Patricia Fraga

I was mentored by Sarah Madison Miller, the founder of a local production company. She sat on a call with me for 15 minutes and told me to look into project management because, as an eldest daughter, I am a project manager. She told me to stop listening to the things I keep telling myself and focus on what I know. She said I'm able to articulate my thoughts, I'm a great communicator, and there's virtually nothing I can't do because I have this mindset of if I don't know how to do it, I'm willing to learn it. She told me I have a lot of skills that some of the most people with the most degrees don't have or will never have, because they're not open to receiving feedback. She said I'm always seeking new information, building new connections, and that's what's going to take me where I want to go. That advice really changed my perspective and helped me see my strengths clearly.

I would say walk into that space like God sent you there. Read the room, because with the ability to read the room comes the ability to set the room. Going into project management, I was a control girl, but you'll learn that it's like a wedding. Yes, you have this vision, you want everything to be perfect, but we all know something always happens at a wedding. The caterer forgot the utensils or something, right? Project management is a lot like that, in that you want it to be perfect, but something is going to come up, so you've got to learn to pivot. It's really taught me so much about myself, about how to respond to when things don't go how you expected them to. That in itself, personally and professionally, has been invaluable. So walk in with confidence, read the room so you can set it, and learn to pivot when things don't go as planned.

I would say the most challenging thing are the people. If you're not able to connect with people, you won't succeed. I tell people that are going into leadership, if I would have focused on tasks, and deadlines, and logistics, I wouldn't be where I am right now. I'm not a perfect leader, but my team knows that I advocate for them. From a perspective of training and development, yes, I always keep the people that we are training and developing at the forefront, but I also think of my team and their needs, because obviously every training, I have asked of them. In order for them to know that, I had to communicate with them and build their trust. They don't always like what I ask them to do to execute the plan, but because I've built that rapport with them, because of the relationship that I have with them, they follow through. The challenge is the people, getting to know them, but once you get past that, it's a piece of cake. There are leaders that don't know their team and what they need, and they'll not be able to lead them because they lack that component of the relationship or the rapport.

My thing is always to be intentional and to do things with excellence. No matter what I'm doing, I do it with that mindset. I need to be intentional in my delivery and do it with excellence. I've also learned that people love when they can relate to you. A lot of people earn a degree or meet certain accolades and they no longer talk about what it took to get there, the dirty work or the not-so-pretty parts. I've learned that people like that honesty. People tell me, how do you do this? And I'm like, girl, you only knew how many times I cried to complete that task before I completed that task, because that's real. It gives either other women or other people that insight of, oh yeah, she cried while doing that too. It might take a few tears or a couple breakdowns, but I just gotta reset. So transparency is important to me, being intentional, and sharing your knowledge. I always say there's enough room for all of us at the table, so I'm not a person that's gonna learn something and hold back. I'm always trying to develop other people, and that's the reason I have the job that I have.