LeAndra Guesman

Listening is the key to my success. I am confident and believe I'm great at sales, but only because I listen to others. I genuinely care about what they need and ensure I provide it. Being persistent and organized are also important - I definitely have some OCD tendencies where I can't even dive into work unless I have an organized inbox and desk. I pay attention to the little things that people don't necessarily notice, and I only compliment when I actually mean it. As someone who is identifiably Black and mixed race, it's always difficult to navigate in this world because people already have their conclusions before they even meet you. So it's about not worrying about what they may think and just being yourself, hoping that's enough. And nine times out of ten, it is. There's always going to be the odd person that just doesn't like you, and you can't let it bother you.

The best career advice I've ever received is don't try to be like someone else - be yourself. And also, smile. Things could always be worse than what you're experiencing. There's always someone who probably has it worse than you. So just be grateful that even though you're experiencing a low, the reason why you know it's a low is because you've experienced the high. And there's a way to go back up. Sometimes you're just on the ride, and you just must let it go forward.

My field is extremely male-dominated, and while we continuously try to staff up with more females, the hardest part is that females don't always stay for the longevity. But you just have to keep trying - when one door closes, you need to force the next door open and go ask for what you think is good for you. It can be very difficult to find the balance as a female. If you're too aggressive, you can get a negative label, while a male doing the same thing is called a go-getter. As much as we try, we're making steps, but it feels like baby steps. It's so easy to want to just give up and pigeonhole yourself, but you can't - you have to keep going, keep trying, keep pushing, and keep talking. Women don't share ideas enough or talk about their experiences because we feel like it's only happening to us. We need to share our ideas and our falls. I've fallen on my face many, many times, and I try very hard to share that with as many people as possible so they know that you can pick yourself up and get back up, and that you're not alone.

The biggest challenge in hospitality is that it's an interesting world. You get ghosted, and then people pop up out of the woodwork saying they need something tomorrow, even though I told them it takes weeks to get it to them. In addition, personnel, management, and ownership groups change constantly. I've spent a year building a relationship with a General Manager, only for that manager to move to another hotel, leaving me to start the process all over again. The economy also affects my position, and I'm constantly trying to figure out where people are going to travel and what they'll want in terms of luxury, because most of my job depends on people staying at hotels, so that they will need services that Cintas provides.

I would say honesty is most important - there's nothing worse than being lied to, personally and especially within sales. If you don't want it, just say no. I'm okay with it. Being kind is also crucial. Too often, people are mean, but when you're being kind, it doesn't mean you have to lie. If that dress doesn't look good, you don't have to be rude and say 'ew, you look like trash' - there's a nice way to say it while being honest. And being open-minded is essential. In this world right now, the division we have between political views and so much else is due to people being so closed-minded. They only see things through their tunnel vision and don't consider how that person might be viewing it to understand where they're coming from. For the majority of people, there's so much that you have in common - there's a bridge, and you just have to find that bridge and meet them halfway.