We recently connected with Andria Taylor and have shared our conversation below.

Andria, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Let’s start with the story of your mission. What should we know?

My passion is helping people grow and thrive, wherever I work and connect. Women in particular often lack the support and confidence to step up and out to pursue their dreams and aspirations. After 20 years in corporate learning and development, I left driven by a vision for elevating and empowering women. I knew we could do more to ‘ignite the power of women’ by engaging in community and leveraging the power of mentorship.

Many of the women bosses I worked for were the opposite of mentors – they were at times harsh, competitive and not supportive unless it served their agenda. My mentors were primarily men who supported my growth and provided opportunities for growth. I know it’s not everyone’s story but I believe women can uniquely address challenges we face in the workplace and life.

My goal is to empower women to become all they are capable of being. I live with a big vision and thrive on imparting that to other women, helping them achieve their dreams. A friend once said, “I see in you what you don’t see in yourself.” That is the heart behind The Mentors Collective – supporting women so they feel seen, know they are worthy, and capable of impacting the world for good!

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I have always loved to teach, encourage and support people to grow and develop. I enjoy calling out strengths and potential I see in others. After 15 years work with a non-profit. I want back to school for a masters’ in Adult Education and launched my career in training and development.

I’ve spent 20 years in corporate learning and development across multiple industries, most recently corporate healthcare. Launching a business that creates community and mentorship for women was an exciting and empowering next step. I chose to focus on women because we often lack the opportunities and mentorship from other women who have been down that road we are currently trying to navigate, whether it’s business or life transitions.

I serve all kinds of clients – women in the corporate space, entrepreneurs running a small business or those in the midst of life transitions. We offer a program that equips women to be a mentor with a signature, six-week program that providing them tools and a framework. Once mentors are certified, we pair them with a mentee looking for just the expertise and experience a mentor has to offer. Unique to our program is that mentors are paid for their services and we stay involved ensure a supportive, effective mentorship experience over their six-month engagement.

What I’m most proud of is taking the risk to step out of a secure corporate role to create a heart-centered business that supports the success of other women using my unique skills and experience. I’ve always been an entrepreneur ‘wannabe’ and now I have the chance to step out courageously. There has been such resonance with our mission to ‘ignite the power of women through community and mentorship’ both from women who want to mentor and those looking to be mentored.

Have you ever had to pivot?

I’ve had the opportunity to recreate myself personally and professionally multiple times. After college I began working with a faith- based nonprofit and loved the mission and the opportunities for travel and exposure it provided me. However, as many know. the pay is often low. My boss at the time encouraged me to go back to school. and get a master’s degree. I wasn’t sure what to study, but was encouraged by a friend to check out adult training and development program at NCSU. I loved it! And I set my sights on becoming a trainer and then running training departments. The shift for me was to stop looking to an organization to direct my career and become the owner of my professional journey.

After grad school, I had the opportunity to work with a consulting firm. Honing my presentation and instructional design skills. After several years, I landed a fabulous job as director of performance at a company in Colorado. It took my facilitation and leadership skills to a whole new level and I still use many of the tools to work with and leaders to this day.

I worked in leadership consulting and hospitality for several years when my children were young. When they entered kindergarten, I landed a job working in corporate healthcare where I’ve spent the last 12 years developing and delivering leadership development programs. With the changing dynamics in health care, I was ready to launch out on my own and create The Mentors Collective. I’m just a year in, but it’s been an challenging and wonderful journey with amazing support from other women.

I learned it was possible to choose to focus on what’s most important to me (raising my children at a tender age) and still be able to re-enter the workforce. And By creating my own business, especially one that that supports women and women owned businesses, I’m a role model to my children and to other women. We can decide how to live our lives in line with our values and priorities and use our talents to make the world a better place.

Can you share one of your favorite marketing or sales stories?

One of the most powerful lessons I have learned, whether building a business, creating a program or event, is to ask and ask big. If you want help from someone who is well-known or more successful than you, reach out and ask anyway. The worst that can happen is they decline. More often, you’ll be surprised at how willing people are to support you.

An example of this from my corporate role was when launching a leadership program locally, we wanted a senior executive leader to help kick it off. We were the smallest region in a huge organization, but when I reached out to the most senior woman executive, she was delighted to help launch our program.

Recently, I was running a panel of women in leadership for The Mentors Collective. Using my connections, I was able to recruit some amazing women to be on the panel. One is a local success story as an entrepreneur, another is a senior executive for Amazon Entertainment, and the third scaled a nonprofit to over 4000 people. These women were delighted to be asked to share their experience leading from their respective roles. And I simply ‘paid’ them in flowers and gratitude. So just ask.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.thementorscollective.com/
• Instagram: andriataylor78
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andriataylor/