Amanda Padd

I think it's surrounding myself around good people, surrounding myself around a company that believed in me and saw potential. They said, okay, this is what it is, and they've given me every opportunity. Although I might be exhausted, I'm taking advantage of every opportunity that is available to me. At this point in my career, I don't say no to anything - you have to just say yes. Within reason, of course - there are times I do say no, like when my son was graduating elementary school or when I've traveled too much that month. Family is number one. But for the most part, you shouldn't say no because it makes you uncomfortable. You should say no because there's a legitimate reason.

I think the number one thing that's really hit hard this year was picking your own advisory board. You know, pick your team of people that you can turn to that can help you professionally or personally, and use them to their fullest capacity. Use them like you're building your own company as yourself, and use those people as your resources as you grow and as you learn.

This industry used to be very, very male-dominated, where women were never in executive roles, and it's really, really changed, I would even say in the last decade, as I've been kind of coming up within this industry. Number one, like I said before, pick your advisory board, your safe haven people you can speak with. But also don't be afraid to speak up or speak out, within reason, obviously. Also, take every opportunity that comes your way.

I think some opportunities are ones where you're putting yourself out there. I've done a lot of that this year, where I'm on podcasts that maybe I've never had the opportunity or thought about being on before, and being able to grow my knowledge and create more talking points within my industry that pertain to my industry. I think more opportunities would be traveling to places I've never been before, attending conferences I've never been before. The main focus is putting myself in uncomfortable situations, and that will give me more opportunities, because that's when you grow. One challenge I do talk about a lot is that I always felt like in this world where I travel a lot, that the people that get ahead are the ones that are out late nights, drinking at the bars. I'm just not a night person. I really like to get my work done during the day, so I used to be really intimidated by people who could stay out all night and drink, and I thought that they were getting ahead of me. I used to really be hard on myself about it, but then I learned and talked to other leaders within my industry, and they said, you know, real business does get done during the day. Don't be so hard on yourself about it.

I think it's very important to stay consistent, and once I really started being consistent, like I said, LinkedIn is my number one source of marketing and growth and whatnot. Consistency I saw, you know, via LinkedIn, my career really take off. And then consistency in the gym and my health and my routine is super important because my kids watch me, and they see what a good lifestyle is, and then they want to be active. So I think the key word is consistency.