Jackie Capers-Brown is the third of "Four Badass Black Women.” Jackie has endured unimaginable grief yet she has found a way to take that grief and transform it into something great. You can reach her at her website.
I met Jackie when she interviewed me for her “Level Up Your Life” podcast. When she asked me about my theme song, I answered, “Rise Up” by Andra Day. Jackie told me it was her theme song too.
If anyone has risen up “in spite of the ache” to “move mountains,” it’s Jackie. Learning of Jackie’s incredible story of grit and resilience planted the seed in me to start the Finding Fertile Ground podcast.
Jackie started the Level Up Your Life Podcast to help her coaching clients advance their vision, voice, and value and empower others, especially women of color.
Jackie was born in Columbia, SC, to working-class parents who inspired her to believe that any work she does should represent her best. When Jackie was just 13, she heard a thump upstairs. She ran up to find her mom collapsed. Willie Mae insisted that Jackie call her sister to take her to the hospital, and tragically, Jackie never saw her again.
After her mom died, Jackie began to experience anger, sadness, and depression. She felt like she was no longer standing on solid ground. Fortunately, through writing she recognized she was becoming an angry teen. Instead of focusing on the loss of her mother, she realized she needed to focus on what her mom had provided her.
“She was strong, she was tenacious, she spoke her truth to power even when Black women were not heard much or respected, and she had faith in God,” said Jackie. “I realized that my mom was strong, so I am strong because I have her DNA in me.”
Even though she was sad and mad at God, the process of writing down her thoughts and becoming self-aware placed her on a lifelong journey of self-discovery and leadership.
Six years later her beloved father died from cancer when Jackie was 19. Losing both her parents tore her up. By that time Jackie was a single mom in college, and she realized she couldn’t keep up with it all. Then six months after her dad died, Jackie found out she was pregnant with her second child, son Blease. At that point she felt she could no longer work without having anyone to take care of her children.
She decided to go on government assistance and move into Section 8 housing. The next year and a half she felt defeated. Then she had a spiritual awakening and she began to see herself the way God sees her. The love, mercy, and grace from God, combined with the spirit of strength she called on from her mom, dad, and ancestors, helped her to keep going. She was able to start a minimum wage job at Marriott Hotels, and within 10 years she had become an executive leader. Six months after that, Jackie was back on the roller coaster of grief once again, when her son died at age 14 from a cardiac arrest.
This time she numbed her emotions, suffering in silence, while building a successful and award-winning team. She became a workaholic, working 60 hours/week. Finally, she prayed a simple prayer: “God help me to help myself.”
Through this constant experience of grief, grit, and resilience, Jackie became committed to helping others actually realize the power of the stories they tell themselves, “because it was the fear-based story I was telling myself about not being strong enough to handle my grief that caused me to suffer needlessly,” Jackie said. “So that’s a big piece of the work I do today, helping people transform the narrative, redefine what’s possible in their life, and step into their greatness.”
Jackie and I talked about George Floyd, Martin Luther King Jr., and othe
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