Meet Kelsie Coleman

We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Kelsie Coleman. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Kelsie below.

Kelsie, we’re so excited for our community to get to know you and learn from your journey and the wisdom you’ve acquired over time. Let’s kick things off with a discussion on self-confidence and self-esteem. How did you develop yours?

The confidence and self-esteem I have gained from knowing the family I come from. All the women in my family, especially those on my mother’s side, have always carried themselves with the confidence of queens. Since I was younger, my mother taught me to trust in and embody who I am and who God created me to be. That was mirrored in how she carried herself. Coming from a family of tall and shapely women, my mother embraced every bit of who she was, allowing her personality to come out in the way she styled herself. I began to pay attention to that, as well as how other women in our family took up space in the room they were in, and realized it allowed them to be respected regardless of the room. Along with the affirmations from my parents, taking moments, I was presented with to try some new things allowed me to be confident in who I am.

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?

My primary profession is working in education/youth development. I have worked with children since I was 13 years old in various capacities, but I officially began working with them in 2011. Most of the experience comes from coaching basketball, doing personal workouts with students, and working with various nonprofits in after-school programs, both housed in school districts and outside of them. The most special part about working with children is that you can pour into them the things you learned later in life. My favorite saying is that teaching children allows me to live forever because what I teach them they’ll pass on long after I have left this earth.
While working with them, I was inspired to tap into a form of entrepreneurship. At 24, I wrote and self-published my first poetry book. As a kid, I was a lot quieter and observant, especially about things I kept closest to my heart. As a result, growing up, I expressed myself best on paper in poetry, songs, raps, fictional stories, and journaling. All of that came full circle after graduating from college, allowing me to start a business called Queendom Heart Poetry. Since the inception of this journey, I have gone on to publish two more poetry books and a self-help book. The most exciting part about publishing is seeing the concept come to life in a physical book and then sharing it with others. It makes it special that your experience and thoughts have not only helped you but also that others can gain something from it. The people I’ve been able to meet and the places I’ve gone to have been a blessing. It makes me hopeful that one day I’ll be able to impact more of the world by simply using my voice with vulnerability.

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

One of the main skills I believe has been most impactful is being humble. I believe no matter how good you are at something, you can always learn more, be better, and grow. Though I am an excellent writer and youth development worker, I don’t know everything. It is my knowledge of the power of humility, curiosity, and vulnerability that I believe allows me to make an impact. Which brings me to the second skill that helped me be impactful on my journey, curiosity. Remaining curious about the things that you do, whether you are considered an expert by others or not, will keep you sharp. I am always learning something new about life that carries over to how I show up with students and as a writer. Learning and experiencing more will allow for more impact in the long run. The third and last skill is being vulnerable. Whether it’s with kids or readers, I have to be vulnerable in sharing my experiences, feelings, and thoughts. Doing so is impactful because it allows others to see themselves in the lesson, feeling, thought, or experience.

My advice to others who are just now beginning is don’t be afraid to use your voice, sharing your truth, even if it trembles, and when you do, be confident, not arrogant, and don’t be scared to share some things about yourself so others feel seen.

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?

Both aspects of this are important. However, I believe a lot of our strengths are natural. Investing in your weakness is very important if you want to grow. Part of the sweetness of life is being courageous enough not to be good at something and developing grit. It doesn’t mean you’ll actually be good at those things, but it does teach you to keep working at it. That is another way to develop confidence, continuously showing up for yourself. We learn more from the things we have to put effort into doing than from being a master at everything automatically. It’s similar to when you play a sport. The games that you win, it feels good, but you don’t learn as much. When you lose, you can examine and assess how to break your game down so you can fully see yourself. In a win, you have the potential to believe that your game is tight, and no improvement is necessary. It’s the same thing in life. For example, when I was younger, I never liked public speaking. I was always so nervous, and I would forget what I was going to say. The more I was pushed to speak at church, in small groups, and forced to lead activities, the more I was able to calm my nerves once it was time to speak in front of others. Now at 32, I can say I actually enjoyed talking; I just had to practice doing it more.

Contact Info:

Image Credits

My professional headshot was taken by Bri Buchanan. Her Facebook and Instagram handle is: Shotswithjpeg

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