Creating the “Co-op 101” radio show at our local station and an online “Co-op Central” was especially satisfying.

New member consultants are expanding Columinate services and strengthening our cooperative, and Ahzjah Simons is an outstanding example. Using a business brand of LA Simons, she brings experience in media and music, accounting and business management, co-op development and advancing DEI. She has helped lead at the retail level, state-wide, and nationally. In 2022 she was presented with the CCMA Cooperative Service award, in recognition of many contributions.

During a busy springtime for everyone, I connected with Ahzjah Simons and asked her a few open-ended questions (then lightly edited her responses):

Please tell us a few things to help readers know you better: the people and places that are most important to you, your non-professional interests and talents.

I was born to Jamaican parents in Hartford, Connecticut, and later migrated south with a company (the food retail group Ahold), landing in Ellenwood, Georgia. I was working as a commercial property accountant.

My husband and I met in Connecticut during our music days as writers, performers, producers, and recording artists on the reggae scene. After our first son was born, we continued to produce and record music, literally changing diapers between recording tracks. Creating music is still a love for hubby and me, but now, creating in our home studio, it’s more of a solace for me and personal therapy for both of us. We’ve also included cooking in our therapy toolkit. After almost forty years together, each moment is precious, and we’re making the moments count.

My dad has passed on, but my mom is about an hour away and loving life. Our sons are both young adults now and are amazing human beings. And I love to write; I’d love to publish a couple books one day.

Tell us about your professional work and some of the organizations that have been especially important.

My professional work began with a fifteen-year stint as a commercial real estate accountant. Bank reconciliations really turned me on, but I also found joy in creating business processes and systems. Ahold, USA moved my family and me to Georgia, where I continued accounting work for a few more years, then decided to wind that work down to de-stress a bit.  

Endowed with equally strong left-brain and right-brain wiring, I was simultaneously exploring my creative side while also building my accounting career and dabbling in human resources and coordinating network help-desk services. These business services supported smaller companies that often needed one person to wear many hats. My creative juices were satisfied as a musician, recording artist, and music producer, and I eventually ran a consulting company for independent artists, creating press kits, bios, and demos, along with promotions and marketing plans.

After relocating to Georgia and seeking more outlets for these artists, I discovered radio and a love and talent for creative expression and education through multi-media. I then became certified in radio/TV/sports broadcasting and transitioned into broadcast media, communications, and marketing. Producing radio/TV programs, hosting community events, launching publications, and becoming an audio/video production specialist in the holistic health and wellness arena activated the humanitarian in me, and empowering others was especially exciting. The left-brain side of me also enjoyed creating the processes and systems through which work and projects would be implemented.

Supporting others in health and wellness led me to certification in life coaching and creating a variety of personal development programs, including Conscious Kids summer camps and an annual FitNFun Festival activities for youth and families (including my own) by partnering with our state parks.

Through the radio work I eventually learned about cooperatives. I landed at my local co-op, Sevananda, as a part-time accounts payable clerk for a year, which allowed me the de-stressed version of the accounting world I had been seeking. I had no idea what I was in for!

I soon found myself in the co-op’s member services and marketing position, and this was heaven, as I was able to bridge my talents, skills, and experience up to that point. I was leading an amazing team handling outreach, education, marketing and more. Creating the “Co-op 101” radio show at our local station and an online “Co-op Central” was especially satisfying. The member services role enabled me to work closely with the general manager and understand all sides of the co-op, its purpose and true impact.

After nine years in the co-op’s member services, additional leadership roles soon came in the form of interim general manager team member; board president; and then general manager. After a three-year break during that time, I found myself back in the cooperative world; and before I knew it, sixteen years had passed.  

While at my local co-op, I also had the opportunity to serve on the National Co+op Grocers board of directors and that board’s DEI committee to help usher in more diversity, equity, and inclusion at the leadership levels of the organization. We also set objectives to support the co-op member base in creating more equitable practices and resources and innovative approaches to equitable board succession. I’ll be completing that service this year.

After seeing my home co-op through successful transformations as well as turbulence, I am happy to say that it is still standing; but like many retail food co-ops, it is not un-scarred in the wake of the pandemic. Once the co-op was able to secure $500,000 for a renovation, I made the bittersweet decision to move on and let someone else take the helm.  

How has your work evolved recently?

More surprises awaited me while serving the broader cooperative ecosystem at the Georgia Cooperative Development Center. As the interim co-director, I worked with co-op startups and non-profits as well as existing small businesses, overseeing and facilitating technical assistance, fundraising, communications, networking, education, and more.

Receiving the CCMA Cooperative Service award last year meant the world to me, especially at that particular transition point in my life. I’m not doing the work for accolades, but it sure felt good! I’m super excited to be presenting at this year’s CCMA conference, an “Introduction to Digital Transformation for Co-ops” that will share a little of what I’ve learned over the last couple years on the subject. It’s pretty cool stuff, and I trust it will be of value to cooperators.

As interim co-director, it’s been exciting working on behalf of an organization that exists to build equitable ecosystems throughout the state of Georgia, without my former additional demands of a retail operation. It has broadened my perspectives, skillsets, and experience in the cooperative landscape, and I have met some truly phenomenal people, leaders, creatives, innovators, and disruptors, both in and outside of the cooperative community.  

Last year I decided to launch a business solutions and development firm, specializing in multimedia, digital transformation, digital marketing, digital resilience, and digital inclusion. We are offering education, coaching, consulting, and project management as well as agency services to support today’s small businesses, co-ops, and non-profits. We are helping them keep up with the demands of new media, new marketing, content creation, and business automation—all are needed to sustain operations, engage new prospects, increase sales, build community, and market meaningfully. (See Digico Creative.)

Creating this digital media consultancy brings me full circle from my days as an artist consultant, but now in new areas for which I’ve grown passionate over the years. My work provides education, coaching, and consulting in digital/tech readiness, business and marketing automation tools, and digital inclusion, as well as agency services to owners who wish to digitally transform their business.

How do see your work and Columinate’s as mutually supportive?

Areas I’m interested in:

• education and digital programming to support consultants and co-ops;
• engagement and community building for co-ops’ member-owner base;
• building support mechanisms for the general manager role;
• start-up co-op project support;
• digital transformation: tools for marketing/project and department automation/CRM, and content management.