Katelyn Kennedy

I attribute my success to mentors. If it wasn't for the managers and mentors that I had throughout all my roles, really shaking me into the mold that I am now, I don't know if I'd be where I am today, but I don't think I would have gotten there as quickly. I had Nancy and Christy at Bowser who were awesome, and at Citizens I had Sarah, my branch manager when I was in branch. That woman, I swear, could hold up the world on her shoulders. She was amazing, she did so much for Citizens, so much for us in the branch. She was just an all-star in my eyes, and I was like, I want to strive to be as good as you are, and as knowledgeable as you are with what you do, just in something other than the branch. She really inspired me to take my career as far as I could in branch with being a banker, and then I was ready for the next step. That's when I found this role that I have now.

The best career advice I ever received came from an old man I met when I was working at my brief sales position before I got into Citizens. I pitched him our spiel, and he wasn't interested, but he liked my personality and we had a conversation. He told me that you never say no to an opportunity, because you never know what the opportunity may be. If the opportunity knocks, you always want to take it. His story was pretty crazy. He was a struggling dad whose wife passed away, father of two with a daughter and a son. Throughout his career, he sold Beanie Babies when they first came out, and then somebody from Walt Disney actually pulled him aside, and he became one of the creators and producers to help with the making of Beauty and the Beast, specifically the clock that's in the movie. He told me that if it was never for completely switching careers and completely just jumping on a whim, he would have never gotten to where he was. He said, so always take the opportunities thrown at you, and never say no to them. That advice has stuck with me ever since.

I would say, don't let somebody tell you you can't do it. Find somebody that will help you. Because everywhere you go, somebody's always worried that you're going to take their jobs. They're worried, oh my gosh, like, she has so much talent, like, I don't want to help her, because that could be, they might be hiring her to replace me, because she's younger, you know, she's more fit for the role, like, you're getting older. I always say, don't go towards the negativity, just let the negativity roll off your shoulders, and find somebody who is willing to help you, and who's willing to be an actual mentor and a leader. I've found out that people are like, oh, like, I'm a mentor, I can lead, I can do this, I can do that, but it's their attitude that shows me that they're not truly that person. You need to find somebody who has a little bit of passion and who is willing to help push you. Because sometimes we do get stuck, and sometimes we do get comfortable in the role that we're in, and you need to find somebody who's willing to help push you past your limits a little bit, because they see greatness in you.

The biggest challenge right now is that I'm very hard on myself. I always feel like I should be doing more, so I'm very much a person who feels like I can always do more, and I always want to do more. But right now, with what's going on in our company and my role specifically, we just have so many high volumes. It feels like we're not getting anywhere, so it's weighing on me a little bit, because I know how much I do in a day, and it's hard to see our numbers not really going down as much as they should be. We're kind of on a scramble right now to get out of our day-to-day era, so I will say that that is a little pressure. We have higher-ups and people pushing down on our management, and so they're pushing and crunching us a little bit. So it is hard sometimes, but again, like I say, once you leave work, work stays at work, your home life is your home life. You can't really think about that once you're home. You do have to have that shut-off valve.

The most important value to me is work-life balance. I've watched my parents when I was growing up, and I swear they lived to work. I always said I would be the person who will show up to work every day and do my job to the best of my ability, but at the end of the day, I do want to come home to my family. In my case, it's my husband, my dog, my horse. I like to come home and have my shut-off time. Right now, specifically, we are backed up with work, so I will come home for a couple hours, do what I have to do, and I will log back on and do some overtime to help the workflow out. But I always say the number one priority for me is the work-life balance. You have to have that, because if you don't, you start to blur between happiness and work. Not that work's miserable, but sometimes you show up to work and it is stressful, and you don't want to bring that home with you, and you don't want to take the home life to the office with you, either. You do need to have a time in your day where you can shut them both off, from either work or shut your home life off. You need to have that downtime to yourself. If you have to ask yourself if what you're doing is worth it, obviously what you're doing is not worth it to you, because you're questioning it.