INTERVIEW WITH A BUSINESSWOMAN WHO VALUES US:
BUSINESSWOMAN PAM ELLIS AUBREY R. TAYLOR: What was life like for you as a child growing up? BUSINESSWOMAN PAMELA ELLIS: I grew up in a very small town in Texas. For most of my childhood, my mother was a single working mom. I was the 3rd of 4 girls. My mother always encouraged me to work hard and be the best at whatever I set out to do. My grandmother, who was my greatest inspiration, was a huge influence in my life. Serving as our second mom, she taught me about the love of God and the power of prayer. As a child, when I wasn’t busy with church and after-school activities: girl scouts, sports, student associations, etc., I was looking for ways to earn money; cleaning houses for the elderly, selling Christmas cards, recycling aluminum cans, selling bags of pecans, you name it I did it. I was fascinated with making money.
resources and special programs for teen girls in rural and urban underserved communities. In 2014, we hosted our first charity gala which helped to raise funds for the Smahrt Girl Summer Camp this year.
AUBREY R. TAYLOR: What did you dream of becoming as you were a child growing up? BUSINESSWOMAN PAMELA ELLIS: As a child, I don’t recall dreaming of a particular profession. My mother always encouraged me to be the best at whatever I chose to do. I specifically recall how she used to say, “I want you to be somebody.” By the time I got to college, my dream was to be “Incharge”, make a lot of money and help people. It was just that simple and in that order.
AUBREY R. TAYLOR: What advice would you give to someone out there striving to achieve their dream? BUSINESSWOMAN PAMELA ELLIS: My advice to anyone out there striving to achieve their dreams is to become very aware of the moral and ethical values. Your values are at the root of everything you produce. I like to look at it as my personal constitution. It establishes what I believe (faith), how I live my life and why I live (purpose). Don’t worry about how your dreams will come true; just know that they will if you take action. You won’t have all the answers when you start, but start anyway. Learn everything you can that will equip you to achieve and sustain your dreams. Be open, yet never compromise your values, you will only end up with regrets. Allow God to order your steps, and make smart choices. Lying, cheating, or stealing your way to it will only cause your dream to be short-lived, or take longer. Be smart!
AUBREY R. TAYLOR: What is your mission in life? BUSINESSWOMAN PAMELA ELLIS: My mission is life to serve God in all that I do. In serving God, I know that means to serve humankind. I am on a mission to “be somebody”. I’ve learned that what really makes you “somebody” is when can provide solutions to someone else’s problems. In that way, my mission is to encourage and foster opportunities for teen girls and young women to live the life of their dreams. AUBREY R. TAYLOR: Can you tell us a little about what you do for a living? BUSINESSWOMAN PAMELA ELLIS: I am the Principal Consultant and Owner of Smahrt Solutions. Smahrt provides management consulting for fortune 500 companies and large public sector entities in the areas of Human Resources Management and Business Process Engineering. AUBREY R. TAYLOR: Do you have a recent accomplishment you would like to share? BUSINESSWOMAN PAMELA ELLIS: A recent accomplishment that I’d like to share would be the expansion of The Smahrt Girl Foundation, a non-profit that I established in 2003 as a scholarship fund for graduating seniors living in rural communities. In 2013, we expanded to a full program providing mentoring,
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AUBREY R. TAYLOR: What is your outlook for 2015? BUSINESSWOMAN PAMELA ELLIS: I am very excited about 2015! 2015 marks my 13th year of business. I am looking forward to executing a new service delivery model. We are expanding our capabilities to offer services to a broader market thereby creating opportunities for substantial revenue increase. In 2015, my long anticipated book geared towards Human Resources professionals will be released in the fall of 2015.
ON THE COVER PAMELA ELLIS is the Principal Consultant and Owner of Smahrt Solutions. Smahrt provides management consulting for fortune 500 companies and large public sector entities in the areas of Human Resources Management and Business Process Engineering. Ellis has managed the growth of the firm into a key service provider to Fortune 1000 companies in the greater Houston area and nationwide. Smahrt’s clients have included Service Corporation International (SCI), Anadarko Petroleum, Turner Broadcast Systems, U.S. State Department and most recently the State of Maryland where she and her team successfully lead planning, procurement and program management efforts for the Maryland Statewide Personnel System (SPS) Modernization project which was budgeted at $67 million dollars and included more that 64 agencies statewide.