Make 2025 Your Year: Strategies to Strengthen Your Brand and Relationships

Make 2025 Your Year: Strategies to Strengthen Your Brand and Relationships

The start of a new year is the perfect time to reflect on your personal and professional growth, set ambitious goals, and take actionable steps toward advancing your career. For executives and leaders, building a strong personal brand and cultivating meaningful relationships are essential for driving impact. Whether you’re a recent graduate of YLC or a seasoned alum, 2025 presents an opportunity to elevate your leadership and expand your influence.

Strengthen Your Personal Brand

Your personal brand is your professional reputation and the foundation for inspiring trust, attracting opportunities, and standing out as a leader. Start by refining your online presence: update your LinkedIn profile and professional bio to include milestones like YLC involvement, board affiliations, and nonprofit work. These details highlight your leadership journey and signal your commitment to growth and community impact.

Beyond refining your profile, consider how you share your story. Reflect on key lessons from your leadership journey and use them to spark conversations. Posting insights on leadership, community engagement, or industry trends positions you as a thought leader and strengthens your connection with your audience. Celebrate milestones along the way—whether joining a board, starting a new initiative, or mentoring others—and share these accomplishments. By tagging organizations and colleagues, you amplify your reach while showcasing your active engagement in leadership and collaboration.

Strong personal brands help leaders attract top talent, build partnerships, and drive meaningful change.

Cultivate Meaningful Relationships

Success as a leader isn’t just about what you know; it’s also about who you know. Building a strong professional network expands your access to ideas, opportunities, and support while keeping you connected to key industry trends. Take intentional steps to grow your relationships. Use LinkedIn to engage with peers, board members, and colleagues by commenting on their updates and sharing your own insights. Strengthen connections by scheduling one-on-one conversations with key stakeholders or mentors to explore opportunities for collaboration or guidance.

Beyond individual connections, foster community by attending YLC alumni events, participating in professional forums, or organizing gatherings. These spaces encourage collaboration and shared growth. 


Your leadership roles, especially in nonprofit or community-focused spaces, offer unique opportunities to engage with influential stakeholders. Identify mentors or advocates within these roles who can guide your leadership journey and help you align your goals with broader organizational missions. 

Take the Next Step

As YLC’s trusted PR and marketing partner, we are proud to support Nashville’s top leaders and companies. Whether you’re looking to refine your personal brand or create greater awareness for your organization, our team is here to help. Get in touch today to take the first step toward your most impactful year yet.

Julia Bonner is the president of Pierce Public Relations and serves as board chair of Young Leaders Council.

Young Leaders Council Graduates 125 Members

Young Leaders Council Graduates 125 Members

Young Leaders Council, the only nonprofit in Middle Tennessee committed to broadening and strengthening Nashville’s volunteer leadership base, has completed training for 125 young professionals as part of the 2024 Spring Cohort, which is composed of the Nashville Spring 2024, Junior League of Nashville and the Jack C. Massey College of Business at Belmont University classes.

Participants will now transition into board internships and serve as nonvoting members of local nonprofit boards and immediately put their newfound knowledge and skills to use.

The YLC mission is to train diverse, committed individuals to effectively participate on the boards of nonprofit organizations and make a difference in the community by replenishing the volunteer leadership base. Founded in 1985, Young Leaders Council has more than 3,500 alumni who have made a lasting impact through board service for local nonprofit organizations.

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Congratulations Fall 2023 Graduates! 

Congratulations Fall 2023 Graduates! 

Congratulations to the graduates of the YLC fall 2023 Nashville and Williamson County Cohorts! Eighty-six talented young professionals participated in YLC’s fall training program, where they convened over the course of 11-weeks to advance their knowledge of topics deemed essential for successful nonprofit board leaders. The fall 2023 semester was the first fully in-person training season since spring 2020, and offered participants the opportunity to engage weekly with other likeminded individuals looking to elevate their capacity to effectively serve.

As participants prepare to transition into their yearlong board internships, YLC is excited to witness another generation of phenomenal young leaders, poised to support the growth and success of our local nonprofit community. To view a full listing of the fall 2023 graduates, please click on the appropriate roster below:

YLC Hosts 2023 Leadership Luncheon

YLC Hosts 2023 Leadership Luncheon

On November 9th, Young Leaders Council hosted its annual Leadership Luncheon fundraising event, featuring a dynamic keynote conversation with Butch Spyridon (Nashville Convention & Visitors Corp) and Kevin Lavender (Fifth Third Bank). The conversation was moderated by YLC alumna and Assistant Dean of External Relations & Strategic Partnerships for the Jack C. Massey College of Business, Jill Robinson. The discussion focused on the importance of building community connections through volunteer leadership.

Over 300 guests registered to attend the Leadership Luncheon, which serves as YLC’s largest fundraising event of the year. During the event, YLC celebrated the lasting legacy of former Executive Director, Diane L. Hayes by renaming the Legacy of Leadership Award in her honor. YLC also announced Sydney Ball (NFP) as the 2023 Young Leader of the Year and recognized Jill Robinson as the Diane L. Hayes Legacy of Leadership Award recipient.

The Leadership Luncheon was presented by Amazon and Tractor Supply Company and received generous sponsorship support from the Jack C. Massey College of Business at Belmont University, Nashville Electric Service, Deloitte, LBMC, HCA Healthcare / TriStar Health, PwC, and Fifth Third Bank.

Alumni Spotlight: Madison Ayers

Alumni Spotlight: Madison Ayers

Over the years, YLC has facilitated training for more than 3,000 individuals, many of whom continue to serve and support our local nonprofit community as board leaders. As participants graduate from the program, many of them transition into a one-year board internship, where they can put their newfound knowledge and skills to use and immediately make an impact in the community.

We recently received an inspiring note from Sarah Lingo, Executive Director for Sister Cities, a nonprofit organization focused on promoting peace through mutual respect, understanding, and cooperation by connecting individuals in Nashville to other people around the world. Sarah shared her experience with one of YLC’s recent alumni, Madison Ayers, a YLC Nashville Class 78 graduate who completed her one-year board internship with the organization. Please see Sarah’s note below.

“Madison has become an important part of our board and our organization. She has participated in many events including helping us prepare for our largest fundraising gala, donating homemade macarons for the event, donating a personal yoga instruction class for our silent auction, and regularly participates in all things we do.  In May, she accompanied an official delegation visit to Erbil, Kurdistan, Iraq as we explored a possible new sister city relationship between Erbil and Nashville.  This was a huge endeavor and one where Madison, as our youngest delegation member, showed an incredible amount of professionalism, cultural competency, and leadership. Madison has consistently shown an effort to reach out to our Kurdish brothers and sisters here in Nashville as well as forge connections with those living in Erbil.  I am continuously impressed with her and have come to lean on her as a vital member of our organization, as well as a friend. Though she technically could not vote on the Erbil relationship, she was a strong voice of recommendation for our board to look to when making this major decision.  Her participation in this delegation visit was, in simple terms, a really big deal.” 

Sister Cities plans to offer Madison the opportunity to become a full board member this fall and expressed sincere gratitude for the work she has done to support the organization over the past year. YLC is truly proud of Madison and her commitment to advancing the mission and global work of Sister Cities.

We love to hear from our alumni and community partners! If you would like to share your stories with YLC, please email Rachel Reyes at Rachel@youngleaderscouncil.org.