Michelle Yepez

I would say, for me personally, the success that I've achieved is thanks to me following my heart of what I felt like I was meant for. People will say, like, pick a career that you love, and I did that. I get up every morning and I love what I do, and therefore, I don't get burned out, and whenever there's situations I feel like I want to face them head on, I don't dread going to work every day. So for me, my success came from actually following my heart and picking a career that was suitable for who I am as an individual.

I have two pieces of advice that have really shaped how I work. The first is a JFK quote that a rising tide lifts all boats, which essentially means that whenever we uplift the entire community around us, that we ourselves get lifted. That's become a mantra for how I run business and how the nonprofit world should function. The second piece came from one of my former colleagues as I was becoming a development director and starting to take executive roles. They told me that you don't know how to do everything, you just need to be able to know who does, and be willing to connect with them. Essentially, you don't have to have every single skill set to be effective, you just need to know who to fold into the room in order to get the job done.

I think that my advice to any young female entering into the nonprofit role would be to be a genuine communicator, and always speak genuinely, and understand that relationships are the most important asset in the nonprofit world. I would also add that following your own intuition is extremely important in nonprofit. There can often be legacy situations, so long-standing relationships or programs, and you often get pulled in multiple directions or get asked to do multiple conflicting things within the nonprofit world. You have to be able to use your own intuition to be able to stand your ground in some instances, and then also know when you need to be able to bend or be flexible in others. Following your inner intuition while you're managing relationships, contracts, and all of the business aspects of the nonprofit world is kind of how that genuine communication comes across.

I think one of my values, and this becomes more and more clear as times change and AI comes on board, is that emotional intelligence is extremely important. It's one of my favorite values. I also think that honesty and integrity are values that will help me lead my business world. I have been asked to do things in the nonprofit world, whether that's do something shady with someone's money, or not be totally truthful about how things came to be, and I will always lead with integrity and honesty, and whatever windfall comes from that, at least I can sleep at night saying that I did this with integrity, and I did this with honesty.