Stacey Howell has made a profession out of doing the sudden and the unattainable — first as one of many few African American girls in her class at Cornell, then as a pioneering prime gross sales producer at a number of giant firms. In actual fact, Howell comes from an extended line of groundbreakers, one thing that she depends on every day. “The most important factor that I’ve realized from my uncles, who have been trailblazing African American males in company America, is that you must be ready for enterprise cycles,” she says. “It is about reinvention.”
Now, Howell has launched into her most rewarding reinvention journey because the proprietor of a Woodhouse Spa franchise in Atlanta.
“My background has been very numerous, which actually makes me proud.”
After graduating from Cornell, Howell started working for among the most recognizable manufacturers on the planet. She initially went into medical gross sales with Johnson & Johnson earlier than transferring to a different firm, promoting cardiac displays to all New York Metropolis hospitals. “My background has been very numerous, which actually makes me proud,” Howell says.
This era of her profession, by means of the Nineteen Nineties and into the 2000s, was characterised by important achievements in gross sales and advertising and marketing and adapting to totally different markets. As she continued to excel, Howell’s future appeared vibrant. “I used to be being groomed for a regional supervisor place, and I used to be placed on a quick observe,” she says. “However in that 10-year span, I used to be having my household, so that they moved to a person and began grooming him.”
“I used to be afraid of politics, however I made a decision that worry goes to maintain knocking on the door till you simply embrace it.”
As her profession progressed, Howell felt the necessity to give again to her group. So in 2004, she started a four-year stint as a metropolis council member in her hometown of South Orange, New Jersey, a city identified for its numerous and inclusive inhabitants. It was quite a bit to juggle a full-time gross sales job, a household and being a councilwoman, however working for workplace was a approach to achieve vital views on management and, most significantly, to step out of her consolation zone.
“The folks in my group needed me to run for workplace, and I initially mentioned no,” Howell says. “I used to be afraid of politics, however I made a decision that worry goes to maintain knocking on the door till you simply embrace it, so I jumped in and have become a councilwoman.”
Howell says that she discovered the nonpartisan cooperation within the city’s politics refreshing, and this openness enabled her to attach with a number of mentors within the discipline. “I realized that working throughout get together traces and being numerous and consultant of all is so vital.”
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“I used to be like, what am I gonna do? I am nonetheless younger. I am not prepared to hold it up.”
After dealing with private {and professional} upheavals, together with a divorce and job loss, Howell relocated to Atlanta round 2010. Regardless of preliminary challenges to find employment and adjusting to a brand new surroundings, she remained resilient and continued to discover new alternatives.
After taking a gross sales management place with IBM, she discovered herself in acquainted company territory, however one thing was lacking. The lengthy days promoting high-tech merchandise led to excessive paychecks, however she did not really feel passionate. “I could not discover my groove right here,” she says. “I used to be like, What am I gonna do? I am nonetheless younger. I am not prepared to hold it up.”
In early 2017, Howell based a nonprofit group, Each Lady Works (EWW), devoted to reworking the lives of ladies dealing with challenges resembling homelessness, substance abuse, penal system transition and home violence. EWW offered purchasers with coaching, together with laptop schooling, interview and resume preparation and different skilled prep programs.
For Howell, it was a possibility to make the most of that numerous background to contribute to social change. “It mixed my authorities expertise and my company expertise,” she says, including that the pay reduce she needed to take did not hassle her then. “It was purposeful. I wasn’t making any cash, however I completely liked it.”
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“I considered how I’ll exit into our group and do for single moms who cannot afford luxurious.”
Three years into Howell’s tenure at EWW, Covid struck, drying up a lot of the nonprofit’s funding and stopping it from serving its consumer base; it will definitely shuttered fully. Howell thought of beginning a enterprise, however she was decided that no matter alternative she selected needed to give again to her group. By this time, she had married a disabled Navy vet. “Therapeutic massage was a part of his life-style,” Howell says, “and it step by step turned my life-style.”
Howell did some analysis and realized that the spa business within the U.S. — at the moment value $20 billion — was booming, so she determined to open a Woodhouse Spa franchise in 2022. “However what I actually wish to do is bleed into the group with wellness,” she says. “I considered how I’ll exit into our group and do for single moms who cannot afford luxurious.” Howell has already held a number of free occasions for single mothers and foster mothers who can not afford therapeutic massage as part of their common life-style.
Following the success of her preliminary franchise, Howell is weighing her subsequent steps. Regardless, her employees believes in her imaginative and prescient. “Stacey is a pacesetter,” says Kay Arroufi, director of Woodhouse Spa Buckhead. “Her ardour for giving again to the group and the higher world at giant is inspiring.” Arroufi talked about the three paid volunteer days the staff obtain working for Howell at Woodhouse. “Working alongside Stacey evokes me to provide again extra abundantly.”
Howell has additionally made some vital connections. The president of Morehouse Faculty’s Faculty of Drugs just lately got here in for a service. “She had a terrific expertise and launched herself — I did not know she was the president of Morehouse Medical,” Howell says. “And we are actually in collaboration to do wellness locally collectively.”
