This story is part of our 1,000 stories campaign. What’s your story?

Name: Sara Buchanan

Business: Your Talent Bridge , a firm to aid organizations recruit talent from colleges

Industry: Coaching and Consulting

Location: Atlanta, Georgia, U.S.

Reason for starting: I left corporate America after seeing a market opportunity in campus recruiting with virtually no competition and founded Your Talent Bridge. I’ve developed what is now a patent-pending method to infiltrate college campuses; identify the top tier talent that maps to an employer’s college hire program requirements, and through a multi-touch campaign, get that talent interested in working for that employer. This strategy has exceeded every client’s campaign goals. However, over the past four years, I’ve continued to see a need to develop a recruitment network that combines social media aspects along with a result driven approach to solving the systemic challenges every employer faces, regarding their most critical competitive edge – human capital.

In 2013, I founded a second company, My Job Connector and began developing the business model to create the next generation recruitment social network. Think of My Job Connector as the eHarmony of recruiting. In an interview with Oprah, Mark Nepo, an author and poet, made the following statement, which best summarizes the company’s mission: “Every single being has an amazing unfathomable gift that only meeting life head on will reveal – and we can’t do it alone- so that’s why we need each other. We need each other to discover our gift, to believe in our gift, and then to learn how to use it.”

Related: Read about another female entrepreneur helping connect employers and employees here.

How do you define success? I define success as both revenue growth and attainment against our financial projections, and the positive impact Your Talent Bridge has on the people and employers that use our solutions.

Biggest Success: Your Talent Bridge’s greatest achievement to date has been developing our patent-pending methodology. The second greatest achievement was when Your Talent Bridge was asked to host the first STEM Day for Usher’s New Look Foundation to bring awareness and exposure to their young students about careers in Science, Technology, Engineering and Finance. The STEM Day Event received such rave reviews from the students and staff that New Look is now institutionalizing the STEM Day as an annual event.

Related: Read about another entrepreneur focused on networking here. 

What is your top challenge and how have you addressed it? My top challenge has been raising capital. On a more personal level, I was involved in two accidents a year apart from each other which resulted in significant back and neck injuries, a concussion, and post-concussive syndrome. Both accidents slowed my work productivity, but did not stop it. I also encountered three different Fortune companies that attempted to steal the intellectual property of the Your Talent Bridge’s campus marketing and pipeline development model. While none of the companies could duplicate Your Talent Bridge’s model or results, it was very upsetting at the time.

Who is your most important role model? Oprah. Her programming on OWN in shows like Super Soul Sunday, Master Class, Visionaries, and Life Class  have had a profound impact on my life, personally, spiritually and professionally. Each of these programs underlying intention is to provide guidance to help her audience connect with and identify their higher calling. This has helped me to develop a business model that will, in part, help young people to identify their special skills and abilities and discover how they align those with not only the best career opportunities, but the best work environments in which they can thrive and be successful.

[box_light]Website   www.yourtalentbridge.com
Twitter   @SaraBuchanan08[/box_light]

Tell us your story!
Read about another coaching and consulting entrepreneur here!

Edited by The Story Exchange