Kawanna Moffett

The best career advice I've received comes in two parts. First, it's really important to understand what you do not enjoy doing as well as what you do enjoy doing. A lot of times we get into roles and opportunities or jobs because that's exactly what they are, and we never stop to think about what really drives us, where our real true passion lies. Then we get into roles that we're not doing any benefit to and we're not getting any gratification from. So it's important to be clear about what you really want, and more importantly, what you do not want. We often don't stop to think about what we don't want, we just focus on what we want, but with those wants come other attachments that may not necessarily resonate or sit well with you. The second piece of advice is really understanding your brand. That means understanding how you show up and how you market yourself, and being authentic to yourself. Your brand will exceed far beyond you when you're not in the room. Make sure that your brand, make sure the conversation about you when you're not in the room is the conversation you would want to have, or you would want others to have about you, if you were in the room. Do what you say you're going to do. Be someone who is dependable, trustworthy, a great strong collaborator, someone who really shows up when they say they're going to show up. Be someone that others can depend on and rely on, and that at the end of the day, it's someone that you are proud of.

Know that there's an opportunity for you to make a difference. Understand that the uniqueness that you bring presents an opportunity for you to make an impactful difference. That difference is your willingness and openness to be receptive, to continue to grow, to learn, to understand, to ask those questions, and then be able to meet those needs.

The opportunities are such that the products and services that are offered are products and services that people will continue to always not just want, but need. The opportunity is to be sure to get it to those individuals, those customers, those clients, when, where, and how they need to receive it. That means understanding what the needs are, understanding what the wants are, understanding what the likes are and the dislikes as well. Positioning yourself in such a way that you're able to meet not just the demand with the supply, but that you're able to meet the need. There's a difference between a need and a want. So be able to give them what they want, but also be able to meet the need, understanding what that need is. The challenge will always be being able to continue to stay relevant, being able to be where you need to be at the time you need to be there, right time, right place, right product, right offering, right customer. Not every customer is meant for you, not every service or product is meant for each customer, so understanding those dynamics and then being quick to move.

The values most important to me are honesty, integrity, trustworthiness, good intention, commitment, and resiliency. Resiliency is especially important because so many people, for different reasons, will start and stop, and that's okay. There are life situations or circumstances that come about that at times will require an element of being able to shift, and that's fine. But resiliency allows you to endure when things are not going as you thought they were going to, when the road gets a little bit rough, when you can't even see the road, when the road becomes crooked, whatever the case may be. You still have the resiliency and the grit to continue to press forward, to endure, and not lose your self-worth, but still be authentic to you. You can be the smartest person in the room, but if no one trusts you, then it doesn't matter.