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From the outside looking in, Shantavia Webb (MBA, 2015) has done things in proper order: high school, college, career. 

When Webb graduated high school, she enrolled in a four-year degree program at a brick-and-mortar school in Tennessee. She worked her way through college and a retail management internship program at Kroger. Upon college graduation, she moved straight into a full-time retail role with Kroger. Webb then spent the next two decades building her career.

But things aren’t always what they seem. “Despite how I am probably perceived,” Webb says, “whether it be career accomplishments or just the perception of my role or how I show up, I’ve struggled with insecurities my whole life.”

Here’s the backstory that led to her finding her voice — and writing a children’s book about it. 

As an intern, Webb learned retail in theory. Once she entered the workforce, she “hit the ground running.” She was soon promoted to an assistant store manager role, where she learned that retail is nonstop.  

“The stores were open 24 hours at that time,” says Webb. That included holidays and weekends. Webb, who holds herself to a high standard, mirrored that above-and-beyond level of service. “If the base expectation in retail management is a 7 a.m.-to-5 p.m. [shift], I am going in at 7 but sometimes staying till 6 or 7 p.m. I wanted to make sure that if my district manager or somebody came in the store behind me, I felt good about how I was leaving it.”

Her efforts paid off. After a few years, Webb was promoted to store manager. She met Kevin Lindsey, who was working as district HR coordinator for the Mid-South division of Kroger and earning his master’s degree at ������Ƶ.

Webb was intrigued. She’d always thought that her path forward in retail depended on hours worked instead of degrees gained. Lindsey encouraged a different perspective. For him, gaining an MBA “was like a dream. It made me feel that I could do anything,” he says.

Webb liked this mentality. She also liked the idea of proving to herself what she was capable of. She began researching UOPX and learned about its flexible model. “Because of the demanding schedule [of retail], I never felt like I could really go and sit in the classroom,” she says. UOPX’s asynchronous format seemed designed to work around that.

Yet even with Kroger’s tuition assistance, UOPX’s flexible schedule and Lindsey as a role model, school presented challenges.

“I’m someone who likes to give 100% in everything,” says Webb. “I remember times when I would get home at 6 or 7 p.m. and start to do my course work. [I’d be] up until one or two in the morning.”

Webb realized she couldn’t give 100% to both school and work all the time, so she started and stopped school several times as she learned to balance it all with her personal life. 

Throughout it all, Webb kept her eye on a career transition into the corporate HR world, and let her business leaders know during performance reviews that this was her goal.

“I always felt more connected to having the development conversation, having coaching conversations, whether it be from a discipline standpoint or just in the day to day,” Webb says.

Her vocalization paid off. About halfway into her MBA program, an HR manager position opened in Kentucky. Webb applied and got the job that moved her into an 8-to-5 schedule. The new routine was just what she needed to give 100% to the MBA program.

The new role also required a shift in thinking. She felt the ante go up, as now she was responsible for advising on HR best practices across stores and supporting her district manager.

“I had to take a little bit more of a strategic lens,” she says. Fortunately, Webb was simultaneously learning “the strategic thought process” in her MBA program. She learned to ask questions like, “How do I create a more strategic plan to help my stores achieve a goal versus me having that individual impact in one store?” Or, “How do I expand my influence?”

While appreciating the synergy between learning skills in the classroom and applying them in the workplace, Webb struggled with the slower pace of her new corporate setting. “In the stores, it’s always super-fast-paced,” she says. “It’s like it had to happen yesterday. Then, when I got into the corporate side of business, it was a lot of ‘go fast to move very slow.’”

Thankfully, Webb had several leaders who helped ease the transition. The vice president of operations, for example, taught Webb to communicate succinctly. “Give me the bullets. Give me what you need me to know and what you want me to do in the first paragraph,” he advised.

Webb was grateful for the guidance but still lacked confidence. It took a pivotal moment in a conference room for the tables to turn.

“Imagine a big conference table,” Webb says. “They had chairs around the table, but they also had chairs around the wall. I was so nervous to commit some kind of cardinal sin going into the corporate environment that I found myself shrinking myself a bit,” says Webb. “So, I sat along the wall.”

The VP walked into the room, Webb says, and asked, “What are you doing? Why are you sitting along the wall? You would not be here if you did not deserve a literal seat at the table.”

“I take that with me,” says Webb. “We need those leaders to remind us that they have you here for a reason. You have done the work. Now, show up like you’ve done the work. Be confident in yourself.”

Webb embraced that message, and not just for herself. When her niece was entering kindergarten, Webb wanted to build her self-confidence, so wrote her a set of daily affirmations.

As it turns out, this was a practice with some history. Webb was just 9 years old when her family moved from Syracuse, New York, to Nashville, and Webb felt insecurity take root. Her new school was more advanced academically, and Webb didn’t feel like she was catching on. Her mother, however, affirmed her, saying, “You are smart. You are going to get it.”  

When Webb had her daughter in 2020, she carried on the tradition and started telling her such affirmations as, “I am smart. I am kind. I am fearfully and wonderfully made.” Today, her daughter recites the affirmations on the way to school.

Webb felt it time to spread the word more broadly and got busy writing

“If I get into my mind that I want to do something, I’ll probably spend every free moment focused on that one thing until I feel like it’s to a point where I’m ready to release it,” Webb says. No wonder then that she finished writing the book in a matter of weeks. Working with a freelance marketplace for illustrations was more arduous, but the book got published. Webb already has another one completed and is being encouraged to also write a version of I Am Loved for young boys.

Whether for children or co-workers, Webb is successfully spreading confidence.