Dawn Barnes

The first thing I would tell her is to make sure that no matter what you do, and how you're doing it, that you give yourself grace. I think it is very easy to be hard on yourself, to have these really high expectations or low expectations, and not allow yourself to explore life and figure things out. Know that you can decide one thing one day, and then change your mind, do something differently, and be totally okay with that, and know that it's not a reflection of who you are as a person, it's just a process. It's a part of the process of developing who you will be.

One of the biggest challenges is when shifts in the economy happen and everyone's trying to find a new opportunity to make money, certain markets become oversaturated with people doing the same thing. Trying to ensure that we continue to distinguish ourselves as a quality service is important. Sometimes people don't understand the value in having a professional assist and manage your property or do an estate sale for you. It's a luxury to have someone do something for you that you can do yourself, technically. There are also some shady characters in the business, so we have trust issues where people don't want to trust someone to come in. Actually converting clients into understanding and knowing that they can trust us with their property, trust us with their items, and know that we're going to do the right thing and the ethical thing sometimes takes work, simply because of the amount of people in the industry who may not have the same ethical standards.

One of my main values is ensuring that I don't make myself smaller in order to succeed. I think that is a common thing that most women maybe even deal with, like imposter syndrome, or feeling like when they step into a room, if they need to be smaller to make people feel more comfortable. I have worked very hard in standing in my true self and being comfortable sharing, talking, and believing in myself when I'm working on projects, knowing that I know what I know. I am who I am, and you're either gonna work with me and accept me, or you're not. And if not, that's okay, because we're not necessarily meant to engage with everyone. You find your tribe and people who you work with who you complement. That's a big value for me, making sure you work with people who you complement and understanding and accepting that.