Jacqueline Pruitt, the successful owner of a rebar company, shares her story about how being one of the only females in the field has helped her build grit and resilience. She shares the importance of building alliances with those around her when feeling out of place.
Mentioned Resources:
https://www.marvellasteelplacers.com/
About the Guest:
Jacqueline Pruitt, founder, and owner of Marvella Steel Placers (MSP) starts her day at 6 a.m., sitting at a desk in front of the computer in her spacious, yet sparsely decorated office in Signal Hill.
Behind her sits a fish tank where her turtle “Shelley” lives. Behind the tank is a poster visible through the water with Martin Luther King Jr.’s image and the words: “I Have A Dream.” But Pruitt has more than a dream. As one of only a handful of female-owned and Black-owned rebar installation companies, the Long Beach native is a trailblazer as well as a no-nonsense boss.
Hers is a track record to make any company owner proud, but Pruitt has bested unusually long odds.
When she was younger, she took several wrong turns. She wrestled with drug use and homelessness and was in and out of jail. That life ended on May 19, 2003.
“I got arrested at one of the places I used to hang out,” Pruitt said. “The idea to shoot up drugs was in my mind when the police came. A week prior I had broken down and asked God to help me. Thankfully, my parole officer sent me to treatment instead of jail. It worked.”
Since then, Pruitt has been sober. If not for the courage she mustered to turn her life around, MSP would have never been a dream. With her commitment, came a business model that has stood her in good stead.
“We perform safely and do high-quality work in the field and in the office,” she said. “We are professional; we remain in compliance, have reasonable prices, and we work with our customers and provide certification if their project needs to meet certifications.”
About the host:
Melinda Lee is a Presentation Skills Expert, Speaking Coach and nationally renowned Motivational Speaker. She holds an M.A. in Organizational Psychology, is an Insights Practitioner, and is a Certified Professional in Talent Development as well as Certified in Conflict Resolution. For over a decade, Melinda has researched and studied the state of “flow” and used it as a proven technique to help corporate leaders and business owners amplify their voices, access flow, and present their mission in a more powerful way to achieve results.
She has been the TEDx Berkeley Speaker Coach and worked with hundreds of executives and teams from Facebook, Google, Microsoft, Caltrans, Bay Area Rapid Transit System, and more. Currently, she lives in San Francisco, California, and is breaking the ancestral lineage of silence.
Website: https://speakinflow.com/
Facebook: https://m.facebook.com/speakinflow
Instagram: https://instagram.com/speakinflow
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mpowerall
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#leadership #leadershippodcast #womenssuccessstories #MarbellaSteel #speakinflow #entrepreneur #advisityandresilience
