Ernisha Hall

I would attribute my success to having a support system of friends and family that continue to push me, and believe in me, and support my vision. Essentially, they remind me that I can do it, right? Sometimes that's all you need. On the hard days, you just need those people that believe in you, and keep pushing you forward, and are willing to help you when time is needed. Having people who genuinely believe in what you're doing and are there to lift you up when things get tough has been absolutely critical to everything I've been able to accomplish.

The best career advice I ever received was to be personable, but you don't have to always be personal. That advice really taught me how to have boundaries in the workforce, but also how to let people in just enough to get to know you without having to tell them everything. It's about finding that balance between being approachable and professional while still maintaining healthy boundaries that protect your personal life and energy.

I would say, find a mentor. Find a mentor and find your tribe, right? The mentorship has to be someone who's been there, done that, but not seeing you as any level of a threat in any way, and all they want to do is see you grow and succeed. That's how it works so great for me with Danielle, because she once was a chamber leader herself. She's been in the chamber field for over 20 years, and when she left Chamber World, she didn't leave because I came along. I was like, hey, help me! And she did. Then find your tribe - authentic people who want to see you win, people who are really, truly vested in your success without anything to gain or lose from it, but they just believe in you, and they believe in the overall mission and vision of what you're trying to accomplish.

Right now, the biggest challenge in our field is politics. We're a black chamber of commerce, and we are currently in a political climate where being a chamber that supports a specific demographic of people, although we do not discriminate and we have members of all racial backgrounds, it still makes it a little hard for us. And being a small business owner, it's hard enough. A small business owner is trying to find funding, trying to market in a way that allows you to keep an influx of customers so that your business scales, not just stays level, but continues to grow. It's hard being a small business owner regardless. So, as a nonprofit and a chamber that's taken on the leadership role of supporting the entire state in this capacity, that's the biggest challenge right now.

The values that are most important to me are giving back. Giving back to others, like putting a hand forward to help others, or putting a hand backwards to help people forward. That's something that I was just raised on. I grew up in New York City, and there's a lot of people that could use a helping hand, and I believe in that. I believe when you have the opportunity to do for others, you should. It's about using whatever position or resources you have to lift others up and create opportunities for people who need support.