Shantell Monique Smith
Shantell Smith is a visionary leader, author, minister, licensed pastor, counselor, and entrepreneur dedicated to holistic transformation and human empowerment. She is the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Training 4 Life Inc., a faith-based and wellness organization committed to helping individuals, families, and communities heal and grow spiritually, mentally, emotionally, and physically. With more than two decades of experience in social work and 15 years in law enforcement, she has devoted her life to service, advocacy, and guiding others toward healing, stability, and purpose-driven living.
She founded Training 4 Life Inc. in 2006 with a mission to provide comprehensive, whole-person support that integrates professional clinical knowledge with spiritual and traditional healing practices. Her approach is informed by her Master of Social Work training as well as the natural healing wisdom passed down from her great-grandmother, who taught her the use of herbs and natural remedies. Over the years, she temporarily paused and relaunched the organization multiple times, each time expanding her education, certifications, and leadership capacity to better serve clients with more complete and effective solutions. She officially relaunched the organization in 2019, and the COVID-19 period became a pivotal time for growth, allowing her to build a strong and steady client base.
Today, Shantell’s work focuses on addressing trauma at its root by understanding how emotional experiences are stored in the body and influence behavior, identity, and well-being. She provides integrative services that include therapy, life coaching, mentoring, breathwork, meditation, soul healing practices, and detoxification protocols designed to support deep and lasting breakthrough. As she continues to expand her impact and restructure her offerings for a broader audience, she remains committed to her lifelong mission of helping people move beyond survival into alignment, healing, and purpose-filled living.
• Licensed Pastor
• Certified Life Coach
• Master of Social Work
• Georgia State University - BSW
• Isaiah University - MSW
• MSN Article, 2025
• NAACP (Lifetime Member)
• Soup Kitchen Volunteer in Port Huron
• Community Service Work
What do you attribute your success to?
I attribute my success mostly to being disciplined and having a passion to help people. My whole career, my whole adult life has been dedicated, even as a child, to helping people. I originally was in law enforcement for 15 years and I've been a social worker now for over 20 years, so I have spent my life helping people. As I got my degree and learned more, I developed a new way that's more effective because I help people deal with past traumas based on how they're locked and stored in our bodies. When you empty out all the things that no longer serve you, that no longer have a purpose in your life, what you're left with are the things that were innately in you. Now your passion can come through more powerfully, you can have more clarity and understand your purpose, why you're here, and what you're called to do while you're here. So now you can get to work, and then we start working out a plan for you to start moving towards your purpose.
What’s the best career advice you’ve ever received?
The best career advice I ever received came from one of my mentors, Napoleon Hill, who has long passed but I live by what he taught. He said that it's the small things that you do daily, consistently, even when it becomes boring, that build your self-trust. And that builds that resiliency in us to be able to withstand the hard times, the highs and the lows. When you have kids, I put it in simpler terms - every day when you wake up, you get up and make up your bed. While you brush your teeth, you look yourself in the eye and tell yourself I love you. You do the little things and you do them every single day because it begins to create a trust in yourself. I know that every day I'm gonna make my bed, every day I'm gonna tell myself I love me, every day I'm gonna look myself in the eye and I'm going to do the right thing because it's innately in me. I taught myself to trust me - I can trust me if I can't trust nobody else.
What values are most important to you in your work and personal life?
Spirituality is most important to me. Making sure that we understand that we are all connected - there is no you and me, it's a we, and we are all connected and we need each other. We're gonna need people, we're gonna need systems and structures. Everything that's been created in this world was birthed out of a need or an answer that was placed in us before we were sent to this earth. As long as we know how to clear out all of the trash and the junk that tries to suppress it and press it down, then what comes out is the trueness of love and respect. It's about us learning to work together as a human race, us learning to love and elevate everyone around us so that we all can come up to a better place and a higher place.