Milika Freeland

I don't think my success could be bottled up in one thing. It starts at home. My mom died when I was 10, but I learned so much from her in that short period of time. She was an entrepreneur and also an executive coach, so I learned a lot from her. I also have a fantastic dad who raised us after her untimely passing and really taught us more from what he did as an example. He's very quiet, but he taught us from his example. He's the epitome of 'do as I do,' showing us what to do by watching what he does. He's my hero, and I owe a lot to the woman that I am today to my dad. I've also had wonderful leaders in my lifetime. I've had good and bad, but I've had some really great ones who mentored me and believed in me at times when I didn't even believe in myself. I always call them out and give a lot of reference to them. But I really should have led with this: first and foremost, God is first in my life. I have a very strong spiritual background and connection with who I believe handles everything first and foremost, and that's my Lord and Savior.

Always do the right thing, no matter how hard it is, even when a wrong thing is right in front of you and it seems like it's easier to go that route. Always do the right thing, because it will come back to you. It may not come back in the way that you think it will, but it will come back to you. And if you do the wrong thing, that will happen the same way. It will come back to you.

You have to stay strong, and you have to have tough skin. We're in a male-dominated, not just industry, but a male-dominated world, and people fail to realize we're only about approximately 30 to 40 years into this transition of women being more seen. We're still trying to break through the glass ceilings, still trying to have a seat at the table and get in rooms where our voice can be heard. And we're often stereotyped as angry or aggressive, and some of the other stigmas and labels that we get, unfortunately. Make sure that you show up, you do the work, you do your homework. And if you're not invited to the table, find a way to show up anyway and almost crash the party, respectfully and professionally. But you find your avenues, and network is critical.

The challenge is always, and it gets sticky here, especially in the current climate, but I'm a woman of color. I'm a woman, and I'm a woman of color. So it's not lost on me some of the things that I deal with. I have dealt with a lot of racial aggression. I'm often the only woman of color in senior leadership, and at certain points in my career, the only woman. So it comes with a lot. You have to have tough skin because you're going to deal with a lot. I've dealt with things that I have learned to navigate and continue to learn to navigate, but I've also learned how to advocate and ensure that I don't get lost in the minutiae of the environment. I make sure that I exude intelligence at all times so that it is clearly understood that I am not here to check a box. I am here because I earned a space to be here, and I am just as good as anyone else sitting at this table. As for opportunities, the world is your oyster. It sounds cliche, but it's so true. I try to find the opportunity in everything. Operations is so multifaceted, and so is data analytics. Data analytics became a true hot topic in the last 10 years, and I don't believe it's had its maturity yet. I think it's still developing and has a lot of growth opportunities for where we could go, especially with the introduction of AI. I always say I learned math by hand, not by calculator, and when I first started in data analytics, we were line by line, basically spending the night at the job working it through. Now you have AI that can do data consumption and help point you in the right direction. You still need the intelligence for data insights, but I think there's so much opportunity for the future. There's so much that's unknown and unseen at this time, and we're going at warp speed, so it's one of those things: either you get on the train or you're left at the station.

Integrity. I am a woman of integrity. I operate with integrity at all times. I also believe in my brand, I also believe in my reputation, and it matters to me. Let me phrase this in a sense: it matters to me what people think as far as how I present myself and how I show up. You can't please everyone, and not everyone's going to like you. That's not realistic, you're living in La La Land if you think that. But I strive to build relationships. I strive to be respectful. I always say I don't care if you're signing checks or sweeping floors. I believe in cultivating and building relationships with everyone, making sure that I'm respectful at all times. You just never know. There are people who started off in entry-level positions, and one day they're the CEO of the company. So you have to make sure that you're respectful at all times and that you're building those relationships, because you just never know where you cross paths again.