Maria Lopez

I would say my family supporting me. My son is just young, but it does take a village, right, to raise a child. And without their support, I wouldn't be where I'm at right now. I would definitely say my family. Having a child and having a very demanding job - having a good support system is definitely key.

I would say lead with your heart. Don't lead with your mind. Like, don't let other people influence you, just do what you feel, go for it. Sometimes we tend to let other people feed our minds. When I started this position, I would take advice from these other people, and it changed me, and it turned me to somebody that I wasn't, and I started seeing a shift in my team. I was like, no, if I don't feel right, I'm not gonna do it, I'm gonna do what I feel is best, and it was the best decision ever, because I started feeling the difference when I started listening to myself instead of somewhere else.

I would tell them go for it, don't be afraid. Again, lead with your heart. Don't get distracted by the noise. Ten years from now, who knows where you could be. And this is just in general, not basically in this field - just lead by your heart, and don't get distracted with the noise. The other day, I had a talk with one of my managers because he tends to get affected with every comment they make, and what I told him is that if you want to advance in life, you can't stop with every rock you stumble upon. You won't get far if you just keep stopping with every rock you stumble upon, because that's not how it goes. You don't get distracted by the noise.

The biggest challenge I've faced is being a woman, and I would add being Mexican. Since my English is not that well, I tend to have people bashing how I speak, or saying that I'm not in the leadership status, even though my work says I am. The way I speak does prevent some open doors from happening, but I have other people telling me that's not true, so I just lead with my heart, and if my message gets across clear, I know that I'm doing my part. I don't have to make a point or anything, and I don't believe in belittling people makes a difference either. As for opportunities, I would definitely say leadership. I do have a year being a district manager, and you learn something new every day. We did get a new vice president, and his mindset is way different, so I'm definitely learning day by day. They do have me in this group of directors and market managers, which is the next level. They want to develop me into maybe in the future being one of them. So right now, I am what's called a proxy - when my market manager's not there, I'm the one in charge. That's an opportunity for me, because I got chosen for a reason.

I would say honesty and loyalty. Basically, everything comes back to those two things. If you're honest with what you say today, how you work, how you feel, everything will run smoothly.