We were lucky to catch up with Shelley Herman recently and have shared our conversation below.
Shelley , appreciate you making time for us and sharing your wisdom with the community. So many of us go through similar pain points throughout our journeys and so hearing about how others overcame obstacles can be helpful. One of those struggles is keeping creativity alive despite all the stresses, challenges and problems we might be dealing with. How do you keep your creativity alive?
I have always been a people person, so I was shocked at how well I didn’t do in isolation when the pandemic hit. I needed to laugh with my friends, go on adventures, take a risk, and learn something new. (I still need to learn glass-blowing.) I connected with people again thanks to Zoom and other social media sites! That saved my sanity and my creativity. Every Tuesday night, I would meet with 20 friends for our weekly improv group. There, we played the same games and exercises we performed in person and learned to communicate effectively in our Brady Bunch-like configuration. On Saturday nights, a friend hosted about 6 of us online as we all played the ” Password ” board game. It was a competitive bunch, and I couldn’t wait to dive in! All this stimulation led to me doing something I still can’t believe I did — I wrote a book titled MY PEACOCK TALE: SECRETS OF AN NBC PAGE. Not only that, I found a publisher, and in May 2023, it was released wherever you can buy books, especially on Amazon, where it has received outstanding reviews.
Thanks, so before we move on maybe you can share a bit more about yourself?
My process was that I didn’t have a process. I just did it. My book started with one short story, then another, then another, and I would read them to friends on Zoom to get feedback, which was invaluable. Of course, people laughed and gasped at the right parts, but one friend said something that turned the whole manuscript upside down. He said, “You’ve told us what happened, but how did you feel?” It was like someone sucked the air out of the room and hit me with a bolt of thunder. I was encouraged to share my feelings. That was something I was never encouraged to do at home. I am a child of divorce, so who had time for feelings? We just had to keep moving forward and not talk about the elephant in the room with the box of wine.
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?
Knowledge and friends are where you find your power. Don’t let fear keep you from dipping your big toe in the pond of the unknown: Give yourself permission to have a goal. I say goal and not dream because dreams sometimes get stuck between our ears and are never acted upon. Think about your future this way: what advice would you give your best friend if they wanted to achieve their goal?
Listen and learn what not to do. We’ve all seen people flaunt their ignorance and make costly mistakes.
Try to find a way to play in the sandbox of whatever career you’re looking for in the future.
You may be inexperienced now, but volunteer to help with events to be around the people who can give you the next step up the ladder. Find someone who has traveled the path you want to take to learn from them. They may mentor you. Or, you can be the kind of person who they want to hang around, and you can learn by their example without letting them know they are your mentor!
Alright, so before we go we want to ask you to take a moment to reflect and share what you think you would do if you somehow knew you only had a decade of life left?
The week MY PEACOCK TALE was released, I was stopped at a traffic light when I was in a car accident where I was knocked out and sustained some injuries. A few weeks later, my 93-year-old father’s health began to decline. Then, a sweet neighbor lady had to move from her home to assisted living, and I shop for her once a week. Plus, I have a job-job to make enough money to support my foray into the literary world. But you know the old saying, “If you want to get something done, give it to a busy person.” So, my challenge is how to balance my time and my health. I can’t say I’m doing it well, but I have been able to keep the balls juggling in the air longer than I thought I was capable of doing.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://mypeacocktale.com
- Instagram: @mypeacocktale
- Facebook: My Peacock Tale
- Linkedin: Shelley Herman
- Twitter: Shelley Herman @herman_she70910
- Youtube: Shelley Herman @ShelleyHerman-nf5mq
Image Credits
No credit for photos needed
