Felicia Gaskin

I attribute my success to finding me and being true to myself. I tried for a long time to fit in, to do what others were doing, to follow along. But finally, I just said, you know, I'm different, and it's okay to be different, it's okay to be me. Being true to myself, staying true to my values no matter what, those type of things actually lead to success, especially lasting success. So it's not a gimmick, it's not a one-off. I can just be me in every room, and you either want to work with me or you don't, because I'm myself no matter what.

The best career advice I've ever received actually came from my grandmother. She told me to find something you love, and the money will come. Don't worry about the money. Find something you love to do, that you have a passion for, that empowers you, and the money will come.

Definitely do it. If you want it, that's the first step. If you want to do it, do it. Don't let anybody talk you out of something you want to do. There's always a way to make anything work, no matter what. It's different, it's not easy as people will make it out to be sometimes. It does require work, it does require effort, but most everything in life that's worth it does anyway. So, definitely, if you want to do it, do it. That's the first thing I would say. And then just find what works for you. You don't have to be like everybody else.

Challenges definitely right now are the high prices. Unfortunately, a lot of people can't even get their foot in the door yet because the home prices are so high. There's no such thing as basically a starter home anymore, not affordable, where you can have a decent regular income and still be able to afford one. That also means that people have to buy their first home later in life, after they've had enough job experience to be able to get that higher pay to be able to afford their first home. The mindset of 'we can't' is also something that's a challenge to overcome. But opportunities out there right now, because I'm education-based, my goal is to go out and combat all of the myths out there, combat the 'I can'ts', combat all of the negativity, because the media puts out that nobody can buy a house. People can, we just have to find different ways to do it. That's what the opportunity is for me - I can reach more people with my education forum.

Definitely service. I like to be service-minded when it comes to being helpful, helping others. I lead with that in my family, too. I like to have my kids have that mindset. We do a community service project every year as a family because I want them to understand we're blessed, and we want to make sure that we can help others as much as possible. So definitely service is one of the biggest, and of course, family, too. A big component of family, belonging, and community.