“If you are the smartest person in the room,
then you are in the wrong room.” —Confucius
At Simpatico, we are all about positive change, whether it’s helping you achieve more as a professional, unleashing your team’s potential, or optimizing your organization for long-term, healthy growth. To do all of that, we must challenge ourselves to improve continuously, gathering experts from a wide range of disciplines in order to provide you and your organization with the best guidance possible.
Each member of our team brings a unique set of skills and experience to the table. Regardless of your position, no matter your industry, our combination of time-tested strategies and innovative methods can help you reach new heights of success and fulfillment.
LK Browning, Founder
To lead, you must follow. To teach, you must learn. To inspire, you must first examine yourself.
For the founder of Simpatico, LK Browning, helping others reach their full potential is a calling. In her professional life, she has answered that calling in a wide range of industries: energy, waste management, consulting, coaching, banking, healthcare, sustainability, and academia. Her roles spanned innovation, project management, people management, sales, and workforce development. In addition, she has played an active leadership role in a dozen startups. LK is passionate about helping individuals, teams, and organizations through the challenges of modern business.
Her colleagues at Deutsche Bank, the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA), and the College System of Tennessee, along with clients of her previous consulting enterprise, LK Browning & Associates, know the power of LK’s collaborative, inventive spirit. They understand that she relates to the challenges of executives, small business owners, and employees alike. They appreciate her unique ability to help others find or renew their sense of purpose and adopt practical tools for success.
LK enjoys the game of golf and loves coaching business owners and others in using golf as a business tool for talent recruiting and selection, business development, and teambuilding. She successfully transferred her boardroom skills to the golf course and has been helping professionals, amateurs, and college players defeat the mental blocks that hinder their game since 2004. Often, she coaches clients to use very similar skills both on and off the golf
course. LK says her clients marvel at how skills they find tremendously helpful on the course are directly transferable to their work setting.
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A recognized thought leader in areas ranging from communication and team leadership, engaging stakeholders in program development, and customer-centric project management to building innovation-ready teams, LK is a popular speaker at the national and regional levels.
LK Browning graduated with honors and holds a Bachelor of Science degree in psychology (minors in accounting and English) from Middle Tennessee State University and a master’s degree in Human, Organizational, and Community Development from Vanderbilt University. She holds an emotional intelligence coaching credential, facilitated Lean Six Sigma project training at TVA, earned her Business Energy Professional (BPI) Certification from the Association of Energy Engineers, and is an Achieve Global Master Trainer. She invites you to join the latest, most exciting step in her professional journey, Simpatico. Simpatico helps individuals, teams, and organizations harness their skills, overcome obstacles, and reach their full potential.
Jim Williamson, Executive Coach and Sr. Consultant
Jim Williamson has built a successful career leading and growing organizations based on his ability to ask important questions, listen well, speak with candor, and identify talented people. It’s from this foundation that Jim helps leaders navigate organizational and societal changes to move organizations closer to their vision.
Jim has spent much of his career in public relations and non-profit management. Most recently, he served at Sysco Corporation for 14 years as president of the company’s fresh produce distribution division based in Tennessee, FreshPoint Nashville. Jim excels at securing developmental opportunities for leaders and coaching people at all levels of an organization.
His areas of expertise include strategic planning, business development, operations management, staff management, talent acquisition, crisis management, public relations, non-profit leadership, food service and distribution.
Jim is passionate about building and empowering teams, navigating changing industries, and implementing fiscally sound practices while putting employees first. As a proponent of organizational health, his coaching focuses not only on helping entrepreneurs and organizational leaders scale their businesses, but also on helping them clarify their values and create exceptional cultures.
Jim Williamson holds a bachelor’s degree in journalism from Howard University.
Christie Sheats, Training and Talent Consultant
Christie Sheats knows that impactful customer and employee experiences are essential. Her ability to lead and coach others to greatness has proved crucial to the growth and success of many organizations.
Christie began her career at National City Bank, where her ability to create impressive customer experiences led her to two operations supervisory positions. She went on to provide the same excellent level of service as Housing Compliance Officer at the Kentucky Housing Corporation. Here, her commitment to service helped improve the lives of people most in need, including those living in tax credit housing, shelters, and assisted living facilities, and residents affected by HIV/AIDS. She later handled project management, insurance, training, and interviewing for a multi-location dental practice.
Christie continues to create excellence through her leadership of and participation in many social and community organizations in the Nashville metropolitan area. She founded Naturally You Inc., a non-profit organization created to educate and improve the self-esteem of young girls through professional hair care services and education.
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Christie Sheats holds a Bachelor of Arts degree with honors in business administration from the University of Kentucky at Lexington and a Master of Public Administration from Suffolk University. She also maintains a SHRM-CP certification.
Andrea Elliott, Curriculum Designer and Facilitator
As a facilitator and consultant, Andrea excels in helping salespeople and leaders make useful connections between program content and their professional and personal lives. Her personable style puts participants at ease and provides an engaging and challenging learning experience.
Andrea has 19 years of organizational behavior experience and has worked locally and internationally with both large and small clients. Andrea began her career as an HR generalist for the distribution segment of a large retailer. After discovering her passion for attracting and retaining talent through strong selection and enablement processes, Andrea decided to translate her knowledge of employee psychology into customer behavioral psychology.
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Her areas of expertise include sales strategy implementation and sales prospecting; organizational behavior; time and territory management; negotiation; technological application (CRM); and employee selection. She has experience in numerous industries such as energy, technology, telecommunications, industrial/heavy machinery, retail/distribution, and medical services.
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Andrea Elliott holds a Bachelor of Science degree in management from Purdue University.