It takes some people years to meet their role model or mentor, but I have known all three of mine for my entire life.
My mother has been a father figure, a mother, a sister, my biggest cheerleader, and is one the strongest people on the face of the planet. With roots that started in a small city in West Texas, SHE gave birth to me at the age of 16 and never let me see HER struggles as a young person navigating a new life that SHE knew nothing about. HER tenacity, faith and grace in keeping me active and focused on my education is a blessing. HER focus on helping me keep family at the core of everything that I do, and teaching me that if you do great things for others, that those same things will come back to you, all helped to create any success that I can claim today.
Also from humble West Texas beginnings, my grandmother has a wisdom that only life can teach you. HER stories of being mistreated in HER relationships, living during a time in our country when it wasn’t ok/or you were thought of as less if you were African American, inspired me to grow both mentally and culturally. HER stories of loss taught me to lose, but also to win. Yet, unwavering in HER integrity, and in some cases HER opinion, SHE smiles as if none of that matters, and it doesn’t. SHE has no regrets. And because my grandmother is who SHE is, I am who I am.
My aunt has lived and is living HER life. If there is anyone who has shown me that being between a rock and a hard place could be your key or catalyst to building the foundation for a kingdom, it is HER. I got to spend my summers as a child with HER and my great grandmother. I remember picking black eyed peas, like good ol’ country folk do. Those lessons may not feel like much when you’re younger, but being raised to gather your own food, make your bed in the morning, and yes even wash dishes, help in building a foundation for your future. In their most innate forms, by learning to gather you will never go hungry. Preparing for rest will prepare you to conquer the battles that the next day will bring. The act of washing or cleansing can reflect on every aspect of your life, both physically and spiritually. I learned those things every summer, and had the opportunity to make a few bucks from it…another life lesson.
I have learned so much from each of these women and their stories which lead me to create the podcast “Women Who Won.” The point of the podcast is to allow women to share stories of defeat, resilience and ultimately success to help inspire, motivate and cultivate a culture that celebrates not just women, but their victories.
Because of the three amazing women who raised me – my mom, my aunt and my grandmother, I started this project. Their stories were amazing, and I wanted to create a platform for other women to share stories just like that.
I am sure you’re wondering how this plays into my role as a mobile expert (self-proclaimed. Although, the awards are starting to make me wonder :-) ).
Well, here’s how I incorporated a frictionless experience, innovation and good ol’ common sense into how to help women tell their stories.
On www.thewomenwhowon.com we broke down the sharing process into four simple steps:
- Download the Temi Professional Audio Recorder app from the Google Play or iTunes App Store. (side bar – Temi was so gracious to bless us with the use of their app as our way to help more women tell their story).
- Find a quiet place to record your story. Make sure to place your device on a flat surface to avoid rustling
- Once you’ve recorded your story and listened back to it, save the file to your device. No need to transcribe.
- Once the file is saved, tap the share function. And share via email or uploading via the form on our site.
These steps are simple, intuitive and all of the tools that are needed to accomplish the end conversion, a captured story, is at the user’s fingertips – literally.
Being able to innovate in a space such as podcasting didn’t take the creation of a new technology. It literally looked at the current processes of storytelling podcasts as a genre, and deleted steps that were unnecessary or inefficient. In most other cases, users would have to call a hotline to potentially be featured on a podcast, causing a potentially higher bounce rate, because there is no anonymity, you have to speak to a person…who does that anymore?… and that can all be very uncomfortable. I thought since the world is mobile… let’s keep them mobile.
Every time I hear a story that someone is willing to share with the world, bearing all to help someone else, it puts a huge smile on my face. Everyone has a story, and the three women who raised me are helping me right mine, because they were willing to live theirs. For more on how to tell your story, or if you just want to see how simple the process really is, visit www.thewomenwhowon.com for more. And, listen to the latest episode of Women Who Won on iTunes or SoundCloud.