There Is Room for Everyone to Rise
How to Build a Career Without Waiting for Permission
There Is Room for Everyone to Rise
The best career advice I’ve ever received may be the advice I had to learn for myself: don’t wait for someone else to give you permission to believe in your potential.
I didn’t have a traditional mentor or someone guiding me through the different stages of my career. There wasn’t a roadmap or a person telling me what my next move should be. I had to find my way through experience, education, trial and error, and a willingness to keep learning and growing.
That was especially true when I was coming up in the fitness industry. At the time, I often saw a culture where people advanced by making someone else look less capable, where knocking another person down could be a way of elevating yourself. I quickly realized that wasn’t the kind of professional or leader I wanted to become.
Instead, I chose to invest in myself. I educated myself, pursued certifications, continued developing my skills, and challenged myself to become better—not so I could be better than someone else, but so I could be the best version of myself for my clients, my colleagues, and the people I have the privilege of leading.
That mindset has shaped my career and, ultimately, my leadership philosophy. I lead with my heart. I believe people deserve to be treated with kindness, respect, and dignity, regardless of their position or experience. I believe you can hold people accountable while still making them feel valued. And I believe the strongest leaders don’t need to dim someone else’s light to make their own shine brighter.
There is room for everyone at the table. Someone else’s success does not diminish mine, and my success does not take anything away from theirs. In fact, I believe we are stronger when we support one another, share what we know, celebrate each other’s accomplishments, and create opportunities for others to grow.
Not having a mentor forced me to become my own advocate. It taught me to trust my instincts, create my own opportunities, and never stop learning. But perhaps more importantly, it made me determined to become the kind of mentor and leader I wish I had along the way.
Today, one of the things I value most is being able to encourage someone else to see their potential before they fully see it themselves. If I can help someone believe they are capable of more, give them the confidence to take the next step, or simply remind them that they belong in the room, then I consider that part of my success.
So, if I had to put my career advice into one sentence, it would be this:
Believe in yourself, invest in yourself, lead with kindness, and never make someone else smaller in order to make yourself feel bigger. There is enough room for all of us to succeed.
