The Power of Resilience with Brittany Cole

08/13/20 • 54 min

Career Thrivers Founder Brittany Cole believes every experience is an opportunity for continuous improvement, and she brings that attitude into all of her work as a speaker, coach and consultant. At Career Thrivers, Brittany partners with organizations to engage, develop and retain diverse talent through targeted leadership development. She’s also a TEDx speaker and host of the Career Thrivers Podcast.

Before starting her company, Brittany spent 12 years working at Pfizer, where she started as an intern and grew to become a high level sales and marketing leader. In August of 2019, she left the security of that job to start her own venture, because she wanted to spend more time pursuing her passion of helping others grow and thrive. Brittany also brings that passion to her local community, serving as a mentor for Pathway Women’s Business Center, the marketing director for NSN Nashville and a coach for TEDxNashville.

Brittany’s decision to take the leap into entrepreneurship was a difficult one, and she shares how experiencing grief and loss transformed her into a person who had a new perspective on her purpose in life. As a highly respected thought leader around diversity, inclusion and equity, Brittany also offers her perspective on some of the challenges women of color face in the workplace, and she gives advice to leaders who are looking to intentionally create more safe and inclusive environments.

In This Episode:

Brittany shares some of the biggest lessons she’s learned about career and family while working in corporate America and starting her own company. She also discusses the importance of allyship in the workplace and provides practical advice for anyone looking to build greater inclusivity in their organization.

Episode Highlights:

How Brittany decided to take the leap and start her own company
Defining diversity, inclusion and equity
The six components of allyship in the workplace and why it matters
The importance of allowing yourself to grieve losses in career and family
How Brittany’s husband has been her biggest champion
What it means to redefine resilience and learn from loss

Resources Brittany Mentioned:

The Awareness and Actions of Allies
Career Thrivers Podcast and its vault of free resources
Brittany’s TEDx Talk on Redefining Resilience

Non-Profit Spotlight: Girl, unKnown Inc. provides hygiene and education for disadvantaged girls around the United States. They also hold educational events to spread awareness about women’s issues and highlight some of the amazing things women are achieving all around the world.

Sponsor: This episode is sponsored by Insperity, an HR company that makes a difference. Insperity combines first class service and robust technology so you can focus on your people.

In This Episode:

Episode Highlights:

How Brittany decided to take the leap and start her own company
Defining diversity, inclusion and equity
The six components of allyship in the workplace and why it matters
The importance of allowing yourself to grieve losses in career and family
How Brittany’s husband has been her biggest champion
What it means to redefine resilience and learn from loss

Resources Brittany Mentioned:

The Awareness and Actions of Allies
Career Thrivers Podcast and its vault of free resources
Brittany’s TEDx Talk on Redefining Resilience

Sponsor: This episode is sponsored by Insperity, an HR company that makes a difference. Insperity combines first class service and robust technology so you can focus on your people.

Previous Episode

Her Story of Success: Season Next

Here at Her Story of Success, we are on a mission to help women — business owners, leaders and professionals build their tribe and reach their next level of success — connecting them to one another, equipping them with resources and empowering them along their journey.

We’re excited to announce the Her Story of Success brand relaunch, which speaks to not just where we are today, but where we are going. We want our company’s look and feel to match the authenticity, belonging and confidence inspired by women’s stories that we are so honored to share. A special thanks to Kindly By Kelsea for bringing our brand vision to life!

In This Episode:

In today’s episode, you can hear from our CEO and Podcast Host, Leah Glover Hayes, as she shares exciting information about what Season Next looks like for Her Story of Success and what being a part of our journey will mean for you.

Next Episode

Trailblazers in the Food and Beverage Industry: Her Story of Success in Review

Her Story of Success recently went through a rebranding process to help us better reflect where our company is today while also preparing for Season Next. But even as we look ahead to where we want to go, it’s important to also remember where we came from. With Her Story of Success in Review, we’re revisiting some of our favorite conversations, giving you another chance to be inspired by the amazing women who helped mentor and shape Her Story of Success into the company we are today.

In this episode, Mignon Francois, Jessi Baker, Laura Lea Bryant* and Maneet Chauhan share their stories of carving out space for themselves in the historically male-dominated food and beverage industry.

Their Stories of Success

Mignon Francois was living on her last $5 when a neighbor asked to order cupcakes from her home bakery. Mignon took that $5 and continued to multiply, eventually building The Cupcake Collection into a multi-million dollar business. Mignon’s bakery helped revitalize her Nashville neighborhood, and she’s been honored as a Woman of Legend and Merit by Tennessee State University and an Emerging Business Leader of the Year. The Cupcake Collection, which now includes locations in Nashville and New Orleans, also won Black Enterprise Magazine’s Family Business of the Year Award.

Listen to Mignon’s full episode here.

While working full-time as an attorney, Jessi Baker started Ole Smoky as a side hustle with her husband and two friends, never imagining what it would one day become. Today, Ole Smoky is the most visited distillery in the world, and its moonshine is sold in all 50 states and 53 countries. Jessi now develops Ole Smoky food products, recently writing a cookbook that features cocktails and family recipes for true Southern food. She and her family have become serial entrepreneurs, opening four distilleries and businesses like Bootleggers Homemade Wine and Yee Haw Brewing.

Listen to Jessi’s full episode here.

Laura Lea Bryant fell in love with cooking when she was a recent college graduate, struggling to enjoy her life in New York City and looking for ways to heal her body and mind. That personal journey soon turned into a deep passion for food and wellness. Laura Lea attended the National Gourmet Institute to become a certified holistic chef, and has since built a career as a successful recipe developer, writer and voice behind the website LL Balanced. Laura Lea also just released her second cookbook, Simply Laura Lea.

Listen to Laura Lea’s full episode here.

Even as a child growing up in India, Maneet Chauhan always knew she wanted to be a chef. With her parents’ encouragement, Maneet attended hospitality school in her home country, and then moved to the U.S. to attend the Culinary Institute of America. Today, Maneet is a world-renowned restaurateur, Food Network Star and writer. After working as a chef at top restaurants in New York and Chicago, Maneet and her husband co-founded Morph Hospitality Group, and she’s opened four restaurants and two breweries in Nashville. Maneet is also a regular judge on Food Network’s Chopped, and she’s the only Indian woman to ever compete on Iron Chef.

Listen to Maneet’s full episode here.

*Correction: In the episode we referred to Laura Lea Bryant with the incorrect last name. We apologize for the error.