Zenda Walker is an author. She’s always been a writer, but it took a pandemic for her to uncover a topic she was passionate about bringing to the world. She is owner of Know Your Hairitage and author of Zara’s Washday and Zion’s Crown, two children’s books that celebrate hairstyles of African descent through story.
Before embracing life as an author, Zenda was in Sales & Marketing with Ulta, Coty, and Procter & Gamble. She honed her skills as a storyteller in the corporate world before taking it to life as a professional writer.
During the pandemic, Zenda found a topic worthy of bringing to the world while bonding with her daughter. She gradually saw herself as an author and took bold moves to build an award winning book series and get a book deal with a major publisher.
Listen to the full episode. You’re sure to pick up a nugget or three for your own career adventures.
Don’t have time on your commute to work? Skim the top five themes below. Then listen to the full episode on your commute home.
5 Core Themes
Here are five themes you should take note of in your own career adventures.
Find Your Refuge
Where is your personal refuge, where you feel at peace, where your dreams flourish? When asked how she got into writing, Zenda shared that she’d always been a writer. During the pandemic she rediscovered this refuge. Inspired by caring for her daughter’s hair, she found a topic to share with the world. Zara’s Wash Day and the Know Your Hairitage platform emerged.
“I found myself always going back to a childhood dream. At every area of my life, I always was a writer, right? I always wrote in my journals. I always found it as a beautiful refuge to write and kind of go to that quiet place where I could be loud on paper.”
Rediscover your refuge today!
Life Isn’t Linear
We’ve been trained to believe that life is linear. We enter school and advance linearly from year to year. It’s no wonder that when we enter the work world we expect things to be linear too. We’re asked, “Where do you expect to be in 1 year, 3 years, 5 years?” In reality, life isn’t as linear as we should expect. Work is likely becoming even less linear.
When asked about the path she took to write Zara’s Wash Day, Zenda said it was about seizing moments to process what was happening with prose. It was a family activity that gradually gave her the courage to bring something great to the world.
“I would start to think about these moments I was having with my daughter and it was all coming together, not necessarily in chronological order, but then it just became something that was undeniable, that the story had to be told.”
See Yourself
It can take time to see who you might want to be and then become it. For Zenda, it took almost the entire pandemic to realize she is an author and the subject of heritage is important to others. Like a caterpillar becoming a butterfly, Zenda transformed into a butterfly. She had important stories to tell.
“the thing that held me back for many years of actually publishing was I never actually saw myself as an author, right?…You think of all the famous authors that we think about and you're thinking, okay, they had a career path, they have these bodies of work that somebody deemed ready for the world or acceptable or award winning. I realized that over the process of writing the book, which it took me, I'd say it took me the whole pandemic. I realized that I'm actually an author. I'm just not published yet.”
Intentionally Bold
Sometimes we can chalk things up to “luck.” This might not give you enough credit. Luck happens. But, it takes hard work and intentional effort to pave your own way. Zenda put in the effort to push outside of her comfort zone and manifest opportunities. Getting a book deal and winning a book award didn’t just happen. She earned it!
“Ultimately it's your energy, your talent. The hard work you put in prior that just shines through and then it just happens that people actually see it in that moment. 5 or 10 years ago, I'm not sure that I would have been the girl to walk up to the CEO and president of top five publishing company.”
Transfering Your Skills
One of the biggest career challenges is seeing where your skills are transferable. We’re able to do it in hindsight or with the help of someone else. Seeing it individually is a hurdle. Zenda shared how writing a book on hair just made sense in the end. She was an experienced hair stylist. She was a natural story teller. Going into her writing career, this was not as easy to see.
“Also as a hairstylist, just love doing hair. I was able to marry the two things and sometimes I use the term fall into this career as an author, but I realized it was the natural next thing for me to be able to do. I really enjoyed telling sales stories building product mission and being creative and speaking to customers. So I was already writing, right? I was already kind of creating and stories corporate, and it just transferred into also my consultation skills with customers, right?”
Listen to the Full Story
Zenda started in sales and marketing. She eventually applied her skills as a story teller to writing as a pro. Her thoughts will help people see that you can write a new professional story that is rooted in your heritage and interests.
Enjoy the episode! Thanks for you support!
Paul G. Fisher
Episode 7: Embrace Your Hairitage