Latesha Byrd Wants You to Dream Big
Written by Meg Seitz · Photography by Julia Fay
Yes, Latesha Byrd want you to dream big. There’s something else she wants you to do first though – she wants you to stop doubting yourself. {Continued below}
As Owner of Byrd Career Consulting, Byrd is a former recruiter turned career consultant and professional branding strategist who offers resources and services for professionals who are ready to make a career move. She makes this happen through a variety of processes and packages that include resume writing, LinkedIn writing, interview, and personalized, coaching sessions.
The biggest problem I see with clients is that a lot of people doubt themselves and their abilities,” Byrd notes. “We don’t take ownership of our careers and the great things we’ve done because we don’t think they’re important – and they are.”
Those services are only made possible through Byrd’s natural warmth and ability to encourage, support, and partner with someone who knows they’ve got more to give the professional world.
Byrd came to that conclusion herself naturally – and early. She grew up fully aware that both college and a career were non-negotiable.
Raised in Raleigh by her mother who worked as a school bus driver, Byrd saw it all; they struggled financially, moving year after year. As a young person, she knew she wanted to position herself for success.
Which is why then during her undergraduate time at University of North Carolina at Charlotte studying Accounting, she started to pursue internships with a variety of organizations. She wanted to get a jumpstart learning the innerworkings of the professional world.
Byrd went on to pursue graduate work at N.C. State University, earning her master’s degree in Accounting immediately following undergrad. As she started her career in accounting though, she started to hear some surprising requests from friends.
“I would have people – friends – reach out to me and ask me if I could help them with their resumes,” she recalls from Hygge’s Camp North End. “More and more people started reaching out to me, and I realized then that I could make money doing this.”
Byrd took that idea and ran with it. She launched Byrd Career Consulting in 2015; since then, she has worked with over 300 clients from Silicon Valley to the East Coast.
“I want each client to feel important, and so I take a personal approach with each of them.”
How has she been able to do that so well? Her clients spread the word.
“I’ve been really lucky that I haven’t had to seek clients,” she notes. “The company has grown so quickly by word of mouth.”
Though she casually chalks it up to luck, it’s really been because of something she’s done very purposefully. Byrd lives and breathes business magic that’s often lost in this age of automation, social media ads, and email marketing campaigns. That magic is her personal touch.
“I want each client to feel important, and so I take a personal approach with each of them,” she says.
To do that effectively, Byrd has consciously built her company to be process-based versus product-based which allows her the time and space to connect with clients the way she wants.
“I want them to know that I’m in their corner from the get-go,” she reiterates.
Byrd makes that personal touch more possible with one of her favorite offerings – the three-month coaching program. Over the course of those ninety days, she works with a client to get to know not only his/her professional experience, skills, and strengths, but also his/her personal background and the lifestyle he/she wants moving forward.
Clients are experiencing success with that approach.
“One of my clients just came through the three-month program, and at the end, she said, ‘well, my last day of work is tomorrow,’” Byrd recalls with the same surprise she felt that day. “I was shocked because I didn’t tell her to quit her job; but the following week, she had an interview – and she got that new job.”
Success for Byrd and her business shows up a couple of different ways. Yes, it’s the new jobs and the big career or lifestyle re-positioning. But it’s also in those more private and personal moments, too.
“When I see the lightbulb go off for someone – the ‘oh, I could do this’- lightbulb, that means a lot to me,” she shares.
The work is always about getting to that point though; which is why Byrd chooses to shoot it straight when she advises clients to get out of their own way.
“The biggest problem I see with clients is that a lot of people doubt themselves and their abilities,” Byrd notes. “We don’t take ownership of our careers and the great things we’ve done because we don’t think they’re important – and they are.”
So, what’s the one piece of advice she’d share with someone who wants to take that first step in a career move?
“Dream big,” Byrd recommends. “Don’t think because you’ve been doing this [job] for this long that it’s the only thing you can do.”
Meet the Author: Meg Seitz is the Founder and Managing Creative Partner of toth shop, an agency with one goal: Elevate your brand’s content through powerful writing, creativity, and strategy. She also serves as an Adjunct Professor with Queens University and Founding Partner of the children’s book series, “Bea is for Business”.
She’s an English major with an MBA, so she can talk Homer’s “The Odyssey” just as well as she can talk sunk costs – though she’d much prefer the former.
Meet the photographer: Julia Murray, owner of Julia Fay Photography, feels most at home behind a camera with a story to tell on the other side. Her business began during her sophomore year of college, while majoring in radio and tv broadcasting. Now residing in Charlotte NC, she primarily shoots weddings and other local small businesses like her own. Her favorite part about her job is the connection it brings between art and people.
