Meet Tiera Sprauve

We recently connected with Tiera Sprauve and have shared our conversation below.

Tiera, thank you so much for joining us today. Let’s jump right into something we’re really interested in hearing about from you – being the only one in the room. So many of us find ourselves as the only woman in the room, the only immigrant or the only artist in the room, etc. Can you talk to us about how you have learned to be effective and successful in situations where you are the only one in the room like you?

I’m not sure about the first part, “being the only one in the room”. However, when I’m in a room and I’m the only on in the room that looks like me, I observe, and I figure out my niche. I believe we all have an ability to offer unique perspectives, experiences, and skills to anything. I also believe that our roles changes in different environments. I have a habit of wanting to understand my environment, and who and want I’m working with, so I know how I can be of service, or if my role in this instance is to be that of a supporting cast member.

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’m a mother of two, Princess (21), and Princes is (12). I retired from the U.S. Army after 20 plus years of service two and a half years ago. I started a small business called Design Your Peace LLC. We offer services designed to helped anyone get closer to what PEACE looks like for them. We provide short-term childcare, housecleaning, errand and task assistance, and meal prep services. The inspiration for this was from serving in the military and being a single parent and needing help and not wanting to seek the help I needed with task that I shamed myself for not having a better grip on. Meanwhile, my peace was slipping away. Now, I want to provide that assistance and echo to others that there is no shame in getting assistance from time to time to make sure your peace is intact. I’ve self-published two children’s books inspired by my children’s real stories: I Don’t Like My Name: I LOVE IT and I Don’t Like My Hair: I LOVE IT. I want to empower other people (not just children) to try and love as many pieces of yourself as possible and try not to let the world trick you out it. My children help to promote the stories to other children, but I have had adults identify personally with the stories so far. I am working on publishing more of my children’s stories with them as co-authors.

If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?

I’ve always been tender-hearted, and I was teased about this when I was younger. I was told I was a cry-baby. I later discovered that I was an empath, because of lot of my tears and sensitivity wasn’t just about my own circumstances it would be towards the suffering or hardships of others. It truthfully has betrayed me and served me positively but I’m proud of this trait. I would tell anyone to lean into it, keep the gentle heart, but guard it also. As a service member, I have had to do a lot of things that were hard, but I would give myself time to grieve privately so I could do the job admirably. Refusing to separate myself from that part of me, kept me human.

I truly believe you should give personal respect to EVERYONE. You never know who you could be having an encounter with. Kindness goes a long way. It could literally lift the tension in the room, it could be the thing to pull someone back from a ledge, you just never know. Simply acknowledging people when they speak to you, these very low-effort activities go so far, waving back at a child, cracking a smile at someone, it’s some harmless and yet so valuable. I will be the first to admit, I do not always feel like engaging with people, and yet sometimes I feel like giving someone a compliment and the spillage that seems to take place when it brightens a person’s day is infectious. I think it is someone worth working on to practice engaging respectfully, within your comfort level with people, and see what beautiful fruit it may produce.

I would encourage EVERYONE and ANYONE to really give themselves time to discover what it is that enjoy doing and are passionate about, that the world needs, that they could earn an income from, so they may really discover what it is they truly want to be doing with their lives. I think so many of us do what is expected of us or what we think we want to be doing. We may very well be doing some version of what we want to be doing, but I think we all owe it to ourselves to discover what it would look like if we leaned into what our true THING is.

We’ve all got limited resources, time, energy, focus etc – so if you had to choose between going all in on your strengths or working on areas where you aren’t as strong, what would you choose?

I think it is very important to work on the areas you aren’t as strong in. It’s like have a privacy fence that is missing some of the posts. Those missing posts are the areas when people can enter, animal can easily access your yard and rummage through the trash cans and make a bigger mess, it detracts from the appears of the home, etc. I have had a habit for years, at night of reviewing my day. In the Army we call them AARs (After Action Reviews) but habitually now, I just mentally go over my day. In my head, I just look at what went well and what didn’t and then I look at why it didn’t. I think it is very important to OWN YOUR STUFF. So, that part that is mine I own, so I can work on it, because, well, it’s mine. I have plenty of examples of times of feel like I allowed a situation to go off the rails and reacted instead of responding. I have a list of areas of weakness I’m working on, because the facts are, you aren’t going to take the damage in the strong spot, it happens in your weak areas, so work on what needs work. Obviously, maintain your strengths, but, let’s see about getting those other areas built up also.

Contact Info:

Image Credits

I’m in a picture with the owner (Virginia) of Z& H Candy in Belton, TX, she wrote a song to go along with the story for the Rock & Read event she puts on. I’m in another picture with Halo, she is my very first client for Design Your Peace, and we have been together since I started operated. She has become like a family member at this point. I provide weekly short-term childcare for her.

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