Welcome to Business Innovators Magazine…Please introduce yourself and a brief thumbnail sketch of your background.
AR: My name is Atiya N. Robertson, Atiya means woman of many gifts and I live up to that prediction. I have found that my greatest offering is love. I believe and live by the principle that what we do must be motivated by love and operate from a place of truth. This stance is vital to never being in a place of regret. For 15 years I worked as a right-of-way agent for various government and utility projects excelling in customer service and consumer relations. While facilitating my beautiful son into adulthood, I completed four novels, countless blog posts and coached over a hundred people through hard life decisions before the term was coined or given a price tag. So know I am a life coach, a published author a certified blogger and a motivational speaker. I am honored to be living my truth on purpose!
BI: What would you say is the area in business that you are most passionate about and why?
AR: Customer Relations. Showing people that the thing they want but are afraid to ask for is possible lifts me. I see black and white through a spectrum lens that shows me the colors. People need to be acknowledged, and they need to feel cared about this is my natural state of interaction. I love people in a real way without emotions and relationships I see a need, and I am committed to helping get that need fulfilled and that is what people want; they want help from someone that cares.
BI: How are you different than your competitors?
AR: What I do is very subjective to how you connect with people. My secret weapon is that I relate very well to people. What differentiates me most are the topics that I take on. I go where the real pain is, I write about and work with clients that are experiencing or overcoming suicidal thoughts, sexual or physical abuse. These are hard topics that I am committed to making easy to face and talk about. I want to create real change in emotional health not just remedy problems.
BI: Please tell me about any recent business accomplishments that you are most proud of and why?
AR: I was recently given the opportunity to be featured on the Curvy Model Network Radio Show to discuss my fiction work and suicide prevention dealing with how to help family members and friends handle someone in the throughs of giving up on life. Also, my fiction book was added to two new book club selections.
BI: What Leadership qualities in Leaders do you most admire and why?
AR: Integrity and Vision are the two that immediately come to mind. In business, there are so many opportunities to cheapen our brands soften our image or just plain change to fit into a socially accepted mold to gain capital financing or sell more unit. It literally brings me to tears to hear the story of an entrepreneur that stuck to what they believed and succeeded. When I say vision I am not just referring to a plan I am more in awe of a great leaders ability to anticipate disaster, plan around crisis and manage the people that are affected.
BI: What has been a key element of your success?
AR: Hard work and determination, but most of all knowing who I am and why I do what I do. Life is filled with distractions, but my confidence keeps me focused.
BI: What are some of the business projects that you are currently working on that you are excited about and why?
AR: I am giddy about my course release in June. It has been a very different experience from what I am used to. I am also serving as executive director for Project KiC a program that teaches elementary school children how to build and design their own computer games.
BI: What are 1 or 2 things you would like to say to a prospective client who stumbles across this interview?
AR: Let’s start the conversation that will change your life for the better! I can’t wait to meet you.
BI: To wrap this up, what are you most excited about in the upcoming months in your business?
AR: My team is preparing a tour for me to talk to teens and young adults about how to handle setbacks and disappointments while maintaining their commitments. We are also putting together a series of Rules 2 Live By Talks that will serve as a book tour for the Guide to IT Book! I am mainly looking forward to connecting with new people.
For more information: http://www.AtiyaRobertson.com
