Candace Walters

I attribute my success to my family - my mother and my father, the foundations, the morals, the values that they gave me, and building upon those. I also attribute it to one of the many lessons they taught me, which was maintaining my integrity at all times. That matters. Unfortunately, in this climate, it doesn't feel that way, but integrity still matters. Walking out your talk still matters. Being who you say you are still matters. Under-promising and over-delivering still matters.

I've had amazing mentors throughout my career. One mentor, Pam Perry from Michigan, who has been with me since the inception of my business, taught me about maintaining firm professional boundaries. What she was really saying to me was don't get caught up in the compliments or other things that may come your way - always focus on the actual deliverable and the business at hand. Another mentor told me something very important: the first one who gets upset loses. To always keep a cool head, never do the arguing and the negative banter. Whoever gets upset first loses the negotiation, they lose the deal, they lose the argument, they lose whatever. Stay cool-minded, stay level-headed, always maintain your composure. I have found that is one of the best pieces of advice I've had. I even use that in negotiating - the first person who mentions money loses. From a woman's perspective, it gives me an upper hand with how I navigate the conversation.

Again, back to the integrity - always maintain your integrity in all business dealings. For me, a lot of my clientele are men, and buying me dinner is not my check. Compliments are not my check. My check is my check. So be very vigilant in ensuring that you are putting together your contracts properly, that you are surrounding yourself with the right type of mentors, that you are ever-evolving and studying your craft. Time and technology are changing everything on a daily basis, so being at the forefront of things, having the foresight to be two or more steps ahead of what is going on in your industry and in your craft and in the spaces that your clients represent is what is going to keep you ahead. Also, keep that authenticity that we sometimes are lacking now in this space. You have the generation of AI, you have a generation of superficial things, and some of them are built to help, but they are losing the human touch, so continue to have the human touch. One of the things that all of my clients, male and female, have accredited me with is remembering that women's touch, and that is not a bad thing. Understanding what your femininity brings, that soft touch that may be needed in spaces where there's a lot of testosterone or challenges, being able to come in and be that conscience of the group, being that sound mind, that level head, is something that we bring that is genuine if used properly. Use your powers for good, not evil.

I feel that when I was living in Atlanta, building my business was simple, not easy, but simple, because there was a huge collaborative atmosphere there. As I've moved to the West Coast, and even just in the climate I'm in now, specifically among women, which is so unfortunate, I feel there's less of a collaboration mindset and more of a competitiveness mindset. It's very unfortunate, very saddening to me, because we build, we're stronger together in every aspect of our lives, professionally and personally. I believe there is enough out there as far as resources and business and funding for all of us to be able to thrive. In my case, I don't ever need my name on anything. I don't need my name in lights. I need to be able to roll my sleeves up and participate and collaborate. I feel like I am encountering, and others like me are encountering, those situations which really threaten success for us, because there are so many opportunities out there that if we were to strategically collaborate among all of these brilliant minds that I come into contact with and that I see online, there would be nothing we couldn't take over. I know we blame the patriarchy, yes, but at some point, when you learn better, you just gotta do better. I'm over the excuses. I'm a no more excuses kind of lady at this point. I feel like we have the knowledge, we have the technology, we have the bandwidth, we have the resources, we have all that we need, except the buy-in amongst each other. It takes as much effort to do things on a small scale as it does on a larger scale when you have the right collaborative effort. I wish that more of us would imagine it together and bring our visions to reality.