We recently connected with Taeler Hammond and have shared our conversation below.
Taeler, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Being a business owner can be really hard sometimes. It’s rewarding, but most business owners we’ve spoken sometimes think about what it would have been like to have had a regular job instead. Have you ever wondered that yourself? Maybe you can talk to us about a time when you felt this way?
Wow, I love that question – I love it because it makes me take an introspective look at my career choices and the alternative to doing what I do. It reminds me that even though I did not always have the courage to be an entrepreneur, but I feel blessed that I am one.
Yes, I am much happier as a business owner than I was an employee. Being happier as a business owner does not mean that I don’t often wonder what it would be like to have a regular job again. Whenever business slows down, those feelings come up again. It’s usually the nostalgia of a fond memory of fun with co-workers at the company holiday party, or the security of knowing that I will receive the same paycheck every two weeks and the same health insurance policy year after year. Although there is security in knowing what to expect each month, I don’t miss those days of feeling drained by unreasonable expectations, ridiculously heavy workloads, corporate politics, and awful bosses. Not every boss I had was awful, but I think you see where I’m going with this. My favorite part of being a business owner is only having to answer to myself. I no longer have to worry about competing with someone else over a goal that I didn’t set or trying to please someone that I don’t wish to please. I no longer have to worry about capacity to take time off or coming back from vacation to 200 emails and 14 voicemails. Being an entrepreneur reminds me everyday that I chose me – I get to be myself now. I am my own boss and I am my only employee. I work on things that I enjoy. I work with people that I like. No one forces me to do anything. I dress the way I want, I wear my hair the way I want, I make my own schedule… I get to be authentically, unapologetically me. There’s a certain sense of freedom, pride, and peace that you get as a business owner, and that’s priceless.
Taeler, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
A little bit about me: I am a Black female entrepreneur and an upstander. I work to make spaces safe and welcoming for all. My business focuses on employee empowerment and I’ve labeled my company as an inclusive learning company. The kind of problems that I solve for my clients are issues like inadequate training, unconscious bias, psychological safety in the workplace, and many more. I am a public speaker, a trainer, facilitator, and a consultant. I love learning and I help others love it too. What makes me most proud is inspiring others to do better and be their best selves. I am happiest when I feel like people really got what I was trying to teach in a training course and start applying it in their own lives. It is my goal to help companies understand that investing in their employee’s education and development is paramount, and to help people understand why diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) is so important and will not be going away. DEI is not just about fairness—it’s about harnessing a wide range of perspectives and experiences to drive better decision-making, improve employee engagement, and ultimately enhance organizational performance. By fostering an inclusive environment, your company can better address the needs of diverse clients, customers, and communities, making it more competitive and socially responsible. This is what really drove me to start my business – the misconception of employee engagement and retention, as well as the the desire to help people develop themselves and find the confidence to enter rooms where they don’t see anyone that looks like them.
Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?
I started my career in the insurance industry right after I finished college. I got my BA in psychology and I quickly learned that I wasn’t able to make the impact I wanted to make without going back to school. Because I was tired of writing papers and taking exams, I decided to start working and revisit the idea of going back to school later. I started off in a call center handling initial contacts with people who had been in an auto accident. It was not my cup of tea, so I gave it a year and started looking for another job. Role after role, I found that I was not loving what I did. In 2016 I decided to pivot from claims to fraud investigations. I became licensed as a fraud investigator and handled some crazy and sometimes very entertaining stuff, but I still wasn’t feeling fulfilled. I made another pivot to start working in compliance and eventually revisited the idea of going back to school and started looking into clinical psychology programs. At the time, I thought that I wanted to do marriage and family therapy. In my first semester, I realized that I had been doing counseling already; I was counselling insureds on what they needed to do in their claims and talking them down every time things got tough. I was a therapist for [other] employees who felt bad that they were having trouble pleasing customers or meeting the goals set by their managers. Long story short, I did not like being given problems that I couldn’t solve or going in circles with complaints. No offense to any therapists when I say that I no longer saw that as what I wanted to do in my career. I spoke with my student advisor and asked what steps I needed to take to change my concentration to Industrial Organizational Psychology. I learned about this form of psychology, also known as business psych, in undergrad. I thought I’d go that route because I had been working for various corporations since high school and had seen so many issues when it came to the equitable treatment of employees. When I confirmed that I was changing my degree concentration, my financial aid fell through and I had an abrupt ending to my first semester. I now had a lot of time on my hands to be depressed about what didn’t work out, but I knew this meant something more. I applied for an I/O Psych program and began classes in January 2018. While in my MA program, I focused heavily on personnel issues such as DEI, learning & development, and employee engagement and retention. While facing all sorts of life challenges, I went all the way through and knew this was what I needed to do. I finished my MA in December 2019 and in May 2020 I was offered an IT & Operations Training role. In that role I discovered a lot about myself and that eventually propelled me into the next chapter of my life.
What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?
A lesson that I had to unlearn is that everyone wants to be successful and wants others to succeed too. Not everyone is rooting for you and wishing you well; some folks are content wherever they are and think you should be too. A former colleague once told me that “not everyone that looks like you is for you”. What was most impactful about this quote was that she shared it with me at a very pivotal time in my career. Since I am not naturally a very competitive person, I hadn’t taken a step back to look how development and successes may be perceived by others. After that colleague shared that sentiment with me, I started noticing when people would be cold to me because we were striving for similar goals, especially when it was people that looked like me. The bottom line is this: I believe in women supporting and uplifting other women, not holding each other back or tearing each other down. So when I noticed that catty behavior in certain situations, I was offput by that and it used to hurt my feelings. I have since developed a thick skin and now I am no longer worried about who doesn’t have my best interest in mind. Although I am still cautious and still advocate for others whether they look like me or not, I stay focused on my goals and not the opinions of others.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.deiprofinder.com/california/los-angeles/diversity-equity-and-inclusion-consultant/nouveau-paige-consulting
- Instagram: @nouveau_paige_consulting
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/feed/?trk=guest_homepage-basic_nav-header-signin
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TWC4p9h06_s
Image Credits
Cover Image – Sienna Jackson
Image 1 – Joseph Hammond
Image 2 – Taeler Hammond
Image 3 – Taeler Hammond
Image 4 – Paul Perhacs
Image 5 – Genesis Falls