About

Joyce Akiko

Background

I’ve led Business and People Operations, Project Management, and Company Culture Strategy at organizations ranging from solo entrepreneurs to fast-paced startups to multi-billion dollar corporations.

Over the past 12+ years, I’ve learned from a vast collection of business coaches, 6 and 7-figure self-made mentors, online courses developed by some of the best in their field, and more books on business and self-development than I can count.

I’ve been called “the left-hand woman” by multiple founders and executives due to my ability to translate their right-brain style creative visions into the strategy and implementation steps that turn those visions into reality.

Thoughtfulness, integrity, and follow-through are the attributes I live by, along with Marie Forleo’s mantra: everything is figureoutable.

In my free time, I play with a vast array of creative hobbies. I enjoy sewing, book binding, and other crafts (which you are invited to check out on Instagram). I like to keep myself busy and love to learn new things.

Education

While earning my Bachelor’s degree in Cognitive Psychology at Ithaca College, I was one of the 10 selected members of the Cognitive Research Team, where we researched psycholinguistics. I was one of the 2 members chosen to present our findings to the Psychology Symposium in 2009.

Upon graduating, I was accepted into the Master of Science in Human Resources Development program at Villanova University, the longest-running HRD graduate program in the United States. Villanova’s program holds a Master of Science rather than a Master of Arts due to the comprehensive inclusion of Business Statistics and HR Metrics. I earned my postgraduate degree in 2011 and passed the Professional in Human Resources (PHR) exam shortly after.

In 2022, I earned a Specialization in Culture-Driven Team Building with the University of Pennsylvania, which includes certification in Creating a Team Culture of Continuous Learning, one of my favorite areas to develop with companies that want to be known as a top place to work.

Credentials

In addition to my formal education, I am certified by Six Sigma in Root Cause Analysis, and am accredited by the OKR Institute. I am certified in Lean Leadership and Change Management from the John Academy and am certified in

Testimonials

"Joyce brought me clarity in restructuring my business as I'm turning a leaf in my entrepreneurial journey. I felt a genuine connection; she was engaged in wanting my success and saw without judgment who I am.

After just one call with her, I felt relieved about the current state of what I need to do. Now it's time to relisten to our conversation and implement! I'm going to focus on her hands-on advice about systems and get structured.

If you're looking to hire somebody to get your business structure in place so you can scale, I highly recommend Joyce Akiko."

- Petra Rolander, Business Strategist and mom to some pretty stinkin' cute cats!

“Business owners, learn from my mistake! I hired 4 project managers, a business architect, a systems strategist, business coaches and no one actually helped my company create new processes that made our clients happier or our team more productive. Everything was either unrealistic ideas or partial help that didn't blossom into a full process that lasted. Most of it, relied on me to implement everything. Then, Joyce Akiko was referred to me. Everything changed.

Joyce started at my tools, moved to my processes, moved to my team and piece by piece she unraveled a decade of what I had strung together. She took all the pieces and built them back as a solid foundation. Each day I noticed things being done by my team that I truly was no longer a part of. They were fully on their own in a process they were excited about because they were the ones who had a say in how that process was created, not some overlord consultant coming in and forcing it on them. It was a beautiful thing.

I cannot recommend her enough to others. She's THE REASON my company is operating at this level and she's THE REASON we will be able to grow in the future. No one gives us the perfect guidebook for being entrepreneurs. So, here's a rung out of my personal ladder. Get Joyce Akiko"

- Cara Parrish, Founder of The Hedy Society, Podcara, and brilliant at everything she does

“Joyce is an absolute ninja when it comes to systems, processes, and organization for your business. When she's part of the team you feel like your business can accomplish anything. She's helped me exponentially in a short time understand where I was bottlenecking myself and my team.

My company was losing unnecessary revenue that I couldn't see and wasting a lot of time we couldn't get back. That was all quickly turned around with the insights from Joyce's expertise.

My company now has a rock-solid foundation to scale from and that feels so empowering. Thank you, Joyce for your support, dedication, and caring so deeply about helping the health of my company."

- Tiffany Julie, Certified High Performance Coach™ and world-leading international speaker with the energy of a thousand cups of coffee (I don't know how she does it!)

"I was in a tricky spot as a solo entrepreneur. My business had expanded and I was swimming in an old cumbersome CRM that wasn't working. I needed a new CRM custom built to suit my needs. Joyce was a joy to work with on the project.

She was so attentive to detail and mapped out an amazing visual workflow to help this right brained woman see how things would come together on the back end, in the fields. Joyce helped me out of overwhelm and created a system that not only made my sales process easier and more efficient, but it visually showed me where the money was.

I felt worlds more confident now. I am grateful for the time and effort and detail Joyce put into the system. I highly recommend her to anyone."

- Chrissie DiAngelus, Management Consultant, and in the top 10 on the official list of 'People Who Make Me Feel Good Every Time I Talk To Them'

"Joyce is extraordinary. She's a genius at systems and workflows to make things easy-peasy in your business and keep you as the CEO.

It's so clear that Joyce has a brilliance in the left side of the brain (making it much easier for right-side of the brain type visionaries do what they love best!)

But what else do I love about Joyce besides her expertise? Joyce is a bundle of joy. She is warmth and spunk all wrapped up into one. She'll get as enthusiastic about the tasks you DON'T like to do in your business as you get about all the things you absolutely LOVE and want to do more of.

If you need someone to clean up your systems so that you can be the CEO of your business - all that high-level fun stuff!-, she's your girl!"

- Francesca Woltanski, Time Coach and person with a pure heart of gold

“Thank you thank you thank you, so much.

I have to say that working with you has been such a joy. It is so nice to have someone else do all the work in this project with zero headspace on my end… like that’s the main reason I love working with you, besides your genius, Is that I can trust you 100% and I don’t have to keep track of things.

I know that if you say something then you will do it, and I know you will have looked into every possible option and pick the best one for me. I don’t have to think, 'ok should we perhaps do it like this… or do it like that'... it has been such a joy to work with you."

- Alp Turan, Marketing Strategist and absolute compliment wizard

"I can't remember the last time someone impressed me as immediately and as much as Joyce has. She is incredibly smart and talented, and is able to explain complex tasks to others who don't understand tech as well as she does.

Joyce is always willing to take on responsibility and contributes fantastic creative and practical ideas to keep us moving and improving. Plus, she's super-quick and organized in getting the work done. She is an absolute pleasure to have on the team."

- Coreen Tossona, Marketing and Communications Consultant who brightens every room that she enters

"As a super busy business owner, I don't have time to get into the details and the weeds.

Joyce works behind the scenes as a total-package business clean up crew, covering all the bases instead of putting in stop-gap systems or solutions so her clients can grow, scale, and get tons of time back so they can focus on the work that matters and make a bigger impact.

I highly recommend working with Joyce if you feel like you're stuck in a gridlock where you have so many leads that they're slipping through the cracks."

- Kimra Luna Founder of the The Galaxy (formerly known as Be True, Brand You) and fearless activist

What's with the Matcha Theme?

Other than being my favorite kind of tea, matcha holds a special meaning. In the art of Japanese tea ceremony, known as Chado/Sado (茶道), detail and precision matters. Each intricately performed movement is purposeful. Having the right tools is critical. And the goal of the ceremony is to bring harmony and inner peace to guests. Chado reflects the values I incorporate at work, at home, and in life.

There are also four principles in Chado: Harmony (wa), Respect (kei), Purity (sei) and Tranquility (jaku).

Harmony is a way of living free from the desires to impress, compete, or dominate and to transcend individual egos and roles. Respect embodies the ability to understand and accept others with kindness and humility, regardless of agreement. Purity is the intention of an open heart, and Tranquility is the natural result of the former three principles.

Through Chado, an otherwise mundane act becomes an experience and integration of these principles. And these are the principles that I practice when I work with clients and their teams.