At age 22, she launched her first public relations firm directly following her college graduation.
“The entrepreneurial spirit was just consistently running through me, so I decided to take a chance after several interviews and rejections,” said Lipscomb Strategic Communication professor Aerial Ellis. “I didn’t want to wait.”
Aerial Ellis’ determination and strong work ethic have established her as a successful consultant, author, entrepreneur and professor.
Later in her career, a client, who was having trouble getting both Baby Boomers and Millennials talking, approached Ellis. Ellis then developed a communications strategy that was not only internal, but external as well.
She realized there was a market for this type of consulting work and saw the need for diversity and inclusion training being integrated into her courses at Lipscomb. This realization led to Ellis educating and consulting a countless number of students and industry professionals on cultural communication.
‘Transforming culture is a heavy task,” Ellis said. “This is mainly because culture is so dynamic, and there are so many moving parts to creating and shifting a culture. I try to focus on what I can shift using my communication skills as a communications professional.”
Ellis expanded her audience with the release of her book The Original Millennial and is a winner of the Nashville Business Journal’s Women of Influence and “40 Under 40.”
“I would most like to be remembered for maximizing every single gift that God gave me,” Ellis noted.
In her career, she has used these gifts to demonstrate what an empowered woman looks like and has encouraged other women to unapologetically embrace their power.
“An empowered woman is someone who, aside from what society says she should be and aside from the pressures of media and other forms of pop culture, understands her value in Christ, in how she presents herself and what she has to offer the world.”
Ellis is just that.
“Learn the culture but don’t conform,” she said. “Conformities can discredit your own self-perception and self-value. Always show up with as much authenticity as you can.”
This story is the fifth feature in Jade Spilka’s “Women of Lipscomb” series, in light of Women’s Empowerment Week