Hayley Davis

I can't not mention my faith. I think my faith teaches me a lot about having a strong work ethic and working across cultures, and that's something that once I established in my younger college years, it really shifted my worldview. I think that impacts how I succeed, how I do well, how I thrive. But I think just work ethic in general is important - a lot of people think you have to hustle, hustle, hustle, and I think it's more about creating something sustainable, something that you can wake up to do and enjoy. You gotta pay the bills, but you have to enjoy what you love. So making sure sustainability is there - emotionally, mentally, spiritually - it's just so important.

The best advice I've ever received is most definitely to do the thing you're afraid of. Doing things well is important, integrity is important, and making sure it's sustainable is equally valuable. A lot of times people will want to study 3 hours a week, and if you would just do 15 minutes a day, you would see monumental differences - but that applies so much to my business as well. If I would make sure it's sustainable, it functions a lot better. So I think it's about releasing pressure and making sure you have a daily practice - do what scares you. What's the task that is really making you the most nervous? How can you do it? How can you make sure it's sustainable versus feeling like you're always taking giant leaps?

I would say, along the lines of the best business advice I was given, pinpoint 3 things that are holding you back. And then determine which of those need to be scrapped, and which of those you need to do today. The things that are holding us back - sometimes we're getting stuck on things that don't matter, and then there are certain things where, oh yeah, you're terrified of that one thing, and that's exactly what you need to do. So notice where you're creating barriers, and notice where, nope, that's a stepping stone, and I can actually step on that. Kind of building that discernment, I think, would be the advice I would give.

I think one of the challenges is that monolingual Americans, once they hear I'm an accent coach, first off, they're like, is that your real job? So there's the issue of validity, but then also this attitude of 'oh, you need to work with so-and-so,' when I don't fix anyone's accent. I can't do that. Just like I can't fix prejudice. All I can do is help you have a better chance at speaking well at the table, offering you more room there. So I would say sometimes that can be a challenge, because you want to partner with all people. The other challenge would be that I think sometimes people view it as, oh, you're just an English tutor. I volunteered for so long, there can be some confusion about what does speech improvement services actually look like. It depends on if you're working with people who are in the professional realm already, or people who are refugees, and so there's obviously misunderstanding there as to what I do, and that makes sense.

I think some of the things that I tend to harp on and repeat the most would be having integrity and vulnerability. And how those correlate - knowing how to share your convictions, and to share them confidently, and also how to share them calmly, how to be respectful with that. I think that is where a lot of my values tend to line. So there's nuance in everything, and making sure you have the space to really confidently and clearly explain yourself.