We were lucky to catch up with Deonte Tyson recently and have shared our conversation below.
Deonte, appreciate you joining us today. Let’s talk legacy – what sort of legacy do you hope to build?
I want my legacy to be I wanted to so I did. I want people who hear my story to understand that there are no obstacles that you cant overcome. I am a boy from what some might consider a rough neighborhood who set goals for myself and did whatever was necessary to achieve those goals. I want every black boy to look at me and say “if he can do it, so can I.” Most people don’t know that I had a 1.76 gpa my first quarter in college. If I can go from that to obtaining a doctorate degree, then anyone can achieve their goals.
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers
I have always had the passion to help people, specifically those who look like me and have the desire to do great things. This desire led me to the education field. I taught 7th grade technology courses for 4 years before moving to North Carolina to pursue my doctorate degree in Educational Leadership. Upon moving to North Carolina, I left teaching youth and started to train adults. This was a different type of education and allowed me to work with leaders, I quickly realized that all leaders didn’t have the necessary tools to perform at the highest level. Due to COVID-19, I lost my job training leaders. From there I started to think that I have a lot of tools and resources that can help leaders prosper. From there, Kayak Consulting LLC was born. The goal of Kayak Consulting is to help aspiring leaders reach their full potential. This is done through a differentiated approach to delivering creative solutions using the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator Assessment and individual coaching. Kayak Consulting also recognizes that behind every good leader is a good team. Therefore, I also offer team building sessions to help teams become more cohesive and understand how best to work with each other for maximum productivity.
Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?
I partnered with another company to provide a webinar that would shine the light on corporate training. The other company, as well as myself advertised on social media for weeks leading up to the webinar. We sold tickets on Eventbrite and really had put together a session that we believed would really benefit people. No one registered for the webinar and we ended up having to cancel the webinar. This was very discouraging and honestly made me question running my own business. After a few weeks, I realized that I had information that people needed so I started to work on building my social media presence and giving away nuggets in order for others to realize the importance of what I had to offer. I would start giving away tips and tricks on social media, as well as making sure to connect with others on LinkedIn and other social media platforms. These efforts resulted in not only conversations, but also business opportunities.
Do you have any insights you can share related to maintaining high team morale?
The best advice I can give for managing a team and maintaining high morale is appreciation. When your team knows that you support and appreciate them, they are more willing to perform at a higher level. As humans, we want to know that we are valued. Outside of money, another way to let people know you appreciate them is by the use of two simple words ‘thank you.” Saying thank you goes a long way and people appreciate that. Morale is built, comradery is developed and the overall team dynamic will increase my showing appreciation. Other than thank you, show appreciation through random acts of kindness (buying lunch, telling everyone to go home early, ask the team how they want to be appreciated).
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