BY: KRISTINA RAMCHARRAN
Tasheka Mason isn’t your average twenty-three-year-old woman from Toronto. Growing up in Scarborough, she had dreams to do great amounts of kindness for the community.
“I just wanted to do work in the community because I had a placement, my high school placement in the social service sector,” said Mason.
She came to Canada as a preteen and created a setting for what she wanted to do on her own. “I came to Scarborough when I was twelve or thirteen, and I had no outlet except for my family.” In terms of what kind of outlet, Mason said, “I didn’t have an outlet to do creative things I liked.”
Mason came to Canada from Jamaica with big dreams. “I wanted to have an organization that’s really organic and touches young people in a different way than the regular get up and go do this for money kind of thing.”
As a child, she was always looked upon as a leader. Mason said, “When I was in Jamaica I was a leader,” because she was always left in charge to look over the class whenever the teachers stepped out of the classroom.
“I’ve always been an outlet for people to let themselves out, even at such a tender age,” said Mason. “I would be able to provide some sort of motivation to them.”
As Mason progressed through school she noticed her leadership qualities and willingness to help others in distress.
Being a motivational speaker and workshop facilitator, Mason wanted to project her experiences through her work to help better the lives of others. To reach an even broader demographic, Mason turned her life lessons into a book titled ‘Resilience: One Woman’s Story of Strength.’
Mason describes her book Resilience as a memoir chronicling her life’s obstacles, with each chapter followed by a lesson learned.
“This is what I learned, and here’s how you can learn something if you go through something similar,” said Mason on why she wanted to share her story through her book.
Outside of being an author, Mason makes sure she does what she can to share her story to help others.
On why she wanted to be an entrepreneur, Mason said, “I always wanted to run my own business, I didn’t want to work for people. I want to provide opportunities for people. I want people to be able to set their own hours and work on their own schedule.”
At the time when she started her entrepreneurship, Mason was still doing social service work as part of her school placement. She knew she was getting bigger when schools and organizations began asking her to speak at events.
After finding success in motivational speaking and conducting workshops, Mason still works in the social service sector. For the past few years, she has been working with Toronto housing in the revitalization unit. Although she has a passion for helping the community, Mason said, “As much as I love social work, it feels like work.”
She enjoys speaking and doing workshops because she wants to breathe purpose into others. “I’ve always wanted to share my story with people, helping people to understand that really, seriously it is not the end. You’ve survived your life up until today, your better days are ahead of you,” said Mason.
She decided to continue with both her entrepreneurship and her social work because she sees her motivational speaking as her way of rewarding herself while providing relief. “I always knew, no matter how much community work you do, you always want to give yourself back to the community.”
Mason has her family back home in Jamaica, and she describes herself as the glue keeping the family together. “if I’m not working…I can’t support them,” said Mason on why she stays motivated to hustle.
Mason said the purpose of her mission is to change the world with her life’s journeys and lessons.
“Uplift, educate and inspire. Those three things that follow me wherever I go.”
