A Change of Plans
Deshayla Brown had plans. She had dreams and a roadmap to make them a reality. At J.H. Rose High School in Greenville, she enrolled in the Career and College Promise program at Pitt Community College. Worked part-time at Walmart and took every opportunity for advancement. In her sights was Howard University. There, she would be a first-generation college student—the first in her family to earn a degree. After that? Who knew? Deshayla isn’t the kind of person to put side rails on her future.
Then came COVID. “That definitely scaled me back,” she says. Her parents were older, and suddenly moving away didn’t seem like the best idea. But there was a silver lining to the pandemic. At Walmart, she was classified as an “essential worker.” She viewed that as another open door. She took every opportunity for advancement. “Any shift that was needed,” she said. “Ten-hour shifts, six or seven days a week.” She helped build an online shopping platform at her Walmart location that grew from zero staffers to thirty. “I looked for any chance to move forward,” she recalls, “focusing on meeting the mark in every area.”
Never Touch a Forklift Again
She met and exceeded those marks. Today, Deshayla is a fleet customer coordinator for Hyster-Yale, a major manufacturer of forklifts with a plant in Greenville. She’s enrolled at East Carolina University in its marketing program.
At Hyster-Yale, she’s discovered a love of networking and a sense of empowerment in forging her own path. She’s reached out to other departments and leaders. An email or call to set up a 30-minute appointment to simply learn: What does your team do? What’s an area in which you are succeeding? Where are the avenues for improvement? “Along the way,” she says, “I can learn about areas where maybe I’m not as excellent as I could be. And then I can work on that.”
It’s easy to get stuck in the day-to-day, Deshayla says. “I want to raise my hand and ask, Why? What’s next? Where am I in this picture?”
It’s a long way from a Walmart stockroom, but life has a way of traveling in circles.
When she left Walmart, she made a promise to herself: I will never touch a forklift again.
“Oh, well,” she laughs.
An Internet Best Friend
It’s clear that Deshayla has a passion for communication and connection, and she’s willing to embrace new avenues of expression. As a beauty and lifestyle content creator, she uses TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube to share her indomitable spirit and glass-half-full perspectives on life. (Check her out at linktr.ee/DeshaylaB.) She partners with brands she finds value in and that reflect her own approach to social media. “I’m always honest, but not in a negative way,” she says. “I’m trying to build my personal little corner of the Internet with a down-to-earth, calm-but-energetic attitude. Almost like an Internet best friend.”
For Deshayla, looking forward means keeping the past in focus and helping others on their own journeys to engagement. Recently, she connected with Grow in Greenville, a program of Invest Greenville that connects new residents with local professionals for mentorship and networking. She’s spoken on a panel discussion for young professionals in the region and was featured in Livability magazine as one of Greenville’s proactive young leaders helping new residents find connection.
Worth the Risk
“I’ve always been a person who has wanted a little more,” Deshayla says. “I believe that greater things come when you stretch, but before someone else takes a chance on you, you have to prove that you’re worth the risk. And no one can do that for you.” Putting yourself out there can be unnerving. “I’ve been scared to voice my desire to be in leadership,” she admits. “To advocate for myself and be comfortable taking chances.”
For Deshalya Brown, however, there’s no better place than Eastern North Carolina to live out a lesson she’s learned time and time again.
Don’t ever stop believing.
In yourself.
