Justin Ayars
HE / HIM / HIS
Justin Ayars is a former history teacher, attorney, and a 16-year serial entrepreneur whose experience includes hospitality, tourism, marketing/sales, business strategy, nonprofits, tech and healthcare.
Embodying Henry David Thoreau's principle of "Living Deliberately," which includes: Listening Actively, Thinking Critically, Communicating Effectively, and Acting Intentionally.
Popular Talks
Entrepreneurship
-Business formation, fundraising, growth, and exit strategies, as well as building teams, creating cohesive corporate cultures, team dynamics, marketing/sales, emotional stress, anxiety, and burnout.
-Takeaway: Think carefully about each step along the treacherous entrepreneurial journey, embrace and learn from your failures, and always know your audience.
Leadership
-How to become the most authentic leader you can be while learning how to become comfortable being uncomfortable.
-Takeaway: Know thyself and learn how to grow while remaining true to who you are.
Inclusion
-How to embed principles of inclusion into your business and/or your life.
-Takeaway: Embracing and truly living the principles underlying the concept of inclusion can bring you greater economic prosperity, enhance your ability to understand others and the world around you, and bring both clarity and purpose to everything you do.
Consulting
My consulting services apply to entrepreneurs, working professionals, and corporate executives.
With each client, we establish a baseline, clear objectives, and a path forward utilizing milestones that are specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound.
Coaching
For almost 2 decades, I’ve had the title of “counselor at law,” which really means I’ve served as a counselor at life for countless people who innately trust and are comfortable confiding in me.
In this vein, I’ve served as a personal and professional coach to individuals ranging from college students to Fortune 500 executives on issues that span the gamut of the human condition, all of which can be summed up rather simply: Overcoming personal insecurities to achieve one’s desired personal and/or professional objectives.
“I’ve have the pleasure of knowing Justin Ayars, and what has always stood out to me is his unwavering authenticity, visionary mindset, and deep commitment to building inclusive, purpose-driven communities. Justin is a natural connector—someone who brings people together with intention and heart.
His background in law, entrepreneurship, and media gives him a unique ability to see the big picture while also attending to the details that matter. Whether he’s speaking, writing, or leading, Justin communicates with clarity, compassion, and conviction.
If you’re looking to collaborate with someone who leads with both intellect and integrity, I wholeheartedly recommend Justin. He’s a force for good in every space he enters.”
– Jeanmarie Tenuto, Centaur Strategies & Healthcare Technical Solutions
Justin’s storied and award-winning 25-year career is rooted in curiosity, a steadfast commitment to taking calculated risks, and an enviable ability to cultivate, nurture and maintain authentic personal and professional relationships built upon mutual respect and trust.
Justin’s formal education includes receiving degrees and certifications from The College of William & Mary, Christ’s College at Cambridge University, the Australian National University, the George Mason School of Law, the National University of Singapore Faculty of Law, and Harvard Business School.
Justin’s informal education in the startup world includes incubators and technology accelerators—Cedars-Sinai, Halcyon, Lighthouse Labs, Unstuck Labs, Rock Health, Startup Health, and Scale Health—as well as corporate professional development fellowships with Capital One, CVS Health, and United Health Group.
As a former history teacher at a British military boarding school, he helped students get into Cambridge/Oxford and prepared young adults for life by teaching outside of the standard curricula.
As a trial lawyer, Justin defended insurance companies in multi-million-dollar lawsuits winning every case he was assigned.
As a 16-year serial entrepreneur, he’s founded 5 companies including a coffee shop, a bar/restaurant, a marketing/media/event/consulting company, a consumer behavioral data analytics company, and a national healthcare technology company, EqualityMD, where he currently works.
Justin’s founded 2 nonprofits, has worked extensively in the arts, and is Chair of William & Mary’s Crim Dell Association representing all LGBTQ+ alumni around the world.
Justin’s incredibly diverse life experiences—from writing a speech for U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor to speaking about the economics of equality at the Lincoln Center in NYC during World Pride to starring in a documentary film about Liberace—give him a truly uncanny perspective on life and the human condition.
Let’s collaborate to ensure a transformative experience.