Melody Laney

I would say it's a combination of myself, my children, my husband, and my inner circle. My children inspire me to go as far as I possibly can to be a living example for them. Having the support where there's moments where we all have self-doubt, and having those true cheerleaders there ready and willing to remind you of how great you are, how much you have to offer the world. But you have to credit yourself for being able to take those words and truly believe them, and keep going. I would love to give credit to so many people, but in all honesty, it's me that's actually doing the things in fear. Doing the things while you're scared, you're doing the things when you're not fully ready, maybe, and you're still showing up. So I think that it's important for us to also make sure to give that to ourselves, because you are doing the actual work.

In the call center, I was good. My quality was 100, metrics I'm exceeding, and I remember being in a coaching with my supervisor at the time. We go over my numbers, and she looks at me, and she goes, you can do better. And I was like, are y'all giving bonus points? Because I have a 100, and for quality, it doesn't get any better. The numbers are above what you're asking for, like, what more could I do? And she just looked at me, she said, there's always room for improvement. In that moment, I made a joke of it because that's just my personality, but I really sat with that, and I recognized that I was very tunnel visioned at the time. I would come in, take my calls, leave, really not engaging with the team. Learning to just be coachable, and team engagement really matters. It makes a difference. So my best advice that I've received as a professional is just to remain coachable and to always look for growth opportunities.

I would tell them to take themselves serious, to be mindful of their sacrifices. I feel sometimes we make sacrifices because they are necessary, but we make them so long that they begin to become a crutch. Especially moms, we sacrifice a lot for our children, but in the space where I am now, having a daughter and a son, you realize how fast they're growing up, and they're getting their own life, and social circles, and all of these things, and you're just left there. And you're not really fully prepared for the next phase of life, because you're pouring everything into them and putting yourself on the back burner. I'm gonna go back to school when the kids leave, or I'm gonna start the business when the kids leave, all of those things, and we truly have to learn to weave our dreams into our responsibilities.

One of the biggest challenges for me is with my small business to help small businesses with their customer experience. It's one of those things where I don't want to have to come up to you and be like, hey, your customer experience is not where it needs to be, you should hire me. That could be offensive. So I need to make sure that I build value in my brand and show what we're doing, and getting the clients on board to understand. I've had clients who understood what our journey was, but what I've learned over the years is they may not understand where their responsibilities lie within that. So building out my platform better to make sure that the business owner is fully engaged in the process and understand that this is still your responsibility, I'm just here to help provide the tools, that's where my biggest opportunities are right now. Within the business, finances are a challenge. Everything costs, making sure that I'm still doing more market research to look at the cost. A lot of small businesses, this is not something that's in the budget. So you're having to be competitive, but making sure you're not undervaluing yourself and giving away the farm. So I am really focused on making sure that my offers and my products align with the economy right now, but also trying to make sure that my time is compensated appropriately. I'm putting in a lot of more self-paced opportunities, things that do not require a lot of hands-on and time, but I'm still able to connect and keep in touch with the business owners. That's where my greatest opportunity for KPAR is.

I'm a woman of my words. So if I said I'm gonna do something, I'm going to do it. Being honest with yourself first, and accepting who you are and how you operate, and being able to show up for yourself first. That has been a lesson that I have been learning and accepting, because I would show up, and I'm like, man, I'm working too hard. I'm doing, I'm going above and beyond, I need to scale back, but that caused me more internal chaos, not showing up or operating to my fullest capacity, just based off of what may go around in my environment. So I think, for me, just being truthful to myself and being the woman that I say I am, that's the most, that's what I truly, truly value.