Ana Sofia Reynoso Montilla

I attribute my success to my family. My family used to have a business back in Mexico, and they migrated to Canada and then here to the U.S. When they started to tell me about how their business was, and how they would generate clients and things like that, that's when I started to also try to learn as much as I could about business. That's why at TCC I did Business Administration Associates, and I actually enjoyed it a lot during that process. Then when I went to OSU, I decided to do MIS since it's very broad and includes IT, marketing, and business. That really motivated me, all because of my family and how they did things back then, and now I'm like, well, I kind of want to do something like that, if it's possible.

The best career advice I've ever received is to not be scared of trying things out, because sometimes we doubt ourselves, and because we doubt, we don't give it a try. You need to try to know what your passion could be, or if you're gonna like it, or maybe you're gonna learn something from it. So I do think just trying it out without any fears is the best advice.

I would say that there's no competition, because we're all different. We all provide different services, no matter what area you're in, or maybe it could be something similar. Maybe someone else is doing social media freelance stuff, and that's totally fine. They do it a different way, I do it a different way, and we all end up winning at the end. Everyone brings something unique to the table.

In terms of opportunities, there's many different areas you can choose from, even inside marketing. Sometimes it can be networking events, you can be a community engagement person and just go over there, network, talk about business. Sometimes it could be social media, maybe just creating content and things like that. So there's lots of opportunities there. As for challenges, depending on what area you're focused on, maybe you could be into nonprofits, maybe you could be helping small businesses, and other things. Sometimes when you're still young like me, it's a little challenging because not many people trust your work. Although you have experience on it and showcase your portfolio, sometimes people see you too young, and they're like, might as well contact someone else. I will say, at the beginning, it does discourage you a lot, but that doesn't mean that your work is bad. It means you just gotta keep moving forward, because eventually there is someone that is interested in you.

In my personal life, the most important values are definitely family time. I try to balance it out with work, and my family, and my loved ones. Another one for me is being able to take care of myself, and also the ones around me. I also value trying to balance things in life, because sometimes there's always something going on, maybe a networking event, or something last minute, school. Now for my work, it's very important to maintain everything organized. I always try to write things down, do deadlines and keep projects going. Another value is to always respect the decisions of everyone, since we all think differently, and we must see what's best for the client. With marketing and social media, there's always new things going on, and maybe some might like it, others might not. We have to always respect and hear them out to see what they really want. I also like to be creative and try different perspectives. I always try to listen and always give the best of what I can do.