Brianna Lawson

I've learned that because I did not have linear movement and I was never afraid to enter new industries, that's one thing I think that helps me excel, because I'm super flexible. My approach to change is important because no one likes change, but I have just accepted it because it's the only thing that is constantly coming. We might be a little uncomfortable, but the best things kind of happen and are born out of an uncomfortable place. So I may not like it, but I get real comfortable in the uncomfortable. You can throw me in whatever industry and I'm gonna thrive. I have all transferable soft skills, all I ever need to learn is a technical skill of something. I think that I'm worth the risk and I'm gonna bet on myself every time.

Every woman that I've had leading me has always taken me aside and fine-tuned things about me, and although that constructive criticism is kind of hard to hear, I embodied it, and I embraced it, and I made the changes that I needed to make within myself to make me a better woman in the workplace and also a person. I've been surrounded by great women in leadership my entire adult career, and they've always had my back while also helping me grow through their feedback.

Put your best foot forward. You need to very quickly learn that other people's feelings and emotions are not your responsibility, and that you're there to do a job, and you can do said job, and try not to take your work home with you. You definitely need your own way to decompress because you do deal with people all day. I'm very extroverted, I talk all day long, however when I go home, that's my recharge time and I don't play about that. There's no mistake that you can't fix. We all are gonna make them, all of us. I'm not a heart surgeon, so I think we'll be able to figure out if I make a mistake. We're not doing surgery in here, guys, it's okay, we can figure it out.

If you treat everyone with respect and you are direct and transparent, then it will work out and it will be okay. I treat people the way that I expect to be treated and I don't give anything less than that. I'm not in the business of standing in front of people's life lessons because no one was there to stand in the way of what I needed to learn. When the world tries to make you feel shame around certain decisions, it is our job to take that power and take that confidence back. I love being a mom, and if God gave me my children, they are supposed to be here, and that is how I carry motherhood. That's how I carry everything in my life. I also want my daughters to learn, yes, I am your mother, but I'm also Brianna, and I hope that I'm giving them the full scope of, yeah, mom, I love being your mom, but I'm still a whole woman.