What's going on, Pursuers? Welcome to The Pursuit
of Calling, the podcast that provides you with
the strategies and tools needed to successfully
discover and pursue your calling. Whether it's
through inspiring stories, thought -provoking
interviews, or quick, insightful episodes on
personal growth and development, we've got you
covered. I'm your host, Thomas Carney. Enjoy
the episode. Guys, thank you for joining us for
this episode of the Pursuit of Calling podcast.
Today's guest is someone who carries a message
of hope, identity, and purpose that I believe
will speak directly to your heart. I'm joined
today by Chante Dixon, a first -generation college
graduate, coach, and the founder of the Poor
Print Framework. After being told she was born
too poor to attend the college of her dreams,
She turned that painful moment into the foundation
of a life assignment, pouring into people who
have been overlooked, underestimated, or placed
in boxes by society. Her journey from discouragement
to purpose is powerful. And for those of you
living with chronic pain or navigating long -term
challenges, Shantae's message will remind you
that your circumstances do not disqualify your
calling. They can actually deepen it. We're going
to be talking about identity, mindset, purpose,
hope, and how to pursue your calling if one life
feels heavy. I believe this conversation is going
to be truly transformational. Let's dive in.
Shante, again, thank you for joining us. Thank
you, Thomas. I am excited and honored to be here.
For sure. And for those who don't know you, Shante,
how would you tell people who Shante Dixon is?
Well, first, Shante Dixon is a child of God.
That is the title that I take great, great pride
in. Like you mentioned, I'm a first generation
college student. Who went on to have a 30 plus
year as an adult probation officer here in the
largest court in the state of Ohio. And that
is actually where. My assignment was honed in
on and actually defined through the clients that
I serve, who were the ones that society deemed
to be the worst. And it was my assignment and
my gift, per se, from God to find the best in
the worst, because a lot of my clients. Their
story mirrored mine in so many ways. Always wanted
to go to college. That was never up for discussion.
Being a first generation college student born
to a single mom. I was fortunate to have my grandmother
and my great grandmother for the majority of
my life. And they always pushed me to that direction.
So as I'm preparing to go, to college I meet
with a counselor to finalize things and had this
dream school that I wanted to go to not knowing
as a kid that financially it was supposed to
be out of my reach but we know God has the final
say in everything and that counselor's words
and his frustration as I indicated to him where
I wanted to go what my plans were were that Unfortunately,
you're born too poor to attend a college of that
statue. But again, he was right. When you look
at statistics and you look at the generational
things that went on in my family, I was not supposed
to be going to college. But he was right, but
wrong. I was actually born too poor. And my life
has been taking on that assignment ever since.
And God gave me the acronym for poor. which is
helping individuals live purposeful, outstanding,
unique, and relevant in every area in their lives.
So that's what I've been called to do, and I'm
grateful that God chose me to do so. Yeah. And
again, I said this in the pre -interview, but
I love how you took that experience. of being
told that you were born too poor to attend that
college and turned it on its head and changing
the word from poor, B -O -O -R, to poor, P -O
-U -R, and creating the framework around it,
then now you can help others find the best in
themselves. The ones that you said society deems
the worst. The audience of this podcast are people
who feel limited by their circumstances, especially
those battling chronic pain. How can they begin
to see their life through that same lens of purpose?
Well, what pain does, it can paralyze you if
you let it. But pain does not erase or disqualify
you from your purpose. Pain actually. takes on
a distillation process. It breaks you down to
the purest form. I have witnessed in my lifetime,
within the last 10 years, actually three very
strong men who have dealt with serious chronic
pain. Two of them were with ALS and the other
was colon cancer. So I have seen how pain can
really get a hold of your spirit. But in them,
I would definitely say they remained purposeful,
outstanding, unique, and relevant in their lives
because there's a mindset when it comes to dealing
with something like that. And you have to shift
because you're definitely going to have some
very bad days. So let's be honest. It's a very
human thing. to experience this pain, but it
does not disqualify your purpose. It actually
clarifies it. It shows you what you're made of.
And sometimes on your worst day, you could become
better by helping someone else become better
and get through it. So it might feel very purposeful,
excuse me, very personal as you're going through
this pain. But in reality, it's very purposeful,
if you understand what I'm saying, Thomas. So
we see it all throughout scripture that God has
used people at their lowest point to make great
strides in history. Yeah. I do like what you
said, Payne, can clarify your purpose. Because
I know in my life, what it's done is it kind
of trimmed off what was possible. It trimmed,
I shouldn't say what was possible, what I was
capable of doing physically. It trimmed, like
I'm a full -time web and app developer. I'm on
the computer all day. I love playing video games,
but I don't play video games right now because
I don't have the capacity to do that and a full
-time job and pursue the calling that God's put
on my life. And so it's caused me to focus on
the, focus on the calling, focus on the priorities
that's helped me prioritize. And like you said,
clarity. And I think you probably heard it before,
but clarity is kindness. Clarity, I think that's
one thing for me. I've said this before in this
podcast that I believe God is a good God and
I'm not healed from my condition, even though
I've been prayed over hundreds of times. So what
does that mean? It means I believe God's helping
me get clarity on the calling he's put on me.
And I don't believe he did this to me, but I
believe he's leaving me here for a very specific
reason. And so, but for those who feel like their
pain does disqualify them, it feels like life
kind of counts them out because the world isn't
really built for some people with chronic conditions.
It's kind of a, it's like. there's some things
we can do but they're not always easily accessible
so like um or like they don't always come to
the forefront of our mind so from that from your
frame from your poor framework through that how
can they how can they see themselves from being
disqualified they actually qualified for their
calling well you can see yourself as i like what
you said You can't do the things that you used
to be able to do with the frequency that you
used to be able to do them. Yep. So it kind of
actually the pain pointed you more in the direction
of your purpose. So it sounds like you're very
productive in doing what you were actually called
to do. So as you do that. And also I hear you,
what I hear you saying is you become more resilient
because you have had to figure out things because
like you said, it's not built. This world is
not built for people in these circumstances.
So you've become more present. Yeah. And I want
individuals to know dealing with chronic pain,
that your presence is a present. to this world
it's a gift it's a reflection of how you show
up being human and being purposeful for some
on that particular day just the very fact that
you were able to get up and get out of bed yeah
and just go about your day as best you could
that's purposeful sometimes we think purpose
is such a grand thing but it's just being present
in the moment and doing the best you can with
what you can for that particular day. And sometimes
you kind of have to shift. I've seen individuals
practice what I kind of call a premature gratitude.
You know, that's speaking things as though they
are, as you say, premature, premature gratitude,
thanking God, it's going to be a good day. So
my good day might not look like your good day.
But for you, you're going to decide it's going
to be a good day with given the circumstances
that I have. So my circumstances won't be my
boundary. Because a lot of times I watched one
of my closest friends deal with ALS. And that's
a very debilitating disease. And I watched him
as long as he could speak verbally, you know,
still thank God. and say don't don't feel sorry
for me god's still been good to me and then as
he could not speak we had these non -verbal cues
that we would use and still remembering god's
been good to me you know so he was practicing
that premature gratitude even though he was well
aware of what his situation was so it's it's
a it's a push yeah It's a push that you have
to push your way through and just, you know,
say I'm not going to allow pain to pause my purpose.
It's going to push me towards my purpose. And
then when I think about my framework, like the
poor framework, again, purposeful, outstanding,
unique and relevant. Outstanding is not, like
I said, just about so much how tall you stand.
It's just the fact that you're standing. In the
midst of everything that's going on, you're choosing
character when you don't even feel strong at
times. At your weakest points, you continue to
dream when life or your diagnosis may push you
to settle. But you continue to have these dreams
because as long as we still have breath in our
body, God has purpose for us. It does not make
us less outstanding. It just more reveals how
outstanding we are and what we can be in this
world and make an impact in the kingdom. My mom
always said to us as children, it's not about
what you go through as much as it is about how
you go through it. You know, because really the
only way out is through. Yeah. So, and then we've
talked about being purposeful, talked about being
outstanding. Also being unique and realizing
that your uniqueness is like your superpower.
Yeah. There's only one Thomas. That's the Thomas
that you are, if that makes sense. Yeah. What
you may think disqualifies you is the very thing
that God intends to use to distinguish you and
set you apart. And you're doing that in this
space right here, which is reaching individuals
and is going to help somebody. So pain actually
gives you a perspective, if you understand what
I mean. It puts you on the path only where your
calling makes sense. It's only where you're called.
It's a custom route, so to say. Yeah. Pain takes
you to a custom route just for you. So it's the
positive, finding the positive and the negative,
finding the best on the worst days. Right. And
it doesn't, like I said, let's not sugarcoat
it. Pain is painful, if that makes sense. Pain
sucks. It does. So it's very okay to be very
human about that. Yeah. You know, so let's just,
let's just be honest and to show up, let's move
on to being relevant. We've talked about being
purposeful, outstanding, unique, irrelevant.
It is staying aligned with the world that's changing
around you and staying aligned with, with your
values. So I like to think of alignment as one
of my mentors described alignment as what you
say, what you do, and what you believe are all
in agreement. Integrity. Integrity. So it could
be staying relevant, could be just having a single
conversation that could change someone's life,
even in the midst of the storm. It could be a
post. It could be the podcast you're doing. Again,
we know that Jesus changed the world with just
12 people. Yeah. David, he led a nation with
just five stones. Let's not forget Gideon who
saved Israel with 300. God has always done the
most with the least in the least circumstances.
So while you're thinking your pain disqualifies
you, it qualifies you on a whole new level. Yeah.
I think from my perspective and from what I've
learned, first, what pops into my head is, I
believe it's in the book of Corinthians, where
Paul talks about how trials produce endurance
and endurance produces character and character
produces hope. And another thing we talked about
during the pre -interview is how the pain of
whether it's chronic pain or it's like maybe
you're sick or maybe you're just dealing with
a external circumstances outside of your control.
It feels like a curse. It doesn't feel like a
blessing. It doesn't feel like it's possible
to be blessed through that situation. But the
thing is, Like you said before, God uses our
circumstances in order to help us define the
purpose that he has put on our lives, help us
understand the purpose that's already been defined.
Because if you think about it, we know God to
be God. He already knew this was coming. Yeah,
right. He already knew. that this pain this diagnosis
was coming so if he already knew that it was
coming he already knew that we could handle it
but it's not always we can't always handle it
alone that's um where i think some individuals
kind of sell themselves a little short when they
try to go through in isolation there's really
power in your circle your environment and your
community especially when you're going through
something um that's as it relates to chronic
um chronic pain or illness yeah it's i was saying
before that Crying pain can feel like a curse,
but you mentioned the community we have around
us. And I talked about that a lot on this podcast
in the past, that I believe it's like through
my church, through aligning myself with God,
not only do I have God in my corner, I have the
people he's put around me. I have friends that
pray for me. I have people I probably don't even
know praying for me. And I believe in the power
of prayer. I don't know what those prayers are
doing, but I know they're doing something, if
that makes sense. Because people pray for healing,
but it might not be the healing I'm looking for.
I've had to heal from wondering, like, God, why
me, and using my condition as a crutch. and using
it as a uh using it like you said sell myself
short to be like no i can't do that because of
my condition or it's people are people being
able to not doing something or failing at certain
things and people being like well that's understandable
because you you have this condition that you
have you have this circumstance that makes sense
i'm like i don't want to make sense like the
purpose the purpose are our calling shouldn't
really, this is just coming off the cuff, but
our calling shouldn't make sense. Like it should,
it should make sense to us as we fall on the
calling, but it shouldn't make sense from the
external. It'd be like that person, like me and
my circumstance with chronic pain, I know I can
achieve more than I can think or imagine because
that's what God calls me to do. And our, and
like our pain, it like, it sucks. It sucks to
be in chronic pain. It sucks to be. uh not able
to do like things that maybe like me i used to
be able to drive like like hours and hours now
i can barely drive like 10 minutes some days
but i'm able to use the blessing of being able
to get rides with people and talk with them in
the car ride talk with them and be able to pour
into them and then pour into me it's a There's
so many blessings whenever you look at it from
the perspective of like, not why me, not why
this happening to me, but what is this doing
for me? Right. Exactly. Exactly. I definitely,
definitely agree with that. I've been in some
situations where, because I'm going to just be
honest, I try to pass the test because I don't
want to go through the test again. So it goes
back to what I said, my mom, it's not about what
you go through, but it's how you go through it.
So trying to get the lesson in the midst is very
important. What am I supposed to get out of this?
What am I supposed to give from this situation?
Because again, why it is personal and it feels
extremely personal. It still is purposeful. So
what do you want me to do with what you've given
me to go through, how you've given me to go through
and how can I help somebody else? Because a lot
of times, even growing up in some of the city's
most underserved neighborhoods, we have what
we needed because I had a mom who was going to
make a way out of no way, you know, and they
say who could. Turn a dollar, turn 15, send it
to a dollar. So she was going to make a way.
But even in that, we still were raised that somebody
else is always worse off than you. So you still
give. And when you give, it's still a blessing
to be a blessing. Yeah. So that's one of the
things that's very important. when you go through
stuff is to kind of step back and look at how
is this going to be used to help someone else,
even in your darkest, darkest places. I, my pastor
who dealt with colon cancer and that was very,
very rough to see. And one of the last messages
that he preached. That I'll never forget is that
you could be bitter or you could be better. Yeah.
And what I think that gave him strength in going
through that very tough storm of dealing with
colon cancer. You could be bitter or you could
be better. It's a decision. Yeah. You have to
remember. You can even say, you know, God, I
don't like this. I don't understand it. But the
blessing is. that I'm still here. I'm still here.
And I would encourage anybody who's dealing with
anything on a physical level of pain, on an emotional
level of pain, on a mental level of pain, is
to honor whatever you're going through. You can
honor that anger instead of hiding it. Be honest.
Be real. Talk to God about it. And also I would
encourage them to separate the diagnosis from
their identity. So a lot of times I've seen people
go through situations, let's just say pain. Oh,
that's so -and -so with cancer. No, that's a
mother. That's a father. That's a friend. That's
a fighter. That's a believer. That's a witness.
I would encourage them to separate the diagnosis
from their identity. For sure. Choose connection.
I spoke about that. Choosing connection over
isolation is very important. I know I've been
in some tough situations. And another thing that
my pastor, he was a comedian, so he thought,
but he really was. And laughter really is a medicine.
Laughter really, I don't know if you've ever
done this, been in a, had a down day or just
put on something funny. Even if it's temporary,
it really medicates you and gets your mind off
of what's really going on. And like I said, give
yourself permission to be human. Yeah. Build
peace. Excuse me. Go ahead. I'm sorry, Thomas.
Oh, no, you're good. I wanted to say before you
said, you said, I'm still, you like acknowledge
that you're still here. And I love the phrase,
if I'm still here, God's not done. Yes. Yes.
And like, if you're still here, if you're listening
to this episode right now, God's not done with
you yet. Not done. He's not done. God's got like,
he's got a calling in your life. You're not,
you're not disqualified. you're you're at you
you have the ability to be purposeful outstanding
unique and relevant yes and yeah like i i want
you to listen to this episode and actually understand
what that means because you're not just a like
you she like she just said you're not a person
who's just in chronic pain i used to be like
that was my identity for a while i understand
like sometimes you're like i i this is me this
is this is this is who i am now it's like no
Yes, that's just a circumstance. Circumstances
don't define your calling, but like she said,
it can amplify it. But you have to let it happen.
You have to lean into the blessing. You can't
look at it like I did as a curse. And it's really
easy to do that. It's really easy to be like,
man, my life sucks. And I'm never going to be
able to do anything because of this circumstance.
But understand that God uses all things worth
the good of the kingdom. Does nothing goes, nothing's
wasted. So guys, I want to, I'm going to start
wrapping up this episode, but I want to, I want
you guys to go through those four things, purposeful,
outstanding, unique, and relevant. And I want
you to write down areas. how you can be doing
that in your life. How can you be purposeful?
How can you be outstanding? How can you, how
are you unique and how can you be relevant? How
you can, how can you align what you're saying
with what you're doing? How can you make sure
in what you're believing and make sure, and make
sure that you have integrity in those areas of
your life. Um, but Chante, I have a few wrap
up questions. I ask every guest for, uh, what
would be some of the top resources or I should
say the number one top resource that you typically
recommend to people, whether that be a book,
a podcast, or even a person, what would you,
who would you, or what would you typically recommend
to people? I would recommend, well, the book
of Proverbs is just, just one of my favorites.
books in the bible about life life application
um that's one of my favorite things but um my
mentor and coach dr darius daniels wrote a book
in pursuit of calling which is an excellent resource
and it outlines and directs you to remember that
everybody has this uniqueness about them and
they have purpose in the earth to do what they
were created to do and just in line with this
conversation you're still created to do something
yeah even in pain you may have to pivot how you
do that and there's power in the pivot yeah You
may have to pivot how you do that, but you were
still uniquely designed for a purpose in this
earth. So I would encourage people to really
remember that. Yeah. Awesome. Thank you. Thank
you for those. I think. I'm trying to remember.
Hazel. She recommended Dr. Darius as well. So
I want to read one of his books before I reach
out. But yeah, I appreciate. He recommended him
for the next question. But next question is,
who do you know that I should know? Who is somebody
that you would recommend for the podcast? Somebody
that would be a great connection for me to have?
I was going to say Hazel. I was going to say
Coach Hazel. Definitely Dr. Darius would be an
awesome individual to have on your podcast. That
would be an awesome individual to have on your
podcast. If you could, if you can make that happen.
For sure. No, I, you know, I don't assume a no.
I know he is a, he has a larger platform, way
larger platform. I know he's a, but I, I would
be blessed to have him on. I listened to a couple
of his messages, but, and then how can people
find out more about you? Sorry. No, go ahead.
I'm sorry. Oh, no, you're good. You're good.
So I can be reached on Instagram at the poor
coach. And my website is born to poor dot com.
And if you would like to email me, you can email
me at info at born to poor dot com. I'm looking
forward to starting off. Twenty twenty six with
some great. Great topics. One of the topics will
be what about your friends? The relationship
audit you did not know you needed because we
know relationships are one of the number one
contributors to our success in life. So who you
surround yourself with is very important and
who you keep in your environment and in your
circle. It's great to build with people who build
you. So we're going to really tackle that whole
relation, relational intelligence piece and do
some workshops around that. Also around boundaries,
boundaries, boundaries and changing some of these
patterns that keep us stuck. So you can look
for that. pretty soon um through the information
i just provided for sure and we got the born
to poor .com we got instagram at the poor coach
and then email if you want to email her she said
info at born to coach or born to poor .com yes
but yeah guys thank you again well thank you
um shantae for joining us uh your message your
framework is great and i really enjoyed this
conversation Me too, Thomas. Thank you. I appreciate,
you know, we've had some little hiccups with
scheduling and technical difficulties, but all
will be well. And I pray God's continued blessings
and favor on your life. And I applaud the work
that you're doing in this space. That's a very
unique population that you're reaching, but even
reaching that population, it reaches others.
So just, you know, stay encouraged and continue
blessings upon you. I appreciate that. I really
do. And for everyone that is listening to this
episode, thank you. And if you enjoyed this episode,
share it on Instagram, Facebook, and every social
media platform that you're on. Again, wherever
platform you're listening to this podcast on,
don't forget to leave a five -star review. And
if you're on Spotify or Apple Podcasts, go ahead
and leave a review. That really helps the algorithm
and also lets me know if I'm doing good or not.
So, guys. Thank you again. And keep pursuing
your calling. All right, guys. See you next time.