Female Disruptors: Alesia Hendley of Audinate On The Three Things You Need To Shake Up Your Industry
“Rise and Grind”. Simple but this phrase has stuck with me since day one. My friends and family would say this to push each other. To inspire us to get up and go get whatever dream we had. Till this day I still wake up with Rise and Grind to motivate myself to continue working towards the dream.
As a part of our series about women who are shaking things up in their industry, I had the pleasure of interviewing Alesia Hendley.
Alesia Hendley is a professional that found her passion at a young age as a sound engineer within her Father’s church. Now you can find her making connections within Audiovisuals (AV), Digital Signage, and IT, along with executing creative ventures. As a young professional she’s finding ways to bring AV technologies, and creative visions together in the effort to leave her mark by making an impact.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dig in, our readers would like to get to know you a bit more. Can you tell us a bit about your “backstory”? What led you to this particular career path?
Just like some of the biggest names in music started in the church, the same goes for me. My father introduced me to a sound board at 12 years old and that was it. I didn’t necessarily see audio leading me down this particular path of Commercial AV but I’m glad I found this industry where I can grow in my overall passion for audio.
Can you tell our readers what it is about the work you’re doing that’s disruptive?
Once I realized that the AV industry exist, I came in with guns blazing. I started networking in an industry where there weren’t many people that looked like me. But I didn’t let that deter me in the pursuit of building my career. I attend tradeshows which lead to showcasing my expertise by creating and hosting podcasts for major brands. I made the industries 40 under 40 at the age of 28 and I was sure to keep that momentum going. Shortly thereafter I began speaking and moderating on some of the biggest stages and events to continue sharing my expertise within the industry. Building my brand brick by brick has led to some amazing opportunities opening for me as I continue to shake things up and create new creative content that disturbs the normal follow of how the story of AV is being told. I am a young black woman set out on a mission to make waves in this space in hopes to inspire more people like me to get into a this profitable field.
Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?
My first speaking engagement! There were maybe 4 people in the room, I read my PowerPoint presentation word for word. Even I was bored during this session! I couldn’t have made a bigger mistake, death by PowerPoint is never the answer. While reading word for word my palms were sweating and I kept asking myself “what the heck are you doing up here?”. After the painful 1-hour session, the two people who choose to hang out through this boring narration left as soon as it was over. Now I look back at this moment and laugh, I made a huge mistake with my death by powerpoint presenation. From that day on I focused on creating all of my content from a place of passion, creativity, and infused with my personality! Now I present by telling a story and engaging those that choose to share and hour or more of their time with me.
We all need a little help along the journey. Who have been some of your mentors? Can you share a story about how they made an impact?
One of my biggest mentors is Dori Clark. Though I have never met Dori or crossed paths with her, all of her books and LinkedIn trainings have helped me build my personal brand in so many ways. Within my industry specifically Megan Dutta! I reached out to Megan Dutta years ago and asked her for guidance on how to find my way in this industry. She gave me a list of events to try and attend, when we finally met in person at these events, she took me under her wing and introduced me to so many people. That event and that simple but yet powerful gesture gave me the push I needed to take the baton and run with it. Networking is one of the most valuable piece’s of building a brand, and it changed the game for me.
In today’s parlance, being disruptive is usually a positive adjective. But is disrupting always good? When do we say the converse, that a system or structure has ‘withstood the test of time? Can you articulate to our readers when disrupting an industry is positive, and when disrupting an industry is ‘not so positive’? Can you share some examples of what you mean?
I don’t believe disruption is “not” a positive thing. Disruption breeds innovation. Yes, there is risk to doing things differently than we’ve always done them. Yes, it can take longer to adjust and carry out a new plan, but most of the time if navigated and executed with a strategic strategy in place, the reward can turn out to be greater than the initial risk.
Can you share 3 of the best words of advice you’ve gotten along your journey? Please give a story or example for each.
“If you can see me you can be me”. Not sure who originally said this by a good friend of mine Alexis Labroi would say this quite a bit. And I didn’t understand it at first. I always thought I could be whatever I wanted to be regardless of who or what I saw. But the higher I climb the ladder in my career the more this makes sense and helps drives my initicitves in effort to make this space more diverse. Representation matters.
“Nobody is reinventing the wheel, we’re all just putting our own rims on them” — Anthony Frasier. I heard him say this in 2014 I believe at the Tech 808 Summit. This was a summit that blended the worlds of hiphop, tech, and entrepreneurship. This single phrase opened my eyes to how I was going to disrupt the space I was in by adding my set of spinners to the wheel.
“Rise and Grind”. Simple but this phrase has stuck with me since day one. My friends and family would say this to push each other. To inspire us to get up and go get whatever dream we had. Till this day I still wake up with Rise and Grind to motivate myself to continue working towards the dream.
We are sure you aren’t done. How are you going to shake things up next?
Creative ventures and more creative content. In the future you’ll see me working with more brands to help tell their unique story and assist in driving some of their company initiatives in the tech space. You’ll also continue to see me work my 9-to-5 within the AV industry for now, as it aligns with my personal brand in efforts to keep growing my career. I value my technical background, so i’ll continue grow with the new emerging tech in this space as well.
In your opinion, what are the biggest challenges faced by ‘women disruptors’ that aren’t typically faced by their male counterparts?
Many, sometimes as a woman I feel like I am having to constantly prove myself and many other powerful woman that I know feel the same. We’re not only constantly showing up and over achieving but we’re fighting for equal treatment and equal pay. Women of color we have even more challenges on a daily as we continue to kick the door down and prove that we have a place here in tech. There are many bias in place for women across industries that our male counterparts will never have to encounter.
Do you have a book/podcast/talk that’s had a deep impact on your thinking? Can you share a story with us?
“Don’t Dumb Down Your Greatness” by Anthony Frasier. This is a great book but one of the biggest take aways that impacted my thinking was you can’t microwave success. In his book he talks about how to be patient, how to think BIGGER than money, as well as how to embrace pain. Learning how to manage all of these things while working towards my version of success changed my approach in both my personal and professional ventures.
You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. 🙂
Honestly, I would just inspire people to be kind. If I could inspire a large population of the world to be more kind and engage with more empathy I think us as humans can get back to a better society. With all that’s going on in the world over the last few years, if we could all put aside our difference and be kind, treat each other equally, then we may be able to get back to a place of more peace and less hate. So I guess whatever movement I could inspire, it would be lead by kindness.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
“Life is the best teacher” Some days I really wish I knew it all. But not knowing it all is where growth lives. So I take it day by day, compete with no one by myself, and focus on getting at least 1% better than I was the day before.
How can our readers follow you online?
You can find me via my website, www.thesmoothfactor.com. On LinkedIn, Alesia Hendley. And on all other social media @thesmoothfactor.
This was very inspiring. Thank you so much for joining us!
Female Disruptors: Alesia Hendley of Audinate On The Three Things You Need To Shake Up Your… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.