Remaining Resilient During Life and Career Changes with Brittany N. Cole

As a career and leadership coach and author of Thrive Through It, Brittany N. Cole understands the ins and outs of building a career that is personally and professionally fulfilling.

“I believe thriving is much more of an inside job. And so I think regardless of what's going on around you, thriving is about being able to extrapolate the lessons, particularly from hard moments to really reimagine and reinvent as you move forward,” she explained. 

In this episode of Tell the Story with R.H. Boyd, Monique Gooch, editor at R.H. Boyd, sits down with Cole to talk about the resiliency it takes to achieve your dreams – both personal and professional. Together they’ll discuss how to lead from a lens of impact and the importance of creating workplaces where everyone can thrive.

An Entrepreneur on the Rise

Although Cole originally planned to attend law school, she began her career working for Pfizer, learning the inner workings of a corporate environment. As a product of her experience and valuable mentorship, Cole began speaking and coaching outside of her nine to five. Eventually, she was exposed to the world of entrepreneurship after working in image consulting, where she helped women improve their professional appearance and career. 

“I was helping women with their look and with their leadership and, you know, navigating within their own career and saw a path to really marry what I was doing inside of my corporate organization.”

Taking a leap of faith, Cole left her job with Pfizer in August 2019 and transitioned from image consulting to building her own firm, Career Thrivers, which focuses on leadership development. 

Disrupting the status quo in leadership development

While building her business, Cole noticed her target audience, millennials, craved two main things: diversity and inclusion and professional development. 

“Do you have a workplace where black women can thrive and being comfortable saying black, and why is black different from people of color? And why is that intention even in the language and also in the resources and tools that organizations are providing black professionals in the workplace, why is that important?”

Today, the company focuses on a broad spectrum of diversity including the intersection of race and gender such as equipping women in leadership. But most importantly, she and her team strive to help companies cultivate a workplace where all their employees can thrive.

Journeying Through Change, Challenge and Loss

When we’re faced with crossroad moments whether it’s relocating for a new job or deciding if we should stay at our current company, Cole noted that this is where the opportunity to thrive is present. 

In her own words, “thrive” means to be in a “space where you can show up fully where you find meaning and where you enjoy the work that you're doing.”

But how does one thrive after change, challenge, or loss?

After the death of her mother, Cole began writing her book Thrive Through It as a way to cope. From writing and processing her emotions with God, she was able to develop a roadmap of resilience that is applicable to both career and life. 

“So the premise of the book is really helping us to redefine the way that we think about resilience,” Cole explained. “When we expect people to be able to bounce back to where they were before a loss, we don't acknowledge the mental and emotional sometimes dysfunction that it puts us in when we don't prioritize self-care. And we don't prioritize authenticity as we're journeying through change, challenge and loss. And so, the book is a journey through what that looks like.”

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