Austan Palmer

I would say what's made me so successful is my willingness to learn. I'm a firm believer that if I'm the smartest person in the room, we need to be in a different room. And that doesn't say anything to me in my intelligence or what I have, but constantly learning. Everything changes, so the big thing is not being like, well, we've been doing it for 10 years this way, why would we do it any different? Instead, I'm like, how do we learn to be more efficient and better? I would say learning and being around people who push me to be better, looking up to them, and being open to learn. Every day, I learn something new.

The best advice is you control your own destiny. No matter where you go to work, you're gonna have different personalities and different political structures, whether it be small or big. They have different challenges, but they all have challenges. And you control your destiny, so you control whether you want to be positive to look at it, you control whether you want to look at it and really find a solution, or just want a band-aid. All of that is you. You can't control a lot of the other things, but you can control you. So, deciding what you want out of life, or out of a situation, is ask the questions. I'm in a dominated industry, it can be very intimidating at times when you're the only female in the room, and it's 2026, which is not easy. And don't be afraid to ask the questions, and command the room, and have the confidence, not arrogance, but confident at what you're saying. And you control your path and your career.

Don't be afraid to ask the questions, and command the room, and have the confidence, not arrogance, but confident at what you're saying. You control your path and your career. Another good advice I received is having what we call a tribe. I have like 6 girls in the industry that were really close, and we champion each other. Two of us are actually in the group are competitors, but there's enough business out there, and we compete enough on the corporate ladder with men and all that, we don't have to compete with each other. You don't have to, just as another woman, all of a sudden not be inclusive in all of that. We can work together in this ecosystem, but it's really having that group around you, because the days are hard. Sometimes, especially in security, everybody wants something after something bad happens. Once there's an active shooter or something like that, all of a sudden all the budgets open up, which we try to tell people to be proactive, not reactive. It's emotional when you have active shooters at schools and things like that. It's not like you're just selling a sofa. And having those people to lean on is, I would say vital in your success, and that you can trust.

I would say one of the biggest challenges is the security industry is very reactive. There's a lot of money in hospitals, manufacturing plants, or distribution centers like Amazon, Tesla, Google. However, security is seen as an expense, not a revenue generator. But if people don't feel safe in a workspace, like nurses, we're losing nurses daily and people not going into the field. If they don't feel safe at work, they're gonna leave and go find a different group and burn out. And that's a problem. We need those people. We need teachers. These are instrumental roles in society, and the challenge is championing those directors of securities or vice presidents of securities that were military and know how to run a great security organization, but they don't know how to go in and talk the language of the C-suite. The biggest opportunity on the flip side is with all of the growth, specifically here in Texas, everybody's moving headquarters here, and the technology that is coming is just incredible. I know people are worried about AI and being replaced, and I kind of take the approach of, I know I'm good at what I do, and AI can't replace everything I do. The people who want to work hard are going to succeed. The technology that's here is exciting. You can be at Cowboy Stadium, and they can take camera analytics from around the stadium to that one person, and track them through the entire stadium the whole entire time there, in seconds if there's an incident.

One of them is integrity. I know life can get hard, and you're in rooms interviewing, but staying true to yourself, the integrity side, I'm very black and white. I want to be able to sleep tonight on the decisions I make, personally. And then, excellence is another one that I feel strongly about. Trying to be the best I can be for my clients and solutions. Money will follow, but really finding that secure solution so that, like, when my dad passed, he had cancer. I can't imagine being in an emergency room worried about somebody coming in and stabbing me because they don't have weapons detection or a security guard when I'm sitting there in hospice and gonna pass away in ICU in the next couple hours. That's something they shouldn't have to worry about. Hospitals or schools should be safe spaces. And so, having that excellence is a key there. And then the third one is selfless service. I'm a big proponent in giving back. I didn't get to where I am today without people helping me. I think that is instrumental, especially with the younger generation, when they are so siloed with computers and technology, and they don't have a lot of the personal skills that you used to have to have. And giving that back, and really leaning into the next generation of leaders, because if we don't fuel them, where's our world gonna go?