Emma Raquel Bleiberg

I truly attribute my success to knowing who I am and knowing that I leave my gas tank on empty every single day. I always leave my gas tank on empty, because if somebody says, why didn't this get done, I know that I can cross every T, dot every I, and say I did my ultimate best. That's why I'm not hard on myself at all - I know that in my best efforts, I did all I could do in that capacity. I always give my very best to every opportunity and commit wholeheartedly to the people and responsibilities entrusted to me.

The best career advice I've ever received is to be concise - meaning saying what you mean and having the confidence to have the follow-through, even if you fumble. We're not hardwired to already know what we're supposed to know, that's why we learn. It's okay to fail the first time, probably overcompensate the second time, and then you usually meet the mark the third time and hit the nail on the head. Through that, it really is about just being direct and concise and honest. But actually, I take that back - the best advice I was ever given was that you could really make a big mistake with the best intentions. You could live in your will of 'my intentions were X, Y, and Z,' and it could all be beautiful, but you're living in your will instead of living in the will of the greater purpose, the greater cause, which doesn't look like an I statement. It's a you statement, an us statement, a collective statement.

I don't want to oversimplify and just say know your worth, because that's lame, but it really comes down to being able to use your voice to convey your principles and intentions. Something another woman told me that really resonates is: do your best and leave the rest. That way you can never be hard on yourself, you can never say you didn't do it, and you can't be angry - there are no regrets. When you're really, truly coming from a place of being heart-forward and being honest with your intentions and yourself, and knowing wholeheartedly that you're driven by principles rather than ego or wanting praise, no one can win an argument against you. It's about setting a standard and doing everything in your power to meet that standard, being driven by those principles rather than external validation.

The biggest challenges and opportunities in my field right now are systems of operations and execution. When you have to establish and put systems into place, everyone has their own way of working, but you have to be able to gauge a room and find a flow, because everything has to work in an assembly line. The biggest challenge is taking a group of really diverse people and figuring out how to get them into a flow state of being. That's a hurdle that is sometimes hard to overcome, and sometimes there are those people that are bad seeds and you can't break bad habits. But that's also ultimately the greatest way of fast-tracking to success at the same time. It's really being able to take an analytical mind and find where emotional intelligence falls into place as well. It's about trying to be understanding when it comes to personal matters, because things happen and life happens, and if anyone understands that, it's a woman. But you also have to stay geared in a direction where ultimately you do have to honor and stay committed to the company and the mission statement and what commitment you made.

Principles are definitely the most important values to me. I focus on serving people - even if it's consumerism, I ask: does the product add value? Does it solve a problem? Does it serve a purpose? Is it taking advantage of somebody or not? I work to discern that fine line between being in your own self-will and living in the will of others. I've learned that you could really make a big mistake with the best intentions because you're living in your will instead of living in the will of the greater purpose, the greater cause. It doesn't look like an I statement - it's a you statement, an us statement, a collective statement. Being able to discern that difference is crucial. I also evaluate everything through the lens of: is it honest? Is it kind? Is it useful? If I can check all those boxes, then I know I'm acting from the right place and being of service.