Gisela Belinfante BBA, MHRM

I attribute my success to my resilience and affirmations. Everything that I have done thus far, one of the things that I feel when you're climbing the ladder, as I have, to get to where I am, I am big on affirmations. I think that honing in on those things have helped me to reach and kind of catapult to where I am. One of my favorite mantras I always say to individuals is that success is hollow if it's solitary. And at times, your success is not always measured by how far you climb on the ladder, it really depends on how many doors you open for others once you've walked through your own. That is something that I have written in my office, and it's one of the things that I always talk about, and it kind of helps me stay grounded, especially with so much that we have going on with our day-to-day. A lot of affirmations definitely have done it, and just being resilient and knowing you have to persevere and never give up. I've chose this path because I thought, and I still believe, that it's the right journey that I was supposed to be on, and I was destined to be on, to help individuals as I do, and every day I feel like I touch someone's life. My personality is that nothing is unstoppable for me.

The best piece of advice came from an educator who asked me if I believed in something called divine timing and asked me to sit with that for a little bit. When I thought about it, I realized that the path that I am on isn't always a straight line, and it doesn't always have me as the winner in first place. It made me realize that there are moments in which you will face a challenge and or an obstacle, and realizing that best efforts are met with disapproval or disappointment. Sometimes we always want to be on top and want to market themselves to be kind of a showstopper, but realizing that, at times, sometimes you might not have a seat at the table, and maybe this is just not your season - that's divine timing. Every setback is a prerequisite for the setup. You can't have a breakthrough without the endurance built during your breakdown. It's almost like you have to get to that point in order for you to have that breakthrough.

I give them what I call my three pillars. First, your story is your asset. Your past experiences, even the gaps that you may have in your life, have shaped your unique perspective. Don't hide them. Instead, leverage them. Second, preparation is a form of your self-respect. Whether you're honing in on your resume and trying to get back into the workforce, or maybe you might be refining your style, your career style, your leadership style, whatever that may be, the work that you put in behind the scenes dictates your confidence on the stage. I always tell everyone, you're always on stage. And lastly, lift as you climb. My mantra is that success is hollow if it's solitary. But true influence, I believe, is measured by how many doors you open for others once you've walked through your own. I feel that these three strategic areas are transferable and can be utilized in many different facets.

AI is the biggest challenge in my field right now. I would say it's a challenge, but I feel like it's something that is not - we can definitely power through it because there are a lot of other advantages that I feel AI hasn't thought of yet. So it's almost like thinking outside the box when it comes to AI. It is something that, unfortunately, everybody's experiencing it because it has taken the place of a lot of individuals that have gotten degrees for certain things, and it's almost like, well, I spent years of college, and now I've been working at a company for 5 years, and they just laid me off because now they have bots that are doing everything. I would say breaking into the redefined millennial is AI, and that definitely is posing a lot of challenges and a few obstacles, to be honest.

At home, one of the values is being compassionate and having an open mindset when you are having discussions or when trends are trending. I always want to have an open mindset at home and always have compassion and empathy when it comes to your family, because things arise at times, and you want to always pause and take a step back and kind of exude compassion as applicable and show empathy. As it relates to work, I would say big values are accountability. I think that's one of the biggest things. I speak about that at home too, because my kids are saying it when they're in school - they'll tell their classmate that did something wrong, you should really take accountability. Taking accountability translates to your integrity, and your integrity is a definition of your character. I also believe in knowing that there's always room for self-improvement. That's a big value. When I hire individuals and ask what they think they can improve on, I've gotten where someone has said there's nothing that I need to improve on because I'm perfect. And being authentic - I'd rather just be that's who I am. Once you're authentic, it shows the true character of who you are, and you'll realize you don't have to sell. To be yourself doesn't require much.