Jasmine Moseley Beal: Building a Bold Career on Your Own Terms

About This Episode

In this episode, Jasmine Moseley Beal, an award-winning global learning and talent development leader and CEO of Virtue Key Consulting Group, talks about bold leadership in the real world: career pivots, motherhood, entrepreneurship, and building a career that aligns with your values. We also dive into talent strategy, leadership development, performance management, and the role of AI in HR, including governance, privacy, and using automation to free people for higher-value work. Tune in for practical insights, honest conversation, and the bold encouragement you may need to take your next step forward.

About Jasmine Moseley Beal

Jasmine Moseley Beal is an award-winning Global Learning & Talent Development leader and the Founder, President & CEO of Virtue Key Consulting Group, a boutique consultancy helping mid-size to large companies move from chaos into clarity through transformational efforts in performance management, talent management, and leadership development. With 15 years of experience building and scaling talent, performance, and leadership strategies across five continents, Jasmine is known for translating complex people challenges into practical, business-driving solutions.

Her expertise spans leadership development, performance transformation, talent strategy, organizational culture, and the future of work making her a sought-after voice for covering workplace trends, employee experience, inclusive leadership, and how organizations can unlock human potential at scale. Based in Richmond, VA and operating globally, Jasmine brings a rare blend of corporate rigor and entrepreneurial insight to every conversation. Her perspective is shaped by real-world transformation experience, a passion for developing leaders who drive impact, and a commitment to equipping organizations for the future.

Additional Resources:

LinkedIn: @JasmineMBeal      @VirtueKeyConsultingGroup
Instagram: @jasmoseley     @TheVirtueKey

Transcript

Defining Bold As Alignment

SPEAKER_01 0:07

Welcome to the Bold Lounge Podcast. My name is Lee Burgess and I will be your host. If you're anything like me, you love hearing inspiring stories of people who have gone on bold journeys and made a positive impact in the world. This podcast is all about those kinds of stories. Every week we'll hear from someone who has taken the lead or embarked on an extraordinary journey. In addition to hearing their stories, we'll also learn about their bold growth mindset that they use to make things happen. Whether they faced challenges or doubts along the way, they persisted and ultimately achieved their goals. These impactful stories will leave you feeling motivated and inspired to pursue your own bold journey. I believe everyone has a bold story waiting to be free. Tune in and get ready to be inspired. Welcome to the Bold Lounge. Today we have Jasmine Beale. She is an award-winning global learning and talent development leader and founder, president and CEO of Virtue Key Consulting Group, a boutique consultancy that helps mid-sized to large companies move from chaos to clarity through performance management, talent strategy, and leadership development. With 15 years of experience across five continents, she is known for turning complex people challenges into practical business-driven solutions. Based in Richmond, Virginia and working globally, Jasmine brings a powerful blend of corporate rigor, entrepreneurial insight, and a passion for helping organizations unlock human potential and prepare leaders for the future. Welcome to the Bold Lounge, Jasmine. Hello, I'm glad to be here. What's up, Lee? I am so excited to have you. We connected late last year, so I'm excited to get caught up too about where you are and how things are going in your entrepreneurial journey. And wanted to kick it off though, because I don't think I've ever really asked you to define it. What is your definition of bold?

SPEAKER_00 2:02

My definition of being bold is being a change agent, not being afraid to challenge status quo and be a disruptor. And lastly, I would say making sure that you are aligned. That is a bold move for me. And it's okay to say, nah, I'm good when something is not aligned with you.

Motherhood And The Call To Pivot

SPEAKER_01 2:24

Right. Okay. So there's many layers to that. So I love that. So change agent, disruptor, and align are the words that I pulled out of there. So a change agent that disrupts but is aligned with who they are, how they want to operate, what they want to do, and how they want to be a leader in our world today. So when you think of those definitions or those touch points of your definition, when's the time in your life that you had a bold moment?

SPEAKER_00 2:48

Wow, I would say the time in my life where I had a bold moment was when I became a mom and thought about my career and really honing into how do I make the most impact and step into my power? I think about my career and all of our journeys are not linear. And that's the same with me as well. And I had to think about this a lot as I thought about, you know, the beginning of my career all the way now doing a pivot into entrepreneurship.

SPEAKER_01 3:22

Okay. Did you know you'd always do that or had you thought about it before?

SPEAKER_00 3:26

Absolutely not. I never in a thousand years thought I would step into entrepreneurship and open up my own business. My goal was to climb up the corporate ladder. I wanted to be in the C-suite and show people it doesn't matter what you look like. You know, I'm a black woman, I am a feminine leader, and you can achieve anything you can. But sometimes when life happens, you'll be able to see that maybe this is not the path. And maybe your impact is greater than what you initially thought it was.

SPEAKER_01 4:02

Yeah. And you don't know that yet. I think you realize that you could, it's not do more, be more, but it's something there is just some calling that there's something different or something more, if that makes any sense. Does that make sense to you?

SPEAKER_00 4:16

Absolutely. Is you're right. It's the do more, be more. And you know, when you think about if certain doors didn't open for you, it's not the door for you, and that's okay because it'll lead you to a different one. And that's been the journey for me.

SPEAKER_01 4:32

Yeah. It's interesting. Like in hindsight, it feels better to say things like that, but I know in the middle of it, I didn't feel like that. I was like, why did that door just shut?

SPEAKER_00 4:40

Right. Like, come on now, I've been trying to do that.

SPEAKER_01 4:43

I was supposed to go through that door, right? Yeah. I was a little confused that I wasn't in the corporate setting. You know, my story, I I left, didn't have that plan, had never even thought about entrepreneurship like you. And it was interesting because I knew I didn't have the plan or the know-how. And, you know, I think everybody can get the know-how. They just have to like start moving through it. And once I did that, like it started to move pretty fast. When you made the decision and said, I'm not aligned, what did you first feel that told you that this may not be where I want to be? Now you connected this with being a mom and your career as your bold moment. So was it that moment that you were like maybe forced to, in a way, decide which way do I want to go?

Private Equity Sale And New Plan

SPEAKER_00 5:26

Yeah. So throughout my career, I led centers of excellence for performance and talent management. And in terms of that linear career, learning so much in terms of my different strengths and opportunities to grow. And one of the greatest opportunities I had, I was with a company that was under a private equity firm. And I led performance and talent. And people they're listening, as you know, if you are within that private equity space, the biggest thing is getting that company sold to a larger one. It's intense. It is. And you know, it's one of those things that gave me an adrenaline rush, too. It's like, you know, um, you're scaling and growing this company, you learn a lot along the way. And once it was announced that the company was being sold to a larger entity, I already knew in the back of my head doing this work for years. I said, okay, where's my place in this? And usually when that happens from a talent assessment standpoint, you may be either put in a role that does not align with you or eventually an exit will happen. And I already knew without anyone telling me that an exit would eventually happen.

SPEAKER_01 6:39

Yeah, that's the way it rolls, right?

SPEAKER_00 6:41

Yes, absolutely. So I sat there and I was thinking, I already knew that I was pregnant. My husband and I had, you know, told everybody I was probably about four or five months pregnant. And I said, I need to think about a pivot plan for sure. And I had some things floating in my head um in terms of maybe going to another company, but at the same time, it's like, do I need to wait to get to a certain point? And that certain point for me was like, I wanted to lead from a larger strategic way. And when my daughter came along after having her, it clicked when I was watching Dancing with the Stars. I said, I worked with a lot of consulting groups and the model then, and even probably till now was here's a framework, here you go. And I said, there's so much more to it, especially now since the workforce is changing, the way that business is moving is totally changing. And I said, businesses need a strategic partner to help them get over the hump when it comes to their overall three to five year strategy and making sure their people are aligned. Work as we know it is gone. There's no more 40 years in the watch. There's no more, hey, you know, you just do your job as usual. You see people 40 years within their job, and it's like, hey, I do this thing and that's it. When in reality, when strategy changes, everyone from the C-suite all the way through even to direct labor should know how that impact them and what do they need to do to achieve it. In my mind, I said, you know what? I can do this work. You know, it's the perfect time to pivot. I knew it was going to be hard. And I told my husband, hey, I have an idea. I'm thinking about starting a consulting business. And he's a risk-averse person, but he looked at me and he said, That is the coolest thing I've heard in a long time. So I love that. Yeah.

Authenticity After Corporate Roadblocks

SPEAKER_01 8:32

So I went ahead and filed the LLC. Nice. So when you decided, and you took a few things in here which have made me think. So wave work is really the way we used to do it. And you and I are probably from different generations, but uh in the sense of you know how it was when you know, I started off as like you stay in the corporate world, you climb, climb, climb, climb, climb, and you do the thing to get to the next level and keep going until you decide I'm done at 65 and then retire, right? At least that's the way I was brought up. Same and always have a job. I mean, always have a job or two uh is also how I was brought up. So hardworking families we come from, right? So when you think about you and making that shift, what did you have to believe in yourself? When you think of the bold framework, that's like the first thing that I had to jump into when I left. What did you have to believe at? And what did you have to own?

SPEAKER_00 9:24

Wow, I had to own my authenticity. I feel like there was a lot of therapy going on in my head in terms of a lot of unlearning throughout my corporate career. I I went through some rough spots, maybe where, you know, I think about being blocked out of different rooms, not necessarily being invited to the table, but my expertise, I would have to tell the other person to tell somebody else that type of thing. I love that. Yeah, oh yeah, we all love that.

SPEAKER_01 9:56

Yeah, we sometimes obviously it's part of our job, and that's no problem. But it's I think when we don't get to even be in the room or you know, that didn't happen very often for me, but when it did, it just didn't sit right, right? And you know, it's something's off.

SPEAKER_00 10:10

Exactly. And I had to believe I can do great things as well. You know, I see people in terms of making their impact, they're able to lead large teams, they're able to make a difference industry-wise as well. I was like, why not me? And I had to truly believe that because there were times where people have told me up front, like, this is not your bus, this isn't for you. And that's more so people projecting themselves on to me. And I had to make sure that I was like, no, I have to cancel this out. Like, I can do this, and that's what I did. And you have to have a different mindset too. You have to let go of all that negativity, you know, the things that people say about you is about what you think about yourself and what you can do. And sometimes when people project that negativity on you, they can see it. They're like, man, if this girl sees exactly what she can do, woo, we're in trouble. Right. And they won't tell you that, but the actions that happen, especially, you know, with corporate politics, yeah, you could definitely see it.

SPEAKER_01 11:19

Oh, yeah. I had people definitely, I think when I left that world that didn't understand, right? They didn't understand what I was doing, they didn't understand why I would leave and not just like, you know, just dig deeper. And like there is no deeper for me. Like I was just a nub of a person. So there was just no digging anymore for me. Like I just had to stop. And I had to own that. I had to own that what I did wasn't, you know, my situation. Like it didn't work out like I wanted it to. I had dug hard before and it worked out. And this was the first time in my life that I was digging hard and it wasn't working out. And so it was like I had to listen to it finally and make the change. But the very first thing for me was that big belief of like, yeah, I got this, I got this, I got this, even on days I didn't feel like I got this. I got this.

SPEAKER_00 12:07

I had one of those days the other day.

Starting Small And Stop Comparing

SPEAKER_01 12:09

Yeah, we still have them. Yeah, no, it happens, that's for sure. I'm in year six, and you know, I think every year I say is a different emoji, like in the sense of kind of you how you experience it and how you apply what you have learned. It's interesting, but as you you do more each year, it's almost like you're developing those volumes of learning. And I think there's so many different shades of it along the way. Good things, not so good things, where you are, how you pivot. So you left and you started and you launched. What's a learning for you that you would give to someone else who is thinking about or wanting to maybe even start something on the side? You don't have to quit your job. You can just, you know, start smaller. What advice would you give to someone who's thinking about it?

SPEAKER_00 12:54

Yeah. So I started Virtue Key Consulting Group while I was still employed. And I got the tap on the shoulder in April 2025 saying your position was eliminated. And I said, okay, I'm ready to roll. My advice is this do not compare your journey to anybody else's. And I had to do that because, you know, you'll ask people, how did you get started? How did this happen? But the thing is, there is no formula to success. And I knew that my journey was going to be different from this person to the next person to the next person. But I will say this to people who are listening: ask yourself if you were going to leave this earth tomorrow, what would you do? What scares you? And that's what I had to do. Things like visibility strategy, being on podcasts like this, going out to different events where you're meeting so many different global industry leaders, like thinking outside the box. And that helps strengthen your presence. That helps grow your agility as well. So I tell people, you know, hang in there and make sure that you do not compare yourself to others.

SPEAKER_01 14:05

Yeah. So when you first started off, you had a lot of time that we normally don't have in the corporate setting, right? We we have time in the corporate setting, but it's like usually run by someone else, meaning we have a team, we're, you know, we're working through that. And it doesn't mean you don't have a team as an entrepreneur. But when you first started off, what did you have to adjust for yourself with regard to your schedule, your habits, and maybe some of your discipline?

SPEAKER_00 14:27

You know what? That is so great because what taught me a lot again is having that time, right? And when I was with um the PE firm that I loved being with, I actually had this entrepreneurial spirit. Like I set the tone, of course, that there was the overarching goals, but I was like, I could set the tone. And what I did was, you know what? You're gonna operate the same way as if you were in an office. So I made sure that I had my calendars ready each block of time, making sure I focused on whether it is visibility strategy or filming, and then also giving yourself some time too. I think that's the one thing that people don't think about is I call it spatial time. Just give yourself some time. Sit down, watch Netflix. I don't know what you need to do, but do not stare at that computer. Don't grind 10 hours straight because you will not be able to have the clarity that you need to get to the next part. So having that time on my hands, of course, is like the panic of, oh my goodness, I don't have income right now. What do I do? You know what I mean? But giving yourself the grace and the time to schedule out what's most important. Write it down.

Turning Chaos Into Clarity Systems

SPEAKER_01 15:38

Yeah. Keep a calendar. That's the first thing I would say. Yeah. I think, you know, when I first came out, I was wondering how my day should be. And I also needed to get healthier. So, in the sense of, and I don't mean like I went to the gym nine hours a day, I mean literally just going outside, having sun on your face, walking, talking to people, your friends, those types of things, things you don't usually have time for uh in your busy week uh schedule. But definitely having time, like you said, on your calendar that's just for fun or for learning something new. And I think that's what I felt like became more that part of my brain. And, you know, the I guess the prefrontal cortex, which is where you, you know, it's where strategy, it's where you're thoughtful long-term planning in all those places that probably because I was living in such, you know, go, go, go intense, not bad intense all the time, but certainly sometimes it was not so pleasant. But it was a lot of like fight or flight, go, go, go, drena, and you know, and I think that's fine every now and then, but it was probably daily. So I think that's what got to me. When you started off and you said I'm gonna be a consultant, how did you define what you were going to offer? Because I think sometimes that's one of the challenges that folks have. And tell us a little bit about your company too, as you're going through what you do and how you decided you were going to have that as a service or something you would offer.

SPEAKER_00 16:58

Yeah, so when I talk to people, I always say that Virtue Key Consulting Group changes chaos into clarity through transformational efforts and performance management, talent management, and leadership development. That transformational piece is important because I built this selfishly because it's something that I wanted and needed. Why was it selfish? Why did you say that? I said because that's what it was. It was like, if I could build something for myself, what would it be? And it would be this.

SPEAKER_01 17:27

Okay, okay. You were honing in on what you like they say, you write the book that you need to read. Right. You know, so in that sense, okay, God, that's not selfish. That's strategic.

SPEAKER_00 17:38

Very strategic. Yes, yes. So, you know, I wrote out the plan of what it was going to be. And when I say selfishly did this, because foundationally, a lot of companies do not have the baseline done well. And that is the performance management structure. Usually C-suite and the board come up with the priorities, and C-suite then tells their next in line, which is usually VPs, executive directors, what that is. And that strategy does not go anywhere else. It usually stays within the upper echelon within organizations. That affects everything that occurs. That affects how succession planning is done. That affects how leadership development, even general development as well. And even when you think about things like performance improvement plans, how can you do this effectively when your organization does not know how it's moving? Not only from a three to five year standpoint, but year after year. And one of the biggest things too is the ROI that comes with development. My background's HR. And stereotypically, HR is looked at as administrative when actually we are a business catalyst and being integrated into that from a financial standpoint and understanding the different programs that we create, whether it's leadership development or even you know different things like we talk about succession planning. What is moving the needle? What actual work is going to help get us to our financial goals? But also too, how can we develop people to make sure that we don't have any gaps? Because as you know, Lee, we have a drought when it comes to executive level succession globally in organizations because people are not being prepared. So I think of things like a system. And that's what I created within Virtue Key.

SPEAKER_01 19:31

Okay. What are some of the things that you've seen with the organizations you've worked with and your, you know, your vast experience yourself that we need to be paying attention to in 2026 forward?

SPEAKER_00 19:44

Yeah. So what we have to pay attention to first and foremost is one, making sure that we're developing our leaders for the future and being agile. Again, when I think about CEOs and their pain points and CEOs that I know personally and met along the way, they're like, you know, our people don't get it. Like we just need more training. And they're thinking about soft skills, just general training, which is important as well. But then I always go back to it and say, listen, how is your foundational structure? How is your goal setting structure from a performance management standpoint? And they're like, that's a good question, because you come to find out that only like a small percentage, maybe 20% or less, people are putting in goals into the system. People are firefighting throughout the year, too, because something comes up and it's like, okay, here you go. We got to do this, we got to do that. And it's like, some of this is foundational and could have been shared at the beginning of the year. And now we're backtracking when it comes to make sure that we're executing. So a lot of times when you see the angry emails coming in at Q3, like we're not hitting our numbers, we're not doing this, a lot of that is due to lack of preparation and also making sure that goals are recalibrated and also redistributed to within the organization as well.

AI In HR Governance And Efficiency

SPEAKER_01 21:04

Yeah. As organizations, either entrepreneurial or corporate, what are some of the things that we need to be paying attention to with regard to AI and how it's impacting how the work is done, specifically in human resources?

SPEAKER_00 21:19

Yeah. So with AI, one thing, of course, anything new, the first thing everybody wants to say is we're getting rid of everyone. And I know that's a big fear, but that's not what it's for, and that's not what I see for the future. The biggest thing is making sure that there's AI governance too, and making sure that from an HR standpoint, we're not misusing it. Um, we have AI within Zoom. We have AI within so many different things, and we're dealing with a lot of sensitive information. So that's one thing as well. Also, with AI, it's thinking about how we can be more productive within the HR function as well. So when I think about HR, A lot of times that administrative load that happens, the reports, the things that we don't necessarily need to dig into all the time, that can go towards AI. But what we need is to make sure that like our analysts or coordinators are able to translate that into strategy and help move the strategy as well.

SPEAKER_01 22:20

Okay. So what's a tip for someone who's maybe working in an organization in your area of expertise, human resources? What would be one of the top three things or two or three things that they would do to start off if they haven't thought about governance, if they haven't thought about efficiency or how to support the positions, where do they start?

SPEAKER_00 22:38

I will say this community has saved me so much. And you know, I have joined so many different organizations. There's a lot of AI organizations out there too. So for my life and my clients, uh, I am a solopreneur. And one of the things for me is those Excel spreadsheets. We gotta love the Excel spreadsheet. And it is great when we're thinking about, you know, just role clarity or you're thinking about succession spreadsheets. You don't want to sit there and try to tinker with formulas all day. That's helpful too. It saves a lot of time as well, and you can be more present. Anything reporting-wise, it is great to use as well. But in terms of decision making and sitting down and looking at a client's journey and how you can help advise them, that's all humans right there.

SPEAKER_01 23:28

So if someone's panicking right now in HR because they feel like they have a lot to do, meaning they have to figure this out. They have to, you know, maybe they have to rewrite job descriptions, or maybe they have to think about a new org chart, or maybe they have to lay people off, which is horrible in the sense of like the feeling of that. But it doesn't mean I could easily see this because I think about my own world uh in healthcare of like now we don't need Lee to do this, we need Lee to do that. So we're actually gonna have AI do, like you said, the reporting, spreadsheet mania, all that stuff that we can get to a point and train it to be the level of quality that we want it to be. It's not right out of the box, usually. And we need Lee to be here thinking strategy, which I think we might be missing the boat in the sense of what we get to potentially do now as leaders, because strategy was the part I had to do on weekends and nights and in between meetings and that kind of thing. Sometimes it felt like that. Would you agree that there's opportunity?

SPEAKER_00 24:23

There's a lot of opportunity too. And I think about this from a development standpoint for employees, because as I mentioned as well, that we do have a drought when it comes to executive succession, and we need to make sure that we're preparing our workforce to be able to be elevated. So when you say AI can take away, and I believe this too, can take away some of the, you know, reporting work, the things that are good to have, but they don't move the needle. We could train someone who's starting out. I'm gonna pick on HR again. Love you guys. I love HR. That's my feel. I'm thinking about my own career. Like if I jumped into strategy right away, even though I always had it in me, but if you're doing the work right away and you're compounding, you think about that change in dot in the job descriptions going further, you will see some great development opportunities. I mean, even possibilities of having more jobs come along as well as the future goes. I'm really excited to see how AI and the human mind bridges together for sure.

What’s Next And How To Find Her

SPEAKER_01 25:30

Yeah. Yeah. So lots of things coming up. When you think about what's next for you and how people can learn about you, what would you like to share that's coming up? And how do people find you? Wow.

SPEAKER_00 25:41

So in the last, I want to say I've been full force into Virtue Key from July 1 of 2025. I mean, I always had it, but you know, having that opportunity to go full force and be bold with what I'm doing, there were so many opportunities that have come along. I'm now a part of the Strategy Execution Um Council as well. It's called Strategy XF. And that is something that is an honor of mine connecting with a lot of different people as well, doing um podcasts, connecting with different leaders across the globe as well. So um, if anybody needs any advice, of course I'm always open, like LinkedIn, like that is my jam right now. LinkedIn where people are DMing me questions, but you know, make sure you go on virtuekey.com and see in terms of the transformational work that I'm about and how I help leaders, because it's not just an HR issue when it comes to strategy and people, this is a business need. This is a business need across all levels, all functions. And in order for organizations to make sure that they hit their different marks, hit their financial goals, and also developing their people, you have to have that strong advisor to be able to one get them there, but also for the people who are internal within the organization, be able to sustain it.

SPEAKER_01 27:10

Yeah. All right. Thank you so much for that. And as we kind of close out, I would love to hear if you're, you know, you think about your daughter and her growing up in this different world than, you know, than we did. What advice would you give her as she starts to figure out what she likes to do, where her gifts are, where she loves to be or has, you know, joy in her work and the things that she's good at? What would you give her advice about?

SPEAKER_00 27:36

I would tell her to go with your heart because we only have one life and we do not know when our time is up. And go full force into what you do, no matter how silly someone says it is, no matter who's trying to deter you from it. As entrepreneurs, I'll say that, and my daughter doesn't have to be an entrepreneur, but as entrepreneurs, I knew it was something that I was going to go into because when you go to bed at night, you're just thinking about it. It's like that ache in your head that, like, you know, hey, if you do this, here's the possibilities. Why not try? Why not try? So, whatever you want to do in life, if you feel that in your soul, that urge to try something new, do it. And you may surprise yourself.

SPEAKER_01 28:19

Just take one step. Yeah, you don't have to take 50. I always say that, and I know they've heard it, but just so you can hear it again, you know, the way that you started, the way that I started is we took one step toward it. You know, I knew something had to be different, and I knew I needed to take a step towards different. You were ready to rock and roll, and like this is what I want, and this is a vision I have. I'm taking a step toward it. So it's not easy, it's not always going to be certain. You're gonna have to be okay with some things not being guaranteed, and you learn along the way. So, as much as I can, you know, just underscore what you said, I think it's really, really important message is you have one life, so live it. And why not be happy while you're living it?

SPEAKER_00 29:00

That's right.

SPEAKER_01 29:00

Yeah, thank you so much for being on the bold lounge. I'm so excited. Please check out Jasmine, her company, and all the ways that she can help you in the episode notes. Thank you for listening to the Bold Lounge podcast. Through the continuum of bold stories, vulnerability to taking a leap, you will meet more extraordinary people making a positive impact for others through their unique and important story. By highlighting these stories, we hope to inspire others and share the journey of those with a bold mindset. We hope you've enjoyed this podcast and look forward to sharing the next bold journey with you.