Jody Harris

I've always taken personal responsibility for everything I do, which means having the self-awareness of knowing when to say I don't know. I guess that comes down to emotional intelligence in many ways, and holding myself accountable. Life is all about accountability. For me, I think I try to live by that, and I'm always trying to be better, do better, offer better. So I guess it's accountability - I don't know what the right one is, is it emotional intelligence? It kind of all falls underneath that.

Ask for what you want. First of all, you have to know what it is you want. That could be just learning, it could be networking, it could be trying to figure out how you're going to get from one point in your career to another, but you have to ask for it, and ask for the help while also doing the work. Very early on, that's something that I learned - don't assume it's coming to you, you have to ask for it, and then take the personal responsibility and the professional curiosity to seek it out.

I think know your worth. Don't let other people tell you who you are. You need to own your own truth. And that does come under knowing your strengths, knowing your weaknesses, asking for help, being confident. Don't apologize when you feel strongly about something. It's just know your value, don't let other people dictate to you who you are.

There's no disputing the fact that women have it a little harder in this industry, and so we need to work a little harder. I think the biggest challenge is not getting discouraged, and looking at that as in many ways an opportunity. Being able to overcome that challenge and realizing that not everything is fair, but that doesn't mean that you can't get what you want. I think women can get caught up sometimes in falling into a role because they don't know how to know their value, own their value, and navigate out of it. That's probably the biggest global challenge as a woman in not just this industry, but in many industries.

Integrity, 100%. You need to mean what you say and do what you say. I think that even though I'm in sales, for me, my clients need to be able to trust me, and they need to know that what I'm telling them is truly what I believe is in their best interest. And likewise, when I'm talking to somebody, I need to know that what they're saying to me is truly in my best interest, that there's no games, we're not playing, this is life, and we're all busy. That, to me, permeates everything. If somebody violates my integrity, it's just not a relationship worth having.