Diandra Nims

I attribute my success definitely to God, and underneath that, in smaller letters, I would say myself in a way. I think that everything I have and have been able to achieve has only been through God's grace and salvation and mercy and love, really. There's so many moments where I know I can't explain how or why I got to this point, but I know God has saved my life through the many challenges, especially mental health challenges that I've faced. I put myself in the smaller letters because the Bible does say faith without works is dead. So there were times I had to dig deep, and sometimes dig deep in my faith, dig deep in my mental health toolkit, dig deep in my friendships - whatever it was for that time, sometimes you gotta encourage yourself, right? While I can attribute some of those things to myself, I know ultimately God put those things and people and circumstances in position so that I had somewhere to dig deep from. A lot of people don't have that privilege. So I would say that is a big reason that I'm still here, and he's the reason I'm still here, but more a cherry on top that I've been able to find a level of success.

I don't know if I would say career advice, but I think it's life advice that I've applied to my career, and that's to give yourself grace. I am a recovering perfectionist and a recovering people-pleaser, and so I can sometimes have a tendency to be really hard on myself, especially when I make mistakes or when I don't feel like I'm acting in a way that is living up to my potential. But what has been helping me in the past 8 months or so has just been to give yourself grace. You know, you're not perfect, and it's okay that you're not perfect. You know you're gonna get back up and try again, you're not a quitter. So instead of beating myself up and going down a negative spiral that isn't really gonna help anyone, especially me, I just tell myself, give yourself some grace. It's okay if you need a nap. It's okay if you don't have it today. You know, but you do your best, and I think that's always gonna be enough.

I would tell them to take up space. Even if you're not your full, authentic self, because you're not always going to be able to be that in professional spaces, I do think however you show up, it should be authentic. You shouldn't be afraid to be that, you know? Even if it's just, hey, this is my professional work side, okay, well, be your professional work self and be yourself. Don't try to be a caricature or a clone of what you think will bring you success. I think there's so many different levels of success, and to success, and we can get so caught up in climbing the corporate ladder that we don't even define what success is for ourselves. So I think if you can remain true to yourself and take up space, you can find what success means to you and pursue that instead of pursuing a cutout of what success could be.

The values that are most important to me are integrity, love, and vulnerability. I would say those three probably encapsulate everything. I feel like we have to, just like I'm giving myself grace, learn to give other people grace instead of making assumptions, leading with love and encouraging and empowering other people to love themselves, love what they're doing, showing them that they're doing their best and their best is enough. Integrity means doing the right thing even when no one is watching, because I think in moments when your back is against the wall, that's when it really reveals who you are. If you're being performative, when your back's against the wall, the mask is gonna slip. And vulnerability - I think a way that I've been really able to connect with other people has been through me sharing, whether it's about something I'm currently going through, something I went through in the past, challenges. That, to me, is how you really connect with other people and build intimacy with other people and build relationships and community with other people. So I would say those three have, and continue to, bring me through some hard challenges in my life.