. While I was working on side projects that I really hoped would change the world, I didn’t believe I had anything of real substance or value to offer. I’d be invited into rooms and wonder why in the world they’d want me. It took a brief but traumatic run in with cervical cancer & having to undergo a hysterectomy at age 29 to wake me up. I realized God had given me this one life to live that I could lose at any moment and the only voice I wasn’t listening to was His. That wake up call was almost out of body for me. From that moment forward I decided I wasn’t going to keep making myself small to make other people more comfortable because I honored God & myself too much. No one else’s opinion could have saved me during that time. So, if He allowed me to survive something like that, I owed Him to obey by being my best, most authentic self everyday and I’ve chosen to live that way ever since.
Appreciate the insights and wisdom. Before we dig deeper and ask you about the skills that matter and more, maybe you can tell our readers about yourself?
My passion is helping women become their best God-designed selves. I live that out as a producer & co-host, for Moms Actually; a nationally recognized talk show & online community where moms from all walks of life come to find themselves outside of motherhood. You can tune in to our 4th season on YouTube and find us on all digital platforms by searching “Moms Actually.”
Most recently I relaunched by faith based community for women, called Made31 (formerly the millennial moms club). I recognized that there was a pull to see women where they were no matter what their stage of life was. We all were on this journey to be made into proverbs 31 women. So Made31 creates a safe place for women to take that journey together. We’ve got a lot of great events and product launches lined up for the year so stay tuned!
Of course the greatest roles I play are a daughter of God, wife and mom to my 3 kids.
Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?
Grit Trusting my Instincts
Allowing myself to be creative
I always talk about the importance of playing the long game. God’s blessed me to experience a lot of success in what seems like a short amount of time. But for every high moment you see, what’s not seen are the long hours, the sleepless nights, the delayed gratification and being willing to do the work no one else wanted to do to in order to be excellent, while also managing my family & home. A lot of the results that we really want to see in life come from doing what no one else really wants or is willing to do. You can always measure how bad you want it (whatever your “it” is) by how comfortable you are with being uncomfortable.
All the wisdom you’ve shared today is sincerely appreciated. Before we go, can you tell us about the main challenge you are currently facing?
The obstacle I’m actively learning how to overcome is learning how to ask for help. I’m sure a lot of women level with me on this. It’s so easy for us to constantly whip out the superwoman cape. People are used to us juggling it all from career to family to personal life and at some point I realized the cape was killing me. I also think that sometimes when we ask God to increase our capacity, it’s really an opportunity for us to start delegating. So over the last year especially, I’ve really adopted the idea that I don’t have to hold it altogether. Moms Actually has helped me with that a lot. I ask for help with the kids, hired help around the house, made hires and expanded the team in my business. While I’m still deep into the work there’s nothing that I’m currently working on that I’m doing solely by myself.
Contact Info:
- Website: momsactually.com
- Instagram: @themorgantyler
- Youtube: Moms Actually
Image Credits
Photographer: J.Maclin
