Today we’d like to introduce you to Rita and Brittany Mitchell. Them and their team share their story with us below:
We are a dynamic mother-daughter duo! We are in business together, we are best friends, we wrote 2 books, and we are building a brand that helps people live their best lives! Below you can find each of our stories…
Rita-
Rita P. Mitchell is President & CEO of Rita P. Mitchell, LLC. Rita launched the company in 2018 coinciding with her retirement, in order to empower individuals to find their purpose, reach professional and personal success, and ultimately live their best lives.
In a career spanning four decades, Rita P. Mitchell has a proven track record of achievement and success in the highly competitive financial services industry. Rita became president of her own insurance and securities brokerage firm, Mitchell Financial, Inc., spoke on the TEDx stage, has been a frequent contributor to Black Enterprise magazine, and became the first-ever recipient of First Horizon’s 2018 Inclusion & Diversity Leader’s Award. Before retiring in early 2018, Rita served as Executive Vice President and Manager of Private Client Services for Middle Tennessee, First Tennessee Bank, and now First Horizon, an $80 billion regional bank.
In addition, Rita is a recipient of the Thurgood Marshall College Fund Award of Excellence, the U. S. Department of Commerce Regional Minority Service Firm of the Year (8 state region),
Dr. R. H. Boyd Woman Business Owner of the Year, U.S. Small Business Woman Advocate of the Year, the 2014 YWCA Academy for Women of Achievement, and the 2018 recipient of the NashvilleBusiness.Net 100 Leading African Americans.
In 2018, Rita wrote her debut book, Own Your Phenomenal Self: A Guide on Character, Success, and Leadership which serves as a “pocket mentor” to empower young career women to achieve their desired success and an Amazon bestseller. In 2021 Rita and her daughter Brittany Mitchell, CMO, published Spoken Art: Too Brave To Back Down which is a one-of-a-kind mother-daughter memoir of art, poetry, and the power of affirmation thinking. Together, Rita and Britt are building a national platform by speaking at events, and conferences, and creating customized workshops to help people use the books and affirmation thinking to own their phenomenal journey to their success.
In addition, Rita is a certified John C. Maxwell Coach, Trainer, and Speaker and active in her community. She currently serves on the boards of the YWCA USA, past Board Chair of the YWCA of Nashville & Middle Tennessee, Cheekwood, Leadership Nashville Alumni Association, and the Founders’ Advisory Board of Studio Bank, a start-up Nashville boutique bank. She is also a Rotarian and a member of the International Women’s Forum.
Brittany-
Brittany Mitchell is an accomplished marketing professional with 14+ years of experience with established non-profits, innovative startups, and now driving performance for large brands. In 2018, Brittany was recognized as one of Brand Innovators’ ‘40 Under 40’ for her work in digital advertising at State Farm Insurance, a Fortune 50 company. Brittany was honored to receive her second ‘40 Under 40’ recognition in 2022 from her alma mater, the University of Tennessee, Knoxville.
An accomplished speaker, Brittany was Keynote Speaker at the 2018 Media Post Data & Programmatic Summit in Lake Tahoe, participated as a co-contributor at Pinterest’s 2021 Global Women’s Conference, and recently featured as a panelist on Generational Intelligence at the Darla Moore School of Business. In addition, as CMO of Rita P. Mitchell, LLC, Brittany recently published the company’s second book, Spoken Art: Too Brave To Back Down which is a mother-daughter memoir of art, poetry, and affirmations.
Brittany obtained her undergraduate degree from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville in the fields of Marketing, International Business, and French. In 2012, she received her International MBA from the Darla Moore School of Business at the University of South Carolina. Brittany has both lived and worked in Paris, France, and is fluent in French. Brittany is currently based in New York and works in sales as a Commercial Lead at LiveRamp, the leading data connectivity platform delivering identity capabilities for the world’s top brands, agencies, and publishers.
I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle-free, but so far would you say the journey has been a fairly smooth road?
We launched Rita P. Mitchell, LLC back in 2018, pre-Covid. The company began as a way to mentor and support highly ambitious women who were early in their careers struggling to succeed in a corporate environment through the launch of Rita’s first book, Own Your Phenomenal Self: A Guide on Character, Success, and Leadership. Rita always wanted to write a book like “Who Moved my Cheese,” a book that would make people stop, think, reflect, and make meaningful change. After a couple of years of success as an author, speaker, and empowerment coach, Covid came and shut down the world. During Covid, Rita moved from Nashville to New York to be closer with her daughter, Brittany. Together they coped with the challenges of Covid, shut down, and personal challenges by writing a second book, Spoken Art: Too Brave to Back Down which is a mother-daughter memoir full of Brittany’s 20+ years of art, Rita’s poetry, and their joint affirmations. Rita and Brittany pivoted during Covid to provide vision boarding and affirmation workshops to inspire people and help them through dark times. Covid created an opportunity for Rita and Brittany to help more people to find light in the darkness and find a way to “live their best lives” which is the purpose of their brand and their second book, “Spoken Art: Too Brave to Back Down.”
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
Rita and Brittany are most proud of self-publishing their 2 books, Own Your Phenomenal Self: A Guide on Character, Success, and Leadership and Spoken Art: Too Brave to Back Down. They are also working on their 3rd book which will be a legacy family cookbook that captures 4 generations of cooking all the way back to Rita’s grandmother (Brittany’s great-grandmother) family roots in Gulfport, Mississippi. Outside of writing and publishing books, Rita is an executive and organizational coach. Brittany is also an accomplished artist. Rita and Brittany currently provide engaging workshops and inspirational talks to organizations for clients like Deloitte, Pinterest, Vanderbilt, InfoSum, and more.
It is also important to note that while Rita retired from a 40+ years in financial services, her degree is in fashion merchandising and through a collaboration with her daughter, Brittany, they have launched their first fashion line using Brittany’s one-of-a-kind art! Rita’s passions are coming full circle, from fashion to finance and back to fashion again. Similarly, Brittany’s first love was art and painting. While she has a successful career in marketing (14+ years), she had the opportunity for her first art show with her art and Rita’s poetry at Cheekwood for the inaugural African American Family Celebration.
What makes you happy?
Rita- Family, Golf, Cooking, Travel (especially beaches!), and ultimately living a life of joy.
Brittany-
Art, Creativity, Culture/Languages, Cooking, Golf, and Family
Rita and Brittany strongly believe you can’t have joy without success and you can’t have success without joy. You must have both financial/professional success and personal joy to live your best life which is why Rita and Brittany have written these two books and why they continue to teach workshops, speak, and create content to inspire people around the world.
Contact Info:
- Email: book@ritapmitchell.com
- Website: ritapmitchell.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ritapmitchell/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/ritapmitchell
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCEnz-2VxvWq_U0O_jk47ICg/featured
- Other: https://www.instagram.com/brittanyam12/
