Angela Thomas Smith of Aspiring Authors Magazine

You are listening to the Living Legacy Podcast. This weekly podcast inspires you to step outside of your comfort zone. My name is Zaakirah Muhammad, and I'm your host of the Living Legacy Podcast. I am a cancer survivor, brand cultivating strategist, author, and world traveler. This Living Legacy Podcast features women of purpose sharing stories of resilience. They are single and married. They are artists and entrepreneurs who run businesses and juggle parenthood. If you are ready to hear interviews about professionalism, entrepreneurship, travel, life, and love, you are in the right place. They will share stories of how they overcame adversity while seeing life through a different lens. Let's get into it. This episode is sponsored by my new book called Seeing Life Through a Different Lens: A Survivor's Memoir on Overcoming Adversity with Resilience. You can visit zaakirahnayar.com. Happy New Year! Are you ready for tips on how you can step outside of your comfort zone and into your zone of genius? Well, have no fear, the See Life Through a Different Summit is here. This is a 2-day virtual summit with over 10 women speakers on topics such as book publishing, mental health, finance, podcasting, entrepreneurship, and much more. This life-changing event inspires women like you to grow to be the best version of yourself in your personal life and in your career. Shift your mindset into a greater sense of abundance, gratitude, all while seeing life more positively. Enjoy this summit right from the comfort of your home, March 2nd through 4th. There will be unlimited replays, panels, breakout sessions, and workshops, as well as a virtual expo. Sign up now to get early bird tickets and a special gift of a supplemental journal. Visit bit.ly/CLifeDifferent. That's bit.ly/CLifeDifferent. Angela Thomas-Smith is the queen of collaborations. Born in Anderson, South Carolina, she became a first-time author in 2016 and has since co-authored 15+ books. Her purpose includes helping authors to feel empowered, encouraged, and to gain education on the book publishing process. Angela Thomas-Smith is the founder of AAAALAC, African American Author Literacy Awareness Campaign, formed in 2018. She is a domestic violence survivor. Her journey to bring awareness to authors of color internationally with in-person and virtual events had led her to become a radio show host and to create the Aspiring Authors Magazine, where authors collaborate build their brand, and are interviewed about their life story of overcoming adversity.

So welcome to the Living Legacy Podcast, Angela. How are you doing?

I'm great. How are you today?

I'm good. Thank you so much for being a guest. You know, I think we need more women, um, especially minority women, women of color, who just genuinely support other authors. So tell us why, uh, you decided to do that. Is that what you feel is your legacy?

I created my organization because I was working with kids and I, I felt like brown authors weren't being represented well enough. So I wanted to create a platform where we could come together, we could network, we could build on each other, we could help encourage, inspire, and educate each other. Because not all of us, when we step out in this, know what we're doing. And I can only speak for me. I did not know what I was doing. I didn't have anybody to take me by the hand and was willing to show me anything. So everything that I have built, I pretty much built on my own, just from like you was doing, researching and just finding out, you know, what may work. And then it's still all trial and error. Um, but my desire is to just educate, empower, and encourage people to walk in their purpose and to let people know that they do have a purpose.

Yeah, definitely. Purpose is anything that you feel that would— people would remember you when you move on, but also that fulfills you, especially during these tough times, right? So what is your favorite part about this whole journey of helping others to, uh, find their own journey?

So when I get a phone call or I get a message or I see somebody post— posting something saying that this wouldn't be possible if they had not come in contact with me. I have a friend and she's also an author. She actually do children's books. And her book is over in Africa. And the fact that someone in New York, um, from Africa recognized her. I think it was, um, Lagos.

Well, Nigeria.

Nigeria. They recognized her, and that made me feel really— I mean, it made me feel good because of the fact that if we had not had that opportunity to be featured and to be in Africa, you know, none of that would have been possible. So it made me happy. It makes me— it gives me joy. It gives me When I wake up in the morning and I can help somebody do something along the literary journey, I've done my thing, and I'm happy. Like, I published a book for 6 Nigerian poets. They wanted to publish a book, so I helped them publish their book, and the joy and the gratitude that they had, I mean, it just, it just made me feel good to be able to to do something to help somebody else fulfill their dreams. Because Aspiring Authors Magazine, if it was not for my editor, that would not be reality. I thank God for individuals wanting to collaborate and partner because my editor, she lives in Lesto, Africa. If she had not come on board, Aspiring Authors Magazine would not even be in existence. And she's helping me fulfill my dream. When we come together and we work together as a team and work together as that village, we can make a lot of things happen for a lot of people. And that's just my desire. I just want to see people thriving and working together and reaching back down and helping somebody else come up. And it not be about competition. It not be about worrying about what the next person is doing, but us coming together and encouraging each other. and empowering each other. I think that's what we need in this world right now. You know, we need to show a little more love. We need to show a little more kindness. You know, I asked the question last week, what if? You know, and that thing has still been ringing in my mind since last week. What if I had not survived that suicide attempt? I wouldn't be right here. What if I'd given up and 2014 when I was shot point-blank range with a shotgun? What if I just said I didn't want to live anymore? You know, just imagine all of the lives that I have impacted. What would have happened to their lives? You know, I think about a lot of these things when during this time because I'm alone a lot. So I think about a lot of stuff and it's like I've been just Having a chance to, you know, reevaluate some things and be grateful for a lot of things. You know, a lot of people, they don't understand your journey. They just see your now, and they don't know what you had to go through to get to your now. And I'm glad I don't look like what I've been through. And I thank God that my journey didn't take me out, because some people don't make it through their journey. You know, I thank God that, you know, I made it through those things. It was by his grace and his mercy that I survived and is here to share my story. And I just want to be able to, I guess, help other people find that, that thing that will spark their purpose and allow them to live that purpose that God has placed you here for, because he's placed us all here with a purpose, no matter where we are in our life right now. You know, a lot of us have that what-if question, you know, and some of us have more than one if question, you know, but I just want to encourage someone today, um, to let them know that no matter where they are, it is never too late. It is never too late to discover that thing that really makes you want to get up in the morning, that makes you drive, that makes a smile on your face. Because during this pandemic, you know, a lot of people been feeling a lot of different ways and just going through a lot of different things, emotional and all different types of ways. But I tell you, I felt like this has been one of the best seasons for me in a long, long time. You know, when I tell people I just come back to Facebook, I just come back to social media in January, they're like, where you been? You just came back in January. Where you been? I was, I was not on social media for a whole year. Um, some things took place in my life. Um, life happens, but we have to learn how to not let life stop us from living because we can't change the things that has happened. All we can do is live in the now. We can focus on the now. We can't focus on tomorrow because he told us tomorrow take care of itself. You know what I'm saying? So we can't worry about tomorrow, even though we want to plan for tomorrow and we want to make things happen for tomorrow. we just can't focus on it. It's okay to plan ahead, but we can't put our focus on that. We have to put our focus on that that's taking place right now. So I often ask people, what are you doing now to affect the people around you, to affect your community, to affect—

Mm-hmm.

Yeah, to affect your, your legacy, the things that people are going to remember you by. So that's a lot of the reason why I became an author, because I wanted to, I guess, be a voice for those that think they didn't have a voice, so that they can see that they have a voice. Because if you look at me, I'm a country girl from a farm. I grew up on a farm. My family has like—

Wow.

In South Carolina, in a place that people probably never heard of, Leveland, South Carolina. So now that I look back over my life, you know, I think about, I never thought that I will be doing a lot of the stuff that I'm doing, especially from the background that I come from. And the milestones that I've made in my life, even though I didn't reach a lot of the things that I wanted to do in the route, I look at it like this. Maybe that's not the plan that God had for me. That's the plan that I had for me. So I had to step back and I had to realize that, you know, sometimes I have to move out of my way and let God move and let God work. And allow him to lead me and do his plan, not my plan, because I messed up too long. I've messed up for over 40-something years, and I don't want to mess up no more. I want to enjoy the rest of these years.

This episode is sponsored by Focus Media Group, founded by Zaakirah. We focus on the social media of entrepreneurs so they don't have to. We understand the frustration of the ever-changing algorithm. Let us help you with your Instagram growth, business strategy, or branding services. Visit focusmediagroup.com to learn more. That's focus with a PH, focusmediagroup.com.

I've picked up a few of my gems, a few gems that I feel like my audience probably also picked up on. One is, it's not yours. Your plan is God's plan. And 2 is definitely, once you know what you are good at, outsource the rest of it. And then I think the 3rd thing that I also picked up on was the fact that people on and off social media will know just the tip of the iceberg of your story, but don't know the rest of it. Even if they grew up with you, even if they just met you or they've known you since. you started, you know, that one specific project. So people know you but don't know you. So those were a lot of great, great tips that I can definitely agree with and attest to. And I definitely thank you also for including the opportunity to also have me feature my story. It made it very easy as well because I know there are a lot of authors who are, you know, not tech savvy and they need something to be able to adjust to these times of we're gonna be using technology a lot more, and had it not been for technology, despite— I feel like I do have some ties in South Carolina, but despite technology, we, you know, we're connected in that way. And so also rewind a little bit and tell us what really helped you to start Aspiring Authors Magazine. So we know that you started, we know that you wanted to help to encourage other authors to tell their story, But why did you start it? Maybe rewind to, uh, maybe what inspired you from your story to start the magazine?

I wanted to provide an opportunity for, um, authors to get in front of other authors and other people in different places all over the world. So I wanted to do something that will be an avenue that could reach people with us not actually having to be there. You know, people often say they're looking for exposure, so I wanted to provide an opportunity and a platform for them to get exposure and for them to voice their, um, their voice. So that's— that was the main reason behind creating Aspiring Authors Magazine.

Okay, perfect.

And now where can we find more about you, more about your story online?

So I am, um, an author of now 13 books, um, and each one of my books— I have not did my autobiography yet, um, and I, um, I share different bits and pieces of my journey and the different collaboration projects that I do. I actually have done 13 different collaboration projects. So in these different projects, I've shared my journey. All of my books are listed on Amazon, or you can check me out on our author's— well, our magazine's website. I am also on the website because I am the founder. So you can go under the founder's link and you can find out just a little bit about me. But I'm on Facebook. Um, that's where you can find all about me. Um, you can take a journey through my life, um, through the pictures, um, since I created, um, ALAC and Aspiring Authors Magazine. I love to take pictures. Um, I love to, um, do videos. So you'll see a lot of videos and a lot of pictures that capture, um, things that we've done, um, since the creation of ALAC and Aspiring Authors Magazine.

Now rewind a little bit. What does AALAC stand for?

So AALAC is the African American Author Literacy Awareness Campaign, bringing awareness to African American authors all over the world. That's what this beautiful little thing is.

And for those who are listening in, she's got this great setup of banners with her logo and the acronym, and she got the whole branding thing going on. She got a shirt on for promoting. So she definitely had narrowed down that aspect of marketing, of being able to toot your own horn, of being able to market yourself, which I feel like is definitely something most people have to learn. I mean, as a photographer first, I literally had to teach myself marketing because I started photography when Facebook pages were literally just starting out. So what other tips do you have for those who want to— Let's rewind a little bit and talk about collaboration projects. Those are the projects where another author had the book but didn't want to basically do it themselves, right?

So yeah, this is what— okay, let me show you some of my projects. So I have, um, let me see, I actually have my last project that I did.

So be sure that for those who are listening in, be sure to definitely watch this video on our YouTube and on our Facebook. And if you are watching on YouTube or Facebook, definitely be sure to share this video. All right, so let's see what we got.

So this is a devotional, um, that I did. with 10 other women. It's called The Sisterhood of the Traveling Prayers, and it's a devotional that encourages individuals to develop a prayer life. And we share our testimonies and we share our journey into discovering our purpose and how prayer has been a part of our life. And how prayer has made a difference in our life. So we have, um, it's 11 of us in this book.

Perfect, perfect. I love that. And so there's so many books out there that at least give people the opportunity to write, even if they don't know where to start, don't know how to start. But what are your tips for those who want to start, but they just— they want to start writing, want to start telling their story, but they're stuck? So what would you give What are 3 tips you would give to that aspiring author?

Everybody has a story. Yeah, everybody may be writing, but everybody has a different story, and everybody's story can affect people in a different way, and we can relate in a different way. So don't think that your story does not matter. Don't think that your voice do not matter, because it does, and you don't know who your story could affect. So I encourage you to journal in your, in your personal time, write things down. Just, it does not matter. Just write it down. You can go back later. And I've had people say they just journal, journal, journal, journal, and just turned it over to the editors and then allowed the editors to put it together and then they published it. So just write and go back and read and write. I was, I just get it down on paper. Um, I'm always available because I love to help. Um, if, if you're interested in, in getting self-publishing yourself, I can show you how to self-publish yourself. Or if you want to hook up with somebody that publish, I can put you on the road to help you find the right publisher, um, for you because there are a lot of different, um, people out there that are, um, publishing and helping people, um, publish their books and they do it with a passion. Um, there's Christian book publishers. I mean, just whatever you, whatever you want to do, but your voice does matter. Never think that your voice do not matter because I'm gonna tell you, you wouldn't think that just a couple of years ago that I would not be on here talking like this because I, I wouldn't have been doing this. I wouldn't have had— because number one, I never thought I would be an author. That's something that never crossed my mind when I started the program with the children. And I used to come on Facebook all the time and post on Facebook. This lady saw me from Texas and she saw what I was doing and she saw that because of that program and we wanted to do the program different, I was asking people to come in and do workshops. So she saw me, she reached out to me and asked me to be a part of a collaboration. That was my first time ever publishing a book. A collaboration started me off writing. So don't think that your voice do not matter. I told her, I said, I've never wrote before, I don't know what to do. And she told me to write, just write. She said, write from the heart. She said, whatever's laid on your heart, she said, write it. I wrote, I sent it to her. I was thinking she was going to send it back and say, oh, we got to do all this, we got to do all this, we got to correct this, you got to change. She told me it was perfect. And that was my start. That gave me a voice that made me feel like once I did that first book, I hadn't been able to stop. It's just like— I keep saying I ain't gonna write no more books, but every time you turn around, somebody's doing a collaboration project and I got to share my story. I don't care if I share my story 1,000 times. Somebody needs to hear it. Somebody needs to know that they do have purpose. Somebody needs to know that they are a queen and they need to discover that queen in them. Somebody needs to know that they're not in this alone. They need to know that they do matter and that suicide is not an option. Somebody that's going through domestic violence needs to know that They need to get out that their life is valuable, that they are indefinable, that they have worth that no one can put value on. I encourage them to write. I encourage them to journal. I encourage them to reach out. If you know you have a voice and you don't know, there's so many people on social media that can lead you in the right direction, even if they can't do it themselves. And we got to learn how to get our voice out because we never know who life we may affect. I'm saying just because we came together today, you never know who may tune in and hear our conversation. So I'm thankful. I, I thank God for every opportunity that I get to be able to come on somebody's platform and be able to share and be able to touch somebody's life because I just want them to be educated. Empowered and encouraged.

Absolutely.

That's the power of social media, the great thing about social media. And, um, let's definitely keep the conversation going, the connection going, because like you say, us queens need to be able to work together and enjoy, uh, growing together because it's challenging, definitely challenging. So thank you so much for being on the Living Legacy Podcast. It has been an amazing conversation, and I'm so glad to be able to hear your story, and I know others would definitely be impacted and inspired by it. So thank you, Angela.

Thank you for listening to the Living Legacy Podcast. Be sure to subscribe, follow, and download so you don't miss the next episode. If you want to learn more, you can visit zaakirahnayyar.com. That's Z-A-A-K-I-R-A-H-N-A-Y-Y-A-R.com. Do you have any suggestions on a topic you want to be talked about? Send me an email or leave them in a review. If you love this episode, be sure to share it with your friends.