Photo by Alyx Chandler.
Shellie Layne poses in the Habitat Birmingham Restore.
For Shellie Layne, it all started with crying in Walmart in 2008.
“I was a multimillion-dollar producer in real estate, but I ended up in a divorce situation being a single mom, not knowing what was going to happen next. The market crashed, and I crashed,” she said.
At the time, Layne wrote a column called “I Cried in Walmart.” It was published in the Birmingham Times as part of her reoccurring column called “At Home with Shellie,” what she would later name her nonprofit aimed at motivating and helping women in need.
The column described her situation as she went inside Walmart to find an air conditioning unit because the unit in her house went down. When the attendant told her the instructions and to have someone install it for her, she broke down in tears because she realized she was alone at home.
But, she pulled it together, Layne said, and went home and wrote the article instead of writing the real estate tips she usually wrote.
“What that article did is it reached out to women, and for the first time, it started telling my personal stories about failures and home repair and all that,” Layne said. “What I did is I made it about life issues and the women that responded, it was overwhelming — I mean, I couldn’t believe it.”
Women responded to Layne’s situation, saying they understood and had been in similar situations themselves. Over the years, she kept writing articles about “how to repair her life” and eventually founded At Home With Shellie Foundation and the Women Under Construction Network, which encourages women through home repair and motivational life skills.
The nonprofit focuses on aiding women, especially those who have survived domestic violence and other difficult situations, by teaching them practical skills, Layne said, as well as teaching them to believe in themselves.
In 2014, she created motivational and informational events through WUC Network, during which she brought women together at the BJCC and other spaces in downtown Birmingham. As a single mom who had been through bankruptcy and foreclosure, she wanted to share and connect with women about how to be inspired through difficult situations.
“I’ve literally seen At Home With Shellie become a movement for women. We have so much more to do. … I love it because it’s become unique, there isn’t anyone doing what we do, and I think it puts us in a whole different dimension,” Layne said.
Ever since Layne was 10 years old, she said she had a love for real estate and a love for fixing things. The Power Tool Socials she offers a few times a year combines both of those. The series started at 30 people in 2014 and has risen to include more than 300 women a session, she said.
Over the past few years, she’s had themed socials titled, “From Stuck to Unstoppable,” which features how to fix sink drains as well as becoming unstoppable in life; “What Turns You On,” which taught women about LED lights and electricity, in addition to talking about what turned off dreams and how to turn them back on; and “Home Inspection,” which had a home inspector come and give advice while Layne shared how to have a successful life.
During these events, she gave away products such as plungers, Drano and LED lights.
Layne said there are a myriad of women all over the Birmingham area who come to her events because they are struggling with everything from divorce or death of a child to substance or domestic abuse.
Many of them tend to be in their 30s or 40s, Layne said, but they get everyone from 20s to 70s.
Photo by Alyx Chandler.
Some of the Women Under Construction Network Leadership Team. Front row, from left: Shellie Layne, Delphine Thompson and Carol Harris. Middle row, from left: Valerie Price, Clotele Brantley, Jackie French, Mariama Glessman, Gwen Buchannon and Dydrea Pittman. Back row, from left: Malia Fort, Shaquana Lamar and Treava Milton.
“Sometimes when women are in their 30s or 40 or older, they think they are useless, they think that their time and their dreams are done, and they think if they haven’t accomplished anything, they have no purpose, and I think what Women Under Construction does is it repurposes them,” she said.
Although a focus is on tools and home repair, Layne said, the real focus is on self-esteem and confidence.
“We teach them just a little bit about home repair and a lot about life repair. We give them practicality, practical knowledge. They’re going to walk away knowing how to do something,” Layne said.
Typically, tools and home repair used to be a male-dominated area but, Layne said, but that has changed. Women need to know and understand those skills to live independently and save money and time, she said.
In July, Layne will be publishing her first book called “D.I.Y. Girl – The Women’s Guide to ‘Do It Yourself’ Home Repair.”
In the book, Layne said she describes how even though the blue print of life isn’t always clear, there is always hope.
“My failures, my challenges, my hurts and pains, there was purpose, and all that I went through now allows me to reach out to other women and help them in their own struggles and let them know that success is not just possible,” Layne said.
For more information, go to athomewithshellie.com.
