We were lucky to catch up with Shemeka Archer-Grundy recently and have shared our conversation below.
Shemeka, thanks so much for taking the time to share your insights and lessons with us today. We’re particularly interested in hearing about how you became such a resilient person. Where do you get your resilience from?
My capacity to keep going comes from growing up, watching how my grandmother and mom. My grandmother was a divorced, single mother of 7 children, worked the same full time job for 30 years, was active in our church and beat cancer twice. I witness some of this for myself, but also from her children (my aunts & uncles), family friends and strangers what a phenomenal person & mother she was. She never complained, pushed to keep going no matter what and always a smile on her face.
My mom, her oldest daughter, was a single mother and hard worker. Also my mom invested a lot into character building with my brother and I, to never quit & the importance of stay the course. I One of the proudest moments I share with my mom is when we both graduated at the same time, me with my bachelors and her with her double studies, bachelor degree. She had a dream and stayed the course. Very proud moment for us both.
These qualities and both the faith of these women have impacted me in staying the course, in pursuing my dreams.
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?
For a living I am a Client Human Resource Business Partner, I help businesses with their people and business strategy. I have been in the field of HR for over 10 years and had experience in multiple disciplines, one of those areas, that I really enjoyed was Talent Acquisition; I discovered I had a niche for managing talent and helping job seekers with career advice. I got into mentoring where I would provide career pathing, then eventually I was invited to speak on panels for high schoolers transitioning to college or the workforce and for women advancing in the workplace. However, though I enjoyed and was good at this, I felt and knew I had a calling to do something.. more.
I made a couple of career leaps and while doing that I began creating content on social media, sharing my interests, wisdom from lessons learned or just an encouraging word, and this created, the blog, Above The Coil. I shared content from natural hair, growing a vegetable garden with my husband, me cooking healthy foods, my hobbies or traveling. However, in my private life, I had always been the go to person for friends and family for advice on how to deal with difficult situations and how to build a relationship with God. It had come natural to me and I had been doing it for so long, I never really thought much about this until it hit me and I knew what I wanted to share with my audience next. So I began sharing the wisdom and knowledge I received from God with others in my content.
Back story- Growing up, I was encouraged by my mom, to journal. In this, especially as I got older I would explore my relationship with God by telling Him (through journaling) my thoughts, asking Him questions and as I gain understanding what I learned & how that measure to a something I learned reading the bible.
Fast forwarding back to current time, I have always desired to be a professional writer but I did not know what would be my 1st works, I knew faith based but what? I thought “what do people come to you for?” and that is when the idea to teach others how to build a relationship with God came to be. More importantly, I wanted to teach people how to have their own relationship with God. I am a believer of relationship vs religion, and the way we achieve this is to become intimate with Him, by learning about Him (reading the word) and speaking to Him (through prayer). Thus, this brought me on the path to creating, Reconnecting with God: A prayer journal.
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?
Be resilient, be studious, and keep positive life style choices.
Be resilient, when you think you cant, take time to yourself to remember your why- what motivated you to desire to do the thing you wanted to do, always remember your core reason and it will guide you.
Be studious about what you want to pursue, study it, engage with likeminded individuals on the topic- do the work.
Keep positive people around you that are good for you and will be honest with you. Incorporate healthy lifestyle choices get adequate sleep and eat healthy (most times than not). Keep good hobbies- read a self help book in areas that you need to improve, listen to podcast, go for walks or simply write out your thoughts.
To close, maybe we can chat about your parents and what they did that was particularly impactful for you?
One of the most impactful things my mother did, was give me an outlet to express myself through writing. She saw something in me from an early age- that I was a deep thinker and she encouraged me by giving me my 1st journal during my elementary years. From this I learned how to express the things I felt and my thoughts.
Contact Info:
- Website: abovethecoil.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/abovethecoil/
- Facebook: facebook.com/AbovetheCoil
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shemeka-archer-shrm-cp/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@LivingAboveTheCoilwithShemeka
- Other: abovethecoil14.wordpress.com
