We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Toyia Montgomery . We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Toyia below.

Toyia, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Let’s kick things off with your mission – what is it and what’s the story behind why it’s your mission?

My mission in life is to have more people overcome trauma and realize their full potential. It’s impossible to walk into your greatness if you are still telling yourself you are not worthy of becoming who you were called to be. I have worked in a number of corporations and ran several businesses throughout my career. One thing I have learned throughout that experience is that the world can break you down but it’s up to YOU to build YOU back up. My Superpower is connecting people to resources and opportunities that help them live their best life.

I recently wrote a book called, “When Tomorrow Never Comes”. It’s a self help book created to help people overcome childhood trauma and walk into their purpose. My consulting firm, Good Vibes was designed to help more minorities and women leave behind legacies. We are able to leave more legacies by helping more people build sustainable businesses through business development efforts. Hence, connecting people to resources and opportunities that help them live their best lives.

Toyia, 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?

I started my career in education and that led me to establish a 501c3 early on to help young people dream bigger. So many young minority children I met at the school had very limiting views of who and what they could become. For the last 15+ years, I have taken groups of young people under my wing to show them what is possible. Today, I run a 501c3 called Relate Marketing and a for profit consulting and media firm called Good Vibes, LLC. Good Vibes was created as a result of the pandemic. When covid hit, I was working for the Kroger Company leading talent attraction, vendor partnerships and employment branding. What I noticed during that time, is how hard minorities and women were hit as a result of the pandemic. It was at that moment, I realized I needed to do more than connect people to jobs; I needed to help people leave legacies. Good Vibes is in position to help minorities and women with business development efforts to substantially build their businesses. Ultimately, helping them leave behind a legacy their children can be proud of. The closing of the digital divide is a key component that can make a difference in our efforts going forward. As a result, we have embraced technology as a resource to help build our client’s businesses, as well as our own.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

I previously owned a PR firm with two of my cousins, called Charm Consulting. The PR firm had some success working with the Cincinnati Bengals and the City of Cincinnati’s body camera initiative. Unfortunately, my ex-husband of 14 years tried to go after my PR firm in our divorce in 2019. As a result, we dissolved the business and Good Vibes is the business I created independently after the divorce was final. This story serves as an illustration of resilience because many would have given up. However, my purpose is very important to me so I had to encourage myself to get back up!

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

In 2011, I opened a coffee shop called Cliqq & Sip. We served the community near the University of Cincinnati and I was also teaching for the university. I had 10 employees that really did not want to work, but I kept them on payroll because they helped bring traffic to the coffee shop. After about a year in business, UC went from quarters to semesters, causing the students to get out in April instead of August. The university instantly became a ghost town for 5 additional months. Our business plummeted and we had to figure out a pivot to pay the rent. My ex-husband and I started doing late night grill, selling hot dogs and hamburgers from 11pm til 3am. We would make more in one hour than we made all day at the coffee shop. It wasn’t sustainable but it helped us pay the rent until our lease was up.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.goodvibesconsulting.co
• Instagram: @talking2toyia
• Facebook: The plug with Toyia T.
• Linkedin: Toyia Montgomery
• Twitter: N/A (got hacked- help us get it back!)
• Youtube: The Plug with Toyia T.
• Yelp: N/A
• Soundcloud: N/A
• Other: Tik Tok: @talking2toyia

Image Credits

Adam Delane of Give me face is the photographer for the plug photo

Greg Reese Videos Images Pictures is the photographer from Balloon Pop or Pair Shot