Ronda Brunson

I attribute my success to God and my family. I'm an only child, only grandchild. Failure looks different when you have true support. So, even on my lowest day, I can't go that low. I think I attribute a lot of my success to the fact that I had this built-in safety net that God gave me when He blessed me with my family. I work for God. I tell people all the time, if you have a problem with my performance, you have to take it up with Him. I got an assignment, so all I'm doing is what I'm supposed to be doing every day.

It will come, it will happen. For those of us who are motivated to start businesses, us crazy ones that jump out and say 'I don't need to work here no more,' we're leaders who jump out of boats without paddles all the time. I can see how that has both helped and hurt me. At the time, it felt painful, but in retrospect, it helped me a lot. It was like a molding period. I will make it happen.

For credit, I would say be honest. God will supply. Be honest. Don't scam to make your way, because my industry is really scammy right now, and I hate it. Be honest. Stand on your truth and your values, you'll be okay. For breast cancer, I would say work on your empathy. I'm a fixer. As traumatic as the process is, and I can recognize it and I can see it, I don't specialize in empathy. I know how to be empathetic. I can give you this much, but I don't run in that emotional space. I'm someone who's like, let's go fix some things, let's break it up. So work on your empathy.

We have the opportunity to shift the narrative that Black women die more often or more frequently than white women from breast cancer. Our challenge from a business perspective is funding. We don't get funding. No one really cares about small, Black, sensitive breast cancer nonprofits. If you're not a nonprofit in this space that's dealing in science specifically and research, you're not going to get heavily funded. Another challenge is learning how to train people, women, to make decisions logically in these spaces and not use their emotions. I've seen well-paid Black women with access to amazing healthcare who make the worst medical decisions for themselves because they're rational and not logical. We have this love-hate relationship with doctors in my community. We hate them, but then we love what they tell us, even if it can be conflicting to what data says. If we like them, if they are kind enough to us, then we'll go with what they say instead of challenging.

Honesty and integrity are most important to me, even when people aren't looking. With my credit business, being honest has saved me from so much. If I look at someone's credit report and the only issue is something small, I tell them that and say go do this and just check in every now and then. It's not my job to fit into your life financially. I'm not trying to make money off of you. I'm going to exercise my integrity and do what's right.