Today we’d like to introduce you to Ayeisha McNeil.
Thanks for sharing your story with us Ayeisha. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
I moved to Atlanta, GA in 2004. I was a single mom raising two boys on my own. I found myself working in retail clothing. By the time I worked retail here in Georgia, I had previously worked in two other department stores. I enjoyed merchandising and making my department look like a boutique. I took pride and ownership of my job. I remember the boss of the company looking for me and was delighted to meet me because no one has ever made a department look like a boutique as I did. I always wanted to own a boutique. I even drew plans but, life sometimes push you in a whole other direction. I left retail and ended up in the insurance industry gaining knowledge of home and auto policies as a receptionist for the claims and underwriting department. When the company closed the office, I had to figure out my next step.
I wanted to challenge myself to do something I have never done before, so I wrote a book and released it the month my company shut down the Atlanta office. My first book was about relationships and moving forward. The good, bad and the ugly side of relationships. The main character Trini was a single mom who moved to Atlanta, GA from Florida and opened her concierge business. She was a successful character. I found that as I wrote this book, I wanted to be like her. I wanted to be successful, run a company that treats their employees well by caring about them, feeding them breakfast everyday, praying with them, limiting their work schedule so they can have a happy life and love working for me. My book inspired me to be a business owner. It’s funny because although my book was fiction I wanted many parts of it to be real. I ended up writing a sequel to moving forward. That subtitle was Love or Lust. I even wrote a song for it but never got a chance to record it professionally.
In 2014, I found myself working for a bank. I had no prior experience in banking, so I didn’t know the first thing about it. I love the bank I worked for because they took me from zero knowledge and taught me so much. As I worked in this bank, I learned the importance of having financial conversations with individuals and business owners. All my life, I had to save my money in case I had an emergency come up and my kids needed something. I never got a chance to splurge even if I saved $3000 because I always knew I would need it for my children one way or another. Many years as a person who worked from my youth running errands for my neighbors in my building, working as a volunteer in a hospital getting paid, working in a restaurant to support my children in NY while going to college and dropping my boys at the daycare and afterschool programs to go to school and work at the same college in a work-study program made me disciplined in saving for an emergency. I have always been disciplined in saving, but not for happy and joyous occasions.
While working as a Personal Banker, I ran into people who saved, those who didn’t believe in saving, or those who didn’t save because they didn’t trust the banks. I even ran into mattress savers. Learning through classes given by the bank and my colleagues who took part in my success as a Personal Banker, Angela Dean, Adele Tokura and Draco Bohanon, amongst a few others taught me how to have deeper conversations with clients as well as myself about finances. This bank I worked for challenged its employees at the time to save. They gave every employee the same opportunity to receive $1000. The first part was $400 for opening up a savings account with $100 and transferring a certain amount each month. That was so easy. The second part in order to receive the remaining $600 was that you had to complete financial modules by a certain time and do a budget and follow the list to complete. Every item was to be completed and the checklist was to be completed as well. I did everything and received that $1000. You would be surprised at how many people did not join this financial journey and how many people lost out. I wanted to be the person I was helping. I wanted to succeed in saving for a joyous occasion this time. I challenged myself to save $500. Then I doubled that savings. Before I knew it, I was saving for the fun of it to see my progress.
After saving, I made an investment in my very own home. I wrote out a plan in 2008 and in 2015 completed it without ever looking at it since 2008. As I moved into my new condo, I found old papers to shred and I came across my plan to buy a home, save for down-payment and more for furniture and anything the seller didn’t pay for. I read it and tears rolled down my face because I accomplished something and every item on that list was accomplished because I was determined in my mind. Over two years, I sold it. My investment paid off in just over two years. If I lived in an apartment and moved out not owning it, I would have made nothing, instead I made a great sum selling it.
People say a house is a liability. Well in my case, it was an asset. After learning the insurance and banking industry it taught me to protect what you own. I continued to write but in another direction. I begin to write about saving to invest for children, a book titled “A Trip To The Bank With Daddy” and a book about my journey that I took from bankruptcy, titled “My Credit Was F$#%ed Up But” which led to owning a newly built home that I now live in. I wanted to share the knowledge through experience and expertise by creating a conversation in the homes of my community on how they can accomplish their goals of owning a home, positioning themselves financially so that banks have to say yes to them. I became a financial consultant, an author, a personal assistant.
Has it been a smooth road?
The ride is never a smooth one when you are treading waters as a business owner in any capacity. There will be obstacles that challenge you on many levels. Being an Author, Financial Consultant and Personal Assistant has its challenges because you wear many hats. The goal however, is still the same to lead in what I do with honesty, integrity and good character that embodies trust for your clients/customers. As an author writing about finances leads into financially consulting people by being their personal assistant in guidance to their desired goals. The hats I wear all intertwine with what I do. I do believe that one must know and live the experience in order to be impactful so I strive in teaching what I live and that make some obstacles smaller than others.
A few challenges is building clientele, maintaining ever-changing social media outlets for building business, Re-inventing and rebranding yourself to accomplish the image you are trying to project with your clients like ensuring trust, safety, integrity, great customer service and so forth.
We’d love to hear more about your business.
I’m most proud of what I do because I help change people’s lives, adding value to their lives with time to think, build and move forward financially giving them a sense of owning their destiny. They are better equipped to gaining the stability of financial confidence and the opportunity to make investments for the betterment of their future. Too many lives are lost due to the lack of knowledge and even the refusal of that knowledge to better oneself. What sets me apart from others is the fact I help with the root of my client’s financial issues. The root most times are their credit history which prevents them from being looked at by a bank. When you don’t have any credit you are casper the ghost when you have bad credit you are seen briefly as the walking dead. Now when you have good credit you are adored by banks, however, don’t mistake good credit for being an approval because your debt to income will make you get a denial if it’s out of the range. So I work on these areas and more with my clients to position them. This makes me even a better Personal Banker. My clients come to me most times being denied but, they are surprised when I attempt to help them fix things another banker won’t. I treat all my clients as value not dollar signs or a quota to make my goal at the expense of any client. If a client tells me about their credit issues and their score is 450, I encourage them to make an appointment and bring their credit report so we can review it. My clients see that I want to help them win. It’s time we all win at this financial walk of life.
Is our city a good place to do what you do?
Absolutely! I feel that Atlanta is a great place for a business like mine! Here in Atlanta places are so spread out that it takes too much travel time to accomplish a lot in a day. Having a Personal Assistant whether you are a new Mom, Lawyer, Doctor or Employee of a company you can benefit greatly from having a personal assistant who are well informed as a financial consultant and a notary to get your everyday or weekly errands done for you. Time allows mental rest and mental rest is important for full-body health.
If someone is just starting out, I would surely recommend them to start out here in Atlanta and get involved in networking with like-minded individuals. They need to build a support team to constantly encourage them to never give up and keep working hard because hard work will pay off eventually.
The traffic could always improve in our city they have more than enough funds to make that happen. If the buses and trains were better we could rely on them to connect great people together. Networking is very imperative for the survival of any business. There is nothing like getting to know a new place than riding its public transportation…lol.
Pricing:
- Personal Assistant-$30/Hr or $60/Hr
- Notary- $2/$20 travel fee
- New Mom’s Assistant-$30/Hr-Varies
- Elderly Check In-$30/Hr Varies
- Home Organization/Office-$30 Varies
Contact Info:
- Website: www.alphaomegatrinityconcierge.com
- Phone: 404-917-3783
- Email: ayeisham@alphaomegatrinityconcierge.com
- Instagram: @alphaomegatc
- Facebook: @alphaomegatrinityconcierge
- Other: Alpha & Omega Trinity Concierge
Image Credit:
AbuZahr Lkd
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