Leah Mizrahi

I definitely attribute my success to my mom. If it wasn't for our story and everything that I saw growing up, I feel like I would have had a completely different approach with my career. Watching her go from being a stay-at-home mom to basically building a whole entire company after my parents divorced showed me what was possible. She's always pushed me into just believing in myself and actually showing me with her own example that I can follow my dreams. I'm one of the few people who can truly say that I love waking up every single day to go to work. I don't see work as a job, it's more of a passion of mine, and I definitely have to give that to my mom, because if it wasn't for that, I wouldn't be here today.

The best career advice I ever received was from my boss when I was 19 or 20. He pulled me aside and asked me what my future looked like. I told him I was going to college for psychology and that my restaurant job was just putting me through college. He told me I was in the wrong industry. That conversation made me switch my whole entire career path, and it's been one of the best career decisions I've ever made. Another powerful lesson came from a mentor who, when I was in a really tough spot in my life, told me he wasn't going to give me a job just to give me a job. He said he knew I was resilient enough to go land on my feet and keep pushing. He would consistently check in on me, but he wouldn't just hand me a job. That taught me so much about resilience and believing in my own ability to overcome challenges.

I would say to push through the nos and continue to fight. Don't ever be afraid of following up and actually asking for feedback, asking why not. Just push for the no, because as many nos as you will get, that one yes could be the one that changes your whole entire life. Keep believing in yourself and don't give up, because that persistence and resilience is what will ultimately open the doors you're looking for.

The biggest challenge in my field right now is definitely working with the newer generations. The world has changed a lot in terms of how you lead and what their expectations are. It's like they want to get the most for the most minimum amount of work, especially being in a service industry where you have to be very hands-on. The newer generations are the biggest challenge as far as how you mold them, how you teach them, and being really careful on how you come across with their tasks and what is required of them at the end of the day. We are in the service industry, so they're doing hospitality work like cleaning and servicing people, and our workforce and frontline staff is just very different than how I came about. You have to be careful on how you communicate and how you talk to your staff, because people just aren't built the same anymore.

The values most important to me are honesty, accountability, and ownership. I feel like if I wouldn't have my values as clear and as set as I do, I wouldn't be able to hold them when leading people. Ownership is a big one for me, just because I feel like once you have ownership, you can bring up everything at the end of the day, and I hold myself to that standard. Having that sense of ownership and balancing everything with accountability is super important to me. I also value respect, but ownership and accountability are the two big ones that I follow. I believe that once you take ownership and accountability for what you're truly doing and being responsible for yourself, everything else falls into place.