Meet Jessica Browdy | President & CEO

We had the good fortune of connecting with Jessica Browdy and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Jessica, how does your business help the community or world?
J. Kelly Advisors Project Management is a certified woman owned business, so we always try to give back to the community especially when it comes to women. Jessica Browdy the President and CEO of J. Kelly Advisors, knows how hard it is to come up in the business world as a woman. She sits on the Property Committee for the YWCA in South Florida were she provides services to the YWCA pro bono to help redevelop their real estate portfolio. The YWCA’s mission of equality for all women aligns deeply and personally with her. She also focuses on taking on non-for-profit clients to help them deliver on their vision in the built environment. She feels her companies mission which focuses on relationships and increasing real estate value aligns with the impact that these non-for-profits are creating in the community. Jessica is also a member of The Commonwealth Institute which is devoted to advancing business women in leadership positions. She has been on panel discussions and provided mentorship to young women coming into the business world. She actively promotes and works to help bring other women up through the business world.

What should our readers know about your business?
I look back on the past 20 years and going through this journey it took a lot of grit, resilience, and hard work. I kept the confidence that I had high integrity, great relationships with everyone I met, and worked hard. When I take a minute to think about it, I look back and realize all the hard work and accomplishments. I put myself through college and worked through architecture school, which any architect out there knows how difficult it is to work while in architecture school and still graduate at the top of your class. When I started out after college working as an architect I realized if I wanted to be a great architect I needed to learn how to build, so I left and went to work for Turner Construction. In order for me to grow I took on everything I could, I would typically be the last one in the office or at a jobsite sometimes until 10 or 11 at night. It was hard work, a lot of hours, and a lot of growing pains. I think it was tough as a woman because there was no one at a the top leadership level that was a woman, I wanted to break that barrier and that’s what I focused on when the days were long and I was exhausted. I’ve learned how important grit is and that toughing it out has now given me immeasurable experience that has paved the trail to start my own business with the relationships I had created. Our firm is all about relationships. We lead and run multi million dollar projects. In order to be successful and meet our clients goals and vision we need to have great relationships with all our clients, consultants, cities, counties, and vendors. We pride ourselves on focusing on smaller volume of projects with a high level of customer service. Project management is the process of leading and managing the work of a team to accomplish goals to meet benchmarks at a specified time. However, at J. Kelly Advisors this definition of Project Management is baseline. We advise technically on your design and construction to enhance your project management oversight experience.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
I’m in Delray Beach, its an eclectic little city where the fun can be found at the Beach or on Atlantic Ave. Although the Ave is changing a bit with more commercial stores and less mom and pop feel there’s still plenty of places to consider. Just up the road a bit North Prime Catch is a great place to grab lunch and sit on the dock and Third & Third is a chill place to catch some live music. Of course you can’t go to South Florida without visiting Miami so for sure I’d go to the Perez Art Museum and enjoy some of their delicious donuts in between viewing the art. Most likely I’d take the Brightline down since it’s easy to catch from Fort Lauderdale and a fun experience for an out of town guest. If at all possible I’d tell them to visit during Basel since that’s always a fun time between the art, food, and parties. For a lazy day I’d visit the Morikami Museum and Japanese Gardens, the grounds are stunning if you haven’t visited I highly recommend it. The great thing about Delray Beach is that its an easy drive to West Palm Beach where you can find so many great restaurants and beautiful scenery.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
Mike Browdy, my husband of 13 years and best friend for over 20 years. Mike has always been a positive light in my life from breaking down my own self imposed walls to supporting me to start my own business. He’s always supported me equally in the home and in my business decisions. We have two kids. Without equal support starting my own company and keeping it running through a pandemic would have been near impossible. He’s always encouraging me and reminding me of what I can do. I don’t shout out as often as I should to him, but without him none of this would be possible. Thank you for giving me wings to fly and being my unicorn!

Website: https://www.jkellyadvisors.com/
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jessica-browdy-0980285/

Image Credits
Anna DeAngelis