Mariza DeMendoza

I feel like there's a mix of things that I attribute my success to. One is being the only female with just brothers. And, be, I'm first generation, born here in this country. And, I've seen how hard my mom had to work. So I think it was a motivation for me to… and the women, the women, her sisters, they were full-on motivators. They came here with nothing, and they made great careers for themselves. So I always looked up to my mom and my aunt. And that was the motivation. You know, they came from nothing. Dirt poor came from nothing. Not saying I'm rich, but that was a motivation for me. It's just family. And seeing the women in my family thrive, and they were always, you know, the head of all their households. Unfortunately, we came from a family that, you know, ended up all being single moms at one point or another. I have this mentality, is that, you know, I mean, everybody… It's just… We have choices, right? I remember when my boys were younger, a lot of times people would be like, Oh, man, it must be so hard for you, you're a single mom. And I should not ever want to take on that pity role. It's hard, but you know what? I made this choice. And I'm gonna do right by my choice, you know? I'm going to succeed, I'm not going to let the stereotypes of a single mom to find me.

The best career advice I have ever received is: Just don't make yourself small in a room full of men. This is a male-dominated industry. And, I've literally had to walk into rooms and I consider myself an introvert, and just have had to bite the bullet and just walk up to men and they're equal, you know? It's to not make myself small in a room full of people. I tend to be the one that might, like, go back in the corner, so that's why I was told that. I come from the industry from, you know, I started in this industry in 95, and let me tell you, men were not very kind back then.

Young women in my field, I think what it would be is, Don't question every decision. Just go for it. You got it. I think of a specific rep that I mentored, she was under me. And she was great at her job. And but she always second-guessed herself. So, anytime she would come to me and ask me if she could do this, or how she should proceed. I was like, you got it, you know? Just believe in yourself. You can do this. So, believe in yourself. You got it. I think it goes for any industry. As long as you have people supporting you and believing in yourself. Don't question yourself. We don't know if all women do, but I know that women do tend to just consistently question themselves. And I think that we, it's healthy to a point, but not when it comes to a job, believe in yourself, don't question yourself, you got this.

The industry, I'm going to say what's going on in the world, politics, because it really does affect the movement of goods. That is the biggest challenge. It's always, every election it gets crazy, and then it calms down. It's either war, viruses, or something, and then once it goes away, it's all good again, you know what I mean? Like, ever since 2020, the industry has not been the same, and it's been one extreme challenge after another. Before that there was challenges, for sure, you know, in 2008. It was an abundance of movement of goods, and now it's like everybody's fighting for the same piece of business, so that's one of the biggest challenge is fighting for the business.