About ME

Whether you are already familiar with who I am or you stumbled upon my page from a social media post or Google search, I want you to know a little about me before you click away to the next thing! Yes, I know how our attention spans can be. Again, thank you for coming to check out my page, my business, my life.

I'm a southern girl born and raised in the country comfort of southern Virginia. From childhood, I always felt like I was different. That kind of "different" made me feel like an outcast at times and definitely not a part of the popular group of kids. So, I made up in my mind that I was leaving the country for the big city life and moved to North Carolina a couple years after high school.

From there I learned the cost of adulthood as I spent a year on the campus of North Carolina A&T State University, quickly realizing tuition, room and board was too expensive for me and my parents to cover. I had enjoyed my taste of freedom, the friendships, and the learning too much to totally give up on college and  decided to join the military to help pay for tuition. That's a story for another time, but I finished! It sounds easy, right? Well, I didn't mention that when I came back from my Army training, I also became pregnant with my son, got fired from a job, slept on my best friends' couch, got a new job, and with the help of my parents raising my son, finished college!

Everyone thinks the best leaders and most successful people have this straight line to success. As I look at leaders I admire, this is never the case and if I want to be counted among those who people look to for encouragement, leadership, and mentorship, I better buckle up and be brave for the rest of my journey!

I also had the opportunity to complete two graduate degree programs all while raising my son and daughter. This is where my call to leadership became evident. I've had my share of encounters with good and not so great leadership. I have learned from both, and sometimes being brave required me to be the outcast again, speaking up when leaders were not acting in the best interest of those they served. It's quite unpopular to be that voice and I learned some people only love you unconditionally when you agree with them.

I learned to take my pain and prosper from it. Some people immediately think of prosperity as money, but my mind, body, and soul has benefited from the lessons learned in the most painful circumstances.

Too often, I've seen women dull their sparkle on purpose to fit in where they were meant to stand out. I was that woman. I was the woman who graduated with multiple degrees and still had not fully discovered my purpose. I was the woman who held the license of a minister, preached in pulpits, yet felt my true audience was not inside a church building. With two Master's degrees and one from seminary, I still felt defeated in my personal life. Deep within, I was screaming for more than another year of college, another speaking engagement, or the next promotion at work. No more of another year being who everyone else thought I should become to be considered a success.

Day by day, I felt God molding me from brokenness into wholeness. Through my darkest days, I published my first book in 2014, "The Blessing in the Breaking," which would speak to the hearts of those who could not see the light at the end of the tunnel or the healing at the end of brokenness. My next book entitled "Naked: Volume 1, A Poetic Journey through Passion, Pain, and Purpose" is a collection of poems written over a span of 27 years and although it is my most transparent work yet, it will be released in Spring 2022.

I plan to continue this journey. I won't quit on myself or those depending on me to be brave. So here I am, being brave, serving love, and making a difference for anyone who needs the push.

I am Taronza Graves. I am a Mom, A Leader, An Author, A Speaker, A Poet, An Actress, A Painter, A Mentor, And an Entrepreneur. 

These are my Brave Elements.