Crystal Barriner

I attribute my success to, honestly, my family. My mom's such a very hard-working person early on, with a lot of core values that she always shared with us. My grandparents as well. And then my dad - just looking at my dad, he would always say, you know, don't be me, and to be him was a great thing because he was a very successful athlete as well, a great patron in his community, and he would always say don't be me, be better than me. So I always had that family support, a great role model to model my life after, and then always putting my trust in God. So definitely a faith-based family, and faith leads me in everything that I do, from life to career.

The best advice I ever received - and I won't just say it's career advice, it's also been life advice, and I live by this daily, I even have it tattooed, that's how important it is to me - is from my grandmother. As a kid, she would always tell us to do right, because it's right to do right. And I live by that, so I feel like in life, if you do the right thing, right always happens, right always comes your way. In business, if you do the right thing, only leaving a literary mark on this world by treating people right, you'll be rewarded. So certainly do right, because it's right to do right.

I tell this to my niece, and I actually need to start sharing it more with my daughter as well, but I always say shoot for the stars. And I know that's kind of something a lot of people say, but it goes a little deeper than that. So shoot for the stars, because even if you miss, you can still land on the moon, which is out of this world. That's my mantra that I used to always share with my niece, and she makes me proud every day that she's definitely doing exactly that. Shoot for the stars, because even if you miss, you can still land on the moon, which is still out of this world.

Truthfully, it's sad to say, but it's being female. A lot of men, they think women don't know anything when it comes to finances. Typically, even in the olden times, the finances were pretty much handled by the men. They would tell the women, hey, you know, take this money and apply it to this bill, but women weren't privy to that information. So I think that's the hardest part of my career now - just getting the males to absolutely trust you that what you're saying is accurate. You can't tell a guy about his truck, especially about rates and what's a good term for the loan, things of that nature. So I feel that we have to be a little harder than men, obviously, in this industry, because we have to not only prove what we're saying to be accurate, we have to show it, and then we also have to still keep our cool and be even-kiltered. That way, you know, we're not getting upset because it's hard to reach a guy, or get them to understand, because you know and you can tell through the conversation that they're only not listening to you because you're a female, because a male can get on the phone and say the exact same thing you're saying, and they're buying it. So just always keep yourself up on what's going on, the changes in the financial world, and just be confident in delivering what you're saying, because you know you're right, and basically not get shook, because the guy's like, yeah, no, I don't want to hear it, you're a female. You know, just keep your cool, and you're the expert. Always be the expert in everything that you're speaking about. You may not know a lot about one thing, but definitely know a little bit of a lot of things. Another thing, too - some guys, they do get intimidated by your competence, and that's okay. That's not a bad thing, so continue on and walk into your purpose.

Honesty, and don't be a stranger to working hard. I know we live in a world now where we have so many overnight celebrities, or overnight success stories turn to millionaires, to content creators, and I don't knock those who do those things, but we can't get away from the old school rule - hard work still certainly pays off.