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OUR STORY
THE BEGINNINGS
I have been asked on several occasions to explain the “Why?” behind what I do. Before founding Leader Essentials Group, I was transitioning from my role as a Visiting Professor of Management from a private university and focusing my efforts on completing my Executive Doctorate in Business Administration at Rollins College in Winter Park, FL. However, with my extensive marketing and leadership experience, combined with my passion for human resources and people as an educator, I decided it was time for me to start a business of my own. Still, for some reason, it felt like something was missing.
"I" vs. "WE"
One night I was reading a devotion focused on entrepreneurship and the author indicated that you don’t start a business to help yourself; you start a company to help others. This devotion made me realize that starting my own consultancy business wasn’t just about becoming a successful entrepreneur, working hard on my passion, and sharing my knowledge with others. Instead, it was about genuinely helping my clients and employees grow, find their purpose and achieve their unique goals. It did not take too long for all the pieces of the puzzle to fall into place for me, and that is when the “Why?” evolved. It no longer was about “I,” it was about “We.”
THE PARTNERSHIP
Once I understood the “Why?”, I decided to put an incredibly talented team together, and things started to fall into place effortlessly. It truly felt meant to be. In pursuing my Doctoral degree, I developed a strong bond with one of my colleagues, Vera Alves. Although Leader Essentials Group did not yet exist, I instinctively knew that she was the one I wanted by my side on this new journey. She was an exceptionally talented individual with leadership experience, an extensive operations background in the service industry, a passion for learning and engaging with people, and specialized in relationship building. I watched her work tirelessly to secure a job in the U.S., which proved difficult because her international student visa posed many restrictions that companies were unwilling to tackle. Still, I saw what others didn’t, her management and strategic consulting experience, and knew she was worth it!
OUR FIRST CLIENT
After months of working together on academic projects, she and I were approached by another colleague in my cohort, the CEO of a national non-profit, who recognized our strong leadership, managerial, and strategic skills, and proposed a challenging consultancy project. It was an opportunity of a lifetime that enabled us to use our combined management and strategic consultancy experience! Long story short, I had a new client before I had even incorporated my company. My husband and I scrambled in October 2019 to incorporate Leader Essentials Group, LLC, while my new client waited patiently for us to finalize the legal paperwork.
THE TEAM
Since that time, we’ve expanded our team to include a marketing guru with experience in strategic projects to include the creation of websites, social media campaigns, internal marketing campaigns, and expertise in animation software tools for the design of business animated videos for branding or training and development purpose. Our team also includes a financial wizard with extensive experience in providing strategic direction, conducting operations analysis to evaluate performance, and identifying areas of cost reduction and process improvements. We’ve successfully built a team where we complement one another’s strengths and weaknesses!
THE "WHY"
So, what is our “Why” now? It’s to offer an exclusive one-on-one consultancy business approach with clients. We partner with clients and help them discover their intrinsic core values and competencies and propose business solutions that will leverage existing talents while simultaneously providing the necessary resources and skills to take the company to the next level. We are not a cookie-cutter “one size fits all” executive consulting firm. We are a boutique consulting firm that engages with our clients to help them have a lasting impact in the communities they serve and expand their presence in their respective industries. We focus on understanding our clients’ business challenges and identifying best practices and opportunities for leveraging results through strategic alignment, talent development, and offering innovative solutions.
It’s about helping our clients find the soul of their company! For our team, this is much more than a business….it’s a mission!