Emma Warmington

I definitely attribute my success to having a good support system and team around me. Ashley and I work together as co-founders, and that partnership is the main key - you can't go it alone. We talked about this just this morning, how important it is to be a team player, get advice from people, and promote trustworthiness in international education. Even though it can be hard because not everyone is as collaborative and some people are more self-serving, I try to keep my focus and not let anyone dim the sparkle. I think relationships make you the most successful, so being relational, meeting people where they are, and understanding that everybody has their own story is crucial.

The best career advice I've ever received came from my dad, who also started his own company. He taught me to live by SWSWSW, which stands for 'some will, some won't, so what?' This has been incredibly valuable because when it's your own business, you can take things personally when somebody doesn't get excited about your idea or doesn't see the value in what you're doing. But the truth is, you can't please them all, and we shouldn't take it personally. There will always be those who do end up seeing the value, so you just keep moving forward.

Just be yourself and be your authentic self. You can teach someone to put data in a spreadsheet, but you can't teach personality, so authenticity is key. Treat people with respect and understand that relationships make you the most successful. Be relational, meet people where they are, and understand that everybody has their own story and is going through things. If someone is mean, that's probably just because they're going through something themselves. International education actually teaches you these skills - when you go abroad, you step outside your bubble and that same culture perspective. It makes you the best version of yourself and makes you resilient in ways that money can't buy.

The biggest challenge is that not everyone accepts transfer students for international education - it's a brand new concept. We've had to do a lot of education around telling international universities how to accept transfer students, which has been a significant challenge. But the flip side is that this challenge creates our biggest opportunity: no one's ever done this before. Ashley and I are the first ever to come to market with this product. It's the first time ever that transfer students have access to international global pathways, and that's the beauty of it - we're the first in the market. We've created a platform for transfer students from community college to go abroad instead of just transferring to schools here in America.

The values most important to me are being trustworthy, being positive, and being respectful in the workplace. I believe in treating people the way you should be treated - the golden rule. But number one for me is having fun, because I think the minute you feel like you're really having a hard time and it's just not fun anymore, that's a problem. Ashley and I always joke that nobody has fun anymore, nobody makes life a little fun. So what we do is go through life and try to make people more positive. We're doing such a positive thing for students, universities, and the whole ecosystem, so every day we lead with positivity. I think that's what's getting us through, and it also has made it super easy to be more successful. The energy you put out into the world, you definitely get back.