Carolyn Fanning, AFE, APIR

I would attribute my success to never giving up and finding mentors that are good at helping me and pushing me towards the right direction. Especially being in the accounting field, which is usually male-dominated, I've had a lot of male mentors who have told me to never give up and that I can do anything, that I'm as capable as anyone else regardless of my gender. Those mentors have helped me along the way, especially in college where I had a teacher as a mentor, and it's just continued to go on. They've encouraged me not to let negative feedback from people who are used to a certain generation of women not being in a specific field get me down. So I've kind of broken through barriers with all that support, showing my knowledge, and not giving up.

The best career advice I ever received, especially being in the accounting field which is usually male-dominated, came from male mentors who told me to never give up and that I can do anything. They told me that I'm as capable as anyone else, regardless of my gender. These mentors helped me along the way, starting in college with a teacher who became a mentor, and it's continued throughout my career. They encouraged me that the sky's the limit and not to let negative feedback from people who are used to a certain generation of women not being in specific fields get me down. With all that support, I've been able to break through barriers by showing my knowledge and not giving up.

I would tell young women entering my industry to not let anything stop you from achieving what you know you're capable of doing. Don't let certain comments or negativity hold you back. In the workplace we are in nowadays, it's getting much better, but I do know that through my growth, there was a lot of certain negativity in my field. So it's important to continue to push and just know that you are capable, regardless of what other people are telling you. Even walking into the office today on my team, which has about 20 people, there are only about 3 women, so you're still kind of in it. But I'm always trying to push the idea that you are capable of doing anything that you want to. I just want women to know that they can do whatever they want to do, regardless of what people think when it comes to whether women should be doing accounting or things like that.

The biggest challenge for me right now is continuing to be relevant and having a seat at that table. Just because I was given this job doesn't mean I stopped pushing and trying to grow in this business and continue to have my voice heard for certain things. The opportunities I'm pursuing include joining subcommittees to help others who are joining Clearwater and helping them through the onboarding and training process. I also go to career fairs to talk with students who are coming out of college and inspire them to do what they want to do. Another opportunity is teaching classes at where I work and being the one in front of 800 people, being able to explain very complex accounting perspectives in very simple terms that everyone at the company can understand. So for me, it's about becoming more and more relevant and having more of a seat at that table.

The values most important to me in my work and personal life are trust, communication, integrity, and transparency. I have to have all of those things to make sure I'm being my full self to everyone else, and also doing that at work. That's very important for the transparency and trust, because that builds the trust, which then helps you with client relationships going forward, and also friendships going forward.