Today we’d like to introduce you to Cheryle T. Ricks
Hi Cheryle T., thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
We all have a destiny and a purpose. On my road of Destiny and Purpose, I survived teen pregnancy, an abortion, domestic violence, a mental health breakdown, a divorce, obesity, no self-esteem, shyness, insecurity, doubt in myself, unworthiness, the foreclosure of my home, skin cancer, breast cancer, being sued by a debt collector, and bankruptcy. But God! God made the worst parts of my life the best parts of my life.
You see, I had three children before graduating from high school. I had my first baby at 14 years old and a set of twins at 17 years old. I had my fourth child just before my 20th birthday. In 1989, I was diagnosed with bipolar disorder, I was in and out of mental institutions from December 1989 to September 1991. However, I have not had a mental health episode or been in a mental health hospital in over 33 years.
In 2001, just before my 42nd birthday, I earned my Associate of Arts Degree as a Legal Assistant from Baltimore City Community College. On December 17, 2004, just after my 45th birthday, I went to settlement to buy my first home. In 2009, just before my 50th, I brought my first car, and I earned my Bachelor’s Degree in Management from Morgan State University. I wrote and published my 1st book at 54 years old, my 2nd book at 60, my 3rd book at 61, my 4th book at 64 and my 5th book at 65 years old. As you can see, my relationship with God has allowed me to live a wonderful life in spite of everything I have been through.
I am currently the president, founder, and CEO of The Women Empowerment Circle, LLC. I am also a mother, a grand-mother, a motivational speaker, a transformational coach, a book writing coach, a health & wellness coach, a song writer, a poet, an evangelist, a podcast host, a YouTube content creator, a greeting card creator, a contributing editor for The National Black Unity News, a guest writer for Pacific Press, a Christian publishing house, Cheryl’s Magazine, and the author of five life-changing books.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
All of my life I have been searching for my identity. I had no self-esteem and no sense of self-worth. Therefore, I looked for my identity in my relationship with men by using my body to give sexual pleasure. During those years, I never knew that I had any other value but my sexuality.
Still looking for validation, I married the father of my twins because I was convinced that he was a good father to all of my kids including my first son who was not his biological child and he was the first man that I had ever “loved.” My mother knew my potential and begged me not to marry him. However, in my mind, marriage would make me somebody. It didn’t matter that he was already physically and emotionally abusing me. Because I had no sense of value, I never took heed to the wisdom of my mother and older sisters. Therefore, I continued to travel that same dead-end road and it lead me to five more years of hell.
Like so many other abused women who couldn’t see any light of hope, I cried out to God to help me, and He did before I killed my husband and myself, as I had dreamt of doing many times before. However, I had to make a hard choice between escaping the abuse and staying with my children. You see; my husband was a good father and provider, but he was a bad husband. Therefore, I left my children with my husband and ran for my life. However, the pain of leaving my kids behind soon landed me in a mental institution for depression. I was a mother with no one to mother. It was my mental health episode that united me with my children and softened my husband’s heart. It was then that God took me through the healing process and restored me to the woman He had created me to be.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your business?
We equip women and men to become better able to care for themselves and their families in order to impact their communities for positive change. We do this by helping each person make their individual contribution. This allows them to experiencing value and self-worth which create strong families, community stability and generational wealth.
We specialize in Sisterhood among women through Sister Circles. A Sister Circle is a support group that allows women to come together to vent their frustrations, challenges, fears, problems, share their hopes, dreams, and find support, encouragement and resources by forging relationships and partnerships with one another. This is what sets us apart from women businesses and organizations.
Our Passion Points: Achieving wholeness by building Self-Esteem and Self-Worth. Developing a mind-set that promotes each woman’s Self-Care. Lessons for Self-Acceptance, growing healthy relationships with themselves and others. The importance of being a sister not a girlfriend. The necessity and the benefits of a sister circle. The power of sisterhood in obtaining self-fulfillment. I am most proud of my brand which is true Sisterhood and real woman-to-woman connections!
My sole purpose is helping people recognize their value and worth. So. they can see that their uniqueness and being the one and only them is what impacts the community in positives ways.
The products and services we provide are books, workshops, trainings, life-coaching, motivational speaking, other support services that help people discover their true selves, find solutions to the problem they face.
The crisis has affected us all in different ways. How has it affected you and any important lessons or epiphanies you can share with us?
During the Covid-19 Crisis, I learned how important my relationship with God through Jesus Christ and knowing a lot of God’s word allowed me to have stability in my life when there was no stability anywhere else in the world.
Because of this, I did not allow Covid-19 to stop me from living my life. I resolved to keep enjoying my life and the people and the things I always had. I reminded myself how blessed I was and how awesome my life still was even though I had these situations. I took everything to God and allowed Him to walk me through those challenges like He had done for every other problem I had faced in my life. I trusted His unconditional love for me and the promises in His Word.
I held on to my faith in God, who I was in Him, and the plan He has for my life. I believed He would bring me through everything I was going through and I was going to be the better for having gone through it, and I was! I also learned that faith, love, and hope make life and everything else possible! Without these three things, a joy-filled and satisfying life is not obtainable. But more importantly, we must receive the true love of God, keep our faith in Him, and hold on to the hope that God created us for much more than we can see in our current situation. God’s Word ensures us that God is able to bring us through, “But Jesus looked at them and said to them, ‘“With men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible”’(Mat. 19:26, New King James Version).
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.sisters-circle.com
- Youtube: https://youtube.com/@cherylericks2593?si=fJsqEPcXFwVzUXNN
