She lost everything
in a flood.
Then built something
worth chasing.
Ayo Jones is a keynote speaker, author, and AI strategist who helps leaders stop rebuilding the burning house and start architecting the future they actually want. Her story begins with a hurricane and ends in Ghana.
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Does it feel like
the water is rising?
You are a leader on the front lines of a tsunami of change. AI, employee burnout, outdated systems. The pressure is relentless and the temptation is to close the door, lock it tight, and just hope the water recedes.
In 2017, that rising water was not a metaphor for Ayo Jones. It was Hurricane Harvey, and it was swallowing her street.
When Ayo and her husband Tony bought their dream house in Houston, they had scrimped and saved for years. They had two young boys. They had only been in that house for six weeks when the storm made landfall.
“The greatest crises are not what they appear to be. They are invitations to reimagine what’s possible.”
When the waters started rising, the family made the decision most people make: they stayed. Their neighbors had lived through every storm in 35 years without flooding. So they stayed too.
The moment that
changed everything
When the water crept over the front step and into the house, Ayo’s husband Tony did something she will never forget. He took a black Sharpie out of his pocket, walked to the wall near the attic ladder, and drew a hard, straight line about three feet off the ground.
He looked her dead in the eyes and said: if the water reaches this line, we go.
For the next three hours, the only light in that attic was a single flashlight beam, pointed through the opening in the floor, trained on that one black line. Eight people. Four children under ten. An elderly father. Half of them could not swim.
“When the water hit that line, we waded out into chest-high black water in the pouring rain and we didn’t stop until we found higher ground.”
That Sharpie line is the foundation of Ayo’s entire framework. It represents the moment that turns panic into clarity and converts anxiety into a decisive plan.
The flood was not the disaster.
The flood was the rescue.
When the floodwater receded and volunteers ripped out the drywall, they found the wiring inside Ayo’s walls had been sparking for years. The insulation was ash. The house her family had been desperately fighting to get back to was going to kill them. The normal they were racing to restore was a death trap they never knew they were in. The flood saved their lives.
Trading baggage
for belonging
In the aftermath of Harvey, Ayo’s family did what most families do. They rebuilt. They replaced the furniture, the dishes, the crockpots. They worked to restore exactly what the flood had taken.
But a year later, standing in their perfectly rebuilt house, Ayo and Tony looked at each other and admitted something: this was not the life they wanted. They had been so focused on getting back that they had never stopped to ask whether back was where they should be going.
So they sold everything. Both cars. All the new furniture. They packed their family into eight suitcases and moved to Ghana, West Africa.
“We had to chase the flood and lose everything to finally understand what was truly worth finding.”
Today, Ayo watches her son Leo play in the street with friends until the streetlights come on, a freedom she could not have given him in their old life. And a woman who watched their journey online was so inspired that she and her family reimagined their own lives and moved to Ghana too. Five years later, they have a five-year-old daughter, born into that reimagined life.
When you live your vision, you give others permission to chase theirs. That is the real work. And that is what Ayo brings to every stage she stands on.
Ayo Jones, M.Ed.
Ayo Jones is a keynote speaker, author, and AI strategist who helps organizations turn technological disruption into their next competitive advantage. With over two decades of experience guiding leaders through complex change, first in corporate sales and banking in New York and then inside complex education systems across the country, Ayo has a rare ability to bridge the gap between high-stakes strategy and the human reality of the people living it.
As the founder of Belonging Labs LLC, she partners with corporate and education leaders to solve their most pressing challenges around workforce agility, AI adoption, and organizational resilience. Her signature keynote, Chase the Flood, uses the Path to Higher Ground framework drawn from her survival of Hurricane Harvey to turn the crisis of disruption into a commanding advantage.
She is the author of Surviving the AI SHiFT and Teaching with AI. She was featured on HBO Max’s Coming From America for her family’s relocation to Ghana. She has been heard on NPR and Al Jazeera and seen on TLC, Hulu, and E! Entertainment. She holds a 98% audience satisfaction rating across 30+ paid engagements last year and consistently delivers what attendees call the standout session of the conference.
Today Ayo speaks, writes, and leads from Accra, Ghana, which is living proof that the most important thing the flood did was not destroy the house. It revealed the wiring.
Bring Chase the Flood
to your stage.
Ayo speaks at four windows per year. Dates fill quickly. If this is the right fit, the best time to reach out is now.