Five Minutes with Teamwork Expert: Meet Brandon Lashley

Project Manager at Teamwork Commerce

In our new blog series – Five Minutes With a Teamwork Expert – we get to know Brandon Lashley, Project Manager, based in Teamwork’s Tampa office. From MMA in the Marine Corps to self-proclaimed ‘Tech Nerd’ – Brandon has led a highly unique career so far…

What is your role at Teamwork Commerce?

I am a Project Manager and I like to think of what I do as the center of the web. All information, updates, and communication come through (or include) me. I’m not the go-to guy for platform information, but I make sure everything is done on time, so our clients have the best experience with our platform.

Explain your career path. What was your first job and how did you evolve?

 Oh, wow! Where to start? I started my career joining the Marine Corps back in 2008. After serving my time in service in 2012, I shot straight through undergraduate (at a smaller university in Georgia) and graduate school (Virginia Tech) thinking I was going to go into public relations (PR).

Since I’m an extrovert, it seemed like a logical path. After graduating, I moved to Houston, TX and I started working at a global Oil and Gas services company where I did marketing and PR. To be honest, It was fun. I got an opportunity to create and curate marketing content pieces, draft press releases, and even enjoy graphic design. What’s more, I was also involved in project management, conducting training, trade show management, sales and whatnot.

Following significant management and marketing experience, I joined a small marketing firm as a Marketing Project Manager. However, as fate would have it, I was laid off due to the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. My parents moved from Georgia to Florida and I wanted to be near them again, so I packed my things and moved to Tampa, FL.

What inspired you to join the retail tech industry?

When I moved to Florida, I retried marketing but realized I loved project management. So I went to work at Ashley Global Retail (the eCommerce side of Ashley Furniture). Where I was progressively given projects that no one else wanted. These challenging projects made me love the complexity and challenges of the industry. Those projects ranged from front-end website improvements through back-end POS, to omnichannel. So, as my time at Ashley closed, I was looking for somewhere that I could go to complement my strengths in those areas.

That’s when I got to know Teamwork Commerce. The more I learned about Teamwork, the more I realized how much it complimented not only my skills, but the culture was 100% what I needed. So, now that I’ve been here for a little while, I’m even more convinced that I made the right decision. Michael’s personality and leadership, along with my direct leadership, keep me inspired to dig into the company and help it be the best in our industry.

What is your favorite thing about working in the retail industry?

 The technology. As a tech nerd, I love to see the technology of any industry move forward to make associates’ and customers’ lives better and easier. From my experience, very few industries are as technologically advanced as IoT.

 What is the best career advice you have ever received?

 The best career advice I’ve ever received was that “People are not efficient.” Because of my military background and personality, early in my career, I would often get frustrated because I wanted things to get done quickly.

I was talking with my manager about ways to get people to do things and she told me that “people are not efficient. Once you understand that you’d better be able to understand how to complete complex projects.” Since that day, when I get frustrated, I remind myself of this maxim and I’m better able to empathize and slow my driving personality down to enjoy the process.

What is your favorite thing about working at Teamwork Commerce?

The people. It’s the one thing that sets Teamwork Commerce apart from any other company I’ve ever worked with. I enjoy that I am surrounded by hard-working intellectuals who are easy to talk with, and not “corporate-y.”

Who are your key role models/inspirations?

I’m about to tell on myself, but I typically find role models or inspirations from people who are disciplined, stoic, and extroverted. These people are close to my personality that have already sharpened the skills and temperament of the person I strive to become. Some examples are Jocko Willink, Simon Sinek and John Maxwell.

Rapid-Fire Round…

• What is your favorite:
  • Book – Extreme Ownership and Dichotomy of Leadership. The first is impactful, and the second is a follow-up on the first.
  • Movie – To this day, very few movies have impacted me like Slumdog Millionaire. It changed the way I think about the world and the events that happen in my life.
  • Album – I have so many great memories from when my friends and I would hang out when I was younger (1999) listening to Blink-182’s Enema of the State when it first came out.

Most people don’t know that I…

I was heavily involved in MMA while in the Marine Corps. I even had a sanctioned amateur fight where I lost because I didn’t throw a punch. This is a funny story because my opponent said he was going to knock me out before we got on the ground (where I excelled). So, I told him I was going to take him to the ground and make him tap. Well, I didn’t make him tap, but he couldn’t beat my super awesome Jiu-Jitsu skills to stand up to knock me out. My trainer was not happy, but I had fun.

In my spare time, I…

Work out, explore, and hang out with my 3-year-old daughter.