Today’s guest was forced to figure out how she fits in the world.

She started her second career as a means of survival. Fighting discrimination, harassment, and homelessness she found employment as a part-time associate and then rose to national VP of Diversity and Inclusion in less than 5 years at PNC Bank. She captured this process of career development in her new award-winning book and online course called “Empowering Differences.”

She has worked tirelessly to promote awareness and acceptance of gender identity and expression. She serves on the Corporate Advisory Council for the National LGBT Chamber of Commerce and is the immediate past chair for NGLCC’s global TGX Initiative. In 2019, she was voted on the National Board of Directors for GLAAD.

She speaks locally and nationally about her transition, workplace equality, leadership, change management, and empowerment. She has also been interviewed in several publications and media outlets, including Forbes, Bloomberg Businessweek, The Business Journal, ABC, and CBS.

Please join me in welcoming Ashley T Brundage.

In this episode we discuss:

• her thoughts on leadership: “Leadership is someone who drives empowerment for people. They understand the APP of empowerment; authority, power, and how that connects to people.”
• the importance of empowering others and yourself.
• how she spent most of her youth hiding.
• her start in the restaurant business to avoid going to college and being seen in the world.
• her losing her job, and house, and how being homeless changed her outlook on life.
• how she came out as trans to her children when they were 5 and 3.
• the journey of trying to find a new job after coming out and how that led to her research in empowerment.
• how she used her own story and connected it to her research while working at PNC Bank.
• her goal to replace her PNC salary by creating a solid exit strategy.
• how she nurtures and sustains the outer levels of her network, including some fantastic LinkedIn tips on growing your network.
• what she’s looking forward to in the next year.

Listen, subscribe and read show notes at www.OnTheSchmooze.com.