Today we’d like to introduce you to Nancy Lord.
Hi Nancy, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
In 2014 I made three big and interconnected decisions – I exited my position as VP of Communications & Marketing at a health start-up, I closed out a 25-year career in public health equity, and I started my business Asana Consulting. I’ve worked as the founder & CEO of Asana Consulting for 12 years.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
Smooth isn’t a word that describes the road to where I am today. But I was never seeking that because I’m a creative, a builder, an entrepreneur. Of every job I’ve in the past there decades, exactly one existed before I took it. One was written up during my interview with my future boss on a napkin. I thrive when I’m brining something to life that hasn’t existed before. I love challenges and adventures, and trekking into uncharted terrain in the name of positive social impact. I like tuning in, thinking deeply, learning, and working on teams. I am comfortable with variability and ebbs and flows and shifts in my work – it’s how nature goes, it’s how life goes, and most days I trust that. So no, it hasn’t been smooth, and yes, that’s okay by me.
When it comes to struggles, my biggest one has been and sometimes still is finding my place and my people professionally. In my first career chapter, I worked as an innovator and change agent in organizations, and I was usually the only one doing that work. I was valued for my skills, but I was also very isolated. One of the greatest gifts I’ve received in these past 12 years of leaning into my identity as a creative and entrepreneurial person has been ending that isolation. Working this way ended the struggle to find my place and my people. My clients, collaborators, colleagues, and communities are vibrant, intelligent, ambitious, creative, warm, fun, and inspiring.
Learning and growing and relationships matter a lot to me. They are highly important to me as concepts and practices. My work inspires me to tune into, examine, and renovate the messages and mindsets about career, success, work, and work/life as a person, a creative/innovator, a woman, a mother, and a leader. This endeavor isn’t smooth – it’s messy, non-linear. And often intense, unsettling, and uncomfortable. It requires fortitude, persistence, vision, patience, humility, and courage But the process and the results have always been fulfilling and valuable.
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
I’m a brand strategist, storyteller, and consultant, coach, and writer for leaders with visions and voices that carry the power to change and save lives.
I work as the founder and leader of Asana Consulting, a brand storytelling, communications, and marketing studio. We deliver consulting, coaching, content, and creative services to social impact businesses, organizations, entrepreneurs, thought leaders, authors, and speakers. My clients gain the expertise, assets, and support they need to uplift their brand and business impact like never before.
My colleagues and clients tell me that they value my deep brand intelligence abilities – how I divine the story of a brand, dive into and make sense of each brand’s complexity and unique assets and holistic needs, that I combine strategic and creative thinking, and how I translate all a brand communicates to me into excellent content. I’m also known for the level of care and attunement I bring to my work with brands and their people.
Before starting Asana Consulting, I had a 25-year career public health. I worked in-house at for-profit, start-up, nonprofit, government, and higher education organizations. My roles focused on owning strategy and implementation for pre-launch, launch and early-stage innovation/transformation initiatives and projects. I led and managed communications, PR, stakeholder engagement/partnerships, policy, and business development and built and led teams. In those years I received many gifts: big opportunities, amazing colleagues, national and local awards, and insights into my strengths and purpose. I launched and honed my identity as an elevated, effective, and dedicated social impact innovator, creative, and leader. Those years also gave me a front-row seat to the unmet need for effective and authentic communications, branding, and marketing partners who understand the extraordinary talent and unique needs of social impact organizations, businesses, leaders, and innovators.
I bring a lot of heart and soul and brain to my work. Pursuing work and opportunities that align with what I love, what I’m good at, what the world needs, and what I can be paid for have always mattered to me. It took me some time to claim this as a valid career navigation strategy. Doing so meant tuning out the many forces and voices that say this approach isn’t “realistic” and that it’s not based in “reality.” I’m a lot better at expanding the definition of “reality” and creating new realities than I am at signing on to something that I find unacceptable for me or others. So I started my own business, and build my own reality. Along the way I learned that there’s an entire Japanese philosophy that promotes this approach to work and vocation! It’s called “Ikigai.” Take that, “reality” bandits.
Through Asana Consulting, I’ve built a business dedicated to meeting that need for my clients, my way—with equal parts expertise and heart 💟
I’m most proud of taking the leap to start my business and that I have stayed laser-focused on intentionally building a business that aligns my strengths, my mission, and my values. This enables me to deliver the greatest value and positive impact to my clients and the larger world.
Let’s talk about our city – what do you love? What do you not love?
Best – Baltimore is my birthplace and hometown. After high school, I left very much on purpose and spent 11 years of living, studying, working and traveling all over the country and world. I’m an adventurer by nature but love home, too. My unplanned return to Baltimore in 1999 turned into a decision after my dad died to make a life here as an adult, a parent, and a professional, My favorite part about living in Baltimore now is that none of my closest friends were born here, but they proudly and wholeheartedly claim Baltimore as their city. That’s because Baltimore is a big-hearted, creatively-wired, and fierce-spirited city that magnetically attracts big-hearted, creatively-wired, and fierce-spirited people. There’s that saying “Love is a verb” – in Baltimore, love is an action verb! It’s everywhere in so many small ways, and I love that.
Least – That ICE is on our streets, terrorizing and traumatizing people.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://asanaconsulting.com
- Instagram: @asanaconsulting
- Facebook: https://facebook.com/asanaconsulting
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nancyvalentinalord/
