Keneisha Fountain: Rebuilding After the Layoff
Episode Summary
Keneisha Fountain is the founder and CEO of Fountain Meridian Group. In this episode, Keneisha shares how being laid off from Nike after six years forced her to confront her own sense of worth, grieve the loss of a career she thought she'd retire from, and rebuild something entirely her own. She discusses the depression that followed the layoff, the discouragement of months of rejected applications, and the unexpected project that became the foundation of her consulting business. This conversation is an honest look at reinvention, resilience, and finding freedom on the other side of a setback.
Key Takeaways
How to separate your worth from a layoff or rejection instead of internalizing it as failure
Why saying yes to a project below your rate can open doors money can't buy
The freedom of structuring your own time once you're no longer bound by someone else's calendar
How treating a career setback like a breakup can help you grieve it and come back stronger
Lessons on building a business from one client relationship and a lot of word of mouth
Why community and accountability among women can carry you through reinvention
Meet Keneisha Fountain
Keneisha Fountain is the founder and CEO of Fountain Meridian Group. After nearly a decade in corporate consulting and strategy, including six years at Nike, she was laid off during a wave of corporate restructuring. What began as a single policy-writing project for a family friend's foster care agency in Texas grew into a full consulting practice serving organizations across the human services space. Keneisha is also the founder of a Memphis-based nonprofit expanding youth access to tennis. Beyond her work as a founder, she hosts an annual gathering called Girlfriends & Gratitude, bringing women together to share goals and hold each other accountable.
How She Pivoted
Keneisha didn't set out to build a business. After months of rejected applications following her layoff, she took a solo trip to St. Martin, more to change her scenery than to find clarity. It was in the conversations that followed, reconnecting with a family friend who needed help navigating new state policy requirements, that her business began to take shape.
"I just need to get into something new. Let me figure it out. Let me learn."
She took the project at a fraction of her old corporate rate, not for the money, but for the chance to build something new. That one yes multiplied into a full client roster and a business she now runs entirely on her own terms.
Insights for Ambitious Women
Keneisha's journey is a reminder that a layoff doesn't have to define what comes next. One of her biggest lessons was learning to give herself space to grieve before pushing forward again.
"The freedom to reclaim every single minute of your day and create it for yourself... it's worth it."
She also encourages women to lean on their community rather than trying to rebuild alone. Her own tradition of gathering friends to check in and ask how they can support one another reflects the village she grew up watching her mother build for other women.
"Find your tribe, your group of women, your support group. Lean on them, ask for help, take that leap, and find freedom on the other side."
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