Chantay Jennings đ Founder Virtual Partners Plus, Athlete, Mother
Meet Chantay Jennings, Founder Virtual Partners Plus, Athlete, Mother
Wife, mom, Veteran, Volunteer, Entrepreneur-CEO of Virtual Partners Plus.
My Song:
Nina Simoneâs Feeling Good
Chantay Jennings
Virtual Partners Plus
Chantay Jennings is a Systems Strategist and Side Gig Mentor who helps aspiring entrepreneurs and coaches start and build their businesses using systems and automation.
Before starting her virtual business support and consulting company, Virtual Partners Plus, LLC, Chantay spent 20+ years working in business administration, logistics, and training for the federal government.
After a successful career working in Corporate America, Chantay now helps aspiring and current entrepreneurs create profitable systems for lead generation, sales, and client support.
Chantay spends her free time traveling with her husband Frederick, reading mysteries, horror and nonfiction, and traveling across the country. She is also the co-owner of a real estate investment company.
https://virtualpartnersplus.com https://www.instagram.com/virtualpartnersplus/ https://linkedin.com/in/chantayjennings https://facebook.com/VirtualpartnersplusUS
Anyone remember 33 1/3 Â rpm record albums? Â Remember that each album had about six songs on it with grooves for space in between songs?
I think Iâve lived through those six songs on side one already and Iâve paused for a time in the spaces in between. Â Wherever I was, however, I was leaning into the light, to âmy peopleâ and to the beautiful moments that simply had to be photographed. Â They could not be passed by or I would be left with an eternal yearning for what might have been.
Creatively, I am at my happiest and in my groove when in my photography zone. Â I can make time stand still when Iâm âseeing the lightâ in the person and my subjects. Â There is nothing that is happening except being in the moment focused on creating beautiful images. Â Iâve created four milestone bodies of photography work and captured 1,000âs of random images created in the moment.
Professionally, Iâve always been known as âthe connector.â Â In a recent personal development workshop, my newly crafted âI AMâ exercise birthed the statement
âI AM connecting people together with love, kindness, creativity, success and joy.â
I do this as an affiliate with Send Out Cards and youâll see my photography on those cards as well.
Right now, like the rest of the world, Iâm in âThe Pause.â Â I treasure some moments at home where I can find breath, calm, peace and safety, and yet I yearn for connection, laughing and hugging my people and traveling to discover magical moments to photograph. Â Iâm slowly experiencing the benefits of in-home exercise and may have finally slowed down enough to enjoy yoga (flashback to high impact aerobics in the 80âs).
Iâm digging into my groove at home, breathing through the times of fear and anxiety, and dreaming of the days ahead when I can flip this album and start a new series of songs that sing a happier tune.
When my life is ideal I am focused on  CREATING still life, fine art photography.
SPREADING JOY helping others see the beauty in their business, their brand and themselves
MAKING CONNECTIONS AND BUILDING RELATIONSHIPS based  on trusting,  respectful  partnerships
COLLABORATING AND PROBLEM SOLVING  as a big picture visionary turning challenges into measurable  successes
COMMUNICATING at an expert level as photographer, speaker,
EARNING A LIVABLE WAGE Â leveraging my social media network, passion for branding and seasoned business development experience.
PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT AND CONSCIOUS GROWTH  as I truly believe that every day is a learning experience and my journey includes continual knowledge and improvement so that the more I know, the more I can give  Per Strength Finder 2.0 my
Top 5 Themes are:
And so I ended my 25 year marriage. I was dying inside and had to leave to save myself and to grow. It was the hardest decision I have ever made, I had two young kids and it was blowing up their lives as well. I had hoped I could at least hold out until our youngest graduated from high school, but six years was just too long.
It was after I left that I realized I had been living with depression for years. I always thought the heavy weight, the darkness and the lethargy were normal, that it was just my personality. And it quickly spiraled into even darker places, I was dancing so close to the edge, and the abyss was looking so good at times. I am so grateful that throughout it all, I was able to hang onto thoughts of my kids, they were the light in my life and kept me alive.
During this dark time, I started searching for answers on my own. I read self-help books and books on spirituality. I found a spiritual belief that is a blending of Eastern philosophy, nature, and science. It filled part of the hole.
By now, I had also been exposed to coaching and believed in the process. I did not feel the need to delve into the past but I knew I needed help and tools to move into my present and future. So when my thoughts became so dark and obsessive that a lobotomy sounded good, the Universe worked itâs magic and a coach crossed my path in an incredible quirk of fate. I knew I had to take the leap.
We worked together for about 6 months and fortunately the lessons and tools she gave me worked, and they have stayed with me. I have had minor episodes of situational depression but now I know how to get out the darkness.
And in the process, I found myself, my voice, my worth. Always shy, I lost my hesitation in speaking up, my worry about what people would think about me and what I had to say. I discovered that I am not boring, that I have a lot to give and to say. And that there is value to me beyond the physical package. I became comfortable with myself, free to be me. I found my groove. And I am grateful every day for the journey that I have been on, it has been so worth it!
I said this was a parallel journey. Throughout my years of depression, I always worked. I fell into a career that I love and that I am good at, although I struggled more often than not. Coaching helped me to find the answer to this as well. Today I know what I bring to the table and where that table should be!
A few of my truthsâŠ
I am every woman. I am unique. I am a work in progress. Some might say I blew my life up in the 25th year of my marriage. I say I started down the road to finding myself, to finding my voice, to taking responsibility for me. And what a journey it has been.
Today, I am more certain of who I am. Rich in ideas, low on funds, in many ways more content than I have ever been. I know there is something waiting for me, something big and right. And so I keep on looking, moving closer to combining my personal passions and interests with my professional experience and skillsâŠI am thinking together they create the path to my future.
Product design and development has been my career for the last twenty years, a career that I fell into and love. Naturally curious and creative, understanding the technical aspects of how something is made makes it possible for me to push the design envelope. Where others say it cannot be done, I question âwhy notâ. I am passionate about supporting entrepreneurs, small business owners, small retailers in bringing their product ideas and businesses to life.
In retrospect, I wish Iâd known how to respond to snide remarks from classmates or be proud of my upbringing, but even the negative experiences helped shape who I am today. As an escape I loved doing anything on the computer, whether it be just typing up my own fictional stories or playing Space Cadet. This would later come in handy when I chose my major for college â I didnât know exactly which industry I wanted to work in, but I knew the skillset of programming would come in handy.Soon enough, I was able to not only pursue a major I was really enjoying, but I started to join extracurricular activities that embraced my upbringing rather than shame it. As a part of College Democrats I was able to debate others with different political stances in productive environments, pursue my own version of building civic tech with the creation of a tool that helped people learn about different issues without shame, and share my cultural food and experiences with friends & vice versa.
I knew in my gut that I always wanted to have both politics and technology in my life, but had to make the decision to leave that once it came to finding a job post-grad. I love my parents, but they werenât too fond of my activism during undergrad and I felt the pressure to join a well known company like the rest of my classmates. Soon enough I was working less on issues that I was passionate about, and just became another SF programmer working in big tech.
I was grateful to be so privileged and to have the ability to work and make a great living as a first-generation college graduate and supporting my family that it was easy to forget about the dreams I had for a post-graduate life. It was nearly a year and a half later during December 2019 that I made the decision that it was time to pursue my own venture, not knowing how things would end up.
Fadumo Osman is a 24 year old programmer currently living in Minneapolis. Sheâs from the SF Bay Area and graduated in 2018 from New York University with a dual degree in Computer Science & Political Science. Â Â As a daughter of former Somali refugees, she has always been passionate in how technology could be used as a solution to problems stemming from issues like voter suppression & immigration.
Post-graduation Fadumo worked at Google & Coursera where she was able to solidify her passion in these issues and most recently took the step to start her own venture.
She relocated to the Minneapolis area to take advantage of the budding entrepreneurship scene and in addition to building her company sheâs also working at the Impact Hub in Minneapolis-Saint Paul to continue to grow their amazing social impact focused community of entrepreneurs.
She hopes her venture will help larger media platforms work in collaboration with lawmakers to ensure that both sides are heard on the issue of misinformation & the solutions created will help promote a safer, truer, online world.