Phoebe Dykes

I attribute my success to honoring my parents, both real and step. They have always taught me never take the easy ones. I have definitely cussed out my dad recently because I'm like, I hate that you've trained me to be so on my game and not know how to sit still. He's been in control his entire life, so right now I have this house that I'm currently in that is just a complete disaster, and when I can't unsee something, it drives me nuts until I fix it. They definitely have always gave me good stability and good values to keep moving forward and not let the bad things get in front of you. I've been through a lot of the bad things that most people don't have to go through, and I wouldn't do it without my family by my side.

There are two pieces of advice that really stuck with me. The first one, which is more on the negative side but helped me motivate myself to become a better manager, is that people don't leave the companies they work for because they absolutely love them - they leave their managers because they're not treated properly. So it definitely thrived and stuck in my brain quite a bit to become better and never be the reason someone leaves. And then the other one is to do what you love, basically, and then you'll never work a day in your life, and it's very much true. I didn't realize in the industry how much I would love it, and I absolutely do.

Stereotypes are very real. There is definitely the Good Old Boys Club, but just know that you can always break into it if that's what you want. Go ahead and do it. Because I can tell you right now, I've been told many things, and it's either I'm too young or I'm a female, and I'm like, no, no, that's not gonna stop me. Not today. Just keep fighting. It's hard, and there's people that will break that glass ceiling, but there's not - depending on where - it has to be that company that you work for to accept it. They have to make sure the other companies accept this.

The biggest opportunities, especially for the liquor industry, is that they don't value women. They don't think about things women need. For example, my last company that I left in December didn't have a maternity leave for the longest time - a huge company with 16 states, Canada, thousands of employees, and no maternity leave. They finally got it after I became part of Women Who Break Through, because it became a notable issue that we were all bringing up. I had employees that were getting pregnant and I wanted to make sure that they were okay, and they were concerned they'd be out of money. There's things that they overlook, and I think it's just because it's been run by men for so long. You have to be very patient with it, but there's a lot of things they just don't realize. And unfortunately, that is going to hinder how you feel about them, but it definitely has been a struggle in just the industry as a whole. There's been a lot more progress with it, but that's definitely been the hard one. And then just, like I said, it's just a freaking good old boys club, and unless you're an old white man that has been in an industry, that has ties and good people, you don't get anywhere. You have to keep pushing and keep showing that you're better than everybody else. I should have gotten a position I didn't get - they transferred someone from a supplier of ours, and I left because of him, not because I was jealous of him at all, just because it was like, okay, I've tried enough. I've tried everything. I have gone above and beyond to HR and all the things.

Honesty, definitely integrity, and just making sure that you're doing everything to help everybody else. Sometimes it's very hard, sometimes you feel like you don't have enough to give, and sometimes just taking that extra day to help us out will give you a different aspect on life, and that life is too short. Make sure that you spend the time developing yourself and everybody else. That's what makes you better.