Today we’d like to introduce you to Vicki Semander.
Vicki, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
Wow, my story, where to begin and which beginning, I have had several. Life has been an interesting and challenging journey; I am so very grateful to be a part of. Am I grateful because it has been easy? No, I am grateful because I have had the honor of living through some of the toughest things that a woman can go through and am standing tall and Vick-torious. Women will silently suffer with their pain. Sharing just enough to make life manageable; but not enough to become whole. I have a story I tell to demonstrate this; it is called Compost©. This is the abbreviated version: I am a prolific idea generator. I can dream up some of the wildest stuff, but it is also what makes me phenomenal in my profession and philanthropy. This time it was to put a 4’ x 4’ garden in the backyard. It was me, a hoe, Texas heat, hard ground, and compost. I finally got the garden planted and my Dad said, “you know you can make your own compost”.
I started collecting all the unused parts of fruits and veggies and coffee grounds from the kitchen and leaves, grass and other things from the yard. I put all of this in a 30-gallon trash can in the backyard. After a while, my Dad says, “you know you have to turn the compost”. I hated to open the lid on the can. It had flies and stunk; but what did I expect, compost is rot and decay. It stinks. I dumped the can out and all I could think was ‘let me get this back in the container and put the lid on it’. It was at that moment God spoke to my heart “that’s your problem”. I had a moment of clarity. I never fully worked through all the pain and disappointments in life. I wanted to keep them closed inside. The only problem, like the compost in the, can, it was rotting and decaying inside me and eating away at the good parts of who I am. I understood that composts usefulness was on the outside of the can fertilizing the garden, causing yummy herbs and veggies to grow. The same is true with life. My pain is fertilizer to my own and someone else’s garden.
Bruised but not broken. I believe part of the healing process is service to others. I had a lot of restitution to make to the universe, the world, and Houston. God had taken my heart of stone and given me a heart of flesh. I dug in at work and in ministry, working many hours a day at both. I was fulfilled but not satisfied. I suffer with bouts of depression which are usually manageable, now that I know the signs; but this one time I could not pull myself out. I was staying busy to avoid the fact that I would go home alone or worse yet never leave home. Some of the greatest victories in my life have come after a storm whose magnitude and destruction have no rival.
Hurricane Harvey was the first storm of nature that impacted me; but not in the physical sense but I was forever changed. I was stuck in my house, on an island that used to be my neighborhood. Dry. Safe. Broken. I began helping people get connected to services and ordering supplies online for people doing outreach. The worst part of a storm is not the actual storm, it’s the aftermath and the long tedious recovery process. I knew I needed to finally heal from all of the destruction in my life and be whole.
I reached out to 3 women to have dinner. We chatted about life, Harvey, life after Harvey and how we could help. The evening felt right; it was just what I needed. The next dinner I invited seven women and we became Supper Sips and Sistership. We meet every other month to share our secrets, successes and to help an organization that supports women, inviting other women to join us from time to time. It was after about the 6th dinner, I left think “I know some AWE-Mazing women”. When I got home, I sent an email with a plan and Secrets of the Sistership was born. We organized under the existing organization, Jumpstart Your Reentry, 501c3 public charity, as part of the outreach and prevention programming. The Sistership helps women and girls dispel the myths, lies, and stereotypes that prevent us from being all we are purposed to be; and supporting organizations that serve them. The first myth to dispel is women are competitors. We promote collaboration. Our logo with the S cocooned in the circle represents the Sister is safe in the Sistership circle. We still have seven founding Sisters and many others support the program. Women bought into the Sistership. They began to give of the time, talents and brand. We are multi-culture, ethnicity neutral and not bound by age; this is a program for women by women.
Has it been a smooth road?
If it is a smooth road; then it’s the WRONG road. My prayer is God go before me and make the rough places smooth and the crooked places straight. The biggest struggle was me. When you are the visionary people have expectations. When we publicly launched the Sistership, I was facing my Goliath. I had left the comfort of my paycheck to work full-time in my consulting company Beyond Branding, I had been deceived by someone I considered a friend and exiting a romantic relationship. How do you show strength and courage when your world is falling apart…YOU LIVE YOUR TRUTH. The second biggest obstacle is other people. I believe God prepared me by allowing me to detach from what I perceived as 3 “safety-nets” my job, a friend and a love interest to show me my why is not contingent on anyone else’s yes.
So, as you know, we’re impressed with Secrets of the Sistership – tell our readers more, for example what you’re most proud of and what sets you apart from others.
Simply put we are a program for women by women. We are not church, but I’ll tell you Jesus loves you. We are not a business network; but you’ll meet the smartest, most astute and successful women entrepreneurs and professionals. My Sistership Sister Beena says, “Be the CEO your parents want you to marry”. You will meet that woman in the Sistership. In the Sistership, we want women to learn how to look past the resume and get to know the sister.
What’s your favorite memory from childhood?
If I would have answered this two years ago, without a doubt I would have been times spent in my grandmother’s kitchen. As a Southern woman, cooking is in my blood. I learn more about life than cooking in her kitchen. But I realized a few years ago, I learned how to enjoy life riding with my mom in her convertible Fiat Spider, or later her Le Baron with the T-tops. It didn’t matter how hot or how cold the first thing my mom would do fix it to where our hair would blow, and we would use the heater or AC as appropriate. My mom, RIH, was an adventurer. She loved and lived life to the fullest. I didn’t realize how much my mom loved or was teaching me until 20 years after her death.
Take the risk. Be uncomfortable. Be different. In a world where you can be anything, BE YOU.
Let’s touch on your thoughts about our city – what do you like the most and least?
I am a native Houstonian. We are conditioned to joke or complain about traffic, weather and the staggering number of people that make Houston their home on a weekly basis. Harvey changed all of that for me. It was like blinders or veil being removed. I saw my city through new eyes. I love seeing downtown, the heartbeat of the 3rd largest city in America. I am moved and motivated to serve her from a place that God prepared in my heart. Houston Strong is more than a hashtag it is a way of life.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.secretsofthesistership.com
- Phone: 8323053051
- Email: vicki@itsbeyondbranding.com
- Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/secretsofthesistership
Getting in touch: VoyageHouston is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you know someone who deserves recognition please let us know here.
