When Freedom is at the Core of Your Being…
Candace Spears on freedom, creativity, and the power of doing it all.
Who are you? Using your most favorite word. Why does this word resonate with who you are?
Freedom. Freedom resonates with me because it is unconstrained and multi-dimensional. It is filled with an endless adventure of possibility, and that’s how I define three things. My thumbprint, my mission, and my excitement for that as a destination for others. Me and that word are literally best friends.
How did you become the person you are today?
Lived experiences meet divine intervention. I’ve always been creative with a need to be in control. When you have that combination, there’s always a constant itch to live out what you know you can create, and chart your vision.
I’ve had many of those experiences from starting my first business in catering in 2010, to creating several other ventures along the way including blogs, courses, and a marketing agency. The freedom to create in my yard through plantings, various creative arts like dance when I was younger, and the creation of opportunities for my employees to express their ideas while I was in corporate.
Creating, providing opportunity, and allowing people to experience a new level of freedom has always been something that’s shown up in my life experience, and that show-up I consider to be God’s hand at work and not by accident.
Tell us about your business?
Company Curators centers on supporting the introduction of new products and services into the world. Providing people the ability to let their ideas manifest into freedom for themselves as entrepreneurs, or enterprises unleashing the inherent value of their employees (the intrapreneurs) and creating innovative and profitable impact on the company.
Supporting the freedom of ideas is something we do from centering the perspective of what it takes for Black women to bring their fully authentic self and goodness through the birthing of the idea.
Black women are all too familiar with constraint, trauma, pain, and sacrifice in the name of love in their lived experiences, and it is in those elements that often the best ideas come to life.
Launching in 2022, Ambition, Honey & Hustle which is a media company focused on content that feeds the soul and social-emotional needs through the centering lens of the Black woman on a lifetime quest to grab and sustain her freedom.
When was the last time you took a leap of faith in your business?
Right now. I’m building a tech company, stepping away from direct coaching to scale impact. Hiring more, and investing more of my own money into something that I believe in.
It’s not always easy when you take a risk that doesn’t see an immediate return. But that’s really when for me, leaning into alignment combined with business knowledge have to play together.
Who or what inspired you?
Shonda Rhimes and Issa Rae. Something about their creative output. The creation of something that resonates with people. That is inspirational to me.
How do you handle hardships when things don’t go as planned?
Sometimes, I crawl under the covers and stay in bed for a bit, no lie. But then I quickly look to raise my vibration and outlook with gratitude. Finding the things I’m thankful to God for and saying them out loud or putting them in my journal. Then getting my head back into perspective with a few Abraham Hicks clips on YouTube…that usually does the trick.
At what pivotal moment in your life/business have you experienced a breakthrough?
A big breakthrough came when I was told my role was going away back in 2016. That was a blow to my ego. Here, I had this great job, great title, but my role was going away. I felt like everything was being taken from me. I had a reality check about who Candace was, and made a promise to myself while in tears in the parking lot after work, that I would never have who I was taken away again. And that forever changed my attitude on owning me.
When I went to my next job, that’s where I wrote my book (based on the same value I was bringing to the job), started a blog and was fully transparent that “I belonged to me” and I just happen to be at this job as a service for the company. While it was a rough time, a rose grew from the concrete that has been life-altering and I preach it every day.
How did that experience shape the person you are today?
From that I take ownership seriously. Not only in my work, but in the team’s work, and in my kiddos lives…literally I encourage everyone to own what you do, and take the mental perspective, whether you work for someone or not, the value you bring is what YOU bring, and just like you bring it in one place YOU can choose to bring it somewhere else.
Where do you find beauty?
In nature, in silence, in creating. I’m big into plants and gardening. I literally have landscape designed and implemented our entire home over the last 11 years and there’s still more to do…haha always. It’s beautiful to watch things grow and go through cycles. In creating similar things…watching something take shape and come to life from your hands and vision is glorious. And as an introvert I LOVE silence.
It’s the time to see that vision operate in my mind before it becomes reality. It’s the time to recharge and face the world. It’s the time to listen to what God has for me to do.
Why are you the person to do what you do?
I’m assigned to do it. One of the things I’ve learned is paying attention and leaning into the thing that is dropped into your spirit, and continues to appear before you constantly. And, one of those things for me has been the storyline of freedom. Not only for myself and my journey, but for others.
Those that feel like the ideas and brilliance that has been given to them are shackled and constrained. Freedom. And in the freedom of ownership for themselves so that we all can be better for it, and experience more of the impact they are meant to make. Those are the words that light my soul on fire, that I can’t stop talking about, that God presents opportunities in my life on the constant to support. That’s my assignment.
Don’t restrict yourself, don’t restrict your God-given impact. It’s beautiful to be able to contribute what you own in any way you see fit.
What is your saying/mantra for 2022?
Lean into your big assignment. There’s something you’re divinely called to do. Go answer that one when it rings.
