We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Shawnda Williams a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Shawnda, so great to be with you and I think a lot of folks are going to benefit from hearing your story and lessons and wisdom. Imposter Syndrome is something that we know how words to describe, but it’s something that has held people back forever and so we’re really interested to hear about your story and how you overcame imposter syndrome.
Naturally, my mind immediately jumps to a phrase I have been told repeatedly: “Fake it till you make it.” I think that’s reasonable advice, and if you had asked me this question a few years ago, it would have been just that. Because eventually, the hope is to develop the right amount of confidence that it becomes a reality. However, this is real life, and I don’t want to be a character performing a part and hoping for acceptance or authority. As I have grown and matured in my career, my advice has shifted away from simply working to convince myself and instead actively evaluating the stage I am being asked to perform on. I am of the mindset that many of the times I have felt the familiar dread of “imposter syndrome,” it was more often to do with the context than my shortcomings. The very real scenario of being an “only”, although often inconspicuous, veils itself as a plain old reality; one we have opted into by taking a job in a male-dominated field or by working in a scarcely diversified niche. I routinely found myself existing in this, and there is a substantial weight with that, which a lack of support or empathy can magnify. At the beginning of my career, it resulted from my age because I often competed for leadership roles with people that far exceeded my tenure and then subsequently managed teams that could be a decade older than me. I also had the always-present reality of being a female in a male-dominated industry, and the cherry on top was doing all this as a Black person.
Was I always supported? No. Did I often feel like an imposter? Yes. So, how did I navigate it? Over time I realized I had to ask myself some very real and challenging questions. For example, “What is making me feel like an imposter?” Is it a legitimate lack of experience? Ok, in that event, I have learned that it is ok to acknowledge what I do not know. I have gotten jobs that far exceeded my scope of knowledge because I came to the table and said I don’t know this, but I am willing to learn. That humility was not exploited and was supported. But like anything else, it’s a parable because I mutually have had many times when I didn’t have support, and any admission of weakness was exploited and amplified by a culture that made me feel like an imposter. This leads me to another critical question: “Is this environment supportive of my success?” Am I being set up for success, is help available, and are the people around me invested in seeing me succeed or more endeared by the potential of my failure? If I answer no, I am much quicker to recognize and realize that these aren’t my people and that this position or place isn’t a healthy fit for me. We can navigate adversity, but please don’t let it solely define your reality.
Once, I found myself able to deconstruct some of the “why” behind my imposter syndrome scenarios. It gave me more authority and a solid understanding of my challenges. I don’t believe that any situation is impossible, but I can better assess the risk vs reward myself as I enter scenarios. My awareness of the “why” driving my sentalism of being a phony and potentially why those feelings are being amplified. Through this improve clarity, I can accept, bail, or disrupt based on the audience I am navigating.
Let’s take a small detour – maybe you can share a bit about yourself before we dive back into some of the other questions we had for you?
I have spent the past twenty-some-odd years as a designer. I came out of school right as the great transition from print to digital was in hyperdrive. Although I had every intention of being a traditional print-based graphic designer, we don’t always control our destiny in the most linear ways. So, like anyone, I followed the breadcrumbs the universe provided, which shoved me down a very digital path and subsequently have spent the last 15 years in ascending roles as a Product/User Experience Design Leader. It has never been the wrong road to end up on, but it was a divergence between my intended future vs. my actual reality. I believe the subconscious knowledge of this and the desire to be more deliberately hands-on in the problem-solving work motivated me to say yes to some unique opportunities, like automotive restoration. Taking a vehicle from dilapidated to show worthy has become a life-altering unlock that has changed my future. Over the past five years, I have participated in three custom classic car builds, all full restorations, one of which for my own vehicle. These experiences showed me that my career was only partially fulfilling my needs. I yearned for the tactile connection that making and creating with your hands provide. These experiences did not signal an abandonment of technology but ignited me to explore the boundaries of design. One of my favorite quotes is, “If you can design one thing, you can design everything.— Massimo Vignelli”. So, could I integrate more manual processes into my workflow? Is it feasible to incorporate more hand-drawn typography, sketching, and designing for more than just digital experiences, pushing myself and creativity and still leveraging my human-centered design training? These questions and many more created the desire and need that brought Southern Fried Concepts to life.
Southern Fried Concepts is a multidisciplinary design service fueled by a want to create and only be limited by imagination. I believe in design that solves problems. To do this honestly may mean designing for all mediums or media. So this is not a typical design service, nor am I a typical designer. Instead, I consider myself a “designer of things,” it’s a nod back to designers of yore, converging different artistic mediums into one unified approach with an emphasis on design principles. My projects range from being audacious, like vehicle design, to more traditional, like logo design. I aspire to figure out opportunities to introduce and not forget about tactile or manual processes when solving design problems. I don’t believe in it for gimmickry but as a purveyor in the artistry of making, an appreciator of process, and a lover of authenticity. The world is rapidly forgetting how to get its hands dirty, and I am here to remind everyone how and why it is essential.
There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?
I am looking back but also fast forward because these skills are still in use today and, dare I say, vital to my success. The only thing that has changed with them over time is that I better recognize, honed, and have assigned a higher value to how they contribute positively to business and personal situations. The first skill is empathy. But I want to be very clear because there is so much variability in how “empathy” is understood. You have those in the world that believe they can sense people’s emotions or attempt to imagine what others are thinking, and I applaud, but I also want to challenge you to take another step. Until that intuition is validated, it’s an assumption, and you really must keep going and, based on what you are sensing or observing, be open to asking questions. The only way to confirm another person’s perspective is to ask, which rolls perfectly into the next critical skill, which is to be inquisitive. Ask questions and don’t assume the outcome or write the story’s ending. Do some investigation and be informed. The third skill is listening. If I am sensing, asking, and now listening, it is a game-changer in my interactions with customers. In most situations, it will provide a better command of the problem, so whether it’s delivering on a customer request or being a better friend, these three skills are connected, support one another, and can help you better relate to customers and as a human.
What’s been one of your main areas of growth this year?
Wow, what a timely question. My focus is always to be healthier, and this last year have exerted much effort and energy into improving my mental health. It’s indeed been a journey and only sometimes linear. It’s been a little over a year since I made the difficult decision to leave Girl Gang Garage-an advocacy group I helped found with a focus on closing the gender gap in the automotive trades and providing women with hands-on learning opportunities. This endeavor was a step outside my profession and comfort zone, and leaning into this cause was transformative but demanding. When you spend so much of your time fighting for others, it begs the question of who is fighting for you. So I decided I needed to fight for myself and left to do something new.
Fast forward to today, I have launched a different business, Southern Fried Concepts, which I’m sure you are thinking but wait, a new business. That seems contrary, but as I already mentioned, our journey is not always linear. Southern Fried Concepts was born from thoughts and observations ruminating in my brain for a long time. It is attributable in some ways to my Girl Gang Garage learnings. One of these large unlocks was that I needed opportunities to use my hands and, more specifically, get them dirty. So after I left, I had to do some serious reflection on my “why” and many questions around “what” i wanted out of life, what I should do next, what attracted me to my profession in the first place, etc. The answer always came back to joy in making. Simply having a literal “hand” in my work has already boosted my mental health significantly. Coupled with therapy, holding space for thoughtful conversations, and overall being more selfish with my time. All of it collectively has prompted so much growth, especially within the last year
Contact Info:
- Website: https://southernfriedconcepts.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/southernfriedconcepts/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sofriedconcepts
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shawndaw/
