MEET MEMBER: Jami Yazdani

Can you give us a brief introduction of who you are and your current business?

My name is Jami Yazdani and I was in higher education​ for about 15 years and I recently relocated here. I started a leadership management consulting business so I would like to be helping clients solve management problems, develop leadership skills, and build their administrative toolkits. The services I offer are coaching​,​ training, and facilitation.

Why did you join BPW and what committee are you part of? 

I’ve been involved in other women’s organizations so when I moved here I googled “women’s organizations near me” or something like that. I found BPW and joined. I think I’m on the marketing committee. The thing that was funny about that is I just joined, saw an event, I thought it was about marketing or business, I showed up, and it was the marketing committee meeting. So now I help with the ​BPW ​Instagram​ account​! But I feel very welcome and they were happy to put me to work. Yeah, I thought I was coming to something completely different.

Who is a person who has helped you in your career and how have they helped you?

I have been really lucky that I’ve had lots of people who have helped me in my career. But the person who always sort of comes to mind is a former supervisor of mine when I was at Northern Virginia Community College. She was just such a great supervisor. She was wonderful and encouraging. After I left NOVA and after she retired, she still sends me amazing emails. Every now and then, “How are you doing? What’s going on?” And when I tell her, she’s always like, “That’s so awesome! You’re doing so great!” And so she’s just so encouraging. Her name is Carol and I often say, “What would Carol do?”

What hobbies/interests do you have outside of work?

I’m a big reader. I like to cook. I like to travel when I can. That’s really all I can think of. I’m not a big hobby person. I’m too much of a perfectionist to actually do crafts or anything.

If you could have any one superpower, which would you choose?

I would love to be able to sort of beam myself somewhere. You know, like kind of, “Scotty! Beam me up!” Because I would save so much travel time. Even though I enjoy a good road trip, if I could sort of be at Target and then be at home, ​then ​get to a meeting​, that would be amazing.

What’s your favorite place of all the places you’ve traveled?

That’s kind of a tricky one. My husband and I, when I graduated with my second masters, went to Curacao to sort of celebrate. We were there for five days and somehow they had two national holidays during the five days we were there so everything was closed and we couldn’t go on excursions, so we just sat on the beach and at the swimming pool. It was the best vacation but I think it’s because we did nothing.

What is your favorite restaurant and why?

This one is hard. I don’t have a favorite restaurant. I like trying restaurants. I’ll eat most any cuisine. I don’t have a favorite restaurant. Erin (Cannon) had recommended Full Moon Oyster Bar and I went there the other night. That was really, really good. I guess I could recommend that but I don’t have a favorite.

What was your favorite TV show or movie when growing up and why? 

This was also hard because I watched a lot of TV as a kid, but I remember really liking Growing Pains. I think I also watch Golden Girls but I still watch that as an adult, actually. I was watching it this morning and I think I enjoy it more as an adult. Movie-wise, I enjoy Goonies and Star Wars. I watched Adventures in Babysitting like a thousand times, and I didn’t even babysit. So I’m not sure what that was about.

What has been your most interesting job and why? 

I think all of my jobs in higher ed were really interesting, sometimes because they were challenging. But I’ve often had jobs where I had to do a lot of things and I really like doing a lot of different things. A job that was kind of interesting, that’s not on my LinkedIn profile or my resume, when I got out of undergrad, I thought I wanted to be an archeologist so I did my field school and for a couple of months I worked for a cultural resources management firm on a dig. That was super interesting. I realized it wasn’t what I wanted to do. Even though it was fun, I needed to be around people more - which was a good thing to realize - but it was really interesting.

What can BPW do to support you in your career?

So​ because I have a new business, of course, I would love clients and to network with people. But I’m new to the area so I also would just like to meet people and make friends. And I am in a career transition so I’m open to all kinds of opportunities. I think learning what people do and what’s out there would be most helpful.