UNSCRIPTED: BRING it, PUSH it, OWN it.
Unscripted By Keith Edmonds
FWIS Contributing Writer
“You are the STRONGEST person you will ever know....” ~Tishamarie Strasser owner of.... BRING it, PUSH it, OWN it.
The experiences learned through trauma, pain, and purpose are what fuels my guest today. Tishamarie Strasser is a woman that knows all too well about the saying “The struggle is real out here” as she works with people (mainly women and young girls) who have been marginalized, told to “stay on the sidelines of life, and forgotten about, as she helps them to “stop being a VICTIM, and become a VICTOR in becoming their own hero and finding their sense of purpose again in life.
I really enjoyed meeting with her and finding out about her business and the passion behind what gave her the desire to start Bring It, Push It, Own It, and hope that you will enjoy reading about her in today’s edition of UNSCRIPTED...
INK SPOT: Tishamarie! Welcome to Unscripted today!
TM: Thank you for having me today, it’s my pleasure!”
INK SPOT: Before we get into the meat-n-potatoes of our story today, tell us a little about your background and what brought you to our city?
TM : “I always love the background question because it’s always fun to answer! I'm not fully from Fort Wayne, but I've been here long enough that I could be considered a Fort Waynian! I grew up in California (San Diego) and was brought here at age 12 for the first time to live with my mother, (by my grandmother) and so I've been here since then. Because of my background, people always ask if I'm a counselor, or if I went to school for social work, because of the work that I currently do. I've experienced about any kind of trauma you can think of from physical abuse, sexual assault, to neglect. I had very absent parents growing up as both were addicts, so I've had to really work through a lot of those issues that have come up in my life. I have not actually gone to school for any of those things I've overcome, but I often tell people that I have a PhD in life and overcoming, being forced to have resilience, and just taking the things that come at us then deciding how to use them to help others.
My background is a little entertaining for most people as I've worked in many different industries, and I’ll name a few. I’ve worked in the medical field as a surgical tech, owned a construction company, and have taken corneas out of deceased people's eyes so that other people could see, and I've worked in the glass industry. For the last decade I've run my nonprofit which I’m proud to say has been incredibly good to/for me.”
INK SPOT: I’m hearing a lot of passion for what you do. How can you correlate your life experiences into your passion for what you do now? What was the impetus?
TM: “What happened was I put this image in my mind that if I created this life for my girls that was different than the life I had, you know, the white picket fence, be married, not have to go to a bunch of schools, be in sports to do all the things that we dreamt of doing, then they wouldn't have the same struggles that I did. When my oldest daughter (she's 24 now) went into middle school, I had to give her the confidence to believe that she mattered because middle school is hard! You go through this weird phase where you start questioning yourself a lot. Confidence for girls can nosedive about 80% before middle school begins (even with a “good family”) and they can really struggle. I thought I’d given her all of the tools that I didn't have up to this point, but when we got to middle school, we hit a rough patch. She was an “A” student, she was an athlete, she went to youth groups, and she was a cheerleader, but she was crying and begging me not to take her to school and I couldn't figure out why. So, the impetus to begin my business began.”
INK SPOT: So, the origin of your business was....
TM: “Because of the concerns for my daughter, it brought light to all the things that I think I had suppressed as a girl, and the things that I've gotten through and triumphed over in my life. Though I was still in an abusive marriage, (that I hid from everybody) I was watching my daughter struggle and realizing we’ve got to do something different with our young women. We've got to empower and engage our girls in a unique way to know their value and worth and know their strengths. I started to look for programming in our city that could help her, but only found Girlz Rock (a wonderful program) so I knew that there was a place for what I could bring to empower young ladies hence "Bring It, Push It, Own It,
INK SPOT: What is something you’re willing to share that people would say... “I didn’t know that about Tishamarie?”
TM: “Generally I don’t share this, but I'm a veteran. I went into the Army National Guard at 17 years old because I moved out at 16, and I knew that I needed to get educated. How was I going to do that? The National Guard was a viable option for me. I always tell people when you serve it does not mean that we agree with all things, but if there's one thing that I walked away with, it’s an integrity and a love for my country and for people in general, so that means if we're protecting somebody outside our country that is what you do as a soldier, and I think essentially it's who I am as a person. I want to love people, and I want to help their lives be better. So yes, I'm a veteran which is something that people may not have known about me.”