Melissa Iorio

I attribute my success to grit. You fall down, you get back up. I think grit can't be taught. I think I'm born with grit, I was an athlete. I was a ski racer and ran cross country in college, both Division I, because I have grit. And I've been trying to teach my daughters grit, but it's not something you can teach somebody. It's having that perseverance. And, you know, in this industry, and being a woman, you know, we fall down a lot. I fall down a lot. And, you know, working with men and just trying to persevere and not let things get in the way, whether it's a bad headline, you know, a company that failed that we're invested in, you have to kind of shake that off and find the opportunity and how to sell that.

As a mother, when I was thinking about getting pregnant and I was scared, I didn't want to leave my job for 3 months. I was worried about getting pregnant and then going on maternity leave and leaving my job for 3 months. But somebody had said to me, nothing happens in 3 months. That was very valuable, because then I took maternity leave, and everything was exactly the same when I returned. Beyond that, being a woman in finance, it's definitely intimidating because it's a male-dominated industry. You can't be scared to take your seat at the table and prove who you are. I think sometimes women don't speak up because they're a woman and they're in a room full of men. Really having that confidence, you know, to take the seat at the table and own it. You deserve that seat. I think we need to work a little bit harder, and it's not handed to us the way some things might be handed to men. That might be a stereotype, but I've seen it firsthand.

Ask questions. Find a mentor. And hang on to them.

Specifically for me, being in real estate, we're having liquidity issues, right? So investors, our investors don't have liquidity, so they're finding, or they're being very picky in the investments that they make. So we need to really show them how we differentiate ourselves and why they need to invest with us. Capital is scarce. And it's not as easy to get as it used to be.

My family's super important, and they're the ones that keep me going every day. I would say loyalty. You want to stand by those people that are going to make you successful and make them successful in difficult times or in easy times. In finance, there's always headwinds. When we're raising capital, it's a hard job. And I need to be supported by my partners, my firm, in what I'm doing. And then I need the same loyalty when I'm at home, from my husband and my children. Because I give 100% to what I do, because I'm a working mom. And I expect everyone else to be doing the same.