Tonya Hill-Mitchell makes a living advising professionals on setting and achieving goals, building self-confidence, and staying motivated.
In a way, she was her own first client. Mitchell, a University of Alabama graduate, spent 25 years in human resources management until she made the plunge to strike out on her own and create Inspired Action Coaching and Consulting, where she serves as CEO.
“The first step is being very clear about who you are, what you want, and who you are here to serve,” said Mitchell, who was at UA to speak at the Professional Development Luncheon & Conference on March 28. “(Being a coach) is so innately who I am. I didn’t recognize that, ‘OK, you’ve been coaching all along. You just didn’t call it coaching. You called it HR manager.’ But I did coaching all the time.”
The push came when a former colleague pleaded with Mitchell to help her. Although Mitchell had certification in coaching, she hadn’t used it outside of her corporate job.
“I said, ‘I don’t have a coaching business,’ and she said, ‘Well, you have a client,’” Mitchell said.
That was in 2020 and Mitchell hasn’t looked back.
Another push for Mitchell to start her own business was her mom, who passed away when Mitchell was 38 years old. To honor her mom, Mitchell started Diane’s Heart, a nonprofit dedicated to helping single moms and their kids succeed.
But after three years of working full-time as an HR manager and executive director of Diane’s Heart, it became too much.
“It started kind of getting legs under it, and when I looked up, I was doing more of the nonprofit work while I was doing my corporate job, and it was just too much,” she said. “So I decided to rip the band-aid and take the big leap.”
Brand building
The theme of Mitchell’s speech to UA students and faculty at the Professional Development Luncheon & Conference was “Acting Brand New.”
Mitchell has seen thousands of resumes in her career. Something she noticed was the resumes of those getting promoted or moving into leadership roles weren’t too different from others who didn’t. There was one key component, however.
“The true competitive advantage was branding. They knew how to brand themselves,” Mitchell said. “I came up with these seven components of building your brand, because I think when we know better, we do better, and we have young minds who are about to enter into the workforce who don’t know this. This was an opportunity to share this with them.”
Rebranding and helping others reinvent themselves is what Mitchell does. She works with people to help find out who they are, getting them comfortable with different environments, and finding the confidence to be themselves.
“Branding is not about your website, your logo, how cute you are,” she said. “It really is about who you are, showing up from the inside out. That’s your truth.”