Charlene Walthall

I attribute my success to my family. I grew up in a family where the women and the men spent their time, whether it's with their job or our family, showing us little aspects of being an independent person, but also knowing how to be a lead in your own way and helping out others when necessary. One of the biggest things is I grew up around my grandmother - we all grew up around my grandmother - so I've seen her be a leader in her own way, in her own right, as an evangelist. That kind of molded me to keep balance and keep structure, to carry myself in a positive way. Even if I don't get it from others, I know that I grew up around an environment where I was shown that. That would probably be one of the things I attribute to that, to her.

One of the best pieces of career advice someone gave me was to make sure you work on your skills, for whatever you are able to be an asset to companies. Make sure that you are willing to put in the work, and just stay dedicated to yourself, and also dedicated to the task at hand to move up in the career. That's probably one of the best things, and I've been doing it ever since. I'm just waiting on the right opportunities for my career, the career that I want to really take off. But in the meantime, I'm just keeping myself busy and making sure that I be an asset to whatever company, or entrepreneurial thing that I would like to start on to do.

I would just have to say, make sure you are going in it with a mindset of you wanted to work, you have the will to want to work, even if it's something that you haven't done. Just have the will to work. Of course, you're gonna have some things that you're gonna have to overcome, but just make sure you just have that will, because if you have the will, you can always put yourself in a position to get a better outcome somewhere else, whether working independently for yourself, or with another company. So, just having the will. I talk about that every day - you have to want to have the will. I know I can push people all day, but they have to find the will of their own way to succeed in whatever their desires may be. So that's something I very strongly advise young people, or anybody at this age - have the will.

I would say the biggest challenges right now is just finding the right time. Any shift, time is always available, but just finding the right shift that can really elevate me to do some many things outside of work. So just finding that right shift that will fit me to be able to get to a higher level with management, or supervisory. For opportunities, I think the opportunity is there, it's just that finding the right time structure, the right shift structure, so that way I can be more dedicated to that, to be able to expand to different leadership roles. You have to find the right time, the right shift, and then when you put it in, you gotta be willing.

For work, the values that are most important to me would be respect and just actually being a leader. I look for those things at work - being respectful, and because everyone's a team leader in their own way, encouraging people to just be a leader when it's time to step up, even if you're not given that position. Just take that in consideration when you're working. And for home, it would be the same thing - respect and structure. And just being independent. I have a teenager, so I'm very focused on respect, structure, and just being independent, being an example while I'm here, while I'm home.