Heather Duke

I attribute my success to my family, to my children. I didn't have the most stable childhood growing up, and I was always determined that my children would. So my husband and I have created a very stable household for my family and my children, and I've always fought and strived to work for that for my kids. That stability means a lot. That's why I work - it's for stability for my children. I have three kids: ages 25, 19, and 17 and everything I do is to give them what I didn't have growing up.

The best career advice I ever received came from one of my old managers at a resort, and honestly, it's from a manager that I really don't love. But she always told me, it's not personal. If someone is upset with you at your job, it is not personal. She would tell me, 'It's just a cabin. It's not the end of the world. Don't take it home.' And I still go by that advice today. Even though I'm at a hotel now and not at that resort, I still say 'it's just a cabin' - that's my quote for leaving work at work and not taking it home with me. It's about leaving it at the door and not letting work stress become personal.

The very first thing I would tell you is to know your value. Learn your value. Know your value. And accept no less. That's the hardest thing I had to learn, and it's so important. I didn't know my value for the very longest time, and once I learned my value, I absolutely became unafraid. I'm not afraid to eat alone - meaning I'm not afraid to walk away from situations that don't value me. It's taken me years to learn this, but knowing your worth and not accepting less than you deserve is critical, especially for women in the corporate world and in hospitality.

The biggest challenges in hospitality right now are the high turnover rates. I work in hospitality, and it's a very high turnover industry. Our staff turnover is crazy, so keeping a dependable staff that stays is very difficult. We're constantly bringing new people in and training new people - it's kind of just a revolving door. Hospitality and food and beverage go hand in hand, and they've always had such high turnover rates. We don't pay minimum wage, but it's still not the highest paying jobs in the world. You don't work in hospitality because you want the money - you work in hospitality because you love the industry. Even when you get up into the management level, it's not the most high-paying job in the world. The biggest opportunity is having to replace those people with people who haven't worked here before, but it's challenging because Pine Mountain is a big town but a small town at the same time - there's only so many people that live here. But I'm always up for a challenge.

The values most important to me are honesty, knowing your own value, trust, gratitude, and quality over quantity. Knowing your value is a huge one because I did not know my value for the very longest time, and once I learned my value, I'm not afraid to eat alone - meaning I'm not afraid to stand on my own. Quality over quantity might sound funny, but I would rather have four amazing workers than ten that don't really care or perform well. These values guide everything I do, both at work and in my personal life.