Today we’d like to introduce you to Brandi Ayers.
Hi Brandi, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
I started my career where 90% of young, black American teens from urban areas start; McDonald’s. It was there I learned the art of Customer Service, managing others, and time/money management. Over the course of six years with McDonald’s, I climbed the ladder from cashier to 2nd Assistant Store Manager and even traveled to stores around the city as “The Fixer”, improving operations and building stronger teams. During that time, I also became a mother. For me, becoming a mother was the most important thing I’d ever do. With that in mind, I knew I needed a long-term plan to ensure my daughter had the best chance possible to grow up and become a successful adult.
So, I decided to exchange my crazy McDonald’s schedule for a more standard schedule with Avon working in Customer Service and enrolled into community college at Cincinnati State Technical and Community College, majoring in Pre-Business Administration. I spent two years at Avon working 10-hour shifts after school four days a week, serving Avon reps who were placing orders or asking questions about their orders. I enjoyed working at Avon and continued to build my telecommunication Customer Service skills, but I lacked the transportation needed to get there each day. I ended up leaving Avon after one year and began working in retail at Express. I absolutely loved working in retail for several reasons. 1. I could continue to work in Customer Service while having access to the latest trends, 2. the hours allowed me to continue school and 3. I could see my daughter more often.
After about a year, it was time for me to co-op as part of my college curriculum. With no office experience, I decided to apply for an Office Coordinator position in the Admissions Office on campus. This decision served me well as it gave me the experience I needed to land my first corporate role at P&G (the #1 consumer products company in the world). I was hired as a Recruiting Co-op responsible for supporting Research and Development Recruiters. Doing that, I prepared communications, helped plan and execute events, conducted data analysis and did project coordination. Since this wasn’t my first job, I was able to leverage the leadership and Customer Service skills that my peers didn’t have. After co-oping for two years (and completing my B.S. degree, which was a requirement for employment), I received a full-time offer of employment to become a Recruiter. That offer evolved into a promotion and a transformative ten-year career at P&G, recruiting and hiring more than 400 people, managing the co-op program I was hired through, leading interviewer training nationally, and managing dozens of projects. At year 10, I felt called to leave P&G. It was one of the hardest professional decisions I’ve ever made but I knew it was necessary to continue my career progression.
I left P&G and accepted a management role with Macy’s as a Leadership Development Trainer while simultaneously starting my MBA in Leadership at The University of Cincinnati. The Leadership Development role helped me gain experience conducting training virtually while building the skillsets of leaders across the United States, including Guam and Hawaii. After one year, I was promoted to Sr. Manager and transitioned into a Sr. Operations Management role in the Macy’s Call Center. Funny thing is, it was the highest position I had ever held and the most money I’d made yet I hated the Operations Role! I quickly realized my true calling was HR, and that was where I needed to be in order to thrive and serve others. After two years, I voluntarily separated from Macy’s to finish my MBA full-time and help my husband run his transportation business until I could reenter the HR workforce after graduation.
That’s when life happened. We had to close the doors of the business, and I couldn’t find a job in HR to save my LIFE! I was told over and over again that I was overqualified. We ended up moving to Georgia, still no offers in my field. After several months in Georgia (and taking a substitute teacher role to make ends meet), I was offered a Part-time Contractor role at Georgia State. In this role, I supported events and provided Career Coaching to students who attended The Robinson College of Business. I was also tapped to manage Employer Relations because of my past experience working in recruiting at P&G. I loved working at the college, and the staff loved me equally but at the time, they had no headcount to hire me full-time (which would have meant a salary vs. hourly pay, 40 hours per week and benefits); so I was still on the hunt for a full-time job. By the grace of God, someone on an adjacent team noticed my work ethic and capability and talked to her daughter (who was looking for a Career Coach at a non-profit) about me. I ended up interviewing with the daughter and was offered a full-time role as a Career Coach for Generation (a tech education non-profit focused on training, certifying, and employing people of color). Whew, I wept on the phone, accepting the offer. I had waited so long to leverage my skillset post-grad school and knew this opportunity had come at the right time. The caveat was, I knew I was overqualified for it and could have asked for a higher salary. Despite this, I kept in mind my favorite scripture, “A man’s gifts will make room for him and bring him before great men”, knowing that I’d get there, do my thing, and be promoted in no time. Welp, that’s what happened. Within one year, I was promoted to two levels, from Career Coach to Director.
By my 2nd year at Generation, I had built a team of exceptional professionals and developed strategies to get hundreds of program grads employed across the United States. Unfortunately, the company took a turn for the worse, layoffs happened and the work environment became toxic so I made the decision to leave. This time around, I had no issue with interviews or offers. I was offered two leadership roles at colleges in Georgia but ended up accepting a role with Avanade (a global tech company owned by Accenture and Microsoft) as a Candidate Engagement Lead (doing diversity candidate sourcing in tech). I did that role for about six months before being tapped for a global leadership role in Inclusion and Diversity Leadership Development, managing a program that trains leaders in North America, Europe, Australia, China, Japan, and Southeast Asia how to lead people with their hearts, not just their heads. To date, my program has trained more than 900 leaders globally. Our goal this year is to train another 1000!
In addition to my full-time global role at Avanade, I run a consulting business called Brandi Nicole Ayers, LLC.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
Smooth road? Absolutely not. But would I have it any other way? Absolutely not! You see, I’m a Christian woman, so I firmly believe that trials and tribulations give us the opportunity to see how God works in our lives. They make us stronger, they build character. They require us not only to have faith but to live it through action every day. The beauty of it is; when obstacles are overcome, we then have the opportunity to share our testimonies to help others see the way through their own struggles. I also believe that when we overcome them, if we look back and connect the dots, we understand why they happened. Soren Kierkegaard said “Life can only be understood backwards, but it must be live forwards.” I believe that to the fullest.
Early in my career, my biggest obstacle was navigating undergraduate studies as a young single parent while finding my way in Corporate America. This time in my life was extremely challenging because I didn’t know what in the world I was doing and where it would lead! I just knew I needed to go to college to get a degree to start a career, and I had to work to provide for myself and my child. Period. I went to class Monday-Friday 8-11pm and worked Monday-Thursday 12pm-midnight. That meant most days; I didn’t see my then two-year-old daughter until she was asleep at night. Whew, it just about killed me, and I wanted to quit. My grandmother told me, “Don’t quit. You are doing this to give that girl a good life. She sees you, but she won’t remember this. Don’t quit.” Needless to say, I listened, and I Thank God I did.
The next big struggle for me was navigating Corporate America as the only person in my family member to do so. Most of the time, I was the only Black person in the room, feeling like an imposter and out of place, and even though I had lots of experience, I had none in the corporate environment. Being from an urban area didn’t help either! LOL! I needed to learn the art of being myself without code-switching while understanding that being professional didn’t mean I was turning my back on my community. I spent a lot of time observing others and leveraging Black leaders within the company to get coaching and guidance. I remember this one older Black woman who mentored me (I can’t remember her name right now, but this was like 15 years ago, so cut me some slack LOL). We met in the cafeteria for our bi-weekly meeting. I thought I was TOO cute but as soon as I sat down she said, “Don’t wear that shirt again.” Man! Bubble-bursting, great-auntie vibes! She explained how we were viewed as Black women and how we had to go the extra mile to be as professional as humanely possible. Guess what? I never wore the low-cut tank again and thought twice about any shirt that MIGHT show too much cleavage. It was that mentoring and also direct coaching that helped me overcome and grow in my new work environment.
Once I got to the point where I was confident in my leadership skills, who I am, and who I am not, my struggle has been effectively using my voice to stand up for others without being a detriment to myself. Essentially, leveraging my unique communication style to advocate for others (direct, strong, unapologetic yet empathetic) while not scaring folks in the workplace. I’ve found myself in situations where I’ve had to stand up and say, “No, I am her manager, and you will not do this to her..” Doing this at the risk of my own job. These situations are hard but they are imperative if we sit in leadership positions. Direct reports have to feel safe psychologically and know that we, as leaders, will “fight” for them. I chuckle thinking about the time I wrote a 5-page legal complaint against a peer who tried to label my team member an “angry black woman” because she was intimidated by her. Oh, I used my writing skills to eat her alive! She was seeing stars by the time I was done with her! I didn’t know what the outcome would be, but you know what? I had put my big girl pants on and used my voice to support someone else. It’s hard, but if I don’t do it, then who will?
I think my last great career struggle is just trying to stay in tune with God to make sure I’m using my gifts the way he wants me to. Am I with the right company? Am I doing enough? Am I serving the right people? Is it time to move on? Should I stay? It’s a constant struggle. Not to do more, but always to be sure I’m doing what I’m told. To manage this particular struggle, I fast and pray as well as pay attention. I look for signs, which include feelings, that tell me, “Yes, ma’am, this is what you’re supposed to be doing,” or “Baby, it’s time to move.” I don’t think this particular struggle will be “overcome” per se. I just need to continue to use techniques to manage it.
We’ve been impressed with Brandi Nicole Ayers, LLC, but for folks who might not be as familiar, what can you share with them about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
Even though I’ve done Business and Professional Career Coaching for nearly my entire career, I started my consulting company in an official capacity in 2020. I did it not only to legitimize my work and stop providing paid services for free but also to expand my reach. I felt like God was telling me I could do more with it.
Since then, I’ve been blessed with the opportunity to do so many amazing things. First and foremost, I provide 1:1 Career Coaching to Professionals who are at different points of their careers. I work with all types of people across the country from college students to entry talent professionals to seasoned professionals who have been working in the same industry or the same company for years and are ready to test the waters elsewhere. The services I offer clients focus not only on what they do but also on who they are. I serve the whole person, understanding their journeys, strengths, weaknesses, and interests to develop employment branding materials that provide a holistic view of what they offer companies. This is part of what sets the branding materials I provide apart from my peers. The employment branding tools I offer are resumes, executive/professional summaries, cover letters, career maps, and more. I also provide general coaching related to how to navigate interviews, conflict resolution, and more. I absolutely love this work because it allows me to use my skills and intuition to create products that my clients are proud of and that will help them achieve their goals.
I also contract my services to companies that manage projects that require Professional Career Coaching. To date, I have worked with Korn Ferry (DEI Project Contributor), Wilmington College (Organizational Leadership Adjunct Instructor), and “Confidential Company” (Lead Coach). My work with the “Confidential Company” (we are in in the midst of testing a program that has not yet launched) is very special to me because I work with job seekers across the U.S. who are experiencing hardships while unemployed. During these 1:1 sessions, I coach them by using the required tools but also by sharing my own testimony (remember when I said I embrace my struggles? Yep, this is part of why). It’s amazing to see how much my clients’ outlook on life changes by the end of our six weeks together. The transformation in them is just as much a blessing to me as it is to them.
In addition to the paid services I provide, I also volunteer because I understand my assignment is not only tied to how much money I make. The money will come and go, but the impact I have on people’s lives will last a lifetime. That being said, I offer free services to individuals who don’t have the means to pay for my services, speak at college events, and teach Career Readiness to Sophomores at Spelman College through a non-profit organization called Braven.
Let’s talk about our city – what do you love? What do you not love?
I still feel like I’m new to the city. There is so much to learn, see, and do in Atlanta. It’s such a melting pot. I look forward to learning more about it in the coming years.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.brandiayers.com
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brandi-ayers
