Melanie Borden

I would probably attribute my success to fear of failure. That fear has driven me to keep pushing forward and to follow through on opportunities even when they scared me. When opportunities kept presenting themselves to me to start my own business, I thought if I don't do this, then it's a mistake. So I just followed my instincts, even though I had no intention of starting my own business and thought I would work for somebody else until I retired.

The best career advice I've ever received is don't be afraid of what might happen, because a lot of the time, we're forecasting things that never happen, and we only think about it. We spend so much energy worrying about outcomes that never come to pass instead of just taking action.

Make sure that you set yourself up with your personal brand online, because that's your rainy day fund. Growing up, my parents always said to me, you need to save your money for a rainy day, but now, for professionals, specifically women, your personal brand is your rainy day fund. I'm divorced, and when I was experiencing what I went through during the pandemic, I realized how important my personal brand was and that I had kind of not done anything with it. It's so important for women because that is your ability where you can send out a post and say, you know, I'm open to work, or these are the things that I'm most proud of, or these are the things that can help you, and here's why, and to position yourself as that trusted advisor.

The biggest challenge is that the field is very oversaturated, and AI is both the biggest opportunity and the biggest threat. People think they don't need me and they could just use AI. I love it, but I hate it. People sometimes think that they don't need someone to help them, and this is beyond just ghostwriting, but a lot of people need somebody to tell them that the things that they're thinking aren't wrong, or when they are wrong, or to give them different aspects. A lot of times AI hallucinates and doesn't give you the right information. So you really need a real trusted advisor, or a person in your life that can help you through different seasons of your career.

Being ambitious and hardworking are important to me, but what really transcends throughout my life, my personal life, and my work life, is if you tell me you're gonna do something, do it. If I say that I'm gonna do something, I'm gonna do it, and if I don't do it, I need to own that I didn't do it. It's about following through on your commitments and taking accountability.